The brutal ladies who draw their swords at the slightest disagreement are so awesome...
Not being able to speak elegant language is not a big problem.
At most, we need to find a translator to translate Shen Zhiwei's ideas to the craftsmen.
It’s just that the choice of translator needs to be carefully decided.
First of all, you cannot be the type who is loyal to the emperor and patriotic.
Shen Zhiwei knew that his behavior of wanting to make an iron pot was outrageous at a time when there was no iron.
A material that is better than copper should be used to make weapons, how can it be used to cook vegetables?
What’s the difference between this and modern drones that are only used for performance and cannot carry any weapons at all?
A country that does not envision drones carrying weapons can be a peace-loving, peace-loving, and great power that never initiates war.
But it must not be a country that is in a chaotic situation and may be attacked and destroyed at any time and anywhere.
Shen Zhiwei went through the candidates in her mind and found that she didn't seem to have to worry too much.
Where in the court are there any ministers who are loyal to the emperor, patriotic, and wholeheartedly concerned about the Zhou Dynasty?
Aren't they all the remaining incompetent mediocre people who only think about making money to live every day, getting by from day to day, and then happily open the city gates to welcome the potential traitors of the royal army who will come to their door?
I relaxed all of a sudden.
Shen Zhiwei forced herself not to think about the malice of the old man An Shou, nor about the unfair treatment those craftsmen received. She just wanted to enjoy herself and she wanted an iron pot.
Only in this way can she continue to be the system's slave and work for the tyrant.
She asked Hu Youan where there were people who could speak both the Hui'an dialect and the elegant language.
Hu Youan said that when Wen Tao, the daughter of Wen Taifu, was studying in Bian State, she often went to An State with her teacher to study, and she must be able to speak the An State dialect.
So before she even left the palace, Wen Tao was stopped by the palace guards and taken to meet the king.
Wen Tao was not surprised at all when she learned that the craftsman sent by An Guo not only could not speak but also could not understand elegant language.
If Lord An sent a bunch of useful craftsmen, Wen Tao would be much more cautious and would not even dare to use those craftsmen, for fear that there might be a few trained spies among them who would specifically harm the king.
Now that these craftsmen are physically disabled and cannot understand elegant language, Wen Tao can lower her guard a little.
But Wen Tao was not completely reassured. Before Shen Zhiwei asked her to help translate, she asked a few questions.
For example, where did your family originally live? Can you read? Are you born mute, or did you develop this later? And so on.
There were five craftsmen in total, four of whom were just making random gestures. Wen Tao knew at a glance that these four could actually speak normally.
When he was gesturing, he also opened his mouth, which was indeed the lip shape of Anguo dialect, and the vague tone he made was also the tone of Anguo, without any flaws.
Although he cannot read, he can count and gesture to show how many people are in his family. When he talks about the process of becoming mute, his expression shows obvious anger and fear.
There was only one exception.
He was a thin young man with hair that looked like it had been chewed by a dog, some long and some short. His skin was slightly whiter than that of other craftsmen, but not as white as that of the nobles. He must have been born with fair skin.
He is very thin, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is skin and bones. His skeleton is not very big, but his facial features are pretty. The biggest advantage of his body is his pair of very bright eyes.
The big eyes, clearly black and white, only flashed a hint of dimness when Wen Tao asked if he was born mute.
This young man was born mute.
When he gestures with his fingers, he does not do so randomly, but in an organized and purposeful manner. When he speaks, he does not open his mouth subconsciously, and the few sounds he makes are very short and without any tone.
Maybe he was not only born dumb, but his hearing was not very good either. When Wen Tao asked questions in a low voice, there was obvious confusion in the boy's eyes.
When Wen Tao saw this, he felt dissatisfied, not towards the young man, but towards Lord An.
After all, he is the king of a country, how can he be so stingy? It would be fine if the five craftsmen he sent were all poisoned and made mute, and it would be fine if they couldn't speak elegantly, but he even mixed in a real mute.
He is so young, with thin arms and legs. If he stands next to the furnace, he might faint from the heat.
“Can you communicate with them?”
Hu Youan asked Wen Tao in a low voice. Wen Tao came back to her senses from her thoughts and nodded slightly at her, indicating that there was no problem.
Hu Youan finally breathed a sigh of relief and took Wen Tao to find Shen Zhiwei.
Shen Zhiwei is looking at the stove at this moment.
The iron-smelting furnace is of paramount importance. If the temperature does not meet the standard, the iron cannot be melted into molten iron, and the subsequent iron-making and steel-making steps will be useless.
At this time, the temperature of the furnace for forging bronze ware was between 800 and 1,000 degrees, and occasionally reached more than 1,000 degrees.
It's more than a thousand degrees, but you have to see how much more. If it's only one or two degrees more, it won't be of much help in ironmaking.
Pig iron has a very high melting point, so the clever ancients would dissolve various elements into the pig iron to lower the melting point of the iron to about 1,150 degrees.
Shen Zhiwei wasn't quite sure what specific element it was. She wasn't a science student. Even if she was, it was impossible for her to spend her free time studying the ancient method of iron smelting, right?
As for the specific operation of lowering the melting point, instead of asking Shen Zhiwei, a modern person with only some knowledge but no practical experience, it is better to ask the craftsmen who deal with ore raw materials and furnaces every day.
After all, all knowledge is based on the wisdom and talent of our predecessors.
Shen Zhiwei was still studying when Hu Youan brought Wen Tao over and told her that everything was ready.
Then Shen Zhiwei saw the five craftsmen standing in a row like quails, with their necks shrunk and heads lowered, waiting for her to speak.
Before Shen Zhiwei could speak, a sense of grandeur suddenly surged in his heart.
Because the people waiting for her to speak were not only the craftsmen, but also the guards and palace servants around her, Wen Tao, Hu Youan and others, all of whom were waiting for her instructions.
She only needs to open her mouth to make these people devote their lives to her.
Power, no wonder countless people in ancient and modern times are fascinated by it.
When standing at the pinnacle of power, when every move could easily affect anyone's life and became the absolute focus, Shen Zhiwei suddenly felt the horror of power.
It is so beautiful and yet so dangerous at the same time.
It only takes a moment to fall in love with power, but it takes a lifetime to get rid of its influence, and you may not be able to get rid of it until you die, until you give everything for power and your life and soul are completely occupied by power.
Shen Zhiwei swallowed his saliva and called the system in his heart. Only after receiving the response from the system human-computer did he feel a little bit of reality.
"Your Majesty?"
Seeing that Shen Zhiwei hadn't spoken, Hu Youan asked in a low voice with some worry.
Shen Zhiwei came back to his senses, glanced at Hu Youan, and got straight to the point.
"I will forge a pot, smelting it with iron ore and using black gold as fuel."
Iron smelting technology had actually appeared at this time, but it was monopolized by large families. Scarcity makes things valuable. When an item is too scarce, the price will go up.
The reason why copper weapons are so popular nowadays is mainly because copper is cheaper than iron, and people won’t feel bad if they consume too much during a war.
Smelting iron is not difficult, the question is, can it be smelted? What if An Gong finds out that they have smelted it, will they still be alive?
Several craftsmen were thinking about it in their hearts, feeling a little scared and not daring to ask.
Shen Zhiwei saw that they all lowered their heads and didn’t know what they meant.
Is this something that can be practiced or not?
Shen Zhiwei coughed dryly and looked at Wen Tao, waiting for her to ask the craftsmen.
Wen Tao's heart tightened as she finished translating Shen Zhiwei's words. What was the king looking at her for? Could it be that she hadn't said the Anguo language correctly?
It’s not that the king doesn’t speak Anguo dialect.
Wen Tao felt a little guilty. Her translation was actually very accurate, but compared to the tolerance in the king's words, her words were more harsh.
Wen Tao knew what iron was. Among the weapons forged in this era, the most famous ones were all mixed with iron. However, the forging masters would not tell others that they were mixed with iron ore, but would only say that they were mixed with meteorite iron.
Anyway, it sounds very mysterious, as if it were a magical weapon refined by gods from heaven.
So Wen Tao knew very well that these craftsmen knew how to smelt iron.
Wen Tao also knew what black gold was. There were black gold mines in the Bian Kingdom. It was a kind of pitch-black stone that could burn and would not be damaged for a long time. The temperature was very high, but it was very dangerous.
During the winter, a commoner in the Bian Kingdom secretly burned black gold and eventually died inexplicably in his house.
Wen Tao felt that asking the craftsmen to use black gold to smelt iron was a test. If the craftsmen dared to do so, it meant that they had already surrendered to the king. If they had any objections, it was obvious that they still missed their homeland.
The silence of the craftsmen at this moment seemed to have explained their thoughts.
The king must be looking at himself at this moment and he must be dissatisfied with the reaction of these craftsmen.
Indeed, even though people have come here, they are still thinking about An Guo in their hearts. Such a double-minded craftsman will definitely not serve the king well in the future.
Wen Tao put her hands on her waist, where the scabbard of the dagger was.
It was impolite to hold a sword before the king, so she had already taken off her sword outside the door, leaving only the scabbard on her body.
Wen Tao realized that there was no sword at her waist, and immediately looked at Hu Youan. Hu Youan was a doctor, and she had to carry a weapon in the palace, and Hu Youan's weapon was a sword.
It was a long and slender sword, with a blade about three feet long and less than one foot wide. The scabbard was very simple, made of black wood, with no patterns on it and no gold, silver or gemstones inlaid.
As simple as Hu Youan.
Hu Youan and Wen Tao looked at each other, and she immediately understood what Wen Tao meant. She put her hand on the hilt of the sword and pulled the sword out a little with force.
The cold light hit the faces of the craftsmen, and they were terrified. The timid ones even knelt on the ground and kowtowed, trying to beg for mercy.
"You have entered Jingchang, yet you still cherish your homeland and harbor evil in your hearts. You deserve to be executed!"
Wen Tao said, and Hu Youan cooperated by pulling out all the swords, which scared the craftsmen so much that their faces turned pale.
Was it after the iron smelting that Lord An found out and the whole family died, or was it that he was killed by the king now?
The craftsmen were at a loss and could not make a decision for a while.
Just when Hu Youan was about to raise his sword to kill someone, the voices of two girls rang out at the same time.
"stop!"
"I am willing to forge iron for the king!"
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