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Chapter 153
Li Chongjiu was quite satisfied with the fact that there were iron mines in the county, but seeing the craftsman at the side seemed hesitant to speak, he couldn't help asking: "Master Li, what do you want to say?"
This craftsman is over 50 years old, and his face has been blackened by blacksmithing for many years. There are frowns on his forehead, and the tattered kudzu clothes on his body are full of small holes. Sparks splashed.Li Zuojiang knew at a glance that he was a person who was used to hard work.As soon as Li Chongjiu called him Master Li, he knelt down with a plop, buried his head on the muddy floor of the workshop, and said in a trembling voice: "Master Hou, don't dare, don't dare, you are a villain. "

Only then did Li Chongjiu remember that he brought the habits of modern society to ancient times.In this era, scholars, farmers, businessmen, and craftsmen are in a better position than businessmen.And addressing the master, it is obvious that the other party is the teacher.Leaving aside Li Zuojiang, Chen Jincao and several other craftsmen were all dumbfounded.

Li Chongjiu helped the other party up, and said: "It was a momentary slip of the tongue, but Li Zuojiang has something to say, this Marquis will rely heavily on you in the future."

This is also the truth. Chen Jincao is a civil servant. Although he is in charge of the mine workshop, he has no knowledge of casting.There are more than 20 people in the official workshop, most of whom are fireworkers doing odd jobs and buying labor. Only Li Zuojiang and two apprentices brought out by him are the real technicians.

Li Zuojiang saw that Li Chongjiu praised him so much, he was terrified for a long time, and then he said: "Your Majesty does not know that iron smelting and iron casting are two different things. Although there are two iron mines in the local area, the method of iron smelting is general. The cast iron smelted in the iron ore furnace is fine for farming, but it is too brittle for a weapon.”

After hearing this, Li Chongjiu couldn't help asking: "Why is this so? Could it be that there is a large amount of iron ore in this county, but the iron smelting skills are so bad, could it be that Chen Jincao is the reason for your negligence?"

Li Zuojiang stepped forward and explained: "Returning to the Marquis, you have wrongly blamed Jincao. It is not because of the county's negligence. If you want to produce high-quality iron, you must use a blast furnace. The furnace for melting iron in our county is not hot enough, so it is produced. The iron is more brittle, and our craftsmen call it spongy iron, and at most it can only be used as a hoe to plow the fields."
"Then why not buy a blast furnace?" Li Chongjiu couldn't help asking again.

Chen Jincao said in the foreword: "Because Feihu County is a border county, the court is worried that the Hu people will learn how to smelt iron, so it is strictly ordered that blast furnaces should not be used in all border counties."

Li Chongjiu came to Bianjun for a while, and he also knew the level of iron smelting of the various tribes of the Hu people north of the Great Wall.

The Turkic people were born as forging slaves of the Rouran people, and their iron casting skills were even better than those of the Sui Dynasty, but they suffered from the fact that there were no iron mines on the grassland.Therefore, the Turks can only use iron through trade in the Western Regions, or collect meteorite iron from the grasslands, and have invaded and robbed Han land for many years, but even so, iron is still scarce for the Turks.Hundreds of years later, when the Mongols went south to plunder, the first thing they did after breaking the city was to go door-to-door to grab iron pots.

As for the Khitan, Xiren, Yuren, Shiwei, and even Mohe in Liaodong, although they all mastered the technology of wrought iron, and there was iron ore in their territory, they didn't know how to smelt iron.In history, the Khitan became really powerful because after the Anshi Rebellion, the Khitan kidnapped many Han people, and after they conquered the Bohai Kingdom, they used their technology to learn iron smelting first among the various ethnic groups in the Northeast (Note [-]).After the Khitan defeated Xibu, Mohe, and Yelu Abaoji and other heroes, they rose up and were out of control.
As for the only iron smelting in Northeast China now, Koguryo also has iron mines, so the level of local civilization is relatively high.

Hearing what Jin Cao said, Li Chongjiu understood that even if he had iron mines, but without suitable iron smelting technology, it would be useless to have a treasure mountain.Li Chongjiu said to Jin Cao: "Since this is the case, let's build a blast furnace immediately. We must smelt good iron."

"Blast furnace!" Jin Cao said with a look of embarrassment on his face, "As for the laws and regulations of Lord Hou's court."

"I will deal with the imperial court, you only need to make a blast furnace."

"Well, since Lord Hou said so." Jin Cao hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Li Zuojiang.

Li Zuojiang thought for a while and said: "Master Hou, Jincao, when I was in Zhuojun, I have seen the casting method of blast furnaces, so I should be able to help you a little bit. But casting blast furnaces requires a lot of manpower."

Li Chongjiu laughed when he heard the words, and said: "As long as you can cast a blast furnace, you don't have to worry about manpower, I will give you as much as you want." Speaking of this, Li Chongjiu paused and said: "Li Zuojiang, I appointed You do it for Jin Caoshu and take care of everything in the workshop."

When Li Zuojiang heard that Li Chongjiu had ordered him to do the book, he knelt down again with a thud, tears streaming down his face.Although the book office is not formally established by the imperial court, it is still a small county official. It can be regarded as a civilian job. When going out to talk, it is also a master of spit and nails. Compared with the craftsmen in the previous workshop, its status is much higher.

"Thank you, Lord Hou. The villain vows to help Lord Hou cast the blast furnace to repay Lord Hou."

Li Chongjiu didn't help anymore this time, and said: "I am so happy to be a book office. In the future, you will run the workshop well, and I will promote you to be a county gold cao."

When Li Zuojiang heard that Li Chongjiu wanted to appoint him as Jincao, he glanced at Chen Jincao, but showed a shocked expression: "Return to Lord Hou, the villain dare not be greedy."

Li Chongjiu smiled and said: "Why are you greedy, Chen Jincao is working hard on local affairs, and I am going to recommend him to join the army as a post. You can work for me with peace of mind."

This time it was Chen Jincao's turn to bow again and again, with tears of gratitude on his face. The county corresponds to the six Caos in the county, which are the six divisions, namely Si Gong, Sicang, Si Hu, Si Bing, Judiciary, and Si Shi.These are all subordinate officials of the county. Although Li Chongjiu is not the governor of the county, he has no pressure to recommend these people as a general guard.Li Chongjiu said to Chen Jincao: "At present, the rest of the counties in the county have not yet recovered, so you should temporarily act as Jincao in the county and work hard."

"Thank you, Lord Hou, I will surely die in a humble position."

At present, Chen Jincao, Li Zuojiang, and not Li Shuban are both right, and Li Chongjiu looks like he is swearing to die.Li Chongjiu also intends to use the power of these two people to expand the meaning of operating the county craftsman.

The original Feihu County official workshop was not large in scale. At most, it repaired armor for the county soldiers, polished weapons, and repaired horseshoes for the war horse. Now Li Chongjiu is full of ambitions. He decided to first merge and acquire several private workshops in the county. Official workshop.

For the great cause of iron smelting, Li Chongjiu merged five or six hundred thieves under Wang Xuba, who had been captured before, into the artisan households in the city to solve the manpower problem.They must first forge iron and build furnaces under the guidance of Li Zuojiang, and cast a blast furnace that can make good iron.

Note [-]: Liao History Benji [-], it is said that the father of Yelu Abaoji started iron smelting and taught the people to cast drums.
(End of this chapter)