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Chapter 154 Cast Iron
After reorganization, the Feihu County Craftsman has more than 700 people.Li Zuojiang also re-selected the location of the workshop, not in the city, but outside the city by the Juma River.The reason why the outside of the city was built is that it is convenient to go up the mountain to cut wood, and the second is to use the water power of the Juma River.High temperature is needed to smelt iron. Previously, the method of blowing wind in workshops was to make several large leather bags and use human power or the power of horses, cattle and livestock to blow wind. However, experienced Li Zuojiang changed this and used water power to blow wind. Can greatly save manpower and animal power.

Although Li Chongjiu is not very good at iron smelting, he also knows that the most important iron smelting technology is temperature.The melting point of iron is more than 500 degrees, so the ancients used the blast furnace method to increase the area of ​​the deep furnace to increase the temperature in the furnace, and also used waterwheels to make blowers to increase the temperature of the furnace.But if the furnace temperature is not enough, it can only produce the so-called continuous iron that Jincao said just now, and cut it horizontally with a single knife, and the fracture is white.

Hundreds of people worked together, and the workshop was built in less than ten days.In the new workshop, Li Zuojiang not only arranged [-] people to build the blast furnace, but also arranged [-] people to build the waterwheel.The other hundreds of people were recruited together, and Li Chongjiu asked them to collect the iron objects in the city again and make iron arrowheads first.
Once Yuyi Town is built next year, the forces of the Cangtou Army can go deep into the Wuhou Qinshui area, and they can start trying to rescue the Shidexi tribe from the Khitans and merge them into their own.Of course, this will inevitably lead to a fierce battle with the eight tribes of Khitan who control tens of thousands of strings. Li Chongjiu thought about it for a while. Defeating the Khitans in a field battle is temporarily an unrealistic fantasy.Since it is to defend the city, it must first use strong bows and crossbows. With the current level of workshops, it is temporarily impossible to make armor, swords and other items. Li Chongjiu can only equip iron arrowheads first.

Although the arrowheads are small, they are exquisite. Arrowheads are divided into four types: spikes, ducks, four-shaped sharp edges, and chisels with inserted blades.The crossbow is divided into bows and arrows, the crossbow is slightly shorter, and the bow is longer.As the saying goes, when drawing a bow, it should be strong, and when using an arrow, it should be long. The stronger the bow, the longer the arrow.

To make iron arrowheads, if you want to go further with the current level of the workshop, you can only start with the big bow.The Cangtou Army is currently striving to achieve the standard that each sergeant has a bow, and everyone in the county can draw a bow.It would take several years to make a high-grade bow, and there was not so much time back then, so there was only a quick way.

As for bow materials, Chen Jincao and Li Zuojiang have figured out a way.They first cut down the thick and strong moso bamboo, then peeled it into two vertically, and then cut the moso bamboo into sections, and tied the two ends with ropes. Speaking of it, with iron arrows, there is barely any problem.

The newly recruited [-] county soldiers were naturally equipped with big bows, and then began to practice archery.With the current strength of Feihu County and the power of the nearby thieves, Li Chongjiu only needs them to hold the county seat.As for the strong crossbow, right now it can only be used as a crossbow. The workshop currently only has ten pieces in a month.As for the crossbow and the crossbow, it is better to wait for the blast furnace waterwheel to be built before investing in research.

The winter snow is flying, and the first year passes quietly.

The original married mansion has now become the residence of the poor people in the county. Although the winter snow is falling heavily, the people in Feihu County have passed a fairly warm winter, and everyone's face is full of joy.The craftsmen and county soldiers who had been busy for several months were all allowed by Li Chongjiu to take a day off to reunite with their families.Li Chongjiu gave each of the county soldiers a bucket of corn for the festival.

As for the craftsmen, the newly recruited craftsmen also have delicious food to enjoy.Chen Jincao ordered people to kill several pigs, and put them together into pills wrapped with meat stuffing and flour.The craftsmen ate soup cakes, pills, and pots of thick pork bone soup. Everyone's faces were shiny and shiny, and they felt a little more comfortable than when they were thieves.

Li Chongjiu didn't make these thieves forced to work, but made them serve half a year of hard labor to make up for their crimes. After half a year, they could go and stay as they wanted, and they could grant fields to cultivate near the county seat.Therefore, the thieves didn't have much thought of being passive and sabotaging work. Just after this year, the blast furnace waterwheel was piled up together.

As the snow fell heavily, Li Chongjiu sat in the lobby of the county government office, arranging affairs of all sizes in Feihu County.The most important government affairs are iron smelting, cast iron, and craftsmen's workshops, which are handed over to Chen Jincao and Li Zuojiang, and a thousand county soldiers are handed over to Gaochu, the county captain, and Bo Zhao Wansan handles government affairs for him.

After arranging things one by one, Li Chongjiu set off to lead his two hundred armored cavalry and returned to Huaihuang Town after the spring snow melted. It is a big deal to open the town of Yuyi City in the coming year, and to propose to Li Yuan.Li Chongjiu walked in front of the county government office, looked at the sky full of snow, couldn't help sighing, wondering how Li Zhiwan's life in Jinyang was going this year.I don't know if Su Su has delivered the generous gift to Li's residence for him.

Just as Li Chongjiu was thinking about it, he saw the sudden sound of horseshoes in the heavy snow, from far to near.

"Master Hou is overjoyed! Overjoyed!"
The war horse was breathing white air, while Chen Jincao's face was covered with snow.He rode his horse and came to Li Chongjiu, got off his horse and came to Li Chongjiu, saying: "Master Hou is very happy!"

In the county office on the side, Zhao Zhubo, Xi Cao, the book office and others all left together. Looking at Chen Jincao's happy face, they didn't understand it for a while, so there were crowds of people in front of the door.Li Chongjiu smiled and said, "Speak slowly."

Chen Jincao immediately took out a red cloth from his arms, opened it carefully, held it in front of Li Chongjiu as if offering a treasure, and said, "Your Majesty, it's done!"

Li Chongjiu weighed the black pimple in the red cloth in his hands, feeling heavy and with a hint of heat.

Chen Jincao's eyes were almost filled with tears, and he said in a trembling voice: "Your Majesty, luckily, our blast furnace is finished. This is good iron! Really good iron!"

At this moment, he couldn't help thinking of a passage, the Han people came from Yanhuang, from the area of ​​Henan, enough to chase the barbarians, and now there is a prosperous China, what is the reason?When the Siyi were still using stone as weapons, our ancestors were already using copper spears and bronze arrows; when the Siyi were using copper as weapons, our ancestors had already used iron swords and crossbows; At that time, our ancestors were already wearing iron armor and holding steel swords.

In the Western Han Dynasty, China's iron smelting technology happened to be mature, and it was applied to weapons on a large scale for the first time.At that time, Wei Qinghuo Qubing led the Han cavalry, armed with ring-swords and wearing iron armor, galloping on the grasslands, expelling the Xiongnu, and sweeping across Mobei.Therefore, it is said that since the beginning of China, the martial arts of the emperors of all dynasties has never been more prosperous than that of Han Wu.

(End of this chapter)