After Spring and Autumn

Chapter 30 Iron Ore
In the yard, an internal official was leading several young eunuchs to carefully pass the clear water in the jar to a rooster with its head held high.The rooster held its head high and looked around in a high spirited manner, dismissing Qing Shui.

Seeing Meng Di coming in, the internal officials hurried over to see him.

"Are these chickens raised by you?"

"Exactly."

Looking at the roosters in red and green, Meng Di couldn't help but laugh, not to mention, they looked really mighty.

When I was in Kuaiji City, I was invited by Goujian to watch a cockfight, and my saliva almost drooled at that time.

When I was young, I liked to eat chicken. Li Ling’s family had a big yard and raised a lot of chickens. Because there are many people who practice martial arts, they have to cook chicken soup every now and then. I always like to stay by the stove just to smell the aroma .

Goujian was very surprised at Mengdi's strange expression at that time, although there were not many chickens in the Yue Palace, they were all brought from the state of Wu.But thinking about being in a poor country like Gumi City, there is probably nothing to do for entertainment, so I simply picked a group of majestic eunuchs and eunuchs who raise chickens to pass the time.

"My lord, this is the mighty general. He is very majestic, and his voice resounds in all directions. This is the red-crowned general..." The internal officials introduced them one by one, showing off.

"Okay, okay, general or not, tear off all these red, green and green ones for me."

"Ah" the internal officials and the little eunuchs were stunned.

"Listen, my lord raises chickens for eating, not for watching. When every household can raise chickens, I will let you go back to the palace."

"Eat, eat...?" The internal officer felt that his brain was not enough. These chickens were bought from the state of Wu with a lot of money. If one of the chickens died, the manager would be furious.

Wait, just now the adults said that every household can raise chickens, and I can go back to the palace instead of dying of old age in this remote countryside.The internal officials were both happy and worried. The happy thing was that they never expected to return to the palace. The worry was that every household could raise chickens. Could they really wait until that day?

The next day, Meng Di woke up to the sound of cock crowing.Not only him, but everyone in the city was awakened, and they went everywhere to find out what kind of monster had come to the City Lord's Mansion.

Hearing the lively voices outside, Meng Di stroked his forehead with a headache.This place is really closed and backward. I remember that in the Book of Songs I read in my previous life, there is a sentence "The female is called the cock crowing, and the scholar is called Meidan", which shows that raising chickens is very common in other vassal states now.

Eating chicken is a big deal, and Han Qu has to supervise it personally.After breakfast, I strolled slowly in the city, thinking about it.

It is said to be a city, but it is actually a big stockade. The city wall is built with stones, which looks crooked.

Outside the city is the barracks of the first song. The Han people don't have the habit of setting up camps, but under the guidance of Xiao Wu Xiao Liu and others, they seem to be passable.

Meng Di strolled outside the camp, but found that it was empty, Han Zhan and Xiaowu Xiaoliu cavalry leaned on the tree stump very leisurely.

When they heard the sound of footsteps, they got up in a hurry, seeing Meng Di's gloomy face, they didn't dare to speak, and bowed their heads to stand still.

"What about the rest?"

"ditch digging"

"hunt"

Meng Di smiled instead of anger: "Okay, then why don't you guys go?"

Little Five and Little Six have followed Mengdi for so long, knowing that something is wrong, they dare not explain, feel wronged in their hearts, these Han people don't listen to themselves.

In the evening, the first formal territorial meeting was held in the City Lord's Mansion.

The atmosphere was very dignified, Han Lei, Han Qu, and Han Zhan knelt in a row, while Meng Di sat on top without saying a word.

Han Qu casually ordered the first song to have already touched his bottom line, and it would be impossible not to play hard.

His foundation is too weak, except for a few cavalry, the only ones he can use right now are Han people.The only thing that can be done at present is to strictly enforce military discipline, remove Han Zhan from the post of Qudu, and let him take over temporarily.

At the same time, it is stipulated that the military power is only under the control of one person, and no one is allowed to command the affairs of the barracks.As the largest clan in the territory, the Han clan is not allowed to interfere with the affairs of the city lord's mansion.

As for Han Qu, he is still the deputy city lord, there is nothing he can do about it, but he can no longer manage affairs in the clan.

Han Lei and the others knew that they had violated a big taboo, and they all made troubles like garlic. Han Lei even proposed to resign as the patriarch.

"Could it be that you are threatening me?" Meng Di stared.

Everyone was too scared to speak.

At this time, someone notified Qianying to return to the city, which diverted everyone's attention a little.

Ganying rushed to Gumi City Lord's Mansion in a hurry, and shouted as soon as she entered the door: "My lord, I found it, I found it!"

It turns out that Ganying searched everywhere in the mountains and found several exposed copper and iron mines. According to his idea, these copper mines are excellent. As long as he finds tin and smelts it a little, he can get a lot of bronze.

What Mengdi cares about is iron, what is the use of bronze?

"My lord, Chu State also has iron smelters, but iron is brittle and useless, far inferior to bronze."

I was already in a bad mood, but I was even more angry when I heard the words. The Han army used hundreds of refined steel from head to toe. How can there be bronze?There is no room for discussion at the moment, and I immediately set off to the iron mine.

In fact, there are far more iron mines than copper mines, and Ganying spends most of his time looking for copper mines.

The iron ore was found on a river beach far away from human habitation. There is no grass here, and there are yellowish-brown stones everywhere.Ganying picked up a stone that looked rusty, and indicated that it was an iron stone.

This is Iron Stone?Monty, like everyone else, knew nothing.

"How to refine it?" Mengdi's eyes were full of eagerness, as long as he had a lot of iron weapons, he would definitely be able to destroy them on the battlefield.The Han army was able to fight all the way to the home of the Xiongnu, relying on the invincible ring-shoudao and the strong bow and crossbow that ignored armor.

Ganying has seen ironware before. There are many iron mines in Chu State. There have always been craftsmen trying to smelt a lot of iron, but they are so unusable that no one wants to make them into farm tools.

He was just a craftsman, he didn't dare to go against Mengdi's will, so he had to speak out the method he knew.

Chu people have been making iron for hundreds of years. The best way is to dig a huge pit, put iron stones and branches in layers, and then set fire to it. After the fire is extinguished, you can get smelted iron. , the deeper the pit, the harder the iron block obtained.

There are also highly skilled craftsmen who can occasionally use secret methods to refine high-quality iron objects that are harder than bronze and even tougher.But as an ordinary craftsman, Qianying had no chance to see him.

"So, there will be a lot of manpower?" Meng Di rubbed his chin and said to himself.

"That's right, with the strength of the whole Han clan, I'm afraid I won't be able to practice much." Gan Ying still wanted to dispel this unrealistic idea.

"Manpower?" Meng Di looked into the depths of the forest, "It's time to let the first song move around, lest you just farm and hunt."

(End of this chapter)