Crowned the New Han Dynasty

Chapter 784: Refining raw thorium, raw and cooked steel

Sensing the strangeness in his eyes, Chen Zhi was startled for a moment, then suddenly came to his senses and realized what this change meant.

"The shadow in my eyes usually appears when I encounter someone with special luck, but except for the sand table in my house, this kind of shadow has never appeared on dead objects in the past. This kind of reaction can only be seen in living people."

The thought in his mind was fleeting, but Chen Zhi did not delve into it. Instead, he stepped forward and carefully looked at the roughly prototype of the long sword blade.

Although it is said to be a sword, it is actually very rough, because this is not the shape of a long sword intended for mass production. This is not a real arsenal for making weapons, but it was specially planned by Chen Zhi to carry out new iron smelting, alchemy, and forging. The craft laboratory is declared to the outside world to be just a place in the ironworks used to check quality to keep it confidential.

Because it is experimental in nature, the first step to solve is not "is it good or not" but "is it available?" Therefore, the object that appears now is not pursued for practicality, but to make sure it can be made, and then proceed. Only after the cost and output are estimated can we further discuss the issues of process and mass production.

This was the sword embryo that appeared in front of Chen Zhi at this moment. Chen Zhi looked up and down.

Perhaps due to insufficient preparation, there are still many rough spots on the blade. The overall blade is relatively dark, but it has a cold glow that makes people feel dangerous just looking at it.

When Chen Zhi was observing the sword embryo, Li Wei beside him couldn't help but become nervous, like a child waiting for test results, always paying attention to Chen Zhi's expression. After all, this trial workshop was given to him to manage by Chen Zhi. Although he had previously There are also many achievements, but most of them are the reproduction of techniques from other places in Xinhan under the guidance of Chen Zhi.

To put it simply, the achievements of this trial workshop in the past few months are to bring Daijun’s originally lagging iron smelting level to catch up with the average level of this era. For example, the weapons currently manufactured by Daijun’s workshop are Carburizing method and steel frying method each occupy a part.

Chen Zhi raised his head at this time, noticed Li Wei's expression, and immediately knew what he was thinking, and couldn't help but smile: "Don't be like this, I can't tell the quality of this steel. After all, there are specialties in the art. This is what I want to learn from you.”

Li Wei was startled and waved his hands repeatedly, saying he didn't dare.

Chen Zhi didn't say much, and just said: "Just go ahead and do it. If you need money, people, or any material needs, feel free to ask for it. I know that this can't be done in a short time. It requires long-term investment. In fact, You did a good job before. Now these attempts are all guided by my few words. This is just the direction. Whether you can succeed depends on luck. It was already very rare to master these steel shaping methods before. Now that you have With these methods, we can rely on our own manpower and iron ore to build weapons. Invisibly, we save a lot of money and gain autonomy. We don’t have to be controlled by Youzhou. This part of the harvest alone is a great achievement. gone."

After receiving these words from Chen Zhi, Li Wei was relieved, but he still introduced the properties of this newly obtained steel, and the little book boy Chen Wu, together with many guards, very wisely stepped aside to prevent hearing-

Sometimes, knowing too much is not a good thing. Even if you are not afraid of being remembered, if something goes wrong, you will become a suspect immediately.

After a few people retreated, Li Wei also let go of his scruples and said directly: "This new steel is based on what the Lord mentioned, with the idea of ​​'mixed refining to produce thorium'. It has failed more than a hundred times, but in your case At the reminder, I went to consult a few Taoist priests, and got their advice on alchemy and alchemy methods. I mainly used the method of pouring steel, controlling the ratio of pig iron and iron, melting the pig iron, and pouring it into the wrought iron. , and then beat it with the Hundred Refining Method to expel the impurities. After this method, the finished product is strong and sharp, and has good toughness. It can be said to be top quality!" After talking about it, he became excited.

Chen Zhi nodded lightly. He could understand the general idea. After all, he was the one who pointed out this steel filling method. However, according to the original historical development, this set of techniques would have matured in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but in the following Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, During this period, it has also been further improved on the original basis. It can be said to be a basic skill. Once mastered, it has great development potential.

However, the road still has to be walked step by step. In order to establish a solid foundation and build a complete supporting system and ecological circle, Chen Zhi let Li Wei slowly try to build a forging system from scratch.After all, in Chen Zhi's view, with Daijun's current preparations, there is no need to deliberately pursue the lead in the material of weapons, because the advantages of the steel filling method are not obvious at the beginning, and its supporting production The facilities cannot be set up every six months or a year, and there is simply no time. It is better to use them as technical reserves and not promote them on a large scale to continue to improve the technical level. After all, the academic definition of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, according to historical inertia, was originally It would take a hundred years for the world to begin, and Chen Zhi could afford to wait.

On the other side, Li Wei obviously started chatting and said: "If the steel filling method is done properly, the carbon ash and impurities inside can be discharged together. It was the idea of ​​a villain to directly replace charcoal with coal. It was used to reduce the fire, but it was a pity that a few people tried it, but they never succeeded."

When Chen Zhi heard this, his heart moved. He suddenly remembered the final advantage of coal and coke, and couldn't help but encourage him a few more words, because this was not a direct idea proposed by Chen Zhi, but just a general direction. At the moment, Li Wei is exploring these on his own.

After finishing talking here, Chen Zhi suddenly asked something: "Since the new steel has been made, I wonder if you have tried it, can it withstand high temperature, and then make it into a cylinder shape?"

Li Wei shook his head and said: "I have never tried this before, but judging from the current situation, it is not optimistic."

Chen Zhi nodded and said, "There is no need to force this. Let's do it step by step." Then he met the other craftsmen in the trial workshop, greeted them one by one, and walked out after seeing that the time was almost up.

Chen Wu, who had been waiting for a long time and felt hot and uncomfortable, rushed out immediately, and then opened his clothes and breathed heavily.

When Chen Zhi walked out, he found that he was soaked all over, so he sighed that he had been working so hard for a while, and it was really hard for Li Wei and others to be here all day long.

Just as he was about to encourage him, the sound of footsteps suddenly came, but it was Tong Hai who was delivering the order, directly bringing a piece of news.

"Have the Huns mobilized troops and horses at the border?"

After Chen Zhi understood the information, he frowned slightly and felt that the matter was not simple. He was even more serious about the news about the Xiongnu in recent days.

"It seems that the second prisoner should be released soon."

As he said this, his heart suddenly moved, and there was a feeling of blood rising, as if something had happened, but it quickly dissipated, and he temporarily suppressed his doubts and confirmed some details of the intelligence with Tong Hai.

But as they were talking, another footstep came hurriedly, and this time it was Chen Duo.

The steward of the Chen family in Dai County was sweating profusely. As soon as he saw Chen Zhi, he accelerated a few steps and came to him. He didn't even bother to rest, and said out of breath: "Master Come on, madam... Madam, she..."

(End of this chapter)