Dahan: A 100-year-old veteran, I will build the strongest family

Chapter 98 Eve
Officials of all ranks in Jinyang City and county governors of various counties in Bingzhou had been waiting for a long time.

However, what surprised Li Hong was that Ding Yuan, the former governor of Bingzhou, was transferred to Youzhou as governor and left before him.

Li Hong did not think much about this. Instead, he felt that Ding Yuan should leave wisely, which would allow the Li family to smoothly take control of Bingzhou.

After successfully taking control of Bingzhou, Li Hong's first thing was to appease the county governors.

Although he and Liu Hong demanded power, it did not mean that he directly took down the governors of various counties in Bingzhou and then placed his own people in their place.

Even if the family members and the outstanding children of the four families were sent to strengthen the counties and prefectures of Bingzhou, they would be allowed to start from the grassroots level for training.

Knowing that Li Hong would not take them down directly, but would let the family members start from the grassroots management level, the county magistrates who had hurried to Jinyang breathed a sigh of relief and promised Li Hong that they would take good care of the Li family's children.

After pacifying the governors of various counties in Bingzhou, Li Hong began to organize people to start large-scale mining and erect blast furnaces to smelt iron, preparing to produce steel and build various types of weapons and equipment.

Bingzhou is a mountainous region. In the Han Dynasty, the iron mining and smelting industry in Bingzhou was already quite developed. Iron mines were mainly distributed in Shangdang County (now Changzhi, Shanxi) and Yanmen County (now Daixian, Shanxi).

The iron ore in these areas not only has large reserves but also has high quality.

Li Hong did not need to worry too much about mining iron ore and smelting iron in blast furnaces, because the prototype of blast furnace iron smelting had already existed during the Han Dynasty.

With two hundred skilled craftsmen guiding him, Li Hong did not have to spend too much time. Instead, he focused on improving the output of blast furnace iron smelting and enhancing the quality of steel.

The surge in production allowed him to produce large quantities of steel.

The improvement in quality will allow him to forge steel that is stronger than the ones of this era, and create weapons that are more powerful than the ones of this era.

During the Han Dynasty, coke and firewood were still used to make steel.

Li Hong quickly found coal and asked Li Ding and Mi Zhu who were following him to mine it vigorously.

On the one hand, coal can be used to produce large quantities of steel. On the other hand, it can be made into coal briquettes and sold, and can be used to boil water and cook.

The Eastern Han Dynasty was a Little Ice Age, and it was extremely cold in winter.

The emergence of coal briquettes is a blessing to the Han people. Not only does it provide the Li family with another lucrative money-making project, it also saves countless lives.

Li Ding and Mi Zhu were quite shocked and immediately went to experiment with the use of coal.

The use of coal and the expansion of blast furnace ironmaking have greatly increased steel production. On the other hand, improving steel quality is also a task facing Li Hong.

The quality of steel in the Han Dynasty was not good for making weapons.

After the Han Dynasty, and during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the steel pouring method became the mainstream, especially the addition of trace elements such as chromium and nickel, which could greatly improve the quality of steel.

However, Li Hong didn't know where to get chromium and nickel, so he could only start with the steel pouring method.

Li Hong had seen the steel pouring method when he was in school in his previous life, but it had been too long in this life and his memory was vague. He only remembered that it was a mixture of wrought iron and pig iron, and he had forgotten everything else.

But this did not make Li Hong give up. With more than 200 top Han craftsmen, Li Hong came up with ideas, and then combined the strengths of everyone, and tested again and again, and finally Li Hong figured out how to make steel that exceeded the quality of Han steelmaking. The steel-making method that Li Hong led people to study was to mix raw and wrought iron for smelting. When the temperature was right, the raw iron was melted first, seeped into the wrought iron, and then taken out and repeatedly forged to become high-quality steel. Li Hong did not know whether this method was the steel-making method used in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but it really made him high-quality steel.

When the high-quality steel came out, Li Hong couldn't help being happy, but he immediately took control of the skilled craftsmen who knew the method of pouring steel.

A year ago, Li Hong dared to take out the three treasures of Ma Zhong, and he had confidence in his heart, not only because the dangerous fortresses of the Han Dynasty could block the iron hooves of foreign races, but also because of the epoch-making ideas in his mind.

Even if the aliens really stole the three treasures of Ma Zhong, Li Hong has other ways to deal with them.

Not to mention the various tactics and terrain conditions.

The ability to create advanced weapons is also the reason why Li Hong dared to take out the three treasures of horse. The Mo Dao, heavy equipment, etc. are all powerful weapons against the light cavalry of this era.

The Mo Dao is a long-handled broadsword from the Tang Dynasty, ranging from 1.3 to 2.3 meters in length and weighing about 10 to 20 kilograms. This weapon is known for its long shape, sharpness, durability and strong deterrence, and was a weapon specifically used against cavalry in the Tang Dynasty.

The sharpness and slashing effect of the Mo Dao were both excellent, and it was a great threat to lightly armed cavalry. On the battlefield, once the enemy cavalry broke through the front line of defense, the Mo Dao team could rush to the breakthrough point of the defense line and use the Mo Dao to block the cavalry's charge, thus preventing their own soldiers from being divided by the enemy cavalry.

In the battle between An Lushan's rebels and the Tang Dynasty's imperial guards in 757 AD, the Modao Army led by Li Siye successfully resisted the charge of the rebel cavalry, created conditions for the Tang army's counterattack, and ultimately successfully reversed the situation of the war.

The Tang Dynasty developed magical weapons that were specifically designed to defeat the northern nomadic cavalry, so the Song Dynasty did not have to be defeated.

Therefore, as a heavy weapon, the Mo Dao can effectively restrain the impact and mobility of cavalry on the battlefield and is a powerful weapon against cavalry.

Heavy cavalry. In the battles between the Jin and Song armies, the heavy cavalry of the Jin army, such as the "Iron Float", showed great combat effectiveness. They were dressed in iron armor, revealing only a pair of eyes, and were equipped with long weapons such as lances and secondary weapons such as hammers. In the battles with the Song army, the heavy cavalry of the Jin army won victory after victory with its powerful impact and equipment advantages.

As for Li Hong, whether it is the sharp Mo Dao or the heavy equipment, they all rely on the advanced steel pouring method.

Now, the steel-casting method has been developed. Even though the Mo Dao and heavy equipment are more difficult to make, the accumulation of little by little still gives him the confidence to face the iron hoof of any alien race.

Li Hong can also train light cavalry!
Li Hong could also build heavy cavalry and the Modao Army. What kind of waves could a mere foreign race cause?
In Bingzhou, work was in full swing. A large number of young and strong people were mining iron ore and smelting steel. Li Hong was also secretly building advanced weapons.

In addition, Li Hong has begun trading weapons made of ordinary steel with the three generals of the Xianbei tribe, namely Putou, Suli and Kebineng, to support the three generals.

In the grassland, because Tan Shihuai was captured by the Han Dynasty, the tribes were leaderless and unwilling to submit to each other. The tribes fought from time to time. With Li Hong's support for the three Xianbei generals, the Western Xianbei took the lead in launching a war of annexation.

As the Central Xianbei approached, the Eastern Xianbei also started a war of annexation.

The entire grassland was plunged into blood and gore, with Xianbei people fighting everywhere.

The generals of the fighting Xianbei tribes did not notice that inside the tightly guarded Yanmen Pass, in the land of Bingzhou, an army of 100,000 Beiwei soldiers was training and growing rapidly.

In addition, a large number of blast furnaces spit out molten iron, which was made into weapons to equip the army or sell to the grasslands.

The grassland was filled with blood and gore.

The people in the Han Dynasty were in dire straits, and the Taiping Dao spread like vines to all the states and counties.

A force is growing rapidly in Bingzhou!
(End of this chapter)