Chaos in Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 36: Open the furnace for forging

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Inside the warehouse, the sacks were neatly stacked, releasing a strong smell of iron.

"The knife is here." Qin Meng stretched out his hand, Xie Yun drew the knife and handed it to him.

Qin Mengna swiped the sack with a knife, and the iron sand in the sack rushed out.

"Shao Wei, Ruwei family, how can there be such a thing?"

Wei Lang felt a little bit dry lips, salt and iron, that was the product that the court was qualified to circulate, and Qin Meng could definitely make a sound on behalf of the government.

"General Qin, I have already said that this is not part of my Wei family, but Qinghe merchants leased here and temporarily put them here. Oh, yes, the Qinghe merchants, but there is an official guide opened by the official family, my Wei family If you don’t see the official guide, who would dare to store such goods?"

"Where is the official guide?"

"Such important things, of course, are in the hands of the merchants. We are only responsible for checking them. The registrar quotes the listed items, General Qin. You can check it carefully. The Wei family dare not even dare to stock up the materials controlled by the court."

"No need to check, this general will temporarily detain this batch of iron sand. If the merchant you mentioned asks you for it, you can ask him to ask for it from me."

Wei Lang was anxious, and there was a tremolo in his voice: "General Qin, don't do it. If you deduct this iron sand, our Wei family. How can you explain it to the merchants? So, my Wei family's face will be lost. , Who would dare to use our Wei's warehouse?"

Qin Meng was too lazy to listen to Wei Lang and turned around and ordered: "Sun Mao, go back to the camp immediately, pass my order, guard the camp and my soldiers, and all go to the gate of Wei's house to pay homage to the holy relics of the emperor. Prepare horses and vehicles to ban these. All the iron sand will be transported back to the camp."

Wei Lang still wanted to discuss, he was pushed aside by Xie Yun a long time ago.

Qin Meng asked someone to get a few sheepskins over and put them down at the door of the iron sand warehouse.

Wei Lang wants to wait to leave, where are the soldiers willing to release? There is no general order. Don't say you are a young master of the Wei family, you can't even move around with an ant!

After a while, Qin Meng had 3,000 people under his command, Xiping guarded 3,000 people, and Hao Hao **** came to Wei's house.

When Sun Mao came to ask Qin Meng for instructions, Qin Meng lazily became lazy.

"Sun Mao, eight thousand sheepskins, all are counted and taken away, and delivered according to the accompanying price. There are also countless iron sands, but they can be weighed on the spot. Give Wei Shao a receipt and take them away. Xie Yun, bring them to me. Look, no one is allowed to touch anything except what we want. Who dares to take other things privately and rectify the Fa on the spot!"

After the explanation was over, Qin Meng waved his hand, took Zhou Lie, and swayed back to the barracks.

After sleeping until the next day, Qin Meng got up to eat some food, and only then did he find Sun Mao and ask him about his affairs at Wei's house.

Sun Mao said: "General, eight thousand sheepskins, I have found someone to sew winter clothes. This will take some time. I have already told the brothers and they all understand. At Wei's house, I transported more than 3,000 catties of iron sand. I don’t know the general. What are you going to do with it?"

Qin Meng smiled and said, "Of course it is for my use? Useless things, what do you bring back for? Go and find all the best blacksmiths in Xiping. This general has important things to do."

Sun Mao hesitated: "General, dare to ask what the general is going to do?"

"It's okay to tell you, I will strictly say that the soldier weapon is better than the Turkic people, but it is not particularly dominant. The Turkic horses have been able to fight, if we don't have a huge advantage in the weapon, how much we need to fill in? Life?"

"General, could it be... Want to build a good weapon? This, this is..."

Qin Meng could understand the meaning of Sun Mao's words, no matter what era, it is a taboo to build weapons in private.

"First create a few samples and report them to the prince. The prince is a master and will understand."

Sun Mao nodded and said, "This is feasible. What kind of weapon does the unknown general want to build?"

Qin Meng sighed, and did not rush to speak.

According to his ideas, there is nothing he wants to build more than the prestigious Mo Dao.

According to official records, the Modao team faced the Turkic cavalry and waved the Modao away.

But the craftsmanship of this thing is too complicated, and the requirements for the operator are too high.

In order to protect Mo Swordsman, it is necessary to provide heavy armor. In this way, unless it is supported by the financial resources of the court, with Qin Meng's current conditions, it is enough to feed ten Mo Swordsman as pants.

After thinking about it, Qin Meng set his weapon selection on the saber of later generations.

Qin Meng has seen approaching science in later generations, and there is a special introduction to the production process of making high-quality knives. The sword can really be said to be like cutting iron like mud, even the thick steel bar of the little finger can be cut without hurting the blade, let alone the weapon of the Turkic people

However, it is just such a build. It is also very expensive.

There must be a way to make money!

Qin Meng turned his attention to the craftsmanship of iron woks, as long as they can make iron woks that only appeared in Song Shi, wouldn't they sell them at a sky-high price

Do whatever it takes, Qin Meng asked Sun Mao to find the blacksmiths, gather them together, and ask them whether they would like to join the army. Although they still wrought iron after joining the army, they have military status. In addition to exempting the tax on corvee, the wrought iron is extraordinarily good. There are rewards.

Many of the blacksmiths were unwilling to join the army, so Qin Meng asked them to have a good meal and sent them home.

For those who were willing to stay, Qin Meng uniformly compiled a special organization, let these blacksmiths be masters, and selected some people from the garrison to add in, forming a special unit.

This is a bit similar to the career editor of later generations. The treatment is good and there is no war. Many people are very happy to be selected.

When buying all the necessary equipment, Qin Meng knew what it meant to spend money like flowing water.

It doesn't cost anything for the venue or anything.

Iron sand is also a detained material.

The key is coal. Stoves, wait, wait, these guys, it's not that they can be detained like iron sand.

Before everything was complete, Qi Yuan ran over to complain to Qin Meng. The money in his hand for daily consumption was gone. In case he needed to purchase necessary supplies, he couldn't help it.

Qin Meng asked Sun Mao and Qi Yuan to figure out a way to get all the supplies needed in the army. They first owed them to the purchasers, and promised a certain amount of interest from the purchasers. Now, the overriding thing is to get good knives and iron pots. come out.

Choosing an auspicious day, Qin Meng led the people of these career editors to worship, and the furnace was opened.

What Qin Meng didn't expect was. Some things, know the craft, and even remember the process steps clearly, and have a professional blacksmith on hand.

But really reaching out to do it, it's not like that at all.

For half a month, what I got out was horrible, not to mention cutting iron like mud, not even as good as my own weapons.

Qin Meng carefully analyzed the entire forging process and felt that the problem might lie in quenching.

According to the conditions at the time, there was no such thing as chemical industry. Quenching was done entirely with water, or there was a secret recipe that used water to soak a mixture of natural minerals.

Qin Meng didn't know the unique formula.

But what he knows is that if oil is used for quenching, the effect may be much better.

In those days, oil was a very valuable thing.

Natural mineral oil, naturally, don't think about it. Some are animal and vegetable oils that people eat.

But that thing, ordinary people can't eat it, so it is used to quench it. Really a bit of a prodigal taste.

After thinking about it for a long time, Qin Meng gritted his teeth and asked Qi Yuan to go out shopping, buying everything he could buy.

Qi Yuan was already numb. He had never encountered such a situation before. The dignified quartermaster actually owed a debt.

There is a saying that if there are too many lice, you don't bite, and you don't have to worry about more debts. Do whatever the chief asks you to do.

Qin Meng summoned his blacksmith team, pointed to the urn of oil, and said, "Everyone, this general is in debt. How do you get paid? You don't need to talk about your treatment? As long as you can produce good things, this general I don’t care how much money I owe outside, this time. But give me a closer look and get some good stuff."

Encouraged by Qin Meng, the blacksmith team set aside their arms and got a new sample, which was quenched with oil. The effect was indeed much better than before, but it was still far from Qin Meng's expectations.

The captain of the blacksmith team was a native of Xiping, named Hou Chao, who was in his thirties, had no family, and was an old bachelor, so he devoted himself to Qin Meng.

Hou Chao said: "General, I think your method is okay. The point is, I think our working conditions may not meet the requirements."

Qin Mengzheng was depressed. Hearing what Hou Chao said, he became interested: "Then what's the difference?"

Hou Chao fiddled with his rat's beard: "The season is not right now, it's freezing cold, the place where we work is ventilated, and the iron embryo after forging becomes cold in an instant. Such quenching is actually meaningless. "

Qin Meng's eyes brightened when he heard it. That's right, the craftsmanship he knows must be okay. Then, there are some links that have not been mastered.

It's the details that determine success or failure. Quenching must be a high-temperature iron embryo. When it is cold, it is still hard to quench the fire

When the problem is found, new problems follow.

It's not impossible to make a workshop with simple air leakage to maintain a certain temperature. The key problem is that it costs money.

Qin Meng thought about it, Da Xi Changru gave him some gold and silver, and he gave Huang Kun some of it, and the rest was only used when he was prepared to last.

After weighing it for a long time, Qin Meng still took out his last old fund and found a bricklayer for the cash. It was freezing cold. You have to get the workshop right.

After another half month of tossing, I finally made the workshop look good, carefully considered the craftsmanship again, and solved all the details that I could think of, before I started to build a few samples.

The effort paid off, and a total of five saber-shaped knives were created for later generations, all of which met Qin Meng's expectations. An ordinary sword, hitting this sword, cut it off, and it was a match with Xie Yun's broken Ni sword.

All the officers under Qin Meng looked at the five samples. At this point, the sharpened edge of the sample knife was as bright as autumn water, and the back of the knife was dark and thick as a rock. No matter how pleasing to the eye, the eyeball seems to fall inside and can't be pulled out again.

If you use your hands again, the texture is so comfortable that no one wants to let go again.

"General, this war knife must be distributed according to the status of merit? Xie Yun has a treasure knife. You score one, and then come down. Why should I share one?" Zhou Lie held the knife directly in his arms. , It seems that I want to receive it directly.

"No, this knife, don't think about it, it's very useful." Qin Meng rejected Zhou Lie in one fell swoop, cutting off everyone's thoughts. (End of this chapter)