After seeing Yan Liqiang easily solve the problem of sand holes in castings, Luo Yutian became more interested and took Yan Liqiang around in the Craftsman City. He took Yan Liqiang to visit the iron smelting workshop, sword workshop, armor workshop, and arrow workshop in the Craftsman City and let Yan Liqiang tour the entire city.
It has to be said that the scale of these workshops is indeed the largest that Yan Liqiang has ever seen. The management of these workshops is also remarkable and can be considered efficient among the artisans of the Han Empire.
After visiting those ordinary workshops, Luo Yutian even took Yan Liqiang to several places in the Artisan City with a very high level of confidentiality. There were soldiers standing guard outside those places, and people coming and going had to be carefully checked before entering. What was produced in those places were a batch of weapons that Luo Yutian had prepared for the Black Mountain Army that had never been shown to the world - several heavy military weapons that could be towed by vehicles, new half-body armor made by hydraulic presses, and even a new type of catapult that could smash things twice as far as traditional catapults...
There are countless skilled craftsmen in the Craftsman City, and these things are naturally the result of the hard work of those craftsmen in the Craftsman City.
Luo Yutian originally wanted to demonstrate the strength of the Luo family by showing these things to Yan Liqiang, and to win some face for the Luo family and Jiangcheng. After all, the ability that Yan Liqiang demonstrated in the water and fire machine manufacturing workshop today made everyone recognize his identity as a master craftsman. This mentality is just like when antique collectors see antique masters coming to visit, they will take out their own collections for the masters to appraise. Being able to get affirmation and praise from these masters will give these antique collectors a special sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
Duke Xin was fully expecting to see surprise and shock on Yan Liqiang's face, but to his disappointment, from beginning to end, there was not a trace of surprise on Yan Liqiang's face. Those weapons that he thought were sharp did not even make Yan Liqiang, a master craftsman, take a second look. Yan Liqiang just glanced at them from beginning to end, as if he was looking at the cabbages sold on the street, with a dull look. Even when facing other people's introductions, at most he would just show a polite smile on his face. If one had to give any comments, what Yan Liqiang would say were just simple polite words like "Not bad!" "Okay!" "Alright!", and there was no excitement at all.
This made Lord Xinguo very frustrated. He didn't believe that Yan Liqiang had seen everything!
After everyone had walked around in Jiangcheng, the sun was about to set, so Luo Yutian directly invited Yan Liqiang to have dinner together in the back garden of the Jinzhou Construction Supervision Office in Jiangcheng.
There were only Luo Yutian and Yan Liqiang at the dinner table. Their entourage and subordinates were all eating in the outer courtyard.
After the meal was served, Duke Xin and Yan Liqiang started talking about what they saw in the Craftsman City today. When they had finished talking, Duke Xin suddenly changed the subject and said, "Today, I went to the Craftsman City with you, Liqiang. It really opened my eyes. Liqiang, you are worthy of the title of the master craftsman. Tiexin rarely convinces others, but you convinced him with just a few words today. It's really rare!"
"By the way, Brother Luo, I wonder where Lord Ou is. Why didn't he come to eat?"
"Hahaha, after listening to what you said about casting techniques, how could he wait until tomorrow? He must have gone to the workshop to work on it long ago. I've been to the Jinzhou Construction Supervision Office more times than he has!"
"Hahaha, it's a blessing for Brother Luo to have such a subordinate!"
"Li Qiang, you're right. That's why I admire Tie Xin. As the saying goes, no one is perfect. Tie Xin may have some shortcomings in other aspects. He speaks and acts straightforwardly, but he is particularly concerned about the things in the Craftsman City and works diligently!" At this point, Luo Yutian said with a hint of mystery, "I know that you have a high vision, Li Qiang. Those things today may be commendable in the eyes of ordinary craftsmen, but in your eyes, Li Qiang, they are too ordinary. I originally wanted to show you another thing today, and let you guess what it is used for, but there were too many people just now, so it was inconvenient to show this thing, so I didn't take it out. Now I'll let you take a look, Li Qiang, can you guess where this land comes from?"
After he finished speaking, Duke Xin clapped his hands, and a trusted confidant beside him came up to the two of them with something on a serving tray, then withdrew.
There was a red cloth covering the tray. Duke Xin personally removed the cloth, revealing a bowl underneath. The bowl was filled with some dark brown unknown liquid with a pungent smell.
Duke Xin looked at Yan Liqiang with a look that was somewhat expectant and somewhat reserved. Originally, Duke Xin thought that Yan Liqiang would be confused when he saw this thing, not knowing what this thing was, which would at least help him save face. However, what disappointed Duke Xin again was that when Yan Liqiang saw that thing, he was just stunned for a moment, and then he smiled and looked at Duke Xin with a calm face. Duke Xin, who was originally full of confidence, couldn't help feeling guilty when he looked into Yan Liqiang's eyes.
"This... Do you know where this thing came from, Li Qiang?"
"So Brother Luo hid the real good stuff in the Artisan City. I was wondering just now. With so many craftsmen in the Artisan City, it would be a shame if they could only produce such a small amount of stuff as what we saw today!" Yan Liqiang smiled slightly, with wisdom flashing in his eyes. "I'm afraid that the iron and steel smelting workshops we visited today are not the latest methods that the Artisan City and Brother Luo can come up with, right?"
This time, it was Luo Yutian's turn to be dumbfounded. The reason why he took out this thing, and put it in a bowl, was to see if Yan Liqiang could understand where this thing came from without giving him any hints. And from what Yan Liqiang said, Yan Liqiang not only knew where this thing came from, but also knew the function of another thing that was made together with this thing but he had not taken out yet. God knows, when his craftsmen discovered and made these things, it was only after a period of exploration that they realized that these things could be used in iron smelting and steelmaking.
"Li Qiang, do you really know where this thing came from?" Luo Yutian looked at Yan Liqiang in disbelief.
"There is a lot of coal in Jinzhou, but no one has thought of squeezing oil from coal before!" Yan Liqiang blinked at Luo Yutian, "This is tar. With tar, there is coke. Coke is very useful for iron and steelmaking. Brother Luo should have tried it a long time ago, but he didn't show it to others because he was afraid that someone would learn it. I originally wanted to tell you about it after I went back today and let you try it, but I didn't expect that someone under your command had already made it!"
Luo Yutian was quiet for a few seconds, then he sighed deeply, and gave Yan Liqiang a helpless smile, "The master craftsman is worthy of being the master craftsman, I surrender. Is there anything in this world that you don't know, Liqiang?"
"Haha, there are a lot of things I don't know, and the things I know are just coincidences!" Yan Liqiang picked up the bowl of tar in front of him and took a deep breath of the tar intoxicatedly, "This is a treasure..."
…
It was already dark when the group returned to the Luo family mansion in Jinzhou City.
After separating from Luo Yutian, Yan Liqiang went straight back to his Mingyue Tower. However, before Yan Liqiang could take a break, Steward Luo came to the Mingyue Tower in a hurry and said, "Master Yan, the governor wants to see you for something!"
What’s going on? We just separated. Does Luo Yutian want to talk to me about something again
Muttering to himself, Yan Liqiang still followed Manager Luo to Luo Yutian's study.
Luo Yutian looked solemn as he handed a piece of paper to Yan Liqiang. "I just received the news when I returned to the mansion. Liqiang, take a look!"
Yan Liqiang took the note, and his expression changed slightly as soon as he saw the content on it. There was only one sentence on the note: Something has happened in the northwest, the Black Jie army has defeated the seven tribes of Shatu in Gulang grassland...
(End of this chapter)