"Master Ren, do you think this method is really feasible?" Tao Jiyuan questioned, although burning a stone was like this, he still felt that this idea was a bit far-fetched.
Not only him, Gu Qiong, Teng Ji and other people who are listening beside have this idea.
"Whether it's feasible or not will only be known after a trial, after all, isn't there no better way now?" Ren Baqian spread his hands.
"Yes." Tao Jiyuan nodded.
"Master Gu, I will trouble you to arrange it."
Next, Gu Qiong ordered 100 guards to push 300 prisoners to go to a distant place to cut wood.
The three prisoners were tied together with a rope at their feet. Three hundred prisoners were exactly one hundred groups, and one hundred guards could barely guard them.
Damo Mountain is a different kind. There are many mountains around here, all of which are green and lush, but Damo Mountain has no bare grass.
The distance to cut wood is not too short, after all, the short-distance daily life is almost enough for cooking.
In a whole day, a total of 30 tree trunks with a diameter of more than 20 centimeters and a length of more than 3 meters were transported back.
The prisoners in this mine also stopped digging the mountain first, and dragged the thirty logs to the platform at the foot of Damo Mountain, and chopped them into small pieces.
After working for two full days, a total of 50 tree trunks were dragged back, and the ones that came back the first day were also chopped into wood as thin as an arm, and the next step was to burn the mountain.
…
A team of more than one hundred people marched towards Damo Mountain with more than 20 carts and more than 70 forkhorn cattle.
Forked horn beef is one of the meats that Dayao often uses. It grows very fast, half as fast as that of Qu ox and the like. Qu ox takes five years to mature, while this kind of Forked ox only takes three years. More will do.
But the taste of this kind of beef is very ordinary, relatively woody, and the food of the general army is like this.
The rest of them deliver supplies to the Damoshan Iron Mine once every 20 days. In addition to food, there are also some forged picks, iron cones and other digging tools. The tools of the Damoshan Iron Mine are very worn out.
"Marshal Lu, where do you see?" Everyone turned around the foot of a mountain and saw thick smoke billowing in the direction of Damo Mountain, and someone immediately shouted.
In Dayao, ten people form a team, and there is a team that is upright, which is the ninth rank. The twelve teams are a brigade, with a brigade commander, who is from the eighth rank. The fifth brigade is a regiment, with a school lieutenant, from the seventh rank to the sixth rank.
Generally, there are 650 to 700 people in a regiment plus logistics sundries.
The five regiments form an army, with 3,300 to 3,800 men.
Five armies form one government, with about 15,000 people.
There is an entire brigade here, and the brigade commander who was in the team raised his head when he heard the words, and his face changed suddenly: "An accident happened to Damo Mountain! When you go back, two people report the news, and a team of people guards here, and the others put down their things. The weapons come with me."
With an order, everyone threw away the things they were carrying, held their long knives tightly in one hand, and marched quickly towards Damo Mountain.
Lu Shuai frowned as he walked forward, how could something happen to Damo Mountain? Could it be that the prisoners rebelled? But even if they rebel, the three hundred guards there are enough to defeat them.
Even without three hundred, two hundred people can completely defeat them.
So what's with the smoke? It's clearly arson.
While thinking and worrying about the situation of Damo Mountain, the brigade commander drove 60 kilometers with his people in only two hours, and hurried to the foot of Damo Mountain.
However, unlike the chaos he had imagined, the guards at the foot of the mountain were still standing there quietly, as if nothing had happened.
"What happened?" Lu Shuai hurriedly asked, looking up at the thick smoke above, like a smoke column, you can smell the smell of burning here.
"Nothing happened, everything is normal." The guard replied immediately.
Lu Shuai felt relieved when he heard this, and then he was dumbfounded. Since it's fine, what is it doing here
"Sheng Lvshuai, you will find out when you go up and have a look." The guard didn't understand the details, but said: "It is said that it is going to burn Damo Mountain open."
Dharma Mountain burned and cracked? How can it be? Isn't this nonsense? As soon as Lu Shuai heard this, he thought about waiting for someone to rush over because of this matter, and the fire in his stomach would not start anywhere.
"You go back and bring the supplies, and have someone chase those two back. I'll go up and have a look." Shuai Sheng said, wiped the sweat from his head, and hurried up the mountain.
At this time, Ren Baqian and others on the mountain stood in front of the wooden house and watched the fire in the distance. A large amount of wood was burning there, and the flames soaring into the sky made it difficult to approach.
"The last general, Shengkai Mountain, has seen some adults." When Shengkai Mountain saw a few people on the mountain, his eyes narrowed. What surprised him the most was not the official positions of Ren Baqian and Tao Jiyuan, but that he saw flying riders here.
You must know that Feiqi is the personal guard of the empress, and will not be touched easily. What is the origin of the person who came this time
"This is Mr. Chengren of the Zhongyufu, Mr. Tao, and Mr. Teng from Lancheng. Kaishan, counting the days, you should have arrived. Why did you come by yourself? What about things?" Teng Ji stretched his neck towards From a distance, except for the blooming mountain, there is no one behind.
Shengkaishan couldn't laugh or cry: "Master Gu, I saw a column of smoke rising from a long distance, and thought something was wrong, so I rushed here and left everything behind. Now they are going back to lead the convoy."
Gu Qiong burst out laughing when he heard this.
Later, Sheng Kaishan asked cautiously: "My lord, what is this for?"
"That Renfu Cheng said, it's hot or something, anyway, after boiling it, pour water to see if it can crack." Gu Qiong turned his head and said while stroking the beard on his face.
"This iron mountain is full of iron, isn't this quenching?" Sheng Kaishan asked with a confused expression. Even if you don't know how to forge iron, you have heard of this kind of quenching.
Isn't it just putting the iron utensils in the water? What's the difference
"That's right." Gu Qiong slapped his thigh when he heard this. "Why didn't I remember this?"
"Master Ren, Master Ren, isn't this just quenching?" Gu Qiong turned his head and shouted loudly.
Ren Baqian nodded after listening to his words. "Quenching has special procedures and requirements. In normal quenching, the carbon and other substances in the iron have already been removed by beating to become steel. Even if it is not right, it will crack, let alone iron. This point You don't have to worry."
After hearing this, everyone looked confused, anyway, it sounded like Lord Ren was stronger than himself and the others.
"I didn't expect Master Ren to know how to build." Tao Jiyuan said casually.
"I understand a little bit. Let's talk about the fire until the afternoon. After noon, I don't need to add firewood. I'll go back to the room first." Ren Baqian said hello to several people and went back to the room.
At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, Ren Baqian estimated that it was almost time, so he came out of the wooden house and asked Tao Jiyuan, Gu Qiong and others to be called out at the same time.
After the fire started to die down, Ren Baqian ordered: "Pick up water and pour it directly on Mount Damo."
After hearing this, everyone immediately moved, and others cheered up.
This time, only a ten-meter-long area was burned. As everyone poured buckets of water onto the mountain wall there, they kept making "chi chi" sounds. Every bucket of water poured on it was a cloud of white steam. , Soon even the people nearby could barely stand.
Seeing this, Ren Baqian stepped back a little further.
After half an hour, Ren Baqian waved his hand to stop everyone: "It's almost there, go and have a look after the steam dissipates."
This waited until it was almost dark, and the people approached with torches.
"Can it really be cracked?" The few people who knew the whole story were not sure about it, and all turned their eyes to Ren Baqian.
"Look at it right away and you'll know." Ren Baqian said, feeling a little nervous in his heart. All I know is theory, if I don't succeed, I'll be ashamed, and a large number of concave mirrors can't be made in a short period of time, I'm afraid I will be at a loss what to do here.
With the light of the fire shining on the mountain wall, everyone saw that the mountain wall was still the same as before, and suddenly felt a little bit in their hearts. Could it be that it was not successful
Ren Baqian remained silent, walked to a position one meter in front of the mountain wall and stopped, looked at the mountain wall carefully, finally showing a relaxed look on his face.
"The crack, it's really cracked!" Gu Qiong walked to him and looked at the mountain wall carefully, and suddenly shouted in surprise.
On the Damo mountain wall illuminated by the torch, there are tiny cracks all over it.
Although it is not very large, the speed of mining along the cracks can be at least twice as fast.
"Master Ren, this method can really be done. Tao really admires it very much. Master Ren has contributed a lot this time." Tao Jiyuan stepped forward to see the cracks on the mountain wall, he was surprised at first, and then showed congratulations.
Unexpectedly, Ren Baqian actually managed to accomplish this, and it was done in such a simple but unexpected way.