Prosperous Tang Blood Blade

Li Jiancheng looked at the molten iron in the observation hole with great interest, as if this was the most wonderful scene in the world.

Steel is a very scarce resource for the Tang Dynasty. Because there was almost no moon in the early Tang Dynasty, steel was almost all used in the military field. For example, the common people used money, AI, Lu sickle, push sickle, Tsuen wheat utensils, wok (pick) , Hook and sickle, wedges for mowing and chopping firewood, etc.The equipment used for threshing and cleaning includes flails, rock pans, fan carts, etc.It is definitely more efficient to use steel to make these agricultural tools, but because steel resources are too scarce, in the field of production, farmers have to use wooden woks (picks), iron or stone wedges, and some people even have iron axes. No, primitive stone axes invented in the Stone Age are still in use.

Take the price of steel in this era as an example. In later generations, one mu of rice can be exchanged for one ton of steel. In this era, two mu of rice can only be exchanged for one catty of steel. , the price difference between the two is equivalent to more than 2000 times.

And Chen Ying grew up in the era of cheap steel and severe excess steel production capacity in later generations, so he didn't realize Datang's need for steel at all.

For the next four hours, Li Jiancheng sat in the pavilion next to the blast furnace.No matter how hard Chen Ying tried to persuade him, Li Jiancheng always had the same attitude: "If you don't see the molten steel come out, I won't go anywhere!"

Chen Ying had a lot of things to do at this time. The originally planned attack on New Year's Eve had begun to approach Tongguan. As the commander-in-chief of the Battle of Hangu Pass this time, Chen Ying couldn't sit in Chang'an City and command remotely.

However, the Yuhe Iron and Steel Plant was newly built after all, and metallurgy is a very dangerous industry. If the equipment itself malfunctions or the operation is wrong, an explosion accident is likely to erupt.Once the blast furnace explodes, more than 2 tons of molten steel will form a huge shock wave, which will easily move the steel plant covering an area of ​​more than [-] mu to the ground in an instant.

Even if there is no problem with the blast furnace, but in the condensation process, as long as the mold is not completely dried and contains water, the high-temperature liquid molten steel will explode with water. Fortunately, the blast furnace will emit huge heat, just like a gunpowder explosion. (Old Cheng’s major is metallurgy, so time travelers must be cautious if they play steelmaking, otherwise it is very likely that the steel will not be smelted, but the person will be killed.)

How could Chen Ying rest assured that Li Jiancheng was here? If something really went wrong, Chen Ying would just wipe his neck and commit suicide.

However, because of Li Jiancheng's presence, the craftsmen would be really stupid if they didn't know how to perform. Li Jiancheng has been staring at it for a whole day now. Whether it is the craftsmen or craftsmen present, they are all spinning like a top.

The ancient steelmaking process was just difficult to master. The finished products were mainly iron and medium and low carbon steels. If you were lucky, you might run into one or two pieces of high carbon steel—the probability was about the same as winning the lottery.

Generally speaking, in steel products, the lower the carbon content, the softer, and the higher the carbon content, the more brittle and hard.Medium and low-carbon steel is soft, but not sharp when used to make swords. The ancients also regarded it as "wrought iron". Only high-carbon steel whose toughness, hardness, and strength meet the needs of making weapons was considered "steel" by the ancients.

The level of carbon content determines the softness and hardness of steel.So it is expressed by being hit by a forging hammer.An experienced ironworker will be able to tell that it is a piece of soft iron.It is still a good steel that can make swords and swords.

When Chen Ying installed the furnace for smelting, he had already calculated the ratio of iron to charcoal by means of fortifications. That is to say, as long as the molten iron is smelted within twelve hours, it can definitely be turned into steel instead of iron.It's just that there are some subtle elements that Chen Ying can't grasp. Chen Ying has handed over these calculation methods to Ge Tong, Wei Meng, Yan Shihu and others. Finally, when the furnace was opened, Li Jiancheng looked nervously at the gate of the blast furnace.

Looking at the semi-solidified substance like jelly flowing out of the gate, these orange-red "jelly" slowly flow into the mold, and then, driven by the rolling shaft, slowly flow to the distance, which is a huge cooling pool , The dark red steel billets entered the cooling pool one by one. The high-temperature steel billets and cold water had an encounter between ice and fire, and the entire cooling pool turned into mist, like a fairyland on earth.

When the steel billet enters the cooling pool, there will naturally be cold water for rapid cooling. Of course, the steel billet coming out of the cooling pool has become a blue steel billet.

Li Jiancheng rushed to the side of the cooling pool impatiently, and asked Wei Meng, "How is it?"

Chen Ying didn't have to clink the hammer like Wei Meng, he could tell that it was a very good piece of high-carbon steel just from the color of the steel surface.

Every time Wei Meng's hammer struck the billet, sparks would fly out.But knock out how deep imprint.That piece of iron was tough and hard.Obviously the best pure steel!

"This, this is the real Baosteel!" Wei Meng knelt down excitedly to Li Jiancheng and Chen Ying, kowtowing again and again, his voice trembling: "His Royal Highness, the great general Hongfu Qitian. The Lord is really Nandou Xingjun descended to earth! Refined steel is produced in one furnace. I, Wei Mengda, have never seen it in 20 years!"

Chen Ying said disapprovingly: "Steelmaking, you need to understand the principle of steelmaking. The hotter the carbon in the molten iron, the softer the iron, the higher the carbon content, the harder the iron, and the more brittle it will be. You just need to Control the temperature well, control the ratio of iron ore to charcoal, I can guarantee that every furnace you produce will be steel, not iron. Of course, according to my ratio, if you continue to burn for another hour, the viscous Molten steel will become like soy sauce, and what will eventually come out will be mild steel, and if it is fired for another two hours or even longer, then only iron will come out.”

Ge Tong asked suspiciously: "General, what's going on?"

"Charcoal will burn!" Chen Ying knew that they might not be able to understand when he told them about oxidation reactions at this time, but he taught them in such a superficial way.Chen Ying thought for a while and said, "The smaller the charcoal, the worse the quality of the iron. Therefore, we must control the ratio of charcoal to iron today. This is the most important issue!"

Wei Meng and Ge Tong suddenly realized: "That's how it is!"

Unconsciously, Wei Meng asked his son Wei Qiang to prepare a special mold. This mold is about six feet long and can almost be regarded as a stick.When receiving a mold of molten steel, this piece of mold is not like other molds, each piece weighs a hundred catties, but is equivalent to about twenty catties.Quite a fifth of other molds.

This piece of mold was not cooled with water, but just waiting for the orange-red billet to darken, Wei Meng took a big hammer and put it under the precision forging hammer with his son Wei Qiang to beat it.

The surrounding area was already like a fairyland at this time, filled with mist everywhere, the water vapor met the cold air, turned into snowflakes again, and it snowed one after another.

Li Jiancheng looked at the steel billets piled up on the hill, with a sincere smile on his face.

More than 1 jin of steel sounds like a lot, but in fact it is not much. If it is 1 jin of grain, it can fill a warehouse, but this 100 jin of steel is just more than [-] pieces of billet weighing [-] jin. son.

At this time, Ge Tong also counted all the condensed billets: "His Royal Highness, General, this furnace produced a total of 120 three pieces, about 1 catties, and 46 pieces of pig iron, a total of about [-] yuan." One hundred catties!"

Chen Ying frowned. This result made him very dissatisfied. He was seriously thinking about which link went wrong.

According to the iron ore he put in, this furnace of steel should not be [-] catties of iron, but [-] catties. There is a difference of nearly [-] catties. What is the problem?

However, at this moment, the iron rod under Wei Meng's hands gradually took shape.I saw that this handle has a beautiful arc, it is more than six feet long, four fingers wide, and one finger thick on the back. The cloud patterns on the blade surface are faintly visible, like flowing water, like a star, with cold light shining and sword energy soaring into the sky. .

Li Jiancheng's eyes were straightened: "You built a Mo knife in just a quarter of an hour?"

"His Royal Highness, that's not how the account is calculated!" Chen Ying explained: "If you use a billet to directly forge a Mo knife, let alone a quarter of an hour, I'm afraid you won't be able to forge one in an hour. Now, Master Wei is just using a blast furnace. unrelieved temperature."

Chen Ying felt the need to explain to Li Jiancheng what happened to the so-called hundred steelmaking.

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A four-wheeled carriage slowly stopped by the Yuhe River, Li Xiuning looked at the brightly lit Yuhe Iron and Steel Plant, and listened attentively to the golden clanging sound coming from his ears.

A few soldiers led by Donggong Qingdao noticed the movement here, and holding torches, they ran towards the carriage quickly, shouting, "Who's there!"

Jumping torches, from far to near.When these soldiers led by Qing Dao saw clearly the tower of Princess Pingyang.There are also squad sword soldiers standing around the four-wheeled carriage. These Qing Dao soldiers retreated into the darkness consciously.

Cui'er looked at Pingyang Princess Li Xiuning and asked: "Princess, do you want your slaves to report?"

"No need!" Li Xiuning shook her head.Continue to sit on the soft couch in the carriage. In fact, the soft couch is already a bit inappropriate. Chen Ying used many styles of later generations in Li Xiuning's four-wheeled carriage. For example, what Li Xiuning is sitting on now is actually a sofa , the case in front of me also has a variety of combinations. Under the table, there are six small storage compartments, which can be used to place chessboards, chess pieces, pens, inks, papers and inkstones, and some scrolls. Combined with Li Xiuning's love of military affairs, the front screen wall of the carriage compartment It is not an ordinary landscape painting, but a map six feet wide and one foot long.

Moreover, it is also a military map, marked with Dou Jiande, King of Xia in Hebei, Wang Shichong, King of Zheng in Central Plains, Lin Shihong, King of Chu in Jiangnan, Xiao Mi, King of Liang, Shen Faxing, Chief of Jiangnan, Du Fuwei, Chief of Jianghuai, Li Zitong, King of Wu in Jiangdu, Luo Yi of Youzhou, Qi King Bo of Jiaodong County, Gao Kaidao, King of Yan in Liaodong, Zhu Can, King of Hanshui Jialou, and other princes have a criss-crossed power map.

As usual, Tweety winded up the clockwork skillfully, and when the clockwork was wound up, the puppet in the music box began to circle around the box, but there was a pleasant sound of ding-ding-dong-dong in the box.

Li Xiuning looked at the map on the screen wall, frowning.Since this map is a topographic map of various forces in the world, Hangu Pass is just a finger-sized dot on the map, but Li Xiuning has been searching for information about Hangu Pass in his head.

Li Xiuning passed through Hangu Pass when she was 14 and 17 years old respectively, and she had a very deep impression of the steepness of Hangu Pass. For Chen Ying leading the army to attack Hangu Pass this time, Li Xiuning thought it was not a good job Therefore, the best way to attack Luoyang is to go down the Yellow River. At this time, the Yellow River is frozen, and you can go straight down along the ice surface of the Yellow River, pass Hongnong, and go straight to Luoyang.

But why did Chen Ying choose to go all the way east from Tongguan to fight head-to-head?This is obviously not Chen Ying's style. What Chen Ying is most afraid of in battle is casualties, which is completely different from generals who only want to win, regardless of the cost.

Why did Chen Ying do this?

What is his real purpose?

……

In fact, Li Xiuning's doubts are also Li Jiancheng's doubts.It's not that Li Jiancheng doesn't understand military affairs, he's even a little confused.In the editing room of the Yuhe Iron and Steel Plant, Li Jiancheng finally couldn't help but asked Chen Ying: "Wouldn't it be better to go down the Yellow River and directly arrive at Luoyang while the Yellow River is frozen?"

Chen Ying turned around, looked to the northeast with his hands behind his back, and sighed long and long: "His Royal Highness, as the saying goes, those who don't plan for the world can't plan for a moment; those who don't plan for the overall situation can't plan for a region. What Chen Ying plans is not Hangu Pass. A pass, not a city in Luoyang, let alone a corner of the Central Plains."

Hearing this, Li Jiancheng was even more surprised.As the saying goes, a person's vision determines a person's achievements. At first, Li Jiancheng only thought that Chen Ying was just a general. Later, he found that Chen Ying was not only a general, but also a handsome talent who could stand alone.Li Jiancheng wanted to make Chen Ying No. 1 in the military of the Eastern Palace. After he ascended the throne in the future, he would appoint Chen Ying as the Minister of War in the Tang Dynasty. There are four coal mines, four saltworks, and three blast furnaces.

The simple thing is that a golden mountain has been developed, and the annual profit can exceed one million.The surprise that Chen Ying gave him was really too big, this is simply Sang Hongyang of the Tang Dynasty.Just when Li Jiancheng regarded Chen Ying as Sang Hongyang of the Tang Dynasty, and after he ascended the throne, he appointed Chen Ying as Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Tang Dynasty, concurrently served as Zhongping Zhangshi of the Zhongshu, and became the future treasurer of the Tang Dynasty. In Yuhe, Ying worked out extremely sharp magical weapons, as well as armor that could ignore bows and arrows. Possessing Mo Dao or armor is equivalent to increasing the combat effectiveness of Datang's army by more than [-]%.

Li Jiancheng really doesn't understand Chen Ying now, he really can't guess Chen Ying's real thoughts and intentions.Li Jiancheng asked seriously: "I don't know who Chen Qing is planning..."

In fact, Chen Ying didn't know that he was already in Li Jiancheng's heart a rare genius in a century who was comparable to Sang Hongyang, Wei Huo and Marquis Wu.Chen Ying did not directly answer Li Jiancheng's words, but said with a faint smile: "His Royal Highness, Wang Shichong of the Central Plains, Zhu Can of Jingxiang, Li Zitong of the Jiangdu, Shen Faxing of the Jiangnan, Xiao Xian, or Gao Kaidao, they are nothing to worry about. The unification of the Tang Dynasty is just around the corner.”

Li Jiancheng also agreed with Chen Ying's point of view: "That's right, as long as five years, as little as three years, the Great Tang will unify the world!"

"But what about after the unification of the world?" Chen Ying looked to the northeast and said, "The problem of Goguryeo still needs to be solved!"

Li Jiancheng was slightly taken aback, and suddenly came to his senses.Although the history books gave Yang Guang the military, when Fang Xuanling and others edited the "Sui Shu", they left Yang Guang with a saying of "relying on prosperity inside, thinking about the land outside, using arrogance to make resentment, using anger to promote teachers, if this does not perish, I have never heard of it since ancient times.” Comments, however, the Goguryeo issue was the goal of four generations of emperors in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Yang Jian, Yang Guang, Li Shimin, and Li Zhi, which lasted nearly a hundred years.