The days when I pretended to be a cat in the Forbidden City[Comprehensive]

After a long time, when Lu An's friends recalled him, their most unified answer was that he was a quick-witted person.

What is quick wit?It is the type that can activate the brain to come up with a solution in an emergency, which is commonly known as the type with particularly strong on-the-spot ability. Of course, the more popular one is-there is such an operation!

For this reason, his friends lamented that Lu An is really a miraculous person.

But they don't know that this is the reaction ability that Lu An has experienced in the process of growing up and has experienced many scenes of being overturned and beaten.Although this ability is very reliable at critical times, Lu An doesn't want it if possible.

Lu Xiaoan took a deep breath, his brain speed reached its peak, he changed his expression just in time before his father felt something was wrong, appearing more natural.

"Father, why do you suddenly want to lead the army?" Lu An walked forward in two steps, holding his father's arm affectionately, "Who do you want to attack?"

Lu Buwei was taken back to the hall and sat down in the hall with his son holding his hand, with a bit of helplessness and sigh on his face, "You never know who it is."

Seeing his son showing concern, Lu Buwei told him the news that the Qin State did not intend to keep secret: "It is the Eastern Zhou State."

"Eastern Zhou Kingdom!" Lu An immediately frowned. This was an unexpected enemy. He thought it was an attack on Han and Wei. This was already a daily action of the old Qin people.

Although people in later generations immediately reacted to the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period when they talked about the Warring States Period, and even thought that the Warring States Period was when those seven countries came and went, in fact, there are actually several countries struggling to survive in this land. The extinct Zhongshan Kingdom, such as the Lu family's motherland, Weiguo, such as the Eastern Zhou and Western Zhou kingdoms with very low sense of existence.

They either relied on their geographical advantages or their status advantages to ramble about and try their best to keep their country alive, and the Eastern Zhou Kingdom belonged to the latter.

Of course, the reason why the surrounding countries do not move it is also related to its very subtle geographical location.

The Eastern Zhou Kingdom borders the Yellow River in the north, Luoshui in the west, Hulao Pass in the east, and Songyue Mountain in the south. The key point is Hulao Pass.

Hulao Pass has a dangerous terrain and is guarded by natural moats. It is an important pass to protect the emperor of Zhou. Of course, it is also an important throat to prevent the westward advance of the eastern princes. The Qin and Han countries on the side are closely watching, and they are also closely watched by the eastern countries who are always on guard against Qin's eastward departure.

To put it bluntly, this place is the tacit agreement of the big bosses to leave it blank. It doesn't matter if no one takes it. Whoever takes it will immediately become the target of public criticism.

But the situation is different now, because the State of Qin has taken Yewang City, and its power north of the Yellow River has reached the point where it borders Wei State and Zhao State at the same time, and Yewang City is just north of the Eastern Zhou State. For the Lord Dong Zhou, he was like an ax hanging above his head, which was too dangerous.

Yes, the Eastern Zhou State owned the Yellow River as the natural moat in the north, but the problem is that the Yellow River will freeze in winter.Once the Yellow River freezes, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes for the Qin people from the north to call?

It should be said that he is a relative of the king of the Western Zhou Kingdom. The worries and actions of the king of the Eastern Zhou Kingdom are actually the same as those of the Western Zhou Kingdom.Of course, the Duke of Eastern Zhou, who is only a member of the Zhou clan and has no direct blood, cannot command the heroes like the Duke of Western Zhou and the Son of Heaven, so he can only post posts one by one to test them out.

Of course, as a vassal state with declining national strength, the Eastern Zhou Kingdom has no army, and all they can do is to open the Hulao Pass and let the eastern countries enter at will.

It's a good idea, but it's a pity that the national strength of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is declining, and talents are scarce. I don't know which link is not in place, and the information is not well protected and leaked.

Lu Buwei's tone was a bit contemptuous, and in Qin's words, it probably meant-isn't it good to live?Why do you have to be a demon?Do you really think that our halberds have rusted after being left in the warehouse for a long time?

Oh, by the way, speaking of halberds... "Father, remember An'er, you seem to have been tossing about iron weapons for a long time?"

Lu Buwei picked up the teacup and showed a proper old father's smile. There was a bit of concern and curiosity on his face, as if he just changed the subject and mentioned it casually.

But how could it be mentioned casually?This is just a hint of being a father.

What Lu An did under him back then, the father knew very clearly. In fact, Lu Buwei wanted to show off a long time ago. His son is so smart and outstanding, but Qin Guo is a martial artist. His son is good at everything except martial arts. Insufficient... Of course it's not bad, but it's not outstanding.

There is no way, the son is like a father, and he himself is mediocre in martial arts, but so what?They still have brains!

Except for Wu, Qin's gang of big bosses can't appreciate it.

Except for his current boss, Fan Ju, who can share some common language with him, he can't speak at all among his peers.Of course, there are other people who have some common language with him, but how can Lu Buwei show his baby to another person, otherwise he will still be posted back, and it is only fun to show the baby unilaterally.

For this reason, Lu Buwei felt a deep sense of desolation.Now, with great difficulty, he was given a chance to show off!

The iron tools his son tossed out are extremely hard, so the armor piece made out of it is half as thin as the copper piece with the same defensive ability. Although the forging process is more troublesome, the result is very gratifying.

Lu Buwei has already imagined the scene for the appearance of the iron armor piece. At that time, he can "unintentionally" let go when the armor is removed, and let the leather armor fall to the ground. The sound of the iron piece falling inside is definitely different from that of ordinary leather armor. , when the generals see it, they will definitely ask him why he is wearing it so heavy, then he can... Hey.

The cold sweat on Lu An's back "swiped—" and then came down. I didn't expect his father to remember such a big circle.

Of course he knew that if he told his father the truth and explained it, his father would definitely forgive him. After all, Lu An didn't know in advance that his father would participate in this battle. It was normal for him to send everything over when he saw that his senior brother was going to join the battle. Going to get it back now would be a feud, and his father would definitely not agree.

Can--

"Father..." He opened his mouth slowly, and then asked with Lu Buwei's seemingly calm but expectant eyes, "When will the army break out?"

Lu Buwei was taken aback for a moment, and he frowned slightly, "Why do you ask this?"

Lu An took a deep breath: "An has another idea to quickly smelt iron, and the quality is better than before. If there is time, I want to try it."

"really?"

"Yes."

Lu Buwei pondered for a moment, and said: "It's not impossible to say, the estimated departure time is about twenty years later."

That is 20 days.

If it goes well, maybe in time.

Lu An squeezed his fists, and didn't ask why Qin Guo had to wait so long before dispatching troops when there were so many soldiers and plenty of food. He just stood up and bowed to his father, and after reporting, he would have to work overtime for a few days. After returning home, he hurried out of the house and led the horse away.

Lu Buwei touched his beautiful beard, and his heart felt even hotter!

Madam Lu just came in at this time, and it was a bit strange to see him looking into the distance alone against the wind, "What is your husband looking at? Where's An'er?"

Lu Buwei turned around slowly, coughed lightly and said reservedly to the woman: "An'er went to forge my armor, maybe he won't come back for some days. He left in a hurry and didn't report to Madam, no Wei will definitely blame him next time we meet."

That being said, Lu Buwei's beautiful beards are going up to the sky.Mrs. Lu suddenly felt a little strange: "Jiajia? But he just moved out..."

She paused for a while, as if realizing something, Madam Lu silently swallowed the rest of the words, and Lu Buwei, who showed some doubts on her face, said: "Really, he just moved out a few sauce jars, and now he is walking like this." In a hurry, I don't even know where he put the sauce."

Lu Buwei's originally flat beard rose again, "What's the matter, just don't eat sauce for a few days."

"That would be a little tasteless, not to mention that the old man just said a few days ago that he wants to eat braised pork." Mrs. Lu pondered for a while, "Well, I'll go next door and order some."

"Isn't this inappropriate...it's too annoying..." Lu Buwei just hesitated, and saw that Mrs. Lu had already put on a cloak and led the maid out of the house. She was very mobile, and she heard Mrs. Lu replying with a smile from a distance : "It's just annoying, distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors."

For the time being, Lu An didn't know what happened at home, let alone that his great mother supported his crumbling little broken car.

After rushing back to the Dushui Supervisor, Lu An called the craftsmen to hold a short meeting to divide up the work arrangements. On the way, he would discuss what materials to prepare next, where these materials come from, and which departments are needed. The coordination help is listed one by one in the mind, and now it only needs to be acted on.

Of course, he must also report this kind of mobilization of collective power out of the scope of his own job.However, Lu An was [-]% sure that the King of Qin would approve his request for the experiment, and the foreigner had a conniving attitude towards inventions, which was also the main reason why Lu Xiaoan was able to act recklessly.

If he disagrees, then he also has a way to disagree, otherwise how was the iron sheet made before?It's just that he has to push the project to 20 days now, and it will be faster if he can follow the official route.

Dushuijian is mainly engaged in civil engineering, and rarely involves melting. There are insufficient furnaces, raw materials, and fuels here. If you want to forge iron, you need to borrow the large melting furnace at the Armory Workshop.

However, his own site also has some things that are not found elsewhere, such as the tamping machine he made before to tamp the foundation.

In fact, it is a huge copper block, which is hung on the frame by a rope, and then pulled up by manpower and then let go to make it fall. The advantage is that it can be constructed in a large area, speed up the construction, and be compacted.The disadvantage is that this thing is too big, even if he uses a pulley block to save effort, it still needs a dozen people to pull it together. After all, it relies on its own gravity to press the ground.

——The cost is too high. Although the copper used is basically inferior copper that cannot forge weapons, it is copper after all. After a little processing, it can be made into copper coins (yes, this is how the unpopular copper coins in Qin State come from. clatter).For this reason, even after installing the labor-saving wheels, it did not spread out in a large area. There is only such a one, and it is very good to use it as a shredder now.

On the other hand, he ordered people to buy a large amount of coal, good or bad, as long as the quantity is large, and then the coal was thrown into a sealed kiln for closed dry distillation.

Lu An squeezed his fingertips against everyone's puzzled and uneasy eyes, and waited for the reply of the news.Finally, after three days, Lu An got the alien's permission notice.

Qin Guo's work efficiency was very high, and when the reply from the stranger arrived, the people from Bingxiefang found him.

Lu An and the man who was sent to assist him greeted each other, then handed over a bamboo slip and said, "I'm going to trouble the master with these."

The man took it and unfolded it, his brows frowned slightly in surprise, he and Lu An confirmed the doubts in the next issue, and then took the paper and left.That afternoon, the people from the workshop came to inform that everything was ready.

The color of the smoke above the kiln that happened to be coking has changed color, and the craftsmen removed the firewood and waited for the coal inside to cool down.Coking is actually somewhat similar to burning charcoal, both of which use the dry distillation method. The key point of this method is to isolate the air.

But it is definitely impossible to completely isolate it under today's conditions, so the outermost part of the coal inside will definitely react with oxygen and burn.The kiln is in urgent need, as it is used for firing pottery, the airtightness is not very high, but the gaps are roughly blocked with mud bricks, if any of them fall off during the firing process, oxygen can If you enter freely, then a furnace of coal will be wasted.

The moment the furnace was turned on, Lu An's heart was raised high, as he was afraid of seeing a furnace of soot.

"Brother." At this moment, he heard Zhao Zheng's call, and a few attendants were walking quickly from behind the child, Lu An hurriedly stopped him, "Your Highness, there is danger ahead, please don't go any further. "

Unexpectedly, as soon as he opened his mouth, Zhao Zheng ran away, and by the time his last word fell, the child was already close in front of him.

A vein popped out on Lu An's forehead. Whose family does this child belong to?I really want to beat him!

Lu An, who never spared sticks in educating his younger brother, took a deep breath and said to Zhao Zheng, "Your Highness, please step back."

From the corner of his eye, Zhao Zheng saw that Lu An's expression was definitely not good, so he quickly stepped back.Although elder brother's words are still polite at this time, Zhao Xiaozheng is very clear that Lu An's desire to use violence is just around the corner.

Even if there are too many people, he won't be beaten, but experience tells him that brother will definitely settle accounts after the fall!A hero does not suffer from immediate losses.

Seeing that Zhao Zheng retreated a safe distance, Lu An asked the craftsmen to turn on the stove completely.After avoiding the direct heat wave, the craftsmen used special iron rakes to pull out the coals inside, and the people outside were very tacit to divide them and let them cool. Occasionally, some still burning coals need to be watered off.

And the coal in the high-temperature combustion will immediately evaporate into water vapor when it encounters water.The temperature of steam is much higher than that of hot water. Despite Lu An's reminder, some craftsmen will inevitably be scalded by the steam.

Lu An immediately took the opportunity to educate his younger brother: "Sometimes thinking that it is safe is actually the beginning of danger. In the professional field, you must listen to the words of professionals and listen to people's advice before you can have a full meal."

Zhao Xiaozheng hurriedly nodded solemnly, and acted out the word "obedient" in uppercase.Seeing this, Lu An felt relieved a little, and asked, "Why did Your Highness come?"

"Father sent me here." Zhao Zheng signaled Lu An to look at the people behind him. These people were all servants beside the stranger.After the two parties met, Zhao Zheng said: "Father knows that you are in a hurry. If you go through the usual procedures, there may be delays. With me and a few regular attendants here, you can save trouble."

Although the other person approved Lu An's matter, it is always inevitable to wait or use bureaucratic accents when multi-departmental coordination is required.Although Zhao Zheng is still a child, as the crown prince he can also mobilize various departments. Having him in Lu An can indeed save a lot of effort.

Their king is so sweet!

Huh?and many more.

"Your Majesty knows that I'm anxious...?" Lu An asked hesitantly, "What do you mean?"

"Brother, don't you know?" Zhao Zheng glanced at him in surprise: "Prime Minister Zuo went to Prime Minister Right to praise Brother several times in private, and Prime Minister You was overwhelmed by the disturbance, so he came to complain to his father. A few days ago, I specially sought Prime Minister Zuo for an interview, and now the entire court probably knows that brother's actions are intended to refine armor for Prime Minister Zuo."

"Since you want to refine armor for Prime Minister Zuo, of course you have to hurry up before the expedition."

Seeing that Lu An's expression was blank, Zhao Zheng added: "Brother, don't worry that someone will gossip. This matter has been regarded by the father as an act of pure filial piety, let alone if the method of forging armor can be used to make sharp weapons It can be regarded as a good story, father and king will not blame you."

"No, it's not for that." Lu An let out a little breath and smiled wryly. If everyone knew about his forging armor for his father, wouldn't the senior brother also know about it?

Once the senior contacted him, he would definitely understand that it was because he gave him the armor piece that he needed to forge the armor before the battle. According to the senior brother's behavior, he would definitely not accept the armor piece, and maybe he would come to apologize.

Then, what is waiting for him next is...

Lu An took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and decided that he must forge better armor pieces. As long as the forging was successful, he would be able to insist that he gave the armor pieces to his senior brother because he had a better way. I made it for my father because I gave my brother a temporary hug first.

Even if the car was half overturned, Lu An must support it with a jack.

On the same day, a batch of coking coal that had been cooled was sent to the Weaponry Workshop. For this special color, the coalsmith's workshop, whose surface seemed to be half-painted, came to watch.He also heard that using this coal as fuel can effectively increase the temperature without harming the quality of the iron ore, and everyone was somewhat skeptical.

However, after the Fang Ling issued an order, these craftsmen who were still pointing at the moment immediately showed their professional side. They climbed up the top of the furnace and poured all kinds of powder down, including the iron ore smashed by Lu An. The stone was cast into coke and opened, and the furnace was officially opened for refining.

The advantages of the new fuel were quickly revealed. After the three exhaust fans took turns injecting enough oxygen, the temperature rose rapidly.At the same time, because the iron ore is crushed into powder, the particles become smaller and easier to conduct heat.But half a day later, the observation port on the top of the furnace indicated that the iron ore began to glow red and melt.

After another half a day, after an order was given, the molten iron at the bottom was released from the furnace first. These molten irons in a molten state still have a high carbon content at this moment, but they are only of slightly better quality [pig iron].

The pig iron was immediately drained into a pool, and the craftsmen used iron spoons to scoop it into an iron pot with a lot of special "seasoning" and began to stir fry it.

In later generations, this method of steelmaking was called "stir-fried steel method", because the shape is very similar to stir-fried vegetables, but this method has not been named yet, and what they fry is not steel, but iron. In fact, [Stir-frying iron method] is more appropriate.

After using coking coal as fuel, it is possible to increase the flame temperature while preventing the sulfide in the coal from reacting with iron to form iron sulfide, but this cannot remove the impurities contained in the iron ore itself.

Lu An had previously asked craftsmen to put lime and silicon dioxide in the iron ore to react to form slag floating on the surface. After the slag was removed, the quality of the molten iron would rise to a higher level, but even so, there would still be a large amount of impurities. In a gel state liquid.

Stir-frying and adding materials can further promote the formation of oxidation reaction, so that the carbon content of molten iron continues to decrease, and it becomes a very good quality [wrought iron].

These soft wrought irons are wrapped by the cooled pig iron and put back into the furnace. Because the pig iron contains more impurities, it will melt more easily than wrought iron. When the pig iron becomes gelatinous, it is taken out and beaten to promote the production of raw and wrought iron. material exchange between them.

This is the [steel filling method] that has been used until the modernization of steelmaking in New China.

Although beating is also required, compared with Baisteelmaking, which folds and beats pig iron all the way into steel by manual beating, the steel pouring method promotes the conversion of raw and wrought iron materials, pig iron decarburization, wrought iron gets charcoal, and Wrought iron has already removed some impurities during the smelting process, and a series of subsequent processes can greatly reduce the time.

To obtain irons with different carbon contents, it is only necessary to mix the raw and wrought irons according to the requirements.

The craftsmen were amazed the first time they saw the wrought iron, and even more so after mixing the raw and wrought iron. It only took half a day from mixing to making a test product of passable quality.

In other words, if the previously accumulated material is excluded, the time it really takes to hammer and forge is at most one to two days.

Knowing that Lu An used the hammering method to forge iron before, it took a lot of energy, and people who knew this kind of iron forging method looked sideways at the sweaty young man who was baked by the fire in the workshop, and his heart was agitated.

Qin State has more iron but less copper, and most of the copper wares used in Qin State armor today are not copper mines produced in the country.If such good iron can be used instead of copper for armor covering, what will the Qin army look like?They dare not even think about it.

What Lu Xiaolang did...

Zhao Zheng was sensitive to the fact that since the quenching of the iron sheet was completed, the eyes of the people around him looked at brother a lot more intensely.

But after seeing the first piece of iron after quenching, Lu An didn't think too much about it. He immediately clenched his fists and it was done!

The thoughts on his mind right now are——

The car won't turn over!

The author has something to say:

Xia Miao: You won’t overturn your car, and you won’t overturn it in your life.

Xia Miao: Human potential is infinite, if you force it, you can always get it out.

Xia Miao: For the sake of dignity (not being beaten by the old man)! ! !

Xia Miao: What is coking, what is doing steelmaking, what is playing with the method of frying steel, what is the method of filling steel, as long as it is urgent, I can make steelmaking with reverberatory furnace and open hearth furnace for you.

Xia Miao: If the garbage system didn't delete my memory, I would be able to go to heaven with Qin's black technology! (Crazy tail cocking)

Zhao Zheng: (Secretly stamping notes)

Author: It is because of this that you cannot have memory...

Otaku are not scary, but otaku with memory and experience... Well, let's let the simple old Qin people go.

ps, coking and reverberatory furnaces were done in the Song Dynasty, the method of pouring steel into steelmaking was in the Three Kingdoms, and the method of frying steel was in the Western Han Dynasty.

This time I went together to save time.

Blast furnace steelmaking is not impossible, the premise is that the quality of your iron is particularly good, and the iron ore within the Qin area... the quality is so-so.There is no rich iron ore here, so we must go to the miscellaneous.

Steelmaking is very complicated, and the failure rate is also high. The article has a golden finger and good kids don't learn it.

In fact, as long as the hardness is needed to make nails, pig iron is enough in theory and no steelmaking is needed (quietly)

Don't ask Mrs. Lu why she can understand, because she also encountered the same Shura field.