As a salted fish, I was forced to become the teacher of all ages

Hua Manlou waited patiently. He knew that if the coking coal in the furnace was not fully burned, the sulfur in the charcoal would not be removed. Can only come by feeling.

Fortunately, there were a few experienced blacksmiths at the scene. They observed the smoke from the top of the furnace, and reported to Hua Manlou after a while: "Master, this is about the time when we made coke."

Hua Manlou nodded: "Then I'll just wait."

The water row was blowing, and the temperature of the furnace was getting higher and higher. When the nearby blacksmiths could no longer stand the heat, Hua Manlou took a deep breath: "Get charcoal!"

The blacksmiths immediately got busy, using special tools to take out the hot coke, and then it needed to be bonded, solidified, and shrunk. When Hua Manlou was almost impatient, the old blacksmith who explained the coke to Hua Manlou held He ran up to him with a piece of coke, and said pleasantly: "Young master, look, this coke is the best among the best!"

The whole body of the coke was pitch black, without any impurities, Hua Manlou nodded and said, "Then use this to make iron!"

Now that there is a new version of the blast furnace, an improved water drain and high-quality coke, theoretically there should be no problem with the temperature of ironmaking.

From Hua Manlou's point of view, people these days can innovate, no worse than people in his previous life.It is a pity that many things have not been studied in depth and refined, which has caused many skills to stagnate. Who is willing to develop these things without trouble?

In addition, the measurement of many things is also a problem, such as temperature, humidity, etc. These things can only be measured by experienced people according to their feelings, so how difficult is it to refine the skills?

but……

"What's the matter with my young master? Why are you thinking about this!" Hua Manlou spat secretly, focusing on the blast furnace, praying for a success.

Following Hua Manlou's instructions, the blacksmiths got busy, putting iron ore into their cooked furnaces.As the temperature gradually increased, everyone stared closely at the outlet, hoping to see the molten iron that Hua Manlou was talking about.

The temperature of the furnace was getting higher and higher. Perhaps Hua Manlou's prayers had an effect. Just when everyone was uneasy, molten iron flowed out of the slot.

For a time, the entire camp was boiling.

The emergence of molten iron means that a large number of impurities have been removed, which means that the cost of iron refining has been greatly reduced since then, and it also means that more types of metals can appear-such as stainless steel, high-carbon steel, high-manganese steel, etc.

But nowadays there is too little time to do these things, and material science is not only time-consuming but also costly, Huamanlou has no time to hide from it, so how could it be bumped into it?For him, the most important thing now is that the molten iron can pour many Purdue warheads at one time, which is very important.

After all, the efficiency of another group of blacksmiths who hand-craft warheads is too low. Each person can produce three or four Purdues every day, so there are less than [-] Purdues in the camp now...

It's time to hurry.

But when she came back to her senses, Hua Manlou realized that she had been in the Shenji camp for four full days, and she was a bit rotten.

"That's why I said I want to be a salted fish..." Hua Manlou sighed secretly: "I don't know if Qin'er will despise me with this ghostly appearance?"

Thinking of his little loli maid, Hua Manlou felt like returning home, and he immediately called the group of blacksmiths who had never seen the world to make clay molds and pour the Purdue warhead as soon as possible.

……

"But there are three thousand Pudu, don't you teach Huma to go to the Yin Mountain?" Emperor Guangxing chanted these two lines of magic reform poems, and couldn't help being amused: "Is this what the crown prince said or Huamanlou said?"

Xu Dacheng said with a smile: "I heard from the guards beside His Highness that Hua Zongqi dragged His Highness to mutter for a while, so His Highness said this to everyone, so..."

The 'honest and honest' Xu Dacheng naturally wouldn't directly say that these words were originally written by Zhao Ren. After all, everyone in the palace of Zhao Ren's virtue is obvious to all...

Emperor Guangxing said it again, shaking his head and laughing: "Huamanlou didn't change the name in the end, you bastard, but it's domineering if you don't teach Huma Duyin Mountain. If you get Yinshan, take a look at it, Traces of bandits can be seen, and they must cross the moraine and live in the north. To the south of Yinshan Mountain is Monan. If one gets Yinshan Mountain, it will be easy to use his full strength to commit internal crimes... If the prince reads these two sentences, he can understand this truth , it is not in vain for me to arrange him by Huamanlou's side."

After a pause, Emperor Guangxing said again: "What's the current situation in Shenji Camp?"

Xu Dacheng said: "Return to Your Majesty, the 500 people from the Fifth Army Battalion are stepping up their training, but..."

Glancing at Emperor Guangxing, Xu Dacheng carefully said: "It's just that the manufacturing of Pudu is quite slow, but Hua Zongqi doesn't seem to care about it very much. He hangs around with craftsmen all day long, and he doesn't know what he's up to. , even His Royal Highness is busy there all day long."

Emperor Guangxing frowned: "Oh? Is there such a thing?"

Xu Dacheng became more careful: "The slaves don't understand these things, and the people below don't know much about them either. Presumably Hua Zongqi has his own reasons."

Emperor Guangxing nodded, and after pondering for a while, he said: "Forget it, I'm fine today, so I might as well go and have a look. Get the car ready and drive Shenjiying!"

"Here."

44. Dedicated to duty, painstakingly

The first half of what Xu Dacheng said was not intentionally embarrassing Emperor Guangxing, but because he really didn't know how to make iron.

As the supervisor of ceremonies, Bingbi, the Duke of Dongchang, he lived in the palace since he was a child, and Xu Dacheng, who only had the emperor in his mind all day long, how could he understand this?

In his opinion, these things that Huamanlou is tossing around are more gimmicks, and the so-called Purdue is even more sensational——Xu Dacheng has never seen Purdue, and the Shenji Camp only tried to explode a few before. That's all, so the few Dongchang fans he sent to inquire about Zhao Ren's news came back with what Hua Manlou said about human-to-human transmission, so Xu Dacheng became more and more clueless about Purdue.

In addition, Xu Dacheng also disapproved of His Highness the Crown Prince's contact with craftsmen.

According to the news from the East Palace, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would go to Shenji Camp every day after morning classes, and would not come back until evening, and he would be dirty every day when he came back. This made many people, especially the attendants of the East Palace, feel that Very angry: Your Highness is the Crown Prince, and a Crown Prince must look like a Crown Prince, but now His Highness looks like a mud monkey all day long, what kind of dignity is this?

And when it was learned that His Highness the Crown Prince was tossing like this because he was messing around with a group of craftsmen and the famous bastard Hua Manlou in the capital, all the academicians in the East Palace almost fainted: "Professionals are good at work but wasteful at play. Studying but tossing about strange skills and ingenuity, how can we inherit the great rule and govern the world in the future?

The country will not be the country!

But His Majesty decreed that they are not allowed to interfere with the prince's behavior for a while, and they have nothing to do, let alone go to complain to Emperor Guangxing, so they can only sigh and complain all day long.

It is these complaints that Xu Dacheng listened to, and then the "honest and honest" Dongchang factory will be affected to some extent - although Xu Gonggong is not talented, he also thinks that scholars are so reasonable.

And what...

Changgong Xu felt that there were only so many holy family members, and if Huamanlou would share more, his Eunuch Xu would share less. Therefore, seeing how Huamanlou has become so popular recently, can Eunuch Xu not be vigilant?

Therefore, in the latter sentence, he was purely trying to make something happen, lowering Hua Manlou's position in Emperor Guangxing's heart.

You said he wasn't telling the truth?

But Eunuch Xu has already laid the groundwork: servants don't understand these things, maybe Hua Zongqi has his own reasons.

Seeing Emperor Guangxing's unhappy face, Eunuch Xu realized immediately: that Huamanlou had given His Majesty some enchanting, soul, and soup before, but now that His Majesty wakes up, I'm afraid this kid will be in trouble, right?Just to put it bluntly, the Sacred Heart is unpredictable, can it fool His Majesty for a while and still fool His Majesty for the rest of his life?So it's better to be honest and honest!

After the honest and loyal Mr. Xuchang sent Emperor Guangxing out of the palace, he gloated and went to Dongchang. He didn't know that Emperor Guangxing was not angry at this time, but worried: Hua Manlou, that bastard' three thousand pu Du' yelled loudly, don't tell me you won't even be able to get three hundred by then, right?

It has to be said that Emperor Guangxing is well versed in exaggerated writing techniques. If he claims to be three thousand, then there is absolutely no three thousand, and he will die by hundreds...

Although Purdue is extremely powerful, it is still unknown how useful it is against tens of thousands of cavalry. Oh my god, after tomorrow the Fifth Army Battalion will set off...

Huamanlou had vowed at the beginning that he could provide a batch of good-quality Purdue. If something went wrong, then... then he is not to blame. Some would be nice.

With these things in mind, Emperor Guangxing drove slowly to Shenji Camp.

boom!

The loud noise suddenly sounded, and Emperor Guangxing, who was in deep thought, couldn't help being startled.

But before he lifted the curtain of the car, there was another loud noise in the Shenji camp, and then every two or three breaths, there were explosions.

Emperor Guangxing couldn't help being confused: Is this the voice of Pudu?Didn't it mean that the number was insufficient? Why are there so many explosions?Could it be that the reason for the shortage of Purdue is that Huamanlou threw away the finished products for fun?

This bastard, is this what he does for me?

Emperor Guangxing became furious when he thought of this, he jumped out of the car immediately, and walked into the camp with a dark face.

The guards at the gate of the camp had already responded to the Duke's order, and when they saw Master Zhao coming, they immediately planned to let him go, but Emperor Guangxing pointed at him and said, "Where are your admirals? Let him come to the school grounds to find me!"

After all, before the guards could respond, Emperor Guangxing hurried to the explosion test site.

When Emperor Guangxing stepped into the school grounds, before he could see the situation clearly, Hua Manlou roared: "I have said the main points [-] times in the past few days, and I have said to ignite the fuse before throwing it out. Where is the mother listening?" ? Are you fools or deaf? A bunch of trash, I have seen stupid ones, but I have never seen such stupid ones! Stupid!"

Emperor Guangxing raised his eyes, and saw a guy wearing what looked like a flying fish suit standing in front of a group of soldiers, training them so that they didn't even dare to lift their heads.

Why do you say it looks like a flying fish suit?

Because the clothes were a bit too dirty, covered with dust and black ash from nowhere, which made the robes that symbolized the glory of the Xuanwu Guard military officer a bit unsightly, and what was even more unsightly was Hua Manlou himself. , his hair was in a mess, his handsome face was also black and gray, and he looked extremely sloppy.

"Bring two boxes over here!" After Hua Manlou trained the group of soldiers, he ordered someone to bring in two more large boxes, and then shouted: "You are going to set off the day after tomorrow, I hope you can cherish this live ammunition The opportunity to practice should be taken care of by her mother! It will also prevent her from being embarrassing and frustrating when she goes to the battlefield, and it will also hurt the brothers around her! Do you understand?"

Emperor Guangxing couldn't help being stunned when he saw the situation on the field: the box was neatly stacked with objects with iron heads and wooden handles. From the actions of the soldiers, it could be seen that the objects were iron Pudu, but ...

Live ammunition practice?

The Fifth Army Battalion sent 500 people, right?Look at this situation, you need to practice more than once. If there are really only hundreds of Purdue, wouldn't it be lost after one practice?

At this moment, Hua Manlou saw Emperor Guangxing, so he said something to the commander of the Fifth Army Battalion who was leading the team, turned around and ran over: "Uncle Zhao, are you here?"

Emperor Guangxing nodded blankly, looking at Huamanlou, he really didn't know what to ask first.

Ask about Purdue's inventory?

Look at Huamanlou's posture, it's no problem to throw them indiscriminately now, there must be a lot of them, right?

Then ask why Huamanlou is acting like this?

There is no need to ask, to ask is to dedicate oneself to one's duty and devote oneself to one's work.

Why?

It can be seen at a glance, he must have been wasting here since the day we met, and he hasn't even returned home, otherwise how could he not even change his clothes?

In the end, Emperor Guangxing nodded slowly: "But there are three thousand Pudu, don't you teach Huma to go to the Yin Mountain? Well, okay, okay..."

45. Those who have merit will be rewarded

Hua Manlou had no idea what kind of psychological activities Emperor Guangxing had experienced all the way here, and when he heard him chanting those two lines of the magic-reformed poem, he said embarrassingly, "I made you laugh...you're laughing..."

There are three thousand Purdue, but it might be a bit of a mystery not to teach Huma to go to the Yinshan Mountain. Hua Manlou thought that Uncle Zhao was being ironic, and mocked him for his nonsense...

But Emperor Guangxing shook his head, looked at the soldiers of the Fifth Army Battalion who were practicing bombing in the distance, and asked casually: "How many people are there in Pudu now? Can they support this Datong war?"

Hua Manlou scratched his head: "This... I haven't counted it, but if I work overtime, I guess it's okay to take ten thousand pieces with me when I set off..."

"Pfft...cough cough cough cough...how much?" Emperor Guangxing felt as if he was hallucinating.

Hua Manlou said with a natural expression: "Wan Mei, this thing is not difficult to make. Just pour molten iron into the mold, then fill it with black powder and plug it into a wooden handle. I'm afraid it's not a problem to produce [-] pieces per day. It's just that the time is too tight now, the blast furnace has to make coke and iron, and the new blast furnace hasn't started yet..."

Emperor Guangxing looked at Huamanlou blankly: "Wait a minute, what blast furnace?"

Hua Manlou was even more at a loss than him: "The iron-making blast furnace, isn't it owned by the Ministry of Industry? There is a blast furnace in the Manufacturing Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, right?"

Emperor Guangxing said in embarrassment: "Oh, that blast furnace, I don't care about that, I... I'm in charge of water conservancy..."

Hua Manlou didn't think much, shrugged and explained: "In short, the blast furnace is a furnace for making iron, but the blast furnace at the Zaozao Bureau is not working. I improved and built a new blast furnace here, and changed the water row to increase the wind power. , Only then did the high-quality coke be smelted, and then the coke was used to make iron. This coke is not only cheap, but also has a higher temperature, which can be smelted into molten iron, which can be poured into a mold to get many warheads at once..."

Emperor Guangxing didn't know much about iron making, but at least he had common sense, knowing that metal could become liquid when heated.

But the problem is, it is unheard of to burn iron into molten iron, so he couldn't help being surprised when he heard this: "Molten iron? Come on, take me to see it!"

For some reason, Emperor Guangxing vaguely felt that Huamanlou's work was very important, and it could even be said to be an event that could change the course of Zhao's history. Although he didn't know how to make iron, he knew that coal was more expensive than charcoal. It is much lower, which reduces the cost of ironmaking by several times or even dozens of times, and if iron can be cast into molten iron at one time to cast something into shape, how far will the price of ironware drop?

You know, nowadays any ironware is hammered out by a blacksmith, even a small thing has to be hammered for a long time. The reason is that there are not many stocks.

But if it is possible to pour a lot at one time, let's not talk about it, the whole army will be equipped with Purdue...

As soon as Emperor Guangxing thought about it, he felt that this matter was too mysterious...too a fantasy...too...in short, it was like a dream!

……

When they heard about the visit of the 'Ministry of Industry officials', Ying Guogong and Ning Guogong rushed from the big tent to the school grounds, but when they arrived at the school grounds, they learned that Hua Manlou had taken the official to the riverside, and the two arrived at the school grounds. At the side, I happened to see the excited Emperor Guangxing walking back.

The two dukes rushed up to greet them, but before they pretended to salute or something, Emperor Guangxing had already put on a straight face: "What are you two doing for such a big thing?" Don't report to...report to His Majesty?"

The two dukes looked at each other, and duke Ying boldly asked, "What is the minister talking about?"

Emperor Guangxing pointed to Huamanlou and said: "You don't even know how much this kid has done, Zhen... I'm really not afraid that I will accuse you of negligence of duty in front of His Majesty?"

Hua Manlou hurriedly said: "It's...it's not a big deal, so I just... didn't inform the two princes..."

Emperor Guangxing turned pale when he heard the words, he couldn't help being moved when he saw the dusty Huamanlou.

There are so many old men in the imperial court who want the whole world to know when they do a little thing, but how can they spend a lot of money?If he hadn't come here today, he might not have known that he had messed with so many things. This mentality of not taking credit alone would have compared more than half of the old men in the court!

Huamanlou had just taken Emperor Guangxing to explain the process of ironmaking in detail at the blast furnace, and Emperor Guangxing himself asked the blacksmiths some questions in detail, and finally he came to a conclusion: let’s not talk about it, if the new style With the promotion of iron smelting, the production of flowers and buildings alone will save countless expenses for the national treasury, and it will also increase Dazhao's steel production to an incredible order of magnitude, and greatly reduce the price of iron...

You know, ironware these days is comparable to currency.

I heard blacksmiths say that the appearance of molten iron has greatly increased the quality of iron, so the addition of the above not only means that the military's combat power has improved, but also means that the people will have better and cheaper agricultural tools.

The country has always been based on agriculture. The improvement of the quality of farm tools will improve the development of agriculture. If this is the case, how much more food can be harvested each year, and how many people will be saved from hunger?

What's more, Hua Manlou had told him about firecrackers before, and Emperor Guangxing was fascinated by the kind of blunderbusses that could hit a distance of one or two miles.Even without mentioning the firecrackers, according to these blacksmiths, it is really feasible for the entire army to deploy Purdue, so how much can the combat power of the army be improved?

This is a good fighter, without great achievements!

After doing such a big thing, Hua Manlou didn't say a word, didn't even go home, and was still in the school grounds fighting with the group of killers from the Fifth Army Battalion...

Huamanlou's attitude alone made Emperor Guangxing feel right to trust Huamanlou: You know, Fanhuamanlou was a bad gambler and a prodigal son before, and he is only 15 years old now. It takes some courage for a person to come up with something famous.

In fact, Emperor Guangxing sometimes felt that he was too Menglang when he calmed down, and he didn't know where he was wrong, but he was convinced that the young man in front of him could perform miracles.

However, Huamanlou really didn't disappoint him, and even gave him a little surprise every time—meeting three times, one time for tweeting, one time for Purdue, and one time for making iron. If you come to save it for him, now that the iron smelting is out, Emperor Guangxing feels that it is really unreasonable not to reward Huamanlou.

So he didn't care about the two dukes who were stunned, and patted Hua Manlou on the shoulder and said: "You don't take credit, that's good. But this matter is indeed a real credit. Han Feizi's "Xian Xue" There is a saying in the "Pian": If a husband has meritorious service, he must be rewarded, and the Juelu will be thicker and more persuasive... Well, I will definitely play to Your Majesty, please Your Majesty reward you generously, how about it?"

Hua Manlou: "...Huh?"