Spring and Autumn I Am King

(1);

When he climbed the peach hill, Zhao Wuxi raised his eyes and looked at the four fields, but he saw the lush cedars and pine trees. From time to time, trees fell to the ground with the shouting halfway up the mountain. He could also hear the sound of singing in the local dialect from a distance.

"Breaking my axe, but also lacking my death. Duke Zhou marched east, and the four kingdoms are the emperor. I mourn my people, and I am also the general of Kong!"

Wu Tie asked, "What are they singing?"

Ran Qiu, who was walking by the side, pricked up his ears and listened for a while and said, "It's one of the songs in "Bin Feng"."

"Bin Feng", also known as Lu Feng, is a poem written by Duke Zhou in the old state and after the eastern expedition to Lu. Duke Zhou led his army to the east, and the nobles of the four countries in the east were all frightened. Unlike the previous lords, Duke Zhou grieves for these commoners, how benevolent and virtuous it is.

Wu Xie asked, "Are the people complaining that I recruited them to mine road?"

"It shouldn't be. According to Si Kou's instructions, these people who were recruited before the busy farming period were all paid for grain as wages. What they complained about should be the doctor who had to say something before. At that time, the mountains, forests and waters were all owned by the doctor. You have to bring your own food and clothing, and there is no compensation for accidentally dying in the deep mountains."

Zhao Wuchun smiled and said, "It's only half a month before Ziyou's Xu sentence, and he is also doing the military duties of Sima, but it's really rare to find out all these things."

It is now the end of January. Under the overall planning of Zhang Mengtan and the plan of Ji Qiao, Fan Xu, the agricultural envoy, has been persuaded to promote the farmland method everywhere, and distribute cattle and farm tools.

Kan Zhi, the supervisor, followed closely. He inspected the towns with a stern face, and swept away those officials and clans who dared to subvert the cattle, farm tools, and seeds distributed by the temple. Therefore, the spring ploughing in Xilu went very smoothly this year, and it basically started at the most suitable time.

The busy farming season will last from the beginning of spring to the spring equinox, and during this period, labor cannot be levied at will, so Wu Xie dispatched more than 500 or 600 Qi people to take prisoners north to Taoqiu. Logging begins.

Taoqiu is located at the junction of Yiyi and Xuju. It was previously under the jurisdiction of Dr. Xuju, but during the meeting to decide the ownership of Xuju, Zhao Wuxi talked about it, and finally made Sanhuan make concessions, so it was classified as Wuxi. private property.

With the pitiful iron output of Spring and Autumn. Sanhuan has not yet paid attention to this "bad gold" which is difficult to smelt and cast. And after Ran Qiu took up the post of Sima Xuju, he naturally knew who Zhuoba meant this time, and he was still the only leader of Zhao Wuxi.

When Confucius in Lucheng heard about Xilu's actions, he was a little unhappy. He also wrote a letter for Gong Xichi to hand over, admonishing Zhao Wuxi.

"Meng Chunzhiyue, burying the bones, this little Sikou did a good job. But this month, it is necessary to prohibit the cutting of trees and not gather the public. Don't leave the city, because the four seasons are different, these are things that can only be done in summer and autumn. If Meng Chun implements the decree of summer and autumn, it will cause rain from time to time, grass and fleas will fall, and storms will come, and weeds such as quinoa, weeds, fenugreek, and wormwood will flourish, and will cause plagues to spread among the people. I hope that Si Kou Chazhi..."

Intimidate? Still worrying?

In the end, Zhao Wuxi replied with a modestly worded letter. Said that he deployed into the mountains to log wood, but to open up a road, there is no abuse of labor. But in fact, he ignored the suggestion of Confucius, because the work of mining and smelting iron had to be done early, and when the spring rain fell in February, it would not be possible to carry out. Don't take advantage of the weather to store some ore, when will you be able to make iron farm tools?

As for the tradition of governing according to the four seasons, now he is not the only one who destroys it. It is enough to appease the emotions of the people with small favors.

So, by the end of January. Taoqiu Iron Mine began to operate.

...

"It is said that there are three thousand six hundred and nine iron mountains in the world, but as far as the villain knows, there are only three or four large mines in Lu, and Taoqiu is one of them."

The miner who came to greet him was named Cao Bing, and he didn’t know whether it was a Dongyi relic or a branch of the Cao Kingdom. competence.

Cao Bing said incessantly: "As the saying goes, if there is cinnabar on the top, there is gold on the bottom; if there is a kind stone on the top, there is copper and gold on the bottom; on the top, there is lead, tin, and red copper; on the top, there is ochre on the bottom. Tie, this whole peach mound is a big iron mountain."

After coming here, Zhao Wuyi realized that there are actually no peaches in Taoqiu, and it was named because the color of the local rock soil is pink and ochre. He remembered that he had learned a little chemistry in his previous life. This should be the color of iron pentoxide, the color of iron ore, and the vermilion lines that he could see everywhere. It was the ore seedlings.

What Wu Xie didn’t know was that the surrounding area was under the jurisdiction of Dongping Kingdom in the Han Dynasty, and it was one of the 48 iron officials in the country. Now, there are several iron mines in the first line of Mount Tai and near Qufu in the territory of Lu Kingdom. intervene.

Under the guidance of Cao Bing, they first went to the hills to see the mining sites. Most of them were shallow mines. Because of the limited mining, they could still dig for several years. The people who were recruited nearby were responsible for supervising and building roads, and the hard work of mining was mainly done by the Qi prisoners.

After the iron ore covered with soil is dug out, it is transported to the stream by mules, horses, etc. in baskets for cleaning, and then sent to the workshop along the downhill road.

Originally, in the Spring and Autumn Period, the officials who managed the mountains and lakes were Yuren, and the Yuren everywhere were subordinate to Da Sikong. However, since Zhao Wuxi classified this place as his own private property, he established a new official office called Tieguan, responsible for mining and smelting matters, with Cao Bing as the iron official.

Naturally, the iron smelting workshop cannot be built on the rugged hills, but is located in a large hollow space surrounded by mountains and rivers. It is surrounded by hills and forests. Not far to the west, is the economy that can sail boats. water river.

There has been a certain amount of development here before, but the original area was small, and the iron was only one drum per year. Under the will of no mercy, it has now been demolished and rebuilt.

The new workshop consists of three parts: a ore storage yard, where the red raw ore brought in after the beginning of spring is piled up into a mountain. Under the supervision of military soldiers, the prisoners of Qi people are using simple stone anvils and stone rams to smash the whole block. The ore is crushed into pieces and turned into crushed ore that can be put into the furnace.

What makes Wu Xie a little worried is that the iron content of these iron ore is probably not high, which is also a common problem of iron mines in China.

The second is a treasury for wood and charcoal, which is the necessary fuel for iron making.

As the saying goes, "In the month of Mengchun, logging is prohibited; in the month of Mengxia, no big trees are cut; in the month of summer, when the grass and trees turn yellow, they are cut for charcoal; in the month of mid-winter. Some common sense rules of the four seasons still make sense. In spring, the wood is wet and it is not easy to burn. Therefore, Zhao Wuxi did not lie to Confucius in the letter. of pine and bamboo trees.

Keep going inside. When I arrived at Taoqiu's workshop, the largest smelting field, I saw nothing. The specifications and systems here are completely those of the more common bronze smelting workshops in the cottage, and the skilled craftsmen recruited are all from Luqiu. Six kinds of "smiths who attack gold", looking at Kyushu, how difficult is it to find a craftsman with experience in iron smelting?

For most people, iron smelting is a completely new field, including Cao Bing, it is difficult for artisans to make iron by simply copying the various facilities and fuels used to smelt bronze. This is also the reason why the iron production in the Spring and Autumn Period was extremely low and was not taken seriously.

In desperation without a shirt, he can only command the expert and make some bold suggestions.

...

"I feel that the blasting force should be strong enough, the blasting speed should be fast, the smelting furnace should be as high as possible, and the airtightness should be better. After the iron is made, you can't just rely on casting. You need to practice repeatedly. …”

The craftsmen eagerly remembered and eagerly waited, and then what? Then it's gone.

Unlike when he was in the countryside, he personally went to the ground, watched his elders make tofu and soy milk, and went to a pottery class. Zhao Wuxi was not a professional. Not even an engineering man. He only knew some common sense things. For example, the melting point of iron is much higher than that of copper and tin. Whether it is in the West or the East, from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, it has gone through a long period of time.

Create a furnace suitable for smelting iron. Raising the furnace temperature is the first problem to be solved. Fortunately, in the process of firing porcelain, the potters and potters in Xilu use charcoal to fire, which can make the furnace temperature higher and higher.

But using the charcoal dug out of Yuncheng to smelt iron, all the results ended in failure, Wu Xian just remembered that, it seems that the charcoal has to be coked? However, burning charcoal is also a technical work, and it needs to be isolated from the air in time or it will turn into ash. This requires building a special kiln and a large amount of coal to try.

In short, after the dredging of the Onozawa and Jishui rivers, the charcoal can only be replaced by charcoal before the charcoal from Yuncheng arrives.

This will take advantage of the sunny weather to first burn the wood into charcoal, cool it and store it in the treasury. Dozens of servants pull human chariots back and forth in the workshop, transporting the charcoal blocks to the smelting field. Behind him, the soldier armed with a whip follows him like a shadow...

In addition, according to Wu Xie’s previous ambiguous suggestion, the goldsmiths who had only been here for a month scratched their heads and erected several oval smelting furnaces, which are indeed much higher than the furnaces for smelting bronze. . Under the leadership of the iron officials, they subdivided the parts of feeding, blasting, tapping, and water supply, trying to overcome one problem after another in the past half-month experiment.

Today, because Zhao Wuxi came to inspect, he wanted to see how the progress was, and the craftsmen also wanted to show their performance, so they lit the fire and opened the furnace!

...

At this moment, the flames were rising under the five or six furnaces, and dozens of craftsmen and ministers were guarding around the furnaces they were responsible for. Some people stood on the raised platform with their toes on their toes and lifted up their baskets to put minerals into the furnace. Crouching on the side, watching the fire nervously, trying to grasp the opening time.

"For gold and tin, black and turbid gas is exhausted, yellow and white are second, yellow and white gas is exhausted, and blue and white are second. When blue and white gas is exhausted, green gas is second, and then it can be cast." These smelting bronzes The method of looking at the color that I summarized is not very easy to use now. Even the most experienced iron official Cao Bing has to admit that he usually smelts iron, and most of it depends on luck. If you want to improve the chance of success, you have to rely on countless It is necessary to re-summarize the failure of the second time.

As the sun fell from overhead to the valley, the smelting workshop was full of fires, and black smoke billowed, covering the depression under the small peach mound.

When it came out, including Zhao Wuxi, everyone's eyes were focused on the tap hole of the stove. They are full of expectations, but this kind of technical work, the hardware facilities are very different, and the things produced are lost by a thousand miles...

The results of the smelting were disappointing. One furnace was slag, the other was cracked, and there was even an explosion that killed and injured several people.

Finally, after the failure of three furnaces, the two furnaces of red iron were finally released. They rolled into the big pit in front of the furnace. Immediately, a craftsman took water and poured it on it. Mixed with black smoke.

The iron official Cao Bing, like the stars holding the moon, handed over the cooled black iron block to Zhao Wuxi as if offering a treasure: "Thanks to Si Kou's blessing, I have only five furnaces to practice two irons today!"

...

Zhao Wuxi was speechless and condensed, this is the result of Taoqiu after a month of tossing? In ancient times, thirty catties were used as a junction, four jins as a stone, and four stones as a drum. So both are 60 pounds, and 60 pounds of iron is happy to be like this? In any small steel factory in the future, the unit of daily iron production is calculated in tons...

However, it is said that the small iron smelting workshop under the name of Dr. Xuju in the past had an annual output of only more than 400 catties. This comparison made him laugh and cry. Should he be happy that the production of Taoqiu Iron Mine broke a new high, or should he Frustrated by this?

Moreover, the quality is not very good, and it is extremely poor. If you don't go back to the furnace, you can't even think about forging iron weapons. Let’s continue the old tradition of “Using US dollars to cast swords and halberds, try all kinds of dogs and horses; using bad gold to cast barbarians, and try all kinds of loams”.

Is this 60 pounds of inferior iron enough to make 30 hoes? If it is like this every day, then at least one thousand pieces can be produced in a year, but spring rains will fall in February and March, so don’t think about starting work before the beginning of summer, when you work overtime, you can have at most a thousand pieces of iron farm implements.

This is the bottom line that Zhao Wuxi can accept.

Some people in later generations may say: "As long as the temperature of iron smelting is high, and some carbon can be added to smelt iron, right?"

If anyone said such a thing, they would probably not be astonished, but treated like an idiot by the ancients. It's like a person who has taken a simple chemistry experiment class and thinks that he knows the formula of meth, and he can become a master of drug making...

One cannot turn a stone into gold, and a skill that will take years to become a teacher in later generations is not something that can be done by just talking about it.

Today is the age of Spring and Autumn. At least in Lu country, iron smelting technology depends entirely on exploration, and it is difficult to lead to breakthroughs without ten years of accumulation. Anyway, Zhao Wuxi still knows something that can reduce some detours for the craftsmen. Let's go back to Baidu Encyclopedia and find a bunch of iron smelting information.

Since the quality cannot soar for the time being, we can only start by increasing the quantity.

"Before the spring rain in February, make a few more furnaces, pass my orders, drum bags, blast furnaces, etc., you must try them repeatedly, and those who can make them will be rewarded!"

Under the heavy reward, there must be a brave man, and no shirts can only rely on the ** artisans to continue to explore,

He hoped that Xing Ao would find one or two craftsmen in Wu who could smelt and forge mature iron weapons. In addition, he had to think about other places.

Such as the hometown of Jin.

On both sides of Taihang Mountain in Jin State, there are more subway mines outside the river north of Rushui, and there are already prototypes of iron smelting~www.wuxiahere.com~In those days Zhao Yang and Zhong Yinshuai Jinshi City Rushuizhi Bin, collected a drum of iron from the locals to cast a punishment tripod.

One drum is four hundred and eighty pounds! It is equivalent to the output of Taoqiu in ten days at its best, which was still ten years ago.

Therefore, when Wu Xie bid farewell to Zhao Yang, he also asked Fu Sou to help find someone who could smelt iron in Jin.

"I really hope that the era of black iron I created will come soon!"

After making a circle in Yiyi and Taoqiu, Wu Xie went south along the Jishui River. He would return to Yuncheng to meet a person, that is the Robber Zhi who was lured ashore by him earlier and detained.

After all, this is the first time the two have met.

ps: There are already mules in the Spring and Autumn Period. For example, Zhao Yang has two white mules he loves... Today I took the CET 6 test, and I got one and two in the big chapter. There will be two updates tomorrow (to be continued.)

ps: Thanks to the book friends novel Mystery 12345, Xunlang, death, and Silent Night for the rewards! Thank you for your monthly pass!

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