"Did the eldest son Wang leave the palace?" Li Yuan, who was drinking alone in the winery compartment east of the city, suddenly paused, staring at the subordinate who was reporting. After a while, he waved away the prostitute who was accompanying the wine, and the pity for the music, lowered his voice: "How many armors are there?"

"Three Shou." The subordinate is also a Zhao man. The scar on his face from the corner of his eyebrows to the lower lip is very shallow and still ferocious.

"Three-Zhu Palace Armor." Li Yuan said silently, "Where will the eldest son of the king leave the palace?"

"The city is built in the north of the city." The subordinate had no surname, so he took the country as his surname. Li Yuan gave the name "六文" (fu), and his purpose was self-evident. Now Zhao Li was exercising the instinct of a guillotine, trying to completely cut off the prince who stopped his master. "To the east of the city, there is a wasteland north of the private house, and there are almost no houses. If you are lying here with a swordsman and crossbowman..."

Shouying is 6.2 kilometers long from north to south and 4.25 kilometers wide from east to west, plus the outer city walls are nearly 8 kilometers long from north to south; the inner city of Beijing City in the Ming and Qing Dynasties is 6.6 kilometers long from north to south and 5.5 kilometers wide from east to west, plus the outer city is only 8.7 kilometers long from north to south. This capital, which is smaller than Beijing City, has a population of about half that of Beijing City. Until the early years of the Republic of China, there were still many wastelands in Beijing City. Shouying, with a population of only 400,000, naturally has more wastelands. Zhao Jing wanted to ambush the wasteland on the way back to the palace. If he could kill Prince Xiong Jing, his master's nephew would be the King of Chu in the future.

The King of Chu has already established Xiong Jing, and the only way to destroy it is to kill it. Only in this way can Xiong Han, who is the legitimate son, be the king. This idea has been in Li Yuan's mind since the failure to fight for the crown prince, and has been secretly preparing for it. However, it is easy to kill the prince, but it is too difficult to cure the descendant, especially when the King of Chu is not dead at this time. If Xiong Jing dies, the King of Chu does not establish Xiong Han and instead establishes those concubines, he will not get any benefits.

"Master, when you get it, you will never come again; if you don't take it, you will cause disaster." Zhao Jingyu saw Li Yuan's hesitation, so he persuaded in a deep voice. "The King of Chu has been sick again and again, and his death is only a matter of time. He suddenly heard that the eldest son of the king died in the street, and he would die due to a heart attack. In this way, the fierce prince should be the King of Chu."

"What a good person is not lazy!" Li Yuan pinched Jiu Jue's hand and turned white because of the force. "Just as you said, kill it in the wasteland of Dongcheng."

"Ye!" Zhao Jing kept lowering his head. Hearing this, he glanced at Li Yuan, then bowed and stepped back lightly.

*

"Iron is brittle and easy to crack. It can only be used as a farm tool, not a weapon, it is evil gold. Iron is used as a soldier, and it cannot be cast by a master." In the founding house, Gong Yindao answered Xiong Jing's question. What is not noticeable is that the caster who cast the bronze sword just now was dissatisfied, especially when he heard Xiong Jing's question 'Why don't he use an iron sword'.

"That's just pig iron." Xiong Jing roughly guessed the reason why iron was not used as weapons. Now he just wanted to confirm it. "If it is cooked iron, it will be too soft. Only when the carbon ratio is just right, and the phosphorus and sulfur ratios are low enough, can iron..."

Xiong Jing was actually not talking about iron weapons, but iron cannons. In the sailing era, naval guns were mostly cast steel, and in the later era of iron-clad ships, even the hull was made of steel. The carbon content determines the softness and hardness of steel, while phosphorus will make the steel cold and brittle, and sulfur will make the steel hot and brittle. Therefore, grasping the carbon content in iron and reducing the ratio of phosphorus and sulfur is extremely important for cannons. Xiong Jing's hobby is sailing, but the extended knowledge involved in sailing made him know a rough idea about iron smelting and steelmaking.

The boss Yin Dao who Xiong Jing said was not even understood. He just nodded and asked Xiong Jing to move forward. Everyone took a few steps, and the caster holding the bronze sword suddenly shouted, "Please stay!"

Zhuke looked like a fifty-year-old man, and his face turned black with fire all day and night. His voice was loud, but his group didn't understand his words at all. Seeing this, he stepped forward, and the guard Gong Jia immediately stopped him.

"What do you want?" The caster held a bronze sword in his hand and walked quickly like an assassin.

"I'll ask the noble man to stay." Zhuke and Gong Jia were speechless, but fortunately the commotion behind made Xiong Jing and others turn back.

"What's the matter?" Xiong Jing's heart tightened when he saw several Gong Jia holding swords surrounded a man with a black face holding a sword.

"It's a prick... an assassin." Gong Yindao's face turned pale.

"What is he talking about?" Xiong Jing asked again, "Why did he assassinate?"

"Your Highness, it's better to avoid it for the time being." The surrounding palace Jia had already protected Xiong Jing. Cai Bao saw something strange and dared not be careless.

"What is he shouting?" Zhuke had already thrown the sword in his hand, and then was taken down by Gong Jia. Xiong Jing was short and could not see what was happening behind him. He only heard this person shouting, and he seemed to be in another language.

"Your Highness, what this person said is not Chu's words." Cai Bao said. "It's like the words of Yue."

"Your Highness, this person is a Yue man, not an assassin." A craftsman who knew Yue in the crowd spoke hesitantly, "He asked... He asked what is the iron-based one?"

"Is it a caster?" Xiong Jing raised his toes, but he still couldn't see the man.

"Your Highness, this person is... a casting guest." Gong Yindao wiped his sweat, and he wanted to poke his eyes blind. This person was not an assassin. He was Ou Chou, the famous sword-making master of Yue Kingdom Ou Yezi.

"Ou Chou greets the nobleman." Ou Chou didn't know Xiong Jing's identity, and he didn't know who His Highness was. Of course, with his temperament, he wouldn't care even if he knew it. "I heard that the nobleman said that I have a good life and a good life, and the familiar iron is too soft..."

Although Ou Chou could understand the elegant language that Xiong Jing said, he could not speak. He only knew the local dialect, and Xiong Jing could not understand at all. Fortunately, his father once told him that the population composition of Chu State: Jingman, Sanmiao, Ba people, mediocre, Yangyue, Huaiyi..., no matter how much the Central Plains countries that obtained large fiefs by blood, every inch of Chu State was conquered by itself. There were multiple ethnic groups under his rule, and it was reasonable to have multiple dialects.

He couldn't understand Yue's words, and the worker beside him could translate it. Gong Yindao also mentioned Ou Chou's identity. He arranged Ou Chou to take the opportunity to present a sword to Xiong Jing, but unexpectedly Xiong Jing looked down on the bronze sword. He asked Qin Jian and Iron Sword again.

Of course, Xiong Jing knew that he was the father-in-law of the Gan Jiang and Mo Ye’s father. When he heard Ou Chou’s question, Xiong Jing did not answer, but asked, “Is there an iron sword?”

"Yes." Ou Chou turned around and took it. After a while, he held up an iron sword.

The shape of the iron sword is similar to the copper sword just now, but the weight is obviously lighter. Looking at the steel of the sword blade, Xiong Jing can only judge that the sword was cast rather than forged. In some places, such as the junction of the sword body and the stem, you can still see traces of models.

"Iron is smelted by charcoal. The temperature is too low. All that is refined is pig iron. Pig iron is crisp and there are many debris. It can only be used as agricultural tools and it is difficult to cast weapons. If you remove all the debris in the iron, you can get pure iron. The hardness of iron is determined by carbon. If you don't have carbon, it will be soft. I call it cooked iron. If there is more carbon, it will be hard. I call it giant iron..." After sorting out the ideas, Xiong Jing said in general. Others seemed to understand but not understand. Ou Chou frowned and focused, listening to each word carefully, and his face seemed to be smiling and sad.

"I would like to ask my good man, how do you know how much carbon is in iron?" Ou Chou interrupted rudely. Decades of smelting experience made him fully understand what Xiong Jing said, and also made him unable to take into account etiquette and status quo.

"There is no way." In the era when there is no high-temperature thermometer, precise smelting is simply impossible. "It can only be based on experience."

"Pure iron is soft without carbon. How to add carbon?" Ou Chou's questions are more important than the other. Carbonization is carburizing, and the carburizing process is secret and not passed on for thousands of times. This is the key to replacing bronze weapons with iron weapons.

"It's not difficult to add carbon, the key is the furnace temperature." Xiong Jing was very happy to meet a craftsman who knows how to smelter iron. He said without reservation: "If the furnace temperature reaches the temperature, the simplest is to mix raw and cooked iron. If the carbon is too soft, add more pig iron; if the carbon is too hard, then..."

‘During—’, the iron sword in Ou Chou’s hand suddenly fell to the ground. He opened his hands angrily and his mouth wide. He couldn’t shout anything he wanted. Seeing that he did this, Cai Bao and Yu immediately blocked Xiong Jing. At this time, Ou Chou also returned to normal. He fell to the ground and couldn’t raise his head, shouting hoarsely: “I have the words of noble people, please be bowed by the villain.”

After shouting, he was worried that Xiong Jing would be confused, and he said with a little choking: "The ancestor of the villain trained a sword for people. When the time comes, the sword cannot be completed. His body is too soft to achieve a sharp edge. So he cut his hair and cut his fingers and threw it into the furnace, but it still failed. Later, the sword was completed after the furnace was completed."

Ou Chou tells the past of the family, and the version is different from what is circulated in later generations. Gan Jiang Moye made a sword because the gold and iron hero did not melt and pour it into the furnace, while his ancestors poured it into the furnace because the iron could not be made into steel.

Thinking of the craftsman who had been unknown in China for thousands of years but casting national skeletons, Xiong Jing was suddenly moved. He pushed Cai Bao and Yu in front of him, walked to Ou Chou and gently helped him up, and said, "Zi Chou asked to get up. Let the ancestors be more important than promises and die in art. Unspoken admire them sincerely. People in the world are all light on craftsmen, but they do not know that the reason why people live is based on tools. Without plows and hoes, there is no crops, without looms, there is no clothes, without cars and ships, there is no transportation, and without swords and swords, there is no heroic army. All the tools are made by craftsmen, so why do people care about it?"

A few months ago, Huang Xie's words that criticized him for being a worthy weapon but not virtue reached Xiong Jing's ears very early. He did not refute it. Now, when he heard what Ou Chou said, he couldn't help but reveal what he thought in his heart. The worker standing beside him nodded.

After Xiong Jing finished speaking, he said: "The smelting of iron is one in the furnace temperature. If the furnace temperature is high, the iron will be hydrated, which will be twice the result with half the effort; the second is the ore, which has better iron ore but fewer impurities, and pure iron; the third is the skill, decomposition, quenching, tempering, annealing, and careful grasp, and the huge iron will be formed. The unspoken asserted that there will be no more craftsmen in the furnace in the future."

Although Ou Chou stood up, he still knelt down, as if he could not express his respect for Xiong Jing without this. After hearing Xiong Jing talk about the key to iron smelting, he bowed again: "Please invite the noble man to take villains as servants, and learn iron smelting as a great skill."

"Your Highness..." The most shocking worker Yindao, before he could figure out why Xiong Jing was impressed by Ou Chou in a few words. Now Ou Chou wants to be Xiong Jing's servant and learn the art of iron smelting.

"Your Highness, this..." Gong Shujian was also surprised. Among the tourists who built the mansion, most of the sword-making masters were made by Wu Yue, and Ou Chou was the best among them. Unexpectedly, Xiong Jing made Ou Chou willing to be a slave with just a few words.

"No need to be a servant, just a student." Xiong Jing looked at Ou Chou and smiled.
Chapter completed!