"Well, what the long history said makes sense. If you send troops outside, it is just a waste of food and grass. The military advisor ordered General Han to withdraw his troops and only arrange for manpower to patrol, so that Goguryeo cannot easily detect the truth." Zou Yu agreed.

"Here!"

"Government affairs are a big problem for Chang Shi. I'm going to the mining area to refine weapons and armor as soon as possible!"

"I obey!" Fang Xuanling said with grateful hands. He was very touched by his trust in Zou Yu. Because not only his official position but also his power were delegated to him.

Not to mention that Fang Xuanling started to take over government affairs, Zou Yu was very relieved when he came to Anshan Iron Mine. This is one of the areas with the richest mineral deposits. There are many dark red hematite and khaki limonite in the open air.

Although Zou Yu doesn't know these things, all blacksmiths know them. It doesn't take much advanced knowledge to tell them apart. Generally, different colors must have different compositions. The most important thing is that any kind of mineral will not exist alone.

There are also associated minerals, such as magnetite and iron sulfide.

Since the late Qin and early Han dynasties, iron tools have been widely used, so with nearly a thousand years of experience, blacksmiths are no stranger to these.

Zou Yu's purpose of coming here is mainly to discuss with the blacksmith how to improve the forging method. Currently, the production of weapons and armor relies on forging, which means thousands of times of hammering, and this is what is meant by the so-called "hardened into steel".

This is mainly because the fire is not strong enough to melt the iron stone, so we only need to use the hammer forging method. The so-called making steel is actually beating the hot red pig iron countless times, and finally hammering out the air bubbles like kneading dough.

Just remove impurities. To make a good knife, the craftsman needs to hammer it repeatedly, which is not only extremely inefficient, but also takes too much time.

Pure iron is very soft and pig iron is very brittle, so this is why iron weapons were not taken seriously during the Qin Dynasty. Later, people found that adding some other minerals could improve this characteristic, and they were used in large quantities, so many times

Animal blood, urine and other strange things are often added to the iron making process.

Some people sum up their experience in the continuous refining process and finally refine magical weapons, but those methods are not suitable for batch refining.

Although Zou Yu didn't understand the principle, he knew that this was the earliest alloy. The alloy required a lot of experiments, which was not urgent for him, so he used another method, high carbon steel!

High carbon steel has high strength and hardness, high elastic limit and fatigue limit. In this era, it must be regarded as a magic weapon.

Now that there is enough coal and fuel, all that needs to be done is a graphite crucible. Using a graphite crucible to make iron can directly produce steel. This is because graphite is now available, a material with a much higher melting point than steel. Not only

In this way, Zou Yu remembered that graphite crucibles were widely used in later generations.

Another feature of using graphite crucible is that after melting, the molten iron absorbs the carbon in the graphite, resulting in high-carbon molten steel. This high-carbon molten steel, even in the 18th century, was superior to most of the products at that time.

Metal materials.

Use different proportions of graphite, mix clay, make a crucible, start refining the iron ore, keep burning, watch all the iron ore in the crucible turn into golden molten iron, wait until the bubbles and impurities on the top disappear completely, which represents this pot of iron ore

It has turned into steel.

Use a wooden board and clay to make a mold, pour the molten iron in, wait for a while, then knock the mold open, and there will be a formed steel knife inside.

Zou Yu remembered that when he was a child, his father forged the iron drill himself and did not use water when quenching it. Instead, he directly inserted it into the ground. After asking about it, he understood why.

This is because water is used for quenching, one is cold and the other is hot, and the cooling is too fast, which destroys the balance, so it cannot be used. It is much gentler to insert it into the soil, and some even use grease to cool it.

Zou Yu used a graphite crucible here, and the carbon element should be enough, so he inserted it into the soil and quenched it. When the steel knife came out of the mold, a blacksmith immediately came forward to forge it again.

This is to check whether the heat is sufficient and whether the shape is intact, because there may be some flaws when the mold comes out. However, this kind of forging does not take long, so soon the blacksmith inserted the steel knife into the ground and made a "chi" sound.

!" There was a sound, and a puff of white smoke rose up.

Ten steel knives came out of the furnace at about the same time and were inserted into the ground at the same time. After waiting for a long time, he estimated that they were ready to start. Zou Yu grabbed the steel knives. He saw that the blades of the steel knives were scattered due to re-forging and quenching.

There are many textures and it looks like there is some mysterious beauty.

"Get your knife and chop it over!" Zou Yu said to the guard.

"Here!" the guard responded, drawing his sword and slashing at the blade lying across Zou Yu's hand.

There was a crisp sound of "Dang!", and everyone looked over with concern, only to see that the knife in the guard's hand had been shortened by one third, and the cut was neatly cut.

"This...this..." The blacksmiths were all startled and couldn't believe that this was forged by them and others.

"Come again!" Zou Yu pulled out a knife again and said to the stunned guard.

As expected, the knife in the guard's hand was shorter. Soon all ten knives were tried, and they were all equally sharp and hard. Zou Yu tried it himself and found that the toughness was quite good.

Knives forged from fine iron are generally thicker in order to maintain their hardness, which means they are not light in weight. However, steel knives made from this kind of mold are much lighter and thinner. A knife that is one meter and a half long is only ten meters long.

About kilograms.

"Why are you so anxious? We will be there again." Zou Yu smiled and cursed at the hot-eyed guard.

"Hehe! This is simply a magic weapon!" the guard reluctantly put down his sword and said.

"This will be everyone's standard equipment in the future. This is just the first batch. The later ones will be better, so don't worry."

"Hey, thank you General!"

With the graphite crucible, forging can be said to be very convenient. As for alloys, Zou Yu doesn't think about it at all now, because even if the alloy is better, it will take time, so he just asks people to write it down and do it in the future. The first goal now

, is a uniform change for the whole army.

Weapons are easy to deal with, but armor is difficult to deal with. After discussing this, we only made two items, both of which were steel helmets. The helmets can not only protect the head, but can also be used as pots and bowls. In the future, we will no longer need to carry various clay pots when marching.

Already.

The other type is half-body armor. This kind of half-body armor has an arc-shaped steel plate to protect the front. The back is tied with a rope. There is no need to protect the back. This is because warriors are only allowed to charge. Only when escaping can they
Chapter completed!