Xu Huai looked at a small bundle of rice-thick iron wire in his hand, and some fragmentary memory fragments emerged. He thought that it might be more appropriate to call it iron wire or iron wire. He looked at the official responsible for escorting the supplies and asked: "Do you know what silk is?"
How exactly is iron forged?”
The escort officer sent by Anzhou transported the materials that were worth the money and grain to Huangyangzhai for delivery, and then returned the same way. From Huangyangzhai, he walked a section of the land road, transported the goods to Qingyi Ridge, and then loaded them on the Qingyi River.
When Ru River arrived at Zhaoling, it was the officials sent from the Chushan camp who were in charge. How did they know the technical details of wire and iron casting?
Besides, these wires and iron were collected in kind by the Anzhou Prefectural Government from the local government. How could the officials, who were mainly military officials, know how to smelt them? Even if they were brought over, it would be difficult to answer Xu Huai's question.
"Commander Jie wants to know the forging method, so he can ask Zhuang Yong." Chen Zixiao was confused when he saw the escort officer standing in front of Xu Huai, and he only had some rough knowledge and could not explain the specific details.
I suggest you call Zhuang Yong for questioning.
The construction of Zhaoling New City was much more complicated than the ordinary fortresses of the time. Yu Chengzhen and Zhuang Shouxin's son Zhuang Yong served as construction officers and deputy supervisors and had been stationed in Zhaoling for a year, and they have not left yet.
Yu Chengzhen is better at building, while Zhuang Yong is good at forging weapons.
Before waiting for Zhuang Yong to come over, Wang Xian, Han Gui, Jiang Xie, Fan Zongqi, Wu Chihai and others also curiously took a small piece of wire and looked at it.
Xu Huai smiled and said: "This iron wire, more vividly speaking, this iron wire, iron wire, Zixiao is said to be drawn from soft iron. It is a bit difficult to test your detailed forging method, but
Come and think about it, if this iron wire is given to you, how will you use it?"
Fan Zongqi said: "Craftsmen draw gold, silver and copper wires, which are mostly used for decoration of utensils. This gray-white wire looks like old silver, so it should be used as a substitute for old silver wire. However, Jieshuai will not compare us with it, but it can be used to replace ropes.
, has many advantages, but compared to the price of copper wire, it is a bit too luxurious..."
Although the price is lower than copper wire, it is actually rarer than copper wire. Currently, except for a small amount shipped from Anzhou, there are no other prefectures and counties that have delivered similar goods in exchange for money and grain.
Otherwise, Xu Huai would not have never seen him before.
There were only two to three hundred kilograms of iron wire, which was more expensive than copper wire. Of course, Fan Zongqi thought it was too luxurious to use it as a rope.
Maybe a luxurious and wealthy family wouldn't care. After all, the amount is not large, it's just for decoration. But as for its military use, Fan Zongqi wants to throw this thing away as soon as he thinks of the price-performance ratio of copper wire.
Can't afford it.
Wu Chihai took the wire, took a small section of the end and wrapped it into a ring around his little finger, and said: "Look, this shape looks a bit like a thin iron ring for braiding chain mail, but in addition to being more slender, it is also much softer. I'm afraid
It is difficult to block the sharp blade's chop." He pulled out the saber, held the wire against the root of the blade and gave it a strong squeeze, then dug out a small wedge groove and pondered, "This kind of wire can be wound more tightly.
, it may be able to withstand the shooting of ordinary feather arrows to a certain extent, but it will not be better than chain armor..."
At that time, chain armor was mainly made of thin iron bars that were repeatedly forged and tempered.
Fire is made into thin rings and then buckled and woven into armor. The process is extremely complicated and cumbersome. To make a set of chain mail, a highly skilled armor maker will spend no less effort than a chain mail, and chain mail is very useful in preventing long-distance protection.
In terms of shooting and cutting in close combat, it is no better than zha armor and scale armor. However, its protection against puncture in melee is much worse than zha armor and scale armor. Its production is also complicated and has rarely been seen in the military in recent times.
Everyone discussed a lot, wondering what use this silk iron could have in the military, but in the end they were all deterred by the high cost.
Zhuang Yong quickly called someone to find him, took the wire and said: "Anzhou wire, when I was in Bianliang a few years ago, I heard someone say to my father that the production method sounds easy, and it is not as difficult as gold and silver.
It is similar to copper wire, which is semi-melted and then punched and drawn. However, in recent years, except Anzhou Iron House, it has been difficult to imitate it elsewhere. In the final analysis, the furnace flame is not violent enough. Anzhou Iron Melting Pond Furnace should have something special, and this
This is the real secret that has not been passed down. Of course, it shouldn’t be too difficult for Chushan to imitate it at this time..."
Shibaliwu Ironworks uses the "one-step method" to smelt refined iron. Its furnace flame is so fierce that it can melt the most difficult-to-smelt wrought iron. The difficulty in drawing wire iron lies in the furnace flame.
In Zhuang Yong's view, Chushan had already had the ability to draw wire, but he had never thought of trying it before.
Xu Huai signaled the guards on his left and right as well as other unrelated people to step aside, took the small bundle of iron wire from Zhuang Yong's hand, and asked, "If Chushan wants to make this iron wire, how much will it cost?"
Anything that is divorced from cost is just a hooliganism.
Even if you don't follow Anzhou's method and first smelt mature iron (soft iron) from pig iron and then forge it repeatedly, any smelting iron can make thin and long wire, but the wire made at such a cost will
What is the practical significance?
Even the iron wire made by Anzhou method is prohibitively expensive.
This thing is cheaper than copper wire. If it only consumes thousands or even tens of thousands of kilograms of iron wire a year to be of great use, Chushan may be able to bite the bullet and save money. But the problem is that the performance of this thing is
It is superior to ordinary hemp rope, and it is far from having such a big price difference.
What Xu Huai is now concerned about is how much can the cost be reduced if Chushan's unique down-flame continuous furnace method is used in wire manufacturing?
Of course, Chushan has not prepared iron wire before, and many places are currently speculating. The actual trial production may encounter many difficulties that need to be overcome bit by bit. Xu Huai did not expect to get it right in one step, but asked Zhuang Yong to make a rough estimate.
Is there any potential to be tapped here?
"Half is the minimum,"
At this time, Chushan specially set up a coal and iron supervision department to be responsible for coal and iron mining, smelting and other matters. Although Zhuang Yong's brother-in-law Shen Lian was specifically responsible for this, Zhuang Yong still had confidence in Chushan's current technical level in smelting.
, said,
"This is just a direct imitation of the Shibaliwu Iron Field, but if Chushan really wants to prepare this thing, the Commander-in-Chief will summon the craftsmen to study the method, and there should be further reductions..."
Xu Huai nodded. Whether it can be done and how much the cost can be reduced will not be known until the Coal and Railway Supervisor convenes manpower for trial production. He then asked: "How much labor can be saved by using the drawing method to prepare chain armor?"
Zhuang Yong was stunned for a moment, and suddenly his expression became excited. He was about to praise loudly, but suddenly Xu Huai was spared the opportunity to retreat the irrelevant people, which meant that this
The conversation at that time requires a certain level to know the detailed secrets. He suddenly suppressed his voice and said:
"Jie Shuai thinks that others dare not think, and thinks that others cannot think, let alone other things. The old method requires forging fine iron into iron bars, and then taking small sections of iron bars and forging them hundreds of times to finally form a thin ring. Only this
In one step, the drawing method used in the preparation of chain armor will be much better than the old method..."
"Ah Hai clearly mentioned this section just now, why didn't we think more about it?" Fan Zongqi slapped his head and smacked his lips and shouted, "After all, we are not as handsome as Ji Shuai!"
"Stop flattering, you are too constrained by established laws and old laws. You dare not think about breaking away from established laws," Xu Huai said with his hands behind his hands, "When we act, we must follow the rules and regulations, but we must also remember
Remember, all established methods and old methods can be innovated and broken through. This is the method of voluntary warfare, and it is still like this..."
The drawing method can be completely used for the production of chain armor.
Even if the drawing method is used to make iron wire, the cost may not come down quickly, but when used to make chain mail, the cost is definitely much lower than the traditional forging method.
Even though the iron wire escorted from Anzhou at this time looked much thinner than the iron rings used for chainmail, it was also too soft. Wu Chihai had thought of these problems before, but was constrained by the established method and subconsciously pulled it.
The possibility of preparing chainmail by the pulling method was eliminated, but it was not considered that some problems could be overcome, and the method should not be set in stone.
The thickness of the wire can be adjusted completely through the hole diameter of the drawing plate.
The use of iron materials of different specifications for drawing, followed by corresponding quenching and other treatments, can also change the properties of the iron wire, whether it is soft or soft, or hard or hard.
In other words, whether the iron wire has the ability to resist splitting and be used for armor weaving can be achieved by improving the existing method.
Traditional chain mail has thousands of thin rings, each of which requires skilled craftsmen to repeatedly and carefully forge. Even if the drawing method is not out of the scope of manual work, the efficiency of the two is by no means the same.
Even the drawing method has greatly reduced the skill requirements of the craftsmen.
The iron rings used in traditional chain mail are thicker, but this does not mean that the craftsmen do not want to forge them to be thinner and smaller.
Generals who wear armor and fight on the battlefield actually long for the chainmail armor they get to be more finely woven so that they can have stronger resistance to hacking and fire protection.
However, using the old method to forge the iron rings smaller and finer, not only does each iron ring need to take several times the time, but also more iron rings are needed to weave it into armor, which will actually improve the chain armor several times.
manufacturing costs.
That far exceeds the practical value of the chain armor itself.
Due to various inconveniences and restrictions, chain armor, which was famous before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, has now been gradually eliminated from the battlefield.
Of course, the structure of chain mail determines its natural shortcomings in anti-piercing ability. Compared with ordinary chain mail, there is a certain gap in all aspects, let alone compared with cold-forged chain mail of this level, but
The drawing method has been proven to be used in the preparation of chain armor, and can also significantly reduce the cost of preparation. As long as it is cheap enough, chain armor is much superior to the leather armor currently commonly equipped by Chushan Army generals...
