After receiving the instructions from his uncle, Hao Tong hurried from the military camp of Fengnan Baihusuo to Hao's workshop. A high-manganese steel sword had been made. Hao Yizong quenched the knife and opened it.
The blade and handle were also wrapped with silk thread, which looked very beautiful. After hearing the announcement from the apprentice outside the door that Hao Tong had arrived, Hao Yizong quickly asked Hao Qing to hide the knife, and signaled Su Hao and others with his eyes to be silent.
"Uncle called me here, what are your instructions?"
Under the guidance of his apprentice, Hao Tong came to the backyard. He first gave a military salute to Su Hao, then turned and bowed to Hao Yizong and asked respectfully.
"Tong'er, do you remember that your uncle promised you an iron sword?" Hao Yizong asked Hao Tong with a smile.
Hao Tong said: "My nephew remembers."
Hao Yizong said: "My uncle has also been thinking about this matter. Unfortunately, this fine iron is very rare. My uncle has not been able to gather enough materials to make a knife in these years, so he has always been in debt to you.
You must have been blaming uncle for breaking his promise, right?"
Hao Tong said quickly: "My nephew, how dare you. My nephew has been in the army for many years, and he has heard people talk about the value of this iron and steel in the army. We, General Deng, have always wanted to build a large iron and iron gun, but we have never been able to do so.
.If the Commander-in-Chief is like this, how dare your nephew have any extravagant expectations?"
Hao Yizong nodded and said: "Well, as long as you don't blame uncle. However, uncle recently got a good piece of steel, which is only as strong as that iron. Uncle has made a big knife for you with this steel, you can
Want to take a look?"
Hao Tong's eyes lit up and he replied: "My nephew wants to see it."
"Qing'er, bring the knife to your brother." Hao Yizong said.
The knife was hidden behind Hao Qing. After hearing his father's instructions, Hao Qing held the knife in both hands and handed it to Hao Tong. In his haste just now, Hao Yizong actually had time to make a simple scabbard and put the knife in it.
Inside, Hao Qing handed the knife and scabbard to Hao Tong at this time.
"Thank you, brother." Hao Tong took the knife, holding the scabbard in one hand and the handle in the other, and pulled it out halfway. A cold light flashed through, and Hao Tong couldn't help but praise: "What a great knife!"
"Come on, Tong'er, let's demonstrate this sword to everyone." Hao Yizong said.
"How to act?" Hao Tong asked.
Hao Qing nuzzled at Xiao Wuzi, who turned around and brought a fir tree as thick as the mouth of a bowl. He stood it in the middle of the yard and fixed it with an iron frame. Hao Tong was stunned and asked Hao Yizong: "Uncle,
You don’t want me to use this knife to chop this wooden pile, do you?”
Hao Yizong said: "Is there anything wrong?"
Hao Tong hesitated and said: "If you use such a good knife to chop wood piles, I'm afraid it will damage the blade. It's a pity."
Hao Yizong scolded: "You bastard, your uncle made the knife. If the blade is damaged when cutting a wooden stake, can it still be called a good knife? Didn't I tell you, this knife is better than the iron knife? You
Have you ever seen an iron knife hurt the blade when cutting a wooden stake?"
"My nephew has never seen a iron sword." Hao Tong said calmly. In fact, iron weapons have always been just a legend in the military. No one can tell what a real iron sword looks like.
Hao Yizong was too lazy to argue with Hao Tong. He pointed to the wooden stake and said: "Tong'er, you once said that you were the enemy of ten thousand people. Now that you have the sword in your hand, my uncle wants to see if you can cut it off with one sword."
Wood."
"Nephew, let's try it." Hao Tong didn't dare to be stubborn anymore. Since his uncle said so firmly, he could only give it a try. From his heart, he felt that no matter how sharp the knife was, it might not be able to cut wood with one knife.
To say the least, even if he used all his strength to cut the wood with one knife, the knife would probably have curled or chipped. It would be a pity for this new knife.
Everyone took a few steps back, leaving room for Hao Tong. Hao Tong completely pulled out the knife, handed the scabbard to Hao Qing, held the knife himself, and walked to the wooden stake.
"Hi!"
Hao Tong roared, holding the knife in both hands, rounding it and slashing at the wooden pile. There was only a click, and the imaginary obstacle did not appear. The wooden pile was like a piece of tofu in front of the steel knife, and was chopped into pieces.
Two pieces. The upper half swayed slightly and then suddenly fell down.
"good!"
Everyone cheered together. The knife is a good knife, and Hao Tong's martial arts skills are even more impressive. To cut such a piece of wood from the waist requires not only a lot of strength, but also requires the person holding the knife to move in a balanced and coherent manner.
, if there is a slight hesitation in the middle, the knife will get stuck.
"This knife is so sharp!" Hao Tong's face was full of surprise and joy. He couldn't believe his eyes.
I saw the remaining half of the wooden stake in front of me. The fracture was very smooth, and there was no roughness at all. And the steel knife that just cut the piece of wood had no curl or damage on the blade. If it were replaced by one in the army,
It is completely unimaginable to use a large knife in ordinary use.
"Haha, it's really good steel!" Hao Yizong was also overjoyed. After he made the knife just now, he tested it and confirmed that it was indeed a good knife that can cut iron as well as mud. Hao Tong's performance further confirmed his
Feeling. Judging from his experience as an old craftsman, the quality of this knife far exceeds the so-called iron knife.
In fact, there is no unified definition of iron iron. It is generally considered to be a material made of a mixture of high carbon steel and wrought iron. The technology of smelting high carbon steel in ancient China developed slowly. Instead, it was developed by northern ethnic groups, Persia, and Tianzhu.
Other places have done a better job in this regard. Therefore, the iron and iron in mainland China are often imported from Persia and other places. The price is very high and it is difficult to obtain.
Compared with ordinary steel, high carbon steel has higher strength and hardness, so it is regarded as a material for making superior weapons. But in front of high manganese steel, high carbon steel is nothing, especially in terms of toughness.
It is comparable to high manganese steel. Hao Yizong was exposed to iron and steel when he was a craftsman in the Ministry of Industry. He knew that the steel developed by Su Hao was far stronger than iron and steel.
"My nephew is a great talent, this high manganese steel is really amazing." Hao Yizong said to Su Hao, clasping his fists.
"Why, this steel was made by Su Baihu?" Hao Tong looked at Su Hao with wide eyes.
Su Hao quickly pointed to Hao Qing and said: "I didn't make this steel, it was made by your elder brother. If you want to thank him, just thank him."
Hao Qing said: "How dare you, a villain, be greedy for merit? If Su Baihu hadn't taught me this method of making steel, how would I have known that adding manganese ore to steel could produce such good steel?"
Hao Tong asked: "You just said, what is this steel called Gao Meng Steel? Well, it is indeed worthy of the name, it is indeed Meng Steel!"
"It's manganese steel..." Su Hao corrected helplessly, "It's the word manganese next to the word gold, which is the name of a mineral."
Hao Yizong smiled and said: "Xiannie, I think it is more appropriate to use the word fierce."
"That's right, let's call it Meng Gang. I don't know the word manganese next to the word gold." Hao Tong said excitedly. He put the knife back into the scabbard, hugged it to his chest, walked up to Su Hao, and asked:
"Su Baihu, is the smelting method of this fierce steel difficult?"
Su Hao said: "It's not that difficult to say. The main thing is to find manganese ore. Jiangxi is not a place rich in manganese ore. I only discovered a small vein by accident, and the reserves are not very large."
Su Hao has a basis for saying this. The areas rich in manganese ore in China are mainly in Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan and other places. Jiangxi's manganese ore resources are not rich. Fengcheng is just because it is located at the intersection of several regional fault zones.
, has a variety of mineralization conditions, so many types of mineral deposits are distributed in small amounts. However, if we want to meet the requirements of industrial mining and utilization, these minerals are of little value.
"How many kilograms of this kind of fierce steel can be smelted from the ore in your small vein?" Hao Tong continued to ask.
Su Hao scratched his scalp: "It's hard to estimate this. It should be several hundred thousand kilograms."
Calculated based on 500,000 kilograms, that is 250 tons. The manganese content in high manganese steel is 13%, so only about 30 tons of manganese are needed. Even if the grade of manganese ore is a little different, hundreds of tons of ore are enough.
Now. From the small vein discovered by Su Hao, there is still no problem in extracting hundreds of tons of manganese ore.
"Being able to smelt hundreds of thousands of kilograms of this kind of strong steel!" Hao Tong beamed with joy, "It's really great. Uncle and brother, please work harder and smelt more strong steel. I would like to ask you to give it to us, Mr. Deng.
The soldiers can make a big gun made of strong steel, and then make a big sword like this for Deng Kui, or else, simply replace all the weapons of our personal troops..."
"Wait a minute, Hao Tong, do you think I'm a weapons bureau?" Su Hao interrupted Hao Tong's fantasy and said, "Do you think this high manganese steel can be made by just smelting it? Your elder brother is working hard today.
After working hard all day, you have just refined these dozens of kilograms of steel. How can you afford your squandering?
Mining ore costs money, buying coke costs money, let’s not talk about these. How much does it cost to make just this crucible? This crucible will be scrapped after just a few uses. Do the math, one hundred
How much does a kilogram of steel cost?”
"Well, that's it." Hao Tong also began to calm down, "How about we recruit more blacksmiths and upgrade a few more furnaces for smelting?"
Hao Yizong shook his head and said: "No, this method of smelting high-strength steel must not be made public. After all, we are a small family. If this method is taken advantage of by others and they want to take it by force, we can't handle it. According to me,
In view of this, we can only smelt a few furnaces of steel and make a few weapons for our own use, or give them to generals who are closely related to us like General Deng. If other people come here to buy weapons, we will refuse.
Ore is hard to find and there is nothing we can do to help, so this is also a way to avoid disaster."
"This... what a pity!" Hao Tong said with a pout.
Su Hao was also a little sad: "Uncle Hao, is this really all we can do? It's obviously a good thing, but it can't be used to benefit the people. My nephew is really unwilling."
Hao Yizong patted Su Hao on the shoulder and said: "Nephew Su Xian, you are still young and don't know that things in this world are dangerous. In the books you read, are there any Chu people who are not guilty and who are guilty of carrying a jade? I don't know much, so this is also
From what other people in the Zazao Bureau said, I think, nephew, you must know what this means, right?"