The blacksmith shops in Yuanhe County are concentrated in the northeast corner of the city, downwind. As soon as you enter the street, you can smell an obvious burnt smell and a sound of clanking metal.
As a county town on the edge of Taihu Lake, there are seven or eight blacksmith shops here, which mainly sell various farm tools and daily iron tools, but also sell swords, guns, swords and halberds.
According to the laws of the Song Dynasty, civilians are not allowed to possess any armor, artillery, flags and other weapons of war, but various individual weapons are allowed to be possessed by civilians.
Whether it is traditional swords, guns, swords and halberds, axes, axes, hooks and forks, bows, arrows, machine crossbows, or even the latest fast guns and three-eyed blunderbuss of this era, private ownership is allowed, as long as you go to the government to register.
As for the reason why arms control is so loose, it is very simple: in this world with extraordinary power, any place far away from human habitation is not very peaceful, and some unfriendly aliens are active in the mountains and wilderness.
Even if the government, practitioners and warriors will continue to take the initiative to kill various alien races that endanger mankind, they can only ensure the absolute safety of settlements, roads and other human activity areas and their surrounding areas.
As for other places, private power is needed to solve the problem on their own, so the government will open permission to the private sector to possess various weapons.
Of course, the existence of extraordinary power is also an important reason for the release of weapons: according to Liang En's personal experience, it is not a problem for a practitioner who is just beginning to see the skills to defeat three or five professional heavy armor warriors with his bare hands.
After walking half a street under the leadership of Uncle Zhang, they walked into a small blacksmith shop. As soon as they entered the shop, an old man in his fifties walked out of the room.
Perhaps because he was forging iron in the smoky fireside all day long, this blacksmith looked much older than Uncle Zhang, even though he was in his 50s.
"What does this guest want? Although this old shop is not big, it should satisfy you."
Liang En took a closer look at the shop and found that there were three or four blacksmiths or blacksmith apprentices working in the entire shop. Although the area was small, all kinds of facilities were available, and the cooperation of several people was very smooth.
"Master Sun, I'm here specifically to see you this time."
After confirming with Uncle Zhang, Liang En bowed his hands to the old man and continued.
"I once got a large scimitar by accident, but the overall condition is not good. I heard that my father-in-law is the best blacksmith in our county, so I came to ask for help."
"Oh, the Big Scimitar?" Hearing what Liang En said, Tiejiang Sun, who had looked a little listless just now, suddenly became energetic, "Can I get past this thing?"
"My father-in-law, please——"
After hearing what the other party said, Liang En immediately motioned to Uncle Zhang to place the long cloth bag I was holding on the table, and then opened the bag to reveal the scimitar inside.
"Hey, this is simply a waste of things!" After carefully pulling out the blade from the scabbard, looking at it, and then tapping it with his fingers, Tiejiang Sun immediately made a sound of regret.
"This is a fine large iron sword. You may not even find ten of them in Suzhou City. How can someone be so careless about preserving things?"
"Well - this is a weapon that my ancestors seized from pirates when they went to sea. There was no way to maintain it on the ship at that time. As a result, after returning to land, no matter how hard it was to maintain it, it didn't come back. The blacksmith we found didn't dare to repair it. Then
That’s how it changed.”
"Thank you for not asking anyone to fix it." Blacksmith Sun replaced it with a small hammer and inspected it from top to bottom, then raised his head and looked at Liang En and said.
"Judging from the scabbard and handle of this knife, the skills of the craftsmen you hired are really lacking. If you let them repair the blade, they will probably repair the blade directly into scrap metal."
"Then this knife now -"
"Of course it can be repaired. There is just a layer of rust on the blade of yours. There is almost no problem with the main part, so it is not difficult to repair. I just don't know how you want to repair this knife?"
"Huh? What's the difference between these different practices?" Liang En asked with some confusion.
"Because all the accessories of your knife are broken, so if you want to repair it, except for the blade itself, you have to replace it with new ones."
Pointing to the knife placed on the table, Tiejiang Sun explained.
"The easiest way is to repair the wootz steel blade inside, which only costs 2 taels and 1 taels of silver. But if you want to add a new handle and scabbard, it will cost 2 taels and 5 cents to restore it to usable condition.
The money is six cents worth."
"As for the most complicated thing, it is to equip the knife with a set of equipment that can match the iron blade while repairing it. The cost is unlimited."
"Just restore it to a usable state." After thinking about it for a while, Liang En made a decision. At least he felt that the core of this thing is the blade, so the other parts can be simply repaired.
"No problem, just take a look at my craftsmanship. This is the craftsmanship of the Iron and Steel Bureau of the Ministry of Industry of the former Yuan Dynasty." After listening to Liang En's decision, Blacksmith Sun began to dismantle the machete and took out the blade, and then put it into the furnace.
.
As the flame burned, the blade became brighter and brighter until it turned bright red like a strawberry. Blacksmith Sun immediately used iron pliers to pull the blade out of the furnace and put it into a wooden tank filled with quenching solution.
"呲——"
With a soft sound, a not-so-pleasant smell quickly filled the entire store. After taking a few gentle breaths, Liang En smelled the smell of sesame seeds, mutton oil, and asphalt.
Obviously, the quenching liquid used by blacksmiths is an oily liquid, similar to the quenching oil used in modern industry. Compared with water, it can reduce the possibility of deformation or breakage of the blade as much as possible.
More than 30 seconds later, Ironsmith Sun pulled out the knife strip from the quenching liquid and quickly rubbed it over the uncooled charcoal fire to remove the grease, while tempering the knife strip.
After completing this, Ironsmith Sun began the grinding work. Unlike the situation in Yingzhou, the blacksmiths in China preferred to handle the entire process from forging to grinding.
"Aren't you afraid that I will learn these unique secret recipes?"
Seeing Tiejiang Sun going through one procedure after another without hesitation, Liang En subconsciously asked
"Learn to walk? If you can learn to walk just by looking at it once, I will admit it." Blacksmith Sun used plant ash to remove the remaining oil on the knife, and then said while grinding the wood with oil and steel stone powder.
.
"I taught my apprentice step by step for half a year just by watching the fire, but these two guys are too dull to learn enough. So unless you are the reincarnation of Lao Jun's disciple, how can you learn this just by watching it once -"
As time passed and the grinding work was completed, Blacksmith Sun took out the hematite powder from the box next to it for final polishing, and then applied something.
A few minutes later, the unique pattern of wootz steel clearly appeared on the blade. Seeing this, Blacksmith Sun nodded with satisfaction, and then installed the handle and scabbard prepared by his apprentice on the blade.
"Okay, how about this knife now?"
After finishing all the work, Ironsmith Sun held the knife in both hands and handed it to Liang En's hand.
"Not bad, very good."
After unsheathing the sword and swinging it twice, Liang En nodded with satisfaction. He could feel that the weapon in his hand was very smooth when he swung the sword, as if it was an extension of his arm.
The most important thing is that compared with the previous paper knife, this scimitar is obviously easier to use. This should be regarded as his direct feeling after practicing martial arts.
"Of course it's good. Even if this thing is placed in the west, it will be used by at least the first level of thousands of captains. If it is placed here, even if there is only a knife blade left, it can be sold for at least 500 taels of silver."
Tiejiang Sun said proudly as he looked at the fruits of his labor that had been busy for most of the day.
"And my repair this time has restored your knife to its best condition. Whether you continue to use this knife or sell it for money, it will be a good choice."