The next morning, Wen Shutong, the military supervisor, came to the military supervisory office early and asked his confidants to recruit fifteen "experienced" craftsmen for Fang Jun. Although Fang Jun said that all old and weak women and children could do it, so did Wen Shutong. If you care about people, you can't really create a bunch of old, weak, women and children.
Of course, since the people he recruited are "rich in experience", it means they are actually quite young...
There was no way around it. The Ordnance Supervisory Office had a lot of small affairs and never had idle people. Wen Shutong squeezed out these things.
As for allocating a piece of land for a workshop outside the city, this is much easier.
The Ordnance Supervision produces a large number of weapons, which cannot be built within the imperial city. Most of the Ordnance Supervision's workshops are located on the banks of the Feng River in the south of the city. After the weapons are repaired and manufactured, they can go directly to Chang'an and Xianyang along the river, which is convenient for equipping the army.
The foothills of Zhongnan Mountain are all ownerless wasteland. The mountainous surface is hard and contains many gravels, which is not conducive to farming. Allocating a piece of land at random only requires submitting a document to Chang'an County afterwards.
Wen Shutong had a good idea. As long as Fang Jun didn't cause trouble for him, he would do anything with him...
Not long after, Fang Jun arrived, leading a carriage with several pig iron ingots neatly stacked on the flatbed of the carriage.
"Master Supervisor, we have brought some samples of the iron ingots. Please appoint an experienced blacksmith from the Ordnance Supervision to test them and see if they are of much better quality than the iron ingots you purchased before."
Yesterday during the check-in, calling Uncle Wen seemed very cordial and brought us closer to each other, but now Wen Shutong is already standing at the door of the check-in room, with people coming and going, so he must be consistent with his official position.
"Haha," Wen Shutong smiled, walked over with his hands behind his back, glanced at Fang Jun, and then looked at the iron ingots on the carriage.
"Although I am not a blacksmith, I am not inferior to those blacksmiths."
After decades of working in the Ordnance Supervisor, I have learned a lot about it, even as a layman, and Wen Shutong is an easy-going person. When it comes to craftsmanship, few people in the Ordnance Supervisor dare to boast that they can match him.
In this era, there were no metallographic microscopes, so it was impossible to accurately measure the elemental composition of steel materials. We could only rely on the most primitive metallographic method, that is - visual inspection!
Sometimes Fang Jun really admires our ancestors who can tell the general performance of an iron ingot without using any tools, just by looking at it with a pair of eyes, and then knocking it with something like an adze, and the performance is basically the same.
After carefully examining several iron ingots, Wen Shutong's eyes lit up and he stared at Fang Jun and asked, "Are you sure they are all of this quality?"
Fang Jun said calmly: "It can only be better, never worse."
"good!"
No wonder Wen Shutong was so excited.
Nothing can better describe the posture of an ideal Tang Dynasty soldier than a Mo Dao.
The blade is long and straight, and the blade is straight and heroic. Even if it is slightly curved, it is upright and awe-inspiring, without the sharpness of a scimitar. The blade is broad and flat, graceful and generous; the tandem is small and square, capable and confident. The tip of the blade is either folded or curved. , without cutting first, there is a natural intimidation, but no killing intention. The scabbard may be simple or gorgeous, with the blade hidden inside, polite and elegant.
Volume 16 of "Tang Liu Dian" contains: "There are four types of swords: one is the Yi Dao, the second is the Barrier Dao, the third is the Horizontal Dao, and the fourth is the Mo Dao... The Mo Dao is also a long sword, held by infantrymen, and is the oldest weapon in ancient times. To chop a horse, the sword weighs fifteen kilograms, also known as a machete. It is seven feet long, the blade is three feet long, the handle is four feet long, and an iron drill is used under it. It can be used when horses are walking on waterways. A strong man holds it and uses his waist strength to spin and chop anyone who blocks it. For the fans..."
The Mo Dao is the most important weapon used by the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty against the Turkic cavalry!
The swordsmen formed a formation, and their blades were as sharp as a forest; they advanced like a wall, and all the men and horses were shattered!
However, although holding this sword can greatly increase the power of infantry against cavalry, it has a fatal flaw - it is too difficult to forge!
The Mo Dao blade is narrow and long, which places extremely high requirements on the material used to make the knife. If it is too hard, it will break easily; if it is too soft, it will bend easily...
Therefore, the iron material for forging Mo Dao must be of excellent quality. Even if it is not as good as steelmaking, it is still almost the same.
How many kilograms of iron was made every year in the Tang Dynasty? It is too difficult to select the iron material suitable for forging the Mo Dao! And the cost is too high! Therefore, although the Mo Dao is a weapon against cavalry, the output is very small
, each Mo Dao will be registered separately. When a person dies, the knife must be taken back!
The court regulations even expressly stipulate that Mo Dao is not allowed to be buried with him!
But now, almost every piece of these iron ingots brought by Fang Jun can be used as iron material for forging Mo Dao!
How could Wen Shutong not be excited? Just thinking about the countless tigers of the Tang Dynasty advancing like a forest with swords in their hands, and the cavalry outside the Great Wall having to avoid their sharp edges and retreat hastily, he was almost overwhelmed...
"I want it! I want it all, no matter how much you have!"
Wen Shutong's eyes were red and he was cruel! Even if he had to quit the entire iron factory of Changsun Wuji's family, he still had to take down all the iron materials, and he would not hesitate to offend Changsun Wuji to death!
He's gone crazy for the iron!
only……
Fang Jun smiled slightly awkwardly: "What... Mr. Jianzheng, you can't do it..."
Wen Shutong immediately glared: "What can't you do? You are a powerful military weapons supervisor. Even if you stop the contract with other iron factories, I will take all the iron materials from your house! If the military weapons supervisor doesn't have enough money, I will
Go and ask His Majesty for instructions!”
"Your Majesty can't ask for it... A certain family's iron factory can produce 20,000 kilograms of this kind of iron every day. It's just given to you for free. How can you get so many craftsmen to forge it for you? You can't let it rust...
…”
"Two...twenty thousand catties?"
Wen Shutong's eyes almost popped out of his head. He thought to himself, kid, just brag. If you don't brag, will you die? For twenty thousand kilograms, the whole Guanzhong is your iron factory?
Wen Shutong had a look of contempt on his face, as if I have seen through you already: "Even if your family can produce 20,000 kilograms a day, who will you sell it to? The Ordnance Supervision can be said to be the place that consumes the largest amount of iron in the entire Tang Dynasty, and it is working at full capacity.
, it only consumes 100,000 jins of iron per month! I don’t believe it, what other yamen can consume more iron than the Ordnance Supervisor?”
Fang Jun said helplessly: "I didn't say which yamen I would sell it to..."
"That's even more ridiculous! Which business in the Tang Dynasty can match the amount of iron consumed by the Yamen?"
"It doesn't have to be sold to the yamen, right? It is true that the scale of the Military Supervision or other yamen is much larger than that of the private sector, and the demand is also large, but you have to know that the profit is small! The lower official can forge iron pots
, kitchen knives, hoes... and other agricultural tools, the profit can be doubled compared to selling it to the weapons inspector!"
Fang Jun had to tell Mr. Jianzheng some business experience. The quality of Fang's iron material was not much worse than the so-called "steel" among the people. This kind of wrought iron has a carbon content second only to steel.
The quality of their agricultural tools is absolutely superior to all the iron factories in Datang at that time. Coupled with the low prices, it will not be a problem to monopolize the iron market in Datang!
Wen Shutong was completely stunned, his eyes were obviously dull, and he said: "You...you mean...use this kind of fine iron to...forge kitchen knives?"
Fang Jun nodded affirmatively: "There is also a hoe..."
Before he finished speaking, Wen Shutong let out an "ouch" and rushed forward like crazy, pinching Fang Jun's collar with his eyes as if he wanted to eat people: "What a waste of natural resources! What a waste of natural resources... What a bastard!
You are... simply committing a crime by using this kind of top-grade refined iron to forge kitchen knives and hoes!"
Fang Jun was startled by his actions. He was grabbed by the collar and didn't move away...
I really didn’t realize that Mr. Jianzheng, who is as thin as a thin piece of paper, can move so quickly?
But according to Fang Jun's back, he can kick the Lord Supervisor away with one kick...
Of course you can't do this, so Fang Jun had to let him go, and just smiled bitterly and said: "Master Jianzheng...Uncle Wen...don't get excited. You think it's a pity to forge kitchen knives and hoes from these iron materials, but have you ever thought about it?"
It’s also helpless, can we stop the iron factory by ourselves?”
Wen Shutong was just angry when he saw such good iron being wasted by Fang Jun. When Fang Jun said this, he also knew that he was too excited. People have worked hard to refine iron, so naturally they can make money and sell it...
It's just that the iron material is so good that it was forged into a kitchen knife...
Wen Shutong was so torn in his heart that he had no choice but to grit his teeth and keep out of sight and out of mind: "One hundred thousand kilograms of iron per month...80,000, let me deliver it to the workshop in the south of the city on time, and the price will be half of the current market price.
Bar?"
"As long as it's cash, it's absolutely fine!" Fang Jun didn't take it seriously. His improved iron-making method greatly improved both output and quality, and the cost naturally dropped to an incredible level. Even if he sold it at half price, he still made a huge profit.
Wen Shutong ordered the clerk to come and write down a contract with Fang Jun, agreeing not to regret each other. The words were empty words and the words were written as proof!
Then he waved his hand in an extremely bored tone: "I have already assigned the person you want. Go and discuss with the secretary to see which piece of land is suitable. Just ask him to go to Chang'an County to make a report."
Fang Jun was overjoyed: "Let me choose?"
Wen Shutong nodded, disapproving: "Ah! Anyway, our workshop is next to Zhongnan Mountain. It is a wasteland on the hillside and no food is grown. As long as you don't go too far, I will follow your lead!"
Fang Jun couldn't help but feel happy, but when he saw the fifteen craftsmen selected by Wen Shutong for him, Fang Jun's eyes widened...