Li Hongyun woke up in reality, his head was still a little buzzing.
"It's so difficult!
"This night, I couldn't forge a qualified knife, and I'm so angry!
"What I got is a fake talent, right?
"...I can't say it's useless, but it's still a long way from success."
Thinking back to the whole night of yesterday's struggle, Li Hongyun felt disillusioned that his work was in vain.
Every time the knife that I worked so hard to forge failed to pass the test due to various reasons!
The first two times it broke directly when chopping hard bones.
Afterwards, Li Hongyun learned from the experience and considered whether it was because of the high carbon content, so he forged it more. As a result, this time, the hard bone was not broken when cutting, but the blade was bent...
After that, he also encountered various problems, such as it was not sharp enough to cut through the leather, and the center of gravity of the blade was not good, so even if he used all his strength, he could not cut through a dead pig with one strike, etc.
The most annoying thing was that one time his knife seemed to be pretty good, but because of poor control of the material, the blade was shortened.
He tried the knife first, but it turned out that the blade was too short to cut through the dead pig with one blow.
There was no other way. He thought about whether he could fix it, so he found another piece of iron and tried to force it on. It turned out to be futile. There was no such technology as electric welding in ancient times. The result of the forceful joining was the knife and the piece of iron.
They are basically useless and can only be remade.
Angry!
At first, Li Hongyun even felt that the talent he had was of no use. How could he be observant? His observation and memory could be significantly improved?
But after several failures, he thought about it and found that this talent did work, but the effect was not very obvious.
His powers of observation and memory have indeed improved. In the game, he can clearly remember the color of the flame at a certain time, the state of the sponge iron, the approximate temperature of quenching, etc.
But the problem is that these are difficult to directly translate into success.
He did remember every previous failure, but because the entire process of forging weapons was too cumbersome, with countless overlapping steps working together, it was difficult for him to determine which link had the problem.
For example, the problem of blade blade breakage may be due to the carbon content, impurities in the blade, or some other reasons...
Without being able to determine the specific cause or locking down the specific link, it is still too difficult to figure out exactly what is going on.
In short, after a night of tossing, Li Hongyun was a little disheartened.
As a European emperor, he actually does not often encounter such frustrating situations.
Open the forum and see what other players are saying.
Sure enough, other players were basically in mourning.
"The new trial dungeon is too outrageous! It actually allows players to forge swords using ancient methods??"
"That's outrageous. Let alone the ancient method of forging a knife, I can't even handle the modern method..."
"I think it is acceptable to directly give players some steel with a certain carbon content. Now it is too difficult to start directly from the step of iron sand and let the players start from sponge iron!"
"The key is that this ancient skill of forging swords has long been lost. Nowadays, even professional craftsmen basically rarely do this kind of thing. They all use ready-made steel and power hammers to make weapons.
.”
"Can anyone give me a guide? I really want to know what the exclusive talents and skills of god-level talents are..."
In addition, there are many people who share their previous gaming experiences.
Or, to be more precise, a failure experience.
Some players got stuck in the first step. They didn't know that iron sand was a better raw material, so they just threw the unbroken iron ore into the furnace and burned it. As a result, after burning for a long time, the iron ore was still iron ore.
Stone, a lot of charcoal and time wasted in vain.
Some players threw iron sand and charcoal in and found that they could not produce qualified sponge iron at all. It is not known whether it was because the furnace was damp underground or because the temperature of the furnace was not enough.
There are also some players who have come up with sponge iron after a lot of troubles, but they directly forge large pieces of crude steel without sorting. The final result is of course half the effort with half the effort.
Of course, there are also some talented players who either have relevant knowledge reserves in reality or are forging enthusiasts themselves, and their progress is much faster than other players.
But these people basically encountered various problems.
Because when they forge knives, they also use modern methods. The raw materials are basically ready-made steel or steel balls, which can be directly melted and forged to get a good knife blank.
And forging does not require them to do it themselves, it is basically done by a power hammer.
At this time, we started directly from the smelting and sorting steps, which instantly stumped a large number of people.
But after all, there are still big players like Cui Huowang among the players. After a night of hard work, he has built a good weapon, which is just one step away from passing the test on the sword testing platform.
Not long after, Cui Huowang came up with a relatively detailed preliminary strategy.
The basic content of this guide is similar to the information Li Hongyun consulted before. It starts from different processes such as smelting, sorting, forging, and quenching, and educates players about various details that need to be paid attention to during the forging process.
The difference is that Cui Huowang's guide also adds various pictures and descriptive text to introduce the key points of memory at each stage in detail.
For example, during smelting, the approximate proportions of iron sand, limestone powder, and charcoal, the specific arrangement method, how to use the color of the flame to judge the furnace temperature, how to add a small amount of materials, how to sort the crude steel produced,
Which part of the blade can be used for different sponge irons, the detailed timing of quenching, etc.
Players who were originally a little discouraged couldn't help but cheer up again after seeing Cui Huowang's strategy.
Okay, Lao Cui is reliable!
Many players suddenly have the illusion of "I can do it".
It's just like any other game. When you first get started with a new system, everyone is confused and doesn't know how to pass the level. This is the most anxious time.
But once a detailed strategy guide and a good-looking finished film appear, players will instantly have the illusion that "that's how it is" and "it seems to be no problem at all for me."
Li Hongyun was even more encouraged.
Because on the one hand, he discovered that his progress was similar to that of many real-life forging masters. Does this mean that he is extremely talented?
On the other hand, regarding Cui Huowang's strategy, Li Hongyun verified each other with the contents in his memory, and he actually came up with several guesses, guessing which part of the problem he had in forging the knife before.
"Continue to check information during the day, and continue to fight at night!"
Li Hongyun cheered up again and waited for the arrival of the evening.
…
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
Li Hongyun took a deep breath and threw the knife he had just finished building aside.
In the open space next to it, there are already more than ten knives with different shapes. Some knives are broken, some are bent, and some knives have not been put on the sword test stand at all. They were abandoned by Li Hongyun as soon as they were made.
Because he knew that a knife of this quality would never pass the test, so he had better not humiliate himself.
However, after so many failures, the network woven from various experiences in Li Hongyun's mind finally took shape.
At this time, he already had a lot of details in his mind, and he kept all the key points of every step in mind.
What kind of sponge iron is most suitable for forging knives, when should it be quenched, and how to remedy some problems...
These are all built using massive resources.
If it were in ancient times, the iron sand and charcoal wasted by Li Hongyun would have been enough to bankrupt hundreds of ordinary families.
But in this trial, he could work hard without worrying about bankruptcy.
Because raw materials are in unlimited supply.
"Do it again!
"I hope my luck will work this time!"
After all the details are roughly in place, what the swordsmith needs most is probably luck.
Because ancient iron smelting was affected by too many factors, the emergence of magical weapons was often the result of the combination of the right time, place, and people, and was mixed with many metaphysical factors.
It’s no wonder that in ancient times, there were many superstitious behaviors about making swords with human blood.
Of course, from a modern perspective, "sacrifice one's life with the sword" in ancient times does have some legitimacy.
Because the human body itself contains a large amount of fat, when firepower was insufficient in ancient times, the instantaneous combustion of the human body could quickly increase the temperature, and the carbon content in the human body also helped the carbon content in the sword to reach a more appropriate range.
But in fact, using livestock or animals to sacrifice swords has the same effect.
It's just that the ancients believed that all things have animism, and believed that sacrificing animals to swords was a disrespectful act, or sacrificing humans to swords would be a better way to show sincerity... There's no way to say.
In short, in ancient times, people who were unlucky could not become an excellent swordsmith.
After a period of smelting, another furnace of crude steel came out.
Li Hongyun was already very experienced at this time, and immediately ordered his craftsmen to use hammers and chisels to smash the crude steel, which was still very hot, into small pieces while it was still hot, then cool it and sort it.
He picked out a few pieces of sponge iron that seemed to be of good quality and prepared them as raw materials for forging knives.
Heating, forging, heating, forging...
After many such boring cycles, Li Hongyun finally took action.
He took the iron drill from the blacksmith's hand and said, "Okay, I'll do the rest myself!"
After that, some relatively delicate operations are required, and it is a bit uneasy to hand it over to these tool makers and craftsmen.
Li Hongyun carefully looked at the red-hot iron block and felt that the effect this time seemed to be good.
Its quality is obviously better than what I have seen before.
There are fewer impurities, and the feeling when struck is moderately soft and hard.
Seems like a good embryo.
Li Hongyun closed his eyes and concentrated, trying hard to use his intuition to hammer the blade into his ideal shape.
The blade is slender, with a very perfect arc, and the two spines are slightly higher.
After having a rough shape, he took another slender piece of iron and wrapped it around the blade to turn it into a sharp edge.
Then, two pieces of iron with different carbon contents were heated and forcibly beaten to fuse together.
This process is very boring, but fortunately it can be fast forwarded.
Li Hongyun carefully controlled the fast-forwarding time. When a more delicate operation was required, he carefully controlled the force on his hands, for fear that he would use too much force and hit his head too hard.
In a sense, blacksmithing and sculpture are both craft activities, and they have something in common.
One of the essence of sculpture is that when carving, the eyes should be smaller and the nose should be larger.
Because if the eyes are made small, they can be enlarged; if the nose is made big, they can be made smaller. But if the reverse is true, if the eyes are made big and the nose is small, then there is no way to deal with it.
In the process of blacksmithing, Li Hongyun also gradually realized this, that is, in the early stage when striking the knife blade, he can use more force, but in the later stage, he has to work carefully, be cautious, and infuse a lot of patience to slowly and slowly
Only by beating it can it reach a perfect state.
Finally, the knife embryo is finished.
After quenching, Li Hongyun lifted the knife embryo and looked at it carefully, feeling a sense of accomplishment.
It can be clearly felt that it seems to be much better than the previous works.
"That's it, grind!"
After handing the knife blank to the craftsman responsible for fine polishing, Li Hongyun started the fast-forward mode.
After polishing, sharpening, and adding a scabbard and various decorations, a single sword is completed.
For this look, Li Hongyun took reference from Sheng Dynasty’s standard equipment single sword.
Compared with the Yi Dao, the blade of a single sword does not have such an obvious curvature, and the curvature of the handle does not extend along with the curve of the blade, but presents a reverse curve, which is more conducive to holding with one hand.
Moreover, the blade is lighter, the rear part is obviously thicker than the front part, and it is more flexible to swing.
Of course, these advantages are actually found out by force. In actual combat, it is still difficult for it to beat Yi Dao.
The biggest advantage of this kind of single sword is that it is easy to build.
In terms of shape, there is no need to make such a large arc, and the blade is relatively straight, which is more friendly to beginners like Li Hongyun; moreover, it does not need to go through many complicated processes like the Yi Dao, further reducing the probability of overturning.
.
Since this kind of knife could become the standard equipment of the Dasheng Dynasty, it must be relatively easy to make.
And Li Hongyun's current goal is not to create a magical weapon that will be handed down from generation to generation. As long as he can barely cut off the dead pig, that's enough.
After holding this single sword in his hand and waving it a few times, Li Hongyun couldn't put it down.
He has played with many good knives in various historical slices.
Especially in the history of the Dasheng Dynasty, several barbarian knives were captured. The barbarian knives at that time were basically the pinnacle of cold weapon knife-making, whether it was the center of gravity, feel, sharpness or flexibility, basically
Everything can be said to be impeccable.
As for the single sword in his hand, if he had obtained it in the previous historical slices, he would probably have thrown it aside in disgust and looked for a better weapon.
But now, the meaning of this single sword is completely different.
After all, it took him several days of hard work to finally create a satisfying finished product!
After concentrating his efforts, this weapon instantly became different.
Li Hongyun took the sword to the sword testing platform and looked at the hard bone in the front.
To be honest, I'm a little reluctant to give it up.
This bone has become the biggest obstacle on his way to forging knives. At least five or six knives have been destroyed on this bone.
Either it was broken on the spot, or the blade was simply curled, causing it to fail the subsequent test at all.
It would be a pain for any knife maker to cut hard bones with a knife that you have worked so hard to build, but if you want to test whether the strength of the blade is up to standard, this is a step that cannot be skipped.
Li Hongyun took a deep breath, held the knife in his right hand, and slashed hard at the hard bone!
There was a muffled sound and bone fragments flew!
After a while, Li Hongyun opened his eyes and carefully looked at the blade of the single sword.
There is a slight curling phenomenon, but it’s not a big problem!
Not being interrupted is the best news.
Looking at the hard bone again, although it will return to its original shape after being chopped, at this time, there is already an obvious crack on it.
Li Hongyun couldn't help but cheer up, there's something exciting!
He came to the dead pig again.
Wiping away some of the saliva left behind by disappointment, he held the handle of the knife with both hands and took a deep breath.
Strictly speaking, this single knife is not suitable for holding with both hands, because the handle is not that long, and the shape of the handle was designed for one-handed use from the beginning.
But if you want to split this dead pig in half, you must use the power of your hands.
This will of course test the player's way of exerting force, but in general, it will test the knife itself more.
Because no matter how good a player is at using a knife, if there is a problem with the center of gravity or curvature of the knife itself, it will be difficult to use force to make up for it.
On the other hand, if the knife itself is very good, then even if there are some problems with the way it generates force, it won't hurt.
After all, Li Hongyun has experienced a lot of battles in the game. Although he is better at using muskets, his sword skills are pretty good, and there will definitely not be any big problems with the way he uses his force.
He took a deep breath, then held the knife with both hands and slashed from the upper right to the lower left!
You can clearly feel the brief feeling of blockage when the blade cuts into the skin, cuts the muscles, and chops the bones. Finally, you can feel the sudden feeling of enlightenment when the blade comes out from the other side.
Since when Li Hongyun killed enemies before, most of them were armored enemies, and he only needed to stab or chop the vital parts to be fatal, so he had never tried to cut them in half with a single blow like this.
At this time, using his own knife to create such an effect also gave him a sudden and satisfying feeling.
He did not pause, but continued to slash at the tight piece of leather with his knife, easily making a gash in it.
"Success?"
Li Hongyun gently stroked the blade, and the performance of this knife simply exceeded his previous expectations.
"So...is this the joy of craftsmen?"
Li Hongyun suddenly realized the fun of those knife forging masters and craft masters on the Internet.
The reason why human civilization has a long history and continues to thrive is precisely because humans have wisdom, and wisdom comes from constant exploration, experimentation and transformation of the world.
In ancient times, craftsmen did not have so many scientific theories to support them. They were like guides who kept groping forward in the dark, driving the continuous development of productivity from slash-and-burn cultivation to the Bronze Age and then to the Iron Age.
In ancient China, craftsmen were ranked third among scholars, farmers, industry and commerce. Although craftsmen were respected to a certain extent, the importance was still far from enough. Even though science and technology had always been at the forefront during the long ancient period, the germination of modern science had not yet begun.
It was much later than the West, which led to the backwardness of modern times, but these skilled craftsmen still left a mark in the history of Chinese civilization.
The happiness that creation brings to mankind is unparalleled.
Li Hongyun spent all his energy on forging swords in the past few days. Although he was disappointed at the beginning due to constant failures, looking back now, every time he fumbled for the right heat and timing, he got closer little by little.
ultimate success.
And after he crafted a finished sword with his own hands, all the previous hard work finally turned into a huge sense of happiness, giving him enough reward.
"Okay, from now on I can use the magic weapons I forged!
"Well, it's not a magic weapon, but at least you can customize some special weapons according to your own needs!
"When I have the opportunity later, I will definitely try to make a flintlock gun with my own hands. It's very exciting just thinking about it!"
At the same time, everything around him began to change rapidly.
In the illusion of Shenji's trial, this huge workshop disappeared out of thin air and appeared directly in Li Hongyun's fiefdom, replacing the original small blacksmith shop.
As for the scene in the trial illusion, it has undergone drastic changes again.
After the white fog in front of him dispersed, Li Hongyun was surprised to find that his perspective had changed.
It becomes God’s perspective.
At this time, he seemed to be floating in the air, the white clouds blocking his vision dispersed, and the scenery below was unobstructed.
This appears to be the ruins of an imperial city.
At this time, it was being continuously demolished, and another huge imperial city was being planned on its ruins.
Tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers are busy here. Some are demolishing the ruins of the original imperial city, some are transporting various types of wood and stones, and some are constantly transporting and distributing materials transported from various places.
Pick.
Li Hongyun found that he could raise or lower the lens as he pleased, and he could see farther away, and he could also go deep into the building to view various details.
This feeling was quite uncomfortable at first, and I always felt like I was afraid of heights, but I soon got used to it, and instead felt like flying freely in the sky.
As Li Hongyun raised the camera, some key locations around the city were also displayed in front of him.
In the mountains to the southwest, there are a large number of craftsmen quarrying stones in the mountains.
These huge stones weighed hundreds of kilograms and were impossible to carry by manpower. These craftsmen began to dig wells at regular intervals along the way, and then when the weather got cold, they poured water on the ground to form ice channels.
, and then pull it with a rope.
There were people ahead who kept pouring water to keep the ice smooth. In this way, countless huge stones were transported to the imperial city under construction.
Farther to the southeast, the two provinces must provide different tribute bricks to the imperial city, one is big green bricks and the other is gold bricks.
These tribute bricks are carefully selected, dried, and fired from special materials. They are fine, hard, and have a crisp sound. After careful selection, they were transported to the Imperial City through the Grand Canal.
In the mountains farther away, countless craftsmen are cutting wood in the mountains. These huge golden nanmu trees grow in the old forests of the mountains and cannot be moved by manpower. They can only be piled up on the mountains. When flash floods break out, the wood will be washed down the mountain and tied up.
They were built into wooden rafts and floated along the Yangtze River to the Grand Canal, from where they were sent to the capital.
Countless craftsmen are like hard-working ants, constantly busy, using their meager manpower to transform nature and build a wonder in ancient civilization.
Immediately afterwards, Li Hongyun discovered that a frame composed of countless dotted lines appeared in his field of vision.
It's a bit like some kind of drawing, or a virtual shadow of a building in reality.
As long as you build according to this dotted line, you can build a ready-made palace.
Li Hongyun carefully looked at the Imperial City, which could only be regarded as a large construction site at the moment, and after comparing it with the phantom, he finally determined the goal he wanted to accomplish this time.
Forbidden City!
Yes, this is the famous Forbidden City built during the Dasheng Dynasty. It covers a huge area and can be said to be a miracle in the history of world architecture.
The good news is that Li Hongyun does not need to start from brick by brick. Craftsmen from all over the country are continuously sending various raw materials. All he has to do is to look at the ghost drawings in his field of vision like building blocks.
Restore this palace.
The bad news is that the number of building blocks is an astronomical number.
Li Hongyun couldn't help but his face darkened, and it was hard to accept this fact for a long time.
