C61

Walking towards the northwest of White Horse Camp, there was a small island that was encircled by a river. The area of the island was around ten miles, and there were many thick reeds growing on the island. Winter river water is very shallow, a kick barely up to the knee, the water is also very clear, occasionally you can see silvery white fish in the aquatic plants.

The reeds in the middle of the island had already been completely dug up, and what replaced them was a thirty feet tall iron furnace. In the cold noon wind, a large group of craftsmen were doing the final test.

"General, my father has arrived." At this time, Ma Tiedan walked over with the old horse.

The Gongsun Jia brothers recognized them and approached them without any resistance.

"I am Ma Jun, we pay our respects to the general!" Seeing that Gongsun Xu turned his head, the old horse immediately bowed.

"What did you say!?" Your name is Ma Jun? Is it someone in the shadows? " Gongsun Xu's face changed. Could it be that Ma Tiedan's father was the most famous mechanical inventor of the Three Kingdoms, Ma Jun?

Ma Jun was surprised: "I am Fu Feng from ancestor, but due to the chaos around Dong Zhuo, I am here."

Gongsun Xu was overjoyed. The historical Ma Jun had improved the loom, invented the turning water car and the pointing carriage, and also improved the stone-throwing cart s and the Zhuge crossbow s. One must know that more than two thousand years later, there were still people researching on Zhuge Yun's crossbow, and they could not even replicate it completely. However, he did not know that he had already invented a few things.

"General, you seem to have heard of my lowly name?" Ma Jun asked carefully.

"Heard of it." Gongsun Xu nodded, he did not dare speak of Ma Jun's achievements again like how he kissed Hua Tuo's ass, and decided to speak of it later on. Thus, he pointed to the steel furnace and changed the topic: "Mister Ma, what do you think about this iron furnace?"

"I dare not call myself sir. Could this little one take a closer look? "

"Mr. Ma, please read as you wish. After you've finished reading, you can share your thoughts on this matter."

"Thank you, General." Ma Jun thanked him as his eyes lit up and he walked forward.

"General!" Ma Tiedan bowed and said, "This is exactly how my father is. When he sees something new, he loses all focus. Please do not blame him, General."

"It doesn't matter. Your father is a man of character. How could I blame him?" Gongsun Xu looked at Ma Jun's back and whispered, "Iron Core, has your father made a lot of new things?"

"That's right!" Ma Tiedan nodded and replied proudly, "When my father was still in Chang'an, he increased the number of warp threads of the loom from fifty to sixty. A proficient weaver can weave two extra pieces of cloth a day! Later on, he invented the waterwheel, and the officials even rewarded him with fifty years' worth of money. "

"Anything else?" Gongsun Xu pondered and asked.

"No, everything else is just some small stuff!" Ma Tiedan suddenly became afraid of his forehead, "Oh yeah, on the day Sun Dajie knocked on his door, when I went home, my dad was making a wooden horse. He said that after I succeeded, I could go on my own."

Gongsun Xu was shocked, he had taken the wooden horse himself! Wasn't this what they called a famous horse with a strong reputation in the world? He had picked up a treasure! He had to make Ma Jun stay in the Trades and Crafts Camp no matter what!

"General, I feel that this furnace is a little strange." Ma Tiedan did not know that Gongsun Xu was scheming against his father. He looked at the furnace with complete suspicion.

Compared to the iron furnaces he had seen before, this one was even bigger, and the structure was also different. There were three iron pipes on top of the furnace that were as thick as ocean bowls, with the top having a funnel shape, allowing one to climb up the stairs by the side. The sides of the stove were made with soil to make a few curved channels to drain the molten metal. The inside was painted very smooth, almost the same as the surface of the copper mirror. The side of the stove was also fitted with a tall gutter (or bellows), but it was not alone. Instead, they had been installed in groups of two, with a total of three sets.

Ma Jun could not understand the function of the iron pipe and the curved ditch, but this combination of the two caused his eyes to light up. His forehead, the pat, had such a simple method. The wind generated by the combination of the two would be even stronger! So what if he didn't understand? Ma Jun stopped a person and asked him about the effects of the iron pipes and the curved ditches.

The man waved his hand impatiently. "Where did the idle come from? I'm busy! "

Ma Jun was not angry, he originally wanted to climb the ladder to see what was happening, but there were many people walking in craftsmen, he did not have the chance to use the ladder, and anxiously scratched his head and peeked at his ears.

Gongsun Xu couldn't help but laugh as he instructed Ma Tiedan to call Ma Jun over.

After Ma Jun came over, he cupped his hands and asked: "It is said that this furnace's blueprint was drawn by the general. I wonder if I can ask you a few questions?"

Gongsun Xu had already heard about Ma Jun's "watch" from Ma Tiedan, so he smiled and said: "Mr De Heng, you just ask, I will tell you anything I know."

"There is a place I can't understand at all. The little guy can guess that it's for draining molten iron, but what are those three iron pipes up there for?"

Gongsun Xu pointed to the funnel above the iron pipe and laughed: "By adding carbon powder into the molten iron through the three pipes and then draining it into the sand mold through the curved ditch, you will get a high-quality iron ingot!"

"You don't need to repeatedly forge the ingot?" Ma Jun immediately opened his eyes wide.

At this moment, if one wanted to forge a Fine Steel Blade, one would have to at least repeatedly forge the steel blank ten times in order to obtain a decent quality steel knife. If he could obtain superior steel ingots without going through forging, then wouldn't he be able to quickly obtain even more fine steel artifacts? If this could happen, it would be the fortune of all craftsmen!

Gongsun Xu laughed: "That's right! "If Mr. De Heng doesn't believe me, do you dare make a bet with me?"

"What bet?" Ma Jun asked blankly.

"If what I've said is true, Master De Heng will agree to stay behind and be the commander of the Trades and Crafts Camp!"

"It's a deal!" Ma Jun promised, he did not even ask himself what he could get if he won. He was full of praise for Gongsun Xu's "invention" of his toothbrush, pancreas and other things, thinking that these new things could benefit the common people, and were much better than making fine weapons to kill people. He had already wanted to talk to Gongsun Xu once, so how could he reject this bet?

Gongsun Xu was overjoyed, he did not think that it would be so easy to recruit Ma Jun as one of his subordinates, thus he chose a few new things that he could definitely produce using his current technique, such as the Pointing Southern Carriage and the Zhuge crossbow that Ma Jun had yet to meet, and told Ma Jun the most important parts of them in detail. Ma Jun was extremely happy to hear this, and continued to discuss with Gongsun Xu. He couldn't help but want to find a tool to try it out immediately.

As the two of them chatted, Ma Tiedan occasionally interjected. Soon, an hour had passed. Just then, the leader of the Trades and Crafts Camp, Li Yu came over and reported that everything was ready.

Li Yu was skinny, around forty years old, and was a famous blacksmith in Youzhou City. When the Gongsun Jia brothers came to find him, they gave him a huge sum of money, thus he had brought his entire family to join them. Initially, he only had around three hundred blacksmiths under his command, but after the increase in the number of craftsmen, adding the strong manpower that he had transferred from the auxiliary force, there were already over a thousand people in the Trades and Crafts Camp.

Originally, according to the customs, the new furnace needed to be sacrificed before it could be opened, and sometimes it would even need to be thrown into the Three Beasts, hoping to get help from the Fire God, but Gongsun Xu directly skipped that step and directly ordered the fire to be used to make iron.

Li Yu regretted not being able to hold the sacrificial ceremony, but he still obediently went over and told the craftsmen to light the fire. craftsmen had long poured the iron ore into the furnace. Hearing the order, they all raised their torches and lit the dried wood, then pulled the torches.

Gongsun Xu went up to drag it for a few times, finding it extremely boring, he dusted off the dust on his hands and asked Ma Jun: "Mr. De Heng, do you want to come with me to the army camp to rest? "Refining iron takes a long time, there's no need to wait here."

Ma Jun stared at the metal furnace, and answered without even turning his head: "There's no need, General, please do what you want, I will watch from the beginning to the end."

Gongsun Xu did not force him. He ordered Ma Tiedan to take care of Ma Jun and went back to the army camp to rest.

At that time, Gongsun Xu was playing chess with Guo Jia in the tent, he was still unable to learn Go, the kind of game that literati liked to play, forcing Guo Jia to play chess to pass the time.

"General!" Guo Jia took the initiative to launch yet another fatal attack.

"Aiya!" Gongsun Xu turned pale with fright, and quickly grabbed the horse he fell on just now and begged: "Feng Xiao, make me regret this for one step! What if I just regret a single step? "

"My lord, you've said this seven or eight times!" Guo Jia sighed, "Since you don't like playing chess, why don't you try it out yourself, master? If you want to come, come on, if you want to play chess you have to regret it at least seven or eight times."

"It's different this time!" Gongsun Xu continued to argue and pointed at the chess board, "Just now, your sleeves blocked this position, if not I would have been able to see this good move!"

"Sigh." Guo Jia rubbed his forehead and sighed, "My lord, why don't you consider this game as your victory?"

"What are you saying!" Gongsun Xu stared, and said: "Am I that kind of person? Feng Xiao, are you going to regret this move? "

Guo Jia nodded helplessly: "Let! Of course! "My lord, if you want to regret something, just regret it for a few steps!"

"Haha, that's more like it!" Gongsun Xu laughed, and just as he was about to pick up the chess piece and put it back down, Ma Tiedan reported loudly from the outside.

"The iron ores in the general's furnace have all melted, while the craftsmen is removing the impurities. Then, the carbon powder will be added. Please come over and watch."

"Aiya, what a pity!" Gongsun Xu casually threw away the chess pieces, smacked his lips and sighed: "He looks like he's going to win, this brat really didn't come at the right time! Feng Xiao, I will continue this matter after I return! "

"My lord, let's talk about it when you return." Guo Jia weakly waved his hand.

Gongsun Xu ordered some people to call Zhao Yun and his group, the few of them quickly headed to the small island.

When they arrived in front of the Iron Refining Furnace, Li Yu had already ordered the craftsmen to add carbon powder into the molten liquid, the hot and fiery red liquid flowed along the curved channel into the sand mold, and quickly began to condense.

Seeing this, everyone applauded. craftsmen was the most excited, for the sake of this iron furnace, they had toiled day and night for more than ten days, and were finally able to refine the iron water.

Ma Jun and Li Yu's faces were gloomy, waiting for the liquid metal to completely condense, so that they could check if it was iron or steel.

An hour later, in front of everyone, Ma Jun personally wielded his large hammer and ruthlessly smashed on a piece of rough metal that was either made of steel or iron.

After a few blows, the black color on the surface of the rough surface disappeared without a trace and was replaced by a bright green color.

Ma Jun threw away the hammer and grabbed onto the piece of blank steel with one hand. Like he was holding a rare treasure, he cried out loud, "This is a high-quality steel ingot!"

Everyone jumped up and down to applaud. The scene was as lively as if it was New Year's.

Gongsun Xu also followed suit and cheered, he did not expect to succeed the first time he used the Iron-clashing Technique! In his eyes, each and every piece of ingot had become knives, armour, and crossbows … …