Qin Official

Text Volume Chapter 645 Copper and Iron

"Those who have a country and a family are careful not to worry about scarcity but inequality, but God does not care about this. He likes to joke that the world's products are randomly distributed, but not evenly. In some places, there is a shortage of minerals within a thousand miles, but in some places , there are several large mines concentrated within tens of miles..."

Heifu looked at Cangshan Mountain in the distance and said, "E County, Hengshan County, is such a place."

On the way out of Hubei and on the way to the destination, Heifu chatted with Li Cang, who was in the same car, about the past.

"In the twenty-fourth year, as a Sima of another department, I crossed the river from Zhu County with your father and captured the city of E. This is the city of E Jun. As the leading prince of Chu State, the ritual vessel Ding Gui in his mansion is It’s quite a lot, and it took us three full days to finally finish it.”

Li Cang responded: "My father told me that my uncles settled in Yuzhang, opened fields, and set up sugar mills, relying on the money exchanged for these copper utensils."

It can be said that it was the first pot of gold for the "Anlu Gang". At that time, Heifu didn't know why there were so many bronzes in E Jun's house. Later, he realized that it was the first to get the first to get the better...

"In the 29th year, Yuzhang established a county. Together with Yuzhang, Hengshan County was established, and the county governed Zhu County. However, Hengshan County has a small population and a small area, so it can be merged into Nanjun. Do you know why it is a county?"

Li Cang said: "I don't know, nephew."

"Verdigris Mountain."

Heifu raised his index finger: "This rich mine alone is enough to support the independent county of Hengshan!"

He talked to Li Cang about the advantages of Tonglu Mountain. This mine is very old. It is said that as early as the Yao and Shun era, the Sanmiao tribe had already dug pits for mining and smelting here, and the red copper blocks that were smelted were sent across the Yangtze River. Continuously shipped to the Central Plains...

During the Yin and Shang Dynasties, merchants were fond of casting huge bronze vessels to please the ancestors of ghosts and gods. In order to rob copper materials, when Wu Ding was reviving, they launched a large-scale southern expedition deep into the hinterland of Jingman. The purpose of the southern expedition was to plunder copper materials, and a city was built on the riverside to facilitate mining.

By the time of the Zhou Dynasty, King Zhao of Zhou did not go south until he was full, but he also wanted to seize copper materials. Unfortunately, he failed and was defeated by the Chu people. King Zhao of Zhou drowned in the Han River. At the current Dragon Boat Festival ceremony in the north of Jianghan, rice is thrown into the water, and the sacrifice is not Qu Yuan, but this one. It is said to be a tradition left by the concubines of Hanyang.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the reason why Chu was strong and prosperous, able to aspire to dominate the Central Plains, and compete with Jin and Qi for hundreds of years, was largely due to the rich copper and tin deposits in the south. In the tomb robbery case that Heifu handled when he was the director of the pavilion, most of the bronze burial objects weighing more than ten tons in Ruo Ao's tomb came from southern Hubei.

Therefore, after the Qin Dynasty destroyed Chu, they stationed heavy troops in Tonglu Mountain to restart construction. Under the work of thousands of prisoners, the tunnels were dug deeper and deeper. Ore was continuously poured into the furnace, and hot copper water was spit out to cool it. It was later cast into bright red copper ingots, and then fused with tin shipped from the south of the Yangtze River to become the "dollars" that everyone loved.

But after belonging to the Qin Dynasty, the products cast in Tonglu Mountain were no longer bulky but useless ritual vessels, nor spears, swords and halberds during the war, but became half a coin with a circle on the outside and a square on the inside...

This is the confidence that Hengshan County can establish an independent county. The entire E city, as well as Zhu County on the other side, really smells of copper everywhere. Every year, Hengshan purchases a large amount of grain from Nanjun, which has developed agriculture, to feed the convict craftsmen who mine.

But now, as the south is plunged into a bitter war, it is not only soldiers but also weapons that are consumed. Following an order from the imperial court, Tonglu Mountain has once again turned into an arsenal, with assembly line-like operations running day and night, producing dangerous things...

Heifu and the others did not go directly to Tonglu Mountain, but stopped forty miles north of it.

Looking from a distance, there is also a mountain here. As the trees were cut down by the criminals, the ocher-colored stones underneath were exposed...

"If there is ocher above, there is iron below. The Iron Mountain is here!"

Ocher, this is the color of iron ore, and the vermilion lines seen all over the mountain are ore seedlings. This mine was discovered by the Chu people, but before it could be mined, it was taken over by the Qin people. Hengshan County set up an iron official here. In another two thousand years, Wuhan Iron and Steel will have to rely on it to make a living...

Most of the iron mountains are shallow mines. After the prisoners dug out the iron ore covered with soil, they used mules, horses, etc. to transport it to the stream in baskets for cleaning, and then sent it downhill to the workshop. Ten furnaces stood there.

When the iron official heard that the Marquis of Changnan was coming, he was waiting at the intersection early in the morning. When he saw the noble man arriving, he quickly came over to help Heifu lead the horse, nodding and bowing.

Heifu asked him: "I asked someone to draw the graphics. Is the weapon I want you to make ready to be forged?"

The iron official responded: "Okay, okay, it is made by the best craftsmen and the best iron. I was thinking of sending it to the camp immediately to show it to the Marquis of Changnan. Unexpectedly, the Lord came here. It's really Let there be light in this humble place.”

Heifu came here not only for the weapons, but mainly to see the production capacity of Iron Mountain and Tonglu Mountain. How long will it take to arm his army? Is there any room for improvement in production?

Although he starts with more than five farmers, mining is still basic.

While holding the horse for Heihu, Iron Man pointed at the wooden equipment spinning endlessly by the stream and said:

"Since the water wheel was introduced from Nanjun, the Mohist made some improvements and made it into a water raft. He came here to teach the craftsmen. Now the water is used to drive the row and blow the wind to smelt iron. The quality of the iron is much better."

This is what happened in recent years. Thanks to Heifu's intervention, the Mohists who survived the turmoil of the imperial court banning hundreds of schools and confiscating books began to focus on improving equipment and created a series of hydraulic machinery.

Influenced by the "water vertebra" named by Heifu, all instruments driven by water have the word "water": the water vertebra for pounding rice and paper, the water mill for grinding noodles, and the waterwheel for drawing water from the river for irrigation are all Water, this chapter is no exception.

The utensil for blowing the air is a "gou". Smelting minerals requires extremely high temperatures. If one gong is not enough, several gongs are used and put together in a row, which is called "rowing gongs." The raft is very large and originally needed to be pulled by manpower or livestock. Nowadays, a water wheel is installed and driven by water, which is called a "water raft".

With water drainage, strong and long-lasting wind force can increase the temperature of the iron furnace and produce more and better iron.

Heifu nodded, feeling a little relieved every time he saw productivity improving because of him. But he didn't have time to look at the specific process of smelting ore into iron, and he didn't have time to listen to the iron officer's flattery, so he proposed to go directly to the last process: casting and forging.

Before they even get close, heat waves are rolling in, and there are clanging sounds everywhere. Craftsmen wearing only cooked cowhide skirts are forging iron. They hold hammers in their hands, sweat flowing on their bronzed skin.

Before unification, the iron soldiers of the Qin State were actually very underdeveloped. The Qin people still preferred to use bronze soldiers that could be quickly equipped with the army after being cast, instead of iron soldiers that were repeatedly hammered. Iron was mostly used for agricultural tools.

But after the unification, the Shaofu directly absorbed the skilled craftsmen from the six countries to make up for the shortcomings of the past. At present, most of the craftsmen in this iron workshop are Chu people, and only a few Qin officials and soldiers are supervising it.

The iron smelting industry of the Chu State was very developed. In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were many famous craftsmen smelting cast iron swords, and Wandi was even more famous as an iron smelting center. After South Korea captured Nanyang and obtained the technology of the Chu people, the Han army became the world's largest. One's reputation.

But both the Chu people and the Koreans focused their technology on iron swords.

Upon learning that the Marquis of Changnan had arrived, the Chu blacksmiths immediately stopped what they were doing and knelt in a row on the ground. The oldest blacksmith with a white beard immediately asked someone to bring over the weapons they had been making for many days. , let Heifu take a look.

But I saw the ten weapons, which had just been produced a few days ago and were polished brightly, lying quietly in the wooden box. They were slightly shorter than the three-foot swords standard in the army, and had ring-shaped handles, but unlike swords, the blades The body is wider, with an open front on one side, a thick ridge and a thin blade.

In addition, the shapes are also different from each other. Some have larger blades, some have straight spines, and some have a special bend. The overall shape looks like a dog leg...

Heifu picked them up one by one and looked at them. Yes, this is what he wanted.

At this time, Tieguan had already started the embarrassing mode.

"I have served as a copper and iron official, and have made countless weapons, but I have never seen such a wonderful thing."

He was quite talented in acting. He pointed at the knife with an exaggerated expression and said: "Two or three sons, please look at it. It looks like a sword from the Yin Shang Dynasty, but it is made of iron. It can be sharpened on one side, which saves a lot of troublesome craftsmanship. It is easier than a sword." Forged. My subordinates have tried it. It is very heavy, with a thick spine and thin blade. It is powerful and heavy. It is difficult for ordinary weapons to withstand it. It can also split thick armor. You are worthy of being a veteran on the battlefield..."

After saying this, he said with emotion: "I have heard that if a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his weapons, and if an army wants to be invincible, he must first sharpen his soldiers!"

In short, Tieguan boasts that these knives are unprecedented and unprecedented. The design is so awesome and the structure is so reasonable. They are only comparable to the general Mo Xie.

"Yes, yes."

The blacksmiths looked at each other and thought, no wonder the iron officer can be an iron officer, but they can only be craftsmen. So that's how it is, and they nodded in praise together.

Heifu just smiled and said nothing, while Tokura couldn't help laughing. At this time, he heard a weak voice in the workshop mutter:

"It sounds so powerful, but it's actually the hatchet I use to chop wood and cane at home!"

For a moment, all the bragging stopped abruptly. When everyone looked back, they saw a young blacksmith with dark skin. He also realized that his words had attracted everyone's attention. He was so frightened that his face turned pale. He knelt down quickly, nodded, and asked Mr. Hei. Please forgive me.

Hei Fu didn't feel dissatisfied, but laughed.

"What's the crime? You're right, I asked you to make these knives to chop vines and trees!"

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like