The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 25

It didn't take long for several steel knives and spears to appear on the forging platform.

The craftsmen quickly completed the quenching of the knives and spears, and according to Zhu Linmi's instructions, they picked out a steel knife for testing.

During the process of testing the knife, these craftsmen were clear, and someone immediately brought thick hemp rope, logs, wrought iron blocks and other things.

Another craftsman held a newly forged steel knife, first slashed obliquely along the thick rope, the knife penetrated more than half a foot, and then slashed hard three times on the log and wrought iron respectively.

When the craftsman looked at the blade again, he couldn't help but gasp—the blade was only slightly curled, with slight scratches and no cracks.According to his experience of testing knives for more than ten years, this knife is almost close to the level of a hundred-steel knives.

You must know that it only took less than half a day for this knife to be forged from the iron block!In other words, the time it takes to build sixteen or seventeen steel knives of this kind is barely enough to make one hundred-smelting steel knives.At the same time, the steel consumption of the two also differs by more than ten times.

He excitedly raised the steel knife in his hand, and announced loudly: "It's not much different from the Bailian steel knife!"

There was a burst of cheers in the iron yard.Under the vicious competition of Zhen's family, this iron yard earns meager profits, and the craftsmen are also struggling to survive. The steel knife in front of them indicates that they are about to come to the end of their hardships!

Only Zhu Linmi had a calm expression, even a little dissatisfied.How can crucible steel not reach the level of hundred steelmaking?It should be that the smelting time or the composition of the slagging agent is not very suitable. With the continuous enrichment of smelting experience, it is inevitable that the quality of steelmaking will far exceed [-].

When it was dark, the second crucible was also smelted out of steel.

Zhu Linmi asked someone to light a torch, and the knife forging craftsmen worked overtime to immediately forge a steel knife with the steel ingot just out of the furnace.

Actually, needless to say, almost all craftsmen stretched their necks and waited to see how the newly smelted steel would look.

The steel knife was quickly completed.Sure enough, as Zhu Linming expected, after simply adjusting the composition of the slagging agent, the quality of the steel in the second furnace improved.

When the knife-testing master announced in an unbelievable tone that "the new knife completely surpasses the hundred-refined steel knife, and even reaches the level of a thousand-refined steel knife", the whole iron field boiled!The cheers rang out, defeating Zhenjia Iron Field was just around the corner, and this time I could finally vent my anger!

Zhu Linming ordered the craftsmen to turn all the steel ingots from the first furnace into farm tools, and the second furnace to make knives, spears, axes and other weapons for sale according to market needs.

In addition, he specifically asked Chanyi to let her personally supervise the improvement of the steelmaking process.

Especially for slagging agents, different people must be responsible for taking materials, proportioning, and recording results, and they must be replaced frequently.It is guaranteed that the person who takes the material does not know what the material is used for, the person who makes the ratio does not know the result of refining, and the person who records the properties of the steel does not know what slagging agent is in this furnace.

All the crafting data must be concentrated in Chanyi, and she will collect and sort it out by herself.

The Ming Dynasty had no concept of intellectual property rights, and he had no choice but to do so, otherwise counterfeit goods would flood the entire market in a short time.This crucible steel will be his main source of income in the future, so he has to be cautious.

When he returned to the Dragon Guard New Army barracks, he saw Serio and his apprentice waiting excitedly at the gate of the general camp.

As soon as he saw Zhu Linming coming, he saluted first, and then said impatiently: "Your Highness, I found a very good workshop. You see, according to our agreement..."

"No problem, the workshop is yours now." Zhu Linmin nodded, "The apprentices you need to train will arrive soon."

"Please rest assured that I will do my best to train them to be the best watchmakers."

The next day, Zhu Linmi went to Longnan County with Serio.

The carriage stopped in front of a small jewelry store facing the street, and there were two big characters "sell" written on the store door.Serio immediately said with a smile on his face: "Your Highness, this is the place, the price is not expensive, and there are many processing tools that can be used inside."

Zhu Linmei frowned and looked at this small shop of [-] to [-] square meters. Looking up, she saw a large yard behind the shop with a sign for sale. She turned her head and said to Qiao Qian, "Buy this shop and the yard behind it. Bar."

"Yes, sir."

"No, it doesn't need such a big place." Serio waved his hands in surprise.

Zhu Linmei smiled at him, "Trust me, it will come in handy."

Then he ordered Qiao Qian to buy all the equipment that Serio needed to buy, so that the work here could start as soon as possible.The reason why Europe's mechanical manufacturing technology has advanced by leaps and bounds after the Renaissance is largely due to the contribution of watchmakers. They used their dexterous hands to invent many things that have nothing to do with clocks and watches.

Even leaving aside the fine processing, the clock itself is very important, especially in the military, navigation and other aspects that have an irreplaceable role.Therefore, Zhu Linming hopes to establish Daming's own watch industry as soon as possible.

He originally planned to go to see the steelmaking situation after arranging the watch workshop, but unexpectedly, a guard flew to report that Yu Xin's troops had arrived in Longnan and would arrive at the barracks soon.

Zhu Linmi immediately put down other things and hurried back.

A team of [-] people might not sound like much, but from a distance it looks quite imposing.But after getting closer, it was completely different. I saw that the soldiers were in tattered clothes, casually dragging old weapons, and all of them were listless. They didn't look as strong as those who were under construction.

Now the school grounds have been leveled, and although the barracks are only half built, they can barely accommodate the more than 500 people.However, the toilets, bathhouses and other facilities were repaired first under Zhu Linmi's special care.

"I've seen Your Highness." Yu Xin and the officers of his troops saw Zhu Linming from a distance, and rushed forward to salute.

Then Yu Xin introduced several officers behind him, "This is Huang Qishou and Li Ying, they are both generals in the army, and they came with me from Chunhua."

"Huang Qishou has met His Highness."

"Li Ying has met His Highness."

A bearded officer next to him rushed to salute and said: "I am Liu Chang, I have met Your Highness. I was originally a hundred households of Runing Guard in Henan Province. Because I didn't want to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, I retreated to Quzhou while fighting all the way. Later, I It was incorporated into Yu Qian's general account."

Yu Xin continued: "Your Highness, there are also Wei Hua and Qian Dapeng's troops who are carrying cannons and have no horses, so they are moving slowly. It should take a few days to reach Longnan."

Zhu Linmei nodded and asked Yu Xin to bring the troops to the school grounds to assemble.He wanted to say a few words to the soldiers, but at a glance, they all looked listless and hadn't eaten enough. He couldn't help frowning slightly, and then he only gave a simple order: take a bath and eat.

After the small flag officers led their soldiers to line up in front of the bathhouse, Zhu Linmi called Liu Guoxuan, Zhu Jiadi, Yu Xin and other new officers to get to know each other.

Then he ordered people to set up some meals in his camp, which was a simple welcome feast.

These soldiers are congenial in temperament, and they will all be in robes in the future, so they get acquainted very quickly after taking the table.And the conversation naturally turned to the recent battle situation.

(End of this chapter)