Chapter 187: New Forging Technique!
” Young Lord is right. Especially the farmers of the villages near the Nanhai Mountain. The solid soil and rocky terrain damage their tool often.”
” Hmm, Interesting…” Jia Hao thought for a moment before looking at Old Yang.
” Old Yang, go and purchase some limestones. You know, those white rocks?”
” Ah, Yes…” Old Yang’s expression turned odd, but he nodded. ” I shall fetch someone to get them here.”
” Meanwhile…” Jia Hao looked at Tong Yuan. ” Prepare a big furnace, and cut a hole like this.”
Jia Hao instantly drew a blast furnace and showed it to Tong Yuan. All the blacksmiths were curious when they saw that.
” Young Master, What’s this?”
” This is a new method of smelting. It’s called the blast furnace.” Jia Hao replied. ” With this, you can turn these rough and cracked iron into superior carbon steel.”
” Carbon steel?”
The blacksmiths felt skeptical when they heard Jia Hao’s method. However, looking at his enthusiasm, Tong Yuan nodded.
” Didn’t you hear Young Lord! Go and prepare it right now!”
” Yes, Elder Tong!”
” Right away!”
Soon, Everything was prepared before Jia Hao, making him start the process.
” Dump the iron pieces and limestone inside the furnace and fuel it. Burn it till it melts.”
” Also, keep blowing hot air from above.”
The blacksmiths nodded as they started the process. Soon enough, the pig iron melted and the limestone started to suck the impurity from the pig iron.
The impurity molded with limestone became light and floated above the molten iron. Meanwhile, with light movement, the molten iron was extracted from the hole below.
” Now, pass it by the burning charcoal. Let the molten iron absorb the smoke of those charcoal.”
As the iron cooled, the blacksmiths were stunned when they saw it.
” This…The iron looks so dark and lustrous.”
” Millennium Yin Iron?”
” No, That’s not it.” Tong Yuan shook his head. ” Millennium Yin Iron is quite a lot different from this. However, this…this is way better in quality than the iron ores we produced regularly.”
” And this process doesn’t take much time either.”
” I never thought adding limestone in iron would be so efficient.”
” I have already prepared the drawing of the blast furnace. So, you need to prepare it and smelt the iron with limestone with proper ratio.” Jia Hao replied as he wrote it down.
” I believe with this, our forging workshop would perform way much better than others.” Jia Hao grinned.
” So, stop all the workings of bronze and copper and focus solely on the iron now.”
” Yes.” Tong Yuan nodded. ” Young Lord, Since you have come this far, would you please like to be the guest of our village leader’s house?”
” Oh? Why not?” Jia Hao nodded. ” Meanwhile, you can try this new dark steel. Also, I have some other important thing to discuss.”
Old Yang and Tong Yuan exchanged glances and nodded. Soon enough, they took Jia Hao to the village leader’s house.
Jia Hao sat in the courtyard as he was served with some wild fruits and tea. He was amazed by the flavor of the wild fruit.
‘ Damn, This feels so refreshing. So crisp and juicy inside. This is called Water Apple, eh?’ Jia Hao thought inwardly.
However, his eyes narrowed as the village leader didn’t appear as fast as Jia Hao thought he would. He had to wait till half an hour before an old man came while accompanying Old Yang.
Although his beard and hair were white, the old man had a robust body. However, Jia Hao noticed he only had one hand, as the other appeared to be cut.
Jia Hao stood up and looked at him. The old man bowed lightly. ” Village Leader Chen Tu greets Young Lord.”
” Greetings, Elder Chen.” Jia Hao chuckled. ” Well, I believe you had some important task since you delayed our meeting?”
” Young Lord can think that.” Chen Tu nodded lightly. ” I was inspecting the new dark steel forged by Young Lord’s technique. I have to admit, the quality of the material is pretty astonishing.”
” It’s way better than the iron ingots we produce. If we can mass produce it, Cai Family can profit a lot.”
” Initially, I was reluctant to meet any nobles from the Cai Family other than Patriarch. However, hearing about your feet, I couldn’t help but get a bit interested.”
” I am glad that I can be helpful to Elder Chen.”
Chen Tu looked at Jia Hao as he sat down. ” Hmm, Not arrogant, but you have a lot of pride inside. Not everyone can have such flexibility.”
Old Yang heard the conversation as he introduced Chen Tu’s identity to him.
” Elder Chen used to follow the Eldest Master on the battlefield. He was also an exceptional blacksmith. However, during the war, he lost his arm and retired here.”
” Patriarch Cai made him the head of this forging village. Here, he oversaw all the forgings of the Cai Family.”
” However, The blacksmithing here had been declining. Not only we are short of skilled laborers, we also focus on exporting the iron ingots more than forging things.”
” Well then, I believe it’s the time to change?” Jia Hao looked at Chen Tu.” Elder Chen, Don’t you think every soldier of the Cai Family needs to be equipped with superior quality equipment?”
” With my method, we can easily refine large quantity of dark steel. And the first thing we are going to sell is…farming tools.”
” What? Farming tools?” Chen Tu and Old Yang were surprised.
” Yes, Farming tools.” Jia Hao chuckled. ” Elder Chen, Think about this. If you suddenly bring a chunk of dark steel and say to everyone that this is a better metal, would they believe easily?”
” Therefore, we need to slowly build trust among the people. And in this regard, no one would be better than the farmers.”
Chen Tu rubbed his chin when he heard that. ” Interesting, I never thought like that.”
” As for the laborers, we can fetch as many as Elder Chen wants. We have money after all.” Jia Hao smiled.
” However, we need to bind them with the contract. So, we can ensure that they won’t leave in the midway.”
Old Yang and Chen Tu looked at each other with surprise.
” However, these are the superficial things.” Jia Hao spoke in a mysterious tone.
” Elder Chen, I would like to ask you something. If we can use this method to produce such a quality dark steel from ordinary iron…”
” What if we use Millenium Dark Iron as the base input?”
Chen Tu’s expression changed. ” You want to refine Millenium Yin Iron and make…even superior material?”
” Yes, Why isn’t this possible? There are certainly some ways…” Chen Tu was amazed.
” However, Millennium Yin Iron is expensive, almost five times of normal iron. We can’t…”
” Well, You don’t need to worry about the supply. I can give you as much Millenium Yin Iron as you need.”
” This…This… Are you telling the truth?” Chen Tu’s breathing turned heavy when he heard that.
” Old Yang, Have I ever lied?” Jia Hao looked at Old Yang.
” Young Lord never lied. But…Isn’t your idea…”
” As I said, Don’t worry about the supply. I just need the best from this smithy.” Jia Hao looked at him.
” The entire Nanhai City…No, The entire Province…No one would be able to beat the products of Cai Family.”
Jia Hao smiled as he looked at Old Yang and Chen Tu. However, his expression changed when he used the Sage’s Divine Eyes of Old Yang.
‘ Wh-What the fuck!?’
