Volume 1: Kyoto Winds and Clouds Chapter 52: Thinking of God Liu Zhang Refines Iron

  Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang did not defect to Liu Zhang on a whim, nor were they threatened by Liu Zhang. In fact, they had long wanted to break free from the control of the Yuan family. However, the Yuan family's influence in the Great Han was too great, and it was not something that the two merchants could shake off. Now that Liu Zhang has given them an opportunity, they naturally will not let it slip away.

  The Yuan family is like this, relying on their four generations of three nobles' family background, they have never put others in their eyes. If they are useful, they will be pulled down, and if they are useless, they will be kicked away with one foot. They are just an uncrowned king, and it seems that others should respect them, and those who oppose their opinions should be dealt with. But they never think about why others should let them manipulate like this, is it just because the Yuan family is a four-generation three-noble family? What a joke!

  Now that Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping had surrendered, Liu Zhang was no longer polite to them. He looked at the two men and asked, "Since you're here, I'll give you a test first! I currently need some good iron to forge weapons for my brothers. What kind of iron do you think is suitable for these unmatched fierce generals under my command?"

  Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping exchanged a glance, they knew it was time to show their sincerity. Zhang Shi Ping smiled: "If the master wants to make weapons for the soldiers, refined iron is enough! But now that we are making them for the generals, of course, we need to use high-quality iron and meteorite iron. To be honest, Su Shuang and I still have over 10,000 catties of high-quality iron and nearly 1,000 catties of meteorite iron in our hands, I don't know if it's enough for the master's needs. If not, I can also ask fellow craftsmen to collect some. However, as for the price..."

  Zhang Shiping felt a bit embarrassed, he knew that Liu Zhang would not take their things for nothing, but still had some worries, the merchant's cautiousness was fully demonstrated at this time. Liu Zhang smiled and said: "I just said earlier, for you merchants, loyalty is something that cannot be forced. I have nearly 200,000 sheep, 150,000 cattle, and 120,000 to 130,000 horses here! Horses can't be given to you, but cows and sheep can be handed over to you for processing!"

  "What?" Su Shuang was shocked. Although the profit of selling horses was the greatest, the profit of cattle and sheep was not small, especially cattle. In ancient times, whether it was farming or transporting goods, cows were basically used for carts. Even the special vehicles that officials rode in were mostly pulled by cows. What really surprised Su Shuang was the number of cattle and sheep, and he asked weakly: "Master, didn't you take away all the cattle, sheep, and horses from Wuhuan Mountain?"

  Liu Zhang smiled and said, "I didn't get many cattle and sheep from Wuhuan Mountain, there wasn't enough time back then! However, I exterminated 70 or 80 small tribes of the Wuhuan people on the vast grasslands below Wuhuan Mountain, and took all their cattle, sheep, and horses!"

  Bitter! Extremely bitter! Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping were instantly stunned on the spot! They knew that Liu Zhang had defeated Wuwan severely, and even launched a sneak attack on the Wuwan royal court. However, they absolutely did not expect that Liu Zhang would be so ruthless, actually annihilating 70-80 small tribes of Wuwan. If this was not Liu Zhang bragging, then Wuwan would not recover for at least ten years! But thinking about the number of cattle, sheep and horses in Liu Zhang's hands, he didn't seem to be lying either!

  Looking at the calm Liu Zhang, Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping's cold sweat kept flowing down their backs. What kind of person is this? He's simply a god of killing! They felt extremely fortunate for having recognized the situation in time. Heaven knows what would have happened if they had refused to surrender! Perhaps the fate of the Wuman people would be repeated in their own homes!

  The way to govern is to use both kindness and authority, Liu Zhang promised to spare the families of Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping, this was his kindness towards them, while being ruthless to the Wuhuan people was his authority. Seeing that Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping who were originally somewhat casual suddenly became very obedient, Liu Zhang nodded in satisfaction: "Since you understand, first let your families move to the residence of the Governor of Youzhou, then the matters of tin, iron, cattle, sheep, horses and other things will all be handed over to you to handle!"

  "Yes, young master!" Su Shuang and Zhang Shipei bowed their heads in respect. They had already been won over by this 13-year-old young master Liu Zhang. Besides, Youzhou was Liu Zhang's territory, if they still wanted to do business in Youzhou, they would have to listen to him, and their old nest was right in Youzhou!

  "Right! Making good weapons requires a skilled blacksmith, do you know where to find one with exceptional skills?" Liu Zhang suddenly remembered the blacksmiths under his command, nine out of ten were useless, and he couldn't help but feel conflicted. With such craftsmanship, even good iron was wasted on them!

  "Does the elder brother need a good blacksmith?" Zhang Fei had been standing beside, pretending to be silly and foolish. Hearing that Liu Bei needed a good blacksmith, he suddenly said: "There is an old blacksmith in Zhuo County, his craftsmanship is very good. Elder brother might as well try to find him, perhaps he can forge a divine weapon. However, the old blacksmith has a strange temper, if it's not good iron, he will never put his hand on it!"

  Zhang Shiping burst out laughing: "The iron we present to our lord, how can it not be good iron?"

  "My lord, among the gifts I brought, there are hundreds of pounds of tin. I'll have my servants bring it out for you to see. As for the meteoric iron, its quality is even better than this tin!" Su Shuang smiled and said: "My lord may say he doesn't want anything from his subordinates, but as a subordinate, if we don't offer something, wouldn't that go against our merchant nature? So, Shi Ping and I have decided to present our thousand pounds of meteoric iron to my lord!"

  Looking at Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping's smiles, Liu Zhang knew they were betting! Historically, they funded Liu Bei, wasn't that a kind of betting behavior? However, although Liu Zhang wanted the meteorite in their hands very much, he didn't like their betting behavior. Liu Zhang coldly said: "You two, I know that aristocratic families always place their children in different lords' houses, but I hope you only serve one person - me! If I find out you're funding others everywhere, no matter who it is, don't blame me for not being polite! What's been funded before, I won't hold against you, but from now on, absolutely not!"

  Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang's faces changed, they indeed had such thoughts, and indeed did so. But now Liu Zhang does not allow them to do so, they must make a choice. Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping thought for a moment: "Master, we understand!"

  Liu Zhang nodded, since he was preparing to contend for the world, those vassals would all be his enemies. The behavior of providing aid to the enemy, Liu Zhang naturally could not tolerate, especially Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping, this kind of merchant under his command. Actually, Liu Zhang still thought highly of Xu Zhou's Mi family and Ji Zhou's Zhen family, it's just that these two families in the Great Han were among the top few merchant families, and were not yet ones that Liu Zhang could bring under his control.

  After Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping announced their surrender, they left Ji County to go to Zhuo County to pick up their families. The Yuan family is famous all over the world, who knows if someone will harm their families in order to please the Yuan family! After half a month, Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang returned to Ji County, accompanied by an old blacksmith from Zhuo County. Of course, it didn't take much effort to invite the old blacksmith, they just put a piece of meteoric iron in front of him, and his eyes were glued to it. When Su Shuang told him that he still had thousands of catties of meteoric iron and tens of thousands of catties of tin, the old blacksmith almost signed a contract to sell himself. But now it's almost the same as selling oneself!

  Take good care of Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping's family, Liu Zhang set aside a large portion of cattle and sheep for them to sell. Having obtained so many cattle and sheep, Su Shuang and Zhang Shi Ping did not dare to delay and set off immediately. As for how to dispose of them, that was their business, Liu Zhang did not want to interfere, besides, Liu Zhang had asked them to help him make money, it was not good to interfere too much!

  After seeing off Su Zhang, the old blacksmith immediately found Liu Zhang. He wasn't interested in who Liu Zhang was, but he was itching to get his hands on those tin irons, meteorites and refined irons. For several days, Liu Zhang had been arranging their food and lodging, but hadn't told them what they were supposed to do, the old blacksmith's heart felt like it was being scratched by a small cat's paw!

  Liu Zhang couldn't help but smile when he understood the old blacksmith's intention. In this world, there will always be people with a strong desire to learn and improve, and the old blacksmith was one of them. Liu Zhang admired such people from the bottom of his heart because they had an unyielding spirit and determination. In the end, Liu Zhang decided to hand over all the weapons in his possession to the old blacksmith to take charge of. The old blacksmith thanked him profusely, which made Liu Zhang feel a bit embarrassed. However, after the excitement passed, the old blacksmith felt somewhat downcast. It turned out that with the old blacksmith's abilities, he couldn't completely melt and forge the fallen meteorite iron, and using it to make weapons was already his limit!

  As a modern person, Liu Zhang didn't know how to iron, but hadn't he eaten pork before? Hadn't he seen pigs run? After researching with the old blacksmith for half a day, Liu Zhang discovered that the smelting technology of the Han Dynasty was still in the stage of melting iron ore, casting molds, forging and quenching. The more thoroughly the iron ore melted, the better the quality of the iron obtained, and it was even possible to obtain steel. However, this steel was only slightly harder than ordinary iron, but very brittle, and couldn't be compared with the steel materials of later generations.

  After a careful understanding of the iron ore smelting process, Liu Zhang finally understood why the old blacksmiths couldn't thoroughly melt the iron ore. In later generations, when refining iron, they would add coke and other things, but during the Han Dynasty, iron was still being refined using wood to provide heat, which definitely couldn't fully melt the iron ore, especially for meteorites with high iron content, which were even harder to melt.

  Found the crux of the problem, there is a solution, what steel copying method, sandwiching method, wrapping method, Liu Zhang really didn't understand, but raising the furnace temperature was still very easy for him, just change the fuel. The ancient people did not know the role of coal, but Liu Zhang knew. Youzhou is close to Mongolia, and Daxing'an Mountains are all in this area, thinking of finding some open-pit coal mines, it's really too easy!

  With coal, as long as the operation is proper, refining steel is not a problem, let alone refining iron? The old blacksmith tried to use coal to melt the fine iron sent by Su Shuang. Unexpectedly, the knife that was forged had reached the strength of a thirty-fold refined steel knife, which made the old blacksmith extremely excited. He almost worshipped Liu Zhang as if he were a god.

  The furnace temperature problem was solved, and the rest could be left to Old Ironworker. Even if Liu Zhang were to refine steel himself, he wouldn't understand it. An outsider leading an insider is a taboo in any profession. Of course, Liu Zhang wasn't idle either; he drew out the eight-foot snake spear, radiant silver dragon gall gun, green dragon crescent moon knife, and tiger seal square heaven halberd from memory with paper and pen, waiting for Old Ironworker to become familiar with the coal usage method before starting to forge these divine weapons. This once again left Old Ironworker in awe!

  (Recommendation: Check out Jing Meng Han's "Tong Tian Sheng Lu" if you like fantasy novels!)