Chapter 1128 Iron Smelting Technology in the Han Dynasty, Mickey’s Decision!

On a cloudless evening, the first iron-smelting shaft furnace on the North American continent burst into flames. The pungent volcanic smell, accompanied by the oxidation of pyrite, billows out of the furnace mouth. The first plume of smoke from the Iron Age has officially polluted the sea and sky that have been pure since ancient times until today!

"This is the flame of smelting iron, and it is also the guidance of the Lord God's divinity, entering a new era...May the Lord God bless us!"

Mickey the Knowledgeable murmured a prayer and waited patiently. Heating the furnace and pouring in the iron ore is just the beginning of iron smelting. Iron smelting in this era, even if it is only a few hundred kilograms of ore, cannot be completed in a day or two.

Blacksmith Otani Kengo followed the ancestral experience and instructions while observing the color of the fire head and controlling the progress of the ironmaking. Following his instructions, the young men continued to add ground charcoal powder to the top entrance of the shaft furnace to make the flame brighter and even slightly blue.

And every once in a while, Da Gu will ask the young men to hold long sticks wrapped in soil and carefully stir the molten iron inside while avoiding the fire. From time to time, he would personally dig out some slag from the bottom of the furnace.

"Well...these slags affect the quality of the iron the most. They are all bad slags..."

While reciting the ancestral formula, Otani supervised the sweaty work of the young men. From time to time, he complained worriedly in an incomprehensible language.

"God of Fire! There is not even a fire-resistant iron rod to stir the molten iron... How can the molten iron be burned evenly and thoroughly?... Keep going! Keep grinding charcoal, keep adding charcoal powder! Don't stop!..."

This furnace of iron ore in Huwan Port took five days to smelt and almost used up all the charcoal in the camp. And when the furnace gradually cooled down and finally went out completely, hundreds of kilograms of molten iron flowed out and condensed into a connected iron block, flashing with a dark black metallic luster, making people unable to take their eyes away with joy.

"Dang Dang Dang..."

Blacksmith Otani knocked off a piece of smelted iron and pounded it with a stone hammer to test the hardness of the iron piece. Then, he carefully looked at the rough texture and lines revealed during the beating of the iron block, and his eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle.

"God of Fire! This kind of yellow iron is indeed difficult to burn... It is obviously brittle than the iron that my father burned in Ezo Land? Is it because I forgot the key points or the tools are not good enough?..."

"Otani, how's the iron smelting going?"

Upon hearing the news of the iron mining, Mikey, the knowledgeable man, walked from the camp in a hurry. The fleet has been parked in Huwan Port for seven or eight days, just waiting for the results of the iron smelting. And when he saw hundreds of kilograms of iron, the expression on his face was dull for a moment, and then it bloomed like a flower.

"God bless you! Is this... done?!"

"Ah! Lord Mi Priest...the iron from this furnace has been produced! Without a mold, the molten iron can only be agglomerated like this...that, uh...this pyrite produces a lot of iron, and it is a rich ore containing a lot of iron! That's it! ...The cast iron coming out of this shaft furnace is a little brittle, which is really strange..."

"Witness the Lord God! Next, to make these cast irons into tough weapons... you have to break them into thin slices, put them in the charcoal fire to slowly simmer, then forge them, and finally quench them... That's it, oh, let the charcoal fire seep through Go in! Penetrate in and then thrust hard!…”

"Ah? How hard is it, you ask? After the charcoal fire is carefully infiltrated, it is estimated to be like a hundred smelting iron... Huh? What's next? What's next is the fried steel of Tang Dynasty, or the jade steel passed down by various schools... But , such a craft, the young one really doesn’t know...the young one can only smelt iron a hundred times..."

"What? You ask about the iron that comes directly out of the furnace... Oh!... They can be made into farm tools for farming and iron axes for cutting trees. It's pretty good!..."

"O God! Can the molten iron be made into farm tools and axes directly from the furnace?!"

Upon hearing such words, Mikey the Knowledgeable was simply stunned. He pulled out the copper ax from his waist and tested the hardness of the iron block. Sure enough, it met the requirements of a farm tool! These iron blocks solidified directly by molten iron are obviously much better than the large and small sponge irons produced by Kingdom Iron Smelting! …

"It's just as your Majesty said! The iron-smelting skills of these Xihai tribes are far superior to those of the Kingdom!..."

In fact, this mature shaft furnace liquid smelting can directly produce cast iron that can be used as agricultural tools, but it is an iron smelting process invented as early as the Han Dynasty! After thousands of years of inheritance, this shaft-furnace iron-smelting technology that produces molten iron has long been fully developed and matured, and has spread throughout East Asian countries!

As for the kingdom's iron smelting works, they were only established a few years ago. Even with Shulot's vague divine inspiration, how can it compare with this kind of technological accumulation that has been passed down for thousands of years? …

"Praise the Lord God! Dagu, you really know how to make iron! Good, very good, really good!"

Seeing the flashing black iron light, Mickey the Knowledgeable was first shocked, and then extremely happy. After groping in his arms for a while, he generously took out a golden amulet and hung it heavily around the neck of Blacksmith Otani.

"Okay, well done! There will be a reward! This is a reward from the kingdom!..."

"Ah! Is this a golden talisman?!...Ah! Thank you for your reward, sir! Thank you for your reward! I kowtow to you!..."

"Haha! This is all a gift from the Lord God! ... Da Gu, can this iron smelting furnace you built still be used again?"

"Yes, yes! Lord Priest, once the shaft furnace is rammed and built, it can be used forever... But this is an earth furnace. If we really want it to be useful, we still have to burn bricks to build a brick furnace..."

"The Lord God bless the kingdom! He gave us iron ore and brought the divine method of iron smelting from the Western Sea!..."

Hearing this, Mikey, the knowledgeable man, prayed a few words sincerely, but he didn't pay attention to Otani's nagging behind him. When the prayer was completed, he turned to look at Da Gu, who was holding the golden talisman and grinning. His expression suddenly became stern and he gave instructions in a deep voice.

"Otani! You make engravings of how to build a furnace and smelt iron, and teach it in detail to the Xibei priest at the port, and bring a few apprentices with you! ... In addition, what about the method of soaking charcoal fire and smelting iron? You must also demonstrate to the believers that there must be no hiding anything!…The Lord God witnesses! If you teach well, there will be a lot of gold in the kingdom, and there will be other rewards!…”

"That's right! Tonight, you go to the West Bee Priest and choose wives from two local tribes! They will follow you all the time and help you cook and cook. You only need to concentrate on teaching your apprentices to make iron!..."

"Ah! What's this? In addition to the reward of gold, there are also two wives?... Lord God! Master Priest... the younger one... the younger one kowtows to you!..."

Otani Kengo knelt on the ground again, kowtowing to the generous priest. The eyes of several Japanese prisoners next to him were red. They looked at the golden talisman around his neck with envy while muttering something about "having no backbone as a samurai", "kneeling down at every turn", "why not me" …

"Well! Otani, you must teach this iron-smelting skill carefully. At least let the Xibei priests and apprentices... have the ability to follow the instructions on the drawing board and use this built shaft furnace to smelt iron blocks individually..."

"Witness the Lord God! We will stay at this port for a while...until you teach the iron-smelting skills in a solid manner!..."

Mickey the Knowledgeable reached out his hand and firmly shook the short hair on Ogu's head. Tsukiyotou, who was originally a Japanese warrior, has long since disappeared. And this bunch of hair that popped out looks like the hair of Mexican craftsmen who intentionally cut it short when they were working...

"Shi Jian!"

"Head Priest?"

"God bless you! This furnace of ore really produced good iron!... In the mountains east of Huwan Port, there is probably a large iron mine of astonishing scale... This is the first iron ore discovered on the northern continent, and It’s probably much bigger and better than the Kingdom’s Black Rock Mountain Iron Mine!…”

The knowledgeable Mickey's eyes flashed, and thousands of thoughts flashed through his mind. On the northern continent, the weakest link in this series of port openings was not the lack of food, but the lack of production of metal tools... After a while, he looked at the warrior captain Shi Jian and said solemnly.

"The matter of Datie Mountain is of great importance... I need to personally take the priest Xifen to take people to the mountains to the east to make sure... This trip will take about half a month, or a month..."

"Ah? Chief Priest Mickey, do you want to stay in Huwan Port for a month? Didn't you say before that you wanted to return to the kingdom as soon as possible..."

"Well... there won't be any delay! I left blacksmith Ogu here and asked him to teach me the skills of iron smelting. Shi Jian, take the ocean-covering ship and go to the next port in the south, Xishan, eight hundred miles away. Port... This journey has been through storms and difficult navigation, and many sea-going ships have been damaged... The gold shipwright has mentioned to me several times that it is time to repair the sea-going ships at the small shipyard in Xishan Port! …”

"Chief Priest, you want me to take the ship to Xishan Port for repairs first?...Then when will you..."

"Witness the Lord God! When I see the Big Iron Mountain in the east with my own eyes and confirm that the iron ore really exists... I will return to Huwan Port, and then take the blacksmith Ogu and go south on the long boat of Huwan Port!..."

Mickey the Knowledgeable paused, spoke in a deep voice, and made the final decision.

"If everything goes well, I will arrive at Xishan Port by early October at the latest. By that time, the ship will have been repaired, and it will be time to head south again! ... And if it is after November, and if I am delayed and haven't come, then You take the ocean-covering ship, the gold shipwright, and the sailmaker, and go directly south to the kingdom!... The divine priests of the kingdom's southern shipbuilding department will lead you to see the director of the divine force, Talea... Then , you will dedicate all the captured craftsmen and ships to the director, and especially ask the director to build a new Fengshen schooner!..."

"Witness the Lord God! If this big iron mountain on the northern continent, close to the port, really exists... it will be a great opportunity that can change the kingdom, and even the future of the North!... This is a real turning point blessed by fate... "

"With the large iron mines that are tangible and can produce iron...how can the unknown development in the south compare with our promising north?! May the Lord God bless us!"

Note: The Easter Egg Chapter is a detailed map of the ports on the north side of the West Coast.