The detailed number of armaments in the army has not been cleared up. According to the Han military system, it is not clear whether the number of ring-shou swords and long weapons is more swords or more spears. However, in any case, half of the ring-shou swords in the army must be given to

If it melts, the number of weapons in the army will be reduced by several percent in an instant.

Fifty percent of the swords in the army were collected and melted to make plows. Guan Yu originally agreed to this matter.

But after collecting a large number of Huanshou knives, Guan Yu took a knife here to look at it, and took a knife there to look at it. If he thought the quality was good, Guan Yu would put it aside.

Guan Yu's original idea was to melt the bad sword and keep the good sword for use.

But after picking for a while, there was a pile of knives piled at Guan Yu's feet.

Guan Yu raised his head and looked at Li Mengxi, and he couldn't bear to say, "Xi'er, these knives are all fine, are they all melted?"

"Yeah." Li Mengxi, who was bending down to count the numbers, said without raising his head, "It's all melted."

"But... it takes a lot of time to make a knife. Wouldn't it be too wasteful to melt a good knife?"

Li Mengxi stopped counting. He stood up and thought about it. Indeed, a large cost of weapon production lies in labor. A good knife is melted into iron. Although not much iron is wasted, the fuel consumption is actually still high.

Housing, but the labor that has been used is completely wasted.

After thinking again and again, Li Mengxi suddenly laughed, "Well, it is indeed a waste of money. However, the big man's ring-headed iron knife is only iron or inferior steel. It cannot be used for a long time and is not very sharp. If it is reforged using the steel-filling method,

Wouldn’t it be better to make a fine steel knife?”

The cost issue is no longer so prominent when faced with the leap-forward improvement in quality.

If the Huanshou knife is melted and there is a shortage of knives in the future, it will definitely be a huge waste of manpower to get iron and make the Huanshou knife again.

And if the Huanshou Iron Knife is melted, smelted into steel, and then made into a fine steel knife, this is equivalent to twice the manpower, in exchange for three times the improvement in the quality of the knife. The Huanshou Iron Knife is replaced by a Huanshou Iron Knife.

Shougang Knife, in terms of durability, sturdiness, and sharpness, produces a high-quality steel knife that plays a greater role than producing two ordinary iron knives.

There are all kinds of weapons collected from the army, including swords, guns and halberds. Except for some that are damaged and old, there are still a large number of knives that are in good condition and can be used properly.

After counting, there were more than 1,500 weapons of various types.

These many pieces of iron are roughly enough to last for a while.

Li Mengxi ordered all the weapons to be carried to the blacksmith camp.

In the blacksmith camp, the iron-making blast furnace is still burning day and night, and the craftsmen are busy.

The soldiers brought a large number of weapons and threw them on the ground. The leader of the craftsmen immediately came over and asked in surprise, "But do you want to repair the weapons?"

After asking this question, Li Mengxi suddenly remembered, well, weapons can still be repaired. There were many damaged weapons in the army, but he never thought about it, and Guan Yu, Liu Bei and others did not ask the blacksmiths to repair them.

It seems that in the future, blacksmiths will have to be responsible for repairing weapons.

Li Mengxi said to the leader of the craftsmen, "It's not about repairing. These weapons are all melted to make plows."

The leader of the craftsmen opened his mouth wide when he saw the dazzling array of weapons piled on the ground, "Ah?!" He was obviously a little surprised.

Even an ordinary blacksmith has his own judgment on the situation. Now that the war is over, he melts his weapons. What if...

The leader of the blacksmith couldn't help but remind him, "Military strategist, if these weapons are all melted, if someone hits you again, then..."

Li Mengxi smiled at the blacksmith leader and said, "It doesn't matter, I have my own plans."

After hearing what Li Mengxi said, the leader of the craftsmen was speechless.

Li Mengxi then asked out of curiosity, "Can your blacksmiths produce raw iron and wrought iron?"

The leader of the craftsmen paused, "I know."

That's good.

Li Mengxi pointed at the many weapons behind him and said, "Excuse me, everyone, put the cast iron weapons into one pile, the wrought iron into one pile, and the others into another pile."

After the order was issued, dozens of blacksmiths came to help, except for a few people who burned the blast furnace.

The leader of the tool craftsmen said that he said that their blacksmiths could distinguish raw iron from wrought iron. This was a bit impressive. Li Mengxi thought about it, because he could not distinguish the quality of iron.

The craftsmen were selecting weapons there. Li Mengxi watched for a while. He saw that when the craftsmen were selecting weapons, they pulled the swords out of their sheaths, then took a closer look, touched them with their hands, and flicked them with their fingers.

Then take two knives and hit each other with the backs of the knives a few times and listen to the sound, then the raw and wrought iron will be separated.

Li Mengxi looked at it with curiosity. He walked over and walked behind a craftsman who was squatting on the ground to argue with iron. He asked curiously, "You guys distinguish between pig iron and wrought iron. What's the best way to distinguish it?"

The blacksmith looked back and saw that it was Li Mengxi. He smiled and said, "There is no good method, just watch."

"Oh?" Li Mengxi was even more curious, "What do you think?"

The blacksmith said, "Look at black and white. Pig iron is black and wrought iron is white. Wrought iron is also called white iron. You can make a slight distinction by looking at the color of the iron."

Li Mengxi was suddenly enlightened, and it turned out that he judged based on color.

It turns out that the so-called white iron is actually wrought iron.

Having just learned some new knowledge, Li Mengxi couldn't help but pick up a knife from the ground and pull it out to look at it. The knife was pulled out of the sheath, and it was covered in red rust. Li Mengxi looked left and right, frowning, and then asked again, "

But if the iron is rusty and you can't see black and white, how can you tell the difference?"

The blacksmith replied, sharpen it or look at the unrusted edge of the knife.

The same goes for this, just grind off the rust.

After that, Li Mengxi wandered around in order to learn more about iron tools, and Guan Yu followed suit.

Li Mengxi is like a curious baby, looking for people everywhere and asking questions.

The blacksmiths naturally knew everything and answered.

From this, Li Mengxi learned that the difference between wrought iron and pig iron can also be based on the feel. Pig iron is light and wrought iron is heavy.

It is known that pig iron is black and wrought iron is white, so why is one black and one white? Combined with carbon, carbon is black. The higher the carbon content of iron, the more carbon elements.

, wouldn’t it just make the iron look darker?

So it makes sense to judge the carbon content based on color.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The craftsmen said that wrought iron is heavier and pig iron should be lighter. Li Mengxi thought of the carbon fiber that will be blown to the sky in later generations. Carbon fiber is, compared with other materials, both

Light and tough.

In other words, the mass of carbon is much smaller than that of iron.

Therefore, pure wrought iron is naturally heavier than pig iron with high carbon content.

The blacksmiths also said that you can take two iron blocks and smash them against each other twice. Whichever iron has more sparks will produce more sparks.

Iron just gets colder, what kind of metaphor is this? Li Mengxi looked at the old blacksmith with a white beard and looked confused.

Judging from the age of the old blacksmith, he is the oldest among the blacksmiths. In the blacksmith profession, age is positively correlated with experience. Since the old blacksmith said that sparks can judge the degree of rawness of iron, it must make sense. However,

Why?

Why does the more "raw" the iron is, the more sparks it has?

What the hell is this spark?

Sparks... fire, fire... charcoal?

Li Mengxi suddenly understood. He guessed that the sparks thrown up when the iron blocks struck each other were actually burning charcoal.

Therefore, the more carbon content in iron, the more sparks it will produce when struck, which coincides with what the old blacksmith said.

There is another way to identify ironware. Some blacksmiths say that you can taste it and you will be able to tell.

According to the craftsman, wrought iron is sweet, while pig iron is slightly astringent.

Li Mengxi doubtfully took the knife and stabbed it. He only tasted the taste of rust in his mouth and spit out the spit. Li Mengxi thought it was better to forget it. This method cannot be learned. It is too awesome.

Li Mengxi suddenly realized something. It seemed that in this circle, many knives were selected by the craftsmen and then thrown into a pile of wrought iron, while guns and the like were mostly thrown into a pile of pig iron. This discovery made Li Mengxi slightly

Curious, he called the leader of the craftsmen and asked carefully.

The answer from the leader of the craftsmen dispelled Li Mengxi's curiosity.

According to what the leader of the craftsmen said, most of the Huanshou knives are made of wrought iron, and some are made of ten-refined swords and fifty-refined steel knives. And many of the short spear heads and the like are made of cast iron.

It turns out that different weapons have different production processes.

Li Mengxi can roughly understand why wrought iron is mostly used for knives and pig iron is mostly used for guns. This seems to be related to the properties of pig iron and wrought iron itself.

The difference between pig iron and wrought iron is the carbon content. The higher the carbon content, the harder it is, but at the same time, it is more brittle.

Huanshou knives are generally very long. If the knife is made of pig iron, it will be too brittle and easy to break. If it is made into steel, the cost will be high. Therefore, the best cost-effective option is to use wrought iron to make the knife. Although wrought iron is soft, it has

It's easy to cut, but not easy to break, so it's much more practical than pig iron.

As for the gun head, the gun head is very short. The attack method of the gun head is mostly stabbing. At this time, if the gun head is soft, it will easily deform and become blunt. There are hardness requirements. Moreover, the gun head is inherently short.

, using pig iron will not break easily.

Therefore, the cheapest mass-produced weapons are made of wrought iron for knives and cast iron spearheads, which are the cheapest.

Afterwards, Li Mengxi went to check weapons such as spears and spears. Upon closer inspection, he found that many of the spearheads had obvious casting characteristics, and most of the casting stripping lines were still there.

I have learned that different iron materials can produce different armaments. This is a way to reduce costs and coordinate resources. What we pursue is a sufficiently high cost performance.

Later, regarding the method of distinguishing pig iron and wrought iron, Li Mengxi learned the knocking judgment method. However, the craftsman said that wrought iron sounded clear and quiet when knocked, while pig iron made a clanging sound when knocked, but the sound was silent.

This is for sure. Wrought iron is also made of tinplate. It is so soft that it will deform when knocked hard. The strength is greatly reduced and the sound is naturally small. However, pig iron is hard and will naturally make a clanging sound.
To be continued...