Chapter 1420: A Thousand Golds for Justice! He Is Worth the Price!

"Lord God! True sand selects iron, blows furnace to smelt iron... Thousand forging method?..."

After a moment of "forging a sword on paper", the winner will be decided. The face of the kingdom's blacksmith Matsushita Tetsuji changed, and his momentum was directly reduced by a lot. However, in front of the old craftsman Tetsuta Soyoshi, he still refused to admit defeat, staring at the opponent's broken arm, and still shouted.

"You keep talking about what layered thousand forging, what annealing and quenching, what Yamashiro style secret... Do you really know how to fight, or are you just talking?... Otherwise, let's build an earthen furnace by the river, each forge a short sword, and see what both sides can do?!..."

"Ha! You young man, you are still talking tough!..."

When he heard about starting the furnace to forge iron, Tetsuta Soyoshi's heart suddenly skipped a beat. With his old arm, how could he really forge a sword? But his face was still confident, and he didn't even look at Matsushita Tetsuji.

After a brief thought, Tetsuda Soyoshi turned around and bowed to Zuwaro who was listening patiently. Then, he took out a yellowed atlas from his bosom.

"Honorable Golden Chief! I don't teach the secrets of the Yamashiro School easily... But since I have donated to the Buddha and have left the Yamashiro School, all the past things will be gone like smoke... I, an old man, will teach you everything I know and teach the apprentice arranged by the chief!... Here is a forging atlas, which I drew in my early years and would like to present to the great chief! Please look at this picture and listen to my detailed explanation of the forging method of a good jade steel knife!..."

"Oh? The atlas of forging a knife?"

Zuwaro took the atlas and looked through it with interest. The first half was about ore dressing and iron smelting, which I had already talked about, and especially drew a lot of iron smelting tools. The bellows of the so-called "stepping bellows furnace" turned out to be as big as the furnace. There was a little man painted on it, stepping on the wind with his feet. There was also a paragraph of kana text used by civilians in Japan next to it. I don't know what it said?

"Chief, this paragraph says that fire relies on wind, and the temperature of the furnace is related to the wind speed! Therefore, the faster and more the wind is blown, the higher the furnace temperature can be. The higher the furnace temperature, the better the iron smelting effect. In order to maximize the furnace temperature, a giant bellows must be set up on each side, using the power of human feet to blow air into the furnace for a long time!..."

"Oh! Human power becomes wind power, blowing air into the furnace to increase the furnace temperature? I remember that the divine revelation scripture said that there are divine particles in the wind that help combustion, so the more they enter the furnace, the more vigorous the combustion... This should be the reason!"

Zuwaro thought for a while, and his eyes lit up. Then, he turned to the back and saw the part of "Thousand Forging Methods", which had a total of three pictures. The first picture shows a man forging a blade, the second picture shows a man painting the blade, and the third picture shows a man putting the blade into water.

"Chief, the first step of the Thousand Forging Method is 'overlap forging'! First, use a hammer to forge a piece of jade steel into a sheet, then fold the piece of jade steel and continue forging. Although it is called 'Thousand Forging' in name, generally speaking, as long as it is folded 16-20 times and a beautiful 'Thousand Forging Pattern' is formed, it is the quality of a good knife!..."

"However, this 'overlap forging' sounds simple, but when it is really done, it is the most challenging to work hard, be careful and endurance! The jade steel forging must be forged evenly, and there must be no irregular patterns on the surface, and no bubbles or cracks! And the patterns after forging must be 'uniform and delicate', the more uniform the better. In the words of the secret, it is 'beautiful like clouds'! A good-looking knife is not necessarily powerful. But a powerful knife must be beautiful!..."

"Hmm...beautiful like clouds?...powerful...beautiful?"

Zuwaro thought for a while, then pointed to the second picture and asked.

"God, bear witness! What is the purpose of this second painting? Why is there something on this knife?..."

"Oh! This second step is the preparation before quenching... Apply clay of different thicknesses to the blade and the back of the knife..."

Speaking of this, Tetsuda Souyoshi paused, looked at Matsushita Tetsuji who was listening to him, and hesitated whether to tell him the "real secret". But thinking of the current situation, he sighed in his heart, apologized to his long-dead master, and forced a smile on his face.

"Chief, after completing 'layer forging', there are generally two processes before 'quenching', which are the most effective in showing the craftsman's skill! The first process is not shown in this picture, but there is a note called 'annealing'. The so-called 'annealing' is to 'use fire to nourish the knife'! Heat the furnace to 'cherry red', 'nurture the knife' in the fire for three or four hours, and then bury it in the ashes to slowly cool. After this process is completed, the knife will be 'comfortable', and the blade will become soft and tough, and it can be quenched..."

"And the second process before quenching is 'smearing soil', which is the picture on the picture... Apply different thicknesses of clay on the blade and back of the knife, so that the blade is sharp and the back of the knife is tough after quenching! …”

“Huh? What’s the reason? The same steel and the same clay, why can the difference between sharpness and toughness be distinguished by just different thickness? …Tetsusuke, why are you so close? Haha! So you don’t know it either?”

“Buddha! This is the secret of Yamashiro Ryu… Hey! To put it bluntly, there are not so many mysteries. It’s just one, ‘the speed of cooling’! …”

Tetsusuke looked around and sighed again, gently breaking this most critical window paper. And the infinite light instantly illuminated the eavesdropping Matsushita Tetsuku, making him suddenly enlightened and see a higher palace of skills!

"The faster the steel cools down, the harder and more brittle it is, and it can be used as a blade. The slower it cools down, the duller and tougher it is, and it can be used as a back of a blade... The most practical way to control its cooling is to apply soil, clay!... The thicker the soil, the slower the natural quenching cooling, and the better the toughness. The thinner the soil, the faster the quenching cooling, and the sharper it is..."

"And this third picture is the last step of quenching! Sometimes quenching is done with water, and sometimes with oil... The difference between water and oil is the speed of cooling! It is also a mnemonic, 'water is fast and oil is slow'. There is another mnemonic behind it, 'urine quenching is brighter'. That is to say, after adding urine, the surface of the quenched knife will have fewer cracks, be smoother and more beautiful, and the quality will be slightly better!..."

"Ah! That's it!... Layer forging, annealing, and quenching, they all have their own reasons!"

After listening to this detailed process of forging a knife, Zuvaro nodded suddenly! Although he had no experience in forging swords, the master explained the principles and gave him the illusion that he had already learned it.

This Tetsuda Souyoshi seemed to be a man of real ability. He not only "knew the fact", but also "knew the reason for the fact" and "knew all kinds of fact"! In other words, he had reached the level of being able to integrate practice and summarize it into theory. No, he himself had the "secret" of an ancient school...

Thinking of this, Zuvaro glanced at Tetsuda Souyoshi and then looked at the atlas in his hand. Then, he pointed at the tiger vanguard Hu Nu who was resting beside him and asked the last question.

"Master Tie! In addition to forging swords, can you forge other weapons? Hu Nu said that this long sword is not very easy to use. What weapon do you think is more suitable?..."

Tetsuda Souyoshi looked at Hu Nu and grinned, which frightened him so much that his heart trembled twice. He did not dare to look directly at this "Shan Tatar warrior" who was as tall and strong as a bear and tiger, and quickly looked at the opponent's long sword and bone flower. After a moment of silence, he replied.

"Chief, I have never seen such a majestic tiger warrior... If he is fighting on foot, the most suitable weapon for him should be a two-handed heavy axe, at chest height, which can best play to his height and strength! If he is fighting on horseback, he can use a thick-backed saber, and the blade should be wider and thicker. It doesn't need to be so long, about four feet will be fine..."

"And if he is fighting on both foot and horse, he can actually use the Tang people's "wolf tooth club" or "ghost gold club". It is heavy and sharp, and can be chopped, swung, smashed, and stabbed! But this kind of heavy weapon can only be wielded freely by a real tiger warrior!"

"As for forging these weapons...forging swords The reason why it is the measure of a master craftsman is because forging a knife is the most difficult! A master craftsman who can forge a knife well can also forge an axe, a spear or a spearhead...naturally! ..."

"Good! Very good! God bless you! ... Master Tie, you are indeed a master of blacksmiths! His Majesty will definitely value you and give you real status and responsibilities, even Shenwei University...Haha! Just wait for the next batch of ships to arrive..."

This test is completed. Tetsuda Souyoshi straightened his old waist, Matsushita Tetsuji bowed his head and said nothing, Tiger Slave blinked his eyes, and Zuwaro laughed loudly, speaking in Nahua language that people couldn't understand. He laughed for a while, patted Tiger Slave's shoulder hard, pointed at the smiling Morino Kiyoshi, and said generously.

"Tiger Slave, give him the gold talisman! ..."

"Great Chief, how many? ..."

"Twenty! ..."

"Ah? !"

Hearing this, Morino Kiyoshi's smile froze, and he rubbed his ears in disbelief. He hesitated for a few breaths, but still smiled respectfully.

"Hey! Chief, you remembered it wrong... The price I mentioned before... um... is ten yuan, ten kilograms of gold..."

"The Lord God is my witness! I know!"

Zuwaro nodded and gently patted the one-armed Tietian Zongyi. Then, his light words made the one-armed Tietian Zongyi's eyes red, and he pursed his lips in silence.

"But I said twenty yuan, that's twenty yuan! Twenty kilograms of gold! This is a true grandmaster, he is worth this price!..."

"Tiger slave, give him the golden talisman!..."