Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

This system is very strict, and the stricter the system, the more people will try to find loopholes. What does strictness represent? It represents scarcity. What does scarcity represent? It represents wealth and power.

Even the imperial court controls ironware so strictly, doesn't that mean "whoever controls the ironware controls the world"?

There are many smart people among the people, and they can see clearly that once someone has the jurisdiction and distribution rights for forging of iron tools, wouldn't this person be able to walk around freely in the provincial capital and county towns?

There is never a shortage of successors at the top of power, so... many people are scrambling to become a government-appointed blacksmith.

——This is called there are countermeasures for every policy.

But what’s the other saying?

It’s called - there are countermeasures below and policies above.

Ironware shops and blacksmiths are popular, how could the imperial court not know this? How could the local government not know this?

Therefore, iron shops and blacksmiths were subject to extremely strict control at the local level.

The weight of iron ore, pig iron and the number of ironware in the ironware shop must be clearly recorded in a book. In addition to being required to be reported within the prescribed time limit, the government office must send special personnel to supervise and investigate at any time.

Not to mention a pound of iron is missing, even if two ounces of iron filings are lost from hammering, the iron shop will have to close down and the blacksmith will be sent to jail.

That's why Shen Zheng asked how much fine iron there was in the mansion, which surprised Yu Zhengqing and the others so much.

It's not that they think she is lawless or has ulterior motives, but the idea that "iron tools are the foundation of a country" has long been deeply rooted in their minds.

Not to mention Shen Zheng asking, even if the governor or the emperor asked, they would react the same.

Liang Fu looked at the silent Yu Zhengqing. Just when he thought Yu Zhengqing would not answer, Yu Zhengqing suddenly spoke: "Fine iron... less than ten thousand jin."

Liang Fu was stunned when he heard this and looked at Yu Zhengqing in disbelief.

I know that Lord Shen has a good relationship with the Yu family, but what is the amount of iron stored in the mansion? It is a great treasure of the entire mansion and an important war resource!

Prefect Yu...just explained it so simply?

"So little?!" This answer was completely different from what Shen Zheng had expected, and she couldn't help but question it out loud.

Although she couldn't lift or push a 10,000-jin iron, how much would 10,000-jin iron weigh? In her previous life, she couldn't even build a large truck.

Not to mention that most cars in the past were made of steel structures, which were more expensive than fine iron.

"Isn't that enough?!" Liang Fu asked Shen Zheng with wide eyes, "Refined iron from all over the country needs to be shipped to the Ministry of Industry on time. Liuyang Prefecture has a stock of 10,000 catties, which is already very good. And Lord Shen, do you know how many catties of pig iron are needed to quench one catty of refined iron?"

Extracting iron from iron ore?

Shen Zheng frowned slightly, thought for a moment and answered, "Three pounds?"

This answer was still her guesswork. In her memory, if the iron ore was of high quality and had a high iron content, less than two kilograms of iron ore could produce one kilogram of iron.

"Three catties?!" Liang Fu seemed to have heard something out of the ordinary. "Three catties of pig iron is about the same as half a catty of refined iron!"

Pig iron is full of impurities. After the craftsman hammers it around, it’s considered extremely good if 20% of the iron is left!

Shen Zheng felt that her understanding seemed to be wrong. Could it be that the "fine iron" they were talking about was no longer iron, but steel? But when they were in Tongan County before, Liang Fu was clearly asking her how to melt iron.

You know, even though the refined iron obtained through repeated hammering has fewer impurities, it still cannot be called steel. So at this moment, the Great Zhou does not know how to melt iron, but can already refine large quantities of steel?

This clearly goes against physics.

Shen Zheng paused, and decided to be on the safe side, and asked hesitantly: "How fine is the refined iron you mentioned?"

This is a good question.

Liang Fu pursed his lips, "How precise can it be? It's just like making arrowheads."

Arrows have extremely high requirements on iron quality. Arrows that are not cast from refined iron are very easy to wear or be damaged during use.

Speaking of arrowheads, Shen Zheng had an idea in his mind - the "fine iron" they were talking about was iron, not steel.

When she was a child, she often saw scenes of two armies fighting when watching TV dramas with other children in an orphanage - swords and arrows clashed on the battlefield, and the arrows were like rain, hitting the soldiers continuously.

At that time, Shen Zheng still thought that after the war, those arrows and weapons would remain on the battlefield forever, buried in the sand and hidden underground as time passed.

But after she gained a deeper understanding of history, she found out that these arrows and weapons were used as they were less and less, and the warring parties would absolutely not want to leave their weapons on the battlefield to be picked up by the other side.

Yes, just pick it up.

It is the rule to clean up the battlefield after the war.

Who will clean up?

Of course, it was the victorious side. They could carry the bodies of their compatriots back home, scoop up a few handfuls of earth, and erect a wooden tombstone. They could also pick up the swords, arrows, and even horses left behind by both sides on the battlefield. This was the glory that belonged exclusively to the victor.

Since Yu Zhengqing and Liang Fu were talking about iron, why does it take five or six pounds of iron ore to produce one pound of iron?

Shen Zheng asked, but Liang Fu and Yu Zhengqing didn't know how to answer.

"Why?" How could they know why? After all the hammering and banging, there was only that little left. Who wouldn't want to save some?

Yu Zhengqing looked at Shen Zheng and asked firmly, "This iron output is wrong, right?"

"You'll know only after you've seen pig iron." Shen Zheng did not stick to the answer. After all, she had never seen the iron ore from the Great Zhou.

Liang Fu also reacted immediately, and asked Shen Zheng with trembling fingers: "Master Shen, you, you mean that one pound of pig iron can be tempered into more than two ounces of fine iron?!"

Shen Zheng still said: "You won't know until you see it."

"Look, look!" Liang Fu felt that Liuli was not that important at this moment. Please, ironware was the most important thing, okay!

but......

Liang Fu looked at Shen Zheng and said, "So you asked about the refined iron in the mansion just now, just to learn about quenching and forging?"

Yu Zhengqing doesn't think so.

Based on his understanding of Shen Zheng, if Shen Zheng wanted to know how to quench and forge pig iron, she would ask directly instead of taking a roundabout way and asking about refined iron.

As expected, Shen Zheng shook her head and said, "No. I want to build a furnace to burn colored glaze, which can greatly increase the success rate of burning colored glaze."

Liang Fu was silent for a moment, then asked, "This furnace must be made of fine iron, and the amount used is not small, right?"

He knew in his heart that if the amount needed was not small, Shen Zheng would not have asked about the inventory of refined iron first.

Shen Zheng nodded, but it was a little difficult to speak: "Maybe... a few hundred kilograms."

"So many?" Yu Zhengqing and Liang Fu asked in unison, and then there was a long silence.

Several hundred kilograms of fine iron is definitely not a small number. If used in military equipment, thousands of arrowheads alone can be made!

"This..." Liang Fu struggled with his thoughts for a long time, and asked hesitantly: "Sir Shen, if you don't have this furnace, how confident are you in making colored glaze?"