Traveling through time and space and becoming a deposed prince, he just wants to survive!

Sun Tiebiao was the man in black. He came here to see Fu Gang's subsequent plans. He never expected that the wine would end up in someone else's stomach before he could even enjoy it.

Fu Gang's guess was correct. Sun Tiebiao was from Shangjing and was a secret guard trained by King Zhao Heng of Chu.

Ever since Zhao Heng decided to fight against his second brother for Li Shiyuan, he transferred all his men to Chuzhou. He originally wanted to use the power of the Cao Gang to expand his control over Chuzhou.

However, after arriving, he discovered that the forces in Chuzhou included not only the Cao Gang and the Yan Gang, but also salt merchants, local officials and other forces. Among them, the most difficult force to control was the salt merchants who colluded with the officials trained by Zhao Wei.

These people are just businessmen on the surface, but in fact they control the entire Chuzhou salt transport market.

It can be said that if Zhao Wei wanted to cut off Chuzhou's salt supply for half a year, these merchants would not be able to transport a year's worth of salt out of Chuzhou.

Now Zhao Heng has easily settled the conflict between the two factions in Chuzhou. This has no impact on the forces controlled by Zhao Wei. On the contrary, after Zhao Heng completes his task, he will return to where he came from.

Moreover, the Cao Gang, which is currently in its heyday, may not be someone Zhao Heng can command.

The most urgent thing at the moment is that Zhao Heng needs to control the movements of the entire Chuzhou. After the Salt Gang was suppressed, they all went into hiding. He urgently needs someone to connect them and organize these people to continue to form a force there.

Therefore, with Fu Gang's presence and his absence from public appearances, the Cao Gang's influence in Chuzhou is still under some pressure. Without the support of the King of Chu, it is difficult for them to imagine what their future will be.

Another point is that after the Cao Gang came to power, they found that the salt merchants and other forces under the control of the government were also their strong rivals, but they had not yet torn their faces apart.

……

When Lu the blacksmith met Zhao Sheng at the foot of Changqing Mountain in Dingzhou, he found that he was a young man, but he could say such words, so he must have been taught by a famous teacher.

"Boy, what did you mean just now? I want to listen carefully."

When Zhao Sheng saw Lu the blacksmith, he did not greet him. He put his hands behind his back at a 30-degree angle towards the sky.

"Ancient records state that although manganese steel forged knives are sharp, they break easily, so a living person must be sacrificed to make the knives. This is just a legend, but it is actually very effective."

Blacksmith Lu naturally knew about this legend, but it would be too cruel to kill a person for not making a weapon, so he made steel knives, mostly using ordinary fine iron. Although it was not very sharp, it was durable.

Therefore, Lu the blacksmith was also quite famous in this industry and was recruited by the military as a military craftsman.

After listening to Zhao Sheng's words, he realized that this was just a legend and planned to leave.

"In the past, people came up with all this nonsense to make knives, but they simply didn't understand the underlying reasoning. There are two factors at play. One is that blood generally has a temperature of around 36 degrees Celsius, which is easy to maintain."

"When the steppe barbarians forge weapons, they let a horse run and then bleed it after it returns. This way the temperature will be higher. In addition, blood contains metallic elements such as iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc, which play a certain role in quenching, but are not critical."

Zhao Sheng said as he looked at Blacksmith Lu and said, "This involves the One-Day Fine Steel Method."

Blacksmith Lu was stunned by what Zhao Sheng said. Then he heard about the "One-Day Fine Steel Method" and asked, "What is "One-Day Fine Steel"?

"One-day steel means that steel can be extracted from iron ore in one day, rather than taking several days or even longer as before."

There were different definitions of fine steel in ancient times. Strictly speaking, it is wrought iron with relatively high purity, and black iron is actually a natural alloy iron.

其实钢与铁的密度通常都在 7.85克/立方厘米左右，只是铁的含碳量通常在 2%-4.3%之间；钢的含碳量在 0.02%-2.11%之间。

Of course, some of the microscopic structures inside are also different, which I will not introduce in detail here.

Zhao Sheng's purpose in saying this was to pique Lu the blacksmith's curiosity and interest, so that he could recruit this person and reserve talent for his own metallurgy and manufacturing. As he expected, Lu the blacksmith really showed interest.

"Then could you please tell me about your One-Day Steelmaking Method?"

As soon as Lu the blacksmith finished speaking, he suddenly felt something was wrong. Among craftsmen, skills are passed down through generations, and the rules of the master's way cannot be violated at will. Zhao Sheng obviously saw his embarrassment and knew the rules of craftsmen in this era. He smiled and said:

"If I tell you directly, I'm afraid you won't accept it. How about this: there's an iron mine in Jing County. You and I can develop a method for refining fine steel here and do something for Dingzhou?"

Although Blacksmith Lu was nearly sixty years old, he was still passionate about smelting. When he heard what Zhao said, he happily accepted his suggestion.

Zhao Ying stayed in Luancheng for a few days and only heard that Fan Xitong had been drinking with Li Shuya's husband, but she had not seen him since. Seeing that she had wasted some time here, she said goodbye to Li Shuya.

"Princess sister, you're leaving after only a few days. Are you blaming me for not hosting you well enough?"

Seeing the princess say this, Zhao Ying teased her, "I've been here for so long, and I haven't seen your prince consort yet. I must be angry."

"It seems that my sister is really angry. I will send people to Pingshan to capture him. I don't know what he is doing outside all day."

Of course Li Shuya knew that Zhao Ying was joking, so she pretended to be angry and wanted to send someone to invite Zhao Sheng back.

After being drunk last time, Fan Xitong was not angry. Instead, he showed great interest in Zhao Sheng's literary talent, as well as the food and wine in the cafeteria.

Later, I went to the workshop area to look for Zhao Sheng several times, but Zhao Yongsheng told me every time that he had gone to the mountains to deal with important matters.

When Zhao Yongsheng learned that Fan Xitong came here just to drink, he was not stingy and opened a restaurant specifically for Zhao Sheng. The dishes were the same as the big pot dishes in the cafeteria, and there was enough wine.

Today Zhao Ying said she was leaving. I suddenly thought that I would never be able to drink good wine again, and I couldn't help feeling a little lonely.

Li Shuya saw that the princess and her husband looked unhappy and asked, "What's on your mind, brother-in-law?"

Fan Xitong treated this place as a relative's home and had nothing to be ashamed of, so he said, "I often go to the place called the canteen in the workshop to eat. The wine there is really good. It's a pity..."

There was no further talk. Li Shuya knew what he was thinking and laughed, "My husband doesn't even drink the wine in the cafeteria, saying it's too rough. I have some wine at home. Take some to Yanzhou. Don't ask me for it after you drink it. I don't know how to make it."

As he said this, he ordered people to move out the wine stored in the Princess's Mansion. There were only four jars of wine, weighing about twenty pounds.

Usually when Zhao Ying and Li Shuya were together, they would have a drink. They used bamboo containers that could hold about one kilogram. Today, they saw that the wine for Fan Xitong was in large jars, so they were a little curious.

"Xi Tong, even if this wine tastes good, you don't have to take so much!"

"Princess, this wine is not available in the capital. It is very delicious."

Just as Zhao Ying was about to say something else, Li Shuya pulled her aside and said with a smile, "This is the wine we brewed ourselves. There are three types. One is brewed with miscellaneous materials. I can't even tell what's in it. It's called alcohol."

Pointing at the wine in the car, she said, "This is wine made from radish and millet. My husband said it was five-grain wine, so I said the wine in the cafeteria is not good."

Li Shuya's words made Zhao Ying think for a moment, and then she heard Li Shuya continue, "The wine we sisters drink is made from fruit wines such as Elaeagnus angustifolia. Some people here have made it before, and it tastes sour, but after my husband improved it, it tastes better."