The First National Preceptor of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 22

Construction is progressing rapidly; the kitchen and male workers' dormitory in the living area are complete, and the rest is under construction. We need to seriously consider starting the workshop; if we start in early March, time is already running out.

So they put up a job advertisement outside Huazi Building, seeking skilled carpenters, blacksmiths, craftsmen, and potters.

In addition, they often advertise their recruitment to customers who come to the store, asking them to help recommend customers. If they successfully recommend someone, they can get at least three half-price food and beverage discounts.

After that, people did come to apply for the job, mostly as carpenters, a few as potters, but none as blacksmiths.

After the initial interviews, most of them did not meet the requirements. They were either novices with no experience, or they only wanted to find a temporary job and did not intend to stay for a long time. In addition, some people's character was questionable.

After initial screening, only five people passed the first round, one of whom was a potter. They were then notified to come for the second round of on-site assessment and interview in early March.

These people alone are not enough. The woodworking workshop may be able to get started, but the metallurgical workshop is still in its infancy, and there isn't a single usable person.

The first crucial step in a metallurgical workshop is to build an iron smelting furnace to cast iron parts from purchased raw iron.

The furnace's structure and associated smelting processes directly determine the maximum achievable furnace temperature, affecting whether iron ore can be pulverized into molten iron. The furnace must meet this performance requirement; otherwise, it's considered unusable.

This requires a certain level of technical expertise, but unfortunately Xu Tian is not from a related engineering background and does not know what the structural design of advanced and scientific iron furnaces in later generations is like, what materials are used to build them, what aspects need attention, and so on.

Moreover, metal smelting and processing have developed into a large-scale industrial era in later generations. As the saying goes, "a trade is like a mountain," and outsiders generally do not really understand the details.

Even though Xu Tian had a mediocre internship at a well-known steel group during his final year of university, organized by the school, he only gained some superficial knowledge.

Moreover, the things from the industrial age are too advanced for the present era and are not very practical, so they are not very useful for reference.

Previously, I paid almost no attention to this area. Information about iron smelting in traditional furnaces was scarce. I had only passively received some scattered related knowledge, half of which came from novels. It was just textual description, and I didn't know if it was actually practical.

Because the ideas were too fragmented and unsystematic, it was difficult to form a complete concept. Xu Tian pondered for several days, but still had no idea what to do.

If you don't know, you don't know. These are real businesses that you can't develop methods just by talking.

Many things are clearly not too difficult even though I know the principles behind them, but because I haven't been exposed to them before, and I lack the relevant knowledge and experience, I don't know how to implement them, and I don't have the patience to develop them myself. This is a typical case of being all talk and no action.

"Du Erlang, Uncle Du, please help me think of a way to hire someone skilled in iron smelting. Not a long-term hire, I know that's hopeless, just someone to help me build an iron smelting furnace. The cost is negotiable."

This is at Du Ji's place, where several people are gathered. Xu Tian explains his current predicament and hopes they can lend a helping hand.

“Xu Tian, ​​it’s not that I’m unwilling to help you, but it’s just too difficult. The art of iron smelting and forging is a family secret. Even if you don’t smelt iron, you can still make pottery. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s a family heirloom. Each family is wary of the others, so how could they easily reveal it to outsiders?”

"Moreover, building a new iron furnace will inevitably take away their current livelihood, and who would want to make an enemy of their own? Among the seven counties of Xiangzhou, only three iron-smelting families know about it, and of those, only the one that is nearby has frequent dealings with my Du family."