The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Wu Shang.

Thirty miles south of the city, there is a manor, which was the villa of the former county magistrate Zhu Hongxiu. It was originally a place where Zhu Hongxiu kept his mistresses, but now it has a new name: Wushang Steel Plant.

In the center of the steel plant’s front yard stood a giant furnace, half a meter high. Two young men were adding coal into it with shovels, while two other young men were pulling the bellows to make the fire burn brightly.

Guan Xing and Feng Tiezhu stood under the eaves and watched patiently. When they saw that the fire was almost extinguished, Feng Tiezhu couldn't wait to carry the ladder to the furnace. He climbed to the top of the ladder and ordered his apprentice to use the pulley to lift the furnace lid. He then opened his eyes wide and looked into the furnace.

Looking at the molten iron inside the furnace, red as lava, Feng Tiezhu exclaimed excitedly, "General, it's really melted! The iron ore has actually melted into molten iron! It's amazing!"

Born into a family of blacksmiths, Feng Tiezhu always believed that his skills had reached the level of a grandmaster, and that he was virtually unmatched in the world.

So when Guan Xing told him that he could smelt iron ore into molten iron, his first reaction was to beat Guan Xing up and teach this arrogant brat a lesson.

My ancestors have been blacksmiths for generations. Do you want me to teach you how to blacksmith?

In his understanding, blacksmithing involves first heating the iron ore at high temperatures until it is red-hot and soft, then hammering it, heating and hammering it again, repeating this process countless times to remove the impurities and finally shaping it.

Guan Xing, however, said that there was no need for such trouble, and that it would be enough to just smelt the iron ore into molten iron. Who would believe such nonsense?

But now, the iron ore has actually melted into molten iron?

That's amazing, that's incredible.

How high a temperature would that require?

The molten iron inside the furnace completely overturned Feng Tiezhu's worldview, making him doubt the ancestral craft. He stood on the ladder, swaying left and right, gesturing wildly as if he were having an epileptic seizure.

Guan Xing was terrified and quickly warned, "Come down quickly and stop fooling around. Be careful the ladder falls onto the furnace wall and burns you to death."

"You want to die, but I don't want you to die. Even if you have to die, you have to wait until your apprentice graduates. Otherwise, who will forge iron for me?"

Is the area next to the boiler where you dance? The furnace wall is so hot; if you were to get scratched, you'd lose a layer of skin.

Feng Tiezhu hurriedly descended the ladder and returned to Guan Xing's side, excitedly saying, "General, you succeeded! You actually succeeded! With the means to smelt iron into water, I will definitely be able to forge the most powerful weapon in the world, surpassing all the famous swords recorded in history books."

Thinking of the scene of the famous sword being born from his own hands, Feng Tiezhu was so excited that he wanted to hug the stove and kiss it.

As a blacksmith, who wouldn't want to forge a few peerless weapons and leave their mark on history like Ou Yezi?

Guan Xing stared at the stove and sighed, "Yeah, we finally succeeded. It was so damn hard."

The biggest challenge in steelmaking is the steelmaking furnace. Iron ore has a melting point of over 1,000 degrees Celsius, and the Han Dynasty simply did not have a vessel capable of withstanding such high temperatures. If they used an ordinary boiler, the boiler would melt before the iron was even melted.

In other words, to build a steelmaking furnace, you first need to produce steel that can withstand high temperatures, and to produce such steel, you first need to build a steelmaking furnace—it's a vicious cycle.

At the critical moment, Guan Xing thought of the clay crucible. The clay crucible, made of graphite and kaolin, has a melting point of over 3,000 degrees Celsius and can withstand the high temperature of molten iron.

The clay crucible solved the biggest problem in steelmaking, which also allowed Guan Xing to breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking at the blazing flames in the furnace, Guan Xing smiled with a long-lost smile and said with a relaxed expression, "I won't worry about the rest. From now on, you will be in full charge of the steel plant."

His ability was limited to making clay crucibles; he couldn't help with anything else.

Guan Xing said he had no idea how to remove impurities from the molten iron, how to strengthen the material, or how to create steel with higher strength and quality.

Materials science is a vast and profound subject. Even experts in materials science today cannot guarantee that they are fully proficient in it, let alone someone like him who was a poor student.

But then again, if he were proficient in everything, what would be the point of having Feng Tiezhu, right?

Feng Tiezhu said confidently, "General, rest assured, I will definitely manage the steel mill well and forge the sharpest and most durable weapons as soon as possible."

Guan Xing shook his head and said, "Weapons are not urgent. First, make me a batch of farm tools, including hoes, shovels, machetes, saws, axes, and kitchen knives and scissors. Make all of these according to the blueprints I gave you some time ago. You are not allowed to make any changes on your own."

"Especially the curved plow on the blueprints, get it made by the carpenter as soon as possible, I want to see the effect."

The previous battle yielded too many weapons and armor, and we still have enough weapons for now, but we are really short of farm tools. We searched the entire Wushang area but couldn't find many, which is a huge waste of time.

More importantly, most of the land and population resources of the Han Dynasty are concentrated in the Central Plains. The Jiangnan region is still in an undeveloped and wild era, with fewer people and even less land. Less than half of the total area of ​​the Jinqu Basin has been developed, and the rest is all uncultivated wasteland.

There are two reasons for the land being abandoned. First, there is a lack of tools. People have exhausted all their energy cultivating their own land and simply do not have the energy to cultivate any more wasteland.

Secondly, there's the issue of uncultivated land. Once you start cultivating it, someone will fight over it. The land lies fallow and no one cares, but if you want to cultivate it to grow grain and vegetables, sorry, as soon as you clear away the weeds and rubble, plant the grain and reap a bountiful harvest, someone will immediately come with a land deed that's still wet with ink and claim the land as theirs. And you'll most likely be no match for such a rogue.

Over time, the common people became too lazy to cultivate the land and end up doing all the work for others.

Guan Xing did not want the land to remain barren, nor did he want the Han army to be idle. So he planned to follow Cao Cao's example and implement military farming, reclaiming all the wasteland in the surrounding counties and townships.

He wanted to see which fool dared to try and take his land.

I won't let you poop out.

However, land reclamation requires farm tools, and farmers also need farm tools for cultivation. As the saying goes, "If you want to do something well, you must first have the right tools," so the task of making farm tools must be put on the agenda immediately.

Feng Tiezhu nodded emphatically and said, "General, rest assured, the most difficult thing has been solved, the rest will be easy. At worst, I will set up a few more steel furnaces."

"However, General, the supply of ore and coal needs to keep up. I see that the coal is burning quite quickly."

Guan Xing laughed and said, "Don't worry, I've already sent people to mine it. There's no way you'll run out of food."

While building the steel plant, he was also actively searching for mines. After exploration, he successfully found iron ore in Zhuji, coal mines in Wushang, as well as other mineral veins such as fluorite and clay.

He then transferred all the elite Wu soldiers who refused to be reformed to mining operations, promising to release them after six months.

We have to set a deadline and give them some hope, otherwise what if these guys collectively rebel?

Feng Tiezhu patted his chest and assured him, "General, just you wait and see. As long as there are enough materials, I guarantee I will meet all your needs."

Guan Xing patted him on the shoulder to encourage him, then turned to leave to rest. Wang Tao hurriedly ran over and said, "General, Magistrate Cheng Li has sent a letter saying that an envoy named Sun Shao requests an audience to discuss the ransom with you."

Guan Xing asked in surprise, "Sun Shao, old or young?"

There were three Sun Shaos in Eastern Wu: Sun Shao, Sun Shao, and Sun Shao. The three were homophones but had different characters, making it easy to confuse them.

Wang Tao replied, "He's young, and I heard he's quite handsome."

Guan Xing frowned and said, "That should be Sun Ce's son, Sun Shao. Let's go back to Zhuji and meet him."