Chen Xu rode a horse and left the blacksmith shop humming a song, and his mood suddenly changed to a very good place.

The defeat was a complete surprise for him.

What is even more surprising is that I didn't expect that someone in the Qin Dynasty would be able to smelt wrought iron with few impurities and low carbon content.

Although the theory of winning or losing has not been confirmed and verified in the archaeology of later generations, it is not surprising that it appears according to the copper and iron smelting technology and scale that is so developed in Daqin, because bronze processing also begins to smelt semi-melted copper, and then add lead and tin to make an alloy with a relatively low melting point, and many copper and iron in the ore are associated ores, such as the most common chalcopyrite, which is a mixed sulfide of iron and copper. Therefore, the discovery of iron is actually about the same time as copper, but because smelting iron requires a higher temperature, and craftsmen have not found a way to reduce the melting point like bronze, so iron has not been popularized on a large scale, but at this time in Daqin, many agricultural tools have been made of cast iron, and there are even weapons-grade iron weapons, but the number is very small, mainly as the public loses the victory, the smelting cost is too high, for the workshop owner to lose more than worth the loss, naturally can not be promoted.

In nature, iron ore is much more abundant and comes from a wider range of sources than copper ore, so once steel is successfully smelted, bronze will soon be withdrawn from the stage of history.

And as long as wrought iron is available, the manufacture of high-quality carbon steel weapons can be said to be more than half of the success.

It's not easy to get the carbon out of pig iron, but it's easy to add it.

When calcining the iron, sprinkle a layer of iron ore powder on the surface after the surface is melted and repeatedly forged, and even directly after the pig iron melts into juice, sprinkle some iron powder and stir repeatedly to increase the carbon content, after the slag is cooled, it is carbon steel, but the carbon content in this process is not easy to control, low is not hard enough, high is not strong, so in this era of smelting basically depends on looking, everything depends on feeling and experience, it is very difficult to smelt a furnace of qualified high-quality carbon steel every time, and an experienced craftsman is completely a baby. Once hung up, the loss is serious.

Therefore, for Chen Xu, the value of winning a public loss is huge, and it is worthy of his good courtesy, so he found You Hui Liu Po and decided to implement the treatment of winning a public loss first, so that he can have the energy to concentrate on ironmaking.

"Arrange for him to have a widow without a man to take care of his daily life? For...... Why? Liu Po's tongue was so surprised that he almost couldn't retract when he hung outside.

"Well, this public winner is a master craftsman who smelts copper and iron, and his achievements in the future are limitless, so he must first solve his food, housing and living problems, otherwise he can't rest assured, by the way, go to the warehouse to find Niu Quanling, two horses of coarse linen, five stones of grain and three hundred yuan to send together."

"Ridian, aren't you taking care of this a little too much? He hasn't done anything yet......"

"Talk, why don't you go and help me get the iron out?" Chen Xu said angrily.

"Ah, this one I ...... I won't! Liu Po hurriedly said.

"I don't know how to say a fart, think about it!"

Liu Po was helpless, bowed his head and hesitated for a while, and then said: "The twenty-three-year-old widow man Xu in the east of Zhentou has not come back since he was conscripted into the war four years ago, and he is quite beautiful and ...... in shape."

"Have you ever slept?" Chen Xu twitched a few times and said.

"Uh, no, no!" Liu Po hurriedly shook his head, "Widow Xu is the niece of the doctor Xu Yao, because there are a few splashes in the town who like to come to harass her, she ...... She ...... So I invited to eat a few times, don't think about it, I just see her pitiful ......, if the adults think it's inappropriate, I'll arrange for someone else's house! ”

Do you think that Lao Tzu believes it when you say this!

Chen Xu rolled his eyes vigorously, but there are many such bullshit things in the town, there are not enough men, too many widows, and powerful and powerful men like Liu Po who look powerful and powerful are scarce like babies, so all the widows want to seduce them, because it is indeed not easy for a woman to live with one or even several children in such a fucking era, it has nothing to do with etiquette, righteousness and shame, just to be able to live, so even if Chen Xu knows about this kind of thing, he can't manage it, no matter what, Those widows will draw circles at home every day and tie up villains.

"Are you willing?" Chen Xu pouted and said.

"Ridian, I'...... I really don't have anything to do with her! Liu Po hesitated, looked at Chen Xu's contemptuous eyes, and finally said with a red face: "No matter what, I, Liu Po, am still a man, I can't give her a complete home, but I still have to leave a way for her future life, I can't go on like this for ten or twenty years, since you value winning or losing so much, he will definitely get ahead in the future, and I am relieved that Widow Xu will follow him!" ”

"Remember, once someone else really plans to live a good life, don't sneak through the window in the middle of the night, or I will be known, hum!" Chen Xu snorted coldly.

"Don't worry, never will, absolutely not, she is really pitiful!" Liu Po hurriedly assured.

"Okay, you can arrange this matter, but you have to fight for Widow Xu's opinion, if she doesn't agree, don't force it, and at the same time tell her that the life of the public and the loss must be taken care of, if the family is restless and my big thing is ruined, I will not spare her!"

"Provincial province, don't worry, I'll go and talk to her!" Liu Po nodded again and again.

Watching Liu Po ride a horse to Widow Xu's house, Chen Xu couldn't help but sigh with a dark face, what kind of shit did Nima Laozi do, he even had to worry about this kind of thing, it was so fucked up.

But overall, this is a fucked up era, and if history can't be changed, twenty years later, it will be even more fucked, after Liu Bang came to power, there are more women and fewer men, so there is a single tax, young girls have to rush to marry and become juniors, and the fate of women is even more miserable.

In the pottery workshop, Gao He is busy working next to a small earthen kiln that he and a few helpers are building.

This small earthen kiln is only two meters high, the outside is covered with thick yellow mud, the inside is refractory bricks, the inner wall is coated with a layer of clay mixed with grass and wood ash, and below is a coal-burning earthen stove, at this time the furnace is blazing, a wave of heat is emitting from the top of the sealed earthen kiln, there is a half-foot-sized window on the earthen kiln, through the window, you can see the red earthen kiln, more than ten pottery bowls and pottery cups made of Guanyin clay are placed on the refractory bricks layer by layer, flashing slightly whitish under the burning of the furnace fire.

Chen Xu was still a few meters away from the earthen kiln, and he could feel a scorching air rushing towards him.

"How's the firing effect?" After saying hello, Chen Xu asked.

"The clay blanks made last time were fired out of a kiln, and most of them were cracked, but there are still two pieces in good condition, I'll show you! It's incredible, it's as white and smooth as white jade. Gao He was excited, ran to the pergola, took out two smooth porcelain bowls and handed them to Chen Xu.

Chen Xu took the two porcelain bowls and looked at them, they were cold, smooth and white, and even had a touch of crystal clear bone china texture, which was not much different from the pure porcelain seen in later generations, but these two bowls still had a lot of cracks, and some deformations, because of the blank, there were traces of a circle on it, and there was still a big gap between this look and the porcelain that Chen Xu wanted.

"Lidian, although this white clay is delicate enough, it is not strong enough, the carcass is too thin, and it is slightly deformed during the drying process, and because it is the first time to fire, the furnace temperature is not well controlled, and most of it cracks and breaks when it comes out of the kiln, so I changed the recipe of the clay a little...... "Gao He quickly explained beside him.

"Change the recipe! How do I change the recipe? Chen Xu asked in surprise.

"I added some fine clay to the white clay, and then pulled the blank with the mud, and the clay blank made should be much stronger, and after a few days of drying, it was fired in the kiln this morning, and in two hours, the fire can be stopped, and the kiln can be released tomorrow!"

"Okay, I'll come back tomorrow! I'll take these two bowls first! ”

Chen Xu left with Wang Wu and the others with two bowls, and then rode around the town on horseback to check it, and then returned to Xiaohe Village after getting a jar of tea tree fruit oil in the sugar and wine shop.

In the past half a month, he has come and gone to Qinghe Town and Xiaohe Village four times, but this time the harvest is the largest, not only got the first edible tea tree fruit oil in Chinese history, but also got the first batch of porcelain in the real sense of China, although it does not look good, but it is indeed real porcelain Undoubtedly, under the kiln temperature of more than 1,000 degrees produced by coal combustion, kaolin completely melted and fused into one, and became a smooth porcelain like jade, so he decided to take these two porcelain bowls home and keep them well, After he died of old age, let the descendants put it in the coffin as a memorial, and also write the remarks made in Qinghe Town, Pheasant County in the winter of the 27th year of Qin Shi Huang in bamboo slips, so as to prepare for the later grave digging archaeological people to pay homage and worship.

However, what made Chen Xu happiest today was to find Gong Lose, a craftsman who was proficient in smelting copper and iron, if nothing else, he would know the result in two days at most, once the steelmaking method was successful, Daqin would no longer be the historical Daqin.

The next day, the weather was even colder, and the flickering north wind shook the sky, and Chen Xu took advantage of the fact that it was not snowing to run to Qinghe Town again.

The second batch of porcelain in the pottery workshop has been out of the kiln, after changing the formula of the clay, this time it was really successful, more than ten pieces of porcelain are basically intact, although some also have fine cracks, but they are still complete and can be used, but the fired porcelain is not snow-white, but off-white, because it is fired at high temperature, clay and kaolin and other substances are all melted and fused together, becoming a complete whole, but also because the various components in the clay and kaolin melt at different temperatures, resulting in a slightly rough surface, It is similar to the coarse porcelain bowls common in the countryside in later generations.

But it is undeniable that this is the first intact porcelain on earth that can be used in the strict sense of the word.

This is an epoch-making milestone success.

"It's good-looking, but it's a little too shabby, it's not good-looking!" Although Chen Xu was very satisfied, he still smacked his lips with a slight regret.