It didn't take long for several steel knives and steel spears to appear on the forging platform.

The craftsmen quickly completed the quenching of the knife and spear, and according to Su Chengyu's instructions, they picked out a steel knife for testing.

In the process of trying out the knife, these craftsmen were clear, and someone immediately brought in thick hemp rope, logs, wrought iron and other things.

Another craftsman held a freshly made steel knife and first slashed diagonally along a thick rope to a depth of more than half a foot, and then slashed three times on a log and wrought iron.

When the craftsman looked at the blade again, he couldn't help but gasp—the blade had only a tiny curl, and the scratches were slight and not broken. According to his more than ten years of experience in testing knives, this knife is almost close to the level of a hundred steel knives.

You must know that this knife only took less than half a day from the iron block to the completion of the forging! In other words, the time to build sixteen or seventeen of these steel knives is barely enough to make a hundred steel knives. At the same time, the steel consumption of the two is also more than ten times different.

He excitedly raised the steel knife in his hand and announced loudly: "It's not much different from the hundred steel knives!" ”

A burst of cheers erupted in the iron field. This iron yard has meager profits under the malicious competition of the Zhen family, and the craftsmen are also living hard, and the steel knife in front of them indicates that they are about to come to the end of their hardships!

Only Su Chengyu had a calm expression, and was even a little dissatisfied. How can crucible steel not reach the level of 100 steel? It should be that the smelting time or the composition of the slag agent is not very suitable, and with the continuous enrichment of refining experience, it is inevitable that the quality will far exceed that of 100 steelmaking.

When it got dark, the second furnace crucible was also smelted.

Su Chengyu asked people to light torches, and the knife forging craftsmen worked overtime to forge a steel knife with a freshly baked steel ingot.

In fact, it is needless to say that almost all the craftsmen craned their necks to see what was going on with the newly smelted steel.

The steel knife was built quickly. Sure enough, as Su Chengyu expected, after a simple adjustment of the composition of the slag making agent, the quality of the steel in the second furnace improved.

When the master who tried the knife announced in an unbelievable tone that "the new knife completely surpasses the 100-refining steel knife, and even reaches the level of 1000-refining steel knife", the entire iron field boiled! The cheers rang out, and the defeat of the Zhen family iron field was just around the corner, and this time I was finally able to breathe a bad breath!

Su Chengyu instructed the craftsmen to turn all the steel ingots in the first furnace into agricultural tools, and the second furnace to make knives, spears, axes and other weapons for sale according to market needs.

In addition, he specifically told Chanyi to personally supervise the improvement of the steelmaking process.

Especially for slag-making agents, the material taking, proportioning, and result recording must be done by different people, and they must be changed frequently. The person who guarantees the material does not know what the material is used for, the person who proportions it does not know what the result of refining is, and the person who records the performance of the steel does not know what kind of slag agent this furnace is.

All process data must be centralized here and compiled by her.

The Ming Dynasty had no concept of intellectual property rights, and he had no way to do it, otherwise it wouldn't be long before copycats would flood the entire market. This crucible steel will be his main source of income in the future, so he has to be cautious.

When he returned to the camp of the new army of Longwei, he saw Serio and his apprentice waiting at the gate of the camp with a face full of excitement.

As soon as he saw Su Chengyu coming, he immediately saluted, and then couldn't wait: "Your Highness, I found a very good workshop." You see, according to our agreement......"

"No problem, the workshop is yours." Su Chengyu nodded, "The apprentices who need your training will be here soon." ”

"Rest assured, I will do my best to train them to be the best watchmakers."

The next day, Su Chengyu went to Longnan County with Serio.

The carriage stopped in front of a small jewelry store on the street, and the word "sell" was written on the door. Serio immediately said with a smile on his face: "Your Highness, this is here, the price is not expensive, and there are many processing tools that can be used in it." ”

Su Chengyu frowned and looked at this small shop of thirteen or fourteen square meters, looked up and saw that there was a small yard behind the shop with a sign for sale, and turned to Qiao Qiandao: "Buy this shop and the yard behind." ”

"Yes, sir."

"No, it doesn't have to be such a big place." Serio waved his hand in surprise.

Su Chengyu smiled at him, "Believe me, you can use it." ”

Then he instructed Qiao Qian to buy all the equipment that Serio needed to buy, so that the construction could start as soon as possible. A large part of the rapid development of mechanical manufacturing technology in Europe after the Renaissance is due to the contribution of watchmakers, who invented many things that had nothing to do with clocks with their dexterous hands.

Even aside from fine processing, the clock itself is a very important thing, especially in the military, navigation and other aspects have an irreplaceable role. Therefore, Su Chengyu hopes to establish Daming's own watch industry as soon as possible.

He originally planned to go to see the steelmaking situation after arranging a clock workshop, but unexpectedly, a guard Pegasus came to report that Yu Xin's headquarters had arrived in Longnan and would soon arrive at the barracks.

Su Chengyu immediately put down other things and rushed back.

The team of about 500 people is not much, but it is quite imposing from a distance. But when they got closer, it was completely different, and they saw that the soldiers were in tatters, dragging their dilapidated weapons at will, and they were all in a state of malaise, and they didn't look as strong as the people who were under construction.

Now that the school yard has been leveled, although the barracks are only half completed, they can barely accommodate more than 500 people. However, toilets, bathhouses and other facilities were the first to be repaired under Su Chengyu's special care.

"I've seen Your Highness." Yu Xin and the officers of the department saw Su Chengyu from a distance and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Then Yu Xin introduced several officers behind him, "This is Huang Qishou and Li Ying, both of whom are generals in the army, and they came from Chunhua with me." ”

"Huang Qishou has seen His Highness."

"Li Ying has seen His Highness."

An officer with a beard next to him rushed to salute and said, "I am Liu Chang, and I have seen His Highness." I was originally a hundred households in Runing, Henan, and because I was unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, I retreated to Quzhou while fighting all the way. Later, it was incorporated into the general ledger of Yu Qian. ”

Yu Xin continued: "Your Highness, there are also Wei Hua and Qian Dapeng's troops because they have cannons and no military horses, so they are walking slowly, and they should arrive in Longnan in a few days." ”

Su Chengyu nodded and asked Yu Xin to bring the troops to the school to gather. He wanted to say a few words to the soldiers, but at a glance, he looked wilted and unfed, and he couldn't help frowning slightly, and then only gave a simple order: take a bath and eat.

After the small flag officers led their respective soldiers to line up in front of the bathhouse, Su Chengyu beckoned Liu Guoxuan, Zhu Jiadi, and Yu Xin and other new officers to get to know each other.

Then he ordered someone to set up some meals in his camp, which was a simple reception.

These soldiers were like-minded, and they all wore robes in the future, so they became acquainted with each other very quickly after they entered the table. And the conversation naturally turned to the recent battle situation.