As for his illegal behavior, Hong Tao ignored it, which really can't be blamed on Liu Song, but on the Great Song Dynasty government led by his eldest brother. If he is in Liu Song's position, he can't make it more fancy than him. Speaking of which, he is not only innocent but also meritorious, conscientiously running the walled fort for the imperial court, not just for selfish desires like Liao Chun, it is not easy.

The change of "the last general, the last general......" is a bit big, Liu Song thought he had heard it wrong, and he stammered at a loss.

"Shi Tong, you come to make it clear to Commander Liu, he still doesn't believe what this official says. It was getting dark, so we went to camp on the hillside first. Hong Tao didn't want to explain anything to Liu Song, he didn't know much about the thinking patterns of the ancients.

Since Shi Tong and he are old acquaintances, and they can persuade him to surrender this time, the friendship is still quite deep, let him say that the effect can be much better, and he can also say it clearly.

Before lunch, Hong Tao finally had his second big harvest in Huangzhou. I don't know what Shi Tong said to him, the veteran seems to see hope, and says that he is willing to follow Shuai Si around, and he has to live and die.

"Don't worry, with me, you generally won't have too many opportunities to live or die, and this official is the most reluctant to take risks. Come on, I'll have lunch first, and then take me to see the details of the city. However, for the sake of safety, you have to trouble the old general to go and talk to your lieutenant general, and ask him to bring the forbidden army into the city first. I'm a cautious person, and since I have Tongchuan Fort in front of me, I have to guard against it. ”

This time, Hong Tao didn't play any tricks, but really said his thoughts. A veteran like Liu Song has experienced life and death, and has been guarding one side for eight years, and many things are better accepted than going around in circles.

"My lord is thoughtful, it should be like this, so I'll arrange it." Sure enough, Liu Song didn't think there was anything wrong with doing this, if he was following a coach who was very arrogant and unreliable, he should be worried.

Even so, Hong Tao still did not choose to live in the city, and after eating in the camp, he took a team of forbidden troops accompanied by Liu Song and walked towards Zongcheng.

This castle is built more distinctively, making full use of the terrain here, with the help of a small earthen hill by the Haomen River as the base, local materials, the outer wall is all made of large stones, not too high, only more than three meters, but enough to deal with the herdsmen.

Probably to reassure the boss, all the guards in the castle lined up outside the city without weapons or armor, and the nearby herdsmen were also temporarily driven away, and even the ropes of the suspension bridge were cut, and the safety work was done very well.

After Hong Tao entered the city, he did not go to Liu Song's command envoy yamen, but took the lead to see the iron-making furnace on the west side of the city. The furnace was primitive and small, and could not really make molten iron, so the iron ore could only be heated to a spongy state, and then the impurities were removed by constant beating.

This may be pig iron, low-temperature steel, or wrought iron. What exactly will be out of control depends entirely on the quality of the iron ore.

"The ore is of good quality, and when the official investigates it, if there is enough quantity, a larger iron-making furnace will be built here. Don't cut down trees to burn charcoal, and sooner fuel for ironmaking will arrive. ”

The quality of iron ore Hong Tao also saw, not bad, a bit like magnetite, but brighter, what specific ingredients can not be figured out, it should be a kind of compound iron ore.

The effect of this ore does not affect the purity of smelting, and it cannot be seen just by looking, and it has to be known through experiments. Moreover, Liu Song has never been to the origin of iron ore, let alone the output, and has no say on this issue.

"Huh...... What's wrapped around this stove? Just as he was about to leave the iron-making workshop, Hong Tao suddenly found that the iron-making furnace here was wrapped in this layer of dirty fabric.

That's right, it's fabric, it's slightly stiffer than ordinary cloth when you get started, but it's definitely hand-woven. Why wrap the cloth around the outside of the iron-making furnace? This made Hong Tao a little puzzled. Could it be that there is already a lot of cloth here and there is no place to throw it, so it is specially wrapped in the iron-making furnace and burned to play?

"This thing is called Huohuan cotton, which is woven by the local Tibetan people, and it does not burn when it encounters fire, and it will be used to keep warm for the iron-making furnace." Liu Song seems to be a master who must do everything, even if he doesn't know much about technical details, most of the things on the ironmaking workshop are clear.

"Fire Raccoon Cotton...... Wasp, give me the dagger! "Is there any cloth in the world that is not afraid of fire? Gu Hongtao knew that there was, but it was a high-tech product of later generations, and it would definitely not be able to be made at this time.

But Liu Song always won't open his eyes and talk nonsense, the outside of the iron-making furnace is indeed wrapped in fabric, it seems that it has been used for a long time, and it has indeed not been burned, but it is a little dirty.

"No, the Song people already know how to use asbestos! Commander Liu, which tribe did you get this cloth from, do you know? "Cut a small piece of fabric with a short knife, take it to the sun and twist it with his fingers, and Hong Tao will know what it is.

Asbestos! This is a natural mineral that can be used in smelting, construction, military and many other aspects, the simplest is to mix asbestos fiber into asphalt to make linoleum, which is used for waterproofing buildings or ships.

But this kind of mine is generally not paid attention to, let alone has no sense of existence, to be honest, Hong Tao never thought of it. I didn't expect to stumble upon an asbestos mine here, which must be regarded as an unexpected surprise.

"If you can see it, the last general still has some stock......" Liu Song thought that Hong Tao was just curious about the fabric that was not afraid of fire, and did not think in the direction of the asbestos mine.

"I want to do it, and the official of the tribe who got the asbestos from must know. So, you let people put out the news in the bazaar, and say that my lord I need to prepare the raw materials for this cloth, and whoever provides clues will be rewarded with a bag of sand. I'm afraid you don't know that with this kind of asbestos, the soldiers' military tents will not leak rain in the future, and they can make oil lamps that are a hundred times brighter than candles, and are they worth a bag of gold? "It's easy to come and go fast, and with a box of golden sand snatched from Tongchuan Fort, Hong Tao looks particularly heroic when bidding.

"Forgive the end of the general is stupid, actually guarding such treasures to ask for food, this, this ......" Liu Song heard Hong Tao pointing out the country for the first time, and he was said to be stupid. As soon as I remembered that I had violated the criminal law for the sake of military spending, but I didn't know such a precious thing by my side, I almost looked up to the sky and sighed.

"It's not that easy, let's go and arrange these things first, and then meet up at the camp, and tomorrow we will leave for Huangzhou. When we get there, we ponder what we have and what we lack. ”

Hong Tao actually said that whether it is linoleum or gas lamp, it is necessary to fractionate oil or coal tar, and there must be glass. None of these things can be made in a day or two, and it is too early to say.