Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 101 Casting the Knife
The piece of steel gradually cooled down, turning black and shiny with texture.Wang Tiehammer flicked here and there with his fingers, making a tinkling sound, the sound was clear and intense.He sincerely admired: "Good steel, really good steel! I learned blacksmithing from my father and grandfather since I was a child, and I have seen many steels, but I have never seen such a good steel!"

Yang Menglong said: "Nonsense, I don't want to see who made it! Don't talk about it, show me your housekeeping skills, and give me this knife. I will reward you for a good job!"

Wang Tiehammer grinned: "You don't need to tell me, I will punch it out too!" After making sure that the knife embryo was completely cooled, he brought the guy, and carefully pried the knife embryo out.Pointing to the iron mold, he asked, "Who made this mold? Isn't it too bad?"

Yang Menglong draws out the end: "Bad?"

Wang Tiehammer said: "That's right, it's too bad. This mold has to be made of clay. After it's made, it needs to be dried in the sun. It can't be used until it's completely dry. It takes several months to make a better mold. It’s simple, and it’s obvious at first glance that it was driven out temporarily, which is too bad.”

Yang Menglong roared: "I and a group of blacksmiths spent several days hammering out this terrible mold. For it, I lost a few ounces of meat in exchange for your evaluation!?"

Wang Tiechui let out an "uh" and didn't dare to speak any more. He picked up the hammer and began to forge knives.I saw him whirring a big hammer, and the tinkling sound of the iron hammer was continuous, dense and pleasant, like a beautiful movement. Just by listening to this sound, one could tell that he was indeed a Very good blacksmiths, ordinary blacksmiths do not have such a sense of rhythm.After beating for a while, he put the knife blank back into the furnace to quench it, and then continued beating. He worked very vigorously, and said while beating: "Good steel, it is very smooth to beat, and it is completely different from ordinary steel!"

Yang Menglong snorted: "Nonsense, can it be the same? This is manganese steel! Brother, when will this knife be ready?"

Wang Tiechui said, "It will probably take two or three days."

Yang Menglong was quite surprised: "So fast? Doesn't it mean that casting a sword that cuts iron like mud would take at least one, two, or even several years?"

Wang Tiehammer said: "That's true. It does take a long time to make a famous knife, but most of the time is spent on steelmaking... To tell you the truth, if you don't know the formula of steel, you will want to make it. It would take me several years or even ten years to smelt the same piece of steel, which is why precious swords are so rare.”

Yang Menglong came to a sudden: "So it's like this...then is there anything I can do to help?"

Wang Tiechui said: "If possible, please help me find materials for the handle and scabbard. The best material for the scabbard is cowhide, and the material for the handle..."

Yang Menglong waved his hand and said, "Pink pear wood!"

Yellow pear wood is a very precious wood. The wood is extremely tough, the wood grain is very straight, and it has a strong aroma. It is an excellent wood for making coffins and beams. It is really luxurious to use it as a knife handle.But Wang Tiechui has no objection, it’s your money anyway, so why do I feel distressed: “Okay, let’s use pineapple wood. Get a piece of straight wood that’s about a foot long. There shouldn’t be any bug holes or cracks. The material can no longer be used.”

Yang Menglong responded and went out to find materials.Now everything in the Qianhu Office is on the right track. Zhang Zilong took a few elite soldiers to escort the magic stick to Sichuan to find a salt worker. By the river, the second water truck has been erected, and the third is heading towards the river. While carrying them away, many military households have been freed from the heavy work of carrying water and watering the fields, and they are full of enthusiasm to start farming. However, the grain in the Qianhusuo is still relatively sufficient, and there is nothing for him to worry about. He can be at ease to be himself Want to do things now.Walking on the street, there was the sound of firecrackers bursting like beans not far away, and the sound of gongs and drums. He muttered: "What kind of happy event is it? It's so lively?" It's the day when the school in the guard begins.It can be seen from this that Yang Qianhu of Wuyang Qianhu Institute is still as unreliable as ever!

General Xiao Yang is unreliable, so the opening ceremony can only be done by Xiao Yufang and a few old people in the guard.Amidst bursts of firecrackers, she and the two old men worked together to remove the red cloth covering the plaque, and the three beautiful and elegant characters of "Baicaotang" were impressively visible, attracting cheers and applause from countless military households. As happy as Chinese New Year... The children in the guard can finally read!Nearly two hundred children aged six to eight wore uniform uniforms, clapped their little hands and cheered, and rushed into the school. The adults behind kept telling them to study hard, to listen to what the teacher said, and to interrupt if they made him angry. Their legs... don't know if they listened.The older children looked at these little brothers and sisters with envy, wiping away their tears, and looking at the school door, their longing eyes made people feel sad.Li Lin, who participated in the ceremony, saw his nose sore, and after the last child entered, he said to Xiao Yufang: "Miss Xiao, can you tell General Yang to find a way to build another school so that the children who are more than eight Year-old children also go in to study? Seeing them teary-eyed, I feel so sad!"

Xiao Yufang glanced at the children who looked at her pitifully, and said softly: "I understand your feelings, but now we don't have the ability to build more schools..."

The military households were all anxious, and they all said, "Why, why can't we build another one?"

"Yes, if the houses are not enough, we can find a way to free up the houses and transform them into schools!"

"Our children don't ask for a free lunch, as long as they have books to read!"

"Miss, please, please tell General Xiao Yang, please?"

Xiao Yufang said in embarrassment: "I also hope that all children can go to school, but...but it costs a lot to build a school. Now the food in the guard has to be purchased from outside, and the price of food has been rising. , no one knows how high it will rise, we must save a little more money for emergencies!"

When she said that, everyone was speechless.Everyone knows that every household is out of food now, and it is all supported by the food distributed by the guards. Thousands of military households plus Han Peng's more than 1000 horses and more than 6000 mouths. How much money is enough for people to eat and chew?It's right to save a little more money to buy food. It's important to eat. As for the matter of building a school, let's wait for a while!Everyone is eagerly looking forward to the early maturity of the wheat, and it is best to have a bumper harvest. After paying the rent and repaying the grain owed to Yang Qianhu, and saving a little more, we will join hands to build a school for all children under ten years old Can read books.I didn’t think much of it before when there was no comparison, but now seeing so many children bouncing to school in beautiful new clothes and having free lunch, everyone immediately felt unbalanced, and they wanted to let their children do whatever they wanted Read the book!

After convincing everyone, Xiao Yufang turned around and entered the school. After the door closed, her voice floated out from inside, melodiously: "Children, calm down and open the book. I will teach you to read the Three Character Classic. Everyone read it together with me." ..."

For more than 200 years, for the first time in the Wuyang Thousand Households Institute, there was the sound of reading books: "At the beginning of human beings, nature is good..."

While Yang Menglong was looking for pineapple trees, firecrackers sounded again in Wuyang Thousand Households, and the public bathhouse officially opened.There are two bathhouses, one male and one female, separated by a long distance to prevent people from fishing in troubled waters.The facilities inside are not luxurious, but the space is large enough to accommodate dozens of people to take a bath at the same time.In view of the fact that the hygiene concept of these military households is really bad, and there are lice all over their bodies, Yang Menglong specially asked people to add sulfur with a strong disinfection ability into the hot water. Unfortunately, the soap has not been found yet, otherwise he would definitely provide soap for free Yes, he couldn't bear to live with people who were infested with fleas and lice!Soon, the military households fell in love with bathing. After a day of farm work, they dragged their tired bodies back home and had a hasty dinner. They immediately took clean clothes and ran to the bathhouse to soak in hot water comfortably. Bathing has become the best enjoyment, but Yang Menglong keeps his word and doesn't charge a dime, which makes the bathhouse crowded and popular. Many people strongly demand to build more bathhouses, because one can't meet the needs at all!
Another day later, the clinic also opened. Several military doctors were sitting in the lobby wearing white coats with serious expressions. Two old doctors hired with a lot of money became the backbone.On the first day of opening, some military households came to see a doctor, and the result was exactly as Yang Menglong said, they didn't charge a penny, and the military households no longer had to worry about seeing a doctor.Everyone couldn't help sighing: These benefits are really much better than dozens of taels of silver!

The building of water tankers and the opening of schools, bathhouses, clinics, etc. were quite a movement, and the whole Wuyang County was shocked. Everyone was amazed, and the Wuyang Thousand Households Institute suddenly became the focus of the county.Even Fang Yizhi, the magistrate of Nanyang, was alarmed. After reading the report of Wuyang county magistrate, he murmured to himself: "Building bamboo canals, building waterwheels, setting up free schools, opening bathhouses, medicine halls...however, there is nothing to say?" He has done so many great things so loudly, it seems that that kid has some skills, so he managed a thousand households in order so quickly." Then he picked up several county magistrates' crying papers and looked at them, and let out a long sigh: "A county magistrate with a dignified Jinshi background is not as good as a child. It's sad, sad! If you have half of Yang Menglong's ability, I won't have such a headache!"

While the magistrate was sighing, a group of locusts flew from a distance and landed on the eaves of the government office, a large area of ​​colorful and green, making one's scalp numb.

(End of this chapter)