Li Chongjiu was quite satisfied with the iron ore in the county, but when he saw the craftsman on the side seemed to be willing to speak but stopped, he couldn't help asking: "Master Li, what do you mean by saying?"

This craftsman is over fifty years old. His face was already black because of his long-term ironwork. His forehead was frowning one after another. The torn knots on his body were covered with small holes. This was splashed by sparks when he saw it. When Li Zuojiang saw it, he knew that he was a person who was used to working hard. When he heard Li Chongjiu called him Master Li, he knelt down and buried his head on the muddy ground of the craftsman's house, and said tremblingly: "Marty, don't dare, don't dare, this is a villain."

Only then did Li Chongjiu remember that he brought the habits of modern society to ancient times. In this era, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce were just a little better than merchants. When he called the master, he obviously took the other party as his master. Not to mention Li Zuojiang, Chen Jincao and several craftsmen were all dumbfounded.

Li Chongjiu helped the other party up and said, "I made a mistake for a moment, but Li Zuojiang said something directly. This marquis will rely heavily on you in the future."

This is also the truth. Chen Jincao is a civil servant. Although he is in charge of the mining craftsman's workshop, he does not know the casting. Most of the more than 20 people in the craftsman's workshop are fireworks and chores to work. Only Li Zuojiang and two apprentices he brought out were considered real technical personnel.

Seeing Li Chongjiu politely polite him, Li Zuojiang was frightened for a long time, and then said, "The Marquis doesn't know that iron smelting and cast iron are two different things. Although there are two iron ore locally, the method of iron smelting is average. Cast iron smelted from an iron ore furnace is okay if it is cultivated in a field, but it will look too brittle if it is used as a weapon."

After hearing this, Li Chongjiu couldn't help but ask: "Why is this so? Is there a large amount of iron ore in this county, but the iron smelting technique is so bad? Could it be that Chen Jincao is the reason why you are negligent?"

Li Zuojiang stepped forward and explained, "Report to the Marquis, you are wrongly betrayal of Jin Cao. It is not because of the negligence in the county. If you want to produce high-quality iron, you must use a blast furnace. The furnace of iron melting in our county is insufficient in the fire temperature, so the iron produced is relatively crisp. We craftsmen call it Mianmian iron, and at most it can only be used as a hoe to plow the fields and farm the land."

"Then why not buy a blast furnace?" Li Chongjiu couldn't help asking again.

Chen Jincao came forward and said, "Because Feihu County is a border county, the court was worried that the Hu people would learn the method of iron smelting, so they strictly ordered that all border counties should not use blast furnaces."

Li Chongjiu came to the border county for some time and knew the iron smelting level of the Hu tribes north of the Great Wall.

The Turks were born as slaves of the Rouran people. Their iron casting technique was even better than that of the Great Sui Dynasty, but they were suffering from the lack of iron ore on the grassland. Therefore, the Turks could only use iron through trade in the Western Regions, or collected meteorite iron from the grassland, and robbed them for many years. However, even so, iron tools were still rare for the Turks. Until hundreds of years later, when the Mongols went south to rob, the first thing they did after breaking the city was to grab iron pots from house to house.

As for the Khitans, Xi people, Wu people, Shi Wei, and even the Lihe in Liaodong, although they all mastered the technology of wrought iron and there were iron ore in their territory, they did not know how to smel iron. In history, the Khitans became truly powerful because after the Anshi Rebellion, the Khitans robbed many Han people, and after the Bohai Kingdom, they took their skills and learned to smel iron among the various ethnic groups in the northeast (Note 1). After the Khitans defeated the Xi tribe, the Lihe, and there were also heroes such as Yelu Abaoji. As soon as they rose up, they were out of control.

As for the only iron smelting in Northeast China now, it is Goguryeo, and there is also iron ore, so the level of local civilization is also relatively high.

Li Chongjiu heard Jin Cao say this and understood that even if there is an iron ore, but without the appropriate iron smelting technology, it would be useless to own Baoshan. Li Chongjiu said to Jin Cao: "Since that's the case, build a blast furnace immediately, and we must smel out good iron."

"Blast furnace!" Jin Cao looked upset when he heard this and said, "The Marquis's court rules and regulations."

"I will deal with the court, you only need to make a blast furnace."

"So, since the Marquis said that." Jin Cao hesitated for a moment, then turned to look at Li Zuojiang.

Li Zuojiang thought for a while and said, "When the Marquis, Jin Cao, the villain was in Zhuo County, he had seen the method of casting a blast furnace, and he should be able to help. It only takes a lot of manpower to cast a blast furnace."

Li Chongjiu laughed and said, "As long as you can cast a blast furnace, you don't have to worry about the number of people you need, I will give you as much as you want." Speaking of this, Li Chongjiu paused and said, "Li Zuojiang, I appointed you as the Jin Cao Shushu to coordinate all the affairs of the craftsman's workshop."

When Li Zuojiang heard Li Chongjiu ask him to serve as a scholar, he knelt down again, and tears flowed out of him. Although the scholar's office was not formally organized by the court, it was a minor official in a county, and he was a civil servant. When he went out to speak, he was a master who was a spitting and a nail. Compared with the craftsmen in the craftsman in the previous craftsmen, he had a much higher status.

"Mr. Xie, the villain will try to help the Marquis cast the blast furnace out to repay the Marquis."

Li Chongjiu stopped helping him again this time and said, "It's so happy to be a bookkeeper. If you complete the craftsman's house in the future, I will promote you to a county's Jincao."

After hearing that Li Chongjiu wanted to make him Jin Cao, Li Zuojiang looked at Chen Jin Cao and instead showed a horrified expression: "Report to the Marquis, the villain dare not be greedy."

Li Chongjiu smiled and said, "Why are you greedy? Chen Jincao is working hard on local affairs. I am going to recommend him to join the military officer as a position. You can feel at ease to do things for me."

This time it was Chen Jincao's turn to bow repeatedly, and his face was full of gratitude. The six counties in the county were six counties, namely Sigong, Sicang, Sihu, Sibian, Judicial, and Sishi. These were all subordinate officials of the county. Although Li Chongjiu was not a county magistrate, it was not stressful to recommend these people as a magistrate. Li Chongjiu said to Chen Jincao: "At present, the other counties in the county have not yet been recovered, so you should temporarily take over the position of Jincao in the county and work hard."

"Thank you, Marquis, I will definitely die if I am in charge."

At present, Chen Jincao and Li Zuojiang are not both Li Shuban, but Li Chongjiu looks like he is swearing to serve his life. Li Chongjiu also intends to use the two of them to expand the intention of operating the county craftsman's house.

Originally, the official craftsman's workshop in Feihu County was not large in scale. At most, it was just repairing armor, polishing weapons, and fighting horseshoes for the county soldiers. At present, Li Chongjiu was full of confidence and decided to acquire several private craftsman's workshops in the county first and subscribe to the official craftsman's workshop.

In order to make the iron smelting business, Li Chongjiu led five or six hundred men to the thiefs who had been captured by Wang Xuba, and also merged them into the city's craftsmen to solve the manpower problem. They must first mow iron and build furnaces under the guidance of Li Zuojiang, and cast blast furnaces that could build iron.
Chapter completed!