Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 265 Furnace
When the three military officers rushed back to the smelting site, Carlos was leading the workers to "dismantle" the iron-smelting furnace, and Chauza was also there.

Carlos's face was covered in furnace ash, and he was sweating. The ash and sweat mixed together to form a muddy mess, making his face look like a little kitten.

But Carlos's dirty face couldn't hide his joy. The little blacksmith, his dejection gone, rushed to Winters, waving his arms and shouting for praise: "It's done! My lord! It's done!"

Carlos was so excited that he could barely speak.

“Shosha!” Winters summoned the middle-aged blacksmith: “You tell him.”

When Winters and the old blacksmith Portan went to the forge village, Chaussa did not go with them, but stayed behind to look after the furnace.

They watched all day, from dawn till dusk, but no molten iron flowed out. Carlos was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, and Saoza was also somewhat annoyed.

Fearing they might burn the stove to pieces, the two decided to stop the fire.

They used wet cowhides to block all the air inlets, smothering the flames inside the furnace, and decided to break down the furnace to see what was inside.

Upon inspection, the outlet was found to be blocked by solidified molten iron and slag. A large lump of iron mixed with slag was stuck in the lower part of the furnace, like a baby in difficult labor.

Carlos successfully extracted iron from the ore, just as the old blacksmith Portan had said: "Just burn charcoal and iron ore together."

However, the blacksmith soon encountered a second problem: he had the iron, but it was stuck in the furnace and he couldn't get it out. What should he do?
There's only one answer: Demolish!
And so, Winters witnessed this scene: six or seven laborers, wielding picks and hammers, were sweating profusely as they chiseled at the wall; accompanied by clanging sounds, a huge gap was broken open at the bottom of the furnace wall.

Breaking open the slag revealed the red-hot iron—but this large lump of iron is still stuck in the furnace and cannot move; the opening needs to be widened further.

"We worked so hard to build this, and now we're just going to tear it down like this?" Mason asked regretfully.

Seeing the blast furnace, which had been painstakingly built, being forcibly demolished, the senior felt very bad.

Winters' brow furrowed involuntarily: "Isn't this just a large-sized conflict furnace? I feel like... it's even worse than a conflict furnace?!"

"I did it!" The little blacksmith couldn't hear anything anyone else was saying; he just kept repeating, "I did it!"

Winters was woken up just as he fell asleep, and he was in a bad mood.

Seeing the blacksmith's erratic behavior, he finally lost his temper and kicked the man in the backside: "What success did you achieve?!"

Winters didn't exert any force, but at that moment Carlos was like a wooden stake, easily pushed down.

It wasn't until he crashed heavily to the ground that Carlos regained his senses. The pressure and emotions that had been building up inside him suddenly collapsed, and he burst into tears.

"How could you kick him?" Mason scolded. "He's not one of your soldiers."

“I didn’t use any force,” Winters said, feeling extremely aggrieved.

Mason sighed, squatted down, and gently patted Carlos's shoulder: "You're almost an adult, why are you crying?"

Winters sighed and came to the blacksmith's side: "Alright, alright, I apologize. I shouldn't have hit him..."

Winters hadn't apologized in a long time, and he was still a little unaccustomed to it.

The blacksmith Shao Sha, who was standing nearby, was so shocked that he couldn't close his mouth when he saw the bailiff apologizing to the young blacksmith.

Forty years ago, if a lord hit you, he hit you. Apologize? Do you want another slap?

The tribunal and the blacksmith were equal in status—something that was hard for Sao Sha to imagine.

"How can this man be worthy of being called a master? He has none of the dignity and demeanor a master should have!" a disdainful voice in Shao Sha's mind said.

"That's how it should be! Hasn't the master already been driven away?" another voice in Shao Sha's mind was shouting.

No one knew the turmoil in the middle-aged blacksmith's heart; this was merely a minor incident.

Winters and Mason helped the young blacksmith up; he was still sobbing.

"Or," Winters thought for a moment, "you could kick me too? Then we'd be even?"

Carlos burst into laughter through his tears, blowing a huge snot bubble.

He wasn't crying because he was kicked. He had accumulated too much pressure and negative emotions, and when he couldn't control them, they all turned into tears. The boot on his butt was just the trigger.

After all, he was only seventeen years old.

Winters, however, unintentionally treated him as an adult, placing too much burden on Carlos's shoulders.

Andrei scoffed, "Is this little brat made of clay? It's even dripping wet!"

"It's good that you can laugh." Wen Tesla put his hand on the blacksmith's shoulder, his words filled with helplessness: "You... never mind, let's talk about it when your brother comes back."

After a good cry and a cathartic release, Carlos's mental state was much better than before.

He wiped his tears with the back of his hand and sobbed, "I...I really can smelt iron, I really succeeded."

"What kind of success is this? Don't rub your eyes! You'll get eye strain!" Winters took out a handkerchief and wiped the blacksmith's tears. "You have to dismantle a furnace to smelt one batch of iron? Only someone like me who's willing to pay any price for iron smelting. If you were really in business, you'd go bankrupt!"

Shaosha snapped out of his daze and explained from the side, "No need to dismantle it, just dismantle a part of it. Mr. Soya and I have an idea—to modify this iron smelting furnace and use it to refine [bottom iron]."

After listening to Shaosha's gesturing explanation for a long time, Winters finally understood what the two blacksmiths meant—to go with the flow.

Simply put, Carlos and Chauza's "blast furnace dream" was shattered by harsh reality. The blast furnace project is doomed; at least for now, there are definitely problems with the current iron smelting furnace.

As for where the problem lies, the two blacksmiths haven't figured it out yet.

But the iron smelting furnace that took so much manpower, resources and time to build can't be wasted, can it?
So the two of them put their heads together and decided to abandon their dreams, embrace reality, and make the best of a mistake by converting the "blast furnace" into a bottom-blown furnace.

Originally, blooming furnaces typically blew air from the top or waist, while bottom-blown furnaces, as the name suggests, blew air from the bottom. This is because the larger the furnace, the less effective the top-blown air would be.

The two didn't intend to let the molten iron flow freely, as that was too troublesome. Instead, they decided to let the smelted iron sink to the bottom of the furnace and then take it out all at once, which became known as "bottom furnace iron".

Molten iron cannot flow out on its own, so continuous operation is not possible. Therefore, the furnace must be dismantled after each batch of iron is smelted. This large-step backward movement also has an advantage: it is simple.

Winters pondered for a moment and then asked, "I understand what you two mean. Although the original plan was to buy a horse, you're going to bring me back a donkey instead."

Carlos, sobbing, flattered, "Your analogy is very apt."

In fact, according to Carlos's opinion—though he didn't mean it—it was better to bring over a donkey than a horse.

Clever was terrified: if he really succeeded in building the blast furnace, Winters wouldn't have brought his older brother back—alas, Clever.

Winters, barely suppressing the urge to kick the blacksmith again, asked Shaosha, "You mean, you're going to use this blast furnace as a large bloomer furnace, right?"

“That’s not entirely true, sir.” Shao Sha quickly joined the sycophantic crowd, after all, he also bore some responsibility for the failure of the blast furnace trial.

Shao Sha forced a fawning smile: "Bottom-blown furnaces are still much better than old-fashioned blast furnaces. If we had to say, bottom-blown furnaces should be the father of blast furnaces. Although we couldn't 'bring' the blast furnace here, we can barely say that we 'brought' the father of the blast furnace to you..."

The opening in the furnace wall had been made large enough that a large, still-burning "thing" was hooked out of the furnace.

Winters and the others went closer to see what was going on.

Winters had never seen an ironworks before, but the "thing" in front of him was quite different from the "iron" he knew.

The lump in front of me glowed reddish at the edges and yellowish at the inside. It looked loose and porous, with a very uneven texture. If I had to describe it, it did resemble red-hot iron.

At least some black crumbs were scattered on top, like sesame seeds sprinkled on bread.

"This is iron?" Winters frowned slightly.

Shao Sha bent down and examined it carefully for a long time, then slammed his fist down: "That's right, it's iron! It's a bit like sponge iron, but not quite! Here! Give me an axe!"

The worker next to him quickly handed Shao Sha an axe.

"Gentlemen, please step back a bit," Shao Sha pleaded. "Everyone else, please stand further back as well. Mr. Soya, you stay here!"

Those who were not involved, including Winters, consciously stepped back four or five meters away.

Shaosha found a good spot on the iron block, placed the axe blade on it, gripped the handle with both hands, and roared at Carlos, "Mr. Soya! Come on!"

Carlos wiped away his tears and deftly picked up a hammer.

The blacksmith first tapped the axe back three times lightly. When the axe blade was embedded half an inch into the iron lump and could withstand some force, Carlos steadied himself, mustered all his strength, and with a muffled "hey," swung the hammer hard onto the back of the axe.

Winters, who was watching from the sidelines, actually saw a hint of two-handed swordsmanship in that heavy hammer blow.

The loose, porous iron lump was split open with a loud crack, revealing its even hotter, more dazzling core.

Carlos continued hammering relentlessly. His hammer was steady, each strike landing precisely on the back of the axe.

Sparks flew and molten slag flew, but Shao Sha remained oblivious, steadily holding the axe.

At this moment, Carlos was no longer a crybaby, and Chauza was no longer a pot-bellied, obsequious municipal councilor.

The two now have only one identity: blacksmiths.

The sound of the hammer and axe striking each other was rhythmic and beautiful, like keeping a beat. Winters even felt an urge to clap along.

The middle-aged blacksmith and the young blacksmith worked closely together and quickly divided the still-burning iron lump into eight smaller pieces.

“Alright.” Shao Sha wiped the sweat from his forehead and walked up to Winters with a smile. “The sponge iron is easier to work with when it’s fresh out of the furnace. It will harden as it cools down. I haven’t done any hands-on work in a long time, so please excuse my poor work, gentlemen.”

Chaussa's cotton clothes were riddled with small holes from the flying iron slag, but his smile was broad and cheerful. Winters only realized at this moment that Chaussa was a blacksmith who could wield a hammer and bend metal. Before this, he had categorized Chaussa with the merchants like old Priskin.

“Well done,” Winters said approvingly, then asked, “Break it into smaller pieces? Why?”

Shao Sha replied, "A large lump of iron is difficult to handle. It's easier to forge it into smaller pieces."

"Forging? There's more forging to go on?" Winters pressed.

Winters' good habit is to ask for help when he doesn't understand something; he doesn't care about saving face.

“The iron contains slag, and the forging process cleans it out.” Shao Sha patiently explained to the young tribunal, “It means that first it is forged into a thin plate, and the slag will naturally peel off. Then it is folded and forged into a thin sheet again... This is what is meant by being forged through repeated hammering.”

"Forging?" Winters immediately thought of a water-powered forging hammer, half-jokingly asking, "Does this mean we'll have to hand it over to those workshops in Forging Village to 'forge' next?"

“Yes,” Shao Sha replied matter-of-factly. “Duanlu Township has water forging, making it the perfect place for this job. If we relied solely on manual forging, who knows how long it would take to forge this huge lump of iron.”

Although steel bars have been used in recent years, blacksmithing skills are a fundamental skill for blacksmiths and shouldn't be lost so quickly. At worst, I can ask my father-in-law's old friends to come and give me some pointers..."

Andrei and Mason curiously fiddled with the iron lump, while the young blacksmith proudly explained it to the two officers.

Only Winters and Chaussa stood in the cold autumn wind, seriously discussing the matter of "forging".

“Forging… isn’t free, is it?” Winters squinted.

“Of course it’s not free.” Shaosha explained the blacksmith’s internal rules to Winters: “The simplest way is to give all the iron to the workshop owners in Forgetown, and you don’t need to worry about anything else. Just exchange it with them for wrought iron, which will probably get you about half the weight of the iron.”

"Half?" Winters was utterly astonished. "We work so hard to forge the iron, and they just want half of it? That's fucking outrageous!"

Shao Sha looked utterly helpless. He said in a low voice, "I can only take half because of you. What you've produced isn't iron, but iron ore. It contains a lot of toxic slag and can't be used without proper forging."

Winters laughed in anger: "Then I might as well build a few water-powered forging hammers myself! What bullshit Steel Fortress Master Craftsman Water-Powered Forging Hammer? I can build one again after just one look, and a hundred of them!"

“That’s fine,” Shao Sha nodded. “But think about it carefully—besides Mr. Soya, you don’t have any other blacksmiths working for you. Even if I come to help, Mr. Soya and I alone can’t handle the workload. You should hand over the iron materials to the workshop in Forge Village and focus on iron smelting.”

Winters was surprised to discover that Chauza was also quite eloquent.

“I’ve already set up an accounting school, so why don’t I set up a blacksmithing school too!” Winters pointed at the workers cleaning the furnace: “I’ll train them all to be blacksmiths!”

Shaosha's expression turned serious, and he slowly asked, "What did you say?"

“I said, I want to train them all to be blacksmiths.”

"I'm afraid that won't work. Those laborers are all farmers who are not working in the winter and have land at home. Even if you ask them to work in the blacksmith's workshop, they won't agree. Besides, there's no money earned during the apprenticeship period."

"Whoever is willing to come, I'll train them. No money for apprentices? Then I'll pay them a salary too!"

Shao Sha's expression grew increasingly solemn. He solemnly told the official in charge of protecting the people, "If you do this, I can assure you that all the blacksmiths in Tiefeng County will immediately rebel! Even if they don't rebel, they will definitely not stand on your side in the future."

Shaosha's words sounded like a threat to Winters, and Winters initially thought so too.

But he quickly realized no, that Saosha was warning him. In a sense, it was because Saosha already considered him a member of his faction that he was warning him so bluntly, almost like a threat.

"Why?" Winters asked earnestly.

“A person who can forge iron is not a blacksmith.” Shao Sha answered honestly, “Only those who are recognized as blacksmiths by the blacksmith guild are blacksmiths. The blacksmith guild has a complete set of rules for apprentice promotion, and these rules are the cornerstone of the guild. If you want to set up a blacksmith school, you are destroying the foundation of the guild.”

Guilds! Winters stroked his chin. Having lived in Paratau for so long, he had almost forgotten what city life under the rule of guilds was like.

Hailan has hundreds of industry guilds, which gradually merge into general guilds, and above the general guilds are the guild associations.

Before the Sovereign Wars—when the Republic of Veneta did not yet exist, the influence of the [Noble Republic of Aquamarine] was limited to Aquamarine City and its surrounding areas—and the position of President of Aquamarine was held concurrently by the Governor.

To be precise, it should be: the Chairman of the Hailan General Association was automatically elected as the governing officer.

Following the War of Sovereignty, the commercial city-states of Veneta and the inland noble territories merged to form the [Noble Republic of Veneta], with the Grand Consul of the Republic still serving as the Chairman of the Ocean Blue Guild. This clearly demonstrates the guild's exalted status.

It is not the cities that give rise to the guilds, but the guilds that build the cities. The cities do not belong to the citizens, but to the guilds.

I never expected that even in the impoverished and isolated Iron Peak County, on the edge of the Republican Alliance, they would be practicing this guild system.
Winters shook his head, then smiled and asked the middle-aged blacksmith, "Would you like to be my advisor, Mr. Shaosha? It's anonymous, so even if I'm defeated someday, you won't be held accountable. I have many things I'd like to ask you."

Shao Sha was somewhat flattered, and he nodded emphatically: "It is my great honor."

Shao Sha then suggested, "Regarding the blacksmiths' guild... you'd better talk to my father-in-law. He was the one who founded the blacksmiths' guild in Tiefeng County."

“Okay.” Winters chuckled.

Over there, Mason happily pulled Carlos over.

"With a little more effort, I think we can definitely make a cast iron cannon." The senior student looked forward with great enthusiasm: "The blacksmiths of the pseudo-emperor don't have any more eyes or hands than us!"

Carlos was stunned.

"How much material did you produce?" Chauza asked Carlos.

“The furnace temperature isn’t high enough. I think what’s coming out should be wrought iron, not pig iron. Based on the amount of material fed, it should be around 400 kilograms of wrought iron.” Carlos hurriedly added, “I can’t be too sure. Let’s say 250 kilograms is enough. We’ll have to weigh it to find out the exact weight.”

"How much charcoal did you use?" Shaosha asked again.

“Primary ore and charcoal, three to one,” Carlos replied after a quick mental calculation.

"What does 'three against one' mean?" Winters asked, venturing into a territory he didn't understand.

“It’s three parts charcoal and one part ore – that’s the volume,” Shao Sha explained, laughing as he added, “That’s really good! My father-in-law said that when they were smelting iron, they needed six or seven parts charcoal to refine one part ore.”

"When can we restart the furnace?" Winters was concerned about production capacity. After all, charcoal was free for him.

“The furnace walls need to be repaired, and I also want to work with Mr. Saussa to modify the furnace.” Carlos counted on his fingers: “The furnace should be able to be restarted the day after tomorrow. But at that time, we will need more people to mine and smelt ore, and we will also need more people to burn charcoal.”

“It’s alright, I’ll have Samukin prepare it for you.” Winters patted Carlos on the shoulder. “Don’t be idle during this time. Although we failed this time, maybe we’ll succeed next time?”

Upon hearing Winters' words, Carlos's eyes widened in horror.

“Senior, you’ve chosen a bad location for the forge.” Winters looked at Senior Mason: “Look at the blacksmith workshops in Forgetown, they’re all right next to the river! Where would the water power come from if they weren’t next to the river?”

Mason was taken aback: "Huh? There's such a thing? Iron smelting furnaces also need water power?"

“Water-powered bellows! I only discovered this after visiting Forge Village.” Winters laughed smugly. “All the workshops in Forge Village use water-powered bellows. But here, they use oxen to pull the bellows. Oxen are draft animals, and they’re already in short supply. If we continue to expand, where will we find oxen? We have to be near a river.”

Senior Mason nodded thoughtfully.

Wentes led the young blacksmith to the edge of the mountain and pointed to the St. George River below: "I've found you a good spot. See it? It's right there! Go and build me another blast furnace! If it doesn't work this time, then next time, and if it doesn't work next time, then the time after that. You must make sure the blast furnace is a success!"

Winters laughed and patted the young blacksmith on the shoulder: "I didn't actually expect you to be able to smelt iron. In my mind, if you hadn't succeeded, I would have just put back the iron smelting furnace from the time of Mr. Portan. The cost didn't matter, as long as iron was produced. But since you've succeeded, keep up the good work!"

Carlos was stunned, speechless with grief.

"Sir, should we dismantle this iron smelting furnace now?" Shao Sha asked abruptly.

"Why dismantle it?" Winters asked, bewildered. "We need quantity, not quality. Isn't this furnace still usable? We can make do with it, can't we?"

“I’m afraid… there will be a problem.” Shao Sha explained with difficulty: “The number of forges in Iron Peak County is limited by the blacksmiths’ guild. It can be few, but not many, and each forge has an owner. If you want to open a forge again, you will have to buy another one.”

Winters' brow furrowed involuntarily again: "Then what's the deal with this iron smelting furnace?"

Shao Sha then revealed the truth: "Mr. Soya's iron smelting furnace was built after my father-in-law dismantled his forge, using our forge quotas. So there's no problem. There are no forges in my family's workshop now."

Winters remained silent, then raised his hand in a salute to Chaussa: "Thank you."

"I dare not accept such praise... I dare not accept such praise." Shao Sha hurriedly bowed in return.

“Mine is an iron smelting furnace, yours is a forging furnace.” Winters pondered for a moment and then asked, “Can’t we play a little word game?”

“No.” Shao Sha smiled wryly: “The rules and regulations in the industry are very strict. All furnaces [that use fuel and flames to process iron and iron ore] are classified as ‘forging furnaces’ and are subject to quantity restrictions. Each forging furnace slot is now occupied. A single forging furnace slot is worth a lot of money.”

Only blacksmiths recognized by the blacksmiths' guild are considered blacksmiths; only forge owners registered with the blacksmiths' guild can open a workshop.

"Ha, quite meticulous." Winters was both annoyed and amused: "Who made these rules?"

Shaosha's smile grew increasingly bitter and helpless: "My father-in-law—Mr. Boltan."

Andrei, who had been silent all along, suddenly spat disdainfully, drew his saber, and handed it to Shaosha.

He asked expressionlessly, "Do you recognize what this is?"

Shao Sha trembled with fear and nodded frantically.

Andrei sneered viciously, "Then we'll open as many iron smelting furnaces as we want!"

“Put the knife away. Mr. Sausage is a friend. Why are you threatening him?” Winters nudged Andrei with his elbow.

Andrei scoffed, but still obediently sheathed his sword.

“It seems,” Winters sighed, then told Shaosha with a smile, “we still need to talk to your father-in-law.”

[Sorry I'm late today.]
[Limiting the number of forges was a standard practice in various blacksmith guilds. Forge owners, blacksmiths, and apprentices were clearly divided into three classes. In 16th-century Italy, if a blacksmith borrowed work from another workshop, he was customarily required to pay "one-third" of his earnings to the forge owner.]
[The history of metallurgy is a huge pitfall. There's an immense amount of material on the history of metallurgy. After reading *The History of Metallurgy* (Telickett 1976), *The History of Technology*, *Ancient Chinese Metallurgy*, and *The History of Metal Smelting and Processing Engineering in Ancient China*, I've decided—to give up.]
[Because of the uneven development of metallurgical technology, it's impossible to point out a specific metallurgical technique and say, "This is how blacksmiths of that era smelted iron." Because in any given era, there must have been both more backward and more advanced technologies.]
Therefore, all I can do is "not detach myself from the times." That is, the iron smelting techniques presented in this book are indeed the techniques that blacksmiths of that era actually used in production.

However, it won't delve too deeply into or explain the principles, to the point of turning this story into a "Metallurgical Handbook." After all, this is just a fictional story (facepalm).
[The ore-to-fuel ratio is 1:3, slightly lower than the normal level for rudimentary smelting furnaces. Because blacksmiths of that era used volume rather than weight, this book also uses volume.]
[In the era before weighbridges, calculating by volume was simpler; you could count one truckload at a time.]
[Thank you to all the readers for your collections, reading, subscriptions, recommendations, monthly tickets, donations, and comments. Thank you everyone!]
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(End of this chapter)