I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 98 Malaysia?

……

Gu Yong's earlier advice to Liu Miao to build cities was undoubtedly correct. Even though the construction of the main city walls had only just begun, people were already setting up markets on the west side, and artists and musicians were gradually moving in for entertainment. At the same time, merchants were also opening shops in the western market, which piqued Liu Miao's curiosity. He even sent Zhou Tai to take a look: "Youping, is the first shop in Jinling a grain shop or a cloth shop?"

"It's a brothel!"

A lü is a gate in a village. It was a gate and market built in the palace for women to live in. Guan Zhong, who assisted Duke Huan of Qi, established seven hundred brothels for women, and was thus revered as the patriarch by women of the night in later generations.

Upon hearing that the first privately owned shop opened in Jinling was actually a brothel, Liu Miao immediately objected!
"How can this be allowed? Where is morality? Where is shame? Where is the address? Youping, come with me immediately to check!"

Zhou Tai was greatly alarmed, knowing that it was time to defend something to the death. In a moment of quick thinking, he asked, "My lord, aren't you going to Yecheng in the west?"

When Zhang Zhao was planning the city's construction, he built a forge in the west for forging weapons, armor, bows, crossbows, and shields. Considering that there would inevitably be many battles in the future and that the consumption would be enormous, the forge was built first, and craftsmen were sent there to forge weapons.

We were supposed to be inspecting Yecheng today, so why did you suddenly decide to go to a place like the brothel?
After much deliberation, Liu Miao finally decided to temporarily postpone his plan to visit the brothel.

Seeing this, Zhou Tai looked proud!
Without a doubt, just now, Zhou Tai and Zhou Youping averted a huge crisis for all the men in Jinling!
Liu Miao glared at Zhou Tai, then kicked him hard again: "Let's go! Out of the city!"

"hey-hey!"

Zhou Tai was beaming with pride; anyone who didn't know better would have thought he'd accomplished something great. He hummed a little tune as he sat down in front of Liu Miao to pull the cart.

As the carriage traveled westward, nearing Yecheng, Liu Miao could clearly feel a faint heat wave rushing towards him.

By the time the carriage had fully entered Yecheng, Liu Miao felt sweating on his back and was quite uncomfortable from the heat. So he took off his cloak and got off the carriage to inspect Yecheng.

Although it is called a "city", it is not a real city because it is a place for smelting. There are no city walls or buildings. It is just a large circle made of fences, which is divided into several sections for work.

The person in charge of Yecheng was none other than Lu Su.

Lu Su had previously predicted that Liu Miao would clash with the other warlords of the land, and at that point, elite soldiers and valiant generals alone would not be enough. When the time truly came to vie for supremacy, it would be a contest of everything from policies and systems to weapons and provisions, which is why Lu Su volunteered to take charge of Yecheng.

When Lu Su saw Liu Miao arrive, he immediately went forward to greet him.

"Zijing, are the weapons of Jiangdong sharp and their armor sturdy?"

Lu Su was dressed in a short shirt, his clothes soaked with sweat, but he still handed two short swords to Liu Miao.

"Jiangdong has abundant iron ore, and the quality is excellent, enough to forge sharp weapons!"

The Wu and Yue regions have been renowned for their sword-making since ancient times. Both Ou Yezi of Yue and Gan Jiang of Wu were swordsmiths whose names are etched in history. While their superb skills certainly played a role, the quality of the iron from Jiangdong was equally indispensable.

What Lu Su showed Liu Miao were the first batch of iron swords built in this Yecheng, and their quality was already excellent!
Liu Miao took the short sword and swung it a few times, and indeed found it extremely light!

He then chopped at his bronze chariot frame a couple more times, but was still somewhat dissatisfied.

"Zijing, look at this sword. It's already chipped after only two strikes against the carriage frame. How can it be considered a good sword?"

Lu Su didn't know how to explain, so he could only ask Liu Miao, "Then, in your opinion, what kind of sword is a good sword?"

"Slices iron like mud!"

"That's not just a good sword, that's a precious sword."

Lu Su shook his head and advised Liu Miao to face reality.

“The craftsmen of Jiangdong are already highly skilled, and their ability to forge such short swords surpasses that of weapons produced in many other places. How can you expect them to produce swords that can cut through iron like mud?”

Liu Miao also told Lu Su about another reality—

“Zijing, in the future, we certainly cannot fight only in this corner of Jiangdong.”

“Our future opponents will likely be the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry, the White Horse Righteous Cavalry, or even the cavalry of the Xiongnu and Xianbei.”

"Jiangdong is already short of horses... If I remember correctly, with the troops newly recruited by Gongjin, plus the county troops reorganized from various places, I now have more than 25,000 soldiers under my command. But does Zijing know how many warhorses are registered? Five hundred!"

"With 25,000 soldiers, there are only 500 warhorses. That's one warhorse for every 50 soldiers. Do you think we can fight against a northern enemy with cavalry with such a disparity? Since we're already behind in terms of warhorses, we must surpass them elsewhere!" Lu Su suddenly realized that Liu Miao was already worried about future battles, which explained his concern for weaponry.

Nowadays, fighting in Jiangdong often relies on ships! It's about the ruthlessness of that moment in close combat!
But if they were to go to the flat Central Plains or even Hebei in the future, they would be facing a group of eight-foot-tall men riding strong and powerful warhorses charging against each other!
Liu Miao's foresight was not without reason!
Liu Miao twirled the two short swords in his hands, making a sharp sound as they rubbed against each other, before suddenly asking curiously, "In Zijing's eyes, are these really good swords?"

"I guess... I guess so."

Lu Su was slightly overconfident.

The sword was originally quite good, but when Lu Su heard Liu Miao say that they were going to fight against the cavalry from the north, he suddenly became uncertain.

Liu Miao pondered for a moment: "Zijing, if I give these two swords to Yuan Shu, do you think he will give me warhorses in return?"

"..."

Lu Su suspected that Liu Miao was under too much pressure and was talking nonsense!
Asking Yuan Shu for gold, silver, grain, or even beautiful women and musicians is fine, but if someone actually dares to ask Yuan Shu for warhorses, then even the most carefree Yuan Shu should be on guard.

"For now, my lord, we should put aside the matter of warhorses. However, we should indeed send Yuan Shu some gifts to prevent him from becoming suspicious."

"Send a sword?"

"This sword is no good."

Lu Su led Liu Miao toward the northwest corner of Yecheng and pointed to several elderly craftsmen: "If they can forge a fine sword, it can be given to the General of the Rear."

Liu Miao looked at the craftsmen and saw that their arms were like steel that had been forged a thousand times, so he knew that they must be highly skilled craftsmen!

When he finally displayed his skills, Liu Miao exclaimed in surprise, "A hundred-layered horse?"

The craftsmen forged a steel billet, but instead of shaping it into a knife, they folded it back into the furnace, burned it again, hammered it, and then melted it down again, repeating this process over and over.

Although Liu Miao had only a superficial understanding of weapon forging, he had at least watched a forging competition and seen the Changsha man nod to the swordsmith with his face covered in blood and offer a word of praise. So he had a mediocre understanding of this forging technique!
Lu Su looked at Liu Miao with a puzzled expression: "This is the Hundred Forging Method. Is the name you're referring to from the Langya region?"

It was originally called the Hundred Forging Method!

Liu Miao was somewhat surprised that this skill had appeared so early.

Although the furnace temperature was insufficient to heat the steel billets to a bright orange-red color, and the steel billets hammered by these craftsmen were not square, the familiar forging technique still confirmed to Liu Miao that this was the Damascus stacking method!

Liu Miao chuckled and patted Lu Su on the back: "So Zijing was waiting for me here? What's this? A surprise? Does Zijing intend to forge a precious sword using this method?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Su knew that Liu Miao had misunderstood him.

"My lord, the weapons forged using the Hundred Forging Method are indeed swords that can cut through iron like mud, but it is time-consuming and laborious. How can it be considered a normal method of weapon forging?"

The advantage of the Hundred Forging Method is that it produces only divine weapons, but the disadvantage is that it is very difficult to forge even one.

A sword forged using the hundred-fold forging method is worth as much as the food and fodder for an average family of five for three years, making it priceless!
Forging such a weapon would take at least three years!

The hundred-fold forging method is extremely difficult. As Liu Miao observed, the furnace temperature is too low, making it difficult to heat and melt the folded steel billets together. Sometimes, it takes three days or even longer just to forge a single steel billet.

Secondly, because there are no machines, they can only rely on hand hammers, which means that forming is more difficult. Coupled with factors such as billet cooling, a single forging often takes up to ten days.

The term "hundred-times forging" refers to one hundred "ten-day periods," which explains why a hundred-times forged divine weapon is so expensive!

Such a divine weapon, forged in this way, would probably only be given as a precious gift; who would actually use it to kill enemies?
As for Liu Miao's idea of ​​using these hundred-forged divine weapons to equip soldiers and make them the standard weapons of the army, that was even more of a pipe dream, nothing more than fantasy.

After all, who has ever seen soldiers on the battlefield wielding weapons made of gold? Not to mention that this hundred-forged divine weapon is actually more valuable than an equivalent weight of gold!
After hearing Lu Su's explanation, Liu Miao realized that his dream of making every soldier a Changsha native was probably doomed to fail!
Even Liu Miao himself couldn't afford to use those hundred-forged divine weapons, let alone equip his soldiers with them!

Liu Miao was greatly disappointed. Just then, a sickening quenching sound came from the side, followed by a curse from the craftsman!
A crack running from one end to the other was clearly visible on the short sword that was pulled out of the water! There was no doubt that the sword was completely ruined!

Liu Miao stepped forward to examine it closely. After confirming what it was, he looked up and asked the craftsman in confusion, "Could this be water quenching?"

The craftsman, unaware of Liu Miao's identity, spoke freely: "What else can we use besides water quenching? Could this method passed down from our ancestors be wrong?"

(End of this chapter)