The rebel army's foremost master craftsman forged a million iron pylons!

"How dare you! Who do you think you are, to challenge Master Sun in a forging contest?"

"The token you have is useless. If you want to join our foundry camp, you have to start as an apprentice. That's the rule!"

The craftsmen around immediately started shouting.

They were all Sun Baichuan's apprentices and fellow villagers, so naturally they didn't want another stranger to join the foundry.

Sun Baichuan laughed as well, "You really want to compete with this old man in casting skills?"

"How about this, we each forge a weapon. If you can defeat me, I'll give you the title of Grand Forging Master of the Third Forging Battalion."

"Otherwise, you'd better get out of the foundry camp right now."

"good!"

Without saying a word, Li Tian picked up a few stones from the pile of stones next to him and placed them on the chopping board.

Then, rolling up his sleeves, he said to Sun Baichuan, "Please!"

Without wasting words, Sun Baichuan took off his long robe and picked out a few stones from the pile of stones.

"Li Tian, ​​a gentleman's word is his bond. Let's begin now!"

Bang bang bang!

The sound of continuous hammering echoed from the courtyard.

Material selection, melting, forging, quenching—all done in one go.

Li Tian did it with ease.

Three hours later, a gleaming longsword, more than a meter long, appeared on Li Tian's chopping board.

the other side,

Sun Baichuan was also wielding a long sword. The blade itself wasn't particularly special, but the back of the blade was thick and the edge was thin, gleaming coldly in the sunlight.

A leaf fell from the sky and, upon hitting the blade, instantly split in two.

"What a fine knife!"

A chorus of cheers erupted from all around, and the forging masters circled the long sword, stroking it and praising it.

"As expected of a master blacksmith, this knife is clearly no ordinary item; it could cut through ordinary ironware with a single stroke."

Sun Baichuan smiled smugly and handed the knife to Li Tian. "Young brother, now that the knife is ready, let's have a contest! The rules are simple: first chop bamboo, then chop..."

laugh!

Bang!

The words had barely left his mouth when a snapping sound was heard.

Li Tian raised his long sword and slashed it hard at the back of Sun Baichuan's sword.

The long sword in Sun Baichuan's hand snapped in two.

The entire courtyard was quiet.

Sun Baichuan has been a master foundry for over a decade, and every weapon he has crafted is a masterpiece.

Today, it was actually chopped in half with a single blow!

This young man is very young, probably not even twenty yet.

How did he acquire such high forging skills?

"how?"

Li Tian silently placed the long sword in his hand on the table.

The blade of this knife has obviously been modified!

Sun Baichuan's face turned deathly pale in an instant.

He has been blacksmithing for over twenty years.

Today, however, he lost to a young man.

After a moment of silence, Sun Baichuan took out the "Grand Forger" token from his person and handed it to Li Tian.

"I admit I'm not as skilled as you. From now on, you'll be the master foundry here."

Li Tian took the token, and Sun Baichuan walked out of the courtyard without looking back.

Silence fell over the courtyard again.

The blacksmiths were in a real predicament. Some of them were Sun Baichuan's apprentices, and some were his fellow villagers. Now that Sun Baichuan was gone, they were leaderless.

A moment later, a craftsman stepped forward, bowed to Li Tian, ​​and said, "Sun Changle pays respects to Master Foundry Li Tian!"

"Zhang Jichang pays his respects to Master Foundry Li Tianda!"

"Chen Er pays his respects to Master Foundry Li Tian!"

……

One by one, everyone came up to pay their respects.

After all, this is a military camp; they only recognize tokens, not people.

Li Tian tucked the token into his pocket and said calmly, "Now that I am your master blacksmith, from this day forward, you will all obey my orders."

After saying that, Li Tian took out a crafting blueprint from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Masters, this is the blueprint for a crossbow I designed myself. Do you think it's feasible to craft?"

Several craftsmen gathered around and discovered that the drawing depicted a strange object. It was shorter than a military-grade hard bow, about a foot long, cross-shaped, and contained a spring mechanism.

Next to the drawing were several arrows, somewhat similar to wolf-tooth arrows, but not complicated.

"What an exquisite item!" The craftsmen exclaimed in astonishment.

Li Tian drew detailed diagrams of every part on this blueprint.

"We can build it!"

Zhang Jichang spoke first.

"This crossbow is exquisite, but the blueprints are very detailed. If we work hard, we can probably make a sample in about a day!" The other craftsmen nodded in agreement.

……

"Who is Li Tian? Get out here!"

at this time,

The gate to the foundry was suddenly kicked open.

A young man in a blue brocade robe, holding a long spear, rushed in, followed by Sun Baichuan, who had just left.

"I am Li Tian!"

Who are you?

"What do you want?"

Li Tian went to greet him.

"Do you have Sun Baichuan's Grand Forging Master Token? Hand it over to me."

The young man was unceremoniously staring intently at Li Tian with his piercing eyes.

"Captain Chen, what brings you here?"

Tie Niu stepped forward and said respectfully.

"So the Iron Centurion is here too."

The boy was indifferent to Tie Niu, then turned to Li Tian and asked.

"Where is Sun Baichuan's token? Hand it over now!"

"Sun Baichuan's skills are inferior to mine. Since the weapon he forged is not as good as mine, this Grand Forger's token should naturally belong to me."

"I wonder why this Captain Chen is asking for it?"

"Besides, a bet's a bet, and there are so many people watching!"

"Heh heh heh~ Just because I'm a captain!"

The young man slammed his spear heavily on the ground. "If you can't hand over the token today, don't blame me for being ruthless."

"You want to use force?"

Li Tian frowned slightly. Having just arrived at the military camp, he did not want to show off his talents.

"So what if we resort to force?"

The young man was furious and thrust his spear at Li Tian. Li Tian did not dodge; he stretched out his right hand, gripped it tightly, and caught the spear in his hand.

Immediately afterwards, Li Tian suddenly exerted force with his right hand, and the boy was sent flying backward, crashing into a row of weapon racks.

With a crash, weapons scattered all over the ground.

"How dare you assault a military officer!"

The boy roared and charged towards Li Tian.

With a hissing sound.

A short black arrow flew towards Captain Chen's hair bun and thudded into the wooden board behind him.

"Ah! This..."

The boy stopped abruptly, touched his hair with both hands, and felt a chill rise from the bottom of his heart.

That arrow,

If I hadn't dodged quickly, I probably would have died on the spot.

At this moment, Li Tian was holding a black short crossbow with a black arrow nocked on it.

The arrow was aimed at the man's throat.

The boy fell silent.

Because he knew that if he dared to move, the arrow in Li Tian's hand could quickly pierce his throat.

The foundry workers exchanged bewildered glances. This was the first time they had ever seen such a daring man who dared to shoot and kill a military captain on the spot.

"Now, leave the foundry. You are not welcome here!"

Li Tian said calmly.

"Fine, you just wait!"

The young man said coldly, knowing he couldn't beat Li Tian, ​​and turned to leave.

"Get to work!"

Li Tian coldly uttered a sentence and then turned and walked out.

"Brother Li Tian, ​​you've gotten yourself into big trouble today."

Tie Niu paused for a moment, then quickly caught up with him.

Why?

"That Chen Xinchang is the nephew of the Left Commander of the elite Fengzi Battalion of the Loyal and Righteous Army!"

"Commander Zuo treated him very well, and even Marshal Chen dared not offend him easily."

"You've gotten yourself into big trouble today!"