It was already evening, and Kawei's work was not over yet. The mercenaries were also performing their duties, sweating crazily.
Rurik had been sitting on the lying log supervising their work. Finally, he stopped playing with the cracked sword and put it back into its leather sheath.
He has no regrets, and is even pleased with the success of his risky experiment and ensuring that he will avoid detours in the future.
In the final analysis, Rurik feels that his dagger is used as a guard of honor most of the time, to show his wealth and authority. Therefore, everyone needs its shiny color more than expecting to hold it for himself. Let it gallop on the battlefield.
Now, Rurik is very concerned about those ferrochromes.
Some ax embryos have been thrown into piles of charcoal blocks for a long period of surface carburization treatment, and the hardness of the ax head will become even more extreme.
“I don’t need an axe, what should I do with it? Make a hard stainless steel knife or a spoon. Yes! A stainless steel spoon, but the spoon needs a manual stamping machine. While the material is still hot, he keeps smashing it on the mold! Sigh..."
Rurik, whose stomach was growling, finally stopped being a spectator. He now needs to do another thing - —Supervise whether those Kewen women cook well.
The men spent a lot of energy, and Rurik decided to reward his talents for smelting chromium steel.
The sky is getting darker, and the air is filled with the aroma of food, that is wheat, that is fish.
As a blacksmith, Kaweita understands the principle of "forging while the fire is hot". Based on his life principles and the promise he made to Rurik, he must beat all the sponge iron Into an ax embryo.
If there were more qualified blacksmiths, the job wouldn't be so difficult. However, he is the only qualified blacksmith, and the others are all handymen. He gritted his teeth and swung the big hammer, finishing all the forging of sponge iron as the sun was almost setting.
A special bonfire continued to burn, and as many as thirty ax embryos were put in, undergoing a long and extremely necessary surface carburizing treatment so that they would become axes before the final quenching. Very rigid.
Hardness is the most notable feature of chromium steel.
Rurik believes that this toughness will definitely create some new situations in future wars.
Kawei no longer knows how many times he has swung the sledgehammer. He considers himself a very strong man. Now he is sitting on a wooden pile, using the bonfire to see that he is covered with calluses and is squeezed in some places. The hand has a cracked wound, and the injury is also covered with dirt and dust. He washed his hands well with soap, hoping to wash away the so-called "dirt invisible to the eyes."
He felt weak and cold. Even if he was warming himself by a campfire, the discomfort was very obvious.
"Ouch! Now I finally have time to eat something."
Kawei stood up with difficulty, his body swaying as if he had drunk a lot of wine. .Looking for the scent of wheat, he approached the large pots where wheat porridge was being cooked in the open air, but he didn't have to go and beg for a bowl of food in person.
For this man who has made great achievements, Rurik has prepared a delicious meal for him.
In fact, all those involved in heavy physical labor, Rurik considered the huge energy consumption they will experience now and in the future, have really spent a lot of money on food supply.
In fact, the mercenaries all held their wooden bowls, or sat on wooden piles, or found a rock, or simply sat on the ground, grabbed their wooden spoons, and started He took big gulps of the boiled oats and stuffed them into his mouth.
A large number of herrings, which are longer than a palm, with their heads and internal organs removed, are also hung around the campfire. A branch often pokes them for up to ten days, forming "fish skewers" with a somewhat exaggerated weight. Many of them have already been eaten. Being grilled and sizzling with fish oil.
In addition, there are also some large pottery urns in which the so-called vegetable soup is cooked, which is actually made from a batch of old onions and low-temperature-preserved yellow root carrots stored in the Ross tribe. There are also some fresh edible mushrooms collected by the women of the Iron Squirrel tribe, and even some fresh pine needles and leaves acceptable to the Russian people, and bear meat that has been minced and stewed.
Compared with the arbitrariness of other tribes in terms of diet, Rurik can now be said to be truly in charge of all public affairs of Elon-Olava Fort, so he has made a lot of efforts in terms of the diet of the personnel. Big capital.
Russians are often accustomed to eating two meals a day, with the evening meal being the most important meal of the day. Rurik decided that all heavy manual laborers would always enjoy extremely generous dietary care, and this preferential treatment even extended to the men of the Iron Pine Tribe.
In everyone’s eyes, Rurik is a person who treats everyone equally. Everyone thought he was a kind person, but they did not expect that Rurik's determination was to rationally pursue the maximum efficiency of construction. All those involved in the construction must ensure that their bodies do not collapse. Based on reality, Rurik is very taboo about losing any labor force.
Undoubtedly, Kawei became the biggest contributor. Not only because he started smelting and forging chromium steel, but also because he was the only and best blacksmith in the settlement under construction. When the builders' tools began to wear out, only Kawei could make the best repairs for them. .
The current Kawei is completely irreplaceable talent.
Staggering, he was helped by mercenaries to approach Rurik's "royal" bonfire. He was also asked to sit cross-legged on a polar bear skin.
In front of him were two large pottery bowls, one filled with fragrant wheat porridge, and the other filled with a mixture of sliced onions and cooked bear meat.
This is not the end yet! Rurik also didn't know how much Kawei ate. In line with the principle of not starving the blacksmith no matter what, there was a wooden stick stuck on the ground with as many as twenty herrings on it.
"Kawei, you are finally here." Sitting next toRurik, who casually ate grilled fish with his close subordinates, said, "You should have come to eat a long time ago. It seems that your work is finally done. Eat, these are all prepared for you."
Looking at Rurik and then at the delicious meal, Kawei’s tears suddenly flowed from the corners of his mouth.
The wooden spoon was the first to insert the thick wheat porridge, and Kawei nibbled wantonly. The food that had been deliberately added with more salt should have a salty taste. For people whose bodies are already very deficient in salt, it is useless. It's like a strong stimulation to the nerves!
Large amounts of carbohydrates and salt were eaten quickly, and Kawei did not miss the onions and salted bear meat in another clay pot. The sweetness, spiciness, and complex taste of the onions are truly a rare experience. After Kawei wolfed down the greasy onions, he finished the wheat porridge.
Kawei wiped the wheat grains from the corner of his mouth casually, and placed the pottery basin to Rurik with unfinished thoughts.
When Rurik saw this, he motioned to Carlotta beside him: "Get him another bowl quickly."
Although the oats and rye in the tribe's inventory were no longer available, After all, they are high-quality food. Rurik figured out that whoever works hard for himself has the right to enjoy the best food.
When Carlotta came over with a second bowl of steaming wheat porridge, Kawei had already turned into a big eater and started to hold the grilled and oily herring in his hands, happily skewering it.
Looking at him eating like a wolf, even though Rurik had many things to ask, he could only shut up now.
Asking himself, Rurik felt that he had not eaten much food in the past few days, while others had already eaten all the food they carried. He was very glad that he had assigned tasks to the fishermen who were following him. Up to now, there were some fishing boats every day, carrying fresh catches that he caught from the southern seas, or brought them from the "chief warehouse" in his hometown. From grain to even stocks sold at low prices by the Gould family, the fishermen transported all kinds of materials to the north, which relieved the builders from worries.
Without the existence of these fishermen’s transport teams, Rurik was sure that his work would have stopped.
To maintain such an economic operation model, it depends entirely on the control of large amounts of wealth. At this point, Rurik felt that he had used his ability to "make money" in the right place.
Rurik is convinced that all the men who log, construct, or even assist in blacksmithing must consume more than 3,000 calories a day, and it is not uncommon to reach 4,000 calories.
I’m afraid Kawei consumed 5,000 calories today alone!
A strong man can continue this extremely high-consumption state for three or four days, but if he does not get enough supplements, the strong man may die suddenly from exhaustion! In fact, Kawei has shown a strong state of overwork today. If there was an instrument to measure blood pressure now, we would be surprised to find that Kawei's blood pressure has exceeded 160. However, the night concealed the fact that he had become hypertensive due to overwork. A red face is definitely not caused by being roasted by the fire.
Get a lot of carbohydrates, fat, and extremely heavyWith the necessary water and electrolyte replenishment, Kawei's mental condition finally recovered.
Kawei drank two large bowls of wheat porridge and actually ate nearly three pounds of dry oats.
He even ate up to twenty herrings. The caloric content of herrings alone was two thousand.
As a blacksmith, Kawei always has to do heavy physical labor. He has a large appetite. This time he actually broke a eating record.
Eating more than 5,000 calories in one meal is a miracle to be able to enjoy such an extremely high energy intake anywhere in this day and age.
"Are you feeling better?" Rurik asked kindly.
"Much better!" Kawei smiled awkwardly and patted his rock-hard stomach: "I really can't eat anymore. I'm afraid I used three days of food to eat in one day. Thank you so much Rurik, I'm very happy with your reward."
"This is as it should be. Now tell me, can you continue working tomorrow? Are you okay with the final forging and key polishing?"
Kawei's arm was still sore, and he suggested: "Since you are going to give the ax to your mercenaries, they have a reason. Personally participate in the final processing. I can only do the final forging, polishing and installation of the ax handle, which should be their own business."
Rurik paid attention to the card. Wei was so haggard that he understood the meaning of these words: "You... are really too tired. Okay, I will arrange this."
This night, Kawei got the long-lost feeling Comfortable.
The past day and night seemed like a dream. Due to excessive exhaustion, when he opened his eyes again after falling asleep, it felt like it was dawn in an instant. After all, he is a young man in his early twenties, and he is also an extremely young and promising person among the warriors. However, he is a blacksmith, and his physical fitness is actually better than that of the warriors.
Those who were placed on vigil continued to monitor the smoldering process.
After Kawei woke up, he directed his men to pull out the blank that had been surface carburized for the equivalent of twelve hours. Then, the big towering furnace fires up!
The flames began to spurt again, but there was no strong air blowing from the blower, and there were fewer charcoal blocks and more pine branches as fuel.
Seeing Kawei swinging the hammer sonorously and forcefully, Rurik felt relieved.
"After all, I am a young man. Being young is good. Haha, I am just too young."
For a dazed moment, Rurik felt that he had become an old guy again. , only when you see your childish little hands can you know your childishness. In fact, he has always felt that his thoughts are naive. Living in such an era, he has a lot of advanced knowledge and certain practical abilities, but he is only one person. The advanced ideas simply could not adapt to this era. After being severely beaten in the battle, he realized that he had been a little naive.
Now, Rurik JiDu eagerly hopes to equip his tribe with the best weapons and tools, so as to protect everyone in the wild world and ensure that the tribe is a good servant and will not be destroyed by other powerful tribes at any time.
Chrome steel is stainless steel, and now these carburized chromium steels have begun the final process.
"It is harder than mild steel. Now the armored cavalry of the Romans can't withstand the poke of chromium steel spears, right? Anyway, it must be suitable for making an axe."
Soon Kawei's final work came to an end. He sat proudly on a wooden stake on the side, directing the mercenaries to sharpen their axes happily.
There are a lot of pebbles and a lot of sandstone on the river beach.
To polish the edge of a weapon, the most efficient way is to make a grinder. Even a human grinder is more efficient than grinding with a flat whetstone.
So is there the best whetstone? Of course there is.
For those unsmelted ores, up to 69% of their composition is highly fused iron oxide and chromium trioxide. It is precisely because of this high degree of natural fusion that the Russians took advantage of it. The metal component of all axes is low-carbon chromium steel that is very evenly fused.
The mercenaries usually polished the ordinary iron swords and small hand axes in their hands. They had sufficient polishing experience, and this time they had to be shocked by the wear resistance of the new hand axes.
Compared to ordinary sandstone, chromite itself is a better abrasive. The ore was polished straight through constant mutual grinding. Even so, in order to polish a sharp ax blade, each mercenary was busy from morning to nightfall, and the work finally came to fruition.
The night covered up the gray metallic luster of the chrome steel, but it could not hide their hardness.
Beside a bonfire, a mercenary ignored the wounds on his hands while polishing. He placed the ordinary iron sword he was issued on the ground, and at the instigation of other mercenaries, he manipulated it. The chromium steel ax that I polished by myself started to chop hard.
The iron sword was immediately cut into two pieces, and the fracture also showed a flat cross-section under the bonfire.
In an instant, the mercenaries exploded, and Rurik hurriedly ran away after hearing the sound.
"What are you doing?!"
The mercenary who collected the chromium steel ax hurriedly and excitedly offered his treasure: "Sir, look! My weapon is made of Well, with all due respect, I no longer need the previous sword! Just like you, I sacrificed it."
"You..." Rurik looked at the ground. The Broken Sword has nothing to say.
He took the ax and observed that it was polished until it was quite smooth, and he couldn't help but feel in a trance.
"It's so beautiful, so beautiful! It's not a treasure that could be made in 830, but more like a craft tool in 2030."
No one could understand him. Yes and I mean, just understand this is praise.
NextWhat happened was beyond Rurik's expectation. He never expected that because he did not make a clear recovery, his mercenaries would take out their easy-bending low-quality ordinary iron swords, and they would call themselves The magic weapon "Chromium Steel Tomahawk" chopped them all into pieces, but the ax blade was still as sharp as before, and no curling or cracks could be seen under the bonfire, which made everyone even more excited.
On the second day, some of the mercenaries who had brand-new axes continued to work as lumberjacks. To cut down large trees, of course, the traditional (so-called tradition only lasts for one year) carbon steel axes are the most powerful. For small trees, these chrome steel hand axes immediately show terrifying felling efficiency.
Everyone saw it, especially all the Kewen people. They really could not imagine that the iron ore discovered by their expedition team could be turned into such a treasure.
Mechasta, the leader of the Iron Squirrels, even felt that if his expedition team mined some ore earlier and brought it back, he would also have a large amount of iron tools. At this point, he attributed the defeat of himself and other Kovin tribes mainly to the extremely inferior weapons.
"If I take possession of the mines, I can make a large number of hard axes and spearheads, and iron arrow clusters will no longer be rare."
But Mechasta was terribly wrong. . The furnaces made by the tribal blacksmiths who died in the war can handle ordinary ores, but for the chromite here, they must make larger and thicker furnaces and install stronger blowers before they can smelt it into The sponge iron is then further forged.
It is true that they discovered the mine, but from the beginning, the Covin people did not have the ability to smelt it. In the end, they would give up because the ore was difficult to smelt, and instead continued to hand it over to the Finns in the south. Buy ordinary iron ore at a high price and bring it back for processing.
Finally, low-carbon chromium steel tools with a chromium content of about 12% and a carbon content of about 1% began to slowly appear in the construction sites of Elon Orawa Fort. of people, their labor efficiency immediately increased rapidly.
This begins an efficiency leap from quantitative change to qualitative change.