Your Human Emperor Banner is already emitting evil spirits, and you're still pretending to be a

Chapter 127 The Rich Linhai County

"Your Excellency, I would like to inform His Majesty that Linhai County is now producing 500,000 tons of steel annually. I also plan to refine coal into coke to improve the quality of steel."

Eunuch Gao immediately became interested when he heard this.

Most of the weapons produced by the court's traditional weapon casting technology were of average quality, which naturally only limited the strength that the army could exert on the battlefield.

I didn't expect that Zhao Feng would actually start from this aspect. If it is really as Zhao Feng said, the combat effectiveness of the entire court's army will be unprecedentedly improved.

"I wonder what Lord Xu meant by this. Could you please explain it in detail?"

Eunuch Gao looked at Zhao Feng with a smile on his face.

"Coal has a much higher carbon content than ordinary coal. If we use coke to burn, we can also increase the temperature of the blast furnace, which will naturally optimize the conditions for steelmaking..."

Zhao Feng spoke incessantly and became more and more excited, as if all these imaginary blueprints had already become a microcosm of reality.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Eunuch Gao clapped his hands in applause and couldn't help but praise him several times in a row.

"Since Lord Xu is so sure, why not give it a try?"

"Well, what the father-in-law said is absolutely right."

After the two men had discussed it, they immediately summoned a large number of craftsmen and laborers to prepare for the refining ceremony on the open space in the east of the city.

Xu Feng was not idle during this period. He had asked the workshop to prepare a large amount of materials to deal with the shortage of materials.

"Master Xu, are you sure you want to use coke to make steel?"

Seeing this, Mr. Zhuge walked forward and asked Xu Feng in a low voice.

"Coal? Why coke?"

"Weapons made from coke are durable and can increase their service life and hardness."

Mr. Zhuge said, "You don't know. This coke can increase the temperature, but if it fails, the coke will be useless. In addition, the coke takes a long time to burn, and it consumes a lot of firewood, which will waste a lot of raw materials!"

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhuge. I have already thought of solutions to these problems."

Xu Feng looked at Zhuge Xuan with confidence.

"In that case, I won't say any more. I do look forward to Master Xu creating another miracle."

Mr. Zhuge spoke up to express his support.

"Yes, we support Mr. Xu."

"Yes, only by following Lord Xu can ordinary people have a good life."

Xu Feng looked at the enthusiastic people and curled his lips slightly, then ordered: "Let's get to work!"

With his order, a large number of workers began to work, and within half a month, the steel plant was completed.

Xu Feng personally participated in the process, guiding the steelmaking process and observing each step with his own eyes.

"Master Xu! Come and see!"

"The melting point of these iron ingots is too low, there is no way to forge steel ingots."

"And the temperature of this piece of iron is still low."

"Master Xu! These pieces of iron are not suitable for making weapons."

A series of mistakes caught Xu Feng's attention. He frowned slightly and began to look through the record books of the past few days.

"Mr. Zhuge, I fought against the Japanese pirates before and found that their weapons were much harder than ours. What happened?"

"The Japanese pirate country is rich in a kind of iron ore called black iron, and coupled with their secret manufacturing process that has been used for hundreds of years, so..."

Zhao Feng constantly led his blacksmiths to try and make mistakes, and he was always able to find suitable iron ore to reforge steel.

Eunuch Gao witnessed Zhao Feng's dedication to his duties and his wholehearted devotion to the country and immediately reported it to the emperor.

Time flies and it is already July.

Xu Feng has been staying at the steel plant. He checks it every once in a while to make sure nothing is missed.

After three months of unremitting efforts, a material of better quality than black iron was finally created by Zhao Feng.

"Eunuch Gao, please present this to His Majesty when you return to the capital."

"Lord Xu is truly a genius. You can solve a problem that has plagued the court for nearly a hundred years in just a few months."

Eunuch Gao looked at Zhao Feng with admiration, "Master Xu, you have a promising future ahead of you. Our family will depend on your protection in the future."

"Eunuch Gao is so polite."

Having achieved a gratifying result, Eunuch Gao naturally did not stay any longer and hurried back to the capital that night to report the good news to the emperor.

Zhao Feng quickly applied the new achievements to the lives of ordinary people and the weapons of the army, and received unanimous praise for a while.

Of course, the better Linhai County developed, the more jobs it could provide. This naturally attracted people from nearby counties to come and seek refuge there, and the population suddenly reached an unprecedented peak.

Linhai County is no longer what it used to be. Its prosperous scene is the envy of people in nearby counties.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Zhao Feng quickly invited Mr. Zhuge to discuss the next development steps.

"Master Xu, what orders do I have for you this time?"

Mr. Zhuge bowed respectfully to Zhao Feng.

"Sir, why bother? There's no one else here. It's better for us to just be friends."

Zhao Feng immediately stepped forward and helped Mr. Zhuge up.

"Your status is no longer what it used to be, and due respect must still be shown."

At Zhao Feng's cordial invitation, Mr. Zhuge sat in the first seat.

"After so many years of development in Linhai County, the time is now ripe. I plan to deploy the next development strategy."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhao Feng placed a newly designed blueprint on the table and said, "Our next target is this."

Driven by curiosity, Mr. Zhuge immediately came forward to take a look, "Could this be the legendary cannon?"

"Master Xu has read in books that cannons are extremely lethal, but building one is no easy task. I wonder how confident you are in this?"

Casting a cannon is not as simple as casting ordinary weapons. It will be difficult to succeed without absolute confidence.

"Mr. Zhuge, the cannon's power is far greater than we imagined. If it can be successfully forged, even a master at the peak of Kailong level can be killed or injured."

Having said that, Zhao Feng looked at Mr. Zhuge with excitement again.

"I have only heard of this thing through rumors and have never seen it in person."

Mr. Zhuge couldn't help but sigh, "If I could see the real thing in my lifetime, it would be a great honor to have such a divine artifact."

"In that case, let's create this miracle together."

"The cannon I designed is only moderately powerful, but to be on the safe side, I plan to wait until this cannon's test firing is successful before forging a more powerful cannon."

Zhao Feng spoke calmly, paused, and continued, "To successfully launch the weapon, we need gunpowder."

"gunpowder?"

Mr. Zhuge looked at Zhao Feng in surprise, "Then we need to start by researching the formula for gunpowder."