Please ask me to be the emperor

Another day passed, Governor Zhang finally found a jewelry craftsman with good skills, and brought him personally to the city of Nexiang to meet Zhang Shun.

After a few polite words, Zhang Shun let him sit down.

The man was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and begged for mercy: "Grandpa, please let me kneel, so that I can be more at ease!"

As a modern person in Zhang Shun's previous life, he couldn't stand this. He tried to persuade him a few more times, but when he saw that he was determined to do so, he had to give up.

Then Zhang Shun asked: "I heard that you are good at casting gold and silver jewelry. What is the difference between casting gold and silver jewelry and casting iron cannons?"

"Sand is used to make jewelry, and clay is used to cast ironware. The models are different!" The old craftsman answered honestly without saying any nonsense.

"How about using sand? What about using mud?" Zhang Shun also liked this man's straightforwardness.

"It's difficult to shape with sand, but the casting is fine; with porous honeycombs of mud, you can cast large pieces!" This craftsman is also very knowledgeable.

"Oh? I want to cast a cannon, which weighs ten thousand kilograms. How about using sand?" Zhang Shun asked straightforwardly.

"This..." The old craftsman hesitated for a moment, and then responded, "Your Majesty, please forgive me, I am an old and stupid person who has never heard of the method of casting steel with sand!"

"Because small iron parts can be forged, and large ones can be made of clay. If the king insists on doing this, I have a solution that is not a solution. I don't know if it will work or not!"

"Old sir, please tell me!" Zhang Shun was a little disappointed after hearing this, but he didn't expect that he had some ideas, and he didn't know whether they would work or not.

"I think you can mix sand and mud. If you use pure sand, the sand mold will be difficult to support. If you use pure mud, the king is not satisfied. Then why not mix some clay into the sand, shape it, and then cast it?" The old craftsman quickly suggested .

"It's just that this method is unheard of. It's just the nonsense of an old man. If it doesn't work, please don't blame me, Your Majesty!"

"Don't worry, I won't blame you whether this happens or not!" Zhang Shun originally wanted to ask the old craftsman his name.

But now that he was a little scared, in order to avoid misunderstanding, he could only comfort him: "If this thing comes to pass, I will reward you!"

Seeing that Zhang Shun was a kind-faced man, the old craftsman quickly thanked him and thanked him for all his kindness.

When the old craftsman went down, Zhang Shun turned around and asked, "What do you think of this, Mr. Zhang?"

"Then... let's try?"

"You're right, you should try it first!" Zhang Shun emphasized the last two words, and then continued, "First try the effect of mixing pure sand, clay mold and clay sand in a certain proportion."

"Try several different ratios of mud and sand. Make sure to use sand as the main component, supplemented by mud. Just make the sand mold ready for use!"

After hearing this, Governor Zhang took the order and asked people to select sand, clay, etc. to make models for casting.

This time it was not for the purpose of casting cannons, it was purely to verify the effectiveness of various models, and it did not take much effort.

Early the next morning, Governor Zhang knocked on the door and asked Zhang Shun to go to the smelting office to check the situation.

Gao Guiying pouted her little mouth and wanted to get up unhappily. Zhang Shun advised, "Since you are sleepy, just sleep a little longer and let Wukong accompany me!"

"Ah~" Gao Guiying opened her mouth and yawned indecently.

As she hurriedly put on her clothes, she replied angrily, "Don't! Daddy's throat was accidentally cut last time, so maybe those wives of yours will hate me. If I fail again this time Can I survive the rest of my life if I have a handle on someone?"

"It's not your fault, why are you worried?" Zhang Shun comforted him while grabbing a fragrant flying fish suit and putting it on.

Clothing such as Taoist robes, straight jackets, and official robes that were popular in this era were very comfortable to wear, but they were not very convenient for movement.

But now that Zhang Shun is a person of status again, he can't wear a short brown suit like before, so he has to choose the flying fish suit, which is more convenient for walking, as his regular clothes.

Not to mention, Zhang Shun is tall and broad-framed, and his clothes do look majestic, both civil and military.

After a while, after he was dressed, Gao Guiying picked out a certain black Tang scarf and put it on him. Then Shi Shiran left the room, called Wukong and other guards and went to the smelting place together.

When we arrived at the place, the molds for the trial iron parts had not yet been opened. In front of Zhang Shun, Governor Zhang ordered the craftsmen to break them open one by one and let Zhang Shun check them one by one.

Not to mention, the iron parts cast with sand molds have a smooth surface with almost no holes and pits; while the iron parts cast with mud molds are mostly pitted and unsightly.

As for the result of pouring the mud-sand mixed mold, the rule is basically that the more mud and less sand, the rougher the casting will be.

Since there is no big problem with the appearance, Zhang ordered by the way: "Find someone with a sledgehammer to come over and give me a few hard hits to test the performance of the casting!"

Originally, the tensile strength of these objects was tested, just to verify the difference between the clay mold and the sand mold. The castings cast this time were mainly large pieces. It was impossible to test them with the crude tools of this era.

Zhang Shun simply conducted destructive experiments to verify the impact resistance of these iron parts.

Governor Zhang quickly called two strong men, each carrying a big hammer. According to Zhang Shun's request, they hit it with a few "bang bang" hammers. Zhang Shun stretched out his head and took a look, and saw that some of them had no damage, some had broken corners, and even one piece was directly smashed open.

"Okay!" Zhang Shun inspected them for a long time, pointed at two of the mold positions and said, "These two are good, what's the ratio of mud to sand?"

Governor Zhang took a look at it and responded quickly: "One uses 19 jins of sand for one jin of mud, and nine jins of sand for one jin of mud!"

"Oh, the proportions of clay are 5% and 10%!" Zhang Shun nodded and said, "These two are good."

“Not only does the cast surface have a smooth surface and will not break when hit by a hammer, but the shape of the mold is stable, it will not break when it stands, and it is ready for use.”

Governor Zhang is not blind, so he naturally holds the same view.

So, he asked for instructions: "In that case, why not take some of them, make a sand mold, and then try casting the artillery?"

"Yes!" Zhang Shun nodded. The results of this sand mold trial casting were very good, and many of the defects of the original clay mold were solved. It is expected that the casting success rate of Hongyi cannon will be greatly improved.

When Governor Zhang saw that Zhang Shun agreed, the frustration of many days was gone.

He couldn't help but enthusiastically arranged his manpower to go to the river to retrieve sand.

Fortunately, Tongguan and Nengxiang are on the south bank of the rolling Yellow River. The Yellow River is known as "a bowl of water and half a bowl of sand" and is rich in sand.

The 10,000-kilogram Hongyi cannon cast by the rebels was only one or two feet thick and more than ten feet long. Naturally, the amount of fine sand required was staggering.

If we don't prepare as soon as possible, I'm afraid the day when the cannon will be ready will not be known in what year.

Originally, the matter was settled like this, but Zhang Shun was a bitch and asked again: "I wonder what the shape of this 10,000-kilogram Hongyi cannon is?"