Kawei completely understood all of Rurik's explanations of the entire iron smelting principle based on ato, and so far he has no doubts about these explanations.
Is there anything else you can doubt? Is there any more reliable explanation than this?
Even his father, Klavasen, who was also a blacksmith teacher, never told him these profound things.
Before tonight, Kawei simply felt that charcoal burned stone, and the last remaining red thing turned into iron by knocking it. Why is this so? Probably Thor's miracle, or Odin's miracle.
After listening to Rurik's explanation, I'm afraid there are still miracles here, but these miracles can be controlled by others.
The saying passed down from our ancestors is that Odin created man in his own image. In this case, perhaps people have been tacitly allowed by Odin from the beginning and can obtain and use some miracles.
He even asked by analogy: "What if we calcined not fifty times, but a hundred times? Wouldn't it be harder?"
"No!" Rurik denied bluntly, "A sword will become very fragile if it absorbs too much arbon. A pure iron sword will bend easily, and an iron sword that absorbs too much arbon will be particularly easy to break. We must use iron This feature makes the best weapons.
The entire sword needs to absorb a certain amount of carbon. Because it has two characteristics, my sword actually has a certain degree of flexibility. Kawei, please try it for me. "
"I?"
"Yes." Rurik continued; "You hold the hilt of the sword and press it hard. You don't have to worry about anything. I can predict that it will not break or deform. It will break like a branch because of your strength. It bends, and then returns to its original shape due to your force."
"Okay! I'll try."
Kawei was seen holding the sword at an acute angle with one hand, and he began to use strength. Under Rurik's gaze, the sword blade really bent. But looking at Kawei's ferocious expression, this young strong man also used a lot of strength.
Kawei let go and saw the once-bent sword bounce back to its original shape instantly, and was really shocked by the force of the rebound.
"Wow! You really hit the mark." Kawei said excitedly.
And Klavason was even more excited, because this little experiment was an accurate proof of what Rurik had just said.
Klavason said sincerely: "Rurik, I am very clear about the iron swords I made in the past. As long as you press it with great force, the sword body will bend in place. If you want to restore it to its original shape, it must be heated red. Get it back to its original state from the new blacksmithing platform! This sword of yours... you have allowed me to see miracles."
"Haha? Is this a miracle? You made it yourself, is it considered a miracle?" Rurik shook his head, "I have told you that the entire human world is composed of the smallest indivisible things. It’s the smallest that composes new things in different ways, further composing everything we see.”
Rurik paused for breath: "I answered Kawei's question accurately. What will happen if you continue to forge and forge the iron sword? It absorbs too much arbon. After reaching a certain level, Kawei continues to press the sword, and the sword can directly Broken. Even during forging, the sword embryo broke directly.
As blacksmiths, you now have to learn a new skill, which is to control the amount of arbon absorbed by the iron sword. This depends on your own feeling.
I ask you that when judging a good sword from now on, it must be able to cut through an ordinary iron sword and be able to return to its original shape after being bent. These two principles are the most important. "
The two blacksmiths nodded deeply, and at the same time a strong sense of excitement affected their bodies, causing their feet to sweat and their whole bodies to tremble with excitement.
By now, Rurik believed that the two blacksmiths had understood the atomic theory he was talking about and the principles of making a steel sword.
Of course, Rurik's so-called "atomism" itself has a lot of loopholes.
The earliest "atomism" was born in Greece in the fifth century BC. Many philosophers discussed the composition of the world. A theory that the world is composed of the smallest indivisible objects was also born in countless discussions and was adopted. Organized into a classical theory. This theory can only be regarded as an enlightenment. They even think that flame is also a kind of atom, which is the so-called "phlogiston" concept.
The concept of phlogiston, which originated from classical atomism, has been circulating in human society for more than two thousand years. It was not until the 19th century that the phenomenon of combustion had a clear scientific explanation.
Rurik's so-called atomism was purely to take into account the blacksmith's understanding, making it more like "ancient Greek atomism." He also directly applied the results of modern atomic theory, where the actual meaning of ato is equivalent to a proton.
Because of the special nature of their work, the blacksmiths know more about "natural philosophy" than ordinary tribesmen. In order to get useful copper and iron out of the ore, they have to figure out the composition of the ore.
It is very interesting that some ancient Greeks began to invent and tinker with alchemy in order to get more gold. After all, the color of bronze seems to be just a little darker than gold. If you add some metals to make the color closer to real gold and make it look like the real thing, it's a huge profit.
With the destruction of Western Rome, the entire Western Europe entered a state of chaos. It took hundreds of years for the German chiefs to re-establish a new order under the authority of the Franks.
The large iron smelting factories of the Roman era disappeared, along with science and technology. The civilization of the Western European world has greatly regressed. A large number of Germanic blacksmiths only know how to burn ore red and knock it into lumps to make iron. Many barbarian blacksmiths do not even have time to find quenching technology from Roman ruins.
Due to the lack of a teacher, most iron swords in Western Europe hope to improve the quality of their products, but do not have any theoretical basis to support their desires.
Coupled with the general poverty of ordinary Germanic people in Western Europe in this time and space, there are not many professional blacksmiths, and more iron swords are part-time farmers. Both iron smelting and blacksmithing are extremely strenuous physical labor. Blacksmiths must eat more bread to have the strength to strike iron. Poor civilians are half-starved and have no financial resources to hire blacksmiths to make good tools. I thought about these things.
What maintained the foundation of the Frankish Empire was a large number of yeoman farmers.
Many of these yeoman farmers were still in the late stages of tribal society. The ancient Germanic tribal system was destroyed by the conquest and rise of the Franks, and the emerging small peasant class had to break away from the tribes that no longer existed.
They had to use wooden plows and even their hands to clear wasteland to grow food, and they used wood to make tools to build houses. The Frankish nobles were their managers and had to collect certain taxes. The poor yeomen struggled to accumulate their wealth, and those who went bankrupt would naturally become serfs of the nobility.
Craftsmen such as blacksmiths are more likely to become slaves of nobles. It’s just that nobles prefer blacksmiths to serfs who farm.
Nobles must have a strong army of their own, and the only things that can make the army strong are iron and bronze. The so-called Frankish nobility, their ancestors were German chiefs, and the ancestors of the yeoman farmers were just ordinary residents of the tribes. From the beginning, they were distinguished between noble and humble. When the Franks adopted the feudal system, this distinction between noble and humble became further sanctified for church reasons.
Nobles needed blacksmiths to make iron, and they had to bring blacksmiths with them when they went on an expedition to repair weapons made of wrought iron that were easily bent and broken. They believed that weapons were all like this.
Blacksmiths originated from farmers who lacked or had little land. They inherited this hard-working job from generation to generation. They greatly needed the support of the nobles. After all, the nobles were their biggest financial backers.
Especially in the current time and space, residents of Norway and Denmark, acting as Viking pirates, began to plunder the British region and the Frankish Empire on a large scale. The nobles needed the taxes from the common people to survive, so in order to survive, they had to organize an army to counterattack all the Vikings.
Wars began to become more frequent, and the nobles needed blacksmiths even more.
The blacksmiths in Western Europe in the ninth century did not understand atomic theory, nor did they understand alchemy at all. It was even less possible for them to acquire the ancient steel-making techniques from the East that had been perfected in the classical period.
According to the normal historical trend, the invasion of the Mongolian army brought a lot of things.
The introduction of some steel-making techniques from distant China and the return of steel-making techniques that continued to spread from the Middle East made Europe finally able to produce low-carbon steel. The returning alchemists would rather risk being burned as wizards than do some crazy experiments to create gold out of thin air.
The historical development process finally began to undergo a small deviation in 2 AD.
In the beginning, it was a minor deviation.
However, when the blacksmiths of the Ross tribe fully understand the core principle of making carbon steel from a block, many things will become different.
Because of Rurik, he is not just a little angel who provides steel-making skills. For him, letting the blacksmith make steel swords is not just for a little wealth. The blacksmith has gained a new understanding of the world based on the "Rurik-style atomic theory" he developed.
Although Rurik still claims that Odin created the world, how Odin created the world is no longer something indescribable and incomprehensible.
Carbon steel has elasticity, which did not exist in metal weapons used as weapons in Western Europe in the past.
Since it has good resilience, it can be made into better weapons, such as crossbows.
When Rurik saw Kawei struggling to bend his dagger, he instantly thought of the possibility of a steel-arm crossbow.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the most famous thing in Genoa was the steel arm crossbow made of steel sheets. Its power was that it could shoot heavy arrows through the armor of plate armor knights at a certain distance.
Although the steel arm crossbow has its own many shortcomings, it was made in the 15th to 16th centuries, an era when matchlocks were just starting out. It is another weapon that can effectively attack heavily armored units.
When it comes to weapons, in a country with frequent wars, all parties will generally choose the most cost-effective equipment. The monarch does not require weapons to be flashy. It must be able to achieve the result of defeating the enemy with its own army at a low cost.
The climate in Europe is generally humid, and the advanced technology of sinew-angle composite bows is prone to embarrassment in humid environments, which forces Europe to use single-piece straight wooden bows.
However, in the ninth century AD, the use of bows was not common in wars throughout Western Europe, let alone such high technology as crossbows.
As for the Nordic world, the Vikings, who are called barbaric by Western Europe, do not even use bows. Of course there are throwing weapons, and that is spears.
Humans have been making spears and using them as throwing weapons for tens of thousands of years. All humans have this valuable innate ability. The Romans took throwing javelins and spears to the extreme.
Does the Ross tribe need to develop long-range weapons? Of course.
Rurik regrets that he is still too weak. He always has countless ideas and far-reaching plans in his mind. He is also aware of the reason why his hips may be strained by taking too many steps.
He is the kind of person with a calm temperament unique to the East. Even if he desires that the Ross tribe he will take power has stronger technology, he cannot achieve it overnight.
Rome was not built in a day. Every stone slab on the stone road leading to Rome was spliced piece by piece by workers.
One thing Rurik fears most is that as he grows older, he accidentally forgets some of the most basic and important knowledge.
The night is already very deep, and in a few days it will be Hanukkah, the biggest festival of the Ross tribe. All tribesmen will have a carnival to welcome the "longest night".
After the new Hanukkah, the tribe must have a new beginning, Rurik deeply believed so.
Now, Klavathon and Kawei already know a lot of so-called "knowledge of Odin".
Rurik looked at the two blacksmiths who looked satisfied and full of confidence in the future, and said profoundly: "Odin acquired knowledge at the cost of one eye, and then turned the giant's corpse into countless atos, and used the knowledge to turn atos into us. The human world. We are all Odin's creations, so we can also understand some of Odin's wisdom. Now you have made your own new swords."
"Yes!" Klavasen said excitedly: "My son and I will become very rich for this. I have decided that before Kavey goes to Novgorod with the leader, I must build a The steel sword (stelsvard) serves as Kawei’s sword.”
"Dad, I will make it myself so you don't have to worry." Kawei said confidently.
"You? You'd better go to Novgorod to find a good woman and give me more boys. Since our family has received Odin's wisdom from the next leader, we must carry it forward."
"I will. At worst, I can grab one back."
Hearing their banter and bickering, Rurik couldn't smile any more. Robbery is also a traditional skill of all Viking Nordics. This kind of behavior is not a good thing. Not only because robbery is a crime that breeds resentment, but from a purely rational point of view, improving the efficiency of the group's production of materials is obviously more cost-effective than robbery. Selling high value-added materials is the traditional way to make a fortune. The Viking business aristocracy group will also be born from this.
This night, Kawei and Klavason made it clear that they would develop the technology of "Hundred Steelmaking" and would fulfill their contract with absolute honesty.
But Rurik didn't want it to end so simply.
Tired, he asked Kawei: "Bring me another board."
"What's wrong?"
"I want to carve something about what Odin created with ato. I will carve it on the wooden board for you to learn from."
