26: Chapter 26: A Bet – Iron Can Never Replace Bronze

As evening fell and the various craftsmen were leaving the Forging Workshop, a middle-aged man and a group of apprentices were still striking iron in the smelting area.

"Increase the bellows! Increase the bellows!"

"Ugh, how can you all be so stupid?"

"Get out of here, I'll do it myself!"

An old man, who had stripped off his upper garment, barked at his apprentices.

That massive bellows required several people to move, yet he could push it with a single hand.

The muscles all over his body possessed an explosive power far greater than that of any fitness coach.

Under the pumping of the bellows, the flames within the furnace suddenly surged extremely high.

Waves of heat also came rushing toward him.

Zhao Fusu couldn't help but frown.

However, he did not step back, but instead continued to watch.

"Old Man Liu."

Another fit old man walked over from a distance, his hands behind his back, looking at the Craft Official surnamed Liu with a smile.

"What are you doing here? You're not welcome here."

Old Man Liu did not turn around, speaking with an unfriendly tone to the old man who had arrived.

"I'm saying, Old Man Liu, you should stop wasting your effort."

The fit old man who had arrived ignored Old Man Liu's order to leave.

He said, "Stop messing around with your ironware. No matter what you do, your ironware will never be able to defeat my bronzeware!"

"No, my ironware is the future!"

Old Man Liu said through gritted teeth.

Old Man Liu tossed a block of iron into the furnace, and once the iron block was heated, he began to strike it continuously with a hammer.

Every time he raised the large hammer in his hand, it went high above his head before coming down with a heavy blow.

His hammer technique was extremely exquisite.

Even though he struck the iron block with immense force, he could ensure that every strike landed on the exact same spot on the iron block.

Under his hammering, that specific spot quickly turned into a thin sheet.

*Clang!*

With a heavy blow, the iron block rotated slightly.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

The spot Old Man Liu hammered soon turned into a thin sheet as well.

*Clang...*

Old Man Liu struck again, and the iron block rotated once more.

Through this repetitive process, the iron block was hammered into thin layers.

"Sprinkle the chicken blood!"

Old Man Liu's apprentice poured a large bowl of chicken blood into the furnace.

*Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...*

*Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...*

*Whoosh...*

The fire flared up brilliantly.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

*Clang, clang, clang...*

Old Man Liu continued to hammer incessantly.

"Sprinkle the chicken blood!"

Old Man Liu's apprentice sprinkled chicken blood into the furnace once again.

Amidst the high-intensity hammering, Old Man Liu was drenched in sweat.

"A Da!"

Old Man Liu stepped back to rest, and the young man called A Da took the hammer from Old Man Liu's hand and began hammering once more.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Old Man Liu let A Da rest and took back the hammer to continue striking.

Different from the previous hammering, Old Man Liu's strikes this time were like folding the edges of a dumpling, overlapping layer upon layer in a circle.

Zhao Fusu also marveled, thinking that Old Man Liu's hammer technique was truly powerful; the iron block was being hammered into intricate patterns in his hands.

The sky had long since darkened, but Zhao Fusu did not leave, Zhang Han did not leave, and the fit old man did not leave either.

Old Man Liu began to forge the sword blank.

With tongs in one hand and a hammer in the other.

*Clang, clang, clang...*

Amidst the sound of hammering, the sword blank gradually took shape.

The Iron Sword then entered the quenching stage.

When the glowing red Iron Sword was plunged into the water, a massive amount of steam immediately billowed out.

Next, the Iron Sword was ground and sharpened.

Under the glow of the furnace, the sword blade shimmered with a silver light.

The patterns on the blade were like snowflakes.

This was also the first time Zhao Fusu had seen an Iron Sword being forged, and he found it somewhat novel.

"Bring the sword!"

The fit old man shouted toward his apprentice behind him.

Immediately, an apprentice brought over a Bronze Sword.

One could see that this Bronze Sword was covered with various fine patterns.

"Old Man Liu, let's see if your Iron Sword can cut through this standard-issue Bronze Sword."

As he spoke, the fit old man gripped the hilt tightly and extended the Bronze Sword in front of Old Man Liu.

After taking a deep breath, Old Man Liu gripped the hilt of the Iron Sword and swung it forcefully toward the Bronze Sword.

*Clang!*

The Iron Sword in Old Man Liu's hand snapped into two pieces.

"Is that it?"

Zhao Fusu was also somewhat disappointed. After all that business with the chicken blood and the showy hammer techniques, it turned out he couldn't even beat bronzeware after working for so long.

"Hahaha, hahaha..."

The fit old man mocked Old Man Liu without any mercy.

"Iron can still only be used to forge farm tools. If you want to use it for war, it's still far inferior compared to bronze!"

"I say, Old Man Liu, you should just obediently go back to forging bronze."

"Iron can never possibly beat bronze!"

"Old Mo, screw your ancestors!"

Old Man Liu and Old Mo started to scuffle.

The apprentices on both sides began to pull them apart; even though they were being held back, their feet were still constantly kicking out at each other.

"Iron is only insufficient at this current stage."

Old Man Liu declared, "I believe that in the future, iron will definitely become the standard!"

"Iron can only be used to forge farm tools!"

"It's forever impossible for you to let it onto the battlefield!"

"Tch!"

Old Man Yang said disdainfully, "Bronze is the strongest!"

"You should just give up!"

"Elder Liu and Elder Yang are the two Craft Officials with the best skills in the Forging Workshop,"

Zhang Han introduced them to Zhao Fusu.

"Mhm."

Zhao Fusu nodded.

He said to Old Man Liu, "Elder Liu, if you only forge iron in this manner, then your ironware will never be able to surpass bronzeware."

"Unless your ironware can undergo a nirvana-like sublimation, only then can it defeat bronzeware."

"Young Master Fusu, you also know how to forge iron?"

Old Man Liu looked at Zhao Fusu with curiosity.

He remembered that Young Master Fusu was a top disciple of the Confucian School; he had never heard that Young Master Fusu also knew how to forge iron.

"I only know the method, but I haven't tried it myself. Whether it will work or not requires experimentation to find out,"

Zhao Fusu responded.

"Young Master Fusu,"

Old Man Yang said, "Iron is brittle and can only be used for farm tools. Using it to forge weapons for war is simply not realistic."

"Elder Yang, then how about we make a bet?"

Zhao Fusu said, "If the ironware I forge can snap a bronze weapon, then your entire bronze forging area must be converted to forging iron."

"Of course."

Old Man Yang responded almost without any hesitation.

"Then I will need the assistance of you two, Elder Yang and Elder Liu."

"Sure, sure."

Old Man Liu was the first to respond.

He was quite curious about what method Zhao Fusu had to make iron even sturdier than bronze.

"Fine."

Even though Old Man Yang didn't think Zhao Fusu could forge ironware stronger than bronze, he still agreed.

He wanted to see Zhao Fusu try everything only to end up dejected, just like Old Man Liu's flustered and exasperated look just now.

When Old Man Yang was young, he had also thought about using iron to replace bronze.

But no matter how he tried, iron could never replace bronze.

Because of this, he was certain that iron could never replace bronze.

Any idea of modifying iron to let it replace bronze was completely unrealistic.