"Great General, may I take a look at this iron-ridged serpent spear?" Sha Ying was very interested in Li Qiongqi's weapon.
Back when he clashed with his opponent, his own blade had shattered after just a few exchanges. He hadn't imagined such a bizarre thing could happen. Caught off guard, he was struck from his horse.
Later, when Xiong Mao took the field, the same strange event occurred.
This weapon of Li Qiongqi's was absolutely extraordinary!
"Great General, I'd also like to see it," Xiong Mao pleaded eagerly.
Huo Tingshan looked at the two of them, their faces each paler than the other, and clicked his tongue lightly. "In your current state, could you even lift it?"
This iron-ridged serpent spear was eighteen feet long. For an ordinary man, it would take every ounce of strength just to heave it off the ground.
Sha Ying had his own idea. "Have the guards carry it for us."
Seeing their genuinely eager expressions, Huo Tingshan said nothing more. He ordered two guards to stand at either end of the spear and lift it horizontally between them.
Sha Ying and Xiong Mao stood on either side of the serpentine blade, whispering to each other.
"Is it my imagination, or does this iron-ridged serpent spear seem to shine brighter than an ordinary weapon?" Sha Ying tapped the flat of the blade with his finger.
The blade didn't budge.
Xiong Mao had a guard fetch a regular sword. He originally intended to wield it himself, but raising his arm accidentally tugged at his wound, making him grimace in pain, so he had to give up. He instructed the guard to do it instead.
A soldier took the sword and struck the iron-ridged serpent spear forcefully several times with loud clangs.
After a few strikes, cracks appeared on the soldier's sword.
Everyone was greatly astonished. Xiong Mao blurted out, "Could this iron-ridged serpent spear be a divine weapon from the heavens?"
No sooner had he spoken than his own commanding officer ruthlessly mocked him. "Where do all these gods and ghosts come from? If Li Qiongqi truly had the aid of celestial soldiers and immortal generals, why would he bother leading the army himself? He could just cast a spell to make you commanders find a rope and hang yourselves, or simply summon wind and rain, flood the Shenyuan Pass, and drown all the Youzhou army. Wouldn't that be faster?"
Xiong Mao: "..."
Sha Ying: "..."
That was indeed a logical point. But how else could one explain this spear's difference from other weapons?
Suddenly, the two guards lifting the spear felt it lighten in their hands. The man on the great black horse had taken it.
Huo Tingshan held the iron-ridged serpent spear in his right hand and controlled the reins with his left, turning his horse around beneath the city wall. "You could stare at it for another ten or eight years and still not figure anything out. I'm taking it back for my wife to have a look."
A cloud of dust rose as the iron-clad cavalryman swiftly disappeared from sight.
...
Pei Ying had learned not long ago of the attack on Lingwen County. The guard had also brought word that Huo Tingshan had gone to the neighboring Lingwen County and wouldn't be having lunch with her.
Military affairs were urgent; naturally, they took precedence.
Pei Ying thought he wouldn't return until evening. However, to her surprise, he came back just as she was about to take her afternoon nap after finishing lunch.
The man called out as soon as he entered the main courtyard: "Wife."
Pei Ying had been on the couch, nearly asleep. Hearing Huo Tingshan's call from outside, she sat up. She had just taken her outer robe and put it on when he entered the room.
He hadn't removed his armor or the cloak behind him, and he strode in carrying a large serpent spear in one hand.
Beneath the serpentine blade of the iron-ridged serpent spear was a set of red tassels. During the previous battles, the blade had been stained with blood, and the tassels were slightly soaked. The galloping ride back to the city had covered them in dust, so now the tassels below the blade were somewhat clumped together and tinged with grayish-brown mud.
To Pei Ying, it looked like he had brought a poorly wrung mop into the room.
"Huo Tingshan, what dirty thing have you brought inside? Take it out immediately!"
"Wife, help me take a look at this iron-ridged serpent spear."
Their voices sounded simultaneously.
The man stopped in his tracks, looked down at the spear in his hand, and his mouth twitched.
A dirty thing? Xiong Mao and the others were practically drooling over it, but to her, it was just dirty.
Alright then, it did seem a bit dirty.
So he didn't advance further, but he didn't go out immediately either. He stood in the room and spoke to Pei Ying.
"Wife, during the recent battle at Lingwen County, I captured this iron-ridged serpent spear. This object is quite peculiar; it can repeatedly shatter others' weapons. After the battle, I asked Li Qiongqi... the original owner of this weapon... why this spear is so unusual. He said it was forged using ten pairs of boy and girl children as a sacrifice to move the spirits, who then bestowed this divine weapon from heaven." At this point, Huo Tingshan scoffed coldly. "What heavenly-bestowed divine weapon? In my view, it's nothing but deceptive trickery."
The last trace of drowsiness left Pei Ying when she heard "using ten pairs of boy and girl children as a sacrifice."
Suddenly, she realized he wasn't carrying a mop, but a captured trophy. "Put that spear in the courtyard. The light is better outside; I'll look at it there."
Huo Tingshan knew she still thought it was dirty and didn't want to soil the room. Her habit of cleanliness was absolutely unchangeable.
He shouldered the spear and went out.
A short while later, Pei Ying, now properly dressed, came out of the room. She saw the iron-ridged serpent spear placed on the stone table in the courtyard, sunlight glinting coldly off its surface.
Seeing Pei Ying emerge, Huo Tingshan drew a short dagger and placed it side by side with the spear.
Viewed alone, it wasn't obvious, but placed together, the contrast was striking. The iron-ridged serpent spear was noticeably brighter, as if consecrated by a high monk.
Huo Tingshan said, "Xiong Mao and the others also claim this is a divine weapon only found in the heavens, but I disagree. Perhaps, wife, your side already has materials similar to this spear."
Pei Ying focused her gaze, examining it closely, and even tapped the flat of the blade with a bent finger.
Huo Tingshan asked, "What do you think, wife?"
Pei Ying didn't answer him immediately. Instead, she picked up the short dagger and tapped it against the iron-ridged serpent spear, listening to the sound they made.
After a moment, Pei Ying looked up. "This object is naturally not a divine weapon from heaven. However, for your time, it is indeed a rare and fine piece."
The man smiled. His focus was elsewhere. "As I thought, wife, you know about this object."
He had said it himself—all talk of gods and ghosts was falsification. A heavenly-bestowed divine weapon? If immortals truly existed, would the Zhao family still be clinging to the imperial throne?
"Huo Tingshan, when did your era stop using bronze weapons on a large scale?" Pei Ying asked.
"The current dynasty," he said. "Wife, what exactly is this thing?"
Pei Ying answered with a question of her own. "When your blacksmiths forge weapons now, they first select usable iron ore, crush it, put it into a smelting furnace, and finally melt it into molten iron, correct?"
As for more detailed steps, like adding certain ores during smelting to prevent the molten iron from sticking to the furnace walls, Pei Ying skipped them entirely.
Huo Tingshan nodded. "That is indeed the process."
Pei Ying tried to use simple, easy-to-understand terms: "Where I come from, iron is broadly categorized into three types: cast iron, steel, and wrought iron. Cast iron is hard, but when compared, its hardness is actually less than that of bronze. Moreover, it is also brittle, meaning it could shatter under a heavy blow. I suspect the reason your dynasty has recently ceased large-scale use of bronze ware is that some blacksmiths discovered a new technique for refining iron—by adding auxiliary materials and repeated forging to remove impurities from the cast iron."
Cast iron, steel, wrought iron. The main difference among the three lies in their carbon content. Cast iron has the highest, steel is next, and wrought iron has the lowest, below 0.02%.
Recalling now, Pei Ying remembered that bronze ware also largely exited the stage during the Han dynasty, giving way to ironware. From then on, the "weapons" in the phrase "to take up arms" referred to those made of iron.
Huo Tingshan listened as she categorized ironware and connected it to the exclusion of cast iron. "My lady, is this iron-ridged serpent spear then made of wrought iron?"
"No. Wrought iron is quite soft, with relatively low strength and hardness," Pei Ying shook her head.
Huo Tingshan's brow lifted slightly.
Since it was neither cast iron nor wrought iron, did that mean their weapons were all steel?
Seeing his puzzled expression, Pei Ying explained the different carbon contents among the three. "...So there is a range. Although the weapons you use now have already moved beyond the category of cast iron, based on the blacksmiths' casting methods, the carbon content in your weapons is much closer to that of cast iron than this serpent spear's, making them considerably more brittle. This iron-ridged serpent spear already falls into the category of low-carbon steel."
Now Huo Tingshan understood. "So, the legend of forging a sword using ten pairs of virgin boys and girls might not be entirely unfounded?"
Pei Ying frowned uncomfortably. "How to put it... Human fat can raise the furnace temperature, and certain elements in the human body, such as sulfur, can lower iron's melting point. A sword forged with human sacrifice could indeed be superior to an ordinary one. But frankly, the reason for its superiority is merely the addition of other substances. If one sought alternative auxiliary materials, the same effect could be achieved."
Huo Tingshan comprehended. "So it was indeed a gimmick to deceive the ignorant masses. My lady, can this low-carbon steel be mass-produced quickly?"
If such weapons fell into others' hands and were mass-produced, wouldn't they become the butcher's knife, and we the fish on the chopping block?
Back then, the high-front saddle and stirrups first appeared within the Youzhou army, giving him the advantage. No one understood better than Huo Tingshan the immense benefit of possessing a weapon that could enhance combat power.
It was no exaggeration to say that capturing Bingzhou and Jizhou so swiftly was entirely thanks to those two treasures.
Knowing his urgency, Pei Ying smiled. "Actually, low-carbon steel has another name: hundred-refinements steel. As the name implies, it's achieved through thousands of strikes and repeated forging. Invention is never an overnight process. When a new technology emerges, it is destined to go through a period of trial and error, which may not be short."
There's a saying, "Even the hardest steel can be wound around a finger." Setting aside its various metaphors and looking at the literal meaning, it describes the process of "steel" being forged into "wrought iron" with excellent ductility.
This journey, fraught with hardships and implying the tempering of time to achieve that softness, makes it clear that achieving this transformation with ancient technology was no easy feat.
Legend has it that Cao Cao once spent five years, commanding seventy skilled craftsmen working together, to forge the Sky-Piercing Sword and the Green Rainbow Sword. If even Cao Cao, at the pinnacle of power and wealth, faced such difficulty, how much more so for ordinary people?
"As long as it cannot be mass-produced for now, that's fine," Huo Tingshan felt relieved. As long as the enemy soldiers didn't each have one, there was nothing to fear.
Pei Ying felt someone staring intently at her. With only the two of them in the courtyard, she turned to look at the instigator. "What do you want?"
Those narrow, dark eyes seemed to hold a leaping flame, and within them, Pei Ying saw unmistakable ambition.
Ah, this man...
Sure enough, the next moment she heard him ask, "Can you forge this hundred-refinements steel, my lady?"
"I understand the principle, but it will require some time, and I cannot guarantee success. Don't set your hopes too high," Pei Ying said helplessly.
The Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) records the co-fusion steelmaking method, but reading about it and smelting steel personally are two different things. To claim absolute success, Pei Ying dared not make such a promise.
No sooner had she finished speaking than she was lifted entirely off the ground.
Not a princess carry, but held upright, like a child—first, one arm circled her waist to lift her, then the other arm supported her beneath, hoisting her even higher. "My lady is a divine being."
"Huo Tingshan!" Pei Ying was startled by him. The feeling of her feet leaving the ground was unsettling, yet the long arm circling her waist became like a guardrail, holding her away from danger.
Pei Ying, flushed with embarrassment, hurriedly patted his shoulder blades. "Put me down quickly! If someone sees, you might not care about face, but I still want mine."
"No one will see. The maids won't come at this time." Seeing her worry, Huo Tingshan simply said, "If anyone does see, your husband will personally silence them, alright?"
Pei Ying urgently replied, "Better safe than sorry."
"Are Father and Mother inside? I wish to..."
Suddenly, someone spoke at the courtyard entrance, but the words cut off abruptly.
The world fell silent, as if even the sounds of birds had faded away.
Pei Ying closed her eyes in despair. Murphy's Law had arrived—anything you try to avoid will eventually happen. Her hand on Huo Tingshan's shoulder blade tightened. Unfortunately, he was still wearing armor; she couldn't even pinch him to vent her frustration.
Huo Zhizhang, who had just returned from Luoyang, stood at the courtyard entrance, staring dumbfounded at the two people in the yard.
