My Imperial Advisor is ChatGPT

Chapter 55 The Mad Stone and the Boiled Coal, and Xiang Yu's Broken Blade

In the sweltering heat of Xianyang in midsummer, it felt as if even the air itself was on fire. But inside the top-secret workshop behind the Epang Palace, the temperature was several times higher than outside.

The enormous blast furnace stands tall in the center of the courtyard, like a gluttonous beast with its mouth wide open, ready to devour everything.

Zhao Gao was bent over, wearing a thick cotton mask, and carefully putting something into the furnace with a long pair of iron tongs. On the table behind him, there was a pile of strange "ingredients": tiger leg bones, ground jade powder, and even a few tufts of "virgin hair" that he had obtained from who-knows-where.

"Zhao Gao, are you forging steel or brewing witch's soup?"

A cold voice, tinged with a hint of mockery, rang out.

Zhao Gao was so frightened that his hand trembled, and the tiger bone he was holding fell into the stove, instantly turning into a wisp of smoke. He hurriedly turned around and saw Ying Zheng standing at the door, holding that iconic thermos cup in his hand, his eyes filled with the meaning of "caring for the mentally challenged".

"Your Majesty!" Zhao Gao knelt down, his voice trembling with sobs. "This servant...this servant is 'preparing a formula'! The leader of the Mohist school said that the reason why meteorite iron from outer space is so hard is because it absorbed the essence of the sun and moon. This servant thought that tiger bone is extremely yang, and jade is extremely hard; if we forged them into iron, perhaps we could create a divine weapon..."

"Fool." Ying Zheng stepped forward and kicked over the basin of jade powder.

"Iron is iron, and carbon is carbon. Are you adding bone so that the sword can get some calcium while cutting people?"

Ying Zheng frowned as he looked at the massive but inefficient blast furnace.

Ever since learning that Maodun had developed "patterned steel" capable of cutting through Qin swords, Ying Zheng's sense of crisis had never subsided. Although the Qin's Ironclad Cavalry had thick armor, if their swords couldn't cut through the enemy's armor, they were just moving iron targets.

"Little G," Ying Zheng asked in his mind, "is that 'coke' you mentioned really better than charcoal and raw coal?"

[Your Majesty, this is a qualitative leap in metallurgy.]

Coal contains high levels of sulfur and phosphorus, which makes the iron brittle and prone to breaking when struck. While charcoal is pure, its combustion temperature is not high enough to completely melt the iron.

Only by "boiling" the coal to remove impurities can it be transformed into "coke."

Its combustion temperature can reach over 1600 degrees Celsius. Only at this temperature can molten iron flow like water, perfectly fusing any trace elements you wish to add.

"Boiling coal?" Ying Zheng repeated the word, a hint of madness flashing in his eyes. "Fine, then let's boil it."

He turned to look at Zhao Gao.

"Stop playing with your tiger bones. Go and build a row of sealed kilns for me. Stuff the fine coal transported from Hedong into them like steamed buns, seal the openings, and burn them with a raging fire on the outside."

"Remember, it must not be exposed to open flame; that's called 'dry distillation'."

Zhao Gao was completely bewildered. Boil the coal before burning it? Wasn't that just pointless?

But he dared not ask, and could only meekly write it down: "This servant... will go and boil coal briquettes now."

……

Meanwhile, in the Western Regions, outside the city of Kucha.

The wind and sand swirled, and a murderous aura filled the sky.

Although Liu Bang temporarily stabilized the situation with a "fake show" and the "bombing of the horse trough," King Bai Ba of Kucha was not completely resigned to defeat. With the covert support of Modu, Kucha's bravest warrior, "Iron Head," launched an open challenge against the Qin delegation.

Ostensibly a "martial arts contest for entertainment," it was actually a test of the quality of the new weapons sent by Maodun.

In the center of the training ground, Xiang Yu stood shirtless, revealing muscles as hard as granite. He held the fine steel longsword that had accompanied him in his campaigns across the north and south, his expression languid, as if the person standing before him was not a warrior, but a chicken waiting to be slaughtered.

Opposite him stood the Kucha warrior named Iron Head, who, though a head shorter than Xiang Yu, was as muscular as a bucket. He held a curved sword in his hand, its blade a strange dark gray, its surface covered with ripples like flowing water—it was the legendary Wootz steel sword.

"Qin people! Prepare to die!" Tie Tou roared and charged forward, brandishing his sword.

"Fancy and showy," Xiang Yu sneered, advancing instead of retreating.

Without using any technique, he simply swung his longsword, employing his favorite move, "Splitting Mount Hua with Force." In his view, no matter what kind of sword the opponent wielded, it would break under the weight of absolute power.

"when--!!!"

The two swords clashed, producing a deafening metallic clang.

Sparks flew everywhere, as if a firework had exploded between the two of them.

Xiang Yu felt a slight numbness in his hand and thought to himself, "What strength!" Based on past experience, he knew that with this strike, the opponent's sword should have broken in two, and the man and his armor should have been cleaved apart.

However, when the smoke cleared, a gasp of surprise erupted from the crowd.

Xiang Yu looked closely, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

The opponent's scimitar was completely undamaged!

The hundred-refined steel sword in his hand, meticulously crafted by the Imperial Household Department and known as the hardest in the Qin Dynasty, had a chip the size of a thumb on its blade!

"this……"

Liu Bang, who was sitting on the viewing platform, dropped his peacock fan to the ground.

"Old Xiang's knife... broke?"

Xiang Yu stared at the gaping wound, his face instantly turning ashen. That was his blade, his face, the dignity of a hegemon. And now, it had been destroyed by a barbarian's curved sword?

An unprecedented sense of humiliation and rage welled up from the depths of his heart.

"Good! Very good!"

Xiang Yu was so angry that he laughed. He then slammed the broken knife in his hand into the ground, where it sank three-tenths of an inch deep.

"It seems I've lost in terms of weaponry."

Upon seeing this, the Iron-Headed man opposite him laughed wildly with glee: "The Qin people's swords are nothing special! Die!"

Taking advantage of the situation, he swung his sword and slashed at Xiang Yu, who was unarmed.

Xiang Yu stood still, not moving an inch. Until the moment the curved blade, carrying a chilling wind, was about to strike his face, he suddenly moved.

It's not about dodging, it's about attacking.

He sidestepped the blade, the Wootz steel blade sharp enough to cut through gold and jade grazing his nose. Immediately afterward, Xiang Yu's large, fan-like hand shot out with lightning speed, grabbing Iron Head's helmet visor.

"What's the use of a hard knife?"

Xiang Yu's voice sounded as if it came from the deepest hell.

"Too soft-hearted!"

"boom!"

With a single arm, Xiang Yu managed to lift the burly man, who weighed over 200 pounds, and then slammed him to the ground like a broken sack.

The earth trembled.

Before Tie Tou could even scream, he was thrown to his knees and left completely disoriented.

Before he could even get up, Xiang Yu had already stepped on his chest with one of his large feet.

"Click."

The sound of the sternum cracking was clearly audible.

Xiang Yu bent down and picked up the Wootz steel knife from the dying Tie Tou's hand. He carefully examined the patterns on the blade, his fingers gently tracing the edge, feeling its extreme sharpness and toughness.

"A fine knife."

Xiang Yu exclaimed in praise, then suddenly exerted his strength.

"collapse!"

He actually used his bare hands to break that peerless treasure sword in two!

The entire room fell silent.

King Bai Ba of Kucha was so frightened that he slid off his chair.

Xiang Yu threw away his broken sword, didn't even glance at the corpse on the ground, and turned to walk off the field. His back remained upright, like an insurmountable mountain.

But in Liu Bang's eyes, that figure exuded a sense of loneliness.

Back at the inn, Xiang Yu locked himself in his room and refused to see anyone.

When Liu Bang pushed open the door, he found Xiang Yu sitting in the darkness, staring blankly at the chipped Qin sword.

"Old Xiang, we've already won, why are you still putting on such a sour face?" Liu Bang tried to ease the tension.

"Win?" Xiang Yu raised his head, his eyes bloodshot. "We won today. Because he only had one sword."

"If one day, every one of the ten thousand Xiongnu cavalrymen carried this kind of sword..."

Xiang Yu's voice was somewhat hoarse.

"Can my Ironclad Cavalry withstand this armor? Can our swords outslash them?"

"Liu Bang, we might lose."

This was the first time Liu Bang had heard the word "defeat" from this arrogant overlord.

Liu Bang put away his playful expression.

He walked to the table, poured a glass of wine, and handed it to Xiang Yu.

"Old Xiang, don't be discouraged."

"If our swords are inferior, we'll forge better swords. If our steel is inferior, we'll refine better steel."

"Do you believe that if we bring this broken sword back, His Majesty can conjure up thousands upon thousands of even harder blades for us?"

Xiang Yu took the wine and drank it all in one gulp.

I believe you.

"So, I'm going back to Xianyang tomorrow. I'm going to slap this thing in Zhao Gao's face and tell him: if he can't make anything good again, I'll use him as a sacrifice to the flag!"

……

Xianyang, Shaofu Workshop.

Zhao Gao was unaware that his face was about to receive a greeting from the Overlord; he was facing another crisis at that moment—a crisis of smell.

"vomit--"

Zhao Gao covered his mouth and rushed out of the courtyard that was specifically used for "cooking coal".

The courtyard was filled with an indescribable stench. It was the smell of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and tar released during the dry distillation of coal, more overpowering than a hundred unflushed outhouses.

"This...this is the divine steel-making tool His Majesty spoke of?" Zhao Gao cried, tears streaming down his face. "This is clearly a poison gas concoction!"

But when the craftsmen risked their lives to open the kiln door, pulled out the red-hot, no-smoke coal, and cooled it with water.

A miracle occurred.

The originally dark and dirty coal has been transformed into a silvery-gray, porous, hard, and lightweight substance.

Coke.

Zhao Gao pinched his nose and ordered his men to send the coke into the blast furnace for iron smelting.

The blower started, and the coke was ignited.

Gone is the billowing black smoke of the past; in its place is a nearly transparent, bluish, high-temperature flame.

The pointer on the furnace temperature gauge dial veered wildly to the right.

1300...1400...1500!

"It's melted! It's completely melted!"

The Mohist craftsman responsible for observing the crater exclaimed in surprise.

Inside the furnace, the hard iron ore, under the terrifying high temperature of the coke, completely lost its resistance and turned into a hot liquid that flowed like water.

"Made in iron!"

As the gate opened, the golden-red molten iron roared into the pre-made mold like a fiery dragon.

Ying Zheng stood on the high platform, feeling the heat wave rushing towards him.

"Little G".

"Is this the lifeblood of industry?"

Yes, Your Majesty. This is liquid pig iron.

With it, you no longer need to forge steel like a blacksmith, hammering and refining it countless times to obtain a good piece of steel.

You can directly produce steel in a large crucible through "stirring" (decarburization) or by pouring it into a converter (although this is not yet feasible).

The steel production of the Qin Dynasty will no longer be measured in kilograms, but in tons.

Ying Zheng gazed at the flowing molten iron, his eyes reflecting the firelight.

"it is good."

"Zhao Gao, go and summon that Zhang Liang as well."

"I remember him saying that if we want to lay railways to the Western Regions, the current rails are too soft and cannot withstand wear."

"Tell him I'll give him the best steel. Make him forge rails that are harder than Wootz steel!"

"And another thing," Ying Zheng thought of Xiang Yu.

"Use this first batch of molten steel to forge a new sword for Xiang Yu."

"Make it thicker and heavier. And also engrave the four characters 'Da Qin Heavy Industry' on the back of the blade."

"I want him to take this knife and get revenge on that Ironhead for the broken knife, with interest."

……

Just as the Qin Dynasty was boiling with excitement for steel, a dilapidated wooden ship with a strange flag was quietly approaching the coastline of Langya Terrace under the cover of night on the East China Sea.

On the bow of the ship stood a short man with a strange topknot. He held a sheepskin map in his hand, his eyes greedily fixed on the brightly lit lighthouse on the shore.

"Is this... the Qin Kingdom?" the man asked in a stiff accent.

A one-eyed old sailor beside him nodded: "Sir, that's right. That's Langya Terrace. Xu Fu, the ancestor of Chinese archetypes, left from here."

"Very good." The short man licked his lips, revealing a mouthful of black teeth.

"Master Xu Fu said that the Qin state was full of gold, and the emperor was a fool who only knew how to take medicine."

"We're not here to steal gold this time. We're here to steal... those blueprints that emit black smoke."

"With that, Yamato... can truly rise to power."

He waved.

Several ninjas dressed in black bodysuits and carrying samurai swords slid into the water like geckos and swam toward the shipyard on the shore.

However, what they didn't know was...

At the top of the lighthouse, a huge searchlight is slowly turning.

Behind the rocks in the shadows, several small patrol boats equipped with the latest "repeating harpoon guns" waited silently, like sharks, for their prey to take the bait.

Ying Zheng's net was cast not only in the deserts of the Western Regions, but also in this turbulent sea.

"Trying to learn my skills?"

At this moment, Ying Zheng, who was drinking red tea in the Epang Palace, suddenly felt that the tea was a little too hot for his mouth.

He put down his cup and looked eastward.

"It seems some rats have already come knocking on our door, drawn by the scent."

"Hu Hai".

"Your subject is here!" Hu Hai was busy settling accounts for his "Snow Country Train".

"Didn't you always complain about not having a target to shoot at with your 'invincible giant flywheel'?"

"I'm giving you a chance."

Ying Zheng pointed in the direction of the East China Sea.

"Go and catch a few 'water rats' for me."

"I want to see if these barbarians from overseas also have three heads and six arms, daring to run wild at my doorstep."