Chapter 173: Rune Ink Craftsmen

"Gao He, how is the new Rune Steel-Refining Furnace?" "Young Master, the Rune Steel-Refining Furnace you mentioned—the ink craftsmen over there are still researching it. They still need some time, but they have already built a hundred ordinary high-temperature steel-refining furnaces."

"The daily steel output is ten tons."

Speaking of this, Gao He was also full of excitement. Steel-refining technology itself is knowledge and technology mastered by great families and clans.

Although the Gao Clan also had it, they didn't have such high-temperature steel-refining technology, and especially the output was simply astonishing. Ten tons a day, nearly three thousand tons a year.

This is comparable to the annual output of the Imperial Workshop of Shenhan.

One must know that that was something the Liu Clan could only do by concentrating the power of Shenhan.

The steel refined by ordinary steel-refining furnaces seems to be a bit inferior in quality to the refined iron refined by the Imperial Workshop. After all, the Imperial Workshop uses the rune Dao of ink craftsmen to refine it.

The quantity of refined iron refined by the Imperial Workshop is naturally not much, only a few hundred tons a year.

Su Fan has seen refined iron; it is actually a kind of alloy, which is indeed a bit harder than steel.

As for the rune Dao, it is also passed down from the Hundred Schools. It is said to have been passed down from Mozi and Ghost Valley, and after experiencing ten thousand years, it formed the current rune Dao.

This rune Dao uses the divine as a pen and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth as ink to paint the Dao of heaven and earth.

It is somewhat similar to the spirit talismans of the Main World.

The rune Dao is the learning of the Mohist School. Since the Pre-Qin period, the Mohist School has been deeply suppressed, especially after Emperor Wu, when the Confucian School fully took the stage, the Mohist School was suppressed even more, and the Mohist teachings are no longer seen.

Only the ink craftsmen remain.

The rune Dao is most used on the city walls of various cities, using rune arrays to strengthen the solidity of the city walls.

There is rune-refined steel in the Imperial Workshop, but after all, it is only a minority.

Su Fan came to Donghai Commandery. After learning about the rune Dao, and learning that there were some ink craftsmen in the Taiping Dao who knew the rune Dao, he asked for a few.

In Su Fan's view, these ink craftsmen who understand the rune Dao are the top-tier talents. Strategists and planners are not of much use to Su Fan right now.

First of all, having experienced several lifetimes, Su Fan's strategy is not bad, and with the vision of later generations, his strategy is not behind either.

He himself could become a top-tier strategist, so he doesn't lack this kind of person for the time being.

Of course, even if he lacked people, the Taiping Dao couldn't give them to him, because Zhang Jiao and the others lacked such people.

Su Fan wants to develop quietly, especially in farming. Agricultural talents and craftsmen are indispensable. Fighting wars, besides people, is actually more about the competition of logistics.

Winning against the few with the many, relying on strategy to win—in the history of Huaxia, that is truly rare.

Not to mention that this is a super-martial world; how much effect strategy can have is also an unknown.

But if your logistics are sufficient, it is very difficult to be defeated in war. Even if you drag it out, you can drag the enemy to death. Su Fan has always believed in this point.

"Craftsmanship" is the head of the Hundred Schools. "If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools."

Grain—Su Fan is no longer short of it now, and with the continued reclamation of wasteland every year, grain will only become more and more abundant.

Weapons and armor are the scarcest, and in fact, what the entire Taiping Dao lacks most is weapons and armor, because these weapons and armor are all monopolized by great families and clans.

Besides the Liu Clan, only great families and clans can forge weapons and armor. Ordinary people simply don't have this technology and ability.

Scholar clans monopolizing knowledge has been the case since the Pre-Qin period. Those who can learn knowledge are almost never commoners.

Even in this era, many landlords don't have the opportunity to learn knowledge. The importance scholar clans attach to knowledge is extremely serious.

And the Mohist School walks the bottom level, so it is not accepted by the scholar clans, and the final outcome is dissipation.

As for ink craftsmen, they haven't dissipated, but they haven't been able to form a system.

The ones Su Fan asked for from the Taiping Dao are not very powerful ink craftsmen either, and their rune Dao cultivation is still very shallow.

The rune Dao also mainly practices the divine soul path. The four are all in the soul-nourishing stage, among whom two have reached the sixth layer of soul-nourishing, one the seventh layer, and one the fifth layer.

In terms of combat power, I'm afraid they can't even beat a fourth-layer strength-refining martial artist.

But their role is unimaginable.

Su Fan's steel-refining furnace was able to be built so quickly precisely because of them. Practicing the divine soul and strengthening mental power can allow craftsmen's abilities to be blessed, especially the enhancement of the five senses, making craftsmen even more powerful.

Placed in later generations, these craftsmen are almost national treasures who have surpassed eighth-level workers.

"By the way, how is the establishment of the Ge Wu Hall?"

Regarding the steel output, Su Fan really doesn't look highly upon it. Three thousand tons a year—what kind of output is this? Placed in later generations, the daily output of some small steel plants is more than this.

Even the Datang of the previous life far exceeded this number.

Of course, Su Fan knows clearly that the steel-refining furnace has just been newly built, and having this output is already quite good, at least more than the quantity produced by many great families and clans.

But Su Fan knows clearly that those thousand-year scholar clans have deep foundations. With thousands of years of accumulation, they can pull out tens of thousands of weapons and armor at will.

The Guangling Gao Clan only has eight hundred years. If they really want to take it, they can also take out fifty thousand weapons and armor to arm an army.

Three thousand tons—three million catties—looks like a terrifying number, but now under Su Fan's rule, hundreds of thousands of believers—every year, not to mention weapons, just in terms of farm tools, the consumption is more than this.

Not to mention, if they want to forge weapons, it will be even more terrifying.

Especially in this super-martial era, weapons forged from ordinary steel, although sharp, are not enough.

Placed in Datang, ten-refined weapons are considered excellent in the army, while placed in this world, they naturally become inferior goods.

Because many martial artists can break these ten-refined weapons with one snap.

The army needs hundred-refined or even thousand-refined weapons. Only after craftsmen temper these weapons a thousand times can they truly meet the requirements.

Of course, if some steel is refined through rune forging, or directly blessed with runes to become rune artifacts, that is another matter.

It's just that such luxurious weapons, even great families and clans can't bear it.

Wanting to forge rune artifacts requires ink craftsmen who understand the rune Dao. Such talents are also rare among great families and clans.

So Su Fan plans ahead and establishes the Ge Wu Hall, which is also to increase ink craftsmen.

One or two ink craftsmen are not useful, but if there are one or two thousand, and then they produce rune artifacts on an assembly line, when the time comes, if everyone in his army has a rune artifact, I'm afraid he will directly sweep the world.

"Young Master, the Ge Wu Hall has been established, but there are no teachers to teach. Those four ink craftsmen still have work to do every day."

"It doesn't matter. You can let them learn to read first, then teach them some ordinary craftsman methods, and finally slowly teach them the rune Dao."

"Step by step."

Su Fan is short of ink craftsmen, and ordinary craftsmen are also short. The Gao Clan cannot support him, and the Taiping Dao doesn't have many under their hands, so they all need him to cultivate slowly.

Fortunately, he is not in a hurry now. It is still early until the future competition for hegemony.

As for the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Su Fan has made up his mind not to leave here. If there really are court troops coming to fight him, if he can fight, he will fight; if he can't, he will temporarily go to sea and hide on the islands in the ocean.

In Donghai Commandery, he has already sent people to find a few islands. ===== CHAPTER