Roman Slave Owner

I couldn't be more familiar with these craftsmen and guards. Soon, wooden houses were built one by one according to the style of military camps, and 10 camps were built with the brigade as a unit. The manor is surrounded in the middle.

Those blacksmiths also got busy, making various weapons.

Li Wei discovered a great advantage of slaves, that is, the cost of labor is terribly low.

Just buy what craftsmen you want, and then use it for those who stutter. Of course, this will cause many Roman citizens to lose their jobs.

Just like the cannibalism of sheep in Britain in later generations, Rome is now slave cannibalism.

In an open-air blacksmith shop, more than 20 slave blacksmiths were sweating profusely forging weapons and armor, and the sound of tinkling can be heard endlessly.

A blacksmith handed over a newly forged Spanish dagger to Li Wei, and stood aside respectfully.

Li Wei looked at the short sword with a strange expression. Could this be the Roman sword-making method? It seems very bad.

"Don't you know how to heat treat?"

Levi asked.

"what is that?"

Jicos, the slave artisan, asked curiously.

Li Wei glanced at Geta, Geta shook his head, not understanding what Li Wei was talking about.

Li Wei couldn't help stroking his forehead. Later generations had a lot of debates about the smelting process of ancient Rome.

Some people say that the dagger in ancient Rome was made of wrought iron, and it would bend when it was stabbed, and it had to be straightened again when it was stabbed.

There are four major processes in the heat treatment of weapons, namely annealing, normalizing, tempering and quenching.

Jicos just carried out the simplest quenching, so he is ashamed to be called an excellent blacksmith.

"Geta, what do you think of this sword?"

Li Wei handed the sword to Geta.

Geta rubbed it lightly a few times, then took a dagger and chopped a wooden stick next to it.

The wooden stick fell in response, and then the dagger was slightly bent...

Geta straightened the short sword without changing his expression, and then said: "Not bad, barely considered a good sword."

Sure enough, the reason why the Roman short sword is short and wide is that it is not long at all.

It's easy to bend if it's so short, let alone make the sword longer.

There is absolutely no doubt that every country will use the most advanced technology in weapons, especially in ancient Rome, which is keen on war.

If the short sword was more suitable for the Roman infantry phalanx, what about the gladiator?

They don't need short swords, in fact, all they use are short swords, and long swords are basically invisible.

He remembered reading in a book that Aristotle said: "Put iron in a furnace and heat it several times to get high-quality steel."

Isn't this bullshit? It is too easy to heat it several times to become steel.

Pliny, an inquirer at the University of Rome, wrote a book called "Natural History", which said that there are many types of iron, but the iron from the country of silk is the best.

The famous Roman short sword and the long sword Spatha that appeared after the 2nd century AD were not even heat-treated, which also verified Li Wei's judgment.

Gikos said triumphantly, "I used to be a famous blacksmith in Spain, and I used to make weapons for the Roman army there."

Li Wei no longer had any expectations for Roman weapon technology. He didn't even understand heat treatment, so he had the nerve to say that he was a famous blacksmith.

"Is there no better iron?"

Levi asked.

The sword bends once it is cut, that is to say, it is wrought iron with a carbon content of 0.5%, also known as wrought iron. Before the appearance of steel swords, human beings have experienced the age of iron swords.

Many people in later generations say that this is actually a piece of iron smelting, a kind of wrought iron made at a low temperature of about 1000 degrees, and contains a lot of impurities.

Due to the backwardness of iron smelting technology in ancient Rome,

It is impossible to create an excessively high furnace temperature, and can only use the rich ore in Spain to make iron smelting, because this ore contains less impurities.

"there is none left."

Gikos said.

A group of weak chickens that can't even make pig iron, Li Wei looked contemptuous.

Li Wei thought about whether to carry out solid carburizing process on these pieces of iron smelting. Of course, he didn't like carburizing the surface, at least he had to stew the steel.

"Come here with me, and don't let the others follow. Geta, go and get a quenching tank, and then bring some olive oil over here."

Li Wei said, forget about solid carburizing, this material is not available.

He took Jix into the only blacksmith shop. Although Gaita was a little puzzled, he went back to prepare the stone trough and salt.

"Follow your method and strike another sword."

Levi said.

Jicos didn't dare to neglect, he quickly picked up the hammer and forged it into an iron sword.

Li Wei watched him quietly, when the sword slowly took shape and he wanted to polish it, Li Wei stopped him.

"Put it in the furnace to heat up, and then take it out to cool naturally."

Levi said.

This step is called normalizing, and the purpose of normalizing is to grain the steel (crystallized structure). In fact, every time the swordsmith heats a part of the sword body, after forging, not only changes the shape of the steel, but also changes the steel particles. When steel is heated to a certain temperature, it will austenitize (iron atoms and carbon atoms start to mix). The steel is removed from the forge and allowed to cool naturally. This reduces stress due to irregularities in the blade composition and ensures consistent grain throughout the blade.

"why is that?"

asked Gikos.

"Just do what you are asked to do, why ask so many questions?"

Li Wei said, Fortunately, as a writer, iron and steel craftsmanship is a basic skill, otherwise, I would be caught blind.

Gicos had no choice but to follow Levi's method.

It took a long time to cool down, so Li Wei went out to check the lower stone tank and found that it could be used as a quenching tank, so he got it into the house.

Geta wanted to watch, but was kicked out by Li Wei.

"Then annealing."

Levi said.

Annealing is the slow cooling of steel. Typically, the steel is wrapped with insulation to ensure that the steel does not cool down too quickly. The annealing process varies from a few hours to a day. The purpose of annealing is to soften the steel for grinding and cutting.

The key is that the slower the better, due to limited conditions, Li Wei asked someone to get some clay to wrap the blade except the blade.

After placing it in the fire, let it cool slowly in the oven.

This was a long time, so Levi walked out of the room, leaving Jix to continue looking at the stove.

"Patriarch, what do you think of this armor? Hehe!"

At this time Geta said wearing a well-forged armor.

Looking at this kind of armor, Li Wei couldn't help frowning.

Now Rome has gradually begun to use the connected ring armor, which weighs about nine kilograms and is scientifically called patch armor.

But Li Wei knew that this kind of armor was inconvenient to maintain, and sooner or later it would be eliminated by scale armor.

Forget it, let's just use it. You have to eat one bite at a time, and there are many things that cannot be rushed.

"It's okay, and our output is very problematic, we need to buy more blacksmith slaves."

Levi said.

So many blacksmiths can only produce a full set of weapons and armor for less than 50 soldiers in a month, which is quite fast.