Zhao Song frowned slightly upon hearing this. “Your grandfather’s sword has been with him for many years. It’s an ancient sword with a sturdy blade. How could it have a chipped edge?”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “The Xiongnu soldiers we encountered used exceptionally fine blades. Their weapons are no inferior to those in our Central Plains. I don’t know where they obtained such high-quality iron ore.”
Zhao Song pondered briefly and said, “Bingzhou has many iron mines. Previously, Liu Yuan occupied the Bingzhou area. If the weapons differ due to iron ore quality, they must have come from Bingzhou.”
Zhao Hanzhang was thoughtful. They needed iron ore of higher purity for steelmaking. Master Ji had bought two pieces from the blacksmith shop in the county for Fu Tinghan to practice with, but they discovered the iron ore quality was very poor. Not only did it require tremendous effort to refine into steel, but the conversion rate was also very low.
The furnace temperature was already difficult to reach the required level for steelmaking. With poor quality iron ore, it became even harder to produce steel.
Zhao Hanzhang tossed the spear to Ting He. “Fifth Great-Uncle, I want to reforge this sword, adding better iron ore and hammering it to make it sturdier and sharper.”
Zhao Song pondered. “To reforge a sword, we’d need to hire a master craftsman to avoid ruining it.”
Zhao Hanzhang nodded earnestly. “Fifth Great-Uncle, do you have any recommendations?”
Zhao Song shook his head. “Good blacksmiths are mostly in the hands of the Ministry of War and various vassal princes. How could we possibly obtain such a master craftsman?”
“We can search for someone slowly. I believe as long as we’re sincere, we’ll eventually find one. But good iron ore is hard to come by. Fifth Great-Uncle, do you know anyone in Bingzhou?”
Zhao Ming: …
He simply watched Zhao Hanzhang quietly.
Zhao Song stroked his beard thoughtfully, mentally reviewing everyone he knew one by one. After a while, he exclaimed “Ah!” and said, “Liu Yueshi is in Bingzhou. He’s currently the Governor of Bingzhou.”
Zhao Hanzhang asked, “Liu Kun?” She vaguely remembered Liu Kun’s courtesy name was indeed Yueshi.
“Correct,” Zhao Song asked. “You know him too?”
Of course she knew him—this famous minister of the Great Jin. It was just that he didn’t know her.
Zhao Hanzhang asked, “Fifth Great-Uncle, how is your relationship with Liu Yueshi?”
“Just so-so,” Zhao Song said. “Your uncle is more familiar with him.”
Oh, right—they were both among the Twenty-Four Friends, the historically famous twenty-four people who ate, drank, and lived freely and elegantly.
Zhao Hanzhang thought it over, feeling that approaching through Zhao Zhongyu would be too roundabout. Most importantly, she couldn’t meet Zhao Zhongyu, which made many things difficult to control.
So she still focused on Fifth Great-Uncle. “I wonder if we can contact him. Jinyang is currently deeply surrounded by the Xiongnu army. He surely wants to communicate with the outside world. I’m willing to exchange some other items for iron ore.”
Zhao Ming couldn’t help but look at her and say, “Sanniang, you’re just repairing a sword. Even if you’re wasteful, one basket would be enough. Why go to the trouble of trading items for it? It’s just iron ore—I’ll buy it for you, Father.”
Zhao Hanzhang said, “…Thank you, Father, but this sword was left to me by Grandfather. I want to handle it personally. When you send people out, could you take me along? I’ll have someone go with them to buy the iron ore. The iron ore purchased must be carefully selected, top quality.”
Zhao Ming asked, “Is this really just to buy one basket of iron ore, or do you want to use this opportunity to establish contact with the iron ore sellers there and purchase large quantities of iron ore or refined iron?”
Zhao Hanzhang raised her eyebrows at him without concealment, not denying this at all. She turned to Zhao Song and said, “Fifth Great-Uncle, you must have noticed that more and more refugees have been flowing into Runan Jun recently. The wubao’s population is increasing, and we naturally need to increase our retainers accordingly to protect the clan. Training farm tools and weapons all require iron. If we could obtain good iron ore…”
Zhao Song said, “You’re right, but Bingzhou is too far from Runan. With the Xiongnu people blocking transportation in between, transporting iron ore and refined iron is too difficult. If we really try to buy iron ore from Bingzhou, I’m afraid before we even leave Bingzhou, we’ll be robbed of both people and goods.”
“We also have iron mines in Runan.” He lowered his voice. “The quality may not match Bingzhou’s, but it’s cheap, close by, and safe.”
Zhao Ming: …
Zhao Hanzhang immediately followed his lead. “Could I meet the iron seller? Perhaps I can find good quality iron ore among them. Also, my estate needs to acquire farm tools, and forging them all will require quite a bit.”
She said, “You also know that buying iron in the county is very restricted. The blacksmiths there can’t produce that much iron.”
Zhao Song understood. She had a retainer force under her command. Besides farm tools, she definitely needed to forge weapons too, all of which had to avoid the county office’s eyes and ears.
After brief consideration, Zhao Song agreed. After all, most of the major clans in Runan obtained their iron ore from that person. Sanniang was family, so recommending her to him was nothing.
Moreover, Ji Yuan should know something about this. Even if he didn’t make the introduction, Ji Yuan would eventually find his way there.
Zhao Ming watched Zhao Hanzhang grow happy and confirmed it—this was like Xiang Zhuang performing a sword dance with intentions toward Duke Pei. What Bingzhou, what Liu Kun—these were all just excuses.
Seeing his father still foolishly unaware, even wanting to help her continue thinking of ways to contact Liu Kun, Zhao Ming couldn’t help shaking his head and walked to the side to sit down and wait.
Zhao Hanzhang warmly invited Fifth Great-Uncle to stay for a meal and said she still had gifts for them.
Ting He brought up two boxes. Zhao Hanzhang opened the largest one and pushed it to Zhao Ming. “Father, this is a gift for you. Do you like it?”
How could someone receiving a gift say they didn’t like it?
Especially in front of his father—even if he didn’t like it, he had to hold it in!
Zhao Ming lowered his eyes to look, then froze.
Zhao Song had already pulled the box over and took out the glass cup inside to examine it. “This is… glass?”
This was a set of glass cups in a sky-blue shade. In the center of the box was also a small glass pot, transparent and bright, yet carrying a hint of blue.
Sunlight seemed to pass through the pot body onto the table, even dyeing the table with that touch of sky blue.
Even someone as fastidious as Zhao Ming couldn’t utter a word of dissatisfaction.
After Zhao Song finished examining the complete set of glass cups, he carefully placed them in front of himself. “How can you give away such precious items? Keep them for yourself. Even if you don’t use them in the future, leaving them for Erlang would be good.”
Inwardly he marveled—his elder brother was indeed his elder brother, able to collect such fine items.
However, didn’t Sanniang and the others lose all their luggage?
How were such fragile treasures preserved?
Zhao Hanzhang pushed up another slightly smaller box, smiling. “Fifth Great-Uncle, this is for you.”
Zhao Song opened it. When he saw the iridescent glass horse lying in the box, his expression slowly became serious.
Glass cups were one thing—that indeed fit his elder brother’s style. But this kind of glass horse, something that could only be looked at but had no practical use, such a precious item—why would his elder brother collect it?
Zhao Song looked at Zhao Hanzhang. “Sanniang, where did you get these two items?”
Before long, news of the estate in Shangcai selling glass would spread. Xiping would definitely find out too. Rather than waiting for them to hear from others, better for her to reveal it herself.
Zhao Hanzhang raised her chin slightly. “Fifth Great-Uncle, we refined all of these ourselves.”
Zhao Song said, “What did you say?”