Chapter 199 Yan Xu's Arsenal

Although it is called a workshop, it is actually not small at all. There are four factory buildings alone, and a large yard paved with cement. This shows how much Yan Xu values ​​his private arsenal. You have to know that this place only sees money being invested, but rarely any returns. If Yan Xu had not been injecting capital with personal money, it would have been closed long ago.

The four factories have clear division of labor: one forges cold weapons, one manufactures hot weapons, one produces large items, and the remaining one is used as a warehouse.

It was just a little messy, and even the open space in the courtyard was filled with a lot of things covered with tarpaulins.

Yan Xu didn't care and went straight to the first factory building. As soon as he entered, he heard the sound of hammers pounding and a wave of heat. When he looked closely, he found that there were seven or eight old-fashioned iron forging furnaces and modern electric forging furnaces. No wonder the temperature was so high.

There are just not enough people. There are only three or five people swinging hammers and hammering things, and there are no more than a dozen workers operating the machines to mass-produce weapons and armor.

The cold weapons factory has the least number of people, because if you want to work here, you have to swing a sledgehammer for a year first.

Many of the college students recruited before were interested in cold weapons, but not many of them could stick with it. Now, there are only a few people left here swinging sledgehammers, and there are even fewer of them than the laborers responsible for mass-producing weapons and armor.

In fact, this is very normal. As the old saying goes, there are three hardest things in life: rowing a boat, forging iron, and making tofu.

The ancients who were willing to endure hardships said that it was hard, which shows that blacksmithing is not an easy job. Although today's college students cannot be said to be spoiled, there are still not many who can really endure such hardships, and in the end there may not be any who can persevere.

The people responsible for the forging of cold weapons are naturally the Huo family father and son. This pair of father and son really put their heart into it. Ever since they entered the factory, they have been thinking about integrating ancient craftsmanship with modern forging technology to create truly powerful weapons.

Hard work pays off. Now the knife made by the father and son can not only cut hair but also cut through iron with decisiveness. It combines sharpness and toughness, and can be called a precious sword that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Unfortunately, only the Huo father and son can make knives of this quality, and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive and cannot be mass-produced. As for those newly recruited college students, they have good ideas, but unless they master the temperature through burning fire and become familiar with the properties of iron through forging, they are of no great use.

"Director!" Seeing Yan Xu coming in, the Huo family father and son hurriedly put down their work and came to greet him. Although they were not as restrained as at the beginning, they still had the habit of nodding and bowing, because the father and son were grateful to the director from the bottom of their hearts. If it weren't for the factory director, they would still be running that half-dead blacksmith shop, and who knew that one day they would have to close it and return to their hometown to farm.

It’s not like now, not only do we have food and clothes to eat, but the salary and benefits are also excellent.

Master Huo had already asked a matchmaker in his hometown to find a marriage for his son, and was planning to build a two-story building as a new home. His life was quite promising, and he was naturally doubly grateful to the factory director.

"I came to see if you have any new works recently." Yan Xu was already accustomed to the attitude of the Huo family father and son, and said with a smile.

"Yes." Master Huo nodded quickly, then took out the key he carried with him, opened it and knew at a glance that it was the steel cabinet he had welded.

The large iron cabinet is three meters high and two meters wide, just like an iron house. It is fixed to the ground with bolts. Without special tools, it cannot be opened or even moved.

Stored inside were weapons and armor made by the Huo family father and son themselves. Many of them were tailor-made for Yan Xu, so for fear of losing them, they asked Master Jiang for help to make a large iron cabinet.

Master Huo carefully used the key to open the large iron cabinet, revealing more than a dozen weapons and a set of Ming Guang armor.

On the left were long weapons fixed on the rack, ranging from common broadswords and spears to Fang Tian Hua Ji and Feng Chi Jin Lu. There were also seven or eight short weapons placed on the rack on the right. The only piece of armor was propped up on the wooden man rack in the middle, and it looked very majestic against the background of the weapons on the left and right. The sound of the big iron cabinet opening immediately attracted everyone in the factory. They stopped working and gathered around to look around. Master Huo opened his mouth to scold them, but in the end he didn't let them go.

There are very few people willing to learn blacksmithing these days, so those who are still staying in the hot and tiring cold weapon workshop are all true fans. Master Huo doesn't want to discourage their enthusiasm, and seeing that the factory director didn't show any displeasure, he simply let them broaden their horizons and give them hope.

"Director, this is the new three-pointed, double-edged sword that my father and I made." Master Huo took the weapon out of the iron cabinet with some effort. Huo Changshun quickly reached out to help. After all, his father was not young anymore, and he must be careful not to sprain his waist.

Yan Xu couldn't help but nodded just by holding it in his hand. He was no longer a rookie. As soon as he picked up the knife, he could tell the quality of it from the center of gravity and the feel of the grip.

"The three-pointed, two-edged sword is called a sword, but it also has the characteristics of a spear, sword and shovel. Therefore, it is neither too heavy nor too light. Taking into account the factory director's strength, the whole sword weighs 28 kilograms, the blade is two feet and four inches long, and the handle is four feet and six inches long." Master Huo became excited when talking about his masterpiece.

The workers who were watching the excitement on the side started talking a lot. Since they were working in a cold weapon factory, they naturally had some common sense, so they knew very well that the weapons used by the heroes and generals in novels, movies and TV dramas could not be trusted at all.

Generally speaking, one-handed weapons, such as waist swords, weigh about one pound. Those weighing two pounds are a bit heavy, and those weighing three or five pounds need to be used with both hands.

Long weapons are heavier, only about ten pounds, and very few weigh more than twenty pounds, let alone those that are close to thirty pounds. So everyone is curious about what kind of amazing skills this young factory director has that he dares to use such a weapon.

"Well, it's good, and the workmanship is fine. Go get the target, I want to try the knife." Yan Xu looked it up and down. It was obvious that the Huo father and son had put a lot of thought into it, even making every detail as perfect as possible. He was very satisfied, but the weapon still had to be tested to see if it was useful, so he asked someone to bring a target.

The targets used to test weapons are not chosen randomly. They are made of tough bamboo as the frame and straw mat as the surface. They are rolled together tightly and then soaked in water. Therefore, they are heavy and tough and can simulate the feeling of the human body. Theoretically, if a target as thick as a thigh can be cut in half with one stroke, a person can be cut in half.

Many workers have tried it out of curiosity, but no matter whether it is a heavy Guandao or a samurai sword known for its sharpness, even if they try many times, they can only cut off a target as thick as an arm, and there is no way they can cut off a target as thick as a thigh.

Yan Xu asked them to step back and turned the three-pointed, double-edged sword in his hand a few times to get a feel for it. His movements were so agile that the onlookers almost forgot the weight of the weapon.

Before the onlookers could react, Yan Xu seemed to move, yet seemed not to move, and the target that had just been set up broke into three pieces.

There was a sudden sound of people gasping for breath all around, and two anxious people even went to check the target themselves.

The tough bamboo as thick as a wrist was tightly wrapped in layers of fine straw mat. After being soaked in water, most people couldn't even cut through a few layers of the outer straw mat, let alone cut it. The broken part of the target in front of him looked like freshly cut leeks, so neat that it made people wonder if they were seeing things.

"Not bad, not bad. You can actually withstand some of my strength." Yan Xu has not carefully tested how strong he is now, he only knows that it is measured in tons.

Moreover, he is not just a strongman, he has reaction, speed, burst, skills and precision. When they are combined together, his strength is not as simple as it seems on paper.

In fact, unless large creatures such as rhinos and elephants are used as test targets, the true upper limit cannot be measured by ordinary methods.

(End of this chapter)