When this water hammer works well, it can crush over 1,500 pounds of iron ore in a day, something that would take more than ten people with iron hammers an entire day to barely achieve, because at night they must rest, while the water hammer does not.
In fact, the blacksmiths have also come here with melted iron to forge at the request of my former master, which is much easier than doing it themselves. However, they complained that the force from the water hammer was either too strong or too weak, and it often malfunctioned, severely affecting the quality of weapon production. Thus, they eventually gave it up.
Kadesos hesitated for a moment and then lowered his voice to say, "The main reason the blacksmiths are strongly opposed is that—if the water hammer is widely used in forging, some blacksmiths and laborers might be replaced..."
Maximus asked in a kinder tone, "So what do you think needs to be improved if we want to use the water hammer more in the weapon workshop?"
"Well... I don’t really know." Kadesos scratched his head, and seeing Maximus’s encouraging eyes, he couldn’t help but speak again, "If we could appoint a dedicated carpenter to regularly inspect and repair this water hammer, it should not malfunction so often...
Besides, I heard them say that the reason this water channel’s force is difficult to control is because our Overdue River’s flow is too slow and there’s not much water, so when the weather is hot and the water is low, it..."
Maximus, having listened intently, still smiled and said, "You spoke very well! Where should we go next?"
"To... the ore washing room."
"These... these iron ores not only contain iron but also... also soil and other things. We need to place the crushed iron ore into the trough for agitation and washing, to wash away the impurities from the iron ore so that there will be more iron in the ore..." Kadesos explained, "I heard... the iron ore we use here is from Noricum, north of Italy, which is better than iron ores from other places and contains more iron..."
As Kadesos explained, Maximus attentively toured the ore washing room, roasting chamber, and grinding room.
The grinding room was built above the water channel next to the crushing room, and the rumbling noise was equally deafening.
Inside, Maximus discovered the water mill he had been thinking about for a long time. Its entire structure was similar to the water hammer, except that the large iron hammer at the end was replaced by a large stone mill. However, it didn’t grind grain but instead roasted, swollen, and softened ore, which was ground into granular powder here, and this powder was then sent to the center of the weapon workshop.
There was a tower-like building about two meters high, without doors to obstruct it, remaining open, with a large circular furnace inside. It was sunk one meter into the ground, with a diameter of about 1.5 meters. The furnace chamber gradually narrowed upward, eventually becoming a straight chimney that protruded through the roof, releasing billowing black smoke outward... The people in the workshop called it a "vertical furnace".
Nearly naked laborers mixed ore powder and charcoal in a certain ratio, layer by layer, into the furnace, ignited it, and closed the furnace chamber, blowing air inside through the air channels...
No one knew how much time passed, but the room became extraordinarily hot, making it unbearable for Maximus, who had to step outside, seeing the laborers still busy inside.
Since this was the most crucial part of iron smelting, Maximus patiently waited outside until he saw fiery liquid flowing out from the bottom of the furnace chamber...
He thought it was molten iron, but Kadesos told him these liquids were slag, while the real iron ingot was still inside the furnace chamber.
Once the slag was cleared, the laborers opened the furnace chamber, carefully removed the semi-fluid iron ingot, and sent it to another large room connected to the vertical furnace chamber.
Inside the room were several heavy guillotines alongside a few laborers whose task was to cut and stretch the freshly out-of-furnace, still soft iron ingots into suitable sizes for the next stage of weapon making.
The room also housed some strapping men in leather robes, holding iron hammers. Their task was to simply forge the cut iron ingots to expel the slag, making them purer and sturdier.
After this step, the iron ore was produced into pig iron ingots, seemingly concluding the iron smelting process, but Kadesos told Maximus: Ilacus had spent a fortune to learn from Roman army merchants a method to make the iron even stronger and more durable—by placing pig iron ingots and charcoal powder in a sealed container, then heating it at high temperature for several hours...
Isn’t this carbon addition?!... Maximus was shocked. He knew about it because, in a past life, he had taken a job from a gaming company to create illustrations for an ancient civilization conquest game, which included upgrade images of various ancient technologies. Being diligent in his work, he had carefully read historical materials, looked at prototype structures, and the method of carbon addition to make steel was one such ancient technology.
Maximus thought about it again and no longer found it strange because the armor and short swords intercepted from the Roman Army had hardness far exceeding pig iron, already qualifying as steel. This showed that the metallurgy technology of the Romans had started to become widespread and was massively applied in the military, becoming the Roman Army’s tool to dominate the Mediterranean.
Frowning, Maximus followed Kadesos to the east side of the weapon workshop, where weapons were manufactured.
The first entry was the casting room, a large house split into two parts: one was the crucible house, where small pieces of mature iron ingots were placed into crucibles, which were then sealed with clay and repeatedly heated at high temperatures until they melted into iron;
The other was the mold house, densely packed with various iron and clay molds, such as sheet armor molds, spearhead molds... Laborers poured the molten iron into the molds, removed them after cooling, and weapon raw embryos were formed.
Due to material limitations, crucible casting was only suitable for small weapons, while larger weapons like the short sword, helmet, Shield Core, and shin guards had to have various sizes of mature iron ingots sent to the Forging Room.
The Forging Room was larger, divided into a helmet room, short sword room, armor room... and other weapon rooms, where the mature iron ingots, as well as weapon raw embryos from crucible casting, were quenched, forged, polished, sharpened...
The formed weapons would then be sent to various assembly rooms, where it was no longer primarily blacksmiths at work but slaves skilled in carpentry and leatherworking. They would equip short swords with handles and scabbards, inset iron Shield Cores into leather-covered square shields, outfit helmets with liners and feather plumes, and connect sheet armors, assembling them into segmental armor...
While visiting the short sword room, Maximus even saw familiar faces—Pessianaxis and his son Pasipidas.
In Pompeii, Maximus had met Pessianaxis several times, and they should know each other, but Pessianaxis, clearly seeing Maximus entering, deliberately turned around, pretending not to see him.
However, his son Pasipidas actively approached and respectfully exclaimed, "Leader Maximus!"
Maximus replied with a smile, "It’s been a while, Pasipidas. Looks like your leg has fully healed!"
Pasipidas touched his right leg with a mix of anxiety and gratitude, saying, "It’s all my fault for being so reckless earlier. If it weren’t for you, Leader, sending the Medical Team to fully assist me, my leg would have been ruined long ago!"
"No, you shouldn’t thank me." Maximus said earnestly, "You should thank the Medical Team and the caring Luxina who looked after you!"