e remains of the two deceased and give them a proper burial. Only then did they hitch their horses to the carts and prepare to descend the mountain.Thankfully, there are still four good horses on the...The loud shout immediately caught Yang Lin's attention.

Yang Lin looked at Zhao Shunzi in puzzlement.

Zhao Shunzi's eyes lit up, and she hurriedly explained: "It's my nephew Zhao Tian. Didn't you ask us to try making those iron cups that could shatter into pieces a few days ago I gave him this job, he... could it be successful"

There was also a hint of suspicion in Zhao Shunzi's tone.

"What Success"

Yet Yang Lin was greatly surprised and hurried over.

Zhao Shunzi said that the "breakable iron cup" refers to the explosive part of the second-generation grenade, a cylindrical hollow structure shaped like an iron cup.

On the day of the gunpowder experiment's success, Yang Lin instructed the smelting workshop to manufacture explosive heads for filling with gunpowder.

He demanded that this metal part be crafted from cast iron. It had to possess a certain degree of solidity, but also be designed to explode internally and blast the outer metal components apart after an explosion, creating countless shrapnel fragments that would fly outward!

The technology isn't too difficult, but it's only been two days!

Did it really work

Upon arriving at the young people's side, Yang Lin immediately spotted the disheveled youth with a stone in his hand. On the ground lay a heap of fragmented cast iron pieces, each no bigger than a fingernail and shaped like fish scales, remarkably uniform. There were at least hundreds of these fragments!

And on the ground beside it, several intact, cup-like hollow cast iron pieces were placed.

"This, this is what I wanted to create" Yang Lin asked in surprise.

On the ground, Zhao Tian was still laughing with delight. Hearing Yang Lin's question, he raised his head, looking a little awkward, but his expression betrayed excitement: "Yes, Master, I did it!"

Saying that, he raised the stone in his hand and smashed it against a perfect part nearby.

With only a "snap," the cast iron piece shattered into pieces of metal.

Yang Lin was overjoyed and eagerly took one to try it himself.

At first, he didn't use too much force, and the stone didn't break.

It took all my strength to finally smash the device. The pieces were like tempered glass, still incredibly uniform.

Yang Lin picked up another one and smashed it on the ground to test its durability. No matter how he dropped it, it remained intact. It could only be shattered when subjected to a great deal of force.

This is exactly the effect I wanted!

"Great!"

Yang Lin was extremely excited.

With this, the wooden-handled grenade is half successful!

In fact, the structure of a wooden-handle grenade is very simple. It's just a cast iron component that can explode, filled with gunpowder, leaving a fuse hole, and then finding a round wooden handle of appropriate thickness to smash into it, completely sealing the gunpowder.

Of course, those old-style grenades with wooden handles required a pull pin, an igniter, a safety lever, and even a detonator!

This design separates the igniter and explosives, and it also includes a delay mechanism. Pulling the trigger activates the igniter, which then, through the delay mechanism, ignites the explosives. This allows for slow burning, resulting in an explosion that occurs several seconds after pulling the string.

But with today's industrial base, it would be nearly impossible to make such a precise grenade.

So Yang Lin's design idea was particularly simple. He only improved the medicine filling device and increased the explosive power of the shrapnel. Its ignition method was still using fire to ignite the fuse, just like lighting a firecracker.

Although this ignition structure is more troublesome to use, especially in this era without lighters and matches, there's no other choice but to make do. We have to settle for this simple, yet inconvenient design.

Yang Lin was so excited, but to others, it seemed inexplicable.

A cup of iron that breaks with one smash What use is that

Shouldn't you be so happy

Zhao Shunzi looked at Yang Lin strangely, not understanding what her master was thinking.

"Two days! You actually only took two days to make this!"

Yang Lin stood up and looked at Zhao Tian, who had messy hair and unkempt appearance.

The latter was a bit nervous and didn't dare to look Yang Lin in the eye, silently bowing their head.

"Uncle Shunzi, give him a bonus of ten taels of silver!"

Both the boy and Zhao Shunzi were taken aback.

Zhao Tian hurriedly waved his hand: "This, this is too much..."

And Yang Lin hadn't finished speaking, continuing to say: "Uncle Shunzi, your foundry has done a good job refining steel. Allocate another one hundred taels of silver to everyone! Fifty taels will be divided equally among all of you, and the remaining fifty taels will be given to the main personnel who developed the steel!"

"Uh..."

Zhao Shunzi hesitated to speak.

"What's wrong"

Yang Lin hurriedly asked.

Two good things happened in a row, putting him in a great mood. He was also very generous with the bonus.

"Master, actually the success of Steelworks is mainly due to Zhao Tian's contributions." Zhao Shunzi said.

"What" Yang Lin exclaimed, "Uncle Shunzi, are you serious"

Hearing Yang Lin's insistence, Zhao Shunzi quickly explained: "Really, really! Although you told us the idea for smelting steel, we tried it for so long but couldn't get it right. It was always a little off. A few days ago, Zhao Tian came to the forge, and I let him join the research too. He just asked us to adjust the amount and order of iron ingots added, and unexpectedly, we almost succeeded that day!"

"After that, we adjusted it two more times until today, and finally we truly succeeded. This is all thanks to Xiaotian."

"Master, I'm not just speaking up for my nephew. Xiao Tian truly has this talent for alchemy. Maybe in the future, we should hand over this furnace to him He's smarter than all of us and will definitely do even better than we can!"

Zhao Shunzi said sincerely.

Since Zhao Shunzi entered the smeltery and became its manager, his wages were not low, and he received a generous amount of bonuses. In just over a month, he earned more money than in the past few years combined!

But on the flip side, there's fatigue! Especially whenever I face the tasks Yang Lin assigns me, the feeling of being utterly lost makes it increasingly difficult to muster any motivation.

He was just an ordinary blacksmith. You could ask him to forge metal or do any kind of work, and he wouldn't complain. No matter how hard or tiring the job was, he would never grumble.

Now he manages a smelting workshop with over a hundred people. He has to complete mass production of ironware and conduct research and development on steel. Managing, producing, handing over, and learning...the daily intense and busy work leaves him exhausted.

So, he really wanted to hand over the blacksmith's shop and just do his work honestly.

Hearing Zhao Shunzi's words, Yang Lin couldn't help but sigh.

Where else couldn't he see that Zhao Shunzi was out of her depth

This problem is not only present in the blacksmith's workshop, but also exists in other workshops.

Ultimately, it boils down to a lack of talent and development moving too fast!

When the smelting workshop only had six or seven people, Zhao Shunzi wouldn't have this problem.

Now, with over a hundred people, he's already feeling physically and mentally drained. If this continues, something will inevitably go wrong!hough he is only the smallest baron, he is still a nobleman!There were no aristocratic families in Jianghe County whatsoever before.Even if he was a county magistrate, even if he was the county magist...