"Distant hills turn yellow, dotted with specks of unmelted snow, reminiscent of a witch's hair. At the quarry, the wind howls and swirls, funneling gusts into a ceramic pot, feeding the furnace, stirring the charcoal to burn more fiercely. The red flames, the white smoke, and the busy figures amidst the unthawed early spring breathe life into the season, bringing early vigor to this barely warm time.
'Open the furnace!' The second senior brother, who had transitioned from blacksmith to bronze smith, shouted, directing bystanders to clear away, creating a safe space away from the high-temperature molten copper.
With the crowd moved aside, the lean second senior brother used a specially made ceramic scoop to ladle the viscous copper into a clay mold, tilting to pour the copper through a small hole, ensuring minimal spillage. His skill was superior to Han Cheng's earlier efforts. He managed to pour into 13 out of the 14 plow head molds, leaving one unused due to insufficient copper in the furnace, preventing wasted mold space. The leftover copper was used to cast two small bronze knives.
'Crack!' The complex molds with a single hole for copper pouring were more laborious to make and not easily reused. The mold had to be broken apart to remove the solidified bronze pieces. Although this was painful, Hei Wa wasted no time, forcefully smashing the outer mold on the ground. The first plow head, poured with the initial copper, split open to reveal a shiny golden surface.
Hei Wa quickly used a small bronze pry-bar to dislodge the clay stuck to the surface, revealing a plow head larger than an average person's palm, gleaming with golden brilliance and nearly flawless.
Divine Child!' After examining it briefly, Hei Wa eagerly rushed to Han Cheng, presenting the hard-earned plow head like a treasure, radiating excitement akin to a child showing a prized possession. With a smile, Han Cheng took the rare and difficult-to-create bronze plow head from Hei Wa’s hands, carefully inspecting it. Compared to the iron plow heads he had seen in the future, battered by the earth and worn white, this bronze one appeared much rougher and smaller in size and weight, due to the limitations of bronze's brittleness and the strength of the pull from the tribe’s deer.
The tribe's people, including the shaman, gathered around to observe, having personally experienced the ease of plowing with deer and the effectiveness of bronze tools.
"Combining these two now, the effect is genuinely tempting to imagine. Everyone wishes to fit this bronze plow head onto a plow and lead the deer into the fields to see how it performs.
'Haha, good!' Although the plow head in Han Cheng’s hand was rough and crude compared to iron plow heads from the future, it possessed all the necessary features for plowing. There would be no problem using it to till the soil.
Suddenly, a series of loud crackling sounds filled the air. These were the remaining twelve molds being smashed apart. Out of thirteen plow heads, one was a defective product. This defect occurred because the second senior brother didn’t fill the mold with the first scoop of copper, leading to a second scoop being necessary. Metal liquids like copper solidify quickly, and this short delay caused a defect in the bronze plow head, creating a break.
Han Cheng examined the plow head in his hand, then forcefully struck it against a stone, causing it to break into two pieces. The ruined bronze plow head wasn’t wasted; it was thrown into the next batch of melted copper during smelting, ready for reuse.
'Thud, thud, thud…' In a few houses of the Green Sparrow Tribe without earthen stoves, people surrounded the carpenter, Lame, who held an axe and was hacking at the lower end of wooden plows. After hacking for a while, he would place a plow head on the wooden plow, comparing how well it fit. He would remove the plow head and continue adjusting if it didn't match.
'Clang, clang, clang…' After some adjustments, the bottom of the wooden plow finally matched well with the plow head. Lame then placed the wooden plow upside down on the ground, placing the plow head on top. He brought over a wooden plank, holding it over the plow head, then used the axe to strike it repeatedly, one blow at a time.
The wooden plank was used as a buffer, protecting the bronze plow head from damage by the iron axe. After about ten strikes, the plow head was securely fastened to the wooden plow.
Han Cheng held the handle of the plow, feeling it for a moment before nodding in satisfaction. Although it was crude, with the bronze plow head attached, the plow now looked more like a functional tool.
Indeed, as the saying goes, 'People rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles,' even a plow can be adorned with metal to enhance its appearance. A bit longer, and they would add bronze walls to the plow head, fixing them in place, which would make the plow even more functional and aesthetically pleasing.
With the plow head properly fitted, someone eagerly wanted to test the effect. Without the bronze walls, the soil being plowed would not stay in place, resulting in a poor plowing effect. Han Cheng initially didn’t want to carry the plow out into the field at this stage, preferring to prepare the bronze walls first, but when he looked up, he saw the hopeful eyes all around. After a moment's thought, he nodded in agreement.
In truth, he also really wanted to see how the bronze plow would perform."