The Furnace Fire Reaches the Heavens, Refining Treasures with Radiant Light; the Envoy's Doubts Enshroud the Old Frontier

Guan Han hurried over, his eyes fixed on the records in the book before repeatedly examining the two ores.

After a moment, as if he had confirmed something, he clapped his hands again and again in excitement. "That's right! These are the two!

"The texts bestowed by my lord mention that these two ores can be mixed with refined iron in the proper proportions to produce a special steel that resists corrosion, is tough and resilient, and withstands high temperatures.

"Ever since my lord passed down the mineral overview, we've sent people everywhere in search of these ores. We scoured all the nearby mineral veins, yet after searching for so long, we still couldn't gather enough even for a trial. Who would have thought Donghu had stockpiled so much of them!"

Fu Zhi repeatedly kneaded the ores in his hand. "The steel we forged before was strong enough, but it still lacked a measure of toughness.

"As cannon barrels, it couldn't withstand greater impacts, making it difficult for the cannons' power to advance any further.

"The development of breech-loading rifled cannons has been stuck at the materials stage, unable to make a breakthrough.

"And when used for mechanism components, it couldn't hold up against rust either.

"Now that we have chromium ore and nickel ore, we can test new steel according to the ratios in the texts. As long as we produce this new steel, all the iron and steel machinery in the Mohist Pavilion will rise to a whole new level!"

Ironworking was the foundation of many industrial fields, and the Mohist Pavilion had been bottlenecked at this level for a long time.

Although Zhao Cheng had previously provided rough descriptions of what he remembered about these two ores, people of this era knew nothing of them, so naturally,