買辦鋼鐵 Smiths and Ten Thousand Catties of Steel
王子隨即宣召鐵匠，買辦鋼鐵萬斤，就在王府內前院搭廠，支爐鑄造。先一日將鋼鐵煉熟。王子随即宣召铁匠，买办钢铁万斤，就在王府内前院搭厂，支炉铸造。先一日将钢铁炼熟。
逐句解 Line by line
The prince immediately summoned smiths, bought in ten thousand catties of steel, and had a shed put up in the front courtyard of the palace with a furnace set to cast them.
The scale is the joke and the danger both. 萬斤, ten thousand catties, is about six tonnes of steel — and the three originals together weigh more than twice that. 搭廠 is to run up a temporary shed, and 支爐 to set up a furnace: a whole foundry, inside the palace forecourt, ordered before breakfast.
The first day the steel was smelted ready.
Eight characters for a day's work. 煉熟, refined until ripe, is the metalworker's term and also, exactly, the alchemist's — the same verb the chapter used for refining demons in the rod's poem.
The prince's response to a request is a foundry in his own front courtyard by the end of the morning. It is the third time the chapter has shown what his word can do.
The quantity is worth measuring. Ten thousand catties of steel is a great deal, and it is still less than half what the three originals weigh between them, which tells you how far the copies will fall short before a hammer has been lifted.