Confrontation (2)

The group walked forward slowly, and with every few steps, they found a lot of new things. These fresh products and equipment are either available in China since ancient times, or have been invented by other countries since ancient times, and it is not difficult to manufacture, but when applied to practice, it can bring twice the result with half the effort.

The five-element basket cart dragged by livestock (simple seeding machine, invented by Zhao Guo during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty), high-efficiency water drainage (hydraulic blower, Eastern Han Dynasty, Du Shi), and fan cart (ancient threshing and hulling machine, time unknown), improved by the craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences, after installing steel parts such as springs and gears, the efficiency is higher and the maintenance is more convenient.

Lu Xiufu and others admired and commented, and unconsciously, they integrated themselves into the Academy of Sciences and forgot their original identity.

"If you put an iron plate at the charcoal opening, it can only be opened inward, not outward, can it prevent people from falling on fire!" Liu Yi, an official of the Ministry of Industry who came with Lu Xiufu, pointed to a model of a low, freshly polished steel stove and asked cautiously.

This kind of stove is a fast pot specially designed for teahouses, with charcoal in the middle, ash leaking at the bottom, and the chimney is vertically smoked in the middle, which is particularly convenient for boiling water, and can boil a large pot of water in a moment. It is a very popular product belonging to large private households and restaurants in Fujian, and has been circulated to the area of Guangnan East Road. The Academy of Sciences is still working on improving its performance in anticipation of developing other utilities. (Tea stove, the birth year is not detailed, there are various models, common in the northern countryside)

The craftsman master, who was directing everyone to work by the stove, had his eyes lit up, took out a ruler and compared it with the charcoal mouth, and applauded again and again. Turning around, he clenched his fists and asked, "This lord has a noble surname, this plan is very good." It's a big trouble for me and others, please leave your name in case you can get the patent silver from Lord Xiao! ”

"I, I, this little thing, forget it, forget it!" Liu Yi hurriedly dodged to the side, blushing and replying. A small idea that I came up with by accident didn't take much thought at all. In line with the nobility of a scholar, he is not willing to give Wen Tianxiang's people the impression of being greedy for money.

"Lord Liu, don't be polite, this is the rule of the Academy of Sciences. Where there is an inventor, there must be a patent. If the value of your invention is agreed, whoever builds this low furnace for boiling water in the future will have to pay you a patent fee as long as the steel plate is added! Wan Yan Jingyuan ran over and explained excitedly, "Even if a low furnace gives you a copper plate, how many low furnaces we sell in Fujian a year, the factory owner will have to give you as many copper plates!" Ten years and eight years, you have become a rich man, if you don't want it, just put the money in my name, I will spend it for you, how about it! ”

"This, this...."Liu Yi hesitated, struggling, not knowing what to do.

"Miaocai, you can take it, you don't have to be polite. If everyone is as high as you, how can craftsmen be interested in improving their skills! This matter is similar to the nature of the ransom of Lu Nu, and Miaocai can't be ruined because of Gu Xiaoyi. Wen Tianxiang turned around and ordered with a smile.

This is in line with the allusion of the ancients to buy slaves, when the law of the Lu State stipulates that everyone finds the slaves of the Lu State in other countries, they will pay in advance to redeem their freedom. After returning to Lu, you can go to the government to ask for the fee. Zigong paid for the slave's life, but refused to ask the government for money. Everyone praised him for his noble character, but Confucius rebuked him and said, "If everyone learns from you, after a few years, they will not buy it again."

Everyone looked at each other, and Liu Yi finally blushed and wrote his name in front of the officials and craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences.

Laughing and moving forward, everyone became more and more interested in the many rules of Fujian Road. There are many rules here, which are detailed and complicated. But all kinds of rules have their own reasons. And everyone does their best to execute. Unlike the Xingchao side, the rules are extremely flexible, and how to implement them and whether to implement them all depend on the thoughts of officials.

Gradually deepening, the front is already the end of the valley, the valley suddenly narrowed, a sharp mountain stream turned a corner, rushed out of the valley, above the mountain stream, diagonally across a blue-black iron chain bridge, the other end of the bridge, a tall stone wall, two heavy iron gates, the small half of the valley firmly cut off.

No need to ask, everyone also knows that they have entered the core of the Academy of Sciences. lowered his voice, lightened his steps, and followed Wen Tianxiang across the rope bridge. Under the iron gate, more than a dozen fully armed officers and soldiers came up to meet them, confirmed everyone's identities again, and then rang the bell, and notified the people inside to open a small crack in the door, allowing everyone to squeeze in along the gap one by one.

What catches the eye is a long shed about two or three zhang long along the mountain wall, which is covered with Ming tile (a kind of tile made of shells, translucent). In the middle of the shed, a two-foot-wide and narrow cow belt moves slowly under the drive of a waterwheel. There were two rows of people standing facing each other on either side of the belt, busy with their own business, and they heard someone coming in, but no one had time to look up.

Everyone looked intently, and saw that the two craftsmen at the outermost point each grabbed a curved steel bar from behind them, stuck a ring in each of the two sections, and put it on the belt. The steel bar slowly moved forward on the belt, and the two craftsmen next to them quickly loaded the parts behind them onto the metal ring, and then stopped the operation. When the metal piece was carried by a belt to the next craftsman, it was loaded with a steel bracket and so on, until it reached the end of the belt, as if it were a finished product.

A steel crossbow fell from the belt, was picked up by the craftsman at the end of the line, marked with a batch mark, and placed on the trolley behind him. In a matter of moments, the car was loaded with more than a dozen crossbows. Several soldiers ran in, picked up the cart, and ran to the cave where the weapons were stored not far away.

"This?" Everyone's eyes widened. For more than a month, they studied in factories everywhere, or saw blacksmiths build crossbow arms, or workers made gears, but they did not see a factory make a complete steel crossbow. Unexpectedly, the last process is hidden in the depths of the Academy of Sciences!

"The weapon of the country should not be easily revealed. The people working here are all those who have a blood feud with the Tartars, and they will not leak the slightest secret of the Broken Army. Seeing that everyone was curious, Wen Tianxiang explained in a low voice, "This method of conveying with a belt was just invented by Xiao Zi and them, which can increase the assembly speed of steel crossbows, and the same thing has been done for a long time, and the craftsmen are also able to practice makes perfect!" When this method and related equipment are perfected, it will be moved to the factory outside and promoted along with other new inventions."

"The prime minister is clever!" Everyone said in unison, and they could not think of any words to praise these whimsical ideas of the Academy of Sciences. They were all carefully selected by Lu Xiufu from the thousands of scholars who followed the imperial court, and each of them boasted of being rich in learning. And the things that Wen Tianxiang took them to see today were far beyond their usual knowledge.

Scholars look down on the likes of hundreds of craftsmen, and the fresh utensils they have seen in the past forty days are not very difficult in their eyes. I took the drawings and recruited craftsmen, and they thought that they could slowly tinker with the imitations. The division of labor, cooperation, organization, and coordination that Wen Tianxiang demonstrated at the Academy of Sciences today are the most mysterious and interesting new knowledge in their eyes. Faintly, it was as if someone had opened a door deep inside them, leading them into a previously unknown realm.

Wen Tianxiang smiled and led everyone to move on. He knew that he had already made some initial gains. People are not afraid of shallow knowledge, but they are afraid of knowing shallow, but they think that the world is only as big as their own eyes. Today, the Academy of Sciences has shown everyone a world that they usually don't know, and in the future, these people may not become a bridge connecting Shao Wu's new policy and the traditional world.

After passing through several similar factory sheds, the group came to a cave. The air inside the cave was unusually hot, and four huge charcoal furnaces burst into flames, and at the top of the flames, a mass of gelatinous things rolled around, and the topless craftsmen held steel drills from afar, turning the gelatinous objects up and down.

The gelatinous substance changed from red to yellow, from yellow to bright, and something like a drop of water slowly trickled down the surface. "It's done!" The foreman's craftsman looked at the fire and shouted. The apprentice next to him was quick-eyed, grabbed a large pair of scissors, clicked, and cut off the gelatinous material in half. Immediately someone caught the cut parts with a steel shovel and distributed them into a red-hot mold. With the click of the scissors, the individual molds are assigned to the glue block. Someone held a long copper pipe ** steel mold and blew it up desperately.

"Lin Lao, is it hot!" Wen Tianxiang asked loudly at the craftsman's head.

"It's not hot, I'm used to it. This is a fine job, give it to others, I don't feel at ease! The craftsman replied with a snort, grabbed the big wooden bowl in front of him, drank a few sips of water, and continued like a treasure: "I have developed a few new things, Master Wen, I will take you to see it!" ”

Everyone followed behind the old man curiously, not feeling the slightest disrespect in the other party's words. Since entering the valley, the peaceful atmosphere between people has infected everyone, making them slowly forget the identity of the official and the nobility of the scholar.

In the depths of the cave was a row of wooden shelves, carefully covered with silk cloth. Old man Lynn stepped forward, gently pulled open the silk cloth, and showed his treasure in front of everyone. The crystal glass cup, the colorful glass cup worth a thousand gold, the crystal lamp that can be rotated by the candle, the crystal bead curtain with lilac brilliance, the glass tube, the glass beads, the dragonfly eyes, the ear bell, the glass bottle, one by one, under the light, exudes a moist treasure.

Several slightly higher-ranking officials had envious lights in their eyes, and they stood cautiously in front of the wooden frame, and they did not dare to come out, lest they accidentally knock down the wooden frame and lose all their lives.

The glaze was originally a precious thing in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the princes regarded it as a treasure. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the price slowly declined. After the Wuhu Chaohua, the manufacturing process was slowly lost, and the value became higher and higher. In the Song Dynasty, small glazed ornaments, such as glazed beads, dragonfly eyes, ear bells, etc., were mostly used for large families to marry. Foreign merchants also often bring small pieces of glass transactions, each worth a thousand wen. Those that are large enough to be turned into lamps, lamps, and pots are rare in the world, and the price is often more than 100 taels, and they are far less exquisite than those in front of you. Last year, the Broken Prisoners had paid tribute to the little emperor for such a rare item. The queen mother and the little emperor are in love with each other, and the uncle Yang Liangjie cheekily grinded in the palace for half a month before he was "given" a set of tea sets to share the royal rain and dew. Of the others, only officials above the fourth grade had the privilege of taking a look at it from afar.

"This, is this the glue?" Someone asked in admiration, wanting to reach out and touch it, looking at the stern eyes of the boss, and quickly retracted his hand.

"It's that glue, it's called glass. On the other side of the heavens, there were already workshops producing a hundred years ago. We started later than them, but we made it better than them, and poems, calligraphy and paintings can be printed on the finished product! Wen Tianxiang replied peacefully, and between his words, he introduced the civilization outside the Great Song Dynasty to everyone, "On the other side of the heavens, it is a country established by Muslims, and the maritime merchants have already figured out the route. There are a lot of items that we don't have in the Great Song Dynasty, and they are extremely exquisite. After Fuzhou was opened, I had already sent someone to buy their books! ”

"Oh!" The officials nodded frequently, they were accustomed to the saying that Huaxia was the center of the world, and they had no idea what Wen Tianxiang introduced. On the contrary, he showed great interest in the brilliance of the glass, constantly changing the angle, and carefully felt the subtlety of light and shadow.

"These are colorful, easy to play. The coloring method is similar to the color matching of porcelain, and it can be evenly adjusted in the ingredients. It's colorless, and I can't get it out, even if I use a magnet to roll over, it's still a little green! Lin Laohan seemed to have long been accustomed to the surprised behavior of others, walked to the cliff by himself, took out two one-foot square "crystal glass" plates from the dark grid, and handed them to Wen Tianxiang.

Wen Tianxiang held up the glass plate and inspected it under the lamp. After several improvements, the glass plate produced by the Academy of Sciences has been close to the glass that Wen Zhong remembers, but the thickness is not very uniform, faintly green, with a circle left by blowing in the middle, and some flocculent deposits inside. It is used to make telescopes, which obviously do not meet the qualification standards. (Note to alcoholic: Historically, the early glass panes were blown and made from large containers.) ）

"The thickness is uneven, and it can be sanded with fine bricks next to the water wheel, and then polished with lime charcoal. But it is very difficult to remove color, even if you use quartz powder as a raw material to refine, it will not work! ”

Old man Lynn attached to Wen Tianxiang's ear and said apologetically. Until now, the clairing eyes of the military are still cut and ground with crystal, and it is extremely difficult to obtain a finished product, and the cost is also very high.

"Don't worry, add caustic soda and refined saltpeter to try! Find a few more decolorized materials and eliminate them one by one" Wen Tianxiang nodded and suggested in a low voice. Under the leadership of Xiao Zi and Lynn and others, it is not easy for the Academy of Sciences to develop to this point in a short period of time. In Wenzhong's memory, glass was invented very early in the East and West (2,600 B.C. and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, respectively), but the production of large vessels and flat glass was very late (drunkard's note: small pieces of flat glass began to appear around the ninth century, and large pieces of plate glass did not appear until the 16th century). As for colorless glass, it appeared even later, and in Wen Zhong's memory, there was no way to make such a thing at all. (Alcoholic's note: The more primitive glass decolorization method is to add sodium nitrate.) Preferably with the addition of rare earths)

For the Broken Army, colorless glass and glass craftsmanship are crucial. Once mass-produced, this low-cost luxury will be the most lucrative "export" material for Fujian Road in addition to counterfeit banknotes.

"Brother Rui, why is it used to make such a useless thing?" Lu Xiufu walked over slowly and asked with a little dissatisfaction. Not as addicted to things outside the body as others do. Compared with these "useless" things that could not satisfy hunger and could not defend against the enemy, Lu Xiufu appreciated the farmland and weapon production lines he had seen before.

When several officials of the Ministry of Industry heard this, their faces turned red and they quickly looked away from the wooden frame. I was very ashamed of my shallow behavior just now. The depths of the soul can't hide the desire to touch it again and take a look.

"No, these artifacts are the key to my Broken Army's defeat of the Northern Yuan!" In the depths of the cave, a cold answer came, and Xiao Zi walked out from behind a stone wall with a straight face.

Xiao Zi has followed Wen Tianxiang for many years and respects him the most. When I heard that Lu Xiufu and Zhang Shijie had tried to fire and break the army on the front line, I felt suspicious. According to his meaning, the Academy of Sciences did not welcome Lu Xiufu and others to come in and visit at all. was forced by Wen Tianxiang to reluctantly respond. Now that he heard Lu Xiufu's words, there was a faint accusation in them, and he immediately took over the conversation dissatisfied.

"I want to hear the details, Lu listens!" Lu Xiufu bowed his hand and did not take Xiao Zi's disrespect as a reproach. His subordinates have been influenced by Wen Tianxiang for a long time, and they have been corroded by him. Now that he has the opportunity, Lu Xiufu also wants to express some "pure" Confucian views and edify Wen Tianxiang's arms. The battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Broken Army will not happen for the time being, but under the influence of the secret, Lu Xiufu is unwilling to give up.

"Lu Xiang can know that a set of glass cups, how much is it worth on the market? How much does a steel crossbow cost?" Xiao Zi walked to the wooden frame, picked up a set of glass wine utensils, and played carefully in front of everyone.

The surface was ground out of many diamonds, and the lilac luminous pot emitted a brilliant light under the illumination of the candle flame, dotted with stars, jumping and pulling everyone's sight. Even if he is as determined as Mrs. Lu Xiu, he can't help but be stunned for a moment. Forcibly retracting his gaze, Lu Xiufu replied in a low voice: "This set of wine utensils is probably priceless." The family bought it, and the bid was set at 10,000 taels of silver. Broken bows, Du Yuanwai said to the emperor that each one is worth twenty taels! Each steel crossbow is worth five cents! ”

"Exactly!" Xiao Zi shrugged his shoulders, took Lu Xiufu's words and said: "My Broken Army provided equipment for the Jianghuai Army, the Xing Song Army, and the Fuxing Army, and never confiscated a penny. Even if we don't care about the gains and losses, the salaries of the Yu people and craftsmen will cost money. They have to have three meals a day. Sell a glow-in-the-dark pot to get back the supplies of hundreds of steel crossbows and the rations of hundreds of soldiers, why not? Without these mundane things in the eyes of adults, where would the silver come from, where would the rice come from, and no matter how noble the character of the adults is, they cannot send soldiers to fight hungry! ”

"This!" Lu Xiufu was choked by Xiao Zi's words and rolled his eyes. He was a man of integrity, and although he occasionally made pedantic mistakes, he was not unreasonable. After pondering for a long time, he straightened out his clothes and bowed to Senior Xiao, "Be taught!" Lu was abrupt! ”

'You've got so many abrupt places!' Xiao Zixin said, "Lord Lu enters the Academy of Sciences, it is rare and strange!" ’。 There was a smile on his face, and he returned the salute. While greeting everyone, he loudly announced: "Everyone has come from afar, and our academy is not respectful." Each person can take any set of glassware on the shelves as a gift from the Broken Prisoner Army to you. I also hope that after you return to the court, remember to witness our loyalty in front of the emperor! ”

As soon as the words ended, the officials immediately let out a cheer and thanked them and surrounded the wooden shelf. Lu Xiufu had the heart to refuse, looked at everyone's eager looks, sighed, and retreated silently.

"Lord Wen, please come with me!" Xiao Zi stepped forward lightly and pulled the corner of Laven Tianxiang's clothes.

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