Chenggu County.

Outskirts.

In a basin surrounded by mountains, like a small township, all kinds of buildings rise from the ground, streets are criss-crossed, most of the houses are built along the hills, and there are stoves burning, and the sound of striking iron echoes in the valley.

At the gate of the valley, there are guards, these soldiers stand guard, their waists straight, meticulous, full of murderous aura, at a glance they know that they are the elite of the elite, not those lazy ordinary soldiers.

Before the valley, on top of the boulders, there are plaques carved into them.

The first workshop of the Ming Marquis Mansion.

In Hanzhong, many people call it the Ming Yi workshop.

This is an ordnance workshop established by Mu Jing last year, after spending a lot of money, and even disregarding his own reputation, suppressing many merchants, iron merchants, miners, etc. in Hanzhong.

This workshop is definitely the largest workshop in Hanzhong today, and it is a workshop established by Mujing specifically to create the weapons and armor of the herdsmen.

Because of the short time it was established, not many weapons were produced.

At present, it is not yet possible to undertake the creation of weapons for the herdsmen.

The weapons used by the herdsmen today, good and bad, spears, skulls, bows, arrows, and large crossbow beds, most of them were weapons distributed by the imperial court's arsenal.

If you count it, the herdsmen have actually reached a time when they can change their weapons.

Today's pastoral army, the elite soldiers who have been disarmed, have undergone systematic training, and most of the soldiers are veterans who have seen blood on the battlefield, and the training of the battle array has also begun to become proficient.

The difference is actually the weapon in the hand.

Once the weapons can be replaced, the combat effectiveness of the Pastoral Army will increase by one level.

But today's Mujing has no ability to replace the weapons of the Mujun.

The shepherd army has a total of four armies and an independent mountain battalion, tens of thousands of erlang, if you want to completely replace a batch of weapons and armor, it will be an astronomical number, at least the current Minghou Mansion can't afford it.

But Mu Jing will not turn a blind eye to this matter.

Weapons are the foundation of Erlang's life, if he can, he wants to change weapons at any cost, but the current situation makes people, and now he doesn't have the courage for the time being, but he has to move.

That's why he overcame all difficulties and established the Mingyi workshop.

At this moment, it is the middle of the first month, not long after the beginning of the year, but in the workshop of Mingyi, the voices of people are boiling, and the sound of striking iron is endless.

Mu Jing left Nanzheng for the first time this year, when he came to Mingyi Workshop.

"This skullhead knife looks good?" In the Ming Yi workshop, Mu Jing inspected many places, picked up a sword in the warehouse, and measured it with his fingers, it was indeed sharp, but he didn't know if it was tough enough.

"Back to the lord, this batch of war knives was completed by my father with hundreds of apprentices led by him for more than a month, a total of eight hundred, not a refined hundred refining treasure swords, but at least more than fifty refinements, which can break the top five!"

The answer to Mu Jing was Chu Zheng, the supervisor of the Ming Yi workshop.

Chu Zheng is only in his early thirties this year, long white and clean, wearing a scarf, wearing a Confucian robe, learning Confucian knowledge, but he has been a child of the Mo family for generations, he himself is a scholar, but his family is a well-known forging family in Hanzhong.

His father, Chu Liang, was the first forging master in Hanzhong.

At the beginning, Mu Jing in order to establish a Ming Yi workshop, almost wiped out the blacksmiths in Hanzhong, this Chu family, how could he let it go, but a workshop, not the best people can manage well, Chu Liang is good at building, not good at management, but if you let others check and balance Chu Liang, I am afraid it will be difficult to play the ability of the first forger, and finally Mu Jing had a wit, got along with the way, and recruited Chu Liang's son Chu Zheng as the supervisor of the Ming Yi workshop. The Chu family is naturally happy to see this scene, and has a relationship, but Chu Liang is more focused on building weapons and equipment for the Mingyi workshop.

"Oh?"

Mu Jing heard this, his eyes lit up slightly, and he held the handle of the head knife, this kind of war knife is the most used weapon in this era, and it is also the most commonly used weapon on the battlefield, of course, all the princes are building this kind of war knife, but the quality is difficult to guarantee, the hundred refining weapons are the weapon standards of this era, and fifty refining is already very good, which can break the five-fold armor, which is equivalent to cutting the five-fold grass armor.

"I'll give it a try!" Mujing Road.

A Divine Guard soldier next to him quickly sent a five-layer grass armor, the grass armor is the most ordinary battle armor, and it is also the most useless armor, but the five-fold battle armor is comparable to the defense of leather armor.

Click!

Mu Jing slashed down with a knife, and the five-fold grass armor cracked on both sides in response to the sound.

"Good!"

Mu Jing held the handle of the knife, and his smile was a little brighter: "This knife is very good, but the output is a little less, eight hundred, and the weapons of a battalion are not enough." ”

"Lord, in order to create this batch of war knives, my father and hundreds of craftsmen have been busy for more than a month, and they have not even rested at the end of the year, this is also the largest batch of weapons created by our Mingyi workshop, and now the output of Mingyi workshop can only be like this, give me a while, I promise to make the output of Mingyi workshop go to a higher level!"

Chu Zheng arched his hand and said.

"I believe in you!" Mu Jing patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I'm not harsh on you, starting from scratch is the most difficult time, it's not that I don't know, it's just that I'm too anxious!" ”

The shepherds are about to face an endless war, and weapons are the guarantee.

That's why he seemed a little impatient.

"Lord, I know that the soldiers continue to use weapons now, but the scale of the Ming Yi workshop is limited, I'm afraid it will ......"

"So be it!" Mu Jingyi gritted his teeth and said: "Within this year, I will invest another 10 million money, but Chu Zheng, I believe in you, so I will invest in you, I will hand over the lifeblood of the Mu Jun to you, you have to give me a guarantee, before next year, the scale of Mingyi Workshop will be expanded by at least three times!" ”

10,000 dollars for one gold.

Ten million dollars is equal to a thousand gold.

In today's Minghou Mansion, it is a huge amount of money, and it is very difficult for the Minghou Mansion to bear such a large amount of investment, if Hu Zhao knew that Mu Jing dared to make such a promise, it is estimated that he would immediately pick a pole and quit.

"Thanks to the trust of the lord, the government should bow and be cautious for the lord, and then die!"

Chu Zheng's eyes flashed with a touch of moisturizing: "Zhengdang set up a military order!" ”

"It's good to be determined!"

Mu Jing showed a smile, he waved his hand, and beckoned the Yi nationality beside him.

Yi and Huo Yu are now the second generals next to Mu Jing, and their positions are not high, but Mu Jing's big and small decrees are all out of their hands, and they are definitely the henchmen among their henchmen.

Huo Yu wants to sit firmly in Zhaoming Hall.

What came out with Mu Jing was an Iraqi nationality.

Yi came over and stood by: "Lord! ”

"Immediately send these eight hundred battle swords to the first army of Jingping!" Mu Jing said: "Less is better, it's better than nothing!" ”

"Lord, there are still a hundred pairs of war bows in the warehouse!"

Chu Zheng didn't know that Jingping's First Army was about to go on an expedition, but Mu Jing was so anxious that he also guessed one or two, so he took out the bottom of the pressure box: "It was completed yesterday, all of them are stone bows, and they are all made by my father according to the iron tire bow of the imperial court back then, and the range of the full string is eighty steps!" ”

"Good!"

Mu Jing laughed: "You kid knows how to hide!" ”

After 800 swords and 100 bows were transported, Mu Jing also inspected the Ming Yi workshop, and the establishment of this workshop adopted the concept of Mu Jing, flow operation, which was considered to be the pioneer of the times, and also increased efficiency.

Of course, the limitations of the times cannot be changed overnight, and even if there is an assembly line, the output of the workshop is limited.

Mu Jing walked into a workshop, a man in a fifty-year-old cloth with more than a dozen apprentices, calibrating a pair of crossbows, they were very focused, as if they couldn't see anyone walking in.

Chu Zhengzheng wanted to step forward to greet him.

Mu Jing pressed his hand and kept him silent.

Walked up on his own.

He listened and immediately heard clearly that the group of blacksmiths was arguing over technical matters.

"I think we can find a way to do it on the bowstring!"

"Impossible, if the bowstring is tighter, it will inevitably collapse!"

"Then the two heads are wound, I don't believe that the fifth arrow can't be shot!"

"But with both heads wound, the bearing capacity of this bow will definitely not be able to stand it, and it will break!"

“……”

The technical issues quarreled, and they quarreled even more fiercely than those in the Zhaoming Hall.

In the midst of the quarrel, someone finally found Mu Jing.

The man in cloth casually glanced at it, his face was slightly pale, he quickly stood up, and saluted to Mu Jing respectfully: "Chu Liang greets the lord!" ”

"My lord?"

Everyone suddenly came to their senses and stepped forward to salute.

They are just blacksmiths, in this era, belong to the low-level people, and the master of the master is very important, in the workshop, whether it is the problem of treatment or respect, it has been perfectly solved, so from the bottom of my heart, I still have a lot of respect for this lord.

"Master Chu doesn't have to be polite, and you don't have to be polite!"

Mu Jing hurriedly waved his hand, looked at the crossbow in the man's hand, and asked, "What you are discussing is a five-bead crossbow!" ”

"Exactly!"

The man in cloth is the chief blacksmith of Mingyi's workshop, Chu Liang, he has a boxy face, and a pair of eyes look at the weapon in his hand, which is a fascinated gaze.

Mu Jing has seen a lot of this kind of gaze, but he has seen it from the eyes of later generations of scientists, who are focused on their own research and are like no one else.

But looking at the bitterness on the face of the man in cloth, Mu Jing knew that there might be something wrong with this thing.

The five-bead crossbow is the first self-developed weapon since the establishment of the Ming Yi workshop, which is transformed on the former triple crossbow of the imperial court, and goes further, and can be equipped with five arrows at one time and shot continuously.

"Isn't it very successful?"

Mu Jing asked softly.

"Hey!"

Chu Liang waved his hand and asked the blacksmiths to leave, then sighed before he said: "At first, it was quite successful, but it was only half the success, the crossbow and the crosshair are far apart, it is no problem to shoot the fourth arrow, but the fifth arrow, the range is at most twenty steps, and the follow-up is weak!" ”

"Can we continue to improve?"

Mu Jing asked.

The crossbow arrow, but the big killer on the battlefield, if this five-bead crossbow can be successfully improved, it will inevitably enhance Mujing's combat effectiveness a lot.

"Difficult!"

Chu Liang thought for a while and said: "Although the lord has improved the craftsmanship of our Chu family and made our forging skills to a higher level, but the current process and the iron pieces created still do not meet the requirements, I wonder if the lord can find a way to refine these iron bows more?" ”

At the beginning, he promised to become a blacksmith in the Ming Yi Workshop and serve Mu Jing for two reasons, first, Mu Jing promoted his son, but he knew that his son had always been not very interested in the family's craft, and more of a career, and now Chu Zheng is the supervisor of the Ming Yi Workshop, with a rank of 600 stones, a well-known official, and he can inherit the family's craftsmanship, which is the kindness to his Chu family, and the second reason is that Mu Jing took out the secret method of the Mo family's craft, which shocked him, and he agreed.

"Ask me, I don't know this!" When Mu Jing heard this, he suddenly scratched his head a little, and his heart was bitter.

He is not a blacksmith.

He doesn't know how to forge either, it's nothing more than relying on some common sense of later generations to start their ideas, which is the so-called improved technology, such as frying steel, filling steel, these pastoral scenes have concepts, and can only pass on the method.

In the end, it was up to them to figure it out on their own.

But people are always smart, as long as they open a door, they can go out and create an infinite world, whether it is Xu Lin back then, or Chu Liang today, they have deep feelings for forging, from the inspiration given to them by Mujing, out of their own way.

"Has Master Chu heard of the Xu family?"

Mu Jing asked suddenly.

"That Xu family in Nanyang?" When Chu Liang heard this, his pupils changed color slightly: "I once asked someone to buy a knife made by the Xu family's workshop, their knives, there are too many of us, even if there are swords made by the secret method given to us by the lord now, they are not as good as them!" ”

"If you invite some blacksmiths from the Xu family's workshop, can you solve this problem with the communication of you?"

Mu Jing didn't know what problem he was stuck, but he couldn't solve the technical problem by himself, so he had to ask for foreign help.

"You can give it a try!"

Chu Liang's eyes lit up, but he was a little worried, and said, "But how can they communicate with us about the secret methods of the Mo family that they inherited in the Xu family's era?" ”

"I'll leave it to me!"

Mu Jing said: "I will find a way to invite a group of craftsmen from the Xu family!" ”

He didn't really want the Xu family to get involved, after all, this Mingyi Workshop was too important to him, it wasn't that he didn't trust Xu Lin, when Xu Lin dared to venture to Nanxiang to meet him, Mu Jing already trusted her.

But the public is public, and the private is private.

Mingyi workshop, he will never allow any force to interfere, this is not only the place where his weapons are provided, but also the base he is ready to use to develop weapons, for which he has sent a group of elites, a full 300 soldiers, from the army, reorganized into the guard battalion of the Mingyi workshop, guarding this place.

But now, Mu Jing has to admit that the development of the Xu family in recent years has already surpassed the forging skills of many people, and if the Mingyi workshop wants to develop, it is still indispensable to the support of the Xu family.

Although the problem of the five-bead crossbow was not solved, Chu Liang was still a lot happier, and personally took Mu Jing to inspect the rest of the workshops, otherwise with his temper, he didn't want to waste anything other than building.

"Lord, this workshop is used to make gun heads, the current gun heads used by soldiers in the army are like this, short, I think it can grow by about three inches, of course, the requirements for this more gun barrel will be much higher!"

"The best is the best!"

Mu Jing held this gun head, and suddenly it didn't look different, but after looking closely, he saw that the length was indeed a little longer, and the construction on the tip of the gun seemed to have been refined a lot, and it was extremely sharp.

Walking past this workshop, they entered another workshop, which occupied a larger area, located in the northwest of the basin, near a small mountain spring.

"Is this a catapult?"

Mu Jing looked at the behemoth that was being assembled, and his eyes lit up slightly.

"Exactly!"

Chu Liang said: "This is what I tried to build according to the notes left by my ancestors, there was no such condition in the past, but now, whether it is the degree of toughness or the degree of solidity at the bottom, it has been greatly improved, so I want to try it, if it can be successful, this stone thrower can throw a hundred catties of stone projectiles!" ”