More is inevitable, otherwise Chen Kai would not have spent so much manpower, material and financial resources on this. Just to see that these rudimentary machines made of copper, iron, and especially wood can reach such production capacity, even in this era from an industrialized society, he can't help but be shocked by this, let alone others.

"In the normal working hours of a group of craftsmen, only two lancets can be made by human forging, but twenty to twenty-five or six lancet blades can be made with machinery. This can be calculated by the speed of the forging, the pure labor time of the craftsman minus the rest, and the many technical advantages of the heated rotation of the forging by means of the simplest addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. ”

What's more, there are still three shifts, and the capacity of each hydraulic forging hammer has to be multiplied by three. And here, there are ten hydraulic forging hammers running non-stop! ”

When the raw materials were scarce, these machines could only be placed here to fall into the dust, at most to train some skilled workers, and that's it. But now, with the abundance of raw materials, it is possible to start work without interruption. As Ding Youyi said, as long as the raw materials are sufficient, the production capacity of this Hanjiang Hydraulic Workshop alone is enough to make the famous Ordnance Bureau so bad that there is no scum left!

"Cai Yuan is a smart man......"

At the beginning, when Chen Kai invested manpower and material resources in the Shilu mine, he made it clear that it was an iron ore mine and the reserves were extremely rich. When Cai Yuan was ordered to arrive for exploration, what he found was copper ore. From then on, the local mining was also copper ore, until the discovery of iron ore a few months ago, Cai Yuan didn't care how Chen Kai knew about the iron ore that the locals in Changhua didn't know, and issued an order without hesitation, leaving the more valuable copper ore alone, and transferring most of the captives there to mine iron ore.

It is inevitable to vote for the favor of the officials. What's more, the difference between copper and iron is not surprising given the current situation, given the difference between copper and iron, which is used to produce weapons.

"Hao Shangjiu is also a smart person......"

Last year, Chen Kai confessed to Hao Shangjiu that he had sent people to Guangzhou to divide the wedge and made threats. Hao Shangjiu did not react at the time, but a few months later, as Li Dingguo's army entered Guangdong again, the Qing army fully returned to defense, and Hao Shangjiu directly relaxed the restrictions on ore and metal trade once he got the news.

Now, the ore and metals from the three counties controlled by Hao Shangjiu are constantly supplying Chaozhou. This is a statement, a relatively subtle statement. To put it bluntly, Hao Shangjiu is not in a hurry to do it anyway now, but it is still possible to show favor to Chen Kai and get closer to him. After all, his control area is on the side of Chaozhou, the side of the couch, and he can't allow others to snore.

"As for Feng Chengshi, it doesn't matter whether he is smart or not. The era of hydraulic machinery has begun, and next, the world will become faster and faster, one step late, how can it be so easy to catch up? ”

………………

The summer harvest in Chaozhou has been completed, but according to the tax system of the Ming Dynasty, the summer tax is collected until August, and the collection can be completed before August.

At this stage, the increase in grain production is not very significant. On the one hand, the proportion of farmers who use rice and fish farming is still relatively low, and on the other hand, this new cultivation model has just begun, and many points that will affect production are still being explored. However, it is certain that there will be more than normal cultivation, and there will be an additional income from fish farming, and it is said that many people who have not adopted this model of rice cultivation have already been tempted. It is nothing more than the end of the summer harvest followed by the summer planting and autumn harvest, and if you want to make a difference, you have to wait until the time of the slack of farming.

The agricultural harvest in Chaozhou can be expected, and the Qiongzhou Mansion, according to Zheng Xingying's report, can not be called a bumper harvest, but it can be the same as in previous years, at least there is no famine.

This is already excellent, especially in such a world, at least compared to those places where there is chaos, it can already be called a paradise in troubled times.

In western Guangdong, which is separated from Qiongzhou by a river, the Qing army retreated to Guangzhou and its surrounding areas in February and March, and the Ming army in western Guangdong swept through all the prefectures and counties in western Guangdong with the help of Li Dingguo's might. For a time, Lianzhou Mansion, Leizhou Mansion, Gaozhou Prefecture, Luoding Prefecture and the southern part of Zhaoqing Mansion all fell into the hands of the Ming army. Although Li Dingguo was stranded in Gaozhou Mansion to recuperate, his general Wu Zisheng joined up with Wang Xing, the general of Huben in Wencun, and the army reached Xinhui City.

The Qing army retreated into the city, and the siege had begun. At the same time as the siege, the army spent a lot of money, and simply went down to the countryside to collect food to supplement the army.

In a village twenty or thirty miles west of Xinhui City, the biggest landlord here is the town's lord. When the old man heard that the "West Thief" was coming, he had fled to Xinhui County with his family, and the large rice fields were at harvest time, and the tenants seemed a little overwhelmed, not knowing whether it was better to cut it or more than less.

A rebel army received Wu Zisheng's order to go to the countryside to collect food and grain, and the officer arrived here with a team of ragged Ming troops. The village brewed as if he didn't want money, and even slaughtered a pig and a dozen chickens for entertainment. The only thing is that the women in the village have already arranged to hide, and they dare not show their heads.

This rebel army has been working hard in the mountains for many years, eating chaff and vegetables, and the mouth has long faded out of the bird. There is wine and meat here, and since he is shouting five and drinking six, the wine is in the interest, and he is even calling the villagers who accompany the wine to find a few women to come over and sing and dance to help the fun.

In this regard, the village elders are very embarrassed, after all, the armies that have come and gone from the south to the north have been lax in military discipline over the years, and I only heard that the military discipline of the troops of the king of Xining and the country surnamed Ye and Chen Fujun in the east is good. However, this group of people is clearly a group of local rebels in Guangdong, not the descendants of the king of Xining, and they are not linked to the national surname Ye and Chen Fujun. The woman hastily called over, and I am afraid that the name will not be saved.

The villager was hesitating, but the officer did not hesitate at all. Seeing this, he immediately drew a knife in his hand, slashed it on the table, pointed to the old man who was old enough to be his grandfather, and shouted: "Old horseman, do you look down on us officers and soldiers? ”

The knife came out, and the villager immediately confessed, and asked people to find a few women from small families in the village to come and help.

Singing and dancing or something, these village girls don't know it, and they don't dare. Casually shouting a few mountain songs and local tunes also attracted those rebels to applaud and whistle again and again, and when they came up to pour wine and deliver food, they would inevitably be taken advantage of by those rebels.

The village women were doing things with tears of grievance, and some of them would inevitably cry when they returned to the kitchen. However, the rebels outside were still swinging their fists, drinking and eating meat, so they were not happy.

"General, everyone hasn't touched a woman for several years, this time get a few little ladies back, and let everyone be happy."

The veteran sucked his right hand, and just now he grabbed the village woman's fat ass while a village woman was pouring him wine, and he seemed to be a little unsatisfied.

At this moment, the eyes of the veterans sparkled, and so did the officers. However, the military discipline on the side of the King of Xining is very strict, and the vanguard general Wu Zisheng is also very well implemented on this point. After thinking about it carefully, he frowned and took it to heart, until the old soldier was relieved, and he continued to drink wine and eat meat.

After a long time, the rebels were well fed. The war in Guangdong has lasted for many years, and the villagers naturally understand what they are here for, prepare grain and grass, and just wait for these guys to eat and drink enough before sending them away. This time, the officer was very dissatisfied with the amount of grain and grass, and not only asked each of them to produce a large amount of grain, but also asked them to cut and load all the rice of the lifting family. In the name of beauty, so as not to invest in the enemy.

Lifting people's rice, although no one in the family is here, but the prestige is still there. As for the amount that each family wants to make, it is even more unacceptably astronomical.

Seeing this, the villager had no choice but to step forward to intercede. After several pleas, the officers were not unspeakable, and simply asked them to send some women out to serve in the camp, otherwise there would be no room for negotiation.

When the villagers heard this, they couldn't understand it. After discussion, he simply forced several small households in the village to hand over their daughters and daughters-in-law to deal with errands. In this way, to the cries of the women and the cries of the children, the rebels set out on the road back to the camp with the mule carts laden with grain and grass.

The camp is located between the village and Xinhui County, and the Ming army has surrounded Xinhui County with Wu Zisheng and Wang Xing's headquarters as the core, and the righteous troops of various departments in western Guangdong as the public.

There is a large army gathered under the city, and the county seat is naturally closed. Of course, there is not only the green battalion of the defenders of this county, the king of Pingnan, Shang Kexi, has sent the general of the domain to Yunlong and the right wing general Wu Jinzhong into the city in May to assist in the defense.

However, when the feudal soldiers entered the city, they were still secondary, but they did more to rob the children of the people, such as jade silk, grain, grass and silver money, if it was less, they would be whipped and killed immediately, even if it was useless for the local government to intercede. As for the stolen women, the rebels outside the city still hesitated to give their soldiers as wives, thinking that they had a long-term solution, and those feudal soldiers all had wives and concubines, and they caught the women in the city and threw them directly into the women's camp, committing adultery day and night, and learned the demeanor of their masters, those Manchurian masters and the children of the Eight Banners.

The Yuan Dynasty poet Zhang Yanghao's "Tong Caring for the Ancients" is famous in ancient and modern times, not to mention that this year is the era of continuous war, and the army that can be said to be past the military discipline is pitiful, not to mention compared with the Yuejia army and the Qi family army that have been recited through the ages.

This is the most intense confrontation between the two sides in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but it is always the common people who are unlucky. In Guangxin Mansion in the east of Jiangxi, where the main force of the Jiangxi Ming army led by Jiangxi Governor Jie Chongxi was stationed, the Qing court mobilized the green battalions of Jiangxi, Fujian and Southern Jiangxi provinces to carry out encirclement and suppression in order to exterminate this Jiangxi Ming army that penetrated deep into the hinterland. Although Zheng Chenggong rose strongly with the help of Chen Kai and led all the Qing troops in Fujian over, with the entry of the Qing army in Zhejiang, the fall was inevitable.

This was already two years ago, in the past two years, Yu Youhan, a Henan swordsman who had been rescued by Chen Kai in Quzhou earlier, said goodbye to the west on his horse, and soon turned his horse's head and returned to the ground in Zhejiang in a big circle. He was afraid that he would be betrayed again by the villagers who had betrayed him once, so he simply lived in seclusion in Jinhua for a period of time.

"Yu Zhuangshi, you, according to the old man's opinion, don't know where you are, and don't know what you should do."

"What about you?"

"I know very well that I'm a hard worker in the field, so I don't think about it. But you, different! ”

After being in seclusion for a while, it has been more than two years and nearly three years since I set off again. Yu Youhan walked alone on the road, entered the boundary of Guangxin Mansion, and everywhere he saw, he was full of devastation. In the county seat, basil thorns are everywhere, empty houses and abandoned houses abound, and some limited homes are also closed doors, and even the doors of those prefectures and counties are not all open, and there is no sign of the past war.

In contrast, walking in the countryside, there are occasional villages that live together. He inquired, and most of these people were ordered by the Qing army to be tuntian on the spot for the governor Cai Shiying after breaking through the Jianghu Mountain camp. As for the original local people, most of them were slaughtered by the Qing army in the three provincial capitals, just to further compress the civilian support of the Ming army in Jiangxi, which was already no match for them.

After the end of the suppression of the three provincial capitals, the Qing court's policy in Jiangxi changed, and Cai Shiying presided over the resumption of production, cultivated the fields, and reduced the taxes, which was done impressively. However, among the people, this Cai Fujun's virtuous Yu Youhan has never heard of it, but a thing called a mutual aid association can always appear in his ears.

In Xinhui, the flames of war are burning, and chaos is inevitable. In Guangxin Province, the large-scale war has stopped for two years, but the damage to the local people's livelihood caused by the long-protracted war is not so easy to recover.

In Fujian, the main battles in this province in recent years have been concentrated in Zhangzhou Mansion and Quanzhou Mansion, two parts that have been occupied by the Ming army. In other prefectures and counties, after the Lu Jianguo made a big disturbance in Fujian, the large-scale war had stopped, and the occasional rebel army came to the city, and it would soon be repelled by the Qing army. It's just that this place that has been peaceful for many years is not even as good as Xinhui County and Guangxin Mansion now.

The north gate of Fuqing County, during the day, the gate is closed tightly, without a single gap, as if it is afraid that something unlucky will be put in.

In the distance, the cousin of the county magistrate had just returned from Fucheng. He went to pay tribute to the officials on behalf of his cousin, but along the way, if it weren't for the green battalion in the county town to send a hundred soldiers to escort him, and he hired a dart master in the county town, he was afraid that he would be robbed on the way there, let alone come back.

The money was sent over, and on the way back, there were many fewer covetous glances. Hurried back, the city gate was already closed, and the outside of the city was almost completely occupied by the shacks of the poor people who were waiting for the Ming army to open a porridge field to have a meal, densely packed, and even the official roads were crowded a lot.

He was escorted by the Green Battalion soldiers, and the eyes around him that were eager to slap them off were as painful as they had been when they left. When he reached the left side of the gate, he hung an officer to go up to the city, and then the gate creaked open.

The gates of the city were opened, and the people outside the city were immediately in a commotion. Many people ran directly to the city gate, but it was not the first time that the escorted green battalion soldiers had dealt with such a situation, and their spears and waist knives were exhausted, and they were arrayed outside the city gate, retreating into the city little by little, but anyone who dared to step forward was directly executed, in order to prevent these people from taking advantage of the situation to rush in.

When I entered the city, there were many people begging along the streets, among them with straw sticks, selling children and girls, or selling themselves. When it comes to misery, it doesn't seem to be worse than outside the city.

Hurried back to the county office and explained the circumstances of the trip. The officials on the other side of the city were very happy, it is said that there were already people who resisted donations and taxes in Yanping Mansion and robbed the silver of filial piety, and killed the entire escort team, and when the green camp arrived, those corpses were robbed of their underwear and socks.

"After that, I'm afraid there won't even be any bones left."

When the magistrate said this, the wife and cousin on the side all shivered. However, the wife and brother are far away from the capital, and it always takes time to go back and forth, let alone the time to go to the ministry.

"Well, wait a little longer, if you can't open a porridge field in the city, as long as there is no chaos in the city and the city gate is controlled, we will have a way to live."