The occupations of craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were fixed, ancestral and hereditary, even for masons.

But whether it is an ordinary mason or a munitions maker, the salary is frighteningly low, and it is difficult to support the family.

Chang Yu gave an order to summon the craftsmen who were proficient in making firearms and gunpowder in Taiyuan City, so Jinyiwei, Dongchang and the military acted immediately, and nearly 200 people were summoned in one hour.

Suddenly summoned to the barracks, these military craftsmen and ordinary craftsmen were all terrified, especially the people who brought them were the little devils of Jinyi Weidong Factory.

In an empty warehouse, more than 100 people sat together, and Chang Yu stood in front of a silver car in front of them, smiled slightly, grabbed a handful of silver and slowly threw it on the ground, making a loud noise, attracting everyone's attention to roll with the silver.

"Do your job well, and you will be able to divide the money."

Immediately there was a discussion that the silver was too tempting and too motivating, even though they did not know what to do at this time.

The job is simple, make explosives such as gunpowder packs, grenades, grenades, etc.

Explosives (black powder) appeared as early as the Tang Dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty, it had been very popular, and there were many styles of various firearms manufactured, and even the formula of one sulfur, two nitrate and three charcoal was well known.

It's just that in this era of cold weapons, firearms have only been used as auxiliaries, and have not been taken seriously, even if they are artillery, they are only used to attack and defend the city, because they are rarely used in heavy field battles, and only the tiger squat cannon (mortar predecessor) of Qi Shaobao's army is short-lived.

It turned out to be a firearm, and these craftsmen immediately came to the spirit, Chang Yu's requirements were simple, one did not need a cannon, two did not need a gun, as long as all kinds of explosives exploded at one point, what kind of gunpowder bag, stone thunder, large firecrackers (can be used as grenades) and so on.

Collect all the gunpowder materials that can be used in Taiyuan, how much can be done, how much can be made, Chang Yu knows that the source of charcoal and sulfur for making gunpowder is relatively easy, but nitrate is difficult, in addition to natural saltpeter, it can only be slowly and naturally generated and extracted in the shade of the latrine, with a long time span.

But at the moment, the situation was urgent, so he could only do his best, and at the same time, Chang Yu sent people to immediately collect gunpowder materials from surrounding cities and send craftsmen to Taiyuan.

After all, he came from later generations, had a wide range of knowledge, and had also served as a soldier, even if he had not made any firearms, but he still had a lot of theoretical knowledge.

So there was a strange scene in the warehouse, no one could have imagined that the Ming Dynasty Dongchang factory supervisor would roll up his sleeves and a group of craftsmen lying on the ground to draw various drawings, chirping crookedly for half an hour.

"These are military industry experts, they should be treated with a generous salary" Chang Yu looked at the ragged military craftsmen in the warehouse, and couldn't help but sigh in a low voice, Chunxiang next to him didn't understand: "They are craftsmen, it is impossible to get more than those who are officials."

"You know a p"

Chang Yu patted his body, turned around and walked to the door of the warehouse, and told Hu Ling, who was on duty, to tell him to pay attention to fire prevention, pay attention to production safety, and show that he was solely responsible for building firearms, and tried his best to meet the requirements of these craftsmen.

Walking out of the warehouse, it was already dark, and Chang Yu waved his hand: "Go to Jiaocheng."

At the same time, outside the Yinghui Gate in the east of Taiyuan City, more than 300 people rode alone and double, riding horses outside the moat, Wu Mengming looked up at the sky, lifted the scarf up, and cursed in his heart that the damn weather was too cold.

Although the weather was cold, the eyes of more than 300 people behind him were shining, and it was difficult to hide their joy.

"Lord Wu, take the East Road or the South Road?" Tang Potian asked softly.

Wu Mengming looked to the east and then to the south: "If you take the east road, go straight to the east to Yangquan and then go south, although it is safe, but the road is too far, and it takes half a circle."

As he spoke, he looked at the south side again: "Taking the south road and going straight to the southwest to Changzhi and then going to Weihui is the nearest road, but it is too close to the range of the thief army, and it is easy to run into a small stream of rogues, what do you say?" ”

"Take the South Road"

Almost at the same time, Tang Potian, Cheng Ming, and Li Tiezhu reached an agreement.

"Just with our three hundred brothers, even if we encounter a small stream of rogues, we are not afraid, and it is still okay to escape at the worst" Tang Potian said.

Wu Mengming was silent for a while, and nodded heavily: "Then take the south road, although you have a dangerous trip, but you are rich and dangerous, and the hundreds of taels of silver that you will share on this trip are certain."

Cheers immediately came from behind him, and one by one they screamed, Wu Mengming waved his hand and galloped first.

When night fell, seven of the eight gates of Taiyuan City had been closed, and only the big south gate in the southwest was open, and the security was extremely strict under the brilliant lights, and only allowed to enter and not to go out.

The two gates of the southern city were guarded by Zhou Yuji's closest people, and the order received was that during the day, except for the yamen officials, refugees and laborers could go out of the city, and any idle people were forbidden to go out of the city.

At night, it is strictly forbidden to enter or leave the city, and refugees from afar can only wait until dawn under porridge shacks and temporary shacks outside the city to enter the city.

Obviously, Chang Yu is an exception, not only out of the city, but also with a lot of pomp, he transferred a total of more than 300 people from the military camp to the three guards and one army.

The two hundred households on duty didn't say anything, and no one dared to stop the factory superintendent, and they were not qualified to stop them, and they watched the team go out of the city one after another.

At the gate of Chang Yu Lerma City, he looked at the refugees hiding in the porridge shacks and temporary shacks by the city wall, and then looked at the endless queue in the distance in the south, and sighed deeply.

Then he turned his head and glanced at the soldiers in the doorway, the two guards of the hundred households, and immediately looked nervous, looking at him a little helpless.

He took out a few taels of silver and handed it to one person: "Give it to the brothers, and be smart at night."

"Mr. Xie Changgong"

The soldiers were overjoyed, and the rumors that the young factory supervisor was kind and charitable were indeed true.

Tightened his neck, looked up at the night, Chang Yu looked bitter, Zhen Nima is cold, what are you doing with these sins, and then whispered to Chunxiang and the others beside him: "Let's go."

The drawbridge over the moat had been lifted, but the water was frozen, and there was no obstacle to walking, and everyone dismounted, and the refugees who were facing them really quickened their pace and ran towards the light of the city gate, and they could already smell the porridge.

After crossing the moat, everyone got on their horses and galloped south along the official road by the Fen River, and they could always meet groups of refugees along the way, and they looked pretty good, thanks to the fact that a temporary porridge shed was set up every twenty or thirty miles from Jiaocheng Road.

In fact, these porridge shacks are also a simple post station, for refugees to shelter from the wind and keep warm, and more of a psychological comfort.

The road was dark and night, and the snow road was slippery, and the team was not too fast, but even so, Chang Yu caught up with a team when he first arrived in Jinyuan, which was a logistics baggage team that transported food to the front line, and the city deployed more than 50,000 troops, and the consumption of grain and grass was not a small number.

After traveling for dozens of miles, they finally caught up with the large army, which was the second group of men and horses of Zhou Yuji's dispatch in the afternoon, more than 30,000 people, and the black and oppressive team could not see the end, occupying the entire official road, and the oncoming refugees had to avoid walking from the fields or rivers.

"Let's go, let's ......" A few brocade guards opened the way in front of them, which immediately caused the dissatisfaction of those soldiers and shouted Who are you, what are you doing, the ...... of that army

"Dongchang Jinyiwei errand" Jinyiwei roared, and immediately no one shouted, dodging a small path to let Chang Yu's men pass quickly.

More than ten miles later, there was another team with no end in sight, and this was the first batch of more than 20,000 people this afternoon.

Chang Yu inquired, the commanders of these two teams were Wang Yongkui, Zhu Kongxun, plus Niu Yong's vanguard a few days ago, Zhou Yuji sent all his descendants to the front line of Jiaocheng, and at this time, all the reinforcements left in Taiyuan were from Xuanda, that is, He Chengxin and Yang Zhenwei's men.

Lao Zhou's bowl of water was uneven, Chang Yu was puzzled, and planned to chase Zhou Yuji and knock on it, but Zhou Yuji was two or three hours ahead of him, and he was a light and fast horse, so he should have arrived in Jiaocheng early.

From Taiyuan to Jiaocheng for more than 100 miles, it took Chang Yu more than three hours to arrive.

A few miles north of Jiaocheng, on the bank of the big river, dozens of bonfires are lit up, hundreds of soldiers are patrolling, some are setting up camps, and there are traces of newly excavated fortifications near the river, it seems that Niu Yong has begun to arrange a defensive line here.

After inquiring about a hundred households on duty, Niu Yong led the troops to garrison in Jiaocheng at this time, and Zhou Yuji also passed in the morning, and he should also be in Jiaocheng at this time.

Across the river, soon arrived at the north gate of Jiaocheng, soon there were soldiers on duty to verify their identity, it seems that the degree of martial law is not trivial, a question only to know that Jiaocheng at this time four city gates only open the north gate.

Chang Yu asked his subordinates to enter the city to find a foothold, and he took Chunxiang and more than 20 other followers into the city without entering the city, but went south under the east city wall.

Looking at the south of the city in the distance, there are several bonfires in the east and west, each bonfire is a sentry post, during which there are patrols in the surrounding area to patrol constantly, each team ranges from dozens to hundreds of people.

"Who? Password"

Chang Yu was still more than 50 meters away from a fire in the south of the city when he was discovered, and many people immediately poured in everywhere.

"Dongchang's," Chunxiang said loudly.

He didn't know the password, so even if he said the people from Dongchang, the other party still didn't relax his vigilance, but slowly surrounded him and asked Chang Yu and the others to show their identity credentials.

"It turns out that it's really the adults of Dongchang" After checking their identities, the soldiers on duty finally breathed a sigh of relief and scattered a lot.

"We just came from Taiyuan to take a look, we haven't entered the city yet, and we don't know the password yet."

Chunxiang explained.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you don't have a password, you still move around at will, and the area around Jiaocheng to the east of Qi County is a hundred miles, and the open piles and secret sentinels are as dense as cow's hair, and there are also all kinds of secret agents and spies of the thief army, and one will be handed over if you are not careful."

"What's that password?" Chang Yu asked.

"I'm sorry everyone, you have to go to the city to ask General Niu, there is an order from above, no one is allowed to leak it at will" The soldiers were very respectful to the people of Dongchang, but if they knew that it was the Dongchang Governor who was asking at this moment, they would probably be shocked enough.

The alertness is not bad, Chang Yu nodded secretly, and then said: "Okay, you brothers have worked hard" As he spoke, he took Chunxiang and the others around the city wall and did not go far.

Looking at the night of the black hole in the distance, Chang Yu knew that the land of a hundred miles from Jiaocheng to Fenzhou Mansion was full of danger at all times, and even at this moment, there were spies from the two armies fighting to the death.

But for some reason, he had an impulse, an urge to go and venture into the darkness of the world himself.

The clenched fist slowly loosened, and Chang Yu waved his hand and led everyone around the city wall and returned.

"Father-in-law Chang down there?"

When I first arrived at the southeast corner, someone in the city suddenly shouted, and the voice was Zhou Yuji.

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