It's none of his business, Yu Youhan listened to those whispers in the eyes of others, but when he came to him, he already seemed a little unscrupulous, and then left the compound casually and returned to the old mansion to rest.

This inside story was something he had speculated about earlier, but there was no conclusive evidence. Now, a sentence of the chief helmsman has already explained the situation. What kind of existence is the guy hiding behind these gentry, the mystery has aroused Yu Youhan's curiosity, but that's all. As for reporting to the Qing court's government or something, firstly, there was no blatant rebellion in this club, and secondly, he was employed by others, and his professional ethics still existed, but more importantly, Yu Youhan never thought that he had any reasonable relationship with that bullshit Tartar court, and it was polite enough for him not to go on a killing spree at every turn, let alone betray the owner.

"Isn't it just a year, and after a year, I figured out what to do. When the time comes, when there is silver, the heavens and the earth are so big, there will always be a place where I should go. ”

Calculating the time, a year later should be about the thirteenth year of the Shunzhi calendar, or the end of the tenth year of the Yongli calendar of the Great Unification Calendar. For Yu Youhan, it is nothing more than a name about time, and it is good that the days have passed. It's a pity that not everyone can be like him, and the chief helmsman who he imagined could run such a large stall of a mutual aid society should be a busy person, and as it turned out, he really guessed right.

The busyness of the governor of Guangzhou's yamen did not diminish with the cooler weather, but became more enthusiastic than in summer. In terms of summer tax, the areas recovered in World War I last year did not have to worry so much about the policy of reducing and reducing taxes, but in the autumn harvest season, the autumn tax began to be collected, although according to the system of the Ming court, it was not until February of the following year, but for the local officials in the eastern counties of Huizhou and Guangzhou, this work that had been stopped for less than half a year officially kicked off at the autumn harvest.

Most of the craftsmanship of drenching and kicking has not fallen, and the fire consumption is also to be levied normally, these things, the officials have no effort to pay attention to, as long as the states and counties below do not go too far, the political envoy and even the governor's yamen will only turn a blind eye. Because for these normal gray incomes, Chen Kai does not have enough interests to replace them at this stage, and he does not plan to learn from the fire played by the Qing court in history, because the purpose of such operations is not to reduce the burden of the people, but also to increase the burden of the people because of the shameful failure.

"Just like Huang Zongxi said, every tax reform, even if it is formulated for the purpose of reducing the burden on the people, the result is often to increase the burden on the people again and again."

Once again, he skipped the matter of tax reform in the planned affairs in the book, and Chen Kai couldn't help but think of the famous Huang Zongxi's law in later generations. But after thinking about it, this is just the ninth year of Yongli, Huang Zongxi is still busy fighting against the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, and he doesn't have time to figure it out.

"Forget it, let it be. Anyway, I've done this kind of shameless thing more than once, Mr. Lizhou, whether you can survive or not depends on the creation. ”

After laughing, Chen Kai couldn't help but think of what happened in Zhejiang. Zhoushan was occupied by the Ming army, which opened up a new battlefield. And the anti-Qing people in eastern Zhejiang, it stands to reason that they will also respond. However, Chen Kai is not optimistic about this, because in history, Shen Tiaolun's restart of the Ming army in Dalanshan was easily annihilated by the Qing army, rather than wasting his strength in such an inopportune time period, it is better to wait for a better time, at least he thinks so.

Letters, Wang Jiang's, Cao Conglong's, and Chen Kai have all sent people to send them over and write them to several anti-Qing people in eastern Zhejiang. For example, Huang Zongxi, such as Lu Yuding, and then for example, the main son, Shen Tiaolun. Of course, Zheng Chenggong's relevant explanations are naturally indispensable, and even when Zheng Chenggong mentioned the Zhoushan incident in his letter, Chen Kai immediately replied, believing that this is not the time to use the remnants of the anti-Qing movement in eastern Zhejiang.

In this regard, Chen Kai believes that Zheng Chenggong can understand his train of thought and can basically agree with it, because Zheng Chenggong does intend to recover Zhejiang in the next step. However, whether Huang Zongxi and Shen Tiaolun would follow his advice, Chen Kai did not know.

Zhejiang's affairs are still just some idle people at this stage, Chen Kai hopes that these idle people still exist in the chess game before he decides to use it, but people are not chess pieces after all, he is influential and persuasive, but the real decision still has to be made by Huang Zongxi and them, and the result is also borne by them.

There, for Chen Kai, it is beyond the reach of the whip. In contrast, the initial backbone of the Tiandihui organization in Jiangxi and Nanjiang was personally trained by him, and these people returned to the local lurk, and then quietly developed members and established grassroots organizations, although Chen Kai still could not actually control it due to the long distance, but compared to Zhejiang, there is a big killer of the teacher-student relationship, and there is the existence of such an organization as the Tiandihui, and the centripetal force is undoubted. The only thing that worries Chen Kai is whether the Tiandihui organization in Jiangxi will be exposed after its development and growth, and this risk factor will continue to increase with the increase in members.

Worry is inevitable, but simple worry is the most meaningless thing for Chen Kai. Guangdong's tax revenue is gradually recovering, but to support an army of such a scale, especially Chen Kai has never planned to stop tossing, there will only be more and more places to use money, and the amount will become more and more huge, so it is even more necessary to seize all the time to continue tossing.

The fragrant wood business in Dongguan and Xin'an is the old book of eating local resources, but fortunately it is a renewable resource, so you don't have to worry about future generations. Even, even if it is non-renewable, Chen Kai will not hesitate at all. It's just that the growth cycle of the trees is there, and although this business is to make money on the unit price, it is trapped in circular production. It's not like the silk of Shunde at all, with the huge amount of money invested, the speed of industrial recovery is so fast that it makes people's blood pressure skyrocket.

While the governor yamen was busy, Chen Kai had already rushed to Foshan to inspect the construction of the Foshan Manufacturing Branch. It was the most important steel base in Guangdong for a long time, and the lonely village casting was also one of the eight scenic spots of Foshan at that time, and even the most famous one. But now, with the destruction of the Ming and Qing wars, and the fact that Guo Zhiqi took away half of the blacksmiths by administrative order when Li Dingguo's army marched westward a few months ago, the scale of iron production in Foshan is now very small, and it is no longer the old view.

When Chen Kai arrived, the factory wall of the Foshan Manufacturing Branch had already been built. The planning of this place was first decided by Chen Kai, but the parts of the hydraulic machinery had to be manufactured from Chaozhou, and by the time they arrived, they were not actually built at the same time as the factory.

The walls are neatly aligned and continuous, just like the Chaozhou side, and there are teams of guards leading dogs to patrol outside. A watchtower built against the wall monitors the area and can also look into the interior of the factory. Compared with the outside, the land inside has already been leveled, especially the planned path has been put into use early, due to the large-scale influx of materials and raw materials such as iron, there has been a certain degree of damage, but there is no care about maintenance.

The plant is still built in accordance with the style of the Chaozhou Manufacturing Bureau, the first batch of hydraulic machinery components have been delivered, Chen Kai came over this time because the first plant was built, and the following was reported, Chen Kai immediately came, because the role to be played here is not smaller than that of the Chaozhou Manufacturing Bureau.

The huge water wheel is constantly rotating under the driving force of the Beijiang River, and the cycle repeats. The water wheel is connected to the gear, crankshaft and other parts, driving the hammer at the terminal.

In the workshop, a hydraulic blower pushes the fire to a very high temperature, and the apprentices use pliers to heat the iron into the fire. Later, the apprentice's master empirically heated it to a sufficient temperature through the flame and the color of the iron, then clamped it out with iron tongs and turned around and placed it on the iron felt.

The hammer hanging from the iron felt hammered on the iron at a speed of nearly 100 beats per minute, causing sparks to fly everywhere. The craftsman clamped the iron and constantly adjusted the position and angle of the iron under the hammer, and the iron began to deform at a speed visible to the naked eye - this process was very fast, because the iron presented in front of Chen Kai's eyes was not large. Originally, the iron had been heated on the fire to change color, and the already relatively soft iron gradually began to thin out after continuous hammering, and soon turned into an iron flake-like thing.

The craftsman adjusted the angle and position, and the iron sheet gradually became an almost rectangular sheet. At this time, after hammering for a while, the color of the iron began to recover, and the craftsman took it out of the iron felt, threw it in the basket casually, and continued to beat the next piece of iron.

This scene, just like what Chen Kai saw in the Chaozhou Manufacturing Bureau back then, the difference is minimal. However, as in the past, the iron is quickly deformed by the rapid forging of the hydraulic hammer and becomes the shape that the blacksmith needs, and then thrown into a basket and sent by the workers to other workshops for further processing. Although this is not an assembly line operation, Chen Kai's division of labor in the South Australian Ordnance Workshop is still playing a role, and the speed of production is already beyond the reach of manpower.

The cart carrying a basket full of small iron pieces was pushed out of the workshop by the workers, and Chen Kai and his party followed the cart all the way down, watching every step in their eyes, until the last two workshops.

As soon as he entered, the worker moved the basket from the cart to the young craftsman who was directly facing the door. At this time, the young craftsman already had four baskets in front of him, and when the new basket arrived, he pointed casually, and the worker carried the basket on the far right hand into the trolley and pushed it out of the workshop.

Chen Kai did not continue to leave, only to see the young craftsman from behind him bring a new basket and put it on his right hand again, his left hand picked up the iron piece in the basket in front of him, and his right hand held a tool that looked like a vernier caliper, and pushed it down with his thumb, and the two incisions of the ruler were stuck on the iron sheet, looked at it slightly, and then released it again and re-stuck the other two side lengths. After measuring the length of the edge, he measured the distance between the holes in the iron sheet. He subconsciously shook his head and threw it into the new basket on the right.

After throwing this, he reached out again and picked up the next piece of iron, and measured the side length and hole spacing as before, but this time he nodded and threw it into the basket on the left.

After such a reciprocal work, soon, as an apprentice came over and moved the basket on the left, Chen Kai did not continue to look at it, but turned out of the workshop and came to the final assembly workshop. By this time, the pieces of iron had been polished by water mills from the previous workshop, and upon entering, the apprentices brought the baskets to their masters, who strung them together into a real pair of armor with strips of leather and rope according to custom-made specifications.

The craftsman is very skillful, piercing the leather strip or rope and tying it tightly, so that the nail leaves are joined together. Chen Kai stood at the front of the crowd, quietly watching those craftsmen put on the nail leaves, but he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

In the history of armor development, the East and the West have entered a watershed since entering the Iron Armor Age. Europe began around the Middle Ages, giving the impression to later generations that it had entered the era of plate armor, while in China, the bronze armor of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the iron armor era of the Han dynasty entered the era of iron armor.

Compared with the Chinese armor, each part of the European plate armor is forged from fixed iron armor, which looks stronger. In fact, before the Renaissance, plate armor that was truly like a humanoid tank and enough to reach the vast majority of cold weapon attacks was rarer than the Mingguang armor, which was known as the pinnacle of Chinese armor, and was only possible to be possessed by kings and a very small number of nobles, and it has always been a treasure inherited by families. The reason for the rarity was that the technical level of the time was limited, and only a very small number of skilled craftsmen could barely make it with experience and a long time of manufacturing.

Of course, other nobles of this period were not unable to have a set of plate armor, but they were often just a thin iron shelf, with limited defensive capabilities, and the price was very expensive. Therefore, in the Middle Ages, the average aristocracy was often more accustomed to wearing chain mail when fighting, because it was more cost-effective.

Since the Renaissance, smelting and forging technology have been improved, coupled with the use of machinery, the real plate armor that only the great nobles could have in the past has slowly become popular, but the price is still quite expensive, so expensive that a knight buys a full set of equipment - plate armor, war horses, weapons and equipment for squires, and the family is not thick enough often to go bankrupt.

The collections in later museums are basically products of the Renaissance era. That era passed, and the era of popularization of firearms arrived, and no matter how strong and expensive armor was, it could not carry cheap lead bullets, so it was naturally gradually eliminated.

On the Chinese side, in fact, there have been more solid armors, such as Mingguang armor, Shanwen armor and the like, and the defense against cold weapons is quite amazing. In the Song Dynasty, the Zha armor represented by the Buren Armor was popular in the Song army, and even the Tiefutu with the Jin people was also affected by it. There are even more exaggerated cold-forged steel heavy ties, according to the record of "Mengxi Bi Tan", an ordinary bow and crossbow cannot shoot through the armor leaf at fifty paces, and the ordinary word here is compared to the divine arm bow, and its solidity can be seen.

When the armor was basically formed in the Song Dynasty, a set of armor was composed of a scarf, a neck, a breastplate, a shoulder swallow, a belly swallow, a cover arm, an arm, a robe belly, a skirt armor, a mud pick, etc., almost all the soldiers were wrapped in the iron armor. After the Song Dynasty, most of the zha jia was like this, and it was even more simplified, and there were also factors such as the decline of the country's financial resources.

By the time of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the armor still existed in the army, but it was no longer popular, and the most common infantry either had no armor or simply wore cotton armor with a certain bulletproof ability and low price. It is generally worn by cavalry, and it is often robbed of a lot of share by chain mail.

Today's Chinese battlefield is in a period of hot and cold weapons succession, and then in the hot and humid place in the south, Chen Kai presided over the Ordnance Bureau, the focus on armor is far less than weapons, is because of the weather in Fujian and Guangdong, whether it is a armor or cotton armor, there is very little time that can come in handy throughout the year, most of the time the soldiers put on Mo said that the war will first have to sweat. At that time, most of the armor was captured, and there were very few self-made, and the most careful armor was the rattan helmet. When Feng Chengshi presided over the Ordnance Bureau, he put some thought into the armor, but it didn't completely change.

Armor was eliminated by firearms, this is the choice of the times; The heat in southern China was unbearable, and the northern army fought in the south as much as possible in winter, early spring, and late autumn. However, at such a time and place, Chen Kai took out a large amount of production capacity from the Foshan Manufacturing Branch and the Chaozhou Manufacturing Bureau under construction to produce the armor, and it was inevitable that the sword would go sideways.

In the meantime, there was already a finished armor placed on the shelf next to it, and the person he saw was very different from the Song Dynasty's armor, but it was not much different to him, because he would not wear this. Chen Kai walked closer, took a closer look, and then, in front of everyone, he directly pulled out the guard's saber and slashed directly at the armor, and a spark flew at the end.

At this time, the smile on Chen Kai's face could no longer be hidden, so he turned around and left here, and returned directly to the governor's yamen in Guangzhou. At this time, on the case of the official room, a letter from Li Dingguo was placed there in a dignified manner, and he had obviously read it a long time ago.