In the afternoon.

This huge caravan, and the traders who came along the way, soon arrived at the gate of Danyang County.

However, I saw that the city gate of the county town was replaced with a new large bronze gate, and the city gate was newly decorated. It's just that the mud wall at the head of the city is too low, and you can still see that this was once a small county town.

The earthen city wall of the county town is only three people high, mainly to prevent thieves. Against the rebels and the large bandits, the earthen wall has little defense.

Outside the East City Gate, there stood a row of ten soldiers guarding the city, staring fiercely at everyone who entered and exited Danyang City.

The county soldiers of the Great Chu Dynasty are almost all made up, and they are not much stronger than the government officials, most of them are crooked melons and cracked dates, and they are angry.

But these Danyang County soldiers are completely different.

They all had big shoulders and round waists, strong bodies, with iron helmets on their heads, wearing a new set of iron armor, protecting from head to toe, holding treasure swords, stabbing shields, and spears, and the knives and guns were smeared with tung oil, and the cold light was clear.

The monarchs and ministers of this caravan were shocked when they saw that the soldiers of Danyang County were so well-equipped.

It's actually iron armor!

This power is extraordinary, one armored soldier is enough to cut ten unarmored soldiers, and these ten Danyang soldiers can cut dozens of unarmored soldiers as melons, there is no problem.

Hundreds of rogue couges will probably change color in the face of them.

This full set of iron armor, even the guards of Jinling City do not have iron armor, they use leather armor, and only the palace forbidden army has iron armor.

Unexpectedly, even the soldiers guarding the city in Danyang County were full sets of armor.

Although there are very few soldiers in the county, usually only a hundred, but if there is a set of soldiers, it is also a considerable expense.

"This soldier brother, your Danyang County Commander is so willing to spend money, why do you everyone have a set of iron armor?!"

Kong Hanyou asked one of the captains of the soldiers at the city gate.

"Spend a fart of silver!

In Danyang County, every household, every man strikes iron, and these are all made by himself. A set of tempered armor will be built in a month. Where do you need to use the money of the county government!

Our soldiers in Danyang have to serve half a month of conscription every year, and they all bring their own equipment. If you don't wear armor or a sword, you can't stand at the gate of the city with your face. ”

The soldiers defending the city patted their chests and said with great pride.

These Danyang soldiers are not soldiers for generations, but conscripts, and they are directly subordinate to the soldiers of the lord of Danyang County, the lord of the fief.

They used to be miners in the mine and blacksmiths in the iron shop, and they were already good at striking iron, and they were all armed forces.

However, it was their turn to serve in the levies, and they stood guard at the gate of the city.

Play with knives and guns, and practice martial arts on a temporary basis.

Don't look at Danyang County, there are only 100 soldiers, but there are nearly 2,000 people who take turns to serve in conscription every year. Men in every household are required to serve in the army.

Fortunately, they only need to guard the gates of the county seat, and this task is actually quite easy. If you are serving as a servant of the imperial court and want to go to the north as a soldier to defend against the Xiongnu, it will be very difficult.

Kong Hanyou's face froze, and he was speechless.

Emperor Xiang Yanran couldn't help but sigh when he saw the soldiers guarding the city.

This Danyang County!

It's an elite cave!

Miners, blacksmiths, are all hard work, lean and strong, waving their arms all day long, and both arms are brute force.

They were soldiers, and they were born elite soldiers.

"This defender of the city is so fierce and vicious, aren't the merchants who enter and leave the city afraid?"

Xiang Yanran looked at the merchant and asked.

"What are you afraid of, the thieves are afraid of them!

They guarded the gate of Danyang County one by one. They just stand guard and don't ask for money.

Those foreign thieves came to Danyang County, and when they saw the posture of the soldiers, they knew that Danyang County was not easy to provoke, and they didn't dare to make trouble in the city at all.

The law and order in Danyang County is excellent, and I haven't heard of any thieves committing crimes in the county.

We serious businessmen, I wish they were guarding the gate of the city as door gods. ”

The footman shook his head.

The Emperor was silent.

The soldiers are strong, and there are naturally few thieves.

However, this still can't explain why the thieves and judicial cases in the list of Danyang County's political achievements have been completely cleared.

Even in the Imperial City of Jinling, there are many thieves, and there are judicial disputes every day.

...

Outside the gate of Danyang County, there is also a table with large characters on the wall.

It reads: "Recruit landless people. All landless people, who go into the mountains to mine iron ore and transport ore for one year, and do not violate the law and discipline, can be citizens of Danyang County and included in the county's household registration. After that, he can be a blacksmith in the county, get a wooden house, and make a living by making iron. ”

A clerk holding a pen and ink, making a registration, and writing a number for each move.

In front of the table, there was a queue of dozens of people, all waiting for the selection of the officials.

This number alone has been ranked after tens of thousands.

Prime Minister Kong Hanyou and Imperial Doctor Wang Su looked at each other.

Danyang County has recruited tens of thousands of displaced people!?

Because there is no major disaster in Dachu at present, and the minor disaster has survived through gritting its teeth, and it will not make the people leave their hometowns, so there are not many displaced people.

Danyang County actually recruited a large number of displaced people, what does this mean?

There is a shortage of people in Danyang County, and it is very short.

It's too late to rely on fertility alone, and you need to recruit people from outside.

Almost come to the harvest, go to the mine to work as a coolie for a year, as long as you can endure this hardship, you can stay as a county citizen.

As for those who are slippery and can't endure hardships, they can't stay in the mine and will naturally leave.

The arable land in Danyang County is limited and cannot accommodate too many people.

But the mine can accommodate a large population. Mining, hard work, you can do it if you have the strength, and you don't have any skills. Tens of millions of people can be fully absorbed.

...

The caravan entered the city.

Only then did I find out that some of the officials in Danyang County were actually on horseback, and they kept patrolling various neighborhoods on horseback every day.

If you walk down that street, you can see the officials patrolling.

The thieves really didn't dare to be presumptuous in Danyang County.

The thief has two legs, where there is a horse that runs fast.

In the hundreds of counties and thousands of counties in Dachu, I am afraid that only the officials of Danyang County are extravagant enough to patrol on horseback.

However, these are just hors d'oeuvres.

This large caravan really entered the depths of Danyang County.

Emperor Xiang Yanran, Prime Minister Kong Hanyou, Imperial Historian Wang Su, and other high-ranking officials and ministers, they saw the true face of Danyang County clearly, and they were really shocked.

within the county.

Along a long inland river, next to it are towering earthen blast furnaces, smoking and fire. Huge water conservancy blowers, driven by water conservancy, are running.

Many young men smelt iron next to the earthen blast furnace.

What comes out of these small earthen blast furnaces is not ordinary pig iron and wrought iron.

Instead, the pig iron is melted, mixed with the iron ore into a paste, and then sprinkled with some special mineral powder to form "fried steel".

As soon as it comes out, it is fried steel.

The quality of this fried steel is excellent.

Without repeated forging, it is naturally much higher than iron. Naturally, a lot of manpower and time for quenching iron are saved.

Compared with the Great Chu Dynasty, almost all of the smelted in other places are still pig iron and wrought iron, and they have not mastered the method of steelmaking.

Along the streets and alleys in the county, there are rows of blacksmith shops, and there are almost no edges.

"Jingle Bell~!"

In the blacksmith shop, many strong and capable men are wielding hammers and hitting all kinds of iron tools.

And those middle-aged women are using small carts to push the ore from the mountains and transport them into the county seat.

The inns in the county are full of traders from all over the country, purchasing a large number of ironware from Danyang County.

Emperor Xiang Yanran and the ministers of the Three Princes and Nine Qing Dynasty chartered an inn in the county seat and put down their bags.

Then, the emperor and his ministers went around the city of Danyang County.

The county yamen will definitely not go, and the data is too easy to falsify. The officials of Danyang County stiffened their necks and said that the list of political achievements was true, and there was no way to confirm it.

Go directly to Danyang City for a turn, the situation in Danyang County is naturally clear at a glance.

They went in and out of the streets of the county, and the blacksmith shops.

These blacksmith shops, the door plaque hangs the signboard "Widow Li Blacksmith Shop, Wang Da Hammer Blacksmith Shop, Iron Egg Blacksmith Shop..."

On the signboard, there are all kinds of drawings - whatever iron tool you can make, draw one on it.

Moreover, there is a special rule in Danyang County, each blacksmith shop is only allowed to beat three to five kinds of ironware, and no more can be beaten.

In this way, when businessmen come to Danyang County, they can see the signboard at a glance, and they don't need to ask more.

The ironware was almost finished and was bought quickly.

They are all common iron tools such as large ploughs, hoes, sickles, kitchen knives, scissors, and small hammers. They are all ordinary families, the most commonly used iron tools.

As little as a few hundred wen, as much as one or two taels of silver, it is built very quickly and sold quickly.

The big farmer ordered Yang Chu to watch at the door of a blacksmith shop, and when he met a merchant, he casually asked about the price of iron ore and ironware, and quickly calculated the profit of each transaction, and his heart was shocked.

Deduct the money for the purchase of iron ore, the money for steel frying, as well as the taxes to be paid, and other expenses.

A very small blacksmith shop, a blacksmith can earn 500 copper coins a day, and a monthly income of 15 taels of silver - this is also the income of a small rich family in Jinling City.

You must know that a cooking cake is only two copper coins, and ten copper coins are enough for a strong man to eat.

However, in Danyang County, every household is striking iron, and almost every household has such an income. If there are several men in a family, it will earn dozens of taels of silver.

It's unimaginable.