On this day, Zhao Dan came to the Handan workshop.

At this moment, Zhao Guo is preparing for war, in fact, Zhao Dan is relatively busy personally, and the reason why he came to the workshop is because Zhao Dan heard another news that the finished product of the Eight Bull Crossbow has been made.

After surrendering to Zhao Guo, the Mo family quickly showed their sincerity, that is, the eight-bull crossbow in front of Zhao Dan.

To be honest, many things of the Mo family may be relatively advanced in this era, but in Zhao Dan's opinion, it is the same thing.

After all, as a later generation, Zhao Dan understands how hot weapons have an overwhelming advantage in the face of cold weapons.

But the eight-bull crossbow should be regarded as an exception, after all, this kind of weapon is definitely a powerful kind in this era, after all, in the Southern Song Dynasty a thousand years later, the cavalry of the Jin Kingdom suffered a big loss in the hands of the eight-bull crossbow.

After witnessing how the Eight Bull Crossbow tore through the heavy armor of the armored cavalry at a long distance, and how it pierced through a dozen scarecrows in iron armor at close range, Zhao Dan nodded with great satisfaction, and said to Lian Po beside him: "What does the general think?" ”

Lian Po's face looked quite serious, and he said to Zhao Dan: "King, this eight-bull crossbow will definitely become a weapon of the country!" ”

People like Zhao Dan who have never been on the battlefield may make mistakes in judgment, but if Lian Po also says so, then there is absolutely no problem at all.

So Zhao Dan was very relieved to call the belly Zhen who presided over the construction of the Eight Bull Crossbow: "How many Eight Bull Crossbows are there in total?" ”

He replied, "Back to the king, one can be built in about ten days." ”

"One in ten days?" Zhao Dan's brows furrowed almost immediately.

If it is at this rate, then it will be 367 a year, what can this number do?

Therefore, Zhao Dan immediately issued a new request to the belly truth: "Belly Zhen master, the widow hopes to see at least two hundred eight-bull crossbows by the end of this year, and more than six hundred by the end of next year!" ”

Belly Zhen was obviously stunned: "King, this is impossible. ”

"Impossible?" Zhao Dan shook his head and said, "Tell me about you and the widow, what is the reason for the production of the Eight Bull Crossbow, the material?" ”

"It's not." Belly Zhen said: "The king's Zhao country has a land of thousands of miles, and all kinds of materials are complete, and it is rare that because Zhao has a grassland, there is no problem with the good ox tendon bowstring needed for the eight ox crossbows." However, the main reason why the ministers are unable to increase production is that the craftsmen are not skilled enough, and there are only twenty craftsmen who can have the complete skill of making the eight-ox crossbow. ”

Zhao Dan shook his head and said, "I heard that there is an assembly line process in the Qin Kingdom, and everyone is responsible for a certain part of it. In this way, those who boil the tendons are responsible for boiling, the carpenters are responsible for making the crossbow bed, those who know how to make crossbows make crossbows, and those who know how to make pulleys make pulleys. As long as everyone makes the parts according to the same standard, then why not put them all together when the time comes? ”

Zhao Dan said this, took a deep look at his belly, and said: "The widow knows that you are very unconvinced about surrendering to the Zhao State, but the widow hopes that you will put away your little thoughts. Don't think that this kind of assembly line process is something in the Qin State Workshop, and the widow knows nothing, if something like this happens next time, then you and the Mo family will be punished. Believe the widow, and you will not want to see that kind of punishment. ”

Ignoring the belly truth, who was completely stunned, Zhao Dan left this small courtyard and came to another place, that is, the printing workshop.

After the belly Zhen donated pine smoke ink, one of the biggest technical difficulties in engraving printing has been overcome.

Books are being printed, Zhao Dan casually picked up a book of poetry that was still exuding the fragrance of ink and looked at it a few times, although it was not as white and smooth as the books of later generations, but at least it was indeed an out-and-out paper book.

"Good, well done." Zhao Dan patted his shoulder and encouraged the craftsmen a few times, making those craftsmen so excited that they fell to the ground, and then turned his head to Zhao Sheng beside him and said:

"Pingyuan-kun, you have been persuading the widow not to come to this kind of place, but look at it, the eight-ox crossbow, the paper-making technique, which one is not something that will change the world? If the widow doesn't pay attention to these things, then what is there to pay attention to the widow? ”

Zhao Sheng was stunned for a moment, and then a wry smile appeared on his face: "The wisdom of the king is far beyond the reach of the minister." ”

What Zhao Dan said is really not false, just talking about papermaking, now with the slow progress of the process, the output of paper has begun to expand, and various institutions in Handan have also begun to replace heavy bamboo slips with paper.

What used to fill an entire room can now be fully transcribed with just a three-finger-wide book, which is an immediate increase in efficiency.

Zhao Dan looked at his uncle and knew that this Pingyuan Jun was still a little unconvinced, but Zhao Dan didn't plan to continue.

Facts speak louder than anything else, and with the slow progress of each process, any conservative school must accept these, otherwise they can only be slowly eliminated by the trend of the times.

After leaving the printing workshop, Zhao Dan came to the weaving workshop with a group of important ministers of Zhao State.

It is also the only place where women are allowed.

As soon as I walked into the door, I was greeted by a small yard, with a few mulberry trees planted in the yard, and a few sheep under the mulberry trees, which were bleating.

To Zhao Sheng and Lian Po's surprise, these sheep looked bare, and they didn't know where the fur on their bodies had gone.

A master craftsman greeted him courteously and saluted respectfully to Zhao Dan: "I've seen the king." ”

Zhao Dan nodded, and said to the master: "I heard that you have already made it?" ”

The master craftsman did not dare to slack off, and immediately waved his hand to order someone to bring a piece of cloth, and respectfully handed it to Zhao Dan: "The king, please see." ”

As soon as this cloth was taken out, a smell came out, which made Zhao Sheng and Lian on the side frown involuntarily.

Zhao Dan didn't have any abnormalities, but picked up the cloth, looked at it a few times and looked at it a few times, with a satisfied smile on his face, and handed the cloth to Zhao Sheng on the side: "Pingyuanjun, take a look." ”

Zhao Sheng was stunned for a moment, then took the cloth and looked at it for a while, with a strange expression on his face: "Is this cloth woven from wool?" ”

The master craftsman on the side raised his head with some pride: "Back to the king, exactly." ”

Zhao Sheng said to Zhao Dan with some puzzlement: "King, this wool weaving matter, the minister heard that there are also a few women in the five northern counties, but in the minister's opinion, if it is a commoner weaving, mulberry hemp is enough; The cloth used by the nobles, silk is sufficient; What is this woolen cloth used for? ”

Zhao Dan said with a smile: "What Pingyuan Jun said is limited to the Central Plains. I think that it is impossible to plant mulberry trees in the grassland of the south of the desert, if it is the future when the army of widows goes out to the desert and Liaodong, how should they keep out the cold? The widow felt that it should fall on this wool. ”

Wool was a very warm cloth, and because the Zhao State occupied the richest part of the Mongolian steppe, it also had enough pastures to raise a large number of sheep.

A sheep can be sheared a total of three times a year, and the raw material produced can be said to be considerable.

The story of sheep eating people has been staged in Western history, and Zhao Dan has reason to believe that as long as the wool can make a lot of money is discovered by the merchants and nobles of Zhao State, countless people will definitely rush to the north of Zhao State with a lot of money.

More importantly, through the production of wool, Zhao was able to further strengthen its control over the northern grasslands, and through the exchanges between the northern grasslands and the Central Plains, the grasslands were more strongly infiltrated and assimilated.

Zhao Sheng and Lian Po listened with disbelief, apparently not quite believing that a small sheep could bring such earth-shaking changes to the grassland.

Zhao Dan shook his head with a smile, and led the two important ministers to the last workshop.

The name of this workshop is "Alchemy Workshop".

As soon as he saw the name of this fang, Zhao Sheng's face couldn't help but show a surprised expression: "The king is going to take the elixir?" ”

In this era, alchemists are actually still very popular.

Not to mention the Warring States Period, the entire feudal era of China for two thousand years, I believe that taking the elixir can be immortal, and in the end, the emperor who ate the elixir and ate himself to death is definitely not one or two.

"Nope." Zhao Dan laughed, shook his head and denied Zhao Sheng's words: "The widow came here today just to see something else." ”

A few people had just walked into the door, and suddenly an explosion sounded, and Mao Sui, who was following Zhao Dan, was startled, and immediately pulled out the long sword on his waist and guarded it in front of Zhao Dan.

Zhao Dan shook his head, looked at the room with black smoke coming out of the room in front of him, and said to Mao Sui: "Quickly go in and save people." ”

With a coughing sound, a figure suddenly rushed out of the room that was still emitting black smoke, this person was pitch black all over his body, even his hair was curled up a lot by the heat, and the whole person staggered to the ground as soon as he rushed out.

Before anyone else could react, the guy suddenly let out a burst of laughter.

"Found it, finally found it!"

Zhao Dan stepped forward and asked very gently, "What did you find?" ”

The black-faced man smiled, "I finally found a ratio that can make it explode according to the recipe explained by the king...... Wait, who are you? ”

Zhao Dan said with a smile: "The widow is your king." ”

When he walked out of the gate of this alchemy workshop, Zhao Dan's whole footsteps became extremely brisk.

Under the uninterrupted experiments of Zhao Guo's monks for five years, with the support of Zhao Dan's seven-character secret recipe "sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal", when a full 36 monks died due to various accidents, the 37th monks finally succeeded in exploring a stable gunpowder ratio.

After witnessing the gunpowder being dispensed and exploding twice, this Fang Shi named Shi Jian became Zhao Guo's lower doctor, and the alert level of the Alchemy Workshop was instantly raised to the point of being on the same level as Zhao Dan, the king.

Although the power of this gunpowder is actually very unsatisfactory now, which can be seen from the fact that it did not even kill Shi Jian, who was close at hand, but the gap between there and no can be said to be very large.

As long as it is slowly improved, at least three or five years, and at most ten or eight years, gunpowder that can be used in military should come out.

This is the real black technology of Zhao Guo!

Zhao Dan was very satisfied with the results of this workshop.