After a stick of incense, Zhen Yan returned to the lobby with a cold face.

Looking at the people with different faces in front of him, Zhen Yan said calmly: "Let's start, those who are willing to leave with my Zhen family stand on the left, and those who don't want to occupy the right." ”

The crowd moved with a slight hesitation, more than thirty people, and finally only a few people stood on the left. The rest all stood on the right side with shame or twinkling eyes, bowing their heads and being silent.

"Well, the results are in. A few of you, sell all the shops in your hands as soon as possible. And the rest of you, do your own thing, and you can leave. Zhen Yan didn't drag the mud and water at all, and had no intention of keeping it at all, so she just said it neatly.

The businessmen who were invited to leave, in the face of Zhen Yan's unrelenting send-off, felt as if they had missed something. But they couldn't think of anything else now, and they left with joy and worry in their hearts.

The Zhen family does not have many heirs, and they treat people kindly, and these "cronies" have a large number of resources in their hands with the help of the Zhen family's tiger skin. Now Zhen Yan didn't even have the slightest intention of letting them return it, so he just ignored it, which really made them very happy.

But some of these smart people have some regrets in their hearts. Zhen Yan gave up so many shops so simply and directly, it must be that he has better business opportunities and plans, and he doesn't care about these. Although they picked up 500,000 for nothing, they seem to have missed 100 million.

After looking at the people on the right with an expressionless face and leaving, Zhen Yan looked at the few people who remained, and said with a slight smile on the corner of his mouth: "You can be regarded as the people my Zhen family can rely on and trust the most." Although we are going to get out of Jizhou today, there is a better future waiting for us in the future. In the future, we will be both prosperous and lossy! ”

"But for the sake of the head of the family!" Several people said in unison with resolute faces.

"You must deal with the shops and caravans quickly, there is still a lot to do." Zhen Yan said solemnly.

"We understand!"

......

Jiangdong, Yuan Shu, who was idle again, began a life of idleness again. During this time, he has been running towards the Ordnance Research Institute, studying bows and crossbows with Huang Chengyan and a few old things in the Mo family.

Yuan Shu knew that it was basically impossible to develop a mature firearm in the past two decades, especially in this somewhat mysterious era. It is difficult for a small bullet to bless the cloud or internal qi like a crossbow arrow, and in the face of an army protected by the cloud, even if it is made, it can only be a toy, unless it is really made of nuclear weapons.

In this case, Yuan Shu naturally had to improve the strong crossbow.

Yuan Shu has always believed that long-range weapons are the future, and standing outside the opponent's attack range and killing them directly is the safest and most effective way. Just like the Divine Arm Crossbow of the Song Dynasty, the scumbag team can still maintain a certain combat power by relying on the Divine Arm Crossbow.

In Yuan Shu's vision, each army should be equipped with enough strong crossbowmen to frustrate its spirit with a rain of arrows before fighting. Although it is said that "there are only three arrows in battle", these three arrows can be given almost for nothing, just like the battle between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan, several waves of arrows rain down to frustrate their sharpness and can cause a small amount of damage. After the opponent rushes up, you can directly throw away the crossbow in your hand to change it into a shield soldier or spearman, except for the need to scrap and consume a lot of crossbow machines, there are no other problems.

Yuan Shu doesn't care about this money, how much can he increase his combat power for nothing. Moreover, in Yuan Shu's opinion, the vast majority of soldiers should be equipped with simple crossbows, and they can still shoot before the enemy rushes to his side. At the beginning of the war, the soldiers who handed over the short hand were a small number after all, and the rest of the soldiers in the rear could only be in a hurry, at most shouting. At this time, if you have the opportunity, it is better to shoot some cold arrows with your crossbow at the enemy's dense area than to do nothing.

A crossbow is much easier to control than a bow and arrow, and it can be used by a person after a few strokes. As long as you train regularly, it is not too much of a problem to ensure sufficient accuracy, at least not too crooked.

The only problem is the design of the crossbow. Yuan Shu has a lot of money, he doesn't care about the cost of the crossbow, anyway, he has craftsmen, manpower and money in his hands, and when the number of soldiers can't be too large, he can't wait to arm every soldier to the teeth. Inner armor, leggings, leggings, these protective gear that are beneficial for combat and long-distance running, Dachu's soldiers are almost everyone's hand.

However, it was too technically difficult to design a streamlined yet powerful hand crossbow.

If it is a strong crossbow like an ordinary rhubarb crossbow, it is very powerful, but some of it is too huge and cumbersome, and basically it is inconvenient for other soldiers to equip it except for specially equipped strong crossbowmen. The hand crossbow that Yuan Shu needed was a small hand crossbow that was lightweight, did not need to be wound with the power of the legs, and was used for shooting at close range and had a certain lethality, just as an auxiliary combat tool.

"Your Majesty, how about this crossbow?" Huang Chengyan and Mo Shen, the current giant of the Mo family, took Yuan Shu to visit the latest improved version of the hand crossbow that was now designed, and Mo Shen couldn't help but ask.

As a contemporary Mo family giant, Mo Shen was born as an orphan, and was discovered by the previous generation of Mo family giants, accepted as an apprentice, and gave him the name Mo.

It seems that as a famous Mo family giant, it is very beautiful, but in fact, since the Western Han Dynasty deposed the hundred schools, the Mo family has long been no longer beautiful, and it is extremely declining. Most of the contemporary Mo family children are orphans from poor backgrounds who have been selected, and the number is only a few hundred, among which there are only more than 30 capable elites.

Since Yuan Shu played the banner of restoring the hundred schools, Mo Shen immediately left everything and came to Jinling with all the children of the Mo family. Because if this situation continues, it is estimated that if there is no dynasty, the Mo family may completely disappear, and even a larger artisan workshop is estimated to have more people than them.

Yuan Shu angered many families and even the entire Confucian community, and after absorbing a lot of hatred, the harvest did not disappoint him.

There are still three catties of nails in the broken ship, although the Mo family is in extreme decline today, but there are still a lot of good inheritances. Relying on these precious inheritances, and with the help of a large number of craftsmen who are willing to devote themselves to the Mo family, Jiangdong's science and technology have been able to develop so fast over the years.

On the basis of the improvement of the crossbow, after years of research, the level of the standard crossbow in Jiangdong has far surpassed that of the Han Dynasty. In terms of function, these crossbows are divided into five categories, one is a strong crossbow designed on the basis of the Qin crossbow and the rhubarb crossbow, which has a long range and powerful power. Non-strong soldiers cannot be used to snipe at opposing generals and cavalry during combat.

One is a repeating crossbow like the Yuan Rong crossbow, which can fire twelve eight-inch iron crossbow arrows at a time, and has been modified to greatly reduce the size and weight, and can be used by a single soldier. The rest are the bed crossbow used to defend the city, the chariot crossbow that can exert great power in plain warfare, and the hand crossbow that Yuan Shu is now playing with.