Chapter 22: The Armory

Shi Bin thought that without ten days and half a month, without urging two or three times, and not sending something, those weapon craftsmen would not come to him.

But he didn't expect that although the king was greedy for money, he also kept his word, and sent ten firearms craftsmen over the next day. Xie Qiangbing did an audit and said that they were all skilled craftsmen, and thought that Shi Bin's money was well spent.

After hearing this, Shi Bin was like a treasure, and instructed Wang San to wrap another ten taels of silver and send it to the king's steward. It's kind of making friends with him to make some friendships, so that you can ask him for help in the future, and save him from thinking that he is too philistine.

Although Wang San didn't want to give out the ten taels of silver again, it was indeed the same reason, even if he put it on his own, he would do the same, so he immediately wrapped ten taels of silver and sent it to the king steward.

Steward Wang thought that after this business was done, there would be only a nodding friendship left between himself and Shi Bin. But seeing that Shi Bin asked someone to send silver, the king was overjoyed.

I received so many benefits from Shi Bin, and I only did a small favor, and I just crossed two strokes on the roster, and Steward Wang was a little embarrassed, so he promised that if he needed help in this regard in the future, just ask.

With this promise, Wang San was also overjoyed, although it was only verbal, but in terms of the character of the king's steward, it was likely to be fulfilled.

Before leaving, Wang San pulled him to drink another drink, Wang San is better at friendship than Shi Bin, and the two immediately became brothers after a few drinks, although they were only wine and meat.

However, this wine and meat friend is still a little enthusiastic, and he took advantage of the strength of the wine to repeatedly tell Wang San to ask Shi Bin to pay attention to confidentiality. Because if he leaks the secret, he will be fined some silver at most, and Shi Bin is likely to be charged to the army, and if he is unlucky, he will even lose his life.

After Shi Bin temporarily settled these craftsmen, he immediately summoned several brothers to discuss the specific matters of establishing an armory workshop.

Several agreed that the residence of the craftsman and his family should be built next to the armory, so as to facilitate work and secrecy.

I thought that this kind of restricted and free living environment would make these craftsmen very disgusted, but I didn't expect them to be completely unimpressed, but laughed and said that this kind of life was exactly what they expected.

It turned out that the Great Song Dynasty was full of smoke, and they thought that it would be difficult to find a place to live quietly like an armory workshop.

After reassuring the people, several people discussed it, and believed that such a high-stakes factory should never be built in a conspicuous place, but it should not be built in a place that is too closed, and there should be abundant iron and coal mines nearby.

Fortunately, Jingzhou's mineral resources are quite rich, although there are no large iron mines and coal mines, but there are still a lot, enough for Shi Bin to mine and use for a long time. However, it is a bit difficult to find out exactly where to build this armory.

Wang San wanted to build the armory workshop near the iron mine not far from Liguan Road, which was convenient for transportation and close to the iron ore, an important raw material production area, which should be a good plan.

Yi Jun, a tomb robber, wanted to build the armory workshop in an abandoned temple outside the city, so that it was easy to manage and not attract attention.

Li Gang and Liu Xiao, two water bandits, proposed to build the armory workshop in the valley behind the river bank, so that it was easy to transport raw materials, but Zhao Gang listened and couldn't give an opinion.

Each of them has its own merits, but the shortcomings are also obvious. Although the official road is still convenient, it is easy to attract attention to the transportation of raw materials to and fro. Among the old temples, the most disadvantageous ones are too close to the city, and occasionally pilgrims still come to worship the Buddha. Building an armory workshop in the valley behind the river bank seemed to be the best proposal.

However, this plan was slightly changed, and finally it was decided to build the armory workshop in the hills by the Jingxiang River outside Jingzhou City, so that it was easy to transport raw materials and not easy to attract the attention of others. The Jingxiang River is not a big river, and there will not be many ships coming and going, which greatly reduces the possibility of being discovered during water transportation; Although there are only small hills in the hills, it is these hills that block people's view and they cannot see anything on the other side. In this way, it is both convenient and convenient.

After making a plan, Shi Bin naturally went to the river to check the specific situation, and watched the boats coming and going in the river on the embankment, and then looked at the official roads in the rolling mountains and hills, and he understood why the cities by the river were much richer than those in other places.

When water transportation was the main mode of transportation, Hunan Xiangtan was known as "Little Nanjing" and "Golden Xiangtan". Not because of anything else, or because of the developed water transportation of the Xiangjiang River. In the past, the so-called official roads were just gravel roads, and the others were completely dirt roads, and it was difficult to walk, let alone transport goods, so the economy of places with developed water transportation must be developed.

Soon the houses were built, and the craftsmen were ready to start work, but they looked at the craftsmen with some melancholy faces and dishes. Shi Bin was a little uneasy in his heart, and he always felt that he had done something less.

Xie Qiangbing tactfully reminded him, and he seemed to have forgotten something. Shi Bin thought about it, indeed, he hadn't talked to those craftsmen about the monthly money at all!

He thought about his negligence embarrassedly, and it seemed that he was too happy to forget about this serious event. Then he went to the craftsmen's dormitory and asked them about their situation in the capital.

The craftsmen immediately showed a look of suffering.

This made him immediately want to understand the specific situation in the middle, so that he could judge how much monthly money to send them.

One of the craftsmen said that he could be satisfied if he could feed his family, and as for the monthly money, he would be satisfied. The other craftsmen agreed, and said this in unison.

Shi Bin was both happy and sad when he heard this. I'm happy that I don't need monthly money, as long as I can let the whole family eat two dry meals a day; Sadly, the requirements of these skilled craftsmen are so low, and the rulers only know how to get drunk, dream and die, eat, drink and be merry.

Thinking of this, Shi Bin smiled and told them that he had three taels of silver a month, but he couldn't tell about making firearms. If you do it well, you will be rewarded for developing new firearms.

At a time when they can't eat enough at this time, these craftsmen are naturally very happy when they can not only eat enough to have enough money in Shi Bin's job.

They immediately invited Shi Bin to the throne, and all of them paid homage to Shi Bin, all of them called him a reborn parent, just wanted to follow Shi Bin all the time, and swore a poisonous oath that they would never divulge half a word of private firearms.

And Shi Bin was taken aback, he was not used to shaking hands, and he was forced to visit Shangguan at all. But now I am even more unaccustomed to being bowed by others, so I jumped up from my chair and almost hit the corner of the table.

And those craftsmen thought that Shi Bin thought that their status was too low, and they were unwilling to accept their followers, and they were all very disappointed. Shi Bin looked at this huge change, and his mind didn't turn at all. I can't understand why I don't accept their kneeling and still look like I'm going to cry? Is it a natural minion?

Wang San walked in from outside the house with a smile and said, "Brother, let's sit down and accept their bows." Otherwise, they would not have gotten up. ”

Shi Bin looked at Wang San with a puzzled expression, and could only sit down and listen patiently to Wang San's explanation. It turns out that this is also a kind of ritual, if you accept the worship, you accept them, and if you treat them as part of the collective, you will not easily abandon them, and it can be regarded as adding a guarantee to yourself. In this troubled world, if someone can feed them, they will naturally ask to follow without hesitation.

After figuring out the situation, Shi Bin knew that he could only accept the worship. However, after the visit, he said, "I don't like to pay a big respect, so I can do it respectfully." ”

When those craftsmen heard this, they smiled even more, and felt that they had made good luck and followed a good chief.