Chapter 31: Iron

"The lower official pays a visit to the envoy of the festival." Shen Wanden went out to greet him.

Seeing this, Zhang Xuan immediately helped Shen Wandeng up and said, "Brother Shen, why be polite. ”

Immediately, Zhang Xuan and Shen Wandeng joined hands in Xiping City.

Zhang Xuan was not at all interested in Xiping County, which was a small, dilapidated county seat. Such a county town is on the land of Henan, and it is common to see.

However, Zhang Xuan, accompanied by Shen Wandeng, summoned all the gentry.

It's just that after Liu Hongqi's tossing, the gentry from all walks of life suffered heavy losses, and only a few were left.

Historically, during the period of the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, it was the time when the local gentry in Henan were replaced, and many big families handed down from the early Ming Dynasty and even the Song and Yuan dynasties disappeared one after another, and a new group of families re-established local control.

Zhang Xuan is also happy to see this.

Without a large number of gentry, a blank piece of paper is easy to paint, Zhang Xuan immediately chose the children of these gentry as officials, but did let them leave for Fucheng to find Zhang Zhen to report on the same day.

These families can also understand this.

After all, being an official in a different place in China is basic common sense for the eunuchs.

For these things, it's just an interlude.

Local government affairs are Zhang Su's business, Zhang Xuan doesn't want to interfere too much, but what he cares about is the iron prison site in the west of Xiping City. And mines.

Therefore, early in the morning of the second day, although it was snowing lightly, Zhang Xuan still took Zhang Yuanhai, Luo Dai, Wang Dacang, Shen Wandeng, Zhang Su, and several others to leave Xiping City and go west.

The wind is flying, the cold wind is biting, after leaving Xiping City. It's to go against the wind.

The small snowflakes hit his face, and they were like hailstones, which made Zhang Xuan's face stained with a lot of wind and frost.

The cotton clothes on his body couldn't retain the heat at all, and the whole person was frozen and stiff.

Zhang Xuan is still like this, not to mention others.

Seventy-five miles, walked for two whole days, almost from Zhang Xuan, at noon on the second day, to the destination, Tangyu Village.

Along the way, Zhang Xuan listened to Shen Wandeng say a lot, what historical records about Tang Yu's sword: "Tang Yu's sword is famous all over the world." ”

What Han, Jin and Tang dynasties all set up iron prisons, and there were as many as 7,000 households at the time of the victory, and the world relied on soldiers. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the Wu father and son made chaos in Huaixi, and the Tang army attacked it, pulled out the iron prison, and gathered the craftsmen to go west. However, according to ancient legends, it is still a famous local blacksmith village. The iron tools produced were used by the surrounding provinces.

It's just that as soon as I arrived in Tangyu Village, I had a feeling that meeting was not as good as being famous.

Tangyu is a small village, there are about 100 households, it is a big village, in the Central Plains turmoil now, it is rare to have such a large-scale village, but it is only rare.

However, as soon as Zhang Xuan entered Tangyu, Zhang Xuan immediately felt the heat.

Nothing else, the heat of the stove.

The sound of tinkling is connected into a piece, and every household makes a living by striking iron.

Shen Wandeng said: "This place was originally owned by the Liu family, and thousands of good knives were produced every month. More than 1,000 catties of crude iron. ”

Zhang Xuan frowned suddenly.

It sounds good, but if you do the math, you can only produce 12,000 knives and a dozen tons of iron a year.

If Zhang Xuan still wants to build artillery, armor and the like, it is far from enough.

"King Cannon." Zhang Xuan said.

"The lower official is here." Wang Cannon said.

Zhang Xuan said: "I ordered you to be the iron supervisor, and the entire Tangyu Village will be assigned to you, but this output is not good, I won't say the specific number, in short, I want to cast cannons, cast armor, cast weapons, all this has to be done by you." ”

"General," before Wang Dacang could speak, Shen Wandeng spoke, and said: "This place is not very peaceful, if there is an iron prison here, it is a little too conspicuous?" ”

"Oh. How is it not peaceful. Zhang Xuan asked.

"This place is seventy-five miles away from Xiping, turning over the mountain to the west, it is Wuyang County, the form of each place is complicated, the pole is never less, if the iron prison is established here, once there is a change, I am afraid that the rescue will not be possible." Shen Wandeng said.

Zhang Xuan thought about it and was also reasonable.

Xiping is already the northwesternmost corner of Zhang Xuan's control range, and this is in the west of Xiping, unless a large army is stationed here, it will be beyond the reach of the whip.

"What does Brother Shen think should I do?" Zhang Xuan asked.

"Set up the iron prison in Runing Mansion." Shen Wandeng said.

"Isn't it a little too far?" Zhang Xuan asked, although Zhang Xuan didn't know much about the location of various iron and steel enterprises, he also knew that he should be as close to the place of origin as possible.

In fact, if it doesn't work here, the best place should be Xiping County, but Shen Wandeng is a smart person and will never say it. His influence in Xiping, setting up this iron prison in Xiping, I am afraid that he is in a place of suspicion.

"This place is the upper reaches of Rushui, just let the boat down, all the way through the north of Xiping County, the west of Shangcai County, to Runing Mansion. In peacetime, it is also a prosperous waterway, and the transportation is convenient, so it doesn't take much time to station a group of people here, urge the miners to dig ore, smelt it into crude iron, and then build weapons in Runing. ”

"Are there enough boats?" Zhang Xuan's heart moved, and his first thought was not to transport iron ore, but to the strategic position of water transportation in Runing.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Zhang Xuan thought secretly, he thought about it carefully, and suddenly found that several counties in the north of Runing Mansion were all built near Rushui, or near the tributaries of the Ru River.

As long as there is a water division, these counties can be controlled very well.

This is not the most important thing, the most important thing is that the Ru water flows into the Huai River, and the Huai River is connected to the canal, even if

The upper river is not passable for the army, and even if the baggage is placed on the river, the army can travel lightly, and the speed can be greatly increased.

"I'm also stupid, I was counted by Liu Hongqi once, and I can't see the importance of the waterway. It is not that the navy is valued only in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhang Xuan said secretly in his heart.

Then he said: "In this case, Brother Shen is stationed here, supervising the mine and supervising water transportation. ”

"Subordinates obey." Shen Wandeng said.

"King Cannon." Zhang Xuan said.

"The subordinates are here." Wang Cannon said immediately.

"From today on, you will be a craftsman battalion officer, all the weapons, armor, and artillery of the whole army need to be supplied by you, and all the craftsmen in the army, and even all the blacksmiths under your rule, will be recruited by you. Zhang Xuan said sharply.

"Yes." Wang Cannon said. Then with an uncontrollable smile on his face, he said, "My lord, do I also have a thousand acres of land?" ”

"Yes." Zhang Xuan said: "You are a battalion officer, and you are treated the same as the battalion officers. But you also know that the matter of dividing the fields is after the beginning of spring. ”

Wang Cannon was unconscious, with a smile like a fool, and he laughed first when he saw anyone.

For the people at the bottom, thousands of acres of fertile land are something that they can't even think of, but now that they get their hands on it, Wang Cannon is almost crazy with joy, and he doesn't even care about Zhang Xuan's threat.

Zhang Xuan stayed here for a few days and did not go to see any more mines.

Looking at the current situation of Tangyu Village, Zhang Xuan had to admit what kind of changes he could bring even if he went to the mine.

Ore can only be mined by people. It was useless for him to go. He did not prepare to return the way he came, but ordered the counties to prepare ships and meet them here, and he was to return by boat. Along the way, we will also inspect the waterways.

During his stay in Tangyu for a period of time, he finally remembered one thing, the place of Wuyang made him contact a place name in later generations, which was Wugang City.

Although he didn't know if the future Wugang City was here, he knew that it must be near here.

In the future, there must be a large number of iron ore mines in the place where any iron and steel company was founded, and there were coal mines nearby.

And Wugang is because of the name change of Wuyang Iron and Steel Company, which shows the size of this iron mine.

For Zhang Xuan, coal and iron are simply a godsend. If he can rely on this place to establish a modern steel industry, if nothing else, if he is given thousands of tons of steel and let him arm his subordinates to the teeth, even if it is a soldier of the Eight Banners, he will dare to touch it.

But after thinking about it for several days, Zhang Xuan had to admit that it was a beautiful daydream.

He didn't study metallurgy, and he didn't know where to start with how to build a modern steel system.

Even if he knew, it wasn't something he could do in a few years.

Unless in a dream.

.。 m.