Xu Kang's actions were very big, he was making horseshoes, making tiger squatting cannons, and letting Zhao Hong and Zhang Chengman Chen Liu's purchase of saltpeter sulfur, which inevitably alarmed Chen Liu's Taishou Zhang Miao.

Although Zhang Miao was born in a scholar family, he was able to obtain the title of "Eight Chefs" at a young age, and he also achieved the position of a county guard, so it can be seen that he is not a simple character.

When he saw the horseshoe, he immediately understood the importance of this thing, so he immediately asked his men to organize people to build it, and then began to equip his horses in batches.

After all, Zhang Miao is a person who can get 3,000 cavalry, and the number of horses he owns is naturally very large, and if he wants to create the horseshoe needed for so many horses, the movement is naturally not small.

So Xu Kang knew.

But there was no property rights protection law in this era, so it was impossible for him to be convicted of Zhang Miao's theft of his horseshoe technology.

So he chose to write a letter and then asked Zhao Hong to send it to Zhang Miao.

In the letter, he said very "sincerely" that because he heard that Zhang Miao needed a horseshoe, he was willing to write down the method of building a horseshoe created by his ancestors with great painstaking efforts, as well as the trick of nailing a horseshoe, and gave it to Zhang Miao for free.

In addition, he also told Zhang Miao that 30,000 catties of iron was completely insufficient, and that there was still a shortage of iron in his army, and there was no way to repair the soldiers' weapons and armor if they were broken, so he hoped that Zhang Miao could give another 100,000 catties of iron.

Xu Kang's letter was very long, sprinkled with thousands of words, and the content was full of pleading, and even a slightly heavier word did not appear.

However, Zhang Miao also understood the hidden meaning - you took my horseshoe technology, and you should be compensated.

After understanding this, Zhang Miao also wrote a letter to Xu Kang.

In the letter, he first expressed his gratitude to Xu Kang for his selfless gift of horseshoe technology, and promised that he would definitely go to the court to ask for credit for Xu Kang.

Secondly, he felt very sad that the weapons and armor of the generals and soldiers of Xu Kangjun were broken and there was no iron repair, but Chen Liu really had no iron, and the remaining iron in the county belonged to the local scholars, so he had no way to be the master.

Therefore, he could only give Xu Kang 300 sets of armor and weapons, so that the soldiers with broken weapons and armor could replace them, and asked Xu Kang to understand.

In the end, he also said very "sincerely" that he personally admired Xu Kang very much, so the 3,000 cavalry lent to Xu Kang did not have to be returned in the future, and it was given to him free of charge, so that he could work hard to serve the country.

Judging from this letter alone, Zhang Miao couldn't say anything about Xu Kanghao, and asked the court for merit for him, and sent armor and cavalry, which can be said to have done his best to be benevolent.

But in reality, this is just a façade.

Because today's imperial court is no longer a meritocracy, but a wealth merit, so merit has become a secondary thing.

And the 3,000 cavalry he "gifted" was actually Xu Kang's credit for breaking the Yellow Turban Army, plus more than 20,000 Yellow Turban prisoners, and he didn't have to pay it back at all!

The reason why I said to borrow at the beginning was just a scene, after all, everyone is a decent person, and we always have to show face, and the saying "merit prisoners for cavalry" is too ugly.

But now, Zhang Miao used the saying of "appreciating Xu Kang" to "send" the 3,000 cavalry that originally belonged to him to him, but also made him owe a favor, which can be called a stroke of genius.

In this way, what Xu Kang really got from Zhang Miao this time was only three hundred sets of armor and weapons, plus a "human debt".

After this wave of confrontation, Xu Kang had a deeper understanding of the treacherous and cunning of the scholars in these places, and reminded him not to underestimate these people in the future, let alone play clever and word games with them.

In short, it's a sentence - don't beep if you can pull it with your hands!

But now he doesn't have the strength to fight with Zhang Miao, so he can only keep this matter in mind for the time being.

"Zhang Miao, Zhang Miao, although you used my horseshoe, if you can compensate me for tens of thousands of catties of iron, this matter will be forgotten, but you send me like this, wait, you will know that Lao Tzu's things are not so easy to take in the future!"

Thinking of this, he immediately summoned Zhao Hong and Zhang Cheng, took a few golden cakes to them, and told them not to care about the price, and continue to buy the saltpeter and sulfur left by Chen with all their might.

With Xu Kang's financial support, Zhao Hong and Zhang Cheng's acquisition progress has accelerated a lot, and the price of saltpeter and sulfur in the entire Chen has increased a lot.

Every day, a large amount of saltpeter and sulfur was transported into Xu Kang's military camp, and this news could not be hidden from Zhang Miao's ears.

In later generations, when saltpeter and sulfur are mentioned, gunpowder is easily associated with it.

But in this period, everyone thinks that saltpeter is "born of the gas of sea salt, and it is the most divine thing of heaven and earth", and even in the early Chinese Danjing "Thirty-six Water Law" that came out in the Eastern Han Dynasty, saltpeter is also the protagonist of it.

Therefore, when saltpeter and sulfur were mentioned in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the only thing that everyone could think of was alchemy.

Zhang Miao also thought so, so he also came to ask Xu Kang if he would refine Wushi San, and after the latter replied that he would not, he left with a regretful face, which made Xu Kang cry and laugh.

And after such a play, Xu Kang also found an excuse to hide the gunpowder, that is, alchemy!

procurement of saltpeter and sulfur, which is used to obtain alchemy; to build the Tiger Squat Cannon, which is to make the Alchemy Ding Furnace; Transporting wood to burn charcoal, which is to prepare for alchemy; saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal were mixed into gunpowder for combustion experiments, which was the beginning of alchemy; Explosion, this is the alchemy failed fryer......

With these reasons, although Xu Kang's artillery experiment was very noisy, it did not cause any trouble, but made him a hot topic in the Chen Liujun scholar circle.

After all, an alchemy alchemist who fails every time he fails in alchemy, and who blows up the furnace every time he fails, is also very powerful to a certain extent.

Of course, Xu Kang didn't know about the ridicule of the scholars, and even if he knew, he wouldn't mind, because for him at present, only the improvement of strength was a real thing, and everything else was false.

On this day, he stood on the horse farm of the barracks as usual, and in front of him, the fifty tiger squat cannons that had just been cast were neatly arranged in a row.

Behind each tiger cannon stood three soldiers, one carrying a torch, one carrying gunpowder, and one holding a stone.

Compared with the previous days, the faces of today's soldiers are a little less frightened and uneasy, and a little more confident and excited.

Seeing this scene, Xu Kang suddenly smiled slightly, and then raised his hand and waved it gently.

"Now I order, the twenty-sixth artillery drill of the Shenhuo Battalion begins, reload!"

"Yes!"

With his order, the soldiers carrying gunpowder and stones immediately filled the gunpowder and stones into the chamber of the tiger squat cannon in order, and immediately took two steps back when he was done, and covered his ears with his hands.

And the soldier holding the torch, when he heard Xu Kang shout "fire", immediately lit the fuse behind the tiger squat cannon.

Soon, a roar like thunder echoed in the sky above the racecourse.

"Boom ......Boom Boom Boom"