Ma Dajia left, leaving a note for Ma Du, saying that it was full of Lao Zhu's scolding words, and she couldn't say it, so she wrote it down and let Ma Du read it for herself.

Lao Zhu's horizontal nose and vertical eyes full of mouth squirting appeared on the paper, Ma Du was sure that the content on it must have been modified by Ma Dajia, otherwise he could really be squirted out by Lao Zhu.

In addition to scolding, Lao Zhu finally emphasized three points, work! Work! Hurry up and get to work! Zhao Desheng said that as long as Old Zhu Ken scolded people, it would be fine, and now he can finally go out of this ancestral hall.

"Lao Liu, let's go home!" Ma Du saw Zhang Wuliu and said, "Wuliu, why haven't you picked up your grandmother yet, Lao Liu has already returned." ”

Zhang Wuliu said: "You haven't given the small plate yet, and the old lady only gave me 500 wen." ”

Lao Liu on the side scolded: "Hezhou's kung fu is here in the blink of an eye, what do you want so much money for." ”

Zhang Wuliu pouted, "What do you want so much money for!" I also have to bring a lot of money back to my hometown, and I have to drive a carriage, and my grandmother can't walk with small feet. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he slapped Lao Liu on the back of the head, "What kind of carriage do you want, you have to cross the river, just lead a horse." ”

"Lao Liu, forget it!" Ma Du gave Zhang Wuliu seven or eight small goldfish, which is considered hundreds of taels of silver, "It is not easy for your aunt to take care of your grandmother for many years, in the end, the daughter who married out should not be, you don't want to spend these casually." ”

Get a good horse for Zhang Wuliu, the second grandfather gave him a lot of local products, a lot of dried fish, and now no one in the family eats this, and he eats fresh fish.

Zhang Wuliu also asked Ma Du for one thing, that is, the green robe with the money bat pattern that he made when he first came to Jinling, and said that he liked it very much, and if he could lend it to him for a few days, he would return it to Ma Du when he came back from Hezhou.

Ma Du generously gave it to him, and he didn't need to say that it was given to him, which made Zhang Wuliu jump three feet high happily.

Although there is a gap between Ma Du and Zhang Wuliu's figures, the ancient clothes are loose, and Zhang Wuliu can wear them, but they are a little shorter, and the hem can only cover the calf. He dangled in front of the maids and servants with his hands behind his back for a long time, as if he were really an uncle.

Improving firearms, Ma Du actually had preparations in his heart, the most powerful firearms that can be made in this era are only artillery, and Lao Zhu's next conquest is basically to attack the city and pull out the village, and the caliber is small and useless.

Ma Du is not a professional, but the Firearms Bureau has a very good technician, Jiao Yu.

However, Jiao Yu was very hesitant about Ma Du's proposal, he thought that Ma Du was just making a super large and good gun, and such a big guy was afraid that he would have to use two or three thousand catties of copper, you must know that what copper represents is money, and Lao Zhu does not have the financial resources now.

It's no wonder that he fell into the trap of thinking, it's really because the current guns are basically made of copper

Ma Du told him that he didn't plan to use copper to cast but to use iron, Jiao Yu immediately realized, and said again and again, Lao Zhu is most lacking in iron now, but he has no experience in casting cannons with iron.

He was inexperienced, and Madu was even less experienced, just a little more knowledge and insight. It's a pity that this knowledge was not obtained from the lofty "Great Encyclopedia", but from the crossing that was burned in Hongdu. As for the knowledge, it was that he had seen the iron cannon cast by Hongwu in the ancient military museum for ten years, although the difference was twelve or thirteen years, but the industrial technology was not strong, and if it was made by others, Ma Du could also make it.

The first thing was to make a clay mold according to the drawings that the two of them had worked out, anyway, this thing didn't cost much, it was mainly a waste of manpower, and a total of about twenty or thirty were made in case of emergency.

If you want the clay mold to dry, it will take a lot of time. If too much water remains in the clay mold, a large amount of water vapor will be generated when the molten iron is cast, leaving small honeycomb holes in the gun body, which is easy to explode.

For this purpose, a kiln was also built, and after the clay mold was formed, it was sent to the inside for baking and then continued to dry, which can greatly shorten the time.

As for why not use more iron mold casting? That's because the iron has good thermal conductivity and fast cooling, and the molten iron has not had time to precipitate more graphite and begins to solidify, and the iron cannon made of it is very white, relatively hard and brittle, and the cast iron cannon has poor performance and is easy to explode.

In the late Qing Dynasty, most of the guns were cast with iron molds, and in order to ensure performance, they could only rely on the method of stacking to increase the wall thickness to solve the problem. Ma Du clearly remembered that he once saw an iron cannon cast in the tenth year of Hongwu, although the cannon body was not thick, but the caliber was very large.

Archaeologists in later generations have made a scientific comparison between the iron cannon of the Ming Dynasty and the iron cannon of the late Qing Dynasty, and found that the iron cannon of the Ming Dynasty is gray iron, and the iron cannon of the late Qing Dynasty belongs to white iron, and there is a lot of difference between the two.

Ma Du didn't dare to take too big a step, it would not be good to pull the balls, if the artillery exploded on the battlefield and injured one of Lao Zhu's favorite generals, Lao Zhu would definitely come to him to settle accounts.

Before the clay mold was dry, Mado had nothing to do, and he originally thought of improving the simple grenade and making it look like a grenade in later generations.

It was said that a fuse made of copper wire and glass powder could ignite sulfur and then gunpowder, which was the case in Germany during World War I.

Madu put the sand and soda ash together in the furnace to burn, but he didn't get the glass he wanted, there were too many impurities, and it seemed that there really was a quartz placer mine with higher purity.

Returning home in fine clothes is really the scenery is infinite, with tall horses, bulging money bags, and beautiful clothes, which can make the eyes of those poor villagers spent. Especially the green money bat-patterned robe on his body is even more eye-catching, even the eldest son's son has to greet him with a smile, and he is still pointing behind his back, obviously envious and jealous.

When I heard that I had served as a nurse for the official master, my grandmother and aunt cried out with a snort, saying that they had survived. Lao Zhao at the head of the village wanted to give his daughter to him, but his grandmother refused without thinking about it, who called his daughter a widow, with a face of resignation, the old Zhang family was such a lone seedling, but she couldn't kill her.

In fact, Zhang Wuliu still thinks about Heiya in his heart, the girl who played with him from childhood to adulthood, and was finally killed by the water demon. This time when he went home, he also sent money to the widow of the black girl, half a little goldfish, and grandma said that these are already a lot. 、

Since then, more people have come to his house to propose marriage, even if there is a grandmother and aunt who fall in love with him, he doesn't want to leave, he will leave this sad place, never come back, and he doesn't want to have the slightest contact.

He wanted to take his aunt's family with him, but his uncle was unwilling, and said that he was unreliable, and asked the official to drive him out sooner or later. Even if Zhang Wuliu explained how good the adults were to him, his uncle just didn't believe it, and said that unless the official master was a fool or had ulterior motives.

Of course Zhang Wuliu didn't do it, and he quarreled with his uncle, he actually regretted it, but he couldn't tolerate others slandering adults like this.

He left five little goldfish for his aunt, led the horse and left his hometown with his grandmother. After crossing the river by ferry, it was already dark, and I found a small inn in a small town called Moling and rested for the night.

The next day, as soon as the sky cleared, the grandparents and grandchildren hit the road. After walking for less than an hour, I saw Fang Mountain rising from the ground in the distance.

"Grandma, that's Fang Shan, let's live there!" Zhang Wuliu pointed to his grandmother who was riding on a horse.

"Five or six, shall we live in the mountains? Grandma's legs and feet are not convenient. ”

Zhang Wuliu hurriedly shook his head, "No, no, we live at the foot of the mountain, and the yard has been almost covered when we come." The road is also very well repaired, all of them are bluestone slabs, and Shangguan Road is convenient. ”

When I walked, Fang Shan was still gray, but now it was a piece of verdant green, the wildflowers and weeds on the side of the road were knee-high, and on the small dirt slope in the distance was a large area of golden rape fields, and the birds were singing in my ears...... Zhang Wuliu took a deep breath of the breeze, spring is really coming!