The craftsmen and blacksmiths recruited by Li Zhi are full of expectations for a better life in the future:

Blacksmith He Lao Er moved to Fanjiazhuang, and it was the next day. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Li Dao, the second uncle of the Info management team, was the chief officer of the gunsmiths, and he was in charge and gave He Lao Er a small courtyard north of the village. There are three rooms and a kitchen in the courtyard, but it has been abandoned for a long time, the eaves are broken and the tiles are very dilapidated, and He Lao Er and his daughter-in-law cleaned it all day to sweep away those cobwebs and drive away the rats and insects entrenched in the house. Fortunately, with the blessing of the trustee officer, He Lao Er got ten taels of moving silver, and he had the money to hire a mason to repair the house.

The family moved into one room with more tiles first, and let the masons repair the other two rooms first. When the two rooms were repaired, the family moved into the repaired house and asked the masons to repair the rest of the house and the kitchen.

Before dawn that day, He Lao Er got out of bed.

He Laoer's daughter-in-law was woken up by He Laoer, sat up sleepily, and scolded: "He Laoer, what are you doing when you get up so early?" What the hell is this? I haven't seen you wake up so early in so many years! ”

He Lao Er glared at his daughter-in-law and said, "Don't shout, don't wake up the pillar!" ”

The couple is in their thirties, and only Zhuzi, a four-year-old son, loves him very much on weekdays. At this time, when she heard He Lao Er talking about the pillar, the woman lowered her voice and said, "What are you going to do?" ”

"My master's house is repairing the yard, I'll go see if there's anything I can do to help!"

"Our family is also cultivating the yard, you don't care, why do you go to help your master Zhang Luo?"

"What do you know as a woman? Now the captain of the team has given such a high monthly amount of two taels of silver, do you think it was given for nothing? That's to learn how to make a 'rifle' within half a year. If you don't have a good relationship with the master, you won't be able to learn after half a year, and your monthly income will drop to one or two or five yuan, and your life will not be so good! ”

He Laoer's daughter-in-law chirped: "What are you afraid of, didn't you say that if you can't learn, your master will also deduct the monthly money after half a year." Are you afraid that he will not teach you? ”

He Lao Er shook his head and said, "What do you know?" It's better to learn from others, or be diligent! After a pause, He Lao Er said: "Once you learn the technique, the monthly money will rise to three taels, and there will be a reward for making rifles, and then our family will really have a good life!" ”

He Laoer's daughter-in-law smiled: "Then when you are out of school, we can have another daughter!" Both sons and daughters! ”

Boss He glanced at his daughter-in-law disdainfully, turned away, but couldn't help laughing. Thinking of the good days ahead, He Laoer, who had only slept for three hours, did not feel tired at all, and only felt that he had strength all over his body.

After pouring half a basin of water from the water tank and washing his face, He Lao Er put on his clothes full of patches and walked towards Master Shen Dagui's house. When he arrived at the gate of Shen Dagui's courtyard, He Lao Er found that the gate was open, and several masons and carpenters who had spent the night in the dilapidated house had already gotten up to work.

Shen Dagui moved to Fanjiazhuang seven days earlier than He Laoer, and the renovation of the house was nearing completion. With the moving silver given by the management team, plus a generous monthly money, Shen Dagui was willing to use silver for the repair of the house, and all kinds of materials were very solid, and at this time, it seemed that the courtyard of the Shen family, which was about to be completed, was quite decent.

In the courtyard, Shen Dagui's iron-striking stove, anvil, and various tools have been arranged, and he can already start making guns.

Shen Dagui saw He Lao Er coming so early, and said with a smile: "He Lao Er, I haven't opened the furnace yet, so you came?" ”

He Lao Er said diligently: "Master, I came to see your family's house repair, to see if I can help." ”

Hearing He Laoer's words, Shen Dagui smiled and said affectionately: "Come, come, take a look." There are so many places to ask you to help! ”

Although Shen Dagui said this, in fact, Shen Dagui's yard had been basically repaired and he didn't need any help. Shen Dagui pulled He Lao Er to look around, only to see a few masons in his yard shuttling back and forth to paste the wall and paste tiles, and the two just watched the excitement.

After watching for a quarter of an hour, another of Shen Dagui's apprentices also came.

Shen Dagui said: "Since you two are here, let's open the furnace to make rifle handles!" I'll demonstrate in front, and you two will watch carefully. After thinking about it, Shen Dagui said: "You are also old blacksmiths, I am afraid you all know how to knock out a thick barrel, but do you know how to straighten the inner chamber of the barrel?" ”

When He Lao Er heard Shen Dagui's question, he knew that Shen Dagui was a wholehearted professor and was not ready to hide his secrets, and he couldn't help but feel happy.

"Please also Master Professor!"

Shen Dagui nodded and said, "Every time you grind the bore with a drill, you have to raise the barrel and aim at the light to see if you can see it through." If you can't see through, hit the part that blocks the light with a hammer, knock the part that blocks the light straight, until the whole barrel is straight, and then use a thicker drill to grind it again! ”

"The trick here is something you have to do to understand it. Today is the first day, you two will watch me operate first! ”

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After Zhang Luo finished building the rifle, Li Zhi began to recruit soldiers. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was no force, and no matter how much money was earned, it was a castle in the air, and sooner or later it would be plundered by Tartars and thieves.

Li Zhi had the intention to move the soap workshop and textile factory to Fanjiazhuang and put them in the place he managed, so that the confidentiality work would be easier to do and safer. However, Fanjiazhuang is too small, and there are no vacant houses in the village, which cannot accommodate nearly 2,000 workers and their families. Therefore, the first thing Li Zhi had to do was to build a new city attached to Fanjiazhuang, and build factories and residences in the new city to accommodate workers.

To build a new city, a new city wall was to be built, and Li Zhi was going to leave this matter to the newly recruited soldiers.

Li Zhi planned to recruit 2,000 soldiers, of course, a Fanjiazhuang management team did not need so many battalions, and all the soldiers that Li Zhi wanted to recruit were his own families.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the generals widely hired family members, because the battalion soldiers belonged to the imperial court, no matter how much money the generals spent on the battalion soldiers to train the battalion soldiers how well, as soon as the order came down, people went to tea and cooled down and made wedding dresses for others. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the officialdom was chaotic, and even the generals who led the troops did not have a sense of security, and generally spent their money on their families who could always follow them. Even when going into battle, the main force is also the general's family.

This situation has become a common practice in the late Ming Dynasty. As a military attaché, Li Zhi is of course not willing to be transferred away after working hard to build a strong army, and then all his Minnie rifle soldiers will become someone else's subordinates. In that case, not only will he make a wedding dress for someone else, but the secret of his own Mini rifle will be revealed. Therefore, Li Zhi did not plan to expand the scale of Fanjiazhuang's soldiers, but recruited 2,000 soldiers.

Of course, externally it is a family, and internally Li Zhi calls this first armed force the Xuanfeng Regiment. Li Zhi was not accustomed to the army name of a certain army and a certain battalion in the Ming Dynasty, and was ready to use the names of divisions, regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons in later generations to refer to his troops. Later generations were more straightforward, and their own people could see the number of troops at once.