Chapter 103: Night Sneak Attack

Since many people have walked the road to kill Hukou, everyone also knows that there are several places where they can be ambushed, and Mr. Ouyang, Chen Yufeng and others are comparing and studying these places one by one.

Zhang Zhimu didn't want to study these things here.

He called Li Yunhe to his office and said to him: "I thought about it for a while, the kiln factory in Wushan has now built a new kiln, and the carbon dioxide there is enough for us." I want to build an alkali plant there at the same time, so that the ammonia from the coke ovens of the smelter can be transported there. ”

Li Yunhe said that he could, saying: "Now the ten people who have been specially assigned to make alkali have already mastered the process of making alkali well. It's just that compressing carbon dioxide and air is too tiring, otherwise alkali production is not a difficult task now. ”

"Just get the steam engine out of here. Your machine can also be powered by a steam engine. You're done with the math, and I'm going to have to tell you about the mechanics right away, so you can make your own gear shifter, and everything will be much easier. But now there's a more urgent thing that you have to get a pressure reducing valve right away. You don't see how unsafe it is when the carbon dioxide and air tanks are vented out. Zhang Zhimu said.

"Can a pressure reducing valve reduce the pressure in the tank?" Li Yunhe was puzzled.

"No, with a pressure reducing valve, you can use a rubber tube to connect two large and small switches, so that the pressure of the gas in the gas tank in the rubber tube is kept at a low pressure after the big switch comes out. That's where the pressure reducing valve comes in. In this way, these high-pressure tanks are much safer to use. How much of this lower pressure can be determined in advance. Zhang Zhimu explained. As he spoke, he pulled out a few design drawings.

Zhang Zhimu carefully explained to him the principle of this simple pressure reducing valve.

The high-pressure gas first reaches the decompression chamber through the inlet pipe, when the switch at the other end of the rubber tube is closed, with the increase of gas entering the decompression chamber, the pressure rises, and the rubber film pressed by the spring is pushed up, and part of the air existing in the upper air chamber is discharged from the valve body through the breathing hole. In this way, the lever is forced to move upward, and the valve port is closed by the lever, cutting off the passage of the gas inlet, and the pressure at the outlet of the pressure reducing valve does not rise. When it is opened and closed, the air flows out of the pressure reducing valve, so that the pressure in the pressure reducing chamber drops, the rubber film is concave, driving the lever to move down, and the external air enters the upper air chamber from the breathing hole, so that the valve pad moves to the center, the air intake nozzle becomes larger, the air intake volume increases, and the pressure increases. In this repeated adjustment process, the pressure of the decompression chamber is always constant, that is, no matter whether the inlet pressure is high or low, the outlet pressure is always stable, so as to play the role of pressure reduction and stabilization.

A 90-degree lever, a short head to press out the gas adjustment plug, and a long head with a rubber cavity. The pressure is high, the long head rises, and the short lever head compresses the outlet plug to reduce the outlet area; Low stress. The long head is lowered and the air lock is pulled out, increasing the air outlet area.

In this way, after using this pressure reducing valve, it is much safer to use the pressure tank.

Zhang Zhimu told Li Yunhe that after making this pressure reducing valve, he would immediately go to the smelting plant to fill a few cans of gas and come back. Remember that the gas will flash if it is stained with sparks, which is more powerful than the black **, and you must pay attention to this matter. There can be no carelessness.

sent Li Yunhe away, Zhang Zhimu and asked people to go to the cylinder kiln to get back some clay for burning the cylinder, which is actually a refractory material. Then Zhang Zhimu took graphite, used clay as a binder, and made several small round pots with an inner diameter of 200mm, a wall thickness of 20mm, and a depth of 200mm.

Yang Yulin looked at Zhang Zhimu Zhile with dark hands next to him, and said, "The company is very busy, but you are learning children to play with mud here." ”

"Don't touch my baby, you have to show me when Xiaoqing Xiaohu comes in." Zhang Zhimu looked serious.

In fact, Yang Yulin also knew that Zhang Zhimu must be doing something very important, just talking about fun. "What are you going to do? Your white alkali is so easy to use, you can put a little bit of it when you wash your clothes, and it will be very clean. ”

"You don't know how beautiful you are, do you? I'm going to make the glass and then the mirror. This glass mirror is a hundred times better than a bronze mirror. You'll know what you'll be like! Zhang Zhimu explained.

Yang Yulin didn't quite understand what Zhang Zhimu said about glass mirrors. But she heard Zhang Zhimu say that she was beautiful, which made her feel like drinking honey.

Zhang Zhimu said: "After these small pots are dry, they will be sent to the cylinder kiln and burned together with the large pot, and tell them not to break them." ”

Zhang Zhimu asked Yang Yulin to call Lu Qi, Lu Bingyi, Lu Chengxiang, and Chen Yufeng.

After a few people sat down, Zhang Zhimu said to Lu Chengxiang: "Mr. Lu, let's talk about the past few days first." ”

Lu Chengxiang flipped through the small notebook and said: "We have almost bought all the land opposite the Xiaoling River, a total of five hundred and thirty dumps of land. Lu Qi's waterwheel also began to dry. This side chooses a place to prepare for silage digging pond. It's just that there is a problem that has not been resolved, and it cannot be done. How much green fodder do we have to store? ”

"We'll have to calculate how much green fodder we want. This time I want to buy back 10,000 sheep, 1,000 cows, and 5,000 horses. According to the calculation that a sheep eats five catties of feed a day, the sheep will eat 50,000 catties of feed a day. Cattle and horses are calculated according to eating 20 catties of feed a day, so cattle and horses need 120,000 catties of feed every day. If it is calculated according to 100 days, then 17 million catties of feed are needed. If one acre of land has 3,000 catties of straw, it will be 15.9 million catties. If you're buying something else, that's enough. Because animals can't eat all silage. Bulls, in particular, should eat less silage. Horses can also only eat two-thirds of their silage. It's okay for sheep to eat more. I'll tell you what I'm going to add when the time comes. Now it's time to dig the silage pit as soon as possible. After repairing a pond, the crops will be harvested, and the amount of harvest will be processed with a silk kneading machine. In short, the cut straw must be put into the cellar on the same day. Zhang Zhimu said.

Lu Qi said: "If you want to put all this straw into the cellar, you have to increase the number of people. Twenty more kneading machines should be added, otherwise the time will be too long. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Liu Yun's people can participate in the work first. Finish the straw as soon as possible. We're also going to level these hillsides. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Inviting Mr. Lu over today is Mr. Lao's drive. Please ask Mr. Lu to help me take a survey, we are going to change all the hillside land on the other side of the river into terraces, because the area is too large. Only Mr. Lu has experience in surveying and mapping, so please ask Mr. Lu to help with the survey design. I think all these fields have been changed to watering the ground. How to repair the terraces, how to go through the open channels and culverts of the canals, Mr. Lu has to go out personally. ”

"No problem, that's what we should do. A few of my students are particularly interested in these things, and they will be able to try their skills at the same time. Lu Bingyi said.

Lu Qi said: "I still don't understand, why didn't you choose the location of the waterwheel on the low riverbank, but at the highest place on the riverbank." And why is it so complicated to build in the river? ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "We are going to build a cistern at the highest place, because this place is the highest, and we can fill it with water to water all the land." Although it costs labor and materials to build a waterwheel here, and the waterwheel may be slower to lift water, this Xiaoling River can lift water more or less throughout the year except for the freezing in winter. In particular, the spring and autumn floods are not small, so that they can usually store water and water the ground when the water is used. As for what you said, why is it so complicated in the river? Have you ever thought about it, why don't the people on the banks of the Xiaoling River engage in a waterwheel to carry water? I heard from the people in Yaogang that the water in this Xiaoling River is usually very small, but when there is a lot of water, the water is deep and rapid. The waterwheel on the rack has long been washed away. I designed a gate in front of the waterwheel to close some when the water is heavy to protect the waterwheel. The one-meter-high herringbone dam in the middle of the river is to concentrate the river water to the waterwheel when the river water is low, this dam is not high, and when the water is large, the water can cross the dam without affecting the flood discharge. ”

"Then why do you need to get three waterwheels, isn't it too much?" Lu Qi asked.

I want to turn all the more than 500 dumps into water, and these three waterwheels are not enough. It would be good to wait for our steam engine to come out, and we can use the steam engine to drive the pump to lift water. When there is enough water, we can intensively cultivate. Increasing yields, especially when we have fertilizers.

The location chosen by Zhang Zhimu to build the waterwheel is not suitable for outsiders, because the river level on the bank here is too high, more than 30 meters, so that the radius of the waterwheel will be more than 15 meters. When the water flow is small, there will be very little water that can be lifted, or even no water can be lifted. However, Zhang Zhimu tried to increase the area of the water wheel facing the water as much as possible when designing, so as to increase the impact of the water. If it really doesn't work, you can also use an ox to pull a waterwheel to rotate. However, Zhang Zhimu built a small reservoir at this highest point, and the water carried during the spring and autumn floods can be stored first and then used for irrigation. Moreover, the main trunk of the irrigation channel here is a culvert, which can also greatly reduce the amount of water evaporation. To the north of Yaogang is a small hill, and after this hill, about thirty miles away from Yaogang is a lake, which is the upper reaches of the Xiaoling River. The amount of water here is still sufficient, enough for nearby agriculture. When agriculture is developed in the future, it is enough to make full use of the water in this lake.

Then the kiln workers began the work of silage straw and the construction of farmland water conservancy.

Yan Xing came with Li Kui this time.

Zhang Zhimu directly invited the two into the command hall. Yan Xing and Li Kui were very interested in the sand table in this hall, and the two of them looked at the sand table for a while before coming over and sitting down. This time, Yan Xing brought more accurate information. Two days later, the caravan departed. There were fifteen hundred camels and eight hundred wagons. Now that the cargo is being unloaded, the camels and wagons will only be able to carry half of the grain this time. They didn't use the dart bureau to protect them, these organizations were their own armed escorts, with a total of more than 200 people. Among them, there are many martial arts masters. The time of departure is determined according to the time of the dry rations they set. They had to prepare the dry rations the night before they were shipped.

Regarding the location of the ambush, Chen Yufeng and the others selected two places and asked Yan Xing to help see if it was suitable, because Yan Xing was in this profession after all, and he was very familiar with this area. After weighing, Yan Xing chose a place. Everyone finally asked Zhang Zhimu what his opinion was.

Zhang Zhimu was noncommittal, "Can we think about it differently." If we set up an ambush like this, it will definitely be a bloody storm. ”

After a pause, Zhang Zhimu said again: "With such a large caravan, it is impossible for them to all go to the hotel, and they will definitely camp outside." I judge that they buy both black and white, and coupled with their own reputation, they will definitely feel that no one dares to touch them. So it must be careless. Why don't we take advantage of this and use a night attack to directly deal with their guards. In this way, the movement is minimal, and the matter is grasped. ”

Ouyang He said: "This is the best way. To be on the safe side, if we can't get a sneak attack, we're going to set up an ambush at the next location. Be prepared with both hands. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "There are two problems here, one is to get the exact time of their operation, and also to calculate their camping location in advance. ”

Li Zhi said: "I have sent someone to keep an eye on their dock. As soon as they moved, a letter would come back. People were also sent along the way. The news of this paragraph is reassuring. It's just that after the kiln gang, we still have to send spies in several places. ”

Yan Xing said: "Their camping is very sure, they will definitely camp in a town or a larger village. It's safe for them to walk together, but it's also not fast. So their whereabouts are easy to grasp. ”

"Our steel-reed carriage should set off early in the evening, and find a place to hide it first. They have a lot of goods, and they will be enough for us to transport them for a while. Zhang Zhimu said.

"Do the math to see how much they can carry. If you go the long way, a camel can carry two stones of cargo at once. If you have a car, you can pull ten stone of goods. In this way, they are more than 11,000 stone cargo this time. If we go to the three hundred taels of steel spring carriage, we can pull nine thousand stone of goods. We still have a few horses, and we can take them away at once. Yan Boju pinched his fingers and counted.

Yan Xing saw that the people in Yaogang were really talented, and said, "I think it's not a big deal for us people to do this." The main thing is that we have to do it cleanly and neatly. ”

"For such a big thing, it will definitely leak after a long time, but try to postpone the exposure time as much as possible. All the people who participated in the meeting had to keep their mouths shut one by one, telling them that whoever missed the breath would definitely die. Zhang Zhimu's words were very steady, but there was a chill in his words.

This Zhangjiakou is headed by Fan Yongtai's eight major merchants, monopolizing almost all the most profitable businesses in Zhangjiakou. But this Fan Yongtai's reputation is surprisingly good. Business is also the most credibility. Of course, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is also the most credible. At the critical juncture of the Songjin War, the Qing soldiers ran out of food, and it was this Fan Yongtai who organized the grain to bypass the Mongolian steppe and send it to the Qing soldiers. Of course, he also gained huge profits and great trust from the Manchus. If history could not be changed, they would have been made imperial merchants by the Qing court. Their status is definitely comparable to that of large enterprises such as PetroChina and China Telecom in their previous lives.

They heard that there was a merchant in a place called Yaogang in Xiurong, Shanxi, who actually led a group of people from the dart bureau to reopen a trade route. When they were discussing things together, they all thought it was ridiculous, and it was a taboo for you to dare to participate in this bloody war as a businessman. But they had never heard of this Zhang Zhimu before, and they thought that this person must be a newcomer who has not yet become a climate, a little bolder, and a little more daring, who does not understand the way of doing business, so he did this reckless move. However, he resumed this trade route, and they had no reason not to take advantage of it. Because a lot of the grain they transported was to the Manchus, it was too conspicuous to walk too much from Beijing. Therefore, 20,000 stone of grain and other goods were transported from Shanxi.

They never had to worry about the safety of their shipments. Because no matter how famous they are, they will spend a lot of money every year to pay for the people in the green forest. Since these people have a good reputation outside, many of the dart masters who have given them bodyguards before have defected to them, and there are also many martial arts masters among them. So they organized their own guards, and they no longer had to use outside dart games. Fortunately, no one has ever come to attack the idea of their caravan, and it has always been a smooth sailing.

The dock where they unloaded this time was actually completely in their own hands. On their own docks, these people are even more unwary of loading and unloading goods. Some of the martial arts masters of the guards even hope to have something to do so that they can show off their skills.

When it was time to leave, the shopkeepers sent by these merchants got up early. Urging the caravan to prepare for departure. Since the goods were ready the day before, after breakfast, the convoy set off at the beginning, and the caravan followed.

The convoys set off, and there were two groups of people on the dock, each releasing their own carrier pigeons. One group is Yan Xing's people, and the other group is Li Zhi's people.

The whereabouts of this caravan are constantly reported to the kiln gang. The brigade of Yaogang and the three hundred taels of steel spring carriages had already set off.

When this caravan was about to arrive at Yaogang, Li Yunhe walked towards the caravan with a hundred steel spring carriages. Because this section of the road is not wide, the two convoys must be very careful when they meet the wrong car, which cannot but attract the attention of the other party. In particular, the steel spring carriage of the kiln gang is the envy of these cars. When they greet each other, they ask where are you going? Li Yunhe said: "When you go to Lingshui Wharf, can you let us go first, we are in a hurry." Mr. Zhang was waiting at Lingshui Wharf in a hurry. ”

The other party also said: "We are also in a hurry, hundreds of cars and thousands of camels behind, how many things will be delayed." ”

In fact, Li Yunhe is here to let out the wind, and the people in Yaogang are all running to Lingshui Wharf. This purpose has obviously been achieved, and one of the shopkeepers in front of the other party can also testify in person.

The law of action of this caravan is indeed not as expected by the kiln gang people. A few days later, they came to a town, and the treasurers, the leaders of the guards, and others lived in the town. Only a few members of the low-ranking guards were left to keep watch on all sides. The whole caravan was in the field, a camp was built.

Coincidentally, an inn in this town had an informant that Li Zhi had laid out when he was in Wild Boar Ridge, and Li Zhi had already reconnected the line on the way back to Yaogang. and so called out the informant with a code, and as soon as he understood the situation, Li Zhi was overjoyed. He came back and said to the chiefs, "There are more than a hundred of them living in the town, and a dozen of them are men of merchants, and the rest are guards, and they are divided into two courtyards. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "In the second half of the night, we will solve the problems in the town first, and then solve the camps outside the town." ”

"In the middle of the night, my informant will come out. We'll know if there's changed. Li Zhi said.

By the time the informant sent the information, nothing had changed.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Let's start acting. The specific ones are all under Uncle Chen's command. ”

Chen Yufeng divided Li Jing's men into two parts, one team led by Liu Yun and Li Jing, and the other team led by Chen Yufeng and Li Wei, and each team was allotted fifty people with good skills. The others were led by Yan Xing to pick them up outside. Because there were too many people in the town, it was easy to alarm them, so I didn't send too many people into the town.

Following the informant's instructions, the men split up and went straight to the two courtyards.