The city gate is open, and Zhu Pingjin is about to go out. Through the Changshi Division, he told Ertai Yamen in the name of the princess that because of the plague in the city, the princess and he wanted to move and go to Qingcheng Mountain in Guan County to escape the summer and the plague.

If Liao Daheng and Liu Zhibo can put aside their official duties at this time and get away with it for a few days, it is estimated that they also want to move. It's just that they are desperately studying and becoming a leader, just to earn a fortune. The official body can't help himself, everyone understands this truth, so they have to look at envy, jealousy and hatred, and wish the princess a safe departure and a safe return.

Zhu Pingjin's family went out, and of course Luo Yuhong had to follow. Luo Yuhong followed Zhu Pingjin, so she couldn't leave her divine doctor father alone in the palace, otherwise he would definitely go back to sit in the hall and come into contact with hundreds or thousands of patients every day. In case there is a carrier of the plague virus among them, it is troublesome.

The mighty royal car drove out of the west gate of Chengdu. Zhu Pingjin and Luo Yuhong said goodbye to the second elder, changed to an inconspicuous two-wheeled carriage with a shed, and under the escort of Wei Chen and more than a dozen other guards and cavalry, they changed the route to the south, heading towards the sad place where Luo Yuhong once was. In addition, more than 300 mixed infantry and cavalry troops of the left guard of the palace, under the leadership of Yin Jialin, the left guard of the thousand households, took the avenue outside Shuangliu County and drove in the direction of Renshou County. When they reach the foot of Longquan Mountain, they will suddenly change the direction of their march and turn towards the pine forest mountain to the east. He Youyi, Cheng Xiangfeng and others and Zhu Pingjin's full set of military attendants also went to Songlin Mountain with this team.

Zhu Pingjin held his wife's hand and spoke, his body swaying from side to side with the rhythm of the cart.

"Yin Jialin did what I wanted, and moved in his circle of friends. Together with the soldiers recruited by Song Zhenzong, there were 63 hereditary officers and more than 190 general flags, small flags and soldiers who were willing to follow me. This result is not ideal, but it is not bad. After all, there are still people who don't want to rot on the left guard, and are willing to go to the battlefield to make a name for themselves. ”

His wife was clearly absent-minded. She was looking out of the car through the window. Under the scorching sun, vast tracts of farmland are in sight. The paddy in the fields is struggling to absorb nutrients and heat to make their fruits plump. The ears of rice have turned slightly yellow, and the harvest season is coming soon. A few peasants on the side of the road, who had nothing to do, were sitting on the wooden handles of hoes with straw hats and bragging. Seeing the officers and soldiers coming, they disappeared into the depths of the rice fields in a blink of an eye.

"Look! As soon as the field is divided, the productivity will come out. Following Luo Yuhong's gaze, Zhu Pingjin boasted to his wife, "It's good to do a big package, and it's a bumper harvest year in a blink of an eye." Li Sixian rectified Shuangliu Wangzhuang very well, but there is less land, and the per capita cultivated land here is less than three acres, and agriculture must develop to hilly and mountainous areas! Li Sixian is also the chief steward of Wangzhuang in Shuangliu County, which is actually the highest position he currently holds.

"When the farm is idle, the farmer has nothing to do. Feed on the fields, and there is no gold or silver in the fields. If you want to get rich, don't expect it for the rest of your life. Luo Yuhong and her husband see the same things, but the solutions are different. She retracted her gaze and stared at Zhu Pingjin, "Do you know why freestyle swims faster than breaststroke?" ”

Luo Yuhong was a native of Leshan in his previous life, and there was a small river at the door of his home, and the water was very good. Zhu Pingjin is a native of Chengdu, and if he wants to swim, he can only buy tickets in Mengchai Bay, and the water is far behind.

Zhu Pingjin shook his head, and Luo Yuhong explained: "Freestyle is a two-handed relay, with both feet non-stop, and all you do is useful work. The breaststroke is a harvest and a planing, useless and useful. What is the essential difference between the two? It's intensity, not efficiency! The farmers here also want to find something to do, but there are too few ways to make money! ”

Zhu Pingjin understood his wife's words: "When we arrive at the rent collection yard, maybe we will find the project." It is possible for rural areas to engage in township and town enterprises, but there is a problem of direction. If it can't be combined with the theme of war, I think it would be better to keep them poor. In this way, in three years, I only need to wave the dollar, oh, it should be your gold and silver money, and there will be a steady stream of people who will be the soldier to eat food, and the cost of my military salary will be much less. ”

Zhu Pingjin talked about military salaries, which reminded Luo Yuhong of one thing. She immediately began to ask Zhu Pingjin why she set the treatment of those left guard officers so high. A gatekeeper with thirty or fifty people is a deputy thousand households from the fifth grade, and he also has to enjoy the treatment of deputy regimental rank at the original level, and the monthly military salary is fourteen stones, which is equivalent to twenty-one taels of silver.

"Have you recently made some money smuggling and burned out your brain?" Luo Yuhong asked.

Zhu Pingjin rubbed the place where the sunflower point had poked with his acupoint, and argued: "You are just counting a small amount of money, and you don't understand the big game of chess I played!" ”

Seeing his wife's white eyes, Zhu Pingjin said again: "I admit that the left guard is rotten, but rotten has the advantage of rotten." For example, I can use Zuo Guard, an official platform recognized by the imperial court, to go public through a backdoor listing......

"Alright, don't talk about it." Luo Yuhong poked Zhu Pingjin again, "I see you're playing tricks again!" You want to pick out the useful people first and form a new interest group, and then you use them to clean up the rest of the left guard, and the resistance will be much less. This is what you once said: provoke the masses to fight the masses! ”

Zhu Pingjin sighed. If you can hide it from the people of the world, you can't hide it from the people next to you. Therefore, no matter how big the official is, it is likely that the boat will capsize because of the person next to him.

Seeing that her husband was poked by herself, Luo Yuhong accepted it when she saw it. After all, the two are accomplices, and they are outright communities of interests.

"But you use Yin Jialin to engage in tandem in private, which is not good! Those in power should be upright and bright. There used to be vacancies, and I was an email staff so they were free to compete! But there is one thing you are right: no matter how bad the left guard is, there is still a basket of nails left! It's not that the sergeants want to rot, they're kidnapped by life. If you give ordinary sergeants a high salary, you see if they are willing to be soldiers! ”

"You are in charge of money, do you think it is impossible for everyone to pay a high salary?" Zhu Pingjin found an opportunity to refute, "These sixty-three hereditary officers alone will cost 13,000 taels a year, more than 200 per person!" The people can't go without food for a day, the army can't go without pay for a day, the army can't afford to pay salaries, and the two of us have to jump off the building! ”

"Then use them to their full!" Luo Yuhong suddenly said viciously, "If you don't have enough ability, fire as soon as possible!" ”

"Performance appraisal, last place elimination?"

"It's the same thing!"

"That's good. Learn to fight hard and give them a killing target! Zhu Pingjin made up his mind.

When the car arrived at the rent collection courtyard, Zheng Anmin, Wang Kunshan, Li Li, Shen Gui, Feng Brothers, and other chief and deputy directors, general offices, and craftsmen of the Firearms Bureau were already waiting dozens of feet away.

Zheng Anmin gave a big gift first.

"The minister knocks to see the son!"

Zhu Pingjin stood in front, and Luo Yuhong automatically hid behind.

The craftsmen made another big salute.

"Apprentices knock on the master!"

Luo Yuhong couldn't hold back behind Zhu Pingjin, and burst out laughing.

Wang Kunshan and the others got up, moved their feet, turned around, and aimed at Luo Yuhong behind Zhu Pingjin. Zhu Pingjin also flashed to the side cooperatively.

"The apprentices knock on the master!"

Luo Yuhong turned fifteen at the beginning of the year and is moving towards sixteen. She was begging for a child in her previous life and her next life, but she didn't expect to be a mother today.

"Who is your mother? Hurry up! Luo Yuhong was a little at a loss.

"Miss Luo told you to get up." Zhu Pingjin came out to relieve his wife.

"The bigger surprises are yet to come!" Zhu Pingjin quietly reminded his wife.

The two entered the gate, and hundreds of craftsmen knelt on both sides of the gate and shouted in unison:

"Meet Grandpa and Grandma!"

It's a bit of a feeling of dominating the rivers and lakes for thousands of generations.

Luo Yuhong was almost frightened by this formation and grabbed Zhu Pingjin's hand.

Take a woman to watch a horror movie, and the effect is good. Zhu Pingjin laughed.

After not returning for a few months, the rent collection house has completely changed, and it has become unrecognizable to Luo Yuhong.

The grain hoards in the west courtyard were all demolished, and the wall was expanded by more than 200 zhang; There is also a large courtyard outside the courtyard wall on the east side, several rows of houses have been erected, and the courtyard wall is still digging trenches to make foundations.

According to the plan of the Firearms Bureau, it is divided into three parts: steel area, processing area and living area. The steel area is to the west, with steel-making furnaces, blacksmiths' workshops and crucible-firing workshops; The processing area is in the middle, with workshops such as woodwork and lacquer making; The living area is on the east side, with a newly built dormitory area. The gunpowder workshop was dangerous, and it was built five miles to the south. There is plenty of room for development in various areas, especially in the steel area, which has thousands of acres of land to be acquired. In addition, the study area and the logistics area have been planned and are under construction.

Zhu Pingjin and Luo Yuhong watched all the way, and Zheng Anmin, Wang Kunshan, Li Li and others followed the report.

The first experimental steelmaking furnace in the steel area has been built and is drying kilns, and two more are under construction. The hearth is not large, the conical lid on the furnace can be lifted with iron chains, and the space in the furnace can be placed at the same time with eight fifty-pound crucibles to smelt together. The fuel is purchased charcoal. In the future, when the charcoal material is larger, they are also going to build a charcoal workshop. Both charcoal is burned and gas is collected. The first batch of crucibles were fired in a porcelain kiln recommended by Zhu Pingjin himself. Because the crucible soil embryo cannot be exposed to the sun, it can only be dried in the shade, and it will take at least 20 days to dry thoroughly. Master Yang, the head of the porcelain kiln, is mixing graphite powder and clay together to fire according to Zhu Pingjin's requirements, and this reasonable ratio is still being tried little by little.

The processing area currently produces mainly lathes. Two lathes were made, and a headboard, tailstock and tool holder were made. Two wood screws to control the tailstock and turret feeds are being installed. The two sets of guide rails of this machine tool, which are made of wood, Shen Craftsman and his apprentices, are thrown by hand little by little, and the accuracy can be fully guaranteed.

Everything is in good condition, and Zhu Pingjin is very satisfied. Sharpening knives does not mistake woodcutters, and industrial construction has its own laws. As long as the foundation is solid, what you want will come to you sooner or later. Since ancient times, China has not lacked skilled craftsmen, but what it lacks is the idea of large-scale industry, effective organization and management, and an incentive mechanism for them to give full play to their ingenuity.

"Master, master, the apprentices have transformed seventeen guns with bayonets that were sold by the officers and soldiers last time." Li Li reported it.

Last month, Zhu Pingjin, in the name of the left guard, bought some firearms from the six guards in Chengdu one after another, including more than 100 guns and five tiger squat cannons. Although these guns have been carefully selected at the time of purchase, after testing the amount of gunpowder, it is still found that there are a lot of problems such as rotten beds, ineffective faucets, and rough barrels. After five rounds of firing, 13 guns were scrapped due to cracks in the pipes. To add insult to injury, almost every tube has a different caliber. The inner diameter of the smallest and largest branches is one and a half centimeters different (Note 1), and the size of the gun cannot be matched. In desperation, they had no choice but to completely transform these firearms.

First, according to the diameter of the pipe, it is divided into three groups, large, medium and small, and the caliber of each group is not much different, and the same lead can be used reluctantly.

The second is to dismantle all the old-fashioned beds and remake the new-style beds according to the style of the beds with shoulder rests painted by the son.

Third, the jewelers combined with carpenters and coppersmiths to make several sets of new faucets with fire ropes. The new faucet has a trigger and a reed, and when the trigger is pulled, the fire rope is pressed down to ignite the medicine pool; As soon as the trigger is released, the arquebus is automatically cocked. A retainer is added to the trigger to prevent misfire caused by accidentally touching the trigger.

The fourth is to make sleeve bayonets that match the firecracker. It's just that because the time is too tight, the tightness of the connection between the sleeve and the gun tube is not good. In desperation, Li Li had no choice but to order the craftsman to weld the bayonet to the mouth of the gun with molten iron, so he could not take it off.

Li Lidao, these newly renovated firecrackers have been tried by the Shuangliu County Guardian Farm Guards in the Rent Collection Courtyard, and the results have been very good.

After listening to Li Li's expression of merit and complaint, Zhu Pingjin smiled with a joke: "You know the difficulty of matching yin and yang!" The army must be unified and the things used by the army must also be uniform. All one specification, you can do more with less! ”

Li Li immediately replied: "I understand!" Tomorrow the apprentice will arrange for someone to calibrate the weights and measures. When the lathe can be used, all the pipes are turned into round pipes. Such a bayonet match is simple and clear, where is the need to spend all those unjust efforts! ”

Speaking of weights and measures, it reminded Zhu Pingjin of something:

"Arrange for the jeweler to make two things: a ruler and a scale. The ruler is one foot long, and the scale weighs one pound. The ruler is called the original ruler, and the scale is called the original right. In the future, any length and weight will be based on the original ruler and original right! ”

"Apprentice obeys!" Wang Kunshan took the lead in agreeing, and the voices of Li Li, Shen Gui, and the Feng brothers rose one after another.

"Remember: the original ruler and the original right are made of gold, so that no one will imitate it!" Zhu Pingjin added.

Note 1: One centimeter is about 4 millimetres.

Ancient China had a complete unit of measurement for length. One mile and one hundred and fifty zhang; Two steps in one zhang; One step and five feet; 1 foot 10 inches; one inch and a ten; One cent, there are tiny units such as milli, silk, and hu below. We should not take it for granted that ancient Chinese weights and measures were chaotic because of the general unfamiliarity of people today. In fact, as long as we look at the tight joints of the various components of the dougong structure in ancient Chinese architecture, we know that the engineering wisdom of the ancient Chinese is not inferior to that of today's people, and what they lack is only the accumulation of knowledge and the support of the system.

In addition, the ancient craftsmen will naturally choose the construction ruler, and there will be no trouble about whether to choose a tailoring ruler.