Li Zicheng was a little strange, Fang Zhi and they were firearms craftsmen, while Liu Fang and they were just ordinary blacksmiths, so he asked, "Fang Zhi, don't you participate in building rifles?" ”

"It's Liu Fang who doesn't need us," Fang Zhi was slightly disappointed, shook his head and sighed: "Liu Fang doesn't know where to get some called ...... As long as we give the specific size, they will directly pour the red-hot molten iron into the mold, and it can be formed with a little polishing, which not only saves a lot of time, but also the size is exactly the same! ”

"It's a mold," Li Zicheng said with a smile, "This can really improve the speed of building." ”

However, in this way, the craftsman's workshop will be divided, the number of blacksmiths is not large, and they are also in charge of steelmaking and gun casting, and the firearms craftsmen who were originally the protagonists are basically just talking about it, no wonder Fang Zhi seems to be very idle!

However, the blacksmiths are under a lot of pressure and need to consider increasing the number of workers, even if it is to increase the number of ordinary workers, in preparation for future mass production.

If it was the industrialization stage, Fang Zhi and they would be designers and top engineers, but now, they can only do some tinkering things, not to mention design, and even improvement may be difficult.

Li Zicheng doesn't want them to have the ability to improve for the time being, some of his bodies are improved drawings, and what he lacks the most is qualified materials.

"Let's go to the training ground."

"Yes, sir!" Fang Zhi led Li Zicheng and his party to the training ground in the backyard.

Before he could open the courtyard door, Li Zicheng heard the sound of "bang, bang......", obviously the soldiers were practicing shooting, but there were obviously not many guns, but after a few sounds, they calmed down.

Fang Zhi opened the courtyard door and let Li Zicheng enter the backyard, the soldiers were loading bullets, because the "Xining rifle" belonged to the breech gun, and the bullets were loaded from behind, and the soldiers could complete this action even if they were lying on the ground.

Li Zicheng visually inspected the soldiers, about 400 steps away from the target position, but 200 steps in front, more than a dozen bamboo baskets were placed, and the bamboo baskets were full of paper bullets.

"It turns out that the soldiers have already started shooting training at a distance of 200 paces!" He smiled slightly, and didn't bother the soldiers, "Fang Zhi, how about the bullets, is it enough?" ”

"My lord, just for training, it should be enough, we have already made thousands of bullets!"

"Ao," Li Zicheng understood, if this rifle is to be used on the battlefield, there are not enough bullets, "why can't bullets be mass-produced?" Is it because there is not enough copper? ”

"Lord Hui, the amount of red copper is indeed insufficient," Fang Zhi bowed to Li Zicheng's side, but his eyes were firmly fixed on the bullets in the hands of the soldiers, "More importantly, we don't have enough manpower to produce a large number of detonators!" ”

Li Zicheng's eyes became gloomy, it is not difficult to expand the manpower, Weili now has fifty or sixty thousand taels of silver, as well as the income of distilled liquor and glass, no less than six thousand taels per month, recruiting a few ordinary people as workers, the silver is not a problem, the key is red copper.

There is no local copper mine in Xining, there is copper on the market, mainly the copper money in circulation, if all are recovered, there will be a lack of hard currency in the market, which will inevitably cause inflation caused by the high cost of silver, copper and gold, Li Zicheng is not an economist, once such a problem arises, he is likely to be helpless, before there is no absolute control, it is best not to violate the natural law of things.

Linked to the lack of iron in Xining, Li Zicheng's eyes were gloomy enough to drip water, and finally developed the Xining rifle, but there was not enough copper and iron, it seems that copper ore and iron ore must be found in the Xining area, he doesn't believe it, there are so many mountains and rivers in Xining, and copper and iron ore will not be found, even if it is a small deposit, it is better than relying entirely on purchase.

Not to mention that he didn't have enough silver, in case the imperial court imposed an embargo on Xining, a rifle lacking copper bullets was not even as good as scrap metal.

With a way to solve the problem, even if it was just a way to solve the problem, a smile bloomed on Li Zicheng's face, no matter whether the problem of copper and iron could be solved or not, he couldn't mess around in front of craftsmen like Fang Zhi and them.

"Bang, bang......"

After the soldiers finished loading and completing another round of shooting, when the craftsmen checked the target, Li Zicheng was surprised to find that the craftsmen had picked up something on the ground and thrown it into the big basket behind the target.

"Fang Zhi, what are they doing?"

"Lord Hui, because the red copper is too expensive, so we have to recycle the warhead, if the warhead is not obviously deformed, it will be directly used to make the next bullet, in case the warhead is seriously deformed and cannot be used normally, it will be returned to the furnace for refinery, and then cast into a new warhead."

"Retrieving warheads?" Li Zicheng's heart moved, this is indeed a way to save materials, but if you go to the battlefield, you can't take the warheads off the enemy's corpses one by one, if the warheads affect the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, then the gains outweigh the losses.

The key is to have new sources.

However, Fang Zhi can think of recovering the warhead, temporarily alleviating the shortage of red copper, and should be encouraged, "Fang Zhi, you can think of a way to save red copper, it's a good job!" ”

"Adult ......"

"Xiaomi, give Fang Zhi five taels of silver," Li Zicheng didn't care about Fang Zhizheng's stunned, and said: "This is your personal reward, you don't have to share it equally with others!" ”

"Thank you, sir!" Fang Zhi was overjoyed, except for kowtowing, he really couldn't think of a way to thank the adult, and his forehead knocked on the ground with a "dong dong" sound.

"No need to be polite," Li Zicheng asked Fang Zhi to get up and patted him on the shoulder, "Do a good job, I will increase the manpower for you and strive to produce more bullets." ”

Fang Zhi's movements attracted the attention of the soldiers, and they found that Li Zicheng was inspecting, so they hurriedly put down the rifle in their hands and rushed to kowtow to Li Zicheng.

"Excuse me, get up!" Li Zicheng asked the soldiers to continue training, but left their junior flag officer alone, "How is the training?" Can the hit rate be improved? ”

The little flag officer seemed to have won the Seven Star Lottery, and he was a little nervous at first, but when it came to the hit rate, his eyes suddenly lit up, "Lord Hui, at a distance of four hundred steps, the hit rate of his subordinates can reach fifty percent, and after a few more days of training, the hit rate will be improved!" ”

"What about them?" Li Zicheng pointed to the soldier who was loading.

"They are trained in the same batch as their subordinates, and their hit rates are similar."

Li Zicheng nodded slightly, but remembered something again, so he asked, "How about the penetration of bullets?" ”

"According to the estimation of his subordinates, at a distance of 400 steps, he can penetrate two or three layers of leather armor, and if he is at a distance of 200 steps, even if he can't wear transparent light armor, he can get through the gap, but ...... Because the bullets are so expensive, we haven't done such experiments. ”

The problem is still in the material of copper and iron, Li Zicheng secretly made up his mind, that is, to smash the pot and sell concubines, but also to solve the problem of copper and iron, to a certain extent, the demand for copper and iron has exceeded gold and silver.

Because of the gratifying achievements in the rifle, there are also problems that need to be solved in time, Li Zicheng has no intention of paying attention to the construction of warships for the time being, when he summoned Cao Jian, he just asked him to prepare the wood for shipbuilding first, and then asked Tang Ruowang for the drawings of shipbuilding, and left the craftsman's workshop.

Back at the official office, Li Zicheng after careful consideration, asked the small flag officer Lei Wanjun and three personal soldiers, with two craftsmen who knew the goods, to go to the mountains to look for copper and iron, he just told Lei Wanjun to pay special attention to finding clues from the nearby people.

In the afternoon of the next day, Li Zicheng came to the study of the Central Government, looked at the messages sent back from all over the place, and suddenly an inconspicuous white note deeply attracted him, the message was sent back by Wu Ermao in Shaanxi, and there were only six words on it: Find Mrs. Gao!

Li Zicheng was surprised and delighted, before Cao Wenzhao came to Shaanxi, he had never tried to find Gao Guiying, mainly because of his own situation, Xining was still the Xining of the imperial court on the surface, but secretly it was in danger, once there was a problem in any link, it might be pushed to the dominoes.

He would rather be in danger, but he doesn't want Gao Guiying to take risks with him, he has the experience of later generations, although he doesn't know how Gao Guiying's life is, at least in Gao Yingxiang's place, there is no worry about his life.

Now it's different, Gao Yingxiang was newly defeated by Cao Wenzhao, and even his son Silly Er was killed, Gao Guiying was forced to flee with him, but it is better to be comfortable in Xining, women, who doesn't yearn for a peaceful life?

So when he heard that Gao Yingxiang was broken by Cao Wenzhao, he immediately ordered Wang Anping to try to find Gao Guiying in the Longxi area, and after Wu Ermao intimidated the King of Qin in Xi'an, he also joined the search for Gao Guiying.

Wu Ermao was originally from Shaanxi, and most of his subordinates were local local snakes, but now it seems that he, who is familiar with the terrain, still has an advantage and finds Gao Guiying first.

Pinching the white paper, Li Zicheng's palms were sweating, his marriage to Gao Guiying was not a vigorous alliance, but when he was at his most depressed, Gao Guiying married him without hesitation, at least there was a constant family affection with him.

Recalling the bits and pieces with Gao Guiying in Hulu Mountain, the corners of Li Zicheng's mouth unconsciously showed a smile, yes, between him and Gao Guiying, there is still a heavier relationship between husband and wife, that is to say, like family affection, responsibility is heavier than affection.

Is this the difference between a wife and a concubine?

However, does Gao Guiying deserve the heavy responsibility of "wife"? Can she tolerate Sun Mengjie and them? Especially Song Yulian, will Gao Guiying really treat her as a mother-in-law?

Li Zicheng suddenly remembered that when he married Gao Guiying, because there was still Han Jin'er in the family, she was married as a concubine at that time.

As long as she is worthy of the identity of "wife" and has the measure of "wife", she will give her the identity of a wife, and I believe that after the days of war and exhaustion, this is the best gift for her.

In case she is a jealous woman, it is difficult to say, anyway, she was originally a "concubine", and she doesn't mind marrying another wife in the future.

But thinking of Han Jin'er, Li Zicheng's heart stinged, Han Jin'er is dead, dead, dead, a hundred dead, there is no point in worrying about her, between him and Han Jin'er, there is only a one-night love, and it is to pick up the advantage of "Li Zicheng", not to mention how much affection and responsibility there are, people are dead, and she also has a last resort, there is no hatred in his heart.

Li Zicheng hated Gai Hu, let this kind of bullying men and women live in the world, he couldn't forgive himself, he even thought of letting Wu Ermao and Shangguan Siyu go to Mizhi and directly kill Gai Hu, however, it is better to let others avenge themselves than to be happy with their own hands, even if Gai Hu is dead, there will be sons and grandsons, and the father's debts will be repaid, which is justified.

Gaihu, you'd better live a long life and see me alive, otherwise, your children and grandchildren will suffer catastrophes because of you, all of which you owe them, Li Zicheng gritted his teeth.

Thinking about it and turning it back to the piece of paper in his hand, Li Zicheng picked up the pen and replied to Wu Ermao: Immediately escort Gao to Xining!

Because you want to fly a pigeon to pass the book, the piece of paper can't be too big, and the amount of information it contains can't be too much, but Li Zicheng feels that he is about to see Gao Guiying, all his heartfelt feelings, he can talk to him in person, more than a year has passed, and he doesn't care about these few days.