Tieling's weapon manufacturing has always been in charge of Han Ping, and Han Ping also knows that Ye Xun attaches great importance to the improvement of weapons, so since he was promoted by Ye Xun, he has been committed to the development of this area.

Han Ping was still a little complacent about this, but he never expected that as soon as this foreign devil came, he would say that he had a problem here, isn't this giving himself eye medicine!

Glancing at Ye Xun, he couldn't help but say: "These are the best craftsmen in Tieling, and they can even be said to be the best weapon building workshops in Liaodong, how can you, a feudal man, say that there is a problem with our iron-making method?" ”

Andes habitually shrugged his shoulders and said directly: "The fuel waste is serious, the temperature resistance of the furnace wall is not high, and the most direct result is that there are too many iron impurities in smelting, and such pig iron is used as a cold weapon, and it is impossible to make wrought iron used in artillery."

After listening to Andes's words, although Han Ping wanted to refute him, he didn't know where to start, he had been managing the weapon workshop for a while, and he was not ignorant of iron smelting, so he felt that this foreign devil seemed to have some truth in what he said, but it seemed to be almost something.

At this time, Chen Tienu on the other side suddenly said: "Don't you, a feudal ghost, look down on our Han forging technology?" Have you ever heard of a craft called 100 steel? ”

Before Andes could answer, an old blacksmith in the Tielingwei Weapon Workshop couldn't help but say, "This old brother, can you not succeed in steelmaking?" ”

Ye Xun didn't know anything about these people's words, but he liked this atmosphere very much, because he knew that in science and technology, there was controversy to make progress, and advanced science and technology developed in this way.

Cheng Yu, who accompanied Ye Xun to visit and inspect, couldn't help but interject and said: "Two old men, as far as I know, the craft of 100 steelmaking has long been lost in the Central Plains, I heard that only Miao Jiang still has this kind of craft, if you can really forge 100 steel, it will really help my Ming army."

Ye Xun saw Chen Tienu's somewhat proud appearance, and knew that this old man really knew this kind of craft, but he cared more about muskets and cannons than cold weapons.

Then he smiled and said: "In this way, you are divided into two groups, Master Chen is responsible for the forging of 100 steel, and Andes is responsible for improving the tools and methods of ironmaking.

There must be brave men under the heavy reward, and the professional technology involved in this is too profound, and Ye Xun has no time to pursue it specifically, so he simply gives them a technical competition, in fact, Ye Xun still has a sentence that he has not said, that is, as long as these two things are done, he will be paid a lot of money.

Leaving the arsenal, Ye Xun went to the largest granary in Tieling, accompanied by Gao Ying.

In fact, if it weren't for Ye Xun's raiding of the rich families in Tieling, Tieling would have had no food to eat for a long time, and the reason is that there are too many foreign populations, and until now, this situation is still continuing.

Gao Ying has mentioned this problem more than once in his letter to Ye Xun, and it can be said that this problem is imminent and must be solved immediately.

Now the big families in Tieling have almost run away, it's almost the same as leaving the house, and everything that can stay has been detained by the Tieling government, no way, who makes you live better than the common people? If we don't cut the flesh from you, can we still cut the common people?

But this is obviously not a long-term thing, it is just over May, and there are still a few months before the autumn harvest, but Tieling's current grain stock is less than two months to eat, so if you can't get food as soon as possible, there will definitely be a big mess.

Xiong Tingbi looked at Ye Xun's face, and did allocate a batch of food and salary, but compared with the increasing population, it seemed a drop in the bucket.

And the imperial court will definitely not care about this situation, at most it is a dead letter, asking Ye Xun to repatriate the people from all over the country, and then the local government will be responsible.

These people are all running for Ye Xun, how can Ye Xun harden his heart and drive them away? No matter how difficult it is, Ye Xun will be responsible for it to the end.

Listening to Gao Ying's specific figures, Ye Xun's brows also wrinkled deeply, if the people can't eat enough, who will help you fight the Jurchen? But where does this food come from?

turned his head to look at Cheng Yu, but saw Cheng Yu smiling, knowing that he must have a way, he couldn't help laughing and scolding: "You guy, we are all about to get angry, you can still laugh, it's too unrighteous!" ”

Cheng Yu hurriedly bowed and saluted, and said with a smile: "Don't be annoyed, my subordinates are wrong"

"The subordinates feel that the food problem, we can start from three aspects, first, Jiangnan, second, the grassland, and third, the Jurchen"

Some words are just not thorough, after Cheng Yu's reminder, Ye Xun suddenly remembered that Xiang Biao and Hu Jiucheng have taken over the Wang family's business in the capital, and it is not difficult for them to purchase food in Jiangnan.

Although the grasslands are also short of grain, they are not short of cattle and sheep, and these meats can also be used as food.

And because of the appearance of Ye Xun, the Mongolian tribes are far less deferential to the Jurchens in history, so no matter whether they are taken by force or plundered, they can also make these Mongolian tribes commit.

Finally, this Jurchen is better explained, Cao Bianjiao has always wanted to expand the sharp knife battalion, and at the same time, other armies have different degrees of gains when attacking the Jurchen tribes, if the raid is changed to robbery in the future, this not only achieves the purpose of raiding, but also can bring a lot of gains to Tieling.

And the only thing to worry about is Nurhachi's revenge, which is also something that has to be faced.

Gao Ying on the side looked at Cheng Yu in disbelief, and said in his heart I can also think of these ideas, but don't you think it's a little whimsical?

Ye Xun saw Gao Ying's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Lord Gao doesn't need to worry, whether it is Jiangnan or the grassland, someone will do it for us, now tell me how much our army has expanded?" ”

Hearing Ye Xun say this, Gao Ying realized that his father-in-law had already had an idea.

"According to the quota after the reform of the father-in-law, the original Tielingwei has been expanded into three battalions, each battalion has 3,000 people, a total of 9,000 soldiers, and more than 20,000 people."

Nine thousand soldiers are reasonable, but there will be more than 20,000 people, which suddenly startled Ye Xun.

Because Ye Xun knows that there is a family behind every Minzhuang, and at this time, there is no family planning, and some families even have more than a dozen people, so that the population of Tieling is now nearly 100,000?

Looking at Ye Xun's stunned expression, Gao Ying obviously guessed what Ye Xun was thinking, but said with a wry smile: "My father-in-law guessed right, the number of people registered in Tieling is close to 90,000, and if it continues to develop at the current rate, it is not impossible to exceed 100,000 before last autumn."

Hearing this number, Ye Xun couldn't help laughing...