Chapter 21: Preparations for the Southward Journey VII

Everyone went back to make up for their sleep, and after breakfast. Zhang Zhimu invited everyone to the big room. See everyone arrives. Zhang Zhimu stood up and said, "Everyone already knows what happened last night. I'm very happy with how you did last night. Then, the conversation changed and said: "All of us, born in a troubled and disaster year, maybe it is the fate of the previous life, we can meet here in this life and help each other." Although I am not a family, I am better than a family. Last night, there was a sudden change, and everyone was in danger. It happened suddenly, and no one was timid, which touched me very much. Even our new Lu family father and son each forced a bandit without the weapons at hand. Our Uncle Chen, looking at the overall situation, and his skills are extraordinary, showing the demeanor of a hero, swinging his sword and slashing three people in a row, to be honest, I didn't see how the sword moved, and only one move restrained the 'black leopard' and controlled the overall situation. That Liu Yun, Li Wei, and Li Yunhe also put their opponents in the face, 'Out of the River Dragon' and 'Divine Dart' are really not in vain, if it weren't for the bandits to put down their blades, I don't think they would be able to pass two tricks against the guys they faced. What I want to say more is that the 'God Ape' Li Jing, who is young but bold, has a greater sense of the overall situation, and has done a very beautiful job both in the house and outside the hospital, and has played a vital role, and should be remembered for a great credit. I also want to say that Miss Yang, who had just arrived and hadn't rested well, but that whip showed her true character as a hero, and she really didn't let her eyebrows go. Zhang Zhimu said everyone in a few words, and when it came to everyone, everyone felt light and fluttering, and they really felt heroic. It's strange to say, I've experienced battles before, so why don't I feel this way. Ah, it's a wonderful feeling that no one appreciates you. Zhang Zhimu knows that praise is the cheapest and most effective investment.

Zhang Zhimu continued: "Actually, all this happens between life and death, but everyone is not ambiguous, and the most true temperament is in front of life and death. Thank you all for this! As he spoke, he bowed deeply to everyone, and everyone was moved.

"If we want to win today, we will win because we have strong means and can move forward at critical moments. I think it would have been too careless to win against our opponents, otherwise it wouldn't have gone so well. What I want to say today is that I want to review with you that we should be vigilant when we are born in troubled times. As a result, I was too paralyzed to prepare accordingly, and I was in danger for everyone. From now on, all of us will have to watch each other at night. In this way, with the cooperation of Saihu, something can be warned in advance. It is also necessary to make a contingency plan for something. So as not to be in a hurry. ”

"There are also children, if they want to start practicing martial arts, they must at least be able to protect themselves in troubled times when they grow up, and I will teach the children to read at night." The children were overjoyed, especially when they heard that Zhang Zhimu was going to teach them to read, and they were especially happy because they were too willing to be with Zhang Zhimu, but Zhang Zhimu was too busy to spend time with them.

Zhang Zhimu's meeting was very good, there are few such meetings in this era, even the women who participated in it felt very happy, no one took them seriously before, and now they have a meeting to let themselves participate, and they feel that they are valued and encouraged. The heroes who were praised were even more happy, feeling that everyone's eyes were on them, especially the eyes of the women.

After the meeting, Chen Yufeng arranged a shift for everyone to be on duty at night, and asked those on duty to go to bed in advance to avoid being sleepy at night, and first exempted Li Yunhe's night shift, and he wanted to make guns with Zhang Zhimu.

Zhang Zhimu was discussing with Li Yunhe about making guns, and one of the sheep herding children came running and said that they had found a few horses in the grove. Chen Yufeng went out and came back in a while to bring back the five horses. It turned out that Liu Kui and the others, each riding two horses and leading a few horses to pack goods, this time a few people died, and they left a few horses in a hurry.

Zhang Zhimu wants to make a bigger and bigger goal for the kiln, and the matter of making guns must be grasped quickly. proposed a plan with Li Yunhe, and Li Yunhe thought it would work. Zhang Zhimu heard Li Yunhe say that Gong Lei's sand mold was made 300, and **'s sand mold was made another 200, so he said okay. Let's make a sand mold to grab now.

Make a sand mold for the barrel first. First cast a casting that is one-third shorter than the barrel but one-third thicker in diameter and a little thicker in diameter than the barrel inside, then a few rigid rods that are thicker than the barrel but two and four inches longer than the barrel, and then other castings in the chamber.

Zhang Zhimu also specially asked Li Yunhe to cast iron castings for files, chisels, saw blades, etc. first.

After Li Yunhe had finished the sand mold, Zhang Zhimu began to lead Li Yunhe and others to cultivate the reverberatory furnace used for steel. When Zhang Zhimu showed the drawings to Li Yunhe, Li Yunhe said that he had never seen such a fried steel, and Zhang Zhimu said that it was right, because I didn't come, otherwise it would have been there a long time ago.

Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe to dig three pits side by side on the ground not far from the iron furnace, with charcoal stoves on both sides and pots for molten iron in the middle. After the charcoal furnace is ignited, air is supplied from the bottom of the furnace, and the hot air and the upper part of the furnace are blown to the cylinder pot in the middle to heat the molten steel inside. Originally, the reverberatory furnace in the previous life was a furnace and a pot, but now there is no coke, and the calorific value of charcoal is not high, so two charcoal stoves are used to attack left and right. A smaller blower was built to supply air to the charcoal stove. An air duct was also built to bring the hot air heated from the iron to it, and the oxygen in the hot air was used to oxidize the carbon and other impurities in the molten steel, and to block it with bricks when not in use.

Everything was ready, and the iron furnace was lit for the second time after breakfast. The molten iron is first cast ** and the shell of the bow mine, and then the file, chisel, and saw blade.

After all those were cast, the charcoal fire of the reverberatory furnace was also lit, and the temperature of the furnace was already much higher, and the fluidity of the molten iron was obviously much stronger, and the fire in the furnace was blue. Immediately after the molten iron is discharged, the pot filled with molten iron is lifted to the reverberatory furnace, the air volume of the reverberatory furnace is increased, some limestone powder is sprinkled on the molten iron, and hot air is blown into the furnace while stirring with an iron rod wrapped in tank mud. For a moment sparks flew around, and when the sparks were a little smaller, some limestone powder was added. After picking out the slag from the molten steel, the various castings of the casting gun began. This time, Zhang Zhimu asked Huang Yukun to prepare long-sleeved leather gloves, sheepskin masks and other protective gear for everyone who participated in the chemical iron victory. Boiling water is filled with a little salt to replenish the salt lost through sweating. Zhang Zhimu saw that there was still a lot of iron and carbon, so he added some materials, and the steel that was smelted was cast into some steel plates and steel bars, as well as finer steel bars. Fortunately, there are some people now, and everyone is changing, although they are tired, they can still stand it. It's all done, and Zhang Zhimu said that he needs to leave two people to watch the stove. Li Wei and carpenter Lu Wenchen said they were willing to stay. Leave a pound of wine and some side dishes for the two of them, let the two of them look at the stove, let the stove cool down slowly, and don't let people accidentally get close to the burning.

This time, the pouring out of the casting is obviously much better than last time, and the surface of the casting is much smoother when it looks like. Zhang Zhimu asked Li Yunhe to deal with the ten bow thunder shells first. In less than a day, the shell and tail fin of the bow thunder were polished, and the sharp blade in front of the thunder shell was also sharpened. Zhang Zhimu felt that Li Yunhe was really a genius, and there were some problems, as long as he clicked on it, Li Yunhe would do a good job, and even play better. Let's just talk about this tail wing, Li Yunhe changed it to a detachable one. When you use it, you plug in the tail fin and twist the thunder body, and you can connect it, and you will never fall off when you fly out. When not in use, you can also twist the tail fin off and throw it by hand, as a ** use. Zhang Zhimu personally loaded the medicine, and now he is not at ease to hand it over to others, safety first. Finally, before dinner, all ten bow mines were loaded. I was ready to go to the trial the next day.

But here comes again.

That night, Li Jing, who was on duty, was adding night grass to the cattle and horses, when she suddenly heard a knock on the gate, and then the tiger roared wildly. When Li Jing jumped on the wall, there was no one around, and when I looked again, there was a dart stuck in the door, and a letter was stuck in the dart.

didn't alarm everyone, Li Jing only called Zhang Zhimu and Chen Yufeng up. Zhang Zhimu has a very good impression of Li Jing, this is a brave and resourceful person, bold and careful. When I saw the lamp, it was a letter from Niutou Mountain. It is the head of Niutou Mountain Yan who invites Zhang Zhimu to taste tea tomorrow afternoon in the private room of the Huiyou Tea House in Xiurong City.

Chen Yufeng said: "It's so fast. ”

"Okay, come early or late. It's good to come. I'm going to meet him tomorrow. Zhang Zhimu said.

"Tomorrow, Miss Yang and I will accompany you, and let Li Jing dress up as a coachman below, this kid is very fine. The others are watching the house, and tomorrow the children will not go out. In addition, these nights, it seems that I heard a wolf howling, so don't let the children go out alone in the future. Chen Yufeng said.

At dawn, Chen Yufeng and Zhang Zhimu found Cai's and said that they would go to meet Niutou Mountain today. Cai Shi was anxious when he heard this, and said: "Don't go any of you, I'll go and meet him, and see what these wolf-hearted dogs can do to me." My family is in trouble, not to mention helping, but also behind the scenes. The crowd hurriedly persuaded them.

Zhang Zhimu said: "I want to ask Yulin to go with us, can you see it, aunt?" ”

"Fire Phoenix" Yang Yulin was very happy when she heard it, she was suffocated for a while, and she wanted to go out to breathe.

"What's wrong with that, this is how it should be, for the sake of this child, Yan Xing can't embarrass you." Cai Shi calmed down and said.

Then, according to Zhang Zhimu's instructions, "Fire Phoenix" dressed up in men's clothes, or don't go out to show your face first.

A group of four people came to the city, and seeing that the time was still early, Zhang Zhimu said, first go to the Huwei Dart Bureau to have a look. I drove to the vicinity of the dart board. Then let Li Jing jump over the wall and jump into the dart game where no one was. After a while, Li Jing came out of the door. Li Jing said that Lao Mu, the old family member who took care of the house, said that there was nothing wrong, but a few groups of people came to find the master. Lao Mu said according to the words of the teaching: "The master has gone out and has never come back." The lady and the child were picked up and disappeared. The group didn't say anything, they all left, and they never came again.

Zhang Zhimu said: "This is a little strange, the owner lost the goods, why didn't he come to take over the house." ”

"I see, there must be something wrong with the owner's goods giving such a large price of dart silver. Because of the problem, Yang Dang's life was on the line, and they were weak-hearted, so they didn't dare to do things too desperately. Chen Yufeng analyzed, after all, it is the old rivers and lakes.

"Then don't go back for the time being, otherwise, they will also make a reluctant appearance in order to show their innocence." Zhang Zhimu said.

The four of them ate not far from the Huiyou Building, and they could see the Huiyou Tea House from a distance. I couldn't see anything from the outside, though. "Fire Phoenix" Yang Yulin looked like she didn't care, and said, "Uncle Chen, big brother, it's okay, I'm here, I'm okay." ”

Zhang Zhimu quipped: "Just with your divine whip? "Everybody's happy.

After eating, Li Jing drove the car to the door of the Friends Building, the three of them got out of the car, and the guy in front of the door hurriedly asked Li Jing, who was wearing tattered clothes, to drive the car to the side.

It is a three-story tea house, and the hall on the first floor is very spacious, and there are people drinking tea in twos and threes. However, when Zhang Zhimu and the others came in, none of those who drank tea looked up at them. Zhang Zhimu thought to himself, the heat is still almost, it is normal to look up, it is abnormal not to look, it must have been instructed, people who came in were not allowed to look up, but they were very obedient and did not look up.

The guy shouted, "Guys upstairs, please!" ”

Zhang Zhimu thought to himself, you haven't asked yet, whether we are drinking tea downstairs or going upstairs, you just ask upstairs. Obviously, this restaurant is the eyeliner on Niutou Mountain.

The three of them followed the man and walked upstairs.