Xining is basically a military city built by a row, except for the city gate tower and other decorations are embellished later, the whole stone city is completed in one go, and there is not much improvement in the future, so the sense of neatness in the city is very strong, and the functional area is also very clear.

The two main roads connecting the east-west and north-south gates divide the city into four parts.

The barracks were in the northwest corner, near the west and north walls; The northeast concentrates almost the whole city's market squares, which is the most prosperous place in the city, not to mention the shops, it is an ordinary residence, and it is also expensive, and most of the merchants will buy houses here in order to take care of the shops; The officers of Weili lived in the southwest, which was considered the noble area of the city, and some wealthy merchants also bought houses here in order to be decent or to get closer to the officers.

The southeast is a residential area, in fact, it is a slum, not only the quality of the houses is poor, the repairs are not repaired in time, even the roads, the environment, is also full of dirty mess, if it is not a last resort, the noble and rich people absolutely do not want to stay here for a while.

The workshop is located in the slums to the southeast, near the eastern city wall, which shows how much importance Weili attaches to it.

However, at the time of half a pillar of incense, under the guidance of the craftsmen, Li Zicheng came to the craftsman's workshop first, and what caught his eye was a grand house.

But take a closer look, Li Zicheng gasped, just look at the roof, there is a little thatch hanging under the eaves, fluttering in the wind like a dragon's whiskers, the thatch on the roof has long become black, more old than the Ningxia Post Station, and the thatch on the top is uneven, and there is a depression from time to time.

If such a house doesn't leak rain, God won't tolerate it, no wonder Liu Fang said that pig iron has turned into rust. Looking at the earthen wall below, the top layer of adobe is soft, as if it could fall off at any time, I don't know if it was caused by frost in cold weather, or when it was first built, the soil was not compressed at all.

Li Zicheng's heart was cold, if he wanted to resume the work of the craftsman's workshop, if he only relied on these craftsmen, it would be a fool's dream, even if he mobilized all the forces in the guard, it was extremely difficult to repair it.

The key is not silver, but time.

"Open the door, let's go inside!" Li Zicheng looked at the rusty copper lock, not knowing if it could still be opened.

"Yes, sir!" Shen Dao untied the key from his waist, and it seemed that he had taken over the craftsman's workshop.

Shen Dao took a lot of effort, but he couldn't open the copper lock, and he changed the craftsmen to help, but he was helpless, so he had to stand at the head of the door in a daze, like a wronged child.

Since the copper lock has lost its usual role, there is no need to keep it anymore, Li Zicheng signaled to He Xiaomi, He Xiaomi, with his own soldiers, found a sticker, and knocked the pull ring on the door.

The door "clanged" and was pushed open by the soldiers, and the room was seen again, and a sour and rancid smell came to the face, and the people standing in front immediately covered their mouths and noses and kept retreating.

When the rancid smell faded a little, Li Zicheng walked towards the door, wanting to enter the room to see what was going on, He Xiaomi stepped forward a few steps, "My lord, let my subordinates go in first and have a look!" Without waiting for Li Zicheng to respond, he twisted the fire fold he was carrying, lit a torch, and stepped into the house step by step.

Li Zicheng saw that He Xiaomi had almost walked around, and the fire on the torch was unabated, knowing that there was no "dead air" in the room, he was relieved, and then entered the house.

The house was quite large, at least as large as three huts of the common people, the front door was at least three feet away from the back wall, and it was difficult for light to shine through the front door, and there were no portholes on the roof, so the inside of the house was dark, and if there were no torches, at least half of the room could hardly see the light.

Li Zicheng took the torch in He Xiaomi's hand and inspected the house, although the rancid smell was weaker, the damp musty smell was still quite pungent, so he had to temporarily hold his breath, he couldn't help it, so he went out and inhaled heavily.

He found it a carpentry workshop, and the whole room appeared empty, with several pillars topping the beams, and on the right side of the column, a heavy, thick carpentry bench, on which were also fastened with several special iron pieces.

There were a few rafters on the roof that had broken noticeably, so it was no wonder that the thatch on the roof was uneven, and when you looked up from the inside, you could almost see a glimmer of light.

Near the back wall, there are several woodworking tools, axes, planers, saw blades, etc. have been seriously corroded, He Xiaomi picked up the saw blade, twisted it with his hand, and the dark red powder fell like a flower, he stretched out his middle finger and pressed a little harder on the saw blade, and an irregular hole thicker than his thumb suddenly appeared on the saw blade.

Under the corner of the wall on the left, there is a pile of four or five feet of wood, the wood seems to be taken out of the night dew, the surface is extremely wet, Li Zicheng stepped on the lone one one on the outside with his foot, and the place where his feet touched was as soft as mohair, and he stepped on it to the end.

Li Zicheng kept his face calm, and waited until the soldiers opened all the houses, and he checked them one by one, the houses were of different sizes, the big ones were like a woodware workshop, and they were worth three peasants' huts, and the small houses were even smaller than one.

In the ironsmith workshop, Li Zicheng also found a pile of pig iron, but the surface of these discus and iron bars has been seriously corroded, and when the rust is peeled off, there is only less than half of the usable material in the middle.

Li Zicheng summoned the blacksmith, "Are these discus and iron bars usable?"

The two blacksmiths pulled away the rust with their hands, examined it carefully, looked at each other again, and finally nodded: "My lord, usable is usable, but it needs to be returned." ”

Li Zicheng nodded, pondered for a long time, and then asked Shen Dao: "Lord Shen, if the craftsman workshop is initially restored, how long will it take?" ”

"My lord, if you want the craftsman's workshop to resume operation, the entire roof needs to be renovated, and in addition, these columns need to be replaced, and the subordinates have thought about it, it will take at least three months," Shen Dao bowed and replied, frowning, seeing that it was about to enter winter, I don't know when there would be a heavy snowfall, and I would have to stop work at that time, "My lord, if you want to repair the earthen wall, I'm afraid it will take a little longer!" ”

"Three months?" Li Zicheng also slightly locked his eyebrows, it should be after the new yuan, if it snows, it will affect the construction period, and the plan to plant wheat will be completely lost, thinking for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "Lord Shen, give you three days, be sure to let the craftsman workshop start again." ”

"Three days?" Shen Dao suddenly had a bitter face, and said with a crying voice: "My lord, no matter how much silver is spent, it will never be completed within three days!" ”

"Lord Shen, I don't have so much time to waste for you, let the craftsman's workshop run first, and in the future, even if the entire craftsman's workshop is demolished and rebuilt, it will be no longer a problem," Li Zicheng clenched his right hand into a fist and slowly stretched out his index finger, "On the first day, replace all the columns, and transport all the materials needed for repair, including rafters, thatch, beams, etc., to the craftsman's workshop; The next day, all the roofs were removed and the associated garbage was removed; On the third day, all the materials must be sent to the roof, the workshop has been initially renovated, and as for the cleaning of the rooms, I will give another day, and four days is enough! ”

"My lord......" Shen Dao was dumbfounded, and after measuring it carefully for a while, it didn't seem impossible, so he said: "My lord, this requires a lot of manpower. ”

"Manpower is not a problem, I asked Li Guo and Liang Wencheng to suspend training for four days, and they will be transferred by you, if someone does not listen to the command, they will be killed!" Li Zicheng said categorically, regardless of the craftsmen around him, their eyes widened one by one, and they were stunned, "The key is to make a good plan, how to keep so many people from messing up, where to buy the corresponding materials," said this, and glanced at Shen Dao, "Lord Shen, you can't wait, rely on, and ask, and act immediately is the right way." ”

"My lord, my subordinates are taught, and my subordinates will retire first!" Shen Dao said goodbye to Li Zicheng and left first.

The four blacksmiths, for the time being, do not have the conditions to open the furnace, but they cannot be idle, they must make all the preparations before the furnace is opened, clean the furnace, remove the rust from the discus and iron bars, prepare enough black charcoal, etc., when the furnace is really opened, the number of people will definitely increase, but now there are only these four blacksmiths, and the preparation can only be completed by them.

Seeing the two barbecue craftsmen, Li Zicheng's first thought was the barbecue snacks of later generations, however, they obviously didn't know that there was such a flavor snack, these two people would only fire some ceramics, according to their number and technology, at most they could fire some simple ceramic pots, clay pots and dishes, etc., there was not much technical gold content, if they could burn Yixing purple sand, or ......

Li Zicheng suddenly realized that in his body, there are many technologies related to barbecue, if they are allowed to turn technology into products, the entire Xiningwei, I'm afraid there will be no need for the silver of the imperial court, but there are only two of them, and the technology is difficult to handle, can they bear the heavy responsibility given by themselves?

He had already thought about it, if it was to burn things, what he needed most now was glass and cement, glass could earn silver, cement could build roads, and houses could be built quickly.

Li Zicheng originally wanted to bring these two people back to the Houya directly, and he would directly conduct hands-on training, but he had too many things to do now, and his main energy was still on food, silver, and army expansion, which were most needed, and he pondered for a moment and said to the two: "You first go to the nearby mountains or salt lakes to find out, where is there a large amount of trona." ”

"Trona?" A barbecue maker said: "The grass people have seen it in Xi'an before, but ...... But the grass people really don't know where to produce. ”

"Didn't I tell you already? Isn't the West Sea a salt lake in the mountains, or by a salt lake? If you go to the West Sea, maybe there's a lot of trona there. ”

Li Zicheng's biggest headache is that there are three firelancers left, with their current number and technology, at least all the inventions and creations now have nothing to do with them, but they are the only seeds of firearms craftsmen, and now they can't give up, so they let their soldiers find two damaged arquebuses from the armory, let them try to repair, and let them initially learn the complete firearms production.

In order to tie the hearts of these craftsmen and let them serve themselves with peace of mind, before they left, Li Zicheng also paid a month's salary in advance.

Back at the official office, it was already noon, Li Zicheng had just sat down at the dining table, and He Xiaomi hurriedly came to report: "My lord, my lord, my lordship Wu asked my lord to go to the Wu Mansion quickly and tell me that someone from the court is coming." ”