Three ships were sailing in the Yangtze River and had just arrived in Hanyang.

In Li Xiang's heart, Hanyang has another name: Wuhan.

The owner of the village did not have the energy to care about the question of the title at the moment, he was no different from the stunned young man on the three ships. Looking at the more than 200 pillars of smoke rising from Jiangbei, as if the body had been immobilized, he could only stay in place, not daring to breathe vigorously.

When they first saw these pillars of smoke, Ding Shihang, Old Man Zhang, Liu Sheng and others thought that there was a military disaster or riot ahead. The "Zhuang Ding" of Mingyuezhuang, who was staying in the bilge, all took up their weapons and came to the board of the ship, except for those who were rocking the oars.

The fleet sailed down the water, leaning against the south bank, and soon approached the city of Hanyang. The answer was revealed, those pillars of smoke were nothing else, they were all newly opened iron-making furnaces and blacksmithing workshops!

The distance and the flow of water could not stop the sound of the trumpets of tens of thousands of laborers in the government-run iron furnace group. Li Xiang's expression was complicated and indescribable, he took a long breath and asked Old Man Sun: "Uncle Sun, the owner of this village just saw that you have something to say." You have been running boats all year round, so you should have known about the situation here, why didn't you just say it? ”

Liu Sheng, who made a big fuss, was embarrassed, removed the chain mail with red ears on his face, and glared at Old Man Sun when he heard the words, "I said Old Man Sun, why didn't you say it?" Hurt Lao Tzu...... Ahem, it's unreasonable! ”

Da Niu, Ding Shihang, Fang Weiliang and others snickered.

Old man Sun apologized, "Little old man apologizes." Of course, Xiao Lao'er knows this place in Hanyang. The ironmaking workshop here also knows about the little old man. ”

Seeing that Liu Sheng's eyes widened again, as if he was about to get angry, Old Man Sun quickened his speech, "But in the past ten years, the ironmaking workshop in Hanyang has washed, repaired, and opened the furnace at this time, and there are only twenty large smoke columns and more than thirty small smoke columns. The little old man had doubts and didn't dare to talk nonsense. ”

"In case of other changes, the owner of the village is in danger, and the little old man's life is useless even if he dies hundreds of times."

Old man Sun's posture was too low, and the reason was impeccable. Liu Sheng dissipated his anger, put down the chain mail and pushed it into the dark grid, and walked out of the cabin of the owner.

Li Xiang shook his head and smiled, and said in his heart: This old man Sun is interesting, and he will keep silent when he encounters a situation he doesn't understand, so as not to take responsibility. It's a talent, but it can't be of great use.

"The number of iron-making workshops in Hanyang has suddenly increased several times, but why?" Since there was no danger, the owner's personal guard withdrew. The boat in the Yangtze River was boring, Li Xiang was idle in his illness, and Ding Shihang and Fang Weiliang were admitted to the school.

Ding Shihang's brain is flexible, but he is eager to roar, and he replied based on what he saw and heard in the village: "Strike more iron, make more weapons." It should be that Da Zhou's molten iron and weapons are not enough. ”

The answer is decent, but it is too far from the expectations of the owner. Seeing the owner squinting and nodding, Ding Shihang lowered his head embarrassedly as he did when he was studying in Mongolia a few years ago.

Fang Weiliang studied and put it into practice, and analyzed it: "In the matter of mining and iron smelting, the national dynasty has always been divided between official and private affairs, and there are salt and iron envoys to supervise the places where mines gather. ”

"A few years after the great flood in Jianghuai, Jiangnan is eroding. The situation in Ganliang Guanzhong is tense, bandits are everywhere in Hedong, Jingdong and Jingdong East Road, and there are also water bandits on Jinghu South Road...... In many places, iron mines, iron-making furnaces and ordnance workshops have reduced production or even stopped working. ”

"General Seed Master Dao reorganized the Western Army in Luoyang. Lord Zongze was in the Daimyo's Mansion and trained an army of 100,000 every day. The war situation in Jiangnan is obviously going to be protracted. The three places needed a large amount of molten iron and weapons, so the court invested a lot of effort in Hanyang ironwork, so that there is now a scene of fireworks in the sky. ”

For the next period of time, Li Xiang quietly observed the busyness of the iron furnaces and workshops on the north shore.

Convoys carrying iron ore, charcoal and coal line up in long queues. Including these people, plus the women who cook and do laundry, the vicinity of Hanyang absorbs a total of 17,000 laborers, and is still recruiting people from among the homeless, destitute people, and local people.

Hanyang's iron comes from Jinghu North Road, wood and charcoal mainly come from Qianli Huai Mountain, and daily necessities such as grain, cloth, sauce, vinegar and tea are transported from the Yangtze River nearby. In the next two years, because of the large-scale iron smelting in Hanyang, a total of 70,000 small households and thousands of merchants on Jinghu and Lianglu benefited from it.

The strength of the accidental outbreak of the Great Zhou and the thickness of the display shocked Li Xiang again.

The fleet approached the north shore at the owner's behest, and happened to see the heart of the iron furnaces. The mist dissipated and the sunlight poured down, Li Xiang looked at the young and strong shirts who were busy like ants, listened to the noisy sound of trumpets, the sound of striking iron and the scolding, and saw with his own eyes the opening of several iron-making furnaces that had just been put into production to release molten iron, and he almost burst into tears.

The familiar pulverized coal gas came, and Li Xiang was a little in a trance, and he had the illusion of returning to the original time and space when he was a child. The plume of smoke rushing to the sky, the scattered pulverized coal, and the noisy knocking sound are not the sense of déjà vu in the iron ore mining area.

The owner of the village asked Ding Shihang and the others to go out, and finally shed tears silently, and kept praying in his heart: This is the kind of power! Bianjing's big shots, as long as you pay attention to this kind of power on the edge of Hanyang, all the Jurchen Mongol Tatars will be swept into the garbage heap. Come on, Da Zhou, as long as you can rise up a little, a "heretic" like me will definitely go to sea as soon as possible and no longer cause trouble.

Li Xiang was happy to be "scared away" by Da Zhou.

Over the next three days, the fleet picked up speed, and the towns along the way became more and more bustling and lively, and the temperature gradually increased. From above, the banks of the Yangtze River are shedding their winter clothes at a speed visible to the naked eye, and early spring is about to be ushered in. The old-man Zhang, who was active, and the traditional doctor sent by Gongzhong put aside their prejudices against each other, strictly followed the time to take bitter medicine, and every time they had to see the owner of the village drink it before they were willing to leave.

Li Xiang thought that he was exercising every day, but now he is strong enough. However, he only slept for a few days in Jingzhou, and when the cold wind blew, he caught a cold. Frustrated, and excited by the Hanyang Iron Furnace Group, Li Xiang decided to improve his working methods and leave more affairs to his subordinates, and he tried to only be in charge of the overall situation in a few years.

"You have to suppress your obsessive-compulsive disorder, otherwise you will be exhausted to death." This is Li Xiang's inner thoughts, "I heard that the scale of the Cizhou iron furnace group is very large. According to the information collected by Lao Tzu in many ways, Cizhou Iron has an annual output of nearly 9,000 tons of steel. ”

"In addition to some tax evasion, as well as the iron ore run by large private households, I am afraid that there will be more than 20,000 tons every year?! The steel production of Cizhou alone will be completely destroyed in the Liao State, and the Great Zhou can be called a strong national force, and there are famous ministers such as Zong Ze, Li Gang, and Chongshi Dao...... I am always worried about the Jurchen going south, is it too worried. ”

"No matter, let's develop lewdly first. Having money, food, weapons, and an army in hand is the most important thing, and when the time comes, whether you leave overseas or resist the Jurchens, you will have the confidence. ”

The flotilla passed through Anqing. In the evening, Li Xiang announced that he would add a meal, and everyone on the ship was smiling. It's dried meat, but it's also meat......

The firelight ignited the landlord's compound, and the screams pierced the eardrums.

"I said this person, it's cheap!" Shen Lao Ying chewed the jerky vigorously while talking to the old man in the Confucian robe who was tied up opposite, "When I first fled to Mingyuezhuang, Lao Tzu and his wife and children ate this kind of jerky, and they cried while eating. Now that I eat it again, it doesn't taste like anything anymore. Do you know the escape, old man? ”

"Of course, it's good to have a porridge shed, but most of the time there are no such good things. Lao Tzu was so hungry that he had no strength, but he still had to grab the swill bucket of a big family with others, hiss~~~ I heard that the old gentleman is also a Xiucai, and your son is also a Xiucai, maybe in two years, he will be a lifter. I don't understand, you don't have to flee, you don't have to desperately grab a swill bucket, you have enough food and warm clothes every day, why are you still involved in such things?! ”

Shen Lao Ying said that he was about to kick it, but the two masked men hurriedly stopped him. One of the men hummed: "Shen Eagle, don't be embarrassed!" ”

Time goes back to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

Li Xiang only divided the territory and functions of Zhao Bo, Cheng Jianghai and Na Shusen. Under the supervision of Li Mengkong and other high-level leaders, the three private leaders seized the time to set up their own team, and the competition for personnel, money and food was indispensable. Fortunately, the three of them have different divisions of labor, and they all have their own development space, and Mingyuezhuang has always attached importance to supervision and checks and balances, and Zhao Bo and the three of them get along well.

Zhao Bo has several cronies cultivated by himself, and has also inherited a few good hands left by Liu Chengliang, and has begun to train the manpower of Xunyang Mansion City, Shiyan Prefecture City and Danjiangkou Town according to the requirements of the owner. As Liu Chengliang's adopted son, Na Shusen inherited Liu Chengliang's connections and influence, visited more than a dozen families in the village, and gathered enough manpower, including many young people such as the chief of the guards. Na Shusen mainly operates in the village, and those who know this don't mind their children and nephews following him.

Cheng Jianghai was embarrassed. His men were all left in Bianjing, and he didn't understand the situation in Mingyueji, so he scratched his ears and cheeks for a few days.

When the clerk learned of his nephew's difficulty, he immediately handed over the good hand he had been recruiting for a few months. Like the family, several families who are also more prominent among the people of Xinzhuang, such as Tang Guohao, who runs a weapon shop, vaguely knew about the changes in the private affairs in the village, and successively rushed the good hand and his nephew to the newly opened small black house in the council hall to report.

Cheng Jianghai was stunned at first, but soon understood what was going on, and accepted the favor of these new villagers with confidence.

Gongzhong only acts according to the rules and household registration, and Zhuang Min wants to divide the high and low, in addition to competing for family property and status, he also aims at the mysterious Zhao Bo and others. Zhao Bo represents the interests of Liu Yuan, Xiong Dachun and other high-level leaders in the Mingyuezhai era, and Na Shusen represents the carpenter, Zhen Laoshi, Wu Xiaoling and other hard-working workshop owners, Cheng Jianghai came to Mingyuezhuang, of course, it is very popular with Tang Guohao, Jing Xinyi and other new villagers.

Seat the right number, mutual benefit, mutual checks and balances. Not long after, Li Xiang learned of the situation and smiled bitterly.

Gambling and the like can never be avoided.

Shen Eagle flew up and blocked two arrows for Li Xiang, and the feat of poisoning and fainting spread throughout Mingyuezhuang. After the injury was healed, this guy was wrapped in bandages and took his three children to swagger around the village, in exchange for a vote of envy and jealousy. Although some of the Zhuang people with family backgrounds despise the arrogance of this guy, they know that Shen Laoying and their family have a good future, so they also greet them with a smile.

In the end, it was Na Shusen who felt tired and found Cheng Jianghai, who was familiar with Shen Eagle, and wanted Shen Eagle's to stop for a while. Cheng Jianghai had an idea, and temporarily brought Shen Laoying as a "supernumerary" and stuffed it into the revenge plan of Na Shusen and Zhao Bo, and gave some credit.

Na Shumori's expression at that time was very exciting.