In a high-end restaurant in Yangzhou City, Qian Fenglin set up a banquet to comfort the frustrated Shan Minglei.

"Could it be that I am mistaken, Hou Ye does not have the ambition to help the world?"

In a drunken daze, Shan Minglei held the wine glass in his hand and muttered to Qian Fenglin. He thought that all his actions were for Chen Yue, for the Chen family to replace the Zhu family in the future, but who would have thought that he would not be understood, so he was driven out of the center of the governor's mansion, which made him extremely disappointed.

"Brother Shi Jian is wrong, Master Hou is ambitious." Qian Fenglin said with a smile, "If there is no ambition, why would Hou Ye attack the nobles in Nanjing, and the salt merchants, although millions of silver taels were confiscated, but you and I both know that these silver taels did not enter Hou Ye's private pockets, but were used in our Pingnan Army."

Hou Ye has offended so many people, not for the sake of the Ming Dynasty and for the sake of thousands of people. ”

"Hehe, the Hou Ye has the world in mind, but he never thought that everything he is doing now depends on the trust of the emperor, and even more so on the army. With the continuous growth of the Pingnan army, sooner or later there will be a day when the emperor will be jealous, what should he do at that time? Should you hand over your army and let it be slaughtered, or will you rise up and resist?

Since the Hou Ye formed the shogunate and formed the self-contained Pingnan Army, the contradictions with the emperor and the imperial court were decided, which could not be eliminated. It's a pity that the marquis still has the dream of being loyal and filial. ”

Shan Minglei drank a little too much wine, and he was already incoherent.

Qian Fenglin looked around worriedly, fortunately he took over the entire second floor and sent guards to guard the stairs, if these words spread out, it would definitely be unfavorable to the Hou Ye and the Pingnan Army.

"Brother Shi Jian, let's not say anything in the future, Lord Hou is now trusted by His Majesty, and he has such a relationship with the princess. Besides, the army of the current Ming generals is not like the Pingnan Army, like the Ping thief general Zuo Liangyu, who has done much more than Hou Ye. You're worrying too much.

Sihai Commercial Bank is the financial source of our Pingnan Army, whether our Pingnan Army can develop and grow, whether it can reach the day you are worried about, it depends on you. It can be seen that Master Hou still trusts you. ”

Qian Fenglin comforted.

"Hehe, yes, Master Hou naturally trusts me, otherwise he wouldn't have put the huge business of Sihai Salt Store into my hands, I know."

Shan Minglei nodded. But why is there still some discomfort in my heart?

......

Outside the city of Yangzhou, on the east bank of the canal, several hills surround a valley, and there is a turbulent stream flowing through the valley, which is where the gun workshop of the Ordnance Division is located. More than a dozen houses are scattered in the valley, with tall walls separating the inside and outside. In the valley, there are three steps, one sentry, ten steps and one post, and the guard is tight.

Chen Yue formed the Pingnan Army to compete with the Manchu Eight Banners. However, compared with the battle-hardened and incomparably experienced Eight Banner soldiers, the combat effectiveness of the newly recruited army is undoubtedly much, much worse, and it cannot be compensated for by one or two years of training.

Therefore, Chen Yuecai paid attention to the development of firearms, pinning his hopes on muskets and artillery to eliminate the gap in combat strength between the two sides. After all, no matter how strong the Eight Banners are, they can't match a single pellet of the musket, and the musketeers are very easy to train, and it only takes a few months to train a farmer to become a skilled musketeer.

After arriving in Yangzhou, based on the original blacksmiths such as Liu San who could make firecrackers, Chen Yue recruited blacksmiths on a large scale and found hundreds of craftsmen from all over the south of the Yangtze River from Nanjing.

However, it takes half a month for a blacksmith to work hard to make a barrel, so according to the production capacity of the Ordnance Division, at most more than 200 guns can be produced in a month, and more than 2,000 guns a year, which is far from enough for the rapidly expanding Pingnan Army.

Chen Yue planned that in the future army, half of the soldiers would use firearms and rely on dense bullets to deal with tough enemy soldiers. But it required tens of thousands of firearms, and the time before the Manchus went south was getting shorter and shorter.

So, two months ago, Chen Yue sent people to the south to establish contact with the Portuguese in Macau. The Portuguese set up an arsenal in Macau to produce muskets and cannons, while the Westerners made firearms much better than the Ming Dynasty. Unlike the Ming blacksmiths who made the torch completely by hand, the West in this era has used machine tools to drill the barrel, and the quality and speed are much better than those made by hand.

Therefore, Chen Yuecai sent people to Macao, hoping to obtain firearms-making technology from the Portuguese, and it was best to buy a set of machine tools.

And just a few days ago, the people sent to Macau came back by boat, and really brought back a set of machine tools, and a Portuguese technician named Anthony who accompanied him.

A set of dilapidated machine tools that was about to be eliminated cost 3,000 taels of silver, and this Portuguese named Anthony, in order to lure him to Yangzhou, sent someone to give him a sky-high salary of 1,000 taels of silver per year!

Therefore, when the people sent reported to Chen Yue, their faces were full of worry, for fear that Chen Yue would blame him.

It's only a few thousand taels of silver, as long as it can increase the production capacity of the firecracker, Chen Yue naturally won't care, he greatly praised the people who were dispatched, and said that he didn't care.

Chen Yue didn't care about offering Anthony a high salary, but some people in the Ordnance Division felt uncomfortable, and the representative of them was Liu San, the director of the Fire Gun Division.

Liu San, as the head of Zheng Liupin, only pays ten taels of silver per month, and it is only one hundred taels a year, and now the annual salary of this newly arrived red-haired ghost is ten times that of him, how can he feel happy!

"What kind of machine tool, Lao Tzu knows that the fire gun needs a hammer to beat the iron into iron sheets and roll them, and the barrel drilled into them has never been heard of!" Liu San said.

Liu San, who was in charge of the production of the firecracker, said this, and the other blacksmiths also complained. When Li Xiong, the head of the Ordnance Division, reported the situation to Chen Yue, Chen Yue had to deal with the matter himself, because the production of the firecracker was too important.

"Master Hou, that red-haired ghost is a liar, don't be deceived by him. His ancestors all made firecrackers for the Ming Dynasty, but they had never heard that the barrel was drilled. Liu San said to Chen Yue.

"Oh? What if it could really be drilled? What if the barrel was drilled much faster than you could make it by hand? Chen Yue asked with a smile.

"If that's the case, I, I'll worship this red-haired ghost as a teacher!" Liu San blushed and shouted with a thick neck. He has been making firecrackers for so many years, and he thinks that his skills are unmatched, and he doesn't think that he can't even compare to a red-haired ghost.

"Okay, then it's a deal." Chen Yue said with a smile.

For the people of this era, advanced technology is unimaginable to them, so he wants to teach Liu San a lesson with facts and let him know that there is a sky outside the sky.

Although the Ming Dynasty is the upper kingdom of the Celestial Empire, it has lagged behind the West in the industrial field, and if it does not catch up, the gap will become wider and wider.