One hundred and six variations

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On the first day of the seventh month, on the outskirts of Hanling City, Tianwang Fort. Vertex Says X 23 U OM

Gao Laohan and Feng Ying were nervously calculating the time when the molten iron would come out of the furnace in front of a small blast furnace at this time, and more than 100 mountain bandit coolies around were holding medium and long-handled spoons and waiting solemnly. This small blast furnace was made by Liu Ce after Feng Ying, Gao Laohan and some craftsmen rearranged it according to the bits and pieces of relevant information collected from the memories of his previous life.

"Open the furnace!" Seeing that the incense on the table burned out, and when the long incense ash fell off, Feng Ying and Gao Laohan shouted at the same time, and immediately two craftsmen held long iron hooks to open the furnace door together, and suddenly a wave of heat rushed towards everyone. A burst of white smoke drifted away, and the next moment a large area of bright red boiling molten iron slowly flowed towards the trench at the slope, which was made of limestone, clay, and iron slag, which could be said to be a trench made of earth and cement.

At the moment when the molten iron was left, several mountain bandit coolies braved the heat wave one after another, risking being swallowed by the molten iron, and stretched out the long-handled iron spoons in their hands into the molten iron to scoop up those large pieces of residue to prevent the blocking of the filter plate made of soil and cement in the three layers below, resulting in the overflow of molten iron and causing tragedy.

When the molten iron flows into the filter plate, it blocks a lot of impurities, and when it flows into the mold opened below, the impurities in it are very rare after layer of filtration......

"Very good, hehehe......" Feng Ying smiled like a flower, and the terrifying scar couldn't help shaking with his laughter at this time.

He roughly estimated that this pot of molten iron could produce no less than 500,000 catties of iron, that is, 250 tons as Liu Ce said, as long as he could obtain 50,000 catties of refined iron from the inside, it would be enough for him to wake up with a smile from his dreams.

He vaguely remembered the day Liu Ce came back from untying the siege of Yuanzhou City, and he couldn't help but feel amused when he came back with that armor and looked for him. Liu Ce had to say that he had a problem with the build, so he had a big quarrel about it, and when he took off his helmet for inspection, he found that there was a broken front tooth on the inside of the helmet that was rigidly embedded in the inner holster, which calmed down the turmoil.

"This kid knows how to mess around, but for the sake of so much iron, I won't bother with him......" Feng Ying couldn't help but think as she looked at the splashing iron and water star foam.

"Hey, it's the first time I've seen so much molten iron in one pot, the general is really a god, he can come up with such a method." When the old man Gao saw that the molten iron in the abrasive was gradually cooling into pieces of iron of different shapes, he was also dancing excitedly.

Another craftsman named Kong Yise couldn't help but sigh at this moment: "Looking at these molten iron, I'm afraid it's far more than 500,000 catties, according to me, it's not less than 600,000 catties, so if you calculate two pots of molten iron a month, it's not less than one million catties!" How much iron does the entire Yuanzhou produce in a year?"

When Feng Ying heard this, he couldn't help nodding, and at the same time secretly said that the coke made of anthracite really works, but unfortunately there are still too few people now, and the iron ore output is not enough, otherwise he plans to build another seven or eight small blast furnaces, even if each one only produces one pot of molten iron a month, it is far more than the iron output of the Far Eastern provinces for several years......

When all the molten iron flows into the grinding tools below, the mountain bandit coolies wait for the iron to cool down and then pull it to the craftsmen's workshop to make various military and agricultural tools, while waiting for the small blast furnace to cool down before cleaning up the residue inside......

"It's time to eat! It's time to eat! Are you still eating? ”

At noon, the leaders of the Jingwei battalion came to the training venues and knocked on the bamboo sticks and shouted to them to eat.

After hearing the shouts, the commanders and hundred commanders of each battalion who were training the soldiers blew the copper whistle in their hands to gather the soldiers, and taught them a few things that need to be paid attention to during training, and then directly said "disband", and then the soldiers came to the weapon rack one after another, and put the spears, knives, shields and other weapons in their hands one by one, and walked towards the canteen camp with their comrades walking briskly and laughing.

There are more than 100 huge canvas tents set up in the huge canteen camp, and the tents are coated with soil and cement around them, which looks thick and heavy, and can prevent rainwater leakage on rainy days.

There are ten long tables placed in each tent, and each long table can accommodate ten people to eat, and one tent can accommodate 100 people to eat. Since the Jingwei camp is still far from the full strength (the cooks are not counted), these tents are enough to accommodate the current food needs of the Jingwei camp.

"I'll take a look at what I'm going to eat today...... Huang Hengyun strode into a tent and looked at the food plate on the long table. Seeing two adult fist-sized braised meatballs imprinted into his eyes, he couldn't help swallowing his saliva, there was a bowl full of spiky rice on the side, and the green vegetables were shiny, and at a glance, he knew that there was no shortage of oil and water, and there was a salted egg soaked in brine and a bowl of seaweed soup at one end of the food plate......

I saw that Huang Hengyun couldn't help but move his index finger, strode to the table and found a position close to the tent, stepped over the bench and sat down, picked up the chopsticks and knocked them vertically into the food plate, and then opened a piece of meatball, took off the top piece of meat and sent it to his mouth, and he was very satisfied with the food......

"The fat is just right, the food in this camp is getting better and better......" Huang Hengyun sighed while trying to pick up the rice into his mouth, and suddenly choked, obviously eating in a hurry, he immediately took a big sip of seaweed soup, and instantly a sense of satisfaction hit his whole body.

At the same time, people around Huang Hengyun continued to sit down and start eating, and the sound of chewing and the pounding of dishes and chopsticks in the tent continued to echo on the edge of the long table......

The man in the canteen watched the soldiers in the tent eating happily, and his heart was also satisfied, and then he returned to the kitchen and the rest of the firehead soldiers inside took a few buckets of white rice, a bucket of gravy and some green vegetables and walked outside the camp.

Outside the camp, many orphans and widows who have lost their loved ones are sitting and waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a few children with a keen sense of smell smelled the aroma of the food and immediately surrounded the camp......

When those guys and cooks saw all this in front of them, they couldn't help sighing, and secretly said that the general is benevolent and righteous, and every time he cooks for the soldiers of the Jingwei Battalion, he always asks to cook more than 100 meals for adults, just to help these old, weak, young and disabled people who have lost their families and cannot be taken care of......

The cook and the man filled each of them with a large bowl of white rice, scooped up a spoonful of gravy with loose meatballs, poured it over the rice, and handed it to the outstretched hands.

"Oh, take it, this one is for you, and one for your sister to bring." When a man saw a child in rags, he couldn't help but feel compassion and shoved two hot eggs into his arms without anyone noticing. The boy gave him a grateful look and walked towards his sister's place with the rice......

Looking at those women, children and children devouring white rice, Qin Mo, who was holding a speculum not far away and looking at all this, couldn't help but sigh in his heart, he would never forget the scene on the third day of his arrival in Hanling......

"I, Liu Ce, swear that as long as I am for one day, the people under my rule will not endure freezing and starvation, and as long as I am for one day, the people under my rule will not be bullied by Hu Nu! I will take care of those families and children who have lost their support, and I will bury the people who died because of the war, and I will make this land within a radius of 100 miles of the Han Tomb a paradise in the Far East, where there will never be war and peace ......."

That day, Qin Mo vaguely remembered that Liu Ce was crying again, he stood where he was standing, slashed his palm with a dagger and pointed at Hanling City, and when blood dripped from his clenched fist, he made an oath with tears in his eyes for the tens of thousands of people he ruled.

"General...... Mo can follow you, Sansheng is fortunate to ......" Thinking of this, Qin Mo choked up......

"Squeak ......"

Outside the Han Tombs, nearly a thousand guards escorted a huge amount of supplies towards the city, and the piercing sound of wooden shaft friction was endless......

"Hurry, hurry, stop grinding! It's almost time to eat! ”

The one who walked in the front and commanded those guards was none other than Zhou Boxiong, who had come to Hanling to ask for help to relieve the siege of Yuanzhou, and those guards were the bodyguards who had escorted supplies for Xiwen Town at the earliest.

Soon two soldiers from the Jingwei battalion stopped them at the city gate, and Zhou Boxiong stepped forward and handed him Jiang Xun's handwritten book and the seals of the Jingwei battalions along the way.

The Jingwei battalion guard opened it and looked at it carefully for a while, then returned the two documents to Zhou Boxiong, and hit his right chest with his left hand, giving a military salute as standard of the Jingwei battalion.

Zhou Boxiong said strangely when he saw this: "This little brother, I see that you were very serious about reading the paperwork just now, could it be that you are literate?" ”

The soldier of the Jingwei battalion said: "That's nature, almost everyone in my Jingwei battalion can read and write!" ”

When Zhou Boxiong heard this, he immediately said embarrassedly: "Uh...... No wonder...... No wonder ...... "I think he is so big, but he still can't read a single big character, and just a small guard in front of him can read the paperwork, no wonder this Jingwei battalion can defeat the rebels at once......

"Zhou Baichang, are you here? It's been a great journey! Seeing that Jiang Xunzhen had brought the military salary, Liu Ce suddenly smiled, and was busy inviting Zhou Boxiong into the house to talk.

Zhou Boxiong was still the same, with one leg on the edge of the stool, took out a cigarette stick and smoked it, and suddenly Liu Ce's office began to rise again.

I saw Zhou Boxiong take a puff of cigarette, slowly exhale the smoke ring, enjoy his face, and then said: "General Liu, this time the military salary, grain and grass that Governor Jiang entrusted me to escort are all here, this is his paperwork, please take a look, please take a look, this time it is a grain of rice and a copper that has not been deducted, I am responsible for the whole process, do you want to order it?"

Liu Ce smiled: "What else do I have to worry about when Zhou Baichang is out of the horse?" By the way, how is Yuanzhou City okay lately?"

Zhou Boxiong squinted his eyes, his face shook a few times, and said: "Okay, after you led the Jingwei battalion to break through the rebellion, those cowardly children sent troops to Yuanzhou the next day, as many as seventy or eighty thousand horses, saying that they were helping Governor Jiang to prevent the rebellion, but in fact, they all knew that they were just a group of wastes who were afraid of death and wanted fame." ”

Liu Ce was also secretly amused, this group of scholars was really a good person, and when Yuanzhou City was in the most chaotic and needed assistance, they all found reasons to shirk it, and when they saw that Yuanzhou City was safe, they began to show their loyalty to Jiang Xun one after another, which was really hopeless. As everyone knows, it will be confirmed that mules are horses sooner or later, not to mention that these soldiers are not even donkeys......

Zhou Boxiong then thanked Liu Ce: "General, you gave me enough face for Zhou Boxiong that day, and showed a big face in front of my colleagues, and now those people are polite when they see me, I will write down this kindness first, and I will repay you when I have the opportunity in the future......

Liu Ce smiled and said, "It's just a gesture, Zhou Baichang won't make fun of me." ”

Zhou Boxiong immediately said: "Is this still a lot of work? Less than 5,000 to break the enemy, 50,000, 10 times the difference, you hit the whole thing, this is called a gesture, then I see that other wine bags and rice bags are not even a fingernail. ”

Liu Ce shook his head and laughed a few times, and was about to say more, when he heard a "woo-woo" sound, only to see Zhou Boxiong holding his stomach in embarrassment, looking at Liu Ce embarrassedly.

"Look at me......" Liu Ce pretended to be annoyed, and stroked his forehead with his palm, "Zhou Baichang has a hard journey, he must have not eaten yet, right?" It just so happens that I haven't eaten, let's go, I'll take you to the cafeteria and order it casually, please don't forgive me for the coarse tea and light rice......"

"This ...... How embarrassing is that? Although Zhou Boxiong said this, his body stood up very honestly and followed Liu Ce towards the cafeteria. He had eaten the food of the Jingwei camp, there was enough oil and water, there was meat, fish and eggs, and he could eat a pound of meat in the days when he sent the letter for help, and he has always been obsessed with it......