On the 18th, the Yang River turned back to the north bank. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Every time you cross the Yellow River, it always makes people feel refreshed and happy.

With the development of Xin'anzhuang, more and more merchants came to trade, especially the bulk commodities increased, and the boats and wheat, coal, iron, and stone were transported by boat.

On the embankment, the workers of the transport team who come and go help transport the goods of the merchants, are busy.

There is no private foot shop here, but Xin'anzhuang builds its own transportation team, and then helps the merchant ships to load, unload and move, and the merchants generally praise it very well.

Speaking of the car and ship shop teeth, innocent should also be killed, dock workers are mixed, especially the foot of the inside, cruel squeezing workers not to say, often in vain freight rates, every ship to come and go, the cost of loading and unloading the goods is all up to the foot.

They have to give as much as they want, and the merchants are not allowed to bargain, nor are they allowed to hire others, and they are not allowed to carry them "privately", and the fees they ask for are often two times or even more than the transportation costs of the merchants themselves.

However, most of the foot walks in various places are brave and ruthless people, and they fight fiercely with their fists and weapons at every turn, and there is close collusion with the government and gangs in various places, and the merchants are afraid of them like snakes and scorpions, and the freight rate is unreasonable, so they have to pay painfully.

The wharves in various places have always been a chaotic place, the foot walkers are fighting at every turn, and they are also gathered, but the Xin'anzhuang transport team operates by itself, and outsiders can't interfere, and the freight rates they set are reasonable, and the merchants are generally satisfied.

It's still clean and safe here, walking up to the dock, it's neat and refreshing everywhere, there is no other place where the dock is full of filth and garbage, and there are "cleaners" who clean it from time to time to keep it clean at all times.

It's a pity that clean is clean, there is no teahouse and restaurant on the wharf embankment, and there are no collapsed buildings and other buildings, but for the safety of the embankment, from the embankment to the remote embankment, the embankment between this, the Yang River is not allowed to have any construction.

It is also for the sake of Xin'anji's business, anyway, the wharf is not far from the market, and it is more than two miles away.

There were enough inns, teahouses, restaurants, and collapsed houses for merchants to stop their goods.

There is more security here, there are no other wharves with groups of green-skinned floor sticks, scoundrels, archers armed with knives, spears, bows and arrows patrolling from time to time, and there are also outposts on the embankment.

Their force is sufficient to maintain law and order, and if there are bandits, or if the opponent has firearms, then the army will be dispatched, and Xin'anzhuang is not far from the dock.

The road from the wharf to Xin'anji has also been built, and this section of the road has been paved with gravel, using clay, lime, and fine sand as the binder material, and rolling back and forth with stone mills, which is very easy to walk - compared to the roads of this era.

Whenever there are merchants who come to trade, they are all amazed, many of them are well-informed, but they have never seen such an easy-to-walk gravel road in the countryside. It is an official road, and it is mostly a rammed earth road that has fallen into disrepair and the mud has not reached people's heels.

They saw that the road was wide and fast, as if it was slightly arched, and there were drainage ditches on both sides of the road, which was really rare and rare.

I heard that the bluestone slab will be paved in the future, which is even more terrible, and I can't help but be full of confidence in the trade with Xin'anzhuang.

The face of the hometown is changing more and more, and the victorious soldiers are happy to return, and the refugees who are with the team look around, and their eyes are full of curiosity and longing.

Zhan Miaoniang, a refugee from Lingbi County, got off the boat with some fright, so she hurriedly held on to the stretcher, and two young refugees carried it, and there was a neighbor Zhen Shuxian who was in a coma for a few days and woke up two days ago.

She went up the embankment with everyone, and looked at the gravel road under the embankment, and there was surprise and joy in her eyes.

Sure enough, as Lord Yang said, the place where they will be placed is very good.

Thinking of this, she touched her belly, there was a child between her and her husband Li Wanliang, and she would live well here and raise the child.

……

On the same day, Yang He and others returned to the village, and the villagers were all boiling and happy.

The army returned again with great victory, and it was also richly captured, and everyone was proud.

Although I have been away from home for a while, this side is still in order, and all developments are in order.

In addition to the people on duty, Yang He gave the soldiers five days off, and they immediately went back impatiently, especially those who made meritorious contributions and were rewarded richly, and they couldn't wait to go back and brag about their great merits to their families and neighbors.

After they return from vacation, Xin'anzhuang will also start a new round of recruitment and expansion.

At the same time, Yang He also worshiped the fallen soldiers, there is Dongshan in the east of Xin'anzhuang, and the soldiers who died in battle are buried under the Dongshan. Then a temple was built next to it, and although there was no official worship ceremony at this time, Yang He and others would come here to worship after every war.

Every festival, this side is also full of incense, and it is a sacred place in the hearts of the villagers.

Even after the war horse dies in battle, there will be a tablet to enshrine.

Qi Youxin, who stayed behind, reported the matter to Yan Dezheng, and the younger brothers and sisters at home were happy, because a few days ago, Steward Huang went to Suining to congratulate the victory, and mentioned that a group of technicians recruited on behalf of the merchant came with the goods, which made Yang He happy. After returning to the village, he quickly met with the group of foreign craftsmen who had come to Xin'anzhuang.

There are thirty people, including fifteen blacksmiths, all of whom have good skills, and Zhang Zhugong and others have assessed them, at least all of them have the skills of intermediate technicians.

There was also a coppersmith, there was a workshop in Fucheng, and a tool table was placed on the street, and then he became a village craftsman, specially picking a "coppersmith's burden", flowing in the countryside and folk, he came to Xin'anzhuang, and the guy who ate also brought.

Yang He couldn't help but be surprised when he saw his tool burden, because when he was a child in later generations, he had seen this kind of burden, but he didn't expect it to remain unchanged for hundreds of years.

But it is a shoulder burden, with a counter at one end in front, which can be used as a workbench, and at the back end is a bellows, a small stove and fuel. Then the stretcher is hung with copper sheets for repair, and when the burden is lifted, the copper sheets on the stretcher "call heads" hit each other, making a clanging sound.

Yang He was very impressed by them, because the coppersmith did not shout or knock on cards, but only relied on the sound of the copper sheet on the shelf to attract business, and the sound was quite pleasant and unforgettable.

There was also a goldsmith and silversmith, who also had a silversmith shop in Fucheng, and the scale of the shop was once very large, and it was once changed to a silver building, but for some reason it quickly declined, and finally he was far away from his hometown to make a living.

Yang He saw his craftsmanship, and he was very good at making gold and silver jewelry, especially the fire mark stamp.

Finally, they are all workers in the smelter, good at casting and pouring, whether it is pig iron or copper, plough boiler bell and ding, the surname of the head is Bao, the name is Bao Tianfu, and he was also a local smelter owner, who has a hand in turning sand and making molds, and also knows how to lose wax.

However, the lost wax method mainly casts some more delicate and complex things, and it requires beeswax, which is not easy to find.

The sand turning method is much simpler and cheaper, but the production is a little rougher.

In Yang He's feeling, this Bao Tianfu is a typical Xu Huai person, the local people's family, the Ming and Qing Dynasty magistrates once commented: "Its customs are brave and brave, and the outstanding ones are many dignified and extraordinary people, and the unruly ones are also fierce and untamable." ”

Due to the frequent floods of the Yellow River, the people from Xuzhou to Huai'an, in addition to a strong fatalistic mentality, rely on the sky for food, plant widely and harvest little, and the people are poor and easy to make a living. It is also bold and powerful, people like to plunder, and if they are not comfortable, they have the heart of flying and domineering.

In a word, there are many heroes, shrews and people, arrogant and good at private fighting, and wealthy families practice martial arts.

Although Bao Tianfu was extremely respectful in front of Yang He, he could not hide his rebelliousness in his heart.

Why did he come to Xin'anzhuang? only said that there were people in Huai'an Mansion who broke the rules, and he didn't follow the rules.

There is a story in it, but Yang He has no interest in exploring other people's privacy, and he just needs to go to the village and keep to himself.

At the same time, although there are various reasons for these people to leave Fucheng and go to Xin'anzhuang, it is inevitable that they have a sense of superiority at the beginning, just like the temperament of people from big cities to small counties.

However, after arriving in Zhuang, I saw all kinds of things, especially the shooting of the breech Xin'an, and it happened that several great victories of the Xin'an army came, and many craftsmen were surprised, and they all hid their pride, especially Bao Tianfu, and their eyes flashed with excitement.

With these craftsmen joining, the blacksmiths in Yanghe Village also increased rapidly, and he originally had fifteen blacksmiths, men, women, and children, and captured more than 50 craftsmen from the Liukou family, 25 blacksmiths inside, and now fifteen blacksmiths have joined, making a total of 55 blacksmiths.

Thirty blacksmiths were transferred to the firearms workshop and twenty-five blacksmiths were transferred to the armory workshop, so that the production capacity of Xin'anzhuang was greatly increased.

Earlier, there were eight people in the firearms workshop, and the monthly production capacity was 100 strokes in Xin'an, and after increasing the number of manpower, it should be able to reach 3 or 400 strokes per month.

However, two lathes, about four or five pipes are drilled a day, and the production capacity has increased, so it cannot be drilled, and the number of lathes must be expanded. It just so happened that there were eight people in the original firearms workshop, so they were in charge of the drill pipe, as well as those delicate core things.

For the time being, the new blacksmiths cannot let them have access to the core secrets of Xin'anzhuang, such as lathes.

In particular, some of these blacksmiths are former thieves, and they must be assessed and observed.

And these blacksmiths are skilled people, Zhuang set the standard, and there are fine iron materials, making the pipe is really not complicated, after a period of running-in, it should be able to fit soon, without delaying the production of firearms in the village.

As for the armory workshop, there were originally seven people, with a production capacity of ten pairs of iron armor per month, or twenty pairs of iron-inlaid cotton armor, and after joining twenty-five blacksmiths, it is estimated that it can reach forty or fifty pairs of iron armor, and Zhang Chugong and Zhang Zhujing were also liberated.

This is a significant improvement, after all, it is too difficult to make armor at this time, the scale armor is still good, many times only need to be careful, and some parts can be done by women and the elderly.

If it is a large piece of one-piece Western-style plate armor, it is even more difficult, a complete knight armor requires at least four masters like Yu Lao Blacksmith and Zhang Zhugong, and then it takes a month to make it.

That is to say, it takes one hundred and twenty high-level blacksmiths to complete a pair.

So if there is such a result, Yang He should be satisfied, but in fact, he is still not satisfied.

Forty or fifty pairs of iron armor a month, almost five hundred pairs a year, if he had 3,000 soldiers this year, the armor rate would only be one-sixth.

Productivity had to be increased again, and Yang thought of using hydropower.

The power of machinery is indescribable, even rough waterwheels, in fact, the production efficiency is at least six to eight times that of manpower, and sometimes even ten times higher - if the water power, materials, etc. are abundant.

But with hydraulics, many problems have to be solved first, gears, bearing shafts, and crank connecting rods that change the curved motion to linear motion.

There are also transmissions that regulate the steady speed, and these need to be addressed.