Zhuge Liang looked at this loom quietly, and his heart was not calm.

He knew too well the effect of improving the efficiency of the loom on the Yizhou Shu brocade industry and even on the imperial court.

The land of Yizhou has land and rent, and the benefits of salt and iron are already known for their wealth. But where the meat eaters put a little effort into it, it is more than enough for the military and civilians to be self-sufficient.

It's just that the Han thieves don't stand on each other, the royal industry is not biased, and the king of Hanzhong holds high the banner of reviving the Han Dynasty, and it is absolutely impossible to only seek a corner of peace, and he must continue to launch an offensive against the strong enemy Wei State.

With the power of Yizhou and one state against the eight states in the world, during which the military expenditure was huge, Zhuge Liang, as the person in charge, knew very well.

"The Art of War" begins with a clear meaning: Where the law of war is used, thousands of cars are galloped, leather cars are thousands of times, 100,000 armor is taken, and food is fed for thousands of miles. Then the internal and external expenses, the use of guests, the material of glue paint, the dedication of the car armor, the daily cost of thousands of gold, and then 100,000 teachers.

It can be seen from this that the fundamental of war is to compete for money and the country.

As a result, opening up sources and reducing expenditures and creating more benefits for the imperial court became Zhuge Liang's greatest concern.

Since he ruled Shu, he issued a series of decrees and measures, in addition to retreating and cultivating crops to increase grain production, he also set up two government offices in the imperial court, General Si Jin Zhonglang and Si Yan Xiaowei, and assigned salt and iron minerals from all parts of Yizhou to the official camp.

Although this series of measures was discussed, it did greatly increase the tax revenue of the imperial court, and in just a few years, it was enough to maintain the expenses of the imperial court's officials, military rations, and rewards.

It's just that if you want to launch an offensive of unprecedented scale like the Northern Expedition, with the existing financial and material resources, I am afraid that it will still be overstretched.

So Zhuge Liang, who was good at excavation, was keenly aware of the great value of Shu brocade, a famous product in Shu.

Shu brocade craft is complicated, exquisite and gorgeous, if in terms of luxury and preciousness, brocade ranks first in eleven kinds of silk fabrics such as yarn, Luo, silk, silk, satin, etc., and it is not a lie to describe it with inch brocade and inch gold.

At this time, there is no brocade in Jiangdong dynasties, and the textile technology and embroidery technology in Shu are unique in the world, so Wei seeks the market in Shuzhong, and Wu Yizi buys in Yizhou, so there is.

In addition to being regarded as an important diplomatic and rewarding gift, the profits from the sale of this item also became the best choice for the imperial court to supplement military spending.

"The capital of the decisive enemy, but Yang Jin'er" is by no means an empty phrase.

In order to encourage the weaving of Shu brocade in Yizhou, Zhuge Liang re-established the brocade official to manage the weaving workshop of the government; The public is also encouraged to participate; He even planted 800 mulberry beads in his family's fields as an example.

It is under his encouragement and advocacy, but in a few years, almost every household in Shu County has a loom, Yizhou's Shu brocade weaving industry has developed rapidly, unprecedented prosperity, with "a hundred rooms out of the room, the machine and the machine are harmonious, Bei Jin Feicheng, the color of the river wave" to describe the Shu County at this time is not an exaggeration.

Nowadays, only the government-run workshop can weave 100,000 exquisite Shu brocade horses every year, and if it is converted according to the price of 10,000 yuan per horse of medium Shu brocade, Shu brocade alone can create a billion yuan of military expenses for the imperial court.

Shu brocade is good, but Zhuge Liang also knows that weaving this thing is too labor-intensive.

With Huang Yueying's skillful hands and intelligence, it still takes 15 days to weave a horse, and folk weavers take one or two months to weave a horse.

In the case of limited manpower, if the loom technology is improved and promoted, so that the brocade efficiency can be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled, it means that the output of the official Shu brocade can be increased from 100,000 to 200,000 or 300,000, or even 400,000 is not out of reach.

For the imperial court, this also means that the military funding problem is solved.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang slowly retracted his thoughts and sighed: "Deheng's dedication to this loom is beneficial in the contemporary era, no less than the merit of opening up the territory!" ”

When Ma Jun heard this, he suddenly felt flattered, and hurriedly said: "Jun... Jun Yi is foolish, when... I can't afford to be a gentleman such as... Such a fallacious praise. ”

Huang Yueying chuckled: "My husband has never praised others at will, and it is definitely not a 'false praise'. ”

As soon as she said that, Zhuge Liang burst out laughing.

Huang Yueying laughed for a while, and suddenly asked: "I just saw that Mr. has been looking at the crossbow drawings on the case, could it be that Mr. Fei is also involved in weapons?" ”

It turned out that when she entered the door, she happened to bump into Ma Jun staring at the drawings on the woodworking table, so she asked.

Ma Jun muttered, "Original... Originally, this thing was called a repeater...... No wonder never seen. ”

When he saw that Zhuge Liang and his wife were looking at each other inquiringly, he replied, "Jun... Jun used to run around the Wei military camp, doing some work to build fortifications and repair weapons, so he was interested in... He also has some knowledge of common weapon constructions. ”

Huang Yueying smiled silently, walked straight to a corner, took out a model of crossbow arrows that was still in a semi-finished state, turned it back again, and handed it to Ma Jun.

Ma Jun took it and looked at it carefully.

However, there is a box about a foot long on the crossbow body of the model, and a cocked trigger is set at the end of the box, which is very different from the crossbow arrows used in the army.

And Jiang Wei has been staring at this strange-shaped crossbow arrow intently since Huang Yueying took out this strange-shaped crossbow arrow, and he has already set off a shocking wave in his heart, and secretly said:

"Could it be that this is the original form of the famous Zhuge Repeater in history?"

Ma Jun put it in his hand and observed it left and right for a while, and a look of intoxication gradually appeared on his face.

"This... This crossbow takes the trigger as the force, and several short arrows can be placed in the box, and a arrow is sent to the arrow groove in the box, and then the wood is wound and fired. ”

Zhuge Liang and Huang Yueying steady, glanced at each other, and saw the surprise in each other's eyes, and they both secretly shook in their hearts:

"This person can deduce the usage and mechanism of the repeater with just a vague model, is it really a genius?"

At this time, Huang Yueying explained:

"My husband felt that it would take a lot of time to load and string ordinary crossbow arrows, so he created this repeater. The concubine helped make this model in her spare time. It's just that although this thing is ingenious, its strength is very long, and it can reach more than 20 steps. This is a private household stealing tool, not a militaristic weapon. ”

Ma Jun shook his head and said, "Work... As for the strength and accuracy, it can be slowly improved through the improvement of materials and processes. ”

After looking at it for a while, he reluctantly handed the model back to Huang Yueying, then bowed down and said solemnly:

"This... This thing can be described as ingenious, first... Mr. and Mrs. have a unique view, Jun... Jun really admires it so much! ”

Huang Yueying took the model of the repeater, pouted, raised her neck and looked at Zhuge Liang, looking at this expression, it was like a child coquettish to her parents and begging for candy.

Zhuge Liang smiled and bowed his head slowly.

Huang Yueying suddenly showed a smug smile.

After she stretched out her hand to help Ma Jun up, she pointed to the direction of the carpentry platform and said, "Mr. is exquisite, if you have time, please give me some advice." ”

Instead, he was invited to study the design drawings of the repeater.

Ma Jun said "don't dare", but his body was very honest, and he followed Huang Yueying to walk quickly to the carpentry table.

At this time, Zhuge Liang turned to Jiang Wei, shook his head slowly, and said with a wry smile: "Once Humble Jing meets a like-minded person, he will invite him to work together, and he will not be able to rest for a moment." This wayward temperament has been spoiled by me. ”

Speaking of this, he stretched out his hand and made a "please" gesture, and invited: "In this case, Beryo may wish to follow me to the study for a while." ”

Jiang Wei patted the bamboo slip in his arms, hugged his fists and said, "It's better to be respectful than to obey your fate." ”