In fact, there is a stone walled courtyard in front, there are more than ten tiled houses, black smoke billows from the sky, Zhuang Ding at the door saw Chao Gai coming and opened the door of the ironcraft workshop, as soon as the door was opened, a heat wave hit.

There are more than ten stoves in the yard, and each stove requires two blacksmiths who are not wearing shirts to make hoes in Ding Dingdang, which is recently arranged by Chao Gai, to create a slender and sharp and heavy hoe, this hoe is specially used to reclaim wasteland, deep into the ground, suitable for use in sand and gravel land.

Zhang Tiehan was sweating, and hurriedly came over when he saw Chao Gai coming.

"The owner is here." Zhang Tiehan said.

"Here, how did I do it?" Chao Gai asked.

"Back to the owner, you said that it is difficult for skilled craftsmen to build the difficult parts, and the novice apprentices can build the easy parts, and the efficiency will improve quickly, but it is difficult for the apprentices to take charge on their own."

This is the case with assembly line operations, and it is difficult to learn the entire process. Chao Gai said: "When you meet a talented apprentice, you can teach systematically, and you can also teach systematically when you are not busy." ”

The forging workshop here, ten furnaces, twenty craftsmen, if you build a pickaxe a day, you can build eighty or fifty knives, after all, the production of weapons is more laborious than the production of farm tools, Chao Gai specially arranged three skilled blacksmiths to professionally forge some good steel knives, as gifts to some heroes, but there are no senior knife makers, otherwise you can create some superb knives.

"Three hundred pickaxes can be delivered the day after tomorrow, mainly because the farm has been busy recently, and there are too many farm tools sent to the village for maintenance." Zhang Tiehan said.

Chao Gai patted Tie Han on the shoulder: "I'm not here to urge you, I'm not a person who doesn't care about other people's lives and deaths, I go to work at dawn and work after dark, and I have to rest enough for three meals, and in terms of food, my ward manager asked him to send five more geese over every day, everyone's work is too hard." ”

Everyone was very moved, and Liu Tang came to the ironsmith for the first time to look around. Chao Gai continued to discuss with Zhang Tiehan, "It is not advisable to rely on extending working hours, if there is some way to suppress it." If you can cast such a heavy farm tool as a pickaxe, you can try to cast it. ”

"Casting is possible, I recently arranged for someone to try it." Zhang Tiehan said.

"Let's go, take me to the back smelter." Chao Gai said.

The smelting place is separated by a courtyard, and when you enter it, it is obviously hotter than before, and the coal in the four two-meter-high furnaces is whining.

"These are four furnaces, which can produce 1,200 catties of molten iron in one day and one night, and the production capacity is already very high at present." Tie Han said.

Chao Gai nodded, iron smelting is quite complicated, workers dig out iron ore, beat large pieces into small pieces, small pieces are crushed, and then enter the smelting furnace for smelting.

"The output of blast furnace ironmaking is high, and now the daily iron output is not profitable." Chao Gai said.

With an output of 1,200 catties a day, ten miners, two mules, ten smelting workers, twenty outside forging workers, and ten professional Zhuang Ding who are responsible for safety, if it is not for the extremely low labor cost, it will lose money.

Zhang Tiehan thought for a while and said: "I have a way, the forging outside can be expanded into twenty furnaces, recruit twenty bellows workers, just eat and live, and don't worry about the rest." In this way, other craftsmen can do more work, and these bellows pullers can be apprenticed after a few years. ”

"It's not good to let children do such heavy work." Chao Gai knew that the small workers Zhang Tiehan was talking about were all fourteen or fifteen-year-old children.

"The owner of the village is benevolent and righteous, but there are disasters and famines in many places outside, and many people can't eat enough at home and can't wear warmth, so it's a good thing to be able to feed and clothe the children."

Chao Gai was gloomy, you must know that this was the traitorous minister in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the people were not happy, thirteen or fourteen-year-old child laborers were everywhere, and even a girl of this size was not uncommon to sell to Goolan Qinglou.

"Okay. I'll go back and tell the manager that I'll arrange for you to recruit new people. The coal smoke used for smelting is too big, and you try to change it to coke, and I feel that coke is better than coal. If you can't recruit a master who understands blast furnaces in a short period of time, then you should build more furnaces of the current kind. Chao Gai said.

Zhang Tiehan wrote down one by one, the ironcraft workshop must expand its scale even if the profit is low, without him, it is convenient to build things, especially to build weapons, you find others to sell expensive not to mention, it is not easy to buy.

In the iron ore field behind Chao Gai and Liu Tang, more than a dozen people are mining, busy, and the mining of open-pit iron ore is relatively easy. Liu Tang asked: "Owner, as far as our business is concerned, private salt is a black business, and the government does not allow it to be operated, so we can only buy some people and operate it secretly." However, the Iron Organ Government agreed to let the private sector open mines, and they can operate freely. ”

"Haha, you only know one thing, you don't know the other. First of all, a large amount of money must be paid to apply for mining development, such as this iron mine, I am afraid that at least 50,000 or 60,000 yuan will be paid, and then 30% of the iron production will be extracted as a tax. Even so, it can't be done without a strong relationship, and it is all controlled by relatives of high-ranking officials at the level of the prefect. However, after the new magistrate comes, we can apply for a certificate and report the scale and output of the iron plant as low. Chao Gai said.

Iron ore is a treasure plate, it depends on how you dig it.

When Chao Gai and Liu Tang returned to the escort camp, it was already afternoon, and the three brothers of the Ruan family had come back early, and Ruan Xiaoqi shouted from afar: "Brother, the new house you built for my family is so beautiful, my mother talks about your good every day." ”

"It's all as it should be, this is the first step, and when we make money next, we not only need to have money to spend, but also to make the nearby fishing villages rich." Chao Gai said.

San Ruan was very happy and convinced of Chao Gai.

Ruan Xiaoer's eyes were sharp, and he suddenly saw Chao Gai's Fang Tian painting halberd.

"Brother, is this your new weapon?" Ruan Xiaoer asked.

Chao Gai took Fang Tian's painting halberd and showed it to everyone with the bow, "This is the Golden Dragon Swallowing Heavenly Halberd, which is extremely sharp and heavy, and it is a sharp weapon for horse warfare." This is a cloud-piercing and moon-chasing bow, and it is also a treasure bow, and it takes at least three stones of strength to pull it apart. ”

Ruan Xiaoqi said: "I Di Niang, my brother is all in this outfit, the Golden Dragon Swallowing Heavenly Halberd is a horse battle chief weapon, the Cloud Piercing Moon Chasing Bow is a long-range weapon, the Heavenly King Mountain Knife is a foot combat weapon, and the BMW has a dark cloud stepping on the snow." ”

Everyone congratulated Chao Gai, and Chao Gai was also very happy, but he didn't expect to save an old man who fainted and get such a big benefit.

Liu Tang scratched his head: "Brother, you still need a good pair of armor." ”

"Haha, the coming day is long, don't worry, we have all the iron mines, I'm afraid that there will be no armor, one pair per person in the future." Chao Gai laughed.

Thinking that he was going to rest, Chao Gai suddenly blew the whistle for an emergency assembly, except for Liu Tang and the ten people in his platoon, the other guards all arrived. Each of them no longer had a bare ash rod in his hand, but a bright spear, and each of them still carried a bow and a quiver, and if you looked closely, you would find a sharp knife on her calf. The formation stood very straight, and everyone held their chests up and raised their heads.

"I want to tell you something." Chao Gai said, "Just the day before yesterday, we were in the horse market in Yuncheng, and on the night of the opening, more than 50 horses were stolen. ”

Everyone was shocked, but patience and discipline did not dare to ask.

Chao Gai continued: "Liu Tang and I led people to catch the horse thieves, but we had no choice but to let them go. ”

Everyone was furious, the escort team was doing it, wasn't it just to protect the Chao family's business, 80% of these people were from Dongxi Village, and they were all the henchmen of the Chao Gai family.

Ruan Xiaoer said: "Brother, whoever stole our horse dares to break ground on Tai Sui's head." I can't cut them if I catch them, it's too cheap to put them. ”

"I don't want to let it go, but do you know who the horse thief is?" Chao Gai said, "It's Yu Baosi of Zengtou City." ”

In Zengtou City, everyone was a little surprised, but they were all young people who were afraid of this, and they didn't lose if they lost.

"As long as my brother says a word, let's kill it overnight." Sanruan asked for battle, and the guards were also very angry, Chao Zhang, Chao Ran did not express his position, straight war.

Chao Gai pressed his hand: "Zengtou City is strong, it has gone beyond the scope of the battle of the rivers and lakes, five or six thousand soldiers and horses, and there are more generals Shi Wengong and Su Ding, not easy to say war, with our current strength, even if we rely on strategy to win, it will hurt our muscles and bones, so we have to endure, but forbearance is not to do nothing, we must strengthen training, tonight for night marching training, fifteen miles of cross-country, it is best to arrive at a class to wash socks for all the escort team for five days." ”

Everyone's face is green, this year's socks are also a rare product, each person is only two pairs of washes, and it is natural to smell abnormal all day training, who has to wash socks for five days.

"Let's go." With Chao Gai's order, everyone raised torches and started the night off-road.

In fact, every night march has people fall and are injured, Chao Gai recently let the room increase the supplement of animal liver, and everyone's night vision has improved. The team had reached its destination, and it had been an hour since they returned.

The next morning, Chao Gai told Chao Zhang that Chao Ran, Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, and Ruan Xiaoqi said that Liu Tang had taken people to run errands, and everyone stepped up training, and those who dared to slack off were severely punished.

The five of them agreed and each led the team to training, and Chao Gai supervised the training of the morning queue and then took two guards back to the village. Today is the day of planting cotton, and Liu Youtian has never planted it before, so please Chao Gai go over and give me some advice.

Liu Youtian of the Chao family took more than 50 villagers to eat breakfast and saw Chao Gai coming, and each took the fragrant case, fruits and vegetables and various farm tools to the field, just out of the village, suddenly a person rushed out of the roadside, and he knelt on the ground.

"Please keep your life safe." This man was less than twenty years old, of average height, with a white beard, a square scarf on his head, a haggard complexion, a coarse cloth and a pair of bare-footed straw sandals.

"Well, who are you? What can I do? Chao Gai asked.

didn't wait for this person to speak, Liu Youtian next to him said: "This person's name is Ma Tao, he is from Majia Village, he has a good car, his mother is sick, and she has been taking medicine for many years, so the family is ruined." He came a few days ago, and wanted Dr. Chao Que to give his mother free medical treatment and medicine, he is not from our east and west villages, and Dr. Chao disagreed, so he shouted to come to you, and it is not easy for the local people to forcibly drive away. ”

Ma Tao saw that Liu Youtian had said it, and hurriedly kowtowed to Chao Gai: "The villain's mother is seriously ill, and the valuable things in the family have been sold, as long as Baozheng gives my mother free treatment, no matter whether the villain can be cured or not, I am willing to sell it to the Chao family as a slave." ”