Wang Youcai thought for a moment, and said: "In the past, there were two money shops in Huoshan City, but one was moved, and now there is only one left, I really don't know what the level of blacksmith is." ”

"Is there nothing else in Huoshan City except for this iron shop?"

Zhou Shanjun was a little disappointed, he and Wang Yanru had already gone to see the iron shop that Wang Youcai said, and he denied it at a glance, and he didn't even take out the drawings, not to mention how exquisite the things made by the iron shop were, just the two stunned green blacksmiths, he was already very uneasy, so he left without saying a word. Now that he heard Wang Youcai say that there is only one in Huoshan County, and there is no other store, Zhou Shanjun doesn't want to talk about this topic anymore.

"Not really." Wang Youcai replied without thinking about it, he was very familiar with this slap-sized county, and he knew which store was in which location. "Yanru, don't we have an iron shop in Foziling? I heard that the craftsmanship is not bad, why do you two have to go far? ”

"I've been there, but people can't get what he wants, so I came to the county seat."

Wang Yanru looked helpless, she was just anxious for her husband because she didn't find a suitable iron shop.

"I see." Wang Youcai read in his mouth, his eyes rolled, and said: "I have heard people say that there used to be a very famous iron shop in Anqing, and later moved to Lihuang due to the war. ”

"Thank you."

People said so much, Zhou Shanjun naturally had to say something, walked out of the private room first, and went downstairs to the counter to settle the bill.

A few people walked out of the restaurant, and Zhou Shanjun said to Wang Yanru: "Let's not disturb people, while it's still early, hurry up to Lihuang, maybe we can get there before dark." ”

"How are you going?" Wang Youcai asked, he was a little puzzled: "What is so anxious to type?" It doesn't matter if you are a man, Xiaoru has been pampered since she was a child, you have to think about her. ”

"I'm fine, third brother, you also see me as too weak." Wang Yanru smiled, nodded at Zhou Shanjun, and said, "Let's go." ”

"Don't worry, we have horses." Zhou Shanjun never called the person in front of him his brother, except for calling Wang Yafang's third sister-in-law out of guilt.

Lihuang County is located in the western border of Anhui and the northern foot of Dabie Mountain, at the junction of seven counties and two districts of three provinces, with a total area of 3,834 square kilometers. On September 20, 21 years of the Republic of China, the Kuomintang Army Wei Lihuang Department entered and occupied Jinjiazhai. In October, in order to strengthen its control over the Hubei-Henan-Anhui border region, the Kuomintang set up Lihuang County, the county seat was Jinjiazhai, which belonged to Henan Province that year, and in March of the following year, it was assigned to Anhui Province, and the territory was divided into Jinjiazhai Town and Hudian Township. From the 27th to the 34th year of the Republic of China, the Anhui Provincial Government and the 21st Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army used Jinjiazhai as the temporary provincial capital and headquarters station, and used Dabie Mountain as a base to contain the Japanese invading army.

On September 2, 36 of the Republic of China, the 3rd Column and 8th Brigade of the LBC and DXP of the Chinese People's Liberation Army liberated Jinjiazhai, the county seat of Lihuang, and renamed Lihuang County as Jinzhai County, and the county seat was still Jinjiazhai Town. Jinzhai is a hot land, raising generation after generation of "hard work, dedication, unity and hard work, excellence and striving for the first" Jinzhai sons and daughters, and has given birth to influential figures in the historical process of the Chinese revolution. During the period of the New Democratic Revolution, 11 Red Army units were formed in the territory, which was the main birthplace of the Fourth Front Army of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and the first county of the Chinese Red Army. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, it was the center of the anti-Japanese salvation movement led by the Anhui Provincial Working Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Party Committee of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Border Region. During the Liberation War, it was an important rear base established by Liu Deng's army. In the new democratic revolution, revolutionary pioneers represented by Jiang Guangci and Wang Ming emerged in the revolutionary war years, and 100,000 heroic sons and daughters of the county joined the army and participated in the war, and most of them spilled their blood on the battlefield and sacrificed their lives for the country. After the liberation, more than 10,000 people were posthumously recognized as revolutionary martyrs, accounting for one-fifth of the total number of revolutionary martyrs in Anhui Province. Among the generals of the Chinese People's Liberation Army awarded titles in the fifties and sixties, there were 59 Jinzhai nationals, making it the second largest "general county" in the country.

At this time, Lihuang was the temporary capital of Anhui Province, and the headquarters of the 21st Group Army was also stationed here, so compared to Huoshan, which was separated by a mountain, it was more than a little prosperous.

When Zhou Shanjun and Wang Yanru arrived here, it was already completely dark, many shops had closed their doors, and after searching for a while, they finally found a hotel that was not full.

After a bumpy afternoon on the horse, Wang Yanru felt that her whole body was going to fall apart, she didn't want to move, and even the hot bath was washed by Zhou Shanjun for her. After changing into clean clothes and lying down for a while, she relieved herself and accompanied Zhou Shanjun to have some dinner, and then went to rest.

Zhou Shanjun couldn't sleep, and by the faint candlelight, he looked at the pictures carefully, thinking all the time in his mind, how could the boss suddenly come up with the idea of forming a team, how could he have so many strange ideas. Just like this sketch of the bow and crossbow in front of me, just by looking at it, you know that once this weapon is built, it will definitely be a nightmare for the devil soldiers.

The fatigue of the first day made the two of them sleep lazily, and if it weren't for the shopkeeper knocking on the door, neither of them would have gotten up.

Hearing the knock on the door and waking up, Zhou Shanjun realized that he didn't know when he slept inside, he clearly remembered that he blew out the lights last night, and then slept outside.

"Well, who is so annoying, knocking on the door early in the morning?"

Wang Yanru was half of her body on Zhou Shanjun, and she was a little angry after being woken up.

"Guest officer, it's already noon, and the shopkeeper asked me if you want to renew your room." Xiao Er's voice is also a little helpless, if he is not forced by the shopkeeper to ask, he actually doesn't want to disturb others, the guests in this room are quite polite, often encounter a tempered person, open the door is two ear brackets.

"Continue, wait for the house money to go downstairs, don't rush again."

After Wang Yanru said this, she closed her eyes again, and the hands and feet that pressed on Zhou Shanjun's body did not take away.

He is used to this, this woman usually looks very gentle, but when she rests, she is very domineering, and it is not good for the whole bed to be taken up by her two-thirds, you have to put your hands and feet on you to sleep comfortably, which makes Zhou Shanjun both happy and distressed.

He was anxious to find a blacksmith shop, but he couldn't bear to disturb the little woman beside him, so he had to stare dryly, hoping that she would sleep well sooner.

It wasn't until the second time that the shopkeeper came to urge, Wang Yanru reluctantly got up, and Zhou Shanjun was also free from the suppression of the "magic hands and feet".

went downstairs to renew the room fee, and after eating, Zhou Shanjun asked the shopkeeper: "Second brother, do you know how many blacksmith shops there are in the city?" ”

"Blacksmith shop, guest officer, you are the right person." When he said this, the shopkeeper was a little proud.

He had a good impression of the young couple, and he didn't get angry at least two times when he disturbed them, and now he was polite when he asked them, so he was happy to answer.

"That's great, in this way, how about you take half a day off, take us to find it, and give you two oceans as a payment?"

Wang Yanru is very generous, how did she know that two oceans were the wages of the shopkeeper for several months.

"No, no, I can't afford so much money." The shopkeeper was so happy that he couldn't speak. quickly ran to the shopkeeper to ask for a leave, and led the two out of the door.

Zhou Shanjun saw that the shopkeeper was leading them not to the street, but had been drilling into the alley, and asked suspiciously, "Where are you taking us?" ”

"Guest, you don't know, a good blacksmith wouldn't open a shop on the street and go out to solicit customers. Even if the blacksmith is good, he will not go to the iron himself, most of the apprentices and workers do it, and the things he makes can be so good. The shopkeeper replied with a smile, and then said mysteriously: "I know an ironworker, so I built a boiler in my yard, and the things that came out were called good, but unfortunately he rarely took the job." I saw that the two guest officials were kind and kind, so I went to try my luck. ”

"Really? What does this blacksmith live with if he doesn't strike iron? Zhou Shanjun was still a little puzzled.

"I don't know about this, but I heard that the whole family of this blacksmith moved from Nanjing, and he may have made a lot of money before." The shopkeeper replied casually.

Hearing this explanation, Zhou Shanjun had fewer doubts in his heart.

"Here we are."

The two of them followed the shopkeeper around a few alleys, crossed a small stone bridge, and came to a small courtyard, where two large locust trees were planted outside the courtyard gate, and the branches and leaves stretched out were like two huge canopies, covering this small courtyard under its shade.

Before I walked to the gate of the courtyard, I had already heard the sound of tinkling iron in the yard.

The shopkeeper knocked on the courtyard door first, and he was still shouting: "Is Uncle Zheng at home?" ”

The courtyard door creaked open, and a thin middle-aged man in a cyan robe walked out, and said politely after seeing the shopkeeper: "It turned out to be the second virtue of Granny Huang's family, so you don't have to work today?" Let's go inside and have tea. ”

"Uncle Zheng, I'm bothering you with something." The shopkeeper greeted him as he spoke, motioned for Zhou Shanjun and Wang Yanru to come over, and then said to the thin middle-aged man in the cyan robe: "These two are my friends, and I want to ask you for a few things, so I brought them over." ”

"Oh!" The middle-aged man glanced at the two of them for a moment, and then his eyes fell on Zhou Shanjun, but his mouth did not stop, and said, "Since this is the case, then please go into the cold house and drink a few cups of tea together." ”

Entering the courtyard, Zhou Shanjun saw that there was a shed in the courtyard on the left side of the door, in which two large stoves were built, and a bellows more than one person high stood next to the stove, and the rest of the boards, coal, water tanks and other things needed for striking iron were readily available. Two burly, shirtless, muscular men wielded sledgehammers and took turns striking the red pieces of iron that had just been plucked out of the fire. The sound of striking iron and the sound of trumpets just heard came from the mouths of these two people, and another person who was also naked and sweating was pulling the bellows, and this work was also a hard work, watching the flames in the furnace turn from yellow to red, from red to blue, and immediately knew how high the temperature was.

Although there is an iron shop in Foziling, how can it be compared with this, Wang Yanru's eyes were straight, and she asked stupidly: "If a person falls into this furnace, then how can he get it." ”

One sentence made the middle-aged people in green shirts laugh, and also shortened the distance between strangers.

"I wonder what you two want to buy?" The middle-aged man was personally making tea for them, busy with his hands, and saying in his mouth: "Maybe the two of you have heard that Zheng's shop is not doing business with the outside world, but since it was brought by Erde, I have to give Granny Huang this face, say, what are you going to fight." ”

Zhou Shanjun didn't answer his words, still sitting on the stool, just watching the middle-aged man make tea.

After he distributed the tea to several people one by one and sat down himself, Zhou Shanjun took out the drawings from his clothes.

"I want to make these things, I don't know if Master Zheng has the ability."

Zhou Shanjun's words were not very polite, just now he had been paying attention to the hands of this middle-aged man, if he was really the master or head of those people in the courtyard, then he must be a master of iron, from the observation just now, his hands were white and pure, obviously not a person who did heavy physical work. This made Zhou Shanjun a little disappointed, and he didn't plan to take out these drawings, but he still took them out with the mentality of a dead horse as a live horse doctor.

The middle-aged man in the green shirt may have noticed Zhou Shanjun's thoughts, and he was also a little unhappy, so he didn't come over to pick up the drawings, and said directly: "Zheng really has no ability, so it's best for your guests to invite another high-ranking guest." ”

Wang Yanru is a smart girl, she also found Zhou Shanjun's unkindness, and also heard the displeasure of this middle-aged man, so she hurriedly took the drawings from Zhou Shanjun's hand, respectfully handed them to the middle-aged man, and said: "Uncle Zheng, don't mind, the two of us have found a lot of iron shops, but none of them can do it, so he will be so rude, please bear with me." After she said this, she said to Zhou Shanjun again: "Look at you, don't say sorry to Uncle Zheng yet." ”

Since they said this, the middle-aged man couldn't hold it anymore, took the drawing with both hands, and before he could look at it, he heard the woman say: "Uncle Zheng, if you can make these things, our couple is willing to pay you a high price." ”

The middle-aged man smiled faintly, did not speak, and looked at the drawing.

"Crossbow?"

This is the first thing a middle-aged man says after seeing the drawing.

"That's right."

"Why not wood? It's the first time I've ever seen someone draw a crossbow so delicately, and it's marked to be made of iron. ”

"Like you, I want to know the answer to this question."

The middle-aged man said the biggest question about this bow and crossbow at a glance, which made Zhou Shanjun's impression of him change greatly.

"Crossbow arm, crossbow bow, bowstring and crossbow machine, make three ......"

The middle-aged man muttered to himself softly, as if thinking about something, and suddenly raised his head again and asked, "How many crossbows do you want?" ”

"Make ten pairs first, and if the results are good, more." Zhou Shanjun could already see from his expression that this thing could be done.

The middle-aged man surnamed Zheng didn't speak after hearing the answer, opened the second drawing, and said with just one glance: "Iron three claws, this is simple." ”

As he spoke, he opened the third drawing, which was also a surprise to him, and after a long while, he asked, "Is this a bayonet?" ”

"That's right, you have such a good eye, I didn't see it was a bayonet when I got this drawing, but I didn't expect you to see it at a glance."