"Come on." Sun Jingting said helplessly: "I have already been to the letter before, and bluntly said that you are now dedicated to major things, and the private relationship between men and women will be put aside first, anyway, you will explain to Yu Niang!" ”

Zhang Han said with a bitter face: "Did you really say the last sentence?" ”

"You dare to pay the bill?" Sun Jingting said angrily: "When you told Yu Niang that there would be an explanation, I was there!" ”

"Okay...... Zhang Han responded with a wry smile.

……

Han Lao Liu squatted in front of the furnace room, staring at the stove he had created with a smile.

There were several members of the iron yard guard team with knives and guns around, and they also looked at the furnace room with a nervous expression, and all the idle people were pushed far away, until Han Lao Liu left the furnace room by himself, and the others could come to him.

A cart of furnace slag was pushed out of the furnace chamber, and from the outside, the furnace room was not in the slightest difference from the old one, and there were almost no changes, so that people could not see the end.

"Sixth, you're going to fucking send it."

"Sixth, don't forget Lao Tzu, please drink Lao Tzu."

"Who the hell are you, Lao Tzu, when Lao Tzu was in the iron field, you were still holding your mother's milk and head at home, and you became Lao Tzu."

A group of people laughed at Han Lao Liu, Han Lao Liu was not annoyed, but he was not soft on his mouth, he was an old fritter, he could eat other losses, and he refused to eat the losses on his lips at all.

"It's not easy to talk about the sixth child." A thin middle-aged man looked at Han Lao Liu and said, "First he was brought to Xinping Fort, and then he thought of an idea and was put back, and he really made it happen." ”

Another person answered: "I heard that proprietor Zhang is very generous, last time a craftsman made a new bird gun, saying that he could make a fire by himself, not a fire rope, proprietor Zhang rewarded him with a thousand taels of silver, obediently, sixth, this time you really sent it." ”

Everyone fell silent, a thousand taels of silver, for a miner with an annual income of about ten taels, it was an astronomical amount that he could not imagine.

Han Lao Liu laughed, he grinned and said: "You don't have to be red-eyed, I made this, I didn't sleep all day and night, thinking about the matter of this furnace room, I haven't slept well in the past few months, and the meat on my body has lost more than ten pounds, plus we are already veterans for more than ten years, so this thing has been done." If you also want to take this reward, you can also think about it yourself, Zhang Dongzhu is a generous person, hehe. ”

Han Lao Liu felt that his reward had arrived, he stayed in Xinpingbao for a while, knowing Zhang Han's personality and He Yusheng's strength, since Wang Debang could get a thousand taels, he would definitely be able to get a thousand taels.

At this time, Han Laoliu's wife, son and daughter-in-law all rushed over, and everyone stood around Han Laoliu.

Han Lao's sixth daughter-in-law is in her early forties, she is already with withered hair, unkempt, and her face is also yellow, and she said timidly: "If you are in charge, can you get a reward?" ”

Han Lao Liu said: "I didn't see everyone waiting for the proprietor to come, what are you anxious about." ”

The daughter-in-law looked down on her father-in-law, pouted and said, "I have seen hail falling from the sky, but I have never seen silver falling." ”

Han Laoliu's son scolded: "What are you talking about, why don't you give our father a few dozen taels!" ”

Han Lao Liu's grandson is still a little boy, pestering his grandfather to eat jelly beans, this is what his father taught him before leaving home, Han Lao Liu was entangled by his grandson in a panic, originally determined in his heart, at this time he was also a little flustered, if the proprietor only praised a few words and did not give a reward, then he would be embarrassed and embarrassed.

Fortunately, the iron field has been giving monthly salary, Han Lao Liu has been busy with the furnace room recently, and he is not allowed to gamble too much, he has accumulated some money, and made up his mind that if there is no silver reward for a while, he will use his private money to send his son's family.

"Here it is, here comes the proprietor."

Someone screamed, and the people in front of the gate of the iron yard and in the yard seemed to be a flock of chickens with their necks pinched, and they all fluttered at once, and their necks stretched out to look out on the road.

The road leading to the official road in the iron field has been repaired very well, the waste slag is not wasted at all, all of it is used to pave the road, Cai Jiu did not save money and labor in this matter, a few months down, several roads leading to the outside of the mountain have been repaired flat and straight, paved with slag and then used to smooth it constantly, the whole road is wide and hard, can accommodate two to three cars side by side.

Zhang Han rode the horse in the middle, Jiang Kui took a few guards in front, and there were more than 20 guards in the middle to the last of the cavalry, Zhang Han has a big business recently, and is fighting a business war with the Fan family, and Yusheng did not go to do any off-the-job moves, but the heart of defense is indispensable, he wants to prevent others from dealing with him, and the escort force, that is, the members of the special service team and the defense level have greatly increased.

In the eyes of Han Lao Liu and others, Zhang Han, who was surrounded by dozens of horsemen, was not the young proprietor who created this iron field with his hands in his memory, Zhang Han was also wearing a short gray robe, a felt hat on his head, a fine iron knife around his waist, and a cowhide belt, and the whole person was in good spirits, revealing the breath of an obvious superior.

Even if the guards were wearing the same robes as Zhang Han, the aura on Zhang Han's face could not be concealed, even some new miners who had never seen Zhang Han, when they saw Zhang Han turn over and dismount in the crowd, and walk forward with a smile, these people also knew that this young man Langjun was the owner of this iron field.

A miner whispered, "You keep saying that the proprietor is young, I don't think he's yet twenty, right?" ”

The other person said nervously, "Who knows?" But although the proprietor is young, he is also very powerful, do you know about the Han family......"

At this time, someone whispered: "Don't talk nonsense, the owner will speak." ”

The miners who were not on duty were all gathered in the center of the yard, and even the living quarters poured out a lot of people, who still had a lot of affection for their own proprietors.

The entire Lingqiu Mining can be said to be because of the subversive changes caused by the emergence of Zhang Han, the miners' residences have become rows of tiled houses, living well, eating well, the welfare is more than 100 times stronger than before, and the wages have also increased a lot.

People are not without conscience, but they are easy to be swayed or used, at least here in Lingqiu, under the deliberate publicity, Zhang Han's image is extremely tall.

Zhang Han didn't make a long speech, he looked at Han Lao Liu, nodded and said: "Sixth brother, you can change your mistakes, and you know how to return if you are lost, this time you have made a contribution, it is very good, I want to reward you heavily." ”

Han Laoliu's face turned red, and he slowly replied: "Proprietor, I don't know how to say these words, I know that the proprietor is good to us in the iron field, even if there is no reward, I will do this honestly." ”

The old and young members of the Han family were all anxious when they heard Han Lao Liu say such things, and Han Lao Liu's son couldn't wait to go up and cover his father's mouth.

Zhang Han smiled when he heard this, and said, "Let's go and see the furnace room first." ”

Of course, everyone followed, Cai Jiu and a few deputies came over, and briefly talked about the recent situation in the iron field.

Almost all of the western mountain ranges, where iron ore is easy to be produced, have been bought by Heyusheng Iron Yard, stretching into patches, and the places as far as the eye can see are already part of the Iron Yard.

The furnaces have also been increased to 11, 5 large blast furnaces, 6 small furnaces, each large furnace can produce 5,000 catties of molten iron, 3,000 catties of small furnaces, there are only five furnaces in the iron yard here, and there are 11 furnaces in the iron yard on the new site.

In the past few months, the number of miners used in the iron field has gradually increased to nearly 3,000 people, including those directly used in the blast furnace, logistics personnel, sales and purchasing personnel, and more logging and furnace workers, plus accounting offices and management personnel, there are about less than 10,000 miners in the entire Lingqiu, and Zhang Han's and Yusheng iron works have exceeded more than 30%.

There have been quite a few small iron yard owners who have transferred their iron yards, and most of their old furnaces have been torn down and rebuilt, although it has cost a lot of work, effort and cost, and the charcoal fire and ICBC saved are enough to slowly recover the previous investment.

The work area and the living area have been expanded several times, in front of Zhang Han's eyes, the blue brick and tile houses stretch into a piece, the planning is very good, there are spacious roads in the living area, thousands of people eat every day, there are dozens of donkey carts that deliver vegetables alone, and grain and vegetables are sent in every morning.

Cai Jiu said, handed a water hyacinth to Zhang Han, and said with a smile: "This is the mountain spring water that is introduced, the clear stream is at the bottom, the proprietor tastes it." ”

Zhang Han took a sip and praised: "It's really clear and sweet, Cai Jiu, you are doing a very good job." ”

Cai Jiu's face lit up with joy, he was no longer the young and timid young man he was a year ago, after such a long period of training, he was indeed much more mature than before.

These things in front of you, it is difficult to reflect on the statement, the profits of the iron yard on the accounts are also very ordinary, from the position to the present, a total of 3 million catties of iron have been sold, the price of Jin Iron and the iron in the south can not be compared, that is, because the purity of the iron of the Yusheng Iron Yard is much higher, the impurities have become less, the original image of Jin Iron is very poor, and it has recently recovered some, but it is also difficult to increase the selling price, after all, there is no essential change in pig iron, it is slightly better than the original, but there are more sales channels, but the price is still very low, not only much lower than that of Fujian Iron, It is also lower than pig iron in the rest of the world.

According to the estimation of Cai Jiu and others, there is a shortage of iron everywhere in the entire Ming Dynasty, not only for the people, but also for the imperial court.

Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court saw that it was not cost-effective to open an iron yard, with a lot of labor, high costs, and little iron, so it closed many iron yards one after another.

The official mines of the Ming Dynasty are like state-owned enterprises in later generations, with very low efficiency and amazing waste.

The official office was changed to the official purchase, and the court cost was saved a lot, but the problem of iron shortage has not been solved.

Now the main part of the north is the Southern Railway, Ma'anshan and Fujian are all large iron producers, Fujian has hundreds of iron yards, 15 counties to produce iron, most of these iron is purchased in the north, used for special purposes.

The armor, weapons, birds, and artillery of the imperial court were mostly made of Fujian iron, or at least they were made of southern iron.

These can be seen in the records of the court officials at that time, and Jin Tie was completely unable to compete with Min Tie in this area.

Because of the dual reasons of casting and transportation, the price of Fujian iron became very expensive after arriving in the north, and the price was more than ten times that of Jin Iron.

Zhang Han always wanted to compete with Min Tie, and he planned to smuggle iron to the grassland, but it did not include fine iron. Because Jiannu also has iron ore and iron fields, and has always attached great importance to building weapons, the eight banners use the best iron in weapons, and then armor, the armor of the white tooth is a well-made iron armor, solid and abnormal, the cotton armor worn by ordinary armor soldiers is also better than the Ming army, but Jiannu is trapped in manpower and financial resources, there is no way to put armor on all the soldiers for the time being, this gap will not be made up until the Chongzhen years, and the eight banner soldiers after entering the customs several times, have been far ahead of the Ming army in armor and weapons.