"And now? You're a state parent now, too. “

"Now?" Lu Boqi smiled bitterly and sighed: "You are right, I am indeed an official now, but I am old, I am just a person, and the master is not a heavy minister, and my career has come to an end." Now all I want to do all day is to be able to save more money, take care of some farms and houses in my hometown, and build a sect school, firstly, to entertain my old age, and secondly, to let the children of the clan suffer less setbacks in their careers. “

"Master, these words are all from the heart!" The master sighed: "People's hearts are like iron, the world is like a furnace, let you be heroic, decades of polishing and setbacks, in the end, what you want in your heart is also a round rich man." I didn't have a good career, and I left home in my early thirties to travel all over the world, and I followed four or five adults before following you. After all, in life, the most important thing is to dress and eat, and everyone has the children of the clan to take care of. But that Liu Cheng and Liu Dusi made me unable to understand why he, a martial artist who had never read the book of sages, was so desperate to do errands? There is also the matter of repairing the embankment and digging the embankment, whether it is Ma Juren or you, they have all gained a lot of benefits, but he himself has not received any benefits, don't you think it is strange, sir? “

"It makes sense to hear you like this, that Liu Dusi is indeed acting a little strange." Lu Boqi nodded: "Then master, what do you say?" ”

"Wait and see!" The master said in a low voice: "Didn't Liu Dusi say that the embankment is about to be completed, and he wants to invite you and Master Ma to go when the time comes?" That day, I knocked on the side of myself, and the master looked at it carefully. ”

"It's good!" Lu Boqi was quite satisfied with his master's suggestion, after all, he had already taken so many benefits from Liu Cheng, and he was embarrassed to tear his face, so it was better to let his master rush ahead, and he would always have room for maneuver.

Luo River. Also known as the Beiluo River, originates in the north of Shaanxi Province today, the southern foot of Baiyu Mountain in the south of Ningxia Autonomous Region, all the way to the southeast, flows through Zhidan, Ganquan, Fuxian, Luochuan, Huangling, Yijun, Chengcheng, Baishui, Pucheng, Dali, to the mouth of the three rivers into the Wei River, is the largest river basin area in the territory of Yanzhou, but also the river with the largest water volume. As with the vast majority of rivers on the Loess Plateau. The course of the Luo River has changed greatly in history, because the land through which it flows is mostly a thick loess accumulation area, whenever the upstream rainstorm comes, the raging river water hits the river bank, stripping large pieces of mud and gravel off the river bank, and over time, the trajectory of the river is like a moving snake moving on the surface of the Loess Plateau. The site where Liu Cheng chose to build Pichi is an old river channel called Niujiaotang, which was broken through the embankment by water from upstream about 20 years ago. A new channel was formed, while the old channel was turned into a long and narrow pond and marshland, named for its shape. Liu Cheng chose Niujiaotang for two reasons: 1. The use of the old river can be nearly half of the project volume, and there are some abandoned irrigation canals nearby, which can save a lot of manpower. 2. This area is one of the few stony riverbeds in the local area, so there is no need to worry about accidents such as water leaking or dam collapse after the reservoir is repaired. After several months of construction, the silt in the riverbed has been cleared and the existing embankment has been reinforced. A dam crosses the original channel, and only the embankment between the Luo River and the old channel needs to be dug up. You can open the floodgates to store water.

"You see, only soil of this color is qualified, and it must be carefully inspected, and those that are not qualified must be reworked, otherwise once the water begins to be stored, the embankment will collapse and people will die." Liu Cheng forcefully inserted the bamboo cane into the soil. After pulling it out, he knocked it hard a few times, and pointed to the clod of soil that fell out. Liu Cheng wears a sheepskin jacket, a gray felt hat on his head, leggings on his calves, and straw sandals on his feet. His dark skin, heavy work, and the peculiar north wind of the Loess Plateau were like a razor, scraping away what little remnants of modern society had left on his appearance.

"Yes, sir!" More than a dozen young men dressed like Liu Cheng replied with different accents, all of them were selected by Liu Cheng from among the thousands of strong men, and the selection criteria were between fourteen and eighteen years old, alert, strong, and preferably able to read a few words. Liu Cheng was ready to raise these people as future officers, engineers, and managers, but people came to their own conclusions according to the customs and traditions of the time—Liu Cheng intended to take these young people as his adopted sons. The adoption of a righteous son is a very common phenomenon among ancient Chinese military generals, especially since the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the warriors selected the adopted son from the brave and warlike young subordinates, and relied on it as their heart. In the face of this misunderstanding, Liu Cheng didn't bother to explain, judging from past experience, it was all in vain, no matter what era, the vast majority of people made judgments through past experience.

"My lord, the chains and gates have been delivered, please go and check them out!"

Just as Liu Cheng and his subordinates were explaining the characteristics and physical strength of various soils, a voice came from behind, and Liu Cheng turned around, but it was Tang Muyao. The young blacksmith had just married Tofu Zhang's third daughter two months earlier, and he was smiling from ear to ear all day long, and he was much more energetic in his work.

"Okay." Liu Cheng nodded: "You just do what I said." The people answered, and went their own way. Liu Cheng patted the dirt on his hands, walked towards Tang Muyao's finger, and said casually: "Muyao, what's going on with the pipe?" ”

"Tell your lordship!" Tang Muyao subconsciously lowered his voice: "I have already made one yesterday, but the speed is still relatively slow, with the craftsmanship of the villain, plus three assistants, it will take three or four days to work hard." “

"It doesn't matter! You try a few more methods, I will ask Mr. Xu to follow you, you tell him all the essentials of the system, and then record it so that more people can learn it. Seeing that Tang Muyao's face was a little ugly, Liu Cheng smiled and said: "I also know the truth of 'church apprentices, starve to death masters', but Mu Yao, don't be too shallow, don't you just want to be a craftsman in your life?" “

Tang Muyao said with a smile: "My lord, you are joking again, what can I do if I don't become a craftsman?" Do you still have to go farming? I have to have a field for me to plant! “

"Unproductive goods!" Liu Cheng scolded with a smile: "In addition to striking iron, I want to farm, why don't you want to think about some productive trades?" ”

"That's the accumulation of virtue and good cultivation for several generations, I don't have this life, I can marry the third daughter of the Tofu Zhang family, I am already satisfied."

Seeing Tang Muyao's satisfied face, Liu Cheng couldn't help but shake his head. In ancient times, the working people were like this, and their greatest hope was only to rely on their sweat and wisdom to let their families live a peaceful life with food and clothing. But even such humble demands are rarely met. If he hadn't met him, the young man in front of him would probably have been difficult to marry the third daughter of the tofu shop he loved, and the biggest possibility was that he was forced to take up arms due to hunger, and finally became one of the millions of corpses in the turmoil at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Come to think of it. Liu Cheng suddenly patted Tang Muyao's shoulder: "Muyao, have you ever thought that if you hadn't met me, what would happen now?" “

Tang Muyao was stunned when he heard this, he was not used to dealing with steel and furnace fire, he was not used to dealing with this somewhat esoteric question, he was very unaccustomed to thinking for a while, and replied: "I don't know, but I definitely can't live the current life, thank you, my lord!" “

"You don't have to thank me, lend me all your power. There are many more people who need my help! “

"Hmm!" Although he didn't quite understand what Liu Cheng meant, Tang Muyao still instinctively puffed up his chest and nodded.

According to the recollections, Liu Cheng designed a complex project composed of barrages, inlet gates, scouring gates, sand sinks, sand discharge gates, and diversion canal gates, which can cleverly precipitate the sediment of the Luohe River with high sand content, and then introduce it into Pitang. In order to prevent the water from slowing down after entering Pitang, a large amount of sediment will be deposited to fill the bottom of the reservoir. After the completion of Pitang, the autumn harvest has been completed. After the completion of the whole project, it will be able to irrigate more than 7,000 hectares of cultivated land, and it can also eliminate peaks and fill valleys, and solve the flood problem of part of the Luo River, which can be said to benefit one party.

"My lord, look at it. It's all made of the finest iron! Tang Muyao proudly tapped his work twice, and Liu Cheng squatted down and gently tapped on the gate and iron chain on the ground, which was made of cast iron, in order to reduce the impact of the water. It is specially made into an arc shape that reflects the cold light unique to metal under the illumination of the sun.

"What experience do you have with such a large casting?" Liu Cheng stood up and patted the dust on his hands.

"The stove is too small, and the blast is not enough!" Tang Muyao has gradually become accustomed to the strange words that Liu Cheng often brings in his words: "The furnace is small, so the molten iron that comes out every time is always not enough, it has to be divided into several pieces and then spliced together, and it is time-consuming and easy to produce scraps, the blower is too small, and a lot of carbon is wasted, but the temperature never goes up." “

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded, Tang Muyao's answer hit the nail on the head of the question, whether it is smelting or weapons manufacturing, it is a capital-intensive, technology-intensive, and resource-intensive economic model, the larger the scale, the more concentrated, the higher the benefits. His problem is that his official position is too low, and he has too few manpower and material resources at his disposal, so he cannot farm, so he can only get manpower and material resources from the local gentry to build his own team of technicians in the name of repairing irrigation canals and pitang. It will take two or three years to get this set of irrigation projects down, and the metallurgy, casting, forging, carpenter, and mechanical teams under their own hands should have a prototype.

Tang Muyao saw that there was no one around, hesitated for a moment, and whispered to Liu Cheng: "Adult, there is one thing that the villain doesn't know whether to talk about or not." “

Liu Cheng looked at Tang Muyao's face and asked, "Is it about the gun?" “

"Exactly!" Tang Muyao nodded: "The villain has an idea, it should be possible to increase the speed several times, but it will cost a lot of silver." “

"Tell me about it." Liu Cheng was immediately interested, and in his opinion, there were only three types of firearms that had a promising future in the seventeenth century: long cannons represented by the Hongyi cannon, arquebuses (or flintlock smoothbore guns), and mortars. Long artillery can be used in field battles, city defenses, and naval battles; The arquebus, when combined with spears, breastprints, and trenches, could completely overwhelm the cavalry in field battles; Mortars combined with trenches can be used to attack fortified fortresses defended by firearms. Among the three, there is no doubt that the role of the long cannon is the greatest, and the mortar cannon is the most side, but with Liu Cheng's current strength, it is too early to develop the long cannon (just the pack horse that pulls the field artillery vehicle is a big problem), and the mortar cannon is of little use (from the short time Liu Cheng's main opponents are Mongolia, Houjin and Liukou, there is no need to consider the siege), and the only thing left is the arquebus, and the biggest difficulty in this technology tree is to manufacture the gun tube cheaply and at high speed.

Seeing that Liu Cheng's interest was so high, Tang Muyao's courage also increased, and he stretched out three fingers: "I can make it clear first, the fire, iron, and charcoal to be added by this method will cost two hundred taels of silver." “

"Money is not an issue!" Liu Cheng waved his arm, pointed to a piece of land next to Pitang and said, "Seeing that there is no one over there, if your method is successful, I will give you fifty acres of good water to water the land." ”

"Thank you, sir!" Tang Muyao swallowed a mouthful of saliva and began to explain. Originally, the method of making the gun pipe in the East and the West was similar at that time, basically speaking, a long steel core was used first, and then a red-hot wrought iron was wrapped on it, and the pipe was made by beating it vigorously. Then use a file or drill bit to polish the bore smooth. There are two parts in this process that are quite troublesome, one is to manufacture the gun pipe, in order to prevent the wrought iron and the steel core from sticking together at high temperatures, so the steel core must be pulled out from time to time during the beating process, which has high requirements for the skills and experience of the workers; The second is to polish the inside of the barrel to make it straight and smooth, which is a large consumption of tools and manpower due to the lack of high-hardness alloy steel required for metal machining. Tang Muyao's method is to put more than a dozen steel cores side by side at the same time, and then operate on these steel cores at the same time, using apprentices to make rough samples and then fine processing by the master, which actually has the prototype of an assembly line. After listening to this, Liu Cheng nodded: "I'll give you the silver, you go try it first." ”

"Thank you, sir!" Tang Muyao originally had the mentality of giving it a try, and he didn't expect it to be approved so easily, so he couldn't help but be very surprised, and hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, but was caught by Liu Cheng and couldn't kneel.

"Remember, lend me your power and help more people!"

"Yes, sir!" (To be continued......)

PS: I read the first order today, and frankly I was disappointed, but luckily I got the buyout contract, but I feel a little sorry for the editor who bought the contract for me.