"Toji-sama has arrived!" With a loud voice, more than a hundred blacksmiths standing in the small school field hurriedly knelt down, Tang Muyao hurriedly knelt down, the young man didn't know how big an official Du Si was, so he secretly raised his head curiously and looked forward, only to see a tall man in a red robe surrounded by six or seven pro-soldiers on the school platform, his eyes were like electricity, Tang Muyao was afraid of being found peeking at, so he hurriedly lowered his head.

"Get up!"

Liu Cheng stood on the school platform, looking at the black head kneeling on the ground, he patted his palm twice, and Du Gu behind him stepped forward with a tray, on which were placed more than a dozen metal parts of different shapes and sizes. Liu Cheng pointed to the tray and said loudly: "You come and see this tray, if someone can build it in the same way, this official will be rewarded!" ”

Liu Cheng's words caused a ripple in the crowd, many blacksmiths probed to see the things on the tray, and some people were still talking about something, even Tang Muyao, who was standing in the last row, stood on tiptoe to see more clearly, but unfortunately he was too far away from the school platform, and he said to the master on the side with some excitement: "Master, let's go and have a look, maybe we can get a few rewards." ”

"Silly boy, how can the yamen's reward be so easy to get!" The master sneered: "Haven't you heard of it?" There are more than three in the yamen: there are many sticks, many wicked people, and many troubles; There are three less: few good people, less reward, and less justice. You kid just stay honest with me, don't get me in trouble! “

On the school platform, Liu Cheng saw that although there were many people who probed their brains, there were no people who were really willing to come forward to work, so he nodded to Yu He behind him, and Yu He stepped forward and said loudly: "Those who can prevent a thing, the reward is consistent, and the Songjiang cloth is a horse, and the reward will be given on the spot, and there will be no arrears!" As soon as he finished speaking, two soldiers stepped forward with a stretcher and lifted the curtain, which was piled with strings of copper coins and horses of cotton cloth.

Seeing the cloth and copper coins placed in front of them, the crowd began to stir, and after a while, a blacksmith in the front row boldly ran to the tray and looked at it, pointed to two parts and said that he could make them, and sure enough, he immediately got two pieces of money and two pieces of cloth. Seeing his companions happily stuffing the copper coins into their pockets, the crowd was boiling, and the blacksmiths rushed forward to look at the parts on the tray to receive the reward money and cloth, and the school desk was immediately crowded into a pot of porridge.

Seeing this scene, Tang Muyao, who was standing behind, couldn't bear it anymore, he said to the master with a shy face: "Master, you see that I don't even have a daughter-in-law when I'm so old, let me go and get two pieces of cloth to make a dowry for the tofu next door!" Before the master could answer, Tang Muyao ran forward, but his master didn't catch it, and hurriedly shouted: "Boy, come back to me, is the benefit of the yamen taken for nothing?" When the time comes, it's too late for you to regret it! ”

Tang Muyao ran to the front, and saw that the stretcher of copper coins and cloth had already been crowded into a pimple, he was afraid that the cloth and copper coins he had rewarded would be gone, so he was busy drilling into it, but he didn't want those blacksmiths to be five big and three thick men, who were used to wielding sledgehammers on weekdays.

Everyone has a hundred and ten catties of strength on both arms, not only did Tang Muyao not squeeze in, but was arched out by someone, fell to the sky, and the hole in his pants was a little bigger. That Tang Muyao was a donkey temper, and not only was he not discouraged when he fell to the ground, but he jumped up, spat on both hands, and stabbed his head again. He didn't care who was in front of him, he just clenched two fists the size of vinegar jars and beat them indiscriminately, and the people in front saw Tang Muyao rushing over like crazy, and he was also a little scared, so he made a way, just so that Tang Muyao tripped over the stretcher, and he didn't care about the pain, so he grabbed a few pieces of cloth and held them in his arms, and his eyes were smiling.

Tang Muyao's chaotic rush disrupted the situation, but Du Guqi's nose on the side was crooked, he was afraid that Liu Cheng on the stage would think that he was ineffective, so he hurriedly pointed to Tang Muyao, who was sitting on the ground holding a cloth and smirking, and shouted: "Come on, take this guy down for me, and give me fifty lashes first!" ”

Before the words fell, the two pro-soldiers rushed up, twisted Tang Muyao's arms, who didn't know what was going on, and pressed them to the ground, only then did his master rush over, and he knelt down and kowtowed to Du Gu in a hurry, and begged: "Master Jun, this apprentice is a little stupid, please forgive me for the offense!" ”

Du Gu was still angry at this time, and shouted: "Since your apprentice is stupid, it is your sin as a master, come here, take down this guy for me, and give me fifty lashes together!" “

was in a hurry, but heard Tang Muyao shouting on the ground: "Obviously you said that you let me come forward to receive the reward, but you took me, so stingy!" ”

When Du Gu heard this, the anger that had not disappeared rose again, he walked up to Tang Muyao, grabbed the other party's chest and shouted: "I just said that I will beat the iron pieces taken out by my family Dusi to have a reward, but I didn't let you be an ignorant kid to grab it indiscriminately!" ”

"How do you know I can't fight? I underestimate people! ”

Hearing Tang Muyao's rebuttal, Du Gu laughed angrily, he walked to the stretcher and counted the cloth that Tang Muyao had just grabbed and shouted: "Okay! I'll let you try it, and you've just taken six pieces of cloth, and if you can make six, I'll let you go, and I'll make up six pieces of money. If you miss one of them, I will deal with you according to military law! ”

"My lord, do you want to take care of Mr. Du Qian!" On the school platform, Yu He whispered to Liu Cheng: "After all, today is the day when adults open, and it's not good to make a bloody disaster!" ”

"It's okay!" Liu Cheng looked down with interest: "With me here, nothing big will happen!" ”

Under the school platform, a vacant space has been cleared by the sergeants under Du Gu, and charcoal stoves, anvils, hammers, water tanks for quenching and other utensils have been placed in it, Tang Muyao is looking at the iron parts on the tray one by one, it is the first time he has seen so many strange iron parts, he groped for a while, and suddenly asked: "This official, these iron pieces were originally on one piece of equipment, right?" ”

Du Gu was stunned when he heard this, it turned out that these iron parts were obtained by Liu Cheng by disassembling the Rumi gun that he got from Yang He, and the purpose of he gathered so many blacksmiths was to see if they could be imitated on the basis of the craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty. As one of Liu Cheng's henchmen, Du Gu naturally knew the origin of these iron pieces, he looked Tang Muyao up and down, and said with a smile: "Okay, you kid, you still have some eyesight, yes, these things are disassembled from a utensil, if you can imitate it as it is, we will ensure that you will be inexhaustible in your life." ”

Tang Muyao's eyes lit up, he reached out and picked up an iron piece and rubbed it carefully in his hand, and asked, "Can you start work now?" ”

Call!

As the assistant pulled the bellows hard, a large amount of air poured into the charcoal stove, and the originally orange flame suddenly turned red, and even showed a little blue on the edge of the flame. Tang Muyao knew that this was a sign of rising temperature, so he carefully picked up a piece of iron and put it into the charcoal fire, and when the iron took on a dark red color, he began to clamp it to the anvil and hit it vigorously with a hammer. With the powerful blow of the hammer, the iron seemed to be kneaded by a pair of invisible hands, and gradually became the memory in Tang Muyao's mind, and finally he immersed the beaten parts in water mixed with urine and salt, and the hot iron made a sharp snort as soon as it came into contact with the cold quenching liquid, and the air was filled with an unpleasant smell of urine. Tang Muyao didn't care, a pair of eyes stared at the iron parts in the quenching liquid, when the quenching was completed, he threw the iron parts into the bucket to clean them, and then used a file to file the burrs and excess parts on the surface of the iron parts, and finally handed the finished parts to Du Gu on the side.

"My lord, this is the iron piece that those craftsmen have imitated!" Liu Cheng nodded, picked up the parts from the dustpan, compared them with the original parts one by one, and hit them against each other to see if there were any cavities inside the iron parts, whether the surface was smooth, and whether there were cracks. He observed so much care that it took a long time to get all the work done. Finally, Liu Cheng determined that the iron parts in a basket were of the best quality, and he looked through the name tag on the basket: "Where is Tang Muyao, he will come to see me immediately." “

"Yes, sir!" Du Gu responded, he still remembered that the little blacksmith who spoke and acted recklessly just now ran straight to Tang Muyao's side, patted the other party's shoulder, cocked his thumb and smiled: "Good boy, there are really two hits, we all want to see you, come with me." ”

"Want to see me?" Tang Muyao looked at Du Gu and asked a little timidly, "Is it a good thing or a bad thing?" I won't go to the bad things. ”

"Naturally, it's a good thing!" Du Guxiao's mouth cracked: "We all like people with ability the most, you are good at iron, there will definitely be a heavy reward!" ”

"Is it also a skill to fight well?" Tang Muyao muttered to himself in disbelief: "I still thought that it was my ability to raise people in my studies." ”

"You said those things were made by this half-grown kid?" Liu Cheng pointed to Tang Muyao who was kneeling on the ground and asked, no wonder Liu Cheng was suspicious, although Tang Muyao was not small, he still had a baby face, and he looked like a half-grown child, which was too far from the image of the wrinkled old blacksmith in Liu Cheng's mind.

"My lord, it's him, I've seen him punch these pieces with my own eyes!"

Liu Cheng nodded, Du Gu couldn't lie to himself in this kind of thing, he casually took out a serpentine rod from the basket, played with it twice in his hand, and said to Tang Muyao who was kneeling on the ground: "How old are you this year?" ”

"Nineteen, no, twenty in two months! My mother said that children from poor families grow up fast! Tang Muyao raised his head and glanced at Liu Cheng, and the adult in front of him, known as "Du Si", spoke very kindly.

Tang Muyao's childish answer made Liu Cheng's impression of him a lot better, Liu Cheng threw the serpentine rod back into the basket and said with a smile: "It's really remarkable that you have such craftsmanship at your age, you are the youngest among more than a dozen blacksmiths, but you have the most skillful craftsmanship and the best things you can make!" ”

"I haven't been a master yet, I'm not a blacksmith, I'm just a sledgehammer." Tang Muyao replied a little embarrassedly: "But my master said, whether the craftsmanship is good or not depends on whether the ancestor appreciates this bowl of rice or not." When I was young, I had a lot of mouths at home, and at the age of eight I came out to pull the bellows for the master. ”

"Good, good!" When Liu Cheng heard this, he couldn't help laughing: "Then you have to thank Master Zu, with this craft, you will not only have food to eat in the future, but you can also eat much better than others." ”

"My lord is laughing!" Tang Muyao touched the back of his head: "I don't dare to expect too much, if I can marry the three girls next door, I will be satisfied." ”

"Oh?" Liu Cheng looked at Tang Muyao with interest: "If the tofu shopkeeper is willing to marry his daughter, how much money do you need?" ”

"That tofu zhang is just a day to harvest beans and sell the next day, how to be worthy of the word shopkeeper." Tang Muyao laughed, in his young heart, the word shopkeeper can only be afforded by those who are very profitable, and a business like Tofu Zhang is better than a craftsman like himself, who has no other than a pair of hands, and he definitely can't afford to be the word "shopkeeper".

"Then if you take five pieces of Songjiang cloth and ten taels of silver as a dowry, then you may marry the third lady of Tofu Zhang?"

Tang Muyao laughed when he heard this: "How can you get so much, the capital of that tofu Zhang is twenty or thirty copper coins, there are five horses of Songjiang cloth and ten taels of silver, and the three daughters of that tofu Zhang are willing to marry together." ”

"Good!" Liu Cheng smiled slightly, turned around and nodded to Du Gu on the side, and after a while, Du Gu took out the cloth and silver and put them beside Tang Muyao. Tang Muyao looked at the silver taels and cloth beside him, his eyes were straight, and he asked in a trembling voice: "My lord, shouldn't these be given to villains?" “

"Yes, if you want, you can go to Tofu Zhang to propose marriage later, but it's best not to ask the three sisters together, lest you can't afford it!" Liu Cheng's last somewhat ridiculous words immediately caused the pro-soldiers next to him to laugh, but at this time, Tang Muyao was already overjoyed, and only these few words echoed in his mind at this time - "These are all yours!" “

"Thank you, sir! The villain will be a grass tie in the next life, and he will also repay the great favor of the adult! “

The first thing Tang Muyao did after he came to his senses was to kowtow to Liu Cheng again and again, Liu Cheng waved his hand with a smile and signaled him to stop kowtowing: "Wait, if you want to move these bounties back, you have to give me something!" “

"Don't worry, as long as you have a sample, I can give you anything!"