Standing in the middle of Sunrise Peak at the southern end of Chengshan Island, Chu Fan felt as if he was at the bottom of a pot - but this pot was a little too big, with a diameter of about a mile!

This is a typical crater, except for the corner of the southeast bordering the sea, which has been smoothed out for some reason, and the surrounding bulge is almost intact.

This sharpened corner was simply born to be used as a fort -- it is located seven or eight miles southwest of the South Fort of Ushishima, and if the fort is set up here, it will echo the South Fort from afar.

"Brother Hualong, how is this place?" Chu Fan held the clairvoyant mirror, looked at the shadowy Niudao South Fort in the mirror, and asked Yang Dijiao beside him.

"Childe's poisonous eyesight!" Yang Dijiao leaned over and looked at the cliffs dozens of feet high under his feet, and sighed sincerely, "The cliffs here are towering, and it is impossible to attack them from the sea...... And it is not far from the South Fort, which is really the best choice for building a new Fort. ”

After saying that, he smashed his mouth, shook his head and sighed, "It's a pity." ”

"Brother Hualong, what's the pity?" Chu Fan put down the clairvoyant mirror and asked in surprise.

"It's a pity we don't have heavy artillery! If there were a Dutchman's twenty-pound, oh no, even if there were only eighteen-pound guns, three in the South Battery, three here, and the entire sea from Ushijima to here would be sealed! Yang Dijiao sighed again as he spoke, obviously extremely regretful - the maximum range of the six-pounder cannon was only more than one mile, while the eighteen-pounder cannon could hit just four miles away, and the two forts were superimposed, just enough to seal this sea area seven or eight miles away.

Chu Fan thought of Alfonso in his heart, he regretted it a little now, he knew that today, he should have gritted his teeth and eaten all his heavy artillery in Nagasaki!

But it's useless to regret it now, only to use the six-pounder cannon for the time being, and then find a way to cast the cannon later.

After looking at the location of the battery. Chu Fan and his entourage descended the Sunrise Peak and came to the flat land of Chengshan Island.

Seongsan Island and Jeju Island are very close to each other, waist distance is only a hundred steps away, and on the opposite shore is a small fishing village called Ilsheng Village. There are twenty or thirty families of fishermen; The whole island is neither big nor small, which is just right for building a gunpowder factory here.

After dealing with the incident in Jingyi County, Chu Fan felt that there were three things that were most urgent at the current Ushidao base, the first of which was this gunpowder factory - not only the Kato family had been urging, but there were not many black gunpowder powders he had made when he was in Dengzhou, and the Fuliao army itself was also in urgent need of replenishment of paper bullets and grenades.

However, because of safety issues, the gunpowder factory must not be placed on Ushijima - just kidding, if tens of thousands of catties or even hundreds of thousands of catties of black powder are accidentally lit. What else is left on Ushido Island?

This Chengshan Island is not far away from each other, which is convenient for travel and isolation, and is just used to make gunpowder.

The second urgent matter is iron. Different from Chen Shangren's prediction, Chu Fan estimated that the shortage of iron materials this year was far more than 10,000 catties, and it would have to be quadrupled if it was not done - not to mention anything else, just the Fu Liao Army is now out of use with Lu Mi guns and half-body armor, and this is still under the condition that the decanter whistle has not been expanded!

According to Tang Ji Niu. Their weapons team can already imitate the Lu Mi Gong, and they can copy it. It is still flint and reluctant, each of which is estimated to cost ten catties of pig iron and about twenty-five catties of wrought iron; If you count the iron skull, a set of half-body armor consumes only a lot more iron than a Lumi pipe.

Chu Fan plans to fight 500 sets of Suifa Lumi guns and half-body armor first, so calculated, this alone will cost 30,000 catties of iron!

Therefore, the iron gap is quite large, and Chu Fan came back from Jingyi County. He sent Chen Shangren to Busan to find the North Korean businessman -- "How many or how much?" But this price is really ......" Chu Fan still remembered Chen Shangren's painful look at that time, he was actually in pain, but there was no way, this kind of controlled material, it would be good to be able to buy it. No matter how high the price is, I can only endure it.

The third urgent matter is the whistle.

After the sullen child committed suicide, Chu Fan was also quite sad, and finally buried him with those fallen soldiers and craftsmen.

But if he dies, who will be the head of the whistle? After discussing with Liu Zhongwen, Chu Fan finally promoted a squad leader named Xiao Cheng under Shen Teng to take over the stuffy class.

This Xiao Cheng is called Brother Xian'er, and he has participated in the battle of Tibetan Majian to suppress bandits; Xu has been under Shen Teng's hands for a long time, and like Shen Teng, he has to be the first in everything, and it is very suitable to train the more than 100 recruits who came with the second batch of homeless people and are specially used for the expansion of the character whistle.

Not only that, but seven or eight veterans were also dispatched from the Gengzi whistle to help Xiao Cheng train - there was no way, the veterans of the Gengzi whistle were still recuperating from their injuries, and they would not be able to get out of bed for a while.

This made Shen Teng complain a lot, and complained to Chu Fan several times, but finally gave up when Chu Fan promised him that the seven or eight veterans would return to the Gengzi whistle after training.

In addition to these three urgent matters, the work of improving the ballista is also relatively urgent -- not to mention the transformation of the six major families, even the Fuliao Army itself should consider long-range firepower.

After surveying Chengshan Island and boarding the "Dawn", Chu Fan was thinking in his heart: I don't know the set of gears I want, is Wang Denghai ready?

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Just as Chu Fan boarded the "Dawn", in a dilapidated land temple outside the city of Jinan, thousands of miles to the west, a Taoist priest wearing an indigo Taoist robe and a black Taoist crown was pinching the Tai Chi seal, sitting cross-legged on the futon, his eyes seemed to be open and closed, and he was meditating.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and whispered to himself, "Zhu Ming is about to die, and the new Son of Heaven has fallen into the dust?" …… Let's wait for me to see it! ”

He took a deep breath, finished his work, and stood up—but he was a very short, almost childlike man.

Although his stature was short, when he walked towards the outside of the Land Temple, the whole person had an indescribable sense of elegance, and he was extremely calm and calm in his gestures.

When he got out, the Taoist priest looked up at the western sky, nodded slightly, and said in a low voice, "Sure enough, there is a royal spirit!" ”

After that, he squinted his eyes and stroked his beard, "But I don't know whose body it is?" ”

After thinking about it, he took out six glittering copper coins from his bosom - but they were the Kaiyuan Tongbao of the Tang Dynasty - and put them in his palm, closed his eyes and prayed silently for a while, then took out a turtle shell that was also extremely smooth, put the copper coins into it, shook it gently, and shook it every three times, and it took a while to shake all six copper coins out and arrange them in a neat row on the stone steps.

The Taoist priest looked at the copper coin in a daze, pinched his fingers and counted for a long time, and muttered, "Should it be in Yuxi?" …… Niu? But who? ”

After turning around the open space with his hands behind his back for a while, the Taoist priest suddenly said, "Isn't it him?" Bull Venus Bull Juming? Baofeng County is not in the west of Henan! ”

Thinking of this, the Taoist priest walked back to the stone steps, stretched out his hand to collect the turtle shell and copper coin, and the corner of his eye swept away, and his hand suddenly stopped.

"Huh?" He stared at the eastern sky in amazement, and said in surprise, "How can there still be a royal spirit here?" ”

After looking at it for a while, he turned to the west again, and after comparing the two for a long time, the Taoist priest frowned and said, "It turns out that the western stock looks rich, but it is short-lived!" Although the east side is looming, it is magnificent...... Hmm, interesting! ”

After speaking, he picked up the turtle shell copper coin, and gave another lesson, but the result should be in Ludong, and the person who received the word "virtual" got it.

"I know! But it turned out to be him! After pondering for a while, the Taoist priest suddenly realized.

After finishing speaking, the Taoist priest frowned suddenly, and hesitated in his heart: Both sides of the east and west are clear, but who should he vote for?

After thinking for a while, he turned back and entered the Land Temple, packed up his very simple little baggage, went out with his coat and flag, and after taking a deep look at the western sky, he resolutely headed towards the east. (To be continued.) )