"Phew! You're dreaming! Liu Zongmin spat out: "I will send you a word, there is no turning back arrow when you open the bow, let me honestly learn the craft here, settle down in this Chaoyi, and take root, you can't go back!" ”

Everyone panicked when they heard this, and the man in his thirties asked loudly, "What are you talking about?" Why can't we go back? It's not that when we enter the factory, we just work hard, one doesn't sell our bodies, and the other is not a craftsman in the court, so we can't talk and don't count! ”

"Look at you guys with heads full of sorghum flowers!" Liu Zongmin showed a look of disdain on his face: "Who said that I want you to sell your body and force you to be a craftsman in the imperial court?" You can go if you want, but in the end you have nowhere to go, and you have to come back obediently in the end! ”

The middle-aged man heard what Liu Zongmin said, and hurriedly smiled: "Liu Tou'er, we have little knowledge, why don't you give us some advice!" ”

Liu Zongmin smiled: "You don't come to these vain things, I'm not rare!" Let's put it this way, what do you think of the work in my Lao Liu's hands? ”

"Liu Tou, the work in your hands is naturally first-class! I've been traveling north and south for some years, and I've never seen a blacksmith with your skills! The middle-aged man cocked his thumb, he really meant what he said. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Then you said that if I opened a blacksmith shop in Chaoyi, would I have food?"

"This-" The middle-aged man was dumbfounded, Liu Zongmin's meaning was already very clear, with his craftsmanship to open a blacksmith shop in Chaoyi and still have no food, let alone you? No matter how good your craftsmanship is, can you cover me Liu Zongmin?

"Then we won't open in Chaoyi, at most we can stay farther away, we can't afford to provoke and hide!" A young man replied.

"Okay, even if you all go home, the iron material of this knife will only be three cents of silver, the labor fee will be one cent of silver, and the other miscellaneous things will add up to five cents of silver, and you will sell it for half of the money, which is one penny of silver, and the freight will be doubled, and it will be two cents of silver. Which of you who can open a blacksmith shop can make the cost of a saber less than two dollars of silver, and my old Liu will have his surname! ”

"Then, then I won't strike iron, just go back to farming, it doesn't matter!" The young man said angrily.

"Farming?" Liu Zongmin sneered: "Okay, you Laozi and I will let you open your eyes today, and wait until you finish reading it to see if you want to go back to farming?" With that, he turned and walked out, and the apprentices looked at each other and followed.

The group walked out of the factory, passed through the two courtyards, and came to a small courtyard, Liu Zongmin took out the key from his waist, opened the lock and pushed the door into the courtyard, walked to a shed, uncovered the mat above, pointed to the object below and sneered: "Come, come and see!" ”

The crowd gathered around, and beneath the mat was a strange iron frame, one end of which had two parallel wheels, and at the bottom of the other end were four parallel pieces of iron, and above the wheels were iron bolts that looked like those used for pulling livestock, and there were some strange iron pieces beside the iron frame, which were supposed to be accessories for this device. Everyone looked at it for a while, but it was still like falling into the fog for five miles, and they didn't know why. Finally, the man in his thirties asked hesitantly: "Liu Tou'er, isn't this a big car?" ”

"Huh!" Liu Zongmin laughed: "That's it, it's not much worse, let me tell you, this is a plow!" ”

"Plow? How can there be such a plow in the world! ”

"Naturally, you haven't seen it, because this is what I Liu Zongmin just made!" Liu Zongmin smiled proudly: "Don't look down on you, this one is worth dozens or hundreds of you!" Seeing the disbelief on everyone's faces, he explained loudly that Liu Zongmin had been greatly inspired after trying to make a three-pounder gun carriage with Thomas last time. When he heard that Liu Cheng had taken control of a large area of fertile land in the Hetao area after defeating Lin Dan Khan, but was forced to be barren due to lack of manpower to reclaim it, he wanted to create a kind of manpower saving and a cultivator who could quickly reclaim a large area of land. He was already very familiar with farming, he was good at forging and machinery, and there was sufficient equipment and materials in the factory, and his status in the factory had greatly improved after he was rewarded by Liu Cheng last time, and he was actually the chief engineer of the machinery factory, so he had plenty of leisure time. After going back and forth, he really made it happen. Compared with the commonly used wooden frame iron-clad plough at that time, the mouldboard plough made by Liu Zongmin is not only more efficient, but also ploughs the soil deeper, and has the original version of the stubble mulch, so that before the soil is ploughed by the plough body, the soil of the upper part of the uncultivated side is ploughed up and turned into the furrow, and then covered by the plough ploughed soil mound, so that most of the surface weeds can be buried underneath, which can not only reduce weeds, but also can become fertilizer after its decay, so that the soil becomes more fertile.

After listening to Liu Zongmin's explanation, everyone couldn't help but be amazed, they all had done farm work, so they naturally knew that this could greatly save effort, and they praised Liu Zongmin's skillful hands. Only the middle-aged man was thoughtful, and after a while, he suddenly asked Liu Zongmin: "Liu Tou'er, the price of your plow is not cheap, right?" ”

"I'm just working, I don't know how much I'll sell!" Liu Zongmin smiled, he was like a child showing off his favorite toy: "But don't you think this plow is very useful?" You see, the depth of the coulter can also be adjusted here, so that fields with thin soil layers can also be used! ”

The middle-aged man was not attracted by Liu Zongmin's show-off, and continued to ask: "Then to pull such a big guy, I'm afraid two cows are not enough, right?" ”

"Cow? The oxen are too slow, and I plan to use horses to pull this, and about four horses will be enough, so that I can plow sixty to ten acres of land in a day. Even if a family has two or three hundred acres of land, it will take three or four days to finish plowing, and it will not miss the agricultural time! ”

"Four horses? Two or three hundred acres of land? Everyone was stunned by Liu Zongmin's words, ordinary small farmers in the north at the end of the Ming Dynasty usually had twenty or thirty acres of land at home, one or two big livestock, and Liu Zongmin had to match four horses with a plow alone, and regardless of these two or three hundred acres of land, these four horses alone could suppress everyone present.

"Huh!" The middle-aged man suddenly sneered: "It seems that Liu Tou'er is not a plow, but a plow ancestor and a plow immortal." Three generations of my family have all sold themselves, and I can't wait for this treasure! ”

"Your name is Batu, right?" Liu Zongmin's attention was attracted by the middle-aged man: "You are right, this plow is not for ordinary small farmers, I say this to tell you, even if you farm land, you can't plant other people's, with this plow, at most three years, the river loop will become a plug in the south of the Yangtze River, and the river will no longer be just fur, wool, iron and coal, but also millet, cotton, and wheat, everyone will have food to eat and clothes to wear!" ”

Batu asked: "Hetao is so good, why don't you give everyone the land there, let us cultivate and feed ourselves, and the imperial court can also collect some grain to feed the army?" ”

"To you?" Liu Zongmin looked at the other party strangely: "Even if the land is distributed to you, where will you get the seeds, ploughing cattle, and farm tools?" Don't you want the government to pay for it? Even if you reclaim the land, the amount that a family can cultivate is only 50 acres, and most of the grain grown is still eaten in your stomach, and how much surplus grain is paid? It takes too much money to put away these small households. And a family that can afford to use this plough can cultivate three or four hundred acres, and if a few more hired workers can cultivate more, there will be more grain left. You don't know how much more money this Chaoyi will spend every year to buy grain to feed you, and if the Hetao rises and there is excess grain to transport down, how much silver can be saved on the Chaoyi side! ”

"This-!" Badu was a little confused by Liu Zongmin's words, he hesitated for a moment and asked, "Liu Tou'er, why do I think what you said is a little wrong?" Even if, according to what you said, each of those big families has cultivated a lot of land and harvested a lot of grain, but his grain is his, not from the government, can the government still collect all the grain he has brought down? How can I save the money here in Chaoyi? ”

"You don't understand that, do you?" Liu Zongmin said with a smile: "It's the same farming, so the farming of large households is different from your farming, why can a large family use ten of you alone?" Don't you have good tools, and there are many livestock? Are they all bought for silver? Where did they get the money, and didn't they have to exchange it for grain? Our courtiers use these tools to exchange food with them, and they have good tools to plant more fields, and we can exchange them for cheaper food, so that we will not benefit both sides? ”

"But there will always be a day when the money spent on people's tools and livestock will be repaid, and after that, there will be no need to sell grain for money?"

"This-" Liu Zongmin was asked by Badu, he touched his head, and said with a wry smile: "I don't know about this, anyway, there is always his way to let more and more grain be transported down the river!" ”

"Master Liu, Master Liu, why are you here here!" Just as Liu Zongmin was talking to the group of apprentices, a man in a short shirt and a brown shirt flew over, shouting as he ran: "Don't you remember that the chief soldier is coming in the afternoon, and the leaders of all the workshops will gather at the general number?" ”

"Oops! I forgot about it! Liu Zongmin slapped his head: "The adults haven't arrived yet, have they?" ”

"When I came, I already heard that the adults had already gone out, and everyone was waiting outside the main gate to greet me, so I was missing you, so Mr. Suo and Master Tang asked me to come to you!"

"Good, good!" Liu Zongmin was about to take a step, but when he saw the dress on his body, he turned his head and walked back, the man hurriedly grabbed him, and said hurriedly: "It's all at this juncture, where are you going?" ”

"Didn't I go back and change my clothes!" Liu Zongmin shook his placket full of stains, and said with a wry smile: "You look at my dress, it's not appropriate to see an adult, right?" ”

At this moment, there was a burst of drum music from the direction of the general trumpet, and the man in the short shirt pulled Liu Zongmin and ran, shouting while running: "It's too late, Master Liu, just come with me, it's better to dress up than to be a person, right?" ”

When Liu Zongmin heard the sound of drums, he knew that Liu Cheng had arrived, and he didn't care about the impolite clothes on his body, and with his old injured legs and feet, he limped to the general number, and the speed was not slow. When he arrived, Liu Cheng had already arrived, and was surrounded by Suo Luomeng and Tang Muyao with more than a dozen local businessmen, and Liu Zude, who had already mixed into the shipyard director, was wearing a long shirt and looked uncomfortable, standing on the side, not daring to squeeze in to join in the fun. He happened to see his nephew running over in this dress, so he hurriedly rushed forward and grabbed Liu Zongmin and scolded in a low voice: "Zongmin, why are you dressed like this?" ”

"Tell my uncle, isn't it too late to change clothes? I just taught a group of apprentices in the factory, and I forgot when the town lord came! ”

"Can you forget that? When can't you teach freehandicraft, do you have to do it at this juncture? Zong Min, Zong Min, have you forgotten who you are now? Do you think it's still the same little blacksmith from the past? Don't talk about the number of respects and humility at all! Hey, I'm going to you off alive! Liu Zude was angry, he looked left and right and no one was paying attention to this side, took off the robe on his body, and stuffed it into Liu Zongmin's hand: "Put it on, move quickly, don't let others see it!" ”

Liu Zongmin was stunned for a moment and asked, "What about you, uncle?" ”

"I don't look like you in this rags!" Liu Zude snorted coldly: "Besides, wearing this long shirt on your body, you feel uncomfortable, and you don't know where to put your hands and feet, so it's better to put it on for you!" ”

Hearing Liu Zude's words, Liu Zongmin couldn't help but laugh, and hurriedly turned his head away, so as not to let his uncle see it. He put on his robe three times and two times, and covered the dirty short shirt inside, before he breathed a sigh of relief. I just saw Liu Cheng walking out of the crowd, bowed to the businessmen and gentry around him, and said loudly: "The hospitality of the rank is received by the town, Liu still has official business today, and a church meeting will be held in the official mansion in two days, and you are invited to come to appreciate your face!" ”

Everyone hurriedly bowed and returned the salute, saying that we must give the face of Lord Zhentai, and we will definitely arrive in two days. Liu Cheng nodded and said to Suo Luomeng: "General Manager Suo, you can send you masters for me!" ”

"Yes, Lord Zhentai!" Solo Meng bowed down to receive the order, and then led the group away with a smile on his face. Looking at the backs of these people leaving, Liu Cheng breathed a sigh of relief: "The politeness on such a scene is really tiring!" ”

With his extraordinary craftsmanship and management talents, Liu Zongmin has become the No. 2 person in the forging factory, and Tang Muyao, the nominal No. 1 person, still has a big mess of things to take care of in the smelter, but in fact, Liu Zongmin has the final say in the forging factory. With this position, he was able to have a place at the end of the long table, and he was looking at Liu Cheng with curious eyes. (To be continued.) )