And at the request of Huang Zhen and Zhou Lao Wu, the brothers and sisters of Huang Yan and Zhou Hao were also incorporated into the youth team in the backyard, fulfilling their ideas, and from a selfish point of view, he also hoped that these brothers and sisters of Huang Yan and Zhou Hao could be completely integrated into the system of Crouching Tiger Village, otherwise there were so many idlers in Crouching Tiger Village, which might affect the training of others.

And even their female dependents, were not idle, were arranged to manage some trivial matters, or responsible for taking care of the daily life of the teenagers, although there were not many women in ancient times to do things, but it was far less strict than after the Ming Dynasty in later generations, for the worship of science and religion, although from the beginning of Zhu Xi, there was a rise, but it was Song Lizong who had not yet taken over the position of emperor, so now the defense of men and women is not as harsh as that of later generations.

As for these brothers and sisters of Huang Yan and Zhou Hao, Gao Huaiyuan doesn't have to care about them, he has the two of them to restrain him, in principle, there is nothing special at all, and they must be let know that here, with their own efforts and diligence, nepotism has no effect.

At the beginning, these little guys were really not used to this kind of role change, and instinctively felt that their brother was a leader here, a little complacent, wanted to engage in some specialization, and even looked down on other orphans, and made some trouble, but after Gao Huaiyuan heard about it, he often just pouted and didn't make any statement, Huang Yan and Zhou Hao couldn't stand it, and rushed over to teach them a lesson, leaving no affection at all, which made their brothers and sisters unhappy and wanted to find their parents to shelter them. But Huang Zhen and Zhou Lao Wu have already been explained by Huang Yan and Zhou Hao in advance, and they didn't win the complaint, but were taught a lesson by their father again, so they finally became honest quickly, and they also understood that they were here, only honest and obedient, and did things with these orphans, without any privileges at all!

In addition to watching the teenagers in Crouching Tiger Village grow up day by day, after the end of spring farming, Gao Huaiyuan, the elder, is also very responsible to gather the strong men in the area he is responsible for in the township, two days a month, routinely train them, and arrange for them to patrol the township, strictly prevent bandits, prevent fires, after a period of contact, these strong men who are much older than Gao Huaiyuan, were also shocked by Gao Huaiyuan, understands that this child can't be underestimated, once he is doing things seriously, for the sake of the local people, so they are also obedient, what Gao Huaiyuan asked them to do, they tried their best to obey the arrangement.

Gradually, a small circle of martial arts was formed in the local township, some young descendants were strong-blooded, under the guidance of Gao Huaiyuan, they liked to practice martial arts, and often did not need Gao Huaiyuan's arrangement, and they were also in the open space at the head of the village, and they practiced swords, guns, bows and arrows in groups, which was something that Gao Huaiyuan was very happy to see.

The backyard expansion project was basically completed in April, and this time the expansion was mainly to level some land and build a circle of high walls, and the real buildings, in fact, did not increase much, only expanded a larger soap workshop, and at the same time built a raw material warehouse, a finished product warehouse and a grain warehouse, and also doubled the original school yard, which can accommodate more teenagers to practice martial arts and fitness in the school yard.

In addition to these things, Gao Huaiyuan personally led the teenagers to the mountains to cut wood and open the way, the reason why he didn't spend money to hire people to do these things was not that he was short of money and wanted to use these teenagers as free labor, but that he had his purpose, and at the moment he was not in a hurry to open this road, the real purpose was to take this opportunity to train these teenagers.

Felling is not a must, this is a great benefit to the teenagers to exercise the strength of the whole body, you must know that the axe is not as simple as the average person thinks, in addition to the requirements of arm strength, but also with the strength of the waist and legs, in order to complete such a simple action, at the beginning of a person to cut down a big tree, it takes a day, and the tired night is sore and unbearable, and even can't lift the arm, but after a period of exercise, most of the teenagers can quickly cut down the same big tree, This is very effective for the physical training of the teenagers, after a few months, under the nutritional supply of Gao Huaiyuan without stinginess, each sturdy like a calf, walking tigers and tigers, almost quickly, each can pull more than eight buckets of hard bows, so that when they go to practice archery, it has played a double effect with half the effort.

After cutting down these trees, Gao Huaiyuan even came up with a strange trick, under the guidance of Zhou Lao Wu, the general tree was cut into a length of about two zhang, to ensure that it was used to build a house without losing money, and then it was not allowed to use a mule to pull back to the villa, but asked a team of ten people to work together with their shoulders to carry it back, this is the method he saw from the training of the special police and the Marine Corps, what he wanted was to exercise the sense of teamwork of all the people in the team, and also exercise their sense of obedience, although the teenagers did not understand why they used such a stupid way to transport these wood, But Gao Huaiyuan's words were the highest instructions and must not be disobeyed, so he immediately divided into groups, and a group of captains was selected to be responsible, leading them to resist the wood and return to Zhuangzi.

In this way, it not only exercises their endurance, but also exercises their spirit of cooperation, and no one can be lazy, otherwise they will not be able to mix in the team, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.

In short, Gao Huaiyuan basically thought of all the methods he could think of to train the army, these teenagers grew up day by day in his strange exercises, and the results were far better than Gao Huaiyuan himself expected, which was the most gratifying thing for him, thinking about the reason, probably the ancients were born to endure hardships than later generations! That's all he can explain.

As for the road leading to the mountain, it was not going well, some places were not well thought out, and after logging found that the road was too narrow, if you smashed the stones again, it would be very difficult, so you had to change the route, and the result was a lot of delay, according to his method, it is estimated that it will take some days to get to the copper mine.

And during this time, Gao Huaiyuan also managed to subdue the two blacksmiths that Xue Yan got from outside, one of them was older, roughly in his fifties, his name was Zhou Botong, when he knew the name of this old man, Gao Huaiyuan was thundered on the spot, this old man actually had the same name as the old naughty boy, it was really funny to die when he thought about it.

Calculating the time, Jin Yongju's old urchin Zhou Botong is estimated to be a person of this era, but unfortunately what he met today is not a martial arts master, but a blacksmith who fled from the north to the south, it is really impermanent!

As for the other blacksmith named Lu Laoshi, he was younger, only in his thirties, and he was as strong as iron, and he was also a blacksmith who escaped from Xingzhou, Hebei, both of them were killed by the Jin people because of their families, and in the last anger, they killed the officials and escaped from the territory of the Jin country, and finally fell to Daye who wanted to rely on his ability to find a living business, and just happened to meet Xue Yan who was also looking for such a person, so he accepted them.

The two of them began to be a little unhappy with working with a half-sized son, but when they arrived at the old mansion, after contacting Gao Huaiyuan, they found that Gao Huaiyuan was actually much more powerful than they imagined, and Gao Huaiyuan was still an elder, and his reputation in the local area was quite good, the two of them could be regarded as stowaways, and there was no legal identity here, if someone troubled them, the government could arrest them at any time, and Gao Huaiyuan promised them, as long as they followed him steadfastly, ensured that they would have no worries for the rest of their lives, so after thinking about it for a while, they agreed to stay and follow Gao Huaiyuan to do things.

After having these two blacksmiths, Gao Huaiyuan arranged a place for them to live in Crouching Tiger Village, and in the corner of the backyard, according to their requirements, built a blacksmith shop, specially for Crouching Tiger Village to build the required ironware, and after the two of them tried their skills, Zhou Botong was an old blacksmith in the end, and his skills were much higher than Lu Honesty, Lu Honest obediently became Zhou Botong's apprentice, and the two of them supported this blacksmith shop and began to work according to Gao Huaiyuan's requirements.

Because Daye County produces copper and iron locally, it is still very convenient to purchase some iron materials, Gao Huaiyuan ordered Huang Zhen to purchase a batch of copper and iron, and the blacksmith shop was officially opened and produced.

The clanging sound of striking iron attracted the resting teenagers to watch the excitement, but Zhou Botong, the old guy, was very stingy with his own craftsmanship and refused to let the teenagers watch, Gao Huaiyuan did not force him to teach his teenagers to strike iron, but went to watch them work, for Gao Huaiyuan, the old man naturally did not dare to say no, after all, now he and Lu Laoshi are eating Gao Huaiyuan's food, so let him see.

Gao Huaiyuan didn't know much about this craft, at first he asked them to build some farm tools, and when he saw that the skills of the two were okay, after running in for a while, the movements were also familiar, so he asked them to build a few knives to see, how the specific craftsmanship was, it depended on whether they could create a good knife.

Zhou Botong and Lu Laoshi also knew that Gao Huaiyuan was testing their craft, so after selecting the iron materials, they began to cut and forge them.

Gao Huaiyuan gradually saw some ways from their craftsmanship, he had never eaten pork, but he still knew how the pig ran, as soon as the expert stretched out his hand, he knew if there was any, this week the old man was really not covered, and soon he and Lu Laoshi repeatedly forged the iron into stainless steel, and this is not a knife blank, they have selected two or three kinds of iron, processed separately, and finally it took several days to forge a variety of materials, and these kinds of steel with different softness and hardness were clamped together again. Gradually, the shape of a knife appeared.

Gao Huaiyuan was happy at once, and now he picked up the baby again, this week the old man actually used the steel clamping method to create a steel knife, this kind of craftsmanship in later generations, it is also the method of creating a Japanese knife, the steel knife is elastic, and very strong and sharp, it is the use of different materials of steel characteristics, the knife is sandwiched, you don't have to think about it, you know, Zhou Laohan's craftsmanship is definitely not bad.

Although the knife has not yet taken shape for the time being, Gao Huaiyuan already knows that the knife created will not be too bad, the key is that as long as the final quenching is mastered, at least the knife created is much stronger than the hand knives that Xing Zhutou gave them at the beginning.

Sure enough, a few days later, after a careful forging and quenching, annealing and other complicated processes, the knife was basically successful, and finally added a copper handle, began to sharpen the knife, when the knife was sharpened, it showed a natural cloud-like pattern, the sun shined, and the cold light was extremely beautiful.

After Gao Huaiyuan took these knives, after inspecting them one by one, he finally nodded with satisfaction, although there was a gap in the quality of these knives compared to the two Mo knives and horizontal knives he treasured, but compared to those mass-produced Song-made hand knives in Crouching Tiger Village, they were much better.

"This knife making technique is a family skill of Xiao Lao'er, and there are natural moire patterns after the knife body is formed and polished, I don't know if the young master can be satisfied?" Old Man Zhou looked at Gao Huaiyuan's expression and said to him proudly.

"Good knives! Not bad! Very good! Gao Huaiyuan nodded again and again, he was really lucky, he actually reached out and picked up a knife casting master, it seems that the sky lives up to me!

With Gao Huaiyuan's compliment, Zhou Botong and Lu Laoshi were satisfied, so they planned to go back and continue to work.

"Wait! Master Zhou, listen to me, this knife is quite good, and the tenacity far exceeds that of the hand knife in the army, but Gao still wants to improve it, I don't know if Master Zhou is willing to listen? Gao Huaiyuan shouted at Old Man Zhou with a Liuyun knife.

"Oh?" After hearing this, Zhou Botong stopped, as a knifesmith, he has been immersed in this area all his life, and he really has never heard of anyone wanting to improve the technique of the knife he makes, so he is a little unhappy in his heart.

"So the young master is still not satisfied with Zhou's craftsmanship?" Zhou Botong's face was a little unsightly, and he asked Gao Huaiyuan.

Gao Huaiyuan immediately saw Zhou Botong's dissatisfaction and knew that he had misunderstood what he meant, so he hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, no!" Master Zhou misunderstood, how could Gao be dissatisfied with your craftsmanship? This kind of craftsmanship is already one in a thousand, Gao means to change the shape of this knife slightly, but he is not satisfied with Master Zhou's craftsmanship! ”

Zhou Botong was relieved a lot, so he was surprised in his heart, such a knife shape has gone through hundreds of years, and there has been no change, and how can he, a young master, be dissatisfied with this knife shape? So he asked curiously: "I don't know what kind of knife the young master wants Xiao Lao'er to make?" ”

Gao Huaiyuan thought for a while, and felt that it was a little unclear to just say it, so he asked someone to bring his clay pencil and paper and draw on it.

Although the shape of the hand knife in the Song Dynasty has changed significantly with the Tang knife, but there are still the shortcomings of the straight blade, and the knife itself is to chop and chop as the main means of killing and injuring the enemy, the strength of the straight blade knife chopping is far less powerful than the knife chopping with arc, mechanically speaking, the blade with a certain arc, when chopping, can better exert its strength, and the Japanese knife of later generations is a good example, but unfortunately the Chinese knife casting technique after a long evolution, Since the Song Dynasty, it has gradually declined, and after the Ming Dynasty, the war knives of Middle Earth are far worse than the Japanese knives in terms of power and quality, so Gao Huaiyuan really wants to have a batch of similar to the kind of war knives of later generations, so after seeing that Zhou Botong has such good craftsmanship, he had an idea and had the idea of changing the shape of the knife.

After getting the pen and paper, Gao Huaiyuan found a nearby table and began to draw on it, while Zhou Botong and Lu Laoshi both stretched out their heads to watch.

When Gao Huaiyuan finished drawing, he handed the paper to Zhou Bodao: "I wonder if Master Zhou can try to make me a batch of such knives?" ”

Zhou Botong took the drawings of this battle and looked at it carefully, the arc of the knife body on the picture is relatively large, and the blade is slightly narrower than the current hand knife, the spine is wide and thick, the blade is slightly steep V-shaped, and there is a blood groove on the knife body, so that it can not only chop, but also have a certain ability to assassinate, and the handle is relatively long, it seems to be able to be held in both hands, the knife shape is very peculiar, he is the first time to see such a knife shape, but although this is just a picture, at first glance, it gives people a very powerful feeling, At first glance, people feel that after this knife is cast, it will not be too bad.

In fact, this knife is not completely imitating the shape of the Japanese knife in later generations, but Gao Huaiyuan on the basis of the Japanese knife, and combined with the shape of some Ming Dynasty waist knife imagined, it can be said that it is a comprehensive product of the Japanese knife and the Han knife, but it has not been created, I don't know how the effect is.

Zhou Botong was very curious, so he nodded and agreed: "Since the young master said it, then the little old man will try it!" However, this kind of knife has never been fought before, and it may take a long time! ”

"It doesn't matter, Master Zhou just go and try to do it, you may not be able to hit it all at once, take your time!" Gao Huaiyuan nodded and agreed.

In the next period of time, Zhou Botong took Lu Laoshi and began to work in the blacksmith shop, he still followed the previous knife casting skills, using the steel clamping method to build this kind of knife, at first did not encounter any problems, but in the quenching and annealing, but encountered some trouble, the arc of the knife is often uncontrollable, not up to the ideal degree.

This situation is very strange, which makes Zhou Botong very depressed, and scrapped several knife blanks in a row, which made him also have a bullish temper, and he stuck in the blacksmith shop and didn't come out, eating, drinking, and sleeping in the shop, pondering this matter all day long.

Of course, Gao Huaiyuan knew why, this was mainly caused by the different expansion coefficients of several materials, but he couldn't help it, he just told Zhou Botong what he knew, and let the two professionals figure out the rest.