Although when the Yuan people were compiling the history of the Song Dynasty, they said that Zhao Ji was talented and smart, and he was good at everything, but he was not suitable to be the emperor, but in fact, Zhao Ji was able to carry the Empress Dowager Xiang, kill the Empress Dowager of Chong'en Palace, and use an old traitor like Cai Jing to govern the country.

Since ancient times, emperors have had a common trait, that is, they are suspicious. The greater the courtier's talent, the more suspicious the emperor became. Zhao Ji is the same, he can not remember Zhou Quan's merits clearly, but he can fight and make money, but this ability makes him worried.

Fortunately, this guy is a frivolous person who can't control himself after all, and he has only achieved something, so he can't wait to take revenge on the enemy.

In Zhao Ji's view, it can be inferred from this alone that Zhou Quan does not have too many political ambitions, and all he thinks about is personal wealth, so he has a wide range of grudges and narrow measures.

On the twenty-fifth day of the first month of the fourth year of Zhenghe, Zhao Ji met Zhou Quan in Yanfu Palace.

This was the first time he saw Zhou Quan alone after the Zhou father and son left Beijing for Xuzhou, although they had only met once ten days ago, but that time it was to deal with the dispute between Zhu Mian and Zhou Quan.

Seeing Zhou Quan again, Zhao Ji had a smile on his face: "Zhou Qing, you have done a great job!" ”

"It's just to make some money that others don't earn, where is there a big business!" Zhou Quan said with a shy face.

"Not big? This time, there are hundreds of craftsmen recruited from Jingshi, right? ”

To promote industrialization, it is not possible to rely on Zhou Quan alone, Zhou Quan can determine a goal, but how to achieve this goal requires craftsmen to rack their brains. Because of the previous impact, in just four days, the number of craftsmen who had already expressed their intention to join the Donghai Chamber of Commerce exceeded three hundred.

These people may not be first-class craftsmen, but they are enough to enrich Zhou Quan's craft and material research team!

"There are only more than 300 people, the official family, can you also allocate the craftsmen in the official mansion to Weichen?" Zhou Quan unceremoniously put forward his own request.

"In that case, the Ministry of Works and the general will have to work hard to find me!" Zhao Ji smiled: "Don't think!" ”

"If it's not all, it's half of it...... Or a third? ”

Zhou Quan's tired appearance of bargaining made Zhao Ji cry and laugh: "You are going to be delusional, do you think I don't know, how many of the craftsmen who have come to you in the past few days have been named in the Ministry of Industry and the general supervisor?" Boy, take it when you see it! ”

Zhou Quan smiled, just have Zhao Ji's words, which proves that Zhao Ji will not pursue him for poaching the craftsmen who belong to the government.

Then, Zhao Ji's face became a little serious: "Zhou Quan, the northwest is going to use troops." ”

"The minister also guessed this, I don't know what the minister can do about it?"

"Go back and urge you old Zhou Qing, Li Guojian is an iron prison after all, don't just take care of the cement, the iron must also keep up!" Zhao Ji said.

The amount of cement that Li Guojian sent to Jingshi last year was ten times more than the amount of cement produced by Jingshi itself!

This made Zhao Ji very dissatisfied with the group of officials who would be the prisoner, originally the cement of the official kiln in Beijing was started by Zhou Fu, and after Zhou Fu left, the cement output not only did not increase, but decreased slightly.

Hearing Zhao Ji say this, Zhou Quan smiled and said: "If the official family doesn't say it, the minister also has to report the good news to the official family." ”

"Oh? Ho Hi? Zhao Ji was in good spirits.

"Some time ago, whether it was a hot air balloon or copper, it was not the main thing that the minister presented to the official family in Beijing this time, what the minister really wanted to offer was a pair of armor!"

"Armor?" Zhao Ji was a little disappointed, and then he figured it out: The armor offered by Zhou Quan must be extraordinary, maybe it is like cement, and it can become a heavy weapon of the military state!

"Please give the order of the official family and bring the box brought by the minister." Zhou Quan said.

After a while, a wooden box was placed in front of Zhao Ji, and the accompanying guards opened the box, revealing a set of armor inside.

Unlike the scale armor of the Great Song, this is a plate armor. Zhou Quan looked at the guards around him, summoned a tall man over, and then put the armor on his body.

"What's the good of this?" Zhao Ji felt a little bored, he was literary and elegant, although he was interested in side affairs, but he was really not interested in military affairs.

"The key is not what is good about this armor, the official, the key is how to produce this armor. My father improved the process in Li Guojian, and now he makes this armor, which can be made into 30 pieces a day...... Only six craftsmen were used! Zhou Quan said.

Zhao Ji's eyes widened: "Only thirty pieces a day?" ”

The Great Song Dynasty has hundreds of thousands of forbidden troops, claimed to be 800,000, deducting the imaginary head, there are also 400,000, 30 pieces a day, to replace all these forbidden troops, doesn't it mean more than 10,000 days...... Thirty years!

Zhou Quan was a little speechless, and at this time he realized that it was extremely stupid to discuss this issue with this official.

This official family is obviously more interested in eating, drinking, and playing, calligraphy and painting than about making weapons.

"Ahem, these are six craftsmen, that is, each craftsman can make an average of five pieces a day, and if there are a hundred craftsmen, it will be five hundred pieces a day." Zhou Quan could only say this.

Of course, this is impossible, in fact, even after more than a year of exploration, Li Guojian has mastered the technology of punching and forging with a hydraulic forging hammer, and has completed several breakthroughs in several key processes such as gears.

"I understand that I will contact your father with the household department and the military department, and when the Western Army buys armor, it will consider purchasing armor from the same amount of Qiguan National Supervisor." Zhao Ji said a little boringly.

"You know a!"

Zhou Quan was really speechless, Zhao Ji asked Zhou Fu to improve the iron-smelting process, and mostly produce steel for the Great Song Dynasty, but in fact he was not interested in armaments. Zhou Quan really wanted to scold in his heart, but thinking of the lives of many soldiers in the battle with Western Xia, he still endured it.

"Official, this kind of armor is cheaper than the old armor, a piece of such armor, only fifteen yuan, is an ordinary soldier, and they can also be equipped with this armor!" Zhou Quan suppressed the anger in his heart and said slowly.

Zhao Ji listened cheaply, and really lifted his spirits: "Can you save money?" That's good, that's good! Your father has made meritorious service again, and after the Western Thief is destroyed, he will make meritorious service for your father and son! ”

This kind of perfunctory words can be heard even by Zhou Quan.

His heart sank, Zhao Ji was not interested in these, but why did he summon him to meet.

He was silent, Zhao Ji couldn't hold it back, and said curiously: "Zhou Quan, can your hot air balloon rise to the sky?" ”

"Outside the sky?"

"It's the abode of the gods." Zhao Ji was behind him.

Zhou Quan looked at this person, and remembered that Zhao Ji had introduced him, this person was a Taoist priest, named Wang Laozhi, and was named Mr. Dongwei by Zhao Ji.

Zhou Quan's heart moved, "Dongwei", "Dongwei", which made him think of one thing.

"The abode of the gods, even more outside the heavy sky, this hot air balloon can't float there." Zhou Quan responded.

Zhao Ji sighed in disappointment, he was bewitched by the Taoist priests, and he was very concerned about the matter of seeking immortals and visiting gods, and the hot air balloon made him dream of "flying in the day".

Now that he heard that the hot air balloon could not take him to the sky, half of his interest was suddenly lost.

Mr. Dongwei behind him, Mr. Wang Laozhi, said with a smile: "What about looking for overseas immortal mountains?" ”

"What does Mr. Dongwei mean?" Zhou Quan frowned.

"Zhou Langjun's sea ship, it is said that it is not afraid of wind and waves, and can go to the ocean, why not send the ship out to visit the overseas immortal mountains and seek the elixir of immortality for the official family?"

Zhou Quan glanced at Zhao Ji and found that Zhao Ji's face was full of approval, and he understood in his heart.

Looking for overseas immortal mountains should be a means for Wang Laozhi to come out and make a sycophant, but the last person to play this hand with great fanfare was Qin Shi Huang, and his reputation is not very good, so although Zhao Ji is moved, it is not easy to say it himself, and he uses Wang Laozhi's mouth to express his heart.

Zhou Quan grinned.

When he laughed, Wang Laozhi's heart jumped suddenly.

The conscience of heaven and earth, Wang Laozhi just wanted to pat Zhao Ji's ass, and he had absolutely no intention of harming Zhou Quan, he even felt that he had given Zhou Quan a chance to further consolidate the saint's family!

If Li Bangyan and Zhu Mian encounter this opportunity, they will definitely seize it firmly and use the holy will to loot the rich coastal land, and they can also use it to mobilize the strength of the whole country for their own selfish interests.

Zhu Mian is now doing this in Suzhou.

But Zhou Quan didn't think so.

After he finished laughing, he bowed his hand to Zhao Ji: "The minister is a mortal in the flesh, but I heard that there is a fairy mountain on the sea, and the mountain is in the ethereal space, and I don't know its location." The recruiters of the ministers are all vulgar and stubborn people, and they have no blessing and no immortal fate, so even if they meet by chance, they have never encountered the fairy mountain. ”

Wang Laozhi was laughed at by Zhou Quan just now, and when he heard him say this, he wanted to make another high statement, but when he saw Zhou Quan turn to himself, he said with a smile: "Mr. Chen Wen Dongwei is a land immortal, who was delighted by Han Zhong, and once traveled to the immortal world, living in the fairy palace, and the official family asked the official family to take Mr. Dong Wei as a guide, and the ship of the courtiers went to the fairy mountain to get the elixir of immortality for the official family!" ”

Wang Laozhi was dumbfounded!

A Taoist like him, he finally came to Zhao Ji's side, unless he felt that his deception was going to be exposed, how could he not leave, after all, who is willing to leave this ten-zhang soft red and rich land?

What's more, after leaving, going overseas, the waves are high and the wind is urgent, and nine deaths are life, where is it better to sit and watch and make friends with the powerful and happy?

After a while, Wang Laozhi arched his hand and said with a dry smile: "Poor Dao has learned very shallowly, and he is old, I am afraid that he can't use it, but Poor Dao knows that a person is good at humane law, good at distinguishing yin and yang, and can be Zhou Lang's guide." ”

At this time, he just wanted to get himself out, where to manage so much, the so-called dead Taoist friends do not die poor Dao, so he recommended a person: "This person's surname is Lin, the name is Lingyao, he was once a servant of Dongpo, and then he met an immortal, and he was awarded the "Five Thunder Jade Book". However, this person's ambition is not to be rich, and I am afraid that His Majesty will summon him, and he may not be able to make it! ”

This time it was Zhou Quan's turn to be dumbfounded: This is okay!

This is just handing over the black cauldron directly to someone else, and because that person is not there, he can't defend himself. In particular, the sentence "This person is not determined to be rich and noble" left a foreshadowing, if Lin Lingwu did not dare to come, it was not that he recommended a non-person, but that Zhao Ji's face was not big enough.

However, Zhou Quan was a little interested at this time.

These Taoist priests can't do anything else, but after learning a little bit of stargazing, they can make some contributions to the development of astronomy in the Great Song Dynasty, and at the same time help improve navigation.

At the same time, they can also carry out cultural expansion in the name of spreading the teachings, and can even become the pioneer of Chinese expansion!

Thinking of this, Zhou Quan's face appeared with a smile that seemed to be not a smile again. (To be continued.) )