A small furnace was built in the blacksmith's workshop to melt and refine the iron purchased from outside, and the sheds here were made of stone for fire prevention, and even the roof was made of stone bars, including the roof tiles, which greatly reduced the risk of fire.

The area of the shed is also not small, a few anvils are placed, some teenagers are naked, sweating profusely under the guidance of the masters, constantly knocking on the iron materials on the anvil, there is not only Zhou Botong this old man, but also Lu Laoshi is also here, even Gao Huaiyuan recently got some craftsmen from the north before the army are also here, all of them are shirtless, the muscles of the whole body look very strong, and their bodies are covered with sweat, making them look like a layer of oil, The individual stems are in full swing.

After all, Liu Er is a girl's family, embarrassed to enter the blacksmith shop, there are half-naked men everywhere who pull their skin and expose their hips, she can no longer follow Gao Huaiyuan into the blacksmith shop, so she said to Gao Huaiyuan, please Gao Huaiyuan After looking here, go to her sewing workshop to see, and then trotted all the way back to the front yard, Gao Huaiyuan smiled and looked at Liu Er's waist full of youth and vitality writhing in the run, and couldn't help but feel a fire in his heart.

But he immediately put away his kind of **, shook his head and laughed secretly This body seems to have reached puberty, and he didn't dare to see the curves of women, so he reacted, it's really another spring! He laughed at his body's reaction as he stepped into the blacksmith's workshop with his legs raised.

When the busy people saw Gao Huaiyuan come in, they immediately put down what they were doing and bowed down to Gao Huaiyuan together.

"The old slave has met the young master!" Zhou Botong came to Gao Huaiyuan, his wrinkled old face was full of smiles, and he bowed down to give Gao Huaiyuan a salute.

Gao Huaiyuan picked up Zhou Botong and said with a smile: "I haven't seen you for a year, Master Zhou can be said to be in good spirits now!" Don't know how your body is now? ”

Zhou Botong stroked the short beard of his chin and said with a smile: "Thanks to the young master's care, now the old slave eats and sleeps well here, and his body is much stronger than before, and these boys also respect me very much, it seems that my old bones will be left here by the young master in the future!" I also hope that when I die, the young master can buy me a good coffin board! Hehe! ”

Gao Huaiyuan suddenly laughed: "Master Zhou, where are you talking about this!" You are only sixty years old now, I think it is no problem for you to live at least 100 years old, you have at least 40 years to live, it is too early to say this! I can't live without you in this Crouching Tiger Village, I hope you can really live for a few more decades! ”

Zhou Botong was even more old and cheerful when Gao Huaiyuan said this, and laughed loudly, he just liked Gao Huaiyuan's attitude towards him, since he came here, Gao Huaiyuan did not treat him as a slave, he was courteous to him everywhere, and the people respected him very much, this situation was impossible for him to be in other places before.

And Zhou Botong is also grateful to Gao Huaiyuan for all this, after some deep thought, he finally decided to teach his skills to the teenagers in Crouching Tiger Village, and pass on his skills, so in Zhuangzi, he selected some of the teenagers he liked, and accepted them as apprentices, after more than half a year of teaching by word and deed, although these teenagers are still far from leaving the school, but each also has some primary skills, at least there is no problem with making some ordinary farm tools, knives and guns.

Zhou Botong led Gao Huaiyuan into the shed, pointed to a knife blank on the ground and said: "These are the Liuyun scimitars that the old slave is making, but these little things are not skilled now, and even if they are punched, they are not as good as those that were sent to the army before, but even so, they are much better than ordinary hand knives."

There is also the young master, these iron materials are the materials for the boys to practice their hands, you also have money, I won't save you money, I got so much iron, specially for the boys to practice, these iron materials have been repeatedly forged by them ten times, it can be regarded as stainless steel, after a while, these little guys will repeatedly forge these iron materials more than 100 times, and then use these fine iron to forge the Liuyun scimitar, the old slave dares to guarantee that it will be much better than the knife cast before! The old slave even dared to say that even with the dragon scale sword on the young master's body, he dared to fight! ”

Gao Huaiyuan nodded again and again, of course he knew the truth of refining into steel, the real good steel is hammered by the blacksmiths, it is said that after ten catties of crude iron have been forged a hundred times, in the end only less than one catty of steel remains, and it is difficult to think about it if you use such steel to cast a sword.

And now that I have money, I can ensure that the materials used in the iron are enough for these novices to practice and use, even if they can't make a good knife, they can definitely make a lot of steel, and they will definitely not waste it anyway!

Gao Huaiyuan looked at the muscles on the graves of these apprentices who were accepted by Zhou Botong, the blacksmith is really hardworking, presumably the arm strength of these boys is also quite powerful now! This is a place to exercise people, and you might as well find a job for other teenagers in the future, so that they can also practice iron fighting, which has a lot of benefits for increasing their arm strength! By the way, a batch of good steel was forged!

Gao Huanyuan was suddenly made to laugh secretly by this idea of his own, and he realized that he was really a bit of a profiteer now, and he was not willing to waste any resources.

"Let's do it! It is also your blessing that you can be accepted as an apprentice by Master Zhou, give me a good study, and you must not insult Master Zhou's skills! Carry forward his old man's skills! Gao Huaiyuan instructed the teenagers of Crouching Tiger Village.

The boys immediately bowed down in agreement, turned around and picked up the hammer, and continued to tinkle and begin to forge the iron.

And Gao Huaiyuan walked in front of a few northerners who had just entered Crouching Tiger Village, and several people recognized Gao Huaiyuan, and hurriedly bowed down and habitually called Gao Huaiyuan: "General Gao is good!" ”

"What General Gao! Now that Gao is no longer serving in the army, you will also call me young master in the future, this is Gao's home, and you will be my people in Crouching Tiger Village in the future, as long as you and I are here with one heart, Gao guarantees that you will have no worries for the rest of your life! I wonder if you're still used to life here these days? Gao Huaiyuan waved his hand.

"Habit, habit! At the beginning, the little ones really didn't expect to be treated so well here, the lives of the little ones were also saved by General Gao at the beginning, and now they can do things for the general, which can be regarded as the reward of the little ones to General Gao! And the food and accommodation here are far better than our family before, and the little ones will do their best to do things for General Gao! Please rest assured, General! The first man replied on behalf of the people.

"Excellent! In the future, you will still call me young master, after all, it is taboo to call me a general in the place, I know that you are also homesick, but for now I can only do this, or that sentence, as long as you do your best to do things here, after the armistice between the Song and Jin countries, if there is a chance, I promise you, as much as possible, your family will also be brought over here to settle down, the Jin country is too chaotic, come here may be a little better than your original home! Gao Huaiyuan had some intention of taking the opportunity to buy people's hearts.

But this sentence is tantamount to great news for these people, everyone immediately knelt down when they heard it, and kowtowed to Gao Huaiyuan again and again to thank him, pointing to the sky and vowing to do things for Gao Huaiyuan.

When Gao Huaiyuan, under the leadership of Zhou Botong, after watching the blacksmith workshop, came to the edge of the stream that passed through the village behind the workshop, Zhou Botong reached out and picked up a handful of water, and said to Gao Huaiyuan: "This is a good place, the young master chose to build a village here, it was really the right place, the water quality here is cool and thorough, it is very suitable for casting swords, it is quite good for quenching, and the soil in some nearby places is also very suitable for covering soil quenching. At least they can be quite sophisticated! ”

Gao Huaiyuan picked up the water and washed his face, the temperature in the iron workshop was very high, and after a while, he was sweating all over his body, and even the clothes on his body were soaked, and now after washing his face, he immediately felt much refreshed.

Listening to Zhou Botong's enthusiastic introduction, Gao Huaiyuan looked at the gurgling stream in front of him, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he suddenly remembered something.

"Hydraulic! Ha ha! That's a good thing! How come I hadn't thought of this before? Gao Huaiyuan looked at the stream that crossed Zhuangzi and suddenly laughed.

His laughter made Zhou Botong a little confused, so he asked Gao Huaiyuan, "Young Master, why are you laughing?" This water is really good! What hydraulics? Did the young master remember something again? ”

Gao Huaiyuan pointed to this stream and explained to Zhou Botong: "I mean this stream! Master Zhou, please see, the stream here comes down from the upstream, the drop is not small, if we make use of the water of this stream, build a few dams, build a few waterwheels, it will solve the problem of power, your craftsmen here do not have to work so hard to hit iron with an iron hammer, as long as a few hydraulic pestle hammers, save a lot of manpower, but also make some hydraulic blowers, increase the furnace temperature, whether it is casting or forging iron, there are great benefits!

And we can mill rice and crush raw materials in the future can be solved with water power, so that we can save a lot of manpower and animal power, and free up manpower to do more things, think about it, if we make full use of the water power here, the efficiency of production can be increased more than twice as much! Ha ha! Why didn't I think of it before? ”

Listening to Gao Huaiyuan's explanation, Zhou Botong couldn't help but be a little excited, he knew that Gao Huaiyuan was not talking about it, but there was such a thing, and people had already created it in this era like a water-driven pestle hammer and a water-powered bellows, and he had already heard of it, but he hadn't seen it, as soon as Gao Huaiyuan said it, he understood the meaning, so he was also happy.

You must know that only the Song Dynasty did not inhibit the development of commerce in Chinese history, so although the Song Dynasty was weak, it was only a problem caused by the system, but the national strength was definitely the most powerful era in Chinese history, and it was precisely because of the huge development of commerce that led to the development of productive forces, many unprecedented scientific and technological inventions appeared in the Song Dynasty, not to mention that three of China's four major inventions appeared in the Song Dynasty, and the inventions in machinery were endless. The development of science and technology is the pinnacle of the entire ancient China, but unfortunately everything came to an abrupt end with the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the science and technology of several later dynasties did not develop greatly, but turned back on history, so that in the late Qing Dynasty, China's science and technology were far surpassed by the emerging civilizations of Europe, and became the object of humiliation by other countries.

Gao Huaiyuan already knew these things in his previous life, so when he thought of these things, he felt very aggrieved in his heart, which was also the driving force he hoped to bring some changes to this era, hoping to make China continue to be glorious in the Song Dynasty and always stand on top of the world.

After thinking of taking advantage of the natural water conservancy conditions here, Gao Huaiyuan became excited again, and after saying goodbye to Zhou Bo, he turned back to the front yard and went to the sewing workshop in Crouching Tiger Village to take a look at the situation as promised, but his mind was always thinking about water power.

After seeing Gao Huaiyuan's arrival, Liu Er immediately took the girls in Zhuangzi and the women of the Huang Zhou family out to greet his arrival, and hugged Gao Huaiyuan into the sewing workshop.

This is the production place of the upper and lower dresses of Crouching Tiger Village, since the girls here and the women of the Huang Zhou family began to establish workshops, they are responsible for all the dressing problems of the upper and lower people in the Zhuangzi, and they have to gather every day to weave and spin here, and produce some cloth or satin, one is to supply the people in the Zhuangzi to wear, and the silk woven from the yarn can also make some money for the Zhuangzi, although this money is insignificant in the books of the Zhuangzi, but it shows the value of their women's existence.

Therefore, Liu Er attaches great importance to the production here, and has to take time out every day to work here for a while, in addition to clothes, they also have to provide shoes and hats for the people in the Zhuangzi, so there are no idlers in the whole Zhuangzi.

When Gao Huaiyuan entered the workshop, he saw rows of looms and spinning reeling carts placed here, and the women were weaving and spinning here, busy, and their faces were filled with a look of satisfaction, it seemed that they should be satisfied with the life here.

Gao Huanyuan picked up a pair of shoes he was making and looked at them, the soles were very strong, much more comfortable than those bought in the county, and looked at the woven fabrics, although they were not fine enough, but they were very thick, and such fabrics were also comfortable to wear and more wear-resistant.

The cloth of this era has begun to use cotton as a raw material for weaving, instead of the linen cloth used before, such cloth is more comfortable to wear, but on the whole, cotton has not been planted in a large area, although the Northern Song Dynasty has introduced cotton from South Asia a hundred years ago, but at that time it was only planted as an ornamental plant, and there was no large-scale planting at all, so it was not until the end of the Southern Song Dynasty that cotton really began to be used in the weaving industry.

Daye County is a place where cotton is introduced, and the people here have begun to use cotton weaving, so Crouching Tiger Village also grows cotton, and the cotton collected is woven and used by themselves, which satisfies their own use.

Touching the comfortable cotton cloth, Gao Huaiyuan pondered whether to go back and plant this thing on the hundreds of acres of land over the old house, so that although the grain output will be reduced, but the economic benefits are better than growing grain, but unfortunately this cotton is obviously not the common cotton of later generations, but a kind of short-staple cotton, the yield is not high, and the quality is not good enough, if you really want to plant a large area, you still have to find a way to choose seeds, choose a long-staple cotton to plant, so that the income can be better.

Thinking of this, Gao Huaiyuan temporarily dismissed the idea of planting a large number of cotton, and after praising these women, he stepped out of the sewing workshop.

In order to ensure the daily training of the young villagers, even though the various workshops of Crouching Tiger Village have been expanded again and again, there is always a sufficient area of a school field for the farmers to practice.

When Gao Huaiyuan walked around to the school grounds, a review drill was going on here, and the chief officer was of course Zhou Hao, and the teenagers who came back with Gao Huaiyuan had now become the head of the sect.

Before Gao Huaiyuan entered the school, he heard Zhou Hao's cold reprimand: "Weak! Look at your movements as if you haven't eaten, if you go into battle to kill the enemy like this, I'm afraid you will be hacked to death by the enemy before you even raise your hand! Remember, when the knife is released, the arms, back, waist and legs should be used at the same time, so that the speed and strength of the knife can be more powerful and fast, as long as you are a little faster than the opponent on the battlefield, you can save your own life, and don't think that you can go into battle with this little ability now, if you are allowed to go to the front of the battle now, there is only a dead end!

The most important thing before the battle formation is to cooperate with each other, the order is forbidden, anyone who does not respect the order, regardless of the reason, should be killed before the battle, with your current cooperation, it is far from meeting the requirements, although you have not seen it for a year, your strength seems to have increased a lot, but now you are just a group of rabble, in the future, everyone must practice according to the instructions of your leader! ……”

Gao Huaiyuan smiled slightly, Zhou Hao is really learning and using it, so soon he began to teach these teenagers what he learned from the battlefield, it seems that the battlefield is really a place to train people, Zhou Hao and a few other teenagers who have fought with the army are now standing there, there is a faint trace of murderous aura, and this kind of temperament can only be possessed by those who have rolled in blood and fire.

Now for the training of newcomers, Gao Huaiyuan doesn't have to do it himself, Zhou Hao is enough! Therefore, Gao Huaiyuan only glanced at the drills of this group of selected Zhuang Ding from a distance, and then turned back to his small courtyard.

On the way, he met Jiang Peng, who was running out of breath, so he asked with a smile: "What are you doing with me again?" ”