With a person to eat crabs, the next thing is easy to do, there are more and more people eating crabs, and the miners in the back have also expressed their willingness to exchange iron for taro, Zhu Yuanzhang saw that there are still many miners in the queue behind, and the remaining potatoes are not necessarily enough to exchange the iron they brought, and the previous batch of people who have been replaced, went home and picked out a load of iron, and lined up at the back of the line.

Obviously, these thieves have more than one or two hundred catties of pig iron stored in their homes, and they live in the mountains and rely on mine theft to make a living, but after a few months of interruption in trading with the outside of the mountains, the pig iron in every household is piled up like a mountain, and it is unrealistic to replace it all at once.

Zhu Yuanzhang hurriedly announced that the food he brought was limited, and he could no longer change iron without restrictions, and now each household was limited to 50 catties of taro......

Such a regulation was immediately unanimously approved by the mine thieves, because they could also see that if the people in the front of the queue were allowed to change casually, the people in the back would have to starve.

After being busy for most of the day, all the taro brought by Zhu Yuanzhang was replaced, and all that was left was the marching food of five hundred soldiers, which was impossible to exchange for them anyway, and the mine thieves also had self-knowledge and no longer entangled, at least so far, every household still got a little food.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked the soldiers to count the pig iron, and this time they actually exchanged more than 30,000 catties of pig iron, which was really fruitful. Unfortunately, it was impossible to transport them all back with those dozen or so trolleys.

Xue Hongqi frowned and circled around the iron: "What can I do about this?" I'll just talk too much, it's over...... I really don't know what to do with so much iron. ”

"What?" Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said, "It's not much at all." This iron is not enough to even plug between the teeth. ”

"Isn't that enough? How many weapons do you have to build! Xue Hongqi was a little unconvinced.

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said, "I'll do the math for you...... Take the heavy cavalry you have been longing for, first of all, you need to give the cavalry an iron armor, which requires thirty catties of iron, and after it is built, it weighs twenty-five catties. An iron helmet requires four catties of iron, and it weighs three catties after it is built. A scimitar requires three catties of iron, which is about two catties after the completion of the replacement. An iron gun. If the barrel of the gun is made of wood, and only the tip of the gun is made of iron, it also needs a pound of iron. A barrel of twenty arrows requires a pound...... The face of the war horse needs two catties of iron...... One side of the horse breastplate needs ten catties of iron......"

Zhu Yuanzhang heard this number that made Xue Hongqi dizzy, unable to calculate, and his face was dazed. Xu Renjie next to her reminded her: "All of them add up, a total of fifty-one catties." ”

"That's right. A heavy cavalry needed fifty-one pounds of iron to arm. Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "A hundred heavy cavalry needs five thousand and one hundred catties of iron." One thousand heavy cavalry. It will cost 51,000 pounds of iron. ”

Xue Hongqi's lips opened slightly, unable to speak.

"The amount of iron needed by the heavy armored infantry is not less than that of the heavy cavalry, or even more, because they also need to carry an iron shield in their hands, and they have to add dozens of catties ......" Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Think about the two thousand ironclad soldiers brought by Hong Chengchou, how much iron do you have to use to equip them?" ”

Xue Hongqi wiped her sweat, after all, she was born as a horse thief, and there were always hundreds of people fighting in her mind, and she didn't seriously think about the big scene. After listening to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, think about it carefully, if Zhu Yuanzhang's army and her Red Banner Army are combined, there are already 15,000 soldiers, if they are all armed, how much iron will they need? Her mind was completely out of order with such a large number.

As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang added: "In the future, we may have to arm a million troops, how many iron ...... do you calculate."

Fifteen thousand can't be counted, where can Xue Hongqi count one million. I just felt that my head was bored, and I almost fell to the ground, so I had to laugh dryly: "Millions are too exaggerated, we can't have so many." ”

Li Jieqiong, who had been hiding timidly next to her, also interjected: "We are a township warrior. Is it necessary to get a million people out? One of five or six hundred thousand is enough to deal with the 300,000 troops of the 36th battalion. ”

"Poof!" Xu Renjie smiled, how could Xiang Yong come up with a reason for five or six hundred thousand? If it was really a township warrior who made up five or six hundred thousand, the world would not be in chaos? The little girl was so violent. He said to Xue Hongqi gloatingly: "Listen, Xiao Jieqiong is better than you, as soon as you open your mouth, it is five or six hundred thousand, how many people do you have in your head?" ”

Xue Hongqiqiao's face was slightly red: "I...... I'm thinking about five hundred cavalry......"

"Okay, don't make trouble, let's think about how to get these more than 30,000 catties of pig iron home." Xu Renjie said worriedly: "Leave half of the people to guard, and the other half of the people push the cart to send some of the iron back, and then turn back and transport it." ”

Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "It's not necessary, let's solve it on the spot." ”

"Solve it on the spot?" Xu Renjie didn't understand, and Xue Hongqi didn't understand either.

Zhu Yuanzhang sent soldiers to summon a mine thief and asked lightly: "This brother, there is something I want to ask you about." ”

"If you have something to say, just ask." The mine thief hurried.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked meaningfully: "What did you people from the stockade do for a living before you fled into the mountains to become mining thieves?" ”

"This ......" The miner's face showed embarrassment, obviously not wanting to say.

"It doesn't matter if you don't say it, I can actually guess it." Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the eyes of the mine thief and said seriously: "You are all craftsmen, right?" ”

"Scared...... Extraneous ...... How do you know? The mine thief was taken aback, took a step back, and nearly fell to the ground.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "Isn't this a very simple truth? If you were an ordinary farmer, you would have found a ravine with abundant water and grass to grow vegetables and make a living, but you did not do that, but fled to the Babao Mountains to mine and make iron, and then sell the smuggled iron to make a living, that is to say...... You don't know how to farm, you only know how to mine and make iron...... What else can you be if you're not a craftsman? ”

The so-called craftsman is a profession that specialized in handicraft work in ancient times. Friends who have read a lot of historical novels must know what the craftsman is, so here is a brief introduction to readers and friends who are not familiar with it. When Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, there was a problem with the concept, he believed that what kind of occupation a person is, his sons, grandsons, great-grandchildren, children and grandchildren should be such a profession, farmers are farmers, businessmen are businessmen, handicraftsmen are handicraftsmen, everyone should not mess around, do their own things obediently, and the whole world will continue in harmony and beauty.

So he divided the people of the world into many kinds of households, such as peasant households to farm, military households to fight, merchants to do business, and craftsmen to specialize in iron production of various utensils. There are also some strange households, such as female households, the meaning of the existence of this kind of family is to provide palace maids to the imperial officials, and it is their duty to give birth to daughters to be sent to the imperial officials......

In the Ming Dynasty, the life of the artisan households was very hard, they worked under the supervision of corrupt officials, and had no other income except for the salt and grain issued by the government and the occasional reward of clothing, but the corrupt officials often withheld their things, so their lives were difficult, they were not given food and clothing, and they often had to be disciplined by their children.

Throughout the more than 200 years of the existence of the Ming Dynasty, there has been a situation of artisans fleeing. In the tenth year of Tianshun (1460 AD), the imperial court made a statistic that there were more than 38,000 craftsmen who fled, and these people fled to the deep mountains and old forests, becoming mountain bandits or mine thieves, and later even forming a huge homeless cottage.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, a considerable part of the iron circulating in the market came from these wild roads, and the iron they sold was very cheap, cheaper than the imperial court dug it itself.

Why? When the imperial court opened a mine, it had to send officials to sit in the town, and it had to pay the craftsmen and people who mined and smelted iron, and these wages would be embezzled by the officials, and then exploited layer by layer, and finally ...... The court spent a lot of money but didn't get much iron.

However, the miners dug up and sold themselves, and there was no oppression from corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and they could not see the light, so when they sold iron, they only wanted to get rid of it, not for a high price, and the result was extremely cheap.

In the end, a strange phenomenon was formed, that is, the imperial court was not in the mood to dig iron by itself, and in the ninth year of Wanli (the emperor), the mountain field was closed, and the officials of the Miscellaneous Bureau were cut.

In other words, the imperial court did not dig it itself, but simply collected black iron, and then took it out as official iron for circulation.

This practice reflects the ** of the late Ming Dynasty, and secondly, it can also be said to be a form of the germination of the bourgeoisie, which is changed to later generations, that is, the state closes down state-owned enterprises, and then uses financial allocations to purchase materials from township enterprises, which is about what it means.

Zhu Yuanzhang broke the identity of the mine thieves, and those mine thieves suddenly froze, and their faces became unnatural, because being a craftsman is not a glorious thing, but a very shameful thing.

After Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the history of hundreds of years, he also knew that his policy back then was wrong, and he knew the preciousness of skilled workers, and he no longer had the slightest intention of looking down on craftsmen. In a sincere tone, he said to the mine thief very seriously: "I want to ask you to help me beat these iron into weapons and armor on the spot, and I will bring them back again, do you think?" ”

"Armor?" The mine thieves were in disbelief.

"Anyway, you are the target of the imperial court's want, are you still afraid of creating some contraband?" Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "From now on, I will transport a batch of grain to you every two months into the mountains in exchange for all kinds of weapons and armor...... You can rest assured, I am not a corrupt official, and I will not give you one less, how about it? ”

As soon as these words came out, the mine thieves were immediately moved.

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