It's December, and the New Year is approaching, but in Lizhuang, it is still a sign of busyness in the dusty and noisy. The farmland and wasteland around Qingtianji outside the village have all disappeared, replaced by the shadows of houses with green tiles and gray walls, and this is no longer a rural town, and the scale is almost comparable to that of the muddy in the north.

Even in the village on the high slope to the west, the noise was still faintly heard, and on the top floor of a small three-story building, a slender hand pushed the glass window up, and the spacious house finally calmed down.

"The town can't expand towards the academy anymore, should I tell him, or should he have already explained?"

An Jiuxiu sat back in his high-backed chair, his thoughts drifted to the west, and then quickly pulled back to the wide and thick tabletop, picked up the quill, and continued to write. There was also a thick stack of stationery on the table, all of which were in foreign languages, and An Jiuxiu was writing Chinese while looking at this foreign language.

"As a missionary...... The surrounding mountains are covered with graves. At the foot of a mountain, there is a large pit surrounded by a high wall. The remains of poor local residents who had no coffins were thrown into the pit, which was the largest pit for the poor in the area......"

Writing this, An Jiuxiu couldn't help but shudder.

In this way, the mountains outside Jingdezhen show the fate of millions of people after death. What an abyss their souls have fallen into! The irreparable loss of so many souls over such a long and continuous century greatly stimulated the zeal of the clergy who toiled to save the souls of the heathen. ”

After the translation of the last piece of letter, An Jiuxiu was stunned for a moment, and suddenly snorted.

"The souls of our Chinese people, why do you want to save them, can't you save them yourself!?"

The top one reads, "Letter from the Catholic missionary Antre Collet to Father O'Yu, accountant of the Chinese and Indian Missionary Society, September 1, 1712, Raozhou." ”【1】

The letters were thick and stacked, and after completing such a difficult job, An Jiuxiu sighed with satisfaction, and said to himself in a low voice: "No wonder he didn't let the translator in Guangzhou do it, but asked me to translate it myself, it turned out to be such a confidential thing." ”

This thick letter from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, should have been delivered to Guangzhou as early as last year, but because Taiping Pass was in chaos for a while, the messenger was stopped back. This year, he went on the road again, but was intercepted by the Taiping Pass, which was already controlled by the Qingtian Guanxing, and even secretly robbed Yingde with a letter. An Jiuxiu remembered that when Li Xi handed over the task of translating this stack of letters to him two months ago, his face was still full of strange smiles, and now that he thinks about it, did he know that this letter was about Jingdezhen porcelain skills?

"My man...... It's a fairy ......."

The corners of An Jiuxiu's porcelain-like mouth curled, and then collapsed again. When he entered Li Shi's house, he had already nodded, but look at the meaning, he still had to wait in line. A tigress was staring closely at her little fox, who didn't really have much to think about, and as long as the tigress was by his side, she had to obediently avoid him three feet away, alas...... This miserable life.

The tigress in An Jiuxiu's eyes is getting together with a deer that still has no surname, and the two girls, one big and one young, are busy knitting.

"Why does my daughter's family have to knit towels for men? It should have been the wind in his ears that the fox blew in his ears, deliberately coming to fix us! Look at this velvet thread, she still got it from foreigners when she settled down, hum! ”

Yan Sanniang plays with fists, feet, knives and guns as if she is light, but with two woolen needles in her hand, she seems to be carrying two big hammers, shuttling between the thin velvet threads, which is extremely sluggish. The two wooden needles were stuck together, and the wrist was slightly moved, and with a click, the wooden needles broke. The kung fu girl glanced at the few broken needles on the table, and her shoulders suddenly collapsed.

"The fourth brother said it, he likes the two of us, no matter how ugly we weave, he will surround it, huh...... Retreat one and advance four ......"

The figure has already been pulled up, and Guan Xuan's subordinates, who are faintly as young and pure as a cardamom girl, are non-stop, chanting mantras while flying uncertainly, and Yan Sanniang is envious. Hearing this, he gritted his teeth, continued to pick up the new wooden needle, and buried himself in busyness.

"Will the fourth brother go home today?"

Guan Xuan asked distractedly.

"It should be, Wu Zhong said that they are done, and they are going to come back today to celebrate with wine."

Yan Sanniang's eyes were also flying.

"What strange did the fourth brother come up with again?"

"How do I know...... Yes...... Dead girl, don't bother me! Broken ...... again"

At this time, Li Xi was already on the way home, his heart was still immersed in joy, originally he thought that this thing would take at least a year or two, but three or four months ago, Guan Fengsheng and others made an appearance, which also caused him to temporarily change his plan, and did not shift the strategic focus to Guangzhou, but buried it in the Cockscomb Mountain, always tracking the progress and pointing out the maze.

Bearings, deep channel bearings, this is another major breakthrough he has obtained.

Although the bearing is small, it is extremely significant. It is the joint of the machine, the movement of the machine, especially the high-speed rotation, without the bearing.

Not to mention the West, bearings have a long history in China, and many technologies are far ahead of Europe at the same time. But the key flaw was that materials and manufacturing processes were limited, ranging from wood and ceramics to copper and bronze, to cast iron for rotor bearings designed by the Qing Dynasty itself. This leads to its poor durability, high cost, inability to carry a wider range of applications, and difficulty in promoting the development of industrial machinery.

The bearings obtained by Li Shi are basically the appearance of modern deep channel bearings, the difference is only that the material is still slightly lacking, but from the cage to the bearing ball are steel. As a result, Li Xi got not only bearings, but also the stable smelting process of crude steel, the process of pulling rough diameter steel bars, and the process of casting and grinding steel balls.

This was also due to the unprecedented expansion of He Gui's machinery ownership, and after the completion of the march into Guangzhou, Li Xi recruited many craftsmen in Guangzhou, who were commonly known as "organ craftsmen", and lured them to Yingde with high salaries, fields, and shares. Most of the hydraulic machinery such as wire drawing, casting and grinding steel balls is due to them.

With a complete set of machinery, once the formal production is finalized, Li Shi's bearings have great advantages in life and cost. Relying on bearings, it can make the machinery more flexible and free, and promote the emergence of all kinds of new machinery. As a result, his industrial system expanded in a new way to a new catalyst in addition to steel.

Not to mention these distant things, with the bearing in hand, Li Shi hadn't figured out how to start a goal before, and he also had a sharp weapon like the Heavenly Sword and the Dragon Slayer.

"In Guangzhou, we have Beijiang Shipping Company, Qingpu Cargo Station, Anjia Foreign Company, Yingci Yuan and Guangzhou Governor Li Zhushou, and our heels have been firmly established. The next goal is crucial, determining whether we can really stir up capital and whether we can create an industrial and commercial vortex that is outside the Manchu system. ”

At the top-secret strategic meeting where he met with Duan Hongshi and others, Li Xi explained the importance of this goal.

"It's been almost two years, and every time I see that place, I have an urge to rush over and eat it, but I haven't had a suitable entrance, and the strength is not enough, but now, I think it's time."

Li Shi hung everyone's appetite to the fullest, but the answer he gave surprised everyone at all.

"Foshan!"

Foshan was a famous town in Guangdong in the late Ming Dynasty, and in the late Kangxi period, although it was not as lush as in the Qianlong era, it had gathered two or three hundred thousand people, and the prosperity was not much less than that of Guangzhou. Iron smelting and iron-making are the most important industries, in addition to silk, cotton and velvet weaving, printing and dyeing, porcelain and lacquerware industries are also developed. During the Yongzheng period, in order to control the prosperous Foshan, Foshan Tongzhi was also specially set up to pull it out of Nanhai County for special treatment, and at this time it still belonged to Nanhai County.

Li Xian values the iron industry in Foshan, where there are tens of thousands of ironworkers, counting the surrounding industries, more than half of the people in Foshan are related to iron smelting and iron making, almost the most developed steel center in this era. If he could control Foshan, his rebellion would have a solid foundation.

But how to control, it is very scratching the head, although at this time Foshan has not yet set up the same knowledge, but the Qing court's control of Foshan is extremely strict. A method like his in Yingde involves too many layers and too much movement. The best way is to start from the capital level, supplemented by officialdom operations, and at the capital level, he can't smash it with silver alone, after all, his financial resources are far from being comparable with the real wealthy businessmen.

Now with bearings, things are different.

"Desheng, ......"

Duan Hongshi opened his mouth, calling Li Shi's words. Although Li Shi is not yet crowned, he has won the show, and he also has the official body of the Xunhuan patrol, so he also has to take a table. But Li Shi didn't accept Duan Hongshi's words, but took such a dirty and scummy word by himself, which made everyone quite puzzled. Later, everyone thought that anyway, people outside called him Li Beijiang's nickname, and people inside called him the fourth brother, the general secretary and the owner of the village, and the words were only used to deal with formal occasions, so no one paid attention to them. But he never thought that when Li Xi said this word, he thought of another name: "Li Desheng" ...... "Guangzhou is the heart of Guangdong, Foshan is the navel of Guangdong, and the whole body is moved, and the court of the Qing court can know what is happening, so you must be careful." ”

Duan Hongshi's advice was very meaningful, and Li Shi nodded seriously.

So when he came home and talked about his itinerary, he heard Yan Sanniang say that she was going too, and his head suddenly became bigger.

"Foshan people are good martial arts, you want to go there, don't worry if you don't have me with you!"

Yan Sanniang said very seriously.

"That's it, I'm not at ease......"

Li Shi was very straightforward, and his words made the girl's willow eyebrows suddenly stand up.

"I promise not to cause trouble!"

She swore angrily, but that promised...... No matter how you hear it, it is not sincere, and when she saw Li Shi frowning, she quickly changed her tone.

"Then I...... I promise to listen to you, okay? ”

The girl's voice was stunned and not graceful, it was a habit she had developed by calling Siwei all day long. This girl was determined to learn to be a soldier, but after all, she couldn't bear the loneliness of her hands and feet, and eventually became the head of the sect, but now she teaches everything from fists and feet, bayonets to marksmanship. Hearing Li Xian's pity, a girl, after all, she still has to be like a girl. His Sanniang has been holding back in Yingde for so long, and it is time to go out to breathe.

Thinking about it again, Wing Chun has been carried forward in Foshan, he abducted the Wing Chun patriarch, and now it seems that after all, he still has to give an explanation to history, Foshan...... is destined to have an indissoluble bond with her.

"Guan Xuan, the fourth brother has completed another great deed, come to reward him!"

Li Shi temporarily threw her away and greeted his little daughter-in-law. The little girl grinned and rushed over, snapping, and her lips left a sweet kiss on his face.

"It's okay to go, ...... here"

Then Li Xian pointed to the other side of his cheek and said to Yan Sanniang with a smile.

"You ......"

At this time, Yan Sanniang finally returned to her true colors as a girl, turned around and fled with a blushing face.

"Fourth brother, I think you should also practice martial arts, otherwise when will you be able to kiss Sister Yan?"

The little girl in her arms asked, and then saw her fourth brother with a bitter face.

(To be continued)