Outside the Wendeng camp, on the banks of the Baolong River, there are many canals leading along the bank, and dikes have been built next to the canals, all kinds of hydraulic machinery are running, and the sound of water hammers tinkling is endless.

Tang Zuoxiang followed Chen Xin and Liu Minyou diligently, and introduced them all the way, "My lord, there are more than 200 people in the firearms branch of the military factory, and it can make 600 guns in normal times, and 1,000 guns in an urgent way every month. ”

Chen Xin asked casually: "The average person only has three guns, what is the most labor-intensive thing now?" ”

"Nowadays, there are not many people who drill the barrel, they all use a drilling machine, only need to stop when the barrel is hot, sometimes change the pendant steel drill bit, leave one or two people to look at it, now the most people are used, is to roll the barrel and wrought iron plate to beat, the barrel is not improved for the time being, the wrought iron plate uses water hammer, but even if some water hammer is used, a lot of labor is still used."

Liu Minyou said next to him: "Last time I recruited the Portuguese came up with an idea, using a hydraulic roller machine can press several wrought iron plates at the same time, he has seen others use it when he was in Europe, but how to do it is not clear, I have transferred a few of the most outstanding craftsmen from the science and technology class to study, they made a sample out, now there are still a lot of problems, is improving, this machine qì is very useful, and can also be used to make copper coins, and the price of fake money may be reduced in the future." ”

Chen Xin nodded, and asked Liu Minyou: "Now the output of the firearms factory is enough, even if the army is expanded, only about half of it is musketeers, but I still want to solve the problem of bayonets as soon as possible, so that I can double the number of melee soldiers, and this time I will fight on Mi Island." The flintlock detachment acted as a reserve counter-attack, and immediately charged with bayonets after firing at close range, and the effect was still very good, and these light armoured soldiers were much faster and more mobile than the heavy armoured soldiers when they pursued, and if I could solve all the bayonet problems, my tactics would be much more flexible. ”

Tang Zuoxiang bowed his head and said, "My lord." The bayonet was all made by hand, and it was not easy to make a qualified one, if the roll machine could make it. The error of the barrel will be smaller, but the bayonet will still have to rely on the training of skilled craftsmen. ”

Liu Minyou added: "More importantly, there is steel, and the original iron workshop production was too low. Dengzhou bought steel is different, we now use a lot of steel, cold weapon edges, bayonets, drill bits for drilling gun barrels, all are consumables, this time in the battle on Mi Island, the killer team has two weapons that need to be replaced, I plan to expand the weapons research room, the people in the science and technology class will first enrich a part of it, this year and next year will focus on the study of ironmaking and steelmaking, and then the rest of the science and technology class will stay as teachers. It is used to expand the scale of science and technology classes. ”

"Very good, there was a literacy school for teenagers, who worked and studied part-time, learning technology while reading, and in the future, the science and technology classes were expanded. Those who are excellent in the literacy class can be promoted to the science and technology class to study theory, so that there is a two-level training, and the students with average literacy class qualifications will be sent directly to work in various workshops, and the science and technology class is equivalent to a university, then the previous account class can also be merged into the science and technology class, and some people can also be drawn from the original research room to be teachers. These people have more practical experience, don't let the science and technology class be too theoretical. ”

The two discussed while walking, and looked all the way, many craftsmen who knew them stopped to salute, and they all bowed, which is also the etiquette of the civil affairs system, Chen Xin and Liu Minyou abolished kneeling internally early on. Both of them smiled and nodded when they saw them, which was completely different from the style of other officials in this era.

When they arrived at the most densely populated area of workers, a craftsman suddenly shouted loudly: "Lord Chen, Lord Liu, Marquis Wandai." ”

Immediately aroused a warm echo, the whole river resounded with the shout of "Gong Hou Wandai", these former artisans and homeless people found their own paradise in Wendeng, where they could support their families by their own labor, without the oppression that could be seen everywhere outside, they knew for the first time what food and clothing and dignity were, and they were full of hope for the future, as long as these two adults were there, their children could live and work here in peace and contentment.

Chen Xin hugged his fists around to express his gratitude, causing more enthusiastic shouts and applause, Liu Minyou still smiled and nodded, the warm atmosphere passed for a while, the two walked through this section, Liu Minyou asked the others to leave for a while, and whispered to Chen Xin: "Why don't you learn to learn from the great man and wave his hand with one hand?" ”

"Long live the people? If you're not here, I can learn, and I'm not afraid of you laughing when you're here. ”

Liu Minyou shook his head with a smile after hearing this, and said after a while: "I heard that you are going to transfer people from the training team to set up a mission bureau and run a military newspaper, do you want to taste the taste of great men?" ”

Chen Xin sighed and said: "What does it taste like to be fake all day long, but now that the stall is bigger, there is no guarantee that everyone thinks the same as us, people will change after all, so that everyone at the grassroots level understands that the goal of this group is necessary, so that even if a few people have other thoughts, the destructive power will be minimized." ”

Liu Minyou didn't speak again after listening, the military came to report this morning, appointing Wang Changfu as the commander of the reserve battalion, Liu Minyou first thought that it would be one of Lu Chuanzong or Dai Zhenggang, after all, these two people are more qualified, and the three thousand generals are also the first batch of slender men recruited by Tongzhou, but they are all from different places.

Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang only added a vacant position as the deputy battalion officer of the Wendeng Battalion, and they still served as the original general manager. Liu Minyou is not the original project manager, from this personnel appointment, it can be seen that Chen Xin is wary of the people in Yanggu, most of these people in Yanggu are very close neighbors, and they are the only group with local colors in the Wendeng camp system.

"I read your report in the morning, will Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang have any ideas?"

"I'm going to tell them that I'm going to get them a guerrilla to guard alone, so I'm not busy appointing them as battalion officers now."

Liu Minyou thought about it and said: "This reason is reasonable. ”

"You calculate the income and expenses for this year, and if there is a surplus, I want to add a pension to the soldiers, deduct five cents from their monthly salary every month, and then the army will post another five cents, so that they will save one or two pieces of silver in the money bank every month, and return it to them when they are discharged or injured."

Liu Minyou calculated in his mind for a while, and now there are more than 7,000 soldiers. The soldier is one or two and a half yuan a month, and the reserve battalion is now one or two taels, but sooner or later it will have to be added to the one or two and a half yuan, plus the extra part of the officers, the annual military salary alone will be about 120,000 taels, and this does not include pensions, combat rewards, barracks, equipment, clothing, horses, and military rations, etc., if you go out on the expedition. This year's military expenditure will be about 200,000 taels, and the imperial court's annual military salary will be more than 70,000 taels. But it needs to be dotted up and down, and the actual amount is only 40,000 taels, and the natural grain is withheld. Wendeng Camp himself needs to subsidize about 150,000 taels.

In previous years, Wendengying's civil affairs income mainly relied on sea trade, this year there were 150,000 taels, followed by copper coins, in previous years bought back 100,000 catties of copper from Japan, the profit was less than 15,000 taels, this year through guò's own money village and canal shop pù sales, the profit of copper coins more than doubled, plus Xu Xinsu provided more than 100,000 catties of copper materials, this year's profit can reach 50,000 to 60,000 taels, and then the profit of cigarettes. The cigarette business has just started this year, and sales began to soar after entering May, and the annual profit is expected to be around 100,000 taels.

Finally, the southern goods business by the canal and the Liaodong commercial goods trade, Chen Xin's trip to Phi Island has opened up the joint, and the first batch of southern goods has just been loaded and shipped to Phi Island. Some of them were given to Shang Keyi and others, and the rest were directly given to officials in Anping Province of North Korea, and a small part of this batch of goods was sold in North Korea, and most of them would definitely be shipped to Houjin, which were all tea, sugar, ceramics and cigarettes, which were scarce in Houjin, especially sugar and cigarettes. It is extremely popular in Liaodong. Although Jiannu also lacked food, the unit price of food was too low, the target was obvious and inconvenient to transport, and the military elites had food anyway, so they were not interested in smuggling that thing.

Houjin robbed a large amount of silver money in the war for many years, and millions of Liao people in Liaodong were almost slaughtered by them, even if a small part was left to make a coat, but they were basically robbed of poverty and white, and the wealth was transferred to the hands of the Eight Banners.

The nobles of the Later Jin banners were originally purchased from North Korea, and they could have more than twice the profit as soon as they arrived in Liaodong, especially after the clove cigarettes came out, they were rushing to buy goods everywhere, and the supply was not enough, and a small amount of smuggling from Dengzhou was smuggled to Liaodong, and the Wendengxiang that was shipped out of ten wen was sold for a pack of one hundred wen in Liaodong.

All flags are doing this kind of smuggling, and although Huang Taiji has repeatedly warned all flags, it is useless. According to the intelligence bureau's understanding of the smuggling situation in Liaohai in recent years, it is estimated that it can make double the profit, and bring back mink, fox skin, Dongzhu and ginseng and other Liaodong products on the return trip, and the profit will also be more than doubled, and if it is directly transported to Jiangnan for sale, the profit can be tripled.

Although Wendeng Camp and Jiannu fought to the death on the battlefield, they did not delay in doing business at all, and the people of Phi Dao and North Korea were naturally very happy, and Wendeng's southern goods were cheaper than those sold in Dengzhou, and they were more profitable.

In addition, some scattered profits in Wendeng, mainly comprehensive stores and civil ironware, the profitability of these two is not strong, can not be compared with these few major items, Liu Minyou estimates that this year's total income is about 400,000, next year to 670,000 is also possible.

If you add five yuan per soldier every month, it will cost nearly 40,000 taels more every year, but the advantage is that you don't have to give it immediately, and the soldiers are also retired in batches, and they will not all withdraw this money together, so there is no pressure in the short term.

Liu Minyou calculated in his heart before he said to Chen Xin: "It's okay this year, but in the long run, the silver is still urgent, especially if you may expand the army in the future, we have to find a way to earn more silver." ”

Chen Xin nodded and said: "Cigarettes will continue to grow, and when most smokers have developed the habit of smoking cigarettes, our profits will be considerable, as long as we don't expand the army too fast, we can still hold on, if Lao Tzu has a Liao salary, can I afford to do these headaches, this silver is said to be deposited there, it looks like we have more silver out, but the soldiers will not come to take it once, and the veterans will be discharged and new recruits will come in to continue to pay, just like our pension, we can make overall arrangements......"

"What kind of overall arrangement, Master Chen, you just say that it will be misappropriated, but I also agree to temporarily embezzle, and it will be easier for us to turn around."

Chen Xin clapped his hands, "Then it's decided, but this matter is not one-size-fits-all, let those soldiers choose whether to get full pay or participate in the pension plan." I estimate that more than 90% will participate. ”

"In this way, these soldiers have a sum of money in our hands, even if they are transferred to other places with other officers, the cost of betrayal will increase many times, plus the discipline officer's control of ideology on weekdays, the quartermaster controls logistics, and the tun chief controls their families and fixed assets, and if the chief officer wants to rebel, basically no soldiers will support him, and it is basically impossible to even be a deserter, Lord Chen, you have a good idea, I just figured it out."

Chen Xin said with a smile: "I'm ashamed, I'm ashamed, it's just such a little careful thinking, but this is a conspiracy and for everyone's good, if the system can prevent chaos, it is more cost-effective than suppressing it at that time, and the extra money spent now is also the least cost-effective way......"

Liu Minyou sighed and stopped talking, if it was the original, he would definitely despise Chen Xin, but he has been in charge of civil affairs for a long time now, and tens of thousands of mouths are waiting to eat.

During the conversation between the two, the group walked to a weir pond, the water here is also a canal from the Baolong River, there is a wall built on the side of the weir pond embankment, Tang Zuoxiang came up to lead the way, several people walked to a door, where an older military household guarded, saw them coming, and opened the door in fear.

Chen Xin went in to see, there were more than a dozen people in it were busy, constantly someone shouted loudly, the ground was full of wooden and iron components, in the sound of rushing water, a mechanical device was running, there was a roller-like thing rolling on it, under the drum were six grooves, in the groove was a few pieces of wrought iron, the protruding part of the circle on the drum just fit the groove, and it was rolled back and forth on the wrought iron sheet.

"This thing is the roll mill?" As soon as Chen Xin finished asking, the drum stopped, and then someone shouted, "There's a broken wooden gear down there!" ”

Tang Zuoxiang secretly called unlucky, and said stubbornly: "Yes, my lord, this is the shape, but it has not been debugged yet, please punish it." ”

Chen Xin smiled: "You can come up with a way to improve, what is there to blame, if there is no problem with the new thing, it is not called a new thing, this machine is good, it can not only press the iron plate, but also press the copper coin." But you don't limit yourself to this, let the craftsman think more, the flintlock pistol should reduce the cost, and the accessories should use this roller machine, and the parts that can be pressed out will be pressed out of the mold, and the speed will be much faster, and we will need a lot of flintlock pistols in the future. ”

Tang Zuoxiang breathed a sigh of relief, agreed again and again, and beckoned those busy people to come and see Chen Xin, most of them were relatively young, the younger ones were only more than ten years old, and the older ones were in their twenties, and they all saw Chen Xin with reverence.

Chen Xin looked at the young man closest to him, who was still wearing the unique black short clothes of the science and technology class, and couldn't help laughing: "Little brother, you are from the science and technology class, people say that they are all selected from a thousand miles, what is your name?" Where are you from? ”

The young man said excitedly: "The villain's name is Brother Guan, he was originally a native of Wendeng, and now his family has moved to the third Tunbao, and when my mother sent me, she told me that when she saw Lord Chen, she must wish her a long life and a hundred years of life, and the prince will be forever." ”

Chen Xin patted him on the shoulder happily, "When you go home, tell your mother on my behalf, just say thank you for her good words, you are all the hope of our Wendeng camp, it depends on you to build our Wendeng more prosperous, we always say that Jiannu is a barbarian, why, just because we can build, and they will only loot, and they will work hard here in the future, if you don't understand, just ask your seniors, if you have difficulties to find the director of the factory, or find Mr. Liu." ”

Chen Xin encouraged these young people one by one, and was enjoying the feeling of a senior leader, Liu Pojun reported loudly outside the door, and then came in with an intelligence leaflet. After Chen Xin took a look, his expression remained unchanged and continued to encourage a few words, and then he went out.

Liu Minyou knew that Liu Pojun came from the Central Military Department, and he must have something urgent, so he asked after going out, "What's the matter?" ”

Chen Xin handed him the list, Liu Minyou took it, and it read, "Information from Ningyuan Station on July 21: There are rumors from Mongolians in Guanning that the Karaqin and Khalkha Mongol divisions have sent troops, and the destination is northwest of the old Guangning City, and after listening in Shanhaiguan and other places, it is known that there are Shubu, Naiman, Balin, Alu, and Tumut, and the intelligence bureau has judged that the Houjin army will converge near Guangning in the near future, and its target is one of the Daling River or Jinzhou, and it may also enter Kouji Town or Xuanda ...... through the old road of the second year of Chongzhen."