Zhang Ke, accompanied by several henchmen and brother-in-law Deng Wentong, came to Hewan Village. ~ The group stopped more than two hundred steps from the village, and when they looked up, everyone was taken aback.

The city wall is three feet and five feet high, tall and sturdy, with a layer of solid green bricks pasted on the outside, and the foundation of the city wall is made of hard stones, which is beautiful and firm. The battlements on the city wall are neatly organized, and it seems that it is more elaborate than the Great Wall.

Around the city wall is a moat two feet deep and three feet wide. Outside the moat are three moats, one of which has been built, and the remaining two are under construction. The people were barebacked, shouting loud trumpets, and carried the earth far away.

Deng Wentong looked at the city wall in front of him and couldn't help but clap his hands in admiration.

"Amazing, really powerful, I'm afraid the city wall is taller than the Yizhou Acropolis, right?"

"That's right!" Ma Rufeng, who supervised the construction, said proudly: "Yizhou City is said to be three zhang five, but in fact it is only three zhang and two feet. Hewan Village is not only high, but also large, built along the river, three miles long, about two miles wide, twice as large as Daqing Fort. I don't think Hewan Village should be called a village in the future, it should be called a fort, Hewan Fort! ”

Listening to Ma Rufeng's words, the big guys were all scared stupid, such a big stroke, half of the manpower and material resources of Daqing Fort were smashed here, is it worth it!

Deng Wentong couldn't help but question: "Yongzhen, do you need to put in so much effort?" ”

"Of course!"

Zhang Ke smiled slightly: "Brother-in-law, Hewan Village is of great use!" From now on, our weapons workshop, firearms, swords, armor, all of which will be produced here, do you say important? ”

Zhang Ke said and urged the horse to go up to a mound and climb high to point.

"Hewan Village is close to the river and mountains, and the terrain is dangerous. Convenient for defense. I plan to build two more beacon towers high up in the hills to the northwest, and a small fort on the other side of the river to hold the river firmly. The wide river surface in the middle is just right to place a waterwheel, and with a waterwheel, whether it is to make weapons or drill holes for firecrackers, it will speed up a lot of ......"

Zhang Ke is planning Hewan Village completely according to the standards of the military industrial base, and the defense force is not a problem. In addition to the village itself, a castle was to be built around the castle. In this way, you can circle a section of the river that is almost five miles long. Then a large waterwheel will be built on the river, and once it is operational, the military production capacity of Hewan Village will definitely increase exponentially.

Just from the military industrial base, you can see Zhang Ke's ambition, just ask which general who leads the army can have such courage!

After listening to it, everyone was very excited, and Deng Wentong, as the account keeper in charge of money, patted his chest without hesitation and said: "Yongzhen, no matter how much it costs, I won't frown, and I promise to build Hewan Village well!" ”

Zhang Ke smiled: "It's rare for my brother-in-law to be generous." But I have to make preparations, and when I enter the city, if you craftsmen can come up with good things, I will promise a reward of silver. There can be no ambiguity at all. ”

Laughing, the group walked into Hewan Village.

When I walked in, the big guy was even more surprised, and the city was full of smoke and dust. There was a constant sound of tapping. Nancheng is the iron-making workshop of Blacksmith Liu, and as far as the eye can see, there are dozens of iron-making furnaces in a row. The charcoal fire was red, and the iron-making workers were constantly beating and stirring, and they were very busy.

Blacksmith Liu took the pu fan, patrolling back and forth, the little old man changed his silence and cowardice in the past, his body was full of energy, his eyes were glaring at the boss, and his mouth kept scolding.

"Stir it up a little faster, haven't you eaten! I don't know how hard to work, if I can't practice the furnace steel, don't think about getting paid! ”

The ironsmith shuddered with fright, and suddenly cheered up. The willow sticks are constantly stirred in the molten iron, like fried rice, which is also known as the steel frying method.

The Ming Dynasty already had the most advanced iron-making process, and the production and quality of steel was the highest in the world for this era.

According to the record in "Tiangong Kaiwu", the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty connected the iron-making furnace and the iron-frying furnace in series, so that the molten pig iron smelted by the iron-making furnace flowed into the iron-frying furnace, and stirred it with willow sticks to oxidize the carbon in the molten pig iron and mature the iron. This continuous production process has begun to have the systematic idea of combined production, which not only improves production efficiency, but also reduces energy consumption, and is suitable for large-scale production.

The iron furnace described in "Heavenly Creation" is actually the churning furnace of Europeans in the second half of the 18th century. The difference is that European smelting furnaces usually use wrought iron rods or steel rods to burn the carbon in the pig iron and finally obtain low-carbon wrought iron. In China, willow sticks are used to stir, and the willow sticks are gradually burned off while stirring, which can mix carbon into the pig iron, or reduce the degree of decarbonization of the pig iron.

Through this step, it is easier for skilled iron frying hands to control the ingredients, and they can directly fry steel with a carbon content lower than that of pig iron but higher than that of wrought iron, and even have the opportunity to fry medium carbon steel and high carbon steel.

Seeing Zhang Ke coming, Blacksmith Liu hurriedly ran over.

"My lord! I heard that he won another battle and cut off hundreds of heads, which is really majestic! ”

Zhang Ke said with a smile: "Uncle Liu, the brothers can't do without good weapons and iron bumps when they kill the enemy in front. How much steel can the current workshop produce in a day, is it enough to make weapons? ”

"No problem!"

When it came to ironmaking, Blacksmith Liu became energetic and worked for a lifetime of iron, and it was at this time that he found his self-confidence.

"My lord, there are seven craftsmen, thirty iron stirrs, and more than twenty apprentices in the iron-making workshop, and they can almost refine more than 1,000 catties every day. Half of it is supplied to the ordnance workshop, producing knives, guns and firearms, and the rest is used to produce hoes and shovels and the like, not only for our Daqing Fort, but also sold to the horse market, Quang Ninh has a shop we rented, I heard that when the market opened, the Mongols ran to our shop first, how many robbed as much! ”

Liu Blacksmith's eyebrows fluttered, Zhang Ke ran to Guangning to make money because of the iron furnace he built. This has almost become the glorious history of Liu Blacksmith's comparison.

Indeed, Quang Ninh Horse Market has become a fixed source of wealth for Daqing Fort, and the iron alone can net three or five hundred taels a month. When sales are hot, it can even exceed 1,000 taels.

Half of the cost of the iron-making workshop in Daqing Fort was borne by the Mongols!

Rather than making money, Zhang Ke is more concerned with pure iron production. 1,000 catties a day, 360,000 catties a year, Zhang Ke remembered that there was an iron-making workshop under the jurisdiction of Jinzhou, and the annual output was only 350,000 catties. The workshop in Hewan Village can be ten times larger than people in a short period of time, and Blacksmith Liu has indeed made great contributions.

"Uncle Liu, the output is enough, how is the quality?"

Blacksmith Liu laughed and said: "My lord, I don't dare to say anything else, iron smelting has never been sloppy, if you don't believe it, you can ask Lao Zhao Lao Ou and them to see if the iron I smelt can be made?" ”

"Good!" Zhang Ke smiled and said: "Uncle Liu, I naturally believe your words, but our family has a big business, and we pay attention to the rules in everything, wait for me to check." For every hundred catties of iron, I will give you a penny of silver. ”

As soon as Zhang Ke said this, Blacksmith Liu's eyes suddenly widened.

Don't think that one penny of silver is not much, he supplies five hundred catties of iron to the ordnance workshop every day, that is, five coins of silver, which is almost more than nine taels in a month! It is equivalent to a month's salary has risen by six or seven percent. The busy ironmakers were all thrilled to hear it.

The silver earned by Blacksmith Liu in a year is almost as good as that of a landlord with a thousand acres of land!

Who dares to say that craftsmen are cheap! At least in the land of Daqing Fort, craftsmen are worth more than anything!

Blacksmith Liu's originally purple face turned even redder, and he said in a panic: "My lord, the salary is enough, don't add more, I, I'm a stinky iron, I can't afford it!" ”

"Hahaha, Uncle Liu, you have to keep this money!" Zhang Ke looked at the craftsmen with a smile and said loudly: "You all listen, the official treats everyone equally, except for the basic salary, the official will give you an allowance if you do a good job." With Mingchuang zào, for example, if you can improve the quality of ironmaking and increase the quantity of ironmaking, the official will reward silver as appropriate, and there is no ambiguity! As long as you do a good job, earning hundreds of taels of silver a year is definitely not a dream! ”

Goo!

All the young craftsmen couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, this Master Zhang is really generous!

"Don't worry, my lord, we will work hard!"

The workers who were stimulated by the silver worked extra hard, and Zhang Ke temporarily bid farewell to the blacksmith Liu and walked towards the military workshop in the north of the city.

In a blink of an eye, I arrived at the military workshop, and there were four people waiting outside, namely Ou Chongyuan, Zhao Lao Pimple, Zheng Cun, and Xie Zhen.

These four are masters of making weapons, armor, firearms, and artillery, and they are also like Liu Blacksmith, who was able to show their strength when they met Zhang Ke, although several people were busy, their faces were red, as if they were ten years younger.

"Four gentlemen!"

Zhang Ke bowed his hand politely: "You call me over, if there is anything good, take it out quickly!" ”

Several people glanced at each other, and Ou Chongyuan smiled first: "My lord, if you want to talk about it, we all have some good things, and we want to show them to adults, but the most powerful one is Lao Zhao, let him come first!" ”

Lao Zhao was not polite, stretched out his hand proudly, and said, "My lord, please come here." ”

Zhang Ke followed them into the workshop, which was full of busy craftsmen and apprentices, until they arrived at the Huogong workshop, where Lao Zhao took Zhang Ke to his small room.

Immediately, Zhang Ke was attracted by a fire gun on the wooden table, this fire gun looked similar to a bird gun, but the gun tube was obviously thicker and longer, revealing a dark metallic luster.

Zhang Ke took the fire gun in his hand, it was so heavy!

"My lord, do you know what kind of firebolt this is?"

"Mr. Zhao, this is taking the school exam!" Zhang Ke took a closer look, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he shouted: "Could it be that this is Lu Mi Gong?" ”

Lao Zhao suddenly stroked his palms and laughed, and said: "My lord really has good eyesight, this is the most sophisticated and sharp firearm in my Ming army...... Rummy Gun! ”

Zhang Ke was immediately in good spirits, he had seen the introduction of Lu Mi Gong, this kind of fire gun all-metal structure, difficult to manufacture, high cost. But once it is created, the maximum range can reach 150 steps, far exceeding other firearms, and even more than bows and arrows, it is definitely a weapon to defeat the enemy!

"Mr. Zhao, if you can make Lu Mi Gong, I must reward you again! But ......" Zhang Ke smiled: "Let's try the fire gun first, is it really infinitely powerful!" (To be continued!)

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