Not far from Fang Xiaoyu's eldest brother's residence, a young man walked around the corner, it was his second brother Fang Dingbang, who was the head of the army. Fang Xiaoyu greeted him with a smile and said, "Second brother, are you going home for the New Year?" Seeing that it was Fang Xiaoyu, Fang Dingguo replied with a smile: "Yes, I ran back as soon as the army was on vacation." By the way, Uncle Seven is also back, as if he is looking for you. Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "I'll go now." Fang Dingguo said: "Go quickly, Uncle Seven is in his study." ”

When I came to my father's study, standing opposite was my father's personal guard Li Biao. Seeing Fang Xiaoyu coming, he smiled and waved his hand: "Young Master, you are here, the military commander is waiting for you inside." Fang Xiaoyu said hello and walked into the study.

Fang Weihong was standing at the table looking at the military map on the wall, when he heard footsteps, he asked, "Yu'er, are you here?" Fang Xiaoyu immediately agreed: "It's me, father." Fang Weihong turned around and looked at Fang Xiaoyu approvingly, "I heard that Marshal Xia decided to recruit you into the army?" Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "Yes, father." ”

Fang Weihong smiled: "Yes, it's really my good son, but you can't be complacent, Marshal Xia is very strict with people, if you don't do well, he will kick you out of the army mercilessly." Fang Xiaoyu nodded: "I will try my best to do a good job, and I will never embarrass the Fang family." ”

Listening to his words, Fang Weihong was relieved. "I heard that Marshal Xia is going to take you to his family's military workshop?" Fang Weihong asked again. "Yes, I told Marshal Xia that I had some suggestions for improving firearms, so Marshal Xia decided to take me there." Fang Xiaoyu replied.

Fang Weihong nodded and said, "It's okay to take a look, the Xia family has the most powerful handicraft manufacturing industry in the entire Lanfang Empire." Fang Weihong didn't think that Fang Xiaoyu could be very good at guns, he just thought that Fang Xiaoyu could go and have a long experience.

Fang Xiaoyu was surprised: "Really? The Xia family has the strongest handicraft industry in the whole empire? Fang Weihong nodded and said, "The four major families of the empire, each of them has its own advantages. As the first family, the royal Xiahou family is the strongest in the transportation industry, but they have a large proportion of shipbuilding, handicrafts and agriculture, and the second largest family, the Xia family, relies on the handicraft manufacturing industry, which accounts for eighty percent of the empire, and the Cheng family, the third largest family, owns nearly forty percent of the arable land in the empire, which is unmatched in agriculture, and our Fang family relies on the commercial network throughout the Eastern Continent. ”

Fang Xiaoyu said: "Business should be the most profitable? Why is our Fang family the last of the four major families? Fang Weihong said with a smile: "Business is indeed the most profitable, otherwise the other three families are all big families that have existed since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we just started from your great-grandfather, how can we enter the ranks of the four major families after decades of development." ”

Fang Weihong paused and said: "What's more, although business makes money quickly, it is a pity that once there is any trouble, the loss is large, and it is very easy to be controlled by the government, which is also the reason why the royal family allows our family to rise." Of course, its main purpose is also to contain the other two families. Fang Xiaoyu nodded, he didn't expect that the upper echelons of the Lanfang Empire were not simple, and he would have to be cautious when he stepped into this circle in the future.

After saying this, Fang Weihong no longer talked about official affairs, and the father and son had a lot to say after not coming back for two years. The father and son talked in the study for a whole day, Fang Weihong was extremely surprised by his son's growth in the past two years, and he was also very pleased, until it was time for dinner, Fang Weihong asked Fang Xiaoyu to go back.

In the evening, Fang Xiaoyu connected to Xiaofeng again: "Xiaofeng, are you there?" Fang Xiaoyu would say such a nonsense every time he contacted Xiao Feng, and Xiao Feng replied as always: "Yes, master." ”

"The development of the Western Continent is unusually fast, which worries me." Fang Xiaoyu only dared to discuss these things with Xiaofeng. "Master, I was about to report a new situation to you. After upgrading, my detection system discovered the Royal Library, and I scanned all the books inside. I found something very interesting in their history books. ”

"Oh? What is it? Fang Xiaoyu asked. Xiaofeng replied: "I found out from the history books that the history of this planet is only 2,500 years since it was recorded. "In the past, the Fengyun No. 1 chip only scanned the books of the nearby family collection, and the history written in these books was only more than 300 years of history since the founding of the Lanfang Empire, and the complete history was only recorded in the royal library, so Xiao Feng was not aware of this situation before.

Fang Xiaoyu listened to Xiaofeng's introduction and was a little puzzled, he asked, "Then what does this mean?" Xiaofeng explained to him: "It took nearly 6,000 years for the civilization on Earth to develop from recorded to the current level, which means that the civilization on this planet is developing three times faster than that of Earth. ”

Listening to Xiaofeng's explanation, Fang Xiaoyu gasped, thirty years after the invention of the steam engine in the Western Continent, the waist gun room ironclad ship appeared so fast, on the earth the watt type steam engine was invented in 1776, and the first Glory steam battleship was only built by the French in 1859, a difference of eighty-three years, and the Glory is still a wooden hull shipside gunboat, which is much worse than the performance of the ironclad covered waist gun room ironclad ship.

Fang Xiaoyu asked again: "If I promote you to the second level, how long can you invent the Watt-style steam engine?" Xiao Feng said: "The watt-type steam engine is a relatively rudimentary power system, if there are enough conditions, I think it will only take a few months." Fang Xiaoyu nodded, he had to make money as soon as possible.

Fang Xiaoyu slept peacefully all night, and when he got up in the morning, he was a little worried, he made an appointment with Marshal Xia Jun to see the military workshop yesterday, but he didn't make an appointment with the time and place. Just when Fang Xiaoyu was secretly scolding himself for being careless, the maid came to tell him that there was an officer waiting for him in the living room.

Walking into the living room, Fang Xiaoyu immediately found that a lieutenant colonel officer was in the living room. When he saw Fang Xiaoyu, he immediately got up and said, "Hello, Prince Fang Xiaoyu, I am Lieutenant Colonel Xia Ziqing, Marshal Xia's adjutant. I was ordered to bring you a new uniform and to take you to the marshal. Fang Xiaoyu nodded and took the military uniform handed over by Xia Ziqing.

Changing into a military uniform, Fang Xiaoyu had already turned into a young second lieutenant officer, and he immediately stepped forward to salute Xia Ziqing and said, "Report to Colonel, Second Lieutenant Fang Xiaoyu is ready to go." "Originally, Xia Ziqing just thought that this was the son of the Fang family who had entered the army and came to mix up military merits. I didn't expect this kid to understand the rules of the army so well, as long as he wears a military uniform, he will follow the discipline of a soldier, which makes Xia Ziqing's impression of him much better.

Xia Ziqing nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, worthy of being the son of Commander Fang, let's go." Fang Xiaoyu followed Xia Ziqing into a four-wheeled carriage with two horses, and the hard seat of the carriage without shock absorption along the way made Fang Xiaoyu's bumpy legs numb, but when he saw Xia Ziqing sitting next to him, he didn't dare to rub it, and secretly scolded in his heart that in this backward era, it doesn't matter if there is no car, even the carriage has no shock absorption.

The carriage finally arrived, and Fang Xiaoyu limped off after Xia Ziqing. Fortunately, Fang Xiaoyu has been transformed by bioelectricity, and his physical fitness is good, and he recovered after just a few jumps. Walking into the factory, Marshal Xia was talking to a few engineer-like people, and when he saw Fang Xiaoyu coming in, Marshal Xia greeted loudly: "Xiaoyu is here, come here." ”

Fang Xiaoyu hurriedly stepped forward and saluted, "Second Lieutenant Fang Xiaoyu reports to the marshal. Xia Ziqing also saluted Marshal Xia Jun and stepped aside. Marshal Xia Jun looked at Fang Xiaoyu, who was only one meter and four meters tall, and said with a smile: "It's not bad, I look like a soldier in a military uniform." After speaking, he pointed to a man in his fifties next to him and said, "This is Zhang Peiyun, the chief engineer of our Xia family's arsenal, if you have any ideas on firearms, you can talk to him." ”

"Oh? Is it? Then I'm going to have a look. Zhang Peiyun looked at Fang Xiaoyu with some contempt, he was disdainful of this child. Zhang Peiyun has been working here for forty years since he started as an apprentice, and many years of immersion in the military industry have made him very aware that any good weapon can only be finalized after long-term research and improvement, and it is impossible to perfect a weapon by relying on personal whims, so he doesn't care about this little guy. Fang Xiaoyu saw Zhang Peiyun's disdain, but he didn't pay attention to it, he knew that this was human nature, anyone who had worked in a certain industry all his life, and suddenly let a young man point fingers at him would be disdainful.

Respect is earned by strength, Fang Xiaoyu didn't answer Zhang Peiyun's words, just smiled and opened the painting given to him by Xia Tingwei and held it up in front of them and said, "What do you think of this painting?" Zhang Peiyun glanced at it and said, "We are a firearms workshop, and we don't have much research on warships." Marshal Xia Jun was also puzzled: "Indeed, this is a gun workshop, and if you want to say that you want to build warships, the royal family is the best." ”

Fang Xiaoyu found that they would be mistaken, and said with a smile: "I didn't let you look at the warship, but the gun on the back of the soldier in the lower right corner." Zhang Peiyun and Xia Jun realized that Lu Dao had seen the wrong place, but Zhang Peiyun only glanced at it and said: "I already know this Lu Dao, it is a Kelder rifle produced by the Yaman Empire, the gun is one meter three two long, weighs 4.5 kilograms, has a caliber of 13.6 millimeters, and has an effective firing range of 400 meters. ”

Fang Xiaoyu nodded, he also admired Zhang Peiyun's professional knowledge, and he could tell the main performance indicators of firearms just by looking at them. This also made Fang Xiaoyu affirm the model of this rifle, which is very close to the Dresser firing pin gun on Earth. Fang Xiaoyu added with a smile: "Another point is that this rifle has four to five times the firing speed of our existing breech guns. Zhang Peiyun nodded and said: "Yes, but the range of this rifle is not much farther than our breech gun, and the sack or confetti in the chamber must be cleaned after each shot, and the cost is too high." ”