In the Luo family council, Masato continued to introduce his plans for the castle.

"The recruiting house is also used to recruit ashigaru and samurai. Newly recruited ronin samurai enjoy the treatment of low-level samurai, but they must first participate in the battle of the ashigaru team as ashigaru, and after their loyalty and merit are affirmed, they can be officially promoted to the samurai of the Luo family," Masarashi continued, "Whether it is for ashigaru or samurai, the number of places recruited each time needs to be set according to the needs of the family, and the full quota is only temporarily registered. ”

"You have to put the above things into words, write them on the wit, and announce them in front of the staff house and the recruiting house," said Masahiro, "and in addition, the forge house must also be run by the family itself, and ordinary lords are not allowed to operate it for the time being." "As strategic materials, copper and iron are better to be controlled by the Luo family for the time being. Moreover, by controlling the forging house, you can also indirectly control those craftsmen, and you can immediately issue forging tasks to them in wartime.

Togo Heiji hurriedly wrote down Masayo's request on a piece of paper.

"The plaza at the exit of the canyon of the Lord's Mansion. All the commercial houses there were relocated to the market at the foot of the mountain, and a new public office was built on the site of the original market to entertain visitors. Continue to expand the square, which will be used as a meeting place for rallies and before the departure of the territory troops," Masaro continued. The Princess's office was built here for both protection and surveillance.

"In this castle town renovation, all the houses are made of burnt bricks. All roads and canals are paved with water canals, and trees are planted on both sides of the main thoroughfares," said Masahiro. In fact, the current promotion of brick burning in the territory is not good. The reason is simple, most of the people are poor, and the remuneration for participating in forced labor is of course to exchange for miscellaneous grains and take them home to eat. Even if it is not edible, it will be preserved. As for the place to live? A general wooden mud room will do. A more advanced wood-paneled house can also be considered. So no one was willing to pay for the bricks burned for the repair of the house.

But why is Zhengliang forcibly promoting it now? There are several main reasons. First, it is considered for the neat and beautiful image of the castle town. Using these materials uniformly, the castle town is much more beautiful in the eyes of outsiders. The second is for the impact of superficial disasters. There are many typhoons in Matsuura-gun, and if you use ordinary mud houses or even wooden houses, it is estimated that if a typhoon hits, it will cause a lot of damage. At the end of the day, there is a deeper purpose. As the territory grows, there will be more and more wealthy families. Especially those retainers and samurai, but according to the laws of the territory, there can only be so much land, and the number of followers under his command is also limited. What is so much money for? Enjoyed, of course. What Masara has to do now is to establish the impression that building a house out of burnt bricks is a very decent thing. In the future, these rich people will naturally be willing to spend a lot of money and food to buy these building materials

In general, Zhengliang is a disguised diversion of internal contradictions. Avoid having too much money and food, and these people will breed some dangerous thoughts. This is where the so-called anti-microscopic prevention comes in.

"Huh? Transform it like this. I'm afraid it's going to take a long time, and it's going to take a lot of money," Togo Heiji said with a frown.

"Yes, first demarcate a settlement place for the Ming immigrants on the south side, and organize them to build houses while organizing people to cultivate fields farther on the south side. These three things must be prioritized; Then the area where the samurai lived was demarcated, and houses began to be built for them; Let's move the original villagers later," Masato decided. "Liu Le is solely responsible for the resettlement of immigrants from the Ming Kingdom, and you have to assist Liu Le more often; You'll take care of the rest. ”…,

The two bowed down to receive the order.

"Your Highness. His Majesty calculated that it would take at least ten days to settle the Ming immigrants on the south side, demarcate their living areas and cut down the woods there to prepare the land, and then organize people to build dwellings and cultivate the fields, which would probably take nearly a month. Coupled with the relocation of the samurai and the original villagers, it will take at least two and a half months to complete the renovation of the castle town. In addition, Your Highness, if you take some of the 3,000 stone miscellaneous grains you just allocated and use them as consumption for this transformation, I am afraid it will affect the progress of other parts of the territory," Togo Heiji analyzed.

"Well, two and a half months is already very good, and it is just completed before the spring ploughing, so let's implement it according to this progress" Zhengliang nodded and said, "As for the issue of grain consumption, the three thousand stone miscellaneous grains just allocated are still used as the consumption for the development of the entire territory, and another thousand stones are allocated from the reserve grain for the consumption of this transformation." "If it weren't for the fact that food is even more popular than money at present, Masayo's plan to renovate the castle town would not have been implemented.

"Huh?" After hearing Masayo's command, Togo Heiji gasped. I had to allocate grain reserves again, and it was not easy to reserve 22,000 stone of grain reserves, and as soon as the head of this loser's family came back, with a wave of his hand, he took out 4,000 stone of reserves.

"Hehe, Heiji! There is no need to worry, this part of the reserves has been taken out, and it is believed that in addition to the armament reserves that still need to be consumed, the civilian grain reserves basically do not need to be consumed before the spring ploughing. Moreover, although it is generally difficult to buy food in winter, you should entrust the Kamiya family to help raise a sum of food as much as possible" Masarashi saw Togo Heiji's expression, and knew what he was thinking, so he had to comfort.

The head of the family has said this, what else can he say? So Togo Heiji had no choice but to nod his head with a bitter face and agreed.

After the three of them finished discussing, Masahiro asked people to prepare the meal again. The three of them had a hasty lunch in the council hall. Then, under the leadership of Masaliang, the three of them came to the back garden of the lord's mansion.

After a month of renovation, it has been completely transformed into a southern garden of the Ming Kingdom in accordance with the meaning of Zhengliang.

In a clearing in a grove, the trio stopped. At this time, Togo Heiji found out that the newly joined "ghost" retainer was already waiting there.

When the "master" saw Masato coming, Andel immediately greeted him.

"Are you all ready?". Masara asked.

"Yes. It's ready," Ander replied with a military salute. For Ander's military salute, Masashi directly ignored it. Later, when he slowly integrates into the Luo family, these habits will naturally change.

"The rest of the people have already been notified?" This time, Masara asked Masanao Kinoshita, who was standing behind Andrew. After the morning assessment, Kinoshita Masanao did not immediately return to the station of the 1st Standing Ashigaru Brigade with Tadajiro. Instead, he stayed for the time being and completed the task that Masahiro had recently instructed.

"Your Highness, I have already notified all the guards as you ordered," Kinoshita said, bowing straight.

"Very good," Masarashi nodded. Masara plans to test the power of the arquebus here, and then discuss the matter of the Luo family's firearms workshop with Togo Heiji and others. However, there will inevitably be a loud noise during the test, which will inevitably cause the guards outside to think that something has happened to the lord's mansion, and then rush here to rescue. In order to avoid misunderstanding, Masara had to ask Kinoshita Masanao to inform the relevant personnel in advance.

"Your Highness, what is this?" Togo Heiji saw Masayo mysterious. He even arranged for the retainers to inform the guards outside not to come in, and when he saw that Ander was holding a weapon that seemed to be a wooden stick, he asked suspiciously. …,

"It's a musket," Masa said with a smile, "it's a weapon that will surprise you." ”

Togo Heiji still wants to ask. Masara waved his hand, signaling him to ask later, and then said to Ander, "Can you show us how to use this arquebus first?" There are quite a few words I also want to see its power up close. ”

"Yes, Your Highness," Andel saluted. Then he picked up the arquebus, walked to the position he had chosen, and began to operate it.

The first step was to clean the arquebus's ignition hole and primer pot. As he operated, he said to Masahiro: "Gunpowder residue is blocking the ignition hole. This is a common problem with muskets, so musketeers need to clean these places frequently. ”

Masarashi nodded. Motioned for it to continue.

After cleaning up, Endel took out some gunpowder from a small pot on his right. Then one of the parts in the musket was opened and gunpowder began to pour into it.

"Your Highness, this is primer, and only when it is loaded can the musket fire ammunition. And here's the primer pot for the musket, which is used to hold the primer," Andre explained.

After carefully filling the primer, Andel closed the lid of the primer pot. Then he picked up a white vial and took out some more gunpowder from it, "This is the propellant," Andel explained as well, and poured the propellant into the muzzle.

He picked up the last bottle on the floor, took out a projectile from it, and loaded it through the muzzle. Then the through strip is drawn from under the barrel and the projectile and propellant are tamped.

After pounding for a while, Andel said to Zhengliang: "Your Highness, it's okay now." Do you light a musket and fire it? ”

"Okay, the rest of the people should be careful to plug their ears" Masarashi did not forget to remind Togo Heiji, who has not personally experienced the scene of musket firing. With that, he plugged his ears with his hands and walked a little farther away.

Dongxiang Pingji, Liu Le and others also left quickly. But among them, only Kinoshita Masanao followed Masara and plugged his ears.

Ander had already lit the arquebus by this time. I saw a puff of white smoke from the fire rope, and then it burned at a very fast speed. Looking at that scene, it is somewhat similar to the burning of the arquebus when firecrackers were set off in later generations.

Ander was accustomed to this, and he fastened the arquebus to the arquebus clamp of the musket, then held up the musket, and began to aim at a large rock he had prepared in the distance.

After aiming, Andel decisively pulled the trigger, then quickly closed his eyes (to avoid burning his eyes with sparks), the burning fire rope fell, and at the same time, due to the pull of the trigger, the lid of the primer pot opened. The gunpowder inside was ignited, and with a loud "bang", the projectile was fired. The large stone in the distance fell to the ground in response, apparently being shot by a projectile, and the center of gravity was unstable and fell to the ground.

At the same time as the loud sound sounded, Masahiro also heard the exclamations of Dongxiang Heiji and Liu Le beside him. Apparently startled by the loud noise.

After a while, the smoke from the musket had already dissipated. And Masashi had already come to the big stone that had been hit, and he felt that there was still a black mark that still exuded a slight heat.

"Temple... His Royal Highness: "Heiji Togo has finally recovered from the state of tinnitus.

"How? How about such weapons? Masara said with a smile.

"It's incredible," Togo Heiji exclaimed.

"Hehe, what do you think would happen if these weapons suddenly appeared on the battlefield?" Masarashi said with a smile.

"This ......" Togo Heiji couldn't imagine it.

"I have called you here to discuss with you about this weapon. The family wants to build a workshop for this weapon," Masarashi said.

"I wonder how His Highness Lu Dao plans to establish it?" Togo Heiji asked. …,

"I had already decided on the location of the workshop, and I chose it at the foot of the mountain on the west side of the canyon. The place was chosen for secrecy, and for the convenience of receiving iron and copper from the nearest warehouse in the lord's mansion; The third is that to the west, there is an open space and is close to an unused stream that flows through the canyon," Masaro said.

"In addition, all the craftsmen in the workshop are to be relocated to live in the canyon, and no one is allowed to approach the workshop except the craftsmen without their permission. The matter of the workshop and the firearms, as far as a few of us know at the moment, we must not mention it to anyone else," Masashi continued.

Everyone present received the order in awe.

"The iron and copper materials in the territory are used for the workshop, and they will not be sold to the public for the time being," Masarashi said to Togo Heiji, "I will leave the manpower of the construction workshop and the supervision of the progress to you, Heiji." ”

"Yes, Your Highness," Togo Heiji quickly replied as he had a premonition of the importance of this work.

"Ander" After instructing Togo Heiji, Masarashi looked at Ander again, "The workshop will be handed over to you in the future, and I will find you a few more craftsmen, but you must develop the first musket of your own family for me as soon as possible." ”

"Your Highness, I need a few craftsmen who can help immediately, not those ordinary workers" Seeing that Masara proposed to him the task of developing a musket, Andel didn't dare to boast about Haikou, at least he also needed some effective help from this boss.

"As soon as the workshop is set up, several firearms craftsmen from the Ming Kingdom will come to help," Masarashi said.

"Oh? Communicatory? You mean those muskets used by the Ming pirates? Ander covered his eyes with his hands, apparently thinking that the fire was not very powerful.

"Alright, the matter of the workshop is settled," Masarashi said, he didn't care about how Andel manipulated it, as long as the other party could get him an improved version of the musket as soon as possible, "Besides, the power of the musket just now is good, but I have a few suggestions here." Masahiro decided to make use of some of his insights from later generations. (To be continued......) ……，