The wheels were rolling, and the stones on the ground were jumping. The slaves slowly left Ekhkulen with carts full of supplies. A procession of more than 200 people marched on foot and disappeared into the road without looking back. Of Zhou Qingfeng's more than 350 subordinates, more than 220 went with him to rob, and the remaining more than 100 were stationed in the fortress outside the city that had just been repaired.

When the team left, many slaves wanted to follow Zhou Qingfeng, even if they went to war, it didn't matter. Because of the absence of him as the backbone, the slaves who stayed behind always felt that the city of Ekhkulun, which was only across a river, was a huge threat - psychologically speaking, as long as the slaves who were educated here in Zhou Qingfeng gained a certain amount of freedom, they began to consciously reject the original Jurchen slave owners.

And standing on the wooden fenced city wall of Ekhkulun, the Jurchen nobles, including Ucha and Chu Ying, were also in mixed moods. They really didn't expect that Zhou Qingfeng, a foreign Han Chinese, would have a huge impact on them, and even determine the rise and fall of a tribe - before Uncle Zhou left, they greedily planned how to annex him; After Uncle Zhou left, they felt panicked again.

"Chu Yingbele, will the army of the Jianzhou Department really come?" Utza hesitated a little, and even his mind became very confused. He felt that the relationship between Ehekulun and the Jianzhou Department was originally very simple, but it became complicated after Zhou Qingfeng's arrival, "Should we also follow to the west, fight a few battles first, grab more things, and then talk about it?" At least we can't let that kid run away. ”

The plan of Wucha and others is actually very simple, they recognize Zhou Qingfeng's ability, but they want to seize the industry and wealth created by Zhou Qingfeng. Wu Cha wanted to take Zhou Qingfeng to fight, consume his strength, and let his subordinates die outside - without his subordinates, Zhou Qingfeng's industry would naturally not be able to operate. Utsa and the others could give him slaves in exchange for an industry such as an iron-making furnace.

If Zhou Qingfeng comes back, no matter how strong he is, it will be nothing more than another process of this process.

It's good to think about it.

can see that Zhou Qingfeng walked so chicly, but Wu Cha felt a little worried.......

"Zhou Qingfeng doesn't have enough horses, and his subordinates are all soldiers on foot, how can he run?" Chu Ying just sneered and glanced at Wu Cha disdainfully. If Zhou Qingfeng saw this scene, he would also laugh at Wucha for being 'fierce and timid, and scheming and indecisive'. The current situation has already been arranged, and the unprovoked hesitation and regret are not looking for death?

Seeing Chu Ying ignoring himself so much, Wu Cha hated in his heart and stomped away. He privately summoned his subordinates and demanded that troops be sent north to sweep away the other wild Jurchen tribes and collect more supplies and population. After all, he still has faith in bullying those poorer and harder kind.

Chu Ying is much more refreshing. After seeing Zhou Qingfeng's more than 200 people leave, he didn't bother to do any more to cover up and wait, and personally dispatched to forcibly take over the fortress built by Zhou Qingfeng and the slaves who stayed behind in the fortress, and forcibly stuffed more than 100 of his own soldiers and more than 400 slaves into it - in his opinion, no matter what the result of Zhou Qingfeng's expedition was, he took advantage of these advantages.

The fortress was not big, and none of the slaves left behind could resist Chu Ying, so they could only hand over control of the fortress. But the fortress was a solitary fortification, and it was only a wooden structure. What Chu Ying valued the most was the iron-making furnace built by Zhou Qingfeng.

This iron-making furnace is five meters high and one and a half meters in diameter. Chu Ying stepped forward along the dirt slope where iron ore was transported next to the furnace, and stood by the furnace mouth and looked inside. The stove is not unusual. Chu Ying didn't understand the tricks of iron-making, and when he saw that the tall iron-making furnace was still there, he felt satisfied.

According to the private plan of Chu Ying, Wucha and others, the fortress and the iron-making furnace belonged to Chu Ying, and the kiln where the pottery was fired belonged to Wucha, and the craftsmen divided it equally. Zhou Qingfeng only kept some slaves at most.

Chu Ying felt that he brought Zhou Qingfeng to Ehekulun by himself, and taught him a lot of things, so he should be able to occupy Zhou Qingfeng's industry. Wu Cha also felt that he was the leader of Zhou Qingfeng, and gave him a place to settle down, and he could also occupy Zhou Qingfeng's property as a matter of course. None of them were ashamed.

It's just that Uncle Zhou actually took the initiative to go west, and the reason was particularly legitimate. Just as he was in Wucha, he was thinking about whether it was a kind of 'carelessness' behavior to sweep the wild Jurchen tribe in the north, after all, it was the Jianzhou Department in the west that threatened.

But if Ucha was to go out with a large army to find trouble with Nurhachi, he didn't dare to do it. The result is to let Zhou Qingfeng try it - if it is easy to fight, he will lead his troops to follow; If it's not easy to fight, it's a big deal to hand over Zhou Qingfeng to apologize. In short, the Belle beers of Ehkuren have nothing to lose.

Chu Ying sent people to occupy the iron-making furnace, and Ucha soon followed up to occupy the fire-burning kiln. They had long coveted these two 'tall' production buildings, and both parties were very satisfied with the property. Because as long as you have these two big guys with chimneys, you can continue to make money, which is a rare good thing in the poor place of Ekhkulun.

"Good, good!" Wu Cha circled around the second pottery kiln that Zhou Qingfeng had cultivated, and he kept having fun. Compared with the first one built by Zhou Qingfeng in the city, this second one is much larger, and the output has also skyrocketed. "Send those slaves who can burn pottery, and let them start working immediately, and I will do a good job for my master."

Zhou Qingfeng once trained some slaves for the Jurchen nobles in the city to burn pottery, and after a while, these slaves were sent under the whip. Chu Ying on the other side is also full of ambition and is determined to do a big job. He also forcibly sent some slaves to Zhou Qingfeng to work and learn, especially the operation of this iron-making furnace.

In order to learn secret skills such as military formations, Zhou Qingfeng also helped Chu Ying train many apprentices in ironmaking.

Now the two production buildings have changed owners, and the hot work scene has reappeared.

Digging clay, crushing ore, kneading pottery, burning charcoal, pottery still needs to be dried before it can be burned, and iron-making furnaces can be ignited as soon as fuel and ore are prepared. It took a whole day to prepare, and the next day Chu Ying personally supervised the slaves pushing the cart to pour the crushed iron ore into the mouth of the iron-making furnace, and after a while, smoke and flames began to rise from the chimney of the furnace.

Excited, so excited!

This was the first iron-making furnace in the hands of the Jurchens in hundreds of years—before that, the Jurchens relied on the Ming Dynasty for their iron tools.

It was the second day that Zhou Qingfeng led the team to leave, and all the nobles in the city came to visit their 'own' iron-making furnace. Especially when they saw the rising flames jumping at the mouth of the furnace, the group of people all laughed and were extremely happy. If it weren't for the high temperature around the stove, they would have even gone up and had to take a few more looks.

"If the boy riding the sheep can come back alive this time, he must build us a few more iron-making furnaces."

"I need to teach more minions who can make iron, there are not enough of them at the moment."

"It's easy to say that if you don't have enough in the city, you can go to the north to catch it, and you can't catch it all."

A group of Belle beers in the city kept talking, hoping that their families could have more property. It's just that the longer they stay at the furnace, the more they feel the heat, and the slaves who take care of the furnace can't stay by the furnace, they all retreat.

"What's going on? Is the furnace going to produce molten iron? ”

"Back to the master, the molten iron hasn't come out yet. But somehow, it was too hot around the stove to treat anyone. ”

"You minions just have to be lazy, didn't Zhou Qingfeng's minions work like this before? Why don't they call it hot? I will go up and take care of it, but I can't make molten iron, so I will throw you into the furnace to refine it. ”

The slaves kept retreating. Chu Ying waved the whip and kept whipping, his hands were so strong that he screamed at the slaves who took care of the iron-making furnace, and had to go to the iron-making furnace. It's just that the temperature is too high before getting closer, and the heat is so strong that the hair is even curled upside down, and people can't even open their eyes when they get close.

After Chu Ying twitched a few times, even he felt that something was wrong. He had also come to see Zhou Qingfeng in person when he organized ironmaking before, and he didn't feel the heat when he approached it several times. Today, the temperature is so strong that the flames seem to be leaking out of the furnace.

"Look at the ......, look at the ......, the fire, the stove is on fire."

"How did the fire come out of the stove?"

"What's going on? I didn't see this movement before! ”

The slaves could not stay any longer and fled one after another. Chu Ying also saw that the flames were not coming out of the chimney of the iron-making furnace, but through the refractory bricks of the furnace - this was clearly a crack in the furnace!

"There are a lot of seams in the stove."

"Oops, this stove is broken."

"We've been fooled, it's clearly a broken stove."

Eventually, the furnaces burned into a torch, and the raging fire in broad daylight could be seen for miles around. Chu Ying and the others all had to retreat until all the charcoal in the stove burned out. And when the charcoal burns out, the iron ore mixed in it really turns into molten iron. It's just that because there is no one to operate, when the temperature drops, the molten iron solidifies in the furnace again.

Now it's okay, the entire iron-making furnace is completely scrapped, and there is no play at all.

This scene made Wu Cha, Chu Ying and the others all furious, and one by one they screamed and arrested the iron-making minions for questioning. It's just that none of the slaves can tell what is going on, only the Jurchen blacksmith under Utcha gives the general truth - this furnace must have been poured water from the top of the furnace during the previous ceasefire, and the furnace wall burst and there was a gap.

Watering? Who waters?

Needless to say? It must have been Uncle Zhou who asked him to do it.

Urcha learned the reason and hurriedly ran to see the kiln where he had occupied the pottery. It's good not to look at the result, but if you look closely, the inside of this kiln is also full of various cracks, which must also be the water poured directly when the kiln is burning.

The next Jurchen nobles were directly blinded, and they realized that they were plotting against others, and others were also secretly guarding against it - the technique of firing pottery is taught to you, and the technique of smelting molten iron is not concealed, but the technique of building a furnace and an iron-making furnace cannot be learned to be memorized at a glance, which involves quite complex mathematics and architectural science.

Zhou Qingfeng spent a lot of brains in order to build these two buildings, and the Jurchens wanted to draw a scoop from scratch? Please popularize the nine-year compulsory education first.

When it was finally determined that the two burned buildings could not be repaired or rebuilt, Wu Cha and the others gathered again, and they all angrily scolded Zhou Qingfeng for being too cunning.

"I'll send someone to chase him down and get that kid back." The conspiracy was seen through early, and Ucha was already angry, remembering that his son was still dead in the hands of the other party, and he wanted to count the old and new hatreds together.

Chu Ying also realized that he was tricked by Zhou Qingfeng, and even more understood that this kid's past obedience was all pretending to be for himself, but in fact he had ulterior motives - he originally wanted to cultivate an obedient minion, but now he realized that it was not the case at all!

"That kid can't escape, I'll personally lead someone to chase him." Chu Ying was furious, and he couldn't beat Zhou Qingfeng to death with one hand under impulse!