In the end, Emperor Hongwei's ambition was extinguished by Xu Rui's ledger and a sudden rainstorm, and the holy decree of equipping the whole army with artillery for a year and a half was stillborn before it could be issued, and the generals returned home with complicated feelings.

Of course, before returning home, Emperor Hongwei solemnly explained to the generals that it would be kept secret, and there was another advantage in leading everyone to see this experiment, that is, the secrecy work would also be handed over to the emperor from now on.

In order to develop more projects at the same time, Xu Rui racked his brains to optimize the allocation of resources, eager to break a copper plate in half, and use the limited manpower and material resources where they are most needed.

In the carriage on the way back, Xu Rui leaned on the cushion and slowly thought about his thoughts, and Liji silently rubbed his sore temples for him.

The higher the productivity, the more product per unit of time will be produced and the lower the cost.

At present, only a few factories of Xu Rui can be called the industrial foundation of Wei State, and the output of various spare parts and machinery and anger are still high, even if it can enter the stage of mass production, the price of artillery will only drop by half at most, which is still an astronomical amount.

Unless the industrial base develops for another decade, or technology breaks through, large-scale cost reductions are almost impossible.

However, Xu Rui's industrial empire has also developed to a bottleneck, and that is the acquisition of new power.

Under the current technological conditions, the potential of the hydro turbine has been exhausted, and without more advanced steam engines, or even internal combustion engines, it is impossible to achieve breakthroughs in the development of industry.

The development of the manufacturing steam engine has actually been successful, and it is basically ready for actual production, but there is still a key problem that has not been overcome, that is, the sealing problem.

There is no rubber in this world, and solving the sealing problem with other materials is either too costly or too disadvantageous, and it is not a long-term solution.

Xu Rui has already sent people all over the world to look for rubber trees, and almost all the caravans of his partners, as well as various armies, have become his tentacles, but there is still no news of the legendary rubber trees.

There are many plants in this world that Xu Rui has never seen, and there are some familiar things that he has never seen or heard of, and he is not sure if there are rubber trees here.

If it really doesn't, I'm afraid things will be difficult.

Xu Rui exhaled a long breath of turbidity, but he was still depressed, and helplessly opened the curtain of the carriage, wanting to breathe a few breaths of fresh air.

"Huh......"

Looking at the unfamiliar scenery outside the window, Xu Rui was slightly stunned and gently tapped the wheel.

Zhang Zuofeng immediately rode towards the window.

After the establishment of the Apocalypse, Xu Rui's safety was taken care of by the Apocalypse, and at present, Xu Rui still lacked a personal guard commander, and it happened that Zhang Zuofeng pestered Xu Rui to attend classes every day, so he temporarily worked hard and acted for this position.

"This isn't Nancheng, is it?"

Xu Rui asked.

Zhang Zuofeng nodded: "There is just a large number of goods to enter the city under the south city gate, and the water is blocked, so the subordinates ordered to enter the gate from the west city, go around in a circle and enter the inner city, and now you can get to the inner city with a cup of tea." ”

"Isn't it true that large quantities of goods enter the city by water, how can they pass through the South City Gate?"

Xu Rui asked suspiciously.

Zhang Zuofeng said: "I heard that it was a leather goods from the south, and the distance was not far, so they took the land route, who knows what they are crazy about." ”

"Well, that's ......"

Xu Rui nodded and lowered the curtains, but his brows furrowed, as if he remembered something on his mind.

At this moment, the carriage suddenly stopped for a moment, and then slowly turned to the right.

"Why did you change lanes?"

Xu Rui was stunned for a moment, opened the curtain and asked.

Zhang Zuofeng said: "There are two groups of people fighting in front, the scale is not small, I think the situation is a little wrong, just go another way for the sake of safety." ”

"Oh? What's wrong with the situation? ”

Xu Rui asked in a deep voice.

Zhang Zuofeng said: "There are many gangs in Changxing City, and weapon fights are not uncommon, but most of the general weapon fights will be carried out at night.

This time the weapon fight was not only in the big white sky, but also there were one hundred and eighty people on both sides, if there was a conflict of this scale on weekdays, the soldiers of the Five Cities and the Changxing Mansion would have already arrived, but this time they didn't see any of them, which was very unusual.

The subordinates feel that there is something greasy in it, so it is better to stay away. ”

Xu Rui nodded: "It's a good job, I always feel that these things don't seem to be right, tell the brothers to cheer up, and report any situation in time." ”

"Yes!"

Zhang Zuofeng agreed, beat the horse and walked to the carriage, and was on guard carefully.

Xu Rui lowered the curtains and fell into deep thought with a frown.

"Young master, what's wrong?"

Liki asked softly as she rubbed his temples for him.

Xu Rui said: "Changxing City has developed waterways, and all goods are entered into the city by waterway, and the cost will be at least one to two percent higher by land, and no businessman will do such a discounted thing."

And the saint and a few adults are only one step ahead of me, and the city gate army will definitely not dare to let the saint turn around, so the caravan blocking the south city gate should have just arrived, and now there is a daytime weapon fight, it's too much of a coincidence, maybe someone wants us to go another way. ”

"Someone wants to plot against the young master?"

Hearing this, Liki suddenly became nervous.

Xu Rui waved his hand and said, "Not necessarily, I just think that all this is too coincidental, and there is no harm in being careful." ”

As soon as the words fell, a woman's exclamation suddenly came from outside the carriage, Xu Rui frowned, and hurriedly got out of the carriage.

I saw that more than ten meters away, several men were surrounding a girl, picking people's clothes roughly, the girl shrank in the corner in horror, and kept struggling, but she was a weak woman, how could she be the opponent of those men, and after a while, she revealed her white body, and she was about to be ruined.

"A bold fanatic, dare to be a street traitor!"

Several of the guards were immediately furious and were about to rush forward.

Xu Rui's eyes narrowed slightly, and he was about to speak, when Zhang Zuofeng had already shouted in a low voice: "Stop, no one is allowed to move!" ”

The guards who were about to rush forward to see the righteous and brave suddenly stopped and looked at him in astonishment.

"Young Master ......"

Liji also happened to stick her head out of the carriage, and when she saw that the woman had been pressed under her by the man, her face suddenly changed and she looked at Xu Rui.

Xu Rui sneered, and looked at the tragedy without saying a word, but he was indifferent.

"Ah, help! Save me! ”

The woman's cry for help became more and more poignant, and several men were startled by Fang Cai's shout, and hurriedly dragged the woman to the depths of the alley.

The woman struggled and cried, and her eyes turned from hope to despair as she looked at everyone.

"Your Excellency!"

Several guards turned their heads excitedly, but Zhang Zuofeng gritted his teeth and looked around with a solemn face.

Finally, the cries for help became quieter and quieter, until they disappeared, and the woman was dragged by those men to some uninhabited place, and the fate can be imagined.

Xu Rui didn't seem to see this scene, and like Zhang Zuofeng, he raised his eyes and looked around.

He found that his carriage was parked just outside a small courtyard, which looked like a medium-sized house, with a carved gate quite imposing, but it did not occupy a large area, except for a front yard, there were only about four or five rooms.

However, when Xu Rui's gaze fell on the gate, his gaze suddenly froze.

"The door is not locked, is it ......"

At this moment, several figures suddenly crawled out of the wall on the other side, and without saying a word, they drew their axes and threw them at the carriage.

"Be careful, sir!"

Zhang Zuofeng snorted and pulled Xu Rui out of the carriage, and several other guards also found that something was wrong, and hurriedly raised a round shield to block his body.

"Dangdangdang......"

Two axes were blocked by a round shield, and the others were nailed deep into the wooden carriage of the carriage, but fortunately there were no casualties.

Li Ji exclaimed, took advantage of this gap and hurriedly got out of the carriage and ran to Xu Rui's side.

"Kill them!"

There was a roar of rage from behind the wall, and several black shadows that had been retracted came out again, and threw the axes at the crowd without hesitation.

"Retreat!"

Zhang Zuofeng shouted, holding the round shield in one hand, and pulling Xu Rui to retreat towards the mansion he saw earlier.

"Wait!"

Xu Rui seemed to finally understand something, and was about to open his mouth to remind, but Zhang Zuofeng had already pushed the door open, and several guards held round shields to escort Xu Rui into the mansion, closed the courtyard door, and avoided the pursuit of the axe.

"Oops!"

After entering the mansion, Xu Rui let out a low breath, shook off Zhang Zuofeng's hand, and regardless of whether those people would rush over, he took out his short sword and walked straight through the courtyard and towards the main house of this family.

"Bang" kicked open the main hall, and the room was empty.

Xu Rui groaned slightly, then turned around and walked towards the wing.

"Young master?"

"Your Excellency?"

Liji, Zhang Zuofeng and the guards didn't know what he wanted to do, so they hurriedly chased after him.

There was another "snap", Xu Rui kicked open the door of the wing, and immediately stopped, and then everyone who came saw the scene inside and was stunned.

The room was in shambles, as if there had just been a fight, and a naked girl, with only half a quilt, her hair was scattered and lying on the bed weakly, as if she had been ruined.

When the girl saw everyone, her face suddenly changed, and she screamed in horror.

"Someone, help!"

"The girl is shocked, we are waiting for the official army!"

The poignant voice made everyone panic, and Zhang Zuofeng wanted to enter the house to explain, but it could be seen that she was disheveled and retreated.

When the girl heard Zhang Zuofeng call himself an official soldier, she was suddenly even more frightened, and her voice was a little louder.

"Help, the officers and soldiers have raped the people's daughter!"

Liji hurriedly rushed into the room, pressed the girl's mouth, and the poignant cry for help suddenly turned into a cry of "woo".

Even so, the woman was restless and struggled to break free from Liki's grasp.

Xu Rui sneered: "The layout person is a bit interesting, it seems that we are still in the scheme." ”

Zhang Zuofeng didn't know what was going on, and his face suddenly darkened when he heard Xu Rui say it.

At this time, there was a rush of footsteps outside the small courtyard, which sounded like there were at least dozens of people.

"Folks, the officials and soldiers have raped the people's girls, everyone come and catch those dog thieves!"

I don't know who shouted, and the sound of footsteps suddenly turned into an angry shout of killing.