The third prince didn't care what Shangguan Changzhi's intentions were for the Shen family, he didn't have time to care about Shangguan Changzhi's visit to the Shen family, because he was now busy with a big matter both physically and mentally.

This major event has already achieved initial results, if it continues, then he will have no worries, and he will definitely have more power than other princes! Even if the fifth child marries the granddaughter of Zhongshu Ling Wei Jingyao, he will win the battle.

At the end of September, it was the time of the autumn harvest, and the Zhuangzi from all over the Shen family began to report the harvest and progress of the year one after another, so this period of time was the busiest time of the year for Shen Zeyuan.

Inventory, final settlement, final calculation, visits, and so on are all immediately followed. Shen Zeyuan and Yan Shang were very busy, and even Shen Mi was arrested by Shen Zeyuan as a temporary account room, which helped Shen Zeyuan a part, of course, her own computing ability has also been significantly improved, this is a real battle.

Despite being so busy, Shen Zeyuan still noticed one thing. He learned from the mouths of businessmen who had business dealings with him that a batch of well-made bows and crossbows had recently flowed out of the Jingzhao Black Market, although there was no mark on these bows and crossbows, but the shape and craftsmanship of the instrument could clearly be seen to be produced by the Crossbow Workshop Department, and there were quite a few of these bows and crossbows.

In this era of cold weapons, the management of bows and crossbows in Dayong is extremely strict, and the bows and crossbows produced by the Crossbow Workshop Department are exclusively for the use of the Dayong army, and it is strictly forbidden for individuals to possess them. Now there is a large number of bows and crossbows flowing out, what does this mean?!

Shen Zeyuan relied on his keen sense of commercial and government affairs to judge that something big would happen here. immediately told Shen Huashan and Shen Zejing about this, and also made Yan Shang secretly stare at the dynamics of the Jingzhao Black Market.

The second batch of crossbows in the black market soon appeared, still identical to the crossbows produced by the Crossbow Workshop Department, and still no one knew the exact origin of these crossbows. This batch of bows and crossbows was quickly snapped up, and Shen Zeyuan and Yan Shang finally bought a few bows and crossbows at a high price and brought them to Shen Huashan and the others.

"This is indeed the crossbow of the Crossbow Workshop, you see. At the bottom of this, you can faintly feel the unique groove of the Crossbow Workshop! It's just that there is no number, so it can be seen that it has not been reviewed by the Crossbow Workshop Department, which is really strange, where did so many bows and crossbows come from? Xu Guangyao, the director of the Treasury Department of the Ministry of War, carefully touched the bows and crossbows in front of him. I was taken aback.

As an official of the Ministry of War, he naturally knew what it meant for this batch of bows and crossbows to appear, which showed that someone was able to smuggle a large number of bows and crossbows from the Crossbow Workshop Department! Who is so bold as to dare to sell the bow and crossbow of the Crossbow Workshop Department without permission, and more importantly. How can there be so many bows and crossbows flowing out?

As far as he knew, the management of the Crossbow Workshop under the Ordnance Supervisor was extremely strict, and it was impossible for this batch of bows and crossbows to flow out of the Crossbow Workshop Department. Besides, there is no mistake in the number of bows and crossbows that the Treasury Department has received from the Crossbow Workshop Department during this time, what is going on? He looked at Shen Huashan and felt puzzled.

Shen Huashan looked at Xu Guangyao's confused expression, and knew that the matter of the bow and crossbow was unknown to the Treasury Department and the Military Department. He specially invited Xu Guangyao to identify these bows and crossbows. Just to figure out what was going on, but after Xu Guangyao's explanation, he felt even more like falling into the clouds, in this way, it is impossible for the Treasury Department to make a mistake, and it is impossible for the Crossbow Department to have extra bows and crossbows!

So where did the two batches of bows and crossbows that appeared on the black market come from?

On the one hand, Shen Huashan instructed Shen Zeyuan and Yan Shang to pay close attention to the dynamics of the Jingzhao Black Market. On the one hand, Xu Guangyao secretly investigated the origin of the bow and crossbow, and privately instructed Ruliu to keep an eye on the bow and crossbow at all times to see if he could find any clues.

No wonder he is so cautious, weapons are a major matter of the country, and even related to the life and death of the entire country, the bow and crossbow are in the city, if its production process is obtained by foreign people, then the matter is serious!

When the Shen family was worried about whether the bow and crossbow skills were acquired by foreigners, in the palace of the three princes, Shangguan Yongping was discussing with Cheng Taobin, the ordnance supervisor, and Wang Qi, the commander of the crossbow workshop, about transporting the bow and crossbow from the crossbow workshop. The three men thought of the money that had come in because of the two batches of bows and crossbows, and they were very proud in their hearts.

"If it weren't for the Third Highness coming up with such a good solution, those extra bows and crossbows would still be moldy in the crossbow workshop, and I don't know where the money spent in vain is." Wang Qi did not hide his love of money at all, and said this like a servant who loves rope head and small profits.

This is also normal, he was originally a servant of Concubine Zhou Xian's mother's family, and later got rid of his slavery and donated an eight-rank petty official, and his sister married the ordnance supervisor Cheng Taobin as his wife.

It turned out that although Shangguan Yongping's trip to the Anbei Protectorate had no achievements, it made him pay attention to one thing, that is, the importance of the bow and crossbow. The 50,000 Anbei capital guards had to consume countless bows and crossbows in the process of drills and battles.

He soon found that there was a great opportunity in this, not only an excellent way to collect money, but also a great opportunity to develop his own power, as long as he could control the crossbow workshop and use the loopholes in the supervision of the Ministry of War to smuggle the bow and crossbow out, then he could get a large amount of money and weapons, so what qualifications did the rest of the princes have to compete with him?

The use of the crossbow workshop to smuggle weapons, in fact, Shangguan Chengyou and Shangguan Changzhi also thought so, but it is extremely difficult to implement, because the Ministry of War and the Ordnance Supervision check and balance each other, the production and delivery of bows and crossbows have a set of strict processes, and the control of the number of bows and crossbows is also extremely strict.

When Chen Zhihao was appointed as the secretary of the Ministry of War, Shangguan Chengyou wanted to smuggle these weapons, but there was no way. Not to mention Shangguan Changzhi, the candidates he placed in the military department will not be used at all, smuggling weapons is not a child's play, every link must be cleared, and he does not have such a ability to penetrate the sky.

Originally, Shangguan Yongping was just thinking about this matter, but he didn't expect Wang Qi to secretly tell him one thing, that is, a genius craftsman was appointed by the crossbow workshop, and he improved the process of making bows and crossbows, and then combined the crossbow arms, crossbow bows, bowstrings and crossbow machines separately, so that the time for making bows and crossbows was doubled compared with before, and the raw materials consumed were greatly reduced compared to before.

In this way, twice as many crossbows can be made with the same amount of raw materials at the same time. This was originally a great achievement of the Crossbow Workshop Department, but Shangguan Yongping asked Wang Qi and Tao Bin to put this matter on the table, and at the suggestion of Xian Maoxin, they began to smuggle bows and crossbows.

On the one hand, they asked the Crossbow Workshop Department to make and produce bows and crossbows according to the new technology, and concealed the technological innovation from the outside world, so after handing over the number of the Treasury Department, a large number of bows and crossbows were redundant; On the other hand, every effort was made to organize people to dig tunnels leading to the crossbow workshop in order to smuggle bows and crossbows. In this way, Shangguan Yongping, together with Tao Bin and Wang Qi, smuggled out these surplus bows and crossbows through the tunnel, and then resold them on the black market at a high price, doing it unknowingly.

The whole process, relying on the craftsmanship of that genius craftsman and a tunnel, does not need to open any joints at all, and will not alarm the upper echelons of the ordnance prison and the people of the military department at all! And that genius craftsman was also taken out of the Crossbow Workshop by Shangguan Yongping and secretly placed elsewhere.

If it weren't for the large number of bows and crossbows flowing out of the black market and Shen Zeyuan's keenness, maybe this matter would have been hidden from the world-when the Shen family invited Xu Guangyao, the military department didn't know about it.

As an official of the Ministry of War, Xian Maoxin is quite clear about the settlement process between the Treasury Department and the Crossbow Workshop Department, as long as the number of the Counterbow Workshop Department is matched, the officials of the Military Department and the Ordnance Supervision Department will not care about the things below at all, and now there is such a genius craftsman in the Crossbow Workshop Department, it is simply that God is helping His Royal Highness, if you don't use this to smuggle, it will be too much to say!

News about the bow and crossbow came intermittently from Ruliu, and now the entire department is making every effort to trace the source of the bow and crossbow, Shen Zeyuan and Yan Shang also tried their best to get relevant news from various merchants, but the population in the black market is extremely tight, and they can't know the truth at all.

The mayfly was also secretly keeping a close eye on the movements of the various princes - as early as the appearance of the bow and crossbow, Shen Ning speculated that the person who smuggled the bow and crossbow must be one of the several princes, because they were the only ones who had the courage to do such a thing.

After the news was summarized, the Shen family quickly targeted the three princes, because the three princes were too calm during this period of time, and they were almost closed, saying that it was for the Empress Dowager Ciyi to keep filial piety, and if something was abnormal, it would be a demon, and the grasshopper also found out that Wang Qi seemed to know the people of the Zhou family, and the smuggling of the three princes also had convenient conditions.

It's just that they can't figure out one more thing, because Xu Guangyao said that he has already checked, the number of bows and crossbows handed in by the Crossbow Workshop Department is correct, and the raw materials received by the Crossbow Workshop Department from the Ministry of Industry have not increased.

Besides, there is no way for the three princes to open an extra bow and crossbow department in the eyes of the princes, so where did this batch of bows and crossbows that are obviously produced by the crossbow workshop come from? Shen Ning pondered, but he was never able to connect the links in it, among them, there must be something that they ignored, but it was a pity that the ordnance supervisor could not be placed in the hands of people, otherwise he would not be so passive.

"What if they knew about the crossbows? No one can figure out what's going on. Shangguan Yongping smiled and said to Xian Maoxin that if he dared to flow out of this batch of bows and crossbows, he was sure that no one would guess the truth, even the craftsmen of the crossbow workshop did not know how earth-shaking the production had changed, as long as he took good care of the craftsman, and then sealed the mouths of Tao Bin and Wang Qi, even if the military department came to investigate, he would not find anything.

He couldn't help but smile with satisfaction at the thought of the huge fortune he had brought with him from smuggling bows and crossbows.