The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and in the blink of an eye, it has entered dog days.

In order to avoid heat stroke among the soldiers, Zhu Jiajun could only train in the morning and evening, and at noon was where to cool down and where to stay.

In the name of supervising the formation of the water word battalion, I wish the officials to go to Liangshan to escape the summer!

He swims in the lake during the day, eats lotus seeds, and lies on the top of the mountain at night, enjoying the cool night breeze, smelling the fragrance of lotus flowers in the wind, and looking up at the starry sky, which is extremely comfortable.

Zhu Long was a little happy, and he also took his old father over to enjoy the blessings.

But Zhu Taigong was old, so he was afraid of humidity, and the lake was damp, so he stayed for two days and went back.

Zhu Longzheng regretted that his old father was not happy, and a letter summoned him back.

The letter was written by Wu Yong, saying that he and Shi Xiu had already taken a fancy to four suitable iron-making workshops, and were waiting for him to go back to make a decision!

This is a major matter related to plate armor, Zhu Long did not dare to delay, and as soon as the sun set, under the escort of Lu Fang with a team of light horses, he hurried back.

Halfway through, I rested for a while in the hotel opened by Sun Xin and Gu's sister-in-law, changed horses, chatted a few more words, and continued to hurry at night, and it was already more than two o'clock in the morning when I returned to Zhujiazhuang.

After sleeping for two hours, Zhu Long got up, came to Wu Yong's small courtyard, and saw Wu Yong practicing martial arts!

Zhu Long was dumbfounded, only to see Wu Yong waving a copper chain, like an elusive spirit snake!

After a while, Wu Yong found Zhu Long, showed a look of surprise, stopped his movements, wrapped the copper chain around his waist, and invited Zhu Long into the courtyard.

There are two small bamboo chairs under the big tree in the courtyard, and the two of them sit opposite each other.

"When did the lord come back?"

"I came back in the middle of the night, it was too late, and I didn't wake you up! So what happened to the ironworks? ”

"Brother Shixiu and I have been inquiring about the situation of iron-making workshops in various places, and after repeated comparisons, we finally identified four - Jeju Baibai Iron Workshop, Gwangjejun Xinglong Iron Workshop, Dongpyeong Province Sangyi Iron Factory, and Yuncheng County King Kong Iron Factory.

These four are large-scale, with excellent iron quality and many skilled craftsmen. And there is a river passing nearby, the river is turbulent, and the drop is large, which meets the requirements of the lord! ”

Zhu Long was very satisfied and asked, "Then which one do you choose?" ”

"The King Kong Iron Workshop in Yuncheng County." Wu Yong said without hesitation.

He went on to explain, "The blacksmiths in Jeju mainly focus on making agricultural tools, and the so-called art industry is specialized, and those blacksmiths may not be able to make weapons.

The Xinglong Iron Workshop of the Guangji Army is too far away, and as for the Shangyi Iron Workshop in Dongping Mansion, it is said that Cheng Wanli has a stake in it......"

Zhu Long smiled dumbly and said, "Then you can talk about the King Kong Iron Workshop in Yuncheng County!" ”

"Yes!" Wu Yong said: "This King Kong Iron Workshop is in Yehu Town, 20 miles north of Yuncheng County, with more than 200 craftsmen, with an annual output of 100,000 catties of fine iron, good at casting knives, guns and arrows, the owner's surname is Li, called Li Ziqian, has been in business for several generations, and has a good reputation!" ”

"Good!" Zhu Long was very happy to hear this, and hurriedly asked, "Has the military advisor ever talked to that Li Ziqian?" Is he willing to transfer? ”

Wu Yong shook his head: "I sent Li Wang, the steward of the village, to talk to him, but he refused directly!" ”

"Does that military advisor have a clever plan?" Zhu Long smiled and said with a smile, conspiracy and calculation are what Wu Yong is best at.

Wu Yong also smiled, "Don't worry, with a little trick, you can make that Li Ziqian take the initiative to give up the King Kong Iron Workshop!" ”

Since Wu Yong wanted to pretend to be mysterious again, Zhu Long didn't ask carefully, but just advised: "Military advisor, you can let go of this matter, but first, you must not harm people's lives, and second, you must give sufficient compensation, and you must not damage the benevolence and righteousness of my Zhu family's army." ”

"I understand, don't worry, lord!"

"Well, if you do something, I am naturally relieved. Let's go to breakfast together, and then go to the woodworking workshop to see if the hydraulic hammer I want is ready! ”

"The lord is not in Zhuangzi for half a month, I have been urging the steward of the carpentry workshop, and when I went to check the day before yesterday, it was already debugging, it should be soon!"

Wu Yong showed a look of admiration and exclaimed: "Speaking of this thing, I can't help but worship the lord in the next place, it's really a wonderful idea, ingenious and ingenious, if it weren't for God's gift, who would have thought of it!" Even if Zhuge is resurrected, he will sigh to himself! ”

Zhu Long smiled and waved his hand, "It's all sideways, strange and obscene skills, and they can't get to the hall of elegance!" I wonder how many of my horseshoe designs have been cast? ”

"A hundred pairs have been cast, and they have all been handed over to Huangfuduan, and he has been busy nailing horseshoes for the past few days...... I can't imagine that the military weapons that are being used in the barbarian land, my Great Song Dynasty court didn't pay attention to it and abandoned it, it's really ...... Ay! ”

The horseshoe is the horseshoe, which is "U" shaped and nailed to the horse's hoove, which plays a very important role in protecting the horse's hooves, prolonging the horse's service life, and improving the horse's hoof grip.

The horseshoe had been invented in the Roman Empire as early as before the Western Era, and in the Central Plains, it was not widely used until the Yuan Dynasty in the thirteenth century.

In fact, this thing has long been spread to the Central Plains, but the Song Dynasty did not attach importance to it and did not promote its use in the army.

There are also ways to protect horseshoe in the Central Plains, which is generally to burn the bottom of the horse's hooves with a soldering iron to harden it, but the effect is far less than that of the horseshoe.

Zhulong sent someone to invite Shi Xiu, and after the three of them finished breakfast together, they went to the woodworking workshop first.

Steward Chen, who was in the woodworking workshop, looked nervous when he saw Zhu Long and the three of them coming, and hurriedly greeted him.

When Zhu Long saw him like this, he knew that the hydraulic forging hammer was not done well, and said in a deep voice: "Take me to see the hydraulic forging hammer you made!" ”

Steward Chen looked embarrassed, but he didn't dare to push back, so he had to take them to a courtyard, where several carpenters were discussing something, and when they saw Zhu Long coming, they quickly stopped and bent down to salute.

Zhu Long saw a big guy in the middle of the yard, more than two meters high, on the left was a water wheel, a thick wooden shaft in the middle, one end was fixed in the center of the water wheel, one end was carved with a gear, driving another gear to rotate, driven by this gear, a fixed hammer hit the wooden board up and down.

"That's good, isn't that a success?" Zhu Long said happily, not understanding why Steward Chen looked nervous.

"Officials, please look!" Steward Chen pointed to a pile of broken wooden gears in the corner of the wall and said, "As long as you turn a little faster, these wooden gears will crack." ”

"Cast gears out of fine iron!" Zhu Long didn't want to think, which gear is not made of steel? Who is so stupid to carve gears out of wood, is it to make handicrafts?

Steward Chen and the carpenters' eyes lit up, yes! It can be made of iron!

Zhu Long encouraged them and said, "It's amazing that you have been able to do this in such a short period of time, and I want to reward you!" ”

Steward Chen and the carpenters were beaming.

"I'm going to send a few blacksmiths from the blacksmith's workshop, first, you need the blacksmith's help, and second, this thing is for the blacksmiths, and you have to listen to their needs, and if they say it's easy to use, you can improve it!" If it can be done within a month, I will award 200 taels of silver to the carpenter's workshop! ”

Hearing Zhu Long's words, the carpenters' eyes were red. Two hundred taels of silver, but that's a lot of money! Even if so many people share, everyone can get a lot.