Most of the craftsmen who smelted and cast the barrels of the guns at the Zheng Haizhu Songjiang Firearms Factory, including those invited by Zheng Zhilong from the Franky Gun Factory in Macau, were illiterate and could not draw drawings.

Sun Yuanhua and Li Zhizao certainly welcome Gu Shouqian to join.

Gu Gongzi knew how to "draw boundary paintings", and could draw the perspective of the pavilions and pavilions, and he could accurately draw the side and top views of the guns and artillery, and mark the names and sizes of each part as precious materials for the artillery factory.

Gu Shouqian is also a talent, Sun and Li, who are famous, talk about learning from Western skills to strengthen the army, and they show that they have reached a piece with the illiterate craftsmen on their faces, and they are like private entrepreneurs in later generations, and they are still quite interested in the concentration of scholars in the team.

Gu Shouqian was in a good mood, thinking that he was also like his wife Han Ximeng, and began to be busy every day, not just playing in the mountains and rivers, singing the wind and singing the moon.

After a full half a month, Gu Shou estimated that it was almost time for Han Ximeng to return to Songjiang.

is thinking about how to show the embroidery he painted with his heart when he sees his wife and children, but he doesn't want to, but when he comes back, it's just Dong Erya.

"Young master, young grandmother ordered me to go to Master Han's weaving workshop and take two spinners to Chongming." Dong Erya said with a big grin.

Gu Shouqian was suspicious: "Chongming people's ability to spin and weave cloth is also well-known in Nanzhili, why do you want us Songjiang people to teach?" ”

"Back to the young master's words, Mrs. Zheng found a novel spinning machine in Chongming, a spinner, who can spin many cotton threads at the same time. But the machine, which lacked arms and legs, the young grandmother and Mrs. pondered for several days and didn't figure it out, so they wanted to ask a few capable mothers-in-law from the master's side to take a look. ”

Gu Shouqian listened and listened, and his brows furrowed.

He was a rich boy who knew nothing about spinning and had no interest.

The hope that his wife would return home was suddenly disappointed, which made the husband's manic depression rise faintly.

"Erya, you are rambling back and forth, you are really long-winded and brainless, did they figure it out, or did they not understand? If Zheng Haizhu didn't figure out where the machine was, how could she know that one person could spin several balls of cotton yarn at the same time? Does she feel that she and the young grandmother's two smart brains are not enough, and she needs to add a few more to make things happen? ”

Dong Erya is honest, but not stupid.

She recognized the sarcastic meaning of the man's words, and froze in panic for a moment, not knowing how to reply.

Gu's mother, Lu, has always been soft-hearted, so she said to Dong Erya in a harmonious voice with a calming attitude: "You go to the Han Mansion to invite someone." By the way, after you arrived in Chongming this time, you told the young grandmother that the sting had passed, and there were more insects on the island. Just leave the craftsman to ponder there, young grandmother, and take the young master back to Songjiang as soon as possible. ”

Dong Erya responded, went to the back house to pack up two Han Ximeng's summer dresses, and a few puppet gadgets of the little master Gu Zuoyou, and left Wenzheyuan like a rabbit.

……

In mid-spring, the cottonseeds in the dry fields have been sown, and the time for rice planting in the paddy fields has not yet arrived.

Chongming Island, at the mouth of the Yangtze River, has a short period of farming.

Zhengjiazhuang, with a population of nearly 200, is much busier than the surrounding local villages.

After Mao Chengbei sent the sea trade dividends from the Haoming Trading Company in Hangzhou, the payment for the arquebus paid by Yu Shigao in Fujian, plus the shipping insurance premium for the Zhenjiang to Songjiang section of the canal, and after deducting the various expenses of his industries and the emergency reserve for the account, Zheng Haizhu transferred a small amount of 500 taels of silver and asked the rice store opened by his relatives in Yuezhi County to buy three months' worth of grain, and the remaining money was enough to buy a lot of tiles.

"Folks, after a while in Jiangnan, it will be the rainy season, and it will be uncomfortable to smell musty and make soup chicken. Let's take advantage of the slack to grab some time and replace the thatch on our heads with tiles first. At the end of the year, when the cotton harvest in the field has been harvested and the salt cloth has been exchanged for money, we will replace the mud walls of the house with brick walls, and the outside of the Zhuangzi will also be surrounded by fortifications. ”

After listening to Zheng Haizhu's mobilization, the farmers saw that the warehouse was already full of grain bought by Steward Wu, and the tiles were also transported by car, and their bodies were suddenly filled with chicken blood looking forward to improving the quality of life.

is a girl like Hua Er, who is not yet in her prime, and she also has the spirit of taking the lead, and the efficiency of picking grass and tiles is not inferior to men.

When the thatched hut had a new look, the two instructors selected by Wu Bangde from Zhenjiang Qijin, plus several canal slender men who had become Zheng Haizhu and Han Ximeng's soldiers, all came to Chongming Island, preparing to train the Liao people in the first month or so under the leadership of Xu Yilong, the general manager of Zheng Jiajun.

Zheng Haizhu fully believes in Qi Jiajun's training methods for the Mandarin Duck Array infantry and Xu Yilong's training methods for the Connecting String Jumping Gang Sailors.

At the level of specific drills, Zheng Haizhu didn't bother to ask, but only stared at the Songjiang Firearms Workshop to send some combined guns, so that grassroots soldiers, whether on land or on boat, should get used to using firearms.

In terms of personnel organization, Zheng Haizhu divided young men into two echelons from the beginning.

The first echelon is the most capable Bailai people named by the instructors, who enjoy the status of battalion soldiers and are divided into ten squads for training.

During the training period, in addition to the rations distributed as usual, each of them also received a copper coin equivalent to half a tael of silver.

Wu Bangde told them that Mrs. Zheng was not a real guerrilla general like a male military attaché, and the imperial court gave her a quota and did not pay her, so every copper plate they got was the same as every bite of food that the farmers ate in their mouths this year, and Mrs. Zheng took it out of her pocket. Look at Yao Qianhu, who is a dog in the North Island, he directly exploits and humiliates the military households as tenants, and after eating the flesh and blood of the military households, he can't wait to fatten his bones.

The first batch of battalion soldiers were moved when they heard this, but Zheng Haizhu didn't really pretend to be great and outstanding.

Her current situation of raising battalion soldiers is actually similar to Mao Wenlong a few years later in real history. In the early years of Chongzhen, didn't Mao Wenlong not get the military salary of the imperial court in Dongjiang Town, but he still led the soldiers to guard the country hungry? Even, after Mao Shuai was forced to have no choice, and after Emperor Chongzhen asked for border trade in black and white, he was also accused by Yuan Chonghuan of "selling smuggling and fattening" and put it into the crime of killing.

Is it bitter or not, tired or not? Think about the sins that Mao Shuai has suffered.

Zheng Haizhu then looked at the grateful faces of the battalion soldiers, and said solemnly: "Steward Wu said that I am a bodhisattva, but in fact, I am even more of a King Kong." You are all old enough to kill a tiger, if you don't train well......"

Speaking of this, Zheng Haizhu stopped and swept his gaze to the other thirty or forty young and strong Liao people who were watching from the periphery of the school.

It was the second echelon she named "Zhengjiazhuang Peasant Soldiers", similar to the Xiangyong Reserve. The physical fitness of the members of the peasant corps is not bad, but when they are selected by the instructors, they are relatively sluggish in their reactions, or their strength is slightly smaller, and they are not eligible for the battalion.

Zheng Haizhu pointed to the peasant men and said to the battalion soldiers: "If you are not diligent in training, disobey the instructors, cheat and cheat, violate military discipline, or fail to pass the instructor's performance appraisal in a month, you will have to be demoted to the peasant soldiers, and the peasant soldiers will be trained, be my battalion soldiers, and take my salary!" ”

】

Everyone responded, showing high morale and not to be outdone.

The instructors formed the battalion soldiers, and according to their own characteristics, determined the different types of troops in the small formation of 12 people, such as spearmen, broadsword hands, standing shield hands, and rattan shield hands, and began basic training by exercising their eyes and reciting mantras.

Zheng Haizhu got on the mule cart driven by the girl Hua Er and returned to the ancestral house of Tang Po in the county town to see the restoration progress of the Ming version of the "Jenny Spinning Machine".