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In the middle of November of the second year of Xuanhe, the weather was gloomy and terrible, it rained from the evening, and it became a slight drizzle in the morning, the temperature dropped sharply, there were few people walking on the streets of Hangzhou, the weather was cold, and the recent situation was not good, the demon rebels had approached Hangzhou, the people in the city were panicked, many rich families avoided the disaster and left, but most people had nowhere to hide, and the rebellion was also commonplace in recent years, the most powerful in the past few years, there was a Muzhou female bandit Chen Shuozhen, and rebelled, Claiming to be Emperor Wenjia, he made a big fuss, a team of tens of thousands of people, and then the imperial court invaded and suppressed it, coupled with the bandits' nest and self-chaos, and finally collapsed within a few days, and the officials and soldiers cut off thousands of heads!

It is estimated that the rebellion of the big devil Fang La will not be able to toss for a few days, this is what most people think, but as the rebels approached Quzhou, a large number of wealthy officials, soldiers and refugees fled to Hangzhou, and there are fewer and fewer people who have this idea.

Xiao Ming came to the yamen of the prefect of Hangzhou early in the morning, because the prefect was invited, Zhao Ting was under the jurisdiction of a county guard with less than 200 forbidden troops, these people were actually Zhao Ting's internal guards, when the internal guards let Xiao Ming into the side hall to watch tea, Xiao Ming has been thinking about the reason why Zhao Ting came to him.

In fact, the reason is very simple, originally Zhao Ting asked his brother Zhang Ping to find Gu's refinery, but in the past two days, the people of Lin'an County robbed the county government to make trouble, Zhang Ping took people to deal with it, more than half of the two thousand township warriors in his hands came from Lin'an County, the county order Guo Huai is a demon sect spy and has escaped, only a few petty officials in the county are left in the county office, I heard that Guo County Ling ran away, and many of the people's relatives and children were locked up in prison by Guo Huai, and the county order is a traitor to the party, so these relatives are not all wronged, so they have asked the Yamen to release people, But how dare the county chief and others make a decision, so the people robbed the county government and smashed the prison.

Xiao Ming's matter naturally fell to Zhao Ting, during this time, Gu's refining workshop was not simple, I heard that he cooperated with Richanglong to do business together, Zhao Ting thought, Richanglong has a lot of relationship with himself, so it is estimated that it is better to speak.

Zhao Ting came out, Xiao Ming greeted the prefect, the two sat down separately, and said a few polite words, but Zhao Ting was not in a hurry to get to the point.

"Where is Mr. Xiao's ancestor? Your surname Xiao doesn't seem to be a local, right? ”

Xiao Ming replied: "My ancestor is a Huaiyin clan, is the descendant of Xiao He, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, and later moved to Hangzhou to live in order to avoid the war. Xiao Ming made it up after thinking about it for a long time, and he thought that there would be no flaws.

"Even after the name, your ancestors are also too worried, according to this official, as long as you start from your generation, there are a few things to glorify your ancestors, and when the time comes, you can correct the name of your ancestors and restore the surname Xiao, but I don't know if Mr. will go to school?" Zhao Ting said with a smile.

"Hui Yu, the villain's ancestors have always insisted on poetry and etiquette, but they have also read a few books, but their families are in the middle of the road, and they worry about their livelihood every day, so they have to give up literature and engage in business.

Zhao Ting suddenly said: "Oh! …… It's a pity! ”

He put down the tea bowl and brushed his beard and said: "Although you have not gone to school, I think you are also quite intelligent, and it has not been long since you became the owner of the Gu family, that is, you have made a blacksmith shop prosperous, and now it is Hangzhou Mansion and even Liangzhejiang Road, which is a well-known big business, as long as you contribute more to the imperial court and have the guarantee of the official, you can also make a name for yourself when the time comes, do you understand?" ”

After speaking, he picked up the tea, blew the tea leaves, and observed Xiao Ming's reaction with his eyes.

How can Xiao Ming have a reason that he can't hear, doesn't he just rip off the bamboo? It's okay, give you some sweetness, according to the plan, when the time comes, I will seek control of the port of Hangzhou Bay at the mouth of the sea, and you, the county guard, will have nothing to say at that time.

So Xiao Ming arched his hand and said: "The villain dares not to share the worries of the court, everything is to follow the orders of the adult." ”

Xiao Ming was very on the road, Zhao Ting was very satisfied, and said with a smile: "Now that the Demon Sect rebels are advancing, Hangzhou City is late in preparing for military preparations, and the armor is not enough, and the Xiang army is still good to say, but there are more than 3,000 villagers below, and there is a lack of armor and weapons, so this needs to rely on the Gu Clan's refining workshop, I don't know if you can sell me 3,000 sets of armor and knives and guns at a low price...... And thou knowest that there is money in the treasury now...... This ...... "He was still a little embarrassed.

The recruitment of Xiangyong needs to rely on the joint payment of the rich and the government, but the equipment needs to be specially approved by the Yamen of Bingbeidao, Zhao Ting does not want to spend this money, Bingbeidao belongs to the jurisdiction of Chen Luzhang, and naturally he will not give him these armor equipment, Zhao Ting, as a regimental training envoy, wants to completely control the three thousand Xiangyong, but he doesn't want to spend too much money, so he comes to knock Xiao Ming's bamboo pole.

How do you know that Xiao Ming said: "The adults are worried about the country, the villain admires it very much, what is the calculation of some armor and weapons, the villain can give all the armor and weapons in the warehouse to the adults for free, I don't know if this is good?" ”

Gu's warehouse now has a large backlog of inventory, these ironware, are non-desulfurization and decarburization refining, the quality of the knives and guns is actually not good, and it is black, only at the edge can be sharpened bright white, in history this kind of iron is called black iron, according to Xiao Ming's idea, all back to the furnace, but Gu Shouzhen felt that it cost coal, so he didn't deal with it, only sold a part of it to Bingbeidao, and now Xiao Ming wants to dispose of it all, as for whether it is three thousand sets, it is not easy to say, many armor parts still need to be pieced together, Even so, this was also a surprise to Zhao Ting, and his eyes narrowed into a slit.

Originally, Xiao Ming Xiao Ming was like dealing with these inventories, and he was also happy to do personal favors, Gu Shouzhen's blast furnace has been built, and the molten steel smelted by hot air is still in the experimental stage, Xiao Ming needs to produce steel from Gu's refinery in the future, it must be a first-class good thing, and this quality will be grasped from now on.

Seeing that Zhao Ting was very happy, Xiao Ming made a small request, that is, he hoped that Zhao Ting would agree, the Gu family refinery could recruit some village warriors by itself to form an iron factory guard, and they could help the imperial court defend the city and fight in wartime, and they didn't need the imperial court's salary, but whether they could give Xiao Ming a small official position, would this be justified.

Zhao Ting got the benefit, he naturally will not refuse this request, he is a three-grade officer, in charge of the county guard of one side, the prefect of Hangzhou, this right is still there, so with a stroke of the pen, Feng Xiao Ming is a nine-grade Bao Yilang, the deputy commander of the township Yong, can lead five hundred soldiers, of course, it is just a soldier Xiangyong, report to the Ministry for approval, in fact, it is just a formality, Xiao Ming's Yulu does not need to spend a penny of silver in the imperial court, it is simple for Zhao Ting to die, and the Gu family refining workshop can be regarded as his line, which can be regarded as a descendant.

Both sides are very satisfied, Xiao Ming said goodbye and returned home, arranged for people to deal with the warehouse, there are a lot of knives, guns and weapons in the warehouse, there are about more than two thousand, and some scraps, this kind of iron is very brittle, plus some pieces of protective armor, there are about more than a thousand sets of pieces of armor, shoulder and leg guards, heart goggles, and some helmets, simple cast iron helmets, the protective ability is average, Xiao Ming doesn't care about it, they all gave it to Zhao Ting, Zhao Ting has lost such a big benefit, naturally he won't care about the quantity.

In the past few days, Xiao Ming also had an unexpected joy, in the team of craftsmen jointly formed by Richanglong and Gu's Refinery, several top people have emerged, including a mold craftsman named Li Qiyan, who can use various dexterous methods to make very delicate molds, and make special metal parts on the latest textile machines in batches, with very short labor.

Richanglong also shows its profound heritage in this regard, the ink craftsman himself is proficient in the art of organ construction, plus they also have a treasure, that is, a wheel chisel, in fact, it is a primitive lathe, can process all kinds of wooden parts, even simple cast iron parts, considering the problem of materials, at this stage can not process steel parts, but the polishing and grinding of iron castings is not a problem.

The master craftsman, Su Caier's father Su Bi, is a great craftsman, because he heard Xiao Ming say that the new textile machine can be driven by water, he felt that this was the best way to save manpower, so he asked Jie Zhicong to find Xiao Ming several times and asked for specific methods, Xiao Ming designed several belt drives for him with water drain power, but he was not too satisfied.

So Xiao Ming invited Su Bi to boil a pot of water in front of him, when the water boiled, Xiao Ming pointed to the constantly beating lid of the pot that was topped by steam, explained the principle of steam power, and asked Su Bi to do the experiment.

Xiao Ming couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed in his heart, "Mr. Watt is sorry!" deprived you of the opportunity to become famous, don't jump out and scold people in a few hundred years! Xiao Ming muttered silently in his heart.

"Science and technology are the primary productive forces, I will first point you in the direction, the Chinese have been known for their intelligence since ancient times, see what you can develop!"

……

Xiao Ming now has the title of a township deputy commander, of course, he wants to take this opportunity to develop his own power, so he recruited more than 200 people, these people are mainly as guards of the refinery, and they can usually work in the factory, and they are also paid, but at present, they really have to train and train, so Xiao Ming found Yang Zhen and asked him to help train the corporals.

Yang Zhen is a low-level officer who has really fought in the Western Army, and he has practical experience, but he is too busy now, Chen Luzhang has now discovered Yang Zhen's talent, and Hangzhou Mansion is now facing a rebel siege, so the training and drills of more than 2,000 Xiang troops are now also on Yang Zhen's shoulders.

However, Yang Zhen still helped Xiao Ming, he took out a code of conduct for marching and training that he wrote, and recommended a person to Xiao Ming, this person is Luo Wen, Luo Wen was originally the Wei Cheng of the Hangzhou Mansion Garrison Governor, after the death of the Metropolitan Supervisor Cai Zunyantan, he was reduced to an ordinary officer, and the entire garrison Yamen was merged by Chen Luzhang, this Luo Dingbang actually still has some ability, and has also read some military books, but now he is a little down.

Let him train some village warriors according to Yang Zhen's military training code, then there is no problem, no matter how he is also a person who has been on an errand in the official yamen for many years, there is still some deterrent power for those idlers and farmers who have just become soldiers, anyway, there is nothing to do, Luo Wen happily agreed to Xiao Ming's invitation and came to help, now Xiao Ming has an official position, Luo Wen also feels that he is inferior to others, even the prefect is very polite to him, and it is not in vain, Xiao Ming pays the salary.

"Brother Luo, train them strictly, my iron factory needs them to protect it, now the world is not peaceful, if you have military exploits in resisting the rebels this time, it will be counted as yours, you also know that brother, I just want to make money, I don't want to be an official."

Luo Wen has motivation now, he used to be the head of the captain's team, there are more than a dozen people under his hands, and now hundreds of people are listening to his command, and the self-confidence that was originally withered now has a feeling of bursting, Xiao Ming let him do it, and he didn't rob him of his military merits, the opportunity is just around the corner, and he can definitely fly Huang Tengda with Xiao Ming, so he worked hard, and a group of Zixiang Yong and the guards of the iron factory were exhausted by him all day long, and they all called him "Evil Yama!" ”

Xiao Ming poured the molten steel from the experimental blast furnace into the mold, produced a large number of arrows, after these arrows were polished and opened, in the Xicheng Iron Works, with glue paint feather wire, plus short bamboo poles, a large number of crossbow arrows were made, and then told Luo Wen to change the equipment for the soldiers, all the new crossbow bows, increase the amount of training, practice shooting targets, do not require 100 shots, but also have to be 9 shots out of ten, crossbow arrows are open to supply, and at the same time change clothes, all black cotton clothes, known as: Refining Workshop Iron Guard!

Only in a short period of time, this group of six or seven hundred iron guards has become an army, and the combat effectiveness is not bad, of course, this has not been tested in actual combat, Xiao Ming knows that if you want to talk about combat effectiveness, these people are still far behind, they can only be regarded as long-range strike forces, and they also need to train their melee ability.

Aside from Yang Zhen's discipline, Xiao Ming asked the military camp to compete, a small competition in three days, a big competition in five days, no matter what ability you have, as long as someone is stronger than you, others give wine and meat, you are hungry, and for a while, the iron guard battalion of the entire iron factory began to be in full swing.