"Yang Qing, don't embarrass your little nephew, I'm used to it, and there are many rules in the palace, if I offend that adult, it's not to cause you trouble, you say no." The little nephew is still in charge of the craftsman," Yuan Shu said.

"Okay, the highway and Wang Shaoqing are in charge of the craftsman, and the palace patrol is still in charge of the official, you two must be conscientious, don't have shoddy conditions, this is sent to the Xiliang battlefield" Yang Yi advised.

"Yes, Yang Qing," Yuan Shu and Wang Gang replied at the same time.

"Highway is responsible for bows and instruments, Wang Shaoqing is responsible for weapons and armor, there is no problem, so it's decided" Yang Yi arranged for the two to leave.

Wang Gang said goodbye to Yuan Shu, and took the examination order Wu Mai and the first soldier order Cao Lang. Left the Weiwei subordinate office and went to the craftsman's workshop.

The craftsman workshop is located at the foot of Beibi Mountain in the north of the city, covering an area of hundreds of acres, and there are more than 30,000 craftsmen and craftsmen in it. Wu Mai introduced the basic situation of the workshop to Wang Gang while walking.

"Wu Mai, how long have you been in charge of the craftsman's workshop" Wang Gang and the others stopped at the foot of Beibi Mountain, looked at a few courtyards on the mountainside, and asked.

"Return, Shaoqing, the villain has been working in the craftsman's workshop with his father for as long as he can remember, and it has been forty years," Wu Mai said with some restraint. He was originally a handyman, but because of his exquisite skills, he was promoted to the examination order by the former guard lieutenant.

"Cao Lang, what about you" Wang Gang looked at the man beside him who had been silent and had a slightly thin figure.

"Back to Shaoqing, the subordinate is Cao Taiwei's guest secretary, and he has just taken office" Cao Lang didn't know what the temper of this new Shaoqing was, but he decided to tell the truth.

"Mrs. Cao" Wang Gang muttered silently in his heart, looking at Jia Xu on the side. Jia Xu shook his head slightly.

"Let's look at the craftsman's workshop today, Cao Lang, you go back first, and tomorrow the Japanese official will go to the armor workshop in the west of the city," Wang Gang said.

Cao Lang said yes and turned to leave.

Wang Gang followed Wu Mai into the compound, and dozens of crossbowmen stood at the gate of the compound. Inside the gate there are also several ox carts with bundles of lumber on them, which are being unloaded. Seeing Wu buy in, several people who were loading and unloading hurriedly stopped what they were doing and bent down to salute.

"This is the finest rosewood sent from Jizhou, and it's the finest wood for the barrel of the gun," Wu Mai said, pointing to the ox cart.

Rosewood, Wang Gang was stunned when he heard it, he remembered that the exchange device could also be exchanged for rosewood, and it seemed that he was free to go to Jizhou to have a look.

Wang Gang stepped forward, looked at the rosewood with the thickness of the bowl, and asked with some questions.

"It's not too coarse."

"Shaoqing doesn't know, this is a log, after scraping, polishing, and straightening, it will become much thinner" Wu Mai said and took Wang Gang to another courtyard.

Inside, several carpenters were busy, peeling the wood one by one, and then using an axe to chisel the bulges on the branches, sorting them into categories.

Then Wu Mai took Wang Gang and Jia Xu to see several other courtyard workshops, including iron smelting, forging, and casting.

Finally, he took Wang Gang to the innermost courtyard, where there were several soldiers guarding it, and spoke.

"This is the storehouse of the craftsman's workshop, and all the weapons that have been built are here"

After Wu Mai finished speaking, a warehouse next to him, opened the door, and saw large wooden boxes neatly stacked together, with thousands of boxes. Wu Mai ordered someone to open one of them. Inside was wrapped in a layer of felt cloth, and underneath it was a long spear.

Wang Gang reached out and took a handle out, danced twice, the hand was slightly heavy, the size was appropriate, and the tip of the spear was shining cold, very sharp. You can also smell a faint fragrance, which I think has been smeared with pine oil.

"How many spears like this have been made?"

"Back. Back to Shaoqing. I made it in total.。。 produced "Wu Mai didn't dare to speak."

Wang Gang looked at Wu Mai with some doubts, and Jia Xu next to him had a somewhat solemn face.

"How much," Wang Gang accentuated.

Wu Mai fell to his knees with a thud, his forehead kept slamming on the stone steps.

Wang Gang stretched out his hand to pull up Wu Mai, Wu Mai's forehead was full of blood, and he said tremblingly.

"Twenty-three thousand two hundred handles were made"

Wang Gang felt a lot, and Jia Xu next to him changed his face greatly.

"How many spears does the imperial court need?" Wang Gang asked casually when he asked a few more boxes.

"100,000 handles, delivered at the beginning of next month," Wu Mai said on his knees and said painfully.

"My lord spares my life, I really can't make 100,000 spears at the beginning of the month"

Wang Gang was also taken aback when he heard 100,000, looked back at Wu Mai on the ground, and asked cautiously.

"How many handles can be made by the beginning of the month?"

Wu Mai raised his head and stretched out his rootless fingers.

"Fifty thousand, it's not bad, it should be possible to think of a way when the time comes," Wang Gang said.

"Five thousand handles," Wu Mai said embarrassedly.

"Plop", this time it was Wang Gang's turn to sit on the ground.

"How much more do you say again" Wang Gang walked over and grabbed Wu Mai's collar, lifted him up, and asked.

"Back to Shaoqing, you can make another 5,000 spears, this is already the limit," Wu Mai said with a trembling voice.

Wang Gang let go of Wu Mai weakly, his expression was a little decadent, and he sat down on the wooden box.

Jia Xu walked over, helped Wang Gang up and said.

"The matter has come to this point, or to find a solution, Wu Kaoling, can we speed up the manufacturing progress?"

Wu Mai looked at the scribe who had been following Wang Gang and had not spoken, and he did not dare to slack off, and spoke.

"If you speed up the progress, it will be difficult to ensure the quality, but I am afraid that when Guangluxun sends someone to receive weapons, it will be reported to the imperial court."

"Then the slowest part of making weapons right now is that link," Wang Gang asked after a pause.

"It's too late to polish the barrel of the gun, smelt pig iron, and the iron ore is also much worse, it's not enough to make 100,000 spears," Wu Mai said carefully.

Wang Gang figured it out, this is a pit at all, no wonder Yang Yi and Yuan Shu were so polite today, they knew that they would fall into the pit.

"Isn't there a way?" Wang Gang asked again.

"On the west side of Beibi Mountain, near the direction of Tongguan, there are some solid bamboos that can temporarily replace rosewood, and they are much faster to make. It's just,"

"Just what," Wang Gang hurriedly asked.

"It's just a gun made of solid bamboo, the toughness is insufficient, and it will inevitably break on the battlefield" Wu Mai looked at Wang Gang cautiously after speaking, for fear that Wang Gang would be angry and hurt people.

Hearing Tongguan, Wang Gang's eyes lit up.

As for the solid bamboo, it should be quite valuable.

Wang Gang was not in the mood to check other weapons, so he took Wang Gang and Jia Xu back to Luoyang City and came to Wang Yun's house.

told Wang Yun about today's events, and Wang Yun pondered for a long time after hearing it.

"The imperial court has been using troops for many years, and the treasury has been exhausted, and now it is going to increase the number of troops in Xiliang, and the old man also expected that there would be a serious shortage of weapons and equipment, but he didn't expect it to be so much."

"The matter has come to this, what should I do" Jia Xu also had no idea.