Chapter 56: False Talk

"Lian Baihu, what do you think of Crescent Valley?"

The scholar suddenly said: "There are more than 20,000 people and more than 3,000 soldiers and horses..."

These words were so sudden that Lian Biao was confused when he heard them.

"How about Emperor Taizu Hongwu?" The scholar asked another incomprehensible question: "Hongwu herded cattle and sheep in his early years, worked as a beggar and a monk, and created the Ming Dynasty for three hundred years."

Lian Biao was even more confused.

The scholar's eyes flickered: "What do you think my lord is compared to Hong Wu?"

Lian Biao was stunned for a moment.

"This..." He was speechless, and after a long time he said, "Can't we compare?"

The scholar sneered: "Why can't we compare? Your Excellency, Hong Wu is as brave as you?"

Lian Biao shook his head.

The scholar added: "My lord's wisdom and kindness to the people are comparable to Hongwu's. When Hongwu started, he was just a small rebel army. How many people did he have? But my lord has already established a solid foundation. The Ming Dynasty has become a mess. It's just a matter of competition." It’s a great opportunity to set the tripod. Even hundreds of households, you and I, are the confidants of the great lord who started the business, will be the founding heroes of the country in the future, will be granted the titles of marquis and generals, and will leave their names in history.”

Lian Biao was stunned when he heard this, and there was a faint warmth rising in his heart. He didn't know how biased the scholar's words were, but he was also excited to have his name be remembered in history.

Yes, even beasts like thieves can have the momentum they have today. The Ming Dynasty is about to end, why can't my lord take his place?

People are all ambitious, and if they are always wallowing in the dust, ambition will no longer matter. But if you can meet the wind and have the possibility of realizing your ambition, it will naturally sprout and bloom. He couldn't help but recall the scholar's words and felt that they made sense.

Isn’t Taizu Zhu Hongwu also a grassroot in the dust?

Zhu Hongwu could rise up and conquer the world, why couldn't Ying Yi?

In troubled times, dragons and snakes are hidden in the wild grass, but when a storm comes, they rise to the sky. His heart was beating wildly, his blood was rushing to his brain, and his face was red.

The scholar looked at it with a smile, and said at the right time: "The future is bright, but we must take every step. You and I are old people who started from adults, and we must do our best to serve adults carefully. When adults transform into dragons, you and I will naturally be rich and noble for generations to come."

Lian Biao nodded fiercely, his eyes as if he wanted to eat someone.

At this moment, Uncle Huai came.

Sun Xiucai was overjoyed, nodded to Lian Biao, and hurriedly took the lead to greet him.

...

On May 13th, Ying Yi gave an account of the military training, and all the logistics and other secretaries were in place. After explaining everything, Ying Yi went straight to the mountains.

The first stop is Bibo Valley.

More than half a month has passed, and Bibo Valley has taken shape.

Erniu, Pu Tiechui and Jiang Xi followed Ying Yi.

"The Jinzihao and Huozihao workshops started five days ago." Jiang Xi said, "On the first day, there were only fifty qualified gun heads forged. On the second day, they doubled to one hundred, and the output increased day by day. , as of yesterday, the daily output has reached 300. The output is expected to increase further, and it will take up to six days to complete the total of 3,000 gun heads."

Jiang Xi was one of the officials sent by Sun Xiucai to take charge of the records of revenue and expenditure accounts. Three officials, headed by him.

Jiang Xi is also a scholar. He once worked as an accountant for a wealthy family, so he has experience. There are not many shabby scholars like him in Ye County. Those with connections left on their own, but many others were moved to Crescent Valley. Now he is recruited by Sun Xiucai to work for Ying Yi.

"Since my subordinate took office, so far, the Bibo Valley Workshop has consumed 2,350 kilograms of iron and 15,800 kilograms of grain. The final expenditure of silver remuneration this month is expected to be 227 taels. money."

Ying Yi listened to his report, the words were clear and the words were organized, and he felt very satisfied.

The final consumption of iron, grain and silver did not exceed Ying Yi's expectations. Since the start of the Jinzihao and Huozihao workshops, 800 finished gun heads have been produced, consuming less than a thousand kilograms of iron. However, the iron consumption of the various tools required by the two workshops in the initial stage was higher than the consumption of the gun heads themselves in recent days. This is inevitable when the workshop starts work for the first time.

There are more than two hundred craftsmen in Bibo Valley, and together with the families of the craftsmen who have all moved here, there are five to six hundred people. The craftsmen were all big-bellied men doing the hard work, and Ying Yi expected to eat a total of more than 15,000 kilograms of grain in ten days.

The estimated expenditure on silver remuneration is also generally in line with Ying Yi's expectations.

Before entering Huo Zihao's workshop, a hot breath came out. The main responsibility of Huozihao Workshop is smelting.

The smelting technology of this era is naturally not comparable to that of hundreds of years later. Huozihao Workshop currently only has two iron furnaces, and the limit of smelting iron per day is one thousand kilograms. Burning wood and heating it with a blower is very labor-intensive.

Seeing Ying Yi and others coming in, the leader of the craftsmen of the fire character group hurriedly came to greet them.

He was naked from the waist up, and his red skin was covered with sweat like oil.

"grown ups!"

Ying Yi waved his hand and looked at the two iron furnaces: "The limit of the iron furnace is that one can only produce 500 kilograms of iron per day?"

The leader of the Huozi team said: "I don't know, sir. Because the demand for gun heads is urgent, there is no time to build a larger and more sophisticated iron furnace."

"Oh." Ying Yi understood clearly that there was nothing he could do about the urgency of the gun. Asked: "What is the efficiency of the best iron furnace?"

"A unit has a daily output of five thousand catties." The craftsman lowered his eyebrows and said, "I once worked in a large ironworks in Nanyang. The iron furnace there smelted ore every day and produced this amount of iron."

"Ore...five thousand kilograms a day..." This number will be completely negligible a few hundred years later, but in this era, it is already very powerful. The Xia people have come all the way to the present, and although there have been some ups and downs in every dynasty, technology has progressed as a whole. From a purely personal handicraft workshop, it has now formed a certain scale of assembly line and large workshops. Don't think that there are no assembly lines in this era, they are just not as orderly as they would be a few hundred years later.

If an iron furnace refines five thousand kilograms of refined iron every day, as long as there are enough iron furnaces and the ore can keep up, it shouldn't be a problem for Bibo Valley to produce dozens of tons a day. Of course, that is still a bit far for Ying Yi.

"Can the re-smelting of ready-made iron materials only meet this standard?" Ying Yi asked again.

Pu Tiechui, who was on the side, answered this question: "To tell you what my lord, the secondary smelting of pig iron and crude iron requires strict recipes. The recipe for the secondary smelting of refined iron in Huozihao Workshop is Li Sansi's. It is smelted in this way. The quality of the iron material is higher, and the gun head can be forged directly. If crude iron is used, it must be beaten for more than ten times using the ancient method to forge a qualified gun head. The secondary smelting process is more time-consuming than the primary smelting of ore. Sometimes."

Ying Yi immediately understood. This was probably similar to smelting alloys? What a talent! He looked at Li Sansi and saw that he had such a formula!

He said to Jiang Xi: "The formula is extremely important. I will not rob it or use it for free."

Then he turned to Li Sansi and said: "Craftsman Li, if you give me the formula, I will give you a reward. How about fifty taels of silver for the first time? In the future, for every two thousand kilograms of steel smelted according to your formula, you will get another one tael of silver." .”

If you want a horse to run, you have to feed it. People attach great importance to technology, which is often passed down from master to apprentice or family members. Once an accident occurs, the technology is very likely to be lost. The fundamental reason is that technology cannot benefit from protection. Once the technology spreads, it will soon be spread all over the world, and the original owner of the technology will not get a single coin.