The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 64 Setting up a craftsman’s camp, gold, silver, copper and iron

Although these craftsmen were already in North America and had seen caves (villas), considering that one of them was kidnapped, Liu Sheng asked the Fishing and Hunting Group to send a team of people to take turns guarding the place every day.

In fact, Liu Sheng received not many craftsmen from Minggang Town. There were only more than 500 households in total, and including the craftsmen's families, there were only more than [-] people.

The social division of labor in the Ming Dynasty was extremely detailed, and craftsmen were also subdivided into many types.

Although Liu Sheng only got more than a hundred craftsmen from Ming Gang, they were divided into ten categories: carpenters, bricklayers, blacksmiths, cobblers, tailors, painters, bamboo workers, stonemasons, silversmiths, coopers, carvers, shipwrights, etc. Several kinds.

Among them, carpenters, bricklayers, and stonemasons were the most numerous, and there were only three blacksmith households that Liu Sheng valued most.

Two of these three households of blacksmiths work for large companies in Minggang, and only one has its own blacksmith shop.

In terms of the number of blacksmiths, the ones who open their own blacksmith shops are the fewest. There are only the old blacksmith and his two sons.

The two blacksmiths who worked for a large family not only brought a son to learn the craft, but also brought three or four apprentices.

Therefore, to be precise, Liu Sheng got three old blacksmiths, four young blacksmiths, and seven blacksmith apprentices from Minggang.

In terms of skills, Wang Tiechui, who runs his own blacksmith shop, is the strongest - he can compete with the other two blacksmith shops with wealthy backgrounds, not only because he is a member of the Wang clan, but also because of his good skills.

Therefore, when forming a team for the craftsmen, Liu Sheng organized all the blacksmiths and their families into a team and made Wang Tiechui the captain.

However, after migrating these people to North America, Liu Sheng selected a scholar from the family members of the craftsmen to be the temporary steward of the craftsmen.

This scholar's name is Yu Wanzhi, and he is also an unlucky guy who has not been able to pass the Tongsheng examination for many years. He has not married a wife for more than [-] years. His mother died a few years ago, and now only his old father, who is a carpenter, is left in the family.

His father, Yu Xianmo, is an old carpenter in his 50s, the kind who can build houses.

With this ability, the family would not have been too poor originally. Unfortunately, Yu Xianmo was too upright and an outsider. The big families in Minggang didn't want to see him.

Yu Wanzhi was no longer ready to continue studying. He wanted to inherit his father's craftsmanship, but he lacked talent and learned it too late.

Therefore, before Liu Sheng and Lady Hong broke through Minggang Town, Yu Wanzhi's family had already reached the point where they were running out of food and food, making it unsustainable.

When he learned that Liu Sheng was recruiting people to work in the wasteland and would be responsible for at least two meals a day, Yu Wanzhi took the initiative to take his father to sign up.

Because of his active surrender and his status as a scholar, Liu Sheng chose him as temporary manager and explained that he would be promoted to a permanent position in half a month if he did well.

Seeing Liu Sheng and Lady Hong coming, Yu Wanzhi immediately came over to greet them.

“Yu Wanzhi, the craftsman’s steward, meets with the leader!”

"No need to be polite." Liu Sheng helped Yu Wanzhi, "Go and call all the craftsman captains over. I want to say two things."

"Yes."

Yu Wanzhi left in response, and soon came over with a dozen people.

Liu Sheng divided the craftsmen into teams according to their occupations, one team for blacksmiths, another team for carpenters, and so on.

The captain chooses an old craftsman with high skills and high reputation among the craftsmen.Of course, the premise is that the old craftsman can still do things. If the old craftsman is confused or has difficulty moving, then he must choose someone else.

When everyone arrived, Liu Sheng said straight to the point: "I plan to build a craftsman camp two miles downstream of the stream to house craftsmen and their families.

Later, the captains can ask Manager Yu to take them to choose a specific position.Make preparations today and build the camp tomorrow - Huachu camp will send a hundred young men to help you. "

After speaking, Liu Sheng asked the other craftsmen to disperse, but left behind the captains of the blacksmith, coppersmith, and silversmith, and asked Yu Wanzhi to call the other blacksmiths, coppersmiths, and silversmiths over.

Because there is only one coppersmith and one silversmith each, and they are both inherited from father and son, the three teams of craftsmen total only 18 people.

Liu Sheng first looked at Wang Tiechui and other blacksmiths and asked, "Which of you can open a furnace to make iron?"

The other blacksmiths said nothing, but looked at Wang Tiechui vaguely.

Wang Tiechui touched his pitted old face and then said: "When I was young, I practiced iron with someone in Wuyang in the north, but I was only a beginner, and I didn't have any experience, so I can't say I am good at it."

Liu Sheng was slightly disappointed, but felt that it was better than no one at all.

He said: "Then Uncle Wang and his family will pack up and follow me to Liujiazhai tomorrow."

"Yes."

Liu Sheng looked at the other craftsmen and asked, "Do any of you know how to smelt copper or silver?"

Several people shook their heads.

Liu Sheng was not disappointed this time because he had expected this.

At this time, although the Ming Dynasty did not prohibit private ownership of copperware, because copper mines were basically controlled by the government, most people raised money to cast copperware, and only a few wealthy people could afford it.

The so-called coppersmiths only know how to repair copperware and do not know how to smelt copper.

The craftsmanship of the Silversmiths Guild is to use finished silver ingots to make jewelry and silverware. It is normal to not know how to refine silver.Liu Sheng sighed and said, "Well, you guys, get ready. When I get some time, I will teach you how to smelt copper and silver."

The four of them were stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then they all knelt down towards Liu Sheng with faces full of joy and said repeatedly: "Thank you, chief, for teaching me!"

Wang Tiechui and other blacksmiths also showed envy.

Don't blame them for acting like this, because at this time, many skills are not easily passed on to others.

The more relaxed ones will also teach apprentices, but the relationship between master and apprentice is that of father and son.To be more strict, just pass it on from father to son, and not pass it on to women.

And learning a skill is equivalent to having a job.

The craftsmen and skills of copper and silver smelting have always been controlled by the government and some truly wealthy families, and are beyond the reach of ordinary squires and wealthy families, let alone low-level craftsmen like them.

If the copper smelting and silver smelting skills taught by Liu Sheng are really useful, then they will have another skill in eating and make more money in the future, so they will naturally be extremely grateful.

Liu Sheng motioned for a few people to get up and said: "I also teach according to the book. If you are not talented enough and can't learn it as soon as possible, I will choose someone with more talent to learn."

These words made the four of them calm down and responded in succession.

After saying this, Liu Sheng asked the three teams of craftsmen to retreat.

After coming out of the craftsman camp, the red lady asked puzzledly: "Why should Wang Tiechui and his family, who have the best skills and experience in ironmaking, be transferred to Liujiazhai?"

Liu Sheng sighed: "Because there are no iron ores in North America."

In fact, it is not that there is no iron ore in North America. It can only be said that iron ore resources are not abundant, especially the shallow surface layer of iron ore that is easy to mine - that is, the Great Lakes area. Because the iron ore content is rich, some iron ore can be mined in the shallow surface layer.

In other areas, even if there are iron ores, they are mostly below the surface or even deep.It can only be mined after the completion of the first industrial revolution.

Therefore, Liu Sheng has no plans to start iron smelting in North America.

However, North America is rich in gold mines. Although the silver mine resources are not as good as those in South America, there are still many.

The California region where the Central Valley is located developed in later generations due to the discovery of gold mines, and cities like San Francisco emerged that were world-famous for their gold mines.

Liu Sheng remembered that gold sand could be found in some rivers in the Central Valley.

In the future, when there are more people in the Hua tribe and there is a shortage of gold and silver, we can send people to pan for gold or even search for gold and silver mines.

As for copper mine resources, although they are not as abundant as gold mines, they are still there.However, the shallow copper deposits here often contain high copper content, and there are even natural copper nuggets.

Therefore, a small number of bronze wares are spread among the Indian civilizations in North and South America.

For various reasons, North America failed to light up bronze casting technology.The texture of natural copper is not hard enough and is not as good as some stone tools.Therefore, North American Indians have been accustomed to using stone tools for many years.

However, Huabu has mature bronze ware and bronze casting technology.

Therefore, if a copper mine is found in the future, in addition to casting copper coins, Liu Sheng will also prepare to cast a batch of copper cannons as transitional weapons for the army.

When the territory in Ming Dynasty expands in the future, they can mine iron ore and smelt steel themselves; they can also use the gold, silver and copper mined in North America to trade with the outside world to obtain iron materials.

After coming back to his senses, Liu Sheng saw that the red lady, Yan Yuanshan, and Wang Kesheng all looked worried. He knew that the three of them were worried about the iron mines, so he smiled and said: "Although there are no iron mines here, there are a lot of gold mines, even along the river. If you explore along the Xinluo River, you can find some river beaches with golden sand."

"Really?" The red lady's eyes lit up.

Yan Yuanshan and Wang Kesheng also looked happy, but they couldn't believe it.

Liu Sheng said: "Of course it is true. When we free up our manpower, we can go looking for gold sand and gold mines."

"That's great!"

The three of them were all worried.

In their minds, if there is gold, there is no need to worry about the lack of iron - they can just buy iron materials from outside.

···
The next day.

June fifteenth.

Liu Sheng sent Hong Niangzi, Yang Heqing, Wen You and the standing army led by them through the space gate.

Wang Tiechui's family was also sent there.

Hong Niangzi and others thought that everything could be bought from outside, but Liu Sheng didn't think so.

He was worried that before the Huabu gained a foothold in the Ming Dynasty, it would be blocked by the Ming Dynasty officials or Li Zicheng's forces and would be unable to trade with the outside world.

Although this possibility is extremely low, and he will not sit back and watch this happen, he still decided to build a small iron factory, or iron-making workshop, in Tianmu Mountain, just in case.

(End of this chapter)