Ping An Biography

It is reasonable that each yamen only provides lunch for the upright people, but there are a few family members of civil and military officials who are not in Wuchang City, and often have dinner in the kitchen of the official office; fortunately, the proportion of officials is very small, and the cooks in the official office will also give them Cooking, the cost is counted on the head of the public.

Zhang Ning planned to take a day off and not come to the official office when he went back tomorrow, so he had dinner with several civil servants and generals, and brought Xu Wenjun to the same table.

It is relatively rare for women to eat together on this occasion, but everyone knows Xu Wenjun, the granddaughter of the old Xu.There is also a reasonable reason for this kind of thing. A few people treat each other as special friends with Zhang Ning in private, and there are also cases where people see guests as family members.

Although this era is bound by etiquette, the presence of women can always improve the interest of men, and the same is true in ancient and modern times.Today everyone talked more obviously, all kinds of anecdotes followed one after another, and the dinner table laughed from time to time.On the contrary, Xu Wenjun seemed very low-key, said very little, and the little lady had no airs at all, which made everyone like it very much.

There is a dish on the table, which is Huguang smoked bacon. This dish is Zhang Ning's favorite dish.The texture of lean meat is clear, and the color of fat meat is crystal clear, as if it is not the same thing as pork, and the mouth is soft and fragrant with rosy meat.He thought it was delicious, so he also took a piece for Xu Wenjun. Wenjun's face flushed slightly, and he looked up at the others, looking a little embarrassed. [

Seeing this, Chen Gai hurriedly said: "Speaking of this bacon, I think of a funny thing."

He was not very good at talking about the jokes and anecdotes of those civil servants just now, but now it seemed that he finally had a story to tell.While eating, everyone turned their heads to look at him with a smile, and wanted to hear what was funny.

Chen Gai put down his chopsticks and touched his forehead: "That was a few years ago. General Wei was not called a general yet. Let's just call him Wei Bin. He sent me out to deliver something. There was no shop behind the village, so I carried a bag of rice on my back. One day I came across a mountain village, and stopped at a house. The old woman had to cook bacon for dinner because I gave some copper coins. The bacon It was hung high on the wall. I saw that the old woman’s legs and feet were inconvenient, so I went to help fetch the meat. Unexpectedly, as soon as I took it off, I found something moving in the bacon. I stretched out my hand to pick it. Guess what it is... such a big maggot, haha Haha!" Chen Gai stretched out his index finger exaggeratedly, gesturing at the size of the maggot.

Everyone looked at each other.

Chen Gai still didn't know it, he laughed and said: "The old woman said, it's all right, if you pick out the maggots, the meat can still be eaten."

Xu Wenjun just put the smoked bacon that Zhang Ning put into her bowl into her mouth, and when she heard her throat wriggling, her face looked extremely embarrassed.After a while, she carefully covered it with her sleeve and spit out the meat into the bowl.

After a while, she whispered: "I'm full, everyone please eat slowly."

……

The next day when he returned to Chu Palace, Zhang Ning told Zhou Yiniang again as a joke, but it was Chen Gai who made the joke.

Tuesday Niang smiled and said, "Poor little Xu, I must be disgusted by eating."

Zhang Ning chatted with Erniang during the day, but wanted to find an opportunity for him to write a letter to Zhou Mengxiong, so that Zhou Mengxiong would be more willing to accept the reform of the Six Departments and absorb the relegation into an official position.As long as they act with emotion and reason, and think about the overall situation, it is still possible to let Zhou Mengxiong and others put aside their old enemies and win over the bureaucrats of the Xuande Dynasty.

Since there is a marriage, he thinks that Tuesday's mother can play an active role in the situation at this time.As for the Yao family, Zhang Ning also intends to mainly persuade Yao Ji. Monk Yao has always listened to his younger sister very much.

Obviously women do not have much political stance and are very unstable. It is much easier to persuade Zhou Mengxiong than Zhou Mengxiong.

But after Tuesday's mother agreed to this matter, Zhang Ning did not leave immediately.After all, the family is not an official battlefield, and it is not good to leave after achieving the goal, so that there is a lack of family warmth; just like in bed, it is not good to leave or turn around and sleep when you are in bed.So he continued to get bored in Tuesday's mother's room.

Tuesday's mother can't sing, dance, or play chess, and she is very conservative in her thinking, just like most decent women.No wonder many scholar-bureaucrats in the officialdom left their beautiful wives alone and preferred to visit brothels and restaurants. Of course, the scholar-bureaucrats married women from good families, but those prostitutes were obviously much more open and free.

The two of them only chatted one after another.After a while, Mother Tuesday came over with a cloth ruler to measure her body, "I see that you usually change two sets of clothes, and now I'm free, so I'll make you a new set of clothes."

Zhang Ning sat there playing with flint and steel, turned his head and said casually: "Now we don't lack food and clothing, why bother to make clothes by ourselves?" Needlework, besides, I did it with my own hands..." Tuesday Niang chuckled, "Would it be warmer?"

Zhang Ning responded: "Then let's make underwear, which is close-fitting, and I can think about it when I don't see you."

Anyway, it doesn't cost money to talk sweet words. [

After a while, Tuesday's mother asked curiously again: "Why are you playing with that thing?"

At this time, if what Zhang Ning did was seen by the scholar-bureaucrats, he would definitely be despised, because in the eyes of a gentleman, people who like to play with such gadgets are obviously a manifestation of ambition.He is very interested in pondering the main tool for making fire in this era: flint and fire scythe.

The Chinese characters are very magical. As long as you think of the word "gold" next to the sickle, you will know that the fire sickle is a kind of metal.The thing in Zhang Ning's hand is probably a steel sheet that has been repeatedly forged, with a circular arc at the bottom; use it to rub against the flint to produce sparks.Flint is a kind of stone. The one in front of me is carefully processed and has grooves for easy operation; Zhang Ning took it in front of him and observed it carefully, guessing that its material may be mainly quartz, a very strong stone.

In addition to the main tools, the fire sickle and flint, there are two other things that make the fire: tinder and touch lamp.Tinder is made from the young leaves of mugwort, dried in the sun and crushed. It can draw green smoke when wrapped on a fire sickle; then put it on the touch lamp and burn it.As for the touch lamp as a "catalyst", it is said that in the past, paper tubes of hay were used as catalysts, and they were carefully blown on contact with tinder. However, gunpowder has been widely used in the Ming Dynasty. Combustion, neither the technical work of blowing nor the convenience.

Seeing that Zhang Ning was concentrating on playing with such interesting things, and also answered her words, Zhou Erniang complained quietly: "How much more interesting is the lighting thing than me?"

It is because of Zhang Ning's sweet words just now that she will express her dissatisfaction in her heart; it seems that the more favored people are, the more willful they are.

Zhang Ning hurriedly turned to hold her hand, let her sit on his lap, and explained, "Do you know the firearms used in the military?"

Because of his intimacy, Zhou Erniang said angrily on purpose: "I have heard about it a little, but I am a woman, so naturally I would not play with such a weapon of war."

Zhang Ning said patiently: "At present, the matchlock guns we use are to hit the lighted matchlock on the gunpowder with a mechanism. As soon as the gunpowder meets the kindling, boom! It will explode." He said While still making movements, she suddenly raised her hands, "Boom!" It was a bit funny, and when Tuesday's mother didn't pay attention, she burst out laughing.

He said solemnly again: "However, there are too many disadvantages in starting a fire with a match. For example, what should I do if it suddenly goes out on the spot? Stick, if you think about it, you must be scolding God in your heart. Especially in foggy weather or when the air has just rained and the air is humid, a little fire on the matchlock is easy to extinguish. Also, in case of night battles, black paint Painted, lit with matchlocks, there must be our people in places with bright spots, which is like a living target for the enemy's archers to point out the target."

"If the ignition mechanism can be improved, like this fire scythe and flint, if the steel plate rubs the flint to ignite the fire, many problems will be solved, and the fire rate of the firearm can also be increased."

Tuesday's mother listened carefully, because Zhang Ning spoke clearly, she seemed to understand.If someone else talked about this kind of topic to her, she would definitely not be interested, but because it was Zhang Ning who said it, she was willing to listen.

At this time, there was an expression of admiration in her eyes, as if she thought her husband was very powerful.

Women are born to worship the strong opposite sex, and only like tall, muscular men on the outside, so the so-called handsome and delicate young men, although cute, may not win the hearts of women; , a smarter and more sensible girl like Zhou Yiniang also pays more attention to inner strength. The inner strength in ancient times can be expressed through the body, but since the Song and Ming Dynasties, the status of literati has risen, and the strength of literati in society is undoubtedly easy to get. Women's favor.The popularity of stories of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies is such a background.

At the beginning, Zhou Yiniang quickly accepted Zhang Ning, a stranger she had never met, as her husband because she had heard that he was very talented. If it were another person, she would be forced to accept it.

However, after she gained great benefits from her military technical talents, she was a teenager and her concept was easy to change. Gradually, she looked down on the kind of literati who are only good at writing, and began to lean towards Zhang Ning, who is genuine and practical. ability.Her father, Zhou Mengxiong, once said at home that Zhang Ning's success in raising troops largely relied on new firearm technology.

Zhang Ning slightly sighed: "Life is busy in the world, and only at this time, when you stop in the tranquility, can you think about some details that are easily overlooked."

Mother on Tuesday looked up at his face, and said casually: "Then Husband has to hurry up and send someone to make a firearm with flint and steel. Flint and sickle can be seen everywhere. If someone in the court thinks of making it first, we will not be at a disadvantage. Is it?"

Zhang Ning smiled confidently and said: "It seems that it is difficult to produce this kind of genius in the world... The imperial government can only follow in my footsteps and chase after me. When they find new things, they will think about imitation and mass production, at least after they find out. It’s been a year and a half, and before that, they could only use outdated weapons against new things; it’s like they used bows, arrows and spears in several battles against arquebuses.”

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