Horse on the World

Chapter 46

Seeing the finalized chariot, Li Qing temporarily decided to go to the Jiangzuo camp. The location of the Jiangzuo camp is not far from the military camp, only a few miles away. After a large number of people dispersed, the huge old camp seemed empty. Let's get up, after the craftsman camp was formally established, it was located on the west side of the old camp.

As a department that Li Qing values ​​very much, the conditions of the Craftsman Camp are very good. The places where they work and rest have already been built into permanent buildings. To build the craftsman camp, even the military camp only transported some blue bricks and stones to build a wall and a few sentry towers. Even Li Qing's General's Mansion and Xu Yunfeng's Chongxian County Government, up to now, are still A wooden house built temporarily at that time.Of course, after several reconstructions, the conditions of these wooden houses have been greatly improved.

The craftsman camp has basically become the arsenal of the Changsheng camp. More than a hundred blacksmiths from the Li family in Yizhou came here from Yizhou after the new year. Together with nearly a thousand of their families, they were all placed in In the craftsman camp, each craftsman was awarded land near the old camp, ten acres per person, and a family with several members would have dozens of acres of land, which made Ruan reluctant to come to Dingzhou from the prosperous Yizhou The craftsmen in Yizhou, and even the poor and remote Chongxian County, got an unexpected joy. You must know that when they were in Yizhou, except for the experienced master craftsmen, they only had a meager salary and could barely survive.But when they arrived in Chong County, each family got dozens of acres of land, which was very unimaginable in Yizhou.

Although these craftsmen have a craft, they still have the spirit of small farmers in their bones. Owning their own land is a common dream of people in this era. Whether they are officials or merchants, the first thing they do after prosperity is to buy land.These people never thought that they would own land one day. When they got the land deed from the county government, most of them were in a dream.The original reluctance immediately turned into joy.

For Li Qing, nearly [-] mu of land is really a piece of cake for Chongxian County today. Although Chongxian County does not have a lot of land, there are too few people now. A lot of land is barren and uncultivated, and he thinks it is too worthwhile to use some barren land to attract some technicians he needs very much.

The Li family in Yizhou is very clear about the inner meaning of blacksmiths. These blacksmiths are drawn from the Li family's own crafting battalion in Yizhou. They are best at making all kinds of weapons, and even come with these blacksmiths. There are also manufacturing drawings of some large instruments.

The master master who led the team had been appointed by Li Qing Zhila as the master craftsman of the craftsman camp, with a salary equivalent to that of a seventh-rank official, and the family was also granted land.This made the master named Ren Ruyun very grateful. This salary was something he could not earn even after a year of hard work in the Li family in Yizhou, let alone the land?As long as there is land, Ren Ruqing is willing to do it even if he doesn't get paid.

As soon as he stepped into the gate of the craftsman camp, Ren Ruyun, the master craftsman, came out with a group of craftsmen. The imperial court did not have the official position of master craftsman, but Li Qing decided to combine experienced masters with ordinary craftsmen. The teacher distinguished them to make these people more responsible and honorable. First of all, in the clothing, there was no special official uniform, so Li Qing asked people to embroider two crossed hammers on the white robe. , and then embroidered stars.Like Ren Ruyun, there are two hammers, plus three stars. The two hammers mean that he is the leader of the craftsman camp, and the other three stars represent that he is the most skilled master in the craftsman camp.

Under him, they are divided into several groups. The group leader is a hammer, and stars are embroidered according to their level. Like these group leaders, there are usually two stars, while ordinary craftsmen It is a star, without a hammer, and an apprentice does not have a star, and can only be embroidered with a star after being promoted to a master craftsman.The stars are different, and the salary is also different.

After the construction of the craftsman camp, Li Qing hadn't visited once, but only summoned Ren Ruyun and gave him the blueprint of the chariot.

Seeing Ren Ruyun coming up to him, Li Qing almost burst out laughing, the white robe on his body could no longer be seen clearly, even his face was covered with black ash, and the craftsmen behind him were all dressed by his subordinates Group leader.

Ren Ruyun was really worried, he just delivered the finished chariot to the barracks a few days ago, Li Qing came today, is there something wrong with the chariot, did it fail to meet the general's requirements?

"I have seen the general, my lords!" Ren Ruyun rushed over like flying, and was about to kneel and kowtow, Li Qing stepped forward to grab him, and said with a smile: "Supervisor Ren, you also have the official position of my Changsheng camp, no If you need to kneel, just fold your hands."

ah!Ren Ruyun, the chief craftsman supervisor, and his team leader were all stunned, official position?Do you think you are an official?Ren Ruqing said earnestly: "General, how can there be an official like a master craftsman?" He always thought that he was just a master craftsman, and compared with ordinary ordinary people, he only had ordinary craftsmanship. .

"Of course it's an official!" Li Qing said with a hearty smile, "I don't care about other places. In Chongxian County, the general supervisor is an official, and he is an important official. Otherwise, why would I give you the equivalent of a seventh-rank official?" Salary?"

Ren Ruyun's lips trembled a little, and the team leaders behind him all blushed and breathed rapidly. The general is saying that his current position is equivalent to that of a seventh-rank official. What is a seventh-rank official? Can be magistrate.Those are all high-ranking characters who need to be looked up to. Are you the same as them now?Are you an official?The ancestors showed their spirits, and this trip to Chong County was so worthwhile.At this time, Ren Ruyun is extremely grateful to the chief master of the Li family's craftsman camp who kicked him to Chong County because he didn't know him. Without him, he would not have his current status!The original hatred for him has long since disappeared.

Seeing Ren Ruyun's expression, Li Qing knew how he felt. In this era, the status of a craftsman is very low, even worse than that of an ordinary farmer, unless you can become a master master, it will change.

Putting away her excited mood, Ren Ruyun still asked with some anxiety: "The general came to the craftsman's camp today, is it because there is something wrong with the chariots that were sent last batch?"

Li Qing shook his head, "No, there is no problem, it is very well made, of course, there is no room for improvement, you can slowly explore in the future, for example, make this car easier to push, run faster, and the axle is more wear-resistant , how can it be repaired in the shortest time after it is damaged, etc., etc.!"

Ren Ruyun had heard that there was no problem at first, so he let go of his heart, but what Li Qing said immediately made his face turn pale. There are still many problems. Keep it in your heart and plan to think about it later.

"Let's go, take us to see your crafting camp!" Seeing that Ren Ruyun was really nervous, Li Qing changed the topic, some things cannot be accomplished overnight, and can only be done slowly.

"The villain leads the way!" Ren Ruyun said.

"You should call yourself here!" Li Qing corrected.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Ren Ruyun hurriedly said: "The villain forgot, oh, no, no, I forgot the humble position, and the humble position is now an official!" Ren Ruyun's words caused a burst of good-natured laughter in the audience.

"General, this is the iron smelting group, which specializes in improving the quality of pig iron. General, we don't have iron mines in Chong County, so we can only buy some pig iron, but the quality of these pig irons is not uniform, and they must be returned to the furnace to be retrained before they can be used to forge weapons. Otherwise, the weapon will be easily damaged." Ren Ruyun introduced it to everyone as he walked.The generals who followed knew very well that weapons were very important to soldiers on the battlefield, and they were simply the second life of a soldier. No one wanted to be hacked by someone else, but to stand up with a knife, and with a bang, his own knife broke , isn't that waiting to be slaughtered?Now they are all staring wide-eyed, refusing to let go of a detail, just want to pick out a few problems, so that the superintendent will pay more attention when making weapons, and make them sharper and more durable, but all of them are A layman is good at chopping people with a knife, make a knife, go dreaming.

"Then how about the quality of the iron you re-smelted?" Li Qing asked looking at the molten iron tumbling in the furnace.

"It depends on the quality of the pig iron." Ren Ruyun said cautiously. "The weapons we make now can't compare with Yizhou craftsmen's battalion. Whether it is sharp or durable, they are all inferior."

Li Qing pondered for a while, and said, "Have you heard of steel?"

Ren Ruyun froze for a moment, then shook his head, Li Qing couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, "It's a kind that is harder than iron, but also more flexible, a kind..." Li Qing thought of the vocabulary description in his mind.

"Are you talking about refined iron?" a group leader behind Ren Ruyun interjected.

"Refined iron, yes, it is refined iron!" Li Qing's eyes lit up, "Do you know refined iron?"

Ren Ruyun hurriedly introduced, "General, he is the leader of the iron making team, Xu Xiaodao. Xiaodao, come to the front and tell the general about refined iron."

Xu Xiaodao was a little nervous, "My lord, when I was in Yizhou, I knew that the Yizhou craftsman camp was developing a kind of refined iron. The characteristics that the master said were similar to what the general just said."

"Do you know how they do it?" Li Qing asked with interest.

"Where the villain is, he is just an ordinary craftsman. He doesn't know very clearly. It seems that he is constantly adding charcoal powder into the furnace. The villain doesn't know exactly what it is."

Li Qing nodded in satisfaction. He knew that steel was produced in this way in the first place, but this method of burning impurities with charcoal powder could not produce extremely high-quality steel.

"Oh, then why don't you try this method?"

Xu Xiaodao said: "This method is very easy to fail, and it often turns the better pig iron into waste. We are already nervous about pig iron now, and we dare not take the risk of wasting it."

Li Qing said with a smile: "That's true, but you can build a small stove, try it first!" Li Qing encouraged, "I've also heard of a method of frying steel, oh, you said fine iron, You can try it too!"

"Steel frying method?" Xu Xiaodao was puzzled.

"Well, that's it!" Li Qing gestured, "Add charcoal powder, and then keep turning the molten iron over and over again like cooking. Of course, I will decide how to add charcoal powder and how much charcoal powder to add. I no longer know!"

Ren Ruyun opened his eyes wide, "My lord, how do you know that iron making is a method, and we have never heard of it?"

Li Qing smiled and said: "I heard people say it, I heard it said, you can try it, um, your name is Xu Xiaodao, if you really test it out, I will put a hammer and a star on your chest, How about it?"

Xu Xiaodao became excited all of a sudden, he was going to be promoted to be a master master, see if he saw master Ren Ruyun, he is now receiving the salary of a seventh-rank official!The stars on the chest have not been added yet, but the stars are appearing in front of the eyes.

After talking about this matter, Li Qing didn't take it to heart anymore. Without a certain accumulation of these things, it's hard to see results in a short period of time. Make up your own mind. As for how to do it, it's theirs. Anyway, I'm not very clear.

The group saw the knife shop, arrow shop, and woodware shop again, and left satisfied. The efficiency of the craftsman camp is quite good now. When he left the craftsman camp, Li Qing began to consider whether to teach the method of assembly line work Give it to them, think about it or forget it, there are only more than a hundred people in total now, it can't be a big deal, let's talk about it later!
(End of this chapter)