Horse on the World

Chapter 480 Great Surprise
The craftsmen’s camp back then has changed drastically. As Li Qing’s jurisdiction expands, the scale of the craftsman’s camp is also expanding. The increase has led to a flock of craftsmen from all over the country to vote, and the number of master craftsmen has increased year by year. This has also allowed other places in Dachu to strengthen the control and monitoring of experienced craftsmen in their own areas, and they are strictly prohibited from leaving their residences at will.

The small town at that time has now expanded several times. Although the Dingzhou Craftsman Camp is under militarized control, there are craftsmen living in small towns that developed outside the Craftsman Camp and relying on the Craftsman Camp. The relatives and family members of the craftsmen, the craftsmen will get a day off every few days of work. At this time, they will return to their homes in the town to share the family happiness with their families.

The living conditions of the craftsmen have improved, and their pockets have bulged, so some shrewd businessmen are eyeing this place. It is not known who was the first to buy land, start a house, start a business here, and then come here to do business. The merchants grew like a blowout, and now the number of people here has exceeded 5, which is the size of a small city.

The area where the Craftsman Camp is located used to be under the jurisdiction of Fuyuan. Later, Xu Xiaodao's departments and Yiling Iron Mine were directly classified as military management. In the past two years, with the explosive development of the Craftsman Camp, Lu Yiming is inviting Li Qing After agreeing, he simply separated all the areas of the craftsman camp and established a pocket county government unit. Because the people living in this county are craftsmen and their families, Lu Yiming named it Shengong County and appointed Under the jurisdiction of officials, it is directly under the management of Dingzhou Prefecture.

Although Shengong County is directly under the administration of Dingzhou Prefecture, in fact, there are several other departments that can govern his specific affairs. Produced here, his importance can be imagined. The second is the Dingzhou Logistics Department directly under Li Qing, with Zhong Haotian as the director.

Of the three departments, the one with the most power is actually the last one. The state government is only responsible for the daily management of Shengong County, maintaining law and order, and collecting taxes. When it comes to the logistics department, it is more about one-to-one coordination, placing orders or receiving goods.Only the logistics management department has direct jurisdiction over the craftsman camp and participates in the work of the entire craftsman camp. In view of the importance of the craftsman camp to the entire Dingzhou, Zhong Haotian simply moved the office of his management department to Shen Gong County, and Ren Ruyun, the head of the original craftsman camp, is now the deputy director of the Logistics Management Department, in charge of the research and development and production of military products.

This time Li Qing came to Shengong County because a craftsman under Ren Ruyun made a hammer.Li Qing naturally knew the importance of the hammer for the large-scale forging of armor. After receiving the report, he immediately decided to take a look at it himself.

What appeared in front of Li Qing was a huge man. Seeing the hammer falling heavily with the sound of the wind, under several blows, a piece of iron plate had been beaten extremely thin. Li Qing couldn't help but smiled with satisfaction. Although there is a gap than what I expected, it is already very good to be able to do this, and as time goes by, these skilled craftsmen will naturally improve a little bit.

"Very good, very good!" Li Qing said with satisfaction: "With this big guy, it is possible for us to equip soldiers with plate armor made of refined iron on a large scale, which will make the burden on our soldiers lighter, and The protection is also better. Director Zhong, Lord Ren, on behalf of all the soldiers in the army, I thank you.” In the past, because the production of plate armor was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, only a small amount was produced in Dingzhou, and it was allocated to middle and senior officers or special operations departments. , and the soldiers still use old-fashioned armor. Although it is not difficult to make this kind of old-fashioned armor, the cost is still high. Moreover, the soldiers wear it on their bodies and weigh tens of kilograms, which greatly limits the soldiers' combat capabilities.If the plate armor can be manufactured on a large scale, a set of armor can be reduced by almost half, and the half saved is reflected in the battlefield, which is more abundant physical fitness and stronger combat effectiveness.

"Don't dare to be a big handsome praise!" The two quickly bowed.

Zhong Haotian smiled and said: "The lower officials don't understand these things at all, almost all of them are managed by Master Ren."

Ren Ruyun has been an official for a long time, but now he also knows that everyone carries the bridal sedan chair, and when he heard Zhong Haotian praise him, he hurriedly said: "If it weren't for Master Zhong's support, we wouldn't be able to make this thing, Commander, In the beginning, this thing was a complete waste of money!"

Li Qing couldn't help laughing. During the development process of any technology, it is a waste of money. Some technologies can earn back tens of thousands of times after they are successful, while some become a pile of expensive things after they are developed. Waste, "You guys brought me here, it's not just for this stuff, is it?"

This made everyone laugh, Zhong Haotian said: "My lord is very aware of the details, there are indeed some good things."

"Then take it out, why hide it?" Li Qing laughed.

Everyone hugged Li Qing and came to a bungalow not far from the punching hammer. Inside was a punching hammer that seemed to be ten times smaller. Countless craftsmen were busy inside, cutting The plate armor wool that came down was smoothed with that thing. Looking at those dexterous instruments, the connecting rod device has actually been used.

"Master Ren buried himself in the house for nearly a month after the large hammer was made, and it was done with astonishing efficiency, countless times faster than the workers holding the small hammer. Ah!" Zhong Haotian sighed, "Marshal, to be honest, I didn't think much of craftsmen before, but when I got here, I saw them constantly creating new things, and the things they produced were almost every day. When both of them bring huge benefits to our Dingzhou, I feel so ashamed!"

Li Qing looked at Zhong Haotian and said appreciatively: "If you have this kind of thinking, it means that you have matured a lot. In our Great Chu, scholars have always been superior. Yes, I don't deny that knowledge of books and etiquette is very important. One As a nation, if you don’t study, you can’t make progress, but we can’t read books by rote, and we can’t always memorize the books of sages. How to innovate and develop is more important. As the saying goes, 360 lines, every step is the best! "

"The master is wise!" Zhong Haotian nodded, "If these craftsmen only embraced the skills handed down from the older generation, there would be no craftsman camp today. Under the leadership of Mr. Ren, the craftsman camp is changing with each passing day. There will be new things coming out after a period of time, in this respect, Master Ren can be regarded as my teacher."

Ren Ruyun on the side said anxiously: "Master Zhong said that you have read a lot of poetry and books, and I can't read a few big characters, so you are worthy to be your teacher? Besides, many of the original ideas of this craftsman's camp were done by the commander himself. , I just turned some of the commander-in-chief's ideas into reality."

Li Qing laughed loudly, "Threesomes, there must be my teacher, so you don't have to hold each other's feet. By the way, Mr. Ren, I look at you, it seems that there are still good things you haven't brought out?"

Ren Ruyun was taken aback and said: "Marshal, how do you even know this? I just had a little idea about that thing, and I have no idea how to do it!"

Li Qing laughed out loud, he just said it casually, but he didn't expect this guy to actually have something.Ren Ruyun is now a master of weapons, and even he hasn't figured out a practical way, so the power must be not small.

"Whether you have clues or not, tell me and listen, maybe I can give you a little attention!" Li Qing said.

"Commander, please!" Ren Ruyun bowed.

Everyone came to a huge room dedicated to Ren Ruyun's work. The room was in a mess, with all kinds of materials piled up everywhere, and there was almost no place to plug in. Seeing everyone's surprised eyes, Ren Ruyun couldn't help but blushed. : "There is no time to clean up, Marshal, my lords, don't take offense!"

Everyone cautiously inserted their doubts, and followed Ren Ruyun to a slightly empty place inside, where there was a table, which was obviously the place where Ren Ruyun handled official duties.

Pulling open a cabinet, Ren Ruyun took out a small box, opened the box, and solemnly placed the contents on the table.

"What is this?" Everyone was surprised. In the small box, there were things rolled up with paper, and there was still a short piece of rope on it.

Li Qing's heart exploded. Isn't this the most common firecracker he has ever seen in his previous life?How could Ren Ruyun have it?

His hands trembled a little, he slowly picked up one, held it in his hand and looked at it repeatedly, the excitement in his heart couldn't be increased. After coming to this world, he didn't think about making it a kind of weapon, but in this big Chu, the use of gunpowder Using it is a blank slate, and he has no experience at all, and he doesn't have the most basic things like adding saltpeter, so he has always buried this idea deeply in his heart.

"How did you get this thing?" Li Qing's voice trembled a little, and everyone looked at Li Qing strangely. In their eyes, these little gadgets could be of any use, but seeing Li Qing's expression, they couldn't help but wonder. It shows that this thing is extremely important.

"Marshal, do you know this thing?" Ren Ruyun was also extremely surprised.

Taking a deep breath, Li Qing nodded and said, "I've heard that if you use a little fire, it will explode with a bang!"

"So you know, Commander!" Ren Ruyun's face was full of disappointment. He thought it was a rare commodity to live in, but he didn't expect that the Commander already knew about it.

"How did you come up with this thing?" Li Qing pressed his excitement and asked.

"I didn't make this." Ren Ruyun said with some embarrassment, "This is an apprentice in the craftsman's camp. He used to be a Taoist priest. He learned some magic pills from his master. Later, the Taoist temple was ruined, and his master also He was killed by the rebels, he went to Dingzhou after several trips, and finally entered the craftsman's camp as an apprentice, and he happened to be assigned to help me. Not long ago, he found a wife. On the day of his wedding, he made a few of these things. Just to add to the fun, I was there that day. When I saw this thing, I didn’t pay attention to it at the time. Later, when I got home, I thought, if I make this thing bigger and put more of this kind of powder in it, wouldn’t it be possible to use it as a weapon? .”

Li Qing interrupted him, "It's not that the bigger the better, but the composition of this powder determines its power!" After a few rounds in the room, excited, he was almost caught by those messy objects. Stumbled and stumbled and made others sweat.

Standing still, Li Qing said to Ren Ruyun: "Set up a special research group to study this thing, let that apprentice, no, promote him to be a master craftsman, and be in charge of the development of this thing, Ren Ruyun, you sit in charge, Director Zhong , this group asks money for money, and people for people.”

"Yes, Commander!" Zhong Hao agreed, and then asked hesitantly, "Commander, is this thing very powerful?"

Li Qing breathed a sigh of relief, "If it really succeeds, it will change the way of war in the entire Great Chu. Do you think it is powerful?"

After hearing Li Qingruo's words, Ren Ruyun also became nervous, "Marshal, we must step up our research and strive to improve his power as soon as possible."

Li Qing has calmed down now, this thing is not something that can be accomplished overnight, he said with a smile: "You don't have to worry, improving the power of this thing is just the first step, when it has enough power, we will talk about other things. Tell me after you made him extremely lethal that day, three or five years will do, it doesn't matter, we have plenty of time!"

Turning around, he said to everyone in the room: "This matter is listed as the top secret in Dingzhou, and everyone is not allowed to reveal any news. Tang Hu, after returning, notify Director Qingfeng for the record. Anyone in this room, and In the future, everyone who will come into contact with this project should be put on record, and Qingfeng will send a special team to be responsible for the security of this team. Report directly to her."

(End of this chapter)