Country and Beauty

Zhuge Mingyue's (Ning Dan) face revealed a smile that seemed depressed yet relieved. Looking at Xie Fei, Zhuge Mingyue was like a happy little bird, she paused for a moment, then smiled mysteriously and said: "Brother Fei, please follow me to Institute of Martial Studies now."

Xie Fei was startled, "Could it be that the Institute of Martial Studies has a new invention!?"

Zhuge Mingyue nodded her head, and laughed without saying a word. Xie Fei's face was gloomy, he had never seen him acting as a lord, but as a subordinate, Zhuge Mingyue did not have any sense of being a subordinate. Xie Fei asked patiently: "What the hell are you doing? Tell me, in the end, what did you invent?"

"Zhuge Mingyue, deliberately making things difficult for Xie Fei, reported the embarrassing situation from yesterday. Yes. "Yes." Zhuge Mingyue remained silent for a long time. This made him extremely anxious.

Xie Fei purposely had a straight face and said solemnly: "If you don't want to say it, then forget it. I'm going back to discuss the matter of attacking the Jizhou anyway, so I won't stay here and cause trouble for you!"

When Zhuge Mingyue saw that she was angry, she blinked her large eyes in surprise. She raised her head to look at Xie Fei's gloomy face and meekly said, "Brother Fei, how about I tell you something?" Xie Fei laughed and said kindly: "Right, that's cute!" After pausing for a moment, Zhuge Mingyue continued to look at Xie Fei: "Actually, Mingyue is very powerful. Recently, under Mingyue's care, everything has been in order at Institute of Martial Studies. "After experimenting, its power was not weak at all. In one strike, it sounded like thunder, killing more than ten boars within a thousand steps!" Zhuge Mingyue's tone and attitude were just like a child offering a treasure.

Xie Fei immediately became spirited and asked happily: "Really!"

"It's true!"

"As expected!"

"As expected!"

Under Xie Fei's repeated confirmation, Xie Fei excitedly pinched his own face, "Am I dreaming!"

Looking at Xie Fei's childish and innocent appearance, Zhuge Mingyue didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She shook her head and sighed endlessly.

Xie Fei was a little impatient now, so he quickly ordered people to prepare some horses for him. Xie Fei brought his personal bodyguard Ran Zhan and his new good friend Wang Zuo, who had been taken in by the king for thousands of years, and walked straight towards the Institute of Martial Studies. Along the way, the four of them chatted and laughed without feeling depressed, and the lively Zhuge Mingyue made the four of them immerse themselves in laughter. However, the scenery along the way made Xie Fei's heart very heavy, the number of refugees along the official road became even more numerous compared to a month ago. As Xie Fei was unrestrainedly stowing food in Qingzhou, the amount of refugees who came to visit them grew larger and larger. They had to stabilize his territory as soon as possible, Xie Fei involuntarily thought.

The group chatted as they walked. When it was close to evening, the group arrived at Mount Xian in the western part of the Green Continent. The people of Mount Xian who had already received the news were greeting them at the foot of the mountain, led by their Battalion Commander, Li Qing. Due to the special nature of the Institute of Martial Studies, the Institute of Martial Studies was built inside the iron mine. Even if the people outside knew that this place was secretive and heavily guarded, they would still think that it was just an ordinary mine. In fact, they would never think that there was actually a city inside the city, Institute of Martial Studies!

Xie Fei galloped his horse throughout the day, but in order to see the cannons earlier, Xie Fei did not bother to rest. He directly walked up the mountain. More than a mile ahead of him was the iron mine, and another five or six miles after he passed the iron mine, that was the Institute of Martial Studies. Before Xie Fei even reached the place, he heard a loud noise, and he couldn't help but be curious.

After a while, they arrived at the edge of the mining grounds. At this moment, Xie Fei and the others were on a stone platform on a cliff, in front of them was a basin that was not too deep, there were many houses at the bottom of the basin, and on the slope north, south and east of the basin, there were also many houses. On the west side of the basin was a cliff. On the cliff, there was a cableway leading downhill. There was a pulley on the cableway, and the mined ore was loaded onto the pulley. Then, they followed the cableway to the official road at the foot of the mountain. There were more than two thousand mixed steel furnaces inside the mountain. However, due to the low productivity, the output of the steel factory in Mount Xian was only enough for Black Shirt Army to make weapons and blades. It was simply unable to create economic benefits for Xie Fei. The loud noise that Xie Fei heard just now was the noise made when the pulley slid down.

Xie Fei nodded, and praised: "Not bad! Who came up with this pulley? "

Li Qing said, "This was thought up by an extremely lazy worker among the mine's captives!"

It could be said that every new product was invented by lazy people. In the beginning, it was not to replace the human farm, and there would not be ploughs, if it was not because people did not want to walk, there would not be carriages or even cars. Even the invention of cars and steam engines was to liberate human beings. Xie Fei said: "How many ores will this pulley be able to transport down the mountain at a time?"

Li Qing cupped his fist and said, "My lord, this cart can transport eight hundred Jin of ores!" Li Qing then continued with a dejected look, "It's a pity that the amount of ores dropped every day is not enough for transportation on the cableway!"

Xie Fei nodded his head, he was not surprised at all by this. If it was enough to transport the cableway, it would have to produce at least over a hundred thousand catties per day. Xie Fei said to Li Qing: "Give me a good reward to the person who invented this sleigh wheel, since he is a captive, I will now order, recover his freedom immediately, and reward him with five hundred silver, give him a reward in the new house in Qingzhou!"

Xie Fei's intention was simple, he was using this matter to stimulate the workers' creativity, and thus allow the development of the mine to be even faster!

Li Qing nodded in agreement!

"What did you do with the prisoners?" Xie Fei asked again. Li Qing reported, "According to our lord's orders, thousands of captives are divided into three batches and taken turns to mine ores! "Give them a certain amount of harvest every day, and if you can finish it in time, you can add more food. If you can't, then delay working overtime!"

Xie Fei nodded, and then continued to ask. "How are the captives? Is there anyone who is dissatisfied with this, or even rebelled against us? "

Li Qing said, "No, they are very obedient now. In order to get extra food, they are very enthusiastic about their work." Xie Fei shook his head. Some of the local tyrants and barbarian soldier captives in Qingzhou would not be able to lower their heads that easily. Xie Fei asked curiously: "How did you do that?"

Li Qing replied, "That's not true, at the beginning, there were some among the captives who wanted to resist! Since our lord has spoken, we can only lock them up and not kill them! However, this did not put an end to their rebellious feelings! Then we thought of our lord's tight punishment in the army, and the iron men could not bear it, so we did it among the prisoners, and of course we kept the Black Room closed for a month, and the effect was surprisingly good! Those captives who were making a ruckus all lowered their heads! " Li Qing continued, "We give preferential treatment to those obedient prisoners. With such a two-pronged approach, the prisoners gradually become like this."

After Xie Fei heard this, he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Wasn't this the policy that Uncle Sam commonly used in the future when he was using carrot and stick? This was also the mental torture method used in future generations' interrogation techniques. Xie Fei praised: "Kid, you really have a way?" Xie Fei thought, this method was not bad! In the future, they could use this method to capture prisoners in foreign wars, turning them into obedient labourers, just like farming cattle in the fields.

Along the way, Xie Fei chatted with Wang Meng, Ran Zhan and Zhuge Mingyue, and unknowingly, they arrived at the entrance of the Institute of Martial Studies.

Xie Fei followed the bluestone path and walked inside. Along the way, Xie Fei made many turns and turns without pause. It was obvious that he was very familiar with this place.

Wang Meng did not know what the Institute of Martial Studies Xie Fei was talking about, but he was shocked at how tight the security here was. It could even be considered as three steps, five steps, and one guard. The troops were stationed on all the high points around the perimeter of the light, and there was no blind spot for firepower attacks. Ran Zhan and Wang Meng were very familiar with the military, and the two of them roughly calculated, if they wanted to attack this courtyard from the outside, it would have to be tens of thousands of elites!

Xie Fei had long since noticed the expressions and expressions of Ran Zhan and Wang Meng. He understood Wang Meng and Ran Zhan's thoughts, in this era, most likely everyone had the same idea as them. Xie Fei did not explain anything to the two. He believed that after seeing the results of the Institute of Martial Studies, the two of them would not find it strange.

After walking for a while, they arrived at the second place in the residence.

When he saw the scene of entering the second round, Wang Meng revealed a surprised expression. The second area was very large, with only a few areas being over a thousand mu of land. In this large piece of land, there were only a few rows of houses close to the walls. The rest of the area was empty space. Many blacksmiths' stoves were lined up in neat rows on the open ground, and this kind of blacksmith's stoves had never been seen before. Not only were they different from normal blacksmiths' stoves, but they were also much smaller, almost twice the size of normal stoves. At this moment, thousands of blacksmiths were furiously forging iron, and the sounds of knocking and shouting resounded in the air.

Xie Fei proudly explained as he looked at the two of them.

"There are two thousand blacksmith furnaces. Unlike the workshop outside, only newly developed weapons are produced here."

Wang Meng blankly nodded his head. He had still yet to recover from his shock.

After passing through the second courtyard, he entered the third courtyard. This was where the gunpowder was produced. Compared to the second courtyard, this area was much smaller, and it was obvious at a glance. Regarding the things here, Xie Fei did not explain in detail, because Xie Fei knew that based on the knowledge that the two of them had accepted, it would undoubtedly be to talk about the guqin with a cow.

Inside the Three-in-One courtyard was a huge armoury. The few of them could finally see the situation within the armory. Rows of wooden racks lined up in rows, each filled with sabers different from the ones used by the current army. There were also wooden boxes stacked into small hills. New equipment included not only the horizontal blade, greataxe, armor, and Heaven Bombing grenade s. There were also a large number of newly made double-hole crossbows and crossbow beds.

Under Zhuge Mingyue's lead, Xie Fei's group arrived at the Fourth Branch. The Fourth Court was a weapons testing grounds, and the area was not too big, around a hundred mu of land. There were countless thick wooden stakes buried inside, as well as countless archery targets.

Zhuge Mingyue led Xie Fei and the others to a small storage room near the wall. There was something that looked like a handcart inside, but it was covered by a black cloth. It was impossible to tell what was inside.

Xie Fei couldn't wait and tore off the black cloth, revealing the real face of Lushan. At first glance, it looked like a tiger chariot meant for street battles. The only difference was that the sharp spear in front of the chariot had been replaced with a thick steel pipe, and there was a half foot thick metal wheel directly above the axle.

What surprised Xie Fei the most was that this was not his original idea at all. Xie Fei's original thought was that it would already be impressive if Institute of Martial Studies could develop a rod, but who would have thought that it would actually be possible to develop a Fu Lang [1] cannon, which had just appeared in the Ming Dynasty. When firing the cannon, the gunpowder pellets are first filled into the cannon, and then the cannon is loaded into the gunner's belly, igniting the gunner's door to fire.

Because the barrel of this cannon was made from the same iron as the Damascus Steel, the Damascus Iron was a kind of crude steel in the future. Although it was crude, it was still steel, and was not the same as iron, and the diameter of this cannon was 25 times that of steel. Since the barrel was about three meters long, the belly of the cannon was very thick, and generally, the barrel of the rudder had a sight and a door. As for the concept of a cannon, everyone could imagine the relationship between a gun and a bullet. Using modern fixed charge bullets as a control, an empty cannon was equivalent to a shell, and a door of fire was equivalent to a primer. When the cannon was filled with gunpowder and bullets, it would have the same function as a bullet.

As we all know, the Big Ming Fu Lang Cannon can be said to be the ancestor of the later generations to be equipped with cannon. In addition, he has four advantages: fast firing speed, fast heat dissipation, not easy to blow up, shooting performance. On the other hand, despite these advantages, there is a fatal weakness of the Big Ming Fowler cannon, which has a short range because of the airtight nature of the shrapnel.

Xie Fei looked at the Buddhist cannon in front of him, his eyes staring straight. His eyes glowed green.

Xie Fei clapped his hands, and finally couldn't resist hugging Zhuge Mingyue and giving her a kiss. Xie Fei said excitedly: "Good little sister, you did well. Brother Fei is prepared to reward you well.

Zhuge Mingyue was startled, and then in reality, in front of others, she had been kissed by Xie Fei. In that era, this was already an unbelievable matter, and Zhuge Mingyue did not know if it was out of anger or shock, but from the blush to the nape of her neck, she looked as if she was about to bleed.

Zhuge Mingyue angrily ran out. Although she looked angry on the outside, she was actually already blooming with joy in her heart.

Xie Fei commanded a few Hei Shanjunshibing to push the turret out. Xie Fei wanted to truly test the power of the turret, looks like it was really as powerful as what was recorded.

In fact, the gun cart was a hybrid, called the Big Ming Framm cannon, but it was made of steel, and the Framm cannon had thinner barrels, smaller caliber (the largest one was also under 85 mm), and much lighter weight. However, this cannon was around three centimeters thick and weighed over five hundred pounds. Moreover, the bullets were not cast from pig iron, but from Damascus Steel. In any case, this cannon was neither made of earth nor water, and it was not of the same type.

In fact, Xie Fei was also very worried. It would be best if Zhuge Mingyue did not make an embroidery pillow out of it, and if it looked bad, it would not be good.