The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 125 The Zhao family is empty

Turning around and talking to Ruan Wenyan: "In the future, we will try to go to North Korea and Japan. Lushun is a small place, and secondly, there is a shortage of manpower. The development of salt fields is limited. In the future, there will be more ships, so we will come here and Songjiang to buy salt and sell it to North Korea and Japan."

There is no need to sell it there. If it costs six cents a load, the profit should be okay.

Ruan Wenyan thought for a while: "I heard that there is a lot of sun-dried salt along the coast of Japan, and I'm afraid it won't be sold locally."

There are not many Koreans in this industry. They like to sell trees, shipbuilding, furs, and ginseng. The Japanese like to make salt. There are also Ming people who go to Japan to buy salt and sell it to the Ming Dynasty.

"You have to see it to find out." Ding Yi nodded. Now everyone has heard that everything has to be done in person and compared to know if there is any profit. Moreover, domestic silk is sold to Japan. Double the profit, even if you don't sell salt, you will always go to Japan to see it.

Zhao Dashan said at this time: "I'm afraid that the local Yueqing will do something bad, sell us on the front foot, don't give us salt, and let the inspections catch people on the back foot. There are many places doing this."

They are not familiar with them in Zhejiang, so Zhao Dashan is worried about being framed.

The salt merchants in Dengzhou know that this place is more suitable, so why they dare not come here is because they are afraid that they will be caught by both sides if they are not attracted by salt.

"Don't worry, these salt merchants are smart, and they can tell who is easy to mess with and who is not." Ding Yi is very confident.

And he has a guarantee, there are many soldiers and horses, with a large army, who dares to touch his salt?
At this time, everyone was drinking and having lunch in a relatively large restaurant on Yueqing Street. Ding Yi called the shopkeeper and threw him a tael of silver.

The shopkeeper is inexplicable.

"Shopkeeper, may I ask, Yueqing Zhao's, is there anyone else?"

The shopkeeper was stunned: "The Zhao family?"

"The Zhao family makes firearms." Ding Yi said.

"Zhao Shizhen." The shopkeeper laughed, knowing the name.

"That's right, that's Master Zhao." Ding Yi smiled.

"Of course there is. The Zhao Mansion in the south of the city is there. You can find out when you go there, but it seems that their family hasn't bought firearms for many years."

The shopkeeper also had some gossip. Ding Yi chatted with him and learned a lot.

Zhejiang was the place where firearms were best produced in the Ming Dynasty, and the capital city was not as good as Zhejiang. There used to be many famous firearms production bureaus in Zhejiang.

The court used to have a bureau of firearms craftsmen in Yueqing, which was managed by the county government and directly managed by the Ministry of Industry. At that time, people from the Zhao family were in charge.

When Zhao Shizhen was alive, he suggested to the court many times to vigorously develop firearms, and all the research on firearms was private expenditure, which can be said to be exhausted.

In June of the 30th year of Wanli, the firearm developed by Zhao Shizhen was tested under the west city outside Xuanwumen, Beijing.The experiment was presided over by Xiao Daheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, and officials from the Ministry of War, Ministry of Industry and other departments participated in the experiment.The report of the interrogation suggested that the emperor should "distribute the style of the car gun made by Tuzhen to the Beijing camp, and make it according to the law, and order the officials to teach and perform it, and spread it to all sides, so as to study its use in preventing border captives"; the report also asked the emperor to Shizhen was rewarded for his deeds of "paying attention to day and night, devoting all his resources to making sharp weapons, and preparing for them", but he got nothing.

That is to say, at that time, the emperor praised Zhao Shizhen in writing, but he was neither promoted nor paid.

Zhao Shizhen's life was full of ups and downs, and he died of depression because of being involved in the demon book case. His books such as "The Spectrum of Divine Artifacts", "The Spectrum of Continuing Divine Artifacts", "The Spectrum of Divine Artifacts or Questions" and "The Discussion of Cars and Guns in Beibian Tuntian" are very popular abroad. It is valued, but no one cares about it in the Ming Dynasty.

The British scholar Joseph Needham spoke highly of the status of Zhao Shizhen's "Sacred Artifacts" in the history of Chinese science and technology in his book "History of Science and Technology in China".

The shopkeeper finally said that before Zhao Shizhen died, he burned all his works, and ordered his descendants not to study firearms for life.

Ding Yi and the others looked at each other after listening, and everyone could understand Zhao's mood at that time.

A lifetime of research has exhausted one's own wealth, but the country does not pay enough attention to it.

"Damn it, why are you here for nothing?" Wei Jiye yelled loudly at the end.

"Ba..." Zhao Dashan kicked him from below.

The shopkeeper was very strange: "Why are you looking for the Zhao family? Making firearms?"

Ding Yi said calmly: "We are Songjiang Qianhu Institute. I heard that Zhejiang makes guns first-class. I want to find some gunsmiths and gunsmiths."

The shopkeeper looked at a few people, and they really looked like officials, especially Ding Yi, who had an aura of power without anger.

He thought for a while: "Don't go to Zhao's house, there is no one in Zhao's house, go find Zhou Dahu."

"Zhou Dahu's father is Zhao Shizhen's disciple. He was in the Ministry of Industry together and participated in all Zhao Shizhen's firearm research."

"After Zhao's death, Zhou's father returned to Yueqing, and then opened a small workshop, specializing in repairing guns for thousands of households in Zhejiang."

"After working for more than ten years, he died. Zhou Dahu took over."

"When Father Zhou's business was good, father and son often came to drink with me, and told me interesting stories about the past in the capital. In recent years, it seems that business has failed. After Father Zhou died, Zhou Dahu rarely came here."

Ding Yi was overjoyed and jumped up against the table: "Where is he?"

Half an hour later, everyone came to a street. After many inquiries, they finally found Zhouji Iron Shop.

"..." Everyone looked at the dilapidated shop in front of them, and almost thought they went to the wrong place.

Didn't you say it was a firearm?How did it become an iron shop?

The Zhouji iron shop is about 60 square meters, with a single-story mud-wood structure, the windows are still a little damaged, and the door has many cracks. It is rather dark after entering, and the fire has not even been turned on.

A lot of iron materials are piled up under the feet in a mess. There are some iron tools on the table not far away, which are basically agricultural hoes, shovels, etc., and there are also a small amount of kitchen knives and sabers.

"Is there anyone?" Zhao Dashan shouted, pulling his throat.

After calling several times but no answer, Ding Yi didn't care, just pushed open the back door and entered the back yard.

The yard was even more chaotic, with iron materials and utensils everywhere, and a lot of iron materials were embroidered.

Zhao Dashan yelled as he walked, and finally, someone yelled inside: "What's the noise, who is it?"

Then a tall and thick young man came out of the room. He was bare-chested, only wearing a pair of trousers, the trousers were rolled up to his thighs, his head was sweating, and he didn't know what he was doing in the room.

"Excuse me, is Zhou Dahu there?" Ding Yi said softly.

"I am, what's the matter with you? If you want to make iron tools, you can rest today."

"I don't make iron tools, I want to repair guns." Ding Yi said.

"..." Zhou Dahu was stunned for a moment, he stretched out his hand to disturb his head, and hesitated for a while: "I am very expensive to repair guns."

"How expensive?" Ding Yi asked with a smile.

"You show me first." Zhou Dahu seemed confident.

Ding Yi turned around, and Wei Jiye handed over a Lumi gun from behind.

"Lumi Gun?" Zhou Dahu's eyes lit up in a flash.

"Exactly." Ding Yi handed it over.

Zhou Dahu walked out of the eaves, stood in the yard, looked left and right with his hands, and quickly frowned: "Is your blunderbuss not broken?"

"Is the time limit for the gun tube used up later?"

"That's right, it should be for this reason, no wonder it's been unable to start the phone recently." Ding Yi's face became happier.

(End of this chapter)