prosperous age

Chapter 137 Chapter 136
"Give them some from the new iron cannon? Will that work?"

Hearing Wei Guangde's words, Wu Dong's eyes widened suddenly, but his expression seemed to be thinking.

Wei Guangde's unintentional words were heard by both Wu Dong and Wei Wencai.

Soon, the two of them were chatting quietly, but Wei Guangde didn't care about that much anymore.

After the banquet was over, Wei Guangde sat on the sidelines and waited for his father and uncle to finish their conversation and then go home, but it seemed that the time would have to wait, because the elder brother and cousin all came together, not knowing what they were discussing.

After waiting for a long time, there seemed to be a result, Wei Guangde's family bid farewell to their uncle's family and went out, directly walking back.

Although the distance between the two families was not far, they still boarded the carriage and went back.

Without him, it was too cold, and there was a brazier on the carriage, so it was not so cold.

The two carriages soon arrived at the courtyard of Wei's house. Everyone got out of the carriages and walked into the house. A coachman drove the carriage into the mansion through the small gate at the corner of the courtyard.

When the Wei family and the Wu family arrived in Jiujiang Mansion, they ordered two carriages, one for the father and the other for the family at home.

Well, now the Wei family is really developed.

It's just that Wei Guangde is still not very happy, because his usury loan has not been released for a year.

Now the merchants are shrinking. In the past, everyone was scrambling to open a weaving factory in Susong, but now no one goes.

Just kidding, the county town of Shanghai has just been set on fire by Japanese pirates, and Songjiang Prefecture has suffered heavy losses from the Japanese disaster this year.

This year is over, what about next year?
He didn't withdraw the 1 taels of silver in Wei Guangde's account, so he couldn't find a place to use it.

Now he has the thousand taels of silver sent by the Zhang family, but Wei Lao didn't want it, and let him keep it for himself. Now he still has hundreds of taels left in his hand.

Back home, Wei Guangde asked his elder brother in a low voice what they were talking about earlier, it seemed mysterious.

"You didn't guess?"

The eldest brother gave him a very strange look.

"What did I guess?"

Wei Guangde was puzzled.

Wei Wencai took Wei Guangde outside, and said in a low voice, "What you said, about exchanging iron cannons for copper cannons, my uncle said that he can operate them during the inspection."

Wei Guangde's eyes widened immediately when he heard the words, how dare you, I just said something casually, they actually think there is room for manipulation.

Wei Guangde didn't know what to say, iron is expensive these days, but copper is even more expensive.

"Are you going to sell it directly or mint money yourself?"

Did Wei Guangde know that some of his classmates had said in private that when they got copper materials at home, they used to make some copper coins by themselves.

In this day and age, the flood of private money is not just a casual talk, most people do it in their families, but the copper material is relatively rare, and the imperial court controls it.

A small amount is not a problem, but a large amount is troublesome.

Logically speaking, such a thing should be hidden, but now that every family is doing this, there is nothing to worry about.

"Don't worry about that."

Wei Wencai smiled, didn't say too much, let Wei Guangde guess for himself.

The eldest brother and sister-in-law lived in the main courtyard with their parents, Wei Guangde saw that nothing was wrong, so he returned to his own courtyard after speaking.

After entering the house, I began to think about it. These officials of the Ming Dynasty really did everything for money.

Too dark, too corrupt.

However, it seemed that doing so was nothing, at least the combat effectiveness of the guard did not drop much.

Well, let's count the technological progress caused by corruption.

If the method spreads, will other guards follow suit and replace those copper cannons with crudely made iron cannons.

Wei Guangde has seen Peng Ze's bowl-mouth guns, most of which were made during the Hongwu period.

Forget it, it's useless to think too much.

The next day, Wei Guangde took a late sleep, and after getting up and washing up, he didn't know whether he was going to have breakfast or lunch next.

As the end of the new year was approaching, the government schools had been shut down, Wei Guangde's New Year's exam papers were handed over to the professor directly, and he had nothing to do.

During lunch, the eldest brother said to Wei Guangde: "Follow me out in the afternoon to see if that cannon is what you think."

"Ah."

Wei Guangde chewed his food, but answered vaguely.

"Little brother, eat more to grow your body."

At this moment, sister-in-law Liu Yunhui used serving chopsticks to pick up food for Wei Guangde again, very enthusiastically.

To be honest, the sister-in-law is a nice person, she is very kind to Wei Guangde, but she is too enthusiastic, and at the dinner table, she is either serving food for the old lady or the brother-in-law.

Mother Wei looked at them cheerfully, quite satisfied.

In the afternoon, leaving his sister-in-law to doze in the house with his mother, Wei Guangde followed his eldest brother to his uncle's house in a carriage.

Soon, Wu Dong also came out, and the three of them squeezed into a car and headed towards Jiujiang Wharf.

"Uncle and father probably set off as well."

Wei Wencai said on the bumpy carriage.

"Cousin, do you have any plans for tonight, or do you want me to be the host, and invite you two to go out to eat and drink."

Wei Guangde laughed at the side.

"Forget it at night, I still have to go to my grandfather's place."

Wu Dong shook his head, he arrived at Jiujiang Mansion yesterday, he must be going to Grandpa's place today.

While the three of them were chatting, the carriage left the gate of Jiujiang City and arrived at the pier.

After finding Peng Ze's fast boat, he called a few servants who came with him, and soon, Wei Guangde saw them bring out two two-foot-long iron pipes from the cabin.

Well, this is what they call an iron cannon.

Two cannons were put on the ground, and two wheelbarrows were pushed out from the boat.

The unicycles of this era are made of wood, not the iron ones with rubber tires of later generations.

However, unicycles are still very popular at this time. After all, they are really convenient and labor-saving. They can carry people and goods, and they can also climb mountains and mountains.

"What is this car for?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

"The craftsman meant that this thing can be carried by two people, but the distance is too long, so I added this thing."

Wu Dong said, "In a while, put the cannon on one side, put the ammunition on the other side, push it away by one person, and then move it down to set up when it reaches the ground."

Wei Guangde nodded. It is indeed much more convenient to carry it over a long distance. Think about it, two or three people can complete all the operations with one gun.

After a while, three more carriages came from the direction of the city gate. Wei Guangde knew two of them, they belonged to the Wei and Wu families, and he was not familiar with the other one, but he knew from the sign that it belonged to the Zhang family. Zhang Shigui was also called here.

If you think about it, the Zhang family has been operating in Jiujiangwei for many years, with a solid foundation, so don't try to bypass their family for anything.

Everyone gets the benefits, and if you have money, you will get it together.

If enough people are attracted to share the profit, even if someone finds out in the future, no one will dare to check it in, it will involve too much.

Perhaps, this is the way for middle and lower level officials to be officials in this era.

Sure enough, the carriage came close, and it was Zhang Shigui who got off.

"That's it?"

After the three of them went up to meet Li, Zhang Shigui looked at the iron cannon that was already on the wheelbarrow and asked.

(End of this chapter)