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Chapter 168 Settling in! The idea of ​​gunpowder! (Please subscribe~)

The settling-in fee of ten thousand taels of gold was a uniquely generous sum even in the entire Wu Dynasty.

The main reason is that in the Wu Dynasty, the status of craftsmen was not much higher than that of ordinary people. Even the craftsmen on duty in the Armory Department of the capital had only a monthly income of ten taels of silver. Senior craftsmen The income level is higher, but it generally does not exceed twenty taels of silver.

In fact, this income level is not low in the entire Wu Dynasty, and can even be considered a high income.

After all, ordinary farmers in the Wu Dynasty could only earn more than a dozen taels of silver from farming for a year, and in this disaster year, they even had no harvest.

But for these craftsmen of the Arms Department, the impact of ten thousand taels of gold is really too great.

Even if the ten thousand taels of gold are divided equally among a hundred of them, each of them can still get one hundred taels of gold.

One hundred taels of gold is equivalent to ten thousand taels of silver.

It takes them a hundred years of hard work to earn ten thousand taels of silver. How many of these one hundred craftsmen can survive a hundred years?

So you can imagine the excitement that the craftsmen felt when they learned that they could get 10,000 taels of silver to help them settle down.

At this moment, all fear, worry, fear, nervousness... had long been thrown out of the sky. Every craftsman looked excited and looked at the young man with a hint of fanaticism.

Under the reward, there must be a brave man.

Sometimes, winning people's hearts is so easy.

The next thing happened naturally. Under Qin Chong's arrangement, one hundred craftsmen received the gold in an orderly manner. When the one hundred taels of gold actually fell into their hands, the last trace of doubt in the hearts of the craftsmen completely disappeared. , with a happy and excited smile on his face.

With a settlement fee of one hundred taels of gold as a foundation, these one hundred craftsmen from the Arms Department cooperated a lot when accepting the arrangements made by Qin Chong and other Longque Army.

Almost no one showed any delay, and in less than half an hour, a hundred craftsmen, led by Qin Chong, headed halfway up the Black Mountain.

There, 300,000 kilograms of refined iron ore mined from the refined iron ore veins in the back mountains of Black Mountain have been prepared for a long time. This is the result of three thousand blood demons mining day and night in the past month.

And halfway up the mountain, in addition to the 300,000 kilograms of refined iron ore that had been prepared, the houses for one hundred craftsmen of the Arms Department had also been built, and Chen Yan also made them as comfortable as possible. , we must give the best living conditions to these one hundred craftsmen from the Arms Department.

From the reply letter from the Supervisor Tiansi headquarters, Chen Yan can learn that among the 100 craftsmen supported by the Military Supervisor Tiansi this time, craftsmen who specialize in smelting account for more than half of them, nearly sixty or seventy. Number person.

As for the remaining thirty or so people, they are skilled blacksmiths.

Not only that, the Supervisor's Headquarters also mentioned a few additional people in their reply. In addition to the main formation master 'Luda', they were the super-level forging craftsman 'Li San' and the first-level smelting craftsman 'Lu Liu'an'.

Thinking of this, Chen Yan looked at Lu Liu'an and Li San in the team. It was the 'Third Brother' with the green birthmark and the timid young man 'Xiao Liuzi'.

Li San and Lu Liu'an are young and highly skilled. They are also among the highest ranking senior craftsmen in the Arms Department. Especially according to the feedback from Supervisor Tiansi, these two people have excellent understanding and are both future 'forging masters' and ' The master smelter's good seed.

Sending these two people to Montenegro shows that the Superintendent of the Tiansi Department values ​​them highly.

Sometimes Chen Yan himself was confused and curious about what the Superintendent of the Tiansi was thinking in his mind.

Could it be that the Superintendent of the Supervisory Heaven Division also has thoughts of rebellion?

Chen Yan shook his head and couldn't figure it out for a long time. At this moment, he felt a black shadow in front of him. Looking up, he saw that it was the young man with disheveled hair, a whitewashed body, and a shrewd look in his eyes.

Seeing Chen Yan looking over, the young man showed a smile, cupped his hands and said:

"Student Ruda, I have met the governor Chen Zhen."

Just after introducing himself, he saw that the young man looked a little strange, and he couldn't help but asked in confusion:

"What? Has Governor Chen Zhen heard of the student's name?"

Although Ruda thought that he still had some reputation in the capital, he didn't think that his "good reputation" could spread so far in Xiangzhou, where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away.

Chen Yan glanced at Luda in front of him, and saw that Luda was tall, slightly thin, with a pale cheek, a faint smile undulating on his lips, and a pair of extremely bright, twinkling eyes. With bright light.

What is surprising is that the palms of Ruda's hands are covered with thick calluses. From a glance, it seems that he is not a scholar who only knows how to study. He must do a lot of hard work on weekdays.

Although physically not as good as Lu Zhishen who uprooted the weeping willows in his previous life, to Chen Yan and to the entire Montenegro, Lu Da was undoubtedly the 'Master Lu'.

A smile appeared on his face, and Chen Yan smiled back:

"Master Lu has worked hard all the way."

"But Chen Zhenfu cannot call him 'Master'. Chen Zhenfu can just call his student Luda."

Ruda said something funny and "sincerely", acting very familiar, as if he was an old friend he hadn't seen for many years. He smiled and pointed at the one hundred taels of gold in his hand, and said with a smile:

“I thought it was very hard at first, but now I don’t feel it anymore.”

Chen Yan laughed dumbly, and then he couldn't help but asked curiously:

"I don't know if Master Lu can tell me why you are willing to come to Xiangzhou? Although there is an order from the Governor, I think if Master Lu doesn't want to come, you don't have to come."

Luda behaved very freely and said straightforwardly:

"The reason for coming is very simple, because the capital has long been unable to accommodate me. Even without the governor's secret order, I would consider leaving the capital."

"Oh? Why is that?"

Chen Yan was confused.

Ruda smiled sheepishly, then showed an indignant look, and said rather aggrievedly:

"Don't I just like to make little 'explosions'? As a result, everyone went to complain. Once I accidentally blew up the outer wall of the palace, and I was fined a lot of money..."

Having said this, Ruda pointed to the starched green shirt on his body and said helplessly:

"If it weren't for the one hundred taels of gold supported by Ambassador Chen Zhen, I would be penniless."

A little explosion?

Is it a billion-point explosion?

Chen Yan looked strange. No wonder he smelled the faint smell of sulfur from Ruda's body. It turned out that he was already doing relevant experiments. Could it be that Ruda was already developing black powder?

Chen Yan's mind was slightly moved. The power of black gunpowder was certainly not weak in ancient times, but in the Wu Dynasty where there were practitioners and martial arts masters, black gunpowder was not enough. At least smokeless gunpowder was needed.

……

(End of this chapter)