open sea

Chapter 23 The Craftsman
That night, Fu Yuan brought back the news that Bai Yuanjie tried to find a way to call the craftsman.

In the next two days, besides patrolling the Feishui Bridge and setting up checkpoints, Xiaoqi was pounding gunpowder like garlic outside. It happened that Shao Tingda was transferred by Bai Yuanjie to the gunpowder depot to help make the powder. None of the other processes were left behind.When the gunpowder was dried and ready for trial the next day, the artisans dispatched by Bai Yuanjie also arrived.

There are three people, but there is only one craftsman, named Guan Yuangu, who is about fifty years old, with gray beard and hair, and his right hand is missing a little finger. I don't know why; The sons of the old craftsman, the eldest son Guan Zuner and the second son Guan Zunban.

The name sounds majestic, and it feels like there are more scholars than craftsmen.In fact, it is nothing more than Guan Laoer and Da Lang Erlang.

The carriage outside the post house returned along the way it came, and the three Guans, father and son, were counting their salutes with the help of several postmen, such as carpentry boxes, iron furnaces, ore baskets and iron ingots.Bai Baihu said when they came here that they came to Anyuan Station to listen to Chen Xiaoqi's wishes to make things, and after the things were finished, Bai Baihu also mentioned that they wanted them to stay in Chen Xiaoqi's place.If it is the employer of a virtuous corporal, it would be a good thing for the Guan family and his son.

In the past, in addition to live craftsmen, some craftsmen also had to undertake the obligation of class craftsmen, that is, three months out of one, two, or three years were sent to Beijing Bingzhan Bureau or other places for free.It was said to be three months, but it would take them three to five months to go from Guangzhou Dusi to Beijing, and another three to five months to return. A year passed inside and out.A few years ago, the emperor issued an edict, allowing them to hire four cents and five cents of silver per year to exempt them from dispatching craftsmen, but where did the four cents and five cents of silver come from?This almost means that they have to pay a shimi every year to be exempted from dispatch.

In addition, there are live craftsmen. There are ten days a month. They have to work for the guard where they live. So go hire someone else to work.

The identity of being born as a military craftsman in the guard house determines that he cannot rely on his craftsmanship to open a shop and make a lot of money like craftsmen inside and outside the city walls in his life. Instead, he can only help military households repair military armor in his spare time. Poor military households have How much money?He only received some meals a year, which was not enough to pay the government guards.

In this case, that is to say, if this Xiaoqi surnamed Chen wants to hire them, he needs to pay the government and the guards a total of one or two seven dollars of silver every year, and pay them a salary of five hundred per month. Tongbao.

The wages are not high, even compared to the wages of skilled military craftsmen on the market, this amount has been lowered by more than half.

The Guan family and his son needed such an employer very much. Just like Bai Baihu said, this Xiaoqi Chen surnamed was very rich, so rich that he could settle their wages for the whole year at once!

In Guan Yuangu's heart, he felt that since Chen Xiaoqi was in a hurry to ask Bai Baihu to transfer them, he must be impatient, and maybe he would be more courteous to the corporal, but the reality seemed to be not what he imagined.

There were only a few postmen who escorted them, and they thought that the Guan family father and son were relatives of officials who came and went, so the leading postman asked with a smile: "Old man, what is your trip?"

"Thank you, my old man was invited by Bai Baihu of Qingyuan Wei to come to Chen Xiaoqi's command. I heard that Chen Xiaoqi was on duty at the Anyuan Station, but I don't know..." Guan Yuangu asked after he cupped his hands with the post soldiers, "Where is Chen Xiaoqi?" ?”

"It's Lord Chen's subordinate!"

After a few days, the postman named Ke Ze'er was already acquainted with Chen Mu and his party. He smiled and pointed to the official road east of the posthouse, "Old man, Mr. Chen is firing guns in the forest, and I will lead you there."

After a few people walked not far, they saw a few young men dressed as military households beside the road, some pounding medicine and some covering their ears, and then there was a bang.

"bump!"

Gunpowder smoke rose from the muzzle.

In Chen Mu's words, Laoguan's family was fortunate to witness the world's most scientifically proportioned gunpowder ringing for the first time in the forest of Anyuan Post Station, a subsidiary of Qingyuanwei, the capital of Guangzhou.It's just obvious that the performance of gunpowder is not so satisfactory.

In order to avoid bombing, Chen Mu asked Shi Qi to hold a better-quality bird gun to aim at a target fifty paces away. Instead of filling the barrel with three coins of medicine as usual, it was only two coins.In Chen Mu's expectation, with more scientifically proportioned gunpowder as the propellant, two coins should be enough to achieve the effect of three coins.

not at all.

With a bang, the lead shot accurately hit the pre-aimed tree trunk over a distance of fifty steps. Even at Chen Mu's position, a piece of sawdust could be seen splashing on the tree trunk.But Wei Balang ran over, but instead of snapping lead pellets on the tree with a knife, he lowered his head and searched under the tree for a while, then happily raised his hand for them to see.

Apparently, the lead shot failed to break through the bark and embed itself in the trunk, but left a small hole in the trunk, and then fell to the ground.

Chen Mu took a deep breath, and said to Shi Qi who was holding the gun: "Three coins, thirty steps."

In his prediction, even if the gunpowder was loaded with [-]% less gunpowder, it should not be able to shoot through the bark fifty steps away. Even if the original gunpowder was loaded with less gunpowder, this effect could be achieved.Being unable to break into the tree trunk means that it is also unable to cause penetrating damage to the enemy after breaking through the armor.

Did I overestimate the explosive power of the optimal ratio of gunpowder, or was there something wrong with the process of pounding the gunpowder?
These problems were solved after Shi Qi shot out the lead pellets of the Sanqianzi medicine. It was louder, less smoky, and had a bigger recoil. The lead pellets accurately hit the tree trunk thirty steps away, and Wei Balang ran over. After searching for a long time, I finally found a transparent hole in the thick tree trunk at the mouth of the bowl, and the lead pellets flew to nowhere.

"Break through!"

Chen Mu's attention was not on the tree trunk he hit, but on the bird gun in Shi Qi's hand. Just now he had been worried that the bird gun he got from Zhang Yongshou would explode due to the explosion of gunpowder, but now it seems that the Ming Dynasty As long as the bird guns are made well, the quality seems to be okay.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Chen Xiaoqi suddenly found three outsiders, one old, two strong, standing by the road beside the forest. Just as he looked over with puzzled eyes, the old man at the head cupped his hands and said, "The old man was sent by a hundred households. I heard that Chen Xiaoqi Can you make a sharp weapon for harvesting rice?"

"So it's a military craftsman, what's the old man's name? This way, please." Chen Mu walked forward quickly as he said that. He needed a craftsman so much, so he waved his hand to let Shi Qi carefully put in a few more guns to test whether the barrel is durable. He took out two wooden boards drawn with charcoal, stepped forward and smiled at the craftsman: "I didn't expect Baihu to send the craftsman here so soon, old man, let's see, the structure of this board may be understood? One is to add a cover for the long sickle." The cloth bag of rice; the second is the rice bed, which can beat the ears of rice and peel off the rice—may it be made?"

It was his idea to add a sickle to the bag, but not the rice bed. This thing existed in the Ming Dynasty, and even the Ming Dynasty had a pedal rice peeling machine that was more advanced than the rice bed. Chen Mu only knew that Qingyuanwei did not have it, and that was enough. .

　Good morning everyone, I'm here again to ask for a recommendation ticket

　　


(End of this chapter)