It seems to have crossed a watershed invisibly, and after walking 100 miles northeast of Gyeonggi, the fields on the road gradually thinned, and the wide and branched official road was finally left with only one road to the north.

This road leads to Zunhua County, passing through a place to guard thousands of households, and then to the north is the foot of the Great Wall, and to the east leads to the Santun camp that Qi Jiguang only repaired last year, which is also the station of the chief military officer of Jizhen Town, and Chen Mu's first destination is Baiye City in Zunhua County, which is also known as Zunhua Iron Factory.

Zunhua Iron Works was established in the Yongle period, initially set in the Shapo Valley, moved to the Songpeng Valley during the Xuanzong period, and in the orthodox years, the two subway mines were hollowed out, during which the iron households were moved to today's Baiye City. The so-called Baiye City, which is called the wilderness, smelting is smelting, has always been the largest government-run iron factory in the Ming Dynasty.

This iron material was directly transported to the capital by the Ministry of Industry and the Flag Army for the use of the Ordnance Bureau and the Baoyuan Bureau.

However, in Chen Mu's impression, the annual iron tax levied by Zunhua Iron Factory does not seem to be as much as that of Guangzhou Prefecture. After all, it is privately owned over there, and it is government-run, and the business philosophy is different, the supply and demand conditions are different, and the iron purpose is also different.

"Jing Haibo?"

In Baiye City, Qi Jiguang was urging the iron-smelting Langjun to serve with all his heart, and suddenly heard a report from the thousands of households guarding the palace that someone claimed that Jing Haibo had come from the official road with a number of horses, and wanted to enter Baiye City to watch the iron factory, and he was ashamed to say something to ask Qi Shuai not to pick him up, which made people feel that this person was so rude.

Qianhu eyebrows are very unhappy, they are very respectful of Qi Jiguang at the foot of the Great Wall, listening to the words that the people who come seem to have little respect, naturally they have to add some oil and vinegar, but Qi Jiguang smiled and said: "Then Qi Mou will not pick him up, you bring a general flag, go to Haosheng and welcome people in." ”

"What are you doing? The suburbs of the iron factory are exhausted, and it is a good thing that the God of Wealth comes over when he is worried, he is Chen Erlang, the minister of Nanyang, go quickly! ”

Qi Jiguang heard that Jing Haibo also reacted in his mind for a while before he confronted Chen Mu, and the puzzled subordinates, Qi Zongbing showed a smug smile: "Qi Mou knew that he would come over, Beiyang is located in Tianjin, he wants to build ships and make ordnance, if he doesn't come to Zunhua, it can't be done, it is a yamen that can raise military expenses by itself." ”

On the surface, Qi Jiguang seemed to be very envious of Chen Mu's ability to raise military expenses by himself, but in fact, he was ...... in his heart I'm really envious!

Chen Mu did not enter Zunhua, and under the support of a group of banner troops, he rode into Baiye City.

People say that it used to be forest land, because the iron factory needed to cut down all the trees, the land was used for farming, growing vegetables and growing grain to be self-sufficient, but if you want to buy living utensils, you have to rush to the farther Zunhua County to catch the market.

The city is not big, but it is very strong, the city uses the same defense system as the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, the four corners are built with hollow enemy platforms, and the four corner towers all use different construction techniques for the soldiers to live and store weapons.

There are two passes in the north and south outside the city, each set up an inventory garrison tower, and there are two military and civilian villages, called Hou Zhuang and Dongzhuang. The city is divided into four parts, except for the permanent soldiers, they are all the residences of the furnace households, there is a Jianwu yamen in the east street, the front court is the garrison in charge of the soldiers, and the backyard is the iron Langjun who governs the furnace and iron households.

Although Bai Ye is small, the garrison is impregnable.

The so-called fried iron Langjun is a Taoist of the Ministry of Works, and the earliest Ministry of Industry was to directly send Wupin Langzhong to supervise, but now the iron factory is declining, and only ordinary Taoists are left here to act as Langjun.

"I came in a hurry, and I couldn't get the pass in advance, so I hope Qi Shuai won't blame you."

Regardless of the output, Baiye City looks much more formal than Foshan, where the iron households and furnace households live together south of Wuling.

Knowing that Qi Jiguang was in the yamen of the iron factory, Chen Mu didn't dare to let people wait, and he didn't go to the city to visit much, so he rushed directly to the yamen.

On Qi Jiguang's territory, he looks a little less powerful than the previous dynasty at the beginning of the year, wearing a mountain-patterned heart armor, a hairscarf that pulls up his hair meticulously, and he clenches his fists and smiles from afar: "Chen Shuai is here, it should be for Qi to be far away, please come in!" ”

Seeing Zhao Shizhen and Xu Zhenming, who were following Chen Mu's steps, Qi Jiguang nodded and greeted him one after another, and did not ignore it because of his humble position, and said specifically to Xu Zhenming: "Mr. Xu, Mr. Xu, Tan Butang and Qi mentioned Mr.'s Northern Water Conservancy Law, because it can be implemented. ”

While speaking, he welcomed Chen Mu into the yamen, walked side by side and asked casually: "Qi heard that Chen Shuai is here to see that the iron factory may be used by the Beiyang Yamen?" ”

"Yes, the Beiyang Yamen should have its own ordnance bureau and shipyard, although the Guangzhou Ordnance Bureau is powerful, but after all, there are not many craftsmen and limited production capacity, such as today's premier official camp ordnance bureau, one is called Nanyang Health Bureau, two is called Xuanfu, and three is called Jingshi, and Beijing is for Beijing camp, Xuanfu is for the three sides of Nanyang for the coast."

"Beiyang aside, the Oriental Military Government can't just count on seventy or eighty guns that day in Nanyang." Chen Mu shook his head as he spoke: "The soldiers of the guard camps in all provinces are waiting to change their clothes, and half of the graduates of the Navy Martial Arts Hall this year will also be sent to various places to serve in hundreds of households. ”

"Seventy or eighty a day, bird?" Qi Jiguang blinked again and again, and after a quick calculation in his heart, he asked again: "Can the Nanyang Ordnance Bureau build so many weapons?" ”

As he spoke, Chen Mu had followed Qi Jiguang to sit in the main hall of the yamen, nodded and said: "The Nanyang Ordnance Bureau guards Foshan, and the iron can be sent over there. ”

Hearing this amount, Qi Jiguang and the fried iron Langjun who sat at the end of the seat glanced at each other, and the two of them had an embarrassment and an ecstasy on their faces, and the embarrassment was naturally the iron refining Langjun...... Qi Jiguang just asked him today with the old account from decades ago, in the past, the iron factory still had the spare capacity to supply 700,000 catties of iron to Jingshi a year, but now the 200,000 catties a year are idle and the production capacity cannot be increased.

The three eastern sides are also big users of weapons, especially Qi Jiguang, there is an iron factory under his hands, but the production capacity can't go up, what can he do?

The ecstasy on Qi Jiguang's face quickly disappeared, and he shook his head at Chen Mu and said: "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint Jing Haibo, Zunhua Iron Works now has nine hundred and eighty garrisons, and there are more soldiers than servants, and there are more servants than craftsmen, from October to April, there are only two hundred and twenty craftsmen and craftsmen, and now that the recruitment of people has been completed, and they have returned to their hometowns to farm, there are only seventy-seven craftsmen in Baiye City." ”

"There are 25 iron-making furnaces and 56 foundry furnaces in the city, most of which have been abandoned, and craftsmen and apprentices can be recruited anywhere, but the local mines have been exhausted, and the government-owned forest farms have no timber to use, and the people-owned forest farms have to buy timber and hire porters, and the local furnace households have no profit."

Chen Mu slowly bowed his head, he really hadn't thought about this situation.

He didn't care about whether there was iron ore or firewood, he only cared about one thing - Chen Mu glanced at Langjun who fried iron, and then asked Qi Jiguang: "Baiye City craftsman, how is the technology, can he make coke and may be the top in the world?" ”

When Qi Jiguang heard Chen Mu ask this, his face blinked with sorrow, and he turned his head to stare at Tie Langjun, which couldn't be more clear.

'The opportunity is given to you, give it to Qi! ’

Stir-fried Iron Lang Jun Fu to the soul, got up and hugged his fists and said: "The dwarf of the iron-making furnace in Baiye City is one foot and seven feet, and the sunrise iron is two thousand catties; The tall one is two feet and three feet, and the sunrise iron is three thousand catties! Officials and craftsmen are all skilled, as long as the iron ore and wood are complete, it is not a problem to make 700,000 catties of iron in half a year in the heyday! Not to mention coke, any coal yard in Gyeonggi will do it! ”

"But ......" he said, and said in a short tone: "Then, that is the matter of Jiajing Year, and now there are few craftsmen, 200,000, 200,000 catties is not a problem!" ”

Chen Mu clapped his hands, he likes to listen to this, as long as you have the technology, everything else is easy to do, he said to Qi Jiguang: "Don't worry, wait for my people to come over and start prospecting, Qi Shuai will wait for me for a month, the lack of mines and wood is not a problem." ”

Chen Erye is gearing up, planning to let the ancestors who believe in the sustainable development of renewable energy see our ability to violently open mines!

Others don't know where the mine is, they don't know how many mines there are, he knows!

This is Beizhili! /14_14088/