Thirteen Lang and Tao Seventeen rode through the meadow by the pond, to the grove at the foot of the mountain, until they entered the bushes on the hill, and went straight to the top of the mountain. As he was walking, a huge pheasant suddenly flew up from the side and disappeared into the bushes not far away.

Thirteen Lang said: "Do you see clearly?" The chicken was very fat. I caught it first and cooked the chicken at night! ”

As he spoke, he dismounted, and drew the gun from his horse, ready to reload it.

Tao Seventeen looked at Thirteen Lang from the side, and saw him tear open the medicine bag and pour the gunpowder into the barrel of the gun. He took another bullet from the belt and prepared to put it into the barrel. It's just that the new bullet base fits the barrel very tightly, and it gets stuck there for a while.

Seeing that Thirteen Lang was embarrassed, Tao Qiqi smiled and said: "This shot is extremely accurate, of course not everything can be used." You have to practice it to be able to load bullets quickly, and you can fight quickly and accurately. ”

As he spoke, he took the gun, and without looking at it, he easily loaded the bullet into the gun and stabbed it tightly with a strip.

Thirteen Lang took the loaded gun and said, "It's weird! It's so cumbersome to use, how can we cavalry use it? ”

Tao Seventeen said: "This gun was originally intended for people with accurate marksmanship, used for sniping, and to hit useful characters such as officers and standard-bearers. Ordinary soldiers can use muskets, but as for the cavalry, for ease of use, aren't there short-barreled guns for you? ”

Thirteen Lang said: "Those guns are short, and they are convenient immediately, but the power is not good." ”

Yao Shouxin on the side said: "The front-line cavalry combat, especially the light cavalry, is to charge quickly when moving, and it is different from the ironclad heavy cavalry to charge the enemy frontally. The horses were not very accurate when they ran, and the distance between the whiskers was only a few paces, and a short spear was sufficient. ”

That's a good thing, but it's not enough for Thirteen Lang. His own horse was armed with a saber and an iron mace, and a pistol, which was the normal equipment of a cavalryman. In addition to this, there is a specialized battle axe, as well as a full set of iron armor that fits well. Heavy cavalry and light cavalry are equipped with two sets, and the Thirteen Lang are all available. I chose a good horse, wore heavy armor, and could move with the light horse.

The crowd filled the gunpowder, loaded the bullets, looked at the place where the pheasant had fallen, and slowly gathered around.

The bushes in this area are not very dense, and there is a lot of sparse grass in between. No one has been hunting here for many years, and pheasants and hares have no vigilance and look stupid. After walking a short distance, I saw a fat pheasant walking slowly in the forest meadow, constantly turning its neck, as if to observe which direction there was a hunter.

Seeing the chicken, Jusanro picked up his gun and motioned for the others to lower their bodies. Raising the gun to take a real aim, flicking the trigger, with the crisp sound of hitting the flint, a ball of fire came out of the muzzle, accompanied by a puff of smoke. Before the smoke cleared, he heard the sound of fluttering, and the pheasant in front of him spread his wings, flew a short distance, and fell into the bushes.

Tao Qiqi saw it and couldn't help laughing: "Thirteen Lang, when you used a bow and arrow before, you pierced Yang in a hundred steps, and you were very proud. Now that the musket has been changed, it is still very accurate, why is it so useless! Dodge to the side and watch me shoot this bird! ”

After speaking, he held his gun and walked lightly through the bushes. After walking a short distance, I saw the chicken stop walking in the clearing. Raising the gun to aim, Tao 13 pulled the trigger, only to hear a sound, as the smoke came out, the chicken crowed a few times, jumped on the ground a few times, and then fell there and did not move.

Tao Seventeen stepped forward to take the pheasant, took it in his hand and returned to its original place, held it up in front of Thirteen Lang, and said, "Do you see it?" This shot is accurate, as long as the aim is real, where is there anything that can't be hit? There is a crosshair in front, as long as your hand is steady! ”

Thirteen Lang said: "What's so strange? I'm just not familiar with it. I'll be able to practice well in a few days, and I'll see again! ”

Tao Seventeen just laughed. For so many years, whether it was with bare hands, with knives and guns, and later with muskets, he was not the opponent of Shisanlang. This guy seems to have been born to fight, to fight on the battlefield. Today, with a new gun, I won him everywhere, and I was really happy.

Everyone took the pheasant, got on their horses again, and went all the way over the mountain to the depths of Fangcheng Mountain.

In the evening, Shisanlang and the others returned with a full load. There are many wild animals in this mountain, and there are few hunters, and going to the mountains with a new gun is like picking up prey. In less than a day, they hunted two roe deer, a roe deer, a few hares, and several pheasants. The last few of the retinue even brought a wild boar, which they happened to encounter, and was put down with a shot.

The red sun was slanting to the west, and Shisanlang pointed to a small village in front of him and said, "Let's go there to rest and beg for tea." There are only people here within a radius of several miles in this area, and further on, there are not even a single shop. Let's take a break, and send someone to inform the three infantry masters to come to our camp tonight, drink and eat meat. The army has just arrived, and now the drill has not yet begun, so let's be happy for a few days! ”

Everyone said goodbye, urged the horse forward, and sent a few people to inform Yang Wenguang, Zhao Zi and Dou Shunqing, and asked them to go to the cavalry camp tonight.

When he arrived at a large courtyard in front of the village, Shisanlang dismounted and said to a Zhuang guest at the door: "Go and inform you, we went into the mountains to hunt today, and we are tired of walking, so we came to ask for saliva and drink!" ”

This area is the training ground of the Thirteen Lang cavalry, and the Zhuang Ke recognized the Thirteen Lang and hurriedly went in to report it. Not long after, a member in his fifties took two young people with him, came out of it, and stepped forward to give his hand: "Xiaomin Wu Zhen and the two dogs, I have seen the captain!" ”

Thirteen Lang pointed to the people beside him: "These are all generals in the army, and they have always known me. I'm tired of walking, and I drink water under the pretext of outside! ”

Wu Yuanwai hurriedly conceded and said, "A few lieutenants hurry up and use tea inside!" Poor and remote areas, don't blame the small people for not being well entertained. ”

And when they went into the courtyard, because it was hot, they sat down under the great plane tree in the courtyard.

At this time, the flowering period of the sycamore has passed, and from time to time there are trumpet-like purple flowers floating down from the tree and scattering at the feet, exuding a faint sweet fragrance.

Wu Zhen commanded Zhuang Ke, served tea, and said: "Taiwei is not strange, the countrymen are simple, they don't drink group tea, they only drink loose tea." This tea is produced by the confident Yang Army, I heard that it is a good tea before the Ming Dynasty, and it is excellent to wash it with the spring water of the back mountain. ”、

Yao Shouxin said: "This tea is excellent, and we drink it every day in the army. ”

After making tea, several officers and Tao Seventeen sat at one table, and the accompanying sergeants sat at another table, and the prey they hunted was casually piled in front of the table.

Wu Zhen himself and his eldest son accompanied Shisanlang and the others, and asked the second son to accompany the accompanying sergeant. Looking at the prey on the ground, Wu Zhen said: "A few captains are lucky to have hit so many prey. In the past, we also had hunters here, but now that the iron prison has been built, it makes a lot of money to work there, and with the train, hunters from other places often come to sell their prey, and no one hunts for several years. ”

Thirteen Lang said: "Hunting is really hard, and if you can farm the land steadily, who will do this kind of drudgery?" In the spare time, I went to the mountains to hunt a roe deer rabbit to relieve my hunger. We have nothing to do, and we have always been hunting and fighting the army, so we went to the mountains to take a walk. ”

Wu Zhen said yes again and again. Since ancient times, hunting has played the role of military drills, and hunting by the army is not unprofessional.

After drinking tea for a while, Yao Shouxin asked Wu Zhen: "Outside, seeing that your family business is solid, I don't know what else to do to make a living besides farming?" ”

Wu Zhen said: "Don't hide it from Taiwei, I am not far from the road here, and there is a small river behind it, and the river is very abundant, so I opened a workshop." There is a company in the town to the east that specializes in harvesters, and the business is very good, and I make small things for them to make some money to make ends meet. ”

Yao Shouxin nodded. In this place, the iron supervisor can't be an outsider just by farming, let alone make a fortune. There was an iron supervisor there, and there were countless small factories around it, recruiting workers in large numbers. Their wages are not comparable to those of the farmer, and it is difficult to find people for farming when the price of labor is raised. Where is the reason to make a fortune by relying only on your own family farming? Not to mention, Changping Division uniformly dispatches grain, suppresses grain prices, and has no future in farming. Wu Zhen used to be a member of this village, but he couldn't continue, so he sold the land, dispersed the villagers, and opened a small workshop for making steel parts. The technology of the iron supervisor has spread, and his family has learned to use a hydraulic hammer and a small casting furnace, and business is booming. There are a lot of small factories around, and if you don't mess around, you will never break the business. Since last year, we have cooperated with the small factory in the town to manufacture horse-drawn harvesters for harvesting grain, and the business has been very stable.

After listening to Wu Zhen's introduction, Yao Shouxin said strangely: "I know the harvester of the horse, isn't it produced by the iron supervisor?" There is a lot of land in the south camp, and many families buy it, but I have not heard of any private people doing it. ”

Wu Zhen said: "In addition to the field members in the town, there is a son who once entered the school of the iron prison, and he is very good brain!" He returned home, bought two iron prison machines, dismantled them carefully, and made them exactly the same in a year. It's just the same, many parts can't be made by themselves, just like the cutter used, which is not made by the iron prison, and quickly breaks down. Fortunately, these things are sold in the place where the machine is repaired, and they can be loaded into machines. ”

Thirteen Lang said: "So you robbed the business of the iron supervisor, are they willing to obey?" ”

Wu Zhen said: "When I started selling, no one cared about it. Later, when it became bigger, an iron supervisor brought a member of the yamen and said that we had copied the iron prison's machine, which was against the law. Later, after discussing for a long time, each machine was paid to the iron supervisor, and the business was done. ”

To put it bluntly, it is a patent fee, and Du Zhongxiao has formulated many local regulations for the situation on Jingxi Road, and this is one. Local regulations were enacted locally and implemented in specific places, but they were approved by the imperial court. Every few years, the imperial court will compile local regulations, known as the regulations of one state and one county along the way, and there are special departments to compile and manage them.

Yao Shouxin knew this very well and asked, "In this way, you won't be able to make a lot of money with a machine." ”

Wu Zhen said: "The machine produced by the iron supervisor is good, but it is also expensive, and many farmers can't afford it." Several companies set up a company and bought a machine together, but they used more and less, and there were many troubles when repairing it. The machines we produce are cheap, except for some key parts, which are all homemade, which are much cheaper than those sold by the Iron Supervisor. Even if each one pays some money to the iron supervisor, there is still money to be made. Besides, it's easy to buy our machines and repair them. ”

Small private factories doing local business will save costs in some places in a targeted manner, and the quality is worse than that of iron supervision, and if it is cheaper, it will always have its own market. This is a common thing, not only harvesters, but also many machines produced by Iron Supervision are imitated by small factories outside. The iron superintendent is not strictly controlled, at most they are required to pay some fees, and they will not be allowed to manufacture.

After chatting for a while, Tao Seventeen said: "Each of your machines pays money to the iron supervisor, how do you pay this money?" There is no one here in the Iron Prison, looking at how much you make and how much you will sell. If you sell more and pay less money, what can you do with the iron supervisor? ”

Wu Zhen said: "How so? We factories that make small pieces, just like those that make harvesters, remember that there are accounts. Once it is found that the accounts are false, you will not be able to do anything in the future. Besides, in addition to some small parts that are easy to make, cutters and bearings used in the machine, etc., we can't make these key components, and the iron supervisor always has a way to count the number. ”

Tao XVII nodded. He is an official of the iron prison, and it is not okay for someone to take advantage of him. As long as the management is in place and the money can be collected, the small private factories make their own and make some money. With these many small factories, the technical quality of the whole region has gone up, and it is easy to recruit people.

This is the benefit that the railway supervisor has brought to the local government, not only the outflow of personnel training, but also the supply of complete sets of parts. Especially the key parts, not only can they not be made in another place, but they cannot be bought. Just like the harvester, there are capable people in other places who can dismantle the machine and completely imitate it. However, key cutters, transmissions and other parts cannot be bought, and they still cannot be made into machines.

For example, the bearing that drives the cutter is made of a special variety of bronze, and lubricating oil can only work normally. You can't buy these, and they wear out quickly with other materials. Not to mention the cutting knife, which is difficult to manufacture and not to mention, the material is made of high-carbon steel. The high-carbon steel of the iron prison is rarely sold outside, the price is extremely high, and the imperial court has control, which is analogous to military weapons, and it is impossible for the people to make it.

An iron supervisor is still a trivial matter, and the industrial development of the entire region has been driven by the iron supervisor, which complements each other and has created the prosperity of this area. If it is like the latter in terms of production value, the iron supervisor is the first in Jingxi Road, surpassing the Shouzhou Henan Mansion.

There are many small private factories, and many personnel have been trained in the schools of the iron supervisors, and many wonderful ideas have been generated in practice. Nowadays, many of the machines made by the people of the private sector have not thought of it, and they have to learn from the people in turn.

Tao 17, who is engaged in technology, every once in a while, will buy some industrial products from the private sector and come back to conduct research. They may not be very sophisticated, but their ideas can inspire people's minds and keep inventing new things.

The Iron Supervisor was a seed that led to the rapid development of industry in nearby states and counties.