Great Song Pirate

Chapter 257 Wolf Severing Sword (To)

Accompanied by a county magistrate sent by the magistrate, Xu Yi and his party headed towards Gu Town. Now dozens of them are all equipped with horses, except for the few horses that were bought in the Tangyin county government and the horses the day before yesterday. Except for the dozens of horses captured by Fan Jian's bandit soldiers at night, the rest were selected by the county captain from the horse army in the township army. They were regarded as gifts for Xu Yi. Everyone had a horse. No matter how tiring they were from walking, the cavalry team of dozens of people looked very imposing, which made these brothers feel very majestic.

The suppression of bandits this time brought Xu Yi considerable benefits. He carried 4000 taels of silver bills in his pocket, which were rewards paid by the magistrate, and there were also many gifts in the car, all from the magistrate and the county lieutenant. The things that were delivered to the inn overnight last night, saying that they were a gift of filial piety to King Ji, were actually given to Xu Yi himself, and Xu Yi would not accept it for nothing, otherwise they would not feel at ease. down.

And the county magistrate had enough energy to take these captives into custody first, and hang the slain thieves on the gates of the city to show the public, and the head of Fan Jian was also hung outside the gate of the main gate, and an announcement was made to enumerate his various crimes Crime, as a warning, and Xu Yi sold this matter to the fat magistrate and the Hou county lieutenant for a big face, he only accepted the reward, and told the magistrate that he didn't have to announce that he led people to beheaded As for that Fan Jian, he didn't care about how he ran the matter, and made the county magistrate and the county lieutenant very happy. It seems that this gift is really not for nothing!Xu Yi's doing so is equivalent to giving them this credit. They just need to operate it and say that Fan Jian was killed by their troops, that is a big credit, and it will be of great benefit to their future career. After being thanked, the two talents left the post station and sent Xu Yi 500 taels of silver separately overnight. It was a thank you to Xu Yi, and Xu Yi got another 1000 taels of silver for nothing. It turned out that the feeling of accepting bribes was really good, no wonder Those officials did not have the etiquette and morality they talked about when they were officials, but once they became officials, they became shameless and corrupt officials. The temptation and corrosion of money are indeed not something ordinary people can resist!

The magistrate ordered the county captain to go out of the city with horse-buoyed archers. According to the captives' confession, they went straight to Fan Jian's hiding place overnight, seized a large amount of property, and rescued many women who had been taken captive by the thieves. After distributing the money, They were dismissed, and this matter made the local people in Wu'an very grateful to the county magistrate, and he won a lot of praise from the people, making the county magistrate very beautiful for a while, as if he had become a good official. They didn't confiscate all the stolen goods they seized. Instead, they secretly distributed a batch. After discounting, they sent someone to catch up with Xu Yi and gave them to him. I secretly laughed for a while.

Guzhen is actually not far from Wu’an, and they arrived in Guzhen within half a day. The mines here are really dense, and there are iron furnaces one after another in the town. Almost all the people living here are inseparable from the iron mines. The whole sky of Guzhen is filled with a smell of soot, because iron smelting is required, and the coal business here is also very developed. There are a large amount of coal piled up everywhere, and there are many carts constantly coming from the coal pit near Cizhou. Coal is delivered here, and primary coking has already appeared here. Song people have begun to master the application of iron ore and coke, making iron production easier. That's why the iron and steel industry here is so huge. The problem is that in this era People don’t have much awareness of environmental protection. Coupled with technical reasons, the air quality in this area is not very good, and the pollution is very serious. This may be an inevitable stage for economic development. Did it still cause unexpected damage to the ecology?At that time, such problems were not resolved, let alone the Song Dynasty.

As Xu Yi and his party entered Guzhen, they also attracted the attention of many people. There are blacksmith shops everywhere on the street and two rows. All kinds of tools are made on the spot and sold in front of the shop, because the steel is purchased locally. Because of the low cost, they are regarded as first-level wholesalers here, and the price is very cheap. You can hear the sound of tinkling iron everywhere, but people seem to have entered a large factory of later generations. Xu Yi straddled the horse Constantly looking at the situation here, lamenting that the resources of a place will drive the industry of a place. This place is rich in steel, so the manufacturing industry is also the most developed. The blacksmiths gathered here in Guzhen alone may be able to top several cities. The sum of all the blacksmiths in this place is the sum of all the blacksmiths, so the competition here is also the fiercest. The tools displayed in each shop are very well-made. No wonder it is said that competition brings development, and the technology is the same. Exploring new crafts and continuously promoting the development of technology. An important reason why the Song Dynasty was able to develop so well was to promote the privatization of the economy. The development of the private economy also led to the development of productivity and production technology, so the Song Dynasty became The most prosperous era in Chinese history is directly related to the enlightened economic system implemented by the Zhao Dynasty. He didn't understand it before, but now he finally understands the reason.

Guzhen Metallurgical Affairs is located in Guzhen. It is an official office set up by the government here to manage iron and steel affairs. In the Song Dynasty, wherever there were mines and smelting, there were many such management agencies. Their main responsibility was to manage the local area. The mining and smelting business of mining and smelting was let go to those private mine owners and smelting workshops to produce. The government was only responsible for tax collection and collection, and the quantitative collection of finished metals according to the country's needs, which led to the extreme development of this mining industry at that time.

Under the guidance of the county magistrate, everyone walked slowly on the streets of Guzhen. They inevitably attracted the attention of the people here. It may be because of their doubts about their identities. I don’t know what they are doing. Yes, if it is a merchant, I have never seen a merchant who would bring such a group of sturdy guards, saying that they are soldiers, the clothes they wear are wrong, and the weapons they bring are not uniform, and they have all kinds of weapons. Yes, thief?That's even more impossible, this is not a place where ordinary people can come to make trouble, so many craftsmen stopped their work and looked up at them.

When they came to what looked like the shabby blacksmith's shop on this street, there was a reclining chair at the door, and an old man dressed in rags was lying comfortably on the reclining chair, holding a I bought a wine gourd and took a sip from time to time. All kinds of tools and weapons made by them were placed in front of other people's doors, but the front of the old man's shop was empty, nothing was put there. I really don't know how he is a blacksmith. Goof off.

After taking a sip of the wine, the old man rolled his slack eyelids, glanced at Xu Yi and his party who passed by his door, and was about to bring the wine gourd to his mouth for another sip, when his eyes suddenly fixed on Xu Yi, His body tightened suddenly, and he jumped up suddenly. His movements were so nimble that he was not his age. The old man jumped up and shouted to Xu Yi and the others: "Stop!"

Xu Yi and the others looked at the old man strangely, then turned around and looked around, then Xu Yi grabbed the rein and asked the old man suspiciously, "Are you telling us to stop?"

The old man quickly walked out of his shop, came to Xu Yi and said, "It's not you, it's you!"

Xu Yi was a little curious. He was new to this place, so he definitely couldn't have any acquaintances. He definitely didn't know this old man, so why stop him?But he didn't have any pretensions himself, he raised his hand to stop the county magistrate, Qian Gui and others who were about to come over to scold the old man, and said kindly: "Master, I don't seem to know you? I wonder if you stopped me What's the matter?"

The old man smelled heavily of alcohol, and said impolitely, "You don't know me, and I don't know you, but I know the knife in your waist! Bring it here and let me see it!"

"Bold! You old man, why are you so unreasonable? How can you stop someone from looking at his weapons when you meet him?" Qian Gui immediately shouted with wide eyes, feeling that this old man is really unreasonable.

"I said old man, get out of the way quickly, don't disturb the young master! Otherwise, I will send someone to tear down your shop!" The county official hurriedly dismounted in fear, and was about to push the old man away when he came over.

"Wait a minute! Back off!" Xu Yi hurriedly stopped the county magistrate and Qian Gui, because what the old man said just now aroused his curiosity. The old man said he didn't know him, but he knew his knife. His knife was not Ordinary knives, although not very famous, are still very rare treasured knives, and this knife should not be known by anyone, the reason is that this knife was not obtained from the Central Plains at all, but the one he forced away. When the Korean surnamed Pu, the Korean Pu Yinjian gave him a knife that should have been imitated by a Korean craftsman. After he got this knife, he practiced it for a period of time and felt that it was very easy to use. , I also like this knife very much, so I always carry this knife with me no matter where I go, and this time it is no exception, it is his self-defense treasure, so he thinks this old man should not know this knife, curiosity It made him want to see what this arrogant old man wanted to do, so he stopped the county official and others.

The county official didn't dare not listen to Xu Yi's words, so he quickly stepped aside. Qian Gui saw that Xu Yi had spoken, so he stopped talking.

Xu Yi then asked the old man: "Master, you said you don't know me, but you know my knife, so do you know the name of my knife?"

The old man smelled of alcohol, but his face was very serious. He looked carefully at the knife on Xu Yi's waist, and seemed quite excited. Hearing Xu Yi ask him the name of the knife, he said, "If I'm not mistaken, , this knife should be called Broken Wolf! Am I right?"

Xu Yi was secretly surprised, because he knew that there were indeed two inscriptions in seal script on the root of the blade of his own knife. He didn't know it at first, but after consulting a scholar tied to the island, he learned These two characters in seal script are called Broken Wolf, and the name is indeed a bit exotic, so I am even more convinced that this knife was made by a Korean craftsman. Why did the old man say the name of his knife in one mouthful?This was really strange, so he didn't dare to underestimate the old man anymore, turned over and jumped off the horse.

Xu Yi took the saber off his waist and held it in his hand, and asked the old man, "Does the master know the origin of this saber?"

Seeing that Xu Yi had acquiesced in the name of the knife, the old man showed a gleam of joy on his face. After hesitating for a while, he said, "If my guess is right, you should have got this knife from Korea!"

Xu Yi was even more shocked, so he became even more curious about this old man, turned his head and said to the brothers: "Everyone get off your horse, you can go around, I have something to delay here, you just see what you like Go buy it, it’s not easy to come here, don’t go back empty-handed!”

These people are all good at martial arts. After entering Guzhen, they saw blacksmith shops on one street and two rows. The dazzling array of weapons on display made them feel itchy for a long time. After hearing Xu Yi's order, they all It should be that he jumped off his horse and spread out on the street, looking for the guy he liked. Only Li Bo, Yang Zaixing, Qian Gui, and Daniu did not leave. After dismounting, they stood in front of the old man's shop, while the county official He didn't even dare to say no, and hurriedly stayed here with the four of them.

After seeing the crowd dispersed, the old man suddenly dropped his wine gourd, and said to Xu Yi: "Guest officer, can you please tell me in the room, I have something to ask!" Now the words are clear, He was also very polite to Xu Yi.

Xu Yi also had a strong curiosity about the old man, and wanted to know why he knew the name and origin of his knife, so he ordered Li Bo and the others to wait outside, and then did something to the old man. With a gesture of invitation, he followed the old man into his shop.

There is a stove in the old man's shop, and next to it are anvils, hammers and other blacksmiths. Other than that, there are some iron materials, some semi-finished products of swords, and some neatly stacked charcoal and charcoal. There is no other decent thing. It can be said that he is poor and white, and his life is very poor.

After seeing that only Xu Yi and the others were left in the room, the old man hesitated and said, "Guest officer, can I have a look at the knife in your hand?"

Xu Yi smiled, raised his hand and handed the knife and sheath together: "Master, please take a look!"

The old man looked very excited, and stretched out his hands to take the knife from Xu Yi's hand very solemnly. Xu Yi could feel his excitement, and his hands trembled a little.

(Continuing desperately, there is another chapter tonight! Update king, I really want to sit down! Fight for [-] updates today! Tired! Brothers who are rich may wish to reward a few update tickets to stimulate! It is best to vote for six A thousand words! Hehe!)
(End of this chapter)