Infrastructure Throne

North Jicheng.

Even though it was a time of gorgeous summer flowers, the market in the south of the city was even more sluggish due to the severe winter.

The life of the Qin family is getting worse and worse.The woman guards the broken tiles of the courtyard wall, mending clothes under the kerosene lamp.

She was reluctant to add oil, the light of the kerosene lamp was dim and dim, and if this continued, within a few years, she would be tired and blind.

The Qin family's shop specializes in medicinal materials, and the family's field also grows medicinal materials.

After most of the servants in the family fled from the tenants, the husband went out to take care of the medicine fields and shops during the day, and the work of collecting, drying and grinding medicinal materials fell on the woman and the eldest son.

The Qin family worked hard every day, but fewer and fewer people came to buy medicine every day.It's not that everyone is no longer sick, but that there are few families left in the whole street who can afford medical treatment and medicine.

There are people who can't survive every day, and the whole family flees from Beiji City and goes to Yuanliu City to seek a living.

In order to prevent population loss, the City Lord's Mansion has set up checkpoints at the city gates, villages, and important roads to prevent the movement of civilians, but if you want to escape here, there will always be loopholes.

Even if one abandons the main road, chooses country roads, climbs mountains and drills forests, and encounters bandits and thieves on the way, it is better than continuing to live a life of waiting for death.

In the evening, when the host returned home, he pushed the cart as usual, and the woman greeted him with full of anticipation. The first thing she did was to open the lid of the wooden box. Unfortunately, the inside was empty this time, only a few peeled potatoes .

The woman showed disappointment: "Has the price increased again?"

Since the city lord's mansion imitated Yuanliu City and started printing and issuing banknotes, prices in the city began to soar again.First came the price of food, then oil, salt, and then cloth.

It was written in the city lord's decree that real money is not allowed to buy grain, but the grain merchants below have big nobles as their backers, and they all obeyed their will.

Want to buy food with paper money?It's okay, only give half of the denomination of food, don't pull it down.So everyone held back their breath and continued to buy with coins.

But gradually, the amount of gold and silver circulating in the market gradually decreased, while paper money increased.

On the one hand, the Qin family scolded the profiteers of the grain business for not accepting enough paper money, on the other hand, when patients came to buy medicinal materials, they also refused or asked to charge more paper money.

No one wants to become poor, but everyone is inexplicably poor day by day.

Where did all the money go?

The man sat in the yard blankly, scratching his messy hair. This question had troubled him for many days, but he still couldn't figure it out.

"The food at home is almost finished." The woman looked at him worriedly.

"If it doesn't work, you can use Yuanliu City's paper money to buy it. I heard from neighbors that one Yuanyuan coin can now buy seven silver coins of rice noodles, which is enough for our family to eat for more than a month."

"Or, simply sell it and exchange it for silver coins."

The man smiled wryly and shook his head: "I've already used it, otherwise where do you think these things come from? It's not a way to continue like this..."

He looked into the room to make sure that the children hadn't come out. He lowered his voice and said, "I heard that there are people in the city joining forces with soldiers to besiege the city lord's mansion! Ask for paper money to be exchanged for gold and silver!"

The woman's face turned pale with fright: "Civilians go to besiege the noble lord of the city lord's mansion? Isn't this a rebellion? They will be arrested!"

The man showed hatred: "I'm going to starve to death, so why bother?"

He paused, and signaled the woman to pack up her things: "We don't want to get involved in these things, I've decided, let's just take advantage of the chaos and leave Beiji City!"

The woman was moved by the words, but hesitated: "But what about our family's property and the drug store? Even if we sell it, we can't sell it at a high price. Just leave, our family has worked so hard for so many years, It's all gone."

The man couldn't help raising his voice: "It's death anyway, so it's better to give it a try. We can go to our friends in Yuanliu City. I heard that Yuanliu City's new city lord order welcomes immigrants from all over the world."

"I have inquired. Yuanliu City has no poll tax, no exorbitant miscellaneous taxes, no entry fee, and the land rent is cheap. We sold the land and the shop to earn some travel expenses. I am afraid that we will not find someone there. Do you have the strength to live?"

The woman finally agreed, and the two discussed it all night, and sold the family property early the next morning. The price could not be raised at this time of year, so the couple had to reluctantly sell it at a low price, packed their bags, and waited for the opportunity to leave the city.

※※※

The opportunity that the Qin family was waiting for came very quickly.

It was a day without warning.

The clouds were very thick, and the whole sky was a sultry, hot, pale white, as if the people on the ground were stuffed in a pan.

The City Lord's Mansion has been besieged by angry people for a whole day.

The drained civilians, the bankrupt merchants, the farmers whose last sack of grain was robbed by the tax collectors, and the artisans who worked as cows and horses in noble houses could no longer bear it.

Soon, soldiers who came from nowhere joined the ranks of public outrage, and the crowd grew thicker and thicker, blocking the cold iron gates of the City Lord's Mansion tightly, and people from all directions kept coming.

At first, the guards were ordered to drive and beat the unruly people who came up, but seeing the endless crowd, the crowd was so black that they couldn't see the end, the guards also panicked, and quickly closed the gate and hid in the yard.

In the council hall of the city lord's mansion.

The big nobles who came in a hurry gathered here. The hall was noisy and chaotic, like a vegetable market. The nobles were restless and behaved badly, but they still sternly scolded the attendants for making them stale black tea.

"Give me peace!" The city lord slapped the table vigorously, looked around the crowd, watching the nobles show their ugliness, exhausted and ridiculed, there was a hint of revenge.

"Look at your flustered looks, you've lost a bit of aristocratic dignity!"

"Usually, when you're making money, you all scramble for the first, and when you collect taxes, you run away without a trace. Now you're all right, and you've been surrounded by those untouchables at your door! What should you do? What do you say!"

One of the nobles with thick eyebrows and big eyes got up first and asked: "My lord, I heard that the printing and distribution of banknotes was an idea made by you and the tax official. You should be responsible for it!"

The other nobles echoed: "That's right, those untouchables just want money, why don't the city lord spend some money and send them away with some silver coins."

The city lord laughed back angrily: "You idiots, until now, you still act like you have nothing to do with yourself!"

"Secretly, for the sake of profit, you secretly communicated with Yuanliu City for the money, how many goods you smuggled, and how many Yuanliu coins you have hoarded in your hands. Do you really think that the owner of this city does not know at all!"

The meeting hall was silent, and everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, turning their heads away in embarrassment.

The shouts of the people outside the city lord's mansion became louder and louder. Angry crowds continued to throw stones at the city lord's mansion, breaking windows and even smashing the heads of guards.

The officer sent to mobilize the guards has not returned for a long time, and the abuse and harsh curses from outside pierced the hearts of the nobles like an awl. They began to fear and feel uneasy, but every brick and stone in the city lord's mansion felt insecure.

There is a large clock pendulum at the base of the wall of the meeting hall, which was handcrafted and was purchased at a high price by the previous old city lord from the auction of the Blue Sky Business Alliance in Pearl City.

At dusk, the pendulum rang sharply like a death knell, shaking everyone's hearts. The officer of the defense force returned. He was beaten bloody and had only one breath left. He brought back a sad news:

"Nearly half of the soldiers mutinied!"

The newly recruited soldiers after the beast tide were a mixed bag, including the private soldiers of the nobles, the guards of the city lord's mansion, and more, refugees and soldiers who came in for a living.

These unreliable low-level soldiers finally collapsed after experiencing beast tides abandoning the poor, raising taxes, failing to pay military salaries, and issuing excessive banknotes and failing to buy food!

Instead of following the command of the officers and helping the nobles drive out the civilians who besieged the City Lord's Mansion, they joined them and became the backbone of the rebellion.

The city lord and a group of nobles who heard the news almost lost their ability to think for a moment, and fear and despair captured them instantly.

"Don't panic, we still have knights and private soldiers! They can take us out of here!"

Among the panicked crowd, someone said something.

The nobles woke up like a dream, Beiji City can't stay here anymore, they can go, go to Mingzhu City, Moon City, or any other city!

It doesn't matter if the real gold and silver hidden in the cellar can't be taken away, the nobles have already hoarded a lot of Yuanliu coins.

Thanks to the guy who came up with this idea, they can easily carry banknotes and travel out of the city lightly, without having to carry away boxes of gold and silver.

As long as you ask someone to go to the bank in Nanji City to exchange it, if it is really impossible, you can go to Moon City to sell it, and maybe you can make a lot of money!

As for the manors, workshops and other industries here, it doesn't matter if they give up temporarily, as long as their wealth is still there, and they still maintain their status as nobles, there will always be a comeback in the future!

After figuring out the way out, the nobles acted quickly, promising bright prospects and generous rewards to the guards and followers, as long as they protected them from the harassment of these unruly people.

Only the city master of Beiji did not move. He sat alone in the main seat of the meeting hall, staring absently at the excited crowd outside the window, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying, as if he was going crazy.

Muttering in his mouth: "This conspiracy, this is all Yuanliu City's conspiracy!... You idiots, do you think that Shen Qingze will make you feel better?"

I knew today, I knew today...

The voice of the city lord trembled like crying and laughing, why did he provoke Abyssal City?

※※※

According to the established plan, Shen Qingze assigned the order to encroach on the finance and market of Beiji City to the Ministry of Commerce and the Intelligence Department, and then stopped paying too much attention to it.

Once a web of financial traps is woven, a small town like Beiji City will not be able to resist.

Even if he did nothing, he could still watch the nobles of Beiji City commit suicide.

Compared with money and material things, the greed and desire in people's hearts are the truly terrible things.

Next, he just needs to wait.

The heavy industrial area of ​​Yuanliu City is planned to be along the Chiyuan River in the northeast of the city, separated from the light industrial area.

Since the system's second-level technology tree lit up the branch of the crucible steelmaking method, the smelter in Yuanliu City has undergone a wave of comprehensive technological upgrades.The power is still dominated by water conservancy, supplemented by manpower.

The first is the improvement of energy sources. Because Yuanliu City has large reserves of coal and iron, and most of them are rich ore with less impurity content. In addition, the combustion temperature of coal is higher than that of charcoal, and the combustion time is longer. In the past, coal was used directly for iron smelting.

But the real ideal fuel is coke. This kind of dry-distilled coal removes more impurities, has stronger firepower, harder texture, and is not easy to break. In the process of coal coking, by-products such as coal tar can also be collected for chemical Raw materials can be said to serve multiple purposes.

The local method of coking is very simple. By burning charcoal, the coal is directly stacked in the open air, covered with straw and ignited, and smoldering for four to five days can convert about [-]% of the coke.

Such a large waste and pollution is not Shen Qingze's style. Although the system does not provide the blueprint of the coking oven, the craftsmen who have been cultivated by Shen Qingze's modern industrial thinking for a long time have developed a simple honeycomb coking oven. .

A round furnace is built with refractory bricks, and the coal is placed in a sealed environment for melting. The chimney is connected to an iron pipe, and the generated gas is guided back to the furnace to increase the temperature of the furnace, which increases the output by 2.5% compared with the open-air stacking type. The tar is recovered by water cooling.

Having coke is not enough, there are still many areas for improvement in the iron furnace.

According to the drawings and parameters provided by the system, the craftsmen spent a lot of energy and time to transform the iron-making blast furnace and build a regenerator outside the blast furnace to increase the temperature of the blast furnace.

It is an arched heating furnace made of refractory bricks. The cold air blown by the hydraulic blower is preheated first, and then blown into the blast furnace through the sealed iron pipe.

It can greatly increase the temperature of the furnace, speed up the ironmaking speed, and consume the same amount of fuel. The improved ironmaking blast furnace has three times the production capacity of the previous one!

Since firearms shined in the two offensive and defensive battles, Yuanliu City's armaments have been consciously tilted towards firearms, gradually reducing the manufacture of cold weapons.

Shen Qingze went to the ironworks today, apart from visiting Father Li and inspecting the work, there was another important thing.

Father Li’s clothes are still as simple as before. He has reached the age of retirement, but he always doesn’t like to stay in a spacious mansion. He has to visit the iron factory every day, otherwise his hands and feet will look like they are rusted. uncomfortable.

Father Li was wearing his usual work clothes, sitting on a stool, smiling at the young man he hadn't seen for a long time, and the big white dog was squatting quietly at his feet, just like when he was in the village.

Shen Qingze changed into a set of simple cotton short sleeves, and specially asked a tailor to cut it into a T-shirt style. He held a piece of steel in the shape of a gun head with tongs in his hand, set it up in the furnace, and fired it repeatedly.

He wants to rebuild a gun for Yan Zui.

After Shen Qingze took the position of chief priest, he was busy with affairs every day, and he hardly had time to continue to upgrade his forging life skills, and his level remained at the level of a junior blacksmith.

Few people remember that he was a blacksmith before he became the officiant.

Recently, he was able to take a break from his busy schedule, and finally he was able to pick up the casting specialization skill in the corner again.

After a while, he took out the steel material, looked at the 30% skill proficiency, sighed, threw the steel material back to the waste recycling place, and started all over again...

※※※

The improvement of casting proficiency is boring and long. It can only be upgraded step by step, and there is no shortcut.But compared to those forging masters on the Dawn Continent, the player's specialization upgrade speed is so fast that it can scare people to death.

When Shen Qingze returned to the City Lord's Mansion from the ironworks, it was already dark.

He ate dinner alone, and Yan Zui was not seen at the dinner table. He went to the school grounds during the day and has not returned yet.

Recently, the artillery and fire commanders are expanding. Yan Zui not only has to master this new type of weapon proficiently, but also has to re-create the drill regulations for the new arms and the corresponding combat plan, leaving early every day and returning late.

Shen Qingze seemed to have not seen each other for several days.

After filling his stomach, he returned to the bedroom, took a simple shower to wash off the smell of iron and coal, and buried himself in front of the desk to review the accumulated documents.

The wind-up clock was ticking, and the room was burning with spices added with herbs. Shen Qingze felt drowsy from the smell. After suffering for an unknown amount of time, he finally couldn't resist the tiredness and sleepiness, and fell asleep lying on the table.

The windows were wide open, and the late summer evening breeze gently lifted the corners of the curtains.

The clock passed the turning point, and Yan Zui, who had just rushed back from the school grounds, slipped into the officiant's bedroom as usual.

The dim kerosene lamp cast an arc of light in front of the table, Shen Qingze's crouching back fell into Yan Zui's eyes, he paused, took off his military boots silently and put them aside, shaking the dust off the ground.

Yan Zui stepped on the carpet with bare feet and approached the other party, glanced at the messy documents on the table, and frowned.

There is a sleeping ingredient in the incense, Shen Qingze slept deeply in the familiar environment, he did not choose to wake up the other party, but just stretched out his hand through the other party's armpits and knee bends, and gently hugged him horizontally.

Yan Zui's hands are extremely steady, and with the kung fu he has practiced since he was a child, even holding a big man like Shen Qingze is effortless.

He put Shen Qingze on the big bed in the bedroom, but he was not in a hurry to lie down next to him.

Shen Qingze's desk and bookcase are full of modern knowledge theories that he wrote from memory in his spare time, like a memo, where he adds a few strokes whenever he thinks of it, which looks very messy.

Yan Zui picked some manuscripts from the cabinet, sat down in the single chair in front of Shen Qingze's bed, and read through them bit by bit.

The things written by Shen Qingze are too obscure for the natives in this world, Yan Zui often has to read a sentence several times, but always maintains interest and patience.

He touched Shen Qingze's handwriting with his fingertips, reading his memory, his knowledge, his past.

It was very late at night, he supported his cheek with one hand, held a sharpened pencil in his hand, and took notes while reading, until tiredness covered his eyes, Yan Zui rubbed the center of his brows, and was about to close the page to rest——

Suddenly the corner of the clothes was caught by something, Yan Zui lowered his head, and met Shen Qingze's gaze silently looking at him.

A slender arm stretched out from under the quilt, pinching the hem of his clothes with his fingertips.

"Come up and sleep." He lifted the single corner of the quilt, and moved his body to the side to make a small space.

The halo was dim, and Shen Qingze's voice was hoarse, half-awakened, and every little detail made Yan Zui's heart skip a beat.