As a salted fish, I was forced to become the teacher of all ages

Then again, does this unlucky boy not know the symbolic meaning of Meridian Gate?

In order to find something for Zhao Ren, the busy Hua Manlou glanced at the unlucky boy and said, "Zhao Ren, come here, sit here and listen to Brother Wei tell you a joke."

Zhao Ren came rushing over, and asked cheerfully, "What's a joke?"

Hua Manlou hesitated: "...Well, the joke is... If you tell others that will laugh... Don't ask any more, I won't tell any more."

Zhao Ren quickly shut up and signaled Hua Manlou to speak.

"When I was out of the city today, I met a beggar. The beggar knew how to tremble in the autumn wind, and he looked pitiful. When he saw me passing by, he knelt down with a broken bowl and called, 'Master, take pity on me, please do me a favor. !'."

Hearing this, Zhao Ren couldn't help frowning: "Isn't this funny? Besides, how did Jing Zhaoyin and his group of idiots settle the refugees? Why are there still people begging for food by the side of the road in naked clothes?"

Hua Manlou had a black thread on his head: "Can you hear me? I've already said it's a joke, why can't you make it clear?"

Zhao Ren hurriedly shut up, and it took Manlou a while to prepare his emotions before continuing: "The beggar looked pitiful, and his hand holding the broken bowl was shaking all the time. I thought I must help him, so I smashed his hand. He grabbed the broken bowl and held it for him for half an hour..."

Zhao Ren looked at Hua ManLou and said stupidly, "Break the bowl for... the beggar?"

"Correct."

"It's been half an hour?"

"Yes."

"Ha...hahahahahaha..."

Seeing the unlucky child out of breath laughing again, Hua Manlou was extremely satisfied: I talked to Qin'er yesterday, but she still smiled reluctantly, you see Zhao Ren is pretty good, this is listening The correct way to open a joke!

In short, after finding out how low Zhao Ren's laughing point is, whenever he starts to make some speechless suggestions, Hua Manlou will casually tell a joke to distract him, and Zhao Ren lives up to everyone's expectations, and can laugh every time. Less than half an hour, so that...

When Ning Guogong came to Shenji Camp with people from the Fifth Army Battalion, he happened to see Zhao Ren who was rolling on the ground laughing.

Looking at Zhao Ren, who seemed to be in a fit of epilepsy, Ning Guogong was really not sure whether to rescue the laughing prince first or angrily reprimanded the prince for his lack of dignity. Finally, he remembered that Ying Guogong said that the prince had concealed his identity, so he pretended I didn't see it.

Ning Guogong is a veteran minister who has gone through three dynasties. Although he is Ershun's age, he is still hale and hearty. Some [-]s can still "eat ten catties of rice and meat".

The old man's resume is also quite rich. It can be said that he has spent most of his life in the army. He has defeated the Tartars, defeated the Japanese pirates, suppressed the barbarians, and suppressed the rebels. He has two brushes. Going to support Datong shows that Emperor Guangxing is definitely not a brain-determined decision.

It's just that the old man's temper is not very good. When he entered the camp, he just glanced sideways at Hua Manlou: "Where are the things you tinkered with? Let me have a look first!"

In front of Ying Guogong, Hua Manlou dared to relax a little bit, and was occasionally glib, but in front of this one, Hua Manlou didn't dare to be a demon at all: everyone in the Xungui circle knew that this old man not only had a bad temper, but was also very senior. Theoretically, Hua Manlou should call him Grandpa, do you think he dares to act like a demon?And this is the reason why the predecessor refused to go to East Street, because every time he met this old man, the predecessor would be scolded...

So Huamanlou really handed him a small earthen pot like a grandson. Before he could explain, the master unplugged the lead wire and removed the mud seal, picked up a little gunpowder with his little finger and stuffed it into his mouth. , the action is very sophisticated...

Hua Manlou looked at the old man in horror, while Ying Guogong beside him could no longer suppress his laughter...

It was so easy for Huamanlou to save the Shenji Camp from the crisis of being disbanded, but the trip to Datong was snatched by the old guy Ning Guogong—originally, Ying Guogong thought, what if The firecrackers that are all over the building are no longer making progress. The Shenji Battalion has proved its combat power on the battlefield is also a layer of insurance, but now things are getting worse. Do you think Duke Ying can go smoothly in his heart?

The nobles of Dazhao are all of this kind of virtue. They can be united externally, but internally they can be pitted against each other, so that an old and angry roar broke out from the Shenji Camp on this day: "You bastard! I will do it for you today!" The dead father taught you a lesson!"

After some fuss, things finally got back on track.

"...In addition to practicing how to throw this thing farther, you have to actually throw a live ammunition," Hua Manlou honestly explained to Ning Guogong, who was slightly pale after seeing Pudu's power: "After all, this thing It's very dangerous, if you don't try it once, the soldiers may get nervous, and if you accidentally let go..."

Ning Guogong said: "Well, what you said is that some things are different on the battlefield. Many people practice hard in the battalion, but their minds go blank when they go to the battlefield. But if you don't practice, at least Gotta let them know what to do..."

Ning Guogong looked at Huamanlou with a slightly different look at this moment.

Although Ning Guogong knew that Huamanlou had improved the firecrackers and presented the Tweet Order, he failed to change the bad impression of Huamanlou's predecessor.Now that he has seen the power of Purdue, he has changed his view of Huamanlou - you must know that the old man was still a firm believer in the big sword and spear school before, he didn't look down on firearms at all...

In the end, the old man summed up his praises in one sentence: "Grandson, you are pretty good."

Hua ManLou: "...You are always over-rewarding, over-rewarding..."

41. Donkey...donkey...

To be honest, he was very reluctant to ask Ning Guogong to send 500 people to Shenji Camp. After all, in his opinion, the people in Shenji Camp are a bunch of trash.

But Ning Guogong is old, but he is not stubborn. Even if he was humiliated by Ying Guogong, he is still very satisfied with the prestige of Pudu, and at the same time he is relieved of Huamanlou's messing around.

So after the seemingly cursing boast of Huamanlou, the old man handed over the five hundred soldiers he had brought to Huamanlou for training, and then cheerfully took Ying Guogong to the camp to study the usage of Pudu—Yiningguo With the eyes of the public, he can naturally see that the emergence of Purdue has given birth to a new type of arms, and how to use this type of arms in warfare to maximize the bonus of combat power depends on the general's ability.

But Huamanlou is too busy to touch the ground.

On the one hand, the training of the [-] Grenadiers required him to handle them. After all, this type of troops, nicknamed the Duhua Soldiers inside and outside the Shenji Camp, appeared because of Huamanlou. If he didn't handle it, who would handle it?

But Huamanlou is also a half-assed person. He only learned about bomb-throwing skills during military training in his previous life, and in the end he could only use them mechanically.

On the other hand, the matter of ironmaking also needs to be planned and directed by him.

The craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry and the craftsmen recruited by the people have been in place one after another. According to Emperor Guangxing's wishes, Ying Guogong set aside land for Huamanlou in the wasteland near Shenjiying, and then threw it to Huamanlou for a while. After he piled up the materials, he left them alone, and he even called it that Dehuamanlou was fully responsible, and the credit was all his.

But Huamanlou was so angry that he wanted to scold his mother: The supplies are sufficient, but there is only this bare piece of land in hand, and a batch of qualified Pudu must be provided to the Fifth Army Battalion within seven days. Isn't this killing people?

Helpless, Huamanlou had no choice but to find Huang Zichao, first borrowed a batch of tents from Shenjiying to set up, and then planned the work area and living area, and arranged for the craftsmen to eat and drink before starting to prepare for iron smelting .

Hua Manlou divided the craftsmen into two groups. The first group mainly made the body of the grenade according to the local method, and tried to make the grenade with a wooden handle.

Those who have known how difficult the conditions in the border areas during the Anti-Japanese War know, the conditions in the border areas at that time were no better than Huamanlou's situation at this time, and even worse.Even so, they can still produce a large number of grenades under that condition, not to mention that the materials that are all over the building are sufficient now?

The wooden handle grenade is actually not difficult to make. It is nothing more than an iron lump-like warhead stuffed with black powder, and then plugged with a wooden handle with a lead wire in the hollow. Therefore, after a detailed explanation, the first iron general Du came out.

Hua Manlou deliberately asked the blacksmith to chisel the warp and latitude of the bomb body, and made it a little thinner, so the first Purdue bomb got nine shrapnel after the test explosion, which is much better than one bomb with two halves. up.Therefore, after Huamanlou emphasized and emphasized that there should be no gaps between the wooden handle and the warhead, he asked the craftsmen to make the new version of Purdue, and he went to work on the other end—for Huamanlou, another A group of craftsmen is the big head.

This group of people is a group of experienced old blacksmiths, and Hua Manlou wants them to develop new ironmaking technology.

Nowadays, there is already a steel pouring method, which is already a world-leading technology—just like the Ming Dynasty in Huamanlou's previous life, the famous Sugang was ahead of the world for many years, while the West only worked on pig iron in the [-]th century. The method of cooking with wrought iron in a crucible is extremely backward.

But the problem is that today's steel technology still cannot make more sophisticated things, such as firecrackers.

In addition, Huamanlou still has a question that is very confusing: there is already a method of making iron with coke, so why is it actually using charcoal?After all, not only is coke ironmaking more efficient, but it can also greatly reduce the cost of ironmaking. Wouldn't it be a pity to discard it?

You know, in the eyes of economists, the appearance of the coke ironmaking method is even more important than the textile machine and the steam engine in promoting the industrial revolution, and even has a far-reaching impact. After all, this thing makes smelting out of the demand for wood—— [-] At the beginning of the century, the supply of timber in Britain was already in short supply. It was not as rich and powerful as the Ming Dynasty. If there was no coke, their industrial revolution would not be possible at all.

Even so, it was only in the early [-]th century that the Britons came up with the method of coke making iron, which shows how powerful and intelligent the ancestors of the Chinese dynasty were...

So the ancestors have left such a powerful legacy, why not use it?

An old blacksmith answered Hua Manlou's question: The iron made from coke is too brittle to be used at all.

Hua Manlou was even more confused: as far as he knew, he basically used coke to smelt iron in his previous life, and he didn't see any iron that couldn't be used?

He didn't understand until he saw the so-called coke. This thing is coal that has not been fully burned at all, and it is not coke. The smelting of coke is basically the same as iron smelting. Impurities cannot be completely removed. Using this thing to smelt iron is simply a joke. The sulfur content is so high that the smelted iron can be formed well. Expect to use this kind of iron to make firecrackers?

That is dreaming.

Hua Manlou vaguely knew that to make coke, the temperature must be increased to above 950°C, and although there are blast furnaces nowadays, the temperature of the blast furnace is really hard to say, so if you want to make iron, you need to burn charcoal first, and if you want to burn charcoal, you need to cover it again. For a large blast furnace, more reasonable blast equipment has to be designed - the Britons used water power to make blast equipment...

As soon as I thought about this, I immediately wanted to quit: I just want to be a salted fish, who wants to work so hard to promote the transformation of production technology?

But after all the words have been spoken, what else can Hua Manlou do?And it's not his style to give up halfway, now he can only blame himself for being cheap at the time...

Seems wrong?

Hua Manlou recalled it carefully, and only remembered asking in the tent if it was possible to smelt iron into molten iron, and told Huang Zichao that smelting iron is not difficult... right?

That is to say, after Uncle Zhao heard this sentence outside, he acquiesced that he knew how to make iron, and then reported it to the emperor, followed by an oral order...

Thinking that Hua Manlou is in a bad mood here, Uncle Zhao has only seen him twice, but how many times have he cheated himself?

Filled with resentment, Hua Manlou cast her eyes on Zhao Ren: "Father's debt is paid by the son, is there anything wrong?"Don't you dare to vent your anger on Uncle Zhao, and don't you dare to let you, the underdog, suffer a little?

So he immediately said to Zhao Ren: "A county magistrate surnamed Jiang introduced his son to a squire named Ma and said, 'This is Jiang Jing, a dog'. The squire also wanted to introduce his son to the magistrate, but felt that the magistrate His son is a dog, so naturally his own son can't be any better, so he pointed to his son and said: This is Ma Jiyuan from Donkey Day..." (Allusion between Ma Bufang and Jiang Guangtou...)

Zhao Ren: "Pfft...wahahahaha...donkey...donkey..."

(It took me four hours to check the information in this chapter. If there is something unreasonable...don’t complain anyway, this is a novel, not a paper, and I’m trying to be as rigorous as possible, right?)

42. But there are three thousand Purdue in

Busy day and night, Hua Manlou didn't even bother to go home, and spent the whole day in the camp.

What surprised Huamanlou was that Zhao Ren, a rich man, was able to endure such hardships. Although he only came for half a day a day, he not only put down his figure to work with Huamanlou, but even worked with those craftsmen. There is no airs when chatting, which is incredible.

You know, the class gap is insurmountable these days. Scholars, peasants, businessmen, and businessmen are all here. If you replace them with ordinary officials and eunuchs... Well, even a son of a country gentry who is a donkey day may not be able to let go of his figure and craftsman. The householders chatted, let alone a guy like Zhao Ren?

After all, although Uncle Zhao's official position is unknown, at least he can give advice to the emperor. Such a person is a big boss anywhere in the country. How can his son be compared with ordinary officials?

So even though Zhao Ren had a low smile and was annoying, Hua Manlou still admired this guy, and it wouldn't be too dull to have such a guy in front of him when he was busy, right?

It’s just that some of his daily proposals are not easy to understand. For example, he wanted to blow up the Meridian Gate more than once to test the power of Purdue...

Thinking about it a little more, this guy is most likely a brat. After all, Hua Manlou had met a lot of brats in his previous life, and these guys can do anything.But if you think about it at a deeper level, or extend it to the core, how can a half-grown child have resentment against places like the Meridian Gate?Could it be someone's attitude in his family, such as Uncle Zhao's attitude that affected him?

Of course, Hua Manlou, who had met Uncle Zhao, felt that the latter situation was unlikely, so he took Zhao Ren to mention a few words in his busy schedule: "Zhao Ren, the Meridian Gate is the face of the royal family, symbolizing With His Majesty's majesty, you keep wondering what is the meaning of bombing the Meridian Gate?"

Hua Manlou felt that although Uncle Zhao had tricked him, firstly he was a friend of his father, and secondly, from a normal point of view, he was also doing it for his own good, so Hua Manlou thought about reciprocating a little bit and giving him some feedback.

As a human being, you can’t know what’s good or bad, right?Although in fact I was tricked by Uncle Zhao...

Zhao Ren was taken aback when he heard Hua Manlou's words: "Then how about blowing up the gate of the Eastern Palace? Or blowing up the Yin'an Hall?"

Hua Manlou slapped him on the forehead: "You bastard, the East Palace is the prince's residence, can this place be bombed?"

Hua Manlou didn't pay attention at all. When he was taking pictures of Zhao Ren, the corners of the eyes of those "long followers" who had been following Zhao Ren not far away all twitched at the same time. They looked at each other for a while, then immediately looked away and pretended not to see ...

But Zhao Ren, who was covering his forehead, looked at Hua Manlou blankly: "Then where are you talking about?"

"Explosion..." Hua Manlou opened his mouth, and then a black thread appeared: "Nowhere! Let me tell you, Uncle Zhao is an important minister of the country, and you are his son, so in the eyes of caring people, you Those words represent Uncle Zhao’s attitude to a certain extent, if not, he will be impeached by a few idle speech officials and cause trouble, you know?”

Zhao Ren looked at Hua Manlou with a strange expression on his face: "...it's just a few jokes, who can take it seriously?"

Hua Manlou raised his hand and slapped him again: "You bastard, are you still joking? You think it's a joke, but there are so many people in Shenjiying, maybe your words will be spread, and won't it change the flavor of the rumors?" How dirty people are these days, if someone with a heart wants to trip Uncle Zhao, if you skillfully process your words and tell them to others, and then spread them to His Majesty's ears, do you think he can stop thinking about it?"

Zhao Ren didn't know what he thought of when he heard this, and said thoughtfully: "Brother Hua, what do you mean... the speaker has no intention to listen to it, and if I don't get it right, my words will spread?"

As a modern person, Hua Manlou naturally knows how terrible it is to spread rumors, but Zhao Ren's focus is obviously not on this. It was just a cockfight in the East Palace, and they didn't do anything harmful to nature, but their words spread to the ears of the emperor, and it became ridiculous that the prince has no virtue...

Brother Hua is really talented, he hit the nail on the head!Aren't these dirty people just trying to trip me up!

Hua Manlou didn't realize that Zhao Ren's train of thought had gone wrong. He patted Zhao Ren's shoulder and smiled, "A child can be taught. It's actually very nonsense to spread the word. Everyone who spreads the word adds a little bit more, and when the time comes The last obedient person has exaggerated what he heard so many times, could it be that you are more than that, in the past few days, there have been people on the street who have spread the rumor that the killer weapon of Shenjiying can blow down a mountain with one shot?"

Zhao Ren got evidence again: No wonder the group of officials in the court who have never had contact with me sometimes impeach me. Isn't this caused by the words spread by the people around me?

Thinking of this, Zhao Ren quickly asked Hua Manlou: "Brother Hua, how can we prevent this?"

Hua Manlou couldn't help laughing and said, "Stop it? The mouth grows on other people, how can you stop it? The so-called defense of the people's mouth is better than Fangchuan. Can you stop everyone's mouth or what?"

Zhao Ren was disappointed: "Then there is nothing to do?"

Hua Manlou rolled his eyes: "So I've been talking for nothing? If you didn't say those things yourself, who else could make them up for you or what?"

Zhao Ren quickly asked: "Then... then what if the news has already spread?"

Hua Manlou thought for a while, Zhao Ren has said exaggerated things these days, and there are so many people in the Shenji Camp who don't know the basics, maybe it is possible for him to blow up the Meridian Gate, so he murmured: "Well... This matter is really not easy to solve... that's right!"

Hua Manlou stared at Zhao Ren: "One thing can be covered by another. From today onwards, you can change words such as "Zhiwumen" to "Zhituobuhua". If you worry about the people, if you talk too much, don’t you spread too much? Who will believe that you want to blow up the Meridian Gate?”

Zhao Ren looked stunned: "Is this easy?"

Hua Manlou only thought that he was worried that he would get into trouble, so he comforted him: "It's easy to use, look at those civil servants, they represent the people at every turn, and they shout quite loudly, but they are doing a lot of things for the people. , but the people are happy to be told by their representatives!"

Zhao Renruo was thoughtful: "It seems... is this the truth?"

His Royal Highness now feels that he is a little stupid. If he shouts slogans in the East Palace every day, such as replacing the cheering slogan during the cockfight with "A gentleman is knowledgeable and he cares about himself every day", then it will be heard in the ears of the emperor...

Hua Manlou patted him on the shoulder again, and comforted him: "It won't be a problem, trust me. Besides, our iron smelting is almost on the verge of getting ready, let's combine these big things." But there are three thousand Purdue , if you don’t teach Humadu Yinshan’ and the like, who can arrange you?”

Zhao Ren's eyes lit up: "Yes, yes, yes!"

43. Molten iron

When Huamanlou learned of Zhao Ren's identity in the future, he was often shocked by what he said today, but at the moment he is just feeling complacent about repaying Uncle Zhao's favor—we are repaying a grudge with virtue, right? ?So Uncle Zhao, don't cheat me in the future, okay?

Looking at Zhao Ren, who had a righteous face and a posture of blocking gunshots, telling people around, 'but there are three thousand Pudu, don't teach Huma Du Yinshan', Hua Manlou said sorry to Wang Changling in his heart, and was full of emotion. He nodded in relief: After seeing that this brat looks good, can Uncle Zhao feel relieved?

After talking with Zhao Ren, Hua Manlou continued to focus on the blast furnace.

Huamanlou originally thought that the water blower was an idea of ​​the British, but he didn't realize that the wisdom of the ancient ancestors of the country was not built. In fact, in the seventh year of Jianwu, that is, in 31 AD, a man named Du Shi invented it. The machine of hydraulic blowing cast iron is called water row, which is more than 1000 years earlier than the West.

The land allocated by Ying Guogong to Huamanlou happened to have a river, so Huamanlou hired carpenters to build an improved version of the water drainage according to this place, and after several discussions with several experienced blacksmiths, they built it. A taller, larger, theoretically more efficient blast furnace.

After everything was done, Hua Manlou gave an order, and the first production of coke officially started.

Thick black smoke came out from the top of the furnace, and as the water drain was connected to the tuyeres, the coke in the blast furnace slapped and the whole furnace was red.