The news spread quickly in Anfeng County, and then, as if it had grown wings, it reached the county government in a short time, and then the capital... Anyway, within a few days, Wu Jie received Xiao Buyi
The Flying Sword Message.
"There is a way of reciprocating with courtesy. Xiao plans to pay a visit on a certain day, just in time to inquire about anecdotes about the performance of the Three Religions."
Wu Jie calculated the time and couldn't help but be a little surprised.
The speed at which this news spreads is comparable to that of an eight-hundred-mile horse! It seems that no matter where in the world, people's enthusiasm for gossip is unimaginable!
He has not been idle these days, but has been busy - busy with guests and even more busy with official duties.
Anfeng County is his fiefdom, and although he doesn't take care of things, since the Marquis is back, officials, gentry and celebrities from the county will naturally come to visit, and there are many large and small matters to ask for advice on.
"I haven't been here for more than ten years, and I haven't seen them ask me for anything. How come when I come back, everything big and small comes up?" Wu Jie looked at the pile of documents and official documents on the desk and couldn't help but sigh.
He complained to his elder brother who was acting as a master next to him, "Our county has been doing very well these years! Everything is still the same - whoever was responsible for this kind of thing in the past should leave it to whoever it is!"
"That's not possible. My father is very old, and he has obviously lost energy this year. And me..." Wu Cheng smiled, "Someone can do it, why can't I just be happy and free?"
"Brother! The title of Marquis of Ji Shi is going to be inherited by Chi Zheng. Are you doing things for your son? Are you going to be lazy like this?!"
"Even gods are afraid of these miscellaneous official duties. Isn't it normal for me to be lazy?"
"This reason is really irrefutable..." Wu Jie sighed and opened an old-looking brochure. The brochure talked about plans to promote new agricultural tools in the county to improve the effectiveness of farming.
Looking at the last date of the booklet, it was already three years ago.
"Huh? This is a good matter. Why haven't you dealt with it until now?"
"We have calculated an account and found that using this kind of deep plow can indeed have a certain effect. However, it requires a large additional expense... The financial resources required to replace all the plowshares in Anfeng County are second to none.
,The most troublesome thing is that we don’t have that many blacksmiths——
This plowshare needs to be forged with steel, which places high demands on the blacksmith. Steel needs to be refined over a hundred times. Blacksmiths who can forge hundreds of times of tempered steel are usually in the weapons and armor business. They have money and status and disdain to do so.
It’s a small business with little profit and no face.”
Wu Jie nodded and understood the reason.
There is no concept of mechanical forging in this world. Everything from a nail to a suit of armor is forged by blacksmiths hammer by hammer. It’s just a lack of money, but there is indeed no solution to the problem of insufficient manpower.
.
If the coercive power of the government is used, the blacksmiths may be forced to make plowshares for deep plowing, but this approach will harm the interests of the blacksmiths and the government itself. After all, compared to plowshares for deep plowing, excellent weapons
and armor are more important strategic materials.
To solve this problem, the simplest and most effective way is to use modern machinery such as steel-making blast furnaces and forging hammers to use industrial mechanization as a killer weapon. However, considering the huge impact of the industrial revolution on the earth, Wu Jie
We dare not rashly promote mechanization and can only find ways within the existing framework.
He thought about it over and over, and finally he had an idea.
To make a qualified plowshare for deep plowing, you don't necessarily need to find those blacksmiths! Isn't there a top-notch labor force right in front of them that far surpasses them in both technology and efficiency?
"Okay! This matter is left to me!" He stood up with the folder, "Let's go meet the official who proposed the plan... Let's take some time to relax. Building a plowshare is better than these official documents.
It’s much easier to compete!”
Wu Cheng laughed when he heard this, and the two brothers strode out of the study, no longer paying attention to the piles of documents and official letters.
Damn Kumon! Even gods are afraid of something. If we can’t offend it, why can’t we hide from it?
The official's name is Qi Xiang, also named Ge Fei. He is the supervisor of the County's Peasant Soldiers and Blacksmiths Department, a ninth-grade official. This Qi Supervisor whose name seems a bit familiar to Wu Jie is not from the imperial examination, but has many years of experience.
An old official took up his job because he was able to do his job well.
Qi Supervisor became an official at the age of fifteen and has served in many positions, so he has rich experience. He is just forty this year and is still in the prime of life. He is full of energy and wants to make a career.
When the Wu Jie brothers arrived at the Peasant and Soldier Blacksmith Department, Supervisor Qi was leading two or three people around a large smelting furnace to study. When they saw the Marquis brothers coming, they were startled. If Wu Jie hadn't been in time,
I cast a spell to support him, but I'm afraid that the frizzy young man among them is about to hit the stove, and I don't know how he will be burned!
"This is a dog. Although he has a smart mind, he has been impatient since he was a child!" Supervisor Qi thanked his son hurriedly, and then slapped his son twice. "I have taught him for a long time, but he can't change his temper!
"
"Looking at his appearance, he is only sixteen or seventeen years old, right? We were also very impatient when we were this age." Wu Cheng said with a smile, "It is not necessarily a bad thing for young people to be motivated. My brother left home when he was sixteen.
When I went to seek immortality, I didn't expect that he would come back as a Marquis..."
Naturally, it was Wu Jie who was talking about this, so everyone laughed and gently brushed off the matter about the impetuous boy.
"What is Supervisor Qi doing? What's the point of this stove?" After laughing, Wu Cheng asked about official matters. It could be seen that he was quite familiar with official matters and was very attentive, which made Wu Jie even more determined.
He had the idea of reporting to the Ming court as soon as possible and transferring his titles and positions.
He is really not good at official matters!
The furnace is called the "fire-breathing furnace" and it is something that Qi Supervisor has worked hard to design over the past two years. In ordinary furnaces, the temperature cannot be burned too high because the fuel itself does not heat enough. In order to improve this problem, some people choose
Use some precious fuel - such as the Immortal Furnace
Commonly used fire crystals, and some people choose to use a large amount of fuel to replenish the body. The former is not within the scope of ordinary people's consideration, but the latter has another problem - more fuel requires more air, and there is not enough air.
If it does, it will not be fully burned and the temperature will still not rise.
Therefore, what comes out of ordinary furnaces can only be iron instead of steel. It must be hammered by experienced blacksmiths many times before the iron can be forged into steel - this is often called "hundreds of steel smelting". It is not only expensive, but the output is extremely high.
Low.
Qi Supervisor was ingenious and placed the furnace's air inlet pipe on top, matching the inside and outside of the air outlet pipe. He used the hot air ejected from the furnace to heat the inlet air, which naturally increased the temperature of the inlet air and brought the entire furnace temperature to a higher level.
, and there is no additional cost.
Wu Jie understood the principle of the stove when he first saw it - it was "air preheating..."
Although this method is far different from the iron-making blast furnaces he had seen in teachings and books, at least in terms of ideas, it is a big improvement!
Supervisor Qi had no intention of keeping it secret, and explained the principle of the flamethrower in detail. Wu Cheng understood it immediately, and when he turned to look at the smile on Wu Jie's face, he confirmed the value of this thing.
And when he inquired in detail, he learned that Qi Supervisor was trying to refine suitable steel at a relatively low cost to promote the deep plowing plow he invented... With this kind of furnace, although it can't be smelted hundreds of times,
Steelmaking, but crude steel can be produced relatively easily, which greatly reduces the resistance to the promotion of deep plowing plowshares.
“It is really impractical to make plowshares by refining steel.” Recalling what happened at the time, Supervisor Qi said, “At that time, I was only thinking about promoting deep plowing plowshares, but I never thought about how to make enough plowshares.
Come on. After reflection in the past few years, I came up with this flame-breathing furnace. This furnace cannot produce high-quality steel, but it can burn ordinary iron tools, add charcoal and recast them, and what comes out is crude steel."
"Crude steel is naturally unqualified when used to make swords and armor. If it can be used to make plowshares, it is perfect!"
Wu Jie took the crude steel used as a sample by Supervisor Qi, and with a quick glance of his consciousness, he confirmed his statement.
Now that the biggest problem was solved, the next thing was much simpler. Wu Jie quickly issued an order to build a furnace that could be used for metallurgy, began to manufacture crude steel, and forged suitable plowshares for deep plowing for the people of the county.
This incident deeply touched him and made him reflect on some of his own thoughts.
Promoting the industrial revolution is indeed a very dangerous approach. But if we just make slight improvements in some small details, maybe it is not so dangerous, right?
Of course, as a glorious literary young man, Wu Jie didn't know much about industrialization and modernization, but this was not a problem - even if he couldn't research the appropriate technology himself, he could let others research it and use his own skills.
and power to improve and promote.
But before that, he had one thing to do first——
"A memorial from Marquis Ji Shi?" Xiong Er, the emperor of the Chu Kingdom, opened the memorial in confusion. The words on the memorial were different from what he remembered, and the inscription was also different. From "Wu Cheng, the Marquis of Ji Shi, pays homage again..."
It became "Wu Jie Jishou".
He immediately understood what the change in signature meant and couldn't help but laugh.
The immortal cared about the human world and made a special memorial to express his merits to the minor official who invented the plowshare and the fire-breathing stove. This means that the immortal who saw the dragon but never saw the end was not the legendary supreme being who was forgetful of love, nor was he only caring about the world.
Relatives and friends are people who keep to themselves, but kind-hearted people who care about the common people.
This news is so good!
It is naturally impossible for an emperor in the human world to control the immortals to work for him, but as long as the immortals also care about the human world and the sufferings of the people, then the interests of each other are consistent, and they can even be regarded as allies.
Having such a powerful ally to help us is a real help to the Chu Kingdom, which has not been in a very good situation in recent years!
So he approved the memorial without saying a word, and sent a high-level team composed of historians, etiquette officers and chamberlains to award the Qi Xiang Siegfried and add glory to him. He also wanted to write down the incident in detail.
In the annals of history, give him the treatment that all officials dream of, and make him famous in history!
This is not only a reward for those who have contributed to the country, but also a show of goodwill to the immortals. A smart person does not need to be too obvious when doing things, he believes that the other party can understand what he means.
More than ten days later, when Wu Jie looked at Supervisor Qi from afar - oh, he has been promoted and will soon join the Ministry of Works - he was dressed in red and colorful, smiling with a red face, and then looked at the sentence in the imperial edict: "
All farm tools made in this furnace in all parts of Chu are marked with 'Siegfried'." I couldn't help but smile and nod, and a sense of pride arose in my heart.
If you want to do something for the world, start here!
