There was the sound of chopping meat in the middle of the night. The pork was cut into cubes under the knife, and then chopped into fine pieces.
Aunt Yang came after hearing the sound and said with a smile: "County Marquis, let Auntie chop it up."
Zhang Yang chopped the meat skillfully and said with a smile: "Let me do it. My daughter and wife both like the meat to be bigger. I can chop the meat myself to better control."
Aunt Yang smiled and nodded, "That's fine."
The two aunts sat next to Li Yue and helped make dumplings.
The pork has been soaked in onion, ginger, and wine in advance. Now it is minced and can be wrapped directly.
After giving birth to her son, my wife has always been very harsh.
At night, it started to rain again, and the rainwater with ice particles fell on the roof of my house and on the edge of Huaqing Pool.
As soon as I heard that I could eat dumplings, my brothers and sisters stopped sleeping.
Zhang Yang chopped two large pieces of pork, relaxed his arms, and left the next task of making dumplings to his wife and younger brothers and sisters.
Originally, the children should have gone to bed at this time, but now Lishan Mountain is still bustling with activity.
Only the big bear was still snoring like thunder, while the cubs and pandas were all fast asleep.
It was indeed cold late at night, but seeing the children sitting in rows making dumplings made the house seem very warm.
There should also be extracurricular activities. Zhang Yang thought about it for a while and realized that there were a lot of things to do this year.
The whole family sat under the eaves and ate the dumplings. If the dumplings tasted bland, they would add more fine salt.
Xiaohui and Xiaowu were sitting together and discussing something in a low voice. Li Yue was listening, sometimes frowning and sometimes asking.
After finishing the late-night snack and lacking in entertainment life, Zhang Yang taught the children to sing while tapping the bowl with chopsticks. The song he hummed was the simplest blessing song.
Bless you every day...
Although it is a bit convoluted to sing in the current Guanzhong dialect version, Zhang Yang used his few language talents to teach him sentence by sentence.
Soon the children will be singing on their own.
The cheerful and festive atmosphere in the song is very contagious.
I don’t know how long I sang, but the children were tired, and finally everyone fell asleep. The two aunts were still humming the song and clearing the dishes in front of them.
After a night of fun, no matter how late he slept, Zhang Yang would always get up on time at the fixed time in the morning.
Once the daily schedule has become a habit, I no longer have the urge to go to bed late.
People's daily necessities start from daytime, for a day or a year, they work in the early morning and live at night.
Because in today's simple life, at night, you can't do much even in the dark.
Zhang Yang walked to the southeast foothills of Lishan Mountain with his knife in hand, where there was a bamboo forest.
I found a few relatively strong bamboos and cut them down. These bamboo joints can be used to make bamboo tubes.
Tie the cut bamboos with hemp rope.
Then he picked up the back end of the bamboo. After the bamboos were tied up, the back end was as thick as a footbath.
Zhang Yang tied the bamboo rope around his shoulders and trudged up the mountain with his hands on his feet.
This kind of work is very labor-intensive, but I did a lot of hard work in the past, but now it's nothing, except that my arms suffer a little.
After dragging all the bamboos to his workshop, Zhang Yang slowly put them down and relaxed his sore shoulders.
After resting for a while, I saw that the rooms of my younger brothers and sisters were still locked. These children were probably still sleeping.
On the other hand, Li Lizhi, Xiao Wu and Xiao Hui went to practice riding and shooting with their two aunts early in the morning.
Harvest in autumn and hide in winter. Harvest in autumn and hide in winter. It doesn’t matter that there are a few bears in the house who are always snoozing in winter. These children are also so snooty.
Feeling dissatisfied, Zhang Yang took another look and endured it. He picked up the hatchet and continued to cut off all the leaves and branches of the bamboo.
Not long after, Li Yue also woke up and took her son and daughter to wash up.
After Zhang Yang had cut all the bamboos, he began to saw off the bamboo joints. After sawing two joints, he felt more and more unhappy the more he thought about it.
Putting down the hatchets in their hands, these younger brothers and sisters also learned from Xiong and slept in every day, even though Li Yue had temporarily finished their schoolwork these days.
Zhang Yang knocked on the door, and it was Princess Qinghe who opened the door. She rubbed her eyes and opened the door a crack, "Brother-in-law? What's wrong?"
"Get up and help me wash the bamboo."
"Ah?" Qinghe blinked with confusion on his face.
"Well, hurry up!" Zhang Yang shouted, and there was a wave of complaints in the room.
Then he walked straight into the rooms of Li Zhi, Li Fu and Li Ming and took the three of them out.
When the cold wind blew, the three boys suddenly lost their sleepiness and hurried back to get dressed.
Seeing his younger brothers and sisters come out one by one, Zhang Yang was very satisfied. After they finished their breakfast, he asked them to help clean and dry the bamboo joints.
Children also need to develop morally, intellectually, physically and aesthetically, and their hands-on skills also need to be improved.
The younger brother and sister were lethargic from the beginning, but gradually returned to their chattering and noisy behavior.
Looking at the more than sixty bamboo tubes in front of him, according to Li Shimin's requirements, these bamboos are still not enough.
Let his younger brothers and sisters rest first, and then Zhang Yang goes to chop bamboo.
Qinghe, Dongyang, and Li Zhi were quite sensible, while the other children went to play with the bears or grab toys.
Xiao Qingqing ate the morning meal by herself, and also wanted to feed her younger brother. While feeding her younger brother with a small wooden spoon, she said dissatisfied: "Dad and mother are so busy, so I can only feed you."
Seeing that her younger brother was not behaving well while eating, Xiao Qingqing was so angry that she just finished the food in the bowl by herself, and now her younger brother started crying again.
The aunts who had dried the clothes quickly came to help. The two aunts felt the most sorry for Xiao Qingqing and the young Marquis.
Li Yue tore open a page of the almanac. After confirming the calendar, Lishan could make his own almanac. Today is the twentieth of the twelfth lunar month.
The village is becoming more and more lively these days. Li Tai was the king of children in the village back then, and all the boys in the village have become Li Tai's "subordinates"
But now everyone has grown up, and the children who were playing behind Li Tai have become young adults in the village. Some of them followed King Wei's arrangements to visit various places in the Central Plains, and some left home to go out for training or training.
It's a study tour.
However, every year as New Year's Eve approaches, they come back, bringing with them knowledge from the outside world. Many changes have taken place in the village every year.
Especially the vegetables grown in the fields and the huge steam engine.
When the steam engine whistle sounds, it means a new day has begun, and the villagers are accustomed to this whistle sound.
In addition to these villagers, Ouyang Xun, Samurai Xun, and Li Xiaogong also lived in the village.
The most important festival of the year is coming, and there are many guests coming and going in the village, but the door of Li Jing's courtyard is the most deserted.
But recently, Li Jing discovered a person in the village. The blacksmiths in the village were divided into different technical levels.
The current technical chief of the blacksmith shop is an old man who is nearly sixty years old. This old man is Master Jiang. According to Lishan, he is the chief engineer of Lishan.
There is only one blacksmith workshop in Lishan, and all the iron materials must pass through the hands of this old master.
Zhang Yang had always kept silent about firearms, and Li Jing was still worried about it, so he could only ask this old master.
The old master also lived alone. Li Jing chatted with him and found that the old man was very accomplished in weapon casting and could give insightful lectures on the casting of horizontal knives, horse spears, and even bows and arrows.
If you ask him again, you will know that he was originally a craftsman in the army. Later, he made a living in Chang'an City and was recruited to be the weapons supervisor.
In this way, this old gentleman was arranged by the Ministry of Industry to come to Lishan, and that's where he is today.
"Zhang Yang did let the old man forge a lot of weird things, but he never knew what they were for."
As he spoke, Master Jiang took out a stack of old drawings and placed them on the desk.
Li Jing picked up one of the drawings. The figures drawn on the drawing looked confusing, and there were also various densely outlined lines.
In the past, when he was in the army, Li Jing often looked at some ordnance drawings. He used to think that catapults were complicated enough. But now when he looked at these drawings, this well-known general in the Central Plains felt that his knowledge was shallow.
"Did Lishan always rely on these drawings to cast objects?"
Master Jiang nodded, and the purpose was written on the drawing, "For example, here it says the upper support parts of the steam engine, the turning axis of the lathe... hmm!"
"Usually, the drawings used for casting have names. As for the drawings without names, they were all brought by Zhang Yang. Sometimes the old man doesn't know what they are used for after seeing these drawings. Some places are very delicate in design."
Li Jing looked through the drawings one by one and arranged them one by one without names, which were the drawings that Zhang Yang personally gave to the blacksmith workshop for casting.
“If you don’t know their sequence, their parts, and their uses, how can you know what these cast objects are used for?”
"The general said so, and the old man remembered something. Zhang Yang was like this in the past. He would give one hand and leave another hand in everything he did. He was cautious and smart."
Li Jing nodded and said: "In this case, even if you get these drawings, it will be useless."
There are more than thirty drawings in it, and the lines on the drawings are dizzying just by looking at them.
Li Jing observed the brush strokes on these drawings and sighed: "What a complicated way of drawing."
"General, these drawings are not complicated at all. Once you understand them, you will have a sense of proportion when casting them."
Li Jing smiled bitterly, "I used to travel through the Central Plains, thinking I had seen all the heroes in the world, but I didn't expect that there really was no one else."
Now Li Jing was surprised by the Lishan blueprint design. As long as Zhang Yang did some tricks, even if he got these blueprints, he still couldn't make a firearm.
If he owns firearms, he will definitely list the blacksmith shop as a forbidden area in the village. Now Lishan has not enclosed the blacksmith shop. In fact, he understands that the drawings are not important. Li Jing said the answer in his heart, "Even if you get these
Drawings, outsiders can’t build what’s on the drawings?”
The drawings here are beyond the imagination of ordinary craftsmen.
Master Jiang drank tea and shook his head, looking at the general in confusion, "I thought the general knew something about the blacksmith."
"Is it not?"
"General, the old man won't hide anything from you. May I ask if the general can understand the drawings?"
"I can't understand it, but maybe an experienced craftsman can understand it."
Master Jiang smiled and said: "Even if the Tang Dynasty's weapons supervisor has the most skilled craftsmen in casting weapons, most of them can't make these parts well."
Li Jing frowned and said, "The craftsmen gathered in the Ordnance Prison are all experts in the military."
Master Jiang did not deny this, explaining: "They are indeed experts in the military, but casting requires craftsmanship."
Li Jing shook his head and said in confusion: "Of course it requires skills."
Master Jiang added: "The general is still wrong. Lishan's casting technology is a barrier. We have worked hard to meet Zhang Xiaozi's requirements."
"If you put it this way, the weapons supervisor in the court can make it if it takes a little more time."
Master Jiang stroked his beard and said, "It's hard to say, but there is one thing that is indispensable for Lishan's casting to make the progress it is today, and that is the Lishan Ruler."
As he spoke, he carefully took out the ruler.
Li Jing looked at this thing, which looked like a flat hammer.
"This object is the key to Lishan's casting technique. It can measure depth, width, length, and thickness, and it can be accurate to a millimeter. Zhang Xiaozi also has something called a lathe, but now the blacksmith workshop has not yet brought it in the next year.
Go down the mountain."
Li Jing looked at the Lishan ruler in front of him and noticed the scale. He could move the internal scale to measure things.
"The general may not understand it, but after you learn how to use it, you will know that this thing has endless uses. This ruler is the core object of Lishan Casting. Only those complicated parts can be cast. His Royal Highness the King of Wei is a person who does not stick to trivial details, so he made this ruler
Leave the things to the old man."
As far as I know, this Lishan ruler is also called a vernier caliper. There are only three of them in the world. One is in the hands of Niu Chuang and the other is in the hands of the Marquis of Lishan. The only remaining ruler is the one in the hands of the general.
Li Jing handed back the Lishan Ruler and said, "Thank you, Mr. Sir, for your advice."
The old master added: "When the general comes to ask the old man, the old man must know everything, but there are some things about casting technology that even if you say them out, you have to understand them... Haha, how easy is it?"
"Zhang Xiaozi has always been adhering to technology. He and the King of Wei have invested endlessly in order to improve the technical level. Over the past few years, Lishan has been built into what it is today. In less than five years, if we make further progress, we will be where we are now.
Lishan casting technology, looking around the world, there is nothing better than Lishan."
Advances in industry and casting technology can bring huge benefits.
Without springs, today's lathes cannot be built. It took two or three years to make springs to achieve the current production level of Lishan.
Don’t look at a small object, it can change a lot, and it can also achieve Lishan.’’
This is the reason why King Wei and Zhang Yang have been working hard and going all out on technology.
Lishan's springs are getting smaller and smaller now, which means that in the world, only Lishan can cast such things.
Every time he thinks of this, Master Jiang has a smile on his face.
Li Jing looked at these drawings and fell into deep thought, while on the other side of Lishan Mountain, Li Chongyi brought his family to visit Li Xiaogong.
It's just that my own father has lived in Lishan for a long time, and he still hangs a rope from the beam of the house.
Listening to his mother scolding his father.
"You know what people outside say? They say that you, Li Xiaogong, only know how to protect Lishan, but you don't know how to take care of your own children."
