In the blink of an eye, it’s New Year’s Eve again.
Liu Si was a nostalgic person. Even though Chen Mu was now rich in the entire Yizhou, he was still strictly ordered to celebrate the New Year with the villagers. Chen Mu usually obeyed unconditionally on such internal matters.
But now all the folks in Lihe Village have moved to Chen Mu's new Shu County, so they had to take a boat to Dujiangyan a few days in advance.
Since the gunpowder formula was made public, Chen Mu naturally came up with a series of things such as firecrackers and fireworks.
Walking down the street, you can hear the sound of firecrackers exploding anytime and anywhere, which makes Chen Mu feel like celebrating the New Year.
"Sister Liu is back!"
"Brother Mu, hey, long time no see, you are getting more and more unruly."
"I think a few years ago, Xiaomu was still a little scholar, and now he is the state pastor of our Yizhou. It is really an honor for our Lihe Village!"
No matter how wealthy and prominent Chen Mu is now, these former villagers have no sense of distance from him.
Say hello when it's time to say hello, which is exactly what Chen Mu wants to see.
Liu Si hugged Chen Zhiqiu, who was already babbling, and chatted animatedly with the villagers. As for Chen Mu, she followed Zhang Bowen to the banks of the Minjiang River when she had nothing to do.
Today, Dujiangyan has been completely completed, and water is continuously transported into the Sichuan-Sichuan Plain.
Now that so much land has been reclaimed, Yizhou will definitely become the richest state in Longxia within a few years.
"In half a month, we have to start planting crops. Are the seeds ready?"
Zhang Bowen, who was walking behind, responded: "Brother Chen, don't worry. I have sent hundreds of people to guard the rice seeds day and night. There will be no problems. However... since the last time the fourth sister-in-law used money to dig the fields, there are only 20,000 in the warehouse now."
Two taels of silver, this nearly a hundred miles of land, it will be difficult if we don’t recruit more people to farm it.”
Hearing this, Chen Mu stopped suddenly: "Isn't the money enough?"
One million taels of silver will be used up in the blink of an eye. In the face of national construction, money is really too much to use.
"If not, let's increase some taxes as a temporary emergency."
This is the simplest and most effective method, and there is really no better method at the moment.
But just when he was about to agree, Chen Mu suddenly waved his hand: "No, tax is nothing to some rich people, but for the poor, it can make them breathless."
Zhang Bowen frowned: "Then... what should we do?"
"How many banks are there in Berkshire?"
"About a dozen in total."
Chen Mu nodded: "Write a notice in my name, and from now on, you can get half of the profit by depositing money at Yizhou Bank, but the only requirement is that you must deposit it for one year."
Chen Mu was only temporarily short of money and needed working capital. During the famine period at the end of the year, he could sell the grain and have all the money.
Therefore, Chen Mu immediately thought of the life and death period in the bank.
Zhang Bowen is a smart man, and he quickly understood what Chen Mu meant, and immediately said with admiration: "Brother Chen's mind is really very quick, but I'm afraid it will be difficult for the people to accept it for a while."
"This is not simple. You can order a few influential wealthy households to take the lead in depositing money, and then spread rumors among the people about which one has deposited a few thousand taels. The people will gradually accept it. If no one comes within a month,
If we want to save, we will raise the price of salt until we get through the difficulty."
"Okay, got it."
"Bang!"
But at this moment, a violent explosion suddenly came from the distance.
The two of them suddenly took a look and saw that a clay statue of Chen Mu had been built next to Dujiangyan to commemorate the completion of Dujiangyan.
But who would have expected that the head was directly blown away.
And at the next moment, a father and daughter suddenly rushed out. The old man held a wicker in his hand and was chasing the girl to beat her to death.
"Dad...Dad! Stop hitting me, I was wrong!" The girl begged for mercy in a crying voice.
But the old man was already so angry that he couldn't contain himself: "Wrong? If you cause such a big trouble, I will beat you to death! Did you know that I just blew away Mr. Zhou Mu's head!"
"Who knew... this gunpowder could explode so far!"
After chasing each other for a long time, the old man finally lost his strength. He stretched his knees with one hand and waved his hand: "Dead girl! Don't run away. Find some plastic clay quickly. If Lord Zhou Mu finds out, he will have to drag you to behead you!"
"
"Oh, okay!"
After saying that, the girl turned around and prepared to look for it, but unexpectedly at the next moment, her head hit a wall in the chest.
Suddenly he looked up and saw Master Zhou Mu. He was so frightened that he sat down on the ground.
Immediately afterwards, the old man quickly ran to Chen Mu and knelt down with a thud.
"Zhou Mu... Sir, this matter has nothing to do with this damn girl. If you want to punish her, just punish the common people!"
Chen Mu looked at the father and daughter. They were still acquaintances. He had met them the last time they were at the cement kiln.
Turning his head and looking at the statue that was blasted to pieces, the statue was only one meter long and had been condensed by the kiln fire, making it extremely strong. Chen Mu was more curious about how this little girl did it.
"How did you do it?"
The girl pointed to the distance: "Well, I didn't expect that gunpowder is so powerful and can hit it far."
Chen Mu turned around and took a look, and immediately found an iron pipe as thick as a thigh standing a hundred meters away, mounted on an iron frame. Even now, streams of green smoke were still coming out of the pipe mouth.
Chen Mu suddenly exclaimed: "Absolutely amazing! Isn't this a cannon?"
After saying that, Chen Mu walked towards the iron pipe.
Luckily for Zhang Bowen, he has long been used to Chen Mu's strange personality, but now the father and daughter are confused. No... the statue has been destroyed, how can Yizhou Mu still be so happy?
Chen Mu was very familiar with things like guns and cannons. Cannons actually existed in ancient times. Especially during the Ming Dynasty, various types of cannons became almost indispensable weapons on the battlefield.
"Little girl, what's your name?"
"The common man's name is Wang Qiong."
"This thing is doing well, but do you know what the biggest problem is?"
He really didn't expect Chen Mu to discuss this with him, but he still shook his head at the moment.
"Accuracy, your cannon body is too light. If the weight of the gun mount can be increased, the trajectory of the cannonball can be suppressed the moment it comes out of the barrel.
As soon as these words came out, Chen Mu's thinking was instantly solved. She was a craftsman, but she really had no interest in her father's craftsmanship as a mason. She mostly liked to study these strange things.
The reason why the statue was hit just now is mainly because the cannon popped out of the chamber, the barrel shook and it deviated from the direction.
"Yes, if it is heavy enough, the barrel will not shake. You are so smart. Later... Oops!"
Seeing that Wang Qiong was a little carried away, the old man hurriedly kicked him: "Why don't you kneel down to Mr. Zhou Mu for using these useless things!"
At this moment, Chen Mu suddenly said: "You can come to the Equipment Manufacturing Bureau tomorrow to do some work."