"That's it. It's indeed a problem. It's shameful to not be able to get married, and you're short of money now. What should you do?" Xu Yande frowned.
Zhang Yanling said: "So, can you ask your brother to go back and report to the Lord that the wedding will be postponed for now. Otherwise, it will not be too late to get married after the harvest of the manor comes in after autumn."
Xu Yande said angrily: "No, wait until the autumn to collect the rent? That will be too long. Those who know are fine, but those who don't know must think that the marriage has changed."
Zhang Yanling spread her hands and said, "What does brother say we should do?"
Xu Yande frowned and thought for a moment: "In this case, it can only be..."
Zhang Yanling was overjoyed. Could it be that Xu Yande was willing to bleed? He was worried about the problem of money. If he could borrow a sum of money from the Duke of Dingguo's government, then the musket-making business could proceed.
"It can only be... borrowing loan sharks." Xu Yande's voice sounded.
Zhang Yanling was stunned.
Xu Yande stood up and said: "Yanling, you must get the money. The wedding cannot be shabby, and the date cannot be delayed. In these few days, you must prepare gifts and ask questions. Within a month, the wedding must be held."
It’s done. I’m warning you, my parents are already angry. Don’t make them unhappy. It doesn’t matter whether you borrow usury or steal or rob. In short, I have nothing to do with it. If you try to play tricks on me, I will
You will be responsible for the consequences. That's it, you can do whatever you want. We still have something to do in the army, so I'll take my leave."
Zhang Yanling cursed secretly in his heart. Sure enough, everyone was an iron rooster. He thought he could pluck out a few hairs, but in the end he was overjoyed. But it was obvious that everyone in Duke Dingguo's mansion was really angry and suspicious about this matter.
I'm afraid I won't be able to put it off any longer.
After sending Xu Yande away, Zhang Yanling was no longer in the mood to go to the Yamen. Returning to the inner house, Axiu saw Zhang Yanling coming back and finishing her work. Zhang Yanling told him that Xu Yande came to urge the marriage.
After hearing this, Axiu said with a smile: "It seems that we can't escape. My husband, you'd better hurry up and do something about it."
Zhang Yanling sighed and said nothing. Axiu said: "I know that my husband can't forget Miss Tan in his heart. You are afraid that once you get married, you and Miss Tan will no longer be destined to each other. But let me tell you, if my husband and Miss Tan are really destined, they will not
It's broken like this. God has arranged it, and sometimes you can't break it even if you want to. Just like the princess of Dingguo Palace, it is also a kind of fate."
Zhang Yanling smiled bitterly and said: "I'm afraid this fate is a bad fate, so don't let it go."
Axiu said: "But it's fate. You like Miss Tan, and Miss Tan also likes your husband. Is there a huge gap? It's just a matter of status. But can status block fate? I don't think so.
"
Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "You have changed now, you believe in fate so much."
Axiu said: "Of course. Axiu never dreamed that she would marry her husband, but isn't it true now? So Axiu feels that nothing in this world is impossible. When fate comes, no matter how high or low one's status is,
No matter what status or status, these things cannot be stopped."
Zhang Yanling nodded slightly and sighed: "I hope so. It seems that the marriage is about to be arranged, and there is no way to hide it."
…
On the tenth day of March, Zhang Yanling asked the British Duke Zhang Mao to come forward again to the Duke's Mansion to ask for an appointment. The request for an appointment is commonly known as "asking for a date" among the people.
It is not suitable to get married in March because it is not a double month. The wedding date must be on both days of both months and be an auspicious day. After asking the famous zodiac master of the Mingyue Temple in Beijing to perform a divination, he calculated that the eighth day of April is the zodiac.
After the auspicious day is determined by both parties, the date of marriage will be determined.
Even if this marriage is not what Zhang Yanling wants, she can only accept the reality now that it has happened. What needs to be done is still done, and the wedding must not be careless, otherwise the two families will not be able to live up to their reputation.
Because I am marrying my first wife, the main room in the east courtyard of the back house must be vacated as the bride's wedding room. It also needs to be renovated and added, and all the furniture and supplies must be replaced with new ones. Originally, Axiu and Zhang Yanling lived in the main house together.
Here, now we have no choice but to move out.
Axiu was fine, but Zhang Yanling felt a little guilty. But these days, the rules were like this, and the status gap between the main house and the side rooms was still quite large, and Axiu herself knew it well. Axiu moved to the north of the West Garden to be close to the rear
In the small courtyard of the garden, that courtyard was where Zhao Yuancheng and his wife lived. Later that year, Zhao Yuancheng rented a courtyard outside and moved out, so Axiu chose that small courtyard.
A wedding involves a lot of red tape and a lot of things to prepare. The whole government is busy and busy. Originally, Axiu took care of everything, but fortunately, Ma Quan, who had been in mourning for half a year, came out of the house in March.
He rushed back from his hometown and helped out with Huang Si, which saved Axiu a lot of effort.
In terms of money, it's actually not a big problem. When the appointment was made a year ago, Empress Zhang gave 50,000 taels of silver to her younger brother for the wedding. It was indeed all of Empress Zhang's savings over the years. She spent 20,000 taels before.
Two, the remaining 30,000 taels and the relief money converted from compensation from the Ministry of Household Affairs are more than 10,000 taels. In addition, there is still some money in the account, which adds up to about 40,000 taels, which is enough to hold a grand wedding.
. However, Zhang Yanling originally wanted to use some of the money to open a workshop to make firearms, but after using it, he found that there was not much left, so he secretly scolded her several times.
The renovation and renovation work in the house was so busy that it couldn't stop for a while. Zhang Yanling couldn't help much. Hearing the messy sounds of banging and banging at home made him feel upset. Therefore, he stayed in the Yamen for a long time.
He talked a lot and seemed very dedicated.
During this period, Zhang Yanling took Xu Youtang out of the city once and stayed in a barren mountain for half a day. It was not that he took Xu Youtang to go sightseeing, but to test the ultimate range and power of the flintlock musket and determine the alloy barrel.
Bearing capacity to determine the charge of paper-packed bullets and other data.
After half a day of personal testing, I got a lot of useful data, and also personally tested the true power of the flintlock gun. The effective range of the flintlock gun is as high as 150 steps, which is equivalent to the range of a strong bow. And the strong bow is like this
The range of the gun can only be ejected diagonally, but the musket can shoot flatly, so the advantages and disadvantages are obvious.
Within the effective range of 150 steps, it can penetrate a board that is several inches thick. This shows that the lethality to the enemy is still sufficient. Hitting flesh and blood is fatal. Of course, unless the opponent is not wearing armor, otherwise the flint will
The key is the armor-breaking ability of the gun.
Zhang Yanling brought two sets of standard armor for testing. One set is an ordinary purple cloth-covered armor and a round iron helmet. It is a common equipment of the Ming Dynasty army. Both the frontier army and the Beijing camp have the equipment. The only difference is the quality.
Whether it's good or bad depends on the thickness and quality of the inner armor. Of course, what Zhang Yanling brought was equipment from the Beijing camp, and the quality was passable.
Personal testing showed that at about a hundred paces, the lead bullet could break through the purple-flowered iron armor and damage the inside. After entering the distance of ninety paces, the large lead bullet completely penetrated the inner wooden board, causing damage. Zhang Yanling was still very satisfied with this result.
. After entering a distance of seventy steps, the lead bullet can already penetrate the entire armor. In other words, one shot can kill the enemy. This kind of power is enough.
Another set of armor is iron armor, which is a type of armor with stronger defense and more expensive cost. After testing, it was found that lead bullets can penetrate the armor at a distance of 70 steps, which is much better than the purple cloth face armor. However, this
It does not affect the excellent performance of the musket. After all, iron armor is too expensive. Only a small number of soldiers and horses in the Ming Dynasty army were equipped with it, so it is not of universal significance. The cost of one set of this kind of armor can be worth three sets of purple cloth.
Got it.
After the test, Zhang Yanling became more determined to mass-produce flintlock muskets.