At the foot of Wild Dog Ridge, when they learned that the Marquis was coming, the crowd to greet him had already gathered in the square on the east side of the slope.
Various vehicles and materials are piled up on the huge flat square. There are more than thirty large warehouses around the edges, not counting the storage yards with open-air sheds.
In front of the huge iron gate at the entrance, Xu Gao and his daughter, Zhao Laoji and his son, and the foreman of the workshop have all been waiting here for a long time.
When Zhang Yanling's carriage and horses came to a stop, there was already a dark mass of people kneeling in front of them.
"I've met the Marquis."
"I've met my boss."
Everyone shouted in confusion.
Zhang Yanling hurriedly stepped forward and said: "What are you doing? Get up quickly. Why are you so angry? You all get up to talk. Isn't this embarrassing me?"
After helping Xu Gao and Zhao Laoji, everyone stood up one after another, with smiles and joy on everyone's faces.
"Everyone is well. It seems that everyone is looking good." Zhang Yanling bowed her hands and asked with a smile.
"Okay, we are all fine." Everyone laughed.
Zhang Yanling smiled and nodded, looked at Zhao Laoji and said, "How is your health, old man? Are your waist and legs still strong?"
Zhao Laoji cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Thanks to Mr. Hou, I am very strong. I have no illness or disaster, and I can eat three big bowls at a time."
Zhang Yanling nodded in agreement.
A young man in the crowd shouted: "The old blacksmith's body and bones are stronger than those of us. We can't even beat him when swinging a sledgehammer. It's just that his waist tends to slip."
"Hahaha." A group of craftsmen laughed.
Zhao Laoji said angrily: "You're exposing my shortcomings in front of the Marquis? Big pillar, I won't skin you later."
The young man hurriedly said: "I don't dare anymore, I don't dare anymore. Spare me. I will never expose my shortcomings again."
Everyone laughed again. Zhang Yanling smiled and said: "Old man, it's better not to swing the sledgehammer. Although we have strong bodies, it is better to let the younger generations do this kind of heavy work. It is not good to lose your waist."
Zhao Laoji smiled and said: "Master Hou, please don't listen to their nonsense. I am very good."
While talking, Axiu had already got out of the car and came forward quickly. When Zhao Laoji saw his daughter coming back, he rushed to greet her. The father and daughter talked happily and smiled happily.
Zhang Yanling turned to look at Xu Gao, who was standing aside, cupped his hands and said, "How are you, Mr. Xu?"
Xu Gao cupped his hands and said, "It's very good. Mr. Hou has become a little thinner. The task of suppressing the rebellion in Ningxia is quite difficult."
Zhang Yanling said with a smile: "There's nothing we can do about it. Fortunately, everything went well."
Xu Gao smiled and said: "Yes. I heard from Zhao Qianhu that although it was dangerous, he returned in triumph and achieved great success. Congratulations, Lord Marquis."
Zhang Yanling waved his hand and said: "Thank you very much. This time, thanks to the repeating gun you gave me before you left, it played a huge role and helped me a lot."
Xu Gao smiled and said: "It's good if I can help. I have already made improvements and will tell you in detail later."
Zhang Yanling said happily: "That's great. Mr. Xu is still reliable. He worked hard and achieved remarkable results. This time I still have important things to discuss with you."
Xu Gao smiled and said: "Needless to say, do you have any novel and good ideas?"
Zhang Yanling nodded and smiled: "Maybe it's a bad idea, I don't know. I'll talk about it in detail later. And... where is Youtang? She didn't come?"
Xu Gao smiled and said, "I heard you are coming and you are hiding in the house dressing up."
Zhang Yanling laughed and said: "That's really... really..."
Xu Gao waved his hand and said, "You'll see him soon. Let's talk about it when we go up the mountain."
Surrounded by everyone, Zhang Yanling and his party walked up the Dongpo Stone Stairway to Wild Dog Ridge. More than two months later, the appearance of Wild Dog Ridge has not changed much. The only changes are the trees transplanted in early spring.
Everything is already lush and green. The entire Wild Dog Ridge has been transformed from a bare and messy mess when construction began, to a hilltop covered with green trees and red flowers.
Walking on the stone steps up the mountain, if it weren't for the occasional clanking sound coming from the nearby slope and the chimneys emitting black smoke in the woods, one would almost think it was a garden.
Arriving at the smelting workshop at the top of Wild Dog Ridge, tall chimneys reach into the sky, and two lotus furnaces and several smelting furnaces are in full swing. In the tall workshop, iron chains rattle. The crane shaft is carried on the iron frame.
There was a huge noise as the craftsmen glided back and forth. The craftsmen were working bare-chested and sweating profusely. It was a busy scene.
Zhang Yanling was pleased and filled with emotion. With unremitting efforts, Wild Dog Ridge finally turned into what he wanted to see step by step. He invested more than 200,000 taels of silver in it, which can be said to be all he could have.
Exhausted financial and human resources.
All this finally bore fruit and was not in vain.
After resting for a while in the public house on the top of the mountain, the old blacksmith introduced it to Xu Gao, and then took Zhang Yanling to visit.
The first thing he went to was the warehouse on the top of the mountain. The fine steel and iron smelted and cast in the warehouse were neatly stacked, and a dedicated person was responsible for the management of incoming and outgoing. Zhang Yanling flipped through a few pages of the register and felt completely relieved. From the register
It can be seen that the management here is well organized.
Various specifications of fine steel are divided into several grades and are registered separately. How much is produced, how much is lost, how much is used, how much is returned, who handles it, and what the purpose is, are all registered in detail.
In the warehouse, various grades of fine steel ingots and iron ingots are also divided into categories and registered with labels. There are even the date of release, the record description of the day, etc. on them.
As the general manager of the Yegouling Arsenal, Xu Gao gave full play to his ability to manage various materials in the Ministry of Industry. From this smelting warehouse, we can know that he managed it with care.
"I don't think I need to read anymore. Mr. Xu is here to manage the arsenal, so there is no need for me to point fingers and say more. You have thought of everything I thought of, and you have thought of things I didn't expect." Zhang Yanling smiled at Xu Gao
road.
Xu Gao laughed and said humbly: "Master Hou, please don't say that. Master Hou ordered me to manage this place, how can I not try my best? There are still many deficiencies that need to be improved. Such a large place costs hundreds of thousands.
How dare I take the results of construction worth two cents lightly?"
The old blacksmith laughed and said: "Yanling, you don't know. Apart from eating and sleeping, Mr. Xu spends the rest of his time thinking about things here. Not only does he worry about the affairs of the major workshops up and down, he also stays up late at night to study the firearms himself.
His appearance. I really admire him very much. You hired the right person to take charge of your affairs. Who in the Wild Dog Ridge disapproves of him? Even my old man admires him."
Xu Gao said with a smile: "Brother, don't say that. Xu alone can't manage this place, and your brother still takes care of many things. If you want to say that the most prestigious person here, you have to be your brother."
The old blacksmith laughed and said: "Mr. Xu, they are looking at Yanling's face. They know that I, Axiu, belong to the Marquis, and that's why they are like this. They are afraid of me, and they are respectful to you. These are two different things.
"
Xu Gao waved his hand and said: "One thing, one thing."
Zhang Yanling laughed and said: "Both of you are key figures, so there is no need to be humble. Excessive humility is hypocritical. In short, with you here, I feel completely relieved. I don't think there is any need to go to other places."
, I’m not here to find fault.”
Xu Gao said: "That's fine, there's no need to look at other places. But don't you take a look at the grotto? There are good things in it."
A few people went down the stone steps from the north slope, and soon saw the cave that was cut diagonally and dug into the bottom of Wild Dog Ridge. This was a big project, and Zhang Yanling estimated that it would not be possible to complete the construction of the internal stone chamber in two or three years. This was originally
It was a project used to store and hide supplies at critical times, but with the tacit approval of privately made firearms, there is no longer much need.
However, the project is still going on and progressing very quickly.
A sloping corridor led down, and Zhang Yanling and others walked sixty or seventy steps before reaching the end. There were masons digging into the mountainside, and they were very busy. Every time the corridor advanced a few feet, there were log frames and
The stone bricks were used as support, and the safety work was pretty good.
Four stone chambers have been dug on both sides of the corridor. In one of the stone chambers, Zhang Yanling saw rows of wooden boxes neatly stacked inside.
"Is this the good thing you want to show me?" Zhang Yanling asked with a smile.
Xu Gao smiled and nodded. Zhang Yanling stepped forward and opened a long wooden box. Inside, there were more than a dozen long-tubed bird muskets neatly stacked. Under the light of the torch, they were shiny and blue.
Zhang Yanling picked up one and discovered that the structure of this bird gun was different. It was a pull-bolt type repeating bird gun. It turned out that Xu Gao had already made a batch of repeating bird gun.
"It's indeed a good thing." Zhang Yanling said happily.
He reached out and took out one, and skillfully pulled the breech. The clicking sound echoed in the stone chamber, extremely smooth and smooth. To Zhang Yanling, the sound of the bolt pulling was even better than the most beautiful sound in the world.
"Well, is it a circlip? It slides in automatically when it is in place. The club has also been adjusted, making it even more effortless. The breech seems to be wider. Is this to accommodate large paper-packed bullets? Not bad.
There has indeed been a big improvement." Zhang Yanling said with a smile while fiddling with it.
Xu Gao stroked his beard and smiled, feeling as if he had met a close friend. Zhang Yanling took it in his hand and told him all the changes he had made. He didn't even need to explain a word, he had already understood the mystery. So what else is there to say?
?The most fearful thing is that Zhang Yanling doesn't understand her changes at all. Isn't it just a bright pearl casting a shadow on her, and her charming eyes are being seen by a blind man?
Zhang Yanling fiddled with it for a while, put down the blunderbuss, turned around and saluted Xu Gaoshen and said: "Thank you, Mr. Xu. Yanling's admiration and gratitude to Mr. Xu are beyond words. Others may not know the effort that Mr. Xu put into this.
, but Yanling understands it. If it weren’t for a great craftsman like Mr. Xu, how could there be such exquisite and beautiful firearms in this world."
Xu Gao returned the gift with a smile, feeling extremely pleased.
The two met, laughed, and cherished each other.
Zhang Yanling was not being polite. In such an era, everything Xu Gao did was an exploration from scratch. Every change and progress was something that had never been done by anyone before him. He had to have the heart to study and improve.
, it is simply impossible to do it without superb skills and an attitude of hard work.
Zhang Yanling knew the difficulty in this. He just opened his mouth and drew a direction, and it was a direction that he was not proficient in. But Xu Gao did all practical things to realize this possibility. There was Xu Youtang before him.
After exploring it, and in the hands of Xu Gao, it made great strides forward.
This kind of repeating gun is already the ceiling of individual firearms that can be made in this era.
Zhang Yanling admired Xu Gao, and Xu Gao felt full of accomplishment because of it. The hard thinking and suffering in the countless dark nights before was nothing.
Zhang Yanling and others lingered for a while and came out of the cave. When they walked near the public house, Axiu's voice came from the south hillside.
"Ms. sir, look who's here?"
Zhang Yanling poked his head out of the long window and saw a pretty figure standing under a flower tree in full bloom beside the stone steps on the southern hillside, looking up.