Chapter 1308: The new site of the General Administration of Metallurgy
Zhao Hongrun originally planned to laze around in the palace for a while after he was completely free this time, but everyone in the palace was busy preparing for the wedding, and people close to him were leaving Daliang one after another for various reasons.
, which caused Zhao Hongrun to feel bored with nothing to do after he had some free time.
So, after much deliberation, Zhao Hongrun finally decided to take Que'er, Wei Jiao and his staff Jie Zigui to the General Office of the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau in the city to see if the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau had tinkered with anything new.
Just like last time, when they learned that Su Wang Zhao Hongrun had arrived at the General Office of the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau, the officials in the office gathered around him intentionally or unintentionally to express their loyalty to Su Wang Zhao Hongrun.
While making Zhao Hongrun smile bitterly, it also made Jie Zizi thoughtful.
Fortunately, Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing Bureau, appeared in time and resolved the embarrassment of Zhao Hongrun and his party being surrounded by officials from the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau.
"Your Highness."
After a few polite greetings, Wang Fu, director of the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing, asked Zhao Hongrun about his purpose.
After all, according to Wang Fu's understanding, the His Highness in front of him should be busy preparing for a wedding in the palace recently. How could he come to the Smelting Bureau in his leisure time?
Faced with Wang Fu's inquiry, Zhao Hongrun naturally couldn't say that it was because he was too busy staying at the house, so he lied and said: "I am here for inspection. Wang Fu, take me with you."
Let’s take a tour, shall we?”
The reason why it is called a "visit" is very simple: the former Smelting Bureau's family business was small, and Zhao Hongrun stayed in Daliang at that time, so Zhao Hongrun knew the general development of the Smelting Bureau to some extent; but gradually, the Smelting Bureau
The foundation of the project is getting bigger and bigger. Even Wang Fu, who is responsible for coordinating the project, does not know every project of the Smelting Bureau, let alone Zhao Hongrun.
Wang Fu suddenly realized what he said and immediately ordered someone to prepare a carriage and prepare to personally lead Zhao Hongrun and his party to visit.
When a group of people drove out of the city on the carriage of the Metallurgical Bureau, Jie Ziyu asked with some confusion: "Why are you leaving the city?"
At this time, Wang Fu, the director of the Metallurgical Bureau, had learned that Jiezi was a staff member and confidant of King Su Zhao Hongrun, so he respectfully explained: "Mr. Jiezi doesn't know that the Metallurgical Bureau in the city is now just a decoration.
Civilian officials design and improve some weapons drawings in the bureau's residence, and there are only some warehouses where relevant documents and materials are placed... The real headquarters of our Smelting Bureau, including some workshops, are outside the city."
Hearing this, Jie Zizi suddenly understood.
Under the escort of more than a dozen guards from the General Administration of Metallurgy, the group arrived at the outskirts southwest of Daliang.
After riding in the carriage for nearly an hour, the carriage slowly stopped, and then the voice of the director of the Construction Department who was driving the carriage came: "His Royal Highness King Su and several other adults have arrived."
Out of curiosity, Jie Ziwei lifted up the curtains of the carriage and looked outside. After just one glance, a look of horror appeared on his face.
It turned out that the carriage was parked right in front of a city.
At this time, Zhao Hongrun, Que'er, and Wei Jiao had already got off the carriage, looking up at the city in front of them.
"Wow, tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Looking at the city in front of him, Zhao Hongrun clicked his tongue.
I remember that when the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau was preparing to move out of Daliang, Wang Fu reported it to Zhao Hongrun. Zhao Hongrun didn't think much about it at that time, but he never expected that after having cement, a fast-setting building material, the Metallurgical Engineering Bureau would
The government actually built a new small city on the southwest outskirts of Daliang City.
Of course, Zhao Hongrun has no objection to this. After all, as the technical fields of the Metallurgical Bureau are becoming more and more developed, some things really need to be well protected and prevented from flowing out as much as possible. After all, if some things of the Metallurgical Bureau are leaked outside,
, if it is obtained by spies from South Korea and Chu, it is very likely that South Korea and Chu will follow suit and create a batch of war weapons to deal with Wei.
"Welcome to our Metallurgical and Manufacturing Administration!"
With his back to the city gate, Wang Fu bowed his hands as if offering a treasure and said seriously.
At this time, Jie Ziyu had also stepped off the carriage and looked up in shock at the city in front of him with a wall that was more than twenty feet high. He saw the four words "Smelting General Administration" clearly engraved above the city gate.
"Hey, hey, this is too..."
Jie Zizi looked around and was shocked to find that the end of the city wall could not be seen from both sides. This shocked him: How big is this city?
"This...the whole city belongs to the General Administration of Metallurgy and Manufacturing?" Jie Ziu asked in surprise.
Wang Fu smiled and explained: "It's just half of the city. The other half belongs to Bingzhu Bureau... If you enter the city from the west gate or south gate, you can see the inscription "Bingzhu Bureau" engraved above the city gate.
"Three words."
Jie Ziyu's face twitched slightly: Who doesn't know that the Bingzhu Bureau is now under the jurisdiction of the Smelting Bureau.
According to Wang Fu's introduction, this place has a circumference of more than thirty miles. On this hilly and plain terrain, it is a site specially allocated by the imperial court for the Smelting Bureau. To the west, there is still more than ten miles to "Zhongmu County".
This is enough to show the current status of the Smelting Bureau in the imperial court.
And just when Wang Fu was making a general introduction, he saw Wei Jiao, the chief of the Zongwei, looking up at the city wall carefully, and suddenly whispered: "Hey! What a guy..."
What did he see?
He saw a whole row of repeating crossbows on the wall of the city wall. The distance between the two repeating crossbows was about three feet. It was difficult to see at a glance. The section of the city wall within Wei Jiao's sight alone was conservatively estimated to number dozens.
shelf.
"His Highness ordered me to build a bureau with the power to cope with unexpected changes." Wang Fu glanced at Su Wang Zhao Hongrun and explained in a low voice.
Everyone nodded, and after thinking about it, they understood the reason.
After a while, Wang Fu came to the city, called the guards who were guarding the city, opened the city gate, and then ordered the guards to bring out a few horses from the city for Zhao Hongrun and others to travel on their behalf.
While leading Zhao Hongrun and others into the city, Wang Fu pointed to the dry land outside the city and said: "When we have free time in the future, our Smelting Bureau plans to dig another moat outside the city and introduce water from the big river from Bolangsha.
, by then, our Smelting Bureau will be considered impregnable."
Zhao Hongrun nodded and did not object. He just asked Wang Fu: "Where are these soldiers summoned from?"
"Most of them are veteran soldiers who have retired from the Junshui Army, Chenggao Army, Dangshan Army, Fenxing Army and other armies. Regarding these soldiers, I originally sent several chief officers to negotiate with several generals, and several generals expressed their opinions.
This is quite sincere.”
"You provided positions for retired soldiers to settle down. Of course those generals were enthusiastic."
Zhao Hongrun smiled slightly.
He still trusted the soldiers of the Sixth Battalion of the Junshui Army, Chenggao Army, Dangshan Army, Fenxing Army, etc., but he still told Wang Fu to find out the details of each guard to prevent anyone from pretending to be one.
A group of people rode horses slowly into the city and walked along the streets of the city towards the depths of the city.
Along the way, Jie Zizi looked curiously at both sides of the street. Along the way, he saw many brick furnaces with a height of more than ten feet. A strong, dark-skinned craftsman was forging shirtless in the workshop.
As for the homework, there were also civilian officials writing down the homework with pens.
"This area is the "Short Furnace Workshop", which is mainly responsible for turning the fired iron embryos into finished weapons for testing the texture of these iron embryos..." As he spoke, a series of words burst out from Wang Fu's mouth.
The terminology makes meson confused.
Jie Zizi asked curiously: "Since there is a low furnace workshop, then there is also a blast furnace workshop?"
Wang Fu didn't answer and raised his hand to point in one direction.
The meson owl turned his head and looked in the direction pointed by Wang Fu, and was shocked to see a dozen huge chimneys dozens of feet high standing in the distance.
"That's the blast furnace workshop, which is mainly responsible for calcining ore and burning it into iron embryos." At this point, Wang Fu turned to look at Zhao Hongrun and said, "These blast furnaces were built in the past year.
Those furnaces a few years ago are now used exclusively for firing bricks and forging molds..."
Zhao Hongrun nodded. After all, he also understood that after bricks replaced the former stone bricks, the demand for bricks in Wei State has remained high. After all, it is better to build a city with bricks and cement than with stone bricks.
The city is much faster.
While introducing the regional distribution of the Smelting General Administration, Wang Fu took Zhao Hongrun and his party to the residence of the Smelting Bureau in the city.
Because he had been warned by Zhao Hongrun that year, Wang Fu did not dare to build this residence extravagantly and wastefully. It was just an ordinary official residence, which made Zhao Hongrun very satisfied.
Under the guidance of Wang Fu, Zhao Hongrun and his party got off their mounts and walked into the official residence.
During this period, it was inevitable that some officials from the Smelting Bureau who rarely saw Zhao Hongrun, His Royal Highness Prince Su, rushed forward to express their loyalty. After all, although these officials now work here, they have already heard some rumors.
Let's say, for example, that His Highness King Su wants to compete for the throne or something.
After comforting and encouraging these officials, Zhao Hongrun was able to escape and came to Wang Fu's director's room in this department residence.
"Come here, serve tea."
After asking the clerks in the squad room to bring tea, Wang Fu called a few clerks and asked them to fetch all the drawings of the equipment that had been improved by the Smelting Bureau in the past year and put them on the desk in front of Zhao Hongrun.
There's quite a stack.
After instructing Que'er, Wei Jiao and Jie Ziyu to do whatever they wanted, Zhao Hongrun sat in Wang Fu's director's room and looked at the drawings one by one.
These drawings are very complex and include everything, such as a "wheelbarrow" that is intended for civilian use. The craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau have slightly improved the original wheelbarrow, making this widely used human-powered cart more stable and easier to use.
Get started.
Another example is the "turnover", "plough", "waterwheel", etc. The craftsmen of the Smelting Bureau have all made improvements.
In terms of military use, the Smelting Bureau has also improved war weapons such as "repeating crossbows", "sniper crossbows", and "catapults".
Suddenly, Zhao Hongrun turned over a drawing, which made his expression slightly stunned.
"Torsion spring? This is not what I painted back then...Eh? No, this is..."
Taking out the drawing and looking at it carefully, Zhao Hongrun realized that this drawing was not the one he drew back then.
Because the torsion spring he designed back then could only be left in the warehouse to gather dust because the Metallurgical Bureau could not produce "steel wire" or even "iron wire". However, in this drawing, someone used horse hair and animal horns.
, animal sinew and other elastic materials, a "torsion spring" component was designed - although the appearance looks very ugly, the principle is consistent.
"Has 'that thing' been created?"
Zhao Hongrun asked Wang Fudao in surprise.
"Yes, Your Highness." Wang Fu cupped his hands and said with a smile: "It has been successfully developed, but due to the war that broke out last year, there was no time to test it."
After hearing this, Zhao Hongrun immediately became interested.
"Quick! Tell me to go down and I will test it myself."