The successful test of the crossbow made Zhao Hongrun feel very good. He paid a subsidy to the officials and craftsmen involved in the project and asked them to keep the news secret. Then he formally approved the further development of the crossbow, making the crossbow continue the "rock-throwing" project.
After the "machine (including catapult)", it became the second siege warfare weapon focused on research and development by the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau.
But having said that, although Zhao Hongrun was very satisfied with the successful test of the crossbow, what really made him happy was the "torsion spring assembly". Zhao Hongrun sent someone to inquire and found out that they were the ones who designed this "torsion spring assembly".
The "Ding Jun" who created the situation has now become a famous craftsman.
Zhao Hongrun is naturally no stranger to this person. When he was still tinkering with candle molds, Ding Jun gave him a lot of constructive suggestions. Now, Ding Jun has become an indispensable technical talent in the Smelting Bureau.
It was this man who developed the crossbow together with Xu Ruo, the great son of Song Dynasty who defected to Wei.
But it is a pity that Zhao Hongrun did not meet Song Mo's great son Xu Ruo and his Mohist disciples this time. The reason was that these Mohist disciples went to the countryside to help local civilians with farm work.
Yes, the Mohist disciples were so weird: they would rather go to the local counties of Wei with bare feet to help the illiterate civilians in the fields install waterwheels, dig canals, and even teach them to read and write for free.
, teach them the know-how of farming, rather than be a respected technical craftsman in the Smelting Bureau.
What is even more incredible is that the savings of these Mohist disciples were also willing to donate their savings to local civilians for free, and their purpose was to preach and spread their Mohist ideas in Wei.
What makes Zhao Hongrun laugh and cry sometimes is that these Mohist disciples seem to regard the Smelting Bureau as a job to earn remuneration - many Mohist disciples work hard in the Smelting Bureau on weekdays, waiting for them to work for a few months and earn
For free monthly salary, these people packed their cloth bags on their backs and went to the countryside to donate for free.
It’s euphemistically called experience.
As a result, the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau did not dare to pay these people too much monthly salary, lest these people would give up and leave midway before the projects they were responsible for were completed.
For these proletarian devotees in the true sense, Mohist disciples who were almost ascetic monks, Zhao Hongrun both respected and felt a headache.
It is no exaggeration to say that if Xu Ruo, the great son of Song Dynasty, is willing to give up the experience of going to the countryside from time to time to spread wealth and selfless dedication, and is willing to stay in the Smelting Bureau to develop research and development, Zhao Hongrun believes that the craftsmanship level of the Smelting Bureau will definitely be more than what it is now.
kind of level.
But unfortunately, even Zhao Hongrun could not force those Mohist disciples. After all, this was the prerequisite for these Mohist disciples to be willing to contribute to him.
Around mid-June, the first batch of officials and craftsmen from Qin who came to study in Wei finally arrived at Bolangsha River Port by boat.
Qin Shaojun was so concerned about this matter that he didn't care about his own wedding preparations and dragged Zhao Hongrun to Bolangsha River Port in person to greet these Qin craftsmen.
Of course, Zhao Hongrun would not be polite to these unearned technical talents. He summoned "Gu He", the director of the Smelting Bureau who was responsible for coordinating personnel, and asked him to arrange positions for these Qin craftsmen. The blacksmiths arranged to forge weapons and armors at the Weapon Casting Bureau.
, carpenters and masons directly arranged to build houses at Bolangsha River Port.
It has to be said that the craftsmen sent by the Qin State to learn from the State have good craftsmanship themselves, which is much more convenient than the Smelting Bureau's own training of new people. The only pity is that after learning the techniques of the Wei State, these craftsmen of the State of Qin
, will return to Qin one day, the shortest time is one or two years, the long time is five to eight years.
But in any case, the arrival of these Qin craftsmen made the Wei State's Smelting Bureau's technical strength stronger.
Zhao Hongrun was not worried about the technology he would learn from Qin - Wei was already so far ahead of Qin, and if Wei was eventually overtaken by Qin, then everyone in the Smelting Bureau would be really embarrassed.
Zhao Hongrun believes in a concept: any conspiracy and conspiracy are heresy. Only when you become stronger and stronger, this is the truth!
Therefore, when Qin Shaojun hesitantly asked Zhao Hongrun whether he intended to conceal Wei's true technology from those Qin craftsmen, Zhao Hongrun responded with a disdainful expression, successfully irritating the future wife.
Throughout June, Zhao Hongrun, in addition to inspecting the follow-up housing construction projects at Bolangsha River Port, also went to the "Yacheng" where the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau is located to inspect the overall development of the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau.
In fact, after the Smelting Bureau has developed to the current stage, there is not much difference between Zhao Hongrun and his absence.
For civil instruments and tools, the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau has established a good cooperative relationship with the Yu Manufacturing Bureau of the Ministry of Industry. For example, the improved "wheelbarrow", "plough", etc., the Metallurgical Manufacturing Bureau directly handed over the design drawings to
Yu made the Bureau and asked the latter to be responsible for building it and promoting it nationwide.
As for military equipment, the Smelting Bureau directly handed it over to the Ordnance Foundry Bureau, a subordinate department that existed like a foundry workshop, allowing the craftsmen of the Ordnance Foundry Bureau to rush to work while cursing in front of the massive armaments orders - these
The poor craftsmen of the Bingzhu Bureau have long forgotten the time when they wanted to compete with the Smelting Bureau, because the daily work has made them breathless. From time to time, they fantasize about whether the Bingzhu Bureau can stop for a few days to let them breathe.
tone.
As for the material procurement matters of the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau, in addition to the warehouse department under the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Metallurgical and Manufacturing Bureau is also cooperating with the "Sushi Chamber of Commerce".
Therefore, in general, the Smelting Bureau, which has entered a virtuous cycle of development, no longer needs Zhao Hongrun to keep an eye on it.
What Zhao Hongrun should consider now is not the development of the Smelting Bureau, but the confidentiality of the Smelting Bureau. After all, in addition to the spies of Han and Chu, those who keep an eye on the Smelting Bureau include domestic people, such as King Qing.
Hongxin.
Speaking of Qing Wang Hongxin, Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but think of the "Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau" that the former strongly recommended. This was once the department that Qing Wang Hongxin confidently tried to replace the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, but now it has become a joke in Daliang.
The reason is that in June, the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau produced the first batch of swords.
Not many, probably only about a hundred, mainly for testing.
At that time, Qing Wang Hongxin personally tested the swords, holding a sword and slashing at the corner of a table.
Unexpectedly, when the sword was struck, there was a bang, and the corners of the table were intact, but the sword in Qing Wang Hongxin's hand broke.
On that day, King Qing Hongxin was furious.
Afterwards, this incident spread throughout Daliang for some reason, and the people in Daliang were laughing. The Yezao Bureau and the Bingzhu Bureau were even more gloating about the misfortune. Everyone said: What a 'sharp' sword!
In response to this, Zhao Hongrun secretly shook his head.
He knew what was going on: if the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau continued to use the old forging techniques, even if the forged swords were not as good as those produced by the Ordnance Forging Bureau, they would not be so fragile that they would break even if they were cut.
The reason is that Qing Wanghong was too confident and imitated the process of the Smelting Bureau and adopted the "carburizing steelmaking" process of the Smelting Bureau. However, due to lack of relevant experience and not knowing how to use fire bricks for insulation, the furnace burned out.
The forged swords were all made of coarse pig iron, and coupled with the unskilled subsequent tempering and quenching techniques, at least half of the forged swords were scrapped.
In fact, this is nothing. After all, Qing Wang Hongxin created an "Arms Manufacturing Bureau" from scratch and successfully built a batch of swords. This is understandable.
The bad thing is that in front of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, there are Smelting Bureau and Ordnance Casting Bureau that have already matured such technology. This made Liang Chaoye subconsciously ignore the technical strength of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau and secretly make fun of Qing Wang Hongxin's attempt.
The ridiculous idea of replacing the Weapon-making Bureau with the Weapon-making Bureau.
Of course, this matter had nothing to do with Zhao Hongrun, and he simply laughed it off as a joke.
However, at the end of the month, something really happened related to Zhao Hongrun, that is, his cousin of the Wei Kingdom, Wei Gong Ziyu, because of his "stubbornness", he still criticized the Wei court in front of others.
Being ordered by King Wei to go to Daliang in person to apologize - this was actually a disguised form of King Wei asking his son Wei Yu to take the initiative to go to Daliang as a hostage, hoping to prevent Wei from being suspicious of him.
Knowing that Wei Gong Ziyu was already on his way to Daliang, Zhao Hongrun could only shake his head secretly.
For this cousin, he had written letters to advise him before, but the other party still went his own way and refused to listen to his advice, which finally led to disaster.
Of course, calling it a disaster is inevitably a bit exaggerated. After all, the Wei court did not plan to punish Wei Gong Ziyu. The most they could do was to summon him to Daliang and let the Ministry of Rites arrange for him to teach (xi) and teach (nao).
After all, Wei and Wei have had decades of friendship, and the imperial court did not want the two sides to become too tense.
Some people may think that if the Wei State and the Wei State were at loggerheads at this time, wouldn't the Wei State just annex the Wei State?
But in fact, this is not a good idea.
The reason is that the Wei State defeated the attacks of Han, Chu and other countries a while ago "with one against five", and it has become too noticeable in the eyes of the world. If at this time the Wei State annexed the former ally Wei Guo for various reasons,
Then I believe everyone in the world will think that Wei is taking the opportunity to expand abroad and even unify the entire world.
This kind of understanding is quite detrimental to the future development of Wei State.
Therefore, what Wei needs to do now is to keep a low profile for the time being. Not only should it not take the opportunity to annex Wei, but it must also support it and create an inauspicious situation in which "although Wei has become very powerful, it still maintains good relations with small countries."
We should adopt a harmful stance to positiveen Wei's external image so as to avoid becoming the target of public criticism.
As for why the Wei State could not take the opportunity to annex the Wei State, but could Song County, that is because more than ten years ago, Song County already belonged to the Wei State, but Song County was autonomous at that time.
, the countries in the Central Plains have long accepted this matter subconsciously.
Therefore, Wei's sending troops to Chu County cannot be regarded as external expansion.
On the last day of June, Wei Gong Ziyu's carriage slowly arrived at Liangjun.
After learning the news, Zhao Hongrun took Queer and Zongwei Chief Wei Jiao and took a carriage to the Shili Pavilion on the official road in the east of the city to greet him.
Because of his biological mother, Zhao Hongrun had a very good impression of Mrs. Wei Wang and Wei Gong Ziyu, mother and son.
What's more, the cousin of Wei Gong Ziyu once personally formed a rebel army to fight against the Han general Sima Shang for the sake of his Wei people.
In Zhao Hongrun's opinion, this is a respectable young master who defends the country.