Yang Yuanpu took Shen Yang, Zheng Hui, and Zhang Ping to look at the Yongchun Palace fields, and still wanted to cultivate the fields north of Henghe Port.
However, let alone Shen Yang, Zheng Hui, who was transferred from Huangzhou Bingcao to join the army and was transferred to the county prince's office to consult and join the military, is also good at managing the world and applying it. He is an expert in reclaiming wasteland and stocking up seeds. Han Qian does not need to comment. .
In addition, the selection of the elite guards of the tent house is also the responsibility of Guo Liang, the capital of Zuohujunfu and the commander of the tent house, and there is no need for Han Qian to give instructions.
The hunting garden to the north of Henghe Port stretches five miles from north to south and ten miles from east to west. In the past, it was the exclusive hunting ground of Emperor Tianyou.
The third prince rarely went out of the city, so it was naturally impossible for him to hunt happily. Han Qian, Gao Chengyuan, Guo Liang and others, with more than a hundred guards, accompanied the third prince in the hunting garden for a long time. In addition to hunting eight In addition to a fat and strong elk, we also killed two large wild boars weighing four to five hundred kilograms.
As dusk approached, everyone was in high spirits, riding on their backs with their prey on their backs, along the east bank of the Qiupu River back to Yongchun Palace Manor.
"That's the farm that the concubine gave to Master Han?" Yang Yuanpu stopped on the east bank of the Qiupu River and saw a three-masted ship moored in the pond on the inside of Yandangji. The courtyard protective wall was now chest-high. In addition, there were thick black smoke pillars rising from the courtyard. He waved his whip and asked Han Qian, "There is thick smoke rising into the sky. Could Master Han be secretly building something powerful?" War weapons?"
Zheng Hui, Shen Yang, Wang Lin and others looked at Han Qian hesitantly. They didn't expect that it had only been seven or eight days since he took over Yandang Jitian, and he would start a lot of construction work so quickly.
After Zuo Si's duties were clarified, Qiuhushan Villa and the workshop were classified as the property of the county prince's palace. Zheng Hui, Wang Lin and other talents were able to go in and see the details.
Only in this way, they more or less realized that when Han Qian encouraged the third prince to come to Xichuan to take charge, he might not necessarily be risking the third prince's life to achieve extraordinary results.
Qiuhushan Villa can be said to have formed a relatively complete system.
Building a stone weir more than ten miles deep in the back mountain not only blocks the stream to form a lake to irrigate two to three thousand acres of mountain fields, but also mainly creates a stable water flow for large-scale coal-crushing dams, water mills and even iron smelting distributed along the river. The furnace water rows can receive stable water flow impact, which also ensures that coal yards, brick kilns, lime kilns, and mills can stably supply briquettes, green bricks, lime, and polished rice. This saves labor and generates huge profits. It can guarantee the annual interest supply of Linjiang Money Shop up to 15 million yuan.
This also means that as long as the 30 million yuan of financing is paid off in advance, Qiuhushan Villa can almost provide a harvest of 14 to 5 million yuan every year, which is almost worth the rent of nearly 20,000 acres of fertile land. harvest.
This does not include the mess that the Han family and his son caused in Xuzhou and the Xuzhou Boat Gang.
Even if the Han family father and son took advantage of the third prince and the Dragon Bird Army, Zheng Hui still felt inferior to him for being able to create such a mess in just two years.
There was no wind in the surrounding area at this time, and there was such a thick plume of smoke coming out of the courtyard of the Villa on the other side. Zheng Hui guessed that there must be a furnace being forged there.
Han Qian had no intention of hiding it. He didn't want to get caught up in the busy routine work, so he had to find some excuses for the rest of his leisure time. He smiled to the third prince:
"I was thinking that the Scorpion Cannon could be improved, so I built a casting room in the manor's courtyard, hoping to successfully cast the fine steel bow arms - Your Highness, would you like to take a look, or maybe we will barbecue these on the other side at night? The prey has a feast?"
"Okay!" Yang Yuanpu turned around and said, regardless of Shen Yang's objection, "If we don't go back to the city tonight, we will stay in Yongchun Palace!"
The prince was not allowed to leave the city at will, and he was not allowed to stay overnight when he was out of the city. This was a rule that Shen Yang could not change, but he also knew that he should not restrict the third prince too much. He immediately called Gao Chengyuan and Zhang Ping over and asked them to send someone into the city immediately to the chamberlain. The province reports that the third prince will stay at Changchun Palace tonight.
Han Qian waved his hand to the Han family soldiers who were on alert on the other side, and ordered Lin Zongjing and Guo Nuer to sail over to pick up everyone and more than a hundred guards to cross the river to the other side.
The manor house in Yandangji was much dilapidated and crude compared to the Yongchun Palace Manor. Construction work had just begun and there was nothing to see. After everyone crossed the river.
Han Qian directly asked people to drag the bow-arm type scorpion cannon, which was trial-produced from aniseed wood, out of the west courtyard for practice.
Fine steel is difficult to forge, so the new bow-type scorpion cannon still uses eight wooden bow arms as the power storage mechanism. The entire scorpion cannon, including the tip rod, is only one foot long, which is much smaller than the normal cyclone cannon. It can be placed on the top cabin and front and rear decks of the three-masted sailboat.
A 2,000-stone three-masted sailing ship can hold approximately six Scorpion Cannons.
However, the Scorpion Cannon made of Tuomu is still a little less interesting. Currently, it can only throw stone bullets weighing 30 kilograms to 230 to 40 steps away. This distance is also exposed within the optimal range of the opponent's crossbow. A very thick wooden wall is needed to protect it.
With all these added up, the warship will become bloated.
Han Qian asked the Han family craftsmen to practice how to use the scorpion cannon, and explained to the third prince, Shen Yang and others: "The Tuomu bow can be charged to shoot crossbows, but it is not enough to throw stone projectiles. I thought if I could use fine The steel-cast bow arm may be able to throw stone bullets weighing more than 50 kilograms. At that time, the scorpion cannon can be placed on top of a city or on a warship for combat. The fire in the training room is turned on, which is to test the production of fine steel. Bow arm, but it may not be successful in three to five years!"
Yang Yuanpu said excitedly:
"It will take three to five years or more. As long as Master Han can make such a sharp weapon and present it to my father, it will be a great achievement. By then, our army of Chu will be unfavorable!"
Han Qian looked around and saw that no one had a particular sense of urgency. No one thought it was a waste of time for him to slowly spend three to five years trying to make a stainless steel bow arm. He thought that in everyone's hearts, maybe they still thought that God You Emperor could control it. situation.
It is no wonder that Emperor Tianyou has laid such a huge foundation. As ministers, a few people dare to question the majesty of Emperor Tianyou. Even Xu Mingzhen, Ma Yin and others are ambitious at this time and do not dare to act rashly.
Especially at the moment, when Emperor Tianyou has a clear preference for the Prince's Palace, everyone may feel that it is better to proceed step by step.
Han Qian sighed slightly in his heart, thinking about what he wanted to do, but it seemed that he still needed to wait for the next opportunity.
Shen Yang couldn't guess what Han Qian was thinking about and why he was spending so much energy and time on this kind of thing at this moment. However, he was not as optimistic as the third prince Yang Yuanpu, so he asked Han Qian doubtfully:
"The top-grade Hundred-Refined Sword is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it is indestructible. The fine steel bow arm you want to make is much larger than a Hundred-Refined Sword. Even if it is really possible, the price may not be too high, right?"
Zheng Hui was also good at managing the world and applying it. He shook his head secretly and said, "I'm afraid it will be difficult."
"If you don't try, how will you know if you can succeed?" Han Qian said with a slight smile.
To be honest, Han Qian didn't think it would be possible to mass-cast fine steel bow arms within three to five years. After all, as a power-accumulating component, the requirements are much more stringent than ordinary pure steel parts.
What's more, given the current urgent situation, it is impossible to give him more than three years to ponder these things leisurely.
And he insisted on trying to cast the fine steel bow arm. On the one hand, some people told Emperor Tianyou that he was now very patient and settled down to do something. On the other hand, compared to casting the fine steel bow arm itself,
, what he actually wanted in his mind was to go through the current steelmaking and steel parts forging processes through practice, and see if there was anything that could be improved.
The price of iron in Jinling is only ten yuan per catty, while ordinary crude steel costs more than one hundred yuan per catty, and Baishang Steel, which can be used to cast top-grade swords, is even more valuable than gold.
Han Qian has quite a lot of free time during this period, so how can he not spend some time on this?
Even if it can only advance the current steel-making technology by a small step, the benefits will be huge and cannot be compared with three to five or even three to five hundred scorpion crossbows.
Han Qian first showed the enemy's weakness in Xichuan, and then lured a large number of elite Liang troops into a death trap-like pocket formation in the city to deliver a devastating blow. The two sharp weapons he relied on were the scorpion crossbow and the unprecedented scorpion crossbow.
Cyclone Cannon.
Although after the war, Han Qian presented the atlas for making scorpion crossbows and whirlwind cannons so that they could be promoted among the Chu army to defend against enemies, he was currently trying to further modify them in Yandangji so that they could be easily installed.
The warships and the scorpion cannons on the city walls cannot be considered as not doing their job properly.
Next, Han Qian invited the third prince, Shen Yang and others to the forging room in front of Xikuoyuan to see the forging process of fine steel bow arms.
It was a hot summer day, and several young craftsmen in the adobe house were shirtless, sweating gurglingly. The charcoal fire in the hand forge was red-hot, and the heat was like a burning fire, which made people stay in the adobe house for a while.
The stool is too hot to bear.
Shen Yang, Zheng Hui, and Zhang Ping accompanied the third prince. Although they were standing outside the adobe house, they were still sweating profusely. They saw two hand forges built inside, and the Han family's craftsmen held fire tongs to clamp the thick iron.
The rods were put into the concave furnace and burned red-hot. Several slaves were using leather bags to blow air into the furnace from the bottom. After the iron rods burned red and softened, they sprinkled the iron ore powder on it little by little.
Then use the tongs to clamp the continuous rolling.
Zhang Ping, Wang Lin and others were just watching the excitement, and they felt extremely hot standing outside, but Zheng Hui knew that this was a method of frying steel that had been passed down from the late Han Dynasty.
Although Zheng Hui was a general in charge of the army, he was born in the Zheng family in Huangzhou, a well-dressed family. Later, because of the frequent wars in Jingxiang, the Zheng family's children abandoned literature and joined the martial arts. However, they had also read poetry and books since they were young, so in Xiangzhou
After answering the questions from the saint in the city, he was appreciated and directly promoted to the prince's palace, where he served as a counselor and joined the military.
Among the official ranks in the county and prince's mansion, those who consult and participate in the military are second only to the three positions of prince Fu, chief historian, and Sima.
After the great victory in Xichuan, many people judged that the third prince was granted the title of prince, and Han Qian should serve as a counselor in the prince's palace and join the military due to his merit. Who can imagine that in the end, Han Qian was only engaged in literature and led the Zuo Si in the prince's palace.
.
There are also several iron-making factories in Huangzhou, and the iron produced is sold as far away as Tanyue. Zheng Hui naturally knows very well that this steel-frying method produces crude steel, which can be used to make farm tools, but he wants to make weapons.
, but also use traditional forging methods and repeated hammering.
Crude steel contains a large number of impurities. If the impurities are forged and forged, the weight will be reduced. Only when the weight is no longer reduced after a hundred times of refining can it be considered a success.
However, considering the deformation direction and complex situation of the bow arm, there is considerable care in quenching.
Zheng Hui looked at the small adobe house, crowded with more than a dozen craftsmen and slaves from the Han family, and secretly felt that if he continued to work like this, he might not be able to cast a usable bow arm in three to five years, and even if Han Qian figured out how to cast it, Using a fine steel bow arm, the manufacturing cost of a Scorpion Cannon is probably astonishingly high, right?
Zheng Hui also noticed Shen Yang's frown, and wondered whether Han Qian was still dissatisfied with the reward and punishment for his military achievements, so he deliberately found such an incident in order to slack off the affairs of the county prince's palace?
Thinking of this, Zheng Hui looked over to Han Qian, only to see him staring at every move in the training room with more concern, not knowing what he was thinking about.
