At the end of June, the construction of the fort wall of Dapanbao was still in full swing. With the increase in manpower, Liu Yan obviously felt that the construction speed of the fort wall and the interior parts had increased, and he was very happy.
During this period, Zhao Min received a message from his family that his son seemed to be ill, so he asked for leave to go home and take care of him for a few days. A few days later, Zhao Min returned to Dapanbao, but his expression was ugly.
After Liu Yan heard the news, he came to Zhao Min's house and asked him with concern how his son was doing. Zhao Min just said that his son was fine and that he would be fine in a few days after seeing a doctor, but he still looked depressed.
That night, Zhao Min brought a pot of wine to Liu Yan for a drink, saying that he must get drunk today.
Liu Yan was a little surprised. Zhao Min was usually strict and polite. He treated himself as a commander with "respect as a guest". He was not a good drinker. What happened today?
At this time, Liu Yan lived in the courtyard behind the official hall. This was a newly built courtyard with a special kitchen. However, there were no servants or cooks in Liu Yan's home, so Liu Yan cooked some side dishes to go with wine. He and Zhao People sat casually in the hall, drinking and talking.
Zhao Min picked up the wine glass, took a deep sip, smacked his lips, and said, "Good wine, good food, so comfortable. It seems that I have never been so comfortable since I was a child."
As he spoke, Zhao Min picked up another piece of meat, put it in his mouth and chewed it, but there was a trace of sadness in his eyes.
Liu Yan saw that he seemed a little out of sorts today, as if he had been hit by something, so he smiled and said: "When you were a child? Looking at Mr. Zhao's age, it should have been the time when the emperor was on the throne, right?"
Zhao Min said: "Yes, it is when Emperor Xian is in power."
Liu Yan took a sip of wine and looked at Zhao Min. His eyes seemed to be filled with memories: "It was a peaceful time at that time. It was peaceful, wealthy, and leisurely. The food was cheap and unimaginable now. I remember my father since I was a child. My favorite time is to make some friends in the evening, talk loudly together, and laugh every day. Of course, we kids can just pick up some food on the side, which is also a lot of fun."
Zhao Min laughed when he said this, and talked about his childhood memories and interesting things one by one. His voice seemed to be filled with endless memories of that era.
Liu Yan also lamented that the Wanli period was considered the prosperous period of the Ming Dynasty. Although there were three major conquests, the world was generally peaceful, especially the citizens and the commodity economy were highly developed. For the common people, it was indeed a golden era. At that time, Emperor Wanli was honored as the King of Saints in the citizen novel "Warning to the World".
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, the "History of Woodcutter" written by the survivors still remembered the grand occasion at that time:
"...it comes from Wanli. Don't talk about other benefits. It only talks about food such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, chicken, goose, fish, etc., which one is not cheap? If a family of several people can eat a lot of fish and meat every day, it only costs two or three yuan. This is extremely rich. And the small family, with their shoulder-to-shoulder shoulders, can earn twenty or thirty cents a day, and they can live a day. They have to eat some wine and tell jokes drunkenly at night. Sing Wu songs, listen to books, enjoy the coolness in the summer and play in all kinds of ways. At that time, our small family was very happy, and it was the same for the thirteen provinces in the north and the south. Even now, when my elders talk about that time, they can’t help but sigh and yearn for it.”
The novel described it like this at that time, and Zhao Min also sighed like this at this time, which made Liu Yan sigh for a long time.
The two sighed with emotion for a while, and Zhao Min's face turned ugly. He sighed: "It's over, it's all over. Since I became emperor, these days have been getting worse and worse, and now the Ming Dynasty is even more in danger!"
Liu Yan couldn't help but raise his brows, and saw Zhao Min heavily take out a copy of the Di newspaper, which Zhao Min copied from the Hundred Household Office when he returned to Wangjiazhuang.
Zhao Min pointed to the top and said: "Now Xingyang has fallen, Fanshui has fallen, Gushi has fallen, and even Fengyang, the central capital, has fallen. The bandits and bandits are so powerful. How can our country, which has been in power for three hundred years, fall just like this?" Can’t do it?”
Although Liu Yan had a relatively good understanding of the history of the late Ming Dynasty and the events that occurred in history, the black and white words in the Di newspaper were still shocking to see with his own eyes. Only then did Liu Yan know why Zhao Min looked so ugly. For literati like them, the fall of Fengyang, the central capital, was a huge blow to them.
And Liu Yan also suddenly realized that although he had a better understanding of the history of the late Ming Dynasty, he should still collect information from that time at any time. For example, by collecting the newspapers, he could keep abreast of the world's developments so that he could make the most correct response. .
Liu Yan looked at it blankly, and Zhao Min pointed at the newspaper in Liu Yan's hand and said: "The thieves are becoming more and more powerful, and the officers and soldiers have been defeated in a row. This is just a suffering for the local people!"
Zhao Min raised his voice and said: "Killing, looting, massacre, what can't these thieves do?"
The more he talked, the more excited he became: "When the thieves attacked Shu City, the officers and soldiers held firm, and the thieves plundered thousands of naked women under the city. They were beaten when they were young."
Zhao Min shouted sternly: "What crime is a woman guilty of? Naked? How can a thief be so cruel and kind? Then Li Zicheng kept saying that he wanted to plead for the people, but what he did was different from building a slave. They were all ungrateful. Disciple!"
Speaking of this, Zhao Min couldn't help but burst into tears: "The situation is like this. If Emperor Gao knows about it, he must cry bitterly."
Liu Yan silently looked at the Di newspaper in his hand. Hearing Zhao Min talk about his sadness, he felt heavy in his heart.
Although Shandong has been relatively peaceful in the past few years, the outside world is already in turmoil. Two years ago, thirteen thieves including Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Lao Huihui, Luo Rucai, Ge Liyan, Zuo Jinwang, Gaishi Wang, Shetaotian, Hengtian Wang, Hun Shiwan, Guotianxing, Jiutiaolong, Shuntianwang etc. The 72nd Battalion held a meeting in Xingyang with great momentum.
After the meeting in Xingyang, everyone adopted Li Zicheng's strategy of "dividing the troops to determine their direction" and used Ge Liyan and King Zuo Jin to attack the Sichuan and Hu soldiers. King Hengtian and a hundred thousand soldiers of Shaanxi were fighting. Luo Rucai passed by Tianxing and strangled the river. Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng studied the East. Lao Huihui and Jiutiaolong came and went to provide support. The Ming Dynasty dispatched 70,000 northwest frontier troops and southern troops to fight in Henan. It also ordered the governor of the five provinces, Hong Chengchou, to go out to take command, and the governor of Shandong, Zhu Dadian, to assist in the attack.
However, in the past two years, the fighting power of the bandits has undergone qualitative changes. Hong Chengchou once said in his memorial of this year: "In the past, the thieves fled to avoid the soldiers, but now they are facing the enemy, ambushing them on the left and right, and more... If they succeed one after another, it will be difficult to kill them. The thieves all have good cavalry, or they may ride on two horses, and the officers and soldiers will take three steps and seven steps, so it will be difficult to chase them."
While their combat effectiveness has improved, these thieves have not changed their brutal methods.
The bandits captured Fanshui and massacred the city for several days!
The bandits captured Fengyang, killed tens of thousands of people in the city, burned more than 20,000 houses, cut open pregnant women, took out babies and put them on spears for fun.
The bandits attacked Shucheng and plundered thousands of women from Huoshan and Hefei. They forced them to be naked and placed them under the city walls. If they resisted at all, they were cut into pieces.
The bandits camped for tens of miles to attack Chuzhou. Due to the unfavorable outcome of the attack, they plundered hundreds of village women. After raping and humiliating them collectively, they cut off all their heads and buried their bodies in rows on the ground. Their private parts faced the soldiers and civilians in the city, thinking that this would be able to restrain the fierce artillery fire on the city.
In the late Ming Dynasty, military discipline was corrupted, and it was common to kill good people and take credit for their merits. However, thieves like these in the late Ming Dynasty would kill people and massacre the city at every turn. They would also capture women for mass rape, and if they resisted at the slightest moment, they would dismember them late in the city. This is really appalling. . Looking around, only the slave Tatars outside the border can compare with them.
The three hundred years of the Ming Dynasty have reached the present. There are barbarians raging outside and rogue bandits running amok inside, which makes Liu Yan even more worried about the situation. He couldn't imagine what would happen to his family if something like this happened to him in the future. Thinking about the next time the Qing troops were about to invade, and the states in Shandong were at risk again, I felt an even greater sense of urgency.
In the end, Zhao Min staggered away drunk, singing sad songs along the way, while Liu Yan sat there for a long time!
The next day, firearms workshop.
"Sir, I have made a total of thirty-five muskets, fifteen waist knives, and seventy-four spears in the past few months. Please take a look, sir."
Although the construction of the fortress wall outside was in full swing, Liu Yan still asked Tan Xiaoda to lead the blacksmiths to forge weapons in the weapons workshop. The weapons in front of them are the fruits of their labor over the past few months.
Liu Yan's idea of making weapons is simple, elegant, no tricks, just practical. Looking at them one by one, it turned out that whether they were blunderbuss or spears, they were solid, thick, sophisticated and sharp. Liu Yan nodded with satisfaction. Under his own reward and punishment system, these craftsmen still worked hard, and the weapons they made were all of the highest quality.
Liu Yan ordered these weapons to be taken back to the arsenal, and immediately rewarded the craftsmen. Everyone was happy.
This time Liu Yan came and asked Tan Xiaoda to make a batch of armors. The first batch would be ten pairs.
Tan Xiao naturally has no problem. When he was in the Acropolis, he had made firecrackers, swords, guns, and armor, and his level was first-rate. Of course, what Tan Xiaoda is best at is naturally making fire guns.
However, Tan Xiaoda was troubled later. Whether he was making leather armor or iron armor, a large amount of leather and iron materials were needed. Obviously, there was very little inventory of both in Dapanbao, so he needed to buy them from outside, and there was a lot of them.
Liu Yanda even understood how Tan Xiaoda and others made armor. When they made leather armor, they first cut cowhide or other animal skins into strips, then stacked three or four strips of leather together and coated them with resin. , and finally connect it with a leather rope, which makes it strong and durable.
When making iron armor, the iron material is first made into thin sheets, one finger wide and one palm long. Drill several small holes into each piece of iron, then stack each two pieces of iron together, and then connect these iron pieces to three belts. In this way, you can make iron armor. Using the same method, you can also make armor. A horse's armor, or a man's breastplate.
This method of making armor is similar to the Mongolians in the border areas. It is simple, practical, not fancy, and can save a lot of money.
However, according to Tan Xiaoda's estimation, even so, a pair of armor requires a lot of iron materials. At present, the price of ordinary rough iron in the Ming Dynasty is about three cents of silver per pound, but the price of high-quality iron that has been repeatedly forged is at least one cent and six cents of silver per pound.
A pair of armor requires at least several dozen kilograms of good iron. The cost of raw materials alone for ten pairs of armor is not a small sum.
But Liu Yanji was determined to make ten pairs of armor. In the past few months, he has purchased several batches of iron materials from Qianhu Store in Wangjiazhuang and Xiahe Village. This time, there were obviously many leather and iron materials that Wangjiazhuang did not have. It seemed that he had to go to Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village.
Before leaving, Liu Yan suddenly heard the news that Zhang Hailin, the guard officer of Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village, seemed to be seriously ill.
