After visiting the arsenal in Qiongzhou, Bozhou and his party returned to Chongqing Mansion and began to negotiate the sales contract. It is said that before boss Qian discussed the price of firearms, he made a special trip to ask Ouyang Xuan for instructions and asked him to confirm the price of firearms. Boss Qian is really a smart man. He was afraid that the arsenal would have objections if the price was negotiated too low. He was afraid that Ouyang Xuan would be displeased if the price was set too high. After all, everyone knew that Brother Xuan was in love with the eldest daughter of the Yang family, so he simply kicked the ball. Gave it to Ouyang Xuan. After getting Ouyang Xuan's reply that "public and private matters must be distinguished," he put his talent as a profiteer to full use and directly offered the same price as the sale price to Dajian Luzelang. The price seems fair, but it's actually much more expensive. On the one hand, most parts of Chongqing Prefecture and Bozhou can be reached by water, which saves transportation costs. On the other hand, Zelang can make huge profits by reselling the horses, which can offset the considerable purchase costs. Yang Yan and Ran Zhong had nothing to do about this. After all, it was a good deal to buy this firearm.
Now that the agreement has been reached, the arms contract is officially signed. The signatures of the Pili Army were Li San'er, the deputy prime minister in charge of economy and finance, and Yang Yan of Bozhou, which attracted a lot of attention. Although the Pili Army advocates equality between men and women, Confucianism has been prevalent since the Han Dynasty. In order to consolidate rule, the government has always advocated that "the king should be the guide for the ministers, the husband should be the guide for the wife, and the father should be the guide for the son", advocating that men are superior to women, and the current emperor Song Lizong even more so Confucianism is regarded as the foundation of the country, so there are not many women from the Han Dynasty who show up in public, and it is extremely rare to engage in foreign affairs like Yang Yan. In fact, due to the small influence of Confucianism, equality between men and women was better in the Yibo and Nanman areas. Although the Yang family comes from the Central Plains region, they have lived in Bozhou for a long time and have integrated into the local area, and do not care much about the concept of male superiority and female inferiority.
When it was time to sign, Yang Yan suddenly put down the brush in her hand, raised her head and asked Ouyang Xuan, who was standing aside, if he wanted to add raw lacquer and tung oil as supplies in exchange for firearms. Speaking of which, Yang Yan's eyes flashed, and her look that was half questioning and half pleading made Ouyang Xuan's whole body tremble. He calmed down, thought for a moment, and saw Boss Qian beside him nodding his head like a chicken pecking at rice, and then he agreed.
Yang Yanzhi made the request temporarily because Bozhou wanted to purchase more firearms. The price of this firearm is too high, and it has to be exchanged for designated goods, or even only a small amount of gold and silver. The conditions are really harsh. Although there are many copper and saltpeter mines in Banshu and surrounding areas, mining takes time. As for large livestock such as ponies and buffaloes, which have long growth and reproduction cycles, these important production materials dare not be trafficked on a large scale, otherwise there will be big problems in Banzhou production. She saw that the houses in the Pili Army were all made of logs, and even the houses and tables at the Hexin Island headquarters were not painted. She thought that there were tung trees and lacquer trees all over the mountains and plains in Banshu and the surrounding areas. The extracted soil paint and tung oil were of excellent quality. Brushing on wood products repels insects and looks beautiful.
Ouyang Xuan and Boss Qian agreed to add more earth paint, not to paint the house and furniture. The Perak Army advocates minimalism and pragmatism, as long as the houses and furniture are durable. The exchanged tung oil and paint will be used in military and industrial and mining production. The factory's machinery, equipment, guns and firearms are all made of iron, which is very easy to rust in the humid weather in western Sichuan. In the past, they were coated with expensive lard. In this era when it is difficult to have enough food, it is really a rare thing.
In addition to weapons and industrial and mining machines, warships painted with tung oil and paint can not only prevent insects but also enhance waterproof performance, greatly extending the service life of the ship. For shipbuilding in western Sichuan, the best wood comes from the snowy mountains of Fan District. The trees here grow slowly and are dense, tough, insect-resistant and not easily corroded. The second best wood is Yazhou wood, and the wood used in the current Pili Army warships is third-class. First, these timbers were cut from the mountainous areas of Jiguan Mountain, Heming Mountain and Qiongzhou. Due to their short growth time, the wood is extremely susceptible to being eaten by pests such as borers and termites. At present, the Perak Army has asked the two states of Wei and Mao to cut down trees for future shipbuilding, but the distant water cannot quench the near thirst. How to deal with the warship borer is an urgent matter. Some time ago, Boss Qian went around buying tung oil and lacquer but got very little, but now Bozhou comes to offer them, how could he not agree?
Seeing that Ouyang Xuan agreed to tung oil and lacquer, Yang Yan asked Ouyang Xuan to increase the variety of wine in a coquettish tone. Bozhou is famous for its fine wine, and Moutai of later generations came from this place. Just when Boss Qian thought that Brother Xuan couldn't resist the charm between Miss Yang's eyebrows, Ouyang Xuan refused to agree to the proposal. On the one hand, the Pili Army has enough alcohol, but too much will encourage luxury; on the other hand, wine is made from food. If wine can be exchanged for firearms, it will inevitably put a strain on Banzhou's food supply and weaken its ability to fight the Mongols. strength.
As compensation, Ouyang Xuan suggested to Yang Yan that the variety of bristles could be added. This proposal shocked both Boss Qian and Yang Yan. It is said that although this thing can be made into a brush, it is not valuable at all, at least it is not important enough to be more precious than wine. Ouyang Xuan gave them a detailed explanation. It turns out that the gun barrels of the Thunderbolt Army require daily maintenance, and a round brush made of boar bristles is the best tool, especially the neck bristles of boars over three years old. Western Sichuan has been slaughtered by the Mongolian army for a long time. The number of pigs is very small, and there are even fewer boars over three years old. They have to rely on hunting or purchasing from other places.
After signing the contract, Yang Yan returned to the guesthouse in Chongqing Fucheng, and Ran Zhong was stayed by Ouyang Xuan. Ouyang Xuan learned from Boss Qian that Ran Zhong was Ran Pu's son. Ran Pu and his brother Ran Jing are the famous Ran brothers. They assisted Yu Jie in building Diaoyu City, Divine Arm City and other eight pillars in Sichuan, which became indestructible fortresses. Although the Mongolian army has captured Dahuo City, Yunshan City, Qingju City and other castles, none of these castles were breached. Instead, the defenders surrendered or were captured by traitors. This shows how reasonable the location and design of these castles are. .
Ouyang Xuan originally wanted to ask Ran Zhong for some fort-building experience, so he specially asked designers from the construction company to meet with him. It was only after a conversation that he realized that he was not proficient in city construction. However, Ran Zhong said that although his father and uncle had passed away, they left behind many design plans. There were also people in the family who were proficient in city construction and could come to the Pili Army to guide the construction of the city when the time was right.
After sending Ran Zhong away, Ouyang Xuan was about to rush to the simple laboratory, but was blocked by a woman. Because Ouyang Xuan was busy with work, and several laboratories of the institute were built in Wugen Mountain, it would take a lot of time to go back and forth, so he had a simple laboratory built in a remote place at the bottom of the river island. . This allows relevant researchers to come and use their free time to develop and test new technologies. When it comes to explosive and hazardous chemical tests, they have to be conducted in Wugen Mountain. It is built there not only for confidentiality reasons, but also to prevent accidental damage.
Ouyang Xuan looked at the woman blocking the road. She looked so familiar but couldn't remember who it was for a moment. Seeing Ouyang Xuan's confused look, the woman said, "Master Ouyang, I am Miss Yang's daughter-in-law, Cui'er." Ouyang Xuan patted his head and smiled, no wonder he looked so familiar. During the limited interactions with Yang Yan, his attention fell on Yang Yan, and he did not pay attention to Cui'er next to him.
Seeing that Ouyang Xuan recognized her, Cui'er didn't say much. She handed him a letter and said, "This is a letter from my eldest lady to your lord." After that, she turned and left, leaving Ouyang Xuan stunned. After coming back to his senses, Ouyang Xuan wanted to ask Cui'er what happened, but she was nowhere to be found, so he had to open the letter uneasily. Along with the scent of powder on the letter paper, a line of fine regular characters came into view: "If Mr. Ouyang loves this little girl, please come to Bozhou to propose marriage."
