Watching Zhang Jun's boat slowly sailing upstream, Wang Xiaolie felt an indescribable feeling for a moment. This time Zhang Jun came to Xiangyang and gave himself five hundred ultimatums and one thousand crossbows, which seemed to be a lot of gifts. But thinking about it carefully, it seems that is not the case.
At this time, the price of the ultimatum is about 300 to 400 guan, and the price of 500 ultimatum is about 100,000 guan. However, this is the market price, and official large-scale sales cannot be at this price. Cutting it in half is not bad. It is very rare to get tens of thousands of dollars from these ultimatums. For the thousand hard crossbows given to me, I can only say that the quality from the official library should be good. When it comes to price, if one crossbow is worth five guan, it is only 5,000 guan.
As for the reception of Zhang Jun and his entourage, not to mention the usual reception expenses, Wang Xiaolie spent more than 10,000 dan just to provide food for his army. Coupled with other expenses, it also amounts to tens of thousands. In the final analysis, Wang Xiaolie just did not lose money.
Thinking of this, Wang Xiaolie couldn't help but shook his head slightly. I am still too young to see clearly these tricks in officialdom. Zhang Jun went to the front line to fight, so how could he spend too much money on the way? I didn’t lose any money, which was pretty good.
The biggest gain this time was that Zhang Jun made Wang Xiaolie concurrently serve as the envoy to appease and recruit, and gave him control over Sui and Ying prefectures. In this way, the imperial court officially recognized Wang Xiaolie's status and gained control of the entire South Beijing Road.
Zhang Jun was far away, and Wang Xiaolie said to the other prefects: "The privy minister is going to Guanshan, and he has a heavy responsibility on his shoulders. It is not an easy task. Not long after leaving Xiangyang Mansion, you can reach Jinzhou, and Xingyuan Mansion is not far away." Okay, let's go back to the Yamen and have some wine and meat, everyone is tired these days."
Everyone said yes. After leaving the dock, we went back to the Zhizhisi Yamen together.
When they sat down in the back office, Wang Xiaolie ordered wine and food to be served. We went out early in the morning, and no one had breakfast, so they were a little hungry. The cook prepared a few cold dishes, made a bowl of egg noodles for each person, and served them.
Wang Xiaolie said: "It's too early, and there are no extra dishes in the kitchen. Don't be too shabby. Eat a bowl of noodles first, drink a few glasses of wine, and let go of your fatigue. Wait until the cook buys the dishes, and then you can have a full meal."
In fact, Wang Xiaolie usually eats very simply, usually one or two dishes per meal. If there are guests, only four dishes and one soup will be served. These magistrates were rare guests and enjoyed better meals. Because I usually eat simple meals, I don’t have the habit of preparing dishes in the kitchen.
Because Zhang Jun was being entertained these days, the cold dishes included chicken feet, pig ears, and mutton, paired with a bowl of egg noodles, and everyone was quite satisfied with the meal.
After breakfast, a few people sat and chatted.
After talking about the recent political situation and military deployment, when everyone felt speechless, Chen Gui suddenly said: "I recently made a wonderful thing. It uses gunpowder and puts it in a big bamboo. It can kill two or three people. Keep it up, and every time you approach the military formation, ignite the fire at the end, and the flames will burst out. Although it has no effect of breaking armor and injuring the enemy, the fire will appear suddenly, and the enemy will be in chaos when approaching the formation."
After hearing this, the other people couldn't figure out what it was and didn't say anything. Wang Xiaolie understood that this was the prototype of a gunpowder weapon, and it was probably the earliest gunpowder weapon. He asked: "There used to be gunpowder manufacturers in the capital, and they could make rockets to hurt the enemy. But I don't know how to make gunpowder, and it's difficult to collect saltpeter and sulfur. It's hard to make it at once. I wonder if the prefect has a formula for gunpowder?" "
Chen Gui said: "Although the imperial court does not allow the formula of gunpowder to be leaked to Hulu, it is not a very confidential matter. If there are pyrotechnics performers among the people, they can make their own fireworks. In De'an Mansion, there are several workers who used to make gunpowder. It’s not difficult.”
Wang Xiaolie nodded. How can you not know the importance of gunpowder if you have memories of past lives? It's just that Wang Xiaolie only remembers mononitrate, disulfide, and charcoal, and can't remember the specific ratio at all. And sulfur and charcoal are easy to find, but where can you find saltpeter? They used to be available in pharmacies, but at this time, most pharmacies have closed and there is nowhere to find them. I heard that Chen Gui was making new firearms in De'an Mansion, so I found out that it was not difficult.
In fact, Jingxi Road, especially the Ruzhou area, is one of the important producing areas of saltpeter in China. Although there is no mineral, it can be extracted from daily alkaline water. However, gunpowder was not very popular at this time and had not yet formed an industry.
After carefully asking about Chen Gui's gunpowder, Wang Xiaolie was overjoyed. He said to everyone: "This dynasty makes good use of rockets, which are of great use on the front line. If we study this object carefully and adjust the proportions, it will have unexpected power."
Xie Qian smiled and said: "Observe, this thing has been used in the army for a long time. If there is really something wonderful, it would have been discovered long ago. The most important thing now is to save money and food and raise more troops. There is no use thinking about this."
Wang Xiaolie shook his head: "You can't say that. There are many things in the world that people use unskilledly just because they haven't thought of it or can't do it. It's like we say now that immortals can fly into the sky and escape from the earth in one day. Traveling a thousand miles. But when you understand the principles of nature in the future, it will not be difficult for ordinary people to do it. There are still many things in this world that we don’t know."
After hearing this, several people laughed together and said that Wang Xiaolie was whimsical. People are people. Living in this world, there are many things that cannot be done and can only be thought about. If it's like what Wang Xiaolie said, wouldn't people become immortals?
Wang Xiaolie looked at the sky in the distance and said nothing for a while. Yes, in the eyes of today's people, many things in future generations can only be accomplished by immortals. There are airplanes and rocket ships that can travel thousands of miles in a day and even fly to the moon. There are submarines that can dive thousands of meters. There are telegraphs and telephones that can carry messages thousands of miles. With TV and the Internet, images and sounds thousands of miles away can be transmitted to our eyes in an instant. There are even robots that can work partially like humans. These things are ordinary in the eyes of later generations, but in the eyes of the ancients, aren't they just immortals?
Even though Chen Gui had made a firearm that used a bamboo tube to set fire, after hearing what Wang Xiaolie said, he felt that he was thinking too far.
After everyone had eaten, they went back to their rooms to rest. Wang Xiaolie didn't feel sleepy, he was sitting alone in the study, thinking about something on his mind. When a person of later generations comes into this world, what is the most important thing? Gunpowder, of course. Although the Song Dynasty should have defeated the Jin Dynasty without gunpowder, the difficulty would be much smaller with gunpowder. And gunpowder is not just for fighting, it has many other uses. For example, blasting mountains to pave roads is much easier with gunpowder. In the past, many places where roads were thought to be impassable could be covered by road construction.
In addition to gunpowder, there are of course power engines. The most impressive thing is of course the steam engine. Unfortunately, there is no mechanical foundation now. It is too difficult to create a steam engine out of thin air, so it can only be left to future generations. what about others? Of course there are many more. For example, now that cotton is available, the cotton textile industry should be developed. Water conservancy and manpower can be used to build exquisite machinery, which greatly improves the productivity level of society. For example, with bearings, a large number of strong and durable machines can be manufactured, and industries without steam engines can be developed first.
Not all machinery uses steam engines; there are also many machines that use human power, animal power, and water power. In previous lives, there were many such machines in rural areas. It’s just that society is developing too fast and these machines have not been popularized yet, so this stage has passed. For many people, they have never seen these machines and cannot think of any use for them.
Without a steam engine, it just wasn't that efficient, many jobs couldn't be done, and it lacked versatility. But a large part of things that can only be done through industrialization can actually be done first.
Leaning back on the chair, Wang Xiaolie let go of his thoughts and thought about what would happen next, feeling a little overwhelmed. In fact, Wang Xiaolie had this in mind when he was building those new societies in Xinye. It's just that I don't have the talent for a while, so I can only think about it. When enough mechanical talents are trained in a few years, the situation will be completely different.
What will it be like when that happens? If productivity increases on a large scale, society will inevitably be turned upside down.
