A few days later, Lao Liu took Zhang Wen to see a batch of newly built weapons in Shu County, and he was full of praise after seeing them.
He also proposed that he wanted to see the Red Star Army officers and soldiers with his own eyes, and Liu Chan also satisfied him. He ordered Li Er to lead a "military exercise" for him, which shocked Zhang Wen again.
During the few days he stayed, Zhuge Liang attached great importance to this person, not only caring about any inconveniences in his life in Shu, but also chatting with him.
Zhang Wen was moved by Zhuge Liang's concern and admired his profound knowledge. By the time he left, he had almost become Zhuge Liang's fanboy...
"Prince, Zhuge Military Advisor, please go back. Wen will return to Jiangdong and persuade the lord to join forces with Liu to fight against Cao." Zhang Wen cupped his hands and said.
Liu Chan said: "Take care, Zhang Yilang. The incident in Nanzhong is really a pain in the neck. If General Sun wants to reconcile the two families, he needs to be more sincere."
Zhang Wen was embarrassed for a while. He wanted to say something, but he really had nothing to say.
The red-faced Zhuge Liang interrupted at this time: "Get the things."
When someone brought several trays, Zhuge Liang said with a smile: "Your Majesty, it is not easy for Zhang Yilang to travel around. He has taken great pains to repair Sun Liu, so he specially prepared small gifts for him."
Gold cake, agate, rhinoceros horn, ivory...
"Such a generous gift, this..."
Zhuge Liang picked up another glass of wine and handed it over: "Your Majesty has given me a special gift of fine wine, and ordered Liang to see Yilang off, please!"
Zhang Wen was moved to tears. He took the wine glass and drank it in one gulp. He bowed and said, "Thank you, military advisor, for your kindness."
At this time, Zhuge Liang looked around and frowned: "Where is Qin's sacrificial wine?"
"Well, we haven't arrived yet, maybe something delayed us."
"Go and call him quickly."
"yes."
After hearing Zhuge Liang's words, Liu Chan suddenly remembered why he always felt like something was missing at the banquet where he met Zhang Wen.
What’s missing is Qin Mi!
Qin Mi, who was responsible for the wine ceremony, had not had much contact with Liu Chan before and had a low sense of presence.
In his previous life, Liu Chan only had an impression of two things he had done. The first thing was that he insisted on discouraging Liu Chan from launching the Battle of Yiling, but he was imprisoned as a result.
This second thing...
After being summoned and urged by Zhuge Liang, Qin Mi arrived belatedly.
Zhang Wen couldn't help but feel unhappy. The prince, the military advisor and all the officials from Chengdu came to see him off, but this person only arrived after being urged. What a big show.
He felt unhappy and couldn't help but ask: "Military advisor, who is this?"
Zhuge Liang, the chief director behind the scenes, smiled and said: "Qin Mi, a bachelor from Yizhou."
Zhang Wen looked sideways at Qin Mi: "Do you want to learn from me?"
Qin Mi smiled and said, "All the five-foot-tall boys in Shu learn from it, how about me?"
Zhang Wen looked Qin Mi up and down, and suddenly asked: "Does the sky have a head?"
"Yes." Qin Mi said calmly.
"Where is it?"
"In the west. "Poetry" says: 'Nai is attached to the west.' From this we can infer that the head is in the west."
Qin Mi quoted scriptures, which not only answered the question, but also implied that destiny is in the west.
Zhuge Liang shook his fan in silence and nodded with a smile.
Zhang Wen asked again: "Does heaven have ears?"
"Heaven is high but hearing is low. "Poetry" says: 'The cranes are singing in Jiugao, and the sound is heard in the sky.' If it has no ears, how can it hear it?"
"Is the sky enough?"
Qin Mi smiled and said, almost without thinking, "Yes. "Poetry" says: 'It is difficult to walk in the sky, but the son will not hesitate.' If he has no feet, how can he walk?"
Zhang Wen began to sweat again on his forehead and asked anxiously: "Does God have a surname?"
"have."
"What's your surname?"
Qin Mi said seriously: "My surname is Liu."
"How do you know this?"
Qin Mi pointed to the sky: "The emperor's surname is Liu, so the surname of Zetian must be Liu!"
"good!"
"Qin Jijiu said it well!"
The officials from the middle of Shu who came to see him off all praised him. Everyone had heard about Cao Pi's desire to usurp the Han Dynasty. Qin Mi's reply really made people feel happy!
Zhang Wen wiped his sweat, but was not willing to lose face, and asked again: "Were you born in the east?"
He wanted to save some face for his lord, implying that destiny lies in Jiangdong, and his lord is the one who can save the country.
Qin Mi said calmly: "Although he was born in the east, he died in the west."
No matter how many plots and tricks your lord makes, even if he is proud for a moment, destiny will eventually return to the west.
"good--!"
There were endless shouts of praise and applause from people around. Zhang Wen sighed, bowed and cupped his hands and said: "Qin Jijiu is an eloquent speaker, Wen Gan is inferior. Shu has a well-deserved reputation for outstanding people and places."
Zhuge Liang smiled again at this time and said: "Zhang Yilang, don't take your parting joke seriously. We have a long way to go, so please take care of yourself."
Liu Chan also said at the right time: "If things don't work out, I still think of you sincerely. For General Sun, Zhang Yilang will do his best."
"Yes, Prince, take care, military advisor, take care, Wen is leaving." Zhang Wen bowed respectfully, mounted his horse and left.
Seeing Zhang Wen leaving, Liu Chan couldn't help but ask Zhuge Liang: "Uncle Zhuge, I thought Sun Quan might not be willing to listen to this person, why bother so much?"
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "It won't work this time. Someone in Jiangdong speaks for us. It's not a bad thing after all."
Liu Chan nodded.
Zhuge Liang said seriously: "Liang knows that the king and the prince are very angry with Jiangdong. However, the time for Cao Cao to usurp the Han Dynasty is probably not far away. If we start a war with Jiangdong again at this time, how many of my Jingyi men will die in vain on the battlefield, and how many of them will die in vain." How many people are going to have their families destroyed?"
After saying that, Zhuge Liang bowed and bowed his hands: "The prince and the king are both benevolent masters. I hope you will take the people into consideration and take the overall situation into consideration."
Liu Chan hurriedly helped him up and said helplessly: "Uncle Zhuge, why do you do this? How can I be so arrogant as to want to fight on two fronts? I just hope that Sun Quan will learn from his mistakes. If his two conspiracies fail, don't insist on going his own way."
Historically, when Sun Quan took Jingzhou, Ji Han's threat to him was greatly reduced. Later, when faced with the threat from Cao Wei, he resumed his alliance with Ji Han and never rebelled again.
But now the situation has changed. Jingzhou is still in my hands, and Sun Quan was shot into a cripple by his side... Liu Chan is really not sure what he will choose.
After bidding farewell to Zhuge Liang and others, Liu Chan, who had just returned, also mounted his horse and left.
But the place we went to this time was not far away, it was Linqiong in the southwest.
There was only a hundred miles away from Chengdu, and Liu Chan arrived there in one day with only a few dozen guards and fast horses.
The reason why he rushed to Linqiong was that when he learned about the progress of various projects in the past two days, he checked Pu Yuan's regular reports sent to Chengdu.
After Pu Yuan returned to his hometown and took office, he combined what he had learned in the north and improved the iron smelting and steel frying techniques in Sichuan. He rebuilt furnaces next to the river, used water drainage and blasting to save manpower, and greatly improved the efficiency of weapon casting. efficiency.
Moreover, after his investigation, it was found that Shujiang Shuanglie was the essence of gold and was very suitable for tempering weapons.
After some improvements and adjustments by Pu Yuan, not only the efficiency of weapon casting has been improved, but the quality has also improved a lot.
After the ordinary weapons were on the track, he began to study the "strange" weapons that Liu Chan had drawn for him.
But recently, he seems to have encountered some trouble...
Liu Chan arrived in Linqiong for the first time. Although he was warmly received by the local officials, he had no intention of chatting with them and went directly to find Pu Yuan who was still on the front line of making iron and forging soldiers.
Liu Chan was also a little shocked by the scene of iron-making and soldiers-making in Linqiong.
Large furnaces stand on the riverside, each about five feet high. The water rows are connected to the blowing device, and air is continuously blown from both sides of the furnace. The molten iron flows from the furnace into the pool dug next to it. Someone was holding a special stone stick and stirring constantly.
At this time...there is already a blast furnace?
Liu Chan, who didn't know much about this in his previous life, was surprised to see the furnaces in front of him that were about ten meters high. There were steps beside the furnaces, and raw materials could be walked up and put into the furnaces.
Although these blast furnaces are still far from the fifty or sixty-meter-high blast furnaces of later generations, they still show the wisdom of the ancients.
And the way those people stir the molten iron is probably to stir up steel.
"Prince?" A very strong young man suddenly exclaimed, and then hurried forward to greet him: "Pu Yuan meets the prince."
"No need to be polite." Liu Chan patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "Well done. Gu Wei never thought that iron smelting here has reached such a scale. No wonder the quantity and quality of weapons have been greatly improved recently."
"This is a matter within the scope of my duties, and... the weapon map that the prince handed over to me has not been improved so far. I really owe you the prince's kindness." Pu Yuan said with some shame.
Liu Chan didn't mind this at all. He had given him those maps with the mentality of having a date but not a date. If he couldn't create it, it wouldn't affect the overall situation.
"It can be made..." Pu Yuan motioned to his men to get a long knife, "Prince, please take a look, what do you think of this knife?"
Liu Chan took it and saw that the sword, with its long handle and long blade, was clearly an improved version of the horse-killing sword he had drawn for him - Mo Dao.
The hand was heavy and the blade shone coldly.
He took the first version of Mo Dao and walked to a wooden stake for testing the knife. The wooden stake was wrapped in several layers of leather.
Liu Chan signaled Pu Yuan to get out of the way, exhaled loudly, and waved his sword...
Click!
A white light flashed, and where the blade passed, not only the layers of leather were broken, but even the wooden stakes were split in half by Liu Chan.
Look at the blade still intact.
If you do it yourself, it doesn't seem to be difficult to achieve the effect of "shattering both men and horses".
"This knife is very good? What's the problem?" Liu Chan said excitedly, wasn't it made?
If we make another batch of these, we can equip them with powerful soldiers such as the Red Star Army and the White Guards...
Before Liu Chan could finish his thoughts, Pu Yuan's bitter voice came: "This sword is made of hundreds of steel to achieve such an effect."
He still didn't realize it for a moment. Was it also during the Three Kingdoms period? Isn't that a good thing? Any questions...
But immediately, Liu Chan understood what the problem was.
As the name suggests, steel is made by repeatedly heating, folding and forging it.
"...How long did it take you to make this knife?"
Pu Yuan said with a grimace: "It took two months to complete this sword."
Liu Chan: "..."
(End of chapter)
