After entering the dog days of summer, Shoukuan School had a "summer vacation" according to Miss Zheng's rules.
Boys and girls all received some simple work from the tailor shop, did it at home, and then returned it to the school. The school paid them accordingly, but the premise was that these embroidery products or men's shirts and socks must meet the standards of foreign trade orders.
Although Zheng Haizhu runs a private school that does not charge tuition fees, she does not want the children to mistakenly think that Bodhisattva and God are real, and she does not want them to mistakenly think that even if there are no Bodhisattva or God, there will be something in this world. Competent people will always give away resources for free.
Poor children in the late Ming Dynasty did not need fairy tales, they needed strong self-survival ability.
The children heard that they could get copper coins if they worked hard, so they happily went back holding the raw materials.
However, the school, which used to be as noisy as a bird's nest, did not turn into a quiet pool due to the holidays.
Just like a small half of the banana garden that was set aside to become a tailor shop, a corner of the complex garden was also requisitioned to build a blacksmith workshop.
"Ding ding ding..."
"Dang, when..."
"Hey..."
In the workshop, the sounds of hammering and quenching could be heard from time to time.
In the scorching heat, the jade-faced young man Lu Xiangsheng changed from his usual scribe's attire. Like the three blacksmiths, he wore a short shirt and single trousers, with the sleeves rolled up high and the front almost completely open. Even so, he was still so hot that he was sweating like rain, and his fair face was roasted by the flames of the fire like a piece of tender pork liver.
The three blacksmiths Lu Xiangsheng hired from Danyang, Zhenjiang, were members of the same family.
His father's name was Ge Hong, who had the same name as the master of alchemy in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. When Lu Xiangsheng traveled to several villages to find him, he found him quite interesting and thought that this master was really worthy of the smelting job. The blacksmith knew all kinds of high and low temperatures. The mastery often relies on years of experience, which looks like metaphysics to outsiders.
Ge Hong is thirty-six or seventeen years old, his son Ge Tian is seventeen or eighteen, and his nephew Ge Hai is fifteen or sixteen. They are all old enough to be married.
Many years ago, Ge Hong's younger brother worked as a corvee digger for the government and died after falling off a mountain. His sister-in-law abandoned her young son and remarried to a foreign country. Ge Hong and his younger brother have a deep brotherhood, and they regard their only nephew Ge Hai as their own.
He was worried about saving up money for his wife, when a god of wealth, Mr. Lu, fell from the sky. He offered six taels of silver per month to invite the three men to come to Songjiang to forge, and food and accommodation were included. If you can work like this for more than half a year, you can save forty or fifty taels of silver. Of course, Ge Hong came happily with his skills and two children.
Only when I came to Songjiang did I realize that the real God of Wealth was not Mr. Lu, but his god-sister whose surname was Zheng.
Miss Zheng was very polite. When they met, she also gave the grandfather and father some sets of soft and breathable summer clothes, saying they were made of fine cotton that Songjiang people love to wear.
But she seemed to be very busy. After hearing Ge Hong say a few words about the expenses required to build a blacksmith shop, she gave Mr. Lu a banknote and asked them to figure it out, and then left in a hurry.
Ge Hong and his son were still happy that their master was so kind and generous, but they didn't expect that after the shop was repaired, Mr. Lu came up and asked them to make something that was far more difficult than an ordinary sword.
At this moment, in the scorching heat of the shop, Ge Hong and Ge Tian stood on both sides of a deep grooved mold, using a concave hammer to hit the iron material whose surface was as red as a fireball.
Ge Hai kept his eye on a slender iron bar with a wooden handle, which was inserted into the middle of the iron material that Ge Hong and his son were forging.
Lu Xiangsheng looked at it intently for a while amid the clanking, and asked: "Can we only use wrought iron and steel to make such an object? Not even a little bit of pig iron?"
Ge Hong wiped the sweat from his face and nodded: "It's Mr. Lie. Pig iron is very brittle and difficult to forge."
"Oh, what can pig iron do?"
"Pig iron melts quickly. It is very convenient to pour it into a grinding tool to make an iron pot or something. But pig iron is brittle. If you want to make a good knife or sword, you must have different proportions of wrought iron and something between raw and wrought iron. If there is no steel in the world, why would we, as blacksmiths, call steel steelmaking?"
Lu Xiangsheng said "oh" clearly.
Ge Tian, the son of Ge Hong, has an outgoing personality. Seeing that Mr. Lu, a dignified scholar, always had no airs and was not ashamed to ask questions, he became talkative. While forging materials, he told Lu Xiangsheng: "Sir, the younger one has returned to the nearby guard station. The military master was delivering the beaten farm tools and saw them carrying out a soldier whose face was covered with blood. He said that the shotgun had exploded. The military master asked the young man to see what was going on. He didn't know how to deal with firearms. Just look at the gun barrel, it should be pig iron. I guess if the pig iron is brittle, the fireball inside was too strong and exploded."
Lu Xiangsheng sighed: "I understand, Marshal Qi's three-eyed blunderbuss often explodes, and it must be because of the pig iron. But it is too slow for us to use the method of forging wrought iron and steel to make a barrel."
Ge Hong said: "Yes, sir. Moreover, the forged barrel needs to be drilled with a lathe drill bit (note, there were complex wooden vertical lathes in the Ming Dynasty) to make it smooth and smooth..."
When Ge Hong was talking about this, a woman's voice suddenly sounded outside the door: "Not only do you need to use a drill inside, but you also need to use a file to grind the outside."
Lu Xiangsheng looked back and saw a slim girl wearing a blue skirt standing at the threshold, holding a piano in her hand.
Lu Xiangsheng quickly gathered his clothes and covered his chest that was exposed due to the heat. He cupped his hands and said, "Who is the girl?"
"My surname is Wang, and my name is Wang Sheng, which means Victory General Sheng. I was recommended by a friend to be Miss Zheng's husband."
Miss Wang stepped in, introduced herself to her family, and knelt down politely.
She was standing at the door just now, with the backlight, and Lu Xiangsheng couldn't see her face clearly at first glance. Now that she entered the workshop, her features and face naturally became clearer under the illumination of the iron smelting furnace.
For a brief moment, Lu Xiangsheng remembered Liu Yong's words: Lifting up the powdered face makes one jealous of one's beauty and beauty.
The three blacksmith men behind Lu Xiangsheng sighed: Mom, is this a fairy descending to earth?
After meeting Zheng Haizhu before, they thought back and realized that Miss Zheng was not bad looking. But for some reason, when Miss Zheng was talking to them, they didn't seem to feel that the person standing opposite was a woman.
And the Miss Wang in front of them was so beautiful that they didn't dare to take a second look at her.
It was Lu Xiangsheng who realized quickly that he could no longer lose his composure.
He regained his expression management ability, glanced at the piano in the other person's arms, and asked, "Mr. Wang, are you here to teach melodies?"
"I can play the piano and also play the piano."
"Oh," Lu Xiangsheng said with a smile, "I just listened to the girl's advice, and do you know how to smelt and forge?"
"My ancestors were craftsmen who made weapons for the imperial court. When I was a child, a cousin worked as a craftsman at Wang Gong Factory in Beidu."
Miss Wang's tone of voice was calm but not cold, but Lu Xiangsheng, who was smart and intelligent, had already felt that she only touched on her family life and did not want to go deep.
She called Shuntian Prefecture in the capital city Beidu. She spoke frank Nanjing Mandarin. She looked about seventeen or eighteen years old. She was not dressed like a woman, but she didn't have the shyness of a girl on her face.
"Introduced by a friend, I came all the way to be my husband." She doesn't have a husband's family, she's not a Taoist nun, and she's not a self-grooming girl like Zheng Haizhu.
Lu Xiangsheng guessed that this Miss Wang was not from the Qinhuai River.
He then quickly brought the topic back to the gun barrel in front of him.
"I was about to ask Miss Wang whether the outside of the barrel should be filed to make the thickness of the chamber wall uniform?"
Miss Wang nodded: "Yes, otherwise the chamber will explode if the pressure is different. If you do it seriously, you should file it and measure it with a caliper at the same time."
As she spoke, her eyes fell on a book spread out on the wooden table by the window.
She leaned forward to take a closer look with an extremely elegant posture, and her eyes lit up: "Is this the "Artifact Book" written by Zhao Shizhen and Duke Zhao?"
Lu Xiangsheng nodded and said with a hint of embarrassment: "I like to participate in the research of firearms. Miss Zheng trusted me and asked me and several craftsmen to try making some. After a while, Xu Hanlin returned to Songjiang to visit his relatives, so he just presented it to Mr. Xu, asking for advice. two."
"Xu Hanlin, is this Xu Gong Guangqi?"
"Exactly."
Miss Wang's eyes fell on a gleaming iron ax beside the quenching pool.
She pursed her lips slightly and said to Lu Xiangsheng, "I guess you want to make a thunderbolt."
Lu Xiangsheng did not hide his admiration at all.
The Thunder Gun is a firearm recorded by Zhao Shizhen in "Magic Spectrum". It combines the bird gun and the three-eyed gun, reducing the caliber of the gun tube and increasing the length of the gun tube.
The Thunder Gun has five gun tubes arranged in a plum blossom petal shape, passing through the cowhide shield together with the iron gun on the central axis, and there is an iron ax as a support at the bottom. After firing the ammunition remotely, if the enemy still rushes forward, the iron grab and the iron ax can be used as cold weapons in close combat.
Therefore, when Lu Xiangsheng saw that Miss Wang deduced from the iron ax that they were making "Thunder Guns", he knew that this woman was really an expert.
He was about to give a few compliments, but Miss Wang shook her head and said: "The most useless thing in "Magic Spectrum" is this thunder gun. Why don't you make a combined machine gun?"
Lu Xiangsheng frowned, and when he was about to ask more about the reason, he heard Zheng Haizhu's voice coming from behind him.
"Xiang Sheng, you see, Miss Wang is also the same as me, suggesting that you become a single-barrel musket maker, right?"
Lu Xiangsheng looked back and saw Zheng Haizhu and a young man wearing fine silk and brocade robes also walking through the door.
The young master has handsome features, but his expression has a hint of playfulness, which together with the gorgeous and light brocade clothes, interprets the word "dandy".
This dandy who looked like Pan An greeted Lu Xiangsheng and said, "I am Zhang Gu, named Yanke, in Shanyin, Shaoxing."
When Lu Xiangsheng heard that he was the sponsor of Shoukuan School, he bowed deeply to Zhang Yanke: "I am just a poor man. Lu Xiangsheng, courtesy name Jiandou, of Zhangzhu, Yixing, paid homage to Mr. Yanke. I have been wandering in the library for several months and gained a lot." , Miss Zheng said, the books are all gifts from your house."
Zhang Yanke's lips twitched and he said, "Well, the Book of Artifacts in Mr. Lu's hand was obtained by my brother after searching for it in many places. Please be careful when you use it to forge a place where sparks burst out like the blacksmith's shop."
Zhang Yanke spoke softly and gently, with the innocent joy of talking to others on his face.
Zheng Haizhu knew that he felt uncomfortable.
This boy must be jealous of his brother Zhang Dai after seeing Miss Wang having a good conversation with Lu Xiangsheng.
The beautiful lady who calls herself Wang Sheng is the woman Zhang Dai has cared about for several years, Wang Yuesheng, the envoy of Qinhuai.
Last year, Zheng Haizhu was short-tempered and merciless, using the Zhang brothers' financial support to run a school. He could only agree to the financial support of Yanke and place his brother Zhang Dai's sweetheart in the school.
Zhang Dai learned that his brother had reached an agreement with Miss Zheng, and he was very happy with this solution, so he traveled between Shaoxing and Nanjing, and finally redeemed Wang Yuesheng's body in the early summer of this year. He originally wanted to take Wang Yuesheng to Songjiang in person, express his gratitude to Zheng Haizhu, and then make some requests not to underestimate Yuesheng.
Unexpectedly, an uncle of the Zhang family was seriously ill. The Zhang family was anxious to organize a wedding for their eldest grandson Zhang Dai. They had to welcome Zhang Dai's fiancée Liu into the house during the dog days of summer when people in Jiangnan never held wine.
Zhang Dai had no choice but to beg his good brother Zhang Yanke for help. Zhang Yanke was known to be a generous person in the clan, so he found an excuse to go to Nanjing to buy antiques. He traveled from Shaoxing and took Wang Yuesheng to Songjiang and sent him to Zheng Haizhu's school.
When Zheng Haizhu and Wang Yuesheng met, Dong Erya, who was recruited from Zhenjiang, recognized at a glance that this Miss Wang was the kind-hearted boatman who had extra money to hire their sisters to work on Guazhou Ferry and gave them clothes afterwards.
With this foreshadowing, Zheng Haizhu had a good first impression of Wang Yuesheng, and the worry in his heart about arranging an outer room for Zhang Dai dissipated a little.
Today, Zheng Haizhu took Zhang Yanke and Wang Yuesheng to visit the school. Seeing that Wang Yuesheng was not very interested in her and Zhang Yanke's adventures in Fujian, he asked her to help herself on campus to see which part of the garden was suitable for teaching music or explaining the skills of playing the piano. .
Zhang Yanke really paid close attention to this non-staff sister-in-law. From the pavilion in Qingyuan, he saw Wang Yuesheng entering the iron house with hot smoke. For a moment, he didn't care to listen to Zheng Haizhu's talk about the actual situation of the naval battle, so he hurried away. come over.
How did Lu Xiangsheng know there were so many twists and turns inside.
He was well-educated and did not suspect the wit behind Zhang Yanke's words. He just looked awake and said hurriedly and apologetically: "Brother Yanke reminded me that books and drawings are most afraid of fire. You cannot enter this room."
After saying this, he picked up the "Artifact Manual" and another firearms book and placed them on the stone table in the courtyard outside the house.
Zheng Haizhu said at the right time: "Let's all go out and listen to Miss Wang's talk about why we should not make thunder cannons, but should make combined machine cannons."
Then he said to the Ge family: "The three masters should also take a rest. There is mung bean soup soaked in well water at the tailor shop in Jiaoyuan. You go and drink a few bowls to dispel the heat. Bring a bucket for us. Master Fan and I’ve said it several times, we are all craftsmen, so don’t be constrained.”
Ge Hong thanked him gratefully and took his son and nephew to the banana orchard.
After Zheng Haizhu sat down at the stone table, he glanced at Zhang Yanke with a smile.
Zhang Yanke sighed slightly, and somehow he remembered what Miss Zheng had said teasing her about her impatience when she was investigating Sister He's injustice.
Looking at Mr. Lu opposite him, he looked very calm and gentle.
Zhang Yanke suddenly felt as if a ball had deflated in his heart.
He became speechless and just picked up the "Artifact Book" to read through it.
Wang Yuesheng still had clear eyes, not paying attention to what weird things in the atmosphere were related to him. He only looked at Zheng Haizhu, then at Lu Xiangsheng, and said: "Miss Zheng, Mr. Lu, I think a blunderbuss with an opportunity is better than a blunderbuss with lightning speed." It’s even more worthwhile because I remembered what an old friend said.”
