Before Zheng Haizhu came over, Song Yingxing had already surveyed the terrain around the river under the leadership of Wu Bondang.
Song Yingxing, who loves craftsmanship and has great respect for craftsmen, said to Zheng Haizhu sincerely: "Madam, this newly opened river, the weirs and barriers are all very organized. I just heard what Manager Wu said, It was built by craftsmen who dredged the Songjiang River, no wonder."
Zheng Haizhu nodded and said: "Borrowing strength from the water is like marching to fight, making progress step by step. My husband has seen it and thinks that our first step is impressive. Then Manager Wu and I are relieved. Let's continue to fight the battle." Go down."
Song Yingxing heard the meaning of reliance in the woman's words and felt relieved.
On the contrary, his face became more humble: "I see that on the other side of the river in Zhuangzi, there is a barrel truck for irrigating the fields, and the water is abundant. What else does Madam want to do? Song is willing to hear the details."
Zheng Haizhu said: "Everything remains true to its roots. Even for Western-style firearms, forging is the key. If the forging is not enough, the chamber will easily explode. The other is drilling gun barrels. If the drilling machines of Jiangnan woodworkers can be modified to drill and grind steel, It can be more precise than wrapping an iron rod and closing the blunderbuss tube by forging. But these two things, forging and driving the drill machine, both require one word: force. I invite you, sir, to help us transform manpower into For water power.”
Song Yingxing was so smart, and what Zheng Haizhu said was not a quarrel. He understood immediately when he heard it: "Madam, do you want to use water power to forge hundreds of steel, drill out the blunderbuss tube, and then assemble it manually? "
"Yes. God will do the rough work and laborious work; our people will do the fine work and inspection work. Later, the high and low stoves were slowly moved here, separated from the fields, crops, spinning and weaving."
Song Yingxing turned his head and his eyes wandered along both sides of the river.
Song Yingxing was familiar with the scene of forging iron. The principle of using water power instead of manpower was not too profound. In his mind, it was just a few wooden gear machines that meshed with each other, and the water flow impacted the first one and transmitted the force to the last connected one. On the hammer, instead of the craftsman swinging the hammer, half the manpower can be saved and the force of each forging can be ensured to be even.
As for the lathe for drilling gun tubes that Mrs. Zheng mentioned, the principle should be similar, except that the directions of the drill bit and hammer head are definitely different. Song Yingxing needs to see the process and requirements in person before he can use his brain in depth.
Zheng Haizhu waited patiently for Song Yingxing to lose consciousness for a while, then waved for Hua Er to come over.
In the car when I arrived, I had already done 80% of the ideological work for this girl. After starting your own business, laying a solid foundation, and gaining the trust of the court, the industrial and agricultural lines that you start to work on must be the same as the army, and you must arrange your cronies well.
Hua Ersha touched Madam not because she didn't want her anymore, and the construction work was far more interesting than singing, dancing and settling accounts, so her worries turned into joy.
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu pointed at the innocent and curious girl and said to Song Yingxing: "Sir, this child and her brother escaped from the slaves in Liaodong. Both brothers and sisters are good at repairing mule carts. , I didn’t allocate fields to them, and asked them to follow me and receive monthly payments. But I also didn’t want to bully them into having no father or mother and to be tied to me as a servant from now on. Sir, how about accepting her as a disciple?”
"Oh..." Song Yingxing hesitated slightly, glanced at Wu Bangdang, who was also a man, and then lowered his eyes to the ground.
Of course Zheng Haizhu knew what he was hesitating about.
After all, in the ancients, men and women had great defenses engraved in their minds, and a thirty-year-old man would give someone a female apprentice who looked like a flower...
Song Yingxing's sudden expression of embarrassment made Zheng Haizhu feel a little relieved.
If it were the original lustful Xu Dahua, his subconscious reaction would not be like this.
Descendants like her cannot fully know the personal ethics of a scientist who has left his name in history.
In the late Ming Dynasty, I could only tell the character of the men I met from all walks of life, whether they were gentlemen like Yan Siqi and Huang Zunsu, or bastards like Xu Dahua, only after I had dealt with them.
But just because there are scumbags, we cannot deny that there are a large number of outstanding men among men.
Especially for younger women, we must not be like those who are narrow-minded and have the idea that "men have no good things" and cut off the way for girls to learn from teachers and go out to make a career.
Zheng Haizhu then smiled indifferently, turned around and said to Wu Bond and others: "I will lead Mr. Song to the mouth of the dam for a walk."
The two walked to the dam that was beginning to take shape. Zheng Haizhu stopped, looked at the vast scenery of the island, and said to Song Yingxing: "The sages also had sadness when Zilu lamented that it is sad to be poor. In fact, it has been a hundred years, and life has gone against the grain, which hurts the soul. It’s more than just a word of poverty. If you ask me, it’s the imperial examination that hurts men, and it’s women’s virtue that hurts women.”
Song Yingxing was startled.
This statement is really harsh.
But thinking about it carefully, it was just because it was the first time I heard such deviant words coming from a woman's mouth.
Thinking about it again, at least the part of the sentence "It's a shame for men to take the imperial examination" seemed to speak to Lao Song's heart.
Zheng Haizhu observed Song Yingxing's micro-expression and saw that his face was slightly moved in silence. He recalled that in another parallel time and space, the scientist shouted in the preface of "Tiangong Kaiwu" that "this book has nothing to do with fame and progress."
Please those literati who are bent on seeking official positions through the imperial examinations, please throw this book away. Such heartfelt shouting was regarded by many vulgar and greasy people in later generations as the resentment of frustrated literati, but Zheng Haizhu believed that those who dared to write like this were the last hope of the late Ming Dynasty.
"Sir," Zheng Haizhu said calmly, "the mind studies things, and the study of things leads to knowledge. It has nothing to do with the skills of the eight-part essay, and it has nothing to do with the difference between men and women. Confining a beautiful woman in a deep house is like trapping a good man in an examination hall, year after year. Day after day, I have exhausted my youth, and when my head turns gray, I shed tears secretly, and even become as dull as a puppet. There is no greater sorrow than this."
Song Yingxing was silent for another moment, then he said: "I am not a pedantic person. When I was in Nanjing, I heard Lu Xiandi talk about many wives' righteous deeds, and I was quite impressed. Nowadays, women craftsmen and craftsmen in Susong are treated as normal, which is quite remarkable. It’s a good sign that heaven has created something. Song is willing to support the juniors recommended by his wife, but can he bring some for both male and female disciples?”
Zheng Haizhu smiled and said cheerfully: "That's natural, we are not opening a nunnery."
He added a bit of enthusiasm and said: "By the way, sir, although Chongming is an island, it is the gateway to the East China Sea established by Taizu. The adjacent Songjiang River has been opened and closed. After living here for a while, sir, if you don't mind, I will Sir, would you like to build a larger house and house the family papers?"
Song Yingxing came into being after the New Year. In the past, many of the teachers he had dealt with were of the same age and liked to talk in roundabout ways. But today, I realized that a woman like this woman, who did not adjust her book bag and spoke straight to the point, did not have the abruptness to communicate with others. Feeling rough.
He then became relaxed and thanked with a smile.
Zheng Haizhu continued to point out the scope of his land in Chongming, and discussed with Song Yingxing the details of water hammer, hydraulic punching and other facilities, but he devoted his attention to planning the nonsense that he had encountered in the past few days.
That day, the county called her to the government office. The county magistrate, accompanied by Yang Xiancheng, spoke to her personally and said that he wanted to ask her to buy fifty muskets and two small cannons loaded with three or four kilograms of iron bullets. , sent to Yao Qianhu Health Center in Beidao.
Yue Zhixian is a fox who is experienced in officialdom.
Facing two powerful families, the Yao and Zheng families, each with their own backing, Yue Zhixian wanted to accuse Yao Qianhu of engaging in smuggling to provide money for himself and Yang County Prime Minister, but he did not dare to forcefully suppress Zheng Haizhu, so he had to resort to cunning tactics. , first find a censor who was acquainted with him in the same year to impeach Chongming Qianhu's military preparations for dereliction. When the Ministry of War came to ask, Yue Zhixian took advantage of the situation to make a petition to Suzhou Military Preparation, saying that Yao Qianhu was also unjust, and those who took over were the old broken coppers. Rotten iron. It has been sixty or seventy years since Chongming fought against Japanese pirates. How can it still be used?
After such a disturbance, the "one's own" censor who initially impeached him turned to impeach the cabinet. At the end of the article, he praised Fujian Governor Shang Zhouzuo for his wise understanding of people and his purchase of firearms from the Zheng family of Songjiang, which brought peace to the Minhai.
The Suzhou Bingbei Dao saw that something was not right, and took the initiative to report that they could coordinate the Dao, the county, and the garrison. Each party would contribute a portion of the money. They also followed the example of Fujian and asked Zheng to order firearms and reserve them for the Chongming garrison.
The magistrate of Yue County and the Prime Minister of Yang County talked pleasantly, but Zheng Haizhu didn't believe it after hearing it.
Most of them are local snakes who want to steal the wool from her firearms factory and resell it somewhere.
It is obvious that Chongming County and Yao Qianhu are in the same boat, and the officers and soldiers conspire to enrich themselves privately.
What's interesting is that they didn't think that Zheng Haizhu, an outsider, was too stupid. They didn't make up the lie that a monster became a Buddha overnight, and lied to her that Yao Qianhu also wanted to actively train in the army, so he wanted to buy arms. Nine twists and turns.
Now that they had managed to get Suzhou Bingbei Dao involved to speak out, he had no reason to refuse the firearms factory because it was a "prospector" for the imperial court.
However, before there was sufficient evidence, and when Fang Congzhe was still the Prime Minister, it was even more hasty to report people like Chongming to Zhang Shilang of the Ministry of War.
Zheng Haizhu then wondered if there was any way to bury a trick in the firearm so that it would perform well when delivered, use it for a while, and then send it back to the factory for repairs. If Yao Qianhu was really just reorganizing his troops to compete with the Zheng family army, he would definitely be able to train soldiers and use guns, and at most he would help him maintain them once every six months. If it is indeed sold privately, the item will be damaged in the hands of the buyer. By then it will be the time when Emperor Tianqi ascends the throne and Fang Congzhe steps down. It is best for the matter to be exposed and Yao Qianhu to take care of it.
Now Song Yingxing was invited, who happened to be teaming up with local Songjiang and Portuguese technicians recruited by Sun Yuanhua through the Jesuits to bury this technical pit.
Just when Zheng Haizhu was concentrating on two things, he suddenly saw a fast horse galloping in the direction of Zhuangzi.
It was the familiar face from the county who often came to deliver messages.
The official reined in his horse and exchanged a few words with Wu Bondang in a hurry, then rushed towards the dam entrance.
"Mrs. Zheng, the second master asked me to bring you a message. That little carpenter in your village, he, he has acne!"
Zheng Haizhu's expression suddenly changed.
Ah Shan, a young carpenter, was asked by the county to do carpentry a month ago. When he came back, he said with a grimace that it was Yang County Cheng who sold favors to Yao Qianhu to make furniture.
Unexpectedly, a few days ago, Yang County Cheng sent someone to call him away to work again.
Zheng Haizhu was angry secondly, but more importantly, he became suspicious.
Ashan took the lead, and she asked Aya to go to the county town to keep an eye on her for a few days on the pretext of going to the city to do some shopping and to check on the current situation of Grandma Tang's ancestral home.
In order to prevent Zhuangmen from feeling abnormal, Aya rejected Zheng Haizhu's proposal to keep the child and took Xiaodou Bao away.
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu was so concerned that he almost blurted out to the official, "Is Aya in my village with him?"
Fortunately, the official was quick-tongued and rough, so he didn't shy away from it. He followed up with: "The little widow in Madam's house is Ashan's mistress, right? The little widow went to meet him. No, she took the baby with her. They are also locked up in one place!”
