the world is at stake

The imperial capital is also in midwinter, far colder than Jiangnan.

It has been half a month since the end of Ming Dynasty, and the 11 members of the 'New Chinese Federation' are still outside the imperial capital, located in Luheyi, Tongzhou.This station was originally a place for officials and envoys to conduct etiquette training and distribute mounts before they came to Beijing.

Guo Hai used money to forcefully place the team in.Now they have lived in the station for half a month, and most of them have not moved their nests since they moved in.

Looking back on the past half month, it was like a nightmare.

On the first day at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Guo Hai's team took a heavy blow, and encountered a team of inspectors from outside the city—five people in the opposite direction, wearing tattered clothes, bluffing and not daring to rush forward .

Guo Hai and the others brought short-fire guns, and when they really did it, the patrol soldiers on the opposite side were not enough for them to output a wave of firepower.The two sides are "beating the wolf with a hemp stick, and the two are afraid", and in the end they spent money to settle the matter.

The inspectors were polite when they got the money, and specially instructed Guo Hai and other "traders from other places" to settle in Luhe post.It's a place to live in a snowy day.

Luhe Station is a courtyard with four entrances from north to south, and a post station for both water and land.There is a lot of passenger flow from south to north.

Guo Hai and others became lazy after occupying a courtyard, including Yan Li, who came up with the idea of ​​releasing the virus, also felt that the weather was freezing and it was not suitable for action.

It's been a month and a half, and the weather is getting colder.

A charcoal fire was burned under the kang in the yard of the post station, and wet towels were hung in the house. The warmth was mild, but the air was very dry.Including Guo Hai, everyone felt sore throat, dry throat, itchy skin, and even cracked lips.

Want to take a bath in winter?That is the treatment only available to princes and princes.The little station doesn't have enough firewood to boil water.

As for the food, there are no vegetables, and there is little meat. At most, there are some noodles, which is already the best.This is the case for three meals in the morning, noon and evening, and the cooks at the inn are not good enough to make any tricks.

Everyone in the 'Federation' can only rejoice that they are still self-aware, and did not rashly choose to go to Hetuala in the deep mountains and old forests of the Northeast—the standard of living at the feet of the emperor, what kind of barbaric life does a slave have to live?

Guo Hai also didn't want to stay in the post station every day, he asked the post post's postman how to enter the imperial capital.

Yicheng saw that this group of people should be fat sheep with no roots, and the food sold to them every day was several times the normal price. He didn't want Guo Hai and others to leave, so he deliberately threatened:

"Entering the city? If you can't enter the city, the soldiers and horses of the five cities will check the roads and send them to prison if they find out any lawbreakers. It's freezing cold and the transportation is inconvenient. Why don't you stay at the post station until the beginning of spring and think of a way."

Guo Hai knew that Yi Cheng bullied him because he was unfamiliar with the place of life, but he couldn't help it.Before there is no more advanced support, in case the other party is annoyed, there is no place to stay.

Just spend money to eliminate disasters.

After returning to the courtyard late at night, Yan Li, who hadn't showered for half a month, came out of the house with disheveled hair and a haggard face, asking: "How? Is there any new progress?"

Guo Hai answered angrily: "I visited all the officials staying in this inn. They asked me what my fame was, and when they heard that I was a businessman, they wouldn't let me in.

A few days ago, a Juren was probably bored, so he took the initiative to ask me to chat.But what he said, I couldn't catch up at all.It wasn't until I left that his servants caught up and explained.

It turned out that he saw you wandering outside a few days ago and thought you were old but good-looking, so he asked if you were married and wanted to marry you as his concubine. "

Yan Li felt humiliated and became furious.She had been bored in the house for the past few days, so she showed her face in several courtyards of the post station.

In the end, I ran into a psychopath who lived in the same posthouse and walked around her, commenting on her big feet, criticizing her makeup, and saying that she was not a decent woman, she was definitely not the housewife of a rich family, at most she was a maid.

What annoyed me the most was that psychopath with a pockmarked face, short stature, and a toad who wanted to eat swan meat.Thinking about it now, it must be that the so-called Master Juren has inquired about his own origin, and he feels superior to others, and wants to take advantage of it.

Guo Hai was also depressed, but he said comfortingly: "We are sad, and the 'Holy Light' gang will not be too comfortable. Their tasks are more difficult and they face more troubles.

Don't worry, at most it's a waste of a month or two, time is still long.At least we had food and drink, and the 'Holy Light' might have been in even worse trouble, exhausted to death. "

You can coax others with these words, but you can't coax Yan Li.She defected from the mainland system to the west, and she knows that the 'Holy Light' team is stronger than her own in terms of preparation and talent.

In terms of bearing hardships and standing hard work, none of the fun-loving sycophants of the 'Federation' can catch up with the group of 'Holy Light' who are not afraid of death.There are really fools on the other side who would be willing to sacrifice.

"But at most it will be the beginning of spring, which is only two months. The development of the people of 'Holy Light' should not be too bad." Yan Li was trapped in the station. Although she realized that the task was difficult, she was still lucky.

It was also late at night, and the 11 o'clock bell had just struck in Xinhua Village.

Zhou Qingfeng finished the regular meeting and was inspecting the inside and outside of the village—he was fast-paced and sensitive, and he was in charge of the inspection from eleven o'clock at night to four o'clock in the morning, trying to let the rest of the team rest.

The bells sounded from the bell tower on the river bank.It was just built a few days ago, a three-story structure, and a ten-meter-high bamboo building—because he didn’t need to start from scratch, the bronze rod that Zhou Qingfeng carried before was temporarily cast into a bronze bell and hung upstairs.

The mechanical copper bell is driven by water power, and the sound can be heard two miles away when it is rung, which basically meets the needs of timing.Only with a clock can we establish the concept of time and enhance discipline.

Otherwise, the work arrangement can only be said in the morning, afternoon and evening, and the arrangement is not organized.

After the bell, the village was not quiet.Zhou Qingfeng could still hear many sounds in his ears, the sound of Wusong River's water was obvious, and the creaking sound of the waterwheel driven by the water flow was also very clear.

Mills and sawmills were also lit at night, with equipment running non-stop and hired workers working in three shifts.In addition to the sawmill, there are more jingling movements on the river bank.

The smelting team hasn't worked out the blast furnace yet, but they have other ways.

When Zhou Qingfeng approached the newly built smelting room, billowing heat gushed out.The charcoal purchased from Fucheng was burned in a large furnace to a pure blue color.It was a graphite clay crucible furnace with insulation.

Driven by hydraulic power, the blower made of cowhide expands and contracts repeatedly.The airflow blown out of the gas valve rotates around the spiral flue of the furnace, and is blown into the furnace after being preheated to four or five hundred degrees.

The purchased pig iron should be melted again in a closed crucible to remove sulfur, phosphorus and other elements as much as possible, and synthesize high carbon steel with graphitization.

The entire smelting process lasts for more than 24 hours, and requires decarburization heat treatment and precise temperature control, so the cost of this steelmaking method is quite high and the output is also small.

But this is currently the only way to obtain high-carbon steel, and it is also the fastest way for the 'Holy Light' team to obtain high-quality metal tools, weapons, and armor.

It was originally a technology invented by the British more than 120 years later.Now that the smelting team can make it ahead of time and improve it, it is all supported by the experience of later generations.

Graphite clay crucibles are supposed to be closed disposable items, and they have to be smashed and scrapped every time they are refined.The smelting team redesigned the pot body so that the expensive and time-consuming crucible can be reused many times.

This greatly improves efficiency and reduces costs.

When Zhou Qingfeng passed by, two members of the smelting team were working with a dozen or so apprentices.They must keep an eye on the metal thermometer and control the temperature of the crucible, and follow the operating specifications without making mistakes.

There is also a small heat treatment tempering furnace in the smelting room, and several red steel ingots are waiting to be processed.A member of the smelting team took a sip of salt soda, turned the hourglass upside down and let the apprentice watch it, and came out to get some air by himself.

Zhou Qingfeng greeted him loudly, and asked with a smile: "If these apprentices run away after learning the skills, or if they are attacked and captured, will the skills be leaked?"

The members of the smelting team laughed and said: "Although these apprentices are diligent, they are illiterate and poor in quality. Do they know what martensitic austenite is? Do they know the metallographic structure? Do they know how to calculate the temperature change coefficient?

I spent four years studying metallurgy and more than ten years practicing in factories.If you can casually recite a few formulas and learn them, industrialization would be too simple.

Besides, we don't need too much tool steel, what we need more is a large amount of metal parts such as cast iron.What restricts us now is the lack of raw materials such as pig iron and charcoal, and we can't buy them even if we want to. "

Zhou Qingfeng nodded and said, "Nanjing has an ironworks run by the Ming government, and the guarding eunuchs also do private business. Old Xiao sent people to buy by boat. I hope everything goes well."

The members of the smelting team laughed, "Daming's craftsmen are not bad, but the government pays too little money, so they can only make some junk. As long as they pay enough money, the pig iron production in Nanjing is very large."

Ming Ting's production capacity is not bad, but the management is really bad.

The artillery craftsmen who were also trained by Sun Yuanhua produced defective products in Daming, but were coerced by Kong Youde and fled to the 'wild boar skin' to produce heavy military weapons.

The internal conflict in the whole country is too serious.

When it comes to Nanjing, the topic among men starts immediately.The members of the smelting team smiled and asked: "Have you asked our old master? Who is there on the Qinhuai River now?"

Zhou Qingfeng was also happy.

'Old Master Q' refers to the team of Ming history experts.

After the end of the Ming Dynasty, the old man dressed up as a pedant all day long, and he talked a lot. He opened his mouth to say "the saint said" and closed his mouth to say "the master said", which made everyone laugh and cry.

As for the Qinhuai River...

Zhou Qingfeng shook his head and said, "Qinhuai Bayan wasn't even born yet. Besides, women nowadays are generally short in stature, stunted, and they also pay attention to poor breasts, which doesn't conform to our aesthetics at all. You should give up on this."

There are more men than women in the 'Holy Light' team, even fewer young ones.

Although time and space tasks are very important, everyone will still joke around in their spare time, and it doesn't hurt.

The smelting team is in his thirties, and he is considered the youngest member of the team.He continued: "Mr. Zhou, do you think it is possible for us to develop one in the past three years? Or import a batch from overseas?"

Zhou Qingfeng continued to laugh, lowering his voice, "The Maid Revolution, right? It's too early to talk about it, and the difficulty is not small. But I personally have no objection. As long as you like it and I'm willing to force it, it's easy to talk about."

This is just nonsense among men, no one takes it seriously, they just say a few cheerful words.

After cooling off for a while, the smelting team returned to the smelting room.Most of the internal equipment is built by 'Holy Light', and it only takes half a month to build, and the furnace will not stop when it is burning, and someone needs to watch it for 24 hours.

Zhou Qingfeng didn't say anything about getting more rest, he just told the smelting room to pay more attention to safety, and everyone took care of themselves, then left and continued to watch the night.

The next day, Mr. Jiang, who was temporarily staying in Beiwan Village, got up early and went out before he could.Zheng Dashan asked the housekeeper to arrange a soft sedan chair for Mr. Jiang to travel.

A few entourages of five big and three thick followed behind.

Four bearers carried the people for three miles and sent them to Nanwan Village.This is already considered the boundary of the 'Holy Light', and a five-six-meter-high bamboo and wooden sentry tower is being built at the intersection.

Two 'assistant police' stood under the sentry tower, each grabbing a spear as a fixed post.Seeing someone approaching, they stopped and asked about the origin.

A follower with a scar on his face stood up and shouted in a fierce tone: "My son's surname is Jiang. He passed a name card yesterday, and he is here to visit today. Hurry up and inform your family steward."

The two 'assistant police officers' didn't move, but grabbed a wooden whistle and blew it a few times.After a while, there was a response from the direction of the floating bridge.

Mr. Jiang raised the curtain in the sedan chair, he was curious about the whistle sound, but also took it for granted.He is no stranger to similar things, but it is still a bit special to appear in a village.

Scarface's attendant approached the sedan chair and said in a low voice, "Master, you see that the overseer working in this village is actually a woman."

It is not uncommon for women to work, but I have never seen a woman as a supervisor.

Mr. Jiang was staring at the standard spear of the 'Associate Police', but upon hearing this, he found a villager who was building a sentry tower not far away, and a woman who was working as a supervisor beside him.

"What's so special about this girl?" Mr. Jiang couldn't help being surprised, he lifted the curtain and asked the 'assistant police' guarding the intersection.

The two 'assistant police' subconsciously felt that the person who came in the sedan chair was a big man, and they were a little timid, but they didn't dare to give in and let them go.After being questioned, one person said: "Our master said that men and women are equal."

What?

equality?

men and women?

"Ridiculous." Mr. Jiang sneered, "Men are the sky and women are the earth. How can they be equal? ​​Wouldn't the universe be reversed if they were equal?"

The two 'Associate Police' are still illiterate and can't read a few words.

But when they learned it elsewhere in Xinhua Village, they had already kept two rules in mind—first, what the masters said was correct.Second, if something is wrong, refer to the previous article.

Although unable to refute, the two 'Associate Police' blushed and stood still at the intersection.

Mr. Jiang was even more surprised by this.The guards in ordinary villages were afraid of being punished, so they didn't dare to stop him at all.The two people in front of them could at most be regarded as the villagers, but they seemed to be prohibitive.

Scarface's follower could also see that he wanted to give it a try.He took a few steps forward, as if he was going to force his way.The 'assistant police' on the opposite side suddenly panicked, Qi Qi held up their spears and shouted: "Wait a minute, you are not allowed to enter without our master's permission."

"Are you worthy of stopping me?" Scarface's attendant pulled out a short knife from his waist, and sneered viciously: "You are not enough for me to cut you."

Seeing that the momentum was wrong, the four bearers quickly retreated.The villagers who built the outpost don't turn around and run away in fright.

Mr. Jiang watched coldly from inside the sedan chair, and didn't speak to stop him.The few remaining fierce attendants also had unkind faces, revealing the weapons they carried, and spread out to the left and right, showing a tendency to pinch.

The two 'assistant policemen' used to be peasants, and they were used to being bullied by the local gentry's guards and thugs.Mr. Jiang has a few personal attendants, but he is much more ruthless than ordinary guards, and he can form a great power just by surrounding him casually.

The point of the knife is approaching, and the enemy is outnumbered. Ordinary people will be frightened when they see such a posture, and it is normal to kneel down and beg for mercy.

But the two 'assistant policemen' in front of them were clearly frightened, their faces were pale and sweaty, but they only took two or three steps back, still holding their spears and refusing to back down.

At this moment, the female overseer who had been despised just now blew the wooden whistle sharply.A hundred meters away, a two-meter-tall black-armored man was leading the team to rush over, shouting loudly:

"One squad forward, decisively support the post."

"The second squad rounded around from the left to cut off the enemy's rear."

"Squad Three sent someone to ring the alarm, and the rest followed me."

Chapter 14

Before crossing, the 'Holy Light' team had a consensus - to obtain an army that could influence the battle of Saarhu, its core members must receive three years of training, and grassroots soldiers must also receive two years of training.

Otherwise, no matter how good the steel and iron smelting is, it will not be possible to conscript troops and fight wars in the last year and a half. This is unrealistic.

Based on such a consensus, the military team has the priority to select Xinhua Village in the recruitment of external personnel.

Two or three thousand young people from Qinglong Town were selected, and local young people from fifteen to about fifteen years old, hard-working, flexible, daring to fight and have the potential to grow were drawn into the team of "Associate Police".

Due to the limited team management ability, it is impossible to recruit unlimited people, so the first batch of "assistant police" is likely to be the backbone of the future army.

These boys are all illiterate, with an average height of 1.6 meters. They all come from poor and lower-middle peasant families. They have the strongest revolutionary consciousness and the deepest class hatred.

The team hopes that 1.7 of the 65 "assistant police" will become talented, master basic knowledge of arts and sciences, have firm beliefs and fighting enthusiasm, increase their average height to [-] meters, weigh [-] kilograms, and become qualified company commanders and platoon leaders.

Only in this way can we support [-] troops and build a strong army to go to Sarhu to fight.

Before crossing, Wang Xin, who was two meters tall, was the training model of the army, and won the top three in the military competition.He went from being a soldier to a military academy and then being promoted to be a company commander.

To be selected into the team, Wang Xin's specialty is that he has good conditions and is good at training soldiers.He himself came from a certain forest farm in the Northeast, and he has been used to activities in the mountains since he was a child.

After time-traveling, Wang Xintian yelled when he learned that he was going to fight against Jiannu——My parents didn't raise me for nothing, I'm at the right time.From now on, Lao Tzu will put on a suit of armor and dare to rush into the pile of slaves.

It's a fucking good thing that no one else can dream of!

The military team couldn't wait to recruit and select soldiers for training.The iron-tower-like Wang Xin is the most active in this regard-queue, goose step, and report number, starting from the most basic training to temper the military quality of soldiers.

There is no distinction between left and right, front and back, and the same hands and feet. These are pediatrics, and they are common in university military training.Have you ever seen that trainer?There are solutions.

Mechanized practice, words and food as incentives, learning and complaints as assistance, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of soldiers.In seven or eight days, the military team was stunned to train No. [-] "Associate Police" to look decent.

The progress of 'Associate Police' is visible.

In the first two or three days, they were hunched over, walked crookedly, talked twitteringly, could not call reports, and did not understand team discipline.