In a workshop area built to the east of Hanzhong City, workers are building houses, and it's a lively scene.
Li Zhaocheng walked through the crowd, looked around, found a familiar gunpowder craftsman, and asked: "Where is Taoist Hao?!"
"Looking for a woman over there!"
The surroundings were very noisy, and the two had to raise their voices.
Li Zhaocheng walked around the foundation and found Hao Xiuyang after a while.
I saw that the old Taoist priest had changed into a brand new Taoist robe and was no longer as slovenly as before. He was sitting in a rocking chair waving the whisk in his hand.
In front of him, there were eight sallow-looking little girls lined up.
"What is the Taoist Master doing?"
Hao Xiuyang smiled and sighed: "I am old and my muscles and bones are weak, so I hired some maids to bring tea and water."
Although Li Zhaocheng was a junior, he reminded him in a low voice: "Is this okay for a Taoist disciple?"
"I'm obsessed, you're obsessed." Hao Xiuyang pointed at him and said: "Just because I am a Taoist priest, you accuse the Taoist sect of what I have done. Isn't it just generalizing? The old Taoist enjoys enjoyment, because the old Taoist has money.
What does it have to do with Taoism?"
Li Zhaocheng was speechless for a moment.
He knew that Hao Xiuyang was rich now, and he was using the Li family for food and accommodation, so of course he was rich.
"The old Taoist is so old and he won't bully them. What's wrong with helping them?"
Hao Xiuyang waved a whisk and asked his maids to light a fire for cooking, do laundry and sweep the floor, and told them to plant some ginkgo trees in the yard.
He plans to live a more decent life in the future.
"I asked you to look for something, but you found it?"
Li Zhaocheng then asked his entourage to bring the basket on his back and find the things one by one.
"This is the compass that the Taoist Master asked for..."
"Hey, if you can't even see the Twenty-Four Mountains, what's the use? Look again."
Hao Xiuyang shook his head, looked up at the sky, and murmured: "In Hanzhong... there are not many iron ores. In a few days, I will have to go to Quy Nhon Mountain. It's hard work."
He gets a lot of money, but actually does a lot.
Nowadays, Hao Xiuyang is in charge of most of the firearms, weapons, and armor manufacturing of Li Xia's soldiers.
This sounds simple, but starting from mining is an extremely complicated process.
For example, Li Xia wanted to make a telescope, but he thought jade and amethyst were too expensive, so he told Hao Xiuyang that he could make a mirror with sand.
It's all nonsense.
Hao Xiuyang spent countless efforts and burned countless kinds of stones before burning the lens with crystal silica purchased from a jade merchant from Huangzhou, but it still did not meet the purity Li Xia wanted.
Maybe the raw materials are wrong, maybe it's not heated enough... I don't know, I can only try slowly.
And what is more important now is not these novel objects. We must first build enough weapons and armor for the soldiers before we can train all the more than 20,000 soldiers in Hanzhong into combat soldiers.
Rather than a bunch of country soldiers armed only with spears and not even armor.
"Where are the books?"
"Here... "Mengxi Bi Tan" is easy to find, Shicaitang has a copy. "Dao Ming" is extremely difficult to find. I asked Lin Zi to send someone to the south to buy it."
Li Zhaocheng took out the books in the basket one by one.
Hao Xiuyang asked again: "Where is the "Yunji Seven Lots"?"
"If the Taoist master wants to make a sword, why should he use the Taoist book?"
"You brat, Taoism has a way of pouring steel."
Hao Xiuyang was quite disdainful of Li Zhaocheng, an ignorant scholar, and said: "The method of making steel is to make thin sheets of wrought iron, place the pig iron on top, cover it with straw, and coat it with mud underneath. When the firepower is sufficient, the raw steel will melt first.
, seeping into the wrought iron, the two lovers are in harmony... This recipe is the secret of my steelmaking, which is stronger than the swords of the world."
Li Zhaocheng asked again: "Since the Taoist master knows it, why bother to read the book?"
Hao Xiuyang scolded: "How much is wrought iron? How much is pig iron? How much is grass and mud? How much is firepower? If you don't look it up, how can you know it? What's more, Shen Kuo's method of "laying steel" is different from this "tuan steel"...
"
"Okay." Li Zhaocheng said helplessly, "Just find these books for the Taoist Priest."
"Tell Marshal Li that this matter is important. Teach him to stop talking to the old Taoist about specious things. He doesn't know how to refine steel. He keeps talking about doing this and doing that all day long. There is absolutely no rules."
Hao Xiuyang said, turned over and pointed to a temple to the east.
"Did you see that stone Buddhist temple? There is a tall tower."
Li Zhaocheng said: "I saw it."
"The temple must be demolished, and the old Taoist must use the tall tower to build a huge furnace to make steel for the commander."
"Taoist priest, please don't make fun of me."
Hao Xiuyang smiled and cursed: "There are too many temples in Hanzhong..."
Li Zhaocheng looked in the direction of his finger and saw many ships coming from the east.
"The officials appointed by the imperial court have arrived..."
~~
Wangjiangmen Pier.
A group of young officials got off the boat and looked up at Hanzhong City.
"This is Hanzhong City, Guliangzhou." Someone murmured.
"It's so broken."
"There are too few people. They are far inferior to Zhang Bian Chengyin in Lin'an City, but they are shoulder to shoulder..."
"Yunzhan Pingshan reads the moon tour, and the horse's hooves are happy to step on Liangzhou for the first time." Hu Sansheng opened his mouth and chanted.
Huang Rong laughed, looked back and pointed at the Han River behind him, and chanted loudly: "The ground is connected to the Qin Yongchuan River, and the Jing Yang River flows under the water day and night."
This is Lu You's poem, which describes the magnificence of ancient Liangzhou and the Han River in one sentence.
Everyone couldn't help but get excited. Gu Zheng
Huang Zhen strode forward and answered the next sentence.
"The remaining captives are cowardly, but Ning Yuanlue is far away, and the lonely minister is stubborn and worried about his own interests."
At this point in the poem, all the young officials responded to the last line in unison...
"I fear that good times will bring hatred to others, but at the end of the year, another autumn will come!"
The high-spirited voice echoed through the city cave.
The people around who were carrying the burdens all looked sideways and saw that these officials were dressed in extraordinary clothes and had thousands of servants, so they quickly dispersed.
The officials were not satisfied and shouted again.
"I fear that good times will bring hatred to others, but at the end of the year, another autumn will come!"
"I don't know where Dashan Pass is, I didn't see it..."
"What a poem! What a poem!"
"Lu Fangweng is gifted with a generous nature, so his poems are restored!"
"No...do you know that Da San Pass..."
"In good times, I fear that I will regret it later in life. As officials and Hanzhong, we must seize the good opportunity. When the king's army returns to the north, we can sacrifice Mr. Weng!"
"Everyone, please pay attention to me and leave..."
"As you may know, Lu Fangweng also wrote a poem about Hanzhong... In those days, he traveled thousands of miles to search for a feudal lord and defended Liangzhou on horseback!"
"Good! What a sentence, 'One horse defends Liangzhou'!"
"I've been waiting for this, it's just that... Zhu Yan gradually changes her fame late, and she sings tragic songs again and again!"
"well said……"
~~
Liu Jinsuo, who was standing on guard at the top of the city, looked over, said "Hey" and cursed: "The scholar is really noisy."
He waved and laughed: "Let's go, take these tender eggs over..."
~~
"Let's sing the tragic song again and again!"
"good!"
"Let's go and see Li Jieshuai. We will go to our respective places to work on civil affairs..."
"I will say goodbye to you all tomorrow."
"Let's see among us, who will govern the best..."
Seeing a general coming over there with men holding swords, Zan Wanshou stepped forward and said, "We have been appointed by the imperial court to take office in Hanzhong. I wonder where Commander Li Jie is?"
"Hahaha."
Seeing that the general was smiling instead of saying anything, all the officials couldn't help but be stunned.
"Someone, the commander of Zhenxi Army, Liu Jinsuo!"
"It turned out to be General Liu in person..."
Liu Jinsuo was very happy. This was the first time since he was appointed an official that he read out his name in such a majestic manner to outsiders. He glanced at these people with a full stomach, and finally looked at Zan Wanshou.
"Hey, you are very good, you look like you can fight well."
This was quite rude, and many officials were unhappy about it.
Although Zan Wanshou was a county lieutenant, he was also a civil servant in the military examination. How could he be treated with such courtesy?
But when they first arrived, their spirits were weak after all, and they didn't dare to say anything.
Liu Jinsuo waved his hand and said loudly: "Come with me!"
As he spoke, he strode towards the outside of the city, heading west.
"Let's go!"
"May I ask Liu Tongzhi if Li Jieshuai is not in the city?"
"have no idea!"
"Then we are... not entering the city?"
"What are we going to do in the city? Of course we should take you to stay first! Wait until the next batch of officials arrive, and then we can set out together..."
Hu Sansheng couldn't help but asked Huang Chen in a low voice: "He said departure? Not going to take office?"
"I must be a rude person who can't distinguish these things..."
~~
As we walked, we got farther and farther away from Hanzhong City.
Hu Sansheng frowned slightly, sensing something was wrong. He turned around and saw Lu Xiufu's face turned pale, and couldn't help but expressed concern.
"Junshi, are you acclimated?"
From Lin'an to Hanzhong, it was more than 3,000 miles of waterway and nearly a month of hard work, which even a scholar in his prime, Hu Sansheng, couldn't bear.
It was the first time for the twenty-four-year-old Lu Xiufu to trek such a long distance. In addition, he suffered from seasickness along the way, so he was obviously ill.
However, he still tried hard to keep his steps steady and spoke two words.
"It doesn't matter."
Hu Sansheng turned around and shouted to Liu Jinsuo: "Liu Tongzhi, we are going to Guanyi. Can we go to see Envoy Li Jie tomorrow?"
Liu Jinsuo turned around and said loudly: "Where is the official post? Just rest here!"
"Lu Zhixian is ill. He is a young Jinshi and knows Nanzheng County..."
"Then I'll find a doctor!"
"There is no doctor outside this city..."
Hu Sansheng was halfway through speaking when he turned around and saw a military camp slowly unfolding in front of him.