The demand for glass mirrors is still fermenting little by little. Huan'er, the maid of the Chen family in the pottery shop in East Lutheran Prefecture, Hebei Province, was sitting in the lady's room today, eating cucumber slices and chatting with the lady without saying a word. "Miss, you are
Do you know that the third lady of the Liu family next door bought a large glass mirror for thirty taels of silver?"
Miss Chen's family asked: "Such an expensive mirror? Is it better than a bronze mirror?" Huan'er swallowed a piece of cucumber and said: "There are three kinds of glass mirrors, the small one is as big as a palm, twelve taels; the big one is as big as a human face,
Thirty taels; the largest one is 150 taels. I heard Cui'er from the Liu family said that the mirror is much better than the bronze mirror. Not only can you see people's faces clearly, but you can also see eyebrows and eyelashes." Huan'er pinched another piece.
He stuffed the cucumber into his mouth and said, "That mirror was made by the Chengdong Li family, who sells soap."
"The things made by the Li family in the east of the city must be pretty good." Miss Chen thought for a moment and said, "Huan'er, go to the Liu family and lend me a mirror. If it's good, we'll buy one too."
Huan'er was stunned and said, "What if the Liu family won't lend me such an expensive thing?" Miss Chen said, "No, the third sister of the Liu family likes to show off the most. If she has something good, she will definitely be willing to lend it to me."
Let me show you."
When Huan'er heard this, she thought about it, gave up the cucumber slices, and went to borrow a mirror from the Liu family. She found the third sister of the Liu family, explained her purpose, and heard the third sister say proudly: "Since I bought it,
If you get this mirror, people who come to borrow it to look at it will have to cross my threshold, and I can't stop it. Come on, Miss Huang just happened to return the mirror, so I'll lend it to you to look at."
The third sister asked the maid Cui'er to fetch the mirror, covered it with a piece of red silk and handed it to Huan'er, saying: "This is a mirror worth thirty taels of silver. Please take it carefully and don't drop it on the ground and break it!"
Huan'er agreed wholeheartedly, and happily took the mirror and walked back to Chen's house. Halfway through, Huan'er couldn't help but secretly opened the red silk and took a look. She looked at the glass mirror and saw that her features were clear.
Chu Di was printed on the mirror. Huan'er had never seen herself so clearly before. At that time, she screamed in surprise and almost dropped the mirror to the ground.
It turned out that after looking carefully, she was quite good-looking. Huan'er happily walked back to the lady's boudoir, handed the mirror to the lady, and said: "Miss, it's really what you said. The third sister of the Liu family lent me the mirror."
"Yes." Miss Chen's family smiled, put the mirror on the table, and uncovered the red silk. After taking a look at the mirror, Miss Chen's family screamed out. "It turns out this is what it looks like when I look carefully!"
Huan'er came over and looked at the small mirror and said, "Miss, you are very beautiful. You look better than me when you look closely!" Miss Chen's eyes rolled and she spat: "Looking carefully, I look better than you? How do you know you look carefully?
What did you look like? Did you peek on the street secretly?" Huan'er was stunned for a moment, and then realized that she had spilled the beans. She said sarcastically, "I just took a sneak peek." Miss Chen snorted and stopped lecturing Huan'er. She
He looked left and right in front of the mirror, and after looking at it for a long time, he said: "With this mirror, you can only know how to apply rouge on your eyebrows. It won't be as blurry as when you look at the bronze mirror."
After thinking about it, Miss Chen said: "This is really a good thing, but we don't need such a big one. One as big as a palm is enough. Huan'er, go to the box and get ten taels of silver and buy a side of ten taels."
Here comes the little mirror!”
Geng Yingjie, the general of the auxiliary state and the military governor of Denglai, was a native of Cangzhou. After the victory in Tianjing New City, he was promoted from the deputy general of Cangzhou to the general of the auxiliary state of Denglai. Although he was transferred to Denglai as the general of the auxiliary state,
He still left his youngest daughter in Cangzhou. Every few months, he would go back to Cangzhou to take a look.
In early April, he returned to Cangzhou from Dengzhou to see his daughter. As soon as Geng Hua saw Geng Yingjie, his eyes turned red and he threw himself into Geng Yingjie's arms. "Dad, you are back!" Geng Yingjie smiled.
He turned to Geng Hua and said, "Is someone bullying you when I'm not here?" Geng Hua said with red eyes, "Dad and brother are not here, and they all bully me. Daddy, I want to go to Dengzhou too!"
Geng Yingjie smiled and said: "Dengzhou is not as prosperous as Cangzhou. You grew up in Cangzhou. How good would it be to marry a man from Cangzhou in the future? If you go to Dengzhou with your father, you will see poor soldiers everywhere." Geng Hua muttered.
"Cangzhou is also full of poor soldiers..." But she stopped mid-sentence and said coquettishly: "Dad, you have only come back for so long and you want to buy me something good!" Geng Yingjie smiled and asked
Geng Hua said: "What good thing should I buy?" Geng Hua said: "To buy a mirror, my sister from the Qin family next door bought a dressing mirror from the Li family in the east of the city. Not to mention how clear it is, I can even count my eyelashes. It is used for dressing up.
The best.”
Geng Yingjie was stunned and said: "I have also heard about this mirror. I heard that it has become popular in Bianjing City. Every wealthy family buys one." Geng Hua took his father's arm and said, "Daddy, buy me one too."
Dress mirror! I need it when I apply rouge. If I don’t dress up more beautifully, I won’t be able to get married!” “Can’t get married? The people who come to propose marriage are almost crossing the threshold. You can’t look down on any of them.” Geng Yingjie said with a smile:
"Those dressing mirrors are not cheap. I heard they cost one hundred and fifty taels! You just like these new things, and you will throw them away after playing with them for a few days."
Geng Hua held Geng Yingjie's arm and looked at his father helplessly. Geng Yingjie had no choice but to take care of Jiao Didi's daughter, so he clapped his hands and said, "Okay, I'll buy you one, and we'll go to the Gao family's shop to buy one in the afternoon!" Geng Hua said.
Geng Yingjie opened his arms and clapped his hands happily. Geng Yingjie shook his head helplessly and said, "How is daddy?" Geng Hua clapped his hands and said, "Daddy is the best!"
In Youzhou, Zhang Yan went to visit Ye Qi Churong today. Zhang Yan was welcomed by the Khitan army in Yingzhou, especially the hundred-household team in Yingzhou who listened to Zhang Yan's words. Now a large amount of iron ore is transported to Tianjin through Zhang Yan.
Jingxin City was escorted by Khitan soldiers. Fan Long, who took over, was also very kind to those Khitan soldiers. When he left, each person had two taels of silver and two quick soaps, or five kilograms of salt. The one hundred households
His team of 100 people was expanded three times to help Zhang Yan transport iron ore. In order to earn a quota for transporting iron ore, the 100-man household leader received countless gifts.
As soon as the chief of the hundred households heard that Zhang Yan wanted to visit the shop in Youzhou, he immediately introduced his relatives who were out of reach to Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan also gave the hundred households a mirror, and Zhang Yan took one hundred yuan with him.
Soap, two clothes, a mirror, and five hundred kilograms of salt arrived at the home of Ye Churong. Ye Churong was also the top Khitan nobleman in the Liao Kingdom. He could be said to cover the sky with one hand in Youzhou. Looking at the gifts from Zhang Yan, he was so happy that now
There are some soaps and salts sold in Youzhou, but mirrors are rare items, and Zhang Yan bought two of them as soon as he gave them away. Ye Churong was so popular that he gave Zhang Yan a shop with just one mouthful. It covers an area of more than a thousand square meters.
, Zhang Yan was also happy, because Yang Peng said that in fact, mirrors are not valuable, it’s just that no one knows how to make them. The Jin Yiwei of Tianjing New City has a place to stay in Youzhou and is protected by others.
In April, the sales of glass mirrors were increasing, and all the mirrors that Yang Peng had accumulated in March were sold. Yang Peng quickly hired five more people to increase the manpower to make mirrors and earn more money. Mirrors are better than glass wine sets.
The profit was even higher, so Yang Peng reduced the production of glass wine sets to free up production capacity to produce mirror glass.
On this day, Yang Peng was studying how to increase production capacity in the glass workshop. He heard a soldier report that there was a captain named Zhaowu who was in charge of food in Cangzhou Middle Road. Yu Bichi paid a visit. Cangzhou Town is divided into five roads, of which the middle road includes Cangzhou City and Tianjing New City.
.Cangzhou Middle Road's grain officer, Zhaowu Xiaowei, is in charge of the Cangzhou Middle Road's grain, fodder, and military pay. He is a popular figure in the eyes of the Cangzhou Middle Road military attache. Generally, the generals and generals of the cavalry will kneel respectfully when they see him. But Yang Peng's main strength relies on soldiers.
The soldiers had always raised their own food and grass, so he didn't take Captain Zhaowu too seriously. He only visited him once and then stopped contacting him.
Why did Colonel Zhaowu come to Tianjing New City in person? Yang Peng patted the dust on his body and returned to the official hall. Entering the second hall, Yang Peng saw Guan Liang, Colonel Zhaowu? Yu Bichi brought a thin-faced
The middle-aged man was already sitting there waiting. When he saw Colonel Zhaowu?, Yang Peng did not kneel down, but bowed his hands and said: "Colonel Zhaowu? Your Excellency came to visit in person, and it was a shame to welcome him from afar." Colonel Yu Bi of Zhaowu
Chi knew that Yang Peng was a capable man, and even Xuanwei General Luo Zhen was defeated by him. Moreover, Yang Peng was not too concerned about the military pay and food for a thousand battalions, so Yu Bichi gave Yang 10% more and 10% less.
Peng could do it. On the contrary, Yu Bichi was afraid of Yang Peng's strength and always looked at Yang Peng with a different eye when allocating food and grass.
There was nothing Yu Bichi could do about Yang Peng's refusal to kneel down. He just raised his hands and said, "General Ranger, you are well!" Colonel Zhaowu pointed at the middle-aged man next to him and said, "This is my younger brother Yu Biren!
The middle-aged man bowed his hands in salute and sang: "Yu Biren has met Mr. General Youqi!" Yang Peng heard the self-introduction of the visitor and knew that this was Yu Biren, one of the eight major business houses in Bianjing. The Yu family operates
For food, Yu Bichi used his position as food commissioner to mobilize ships, and a large amount of southern rice came in from the canal and was sold in Gyeonggi Province, which made a huge profit. In these years of war and chaos, the north became more and more dependent on the food supply from the south, and the Yu family's business
It’s getting bigger and bigger.
Why did Yu Biren come to him? Did he also want to buy a mirror? Yang Peng was thinking about it when he heard Yu Biren say: "Master Youqi's mirror business is getting bigger and bigger, which is enviable!" Yang Peng hehe
He smiled and did not answer. Yu Biren said: "I want to buy 300 small mirrors with Master Youqi every month and sell them to the south!"
It turned out that he really bought a mirror. Yang Peng smiled and said: "Yu Gong also wants to buy a mirror?" Yu Biren said: "Many water ships return to the south empty ships. It would be a pity not to sell some things. Yuqi-sama's
The mirror is very novel and must be marketable." Yang Peng said with a smile: "This mirror needs to be made of transparent glass, so the cost is quite high!"
Seeing that Yang Peng said the cost was high when he came up, Yu Biren knew that Li Zhi was going to bargain, so he raised his hand and said, "If you buy 3,600 mirrors next year, how much profit will General Youqi make?" Yang Peng suddenly thought of
Since Yu's family is engaged in grain trading, can I buy some pig bran and rice bran from him? Now Yang Peng raises a large number of piglets and needs a large amount of bran and rice bran every month. He relies on small businessmen to sell and sell them from various places.
If the price is high, if Yu Biren sells it in large quantities from Jiangnan, the cost will be lower.
"Yu Gong, I want to buy a large amount of bran and rice bran from you. Is it possible?" Yu Biren was overjoyed when he heard this, and said with his hands over his hands: "Bran and rice bran are cheap things. I have a lot of them in the south. Youqi-sama"
If you want, I can transport it and sell it to the adults at a low price!" Yang Peng then said happily: "If this is the case, my small mirror can be cheaper and sold to Mr. Yu for 90 taels a piece!"
Yu Biren said: "Mr. Youqi, it's cheaper!" "It's already the cost price!" "Sir Youqi, you're joking!" "It's indeed the cost price!" After bargaining with Yu Biren, Yang Peng finally gave up.
After biting the reserve price of nine taels of silver, he agreed with Yu Biren to sell three hundred small mirrors for a month. Li Zhi also made a deal with Yu Biren to buy bran and rice bran, and asked Yu Biren to offer a discount.
The pig food was shipped from Jiangnan at a reasonable price. After discussing the business for an hour, both parties were quite satisfied. Zhaowu Colonel Yu Bichi took his younger brother back to Cangzhou City.
In early April, Yang Peng's boring machine has been built for three months, and the craftsmen have produced more than 6,000 new guns. Yang Peng's 10,000 recruits have been equipped with a flintlock rifle, and they practice target every day. After several
After months of shooting training, most recruits can hit the human-shaped target at a distance of 200 meters. On average, they can hit the target eight or nine times out of ten shots. After a few more months of training, it is estimated that the soldiers will be able to hit the target again and again.
Yang Peng now has 28,000 soldiers. These soldiers are equipped with flintlock rifles and their combat effectiveness is much stronger than other infantry of this era. To say that one can fight two is a conservative estimate, and it is talking about facing the Khitan army that has been fighting for a long time. If
The opponent is a bandit, and Yang Peng's infantry can defeat one against three, or even one against four.
Li Zhi's crossbow troops were equally powerful. Li Zhi used copper body iron core technology to transform the crossbows of this era, and at the same time installed bearings on the crossbow vehicles, which greatly improved the mobility of the field six-pound cannon. Li Zhi
Using iron molds to cast strong crossbows has a very low scrap rate, and a strong crossbow can be cast in a few days. The army is equipped with many strong crossbows and its firepower is very fierce.
But Yang Peng's troops still have shortcomings - the cavalry is not good. Yang Peng has not organized regular cavalry until now. Some soldiers have horses, but they are just mounted infantry. In a real fight, they still have to dismount and shoot with rifles. Really on horseback
There was not a single fighting cavalry in Yang Peng's army.
Even the bandit's Tangma has much stronger impact than Yang Peng's mounted infantry. Without cavalry, the army has no impact and relies entirely on the shooting of infantry and artillery. And without cavalry to protect the flanks, riflemen are faced with being attacked by cavalry at any time.
The danger of a mass attack on the flanks. If the flanks are overwhelmed by the enemy's cavalry, the entire battle formation will shake or even collapse.
Not to mention pursuit battles that require the mobility of cavalry. Troops without cavalry cannot pursue and kill deserters. Winning can only be a small victory, but once defeated, it will be a huge defeat, which is very dangerous. Moreover, the cavalry can also play the role of scouts.
To spy on the enemy's intelligence. If there are no cavalry that can fight against the enemy, there will be no scouts who can move freely, and they will be blind on the battlefield. Although Yang Peng's telescope allows Yang Peng to see the situation several miles away, but
Yang Peng had no idea what was happening further away.
In order to adapt to future battles, Yang Peng urgently needed to build a strong cavalry team. Yang Peng's army originally had more than 2,000 war horses and pack horses: 700 war horses and 1,600 pack horses. Defeat Yeyi Hongguang
Later, Yang Peng captured another 1,100 war horses on the battlefield. Now Yang Peng has a total of 1,800 war horses.
Using these war horses, Yang Peng decided to set up three cavalry battalions, with a total of 1,500 cavalry troops. The cavalry soldiers were veterans of the selected vanguard regiment who had experienced battles. These veterans were not only warriors who had seen blood, but also a
All of them have practiced fighting for two years, and their sword fighting skills are the strongest among Yang Peng's troops. Moreover, these veterans are equipped with military horses captured in previous battles, and they are skilled in riding skills. If the cavalry wants to fight suddenly, Yang Peng can only choose them.
.
Zhan Jinguo is now the leader of the vanguard selection group. Hearing that Yang Peng wanted to turn his 1,500 soldiers into cavalry, Zhan Jinguo was a little stunned. "Brother, I don't know how to fight with cavalry in close combat!" Yang Peng
He smiled and said: "Metal combat is the last resort. I will equip your cavalry with muskets. After using rifles and muskets, the enemy will have collapsed." Of course Yang Peng would not let these cavalry rush up and fight the enemy casually.
For hand-to-hand combat, these cavalrymen are still equipped with flintlock rifles. The cavalrymen can shoot when they are two hundred meters close to the enemy. After a round of bullets, they mount their horses and engage in battle.
Moreover, Yang Peng also needs to equip this cavalry team with muskets, so that they can shoot again when they rush to the enemy 20 meters away. If the enemy has not collapsed after two shots, they can rush up to fight hand-to-hand. I believe this tactic is enough to make the choice
The soldiers of the vanguard defeated the same number of enemy cavalry, or even more than their own number.
The handgun can be said to be the pistol of later generations. In close combat, the flexibility of the pistol is enough to determine the outcome of the battle. After making up his mind, Yang Peng began to make the handgun and drew the handgun he designed into a drawing. Yang Peng
The hand gun designed is also a flintlock flintlock gun. Although this kind of gun is usually fired at a distance of more than ten meters, it may also be used for emergency shooting at a distance of twenty or thirty meters. Sometimes it also requires a certain amount of fire.
The accuracy is high, and flintlock bullets can provide much higher hit accuracy than round projectiles. Moreover, flintlock bullets have good airtightness, are more powerful than leaky round bullets, and have stronger armor-piercing capabilities.
Finally, because Yang Peng's soldiers are accustomed to using flintlock rifles, they are not used to suddenly using smoothbore rifles on pistols. Yang Peng's 200-mini gun craftsmen have 200 special rifling broaching machines to pull rifling.
The cost is not high, so of course I choose a rifled gun.
Although the pistols of later generations were also short-range weapons, they were also rifled guns. The handgun designed by Yang Peng was 35 centimeters long and weighed three kilograms. It also used flint hair for ignition. During battle, the cavalry first loaded the handgun with gunpowder to ignite it.
The gunpowder and bullets are wrapped in cotton cloth and stuffed into the barrel of the gun to prevent the bullets and gunpowder from falling out of the gun. Then the handgun is inserted into the leather bag on the waist. When encountering the enemy at close range in battle, remove the gunpowder from the leather bag.
Take out the gun from the bag and shoot directly.
The cost of a handgun is only five taels, and gunsmiths can make one in seven days. In late April, Yang Peng had obtained 1,500 handguns and equipped them with 1,500 horses and horses.
The cavalry of the vanguard regiment. On the second day of May, the weather was already very hot, and everyone put on light summer clothes. Yang Peng brought several officers to the training ground to watch the cavalry of the vanguard regiment demonstrate how to charge into battle with muskets.
Fifteen soldiers lined up in three rows and first shot at the scarecrows 200 meters away. Only crackling gunshots were heard, and holes were punched out in the fifteen scarecrows. It has been two years since the fifteen soldiers of the Selection Regiment joined the army.
He trained thousands of target shots, and all fifteen shots hit the target.
After firing their rifles, the soldiers got on their horses and rushed towards the scarecrow in front. After rushing to a distance of twenty meters, the cavalrymen pulled out the muskets on their waists and shot at close range. The scarecrow was hit by the musket, and another piece of grass fell.
Flying. After shooting, the soldiers inserted their muskets into their gun bags and pulled out the knives on their waists. They quickly passed by the scarecrow and slashed at the scarecrow's body. After the training was completed, the cavalry used rifles, handguns and knives.
Kill the scarecrow three times.
Seeing the combat effect of the gun, several officers were very excited and started talking around Li Zhi. "Brother, your gun is really powerful. It can knock down a large area at a close range!" Cheng Shijie said: "Lord City Lord, this
The hand gun is very effective and gives the soldiers another chance to shoot."
Zhan Jinguo thought about it and said: "City Lord, if this handgun can be equipped with infantry, it can also increase the number of shots fired by the infantry." Yang Peng nodded and said: "It is not bad to equip infantry with handguns, but now the output of musket workshops is limited.
We have to wait a few months for one." When Zhou Dayong heard that Yang Peng intended to equip the infantry with handguns, he laughed and said: "Lord, you must give every infantryman a handgun, I can't wait!"
Yang Peng came to the official hall and saw Lin Qing'er and Old Mrs. She chatting together. Yang Peng walked in and said hello to Lin Qing'er, and then said to Old Mrs. She, "Old lady, I want Sister Eight and Mrs. Yang
Paifeng helps me manage the cavalry troops. I also saw that the eighth sister is very strong in cavalry combat. If I fight with the eighth sister, I may not need a single round. And that Yang Paifeng is simply born with supernatural power, which is not available in Dagou.
People are his opponents, and the regiment leader Duan Zhixian is hiding when he looks at Yang Paifeng because he is afraid of competing with Yang Paifeng."
Old Mrs. She said, "Isn't it good to give him such a big official all at once? Why don't you just let her help you train the cavalry unit?" Yang Peng said, "Old Mrs. She, you also know that we are just a bunch of people in mass graves.
The children who come out have no parents and no support. The only way to save their lives is to be strong. The eighth sister is very good to us brothers and sisters. I have always regarded the eighth sister as my own biological sister.
, I also ask the old lady to agree."
Lin Qing'er said to Mrs. She, "Sister, just promise him? Otherwise, this little monkey will bother me endlessly. At that time, I will hide and let you deal with him, haha." Mrs. She
Said "That's okay?"
"Old lady, there is one more thing I want to discuss with you. My brother Zhang Xiang is deeply in love with Yang Paifeng. Zhang Xiang is now twenty-four years old. No matter which girl he comes from, he just doesn't like it. The last time I asked about Zhang Xiang
I like Yang Paifeng, otherwise you will accept Yang Paifeng as your adopted daughter, so that Yang Paifeng will not have any knots in his heart. This society also pays attention to being well-matched. Old lady, you see Yang Paifeng is not young, you old man
Just make this junior a good marriage."
If you want to know what happens next, let’s look at the breakdown in the next chapter.