Chapter 233 The smell of gunpowder is getting thicker
Hanjia Village, Nanchong County, Sichuan.
Han Dagu, director of the township patrol station, was preparing to go to the patrol station for work.
He walked very fast, and his empty sleeve on his left side kept swinging back and forth.
When Han Dugu was attacking Chongqing, a fierce Ming army chopped off his left arm with a knife.
After he recovered from his injuries and was discharged from the army, he changed his job and became the director of the patrol station and settled down here.
He usually works very lightly, catching some petty thieves and mediating neighborhood conflicts.
If there is a real murder case, higher-level departments will come to provide support, and they will just cooperate with the action.
When he saw Wang Shu, the village postman, he smiled and said hello: "I haven't been to Hanjia Village for a long time. Who am I delivering letters to in the village?"
"Director Han, this is a letter for you.
Official documents and letters must be delivered to me personally. I have not sent them to the patrol station. You must sign for them in person."
Han Dugu took the letter and looked at the three large characters on the letter - Recruitment Order. The letter was signed to the Military and Administrative Office of the Southwest Governor's Office.
He was holding this letter with his right hand shaking.
"Director Han, if it is inconvenient for you to sign, you can put your fingerprint on this book."
Han Dugu pressed his handprint with his trembling right hand.
He took this letter and returned home immediately.
Instead of tearing the letter open with his teeth as usual, he opened the envelope bit by bit with his right hand, pulled out the letter inside, and read the contents.
Captain Han Dagu, the war is coming, King Su He of Qin ordered to recruit retired soldiers to join the army again.
According to your situation, you will re-enlist to serve as the commander of the third company of the fifth regiment of the Southwest Dudufu Logistics and Security Corps.
If you plan to re-enlist in the army, please register at the Nanchong County Government Office before October 20th.
Han Dagu leaned at the door of his home and thought carefully.
He longed for the battlefield where swords, guns, and blood rained down, even if he was just serving as a logistics soldier.
He felt that he couldn't let go of this family.
After he was discharged from the army, he got married, and now the child has not been weaned. If something goes wrong when he goes to the battlefield, what will the two of them do?
A relatively strong woman was walking home with her child on her back.
"Master, why didn't you go to work?
Don't worry about the fields. The township has already helped our family harvest the rice with machines.
Now the threshing machine has finished threshing the rice and stored it all in the warehouse built in the village.
Now even if it rains, we no longer have to worry about it."
Han Dugu was silent for a while, and then he said: "I received a recruitment order from the Governor's Office, calling me to re-enlist in the army.
Damn it, do you think I should sign up?"
"I know you, if you didn't want to go, you wouldn't tell me this.
I support your decision, even if you are honored, I will raise the child."
When Han Dugu heard what his wife said, he finally made up his mind and went to the county government to register.
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"Excuse me, Commander Ji Feiyang, is your home here?"
Zhu Dashan, the leader of the Baoji Prefecture Security Corps, looked at the house full of people, and everyone's face was full of grief.
Soon a young man with a sad expression came out.
"I am Ji Feiyang, what do you want from me?"
"Captain Ji, the Fifth Army Headquarters has forwarded an official document through military channels and needs to be delivered to you in person."
Ji Feiyang took the official document from Zhu Dashan.
This official document is stamped with the official seal of the Fifth Army and the private seals of the Fifth Army Commander Su Li, Chief of Staff Pang Jianan, and Zhu Shi Zhongliqing.
He opened the seal on the official document and read it.
It was just an order for him to return to the army immediately and violate military law.
The tone was extremely harsh, this kind of thing is very rare.
Ji Feiyang asked for leave and used up all the vacation he had saved over the years. A normal vacation would last for three months.
It has only been half a month now, and he has only been home for two days when this order came.
It must be that not long after he left the army, huge changes occurred in the army.
Recall all officers and soldiers on leave.
In this case, if you do not return to the team on time, you will be treated as a deserter.
According to wartime regulations, they were shot directly without even interrogation.
Ji Feiyang walked into the hospital and saw his elder brother explaining the situation.
"Brother, the army urgently called me back, and I have no choice now.
My father is on his deathbed and he doesn’t know when he will grow old.
I can only rely on my eldest brother at home."
The eldest brother patted Ji Feiyang's shoulder and said, "You can return to the team with peace of mind. Under normal circumstances, I won't call you back to the team in a hurry.
Something big must have happened now, and there may be a war.
If you really go to the battlefield, you must ensure your own safety.
Leave everything in the house to me."
Ji Feiyang said goodbye to his relatives and friends, and looked at his father who was lying on the fire bed in great pain.
He knelt down by the fire bed, kowtowed three times, got dressed and walked out of the house.
Ji Feiyang rode the war horse borrowed from the army and rushed to Baihe County along the official road.
He had served as a top soldier in Baihe County before and knew that opposite Baihe County was the Xunyang Mansion of the Ming Dynasty.
The Imperial Guard is now stationed here, and the Fifth Army's station has been moved here. Could it be that they are preparing to march into Huguang?
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Qi Minggui, director of the Hanzhong Arsenal, held a factory mobilization meeting.
"After receiving the order from our superiors, starting today, everyone will work in two shifts.
The machine never rests, and no one is allowed to take leave.
Even if you work overtime, you must complete tasks with quality and quantity.
The weapons are all engraved with your serial number. If there is a problem with any weapon, you will be held responsible for life.
Everyone, please be more alert, you have such a good job.
Don't cause trouble for yourself and your descendants just because you are slacking off for a while.
Wages for overtime work are directly calculated as twice the normal wages."
Qi Minggui said at first that the workers were indifferent.
It is normal for the arsenal to work overtime. They all work overtime all the time.
After listening carefully, I realized that this is different from the previous overtime work, and the work intensity has doubled.
Now it is spinning continuously, producing weapons and ammunition non-stop.
This is really treating the workers like beasts. Factory Director Qi is not afraid of arousing the workers' anger and directly throws him out of office.
When they heard that overtime wages were twice the regular wages.
The unhappiness in everyone's hearts completely disappeared.
With such a high salary, they are willing to live in the company, let alone work two shifts.
When Qi Minggui saw the workers applauding, his tense mood relaxed.
The workers in the arsenal are the most skilled workers.
If he really pisses them off and causes these workers to go on strike, he will definitely not end well.
The Shaofu has issued a military order. Within one month, he must produce the ammunition required for a hundred thousand troops and a month of high-intensity combat.
Qi Minggui's only option is to expand the factory, which he has now done.
It's just that factories are easy to build, but workers are hard to find.
Recruiting workers in the arsenal requires a very complicated review.
The background check of the secret guard will take two to three months.
The new factory building has been built and the machines have been put into the factory building.
There are no new workers to operate the machines, so old workers can only be transferred to the new factory.
The number of workers on the original production line has decreased, and the output of weapons and ammunition must remain unchanged, so workers can only be forced to work overtime.
Fortunately, they were given sufficient overtime pay, and these workers were quite satisfied.
The large chimney of the arsenal was continuously emitting black smoke.
The workers worked hard and a large number of weapons and ammunition were produced.
The arsenal has a large number of carriages every day, transporting steel and other raw materials for the production of weapons and ammunition.
At the same time, the weapons and ammunition produced are brought to the warehouse of the logistics department.
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Heyan Village, Guoshu Township, Huayin County.
Ma Shanzhu, the white-bearded village chief in his fifties, beats the gong and goes from house to house to announce the situation.
"The Qin Army recruits foot soldiers, and they are paid ten taels of silver coins per month. Anyone who wants to sign up should come to the village to sign up.
Those who sign up will receive one month's salary as settling-in allowance.
If someone dies on the road due to various reasons, he will be given a pension of one hundred taels of silver directly."
Liu Sanche listened to the village chief talking about job recruitment information, and kept staring out the window.
"Mom, I'm going to sign up."
"You are crazy. We finally escaped from Henan and you still want to run there without your life.
Thanks to God's blessing, we can get here safely.
I have a happy birthday in a few days, why don’t you want to live a good life?"
Liu Sanche took out his big tobacco bag pot and poured out some crushed tobacco leaves.
He took a few puffs of cigarette and said: "If you don't give it a try, what do you think we should do?
The eldest son wants to marry a wife, and the second son has a disease caused by fleeing and needs to be treated.
We farm only a few acres of land and I do odd jobs with the villagers, so I can only earn a few bucks a year.
I have no skills, I only have this strength.
Now that I am getting older, if I don’t try my best, I will see this family gradually deteriorate.
King Qin is a very good person. Under the Ming Dynasty, corvées were directly collected, but we still want to go.
No one knows how many people were drafted into corvee service and died on the road.
Now the King of Qin does not collect corvee labor and hires us to transport food to the army.
I don't know what the reason is, but if I were in Henan, my life would not be worth even five taels of silver coins, let alone ten taels of silver coins.
When I go to work this time, I can earn a lot of money. The money for the eldest child’s wedding and the money for the second child’s medical treatment will be provided.
We can also buy a cow and get a few more acres of land."
Liu Sanche didn't understand other things, but he knew that his life was not worth a hundred taels of silver coins.
Even if he really died outside, he would still have made a lot of money.
Many people in the village receive pensions, but I have never heard of anyone daring to embezzle pensions.
Even if they die, their wife and children can live a better life if they have such a large sum of money.
He is almost forty years old, his body is entering old age, and he does not have many years to live.
His father passed away in his forties, and his grandfather passed away in his thirties.
Liu Sanche expected that he would only have a few years to live.
Now that your health allows it, if there is an opportunity to make a lot of money, you should definitely seize it.
Liu Sanche walked to the village chief's house to sign up amid his mother-in-law's cries.
He found that there were more than thirty villagers about his age in his village, and there were even more young people.
There were also a few old men with obviously gray beards and hair. They also wanted to sign up, but were kicked out by the village chief.
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Qian Yunyun, the owner of Degui Building, entertained businessmen from the Hanzhong Chamber of Commerce.
"Dear uncles and uncles, my father-in-law and others are not here. You can order some wine and food and chat here."
After Qian Yunyun finished speaking, she exited the private room directly.
Her husband is an officer in the security regiment, and she only runs the restaurant and does not get involved in anything.
Hu Dafu looked at the others and lowered his voice and said, "Do you think there is something wrong with the atmosphere during this period?
My biscuit factory suddenly received a big order.
Twenty tons of cookies.
This is twenty tons, not twenty kilograms.
I was completely confused. I said these biscuits would take two years to produce.
The other party said that this was a long-term order and could supply 20 tons in two years.
I thought it was a scammer at first, so I went to the bank to verify the capital and collect the corresponding deposit."
Zhao Baoliang asked: "Is the person looking for you someone from the Longchang ship?
He ordered 20,000 pairs of shoes from us.
In order to complete the order, I ordered ten more shoe-ordering machines.
These are fine linen shoes.
I heard that the Qiao family in Longchang received a big order and hired many people to transport goods.
They were given clothes and shoes, and food and accommodation were provided.
I don’t know how he can earn this money back.”
Hu Dafu rolled his eyes and guessed: "Is the Longchang preparing to do business on the grassland on a large scale?
He did this not to sacrifice his life."
Zhao Baoliang sighed and said: "Not just the Longchang, many big businessmen are acting strangely during this time.
Is there any news from the business community? We are still kept in the dark.
Where has the president gone? Important news will not be reported to the Chamber of Commerce."
Yang Tengfei looked at these people. Their sensitivity was too low. No wonder they could only do small businesses.
All those smart people in the Hanzhong Chamber of Commerce have disappeared.
These businessmen are all engaged in big business, so they don't have time for gatherings.
On his way back, he had seen Gansu deploying troops to Shaanxi.
The avenue was full of soldiers carrying guns and artillery carts pulled by horses.
It was just preparations some time ago, but now the King of Qin has already mobilized his troops.
Yang Tengfei said: "Everyone doesn't think it is easier to do business during this period."
Hu Dafu nodded and said, "I know this. The companies under Shaofu suddenly stopped supplying goods to the private sector.
However, they imported a lot of raw materials, increased the number of raw materials, and reduced the input of industrial products to the private sector.
We have so many private factories, and of course they are booming."
As soon as Hu Dafu finished speaking, he slapped his thigh and said excitedly: "I understand, King Qin is going to fight a war and is hoarding supplies.
No wonder I always find the atmosphere during this period to be very strange.
It turns out that this is the atmosphere when the war is coming."
After Hu Dafu finished speaking, he immediately covered his mouth.
He said worriedly: "Did I say something I shouldn't have said?"
"Uncle Hu, it means you are slow to react and what do you think everyone else has done.
Businessmen with a keen sense of smell have already started taking action."
When Hu Dafu heard this, he slapped the table angrily, got up and ran out.
There were many businessmen in the Hanzhong Chamber of Commerce, and they ran out together with Hu Dafu, preparing to look for opportunities.
Yang Tengfei looked at them and shook his head. He came to Hanzhong this time to negotiate a big order and came here to have fun in his free time.
These people's sense of smell was too dull and their reactions were too slow, so they did not smell the growing smell of gunpowder smoke in the air.
He realized something was wrong as early as two months ago and immediately produced 100,000 sets of sweaters and trousers, 20,000 cashmere coats, and 200,000 pairs of leather boots.
When marching in winter, he would definitely need to purchase winter clothes in large quantities. This time he made the right bet.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
Thanks to book friend 20210301106569528686 for the reward.