Chapter 73 Firearms In the City

Li Meng still rubbed his forehead and laughed. Zhao Neng saw that the atmosphere was eased and hurriedly followed Li Meng and said:

"Brother, now we have some rights. In these prefectures, even the prefectural governments will give us some face. I always feel that you still have something to worry about. I am very content. I never thought that there would be such a day today. Brother Li, why are you running forward so constantly??"

All Jiaozhou, no, people in all Laizhou Prefecture are puzzled by this problem. Li Erlang is rich and powerful now. If he had changed to someone else, he would have married more than a dozen beautiful women and built a big village to enjoy the happiness of his own. But Li Meng still does it every day like a military camp before the field battle, with hard work and self-discipline and diligence.

The room was quiet for a while, Li Meng sighed and said:

"I just want to be more powerful and ensure that my life will be safe and worry-free in the future."

"But your life is already peaceful and worry-free. Have you thought too much?"

“…You don’t understand, there is not enough time…”

Li Meng's mood recovered after a month. It has been almost a year since the news of Kong Youde's enlistment in the Later Jin Dynasty. Regarding this established fact, he is just a small person in the local area, and even if he is worried, it is useless.

Nowadays, several martial arts practice yards have been opened between Fengmeng Town and Lingshan Salt Field. To put it bluntly, the newly-recruited salt dings are located. The leaders drawn from the old salt ding teams have come to Fengmeng Town to be the coach. Li Meng trains with the horse team for two hours every day and trains salt dings for two hours. The next time is to spend in the blacksmith shop.

To put it, it is interesting that 30% of the weapons of the Salt Dings must be repaired in the original blacksmith shops in Fengmeng Town and Lingshan Guard. This is also a considerable expense. There are many craftsmen in the Liao people, many of whom are making armor and weapons, but there are very few people who repair and manufacture weapons, which is really incomprehensible.

Many salt dings regarded the inspection department as their own territory and were very worried. In addition, they had no good impression of the Liao people, so many people went to Li Meng to report and report.

Li Meng, who has always been very careful in calculating, this time he ignored everyone's words. Even Ning Qiangui, who has always been sleek, couldn't help but check the accounts, but was stopped by Li Meng. Everyone was puzzled and wondered why Li Erlang was so perverted.

Perhaps considering this emotion, the blacksmith shop hosted by Guo Dong moved to a nearby place, which was the path where Li Meng and his friends took to traffic in smuggling salt. There were several small villages of more than a dozen families there. When they moved there, they would not make everyone feel upset.

"Master, this bird gun can penetrate heavy armor within fifty steps, and can break light armor within a hundred steps."

In this remote village, Li Meng frowned and looked at the target in the distance. Every time he fired the firearm at this time, he felt a little anxious. He filled the gunpowder and projectiles, compacted it with a strip, then the gunpowder from the medicine pool, and then ignited it with a fuse. These steps are just pulling the trigger in modern times.

Guo Dong and six blacksmiths have already built more than 30 muskets, but in Li Meng's eyes, the power is a bit small and the range is too close, so they are unceremonious and destroyed and rebuilt the muskets without hesitation. This is no wonder Ning Qiangui has to tear his face to check the accounts.

The cost of each musket is about five taels of silver, plus the various expenses of saltpeter gunpowder and blacksmith shops, it has been spent more than six hundred taels so far. An old salt cube is only twenty taels a year. Why do several blacksmiths spend so much money?

However, Li Meng kept rejecting it and re-creating it, and it would be abnormal if the cost was small.

The caliber of the latest musket has been much larger than the first one, and the barrel is still very long, but after being shot, the target placed a hundred steps away from the target did not respond. Naturally, in this era, there is no possibility of any aiming structure such as three points and one line.

But the target a hundred steps away was a door panel. With such a big target, a musket shot over, so the big door panel did not even touch the side. After firing five shots in a row, one shot hit the door panel. However, this was much better than the first time, at least the door panel was penetrated.

Guo Dong was very nervous. After coming to Shandong, he had a few days of peace in his birthday in more than this year. Every day when he went home, he looked at his wife with a smile, his children were full and strong. This feeling was like a person who was wandering in Liaodong and Dengzhou.

So he was particularly attentive to the task of building muskets assigned by Li Meng, but he did not expect that Li Meng's request was so strange. He clearly built the standard of Liao Town, but Lord Li was still not satisfied and often made some seemingly inexplicable requests.

The muskets Guo Dong realized that they were already striving for excellence. In the past, they would use fine files to polish the chamber, and then they would explode the chamber. Anyway, they would not do their own business.

After Li Meng fired a few shots, the yard was filled with the smell of saltpeter gunpowder. He shook his head, threw the musket to Guo Dong, and asked:

"How far can a bow and arrow shoot?"

"If we make our own bow, we have a correct head within fifty steps, and we can hurt people within fifty steps. Sir, fighting in battle formations, this bow is the best use..."

"If this musket has a correct head within a hundred steps, can it be made?"

The craftsmen present were silent for a while, and exchanged a few words with each other. Guo Dong hesitated and said:

"It's not walking, but sir, if there is such a musket, it's probably more than ten pounds, so you can't take other weapons, right?"

Hearing this reply, Li Meng widened his eyes and looked at Guo Dong in surprise, thinking what this sentence means. Guo Dong looked at Li Meng's expression and thought he had said the wrong thing, so he quickly explained:

"On the battlefield, the army will only rush forward with weapons when they fire a musket! The marching can move! "

"Do you have to carry other weapons?"

Faced with Li Meng's increasingly surprised, Guo Dong's confidence became stronger. He felt that Li Meng had never been to the battlefield. Thinking of Li Meng's ordinary salt stewards here, he could also get enough salary and food. He must have read a lot of customizations of military books, so he had these wonderful ideas and said:

"Our Ming military system originally said that bird gunners always carry a short sword to defend themselves when they go to the battlefield. However, every time they fight with foreign enemies, the enemy always gets angry before they arrive. As a result, the ammunition is not fired, and the enemy does not hit them. When they rushed to the front, the opponent had long spears and big swords, and they could not defend themselves with that short sword. Besides, muskets often explode dud bullets, so bird gunners all carry spears and big swords. The weight of these things is not brisk. Including the muskets, the muskets are even heavier. For the sake of convenience, we all pay attention to bird guns not being too heavy."

Hearing Guo Dong's explanation, Li Meng's expression was quite wonderful, which was really ridiculous. If I did this, I would still have a musket. What's the use of a firearm? It was obviously a timid official army and the craftsmen had no enthusiasm for labor. As a result, what was agreed upon became a rule. This is a standard bad habit. He said in a solemn voice:

"Don't worry about whether it's heavy or not. If my salt cubes cannot be lifted from ten or twenty pounds, then there is no need to be salt cubes. If there is a place where money is needed, come to me if you and your family have any shortcomings. This is a big deal, don't neglect it."

Although these Liao people blacksmiths tried and built here every day, they really didn't think this matter deserved such attention. But when they heard what Li Meng said solemnly and remembered the benefits Li Meng gave them, they all agreed with sternly. It is actually easy to increase the caliber, and it is always easier to do larger things than to do smaller ones.

In June of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the officialdom and the people in Jiaozhou City were spreading two things. One thing, Zhou Xiucai passed the provincial examination and became the first juren in Jiaozhou City in the past fifteen years. In addition, Li Meng gave Yan Zhizhou's home several pieces of porcelain. According to those who knew the goods, these porcelains were all good products from Nanzhili, and were usually purchased by powerful families, and the price was relatively gold.

With Li Meng, a salt administration inspector who is very concerned about flattering, money and power will not be less beneficial, but Yan Zhizhou didn't feel very happy. If anyone talked about this in front of him, Yan Zhizhou, who has always been kind, kept his face down, would be confused.

However, Yan Zhizhou, who has always been a defensive person, was rare to be powerful once. He sent the yamen runners from the magistrate's yamen to seize a porcelain shop by the Jiaozhou River, which really made everyone confused.

Some people who were familiar with the matter talked about it when they were idle, saying that the porcelain shop had long been no longer interested in making such a small amount of money in Jiaozhou City. I heard that the inspector Li Erlang bought shares in this shop and went to open a kiln near Jining City to make a lot of money. Is there anyone who heard that their small porcelain jars are popular?

Of course, compared to Zhou Xiucai's success, these are just trivial matters. The wealthy families in Jiaozhou City either send gifts to Zhou Xiucai to congratulate her, or check if there are any girls in their families, so that they can get married. As a result, after hearing that Zhou Xiucai has been married for almost six years, many people regret it.

Looking at the noisy and lively city, Li Meng's anxious mood calmed down a lot. I remember that in modern times, the provincial college entrance examination top scorer was so lively. Everyone was so excited that their children also had such good grades.
Chapter completed!