Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 97
It was getting dark, and torches were swimming in the fields. Some military households responsible for diverting water to irrigate the wheat fields were wandering between the field ridges, watching the water continuously flow into the wheat fields through the bamboo canals. When a field was full, they immediately led the water to Another field.This work is done by elderly military households. Those young and strong men sleep with their heads covered when they are full. During this period of time, they have been carrying water and watering the fields day and night, and they are exhausted. Now they have water trucks. Finally, I can take a break.Besides, at the most tomorrow afternoon, another waterwheel can be made, and they have to save some energy to prepare for the installation of the waterwheel.

The sound of hammering iron and sawing wood in the workshop did not stop for a moment.Those craftsmen work in two shifts, rushing to work day and night, not only to make waterwheels, but also to make farm tools such as hoes and plowshares. Yang Menglong said that after harvesting the wheat, they will organize everyone to open up wasteland. Everyone will work hard. Naturally, they have to do it in advance. Get ready, otherwise Yang Menglong will definitely beat someone up if he doesn't have a hoe when it's time to open up wasteland.These craftsmen eat well and dress well during this period of time, they are full of energy, and they don’t feel tired after working all day. Sometimes Yang Menglong really feels that people nowadays are too self-conscious. As long as they improve their treatment a little, they will be willing. He works so hard that he doesn't need supervision at all.Of course, this is forced out by life. If you don’t work, you will have nothing to eat. Under the pressure of survival, who dare not risk their lives?

As the boss of the Thousand Households Institute, he was not idle. He went to the workshop to find Li Lin, and drew him the appearance of pressing and sucking the well with his hand. He even explained the principle clearly with gestures. Finally asked: "This thing, can you make it?"

Li Lin looked at the drawing over and over for a long while, and said, "This thing is very simple, and a villain can make it in two or three days."

Yang Menglong said: "It is not difficult to make it, but the difficulty is that the inside of the suction cylinder must be tight, otherwise there is no way to suck the water up..."

Li Lin felt that his authority as a senior craftsman was questioned: "My lord, if you can't even understand this, what kind of craftsman is a villain? His head has already been cut off!"

Yang Menglong thought so too, the craftsmen these days are very skillful, besides, hand pressure suction barrel well is not a new thing, many arid areas will use this device to fetch water from deep wells, not to mention There are some sky-defying salt workers who can even pump out brine at a depth of thousands of meters. It is really easy for craftsmen to build a hand-pumped suction well that can pump groundwater at a depth of more than ten meters.He said happily: "Then you can make it as soon as possible, and make more. I guess there will be several wells that can get water in the next few days. This kind of hand pressure suction can come in handy. The young lads will be spared the pain of carrying water to irrigate the fields!"

Li Lin said: "No problem!" He picked up the drawings and went to discuss with the plasterer.As for the manual suction well, the well platform must be built first, and it must be densely built, otherwise the effect of this device will be greatly reduced.Yang Menglong was very satisfied with the old man's promptness to do what he said, so he walked around the workshop and went back.He didn't forget that there was another magic stick waiting for him to go back and sign the contract, so that he could rush to Sichuan to bring the salt workers he needed.

Sure enough, Mr. Feng Shui was waiting in the living room.Since it was night, it was inconvenient for Xiao Yufang to come out to greet him, so there were only two little kids, Xiao Jun and An Ning, chattering around him, asking this and that, asking if he knew spells, and asking Does he really know how to make alchemy, making him one head and two big.Seeing Yang Menglong coming, Mr. Feng Shui stood up excitedly, as if seeing a savior.Yang Menglong chuckled and said, "Just now I ran to the workshop for something, so I'm sorry to keep you waiting."

Mr. Feng Shui was frightened by Pang Ruo and kept saying: "The villain has just arrived."

An Ning opened her small arms, raised her face and called, "Brother, hug me!"

Yang Menglong squatted down and picked her up easily, lifted her up in the air and roared several times in a row, making Anning laugh non-stop.After playing with her for a while, Yang Menglong put her down and said, "Brother still has business to do, let's go play with Brother Xiaojun first." An Ning hummed obediently, pulled Xiaojun and ran out bouncingly.Yang Menglong got up and walked into the study, took out two contracts, seals, and ink pads, and handed the contracts to Mr. Feng Shui: "Can you write?"

Mr. Feng Shui said: "Yes, of course." After receiving the contract and pen and ink, he looked at the candle line by line. Oh, this contract is similar to that signed by ordinary workers. Most of the content is written on it in advance, but the place of origin, address , name, age, gender, etc. should be filled out by yourself.What is slightly different is that this contract has some more content, such as what obligations he should fulfill as a contract maker, how long it will take to complete it, and how much liquidated damages should be paid after breaching the contract.

"This kind of contract is specially prepared for you who have a lot of friends and knowledge." Yang Menglong explained, "Now I need a lot of people... I'm not talking about the kind of people who only have brute force, but those who People with special skills, such as alchemists, swordsmiths, metallurgists, geologists who are good at finding mineral veins, etc. There are fewer such talents than giant pandas, and I don’t have time to look for them one by one, so I have to invite you People who have wandered around the world and made friends with many people helped to find it."

Mr. Feng Shui tentatively asked: "How about the remuneration for helping to recruit such talents?"

Yang Menglong said: "Of course it won't be bad. For example, you, help me travel to Sichuan to bring a team of salt workers over. I will cover your travel expenses, board and lodging, and I will give you 60 taels of silver."

Mr. Feng Shui said repeatedly: "It's really generous, it's really generous!" He secretly made up his mind that he must find a way to help Yang Menglong find a few such talents.Fortunately, he happened to know two geologists. This money is really the same as picking it up for nothing. Those who have money but don't earn it are fools!
Mr. Feng Shui filled it out one by one, and handed over the contract: "My lord, please have a look!"

Yang Menglong read it word by word, and there was nothing missing. He signed his name crookedly on it, then pressed his fingerprints, and picked up the seal to stamp it. A contract was concluded.The contract was still in duplicate. Mr. Feng Shui took one with him, and kept the other copy for his files. Then he took two ingots of silver weighing ten taels and handed it to Mr. Feng Shui: "This is the deposit, take it. Go back and have a good sleep. , tomorrow I will send someone to take you into Sichuan."

Mr. Feng Shui smiled openly, with only two slits left in his eyes, showing his yellow teeth: "Then... then the wells I chose..."

Yang Menglong said: "Don't worry, as long as the well you choose can produce enough water, I will pay the full amount. Of course, if there is no water or very little water, don't blame me for deducting money according to the contract."

Mr. Feng Shui slapped his chest: "It will definitely produce water! How can I be wrong in choosing the location of the well?"

Yang Menglong said: "This is the best! Okay, you can go back." It turns out that he spent a lot of money in vain. The groundwater resources in Nanyang Basin are very rich. If you dig a well on the top of a mountain, most of the time you can get water, it just depends on how deep you dig it.For example, this Feng Shui master chose eight well locations, and six of them produced water. The other one was even better, and all seven well locations produced water, and five of them produced more than 100 tons of water every hour!This means that more than [-] taels of silver just flew away.I just don’t know if these Feng Shui masters will write to their colleagues behind his back: “The people here are stupid and there is a lot of money, so come quickly!”

After sending off Mr. Feng Shui, Yang Menglong was about to go to the study to practice his horrible brush calligraphy when someone knocked on the door.He opened the door, oh, here are Qi Hu and Han Peng, the leaders of the two armies.He was a little surprised: "Old man, what can you do to find me so late?"

Qi Hu cupped his hands and said: "There are some things that should have been said a long time ago, but the general has been busy these days, so we have to take it easy. Now that everything is on the right track, it's time to talk about it." ."

Han Peng said: "To be honest, General Xiao Yang, we are here to talk to you about the army."

Matters related to the army would only be a major event, Yang Menglong dared not neglect, and invited these two into the living room.Xiao Yufang, who was staying in the study, made a pot of tea and brought it out. Each of them poured a cup, and then went back to the study.Yang Menglong couldn't care less about drinking tea, and asked nervously, "What's the matter with the troops?" Power came out of the barrel of a gun, and the 1000-odd soldiers were his biggest capital. If something went wrong, he would hit a wall. .

Han Peng said: "It's like this. Recently, General Yang, you only focus on drought relief and disaster relief. You seem to have left us soldiers aside. The soldiers are quite dissatisfied and say..."

Qi Hu said: "Some soldiers said that they came to Wuyang to make a career with General Yang, not to serve the crops. It has been more than ten days, and the general has arranged for them to live. They don't care about it, and it's reasonable for them to be dissatisfied."

Yang Menglong patted himself on the head habitually: "Oh, look at my pig-headedness, I actually forgot this! Fortunately, you two reminded me early, otherwise all the soldiers under my command ran away and I don't know what happened Woolen cloth!"

Han Peng's complexion improved a little, and he said: "It's not a big deal to run away, but the soldiers are indeed a little dissatisfied with General Xiao Yang's behavior of ignoring them. You know, we admire General Xiao Yang's bravery and stamina, and at the same time, we also look at Lu For the sake of my lord's face, I put down my family business and followed you to Nanyang. We all believe that General Yang will lead us to make an earth-shattering career, but the general just asks us to help with farm work, and doesn't care about our equipment. Training, it hurts the hearts of the soldiers."

Yang Menglong knew that he was really negligent. During this period of severe drought, he was so focused on how to keep the crops in the field that he completely forgot about the army!You know, Han Peng's more than 1000 people are not military households. They are brave fighters recruited by Lu Xiangsheng in Hebei. They are eager to win fame and wealth by fighting on the battlefield. On the spot, I actually left them aside, and it's a face for them not to go berserk!Now that everything is on the right track, it's time to talk about the development plan of the army.

(End of this chapter)