Chapter 124 Fish Oil Firearms and Fine Iron Weapons
Yan Twelve Niang hurriedly apologized to Jin Sui on behalf of her brother: "Don't blame me, Your Majesty. My second brother is just like that, he doesn't think before he speaks. He didn't mean to offend me."
Jin Sui waved his hand and smiled, "It's okay, he's telling the truth! It's better this way, so that he doesn't have to stay at my place overnight and ruin Miss Yan's reputation."
Yan Twelve Niang looked at her gratefully, feeling sweet in her heart, "The prince is so good to me!" Seeing the two of them being so affectionate, Gu Changxiao was really irritated, so he said to Jin Sui, "Since Miss Yan is fine, prince, should we go and see the workshop?"
Jin Sui knew he was talking about the fish oil firearms workshop, and hurriedly told Han Xing: "Take Miss Yan to pick out a docile mare and arrange a hunting trip tomorrow."
Yan Twelve Niang trotted forward and asked: "What is your Highness going to do? Can Twelve Niang go with you?"
Gu Changxiao stood between the two and answered, "The military camp is a restricted area, outsiders are not allowed to enter."
Yan Shier Niang glared at Gu Changxiao fiercely again. Jin Sui smiled apologetically and said, "You should have a good rest. We will have dinner together tonight."
This made Yan Twelve Niang laugh. The little girl was still waving at Jin Sui. As she watched the two of them disappear, her face changed. She put her hands on her hips and asked Han Xing angrily, "Who is that guy? He is so brave. Why does the prince indulge him so much?"
Han Xing: ...Can you give us a little bit of the gentleness you have in front of the prince?
However, when he thought of the scene where Yan Shier Niang fainted from the corpse in the woods and he ran all the way back to the border town with her in his arms, he only felt guilty, without a trace of resentment.
He said softly, "He is Gu Tiqi, an old guard of the prince when he was in Chang'an. He has followed the prince since he was young, so his feelings for him are naturally incomparable to those of us frontier soldiers."
Yan Twelve's expression changed: "Childhood sweethearts!"
Han Xing felt helpless: "Miss Yan, childhood sweethearts refer to a man and a woman, not two men."
Yan Twelve Niang coughed lightly: "He is so bad, won't you join forces to drive him away?"
"Look, when he comes, the prince won't take you or the big black guy with him."
Hei Hu was looking at Miss Bai and laughing foolishly. When he heard Miss Yan talking about him, he leaned over and said, "Hey, the prince has promoted me. I am no longer his personal guard. I don't have to follow him all the time."
Han Xing also said: "Master Gu is very skilled in martial arts. In the battle with the Tartars, he killed countless enemies and saved the prince. We are very grateful to him. I feel relieved to have him protecting the prince."
Seeing that it was useless to sow discord, Yan Shierniang secretly made up her mind that she would drive this Gu away from the prince when she went out to play tomorrow! She and Han Xing went to pick horses, and quietly told her maid Baozhu: "Go to Hei Da Ge and ask him how the prince usually gets along with Gu. The more detailed the better."
Baozhu was so happy that she could play with Heihu openly that she let out a crisp "sigh".
He first went to his luggage to get some snacks bought in Yanzhou. Heihu did the same, taking out the brown sugar cubes that he was reluctant to eat, and also took the fragrant ointment that he had asked Jinsui for before.
In this way, Big Bear took Meiyangyang to play near the vegetable garden where there were few people, and Han Xing took Yan Shier Niang to pick horses, but the two of them had a different conversation along the way. Han Xing wanted to introduce the horses and the scenery outside the Great Wall.
Yan Twelve Niang kept asking about the prince and Gu Changxiao. There was nothing she could do. Yan Shiyilang's words that all the noble men in Chang'an had a preference for women really scared Yan Twelve Niang.
Han Xing is very patient. He will answer everything he knows, but he will never speculate about things he is not clear about.
At the same time, on the way to Yuyou Firearms, Jin Sui and Gu Changxiao were also talking about Yan Twelve Niang. Jin Sui said meaningfully: "Miss Yan is such a good girl! It's really a good idea to cooperate with her in Yanzhizhai!"
Seeing that Gu Changxiao did not answer, she smiled softly and said, "Your Majesty, we have agreed that the profits from the business with the Yan family will be split in half.
The border town is in a difficult situation now. Of the ten thousand taels of silver, I only want one thousand taels to honor my grandfather, and the remaining nine thousand taels will be yours."
Gu Changxiao then looked at her and asked, "What do you care about, the Yan family girl or the money?"
Jin Sui was puzzled: "What are you saying? Miss Yan helps us earn money, so of course I care about it!"
Gu Changxiao finally asked the deepest doubt in his heart: "You agreed so readily and didn't change your identity back for the time being. Is it because of the Yan family's daughter?"
Jin Sui was stunned for a long while before she realized what he meant. She was completely speechless: "Brother, what are you thinking about? Does this have anything to do with Miss Yan's money? With my identity and...physical condition, there is absolutely no way I can have anything to do with Miss Yan!"
Gu Changxiao smiled, and it was a very sincere smile. It wasn't just a slight raise of the corners of his mouth, but a smile on his eyebrows and eyes.
He made Jin Sui laugh so hard. Thinking that he was a man now, Jin Sui angrily said, "Are you laughing at me? Just because I have a disability, I can't even talk to a woman?"
Gu Changxiao saw that she misunderstood, and hurriedly explained: "No, I will never laugh at Brother Ji for this. I am just happy that you call me Big Brother."
"You are finally willing to become my brother."
Jinsui: ...
Sometimes, the boss's ideas are similar to Yan Shiyi's.
What else can Jin Sui do except laugh dryly? He is so tired! All of you, can't you let me be more careful?
"So what do you think of Miss Yan? I know she is different from the noble ladies in Chang'an. She is not gentle and quiet, but straightforward and honest." Jin Sui asked in a way that was meant to be derogatory but actually to be complimentary.
Gu Changxiao shook his head: "I have no opinion of her, she is just an overly spoiled young lady."
Jin Sui was unhappy: "Do you know that when the Zheng family came to attack the border town, this spoiled young lady guarded with a knife all night!"
"She didn't complain when she was hurt, and she didn't complain even when I hurt her heart. There's no other good girl like her in the world!"
Most importantly, they are good at making money!
Gu Changxiao said softly: "So, you like her."
Jin Sui nodded heavily: "Of course I like you! It's not the kind of like you think. It's not a romantic relationship, it's just pure admiration."
"I just want to tell you that she is a very good girl. Don't underestimate her."
"I won't try to persuade you like Wei Zhubo did, telling you how much benefit there is in marrying a girl from the Yan family. I just want you to treat Miss Yan fairly."
Seeing that Gu Changxiao did not answer, but looked deeply into the distance, as if he was recalling something.
Jin Sui knew that sometimes the more you talk, the more likely you are to rebel, so he quickly changed the subject: "Let's not talk about Miss Yan, do you want to see the fish oil firearms or the ironware workshop first?"
Gu Changxiao immediately replied: "Let's look at the fish oil firearms first."
He also didn't want to talk about the Yan girl. It would be more trouble than good to argue with Brother Ji about it.
Jinsui first took him to see the kiln. Outside, some common household pottery was being fired, including pots, bowls, cups, bottles, as well as bricks and tiles. It was very lively outside the kiln.
They all came to buy utensils for the construction of the new city. Some soldiers and their families also came to buy. There were also many nearby common people, because the prince of the kiln said so, and they could also come to buy.
The quality is guaranteed and the price is cheap. People from dozens of miles around come to the border town to buy it.
There were also some brave refugees who came to exchange the work points they had earned for some household pottery.
Seeing the prince coming, the soldiers in charge of the kiln hurried over to pay their respects.
Jin Sui explained to Gu Chang Xiao: "The most important thing for Border Town right now is to attract manpower, so I opened up the pottery business to attract nearby people."
Gu Changxiao nodded: "I understand. You agreed to play polo with Yan Shiyi in order to attract the nobles of Yan to the border town."
"Just, what does this have to do with fish oil firearms?"
Jin Sui smiled mysteriously: "You will know in a moment."
The pottery kilns that were open to foreign trade were attractive for one reason or another, and they served as a cover for the porcelain kilns behind them.
There is no way. To be honest, the method of making fish oil firearms is too simple and it is easy for anyone to learn it.
She could only decentralize the production process and keep the materials confidential.
The steward led the two men through the stuffy pottery kiln area and into the closely guarded porcelain kiln area in the back valley, watching rows of small porcelain bottles being pushed into the furnace.
What came out was a bluish-white porcelain bottle, slightly smaller than a wine bottle, but larger than a woman's spice bottle. The mouth of the bottle was not a regular wooden cork, but a spiral pattern.
Tighten it with a stopper with the same pattern, and then wrap it with beeswax. Although the sealing effect is not as good as that of glass bottles in later generations, it is the best effect that can be achieved in this era.
The fired bottles were sent to a workshop deeper in the workshop, where the security was tighter. The fish oil was boiled in a coal stove, and the pure fish oil was extracted drop by drop using the refining pots made by Jinsui.
Compared to the fish oil mixed with impurities seen at the seaside, the one here is much purer.
When fish oil is put into bottles, it becomes fish oil firearms for burning border towns and the Tartars.
Jin Sui showed a bottle to Gu Changxiao, and then took out a glass bottle from his collection and said, "Actually, this glass bottle is made of sand, but the ingredients are complicated, so it takes more experiments to make it."
"I have someone build a kiln over there to experiment with firing glassware. Once it's fired, not only will our fish oil firearms be more authentic, but we can also make mirrors, ornaments, and other glassware. When the time comes, we can cooperate with the Yan family and I guarantee we'll make a lot of money."
Before Jin Sui could finish her words, Gu Changxiao said for her: "The recipe for this colored glassware is a family heirloom of the Ji family. When the profits are earned, Biancheng and the Ji family will share them equally."
Jin Sui blushed. Really? Why are you saying it so bluntly? It's as if I love money so much.
"Haha, that's easy to say. It's useless to talk about money all the time. The most important thing is to develop the border town. From now on, glassware will be the key industry of our border town."
Gu Changxiao suppressed his laughter and said, "The glassware from the Western Regions is more valuable than gold in Chang'an. If our border town can really make it, it will be a huge fortune."
Jin Sui suppressed his excitement and assured, "It will definitely burn out!"
She has the space, so she uses the materials in the border town to test out the formula. She still doesn’t believe that she can’t even make glass!
"Okay, now you've seen the whole process. It's that simple to make a fish oil firearm."
"At present, only people in Border Town and Yanzhou City have seen firearms. In order to prevent the spread of firearms throughout the world and the covetousness of the imperial court or others, I always feel that it is not safe to place the workshop in Border Town."
"Once the base in the East China Sea is built, we will move the workshop there, preferably to an uninhabited island, to specialize in producing this type of highly lethal weapon."
Gu Changxiao agreed with this point very much. The military workshop in Chang'an was so tightly guarded that not even a fly could get in.
Look at Border Town again...
Well, even the King Li in the border town lives in a thatched house, and over in the East China Sea he sleeps in an open-air greenhouse. There's no comparison at all.
The more he compared them, the more Gu Changxiao realized how powerful Taoist Xiao Ji was. In such a border town with nothing, she was able to annihilate 3,000 Tartars! Well, don't think that the number of people was wrong. It has always been like this when asking the court for military merits.
The exact number of Tartars killed in the border town was 1,358, but the number of people whose names were signed together with Li Heng in the memorial sent to the court was 2,000.
After the emperor read it, he announced that Biancheng had wiped out 3,000 Tartars on his own.
By the time the news spread to Chang'an and then to the whole country, the number of people was estimated to be 5,000...
Otherwise, do you think that the historical records of sending out millions of troops really did include millions? This is not a rumor or bragging, it is a matter of human nature.
In short, no matter how much this number is exaggerated, it is an indisputable fact that Taoist Xiao Ji came to the border town for two months, brought a group of border soldiers who did not have enough food to eat and did not even have enough weapons, and wiped out an entire Tartar cavalry.
Not to mention Taoist Master Xiao Ji's marching ability, his greatest contribution must be the fish oil firearm.
Gu Changxiao naturally attaches great importance to fish oil. The biggest difference between him and Jinsui is that Gu Changxiao attaches the most importance to military affairs, while Jinsui pays more attention to farming.
The first order Gu Changxiao gave after reading it was: "There are too few caregivers. Ask Han Xing to send another team to protect us."
Jin Sui also agreed: "Border city construction is in short supply everywhere, so it would be good to send another team here. I plan to find Li Heng and ask him to recruit workers from Yanzhou City."
"Cheng Yu has inquired about it. The workers in Yanzhou City are provided with two meals a day, and the wages range from six to eight cents."
"If we put out a notice offering two meals a day and eight cents in wages, I guarantee that many people in Yanzhou will be willing to come and work."
"It's getting colder both morning and night. We don't know when it will frost or snow. We have to cover the houses for the winter as soon as possible."
Gu Changxiao chuckled and said, "Brother Ji is very thoughtful. Just be patient for the time being. Once the imperial reward arrives, you will have more money."
Jin Sui smiled and said, "That's what you should worry about then."
Gu Changxiao's heart suddenly skipped a beat. Is Taoist Xiao Ji still planning to leave? Then he went to the iron workshop, which was like a fish oil workshop covered with a pottery kiln. There was a pile of coal outside the iron workshop, and a group of people were making honeycomb coal there.
Jin Sui explained: "Burning coal directly can easily go out and cause poisoning, but mixing it with yellow mud to make honeycomb coal and burning it in a matching stove will not only be safe, but also extremely durable, making it the best fuel for the winter."
Gu Changxiao was very patient and did not ask what this had to do with fighting weapons.
Seeing the people queuing outside to buy honeycomb coal and stoves, he knew that Taoist Xiao Ji had really put a lot of effort into attracting people to the border town!
Jin Sui whispered to him, "Don't underestimate this coal briquette business. Once it becomes big, the profit will be no less than that of Yan Zhi Zhai."
Gu Changxiao looked at Taoist Xiao Ji, whose face was beaming with joy. Her mouth was almost touching his ears. He himself didn't know when his ears had turned rouge-colored.
Following a cart of coal briquettes inside, they arrived at a heavily guarded blacksmith shop. Gu Changxiao had seen weapons made of fine iron. When fighting against the Tartars, many soldiers used new weapons.
But seeing with one's own eyes the high-temperature quenched red-hot iron poured into the mold, one gun head and one sword after another was forged.
He was so shocked that he was speechless for a long time: "Is this also the Ji family's unique skill?"
Jin Sui felt that if the answer was yes, then the Ji family had too many heirlooms! It was unreasonable for a Taoist priest to become poor with so many heirlooms! And she definitely couldn't make a business out of this weapon forging and ask Gu Changxiao for money. Just like the salt drying method, it was her welfare for the border town.
Zhu shook his head and said, "No, it was because I was worried about the lack of weapons in the border town. I was so anxious that I came up with this iron smelting method."
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