October has entered and the cold wind is getting stronger.

The group walked in the wilderness, covered with thick sand and abandoned farmland everywhere, and then weeds grew tenaciously, especially when they were close to the riverside area.

Sandy soil, saline-alkali land, swamp land, and pond land make it very difficult for a group of people to walk.

From a distance, there seems to be shadows of mountains ahead.

"My husband, that is the mountain, that is Grandma's mountain."

Zhang Chugong pointed to a mountain in the northwest and said to Yang He.

Yang He looked carefully at the right time and found that there was a mountain there.

The mountains in Lingbi are not high at an altitude, basically more than 100 meters, and many of the mountains are relatively scattered. If you look at the plains, you will find it difficult to find it from a distance without looking carefully.

"Mountain." Yang He felt that he hadn't seen the mountain for a long time.

And early this morning, they set off, and there was no Hu in the team to find employment. Hu was elected, and he had met Chen Qiuao and four others.

It’s not that they don’t want to stay, but that they live on the side of Kaihe Mountain and want to go back to pack their luggage.

They did not make it clear whether to stay or not, but Yang He agreed with them that he would be willing to join the army and treat everyone equally.

Unwilling to escort to Pizhou, each of whom paid a 5 tael of silver for employment.

The price is not low. After all, it is only one or two taels of silver for a month when serving in the army. The prices are now high, but it is still okay to buy one stone of rice in the city of five taels of silver. Especially after the autumn grain harvest, the price of grain has dropped a little, and there are more materials that can be purchased.

But they lived at the foot of Kaihe Mountain, sixty or seventy miles away, and they had to cross rivers from time to time. Various complex terrain were difficult to walk.

So Yang He made a decision to wait for them at Grandma's mountain for a day.

Join in the mountain temple where the Zhang Chugong brothers live.

They rushed back this morning at a slight dawn.

At this time, Yang He and his group were walking on the wilderness to Grandma Mountain. The cold wind often blew a burst of sand, soil, smoke and dust. Therefore, in addition to wrapping their whole body tightly, many people also put on hats. Zhang Chugong brothers also put on their red hats and military caps and tilted them downwards.

Of course, Yang He was no exception. His younger brother and sister stood in the basket behind the saddle. Before leaving, Yang He put a hat on the two of them.

Han Daxia was fully armed, wearing a cloak, and pioneered the way far ahead.

Then there was the killer team, with a black scarf covered in armor, carrying a round shield, carrying a spear, and watching everything around him vigilantly.

When they were walking, Yang He arranged to walk in units of A, one by one, and one by one, and the leader of A was walking in front.

There are women and girls in the middle. In addition to carrying various loads, some women also have baskets on their bodies.

The colder the weather is now, and some younger children may not be able to stand the long journey, so Yang He asked Sun Zhaodi's collection team to carry it on.

Finally, the old and weak team of the baggage team were wrapped in a black headscarf, carrying a round shield on their backs, with a knife on their waists, and carrying all kinds of supplies.

The group was walking in an orderly manner.

The Zhang Chugong brothers and Yang He were walking in front of the killer team. His younger brother Zhang Chuxun was discussing something with Minister Yang and Luo Xianjue. This handsome young soldier was shy in front of him, but he still said a lot when he got along well.

Their discussion was very lively, and Han Guaner and Zhang Chujing were interjecting from time to time.

It seemed that they were discussing the Zhang brothers' muskets. In their words, Han Guan'er and others were very envious of their winged tiger guns. Zhang Chuxun promised that he would definitely build a few equally sophisticated winged tiger gun firearms for them.

Zhang Chugong looked at it. He was very pleased that his brothers got along well with Wu Zhong. He also looked back frequently. The team was orderly beyond his expectations.

He had a feeling that this team would sooner or later become an elite force.

He carried a bird gun and guided Yang He from time to time and introduced the situation here.

Yang He nodded, seeing that he was getting closer and closer to Grandma's mountain, and then the more crisscrossing rivers and ditches, the more they were basically abandoned.

Here we go east to Kaihe Mountain, and it is surrounded by the Yellow River on both sides. There are many villages between the two mountain systems, and it looks basically abandoned.

He also came here in later generations. He was densely populated and very prosperous, but there was a piece of weed in front of him.

Seeing the prosperous land becomes a wilderness, it always makes people feel sad.

Although wars and thieves are important reasons for the abandonment of these villages, floods and droughts are the main factors.

Looking at the traces of the impact of the Yellow River water under your feet, Yang He sighed. If the Yellow River waters are not eliminated, this place will always be a barren land.

...

At the time of Si, Yanghe arrived at the foot of Grandma's Mountain, and the group walked from Chenshi to the present.

People can walk ten miles per hour on average. They walk at around seven o'clock and fifteen miles. When they walk until almost ten o'clock, they can see the harsh road conditions here.

Fortunately, everyone was relieved.

Looking at the mountain in Yanghe, there were maple and cypress trees growing. There was a small village at the foot of the mountain, but it collapsed everywhere and turned into ruins, but there was indeed a temple on the hillside.

"My husband, the mountain god temple is there, but the temple is not big and I can't stay for a few people. Although this village is destroyed, there are some abandoned houses in the village to rest, and the river in front of the village can also get water. When you get here, it will be convenient to go north again."

Zhang Chugong said to Yang He.

Yang He saw that the terrain of this village was slightly higher and that the flood could not rush here. Judging from the traces, it should have been destroyed by wars and bandits.

There is indeed a river on the east side of the village, which can be used for water. Standing here and looking north, there are hills in front of you, with a raised terrain and solid land, without sandy soil, saline-alkali land, swamp land, and depression land. The walking speed is fast.

Yang He ordered Han Daxia and Qi Youxin to lead the killer team to search for the abandoned village, eliminate possible dangers, and see what you gained. Then the baggage team collected materials, collected wild vegetables, and the logistics team prepared to make rice. They were waiting for Hu to find employment here.

Then Minister Yang, Han Guan'er, Luo Xianjue and others followed Yan Dezheng and several old and weak, and followed Zhang Chugong's three brothers to the mountain temple.

They walked up the slope along a small path, and under a large Berlin, they saw the temple.

The mountain temple is not big, only once you enter, the temple is very dilapidated, but it does not fall. It has been cleaned up around it, and there are few weeds and leaves, which has a smell of clean people.

There is a barrier bunker in front of the temple, which is a bit similar to a low wall. It may be a protective equipment set up by the Zhang Chugong brothers.

The three of them stepped forward, Zhang Chugong looked at the door, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. No one had ever been there on the day he left.

Then he pushed open the door and greeted Yang Hedao: "My husband, please come inside."

Yang He got off the horse and put his younger brother and sister down from the basket. Minister Yang led the horse, and then everyone entered the temple.

There is a small courtyard patio and then the lobby. There is a smell of charcoal fire, with the smell of saltpeter gunpowder. It is a bit dark inside. Perhaps because of the coal smoke, some bricks have turned coal gray.

Yang He saw that it was empty inside. There was a divine platform at the head of the hall. The clay statue was quite majestic and there were some painted on the wall next to it. However, it was the same as the statue of the god, and the colors were mottled.

Just as he was watching, Zhang Chugong had moved out a chair: "My husband, sit down."

When Yang He sat down, he saw that Zhang Chujing and Zhang Chuxun were already busy, constantly moving out racks, hammers, charcoal furnaces, anvils and other equipment in the hall. He didn't know where the three brothers had already taken Dong XC to.

It can be seen that they have a lot of tools. Yang He saw an anvil with a semicircular groove in the cross-section, with grooves arranged in a series, which seemed to be forging the barrel.

There are also equipment that seems to be drilling machines and making arrow stalks.

Seeing that their things were getting more and more, Yang He couldn't help but get up to watch.

Minister Yang and others also surrounded him and touched around curiously.

Yang He walked to the drilling machine, used wood as a frame, and used a circular stone plate as an inertial wheel, and was tied with a leather strip. A simple principle: pulling it with human power can make the stone plate drive the drill bit to rotate and drill.

What surprised Yang He was that the quality of this drill bit was not bad. He estimated that it had reached the standard of medium-carbon steel, or even close to high-carbon steel.

You should know that at this time, the drilling of muskets mostly uses decompression steel, which is a kind of low-carbon steel. The steel is not very hard and the dehumidification cloth cools down. At this time, there are few cooling oils used for drilling.

Therefore, in order to avoid damaging the drill bit and damaging the tool, drilling and drilling must stop and make a bird gun for up to one month.

With high-quality drill bits, no wonder the firearms in the hands of the Zhang brothers are so exquisite.

He looked at the drill bit carefully and looked at it for a long time. Finally, he judged that it was group steel, that is, steel stuffing, and it might even be produced in Suzhou. This is not simple.

You should know that the Ming Dynasty steel is rare. Apart from making steel, it is just a smoldering process, but the process is difficult to control, and the luck can only meet the steel standards. Generally, most of the iron is cooked, and then a small part of low carbon steel is produced.

Then there is steel filling, which is a technology that has been in the Western Jin Dynasty. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the steel filling method was widely used.

However, the disadvantage of the steel filling method is that the carbon content is uneven, and the quality of steel is difficult to guarantee. Shen Kuo even called it fake steel and strongly praised Baijing Steel.

To get good steel, also known as round steel, it must be poured and forged many times, and the refined steel must be carefully forged. This requires very high physical strength and experience of the craftsmen, so the quality of the steel is generally uneven at this time.

However, at this time, a Su-steel method appeared in Suzhou. The improvement of the steel filling method was not as good as the crucible steelmaking method, but the output was much higher, which was rare in Huaibei.

The Zhang brothers don’t know where Su Gang came from.

However, the drill bit also has defects, which is the shape is diamond-shaped, which is very troublesome when deep processing of holes. If you are not careful, the barrel will be drilled in a deviant way, affecting the quality.

The inner holes of many gun barrels in the Ming Dynasty were curved like snakes, with irregular circles in cross-section. Some craftsmen even drilled the holes halfway, turned them over and drilled half from the other end, and finally reamed them with a four-edged knife. The quality of the inner hole can be imagined.

Of course, Yang He knows how to solve this disadvantage. The method is still very simple, but he won't say it now.

...

Lao Bainiu: Thank you for the book of the special administrative district party committee of the Merriam Special Administrative District. I love Zhao Zhongju the most. I only see Mingzhang, Lopez sauce, Unified Lao Si, vegetable farmers and other book friends. I’m sorry that there are too many people and cannot be listed one by one.

I haven't written much in the past two days, and the speed of publishing manuscripts is a bit fast, so I will post a chapter. If I write more, I will post more.

A little soldier's book friend came back to Weixian. When talking about Weibo, I almost forgot that I opened one two years ago. You can search for: The best old white cow, what's the map in the future? I'll post it on it.
Chapter completed!