Fu Jinzhan stood up and looked into the distance with a smile. She stretched her upper body slightly, raised her head and took a deep breath, then let out a gentle and charming sigh, with laziness and intoxication.
Guo Shao stared at her beautiful posture in a daze, then turned his head and followed her gaze. He saw the blue sky, the vast colorful plains, the large wheat fields after harvest, the brown and yellow soil exposed, and the fields were full of white smoke.
What are those smokes burning? Fu Jinzhan asked with interest.
Guo Shao took a closer look and said: The fertility of the soil is very important. After the crops are harvested, farmers will burn the straw on the spot in the fields as fertilizer.
He took out half a wheat cake from his horse's back and ate it with water. Fu Jinzhan glanced at him and said: "Soldiers usually eat this. Let me have a taste too." Guo Shao broke off a piece for her.
Jinzhan kissed the white porcelain with her bright red lips, bit a small piece of it gently, and frowned slightly. Guo Shao smiled and said: Try chewing it a little more, it will become sweeter.
She chewed for a while and said with a smile: It's really sweet, but it's not bad.
Guo Shaodao: This kind of cake is certainly not as good as the finely prepared staple food. It tastes very rough at first; but if you taste it carefully, you can still taste the sweetness and its original grain aroma.
It seemed to make sense. Jinzhan smiled. After a moment, she murmured softly: I have never felt so comfortable, relaxed and happy as today. Shao Ge'er was given to me by God. That stormy morning, you lay on the street shivering so inconspicuously. It turned out that God was rewarding me in the most inconspicuous way.
Guo Shao listened thoughtfully, his ear tilted, as if he was savoring Fu Jinzhan's words and feeling what she could feel.
Fu Jinzhan turned around and looked at Guo Shao again: What I said in Jinxiang Hall yesterday, do you know what I mean
Guo Shao snorted, seeming a little dull. He didn't talk much, but he was very attentive in his daily life. Fu Jinzhan said: I just want you to be with me all the time.
Guo Shao pondered over it and gradually understood what Fu Jinzhan meant. Yesterday, she said that she wanted Guo Shao to be buried with her when she left. This was probably a bit extreme to express her attachment, but Guo Shao didn't feel scared. Instead, he looked at her face with emotion. He couldn't help but look at Fu Jinzhan's delicious lips.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the sound of hurried horse hooves came from a distance.
Guo Shao's trembling heart was interrupted. He turned around and saw that Lu Chengyong and the others had finally caught up with him.
Fu Jinzhan also looked back, squinted her eyes and danced on the straight post road on the plain, and said: I still want to run between heaven and earth, as free as a bird.
After hearing this, Guo Shao carried her directly onto the horse's back. This time he did not run so fast, but rode the horse with two guards. Fu Jinzhan hugged him tightly from behind, and the soft touch on his back made his heart beat fast, and her warm face pressed against his vest was also very comfortable.
That river is Caishui. Guo Shaoyao pointed ahead, and a few hills in the distance where the river extended came into view. He shouted and accelerated his speed to run towards the hill.
The group climbed up a hill, and Fu Jinzhan suddenly uttered a sound of surprise. The three riders reined in their horses on the hillside, and there was a noisy sound of clanging in the wind, and other noises suddenly became noisy.
Looking far ahead, there was a large area of houses laid out in a straight line. The noise came from that group of buildings. Behind these hills, beside the Caishui River, it was as if a small city had been built. There were at least dozens of crude and simple buildings. A wide canal was dug out from the Caishui River and led into a valley not far away. It was divided into more than a dozen tributaries on the side of the mountain. The river water rushed straight down the valley from above, like a man-made waterfall; there were also many houses in the valley.
Below the waterfall, you can see the huge water wheel turning slowly.
This is not a beautiful natural scenery, but it has its own unique charm, especially the water wheel that looks like a Ferris wheel in an amusement park and looks very magnificent. No wonder Fu Jinzhan exclaimed when she first saw it.
This is what Fu Jinzhan from the Armor Making Workshop asked.
Guo Shao smiled and said: I asked the Queen Mother to allocate a large sum of money directly from the inner treasury to make armor. The money was spent, and you can see where it was spent. It's here.
Fu Jinzhan glanced sideways and saw the guards on horseback behind her, so she kept silent. The guards still thought she was Guo Shao's wife, Fu Ermei.
The waterwheel is the most beautiful. Fu Jinzhan said softly, which was very similar to what Fu Ermei said. Fu Ermei would pay the most attention to such simple and intuitive things.
Guo Shao said: The waterwheel was made by Li Fang, the commander of Jiafang Office. I saw its effect only after I came back from Shu. This guy is a bit greedy, but I scared him and he probably didn't get greedy anymore. He spent all his money on the right things. This time we got a lot from the expedition to Shu. I have to ask the Queen Mother to reward him. Let's go down and take a look.
The closer we got to the valley, the louder the sound became.
The river water pouring down from above hit the huge waterwheel with a loud noise. The wheel was not made very finely, and there was a lot of friction when it turned, and there was a gurgling sound between it and the conveyor belt. The rhythmic clanging sound coming from the house must be the sound of the forging hammers.
The entire forging hammer assembly has basically not changed, except that the power device has changed from power storage to hydraulic power. The ancients used water wheels in many places, including on ships, so it was easy to copy and apply this step. Guo Shao did not handle this step, as he was still fighting in Shu at the time. This kind of workshop is too noisy, and it would indeed disturb the people in the city for a long time. Now it has been moved to the suburbs.
The hydraulic forging hammer was actually invented like this. Guo Shao didn't know what the hydraulic forging hammer developed in human history was like, but it was definitely not what we see now. In fact, the device he made was very strange and out of place, but it could forge a whole piece of metal mold and it was usable. Anyway, he couldn't figure out what the hydraulic forging hammer should look like.
The waterwheel drives this wheel. The waterwheel is large and slow, while the wheel inside is small and fast. Guo Shao pointed and said.
Fu Jinzhan watched with wide eyes. In this dirty and dusty workshop, she looked like a pearl dropped into the dust. The scene at this moment was very strange.
Do you see the iron chain hanging on the outside of the wheel? Guo Shao pointed again. When it rotates, the iron chain will be pulled because of the directions far and near.
The efficiency of converting circular motion into linear motion seems to be a bit low, there is nothing that can be done about it.
At this time, two civil servants came in. Li Fang, the commander of Jiafang Office, was still breathing heavily, and he almost ran in. He immediately clasped his fists and said, "Greetings to the Inspector General Guo, Madam Guo."
The other official in charge of the ceremony turned out to be Zan Jurun, the guest governor. What was this guy doing here? Zaojiafang had nothing to do with the guest governor at all, so Guo Shao ignored him for a while.
Li Shuling, you did a good job. Guo Shao patted him on the shoulder. Fu Jinzhan ignored them. She was Fu Ermei now, and she couldn't say things like "I have a reward."
Li Fang hurriedly said: "It's my job, it's my job. I'm very happy to be able to be ordered by Inspector Guo."
Guo Shaodao: Keep working hard, I won’t treat you unfairly.
Fu Jinzhan asked softly: These things were made by Li Fang
Li Fang hurriedly said: Madam, all of these things were made according to the arrangements of Inspector Guo, and I found the people.
Fu Jinzhan couldn't help but look up at Guo Shao.
Guo Shaodao: The hydraulic transmission was invented by Li Fang.
It's not me, it's Shopkeeper Lu, I found someone who built the ship, Li Fang said. Guo Shao laughed and said, "It's also a skill to be able to find someone who can be used."
Li Fang smiled and said: Inspector Guo, you are too kind.
At this time, Guo Shaocai turned to look at Zan Jurun who was left aside and asked: "What about the matter of Zan Jurun coming to inspect Jiafang Office?"
Zan Jurun bowed and said: When we attacked Shu a while ago, I was the military supervisor in the Northern Army. I found that the new armor had very good defense. The previous chain mail armor could not defend against bows and arrows. This kind of whole armor has extremely high defense against sharp weapons, so I came to see the workshop.
Guo Shao nodded and didn't make a fuss. Zan Jurun had always been an official of the Zhou Dynasty, and he had done a good job in his position, so there was nothing wrong with him.
At this time, Zan Jurun said: "I think it can be modified. For example, the soldiers of the Northern Army said that the helmet is not breathable. It is made of a piece of iron plate and cannot be worn in hot weather. Let someone try another one. General Guo, are you interested in seeing it?"
It is indeed not breathable and I am not very comfortable wearing it. Guo Shao went with him to see it.
I saw that in another room that was used as a warehouse, there were all kinds of armors. There was also a clerk at the door, probably managing the things coming in and out. A set of armor was hung on a wooden frame. The chest and arms were the same, but the helmet and shoulder armor were slightly changed. The helmet was made of two pieces of armor connected by rivets, and the upper iron plate pressed the lower one. The middle was breathable, but the connection was two layers, so it was not easy for weapons to be inserted; the appearance of the top was also changed, and a feather was inserted, which really looked much better.
Zan Jurun said: "When I watched the battle, I felt that the armor looked better, the formation was more majestic, and the morale of the soldiers was higher. And the shoulder armor is more convenient for movement."
Guo Shao took a closer look and couldn't help but look back at Zan Jurun. The chain mail at the movable parts was thickened and connected to the plate armor, so that the soldiers could wear it directly without the need for two layers, thus reducing the weight. Guo Shao could see that the most troublesome part of this armor was not the main part of the plate armor, but the chain mail at the connecting parts, such as the skirt armor; of course, the plate armor consumed more iron.
As expected, Li Fang said: Mail armor is labor-intensive and expensive. There are dozens of workshops above, all for making mail armor, and only a dozen sledgehammer workshops below are enough. Fortunately, the inner treasury allocates money generously, and there is no shortage of people with money.
Guo Shaodao: Director Li is quite good at finding people.
Li Fang said: There are not many master armor-making craftsmen, so I will pay the empress dowager to let a master armor-making craftsman take an apprentice.