Tang Dynasty: The poisonous scholar in the Eastern Palace, please abdicate and let the wise one take

Chapter 25 The first difficulty in gun making!
"Oh dad, stop hitting me, I was wrong..."

Waves of crying and begging came from outside the carriage.

Why does this voice sound familiar?

Su Chen opened the car curtain curiously and looked in the direction of the voice, "Aqiang, who's that over there?"

"In the residence of Prime Minister Fang."

Sun Qiang grinned and said cheerfully, "I guess Prime Minister Fang is educating the Second Young Master Fang again."

Su Chen was immediately happy.

Unexpectedly, Fang Xiang was full of energy and vigor at his old age, and he showed no mercy when beating people.

suddenly.

A disheveled figure rushed out of the house, "Dad, I was really wrong. Please calm down. I will come back later."

The person who ran away was naturally Fang Yiai.

A big stick makes him run away with a small stick.

Fang Yiai was not stupid and planned to stay in the mansion and let Prime Minister Fang teach him a lesson.

After shouting to the inside of the mansion, Fang Yiai turned around to leave, and saw Su Chen and the other two looking at him curiously with their necks craned.

you again!
Fang Yiai glared at Su Chen with hatred. If it weren't for him, how could he have been taught a lesson by his own father?
However, when he thought of the strength of Su Chen and Sun Qiang, and the pursuers behind him, Fang Yiai just glared at Su Chen with resentment, and ran away in a hurry.

If he was caught, he would be severely punished.

Sun Qiang grinned with joy: "Sir, Mr. Fang has learned his lesson."

Su Chen shrugged and lowered the car curtain.

The carriage slowly arrived at the residence of the Duke of Xiangyang.

Thanks to Du Ruhui's achievements during his lifetime, Du He married Li Chengqian's half-sister, Princess Chengyang, and was conferred the title of Duke of Xiangyang, which was simply a sinecure with a nominal title.

"Is the Duke of the County at home?"

Sun Qiang jumped off the carriage and stepped forward to state his purpose. "I am Sun Qiang, the guard of the Eastern Palace. The person sitting in the carriage is Young Master Su Chen, a friend of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. He has come here specially to visit you."

The doorman bowed and returned the greeting: "Please wait for a moment, I will report to the mansion right away."

After a while, Du He walked out with a smile on his face, but he had heavy bags under his eyes and some bloodshot could be vaguely seen in his eyes.

It seems like he is overworked and lacks energy.

"Brother Su!"

"Brother Du, please come and greet us in person."

Su Chen was a little surprised. He smiled and bowed, then got back into the carriage under Du He's warm welcome.

Su Chen and the other two: “???”

Before the curtain was lowered, Du He said to the doorman, "Go and inform the princess that Brother Su from the Crown Prince's residence is here. I have something important to discuss with Brother Su, and I will be back later."

"You came at the right time. I was just thinking of an excuse to leave the house, and you showed up at my door."

Okay.

Have I become an excuse that comes right to my door?
Su Chen smiled and said, "Is there something going on at the mansion that prevents Brother Du from getting away?"

Du He sighed, "I heard that Brother Su went to Nishang Tower, surrounded by beauties, I really want to go there."

Su Chen: “???”

Du He shook his head. "Brother Su is still unmarried, so he doesn't understand the true meaning. If Brother Su is married, he will understand why I am like this."

Su Chen: "..."

Looking at Du He, who looked much more haggard, Su Chen roughly understood the true meaning.

If you have a fairy wife at home, even wolfberry can’t cure her.

"Brother Su, are you here for those things?"

"Exactly."

"Sun Qiang, go to Yankangfang."

Du He gave an order and then said seriously, "I have prepared some of the things you need. The amount of saltpeter is a little less, but as long as you have silver, you can buy more later."

"But there is a problem at the moment. The things you gave me on the blueprints are very complicated to make and the progress is slow..."

Sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal are not rare things and can be bought as long as you have money.

Precisely because this matter was simple, Du He prepared these things first.

As for the objects on the drawings, they require craftsmen with rich technical experience to make them.

During this period, Du He visited many blacksmiths privately, but only a few of them could make a perfect forge.

After listening to Du He's narration, Su Chen nodded in appreciation.

Du He did a really good job, starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult.

As for the slow progress in making the accessories for the earthen gun, Du He could not be blamed. After all, the technological foundation of the Tang Dynasty was there.

Although there may be many skilled old blacksmiths in the Ministry of Industry, do they dare to go to the Ministry of Industry to ask for people?

Naturally it is impossible.

They could only secretly recruit some skilled craftsmen from the public. "Let's go to your workshop first."

The workshop is located in Yankangfang, and it displays many agricultural tools and supplies, as well as some handy weapons but they are rare.

The workshop doesn’t look very big from the outside, but when you actually walk in, you’ll find that it’s a world of its own.

As we walked into the inner room, we were hit by a wave of heat. There were five master craftsmen working busily on making tools.

Next to these five masters, there are more than a dozen apprentices. On both sides of the workstation of each master, there is a basket containing some manufactured parts and, of course, more waste.

Seeing Du He coming, several master craftsmen nodded in greeting but did not stop their work.

Su Chen walked to the basket and picked up a steel pipe to examine it. The steel pipe was made straight, but there were some tiny cracks and obvious signs of secondary casting on it, indicating that it was not formed in one go.

Even steel pipes like this are extremely rare compared to those waste products.

As for the other parts, they look OK on the outside, but the specific finished products still need to be reviewed.

It seems that the most important thing at the moment is to create seamless steel pipes.

Su Chen rubbed his head thoughtfully. If it were in the past, this thing could be bought in some hardware stores.

After all, I overestimated the level of casting technology in the Tang Dynasty. Even the simplest parts of a homemade gun were very troublesome to make.

"How about it?"

“The workmanship is terrible.”

Su Chen spoke the truth, and took out a fairly good steel pipe from the basket and said, "It must be a seamless steel pipe with the same density and weight."

"Among so many steel pipes, only this one is barely usable, but it's still a bit top-heavy."

Hear the words.

The five masters who were busy at work stopped what they were doing at the same time and looked over.

Su Chen raised the steel pipe in his hand and said in a deep voice: "There is only one requirement, precision, precision, and damn precision! As long as you can make a seamless steel pipe, the master will reward you with 100 taels of silver! The apprentice will get 50 taels!"

Master, a reward of 100 taels of silver?

Fifty taels of silver for an apprentice?
In an instant, the five masters and apprentices breathed rapidly, and there seemed to be flames rising in their eyes, like the flames burning in a furnace, surging and hot.

"If you can't do it, seek help from your relatives and friends. If they can do it, not only them but you can also get a reward of the same amount of silver."

As veterans among blacksmiths, the five masters naturally have many friends with superb skills around them.

Su Chen said this undoubtedly to encourage them to call their friends and find a way to overcome this problem.

of course.

This problem was not worth worrying about for the blacksmiths. What really concerned them was the price offered by Su Chen!

Money moves people's hearts.

The annual expenses of a poor family are only a few taels of silver.

Even if they are experienced workers, their monthly wages are only two or three taels of silver.

One hundred taels of silver is undoubtedly a huge sum of money for them!
"Is what this gentleman said true?"

"certainly……"

Just as Su Chen was about to speak, Du He pulled his sleeve. Under his puzzled gaze, he lowered his voice and said, "Brother Su, I don't have that much money."

"I have."

Su Chen smiled calmly, "As long as they can do it, money is definitely not a problem."

"Suwang."

"Son."

Su Wang cleverly took out a bag of silver and said, "Sir, here are twenty taels of silver."

Su Chen didn't even look at it and threw it on the table beside him.

Everyone looked at him doubtfully.

"I'll leave these twenty taels of silver here. Whoever finishes the product first will get extra reward! As for the one hundred taels of silver, I'll deliver it to you at dusk that day!"

"it is good!"

"Young Master is generous."

"I will definitely seek help from my friends to help you complete this!"

"Thank you!"

Su Chen bowed and thanked him.

Then he left the workshop with Du He and went to Du He's next secret place.

ps: As we all know, the earliest silver note came from the "Jiaozi" of the Song Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Tongbao was the main currency, but a large number of copper coins were carried unchanged, and "silk" was mostly used as large-denomination circulating currency.

Historical records show that "provided gifts from China and foreign countries came in droves, with the accumulated silk reaching 30 million rolls."

There is also a saying about the Semites' "jiaozi", which refers to small silver coins rather than silver notes used by captured Jews during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang.

The use of silver is also because it is easy to understand as it is often seen in various movies, TV shows and novels.

By the way, please read on, thank you!

(End of this chapter)