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Volume 3: Stormy France Chapter 149: The Blacksmith

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    Chapter 149 Blacksmith

    This is not China at the end of the 20th century. The labor force is not only cheap, but wages are in arrears indefinitely.

    In Europe in this era, although human life is not very valuable, the labor force is still relatively scarce.  People are capital. The reason why people can become capital is that only people can create value.

    In Switzerland, there are a large number of farmers tied to the not-so-fertile fields, and these farmers cannot leave the land.  Not to mention their reluctance to leave the land they have relied on all their lives, even if they were willing, Baizhou would not let these "agricultural population" convert into "urban population".

    After all, food is too precious.  With the current stage of farming technology, even with the intensive cultivation of the Western Qin people, it is far from the level where the yield per mu of later generations can easily be hundreds or even thousands of kilograms. The average yield per mu is just over a hundred kilograms.  If some farmers are relocated, it means that this part of the food gap needs to be purchased with money.

    In peacetime, food is still valuable, or even cheap. However, in times of war or natural disasters, one gold coin may not be able to buy ten kilograms of food (under normal circumstances, one gold coin weighs about three taels).  Gold coins can be exchanged for silver coins weighing about twenty-five taels, and one or two silver coins can buy ninety kilograms of grain).

    Construction requires more manpower. This is a job that requires labor for a long time. Nowadays, a considerable number of the young people of the Western Qin Dynasty, including the soldiers of the Western Qin Dynasty who were disbanded after this war, have begun to invest in the construction of their homes. In a short period of time,  It cannot be transferred out unless Bai Zhou is willing to sacrifice the progress of the project.

    However, Bai Zhou wants to make money now, and one of his purposes is to ensure the progress of the project, so it is impossible to put the cart before the horse and delay the construction period for the sake of money.

    Soldiers often occupy a large part of a young man's head.  However, the current standing army of Western Qin is only about a thousand people (excluding the soldiers trained by Winkelried for the time being). The other soldiers, including the Swiss militia just recruited, are temporary in nature and will be ready immediately after the battle.  Disband on the spot.

    Speaking of which, at this stage, there are very few professional soldiers in the Europa continent, and they are all private soldiers of various nobles.  The task of professional soldiers is to fight and not to produce. Unlike ordinary soldiers who are recruited temporarily, they cannot be regarded as soldiers at all.

    If the Western Qin Dynasty has more standing troops in the future, Bai Zhou will definitely have to consider military garrison - for soldiers in wartime and for the people in peacetime, but it can't be considered now. This can only wait for future arrangements.

    So, where else can we get so many people?

    Bai Zhou thought about it for a while, and said that although the manpower was tight, half of Switzerland, plus hundreds of thousands of people in the Western Qin Dynasty, would definitely be able to draw out thousands of "idle men". These numbers should be only about  Enough for Western Qin to manufacture and sell arms.

    However, the population is the same as the territory, no one can have too much.

    Bai Zhou hopes not to occupy his own population as much as possible. After all, even if there are only a few thousand people, which may not seem like many, but if there is really going to be a war, it means that Western Qin will have to recruit thousands of young and strong soldiers.

    Thinking about it from abroad?

    This is a good idea, especially in Burgundy.

    Wherever there is war, there are refugees, and wherever there are refugees, there is the cheapest population.

    Although in Burgundy, according to the agreement reached between Bai Zhou and Joan of Arc, it is not directly under the jurisdiction of the Western Qin Dynasty. It is conceivable that Joan of Arc is still fighting with Philip, and there must be a large number of "innocent" refugees that will make both warring parties  They all have a headache. Now that Xi Qin is making a request, I guess Joan of Arc¡¯s opposition will not be that strong.

    Bai Zhou slapped his forehead and smiled self-deprecatingly. He had been dreaming about it for a long time. Speaking of it, he didn't even know how many people were actually needed.

    Not only that, Bai Zhou, a loser who studies computers, has no idea about the specific process of forging weapons, how much iron ore and coal mines are needed, what is the manufacturing cycle, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

    By myself alone, what I can think of is definitely not comprehensive. After all, I am not a professional, neither a professional blacksmith nor a professional businessman.

    Thinking of this, Bai Zhou realized that he had never paid special attention to the arsenal of the West Qin tribe. Where did the weapons of the West Qin tribe come from? Bai Zhou was completely blind.

    Recalling that when I first came to Szombathely, the thousand soldiers were all armed to the teeth, and the subsequent weapons did not seem to be remade by the Western Qin people themselves.

    Bai Zhou is now worried that before he is ready to show off his ambitions, someone told him that all the craftsmen of the Western Qin Dynasty had died on the way to the west.

    ¡°Then Baizhou can only consider the production and trade of tea, silk, and ceramics from the beginning.

    At noon, ?The boat specially found Wei Fu.  Weifu had just finished handling his official duties and was about to go to the Twin Cities to inspect the progress of the project there. He didn't expect that Bai Zhou, who had been lying down for several months, would come to see him today.

    In fact, Wei Fu, a stern old man like him, was a little dissatisfied with Bai Zhou's passive and sabotage approach - leaving military affairs to Mengshan and Winkeled, and leaving government affairs to himself.

    But after all, the young master¡¯s reason for being lazy this time was quite reasonable, so during the month when Bai Zhou was lying on the bed, Weifu rarely nagged him too much.

    "Sir, are you feeling better?" Wei Fu had a sullen face, but he was teasing Bai Zhou. After all, he knew that he was not in good health.

    "Haha, my body will get rusty if I lie down any longer." There is no need for so many polite words between Bai Zhou and Wei Fu. Wei Fu is in a hurry now, and he doesn't have much free time, so he goes straight to the topic: "  Mr. Wei, where is our weapons workshop in Western Qin, and who is in charge of it?" Bai Zhou spoke, considering that there seems to be no arsenal in this era, but in this era, what is it called?  He really didn't know, but in the "Total War" system, he saw the term "weapons workshop", and thought it was universal.

    "Well, it's a weapons workshop. Why did the young master suddenly think of asking this?" Weifu looked at Bai Zhou with some confusion. Could it be that the young master wanted to expand the army again?  This is not possible. We must interrupt the impulsive idea of ??the young master. We cannot consider expanding the standing army just because we have won two battles.  After all, Xi Qin finally got such a chance to breathe in Switzerland. Now that the army is expanding, doesn't it mean that Xi Qin has to carry another burden again: "Sir, I think our task now is to recuperate."

    "That's right," Bai Zhou nodded, obviously not realizing that there was a slight communication problem between the two of them: "I think so too."

    "We in Xi Qin are very weak in every aspect now. At this time, the first priority is to recuperate." Weifu twirled his goatee and pretended to be a teacher again.

    "Yes." Bai Zhou nodded again.

    "Expanding the army at this time is not something a wise man would do. It should be noted that soldiers"

    "Stop it, stop it, Mr. Wei, it's wrong, it's wrong."

    Bai Zhou understood that Weifu thought that the reason why he asked about the weapons workshop was because he wanted to expand the army, and he immediately told Weifu his thoughts.

    As the saying goes, one person can plan shortcomings, and two people can plan longings. Bai Zhou originally wanted to tell this idea to all the senior officials of Western Qin, so that everyone could work together to maximize their benefits.

    "That's it." Weifu's face finally became less tense.

    Making money is a good thing. Sima Gong said it well. The bustle in the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit. Moreover, the captain also understands that the bank of Xi Qin is indeed going to dry up during this period. If he doesn't think of some way, then  But there is really no other way.

    Weifu is not an old Confucian, and he does not have the stubborn idea that "a gentleman should not speak of profit." On the contrary, he fully agrees with Bai Zhou's proposal.

    "However, we in Western Qin now don't have a workshop that specializes in making weapons and armor."

    Weifu¡¯s words seemed to confirm Bai Zhou¡¯s worry just now. Western Qin didn¡¯t even have a weapons workshop, so why was there any trade talk?

    "However," Weifu's words today seemed to be a bit like a roller coaster with twists and turns. Bai Zhou had a headache after a few failed, "not", "I know someone who can help you with this."

    "what do you mean?"

    In fact, it is not terrible that there is no weapons workshop. What is terrible is that Western Qin did not pass down its superb craftsmanship.  If you want to sell it for a good price, you must have something available to support the countertop. If they are all commercial goods, they can be easily made (there are some local blacksmiths in Switzerland), and they can be sold, but they are just selling.  Not much price.

    (For example, Intel¡¯s high-end CPUs are better than AMD, so many people take it for granted that low-end CPUs are better than AMD)

    What¡¯s more terrible is that if Western Qin needs to expand its army in the future, it will need a large number of sophisticated weapons and armor. Where can Baizhou get them? It¡¯s even harder to buy such things.

    But as long as there are master craftsmen, everything else is easy to say.

    "I know where the craftsman you need is, and I can guarantee that he and his apprentice are the best weapon craftsmen in the entire Western Qin." Wei Fu said confidently.

    ?¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­

    "Are you sure this is the best weapons craftsman in Western Qin as you said?" Bai Zhou looked at Weifu and the craftsman introduced by Weifu with serious doubts - also?An old acquaintance, the barefoot old man who gave the Western Qin bee crossbow machine, gunpowder, and Huihui cannon.

    Of course, Bai Zhou did not suspect that the barefoot old man was a fake person. On the contrary, a craftsman who could figure out so many powerful gadgets would be a treasure wherever he put them.

    But as the saying goes, smelting and forging are not skills that can be applied to all. It can be learned by analogy.

    Even if you take a step back, this old man is really the best weapon craftsman in Western Qin, but with his past style-just taking out one or two samples of everything, it is hard for Bai Zhou to imagine that he should let Xi Qin  Is Qin going to sell thousands of weapons of different styles?

    Speaking of which, Bai Zhou just found out that this old man who has produced surprising works time and time again, his real name is Mo Yi, and it is said that he has some blood relationship with Mo Zhai.

    In this case, Bai Zhou also knows the origin of this old man. If he was just a little suspicious when he saw the old man's clothes - linen clothes and bare feet when they first met, then now he hears Mo Zhai's name, he can fully  It shows that this old man is a descendant of the Mo family, and it seems that he has inherited not only the bloodline, but also the academic and rules.

    Speaking of which, Mo Zhai is a scientist, and the Mohist family is also a group of scientists.  They have made outstanding contributions in mathematics, physics, medicine, logic, etc., and occupy an important position in the history of ancient Chinese science.  It is reasonable for his descendants to have a wide range of interests.

    The Mo family's mechanism skills are quite famous, but that is in novels, games, and movies. Bai Zhou does not expect this inventor to be able to build hundreds of mechanism birds for the Western Qin Dynasty to use as bombers, or to form a division.  The Wooden Gundam allowed Kashiwa Shu to sweep through the entire army.

    Therefore, Bai Zhou decided to be more practical and solve the current problem first.

    Mo Yi is nearly sixty years old and is an old man who is not good at talking. He can only talk eloquently in front of the works he has invented or "copycat". If he really faces a stranger, especially a young master from the Western Qin tribe, Mo Yi can't handle it well.  , it¡¯s really a bit difficult.

    Fortunately, the young apprentice he brought with him, a middle-aged man who looked to be in his thirties, was able to speak very fluently, "Sir, the villain is an iron warrior, and my father is an iron warrior."

    "Young Master, the Master Iron Master is the general manager of the previous generation who was responsible for supervising all our weapons and armors. He died of illness six years ago. Maybe Young Master has no memory." Wei Fu whispered in Bai Zhou's ear.

    "Oh," Bai Zhou nodded.

    Speaking of which, the craft of blacksmithing must be passed down from generation to generation, which is what is often said in China that it is passed down from male to female, and from son to son.  The quality of a person's craftsmanship sometimes depends not only on the person's understanding and attitude, but also on having a good master, and often, his father is his master.

    The Western Qin people are different from the big countries in Middle-earth. In those big countries, the managers who may supervise the manufacturing of weapons are not skilled craftsmen themselves, as long as they are careful and responsible.

    In Western Qin, such an important job as making weapons was supervised by the iron master in name, but in fact it required hands-on demonstration, and the objects of his demonstration were all the blacksmiths of the entire Western Qin tribe, and their craftsmanship was natural.  He is the best craftsman in Western Qin, and his son is naturally the leading craftsman in Western Qin to this day.

    "I don't know what the young master's orders are for finding a younger one." Tie San placed his position very low. Although the Confucian "scholars, farmers, industry and commerce" was not popular in the Western Qin Dynasty, Tie San was still cautious, for fear of overstepping.

    "No instructions, I just want to talk to you about some things." Bai Zhou smiled and had no intention of correcting others' attitudes.

    ?¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­

    "Sir, are you telling the truth?"

    Bai Zhou clearly saw that after listening to his story, Tiesan's eyes began to shine brightly, just like a hungry wolf seeing a little white rabbit.

    Bai Zhou didn't know that Tie San was only nominally Mo Yi's apprentice or student. In fact, this was not accurate. It was just because Tie Jian was also a member of the Mo family. According to seniority, Tie San was Mo Yi's descendant.  That¡¯s all.

    And due to the influence of his father, although Tie San is a descendant of the Mohist family, he is not as "erudite and talented" as Mo Yi. He only wants to hone his skills.

    But the problem is that Western Qin has never been able to provide him with such an opportunity. It can be said that in the past few decades, Tie San has learned the art of slaying dragons - completely useless. At most, he can just repair broken weapons, which is not enough.  Triathlon appetite.

    Now that the young master has such a proposal, of course he can¡¯t wait to support it with both feet.

    He didn¡¯t use force beforeThe reason for this is very simple. First, the Western Qin people have no fixed place to live. Second, there are not enough ores, let alone good ores. You must know that the level of craftsmen is different from that of the sharpshooters of later generations.  The same, both require countless ores (bullets) to be piled up. Now both problems can be solved.  To be rewarded, there must be sacrifice, and the condition is that he must teach a group of apprentices.  (Also, as the new supervisor of this re-established weapons workshop, he supervises the quality of every weapon and armor that leaves the factory.)

    Of course, Bai Zhou didn't ask Tiesan to pass on the most exquisite skills to others. He just wanted him to train some craftsmen who could work seriously. Having said that, not everyone can teach even those ordinary steps.  Not everyone can learn it. As for the problems in this area, Baizhou naturally handed over all the problems to Tiesan. Baizhou was responsible for finding people, and Tiesan was responsible for selecting people suitable for this line of work from the crowd.  .

    "Of course, am I here to entertain you when I have nothing to do?" Bai Zhou said with a smile.

    "Wait a minute, young master." Just when Tie San was about to agree, Mo Yi jumped out again.

    ¡°Perhaps he feels that the time is ripe now, and if he doesn¡¯t say anything else, others will take the lead.

    Bai Zhou looked at him doubtfully, wanting to ask what kind of play this was?

    At this moment, Wei Fu quietly pulled Mo Yi, and then said to Bai Zhou: "Oh, that's the case. He and I haven't seen each other for a long time. He wanted to talk to me more about old times, and he was afraid that you wouldn't agree, so he decided in advance  Say hello. Maybe I won¡¯t be able to accompany you next time.¡±

    "It doesn't matter." Even a fool could tell that Mo Yi wanted to see Bai Zhou for something, but since they didn't want to say more, Bai Zhou just ignored it for the time being and pretended to be a fool.

    "So, Tie San, do you agree?" Bai Zhou asked formally.

    "That's for sure. As long as there are enough rocks for me to practice, I promise to complete what the young master said." Tie San slapped his chest loudly.

    ?? Bai Zhou looked at the other people here. It seemed that these individuals in the Mo family were all workaholics and could not be understood by normal people. For example, this triathlon sold himself completely for some ore.

    A well-fed man does not know a hungry man is hungry. As a prince of the Western Qin Dynasty, Bai Zhou naturally cannot understand the pain of a craftsman, especially the pain of a craftsman who has always felt that he is useless.

    "By the way, give me a list of the number of people, materials, ores, and expected output you need, so that I can prepare things for you as soon as possible." Bai Zhou said the last thing.

    "Uh, sir, I don't know how to read." At this point, Tie San's already red face seemed to get even redder.

    "It doesn't matter. Mr. Wei won't be leaving for the time being. Let him help you first." Bai Zhou touched the tip of his nose. Doing this could be regarded as a small revenge.

    "Yes, sir."  

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