Waiting for Ma Xiaofang to take everyone else out, Zhu Hongsan said to Ma Youfu: "Go and find Mr. Tong, and then serve new tea to the two gentlemen." Ma Youfu continued to make arrangements and did not mention it.

Zhu Hongsan sat down in the main seat and said, "I made the two gentlemen laugh. I was really tired from the journey and got up late."

Ma Mingyuan smiled and said, "My lord is young, so just be careful of your health. This kind of thing can be stopped."

Just as Tong Yangjia was coming, he sat down after a visionary ceremony with Ma Jiyuan and Ma Mingyuan. Feng Ziyong did not come as an official in Hengzhou Prefecture. These people were Zhu Hongsan's entire think tank team.

Ma Jiyuan ranked first, but Ma Mingyuan was the main one, because Ma Jiyuan was much worse than Ma Mingyuan in terms of ability and intelligence. Ma Jiyuan was similar to Feng Ziyong and could be a good local official. However, he still had to rely on Ma Mingyuan in terms of grasping the general direction. As for Tong Yangjia, he was the role of Chen Ping during the Chu and Han Dynasty. He was too cruel and lacked intelligence, and he could greatly help Zhu Hongsan on some small issues.

After serving tea, Zhu Hongsan and other servants said, "The two gentlemen are here today. I originally wanted to go to Majiazhuang. Let's discuss what to do today."

Ma Mingyuan spoke first: "I had a long talk with my elder brother last night, and we also thought that Huguang could not stay for a long time. Today I came here to ask my lord what he thought."

Zhu Hongsan said: "At the beginning of this year, Zhang Xianzhong broke Xiangyang. He originally thought he could go down the river to attack Wuchang. Unexpectedly, he went north to Nanyang. But I think the north is broken and cannot support millions of bandits. It is a foregone conclusion that they went south to Huguang. I expect to cross the Yangtze River and enter the south in May and June next year or early next year."

Ma Mingyuan said: "What the lord thinks is basically the same as what I and my elder brother think. However, the journey to Guangdong and Guangxi is long and we have a large population, so I don't know how to arrange it."

Zhu Hongsan said: "Xiaofang and Ruyan will have an expected delivery date in March next year. That's what I think. Go south in two batches. The first batch was led by the elder brother and second brother, and the old and weak and some heavy things. Mr. Tong and I went south in the second batch. When Xiaofang Ruyan's health improved, we will lead the remaining personnel to the south. We will gather at the second cousin of Hengzhou Prefecture and discuss our next plan. See what are you doing, the three gentlemen?"

Zhu Hongsan saw the three of them nodded and continued, "Then ask the elder brother and the second brother to be responsible for the matters of Majiazhuang and try to bring some fineness and softness. If you don't want to leave, you can stay. If you have anything you can't take with you, try to sell things that you can't take with you, and buy more grain and salt. After all, this trip to Guangdong is thousands of miles away, except for Hengzhou Prefecture, it's hard to say other places. I will recruit 1,000 people in this regard, and the two gentlemen will take with them two thousand people when they leave. It should be almost the same."

After seeing Erma nodding in agreement, Zhu Hongsan said to Tong Yangjia again: "Mr. Tong is responsible for the farm. The craftsmen must take away. I don't care what method you use. The family members are also taking them. All the heavy equipment is left. Now they are fully producing gunpowder and grenade bullets. Try to turn the ore and coke into products and semi-finished products. If you can't take them away, you can sell them."

After seeing that the three of them had no objections, Zhu Hongsan said again: "Sir, let's start preparing now. We have too many people and not much safety time. If there are any changes during this period, we will have to hold a meeting to discuss it again."

After Zhu Hongsan said that, he served tea and saw the guests off, and the three of them went back and decided not to mention it.

Zhu Hongsan saw that they had left and sat on the chair to discuss it. When did Zhang Xianzhong come to Wuchang? It was too long and he forgot about it. It seemed that it was either the fifteenth or sixteenth year of Chongzhen. It was in May anyway. But now it seems that the possibility of next May is not high.

Zhu Hongsan thought that this bloody battle in Xinyang exposed many problems. The combat effectiveness of his army was fine, mainly the number of people. Since it was cold weapons, it was very dangerous when the number of enemies exceeded that of him. At the head of Xinyang City, half of the people were killed and killed. In the city, he was still defending the city. If he met 50,000 people in the wild, he didn't have to fight at all, and he just waited to die. It seems that if he wanted to get out a firearm, he could only count on quality after the quantity could not win.

Thinking of this, Zhu Hongsan got up and went to the village to find Tie Niu, Liu Dali, and Duan Changyou, the gunpowder craftsman. Now these three are the directors of the three workshops below Zhu Hongsan.

I found an empty room in the village and the four of them sat down. Zhu Hongsan asked first: "San you guys, tell me how the current production is?"

Lao Liu said first: "Master (because Zhu Hongsan passed on him the steelmaking technique, Lao Liu has always called Master Zhu Hongsan). At present, steel production is very stable. If iron ore can be guaranteed, one furnace of steel can be produced in two days. Now my apprentice has thoroughly grasped the master's blast furnace. If the master agrees, you can build a second blast furnace."

Zhu Hongsan nodded and looked at Tie Niu. Tie Niu saw that it was his turn and said, "At present, the production of weapons is stable, and one hundred horizontal knives can be produced every day, ten armored arms, one hundred grenade shells."

Zhu Hongsan turned to old Duan Tou and said, "Master Duan, how about the gunpowder side?"

Duan Changyou stood up and said, "Reporting to the boss, it is mainly because of too little saltpeter now. Other raw materials are OK, and you can make 70 kilograms of gunpowder every day."

Zhu Hongsan nodded and said, "After Lao Liu has produced iron ore, don't produce it. I'm useful to give all the manpower to the iron cow. Master Duan's gunpowder production will increase. If there is not enough manpower, train it yourself. I will find dozens of children for you to produce and learn while producing. Finally, the iron cow, except for the grenade and the shell, stop all the shells. The shells are only 1,000 per month."

Tie Niu asked: "Brother, why are you all stopping? Do you want to make new weapons?"

Zhu Hongsan said: "I went to Xinyang this time and found that we are now small and cold weapons cannot defeat bandits. So I want to make muskets and cannons."

Tie Niu was shocked and said, "Brother, we don't have firearm craftsmen. No one can make this thing."

Zhu Hongsan glared at him and said, "No one can explore it by himself. Let's start tomorrow."

Old Duan Tou said on the side: "The master should pay attention to our gunpowder is too powerful, and the current bird gun will definitely explode when used."

Zhu Hongsan said: "I will find a way to find a new type of gunpowder. Now everyone has no problem. Go and prepare."

After leaving the factory, Zhu Hongsan came to the military garrison again. First, everyone gathered, Zhu Hongsan commended the meritorious people on this trip to Henan. Then he awarded the deaths. Most of the people who went to Xinyang became third-class privateers, with more military pay and more rights. A small number of outstanding performance were directly promoted to second lieutenants and became officers.

Each person who came back from Henan who was alive was given thirty taels of silver. Each person who died was 100 taels of silver. If there were family members to his family, they would find an orphan to adopt it to continue the incense. All the soldiers were pleased to surrender to this hand, but they did not expect that the superiors would find someone to inherit the incense. This was not afraid that they would die and break the incense. You should know that the ancients were very superstitious. They believed that there was another world after death, and they would eat, drink, defecate and urinate as they were when they were alive. The fact that continuing the incense was too important.

After the reward conference, Zhu Hongsan ordered officers above the company to attend a meeting in the conference room. At the meeting, Zhu Hongsan ordered Ma Jingyuan to recruit 1,000 soldiers. In this way, the army size reached 3,200 and six battalions.

Zhu Hongsan ordered Han Shirong and Zhang Sanqiang, two outstanding company commanders, to serve as the new battalion commanders. Now the six battalion commanders are: the first battalion commander Qian Yong; the second battalion commander Zhao Guodong; the third battalion commander Zhao Guoliang; the fourth battalion commander Zhou Yu; the fifth battalion commander Han Shirong; the sixth battalion commander Zhang Sanqiang. In addition, the guard company commander Zhu Hongyi.

Each battalion still has five hundred people, plus two hundred people from the guard company, which is exactly three thousand two hundred people.

Finally, Zhu Hongsan stood up and said, "The troops were repaired for three days and strengthened their training in three days. Chief of Staff Ma Jingyuan recruited a thousand new recruits within ten days. The commander of the 5th Battalion, the 6th Battalion, led the company and platoon officers to do a good job in training recruits. I will see a trained army at the end of the year. Do you understand?"

All the officers stood up and said, "Yes, sir!"

After the army, Zhu Hongsan went to meet Qian Wanli and Ma Fu from the caravan. Ma Youcai, the head of the caravan in Ma's family, died a few years ago. Ma Youfu was older. Zhu Hongsan asked him to be his housekeeper, and his errand, Ma Youcai's eldest son, took over.

The two reported to Zhu Hongsan about the past five months. The trade routes in Henan have stopped. Now Ma Fu is responsible for Sichuan and Guizhou. Qian Wanli is still in Nanzhili, but he has a relationship with the Zheng family overseas. Zheng Zhilong likes sharp horizontal knives and grenade bullets very much.

Zhu Hongsan said: "Wanli told the Zheng family that there are as many as the horizontal swords. The firearms are not good, we are not enough, so we can't sell them."

Qian Wanli nodded. Zhu Hongsan continued, "Wanli should pay attention to the news about Guangzhou Prefecture. It is best to build a business in the city. I will be useful at that time." He said to Ma Fu again, "Ma Fu, you are the same. You should pay attention to inquire about the information of bandits while making money. When you are in danger, you can throw away the goods, but people must come back safely." Zhu Hongsan knew that talent was rare. After being in charge of his caravan for so many years, it was not easy to cultivate a team of merchants. These people must be of great use in the future. They must not die casually.

Qian Wanli and Ma Fu were very moved when they heard Zhu Hongsan say this. After all, in this era, it is not easy to meet such a boss who pays attention to the safety of his subordinates. They all expressed their efforts to complete Zhu Hongsan's mission.

Zhu Hongsan nodded and asked them to go down and arrange.

It was already dark at this time. Zhu Hongsan looked up at the sky and thought, "I am so miserable. I have been busy for life in my previous life. In the Ming Dynasty, it is not as good as in the previous life. This time I am busy for life."
Chapter completed!