Chapter 534 Huifeng Grain Store

In the days that followed, Jia Lian’s main focus was on the Shenji Camp and matters related to welcoming the imperial concubine to the royal family.

In the blink of an eye, August comes, and the third day of the lunar month is Jia Mu’s birthday again.

According to custom, Jia Mu’s birthday usually involves a three-day banquet.

This year, because we are busy with wedding arrangements, this is the biggest happy event for the Jia family, even Jia’s mother’s birthday has to be ranked second.

So Jia’s mother spontaneously said that on that day, she would invite all the clan members and relatives and friends to come and have a good time.

Just the day before Jia Mu’s birthday party, Shenji Camp also had good news.

Wu Youquan sent someone to tell Jia Lian that the modification of the flintlock gun was effective and invited him to the launch site to observe the test.

Jia Lian was a little excited when he got the news, and hurriedly came to the launch site of the Fire Gun Bureau.

At this time, there were many people around the site, most of whom were officials and craftsmen from the Gun Bureau and Artillery Bureau.

Since ancient times, the superior has something good, and the inferior must follow it. Since Jia Lian, the commander, took office and showed his unique emphasis on firearms, officials and other personnel in the Shenji Camp inevitably paid more attention to firearms.

Some people, seeing the excellent treatment received by Wu Youquan and others, turned around and devoted themselves to the intensive research of firearms with envy.

Wu Youquan and his assistants had already set up a battle array in the field. Seeing Jia Lian approaching, Wu Youquan immediately went forward to report: "I am reporting to the Marquis. Last time, the villain Xiang Hou The flint-loaded fire blunderbuss that I reported has been cast.

And it can really fire!"

Jia Lian was shocked when he heard this: "Show me Look."

Wu Youquan was ordered to personally fetch the firecracker from the table and offer it to Jia Lian with both hands.

Jia Lian took it and took a look. The brand new gun body was double-barreled. The gun body was very heavy to hold, and it looked very lethal.

After checking the barrel of the gun, Jia Lian smiled and asked: "How is the firing effect?"

"How about I show it to the Marquis in person?"

Jia Lian nodded, and Wu Youquan took the gun and returned to the desk. He took a long breath, and then carefully began to load the ammunition.

After all, this was the first public appearance of the flintlock gun in the Wei Dynasty. Jia Lian did not rush it. Instead, he took the time to look at the distance from the firing point to the target. It was estimated by visual inspection that it was about two hundred steps.

Two or three hundred steps, even for the fire guns of this era, it is not a unique effective range.

This is also an advantage of firecrackers over bows and arrows. After all, even a powerful marksman would be unable to effectively kill the enemy at this distance.

Soon Wu Youquan was ready. He looked back at Jia Lian. At Jia Lian's signal, Fang was so angry that he raised his gun and pulled the trigger in front of everyone's attention.

With the loud sound of gold and stone hitting each other, the people around looked at each other and asked questions.

　“Did it go out?”

　　“Did it hit?”

　The target observers who had been prepared for a long time were also half Confused, he trotted to the target and checked it repeatedly.

But those with sharp eyes have noticed that the bullet was not fired at all. Others also saw clues from Wu Youquan's excited to regretful expression.

Jia Lian sighed, obviously the first shot failed.

But he was not too surprised. In the past three months, he had often gone to the forging barracks to participate in and guide Wu Youquan and others' transformation work. Therefore, he clearly knew that even with him as a prophet, it would not be easy for the technology of flintlock guns to mature from scratch.

From manual ignition to automatic ignition, this is a leap-forward progress in itself, and it is normal to have difficulties.

"Please give the villain another chance, Mr. Hou. The launch was really successful at the small shooting range behind the barracks. The villain really did not lie. They can all testify for the villain."

Wu Youquan put down his gun and explained to Jia Lian with some anxiety. After all, it was Jia Lian who he had excitedly invited, but the result was like this, which made him very upset and self-blame.

Jia Lian waved his hand and said in a calm tone: "I will give you two more chances."

If all three shots failed, it means that this time the gunfire failed. The transformation of the firing gun was a failure.

After hearing Jia Lian’s words, Wu Youquan bowed gratefully, then picked up the blunderbuss again, carefully recalled the reason for the failure of the launch, finally reloaded the ammunition, raised the blunderbuss again, and held his breath and pressed down trigger.

"Bang!!"

The loud sound of the launch sounded again. Those with sharp ears and eyes can clearly feel that this sound is not only clearer than the previous one, but also more visible. As far as he could see, he could clearly see the fierce flash of fire in the barrel of the long gun in Wu Youquan's hand.

At this time, Wu Youquan was looking down at the black smoke coming out of the barrel of the gun, looking excited.

From the fire gunWith the huge recoil, he knew clearly that the launch was successful! But he was not too eager to show off. Instead, he winked at the people next to him and asked them to go up and check the target.

There was no need for them to step forward to check. The target guard had already exclaimed loudly: "Hit, hit, hit!!"

Hearing this sound , Wu Youquan dared to turn around and smile at Jia Lian.

Jia Lian also nodded approvingly at him. Although it took the second shot to succeed, its success means that the transformation is in the right direction.

In the future, it will just increase the probability of success.

But with this kind of firearm that does not rely on manual ignition, firecrackers, also known as muskets, have the real possibility of crushing and replacing bows and arrows on the battlefield!

Soon, the officials of the Fire Gun Bureau asked someone to carry the huge wooden rake over, and Jia Lian personally came forward to inspect it.

The power is very good, the small and heavy lead bullet has penetrated three points into the wood. This effect is extremely likely to be fatal even if it hits soldiers wearing ordinary armor.

After re-testing a few rounds and confirming that there was no danger of the gun exploding, Wu Youquan and others asked Jia Lian to test-fire in person.

After some experiments, Jia Lian found that the reason for the failure of launch was that the flint loaded inside sometimes did not fire at all. If the gunpowder cannot be ignited, the launch will naturally not be successful. Therefore, Jia Lian asked Wu Youquan to try to change the type of flint and improve the launch mechanism.

Wu Youquan nodded and said: "But this kind of flint is the easiest to start a fire in the entire Shenji camp."

Jia Lian thought for a while. , said: "Well, I will ask someone to go to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War later to see if they can provide more flint for us to test."

Wu Youquan heard this and thanked Jia Lian in surprise. , this is the advantage of having support from above. If he didn't have the ability, he would ask people from the Ministry of War and Ministry of Industry to help.

After the test was over, Jia Lian, looking at the people gathered around him, announced in public that he would reward Wu You with one hundred taels of silver as promised, and the officials and craftsmen who assisted him in the development also received rewards.

Seeing that because of being appreciated by Jia Lian, even the officials began to congratulate and even compliment Wu Youquan. The other craftsmen were very jealous.

Jia Lian promptly announced that all craftsmen in the Shenji Camp who are interested in firearms can apply to work in the Firearms Camp. He also focused on retaining the officials and craftsmen of the Artillery Bureau, promising that as long as they could improve various types of artillery on the existing basis, he would not be stingy with praise and rewards.

As soon as these words came out, the people in the Artillery Bureau were in high spirits.

Especially the officials in charge of the artillery bureau, they knew that since Jia Lian took office as deputy commander, he made a special trip to the imperial court to apply for special funds in order to improve the development of firearms.

Shenjiying was originally a deserted yamen with insufficient oil and water. Now that Jia Lian is here, there are many people who want to fawn over and reap benefits.

Seeing them like this, Jia Lian smiled and made suggestions, asking them to work more on "flowering bombs".

Explosive bullets are a breakthrough attempt compared to solid bullets that only rely on powerful impact to cause damage after being fired.

It is a cannonball that contains gunpowder in an iron shell and ignites it with a fuse. After it hits the ground, the iron shell will explode and cause damage with shrapnel.

Such artillery shells existed in the previous dynasty. Of course, it is very crude and has many drawbacks and shortcomings. It has been basically abandoned in both the previous and current dynasties.

Jia Lian naturally knows that the truth is only within the range of the cannon, and a cannon whose shells can fall to the ground and explode is a cannon in the true sense!

However, Jia Lian knew that the transformation of cannons would definitely be much slower than that of fire cannons.

But he is not afraid. When the transformation of the cannon is effective, he will have to consider instigating the emperor to establish a new navy.

After inquiring and analyzing, Jia Lian has determined that now is the period when the Age of Discovery is emerging!

To build a powerful naval fleet and compete with the Western powers for the right to speak in the Age of Discovery is the biggest goal set by Jia Lian at the moment.

For this point, he is quite successful. Because, through his research, he found that Western weapons and equipment should be more advanced than those of the Wei Dynasty, but they were limited.

Therefore, there is still plenty of time left for him.

Another important point is that the current navy of the Wei Dynasty is exactly the team built by Rong Guofu.

After Taizu established his country, he also built a navy to combat water pirates and pirates.

To build a navy, you naturally need warships. At that time, it was Rong Guogong who was responsible for supervising the construction of warships and building naval bases for the Navy.

(In the original work, Jia Lian’s nanny Zhao talked about Taizu’s southern tour. She once mentioned that when she first remembered, the Jia family was in the Suyang area, “supervising the construction of sea boats and repairing seawalls. ", and extend accordingly.)

It can be said that the foundation of the navy of the Wei Dynasty was laid by Rong Guogong.

As the grandson of Duke Rong, it is naturally easier for him to intervene in the navy's affairs than others.

But no matter whatSaid, this matter is still a long way to go.

When he returned home, Jia Yunhou was waiting for him at the gate of the east cross courtyard.

Jia Yun, as a rare descendant of the Jia family, was valued by Jia Lian. Jia Lian initially asked him to be an errand boy in the Military and Horse Department, which was equivalent to his working secretary.

There is no way, although this guy is clever, he is not good at writing or martial arts, so he can only do some common things.

Later, the scholar-gong, no, now it should be said that everyone is governed by the same principle. After Gu Danfeng, the third son of the Gu family, took up the post of "master" in the Army and Horses Division, Jia Yun's role in the Army and Horses Division became smaller. Jia Lian recalled Jia Yun to help him manage family affairs.

Now more than a year has passed, and the young boy at the beginning is now barely mature.

It just so happened that Jia Lian had the idea of ​​starting a business this year, so he wanted to let this kid try it.

Firstly, this boy is young and energetic. Secondly, compared with Sun Zairen, the shopkeeper of Juxian Tower, he is a descendant of the Jia family and is responsible for managing the property under the Jia family’s name. Makes sense.

"Second Uncle, the matter of the grain store has been settled, and the He family finally agreed to sell their He's Grain Store, including tens of thousands of stones of grain in stock, for thirty thousand taels. Sell ​​them all to us." As soon as they met, Jia Yun stepped forward to help Jia Lian and said with a cheerful smile.

Although Jia Lian didn't like his flattering appearance, he also knew that everyone has his own way of survival. At least this kid had a very upright mind. In this way, tact can be said to be his advantage.

"Thirty thousand taels, the price is a bit low. But you used your status as the Jia family to threaten you?"

Since returning from the Xue family's night banquet, Jia Lian has Let people start to expand the scale of Juxian Tower, build a winery, and establish some matters of grain bank.

The first two things need to be done slowly, but when it comes to setting up a grain store, Jia Lian decided to take Baochai's suggestion and buy the entire grain store. No matter how big or small, it can save him time. Save effort.

This He's Food Store was the best option given to him by the people below after asking about it.

Jia Yun knows that Jia Lian is usually easy to talk to, but when it comes to serious matters, he is as strict as running an army, so when he heard this, he quickly explained: "Second uncle is wronged, how dare we.
< br />Originally, we went to find them because we found out that the He family had problems with their cash flow.

The scale of their grain store was not that big at first, and their business was not as good as that of other stores in Beijing. Several big companies dared to ask for such high prices only because we came to them.

Later, they saw that we were not easy to fool, so they slowly relented. Of course, this was also thanks to the Xue family.The help of the two shopkeepers, otherwise we would not know the secrets, and we would naturally suffer a loss.

But the He family said that the 30,000 taels of silver must be paid in cash and paid in one lump sum, and then they will assist us in all handover management. "

When Jia Lian heard this, he said directly: "Promise them. ”

For Jia Lian, he is neither short of cash flow nor afraid of the He family daring to cheat, so he naturally does not need to think as much as ordinary businessmen.

Jia Yun He also felt that there was no problem, and then asked Jia Lian for instructions: "When a new grain store is established, it must have a name. Should it be named directly after the family like other companies, and be called 'Jia's Grain Store'? ”

Jia Lian thought for a while and shook his head.

Although the dynasty did not prohibit nobles from doing business, the vast majority of nobles still maintained their own identities and would not participate in business. , at least they won’t end up in person.

There is no need for them to let the grain store walk outside under the name of "Jia". It seems too arrogant, and for other businessmen, it is too public. It seems unfair and a bit bullying.

"Let's call it 'Huifeng Grain Bank'. The world is rich and we gather it together to benefit people's livelihood. "

Jia Lian picked up a name casually, and Jia Yun immediately shouted: "Okay, Second Uncle is a great name. It sounds smooth and has a good meaning. Later, we will have people make these words from the second uncle into a plaque and use it as the signboard of our grain store! ”

Jia Lian didn’t even bother to look at this toady again. He turned around and was about to go home. After thinking about it, he backed out and came to Ningguo Mansion.