"Why did Mr. Pu return to the court now?"

Zhao Xu looked at the letters sent by Tongshi and asked Shi Deyi beside him.

As early as the Gengyin day (ninth day of the lunar month before the Zhang Dunli case, he and the two palaces jointly issued the command of the surrender and sent someone to recall Pu Zongmeng.

Zhao Xu remembered it very clearly that day was the day when Zhang Dun's father Zhang Yu passed away.

Nowadays, Cui Taifu, who is in Luzhou, has been in Beijing for a few days.

Pu Zongmeng, who is less than 400 miles away from the capital and can travel most of the journeys, has been delayed and has arrived in Bianjing until almost May.

Is this normal?

Not normal!

So, what did he do on the road?

Shi Deyi lowered his head and said, "Everyone, the Investigation Department reported that Mr. Pu seemed to have turned back once on the road and visited friends in Xuzhou..."

"Xuzhou?" Zhao Xu pursed his lips: "Have he gone to see Song Yongchen?"

Shi Deyi lowered his head and trembled: "I dare not speak nonsense!"

That's to meet Song Yongchen!

Since February this year, Song Yongchen has brought a large number of craftsmen and imperial guards to Xuzhou to preside over the comprehensive transformation of Li Guojian.

The main thing is to repair the blast furnace!

Since the eighth year of Yuanfeng, the Specialized Military Manufacturing Bureau has been repairing blast furnaces outside Bianjing, mastering the construction technology of reflector furnaces, and successively breaking through basic iron smelting technologies such as refractory bricks.

By the second half of last year, refined iron, or even crude steel could be produced stably.

Easy to use, the craftsmen who specialize in the manufacturing of the Military Equipment Bureau also reproduced the ductile iron from the Qin and Han Dynasties.

Yes, you read that right!

According to modern archaeological discoveries, as early as the Western Han Dynasty, Chinese craftsmen had mastered the black technology smelting technology of ductile iron.

However, for some reason, after the Western Han Dynasty, ductile iron was lost.

In the Nanyang area, a huge large iron smelting workshop site with thousands of craftsmen was even discovered. There are as many as seventeen large iron smelting furnaces in the site!

It covers an area of ​​more than 120,000 square meters!

The records in the biography of Gong Yu in the Han Book of Han are reflected in reality: Nowadays, the Han family minted coins and all the iron officials have set up officials and soldiers to attack the mountains to obtain copper and iron, and they have earned more than 100,000 people a year!

The records in the theory of salt and iron were also confirmed: the powerful and powerful men in the past picked iron and stone drums and cooked seas into salt. The family gathered more than a thousand...

It is state-owned, and both private enterprises are flourishing!

Therefore, it is very reasonable for the Han army to be the Five Barbarians.

Unfortunately, the industrial foundation and technology that the Western Han Dynasty, a thousand years ago, was not as good as the Song Dynasty, a thousand years later.

Although the iron smelting industry in the Song Dynasty was also very large.

But big but not strong, big but not refined!

Before Xining, the quality of the military weapons of the Song Dynasty was even worse than that of the Dangxiang people!

The arrows do not penetrate the leather armor, the bow string is soft, the parts of the crossbow are broken, and even the weapons are not as good as those of the Dangxiang people - many soldiers' swords cannot cut the Dangxiang people's armor at all, and they cannot break the defense!

Therefore, the Western Army has been advocating iron maces and heavy axes, which are powerful and heavy armor-breaking weapons.

I've been cheated so badly!

I can only believe that these heavy and heavy weapons are now!

So it was natural that Sanchuankou, Haoshuichuan, Dingchuanzhai were defeated in three battles!

It is precisely because of this that Wang Anshi wanted to establish a military weapon supervisor, coordinate the country's skilled craftsmen and resources, and promote military weapon production as a national key project and as the main line of reform.

It is precisely because Zhao Xu's father wanted to establish a specialized bureau for the manufacture of military weapons, and the production of military weapons was controlled by the royal family.

These are all lessons from the Song and Xia war!

Fortunately, now with the reflector technology, after breaking through the refractory bricks.

The new blast furnace is larger, better and stronger than the ones in the Western Han Dynasty, and has higher production efficiency.

Especially the invention of large-scale hydraulic blowers has enabled blast furnace iron smelting to scale.

The only problem is...

All kinds of technologies today still need iteration.

The high temperature resistance of refractory bricks is not strong enough, the construction technology of reflectors is not mature enough, and the design of flue and fire channels still needs to be improved... Therefore, the life of the blast furnace is very short.

Once the life span is reached, a new one must be built.

But it doesn't matter!

With a reflector, you can use coal to smelter iron.

With these blast furnaces, the fine iron and crude steel reserves in Zhao Xu's hands have reached the peak since the founding of the Song Dynasty.

With iron, you can do all kinds of things.

But it's not enough!

Therefore, starting this year, Song Yongchen went to Xuzhou to join the position of the provincial eunuch. In order to promote the official affairs of the Liguojian in Xuzhou, Zhao Xuan took over the sites, workers and mines of the Liguojian.

Xuzhou produces coal and also has iron ore. There are several large steel companies in modern times.

Although the output is not as good as Tangshan, it is also considered a heavy industrial base in modern times.

Therefore, there is no shortage of local resources.

that is……

Zhao Xu never thought that Song Yongchen and Pu Zongmeng could actually get together.

Zhao Xu was not worried about Song Yongchen's loyalty.

However, it is not a good thing for an in-house minister to get too close to a civil servant.

Zhao Xu did not forget how Zhang Mao used his relationship with his old party ministers to reveal the news that the world knew about the news of the ban.

"What did they talk about?" Zhao Xu asked.

Shi De shook his head: "The Investigation Department is not clear, has Mr. Pu ever seen Song Ai Ban..."

"I just know that Mr. Pu is in Xuzhou. He met the Master of Xuzhou, and also met the deputy envoy of the Dujianghuai 6th Road Delivery... "

"The Master of the Master's Way?" Zhao Xu asked, "Who is this?"

"He was surnamed Chen and was a good friend to Dengzhou Chen Shi..."

"Oh!" Zhao Xu knew, Chen Shidao, one of the six gentlemen of Su family, known as modern people!

This person is Zeng Gong's student and has taken it as his responsibility to promote Zeng Gong's literary thoughts throughout his life.

Su Shi liked him very much and always wanted to pry Zeng Gong's corner.

With Su Shi's charm, he should have been invincible.

However, Chen Shidao said: I have always had a fragrance, I respect it for Zeng Nanfeng!

There is only one teacher in my heart, that is Mr. Zeng Gong, Mr. Nanfeng!

The bearded man likes scholars like Chen Shidao.

On the contrary, the more I liked him, I kept recommending this person to the court throughout the Yuanyou era.

However, Su Shi would not have thought that his love soon became a poison for Chen Shidao.

During the Shaosheng era, the new party came to power to counterattack. Chen Shidao was exterminated into the old party of Yuanyou because of his relationship with Su Shi and was directly dismissed from office.

Originally, Chen Shidao should have a bright future - he was Zeng Gong's student.

And can Zeng Gong and Wang Anshi have more to say?

Therefore, it is reasonable for Pu Zongmeng to go to see Chen Shidao.

Because Chen Shidao was not only a student of Zeng Gong, but also a friend of Su Shi's brothers.

Pu Zongmeng's daughter married Su Guo, the son of Su Che.

They are in-laws!

that is……

"When did Cai Bian arrive in Xuzhou?" Zhao Xu asked curiously.

"This month's Xinmao..."

Zhao Xu forgot it, Xinmao day is the tenth day of the first lunar month.

In other words, the day after Zhang Dun's father's death came to the capital.

At that time, Cai Bian must have known that Zhang Dun was going to be filial.

Then Shi Deyi continued, "The Investigation Office has reported that Cai Fayun went to Jiangning before going to Xuzhou to pay homage to Wang Sikong..."
To be continued...