After capturing Huizhou City, Zhang Shuheng's Jinyiwei began to become active again. The gentry, Guangdong maritime merchants and others in the city were affected. The Jinyiwei searched the gentry and maritime merchants and searched the houses. Some of the gentry who were extremely guilty were taken directly to the open space outside the city and cut off their heads with one knife. While the Jinyiwei was searching Huizhou gentry, Li Guodong visited various major iron smelting workshops, blacksmith shops and iron shops in Huizhou City. There are dozens of iron smelting workshops in Huizhou, second only to Foshan. The steel produced by these workshops is of high quality, but the specifications are different.

There is a steel produced by an iron company that is just around the corner of Li Guodong. This steel has a soft texture and is not that hard, but has very good wear resistance and toughness. It is a good material that is very suitable for rifling guns to be made of rifled guns. Some steel is very hard and has good elasticity. Although it is not as good as Sugang, the cost is much lower than Sugang. As long as Li Guodong uses his own knowledge to slightly improve this steel sheet, it is an excellent material for mass production of flintlock spring steel sheets.

Some iron produced by iron stores is of high quality, toughness and strong, and is almost about to reach the performance of copper. If this iron is used to cast iron cannons, the barrel wall can be made as thin as copper cannons, and iron is more important than copper. Such artillery is very lightweight, so you can abandon the expensive copper cannons and cast land war iron cannons on a large scale.

The most troublesome problem at present is that each private iron shop has implemented technical retention and will never spread its own unique secrets. This makes it difficult to expand the scale, unite all iron shops and establish a large-scale steel company.

"Shopkeeper Zhao, you send an invitation in the name of Xinyuantang, inviting all the shopkeepers of the Tiexing in Huizhou to come to my Duke's Mansion tomorrow." Li Guodong said to Zhao Xiancheng.

Zhao Xiancheng came from Hangzhou specifically to build a Guangdong branch of Xinyuantang. However, before the Xinyuantang Guangdong branch, which mainly produces canned food and dry goods, was established, Li Guodong asked him to go to Huizhou with the army.

"Please rest assured that Caomin will definitely call them all over. If anyone dares not come, Caomin will tie them up even if they tie them up." Zhao Xiancheng replied.

Li Guodong said: "There is no need to be tied up. It is their own business if they don't come. Those who don't come will regret it in the future. Of course, you should also think about how to make them moved. This way, tell them that the Duke of China is going to establish the Guangdong Iron and Steel Group Corporation and let them discuss cooperation matters."

As a businessman, Zhao Xiancheng is not unfamiliar with the term company. Didn’t the Thais have two East India companies? One is the East India company of the British, in India; the other is the East India company of the Netherlands, in Java. The so-called company is a kind of money-making institution, equivalent to the Ming Dynasty’s business.

Zhao Xiancheng personally visited dozens of iron stores in Huizhou, and used his fair share of his tongue to persuade the bosses of the iron store to go to the Duke's Mansion for a banquet tomorrow.

When every invitation was sent out, the boss of Tiexing took it timidly, nodding and bowing repeatedly, saying that it will definitely come tomorrow.

In fact, it was not that Zhao Xiancheng's clever mouth played a role, but that the bosses of the Iron Street were afraid. The Duke of the State invited everyone to the banquet, who dared not to go?

Zhao Xiancheng left the home of a boss named Tao Gui. Tao Gui was holding the invitation from the Duke of Chu's Mansion in his hand, as if he was holding a death talisman in his hand.

"What should I do? What should I do? This prince is not the Hongmen Banquet? He took us Tiexing shopkeepers in his mansion and then cut them with one knife?" Tao Gui was like an ant in the hot pan and was circling around the lobby.

There are rumors in Huizhou City that the Duke of the State killed people like a slaughter. He killed people in Chaozhou Prefecture alone, and it is said that at least hundreds of thousands of people were killed. Moreover, the Duke of the State especially hated the rich, and especially liked to kill the rich and confiscated their property. However, these Tiexing bosses also heard that the Duke of the State killed people and seized money, but in fact, he came to Guangdong to kill the rich people in accordance with the edict of the foolish emperor.

"Old man, what are you afraid of? We have not violated the law, why should he make things difficult for you?" asked Tao Gui's wife Liu.

"Hey, madam, how can you know? The Duke of Chu came to Guangdong and killed people with the order! He was the imperial edict of the foolish emperor in Nanjing to kill innocent people in order to rob money! He heard that the foolish emperor was so poor that his pants were broken, so he stared at us in Guangdong. Although our family is not a rich man, it is quite good. The Duke of the country must have focused on our property." Tao Gui sighed.

"What should I do?" Liu was shocked, "Old man, otherwise you should run away quickly and pack your luggage and run away."

"Where to go?" Tao Gui shook his head, "If the monk runs away, he can't run away from the temple. If I run away, will our iron store and our family run away? Then all of them will fall into the hands of the tyrant monarchs and treacherous ministers? Forget it, since he will ask us to attend the banquet, then don't run away. At worst, I can stretch my head and get a knife, so I can guarantee you all."

"Old man, the Duke of the State will not set up a Hongmen Banquet to kill you, come and search our house again?" Liu asked worriedly.

Tao Gui replied: "I guess no. If we really want to confiscate our home, their Jinyiwei would have visited us long ago, and we would have sent us an invitation in one go. I'm afraid they just want us to spend some money to buy our lives. Maybe we can't come back, but you should be fine. The shopkeeper of Xinyuantang came to deliver the invitation just now, saying that cooperation might be just to let us spend some money to eliminate disasters."

Most of the Tiexing bosses have the same thoughts as Tao Gui, and they all believe that Zhao Xiancheng came to visit and cooperate, which is actually to allow them to spend money and eliminate disasters.

Luo Yuanfeng, the boss of Tongtai Iron Store, also planned to lose money and eliminate disasters. He secretly thought in his heart, how much money would be spent tomorrow? Luo Yuanfeng said to his wife Zhang: "Madam, Duke Chu just asked us to lose money and eliminate disasters, and did not mean to kill us. You also know that many rich people in Huizhou have been killed in the past few days? It was the Jinyiwei who came directly to search the house. And what about our family? The Jinyiwei has not come to the house yet."

"Why didn't Jinyiwei cause trouble for us?" Zhang asked.

Luo Yuanfeng said: "Madam, our family is a smelter. If Duke Chu wants to fight, he needs to use iron. He invites us to banquets, perhaps because he hopes we can take out the iron for them, rather than just asking us to give him silver."

"Then let's spend some money and eliminate disasters." Zhang said.

"I don't know the specific situation, but I will only know when I go to the Duke of Chu's Mansion tomorrow. However, the Duke of the State sent an invitation and we came to visit us, so we still have to bring some gifts over there."

At noon the next day, all the shopkeepers of the Iron Walk in Huizhou City went to the door of the temporary residence of Duke Chu of Huizhou. No one ran away because they were worried that if they ran away, their family's property and family would not be able to escape. If they ran away and angered the Duke, they would probably be executed by the whole family.

Luo Yuanfeng walked to the gate of the Duke's Mansion, followed by four servants, carrying two heavy boxes.

The guards at the door stopped Luo Yuanfeng: "What are you doing?"

Luo Yuanfeng handed over the invitation: "Two soldiers, the villain came to the banquet at the invitation of the Duke of the Kingdom." As he said that, Luo Yuanfeng took out a gift list from his sleeve and handed it on: "Two soldiers, this is the gift list given to the Duke of the Kingdom."

"Open the box to check!" a guard drank.

Luo Yuanfeng dared not be negligent, so he quickly asked the servant to open the box.

The box contained various gifts such as gold, silver and treasures, exquisite porcelain, silk, ginseng, fur, etc. The soldiers checked the box and put Luo Yuanfeng and his servants in the mansion.

The boss of the Iron Street behind lined up in sequence, handed over the invitations and gift list. After the soldiers checked their gifts, they put them in the mansion.
Chapter completed!