Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 200 Tempering
It would take a few more days to complete the fireworks workshop. After Zhu Shenzhui visited the iron smelting workshop and the mine, he returned to the Hundred Households Office to continue watching Lao Jin and the others' training.

Beating and scolding were indeed effective. After a few days of physical pain, this mob gradually became more organized, and the ranks looked much more orderly than before he left.

But this is just a forced effort. Even after being beaten, some people will still make mistakes and forget. The solution to the problem is to continue to hold high the "Ba Wang Whip".

According to Lao Jin's explanation, this is already good. After all, nearly half of the people selected are children of military households. If they were all children of farmers, it would take a lot of time to reach the current level.

This kind of repetitive training will continue for a long time. Even after the formation is as smooth as fingers and arms, this basic training is still practiced every day in the Qi family army. This is done to let them form conditioned reflexes, so that when an order is issued, it does not need to go through the brain, but is completed directly with muscle memory.

Of course, Lao Jin and the others naturally didn't understand what conditioned reflex was. This was just the experience passed down by the Qi family army, but its purpose and effect were the same.

Wang Jinwu and Lu Yishen were also in the queue. They also had to endure this boring training. Although they performed much better than others, including Li You and several others who Zhu Shenzhu had specifically instructed to be included in the team.

But even so, they suffered a lot of beatings. Take Wang Jinwu for example. He was smart and powerful. He was the best among all the people. But he also had his weaknesses. He loved to show off. After all, he was young, so it was understandable. But if you show off, it would easily disrupt the formation. For this reason, Wang Jinwu was beaten a lot. The three veterans of Lao Jin were not easy to deal with. In addition, with Zhu Shenzhu's instructions, they didn't care who Wang Jinwu was. They would beat him even if he was a general, not to mention a centurion.

What's even more terrible is that although the sticks in the hands of Lao Jin and the other two are thin, they are extremely painful when used to hit people. Moreover, they always hit people hard on the fleshy parts, making them scream in pain but unable to hurt them. After being beaten today, they will still be full of life the next day, leaving them no chance to slack off at all.

After a few times, Wang Jinwu also realized that a good man would not suffer a loss in front of him. He was not stupid, so why would he take a beating? In this way, Wang Jinwu restrained his temper and personality, followed the team training steadily, and his performance became better and better.

Zhu Shenzhu only looked at the results and not the process of training, and would not interfere with the specific arrangements. He had handed all of these over to the three veterans, Lao Jin and the others. And Lao Jin and the other two did not disappoint Zhu Shenzhu's expectations. When Zhu Shenzhu came back from the workshop and saw the current training situation, he was very satisfied.

In the next few days, Zhu Shenzui stayed in the Hundred Households Office, accompanying Lao Jin and others to train these people every day. In his spare time, he would chat with Lao Jin and others about the past battles of the Qi Family Army and ask for some command experience in battle.

Of course, Lao Jin and the other two were not good at large-scale command, but they were the top experts of this era in small-scale combat. Through chatting and communicating with them, Zhu Shenzhui could be said to have benefited a lot, especially because some things could not be felt without experiencing real war, let alone imagined out of thin air.

Not only Zhu Shenzui, as time went on, Zhu Shenzui simply called Wang Jinwu, Lu Yishen, Li You and others over, asking them to listen to Lao Jin and others' battle experience and understand some key points that they needed to know and pay attention to on the battlefield.

Although I know that these are just theories and the real understanding requires one to explore and integrate them in future wars, even so, these experiences are quite valuable and cannot be gained from books. If I understand these now, I can avoid many detours in the future.

"My father is right. If you haven't been in the battlefield and haven't killed anyone on the battlefield, you can't be considered a good soldier. No matter how good your martial arts are, it's useless on the battlefield." Wang Jinwu said this with emotion. He was completely convinced these days. Originally, he thought that training soldiers was a very simple matter, because Wangjia Village had trained soldiers before, and Wang Jinwu, as Wang Rong's only son, naturally participated in it personally.

But he never expected that there was a big difference between training soldiers and practicing soldiers. The training methods and experiences of Lao Jin and others opened his eyes. Through these, he finally understood that in war, what matters is the whole body, and individual bravery can never be the factor that determines victory or defeat.

Before, when the news of the defeat in the Battle of Sarhu came, Wang Jinwu wondered why Liu Jing, the famous and most powerful general of the Ming Dynasty, was defeated and killed.

Liu Jing was extremely famous in the Ming Dynasty, and he was not called the number one general for nothing. You should know that the reason why he was given the nickname Liu Dadao was because he was good at using a broadsword made of iron weighing 140 kilograms.

What does a 140-jin broadsword mean? You should know that the Ming army's standard goose-feather sword weighs only three and a half jin, and long weapons such as spears weigh less than five jin. Even the iron wolf-shaped mace used by the Qi family army weighs no more than seven jin.

In the novel, Guan Yu's Green Dragon Crescent Blade weighs 82 jin, which is already scary, but you have to know that Liu Jing's sword weighs 140 jin, which is more than Guan Erye's sword of 58 jin. Liu Jing could swing such a heavy sword like a wheel, and his bravery can be imagined. It is not an exaggeration to say that he would be injured if touched and killed if touched.

Wang Jinwu thought he was a martial arts expert, but no matter how arrogant he was, he knew that his ability was not even as good as Liu Jing's one hand. But even so, such a brave Liu Jing died on the battlefield. War is definitely not something that can be changed by one person's bravery. Without a reliable army that can exert great combat effectiveness, let alone Liu Jing, even if Xiang Yu and Lu Bu were resurrected, it would be useless. Wang Jinwu's change of mind is a gratifying thing, and it is worthy of Zhu Shenzhu's special arrangement of him into the training team.

Not only Wang Jinwu, but also Lu Yisheng, Li You and others have made some progress, which is all seen. These people are Zhu Shenzhu's trusted team, and their growth is the best, but to what extent they can grow and whether they can really stand on their own in the future, it is too early to say now.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. The fireworks workshop had been completed long ago, and Zhao Da had given the Yao brothers the materials they needed. These days, the Yao brothers were busy in the workshop, making fireworks according to Zhu Shenzhui's requirements.

One day, a message came from the workshop saying that the Yao brothers had made a batch of fireworks and asked Zhu Shenzhu to go over and take a look. Upon hearing the news, Zhu Shenzhu set off immediately and arrived there in the afternoon.

"Are these the fireworks you made?" When they arrived, the Yao brothers came out to greet them. They followed them into the workshop and looked at the pile of fireworks that had already been made and placed on display. Zhu Shenzhui asked.

"Here are the fireworks." Yao Liang nodded and told Zhu Shenzhui that they were the most common fireworks that the two brothers had made in the past few days. Because time was tight and the fireworks were only for effect, they did not work hard on the appearance. If they needed to sell them, they would paste a layer of flower paper on the outside of the fireworks, and the more sophisticated ones would also draw patterns or something.

Zhu Shenzhui asked what kinds of fireworks there were, and Yao Liang pointed at the fireworks and answered one by one: "Master, please look, this is the golden cup and silver table, this is the white peony, this is the pine, bamboo and plum, this is the water bottle flower, this is the purple grape, this is the big pear flower, and this is the golden basin to catch the moon..."

Yao Liang explained to Zhu Shencui one by one that in addition to these more exquisite fireworks, there were also the most common "ground rats, starting wheels, shooting stars, etc." There were a total of sixteen kinds. In addition to the fireworks, there were also the firecrackers and firecrackers that Zhu Shencui requested, a full pile.

Zhu Shenzhui knew nothing about fireworks. Although he was a member of the royal family, his family was so poor at that time that they even had to smuggle salt. How could he have extra money to play with such things?

What's more, Shanxi is not the prosperous Jiangnan, and it cannot be compared with places like Nanzhili. Except for the rich and powerful families, ordinary people will not buy this stuff all year round. At best, they will buy a string of firecrackers during the New Year, and then make two firecrackers to set off, and at most buy the cheapest ground mouse, and that's considered satisfying.

Zhu Shenzui had seen many varieties of fireworks in later generations, but he did not expect that the fireworks of the Ming Dynasty had developed to this level. This was because Zhu Shenzui gave the Yao brothers such a short time, and due to time and material limitations, some more complicated and sophisticated fireworks could not be produced. According to the Yao brothers, except for a few special fireworks, they had no problem making 90% of the fireworks varieties of the Ming Dynasty.

Looking at the fireworks, Zhu Shenzhui was quite happy. He didn't want to play around, but asked the Yao brothers to do this to see what their actual abilities were.

Seeing that it would be dark in just over an hour, Zhu Shenzhui planned to try out the fireworks after dark. He simply stayed in the workshop, drinking tea and asking the Yao brothers about the techniques of making fireworks. Although many of the techniques were secrets of the fireworks craftsmen, Zhu Shenzhui was their boss, and he would not learn these techniques to steal their jobs. Except for keeping some key techniques in reserve, the Yao brothers were willing to tell him everything they knew.

After chatting for a long time, Zhu Shenzui also benefited a lot. Although the Yao brothers, as fireworks craftsmen, mostly rely on teaching and experience on some technical issues, and theoretically they can't explain them at all, it has to be admitted that the traditional craftsmen still have their skills, and these experiences and methods are the result of continuous exploration from generation to generation, which can be regarded as a model of theory into practice.

It was getting dark and the sun had already set, so Zhu Shenzui stopped talking and wanted to try out the fireworks they had made.

Since the boss had made a request, the Yao brothers naturally would not refuse. Moreover, they were very confident in the quality of the fireworks they made. They immediately moved the fireworks outside, and after arranging them, they obtained Zhu Shenzhui's consent before lighting them with a fire stick.

The fireworks were beautiful and unique. The Yao brothers were not exaggerating. Although not as gorgeous and colorful as those in later generations, it was already worthy of admiration in this era.

After the fireworks are over, light the firecrackers and cracklers. Listen to the crackling and banging sounds. The mountain breeze blows, and the smell of gunpowder fills your nose.

(End of this chapter)