Chapter 364 Chase

According to the principle, each yamen only provides lunch for those who are straightforward, but the families of several civil and military officials are not in Wuchang City, and they often eat for dinner in the kitchen of the official office. Fortunately, the proportion of officials is very small, and the chefs in the official office will also cook for them, and the expenses are calculated for the public.

Zhang Ning planned to rest for a day when he went back tomorrow and not come to the official office. He ate dinner with several civil servants and generals and brought Xu Wenjun to the same seat.

It is rare for women to eat together in such occasions, but everyone knows Xu Wenjun, the granddaughter of Lao Xu.

There are reasonable reasons for this kind of thing. A few people just treat Zhang Ning as a special friend to them in private, and there are also cases where people meet guests with their families.

Although this era is bound by etiquette, having women present can always increase men's interest, and the same is true in ancient and modern times.

Today, everyone has obviously talked more, and all kinds of anecdotes come one after another, and laughed from time to time at the dinner table.

However, Xu Wenjun seemed very low-key, talked little, and her little mother had no airs at all, and everyone liked her very much.

There is a dish on the table, which is Huguang smoked bacon, which is Zhang Ning’s favorite dish.

The texture of the essence is clear, and the color of the fat meat is crystal clear, as if it is not the same as pork. It has a soft mouth and a rosin-like aroma.

He thought it was delicious, so he also picked up a piece for Xu Wenjun. Wenjun's face turned slightly red, and he looked up and looked at other people, looking a little embarrassed.

Seeing this, Chen Gai hurriedly said: Speaking of this bacon, I remembered a laughing thing.

The civil servants just now came up with funny jokes and things, but he didn't know how to say them. At this time, it seemed that there was finally a story to tell.While eating, everyone turned their heads and smiled at him, wanting to hear what was funny.

Chen Gai put down his chopsticks and touched his forehead: That was a few years ago. General Wei didn’t call him General, let’s call him Wei Bin directly, and he sent me out to deliver something.There were some places on the road that were not in front of the village or the shop behind me, so I carried a bag of rice to the road.One day I met a mountain village and rested at a family.The old woman in the house had to cook bacon to entertain her at night because I gave me some copper coins.The bacon was hung high on the wall. When I saw that the old woman was inconvenient to her legs and feet, I went to help get the meat. Unexpectedly, I just took it down and found something moving in the bacon. I reached out and snatched it, guess what it was... Such a big maggot, hahahaha!

Chen Gai stretched out his index finger exaggeratedly and gestured at the size of the maggots.

Everyone looked at each other.

Chen Gai didn't know it, and laughed and said, "The old woman said, "It's okay, you can pick off the maggots and eat meat."

Xu Wenjun just put the smoked bacon that Zhang Ning had put into her bowl into her mouth. When he heard this, his throat squirmed, and his face looked extremely awkward.

After a while, she carefully covered her sleeves and spitted the meat into the bowl.

After a while, she whispered: I'm full, please use it slowly.

……

The next day, when he returned to the Chu Palace, Zhang Ning told Zhou Erniang about this as a joke, but the joke was Chen Gai.

Zhou Erniang smiled and said: But Xiao Xu, she must have been disgusted by eating.

Zhang Ning chatted with Erniang in broad daylight, but wanted to find an opportunity to ask him to write a letter to Zhou Mengxiong so that Zhou Mengxiong would be more willing to accept the changes in the six ministries and absorb the demotion of the officials.

As long as you move them with emotion and reason, think about the overall situation, let Zhou Mengxiong and others put aside their old grudges and win over the bureaucrats and scholars of the Xuande Dynasty, it is still possible.

Since there is a marriage, he believes that Zhou Erniang can play a positive role in the situation at this time.As for the Yao family, Zhang Ning also planned to mainly persuade Yao Ji, and Monk Yao has always listened to his sister very much.

It is obvious that the woman does not have much political stance and is also very unstable. It is much easier to persuade Zhou Erniang than to talk to Zhou Mengxiong.

However, after Zhou Erniang agreed to this matter, Zhang Ning did not leave immediately.

After all, the family is not a battlefield in the officialdom, so it is not good to leave when you achieve your goal, so it lacks a little family warmth; it is like when you are in bed, leaving after you finish it or turning around and sleeping, which is a bad practice.

So he continued to get tired of being in his mother's room on Tuesday.

Zhou Ernie couldn't play the piano, sing, dance, and she couldn't play chess. Her thoughts were also very conservative, just like most serious women.

No wonder many literati and officials in the officialdom kept their wives at home and loved to visit brothels and restaurants. Of course, the literati and officials married good women, but those women in the world were obviously much more open and free.

The two of them were talking nonsense.

After a while, Zhou Ernie came over to measure her body size with a cloth ruler. I saw that you usually change two sets of clothes on the left and right. I was idle now, so I would make you a new set of clothes.

Zhang Ning sat there playing with the flint, turned around and said casually: Now we don’t lack food and clothing, why bother making clothes yourself?

But it’s different. No matter how rich a woman is in the world, she still needs to learn needlework. Besides, I did it myself... Zhou Erniang chuckled, would it be warmer?

Zhang Ning responded: Then make underwear, close to you, and you can even think of it when you haven’t seen you.

Anyway, it doesn’t cost money to say sweet words.

After a while, Zhou Erniang asked curiously again: What are you fiddling with that thing?

If Zhang Ning did something at this time was seen by the scholars and officials, he would definitely be despised, because in the eyes of gentlemen, people who like to play with such gadgets are obviously a sign of lack of ambition.

He was very interested in thinking about the main fire-making tool of this era: the flint scythe.

Chinese characters are very magical. Just think of the sickle next to the golden character, you know that the fire sickle is a kind of metal.

The thing in Zhang Ning's hand is probably made of steel sheets made of repeated forgings, with an arc-shaped bottom; it can rub out Mars with just one stroke on the flint.

Flint is a kind of stone. The one in front of you is carefully processed and has a groove that is easy to operate. Zhang Ning took it in front of the window and observed it carefully and guessed that its material may be mainly quartz, a very strong stone.

In addition to the main tools, the ignezia and flint, there are two other things for ignezia: tinder and touch light.

Tinder is made of tender leaves of mugwort, dried and crushed. When wrapped on the scythe, it can make the blue smoke appear; then it is placed on the touch lamp and it will burn.

As for the contact lamps, it is said that they used paper tubes and hay as catalysts, and they were carefully blown and ignited when they came into contact with tinder. However, gunpowder was widely used in the Ming Dynasty. It was directly used to use gunpowder and ignite with one touch, which was neither necessary to blow the technical work nor convenient.

When Zhou Erniang saw Zhang Ning fiddling with such boring things, she also answered her words, and complained quietly: Are the things that are ignited more interesting than me?

It was because Zhang Ning said sweetly just now that she expressed her dissatisfaction; it was as if the more she spoiled, the more she would be willful.

Zhang Ning quickly turned around and grabbed her hand, let her sit on his knees, and commented: Do you know the firearms used in the army?

Zhou Erniang said angrily because of his intimate actions: I heard a little, but I, a woman, naturally would not fiddle with such a fierce weapon.

Zhang Ning said patiently: The mesh gun we are using at present is to use the mechanism to hit the ignited fuse on the gunpowder. When the gunpowder encounters the fire, it will be boom!It exploded.

He also made movements when he said that, and his hands suddenly raised upwards, boom!

It was a bit funny, and Zhou Erniang didn't pay attention to seeing this and laughed out loud.

He said seriously: But there are too many disadvantages of fire-induced fire, such as what to do if it suddenly goes out on the spot. A group of enemy soldiers rushed over with bright weapons dozens of steps away from the opposite side, but there was only an unlit fire stick in his hand. Think about it, he would definitely scold God in his heart.Especially in foggy weather or when the air is just raining and moist, a little fire on the fuse is very easy to extinguish.In case of night battles, it is dark and the fire rope is lit, and there must be our people in the places with highlights, which is equivalent to pointing out the target of the enemy archers.

If the fire mechanism can be improved, like this stoke flint, many problems will be solved by rubbing the flint into flames by steel sheets, and the rate of fire of the firearm can also be increased.

Zhou Erniang listened carefully, because Zhang Ning could make it clear, she seemed to understand.

If someone else had told her this kind of topic, she would definitely not be interested, but because Zhang Ning said that, she would be very willing to listen.

At this time, a look of admiration appeared in her eyes, as if she thought her husband was very powerful.

Women are born to admire powerful opposite sex, and they like tall and muscular men on the outside, so the so-called handsome and elegant young man who looks weak and handsome may not necessarily win the hearts of women. In addition, smarter and more rational girls like Zhou Erniang also value inner strength more. Inner strength in ancient times can be expressed through the body, but since the Song and Ming dynasties, the status of literati has risen, the strength of literati in society, and talented talents are undoubtedly likely to be favored by women.

This is the background of the popularity of stories about talented men and beautiful women.

Zhou Erniang quickly accepted Zhang Ning, a man who had never known each other as her husband, and it was because she heard that he was very literary. If it were another person, even if he was forced to do so, it would be difficult for her to accept it.

However, after she learned about military technology talents and gained huge benefits, her concepts as a teenager could easily change, and gradually she looked down on the kind of literati who was only good at writing, and began to tend toward Zhang Ning's practical ability.

Her father Zhou Mengxiong once said at home that Zhang Ning's successful reliance on new firearm technology to a large extent.

Zhang Ning sighed slightly: Life is busy in the world, and only at this time can you think about some details that are easy to ignore at the moment.

Zhou Erniang looked up at his face and said casually: Husband is going to hurry up and send someone to make a firearm that uses flintstones to attract fire. Fire sickles and flints can be seen everywhere. If someone in the court thinks about doing it first, aren’t we going to be in a disadvantageous situation?

Zhang Ning smiled confidently and said: It seems that it is difficult for the world to give birth to such a genius for no reason... The imperial government can only follow my footsteps and chase after me.When they find something new, they think about imitating and mass manufacturing, at least one or two years later, and before that, they can only use backward weapons to fight against new things; just like they used bows, arrows, spears and several battles against the combs.