Chapter 42

"Use the wire drawing method to make the spring steel wire I told you about, and add it to the gap between the axle and the frame. This will improve the load-bearing capacity, and the cart can carry more with less effort."

"Yes, sir."

The addition of four-wheel steering and springs was a great invention in the history of carriages. In fact, China had four-wheeled war chariots in its early days, but the steering and axle problems were not solved, and the horse battles were very primitive, later being replaced by cavalry. As a result, the development of vehicles in China stagnated. Nowadays, whether it's four-wheeled or two-wheeled carriages in the north, they are not the main means of transportation. The real main force is the single-wheeled handcart. This kind of cart was still seen in the countryside during Zhang Han's childhood, which shows how strong its vitality is. A family going on a long trip, the male head of the household would wear a leather belt over his shoulder, with women, children, and luggage sitting in front, pushing the cart on the field ridges and ditches, walking briskly. At that time, the carts already had rubber tires, which could carry more weight, and it was easy to push three or four hundred pounds, and they could travel fifty to sixty miles a day without any problem. The victory of the Liberation War was achieved by millions of civilian workers pushing these carts.

Here in Datong, the most commonly used vehicle by the people is still this small cart. The number of middle-class and wealthy households is insufficient, so the demand for carriages is not high. Zhang Han needs to engage in large-scale smuggling and use logistics to run a large account business, ultimately integrating the logistics and financial industries in the north and making a fortune through smuggling. His need for carriages far exceeds that of ordinary merchants.

Zhang Han finally said, "There are more people in the carriage group, so let's reward them based on the number of people. Each person gets five taels, and Li Changgan gets twenty."

This result pleased everyone. The two foremen exchanged glances and then turned their heads. They naturally wanted to advance further, but it seemed that there was no such opportunity for the time being.

A group of craftsmen respectfully escorted Zhang Han out. Just as he was about to leave, Yang Qiu hurried over and said, "Sir, there's some trouble at Tiancheng Wei. Li Zhanggan was beaten up."

Li Yuchun had been collecting grain outside since the end of the year, and over the past two months, he had collected tens of thousands of shi of grain. This person could endure hardship and had redeemed himself through his performance. Zhang Han's dissatisfaction with him had already diminished. Hearing Yang Qiu's words, Zhang Han frowned and said, "You're talking in a disjointed manner. Start from the beginning and explain clearly."

"Yes..." Yang Qiu took a breath, recalled, and then said, "Some families have started harvesting wheat recently, and the grain prices have dropped. Li Ergui has about four thousand taels of silver, which is enough to buy tens of thousands of shi of grain. He has set up collection points in Zhenlu Wei and Tiancheng Wei, collecting over a hundred shi of grain each day. Our grain prices are fair and much higher than those of the small grain stores, so the people prefer to sell to our collection points. We don't cheat on the scales, and more people have come to sell grain. Even people from Guangling and Lingqiu in Weizhou have come to inquire. The owners of the grain stores there are panicked and have sent people to invite him to drink and visit brothels, but Ergui ignored them. As a result, some ruffians from the fighting guilds came and beat up Ergui, and the grain stores were also smashed. They have been unable to collect grain for several days."

"Who is the main person behind this, and how many families are involved?"

"I'm not quite clear on this. The person who reported it didn't say."

Zhang Han looked at Yang Qiu and said, "I often teach you to remain calm when faced with problems, not to make a fuss, not to show your emotions, to listen carefully, and to understand the key points. Then come and tell me. Go and find out the details of the matter. Take two people, ride fast horses to Tiancheng Wei, and find out everything clearly before coming back to report to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

Yang Qiu felt very competent in these matters. The old hands of the fighting guilds were originally very good at gathering information. After all, the fighting guilds had many enemies, and they needed to investigate the background of all parties to make money. Beating people was just one way the fighting guilds made money. Gathering and selling information, extortion, and kidnapping were also common, and each fighting guild had various professionals. Yang Qiu was one of them.

Liang Hong looked anxious. After the craftsmen returned and there were no idle people around, he whispered to Zhang Han, "This might be the work of the Fan family. They have always collected grain at this time, colluding with the government to post notices early to collect arrears, causing chaos everywhere. These large grain merchants then take the opportunity to lower the prices and collect grain. The people, when pressed by the clerks and ruffians, have no choice but to sell at low prices, sometimes even for one tael for three shi or more. They also cheat on the scales, and their various tricks are despicable. Last time, Li Mingda sold his grain to us and suffered a loss. This person has a small heart, and the Fan family is not one to tolerate others. If it weren't for the good relations you have, they would have already taken action against us. This time, the incident in Tiancheng Wei might be the work of the Fan family."

Yang Qiu turned to the front courtyard, where about fifty bodyguards were practicing hard. Except for a few senior members, most of the bodyguards were sent from various branch stores for rotation training, with a new batch every month.

It was still early in the day, and they were practicing physical fitness. Each person's weapons, such as swords and shields, were neatly placed on both sides, in perfect order. Wang Changfu had many ideas and, importantly, could read. Zhang Han called him to the mansion every day, and he didn't leave until the evening. The two of them studied the military books of General Qi, and many of the training methods were developed through their collaboration. Of course, much of the physical fitness training content was contributed by Zhang Han, such as the push-ups they were doing.

In Yang Qiu's eyes, the fifty or so people were lying on the ground and then standing up, their arms supporting them. Their movements were relatively整齐, and their breathing was not too rapid. When this exercise was first introduced, everyone took it lightly, but after doing dozens of them, their chests and arms ached, and even those who were used to lifting stone locks found it challenging. Later, they realized how effective this exercise was, as it trained arm strength, chest, back, and abdominal muscles, as well as leg strength. After several months of training, each person could do two or three hundred push-ups without much effort.

There were also various equipment exercises, such as running laps outside the fort, sit-ups, and other physical fitness training. Each person's physical fitness had greatly improved, and there was also equipment training, such as practicing with shields and swords, sword and spear combat, spear techniques, and long sword training. There were also small team drills, small team combat, and coordination between several small teams.

The changes were obvious. Originally, most of the porters and ruffians could fight, and after several months of training, it was common for three or four bodyguards to drive away a dozen ruffians. The branch stores often had people causing trouble, and fights were common. Recently, the reputation of the Yusheng Bodyguards had become very prominent. On his way home, Yang Qiu found that more and more people greeted him, and people looked at him with increasing respect. Many of his old companions from the fighting guilds had come to ask to join, but the bodyguard company no longer recruited many ruffians and instead focused on hiring porters from the stores and strong men from military households and farmers. The number of ruffians had decreased from the majority to less than half. Yang Qiu vaguely felt that this was intentional on the part of the master, but he couldn't quite understand why.

Yang Qiu said to Wang Changfu, "Changfu, the master wants two people to go with me on a mission."

"Sure," Wang Changfu nodded. "Pick whoever you want."

Everyone looked over. Going on a mission meant a lot of hard work and some risk, and there was a chance of getting injured in a fight, but compared to the monotonous training, going on a mission was more appealing to everyone.

Actually, in Zhang Han's view, the training was not that hard... from morning to noon, they did physical fitness training, running, practicing with equipment, and doing push-ups. The morning hours passed quickly. After a one-hour break at noon, they practiced the鸳鸯战阵 (Yuan Yang battle formation), small team coordination, and individual skills in the afternoon, such as two-person combat, spear against shield, long spear against long spear, long sword against shield, and long sword against long sword. The afternoon passed quickly as well.

Everyone's spirit and energy were well-trained, whether they were porters or ruffians. The three hundred or so bodyguards of Yusheng had a strong spirit, excellent physical fitness, quick reactions, and familiarity with equipment. They also had good coordination with each other. Sometimes, when they fought over territory outside, three or four bodyguards could drive away a dozen or twenty ruffians from other places. If they didn't train, how could they do that?

In the future, the amount of silver to be transported by the account bureau would increase, and the chances of encountering bandits and robbers would also increase. Without skills, the silver earned would not be enough to cover the losses.

Zhang Han often explained this to everyone, but no matter what, in their eyes, the training was still too hard.

Wang Changfu had also privately told Zhang Han that the border town commanders trained their troops every three to five days, and the border troops were already the elite of the Ming army. The inner town troops rarely trained in a year. The bodyguards' training standards were already much higher than those of ordinary household guards, who were selected from skilled military households and border troops with excellent archery and riding skills. The bodyguards' combat skills were already up to par, and they had good coordination, but they lacked archery and riding skills. Wang Changfu planned to take everyone on long-distance training rides every day, riding for several days in a row. After three to five months of such training, their riding skills would be up to par.

Archery was a different matter. Bows were hard to come by, and hunting bows were useless for training. Proper military bows were difficult to manufacture and expensive. Tiancheng Wei only delivered twenty bows to Datong Town each year. Obtaining proper military bows was even harder than manufacturing muskets.

Fortunately, Zhang Han was secretly manufacturing muskets, which compensated for the lack of long-range firepower.

"Zhongfa, Dequan, you two come with me."

Yang Qiu looked around and finally chose the two who were always close to him.

"Sure thing."

The two men who were called looked pleased and ran over. Both were shield and sword handlers, and they each took their round shields and waist swords, following Yang Qiu out.

Listening to the training sounds behind him, Wen Zhongfa spat and cursed, "That damn Wang Changfu, acting like he has a chicken feather for a command. We never saw such training in the military."

Yang Qiu glanced at him and smiled, "You talk too much. Look at Jiang Yi and Jiang Kui, who trained hard every day. Now they manage branch stores, with a dozen people under them, and they handle things on their own. How happy is that?"

"Always running around outside, eating dust and wind, what's so happy about that?" Wen Zhongfa laughed. "Staying in the fort is good. The training is hard, but the food and drink are good, and the monthly pay is high. I've already arranged a marriage and will be getting married soon."

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