Li Yi had already noticed the situation. Hu Erniang was the sister of a craftsman. Her parents had passed away, and her household register was supposed to be with her husband's family.
Hu Erniang had three husbands, but none of them were married. It was said that she was a jinx to her husbands. In the end, she was married to her eldest brother.
She was above average looking and had a good figure. She seemed to have given up on forming a family.
When she arrived at Zhuangzi, she worked all day and soon stood out. She led a group of female workers to work in an orderly manner.
As the leader of a small group, she had a lot of contact with Song De.
At first, they talked about work, then about romance, and finally about life.
Song De expressed his intention to live together, but Hu Erniang rejected him. She said that her three husbands had died of illness before she was married.
Song De told her not to worry. Dongzhu was a miracle doctor, and illness was not a problem.
Hu Erniang was tempted and wanted to try again.
Song De came over and asked about other people's gender.
Did Zhuangzi allow people to love freely? He wondered if he would be chased out if he got married.
When he heard that Dongzhu would give him a thousand horses, new furniture, and a courtyard, Song De cheered and ran away.
Gao Lishi came.
"Li Dongzhu, fireworks!" Gao Lishi was straightforward.
"Go and get a cart of fireworks for General Gao." Li Yi did not refuse. Gao Lishi had sent the Winged Knights to pick him up for free.
"Li Dongzhu, do you want a good horse?" Gao Lishi asked in a low voice.
Li Yi shook his head: "Zhuangzi will buy it after the New Year."
He was afraid that Gao Lishi would steal the horse that Li Longji had prepared for the Winged Knights and give it to him. He would lose his life.
"What about the crossbow?" Gao Lishi still wanted to give something.
"Crossbow? Oh, General Gao, please wait. "After hearing Gao Lishi mention the crossbow, Li Yi returned to his courtyard.
When he came out again, he had a booklet in his hand. He handed it over: "General Gao, please deliver this to the appropriate person."
Gao Lishi did not flip through the booklet and only looked at Li Yi.
"Crossbow." Li Yi introduced, "Zhuangzi's production of the crossbow is too complicated. Why don't we hand it over to General Gao? When it's done, we can share some with Zhuangzi."
Gao Lishi hurriedly and carefully put it away in his sleeve. Although he had not seen the real thing, he knew that anything that came from Li Yi was not simple.
He took the blueprint and went back first. The car carrying the fireworks slowly followed behind him.
The other city gates were closed, so Gao Lishi entered and exited from the back door of the Forbidden Garden.
Gao Lishi went inside and jogged to find Li Longji.
"Your Majesty, Li Yi didn't dare to accept the horse I gave him. When I asked him if he wanted a crossbow, he gave me a book, saying it was called the Reverse Crossbow."
Gao Lishi handed the booklet over.
Li Longji took it and flipped it open. Inside, there was a picture on each page, along with the dimensions, materials, production, and operation instructions.
Li Longji pondered as he read. In today's Tang dynasty, there were crossbows that could be loaded by foot. There were also various kinds of crossbows from the previous dynasties.
This kind of Reverse Crossbow seemed to be lighter and more powerful than other crossbows of the same kind.
In addition, there was an auxiliary loading tool and a stabilizing tool. It could be used when defending or when marching quickly.
"Good stuff. After the New Year, I'll ask the craftsmen to make it. They can make different kinds of crossbows with different forces." Li Longji decided to make a few real objects and compare them.
He did not know whether this was a Divine Bow or a Divine Bow with extra parts.
The best way to load a crossbow was with a lever. For example, the big crossbows used in the Tang dynasty now were loaded with a winch.
Using the pressure well mode, the arm at the back could be used to load the Divine Bow. There was an extra frame.
Without a frame, one would naturally sit on the ground and step on it with foot. Then, one would hang a small thing on the string and pull it back.
It was slightly more troublesome to march with a frame, but there was one more advantage. It was stable and did not need to be used to fire the crossbow. It was like a gun rack.
"You don't have any farm work to do in winter, so you started to work on weapons?" Li Longji said with a smile.
He realized that Li Yi could not stay idle. If he stayed in Zhuangzi and did not do anything, he would be bored to death.
***
"La ~ La ~ La ~ La ~ La ~ La ~ La ~ La …"
At this time, many people in the Li Family Zhuangzi were singing "The Laughter of the Vast Sea". They could not remember the other lyrics, but "La La La" was definitely not a problem.
Li Yi wanted to drink some wine, but he was pulled by Xin Yan, the main team, to arrange the song. Just now, he was in a hurry and improvised.
Now that they were forming a small team to perform, "everyone" had to properly arrange the instruments.
Fortunately, Li Yi had a little bit of knowledge. He recalled which instruments were added to "The Laughter of the Vast Sea".
"It's Li Lang's song. If it's taken out by itself, it can't fill in the lyrics." A woman was considering changing the lyrics.
What kind of songs were used to sing poems? A seven-word temperament poem could be taken out and sung with any song.
In the end, the girl realized that no matter what lyrics she changed, she could not sing with the original charm, just like Xiao Hongchen.
The only thing she could do was to arrange the dance and make the dance closer to the meaning of the lyrics.
Time slowly passed.
When the clock struck midnight, a beautiful firework bloomed in the Imperial City with a boom.
As if they had received an order, the people in the other shops who had bought fireworks and firecrackers lit them one after another.
The crackling sound of firecrackers rang out, and the entire Chang 'an became lively.
Many people did not know that there was such a fun thing. They prepared bamboo at home to burn, and some even prepared some salt.
The salt they ate was big, and when it was thrown into the fire, it made a loud noise.
When the fireworks rose into the sky, the people stopped playing with their bamboo and looked up.
"Light the fire." Song De shouted.
At the places where the fireworks were set off, the people in charge of lighting the fire placed the red-hot coals on the fuse, turned around, and ran.
Immediately, the firecrackers rang out, and the fireworks rose into the sky.
Some of the farmers, migrant workers, people from the Zhang Family Village, and the farmers in the Imperial Plantation covered their ears, opened their mouths, and watched with wide eyes.
The ears of the children in swaddling clothes were covered by the adults. Some of them were crying, but when they saw the flowers in the sky, their voices stopped abruptly, and they were stunned.
Li Yi held the red envelopes wrapped in red paper and personally distributed them. The newcomers also received some, but they did not receive much money.
The red envelopes were written with words on red paper. Some wrote 100 coins, and some wrote 10 coins.
According to their contributions and the order of arrival, different amounts of money were given.
When the day was over, the farmers could take the red envelopes and exchange them for copper coins.
The 42 students who taught Zhuangzi's children each received a big red envelope, which was 10 coins and 10,000 coins.
As for the other two hundred and twenty students, Li Yi gave one to each of them.
The village chief of the Zhang Family Village led people to distribute the red envelopes again. They gave the students 500 coins each, and they only taught for three months.
The Zhang Family Village gave a lot of money. There were many students, 220 of them, and the village gave a total of 110,000 coins.
If it was in the past, they would not be able to afford it.
Half an hour later, Zhuangzi's firecrackers were set off, and everyone cooked dumplings to eat.
The people from the south took a bite of the rice cake, reminisced about the past, and smelled the smell of burning sulfur in the air. They were full of yearning for the new year.
Especially the people who asked for a way to survive, they felt Dongzhu's wealth.
The firecrackers were set off with a loud bang, and every movement was worth a lot of money.
Li Yi ate five dumplings, one for each kind of filling. He slowly drank the wine, and occasionally stopped to look at the night sky. No one knew what he was thinking.
However, a few people who were watching the fireworks next to him noticed that Li Yi's smile had a trace of vicissitudes.
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