Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 287

When Fan Ning walked out of the government office, he saw that houses were being built in the southeast corner of the county seat, and a few of them were arguing about something, which seemed to be very loud, and many people stopped and looked back.

Fan Ning was a little surprised, so he got on his horse and urged the horse to run towards the southeast corner.

After all, the circumference of the county seat is twelve miles away, and it is at least four or five miles away from the government office to the southeast corner, so it would be more convenient to ride a horse.

A dormitory is obviously being built in the southeast corner. Judging from the foundations that have been set up, there are at least a hundred large houses. According to the previous plan, the dormitories for craftsmen and boatmen should be built here, and then the army will be built in the west city. In winter dormitory, tents are only used now, and in winter, tents cannot withstand the severe cold.

The reason why winter is a big problem for the Song army is that the army is all sailors, most of whom come from the Jiangnan area. If they live in tents, they may not be able to withstand the severe cold of tens of degrees below zero in winter.

Therefore, the construction of winter houses has become the most important issue at present.

Frankly speaking, Zhao Zongshi was unsatisfactory in building winter houses before. Perhaps because he didn't realize the seriousness of the problem, he delayed it for several months, and now the construction started in September.

You must know that September is in the lunar calendar, and it is already October in the Gregorian calendar. It will snow here in one and a half months, and the amount of snow will be heavy. That is to say, hundreds of houses will be built in one and a half months, but now only Since Fan Ning bought more than [-] houses, Fan Ning was so anxious that he put the problem of overwintering as a Class A matter to be solved urgently.

Fan Ning urged the horse to gallop over, and the two chief craftsmen also stopped their quarrel and came up to salute together.

"Why are you two arguing?"

"Reporting to Fan Yushi, we disagree on whether to build a brick house or a wooden house. Building a brick house is more warm, but it takes time. Building a wooden house is faster, but it is not warm enough in winter. It is more suitable to build a brick house because of humble considerations. .”

Another craftsman said: "I am not opposed to building brick houses, but the main reason is that there is not enough time. It takes a long time to burn bricks."

"It is also fast to burn bricks with charcoal. As long as there is enough manpower, a sufficient amount of bricks can be burned in half a month."

Fan Ning's heart moved, "Have you found the charcoal?"

"Just three miles to the south, we found a charcoal mine. It was buried very shallow. Its calorific value is better than that of wood. In winter, charcoal can also be burned for heating. In the capital, charcoal is also burned in winter."

Fan Ning knew that Japanese coal contained too much sulfur, which was not suitable for heating and could only be used for smelting and burning bricks.

He shook his head and said with a smile: "Burning charcoal is easy to produce poisonous gas, so it can only be burned outside. If you want to burn it in the room, you need to prepare an iron stove and use iron sheets as a chimney. It is too extravagant. Anyway, there are a lot of wood here, so it is better to burn wood in winter." good.

How about this!It is still a wooden house. The wood does not need to be sawn, but it is directly built with logs. However, in each house, bricks must be used to build a stove against the wall, so that it is convenient to light a fire for heating in winter, so at least one wall must be built with bricks, and the stove and chimney must be With bricks, you can put the brick wall on the north side, you know what I mean! "

The two nodded, "We understand Yushi's meaning!"

"Hurry up and build a house, I'll get you guys!"

He then turned his horse and ran towards the barracks. Not long after, Fan Ning came to the big tent of the Chinese army. Di Qing and Lin Rui were discussing something. Seeing Fan Ning coming in, Di Qing smiled and said, "Mr. Looking for you!"

"I want to find you too!"

Fan Ning walked into the big tent with a smile, "Tell me first, let's see if we are thinking about one thing."

Lin Rui bowed slightly and said: "Yesterday I went to the chief of the Kun clan, and he told me that Kunzhou is very cold in winter, with snow up to the waist. I guess it is difficult to survive the winter in a tent, so I discussed it with Di Shuai. Soldiers had better change their houses."

Di Qing said apologetically to Fan Ning: "Fan Yushi reminded us of this matter two months ago, but neither I nor the economic envoy paid much attention to it. Now it seems that Fan Yushi did have the foresight. I don't know how to remedy it now." Is it still possible?"

Fan Ning nodded and smiled, "It seems that we want to go together, and I'm here to talk about it."

Di Qing was overjoyed, "Is there still time?"

"There is still one and a half months before the first snowfall. As long as we hurry up, it should be in time, but I need manpower, at least two thousand soldiers."

"So many people?" Di Qing was a little surprised.

In fact, there are still [-] soldiers on the island now, of which [-] soldiers are stationed at the horse farm in the north, another [-] soldiers are building warehouses, and the remaining [-] soldiers are training in the barracks. Yes, of course Di Qing hesitated.

Fan Ning said indifferently: "Actually, two thousand soldiers is too small for me, but there is no other way. One thousand soldiers will go to cut wood to prepare houses and winter timber, and one thousand soldiers will participate in building houses. In this way, I guarantee that five thousand soldiers will be built within a month. A hundred wooden houses."

Di Qing also knew that there was no time for training now, and the top priority was to ensure that the soldiers, boatmen and craftsmen survived the winter. He pondered for a moment, then nodded, and said to Lin Rui: "I agree with Fan Yushi's opinion that all two thousand soldiers will participate in logging and building Room!"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

With the issuance of the military order, the vigorous logging and house-building movement began, and the entire Tangcheng and nearby forests became a large construction site in full swing.

However, Fan Ning took Xu Qing on board, and took the big boat to the northern pastures with a lot of worries. If the horses in the Central Plains could not adapt to the water, soil and climate of Kunzhou, what's the point of occupying Kunzhou?
It took Fan Ning's large ship three days to arrive at the racecourse. Compared with the first five days, the time for this north trip was greatly shortened, and it was still against the wind, thanks to the crew I am becoming more and more familiar with the surrounding sea conditions.

Although the sea route is very convenient, the plan to build a north-south direct road is still listed by Fan Ning as a category B plan, which is a project to be implemented next year. After all, land represents residence. Once the road is built, a large number of Han people will move north to Kunzhou. , villages will gradually appear on both sides of the road.

On the other hand, the sea route is also relatively dangerous. Two months ago, a cargo ship transporting grain hit a rock near the coast and sank, losing more than 1 shi of grain and more than a dozen crew members. Of course, the convenience of sea transportation cannot be compared with land transportation. For example, even if roads are built, land transportation cannot replace sea transportation, but there is one more choice when encountering severe sea conditions.

On the big ship, Fan Ning stood on the side of the ship and watched the land in the distance. At this moment, Xu Qing asked with a smile: "Little official, how many Japanese laborers do we plan to recruit to work here?"

Fanning glanced at him and asked strangely, "How did you think of asking this question?"

"I chatted with the soldiers yesterday. Everyone talked about this matter. Several soldiers still want to stay in Kunzhou to settle down and marry a young and beautiful Japanese lady."

After finishing speaking, Xu Qing added with a self-deprecating smile: "I guess these soldiers were seduced by the little Japanese lady in the restaurant."

Fan Ning smiled and said: "The preliminary plan is to recruit [-] laborers to build cities, build roads, mines, grow wood, and build wharfs. In addition, we will recruit another [-] young ladies who will be mainly engaged in vegetable growing, weaving, and milking. Something like that, but I'm worried that it may not be possible to recruit."

"It will definitely be recruited!"

Xu Qing said with a smile: "I heard from Yu Xiaonian that there are continuous wars and chaos in Japan, and all kinds of taxes are overwhelming. Ordinary people are forced to have no way of life. Not to mention wages, if they can eat enough, they have to kowtow to thank God."

Fan Ning nodded. In fact, he also thought so, and waited until the spring of next year before recruiting labor.

The boat docked slowly, and Fan Ning got off the boat. Yang Yunzao, the supervisor of the racecourse, saw the big boat and immediately rushed to the pier to meet him.

This time, the Group Herds Department sent [-] officials and [-] veterinarians to Kunzhou to establish a pasture. Three of them stayed on Tamna Island, and the remaining [-] officials and [-] veterinarians came to Kunzhou. The highest official was A deputy capital supervisor, from seventh-rank officials, in addition to fifteen officials, there are also a hundred shepherds. Of course, compared with [-] horses, the number is indeed insufficient. soldiers, fifty horses and a shepherd.

However, the imperial court raised the horses in captivity, while here it is free-range, which is different, so a hundred Kun people were recruited to help raise the horses, and they managed to take care of them.

The racecourse office and stables are not far from the seaside. On a hillside, Yang Yun came galloping on horseback. He got off his horse and saluted, "See Fan Yushi!"

"How about it?"

Fan Ning asked anxiously, "How is the condition of the horses? Has it deteriorated?"

"It's not getting worse, it's getting better!"

Yang Yun showed joy, and sighed slightly: "Finally found the reason!"

Fanning was overjoyed immediately, and quickly asked, "What's the reason?"

Yang Yun waved his hand, "Let's go to the office! Let's talk as we walk."

The two walked together to the government office a few miles away.

"The horse's accident was caused by poisoning. There is a kind of grass here. We have never seen it. It should not be found in Song Dynasty. This kind of grass itself is fresh and juicy. Horses like to eat it very much, but in winter it will bear a small white fruit. This small The fruit is poisonous, so it’s okay to eat a little less, but after eating too much, the toxin will accumulate to the limit, and the horse will die. After we raised the horse in captivity, there was no more death, and the sick horse recovered slowly, which means it is not It is not a water and soil problem, but a pasture problem."

Fan Ning breathed a sigh of relief, as long as he found the reason, he would have a countermeasure.

He asked again: "Then what should we do? Organize people to shovel this grass?"

"We need to work on two fronts. On the one hand, we organize people to pick a large number of this fruit, so that its number decreases year by year. Secondly, we also need to add a little bit of this white fruit when feeding the horses, so that the horses can resist the toxin of this fruit, and they will not be afraid in the future. , In fact, there are poisonous weeds everywhere in the grasslands. The key is for the horses to adapt themselves. Most of the horses in the Song Dynasty were raised in captivity and did not have the physique to survive in the wild, so they can only be cultivated slowly. I believe that after five years, our horses will be able to fully Adapt to survival in the wild and become a real war horse."

Fan Ning secretly sighed in his heart, it would take five years to get used to it!
In fact, Fan Ning also knows that five years to adapt is already very short. Generally, it takes more than 20 to [-] years to cultivate a good war horse. As for the formation of a type of war horse, it will take hundreds of years.

(End of this chapter)