Villager of Daming

Chapter 1135: Hunting in private is against discipline

On the ninth day of June, it was very hot in the morning. It was just as sultry as last night, and it got even worse as we went to the seaside.

After breakfast, the team began to board the boat. The fleet of boats traveled between here and the Dingliao capital guard.

A steam engine boat is a small boat, but it is not just a steam engine boat. It has a wooden paddle boat. When it goes downstream, the wooden boat can move by itself, and when it goes upstream, the steam engine boat drags it.

A lot of things are shipped out, but little is shipped in. Things from the Jurchens are not valuable, but soap from the Ming Dynasty is valuable.

The Jurchens do not grow cotton in the Northeast. If they need cotton cloth, they have to buy it from the Ming Dynasty. They don't have salt either. There is a salt farm in Gaizhou County. Salt is dried on the beach and the salt is very cheap. It costs five cents a pound to sell to the Jurchens.

The road from here to Dingliao Duwei is not very far. It is 200 kilometers in a straight line and 300 kilometers by water.

Even so, Jurchens only pay five cents per catty to buy salt. If you don't buy it from the official, you can come and carry the salt yourself for two cents per catty, or go rowing and see if it's cost-effective?
The Jurchens obviously didn't want to buy it themselves. The land route was full of mountains, but the mountains were not high, mostly hills.

Winter is better. There are sledges that can be pulled. There are no green things except pine trees. The mountains are full of shrubs. The animals pull the sledges and bring fodder, and they can move thirty miles a day.

If you were to walk alone, you could walk twenty miles a day in the summer by taking the road opened by the army during the war. The straight-line distance was twenty miles, which was actually longer.

Go once and come back, walk faster, if you have good physical strength, you can walk for two months.

In winter, animals have to travel back and forth for more than 40 days, and they need to bring their own food. There are no hotels, B&Bs, or restaurants everywhere.

Therefore, you can choose a safe place to spend the night in the summer, and in the winter the animals can pull a sledge like a tent like a small house.

A round trip requires a lot of your own food and fodder, and is very hard work.

Instead, take the water route and go down the river, that is, from east to west. The river here does not flow east.

When going downstream, if you don't want to slip, drift slowly, which is faster than walking. But when going back, drift slowly against the current.

Winter is good, and animals pull sledges across the ice. Especially after it snows, the ice surface is most suitable for sledges, and animals can run back and forth once a month.

If you pull 200 jins of salt at a time, you will save 600 fen. If you pull 400 jins of salt, you will save 1,200 fen. If you pull 8,000 jins of salt, you will save 24,000 fen.

The only thing you need to save on salt is the food you eat and fodder for your livestock. Transporting eight thousand kilograms of salt requires a lot of livestock and manpower.

If you are setting traps and hunting in the mountains during this time...

It is most troublesome for animals to travel long distances for forage in winter, as there are no places to supply supplies on the road.

Five cents per pound of salt does not seem expensive, but rather cheap. In the past, it cost more than 20 cents. The cost of boiling seawater to make salt was high, and the purchase price was naturally high.

If it were an army, they would travel very quickly, but they would not be able to send out a large number of baggage teams to earn the price difference of salt.

……

"Chief Li, do you want to set up more supply points on the road?"

Sitting on the boat, Zhu Ping saw a supply point, a comprehensive supply, which mainly supplies steam coal and clean water to steam engine ships.

The steam engine does not require distilled water, just ordinary well water is enough. The river water is actually quite clean. Some people drink it, but they are afraid of floating objects in it.

The sergeants are responsible for guarding, which is also where they make money. They carry cold weapons, including bows.

They can hunt, cast nets to catch fish, and also raise poultry and rabbits, keep a few military horses, and raise goats in good locations. Naturally, they will also farm near the supply point, planting some sorghum and soybeans, and growing cucumbers, cowpeas, eggplants, green onions, cabbage and other vegetables.

When hunting, start in a small team. Use cold weapons under normal circumstances. You are allowed to use hot weapons when in danger. Remember to talk about how to use them when you come back.

How to use it? Of course, it is to report to the imperial court the consumption of training ammunition.

If there are bears or wild boars inside, you have to shoot. Or if you find a deer that is too far away to be shot by a bow and arrow, the deer wants to run away, so fire.

The sergeants ate the game they hunted without anyone caring about it. If they didn't want to eat it or couldn't finish it, they would process it and load it onto the ship when they saw it coming.

The boat was taken to a department store in Gaizhou County. The people in the store made a settlement based on the quality. Forget about the freshwater fish, they would not accept this, nor would they accept the dried fish.

The sergeant makes so much money that he is paid once a month. When it is the turn of the team, the team will be happy and have extra income.

The imperial court was really stupid. They gave us good weapons, but we didn’t conduct shooting training normally. We all took them into the valleys and other places to hunt.

The supply point has become a hunter's hut. The density of the hunter's huts is now low and they are far apart from each other. It is impossible for ships to wait for the coal and water to burn out before relying on the supply point. One supply point is enough to ensure that the ship reaches the next supply point.

Zhu Xi's intention was of course to increase the number of hunter huts, build more along the river, and arrange for more sergeants to come and take turns.

"Your Highness's suggestion is good. Not only should we build more supply points, but we should also build them into the mountains so that people in the mountains can easily transport things to the river."

The head of the village expressed his support and wanted to build more buildings along the river and inside the mountains outside the river.

Ma Fei, the magistrate of Gaizhou County, who came along to study and was sitting on the boat with him, hesitated again and again, but finally couldn't help himself.

"Your Highness, Chief Zhu Li, there is something that will offend someone if I say it, that is...that...a sergeant used training bullets for hunting, went hunting in the mountains, and sold the prey for money.

This...an army is an army. How can it keep consuming the court's things? Are bullets free of charge?
They are harming the public and enriching themselves. The more supply points they set up, the larger their hunting territory will be! "

After Ma Fei finished speaking, he looked sad and angry.

Officials in other counties nodded, saying that indeed, everyone knew about it, and even wrote to the court. I wonder why no one took care of it? Could it be that some minister stopped him? Is it Hu Weiyong? Is it him? Traitor!

Zhu Fan smiled: "Mazhi County really serves the country and the people, but does Mazhi County know what they usually train for shooting?"

"Back to Your Highness, this minister knows that during training, fixed targets and moving targets are shot. The fixed targets are placed at different distances, and the moving targets are dragged by horses."

Ma Fei immediately gave the answer, I understand this, I have also fought before, and the sergeants all praised me, saying that I have a unique ability in shooting, like pointing east and west, which is hard to guard against.

"Mazhi County said it well!" Zhu Di followed up and said, "So what skills are needed to hunt in the mountains? Is it a fixed target or a moving target?"

"Ah? Hunting?" Ma Fei was stunned after hearing this, and then his eyes widened: "Your Highness is saying..."

The county magistrate Jin Niu was quick to speak, and before Ma Fei could say what he said, he continued: "It's so amazing, your highnesses had already thought of training them in hunting methods.

Yes! When you go hunting in the mountains, there are all kinds of targets, and you have to find the traces of the prey and climb over the mountains by yourself.

Tracking prey is equivalent to tracking the enemy. Since bullets must be reported, the soldiers will cherish them very much in order to reduce trouble. "

After Niu Jinde finished speaking, he nodded to his colleague Ma Fei, right?
Ma Fei: "..."

(End of this chapter)