big song poppi

Chapter 135 0132 [Army Expansion]

Before Han Zhen went to check the ordnance, he saw the accountant of the barracks warehouse walking over with a mournful face.

Seeing this, Han Zhen asked curiously, "What happened?"

When he came close, the accountant immediately cried out: "County magistrate, you have to make the decision for me!"

"What happened, tell me in detail."

Han Zhen looked weird.

Could it be that this fellow was dealt with by a soldier as good as Longyang?

"Two days ago, the county magistrate asked them to deposit money, and indeed many people did. But those Qiuba gangs went too far. Not long after depositing, some people came to withdraw money, and they didn't get much. Ten or twenty coins After taking it out, it was immediately stored in the warehouse, and this was repeated several times.”

The accountant said indignantly: "You know the county magistrate. Although I have a little leisure time on weekdays, I am not without work. If it is just one soldier, it will be fine, but dozens of hundreds of soldiers all take this as a reason. Le. It’s like this every day, so I don’t have to do anything.”

After listening, Han Zhen already understood.

Soldiers can understand their psychology. For them, if they store money in a bank, they can't rest assured that they can hold it in their own hands.

Although he felt that Han Zhen would not be greedy for their little money, he still couldn't help muttering.

So, I wanted to see if I could get it out.

I found that I could really take it out, and immediately put it back in. After repeated several times, I was completely relieved.

Some soldiers even take pleasure in it, after all, life in the barracks is boring.

But the problem is that it's fine for one soldier, but if dozens or hundreds of soldiers are like this, the accountant can't stand it.

Withdrawing money is not that simple. The accounting office must first check the anti-counterfeiting marks on the deposit receipts, then check the soldier's information, and finally check the password. After confirming that it is correct, the money will be released and the account will be kept.

Otherwise, if something goes wrong, Han Zhen will seek him out.

For the accountant, this is a thankless job.

It just so happened that the sparring on the school field was over at this time, Han Zhen waved and said, "Follow me!"

Leading the accountant straight to the high platform of the school field, Han Zhen said loudly: "Don't rest, I have something to say."

The soldiers lined up one after another, all looking at him.

Looking around the crowd, Han Zhen said solemnly: "Two days ago, in order to take care of the brothers who have no family members, I asked you to store the money in the treasury and use it whenever you want. This is for the convenience of the brothers. If you have doubts, you can I understand, but I can’t access it again and again, or even take pleasure in it!”

Pointing to the accountant next to him, he continued: "The accountant Hong also needs to work every day. It is a favor to help you deposit and withdraw, but you are teasing him!"

Hearing this, many soldiers knew that they were wrong and lowered their heads silently.

Han Zhen said sharply: "From now on, if there are any officers and soldiers depositing and withdrawing, they will be charged a penny. I will not ask for this penny, but for the hard work of Hong's accountant. Do you have any opinions?"

The handling fee of a penny is not much, but it can prevent soldiers from enjoying it.

"no!"

The soldiers shouted in unison.

Accountant Hong expressed his gratitude and bowed again and again to express his thanks.

"When I'm done speaking, let's go."

Han Zhen waved his hand, beckoning Nie Dong to walk towards more than 30 vehicles of ordnance.

Lifting off the cowhide oilcloth covering the wooden cart, Han Zhen picked up a half body armor and looked it over carefully.

Although it is a half body armor, it is not light in weight, it weighs seventeen or eight catties.

It is not a whole piece of iron plate, but is made up of hundreds of scale-like armor plates, covering only the chest, back and shoulders, and the rest is leather armor.

Don't think that leather armor has no defensive power, just find a piece of dry leather and chop it with a knife.

Nie Dong on the side also picked up one to observe, and commented at the same time: "These armors are quite old, and they should have been made during Emperor Shenzong's time."

Han Zhen asked curiously, "How did you find out?"

"The iron armor forged today is slightly different from that of Emperor Shenzong. The first is the way the scales are arranged, and the second is that there is an extra layer of cotton inside the iron armor today, which can relieve the force."

After Nie Dong explained, he continued: "These iron armors have traces of repairs, but the craftsmanship of the craftsmen is very good, and it will not affect the use."

"Just don't affect it."

Han Zhen waved his hand, not caring about these harmless little flaws.

It took the two of them more than an hour to check all the more than 30 vehicles of ordnance, and selected dozens of shoddy ordnance from them.

When it was the turn of the last two wooden carts, Han Zhen lifted the tarpaulin, couldn't help being slightly taken aback, and said in an uncertain tone: "Is this a catapult?"

The entire catapult has been disassembled into several pieces, but it can still be roughly seen.

"That's right!"

Nie Dong nodded.

Han Zhen asked: "How about the power and range?"

Nie Dong replied: "It takes 15 people to operate, and it can throw up to a hundred catties of weight. The range is about [-] steps. How powerful is it?"

Ninety steps?
Han Zhen could not help but slightly frowned.

The ancients regarded lifting the foot once as a step, and raising the foot twice as a step.

The so-called one step is equivalent to two steps in later generations, which is equivalent to about 1.5 meters, and the conversion of ninety steps is 130 meters.

To be honest, Han Zhen was disappointed with this range.

Not to mention the big killers such as the three-bow bed crossbow and the god-arm crossbow, even the ordinary two-stone and seven-fight crossbows have a range of 180 meters.

When this thing is attacking the city, it's okay to fight with the wind.

Once the city's defense force is sufficient, the effect will be greatly reduced.

Han Zhen suddenly asked: "You have been in the frontier army for many years, but have you ever heard of returning artillery?"

"Back to the cannon?"

Nie Dong was taken aback, and after thinking carefully for a moment, he shook his head and said, "The last general has never heard of it."

"Okay."

Han Zhen looked regretful.

The Huihui Cannon is known as the pinnacle of the cold weapon giant cannon, and it is the great weapon of the Yuan army to conquer the world.

The Yuan army destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, and Huihui Pao was the number one hero.

According to the records in "Xiangyang Shouchenglu", the return gun has a range of 250 steps, about 400 meters, which far exceeds the width of the moat and trench of Xiangyang City, and can throw 150 kilograms of boulders, and the operation is easier than that of the catapult Simple and requires fewer hands.

After inspecting the ordnance, Han Zhen ordered: "The ordnance has arrived, and I am going to expand the army tomorrow."

Hearing the word expansion, Nie Dong's eyes lit up immediately, and he hurriedly asked, "How much does the county magistrate plan to expand?"

"3000 people!"

Han Zhen replied.

After these 3000 recruits entered the camp, half of the original [-] veterans would be promoted to serve as team leaders and first-class grassroots officers.

Thanks to Han Zhen's previous strategy of elite soldiers, with these veterans acting as the backbone, it only takes a period of practice to quickly form combat power.

After bidding farewell to Nie Dong, Han Zhen rushed to the upper reaches of the Xiaodong River without stopping.

At this time, the upper reaches of the Xiaodong River changed from desolate to bustling.

Two huge waterwheels stand on top of the river.

The water mill has been built and is already in use.

The rice and wheat are sent into the workshop by ox carts and mule carts, and then bags of hulled rice and ground flour are moved out of the workshop.

After inspecting the mill, Han Zhen walked towards the forging workshop again.

The workshop has been built in sevens and eighties, and now Craftsman Yuan is doing the final adjustments.

Walking into the workshop, you can see a huge gourd-shaped blast furnace, and a row of hydraulic forging hammers on the other side.

At present, there is no way to directly smelt pig iron into steel. It is necessary to first fry the pig iron into mature iron in a blast furnace, and then repeatedly forge the wrought iron to remove impurities. Only in this way can steel be formed.

However, during the Tang Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty developed a mature cold forging process, combined with hydraulic forging hammers, which greatly increased the output rate of steel.

"The county magistrate!"

Seeing Han Zhen coming, Craftsman Yuan and others immediately stepped forward to meet him.

Han Zhen asked, "What's the matter?"

Craftsman Yuan cupped his hands and replied, "It will be put into operation the day after tomorrow at the latest."

Patting him on the shoulder, Han Zhen said with a smile: "You have worked hard during this period of time, and after the official completion, your reward for waiting will be indispensable!"

"Thank you magistrate."

Craftsman Yuan hurriedly thanked him.

Han Zhen ordered: "Let me look around."

"The county magistrate, please."

Craftsman Yuan stretched out his hand to signal, and led Han Zhen to visit the forging workshop, and at the same time continued to explain.

"Please look, the county magistrate, the whole workshop is an assembly line operation. After the pig iron is put into the blast furnace, it only takes two hours to fry the mature iron. After the wrought iron leaks from the furnace mouth, it will be sent to the hydraulic forging hammer immediately. Cold forged into different steels according to the needs of military ordnance.”

"In the end, these steel materials were transported to the government-run workshops in the county to be made into ordnance. In this way, the efficiency has been increased several times compared with the past. Take iron armor as an example. A pair of heavy armor is put into the furnace from pig iron to being made It only takes seven days."

Han Zhen asked: "If you only make heavy armor, how much can you produce in a month?"

Craftsman Yuan pondered: "If pig iron can be supplied, a hundred pairs will not be a problem!"

"Not bad!"

Han Zhen nodded, very satisfied with this efficiency.

If you change to a long knife or a long spear, you can have at least thousands of handles.

Then, under the leadership of Yuan Tiejiang, he visited the structure of the hydraulic forging hammer.

To be honest, the structure of the hydraulic forging hammer is far more complicated than Han Zhen imagined. Just looking at the large and small wooden poles connected to the main shaft of the waterwheel makes people dizzy for a while.

After the tour was over, it was already evening.

Han Zhen rode on the horse and returned to the county all the way.

……

The next day.

Early in the morning, with the opening of the city gate of Linzi County, teams of yamen servants left the county seat and went to various villages to post conscription notices.

Soon, all the people in Linzi County knew that the Qingzhou Army was going to recruit troops.

For a while, young and strong people rushed from various villages to the military camp.

Especially Xiaowang Village has the most people, with nearly a thousand people.

Now, in the entire Xiaowang Village, who doesn't know that the gang of Qiu Ba are treated well.

Three dry meals a day, one meat meal every three days, plus a monthly salary of [-] Wen.

That's all, the key is that the rewards are generous, and the first level of beheading will reward four pennies.

In the village, the first soldiers who joined the army built brick and tile houses in their homes, and many of them even bought cattle. They lived a prosperous life.

Even many young adults in the county chose to join the army.

However, even with the expansion of the army, Han Zhen did not lower his requirements.

The height should not be less than five feet five inches, which is 1.7 meters, and the body should not be too thin.

Physically handicapped and mentally handicapped persons are not accepted.

What made Han Zhen dumbfounded was that in order to successfully apply for the job, many people put wood chips in their shoes in order to get away with it.

(End of this chapter)