Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 176 Forging troops to conquer Poyang

In the name of learning naval tactics, Liu Bei stayed in Wankou for a few days, waited until Liu Qi and his party arrived, and then headed up the river to Xiangyang.

When I returned to Xiangyang from Yuzhang, the waterway was nearly a thousand miles away.Today, the waterway from Wuhui to Yuzhang is close to a thousand miles away. There are about two thousand miles of river waterway, and they travel against the current, which is enough time for Liu and Liu to travel.

Farewell to the two in Wankou, Huo Jun returned to Wancheng to continue his business of farming and running the army.

Previously, Huo Jun chose the abandoned Wancheng as the new county seat of Poyang County against all opinions, which was difficult for everyone to understand.However, the unique resource and geographical advantages displayed by Wancheng gradually allowed everyone to eliminate their initial doubts.

The repaired Wushi Weir diverted water from Anhui to irrigate more than [-] acres of farmland on the east and west coasts. The people who moved to Wancheng used fire farming to till water and started planting rice last year. The weather has been good. This year's rice harvest will be bumper, and the government will not collect taxes. , the soldiers and their families who moved to Wancheng could finally provide for themselves.

In fact, it is not correct for Huo Jun to supervise tens of thousands of troops.Those [-] soldiers are not part-time soldiers, but belong to military households. They train in their spare time and farm when they are busy. They only use tax exemption as a recruitment condition. In order to ensure military discipline and combat effectiveness, soldiers must also be paid while fighting.

After the Battle of Danyang, materials, money and food from Jingchu gradually dried up, and Yuzhang and Luling were also unable to make ends meet.The interests of the sergeants in combat depended more on the post-war seizures. Therefore, after pacifying Wuxian, Er Liujin took out the gold and silver from the treasury to reward the soldiers.Its purpose is not only to divide the military merits, but also to stimulate the soldiers' ideas for the next battle.

After Jiangzuo was calmed down, Huo Jun retained ten thousand soldiers under his tent, which had lost its meaning of existence.In addition to retaining the elite thousand men led by Ding Feng, Huo Jun divided the remaining 9000 men into three rotational batches of 3000 men each to guard Shucheng and Chaohu for two months.

The tens of thousands of soldiers were composed of wealthy men from Jingzhou, miners from Xunyang, fishermen from Poyang, and defeated soldiers from Jiangzuo.Almost all of these ten thousand soldiers and their families were arranged by Huo Jun to the Jiangbei River Basin in Poyang County.If there is no war, [-] sergeants can serve in the army for four months every year; if there is an emergency battle, [-] sergeants can be assembled within ten days.

There was fertile land for the families of the troops, and Huo Jun also made use of another resource in Wancheng, namely the iron ore resources in Tianzhu Mountain.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, a large number of people lived in the Qianshan Basin where Wancheng is located, and the iron ore around Wancheng was also discovered.To the north of Diving, at the Shuihou Pavilion on the edge of Tianzhu Mountain, iron ore was discovered, that is, Shanzhi cast iron stone, used to cast farming implements.

Today Huo Jun took a boat from Wankou and went northward just to inspect the progress of the iron mine at Shuihou Pavilion.

On the dive, several boats went up the river and reached the muddy beach on the river. Huo Jun pointed to the river and said: "The dive comes from Tianzhu Mountain. The river is turbulent. Regardless of the left and right banks, the water rises in spring and summer, and the water falls in autumn and winter. A place for paddy cultivation.”

As he said that, Huo Jun looked at Sima Zhi and asked: "Is the more than [-] hectares of fertile land in Wushiyan enough now? I think most of the land is cultivated by the common people, and few of it is abandoned."

In the Han Dynasty, one hectare of land was 240 acres, and four thousand hectares of land was about 960 acres. According to the estimate of a family of five cultivating 000 acres of land, it was only enough for [-] households to farm, not counting the reason. There is no one to farm, but there are common people occupying many acres of land and other things.

The Wushi Weir originally designed for irrigation initially met the current farming and living needs of military families and migrating people.If Wancheng wants to expand further, it is imperative to build a diving weir.

The chief secretary, Sima Zhi, pondered for a while and said: "I report to the emperor that the water from Anhui flows into the river, and the people have access to fish and shrimps, and there are acres of water to farm, which is enough to eat. Build a submersible weir, and let the irrigation water flow into the fields for farming. , it’s not impossible, but the manpower is limited, the people lack buffaloes for farming, and they lack farming and animal husbandry equipment.”

At present, there are military households and Jiangbei refugees working in Wancheng, and there is a temporary population.Fire plowing and plowing are methods of paddy field cultivation, but it does not mean that paddy fields do not require the work of plowing cattle.There were no cattle to carry the load, so people had to work. The lack of iron farm tools also further restricted the human development of Wancheng.

Therefore, Sima Zhi did not agree with Huo Jun's suggestion to build a diving weir. Instead, he suggested getting cattle for the people and making iron farm tools as much as possible.

After pondering for a while, Huo Jun said: "Wu Hui will benefit from copper and iron, and sea salt. A certain letter asked Chengming to send a batch of farm tools. Moreover, Kongming was working on salt and iron in Danyang, and he could also buy and sell farm tools. As for the cattle , let’s see what we can capture in future battles.”

Huo Jun could get some iron farm tools from Jiangdong, but he couldn't get his hands on cattle.Throughout the dynasties, the Central Plains dynasties generally lacked cattle. In the war years, there were even fewer cattle.

Cattle are closely related to regional agriculture. For example, the prosperity of a region is not only due to early development, but also due to the distribution of cattle.During the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Guanzhong area had acres of fertile fields, which had the advantage of being in the northwest. The livestock in Liangzhou in the northwest was the most abundant in the world, and Guanzhong could get a large number of cattle for farming.The Sichuan-Sichuan region, which is close to the breeding areas of ethnic minorities in the west and south, can also get a large number of cattle.The Jianghuai River is rich in cattle, but it had to wait until the Song Dynasty. With the economic shift to the south, Zhejiang, Fujian, and the two lakes were rich in cattle.

"promise!"

Sima Zhi cupped his hands and said, "Zhi will consider the number of farm tools and report to the Lord at that time."

"Ok!"

The boat went northward up the river and arrived at the Shuihou Pavilion iron smelting workshop in Tianzhu Mountain.Shuihouting Iron Smelting Workshop is located in the mining area and is built near the diving site.The three functions of mining, smelting, and weapon casting were combined into one place, and Liu Zhong was responsible for supervising the construction and management.

Liu Zhong introduced the workshop to Huo Jun and said: "The iron stones were excavated and sent to the hands of the smelting craftsmen. They were asked to pound the iron stones to find the iron in them, smelt them to turn into water, and then let the craftsmen forge them. Made into weapons.”

After the war, Huo Jun began vigorous military development, not only building shipyards, gathering shipwrights, and building a navy.He also wrote to Liu Qi requesting [-] blacksmiths from Jiangzuo, and recruited people from Yuzhang, Poyang, and Luling counties to build a three-in-one arsenal in Shuihou Pavilion.The prisoners of war defeated by Cao Wei in the past were used as laborers for mining. They were exempted from crime for five years and granted citizenship.

As he spoke, Liu Zhong pointed to the water raft next to the dive and said: "According to the order of the emperor, we asked Military Advisor Zhuge for advice on how to make the water raft. We made it at the rapids, set up a wooden shaft, and used water to stimulate the lower wheel and drum. The wind carries the pole and smelts iron and stone, which saves the craftsmen the power of blowing the wind."

Iron smelting requires air blast. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Nanyang Prefect Du Shi invented water rows to replace the old horse rows for iron smelting.Liu Zhong was from Xunyang and had some knowledge of copper and iron smelting. He could be said to be a technical bureaucrat. Huo Jun asked Liu Zhong to ask Zhuge Liang how to make water drains.

Looking at the bustling construction site, Huo Jun asked: "When will the iron workshop be available? How many weapons, armor, and arrows can be produced?"

Liu Zhong estimated the time and said: "Qi Fujun, the iron workshop only has a thousand people and is not large in scale. It will be completed in about ten days. However, Zhong dare not say anything about the specific number of weapons and armor that can be produced. As far as Zhong knows, A workshop of thousands of people is divided into two positions: iron smelting and casting. When the time is fixed, the moon can produce eighty or ninety ring-headed knives, the iron armor month can produce seven or eight collars, and four or five thousand arrows."

Throughout the ages, wars have been fought with logistics, and weapons also have durability. If you don't carry extra weapons when you go out to fight, it's almost impossible to fight a war.For example, chopping firewood, clearing roads, and fighting horses all require not only people, but also knives and axes.

Huo Jun shook his head and said: "There are too few weapons, armor, and arrows. After the iron workshop is completed, a certain person recruited a group of smart farmers from Poyang and Yuzhang to join the workshop. The number of armor and ring-head knives must be increased."

Not only was Huo Jun short of craftsmen, but the entire Jiangdong was short of blacksmiths.For example, in order to develop military strength and improve his troops, Liu Bei was also building weapons and armor.And after the war, people returned to farmland to work, and they also needed farm tools for work.

"correct!"

Huo Jun corrected him: "In the future, we can save arrows and make more short spears."

After fighting in the water for so long, Huo Jun gradually discovered the shortcomings of bows and arrows.When fighting on rivers, bows and arrows seem convenient and lethal, but on rivers and lakes, the accuracy of bows and arrows is impressive.Unless someone like Gan Ning is proficient in archery and is familiar with water warfare, ordinary people fighting on rivers and lakes will not be able to play a very big role.

After Huo Jun thought deeply, he decided to add javelins to the fleet to increase the lethality, that is, [-] arrows and [-] short spears.Bows and arrows were used for long-distance battles, and for close-quarters battles, sticks were used, and then javelins were used for throwing.With such equipment, the firepower of the naval warships is increased a bit.

"promise!"

Liu Zhong was a pragmatic official and didn't ask too many questions. He just nodded in agreement.

(End of this chapter)