The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 66: Exploring mountains and waters, suppressing bandits and training troops

After receiving the field deed, Liu Sheng said with a smile: "Since Brother Ma is here, take us to have a detailed look inside and outside the village while the weather is not hot yet."

Ma Jinliang glanced at the bright sun outside and declined politely, but he understood that this was Liu Sheng's opportunity for him to show off. He could only wipe the sweat from his face, nodded and said, "Okay, that's what I meant."

It was already close to nine o'clock in the morning. Although it was not the hottest time of the day, the sun was already very hot.

The group of people all put on bamboo hats, and the red lady's bamboo hat was even more covered with white gauze curtains.

Although Liu Sheng has been to Dashui Pingzhai many times, because he had something to do every time, he came and went in a hurry and did not actually look around carefully.

Now, under the leadership of Ma Jinliang, he walked around the city wall and looked carefully everywhere, only to find that the Big Water Bottle Village was more dangerous than he had expected.

The village is built on a gentle slope in the mountains, because as you get to the middle, the terrain becomes lower and it can be regarded as a very shallow valley.

The walls of the village are made of huge stones according to the mountain topography, and are generally in an irregular diamond shape.

From due west to due north, and then to due east, this half of the city wall is surrounded by the highest mountains. It is basically impossible for the enemy to attack from this side.

From due west to due south, and then to due east, this half of the city wall is relatively low and gentle, but due south is a deep ravine surrounded by cliffs, which is also difficult for the enemy to attack.

There is no way to go to places that are difficult for the enemy to attack, so Dashui Pingzhai opened a gate in the southwest and southeast, called the west gate and the east gate.

The village covers an area of ​​more than 1000 acres, and there is a rectangular pond in the middle. The water source is rainwater from the mountains and mountain spring water.

When the water is full, it is probably close to ten acres. Unfortunately, due to years of drought and a severe drought this year, it is now only two or three acres in size.

The ancestors who built this village dug a large well just north of it to collect mountain spring water as a drinking water source.

The accumulated water in weirs and ponds is the source of domestic water for people and irrigation water for fields inside and outside the village.

When walking here, Ma Jinliang said solemnly: "Brother Liu, Miss Hong, the drought this year is worse than in previous years. I really don't know when it will rain.

Therefore, even if there is still water in the weir and pond, my family will strictly control it and not allow people to carry water to irrigate the fields.

The reason why Dashui Ping Village is still alive today is because of this weir and pond. If it dries up, the people in the village will really have no way to survive. "

Hearing this, Madam Hong looked at Ma Jinliang with a high look, nodded and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Ma, after I take over the village, I will also strictly control the people's water use."

Liu Sheng laughed at this time and said: "Brother Ma said that there will be a severe drought this year and the harvest in the village will be cut off. But I think with this weir and pond, there will be no harvest at most."

Ma Jinliang was a little embarrassed after hearing this, and reluctantly defended: "All we grow inside and outside the village are millet, and the yield per mu is already less than wheat. If there is a large failure, it will be no different from a complete harvest."

Millet, also known as millet, is more drought tolerant than corn, sorghum, and sweet potatoes.

Therefore, most people in the north now plant wheat before winter, harvest before summer, and then plant millet.

Millet also matures in three to four months, so it can be harvested just in time before winter, and then wheat can be planted, so that wheat and millet are planted in rotation.

But at this time, the wheat yield was only more than one stone per mu, and the millet yield was often less than one stone per mu.Therefore, the annual yield of northern fields is only more than two stones per mu at most.

The paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River are much better. With intensive cultivation, the yield per mu per season can exceed one and a half stones, or even close to two stones.If you plant two crops, the annual yield per mu can be close to four stones at most!

Of course, there are not many paddy fields with a rice yield of nearly two shi per mu per season, so on average, the annual yield of paddy fields in Jiangnan is only about three shi per mu.

Although Liu Sheng didn't farm, he knew something about these things. Seeing Ma Jinliang's nervousness, he smiled and said, "I'm just asking casually. Brother Ma, don't be nervous."

Ma Jinliang thought to himself, my land has been dedicated to him, why should I be nervous?

Liu Sheng had lunch at Dashui Pingzhai before returning to Liujiazhai.

In the next few days, Liu Sheng took a group of cavalry, 25 pro-army infantry, and Wang Tiechui's eldest son Wang Shiyi to explore the mountains and hills of Tianmu Mountain every day.

There are three purposes.

The first is to see if we can luckily find small iron mines, so that we can open furnaces to smelt iron directly near the iron mines.

The second is to train the pro-troops’ marching ability and teach military skills such as detecting the enemy’s situation, lurking and camouflaging.

The third is to learn more about Tianmu Mountain and its surroundings.It took more than a week for Liu Sheng to roughly explore more than [-] miles around Liujiazhai. Afterwards, he concluded that he had gained a lot.

The iron ore was not found, but the pro-soldiers took turns running with Liu Sheng in the mountains day by day, and their physical fitness and military literacy were significantly improved.

Secondly, this exploration gave Liu Sheng a clearer understanding of the geographical situation in Tianmu Mountain, and he could almost understand it by heart.

For example, he discovered that there were originally many streams, waterfalls, ditches, and pools in Tianmu Mountain.Unfortunately, due to several consecutive years of drought, especially the severe drought this year, most of these water flows have been cut off and dried up.

The most typical example is that in years with abundant water, there is a small lake about ten miles northeast of Dashui Pingzhai, which is connected to the larger Hongshi Lake in the southeast and even Boshan Lake further east, and can be connected to the Huaihe River!
In the years when there is abundant water in this river network, only small fish boats and awning boats one step wide can pass through the narrowest part.

However, when they gathered on the Minggang side, larger merchant ships could already travel, making Minggang a veritable river port.

However, these rivers and ditches have been in disrepair for a long time, and there have been several consecutive years of drought. Coupled with this year's severe drought, the rivers in the northeast of Minggang have dried up to the point of bottoming out, making it impossible for boats to navigate.

The small rivers in the upper reaches were so dry that even the bottom of the river was exposed, with terrifying dry cracks appearing.

When Liu Sheng explored the surroundings of Boshan Lake, he checked the lake bed and asked the surrounding people, and learned that Boshan Lake had shrunk by nearly three-quarters compared to a few years ago, remaining only a quarter of its size.

However, compared to some areas in Henan, there is still some water stored in the Tianmu Mountain area, so not many people in the villages fled.As for the wealthy households, their lives are more comfortable than those in other places.

While exploring the terrain, Liu Sheng also inquired about the reputations of these large households. Those with bad reputations, those with fair reputations, and those with average reputations were all categorized and recorded in a notebook.

The last gain was the discovery that there were several bandit dens in the Tianmu Mountain area.

Although these bandits are all small in size, ranging from dozens to a dozen people, Liu Sheng has regarded Tianmu Mountain as his home base and naturally will not allow these bandits to continue to exist.

So, at the end of June, Liu Sheng, Hong Niangzi, Yang Heqing, and Wen You divided these bandit nests, and either led their own troops to exterminate them, or they cooperated to attack the bandit strongholds, so as to train troops. ··
More than ten miles southwest of Liujiazhai, there is an old village.

Yue Kaishan was holding his third concubine in his arms while drinking and eating meat with several of his subordinates.

Speaking of which, Laoshan Village can be regarded as an old bandit village. Because the village's terrain is relatively dangerous and it has colluded with the landlords of the surrounding villages, it has been entrenched here for decades.

It has never been wiped out by the government, just because the village leader has been changed more than ten times.

Yue Kaishan came to power by beheading the son of the old village leader to death a few years ago.

Not only is he quite forceful, he is also good at dealing with landlords.

When the old village owner was here, he went down the mountain to collect the protection fees from each village, which was returned in full by the landlord's family.

It was his turn to be the leader of the village, but he teamed up with the landlord to collect the protection fees from the common people, and after collecting the [-]-[-]% share with the landlord.

He accounted for seven points, not only because there were seventy or eighty young men in the village, but also because he helped the landlords gain a bad reputation.

Speaking of which, life is not easy for bandits these days. They don't have much food and wine on weekdays.

He went down the mountain two days ago and successfully collected a crop of protection fees. He just held a banquet today to eat and drink.

"Come, come, drink!"

Yue Kaishan kneaded his concubine with one hand, picked up the sea bowl with the other and poured wine into his mouth.

The five leaders each hugged the woman and started drinking along with them.

"Hahaha, have fun!"

Yue Kaishan laughed heartily when he saw a group of minions running in in a panic, shouting repeatedly, "The village leader is in trouble! The village master is in trouble!"

"I'm very good!" Yue Kaishan pushed the concubine away, walked down, picked up the messenger with one hand, and asked with an unhappy face: "Tell me clearly, what's going on?"

The little guy said in panic: "The officers and soldiers are marching up the mountain!"

　Chapter 65: I’ve been tricked and I don’t know when I will be released.

　　Thanks to [Book Friends 2020***5891] for the 100 starting point reward!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)