Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 217 211. Jingzhou Development
"Not bad, not bad. You have to be from your Mohist school. You will understand what I mean immediately."

In the arsenal in Jiangling, Feng Xi looked at the several strangely shaped machines placed in the spacious courtyard and nodded with satisfaction.

Fu Zixun beside him ordered several craftsmen to turn something that looked like a steering wheel next to them. The wooden poles connected to it transmitted the rotating force layer by layer, amplified the force through gears, and finally drove a millstone to rotate.

Although there had been preliminary applications of hydraulic power in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the hydraulic equipment of that era was still too bloated. Feng Xi told Fu Zixun some mechanical principles of later generations and asked him to start with improving the hydraulic equipment. Unexpectedly, after Fu Zixun spent two days understanding those theories, he immediately came up with a simpler water mill that was easier to make.

"Grand Commander, we can choose the water wheel style based on local conditions. According to our calculations, such a water mill can produce several times more than a traditional animal-powered mill if it runs day and night."

Fu Zixun was still somewhat proud when he said this. After all, donkeys and horses need to eat and rest, but as long as the machinery is not broken, it can work endlessly.

"Well, you guys should test more later. If conditions permit, it would be best to sort out the possible failure situations and corresponding repair methods to facilitate future promotion."

Feng Xi nodded. This kind of convenient thing must be promoted vigorously. One of the main problems in the feudal era was the inability to liberate productivity. Now, from agricultural improvement to low-level mechanization, if Jingzhou becomes prosperous, the people will naturally be willing to have more children.

With more children, they will be the future manpower, and manpower is the most intuitive and obvious advantage at present.

"Also, Grand Admiral, I have some ideas about the steam engine you mentioned, but because of its high pressure, the material requirements may be more stringent, so it will not be possible to complete it for a while."

Fu Zixun thought of the reason why Feng Xi had tricked him here before. Fu Zixun tried it himself and it really worked. However, he found that this experiment of expanding the air had strict requirements on materials. After all, if the quality was not up to standard, it would explode if you just did it casually, which would definitely be bad. Therefore, he could only slow down the progress temporarily.

"It's okay, just study it slowly. There are still many inferior materials now."

Feng Xi shrugged indifferently. We are only at this stage now? It is because he does not have rubber, otherwise he could have done a lot of great things. Now these are just the basics.

After Feng Xi had time to deal with internal affairs, he immediately started agricultural reforms in Jingzhou according to his previous plan. New tools and new farming methods were immediately put into use.

Compared to when he was just a general of the vanguard army in Sichuan, his words did not carry much weight in the environment of Chengdu where many bigwigs gathered, and he had no right to interfere in farming affairs, Feng Xi is now the governor-general who officially commands Jingzhou.

Although theoretically he could only be responsible for military affairs, in reality, as long as it was not a major matter involving principles, Huang Quan would stand on his side, especially when it came to good things that benefited the country and the people.

Unfortunately, it was already late summer and early autumn when Jingzhou was recovered, so many new things had to wait until the spring plowing season. Now we could only do some work such as locust and plague prevention and control.

When Feng Xi said that locusts should be prevented, Huang Quan, Wang Fu, Liao Hua and others were all quite surprised. Locusts in this era were "signs from heaven" and "divine insects" that were specifically punishing the human world. Feng Xi's words were indeed somewhat horrifying. However, Feng Xi only gave a general account of the locusts' egg-laying situation, and then encouraged people to turn the soil in late autumn and use the low temperatures in winter to freeze the locusts to death. At the same time, he encouraged Jingzhou to carry out mixed agriculture, and wealthy households with conditions could carry out the traditional mulberry, fish and field model.

As for industry, with the existence of Fu Zixun, the family heirloom mechanical man, many things that will be very basic for the future but are nothing short of fantasy to current craftsmen can be understood more quickly by Fu Zixun. Moreover, he can teach by example, allowing the craftsmen below to understand these things in a way they can understand, which has greatly advanced Feng Xi's plan.

As for things like looms that Feng Xi didn't know much about, he simply let Fu Zixun lead the craftsmen to research and improve them. After all, they already knew the new mechanical principles, so the improvements could be left to the professionals.

There has been progress in people's livelihood, and there has also been progress in the military. At Feng Xi's request, the earthen gunpowder jars that were previously inconvenient to use have finally been improved.

In fact, from the perspective of killing soldiers, it does not require a large equivalent of jars and pots. As long as it can make them lose their combat effectiveness, the tactical goal has been achieved.

For example, the actual killing radius of a fragmentation grenade is not large, but the killing range is very large. Soldiers hit by fragments will basically lose their combat capability, and the wounded soldiers will be a huge blow to the enemy's logistics and morale.

Of course, China is in a civil war now, so Feng Xi wouldn't be so cruel. The fragments of the small grenade are still in objects such as nails and stones. At least there is a possibility of treatment, and it is not something poisonous or infected.

The small grenade has been improved to a size that is very suitable for individual use, and the protection of the fuse has also been improved, at least greatly reducing the phenomenon of misfires caused by flight, and it is also easier to store and carry.

As for processing, Feng Xi used a distributed processing method. The department that made gunpowder was the most heavily guarded, while pottery making and assembly were handed over to different craftsmen, so even if any link was bribed, it would be difficult to replicate these technologies in a short period of time.

For the navy, some equipment was improved to match these early firearms, such as catapults similar to slingshots, and the "explosive crossbow" that was used in Dongting Lake but has now been improved.

During the Battle of Dongting Lake, this type of crossbow with a gunpowder jar hanging on it caused a considerable blow to the navy of Eastern Wu, but it also had many disadvantages.

First of all, the weight of the jar will seriously reduce the range of the crossbow arrow, and the jar is very easy to break, resulting in a simple crossbow arrow.

However, after the current improvement, the hanging objects are no longer pottery jars or clay jars, but explosive packs. This greatly reduces the load of the crossbow arrows, increases the range, and the probability of the explosive packs misfiring due to collision is definitely much lower than that of the jars.

In addition, after the unremitting research of those alchemists, at the cost of killing and injuring dozens of people, the explosive power and preservation ability of gunpowder were further improved.

Through their attempts, they developed granular gunpowder, paving the way for new weapons in the future.

(End of this chapter)