Chu and Han contend for the throne

Chapter 200 Papermaking
In Jiangbei, the Chu army has captured Liyang County.

The Chu army will be stationed in Jiangbei for a period of time, and it is obviously not a problem to be stationed in the wild for a long time.

Li Zuoche's army, which was originally entrenched in Liyang County, did not entangle the Chu army too much in Liyang, but decisively shrank all its troops to Dongcheng, Yinling, and Quyang counties. Obviously, Li Zuoche also It is very clear that the reason why Xiang Zhuang occupies Liyang is mostly to rest his feet and recuperate, not to stay in Jiangbei for a long time.

Today's Jiujiang County has a population of at most [-], and Xiang Zhuang definitely doesn't like it.

Zhangjun and Kuaiji counties in Jiangdong combined have a population of more than 200 million, and they have not been destroyed by the war. That is the foundation that Xiangzhuang really wants. Only when Xiangzhuang completely occupies the entire Jiangdong can it be possible to follow the The King of Liang who occupied the Central Plains, the King of Qi who occupied the land of Qi, and the King of Han who occupied Guanzhong, Bashu, were long and short.

As for why the Chu army stayed in Jiangbei, Li Zuoche didn't know.

However, it was precisely because of this consideration that Li Zuoche resolutely gave up Li Yang.

If Li Zuoche really made up his mind to defend Liyang, he would definitely be able to defend it, but relying on Liyang's solid city walls, it would be no problem to severely injure the Chu army. Li Zuoche still had this confidence.

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Xiang Zhuang did not intend to capture the entire Jiujiang.

Wei Liao had already analyzed the current situation thoroughly with Xiang Zhuang before he was alive. In terms of population background alone, only Qi, Guanzhong, Zhao, and Jiangdong can be the foundation of the king and hegemony, and the Central Plains can barely do it. The rest The populations of Jingchu, Huaisi, Yandi, and Bashu are too small to achieve great things.

Don't think about Qidi and Guanzhong, the current Liu Bang and Han Xin are definitely not something Xiang Zhuang can provoke.

Although Zhao's population is sufficient, it is by no means a good place because it is sandwiched between Liu Bang, Han Xin, and Maodun.

Although the Central Plains can barely dominate, it is also sandwiched between Liu Bang and Han Xin, and it has to face Peng Yue's [-] tiger and wolf divisions. With the current strength of the Chu army, it is definitely not the opponent of Liang Jun.

Then, only Jiangdong is left, which is one of the reasons why the Chu army traveled thousands of miles to return to Jiangdong.

As for the other reason, it is naturally because Jiangdong is the birthplace of the Xiang family. Although there are many factions and undercurrents in Jiangdong at the moment, once Xiangzhuang can control the overall situation, it will be able to get the support of the Xiang family, the major ancient Chu clans, and the local Jiangdong clans. With full support, you can immediately take advantage of the people and material resources of Jiangdong, and go north to the Central Plains to fight for supremacy!
Of course, it is not easy for Xiang Zhuang to control the overall situation in Jiangdong and get the support of the aristocracy, gentry and clan.

However, no matter how difficult the process is, Xiangzhuang must try. In any case, it is better to accept a relatively complete Jiangdong than a dilapidated Jiangdong. The damage to the livelihood of the people in a place is beyond imagination. There is a large loss of population, and it is impossible to recover in a short time.

Moreover, the current complicated situation in Jiangdong is an opportunity for Xiang Zhuang?
This is indeed an opportunity, an opportunity to make Xiang Zhuang's political skills more sophisticated and mature!

The reason why Wei Liao gave ten thousand instructions was to tell Xiang Zhuang not to do anything after crossing the river, to talk less and to watch more, and also told Xiang Zhuang that when he was uncertain about a matter, he would rather wait and see than make a rash decision , I just hope that Xiang Zhuang can also become mature when dealing with political struggles. For the superior, military struggles and political struggles are like left and right fists, and both are indispensable!

In the final analysis, the power struggle in Jiangdong is just an internal dispute in Chu State. If Xiang Zhuang wants to rise to power, he must learn to deal with internal disputes through political means. A king who only knows how to solve internal disputes through military means is not qualified. It is also doomed to failure, such as Xiang Yu, is a good example.

Therefore, Xiang Zhuang strictly implemented Wei Liao's last plan and postponed crossing the river.

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However, during this period of time, Xiang Zhuang has not been idle. Using more than 2000 years of knowledge, he guided the bus to improve and even invented some equipment, the most important of which are two, one is the stone mill, and the other is the bellows!Don't underestimate these two inconspicuous equipment, gadgets can come in handy when they have time!
For example, the improvement of stone mills greatly improved the food of the Chu army.

Speaking of stone mills, it was first invented by Gongshuban, the ancestor of Gongshuche. However, the stone mill invented by Gongshuban is not mature. Its fans are composed of round or square pits of different sizes, so the grinding The grains and wheat millets are very rough, and the baked cakes or cooked rice have a poor taste and are difficult to digest.

When the Chu army was in the Dabie Mountains, the reason why they could only fry the grain was because the stone mill was not good.

If the Chu army has the stone mill of the later generations, the Chu army can completely grind wheat into flour, rice into rice flour, and then grind beans into tofu, and then bake, steam, fry, and bake into buns, cakes, cakes, and tofu. Dried and cooked food not only tastes better, but is also easier to digest, and can better protect the physical fitness of the soldiers of the Chu army.

So, don't underestimate this small stone mill!

According to the memory of his previous life, Xiang Zhuang improved the fans of the stone mill. The masons chiseled out eight sectors on the upper and lower fans respectively, and each sector was chiseled out with uniform stripes, so that the flour and rice flour milled are very fine. Baked pancakes or cooked rice taste good and are easy to digest. The improved stone mill even grinds tofu!

In China's food culture, the appearance of tofu is a milestone event!
Before tofu appeared, people just boiled soybeans, and then mixed them with other grains to eat. The taste was almost the same, and the nutritional value was also very low. But once it was ground into tofu, it not only tasted good, The nutritional value has also improved, and more importantly, there have been various eating methods such as boiled tofu, fried tofu, dried tofu, and fermented bean curd.

It is foreseeable that in the not-too-distant future, the dry ration bags of Chu soldiers will become more popular.

As for the bellows, let alone their function, it is a powerful weapon of the country that can make a leap in iron smelting technology!

Before the bellows appeared, smelting furnaces could only smelt white iron, which is commonly known as pig iron in later generations. Pig iron could not be processed directly. Refined iron is the only way to proceed to the next step of refining and forging.

However, after the appearance of the bellows, due to the increase in furnace temperature, the smelting furnace will be able to directly smelt refined iron (gray cast iron)!
Moreover, the quality of the refined iron directly smelted from the smelting furnace is higher than that of the refined iron obtained by repeated annealing and carburizing of white iron!This greatly improves the smelting efficiency and makes the large-scale production of the ring head knife possible!
Of course, Xiang Zhuang didn't know that the bellows would have such a big effect. He just remembered that when he was a child, the blacksmith in the village seemed to use a square wooden box instead of a wind bag when he was a child. Xiang Zhuang also studied this box. , Knowing its structure, I have to say that the principle of the bellows is really simple, even children can understand it.

According to the idea provided by Xiang Zhuang, the first bellows built by the public transportation vehicle took shape quickly.

The entire bellows is in the shape of a cuboid, three feet high and three feet wide, and five feet long. There are air intake one-way valves at the front and rear ends, and there is a screen in the middle of the box, which is covered with feathers. , the air in the bellows was compressed and pushed out of the air outlet, and a whistling blue flame burst out from the blacksmith's stove outside the air outlet, but on the other side, a dozen strong men desperately agitated a dozen sheepskin bags However, the yellow flame still emerged from the blacksmith's stove.

Obviously, the efficiency of this small bellows is significantly higher than that of a dozen sheepskin sacs!
When the father and daughter of the public transportation car cheered happily, and a dozen strong men were stunned, Xiang Zhuang's mind had already shifted to another invention, that is - paper!

The four great inventions of China, the compass, papermaking, gunpowder, and movable type printing. The compass is useless now, because it is not yet the time to build a navy, and gunpowder is a good thing. However, Xiang Zhuang did not study hard in his previous life. Although he played with it later Firearms have been around for more than ten years, but I don't know what gunpowder is, so I just want to make them but I can't make them.

However, Xiang Zhuang still knows the art of papermaking. I remember reading a small book when I was a child. Xiang Zhuang was very impressed. It tells the story of Cai Lun’s papermaking. The pile of sundries was broken, boiled and stirred again, and then a thin layer of thick pulp was fished out with a bamboo screen, and dried, it seemed to be paper.

Xiang Zhuang knows that the real papermaking technique is not so simple, but the way of thinking should be like this!

With Gongshuche's hard-working spirit, Gongshuya's eccentric spirit, and Xiangzhuang's thinking, after a few more attempts, the paper can always be made.

However, Xiang Zhuang is in a hurry to make paper now, but he has ulterior motives.

Because Xiang Zhuang intends to send a heavy gift to the aristocratic, noble, and clan in Jiangdong. What kind of gift is it?Book!And not one book or two, but hundreds of books!

The background of these books is not small, they are all collected by the National Library of the Great Qin Empire!

Chinese history books have always had a misunderstanding of the first emperor, that is, burning books and burying Confucianism.

In fact, the first emperor did not really burn the subset of classics and histories of the six kingdoms in the Kanto region, but left copies of them and collected them in the National Library of the Great Qin Empire. He's just an alchemist spreading rumors and causing trouble everywhere, not a Confucian scholar at all!
After Liu Bang entered the customs, Xiao He protected these subsets of classics and history.

Later, when Xiang Yu entered the pass, although the Qin Palace was burned down, the tens of thousands of classics and history collections in the Qin Palace escaped because of Xiao He's protection. However, when Xiang Zhuang led the Chu army for the second time When he entered Xianyang, Xiao He had no time to transfer again, and all these books fell into Xiang Zhuang's hands.

Later, when the Chu army left Jiuyuan, Xiangzhuang burned a lot of surplus food, threw away a lot of luggage and military equipment, and even threw away countless silks, satins, gold, silver and jewels. Only these hundreds of thousands of books were borrowed. He took away all the volumes without landing. As a traveler, Xiang Zhuang knew very well that it is terrible to be uneducated.

Now, these books will play their due role.

The reason why the gentry is a gentry is because they have read books and are more educated than the common people!

The reason why the aristocratic clan is the aristocratic clan is because they inherit poems and books, and they have more heritage than the noble clan!
In this era when transportation is inconvenient and the dissemination of books relies heavily on handwritten copies, Xiang Zhuang is very convinced that these books are definitely an irresistible gift to the aristocratic, noble and clan families in Jiangdong!

(End of this chapter)