Country color

Chapter 302

In March, although it was the beginning of spring, there was a cold spring in Jixian County, and there was a heavy snowfall.

In several slum-like workshops in the south of Ji County, beggars or people who wander here have no roof tiles, and they are all exposed to the cold and cold.The beggars are all experienced in gathering dry dung piles together, and people hide in the dung piles to warm up, so the entire county is full of garbage and dung.

It is not difficult to keep warm, but the problem is that in severe winter, people can save their clothes but not their food. In winter, people in Jixian County do not have enough rations because of the war, let alone donate to refugees. But not many, more people stood by and watched.

Since Li Chongjiu set foot in Ji County, more and more refugees from various counties in Hebei, who suffered from bandits and robbers, went to Ji County.

Today there are tens of thousands of refugees in Jixian County. They sleep in the street at night, and stare at the smoke from the fire in the rich houses during the day, while they only eat Avalokitesvara soil, bark, and grass roots.

After Wei Zheng, the prefect of the county, heard about this situation, he immediately set up a porridge shop at the four gates of the city, and gave porridge to the refugees from the newly established righteous warehouse.Now outside the four-door porridge shop, there is a long line of queues every day, waiting for the porridge to be served there.

The county magistrate Wei Zheng heard that after this, he couldn't help but have a few more white hairs on his head, and rushed to the porridge shop in low clothes early in the morning.

Wei Zheng personally took a large spoon and scooped up soup and water from the bottom of a porridge pot. The people from the county government who were in charge of the porridge shop all looked trembling.They all heard today that when Wei Zheng checked the consistency of the porridge in each porridge shop, he found that two people who were greedy for ink were dragged out and killed with sticks.

"Yes!" Wei Zheng said this sentence softly, and the officials just wiped off the fine sweat from their foreheads, and then continued to serve porridge.

Wei Zheng stood in front of the porridge shop with his hands behind his back, looking at the line that looked like a long queue, he couldn't help but heaved a long sigh, and looked at the countless eyes that were waiting to be pierced, and there were thousands of refugees waiting to be fed.

Zhao Heran from the Zhao family of Zhuojun County, the meritorious officer of the nearby county, said: "Young Commander Wei, the world is in chaos right now. Only Zhuojun County in the north is considered a relatively peaceful place. Now there are hundreds of refugees flocking to Jixian County every day. And the counties outside the city don’t know how many. If things go on like this, even if Duke Gu set up a charity warehouse to help out with porridge shops, I’m afraid it won’t be able to fill so many mouths.”

"That's right," a Zhuojun official saw that Wei Zheng's investigation was so strict that it was almost impossible to use the porridge shop to make money, so he simply said, "The establishment of a porridge shop is just a temporary thing. There will always be grain in the Yicang. It's been a day, but the number of refugees is increasing every day, so if our righteous warehouse is emptied, if there is any natural disaster in Zhuo County, we people in this county will not be able to take care of it. Therefore, I implore the governor of Wei County Zhuo County The city can no longer let refugees into the city."

"That's right, these refugees have disturbed the place, and there have been more than a dozen incidents caused by the refugees in the past few days. Everyone knows that there are many wealthy households in Ji County. If Shanggu Lord is disturbed, it will be our fault. "The county lieutenant also spoke.

Wei Zheng took a look at these people, and said: "Keep the refugees out of the city, and the number of refugees coming to Zhuojun will not decrease. Isn't this a deception. If the refugees gather in the mountains and become bandits, you only think of yourself. Convenience, but don’t you think about the people?”

Hearing Wei Zheng's harsh words, everyone lowered their heads.

At this time, Lu Chengqing, the commander of the county, said: "It is better to teach people to fish than to teach them to fish. I heard that Lord Shanggu has recently set up a new workshop in Zhuojun County. He wants to recruit thousands of craftsmen. Why don't I take a look at the workshop?" Whether to accept refugees. In addition, we can also think of ways to resettle these people. Many fields in Shanggu Yanmen are barren, and Shanggu Gong can make Goguryeo prisoners of war settle down, let alone reject refugees."

Wei Zheng nodded when he heard the words, showed some appreciation to Lu Chengqing, and said, "Good!"

Lu Chengqing also smiled slightly.

Li Chongjiu's new craftsman's workshop in Zhuojun was set up in a remote place in the south of Zhuojun.

Li Zuojiang, who used to smelt iron for him in Shanggu County, is now the chief craftsman of the three armies of Zhuojun, Shanggu County, and Yanmen County, making weapons for Li Chongjiu. There are more than 1000 craftsmen in total, and more than a dozen of these craftsmen are from the Shaofu Supervisor.

The Shaofu Supervisor is affiliated to the Taifu Temple, which is equivalent to the Ministry of Industry in later generations, but its status is lower than that of the Ministry of Industry. The Shaofu Supervisor is specialized in making weapons in the Taifu Temple.

Therefore, more than a dozen craftsmen from the Shaofu Prison have served in the Shaofu Prison for many years. They understand the most advanced craftsmanship of the Sui Dynasty in this era, and they are the elite craftsmen of the Sui Dynasty.

Li Chongjiu asked them and Li Zuojiang to be in charge of the Great Craftsman Workshop in Zhuo County. Now it is Li Chongjiu's general arsenal. In the future, tens of thousands of troops will have all the armed equipment here, and [-] soldiers will guard day and night every day.

Today, Li Chongjiu was invited to the workshop by Li Zuojiang and other teachers because he learned that the workshop had successfully imitated the Zhuge Liannu from the Three Kingdoms period.

In the craftsman's workshop, the sound of iron hammers was beating repeatedly, and the blower was also whistling.

In such a noisy environment, Zhou Zuojiang beside Li Zuojiang, although he was old, introduced the imitation Zhuge Liannu to Li Chongjiu in a loud voice. It is better than the bow, but when it comes to battle, it still cannot replace the bow, because there are only two, one crossbow shoots one arrow, the bow can shoot three arrows, and two are unusable for cavalry."

"Now this Zhuge Liannu can be used. There are ten arrows in a box. You only need to repeatedly pull the string and pull the hanging knife to shoot arrows. In this way, not only infantry can be used, but horse pawns can also be used."

Li Chongjiu listened to Zhou Zuojiang's words and took the Zhuge Liannu. He saw that the Zhuge Liannu was no different from ordinary crossbows, the only difference was that there was an extra casing in the belly of the machine.

Li Chongjiu manipulated it, and every time an arrow was shot, a new arrow would pop out from the receiver, and then all the operator had to do was draw the bowstring again and aim.

Li Chongjiu gave the crossbow to the general Wei Chigong, Wang Mahan, Xu Wu and others looked at it together, and all the generals nodded in approval after seeing it, and it was good to try it a few times.

Ji Chuan on the side also said: "The eunuch heard that after Zhuge Kongming made this bow, Ma Jun of the Later Wei State imitated it as a fifty-arrow crossbow, but it was lost later, and now it can be reproduced. This is God's blessing for our army."

I have to say that even though Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms hasn't been written yet, Zhuge Kongming's charm has always been great.

Zhou Zuojiang decided to strike while the iron was hot, and said, "I wonder if Lord Shanggu can have this crossbow made by a craftsman's workshop. If the labor is sufficient, we can produce a hundred crossbows a month."

After listening to what Zhou Zuojiang and Ji Chuan said, Li Chongjiu shook his head slowly and put down the crossbow.Everyone looked at Li Chongjiu's expression as if something was wrong, Zhou Zuojiang immediately asked: "Duke Shanggu, does this crossbow have any shortcomings?"

Li Chongjiu put down the crossbow, took out the crossbow arrow, and said to Zhou Zuojiang: "This crossbow is fine, but the arrow is not good. You see, this arrow is only eight feet long, and for the convenience of loading, the arrow feathers have been removed. How can it reach far like this!"

All the generals listened to Li Chongjiu's words, and they all took a look, and it was true.Zhou Zuojiang immediately said: "If the arrows are too long, the crossbow will be too heavy and cannot be lifted by one person. So in order to reduce the weight, we must use shorter arrows."

Hearing Zhou Zuojiang's words, Xu Wu took out a continual crossbow to shoot, but he saw that the crossbow's arrows were fine within fifty steps, but the accuracy had declined beyond fifty steps.

At that moment Xu Wu frowned and said: "What's the use of such a continuous flow of pawns."

Zhou Zuojiang immediately said: "We can use arrow shafts to make iron arrows, so that once the arrow sinks, it will not be easy to deviate."

All the generals shook their heads when they heard this. If the arrows were made of iron, the cost would be high.

Xu Wuyan said: "Even if it is an iron arrow, but this arrow is fifty steps away, and even leather armor cannot penetrate, let alone iron armor. It can only be used to deal with grass bandits, but if you encounter ordinary grass bandits, ordinary bows and arrows can do it." Repelling, why use the continuous crossbow, what is the use of the continuous crossbow if you encounter an elite armored enemy army?"

Zhou Zuojiang said immediately: "Even if the pawns are useless, the horse army can also be used."

Li Chongjiu shook his head. Most of Li Chongjiu's cavalry were horsemen, and they fired bows like drinking water and eating. What's the use of a Liannu with a range as strong as a light bow? General crossbow.

It is no wonder that Zhuge Liannu in history, after the Three Kingdoms, was no longer equipped in the later period.

At that moment Li Chongjiu would drop the Zhuge Liannu equipment and put it into the army, Zhou Zuojiang heard that his hard work had been in vain, and he felt discouraged at the moment.

He bit his lip and said nothing, he cupped his fists and said to Li Chongjiu, "The villain knows."

Li Chongjiu said in his heart that although Zhuge Liannu is not convenient to use in actual combat, but this person can imitate it, which shows that he is quite capable.At that moment, Li Chongjiu expressed relief, saying: "At present, there are only more than 1000 craftsmen. In the future, I will recruit 3000 people. If you work hard, I will only reward you heavily in the future."

At present, General Li Chongjiu has followed him all the way since Shanggu County, Li Zuojiang was promoted as Cao Shuzuo of Zhuojun Army, and Zhou Zuojiang was promoted as Cao Shuzuo of Jixian Army, both of whom were in charge of making weapons.

The two were able to be appointed officials, both of them looked unbelievable.

There are scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen. Although merchants are at the bottom, in fact, the status of craftsmen is the lowest in all dynasties.

In the Sui Dynasty, prisoners such as official slaves, maidservants and criminals worked in the workshops of Shaofu supervisors.The others are craftsmen who have served for a long time, and local craftsmen who have been on short-term programs.The short-term craftsmen must take turns to serve in the capital or local states and counties according to the rule of six rounds per year and two months per round.Craftsman labor is much heavier than that of farmers.

Li Chongjiu promoted the two of them to be officials. Of course, he saw that the technical competitiveness of the workshop under the leadership of the two was promoted like a businessman.

Even if they objected after learning about it, Li Chongjiu would not take it seriously.

Zhou Zuojiang was even more ashamed when he saw it. Originally, because Zhuge Liannu was rejected by Li Chongjiu, he couldn't help feeling resentful towards Li Chongjiu.But seeing Li Chongjiu promote him as an official, from the lowest craftsman to the soldier Cao Shuzuo who can only be served by people from prominent families in the county, he couldn't help but feel grateful at the moment.

Of course, Li Zuojiang's excitement was no less than that of Zhou Zuojiang.

(End of this chapter)