Follow General Cao to mix the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 142 On Protracted War
Wang Hou's "last wish" was not fulfilled after all. On the one hand, Cao Cao really didn't know where the human chrysanthemum was. On the other hand, the pepper is still lying comfortably in the South American jungle!The idea of ​​eating Malatang is a fantasy, let alone finding chili peppers stuffed with chrysanthemums.

Especially now, instead of punishing the gunpowder craftsmen under Wang Hou's command, they have to confess as treasures, because the bombing of the river is so cool, and the four thousand catties of gunpowder have consumed all the gunpowder stocks in Xudu and Puyang. Cao Jun There is an urgent need to recreate a batch of such strategic weapons.

But at this time, the brine well in Pudong was lost, and the way to make nitrate by spraying the brine well water into the plant ash was no longer feasible. Fortunately, Wang Hou left a hand before he left the Dongjun prefect, that is, Yexiang from Jiquan Xuchang After the collection order, it was ordered that the night pots and urine buckets in Xuchang and several nearby counties must also be kept separately, and poured into the incense collection carts sent by the government every day, and then pulled outside the city.

I am addicted to playing earth guns, and I also know the importance of this thing. Cao Cao signed this tasteful decree with his nose, and strictly enforced it. They will all be punished with fine grain!The whole of Xu has a population of 10, and the population of the nearby county towns adds up to nearly 15. Under strict supervision, in the first half of [-] AD, the accumulated urine also reached a considerable amount.

Of course, it is impossible for Wang Hou to transport these coquettish liquids directly to the battlefield. Not to mention how to preserve them, just fumigation is enough to knock people down. After collecting these yellow liquids, Wang Fu held his nose In the sad reminder, it was directly poured into the fine soil dug from the mountain, thrown into the shelter pit for shelter from the rain, and fermented for more than 20 days. After a layer of white salt frost formed on the soil, it was covered with plant ash I kept collecting them, and in one summer, I collected quite a lot.

After experiencing the Battle of Snow Mountain and Glacier, the military struggle between Cao Jun and Yuan Jun eased up again.

More than 6000 soldiers and horses fell into the water, although dozens of people were drowned and washed away, but in the severe cold of the Little Ice Age, especially in Yuan Jun's camp that lacked heating equipment and facilities, soaked in the icy river water Among them, more than 5000 Yuan Jun cavalrymen whose body temperature dropped suddenly died suddenly due to hypothermia within a few hours.

The Hebei archers who attacked the Guandu camp head-on, and the archers from Hebei who shot with ice buckets all over the sky, and the elite soldiers of Gao Lan Zhang Yun who attacked with their own flesh and blood also had nearly [-] casualties. In terms of combat power, even if Yuan Shao had a large number of soldiers, he still couldn't afford such consumption.

As a result, the duel became a boring stalemate again. Every morning, Yuan Jun, who was holding a dirt basket filled with clods of ice and snow, flipped through the dirt mountain like a thief, and then poured the snow basket down, making Yuan Jun's snow mountain fortification step by step. Push forward step by step to Cao Junguan's camp.

However, this process is extremely slow. After all, the 150 giant return guns that Cao Cao has successively added are not vegetarians. In order to deal with Yuan Shao’s towering snow-capped mountains, Cao Cao ordered to dismantle several of the Jinglan scull carts that captured Yuan Jun in Hebei, and built three There is a 15-meter-high watchtower, and there are 24-hour sentries watching the three big camps on the left, center and right. Once there are more than a thousand Hebei strong men piled up with snow, if they gather a little, the river ice will greet you and smash you Bloody head.

Who is not afraid of death?The progress is interrupted by the super trebuchet from time to time every day. The speed of the Yuanjun Snow Mountain fortification in Hebei is not even half a meter a day. In this process, Wang Hou is not sure whether he can pile it up to the gate of Guandu Daying before the ice and snow melt. Come.

In fact, Yuan Shao was not unable to win the victory. According to the strategy provided by Tian Feng before, he gathered all the cavalry, forced to cross the frozen Jishui River, went south to attack Xuchang, and captured the Han court and Cao Cao's lair. But in the face of such a situation, it is really powerless!

However, this suggestion was mercilessly shelved by the collective veto of the Yingchuan faction and Yuan Shao's arrogance, and the battle of Guandu was dragged into a long tug-of-war that consumed the national power of both sides.

However, this slow and arduous pace of war gave Wang Hou a big stage to perform and a big space to play.

Except for the wood used to build the watchtower, the rest of the well rails and scull carts all belonged to Wang Hou, who was dismantled into a large pile of wood by his prodigal son, and a series of wooden sheds were built next to the Guandu Ferry. .

The shed is covered with straw mats, which temporarily isolates the heavy snow from the sky. Under the shed, there is a bustling and busy scene.

Hot fire is really not a meaningless adjective. War needs a lot of steel support. Under the shed, at most, high-quality coke is burned, and the railway is sprayed with hot air. It is also necessary to turn the Guangang transported by Xudu into new weapons or arrows, and stirrups, which takes up more than 5000 strong men.

Then there is something that Wang Hou urgently needs!cement!
The iron-making slag is cut back and forth by the stone mill, ground to pieces, and fired together with clay, which has been developed in large quantities in this era, to become unqualified cement of various grades.

On the other side, there are brick-burning yards. It is said that the firing process of Han bricks cannot be completely replicated even by the later Wang Hou in the era before he traveled. Anyway, even Wang Hou does not know what kind of craftsmanship. A piece of high-quality large green brick is also pulled out furnace by furnace in the hands of these local craftsmen who have lost their slag.

In the past, steel bars made by the Funiushan Iron Mine were shipped to Zhongmou County in bundles.

What are these made for?Build a house!

Wherever the later generations of the Mi army stationed troops, they had to build a military base first!Having a permanent military fortress is so important for war!And even if the military defense function is removed, it is good to serve as a barracks for Cao Jun soldiers living in the wild to keep warm and maintain their combat effectiveness. Compared with living in the wild, burning some poor grass and firewood, Yuan Jun shivering , sleeping on a kang covered with straw, Cao Jun who is warm and comfortable every day, which one has a higher combat effectiveness is self-evident!

More importantly, Wang Hou, the head of the rear battalion, has the final say on how to build the military camp, but there are no groups of gentry businessmen in Puyang debating with him about aesthetic views!He can cover it however he wants!
There are nearly 7 strong men on hand. Even if 3 people are placed in the back camp for construction and production, Wang Hou can mobilize more than 4 people. He can be regarded as the largest contractor of this era. Under his triumphant command, tens of thousands of people took turns with hoes to plan the hard frozen soil on the ground, pushing bricks and cement to build houses.

More people means more strength. There is no ice bucket challenge that falls on your head at any time. The construction of the rear camp can be carried out at full speed. More than 2 strong men work together. By the 32th of January 20, within [-] days, the first batch of More than [-] small military camp buildings have been completed and are ready for occupancy.

I really don't have confidence in the cement produced by my own home, and Wang Hou dare not build it higher. There are twenty two-story small buildings in the Qingyishui military camp, but the width of the buildings is quite wide. One small building has three corridors, two There are a total of forty rooms in the fourth row of the building. At this time, there is no privacy and comfortable accommodation. The room of about [-] square meters is a row of Datong Kang against the wall, which is enough to sleep a group of ten Cao soldiers, a barracks Four hundred infantry can be stationed, and twenty buildings are [-] people.

Uh... After all, this is still an era of class privileges, and some rooms are still provided separately for senior military officers.

Compared with the small rooms on the second floor, the rooms on the first floor are much larger. The pillars support the front half to divide four dining rooms, two large kitchens, and two public toilets. Even Wang Hou is extravagant. A bath was built, and the hot air from the coal stove in the kitchen can supply the heating for the entire military kang along the flue. The non-stop hot water can also provide drinking and bathing water for the sergeants. It can be said to have all functions!
"Please look at the Xiangfu, here is the kitchen, here is the dining room, here is the bathroom, here is the bathroom, and there is a warehouse, all functions are available!"

Leading Cao Cao to visit, while leading the way on the first floor, which is full of cement plastered walls and rough rough houses, Wang Hou also introduced happily, without the awareness of unscrupulous developers, but followed him. On the other hand, Mr. Cao's bearded old face is always sullen and his brows are tightly knit, because in his opinion, Wang Hou's house cannot be separated from a big character, which is ugly!
Why don't you know how Hongjie fell in love with this kid? His aesthetic point of view is very different. If Cao is lucky enough to win this battle with Yuan Thief, after returning to Xudu, he must cultivate this kid's aesthetics well, and then let him He made such an ugly building, so embarrassing me, Mr. Cao!
While walking, Cao Cao thought to himself.

After visiting the lower level, Wang Hou still wanted to drag Cao Cao to visit the upper level army dormitory with great interest. Unfortunately, he couldn't bear his post-modern aesthetics, so Cao always dragged him helplessly.

"Tuqiu, the truth is that there are still military affairs to be dealt with! Let's visit another day! The most important thing is settled first. Has the nitrate that Xu Du brought in been refined?"

"Return to Prime Minister, it has already started! Prime Minister, please!"

It's a barracks building designed by a genius designer, and Mr. Cao is not interested!Wang Hou was a bit disappointed, and made a gesture of invitation in the sleeves of his robe, inviting Cao Cao to come out of the last barracks and rush to the first barracks that had been built.

It was just getting closer, and an unpleasant smell accompanied by hot air was already rushing towards our faces. Both Cao Cao and Xu Chu couldn't help pinching their noses.

"It's here! The prime minister is on patrol, open the door!"

While leading the way, Wang Hou also shouted orders to the leader of the guards, Wang Hu, who was in charge, and the latter immediately saluted and opened the door.

The first floor of this barracks is much smaller than the others, because one-third of the space was isolated by Wang Hou alone.

There are a total of sixteen small rooms, and eight of the small rooms are all built with huge pools like wine cellars. The bottom of the pool is filled with soil, and the upper floor is constantly splashed with hot water by strong men. It came out from here that there was a hollow under the pool, and from the pool hugged white foaming, slightly reddish-brown dirty water, and whenever a bucket of water was filled, it was immediately carried to the next six by Cao Junzhuang. to a room.

The whole room stinks, but just thinking about the raw materials of this thing, Mr. Cao is relieved.

In the other six rooms, the heat is high. In each room, three large pots were built in the place where the kang was originally built. Under the stove, the coal fire was burning non-stop, and the nitrate filtered from the filter pool was poured directly into the pot. In the middle of the fire, it was crackling and cooking. A large pot had been burned almost completely dry. At the bottom of the pot, a layer of off-white powder was piled up on the bottom of the pot. They didn't care about burning their hands. Two strong men of Cao Jun wiped the beads of sweat on their foreheads. , I immediately took the pot down, put a new pot on it, and then used a big spoon to scoop out the white powder at the bottom of the pot without daring to waste a gram, and put it into a wooden box.

This is saltpeter!

Later generations go to forums when they have nothing to do, learn nothing about making money, and read a lot of useless miscellaneous knowledge. This is what Wang Hou saw from the Internet.

At the other end of the nitrate pool, the nitrate and plant ash transported from Xudu are spread together, and the top is sprayed with hot water. The hot water promotes the reaction between the nitrate in the nitrate and the potassium carbonate in the plant ash, and then dissolves and passes through the filter. After the precipitation goes out, the nitric water rich in potassium nitrate will be in the bucket.

Then, like boiling salt, it is sent to a large iron pot to boil dry, and the rest is potassium nitrate powder containing impurities. These things constitute three-quarters of the substances used to make black gunpowder.

"About 75 catties of saltpeter can be produced a day, mixed with the sulfur transported from Xudu and refined charcoal, you can get about [-] catties of black gunpowder!"

In the Ming Dynasty when firearms were already prevalent, there was a saying that refining nitrate in a hundred days was not enough for a general to shoot. He was talking about the important raw material of gunpowder. The refining of nitrate was difficult, and even a cylinder bomb thrown by a return gun could be made in a day. Not coming out, seeing a wooden box was filled to the bottom, Wang Hou also reported quite helplessly.

Cao Cao who heard this number was also depressed for a while, but then he looked up gloomyly at the small window that Wang Hou specially repaired to keep warm.

"Hubaoqi will draw 500 people for you. You will build the ugly house, and then build nine nitrate workshops for the truth. All craftsmen will be under strict supervision. If there is any suspicion of escape or leakage!"

Cao Cao didn't say the rest, but from his murderous eyes, Wang Hou could already see what he was going to say!Mercy does not control soldiers, righteousness does not control wealth!Now it is a life-and-death battle with Yuan Shao, there is no room for any difference, and gunpowder is the top-secret trump card!Wang Hou clasped his fists respectfully.

"My son-in-law obeys!"

"The truth is still on business, so I won't bother you! Tuqiu, hurry up!"

It was so face-saving that Cao Cao didn't dare to bother Wang Hou for a long time, and patted him on the shoulder earnestly, and left with Xu Chu, but watching his back, Wang Hou's pupils were beating with Ye Ye. With a particularly bright eyes.

There is enough food for two years, and the back camp can continuously produce knives, guns, swords, winter clothes, shoes and socks, cement bricks, and even gunpowder. If you die, Yuan Shao, let's see if your Hebei soldiers can resist, or our old Cao Jiayuan soldiers can resist!

Just when Wang Hou was thinking gloomyly, a black figure broke in from outside the door, knelt down on one knee, and Zang Hong muttered softly and incomparably hastily.

"My lord, in the prisoner-of-war camp in Zhongmou County, Deng Gui is here to report..."

These words brightened Wang Hou's fiery eyes, and he nodded heavily.

"I'm going over here!"

(End of this chapter)