Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1055 Cotton and Carbon

From this record, it can be known that cotton was introduced by sea and land.Cotton in Quanzhou was imported by sea, and it was quickly spread in the south. As for the promotion of cotton in the whole country, it was not until the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty that it was widely promoted.

Therefore, as early as last spring, Ye Chen asked the spies from the Ministry of Security to help the minister of the Ministry of Agriculture find cotton seeds. For nearly a year, a spy from the Ministry of Security inquired about the cotton Ye Chen was talking about from a Persian businessman in the Western Regions, and told him Through this person, the Ministry of Agriculture bought a large amount of cotton seeds, and also bought a dozen cotton slaves who had grown cotton from slave traders.Under Ye Chen's will, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Hexi Corridor, and even Taozhou in Longxi, Qingzhou in Hehuang and other places attach great importance to it, and plan to conduct trial planting in the spring of this year.

Guazhou, the headquarters of the Volunteer Corps.

Huang Dongqiu pushed open the door, and the knife-like wind and snow mixed with sand and dust hit his face in an instant, and the cold came to his body, and even with Huang Dongqiu's physique, he couldn't help shivering.

"Legion Commander, do you want to add more clothes?" A staff officer who followed Huang Dongqiu asked quickly.

"No need." Braving the cold wind, Huang Dongqiu didn't speak very clearly, took out the officer's gloves just issued by the logistics department of the military pivot, and put them on his hands awkwardly.Huang Dongqiu likes this kind of gloves with separated fingers very much. It can keep out the cold, and in most cases, it will not affect the grasping of things. like.

Now it is the second month of the lunar calendar, but the land of Guazhou and Shazhou is still freezing, with continuous snowstorms, even colder than the coldest time in Xiajing.According to Ye Chen's will years ago, Huang Dongqiu wanted to take Shazhou back from Xizhou Uighur Kingdom before the beginning of spring.For this matter, everyone in the Volunteer Legion has been making various preparations this winter. From top to bottom, they have repeatedly deduced various tactics for the attack on Shazhou and the field battle with the Uyghurs in Xizhou, and constantly improved various methods. Under such circumstances, the combat readiness plan, including the grain and grass reserves of the civil service system represented by Duanmu Zhongren, and the selection and matching of officials after the capture of Shazhou have also been fully prepared.

In addition, Kou Minglu, the head of the Ministry of Security in the Western Regions Branch, led his spies to search for all information about the Xizhou Uyghur Kingdom. Before the Spring Festival, Huang Dongqiu and Duanmu Zhongren formulated a plan based on the information they obtained about the Xizhou Uighur Kingdom. A divorce plan secretly sent a lot of weapons and equipment to Lie Kadongbu, his younger brother who had a dissatisfaction with the ruler of the Lion King in the Falcon Kingdom of Xizhou. This time provoked a civil strife in the Uyghur Kingdom of Xizhou. After a civil war, Lieka Dongbu led 1 people and fled to the south, occupying a grassland. The commander-in-chief of the state city, Dulamati, will not have any reinforcements in a short time.

Huang Dongqiu braved the blizzard and left the army headquarters, preparing to inspect the brigade camps.Behind them were three staff officers and two hundred soldiers from the personal battalion.

Regardless of whether it was wartime or peacetime, he had to turn around and inspect the brigade camps every day, and it was rain or shine. Since he became the commander of the army, he has never missed a day. The battalion and the grassroots officers and soldiers had a light meal together.

In addition, the illness of soldiers in each brigade has always been the focus of his daily inquiries, and the daily wound camp is also a must for him.Huang Dongqiu is a veteran in the army, and he knows very well that the maintenance of morale has a lot to do with whether the generals are close to the soldiers.Right now, the war with the Xizhou Uyghur Kingdom is about to start, and the number of sick soldiers has increased in the cold winter, so he has to do this even more.

Before the army headquarters, Huang Dongqiu first returned the salute to the sentinel who saluted him at the door, then looked up at the gloomy sky, stomped his feet, and turned on the horse led by the soldiers. The accompanying staff officers and soldiers also got on the horses, Huang Dongqiu He shouted softly: "Let's go."

Amidst the wind and snow, a group of people gradually drifted away.

In fact, the cities in the Hexi Corridor are much smaller than the cities in the mainland, especially the big cities in the south of the Central Plains. The same is true for Guazhou City, so Huang Dongqiu and his party left the city not long after.According to the relevant regulations issued by the Ministry of Military Affairs, except for the city guard brigade in Guazhou City and Huang Dongqiu's personal battalion, the four brigade battalions of the Volunteer Legion in Guazhou are all located outside the city.

After routinely inspecting the four brigade camps, seeing whether the barracks have collapsed under the thick snow, whether the soldiers have frostbite, and personally checking the food of a company, except for more than a dozen soldiers whose families are in the interior , there is no major problem, Huang Dongqiu is relieved.

Meat In the interior, especially in the Central Plains and Jiangnan, pork is what the army eats most, and the rarest beef and mutton are very scarce.But for the Volunteer Corps stationed in the Hexi Corridor, the most indispensable thing is beef and mutton, as well as horse meat and camel meat.In addition to the large amount of beef and mutton produced locally, another reason is that last year they first attacked the Hexi Corridor, then the horse thieves, and then the Xizhou Uyghurs. The war continued, and many horses, cattle, sheep, and camels were captured. Among them, many wounded or even killed war horses were later turned into bacon, bacon, dried meat and so on.Therefore, if we only talk about food and volunteers, the Volunteer Army may be the best among the nine major armies of Xiangfu Kingdom.

However, there is another problem that both Huang Dongqiu and Duanmu Zhongren have a headache because the vegetation in the Western Regions is scarce, and the trees are far from comparable to those in the Mainland. The Hexi Corridor has not been discovered yet, and the cost of transporting it from the mainland is too high.Even though Duanmu Zhongren purchased a large amount of straw before winter, it was still far from enough to meet the needs.

"Legion commander, I discovered a carboniferous mine." As soon as he returned to the army headquarters in the city, a staff officer came down to see Huang Dongqiu under the leadership of the army's logistics commander. As soon as he entered the door, he was at the rank of a regular brigade, and Yang Bokun, the logistics director of Dadu Xiaojunxun While saluting, he said with a happy face.

"Where is it? How far is it from Guazhou? Is it in the open air or buried under the mountain?" Huang Dongqiu couldn't help being overjoyed when he heard this, stood up abruptly, and asked three questions in one breath.

Yang Bokun pointed to the young officer next to him with only the rank of captain, and said, "Qu Ningrui, please report the specific situation to the regiment commander."

The young captain named Qu Ningrui was a student of the Geography Department of Xiangfu College. Because he finished the courses offered by the college ahead of schedule, he graduated early with excellent grades and became the first graduate of Xiangfu College since its establishment. student.After he graduated, both the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture under the Zhongshu Ministry of the Xiangfu Kingdom wanted him, and as long as he entered any of these two ministries, he could easily get an official position from the eighth rank, and it was a stay. Working in Xia Jing Zhongshu Province's center can be said to have a bright future.

However, Qu Ningrui's final choice was beyond everyone's expectations. He chose to enlist in the army. According to Ye Chen's order, the Military Council recently had a regulation. After three months of intensive training, he can be directly awarded the military honor of the captain and become an officer from the ninth rank.This is two levels lower than from the eighth rank, and according to the regulations of the military hub, you must start from the most basic platoon leader.In addition, what everyone in the Xiangfu National Army admired him was that he took the initiative to apply for a post in the Volunteer Corps with the most difficult conditions.

However, after Qu Ningrui was assigned here, the senior management of the Volunteer Corps still valued him more. After serving as a platoon leader for two months, he was transferred to the Corps Staff Department as a staff officer and asked him to assist a member of the reconnaissance company in searching for coal. It is obvious that Qu Ningrui is a real talent and a person who can do practical things. After more than a month after coming here, he lived up to the expectations of the Volunteer Corps and found the coal mine.

Qu Ningrui's complexion was dark. From the roughness of his skin, it could be seen that he was from a civilian background. It was obviously the first time he had seen the regiment commander at such a close distance. He was a little nervous and excited, his face flushed, he took a deep breath, and said, "Qi Report to the commander of the army, it took one month and thirteen days for the reconnaissance battalion led by the subordinates to conduct reconnaissance, and found a carbonite mine in Dafeng Mountain.

Huang Dongqiu laughed happily and said, "Qu Ningrui, right? Very good, you have solved the big problem of my Volunteer Corps, and you have done a great job. Someone pass on my order, and Qu Ningrui's second-class merit will be awarded once."

Qu Ningrui was extremely excited, his heart was ecstatic, he stood at attention and gave a beautiful military salute, and said loudly: "My subordinates thank you for your cultivation, Commander of the Legion."

Huang Dongqiu nodded to him, and said: "Tell Lord Duanmu the news and the location of the coal mine. In addition, tell Lord Duanmu that if there is a problem with organizing manpower to mine the coal mine in a short period of time, I can send the engineer battalion to help us first." The army went to mine some."

The two staff officers who came in respectfully said yes, took a pencil to write down Huang Dongqiu's two orders in detail, and then left with a salute, but when they left, they looked at Qu Ningrui with eyes full of envy and even jealousy.For ordinary soldiers, if they want to make second-class meritorious service, if they don't know how many times they have to go through the hell to get it on the battlefield.But this kid who had just been separated for less than two months, just took people outside for more than a month to make such a great achievement easily. They don't know the truth that knowledge is power.

.........

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After Yang Bokun and Qu Ningrui left, the upstart of the Xiangfu Kingdom, the brigade commander of the Second Brigade of the Volunteer Cavalry, who had just been conferred the title of Viscount Wuyong, came from outside the city with a troop of cavalry, directly to the headquarters of the Legion. After dismounting, he brought a man in his 30s who looked similar to Tang Dynasty to the hall where Huang Dongqiu usually used to handle military affairs. One of the staff officers was brought in.

(End of this chapter)