Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 772

After a while, Bai Canghai took a deep breath and solemnly said to Ye Chen: "Your Majesty, I understand."

Ye Chen nodded with a smile, heaved a sigh of relief, and said, "It's good that you understand. Is there anything else? Go to Yang Jiye if you have nothing to do, and let the military department arrange you to pick someone!"

Bai Canghai hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Your Majesty, I ask for your Majesty's forgiveness if my senior brother doesn't want to be an official in the court."

Ye Chen was a little surprised. Bai Zixuan led Jianzhuang and helped him a lot several times, and he was also a hero of Xiangfu Kingdom.The most important thing is that Bai Zixuan has extraordinary resourcefulness, especially when the Song Dynasty attacked the Southern Tang Dynasty at the beginning of last year, he showed extremely superb military strategy skills.Ye Chen originally wanted him to be the deputy chief of staff of the General Staff Department.After Bai Zixuan led Jianzhuang to Xiangfu Kingdom last month, Ye Chen directly bestowed a large house and 10 taels of silver in Xiajing City, and personally met Bai Zixuan. At that time, Ye Chen said his Meaning, Bai Zixuan is a smart person, knowing that Ye Chen's status is different from before, it would be extremely unwise to refuse on the spot, so he politely said to think about it at the time.

Unexpectedly, Ye Chen's appointment was rejected through Bai Canghai's words.You must know that the post of Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff Department of the Military Hub is a second-rank senior officer. This is a position that many people can't achieve after spending their entire lives on the battlefield after countless lives and deaths.To be honest, if it wasn't for Ye Chen's liking for Bai Zixuan's strategy ability, it would be a little bit worse for him to sit in this position because of Jianzhuang's contribution alone.However, Bai Zixuan refused now, which really surprised and disappointed Ye Chen.

Ye Chen sighed, and said: "Since Bai Zixuan is unwilling to become an official, then I will not force it. But... with his talent, how can I let the people go to waste? Tell him, since he doesn't like to be an official, Then I will give him the task of "Smiling Proud Jianghu", and let him come to find me after I return to Xia Jing through private visits in Weifu."

Bai Canghai bowed and said yes, and then left.

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Half a day later, the military hub.

Yang Jiye said to Bai Canghai who was next to him: "At the training base, post a recruitment list, write on it the salary of your special brigade twice that of ordinary troops, and also write the basic requirements for the selection of candidates. Well, this commander watched your training. In terms of regulations and combat missions, this commander thinks that some people with local accents should be selected so that you can carry out some special missions."

Bai Canghai thought for a while, then agreed.The current staff of the special brigade and the officers of the battalions, companies and platoons are appointed by people from the original special function department, and the shortage is [-] soldiers.There is no need for Bai Canghai to do the specific selection of people, and the people under his own will do it.

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Ye Chen walked up the potholes, "river embankments" that were almost as high as the field ridges in many places, white reed flowers stretched on both sides of the Yellow River, and there were a group of bare-chested farmers harvesting reeds not far away.Dried reeds can be used in many ways. They can be used to weave some utensils, build thatched huts, and can also be dried to serve as food for war horses.Both the government and the merchants are buying, so the farmer is braving the wind and the sun to earn some hard money.

"Why don't they wear clothes? The sun is so poisonous, so they are not afraid of the sun." Ye Chen was a little surprised.

Kou Zhun said in a deep voice, "Teacher! In fact, some of them have been tanned and bruised, but there is at most one piece of clothing at home. I am afraid that it will be damaged. Naturally, I am reluctant to wear it when I go out to work."

Ye Chen frowned and asked, "They each have at least five acres of land, why are they still so poor?"

"At the beginning of the year, the people who were called to open up wasteland and build fields were originally the poorest people in Xiangfu. They had almost nothing. Although they have land now, it is just the beginning after all. The harvest in the first year is not much. Hungry, the imperial court helped them build houses so that they could live. The most important thing is that the canals built in most of the fields still cannot be watered, and the dry land does not have much harvest. Only after washing soda can we get a good harvest.” Kou Zhun is the county magistrate of Dangxiang County, one of the eight counties in Hetao. Only then did he advise Ye Chen to change the focus of the rich country to the core of enriching the people.

After hearing this, Ye Chen couldn't help sighing.In this place in the northwest, the land is barren and the rain is scarce, so there are not many crops growing. Moreover, due to the long-term war, the industry and commerce are far less developed than those in the Central Plains and Jiangnan, so the lives of ordinary people are extremely difficult.It has been a year since he came to the northwest, and it has been more than eight months since Xiangfu established the country. Although there has been some improvement, there has been no obvious progress, or the improvement of the people's living standards has not been seen in a short period of time.

Tian Jiumi said with a worried face: "Your Majesty, it has already entered autumn, and after winter, it will be the dry season of the Yellow River. Therefore, if we want to build a large number of wind-powered water trucks to divert water to soak the fields, we must hurry up."

Ye Chen nodded, and walked along the river beach to the water's edge. The reeds here have been harvested, and after the water level dropped, the faint green reed pipes were exposed.He thought of the excellent rice of Ningxia in later generations.Said: "Tian Jiumi, as long as the watering problem is solved in this place, the fields near the Yellow River can be turned into real paddy fields and rice can be grown. Isn't that right?"

Tian Jiumi is worthy of being an expert in agriculture in this era, and quickly said: "Your Majesty is wise, the minister and Mr. Zhang Bozhang have arranged a few acres of experimental fields, and the rice fields planted are very good. After the construction of the wind turbine, the paddy field will be expanded. area."

Ye Chen stood by the water, his robe was blown back by the river wind, he nodded slightly, expressing his appreciation for the Ministry of Agriculture's work on this matter, and then said: "The wind in the northwest is strong and long-lasting, blowing for a day It is not a rare thing, it is most suitable for building a wind-powered waterwheel! Zhang Bo should be here soon, he took away ten of the best craftsmen from the Civil Research Department and the Weapons and Equipment Research Department, and he should have researched and manufactured a wind-powered water truck. Car, let’s talk about it after he comes.”

As soon as the words were finished, Ye Chen seemed to feel something, looked up to the right, and saw Zhang Bo leading ten guards galloping towards him from a distance.Ye Chen visited in private, so he was so busy these days that his feet didn't touch the ground. Zhang Bo, who had lost a lot of weight all over his body, didn't know in advance. He didn't know that His Majesty the Emperor had arrived in the eight counties of Hetao until Ye Chen was notified.

Zhang Bo did not disappoint Ye Chen, and brought good news. The first wind-powered waterwheel was already in shape, and it could be built in at most three days.

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Dangxiang County is located in the northwest of the Hetao Plain close to the Yellow River, on the north side of the famous Qin Canal, with a total of more than [-] mu of land, but the terrain is relatively high. It can't flow into the irrigation canal next to the field, and the farmer needs to lift the water in the Qin canal bucket by bucket into the field.

In view of the special status of the Dangxiang Bashi in this area, Zhang Bo put the first wind-powered waterwheel here.

The ten master craftsmen who were ordered to come here with Zhang Bo this time included five carpenters and five blacksmiths.In the past, what they have come into contact with is generally a rollover or drum car. Their basic structure is roughly similar. The key part is the wooden chain called "keel", which may be a relatively primitive gear chain transmission structure.

The key to the wind-powered waterwheel is undoubtedly the three key components of bearings, gears, and chains. However, the research on these three things by the Xiangfu Civil Affairs Research Department and the Weapons and Equipment Research Department is still in its infancy. The products produced The models are all small in size, and cannot be used on such large windmills and waterwheels.

Rolling bearings that can withstand high speed and high pressure have very high requirements on materials. They need not be deformed under pressure and not damaged during high-speed and long-lasting rotation. In addition, in terms of curvature accuracy, the processing difficulty is not small.Therefore, ten people painstakingly studied, and it took nearly a month to successfully build the first wind-powered waterwheel.

Two of the three experimental sawing machines have been finalized. The sawing machine adopts the Luban No. [-] pedal-type belt transmission structure. Type B.

Compared with Type A, Type B is more labor-saving, and it is easier to obtain a higher rotational speed. The stability of the circular saw rotation is also higher, and the corresponding manufacturing difficulty is also greater.

The pedal structure of Luban No. [-] was temporarily abandoned, and the hand-operated structure of No. [-] was used on the drilling machine. It was almost like replacing the circular saw with a drill bit, but the requirement for strength was much smaller than that of the sawing machine.

The round bar machine envisioned by the ten master craftsmen has some problems. Whether it is a drilling machine or a sawing machine, as long as the high-speed rotation of the tool is realized, the round bar machine is a bit complicated and can only be put down temporarily.

However, the use of drilling machines and sawing machines brought by ten master craftsmen from Xiajing has turned some unskilled youths in Dangxiang County into "workshops" who are not as efficient as skilled carpenters, and together they helped to manufacture the first experimental wind-powered waterwheel , improved a lot of progress.

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Ye Chen originally wanted to see the situation in the eight counties of Hetao, so he ended his private visit and returned to Xiajing.But now that the wind-powered waterwheel is about to be built, Ye Chen decided to wait until the first wind-powered waterwheel is built.Because the significance of the successful building of this wind-powered waterwheel is extremely important.

As we all know, the reason why the fields in the northwest do not yield much is because they are all dry land and there is little rain.But the northwest wind resources are extremely rich, and the Yellow River passes by.Therefore, as long as the wind-powered waterwheel is successfully researched and built, and then promoted nationwide, water from the Yellow River can be diverted to turn dry land into paddy fields that can be irrigated on time and in seasons, and the income of farmers will be more than doubled.And Xiangfu country's population proportion farmers accounted for more than 80.00%.Therefore, if this matter is done well, it means that the overall life of the people of Xiangfu Kingdom has been greatly improved.It can be said that it is a major event related to the well-being and livelihood of all farmers in Xiangfu country.Naturally, it is also a major event for Xiangfu Kingdom.

(End of this chapter)