Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 123 The Prosperity of the Livestock Industry and Firearms Talents
March 1591, 5 AD.

Qu Liangwan took Qu Xiuhe and some servants to Wuzhai Fort, not to mention that the cleanliness and prosperity of Wuzhai Fort amazed Qu Xiuhe, nor did he mention a series of things that Qu Xiuhe went to the garrison to find Gu Yunniang.

Simply speaking, the sales of various products in Wuzhai Fort in the past few months have also brought about extensive changes in Wuzhai Fort and its surrounding areas.

The current Wuzhaibao Slaughterhouse has been fully constructed, and a huge cold storage has been built inside, which enables Wuzhaibao to slaughter livestock all year round. The slaughtered pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, etc. are immediately sent to the cold storage In stock.

Not far from the Wuzhaibao Slaughterhouse, there is a large non-staple food processing factory that processes frozen meat and eggs into various non-staple foods. Due to the large scale of the Wuzhaibao food processing factory, it has a great impact on food hygiene and quality. Strict requirements.In this way, relying on excellent quality, good taste, and fair price, and the fact that the merchants who have a joint venture with Wuzhaibao are not big tycoons among Shanxi merchants, they have their own various business channels. The workshop mode of production naturally has a great advantage.

Although Daming is full of refugees right now, there are also many commercial towns and wealthy households everywhere, and there is a huge demand for meat, so there is no need to worry about no market.Therefore, Wuzhaibao's various non-staple foods quickly entered the surrounding counties and counties, especially since March this year, they entered the surrounding areas of Taiyuan, and received great welcome.

The hot sale of Wuzhaibao's non-staple food has naturally increased the scale of Wuzhaibao's major livestock farms. By April of this year, Wuzhaibao had expanded to three large livestock farms, raising nearly [-] fat pigs. There are countless chickens and ducks.

Since then, due to the hot sales of various woolen fabrics and cashmere products, the scale of Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill has also increased.Due to Emperor Wanli's care and unique approach, they avoided the extremely competitive cotton and silk industries of the Ming Dynasty, so the various products of Wuzhaibao Wool Mill have been in short supply since they were produced.

From October last year to May now, over half a year since it opened, the woolen mill has repeatedly expanded its workforce, from more than 2000 employees to the current 3000.Because the woolen mills needed more women, poor women from Junbao in surrounding counties flocked to Wuzhaibao to work.

In addition, because of the large-scale production method of the wool spinning factory, compared with the current small family-like workshops in the textile industry of the Ming Dynasty, the productivity is strong, and the cost can be effectively reduced. It has great competitiveness and has also attracted some merchants from other places. their attention and thinking.

The Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill is developing rapidly and needs more and more raw materials. In this way, the sheep raising industry in Wuzhaibao and surrounding counties is also developing rapidly.Wuzhaibao mostly raises sheep. After last autumn, the Wuzhaibao Agricultural Technology Group introduced some hairy sheep breeds from Mongolia and other places.

Wuzhaibao has proved the benefits of captive breeding and silage with facts. The livestock raised in captivity are easier to grow, lose less fat in winter, and go out to the market faster.However, captive animals are prone to disease and cross-infection, which is a disadvantage, but generally speaking, the advantages of captivity outweigh the disadvantages.

Huang Laifu's approach is to hire more veterinarians. With Huang Laifu's sufficient funds, by May of this year, the number of veterinarians under Wang Qinian, the head of the Wuzhaibao animal husbandry team, had reached 50.

As for silage, fresh green fodder such as harvested alfalfa is filled into airtight silos to make various kinds of fodder. In addition to being eaten by livestock, the most important thing is to serve as fodder for livestock in winter.According to last year's experience, one mu of alfalfa can produce several thousand catties of pasture, which can feed two pigs or two sheep.

But in the end, Huang Laifu thought about it and thought that eggs should not be put in the same basket. Captive breeding is very beneficial. However, if they were all captive in the Ming Dynasty, the risk was also very high. An unexpected epidemic could make your own Play with all your heart and blood.

Therefore, Huang Laifu also adopted half of the sheep and pigs in the free-range way, but the vigorous planting of alfalfa and other pastures did not change.Wuzhaibao has an area of ​​50 mu of suitable grazing land, and there are many pastures that can be used as pastures. Huang Laifu has opened up several large pastures as free-range breeding places for pigs and sheep.

In order to save costs, it is conducive to the recovery of pasture, and also prevents livestock from trampling and gnawing on overwintering pasture.Huang Laifu drew on the excellent experience of some Australian farms in later generations in the computer, and divided a large pasture into small pastoral areas. Some thorn tree fences were built in the middle of the small pastoral areas to separate them. A few days later, go to the next pastoral area.

In this way, including captive breeding and free-range breeding, by May, Wuzhaibao had raised more than 2 sheep and more than 1 pigs.Finally, Wuzhaibao also tried to raise some deer and rabbits, all of which were raised in large pastures and small pastures.

This is the situation in Wuzhai Fort. For Kelan Prefecture near Wuzhai Fort, due to the huge demand for cashmere raw materials from Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill, the goat and sheep breeding industry in Kelan Prefecture has also developed rapidly. .

Not to mention that Liu Jingchun, the commander of Zhenxiwei, and officials and generals such as the magistrate of Kelan Prefecture, each seized many pastures rich in water and grass in the state, bought lambs, and vigorously grazed them.Even the wealthy households of the country gentry in various villages and towns in Kelan Prefecture, seeing that it is profitable to raise sheep, bought sheep one after another and began to breed them.And the original sheep farmers from all over Kelan Prefecture expanded their sheep raising scale one after another when they had no worries about purchasing wool raw materials.

For example, Yang Daguan of Jiaoshan Village, Sanjing Town, Kelan Prefecture raised fifty more goats this year so that he could buy a bride price at the end of the year to marry Qian Daniu, the daughter of the old man Qian in the village.Driven by him, the villagers raised sheep one after another.

The development of the sheep raising industry has also led to the development of related industries. Now in Gaojiahui Town, Kelan Prefecture, Mrs. Sun’s wool processing family workshop has repeatedly expanded its manpower. Due to her hard work, Yang Ximei has obtained Thanks to Mrs. Sun's appreciation, she became a small foreman with a stable three coins a month.

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On May 1591, 5 AD, Wuzhaibao Military Craftsman Workshop.

The Military Artisan Workshop is still in the fort. At this time, it is clanging and extremely lively. In the current Wuzhaibao Military Artisan Workshop, there are more than 300 military craftsmen and soldiers, among whom there are nearly a hundred military craftsmen, and most of them are listeners. After talking about Wuzhaibao's generous treatment of military craftsmen, they fled from military forts in various places.Among them were a few old military craftsmen with rich experience in making bird guns who escaped from Ningwuguan Town, and one of them was an official of a hundred households.

For this reason, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Town also sent a letter to Huang Laifu, asking him to repatriate these military craftsmen. Of course, Huang Laifu could not agree, but asked someone to send 300 taels of silver. After receiving the money, the commander-in-chief fell silent.

Huang Laifu naturally welcomed these escaped old military craftsmen very much and gave them good arrangements.The reasonable reward and punishment system of Wuzhaibao Military Craftsman also reassures these escaped military craftsmen. With the efforts of various military craftsmen and soldiers, Wuzhaibao Military Craftsman has entered a virtuous circle of development.Every month, a large number of high-quality armor weapons can be manufactured.

In the current Wuzhaibao military workshop, in addition to making some armor waist knives and spears, Huang Laifu mostly bought bows and arrows, rattan cards, wolf whisks and other weapons from various military town guards.

But as for the military uniforms, Wuzhai Fort has already made them by itself. Huang Laifu placed an order with Wuzhai Fort Wool Mill to produce [-] sets of military uniforms, all of which are made of woolen fabric. Of course, the style is the same as the military uniforms in front of Daming.Huang Laifu didn't dare to change the style of the military uniform after eating the bear's heart and leopard's courage.For the style of these military uniforms, Huang Laifu adopted the double-breasted style that is more popular in the Ming army. This style is very similar to the woolen military overcoats of later generations except that it has no buttons.

In addition, the imperial court has now allowed Wuzhaibao to make guns and other firearms. For these firearms, Huang Laifu naturally let Wuzhaibao make them himself. According to the strict system of Wuzhaibao Military Craftsman, any quality is not enough Firearms cannot be stored, so that the soldiers of Wuzhaibao can use them with peace of mind.

Liu Tianlu, the leader of the military weapons group, and the military craftsmen of Wuzhaibao under his leadership, could only repair some damaged blunderbusses, or make some blunderbusses with difficulty and slowly, now there are several towns The speed and quality of the bird gun making veterans are much faster.

At present, the blunderbusses used by the soldiers of Wuzhaibao are all made of refined iron, and the barrels are durable. One military craftsman can drill one blunderbuss a month, and the entire Wuzhaibao military workshop can make blunderbusses every month. Fifteen doors, and the quality is absolutely no problem.Therefore, the Wuzhaibao sergeants are all at ease in using these blunderbusses, and the blunderbuss players are training every day. Compared with the sergeants of other army town guards, they are very different in using the blunderbuss with trepidation. language.

Huang Laifu came from later generations, so he naturally knew the importance of firearms, so his thirst for firearms talents would never be satisfied. Now the outstanding firearms talents of Ming Dynasty are all in the Military Weapons Bureau managed by the Ministry of Industry and the Bingzhan Bureau managed by the Inner Palace. Huang Laifu hoped that Ma Jiuying's father-in-law would help more, and dug some firearms manufacturing talents from the two places to come to Wuzhaibao. Ma Jiuying's father-in-law also wrote a few private letters, but so far, no firearms talents have come from these two places.

In fact, the talent Huang Laifu is looking for the most right now is Zhao Shizhen, an inventor of firearms in the late Ming Dynasty. Zhao Shizhen invented the "Rocket Slip", "Electric Gun", "Eagle Raising Cannon", etc., which played a powerful role in the battle against the Japanese in the near future. .

Afterwards, he imitated the Lumi blunderbuss from the Western Regions, made a new musket, improved the ignition device, and installed a steel knife at the tail of the gun bed, which can be used as a saber in close combat.In the same year, he invented the Thunderbolt, which can be fired from a revolving wheel.Also in this year, he made electric blunderbuss with reference to Western shotguns and French machine guns. He adopted the rear-loading sub-gun type. The sub-guns were installed in advance, and they were loaded into the barrel in turn to fire during combat, and the shooting speed was significantly accelerated.

In addition, Zhao Shizhen's books such as "The Spectrum of Artifacts" and "Bibian Tuntian Car Gunyi" were also highly praised by Joseph Needham, a famous British scholar in later generations.Called the inventor of firearms.

At this time, Zhao Shizhen was serving as the head of the Honglu Temple in Beijing. Because of his outspokenness, he had been in the lower position for a long time and could not be promoted. This eighth-rank official had been in office for 18 years, and he was not promoted until the 24th year of Wanli. Sheren from Zhongshu with the title of Qipin.
Now Zhao Shizhen is in a period of poverty, and the opportunity is rare. If Zhao Shizhen can be invited to Wuzhai Fort, it will have an indescribable role in promoting the firearms business of Wuzhai Fort.It's a pity that Huang Laifu didn't know Zhao Shizhen. Although Eunuch Ma Jiuying had heard of Zhao Shizhen in Beijing, he didn't know him personally.

(End of this chapter)