The next two years. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Zhou Ming entered a busy state.

On the one hand, he personally led people to open up an experimental field for nearly 100 plant seeds, such as watermelons, grapes, rice, corn, breadfruit, cotton, and rubber, which he brought from the New World, and planted some of these plant seeds in the ground after the beginning of spring.

On the other hand, the various weapons and iron-making workshops in the Gran Ling Workshop District have also increased the inclination of resources and scientific research on the basis of the original, and great progress has been made in about half a year.

For example, in the steel mill, Zhou Ming designed a new steelmaking blast furnace with a height of 5 meters and a capacity of more than 10 cubic meters according to the engineering drawings of the [primary steel plant] in his mind, which is safe, efficient, energy-saving and environmentally friendly, which can produce 50 tons of steel at a speed of one furnace a day, and produce low-carbon steel with high strength and good toughness.

For example, all kinds of weapon workshops, according to the engineering drawings of the [primary industrial machine tools] in his mind, with the efforts of high-quality steel and excellent craftsmen, several new weapon workshops were built in the water-rich upper reaches of the river formed by the melting water of the snow-capped mountains of the Grand Ling. The machine tool with smooth control and the production of various swords and armor have greatly improved the output, not to mention, the quality has also been improved at several levels.

There are also [Steam Engine] and [Arquebus].

These two things, the principle is not complicated, Zhou Ming took the craftsman to develop it several years ago, but the poor air tightness and lubrication make the efficiency of the steam engine has not been high, and it is difficult to promote practicality. As for the arquebus, Zhou Ming, who was seriously short of gunpowder (he saved two or three tons a year), only asked the craftsmen to make a dozen rods and put them there, and only occasionally took them out to use when he went out hunting.

However, this time, after returning from the New World, Zhou Ming, who was full of confidence, decided to increase his investment and strive to manufacture hundreds of steam engines and tens of thousands of arquebuses within three to five years, and strive to initially enter the era of steam roaring and queuing for shooting within ten years.

Industry, agriculture, Zhou Ming is seizing the time to implement his plans, but it is not the focus of all his work.

In the past two years, most of Zhou Ming's work has focused on one thing.

Train and prepare for war!

The civil war for the throne of the Iron Castle Kingdom has been fought for more than a year, and Prince Lawrence, who occupies the eastern part of the Iron Castle Kingdom and has the support of 20 counties, and the Duke of Milton, the uncle who occupies the west and has the support of 16 counties, are inseparable, with tens of thousands of casualties.

In this civil war, Prince Lawrence in the east undoubtedly has a greater advantage, his succession to the throne is undoubted, and the 20 counties that support him have mastered the vast majority of the iron ore resources of the Iron Castle Kingdom, and the population is almost twice that of the Duke of Milton in the west.

Yes, similar to the "North-South Dispute" of the Wallis Kingdom, the upper echelons of the Iron Castle Kingdom are also divided into two factions according to the distribution of iron ore resources: the "poor guy" in the west in the eyes of the people in the east, and the "iron guy" in the east in the eyes of the people in the west.

But the "poor guys" in the west are indeed poor, and the money, people, and soldiers are not as good as the "iron guys" who sit on countless iron mines in the east, and the king's ass often sits on the side of the "iron guys", so a lot of the work in the kingdom that contributes money and effort is done by the "poor guys", and the "iron guys" stand aside to point out, and laugh from time to time, how can the "poor guys" stand it in their hearts?

Therefore, when it was learned that the wise and martial Duke of Milton was going to compete for the throne of the Iron Castle Kingdom from the young and ignorant, arrogant and rude Prince Lawrence, who often took pleasure in humiliating the "poor guys", for hundreds of years, the "poor guys" who had been bullied to the brink of breaking out did not hesitate to collectively support the Duke of Milton, and raised the banner of rebellion of "the queen is *** debauched, Lawrence is not the son of the king". After losing and retreating, he occupied more than a dozen iron mines, not to mention, and almost captured the iron fortress city, the royal capital of the city, which was 50 meters high and the city wall was made of millions of iron ingots.

If it weren't for the timely arrival of reinforcements from the "iron guys", the royal capital of Iron Castle City, which is known as "never falling", would really fall into the hands of those "poor guys" who have never seen the world.

Lawrence, who had just sat on the throne for a few days, was furious, and only wanted to peel and cramp the "poor guys" who challenged his royal authority one by one and crushed them into slag.

Therefore, after repelling the attack of the "poor guys" with great difficulty, Lawrence personally led the army and killed rivers of blood on the territory of the "poor guys", not to mention hanging the nobles, even ordinary farmers.

The killing was ruthless, the eyes of both factions were red, and the situation naturally continued to end.

……

Like all schadenfreude forces, seeing this situation, Zhou Ming, who was standing on the outside, was more happy, the more he stepped up his time to train the soldiers and horses in his hands, and the more he sent a caravan to transport weapons when the two warring sides were weak or weak, and at a more favorable price, they could send a timely rain to the disadvantaged side, and then in the case of insufficient ability to pay on both sides, they could also exchange people or iron ingots......

Relying on these opportunistic means, Zhou Ming weakened the opponent's strength while strengthening his own teeth.

After all, if the teeth are not hard and the strength is not strong, it is like a snake swallowing an elephant, even if the snake swallows the elephant in its belly, the belly is not enough, it will either be difficult to digest, or it will be supported to death.

So, in two years, Zhou Ming created a huge army of nearly 20,000 people.

This army of nearly 20,000 people is mainly composed of four aspects.

One, the standing military force of the Grand Territory, including 10 knights, expanded to 150 leaders, and in the later period, in order to facilitate the management of the nearly 100,000 permanent residents or floating population of the Grand Territory, Zhou Ming had to add a "leader" class under the "leader", which mainly recruited urban freelancers, did not allocate land, but gave generous salaries, and the leader was under the command of the leader, and the number of recruits was 1,500 people, which was incorporated into the "Guards".

The second is established in the name of the security patrol, including his father-in-law Baron Sean, Baron Howard, Baron Romon and the new lord of the Berdo Collar Baron Owen, the four most economically developed territories around the Gran Territory, Zhou Ming organized the knights and leaders of these territories together to maintain law and order and defend against thieves.

This patrol, in addition to the Gran Leader, has a total of 42 knights and 420 Commanders, and then imitates the Gran Leader system, and also expands a "leader" class, recruiting 4,200 Leader, and integrating into the "Territory Army".

Three, is the mercenary union after the founding, Zhou Ming set up a mercenary group with armed escort of commercial goods as the main business ('business group'), after more than three years of development, the number of business and business scope continues to expand the business group, the number of members from the initial 5,000 people, after many expansions, after absorbing elite forces, the number of members has increased to 10,000 people, from these 10,000 people, after several layers of screening, Zhou Ming picked out 5,000 people, incorporated into the "business alliance".

Fourth, Zhou Ming issued a recruitment task in the mercenary union, through various channels, recruited from various countries to exist for the war of those "mercenary" teams, from those recruited mercenary teams, Zhou Ming selected some mercenary teams with good reputation, good obedience, and strong combat effectiveness, hired each other with a lot of money, and promised to provide excellent armor, spent millions of gold coins, and finally created a "mercenary" with a number of 8,000 people and a certain combat effectiveness.

Among these four types of armies, there are "territorial armies" that do not completely obey their own orders, "merchant allied forces" that are somewhat organized but uneven in good and bad, and "mercenaries" who have a certain combat effectiveness but only believe that money cannot bear large casualties......

And the only army that Zhou Ming can reuse, ensure absolute loyalty, and rely on all his lives is the "Guards" that he single-handedly created.

The number is only 1,660.

Therefore, before the advent of the era of hot weapons that queued up to be shot, in order to increase and improve the winning rate of the war, Zhou Ming provided well-paid treatment, provided well-armored weapons and equipment, and before launching the war, carried out military training for more than a year on the three military forces of the "Territory Army", "Business Alliance" and "Mercenary Army".

This military force was called the "Legion of Conquest" by Zhou Ming.

Not long after, in the third year after the outbreak of the civil war in the Iron Castle Kingdom, among the surrounding neighbors of the Iron Castle Kingdom, the stronger Tongshan Kingdom couldn't help but make the first move, and sent an army of more than 30,000 people into the East Mirror of the Iron Castle Kingdom, heading towards a territory rich in iron ore.

It seems to have triggered a chain reaction, after watching the actions of the Tongshan Kingdom, several other small countries that had already been on the border of Chen Bing were ready to move, and they marched in one after another, lest they be left behind.

Even the kingdom of Arino, which had only 6 counties, cobbled together a military force of 3,000 men to join the feast.

On the side of the Kingdom of Volis, a fast horse galloping from the royal capital of Woz City sent the conscription order issued by the king to various territories of the kingdom through the hands of heralds.

……

Gran Collar Castle.

On the floating terrace of the tall city wall, a group of lords in fancy clothes stood on the battlements of the wall, looking at their swords.

"The king sent an edict that all the troops of the north should assemble in the king's capital, and if they did not arrive within seven days, they would be deprived of their titles and domains. With a note in his hand, an earl read the words on it.

"Doesn't Your Majesty still have those Nankees, and what else do you want us to do?" complained the First Earl.

"If you don't go, you're going to help Herian lay down more land in the south, and we don't have a share of the northerners. "One person is a big rebel.

Whining~

A melodious horn sounded.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the army has been reviewed, and the parade has begun. Baron Connor, who was standing aside, reminded.

Everyone was shocked, and then they heard the sound of neat steps on the ground, which even made the castle tremble slightly.

Everyone approached the battlements and looked down, and on the flat meadow below the castle, they saw a picture that will never be forgotten.

Several silver cavalry phalanxes, Suo Suo advanced, dozens of black and bright leaders led the troops phalanx, like ant colonies, hundreds of colorful, tall and short mercenary phalanxes, all stepping on neat steps, like tofu blocks, on the flat ground, slowly moving southward.

The breeze is blowing, the flags are waving, the armor is bright, the steel spear is shining, and the momentum is like a rainbow!

Standing on a dirt slope, holding a pole next to the army array, under the sun, a silver-armored knight, like a heavenly pride, released a brilliant light.