After all, it will be a few years before the jade seal is returned, and Liu Bei can't figure out all the rules and regulations with Li Su now, what is more needed is improvisation.

What should be done now is to continue to "take deep roots" and plant the base areas well, so as to prepare for development.

Guan Yu was on the side, and after listening to Liu Bei and Li Su's plan, seeing that there was nothing else to do, he took the opportunity to ask Liu Bei for instructions: "Big brother, since the arrangements for the jade seal and the snake sword have been explained clearly, when do you think I will return to Nanzheng?" ”

Guan Yu obviously didn't know much about all the changes in Shu because he had been away for more than half a year.

Liu Bei first glanced at Li Su, and then smiled at Guan Yu: "Don't worry, the second brother has been out fighting for a long time, and he has never enjoyed the prosperity of Chengdu, so he will stay longer." Nan Zhengwen has Zijing, Wu has Gongming, and Xiaozhi is stationed in Sanguan, and ordinary government affairs are foolproof. Yun Chang can just train and recuperate in Shuzhong. ”

Guan Yu hurriedly said: "Big brother! The world is in turmoil so far, is it a time for my generation of warriors to enjoy themselves, and the duty of Hanzhong is ordered by the first emperor, and my brother does not dare to leave his post for a long time. ”

Li Su persuaded beside him: "Yun Chang doesn't know anything. This strategy was decided by the lord and me in consultation - to let you stay in Shuzhong, it is not to be idle, but to refine the new army and expand the military war in the past two years, and this matter should not be implemented in Hanzhong. ”

Guan Yu didn't think about it for a while: "Why?" Since we are going to go on a northern expedition to fight against Dong in the future, shouldn't we train and teach martial arts in a place close to the front line? ”

Li Su folded his fan and waved: "The situation in Shuzhong is different from that in other places, and the loss of grain transportation is too great. Chengdu Plain is rich in the people of Fu, known as the country of abundance since ancient times, but the grain of Chengdu to Hanzhong, originally at least four to three, now we have slightly rectified the Jialing River shipping, but also only to reduce the loss to three to two. It will take years to further reduce losses.

Since this is the case, our army in Hanzhong, in peacetime, should raise fewer full-time soldiers who only eat and do not produce, and store as much grain as possible from the Hanzhong Basin, and use it until the Northern Expedition. The strength of Hanzhong only needs to leave a part of the army and the people, as well as a small number of standing troops for Fa Xiaozhi and Xu Gongming to hold the Sanguan and Baochuan Road.

And it is precisely because the Northern Expedition road is dangerous and difficult to transport grain, so it is more necessary to take the route of elite soldiers? What if the training cost of an elite soldier is three times that of an inferior soldier, but the combat power is twice that of an inferior soldier? Then we should also use more elite soldiers. Because when it came to the Northern Expedition, an elite soldier only needed to eat one person's military rations? Although the combat power of two inferior soldiers is the same as that of one elite soldier? The logistical pressure is doubled. ”

Guan Yu hadn't thought about this problem from afar, Jiangzhou had just been taken when he left? When Li Su said this, he suddenly realized.

Shipping difficulties? Then don't transport everything to the front? It is time for space, peacetime for wartime.

Li Su: This is a typical "futures arbitrage" thinking, but there is no concept of futures these days.

But don't say it, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition in history also thought so. Zhuge Liang is considered a first-class domestic affairs talent in the Three Kingdoms period? Will he not understand the logistical time-for-space arbitrage?

Conquer Meng in the south and pacify Nanzhong? Training soldiers for the mountain warfare of the Shu army, and recruiting more barbarians from Nanzhong and Brazil to form an elite Wudang Flying Army, this is all training elite soldiers in peacetime. Moreover, Pingnanzhong eats the grain produced in the Chengdu Plain, and absolutely does not use a grain in the Hanzhong Basin, so that Hanzhong can farm all year round? All of them were saved until the moment of the final Northern Expedition.

When Li Su first came to Shu County, he hadn't figured out this truth? But after being in charge of internal affairs for a few months and seeing so many things, he also came back to his senses? Of course, you have to use the routines used by Zhuge Liang.

Of course, he still asked the other [nameless fo] bureaucrats to do the specific affairs.

Guan Yu took the opportunity to ask: "In this case, dare not obey your fate." Eldest brother? I don't know how many years have passed? How many soldiers and horses do you want to refine? ”

Liu Bei thought for a while: "Around Chengdu? The people's customs are not strong, and it is difficult to have a source of brave soldiers when expanding the army. Therefore, most of the Han soldiers should be drawn from Qianwei and Ba County, especially from the locals who had been conscripted as soldiers in Liu Yan's time. When we entered Sichuan, there were nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses, and after three years of attrition, there were only 20,000 veterans left, and then 30,000 local Han soldiers and horses in Yizhou were expanded, and 50,000 were gathered.

In addition, the brave Yongliang soldiers and Qingqiang soldiers under Liu Yan also have 10,000 or 20,000 to re-recruit and train, and in addition, they will gather 30,000 people from the Banyu Barbarians and the future Nanzhong Barbarian Department. In this way, a total of 100,000 Han barbarian elite soldiers, it is necessary to reach the elite level of one enemy and three weapons and armaments, in order to have a greater chance of victory in the case of the 200,000 Xiliang army that took the initiative to attack Dong Thief. Also, I recently found out that Gao Shun is quite good at using soldiers, and he doesn't have to go to war in the past two years, so let him accompany you to train with you. ”

After Liu Bei finished speaking, Li Su followed and said: "The training station does not have to be in Chengdu, once Chengdu is rich and prosperous, it is easy to distract the soldiers." Second, most of the soldiers came from Ba County and Nanzhong, and it was better to train the troops appropriately close to the source of soldiers.

Before, I discussed with the lord that it was best to choose one or two places to train in Yandao and Jiangyang. First of all, Yandao and other places are located at the entrance of the Minjiang River and the Yangtze River, and the products, grain and grass of the Chengdu Plain can be transported down the Minjiang River, and the transportation cost is the most economical. Second, the products and barbarians in Nanzhong can also go down the river to the Yan Road, and there is no upriver in the whole process.

As for the benefits of Jiangyang, although it is in the lower reaches of the Yandao, it is closer to the Banyuman settlement area of Ba County, and the loss of goods and military transportation from Jiangzhou is lower. In addition, Jiangyang is along Luoshui, Jiangyang and Han'an in the upper reaches are all well salt production areas, and it is also more convenient to store pickled military supplies. In the future, the Dongzhou soldiers and the Ban Yu barbarians can be trained in Jiangyang, and the local Han soldiers and Nanzhong barbarians can be trained in Yandao. ”

Guan Yu pondered for a while, and felt that the 100,000 Han barbarian elite soldiers had basically consumed most of the remaining financial resources of the Chengdu Plain, and it was indeed impossible to expand the scale.

Liu Bei finally made a decision: "Then Yun Chang will rest in Chengdu for more than a month, walk around, screen the Dongzhou soldiers left by Liu Yan, pick out the ones to be trained, and take them to Yandao and Jiangyang in the autumn when the time comes." After the autumn harvest of Boya, he also has to go to pacify Nanzhong, and it is best to be able to practice in battle, and appropriately pull the recruits out to see the blood. ”

Guan Yu received the order, and this informal decision-making dinner was over.

……

Guan Yu went back to rest for the night, and the next day he was invited to Li Su's fiefdom to have a look, open his eyes, and see what farming achievements he had piloted on his fiefdom in the first year after Li Su entered Sichuan, and what things were produced that were helpful to the elite army and strengthen the army.

Guan Yu was still on vacation anyway, but he was happy to familiarize himself with the situation, so he took a few entourages and rode a horse.

Leaving Chengdu, tracing twenty or thirty miles along the Min River, you arrived at the fiefdom of Li Su in Pixian County. Walking in the fields, he saw from afar that there were many more water conservancy facilities on the Minjiang River and other tributaries branched out by Dujiangyan, and Zhuge Jin, Li Su's staff member and concurrently the county chief, was personally supervising the construction of water conservancy.

The people of the Han Dynasty farmed, because they had not been intensively cultivated, and there were no crops a year, so summer was a relatively idle time, and only spring plowing and autumn harvest were the busiest.

In the dynasty of double-cropping rice, it was necessary to rush to harvest and grab seeds in summer, and "double grabbing" could simply tire people to death. Now, as long as you hoe and irrigate in the summer, you can levy a little forced labor when you are free.

Guan Yu saw Zhuge Jin and greeted him kindly: "Ziyu, I heard that you are a county prince, how can you still take care of these small things yourself." ”

Zhuge Jin picked up his mud-stained short sleeves and said with a smile: "Bingji is worried about the cow and doesn't ask about the dead people in the crossway, and if you do big things, you have to grasp the pilot." Although this year, although the hundreds of thousands of acres around the fiefdom of Houfu have only been piloted, they can be promoted to the whole county and the whole county if they are done well.

In this way, it is easy to calculate that it will take several years to recover the investment in projects such as repairing water wheels, mills, and forging mills. If it takes five, eight, or even ten years to see the benefits of the slow matter, hindering the great cause of preparing for the Northern Expedition of the general Zhengxi, then there is no rush to invest in it for a while. ”

Guan Yu nodded and smiled: "You are capable." ”

Zhuge Jin was curious when he saw what Guan Yu saw, so he introduced him one by one, he first pointed to the new waterwheel by the canal, which is also the most common and widely used equipment in the field of Li Su's fiefdom today, and said:

"This thing is called a rollover, in fact, the national capital lieutenant in charge of Tuntian had a trial production in Jiameng last year, but it is not perfect, it is the past few months that Brother Bo Ya personally supervised and improved, and it has become what it is now. Mrs. Li is also writing a new book specifically for these things, the title of which is called "Heavenly Creations", to make up for the omissions in the "Agricultural Politics Essentials" written two years ago, and to specifically collect and record the techniques of craftsmanship and equipment. ”

Guan Yu took a look at these new waterwheels called overturning, compared with the traditional wheeled waterwheels, the biggest feature is that they are made of crawlers, which can increase or decrease the water baffle, which can also increase or reduce the impact of the water flow and the water absorption efficiency.

The wheels at both ends of the "baffle track" are made of four wooden rice-shaped cross steering wheels similar to the rudder, so that when each baffle passes through the "steering wheel", it can be stuck in the eight notches of this rice-shaped shape, so as to achieve a "red chain transmission structure" similar to that between the bicycle axle and the chain.

The energy loss of this kind of transmission must be very high, corresponding to the low transmission efficiency, and every collision between the m-shaped wheel and the baffle will lose energy. But fortunately, there is Dujiangyan in the upstream, and the water energy in the downstream is very stable, and hydraulic power is an inexhaustible energy source, and no matter how large the proportion of loss is, it is much better than manpower.

It is also thanks to the fact that Li Su's fief is downstream of Dujiangyan, and it is difficult to replicate this industrial model in a place where there were no water conservancy facilities during the Han Dynasty.

Guan Yu also saw that this kind of overturned car was stronger than the traditional waterwheel, but he couldn't see its specific use for a while, so he asked directly: "Is this thing more hydraulic impulse?" ”

Zhuge Jin smiled: "This can still be adjusted, when you want to draw more water, add a few more sections in the middle, and when you draw less water, take out a few sections, the old waterwheel is dead, and it can't be adjusted." In this way, when the rain is abundant, it will be watered less, and when the rainwater is insufficient, it will be watered more, as long as more ditches are dug and each canal is equipped with one, the people here almost do not need manpower to irrigate.

Moreover, these new waterwheels are not just for irrigating farmland - if General Guan had Yaxing, take me upstream, and at the Dujiangyan outlet, where the water flow is most rapid, there is a much larger waterwheel group.

Some are used to mill rice and wheat, as long as the number of water baffles is increased or decreased, the thickness of the milled rice can be controlled, and the amount of bran and rice bran can be retained. There is no need to charge money for helping the people to mill rice, all the rice and flour milled belong to the people, and the bran and rice bran are collected in 20% as the wages of the mill.

The poorest yeoman farmers may be reluctant, but the large households with many fields and lack of labor are still willing to come to the water to grind. In the future, as long as the poor peasants and peasants are given some new livelihoods in their spare time, such as being paid to make military supplies and expanding brocade, they will earn more than the 30 percent of the rice bran they get by hand, and I believe that more and more people will go to the government-run mills to mill rice. ”

Guan Yu was dizzying, and he couldn't figure out how he had only left Shu for eight months, and how so many new things with ingenuity had appeared in Li Su's fiefdom.

Zhuge Jin saw it, and he was also honored, he hadn't finished counting, and pointed to the largest waterwheel workshops under Dujiangyan: "Rice milling is still overkill, Brother Bo Ya just figured out how to use a waterwheel to control the forging hammer to forge a large piece of iron armor." Do you want to check it out? ”

Guan Yu was shocked. I just said that the waterwheel can mill rice for irrigation, but in fact it has little to do with him. But as soon as he said that he could forge iron armor in large quantities without a blacksmith, he suddenly became energetic.

He is a person with a military training mission, and he is not sleepy when he talks about this.