Chapter 167 Men Farming and Weaving Women

After coming out of Luoyang, a year and a half has passed, and Liu Qian is about to turn twelve years old. Her body has grown a lot, and while her martial arts have grown a little and her knowledge has grown a lot, she has also understood many other things. Now she will no longer pester Chen Cheng like before, and she will no longer hold his arm and be coquettish.

On this day, she followed her two friends back from horseback riding outside the city, and then made an appointment to go to the backyard to shoot archery. Ma Yunlu is a tiger girl who has to practice every day, but she is much more diligent than her, so she naturally agreed immediately. Zi Jia'er was the youngest, although she still had some envy of the young ladies in the house who were wearing beautiful clothes, but she didn't object, so the three Loli ran through the road and the eaves, and went to the backyard with a fight.

Chen Cheng walked out of the study on the west side, and what he saw was the scene of three girls playing happily in the courtyard. He stood quietly under the eaves of the porch, watching them shoot arrows one by one. The youngest Zi Jia'er actually has some skills, whether it is posture or accuracy, it is very good.

At a distance of ten steps, this little Lori pulled out the hunting bow that Liu Qian had used before and shot out the short arrows.

"Do!" The arrow flew out and sank into the target.

Among all Chen Cheng's subordinates, Liu Qian and Zhao Yun are the two most special. When they were in the ranks, they were first given their own names, rather than being simply classified as "archers" or "cavalry" like everyone else. Like Chen Cheng, they can also gain various powerful abilities by upgrading and adding points, but they can't see the option to add points by themselves.

For them, the improvement of martial arts is simple. As long as you sweat, you will definitely reap the rewards. Even swinging a sword at the air or shooting at a target can make them shoot faster and make their attacks more powerful. In addition to personal skills such as "Iron Bone", "Attack", and "Horsemanship", they also have team skills such as "Medical", "Surgery", "Rescue", "Engineering" and "Domination".

Of course, the easiest way is to come from blood and killing. As long as they kill a sufficient number of enemies on the battlefield, they can eat a huge amount of experience, and they can stand in the same position as Chen Cheng, or even higher. Therefore, Chen Cheng has high expectations for Liu Qian and Zhao Yun, even if he often feels that this way of becoming stronger is encouraging them to become the Great Demon King.

Ma Yunlu and Zi Jia'er, who often mix with Liu Qian, are the same as the tooth soldiers under Chen Cheng's command, they have all achieved essential improvement, and their martial arts have made great progress. If Liu Qian and Zhao Yun are heroes and can be strengthened in all directions, then these ordinary people who can't have their own "names" can also get force-related reinforcements as long as they are in the "heroic" troops. And the easiest way to get strengthened is to kill the enemy on the battlefield.

Chen Cheng stood on the eaves of the corridor and looked at it blindly for a while, and was finally discovered by Liu Qian. She exclaimed, no longer shouting and laughing, but straightened her sleeves, ran over with small steps, and made a lady's appearance, "Master! ”

".........", Chen Cheng lowered his eyes and said, "Come with me, I have something to say to you." ”

"Huh?" Liu Qian tilted her head, a little surprised by the solemn expression on Chen Cheng's face, "The master's appearance is so serious, is there anything bad?" ”

She thought about it, and thought of the discussion that she often heard in Yacheng, "Could it be that Han Sui called?" ”

Chen Cheng shook his head and walked in the direction of the study. Liu Qian waved her hand to the two friends in the courtyard and said loudly, "You guys play for a while, and I'll come over right away." ”

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

When she arrived in the study, Chen Cheng was already sitting on a chair. Seeing her come in, Chen Cheng pointed to the chair next to him and said, "Sit." ”

When Liu Qian saw this battle, she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy in her heart. She thought about it quickly, she had been very well-behaved all this time, and she didn't cause trouble for the teachers and students....... Right?

Chen Cheng pondered for a while, and finally said in Liu Qian's thoughts: "I just received the exact news from Luoyang. ”

Luoyang? It was really a name that she hadn't heard for a long time, Liu Qian's heart tightened, and she asked with a smile, "What's wrong with Luoyang?" ”

"It is said that Dong Hou and the Empress Dowager died suddenly in Luoyang a month ago, and in addition, the guard captain Dong Chongfu committed suicide with a sword."

Suddenly.......... Sudden death?

Liu Qian suddenly felt chills on her body, just like the night her father died. Scenes that had appeared many times in dreams suddenly came to mind, and those things suddenly became clear, as if they had happened yesterday. She clearly remembered that her childish younger brother pulled the sleeve of the Empress Dowager Dong and shouted at her, "Sister, don't go".

It's obviously something that has only happened a long time ago, how could it be that he died suddenly?

Liu Qian blinked, tears dripping in strings. She forced a smile and said, "Master is joking with me, right?" Definitely! Master, this kind of thing is not funny at all! ”

Chen Cheng looked at her quietly, and some ripples appeared in his heart. When he first heard the news, it took him a long time to calm down. Human feelings are not completely connected, that is, sometimes, they are still connected.

These are brutal and dark times, the glory of the empire is gone, and there are wars and killings everywhere in the world. What happened in Luoyang City is just a microcosm of the times.

On the platform of Helan Mountain, more than 10,000 victims of Lian County are buried, including children and infants. On the night of the capture of Linrong City, many old and weak women and children also died. After seeing too much death, Chen Cheng's heart also became much harder. Or rather, he had to harden his heart so that he could keep going in this fucking world.

But when he saw Liu Qian crying silently, the hard places in his heart gradually softened again.

Chen Cheng stood up, gently put Liu Qian into his arms, and said in a low voice: "If you want to cry, cry out." ”

Liu Qian buried her head in his chest and sobbed in a low voice, "Woo...... Woo....... My brother.........."

Tears gradually wet the clothes on Chen Cheng's body, and the whimpering sound in his arms gradually lowered. Liu Qian wiped the tears on her face with her sleeve, raised her head, and asked with red eyes, "Did He Jin kill my brother?" ”

“...... Should be. ”

"Woo.........", Liu Qian wiped her eyes again, bit her lip and said, "I know." ”

Chen Cheng patted her on the shoulder twice and walked out. In the yard, Ma Yunlu and Zi Jia'er were chasing and playing, and when they saw him walk out, Zi Jia'er was a little scared and shrank aside. Ma Yunlu was very bold and not afraid at all, she walked up and asked, "Where is the princess?" ”

"Inside."

"Oh, let's go find her!"

Chen Cheng wanted to stop them so that Liu Qian could clean herself. But he wasn't sure he was right, so he stood still. Zi Jia'er stepped forward and said timidly: "Lord Chen! ”

Chen Cheng smiled at her, and Xiao Lori immediately lowered her head, like a frightened rabbit, and quickly ran towards Ma Yunlu. After the two Lori's figures disappeared, he touched his face and said in his heart: Am I really so terrible now?

The news from Luoyang did not disrupt Chen Cheng's plan, and all work was still moving forward in an orderly manner. This year, he had 1,000 acres of cotton planted on the banks of the Yellow River north of Yinchuan, and now is the time to pick cotton. The seeds he took out were specially made by the cotton seed companies of later generations, and although the fibers were long, the yields were high, and they were resistant to insects, but these cotton could only maintain the good traits of one generation, and the second generation would degrade.

Therefore, after this year's cotton is picked, it cannot be popularized on a large scale, and it must be planted for another two years, and the scale of planting can be expanded only after the traits are stable. However, 1,000 acres of cotton is not less, there are no chemical fertilizers and pesticides in this era, according to the output of more than three stones per mu, that is, 400 catties, after removing cottonseeds, there are almost 120 catties left, and you can also make twenty or thirty sets of cotton clothes and pants.

Then 1,000 acres can make tens of thousands of sets of cotton clothes and pants, which is already amazing. Of course, not all of them will actually be used to make clothes and pants, and a large part of them will be turned into quilts and mats. However, Chen Cheng has not thought about promoting cotton clothes for the time being, in addition to issuing a set of cotton clothes to the tooth soldiers and those teenagers in Yacheng, it is enough to distribute some to officials and generals at all levels.

Thinking about these haves and don'ts, Chen Cheng drew three views of the cotton gin with carbon strips on paper. The cotton gin is a very simple machine, it can be powered by water without electricity, and it can be cranked by hand without water. But after all, machinery is not Chen Cheng's business, if it weren't for the plug-in, with two levels of "engineering", he really couldn't get these things.

Not only this time, but every time he designed a new type of machinery, he always had the urge to go out and cut people. He studied chemistry and has some involvement in geological exploration, and mechanical engineering is not his strong point! If you talk about all kinds of strong pills, or anti-inflammatory and antibacterial drugs, he will be familiar with it. If you give him a lab and some chemical reagents, he can play for a whole week without getting tired.

Cotton is not just planted, and then picked, if you want to really use it to make clothes and quilts, you need to go through the most important key steps of removing seeds, spinning, and weaving. Just experimenting with various cotton-related machinery will take Chen Cheng a lot of time.

Before cotton could not be grown on a large scale, the most convenient and affordable means of keeping warm was wool. And wool has not only economic significance, but also military significance. The nomads of the north often raided south, essentially because they were too unproductive. Many times, even if they know that there is a dead end in front of them, those barbarians can only bump into it head-on.

But if they could sell their wool for food, they wouldn't have been so aggressive southward. At least, they had another option besides fighting. Of course, nomads are all wolves, similar in temperament to dogs, and they can't be bought by benefits alone, and they need to have sharp weapons in their hands.

It is a pity that Chen Cheng's "engineering" skills are not enough, and the mechanical efficiency of the trial production for spinning wool is too low, compared with the existing textile equipment, it does not occupy an advantage, and does not have much practical value. After learning that the equipment manufactured for the third time still did not make a qualitative leap, Chen Cheng was a little envious of the colleagues next door who were born in the textile college.

He comforted the craftsmen and others involved, saying, "It's not satisfactory, but it's much better than before, and everyone will continue to work hard and one day it will be possible." ”

Men, even if it really doesn't work, it can't be said that it can't be done, but it should be said that there is still room for improvement, and there is still a lot of potential.