The winter in Liaodong came earlier than in Guannai, but it was only September, and it was already cold. And at the end of the month, with the arrival of a winter snow, this goose feather snow and biting cold wind, let those loyal officers and soldiers who came here from the south of the Yangtze River finally understand what winter is in Kanto.

Overnight here, the weather can be much more sudden, yesterday I didn't feel any cold wind, after a night, when it blew across the face, it was like a sharp knife slashing, making people suddenly realize what the cold wind is.

Cold!

Bitterly cold!

Although the woolen coat on his body blocked the cold wind, and the layer of woolen felt sewn on the inside of the woolen coat was a finger thick that prevented the cold wind from entering the slightest, and even the wool felt sewn on the chest and back of the sweater on his body blocked the cold wind, but when he stood guard, his feet always felt as if they were about to be frozen.

Frozen feet!

Even if the footcloth in the leather boots was replaced with a thick flannel cloth, although there was still a layer of wool in the military boots that winter, I still felt frozen feet, and the cold air on the ground penetrated the copper nails on the soles of the boots, and the heat of the feet through the thick cowhide.

"As soon as I got back to the barracks, I had to cut off the blankets and cut out the insoles......

Wang Yushu pondered in his heart, and at the same time moved his legs to warm them up. He wears a thick tweed coat and a felt hat on his head, but even so, he can still feel the winter cold of Kanto.

The winter in Kanto was a test for these loyal soldiers from the south of the Yangtze River, and although they had made sufficient preparations for this winter, when winter really came, they still caught the loyal army off guard.

"King, now everyone has pants that are still a little thin, although there is a layer of felt in the cotton pants, but the fabric of the cotton pants is cotton, not as heavy as wool, although there is a coat to block the wind, but only rely on a layer of felt, it is still too thin."

Although the room was extremely warm thanks to the earth dragon and the warm kang, it was not even the slightest different from Jiangnan, but listening to Yu Shujie's report, Zhu Mingzhong still felt the biting cold.

As early as after formulating the plan of the expedition to Kanto, learning from the lessons of Napoleon and Hitler, he had already ordered the clothing factory to make thickened coats, sweaters, woolen pants and cotton pants early on, but he did not expect that compared to the cold of Kanto, these preparations were still too thin.

"Didn't everyone already get an extra pair of wool pants? Why still not? ”

Zhu Mingzhong frowned and asked, he didn't think that the extra distribution of quilts required a lot of money, but because it took time, in order to improve the cold-proof performance of the quilts, felt was deliberately used in the production of military uniform lining, instead of cotton, on the one hand, it was to avoid bloated military uniforms, and it was also to increase the warmth performance, and the windproof performance of felt was far better than cotton wool. Due to the dense structure of wool felt, it is not easy to flow air, and the warmth performance of wool felt is the most ideal. Its dense and soft warmth retains body heat. So, despite the higher cost of wool felt, wool felt was still chosen over the low-cost cotton.

Of course, in addition to the warmth benefits of wool felt, wool felt sewn inside coats, military uniforms and sweaters also has a certain defensive ability against knives and arrows. This is an added bonus, although in the winter there is very little fighting, either friend or foe.

"It's still okay now, but no one knows if the current military uniform can play a role in keeping warm after the wax moon, so I think that at least the wool felt of the cotton pants should be thickened, and if it is thickened, there should be no problem."

Regarding Shujie's suggestion, Zhu Mingzhong agreed without hesitation.

"Well, Lone will order the munitions factory in Jiangbei to produce thickened cotton trousers, as for wool...... Now that direct trade can be carried out with Mongolia, there should be no problem with the supply of wool, and the more wool is purchased from Mongolia, it is also a plan for the future. ”

If we say what kind of enlightenment Zhu Mingzhong has been given by the experience of later generations, then it is naturally the so-called "wartime economy"; although it is not possible to concentrate all its forces on military affairs during the war period like the countries of later generations, it can at least tilt its forces towards military production within the scope of its ability, just as Jiangbei has now mobilized all its registered ships for military transportation, and only through this concentration of all forces can the logistical supply of the expeditionary force in the northeast be ensured.

After all, fighting across the sea in this era is itself a test for logistical support. After all, not only are fleets affected by issues such as wind speed, which makes it impossible for carriers to always arrive at port as planned, but also that sea transportation is inherently risky, and wind and waves can sink ships into the sea at any time. If an accident happens to the transport fleet, then it is very likely to affect the entire campaign.

It is precisely for this reason that Jiangbei will mobilize all the ships to transport as many supplies as possible to Liaodong. In this way, even if the wind and waves at sea affect the transportation, relying on the stock of supplies, it can still maintain the battle for about a year.

Of course, this logistical burden will slowly be reduced over time, after all, the iron works in Benxi have already begun to manufacture weapons, and soon the weapons and ammunition produced in Benxi will be able to replace weapons from Jiangbei. At that time, the pressure on logistics and transportation will be greatly reduced.

Subsequently, Zhu Mingzhong talked with Yu Shujie about some problems in the army, most of which are logistics support issues, especially the construction of the military camp, compared with the subdued, the construction of the military camp is smoother, after all, there are countless forest resources in Kanto, and the military camp has already been built for so long since the recovery of Liaodong, as for heating, perhaps because the coal mine has not been mined, there is not enough coal available, but there is enough wood to meet the needs of the army.

"Shaoxing, have the results of sulfur exploration in the Changbai Mountain area come out?"

Suddenly, Zhu Mingzhong asked about another trivial matter that seemed a little insignificant.

"King, although the exploration has already returned, but the king, the problem now, the sulfur produced by the sulfur minerals of Changbai Mountain needs to be transported out, not to mention the need to go over the mountains and mountains, and there are also many Jurchens in the mountains, who want to exploit and utilize, I am afraid that without three or five years of hard work, they may not be able to replace Taiwan's sulfur."

Sulfur is an extremely important military material, because the production of gunpowder is inseparable from sulfur, and most of the sulfur in Jiangbei now relies on Taiwanese sulfur shipped from Keelung.

"There is no hurry in mining and utilization for the time being, small-scale mining and utilization, you can consider using those Jurchens and let them mine sulfur for us, and then we can mine sulfur to make gunpowder and attack the northern Hulu ......"

After a pause, he thought that he had read a paragraph on "Zizhi Tongjian", and Zhu Mingzhong said.

"When Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions were surrounded by Wusun soldiers, and the Manchu Dynasty was helpless, Emperor Cheng asked Chen Tangce to ask, Tang saw it, and Tang said: "The minister thinks that there will be nothing to worry about." He said, "Why? Tang said: "Fu Hu Bing is five and Han is one, who is it?" The blade is blunt, and the bow and crossbow are unfavorable. Today, it is quite skillful, but it is still three and one. ””

After telling Chen Tang's strategy with his memory, Zhu Mingzhong looked at Yu Shujie and said.

"It can be seen from a few lines that in the Han Dynasty, it was precisely because of the leading position in weapons and equipment that the Han army could beat the backward nomads around it without pressure and constantly expand the living space of the Han nation. However, with the diffusion of weapon technology, in fact, mainly iron smelting technology, this advantage gradually ceased to exist after the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the swords and iron armor of the alien race were not inferior to the Han people. It was not until the invention of firearms later that the Central Plains Dynasty once again barely maintained its technological superiority. And because gunpowder weapons are in the initial stage of development, they are not enough to form an absolute advantage over mature cold weapons, such as bows and crossbows, and the disadvantages of our Ming Dynasty and Liaodong back then, to a certain extent, also have an inseparable relationship with weapons."

Although weapons are not omnipotent, Zhu Mingzhong knows very well what firearms mean to the farming people, which means that for the first time they have mastered the power that can sweep away the nomads, and this power is not something that the nomads can master, even if they master firearms, they are still unable to transform them into combat effectiveness.

"And now, firearms! It is the foundation of our recapture of the advantage over the grassland tribes, the maintenance of this advantage, which can allow us to present a crushing posture against them in the next hundreds of years, and the northeast is the frontier, whether it is the future of the grassland tribes, or the pressure of the Jurchens, or the self-defense of immigrants in the future, it is inseparable from firearms, and the use of firearms is inseparable from gunpowder, if we only rely on transportation from the customs, we cannot solve the root of the problem, and sulfur mines, which are the roots of self-produced gunpowder, are ...... now."

For Shujie to smile slightly, Zhu Mingzhong smiled.

"This kind of trade, relying on ordinary traders is definitely not good, even if the traders go into the mountains to buy, they need the assistance of the army, after all, without the protection of the army, the merchants are the fat sheep in their eyes! So, the military has to do its job of protecting the traders, you know? ”

"Yes!"

The king's order made Yu Shujie quickly get up and answer.

"Please rest assured, the king, we will not let others dare to hurt me in the slightest."

"Hmm."

Nodding slightly, Zhu Mingzhong then said.

"It's not that you don't dare to hurt the slightest, but to follow up, businessman ......"

Glancing into the distance, Zhu Mingzhong said with a solemn expression.

"Merchants will not all be like the eight Jin merchants, colluding with the captives and betraying the country, businessmen are also patriotic, if we can use this power well, businessmen are even no less than hundreds of thousands of troops!"