In response to the sluggish morale at the Wuliuxi diversion weir construction site, Han Qian had to make new adjustments to the existing plan.

Han Qian's original plan was to follow the example of the original Taowu Ji Military Mansion to absorb the infected and hungry people, and to organize the Feng family's slaves and maids into the soldiers of the Longya Mountain Military Government that was planned to be established in the future.

In this way, in addition to ensuring that he can recruit thousands of more generals to fight in Xuzhou, and reopen the connection with Jinling in the future, the Longyashan Military Mansion can also be directly placed under the jurisdiction of the Junwang Mansion.

This is also to show that he originally suggested in front of Emperor Tianyou that Longya Mountain be used as the feudal domain of the three princes, and it was not empty words.

However, what he really did, Han Qian found that his ideas would always be deviated.

Two years ago, the people who were infected with the epidemic and starving outside Jinling City were already dying and struggling, and there was almost no hope of life.

At this time, no matter how heavy, tiring, and dirty the labor was done, few of the infected and hungry people complained, and their hearts were still full of gratitude.

At least the military government has given them hope for life, and their situation is actually better than what it used to be.

The slaves and maids of the Feng family are now displaced, but they have not been ravaged and tortured by hunger and cold for a short time.

Even if Han Qian directly organized them into soldiers at this time and recruited them for training, most people might not be willing to take on heavy physical work that was even more difficult than the hard labor camp at once, how could they not be angry?

Just like the soldiers who were recently forcibly relocated to Junzhou for resettlement, their combat effectiveness and cohesion are not particularly strong.

Han Qian didn't have a few months to throw out the Feng slaves and maids and let them struggle on the line of life and death for a while, but he was worried that if he continued to force the bullet to press, there would be a phenomenon of escape, and once a slave and maid fled to Wufeng Mountain to join the Feng clan, the situation would be a little embarrassing.

When the time comes, will he capture the fugitive slaves, or will he not arrest them?

Once this problem arises, the four families who are silent at this time and the big families who are attracted by Tanzhou may not continue to be silent.

Han Qian could only give up the early plan to set up the Longya Mountain Military Government, announced the establishment of Linjiang County in Longya Mountain, naturalized all the Feng family slaves and maids, and gave them the status of civilians, and at the same time promised each household a Ding male strong laborer, and after the completion of the canal and the water dividing weir, he would grant 20 acres of land and two houses; If a strong woman is sent to work, she will be given ten acres of land and a house.

At the same time, Han Qian opened this condition to all displaced people who gathered in Xuzhou, so as to attract more able-bodied laborers to enter Linjiang County, greatly reduce the intensity of labor, and strive to build the Wuliuxi watershed weir before the spring water flooded.

Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun are currently self-reliant in Xuzhou, and the four clans and the Tanzhou soldiers and horses at the foot of the Chinese mountain are still waiting, so naturally no one will stand up to stop Han Qian from privately casting the Great Seal and Xinzhi Township in Yushuwan.

Even if the embankment on the periphery of Yushu Bay has no hope of being built before summer, as long as Wuliuxi can be successfully tamed, 100,000 mu of grain fields can still be reclaimed along it and along the Shahe River, plus the valley near the old Xi Village, this is almost enough to recruit six or seven thousand strong laborers.

Of course, rumors of gold mines, flooding along the shores of Dongting Lake in the spring and summer, and the forced relocation of a large number of households north after May have led to a large influx of people from other states into Xuzhou.

Even though the thriving trade and the expansion of the scale of production forced by commerce absorbed a large number of strong laborers, a large number of displaced people were still drowned in the road and did not settle down.

Han Qian wanted to recruit enough strong laborers to work at this time, and there was no problem.

With so much strong labor, in addition to digging canals and building water dividing weirs before summer, it is enough to build thirty large enclosed houses along the Shahe River and Wuliuxi, but the materials that Han Qian had previously stockpiled were consumed twice as fast as expected.

Ordinary people can barely survive with one pound of rice grain a day, but the strong laborers who do heavy physical work have an amazing appetite, and in the absence of other oil and water, Han Qian currently has to ensure that each of them has three catties of rations a day, plus the extra wages, the hoarding of grain in advance and this year's harvest of Wufeng Mountain Plantation, may not be able to support four months.

It's just that for Han Qian, this is not an urgent need for the time being, at least until the end of March.

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Jiu Xi Village is located in a valley in the hinterland of Longya Mountain, which is also about the geographical center of Longya Mountain.

The mountains around the old Xi village, although not much high, but the terrain is extremely precipitous, it is difficult for apes to climb, but the north and south are intermittent valleys, the central power of the middle of the previous dynasty once had a strong control over the two states of Chenxu, once built a road through the old Xi village, over the Longshan Ya, up to 100 miles of land post road, north of Chenzhou Chenyang County, south along the five willow stream out of Longya Mountain, all the way to the mouth of Yushu Bay.

Although the old Xi village is abandoned, this ancient post road is hidden in the bushes and grasses, and occasionally there are business travelers passing through.

Of course, even if the old Xi village is deserted, the wooden houses in the village have long been burned to ashes, but the stone walls surrounded by four or five miles are still largely well preserved and can be used for defense.

In fact, Ji Xiyao was ordered to enter the coal and iron mines mined in Longya Mountain, and the Xi clan also mined them in the early years, and they were distributed within four or five miles of the old Xi Village.

Of course, it may also be that the ancestors of the Xi clan found that there is coal and iron ore in Longya Mountain, so they built the village nearby, according to Xi Chang's memory, the Xi clan has long mastered the craft of coal mining and iron smelting, and was extremely strong between Wushan and Wushui, and it fell down after several changes.

If it weren't for Han Qian's desire to borrow the power of the Xi clan, the Xi clan would be said to be a dead clan at this time.

Although Han Qian planned to build Linjiang County at the entrance of the Shahe River into the Yuan River, it was after the completion of the Wuliuxi watershed weir and the fields on both sides of the Shahe River were almost reclaimed, but the current conditions were poor, and at the same time, he had to guard against the changes of the forces of the surnames in Chenzhou in the north of Longya Mountain, and even to guard against the soldiers and horses of Tanzhou.

Han Qian led Lin Zongjing, Zhao Wuji, and Xi Fa'er to lead two hundred soldiers to settle in Longya City, and in addition to personally supervising the production of the kilns and workshops, they could also monitor the movements in Chenyang County, at the northern foot of Longya Mountain.

From the old Xi village along the ancient post road to the north, to the north more than ten miles, out of the north foot of Longya Mountain, the stream and river converge into the Chen River, forty miles away, through the south side of Chenyang County into the Yuanshui.

After the Yuanjiang River passes through there, it will have to go around another two or three hundred miles between these mountains before it will go back to Yushuwan at the southern foot of Longya Mountain.

The last time the fleet passed through Chenzhou, the Chenzhou side did not have time to react, or in the face of the armed escort of the fleet that was not weak at that time, the Chenzhou side would rather pretend to be stupid.

However, after the fleet passed, at the same time, the post rumor about "absconding" also arrived in Chenzhou, even if it was to prevent the Han family father and son from getting involved in Chenzhou, and really grasped the military and political power of Chenzhou, they also adjusted the limited deployment of troops.

In particular, Han Qian led five or six thousand men and horses into the southern foot of Longya Mountain, and Chenzhou was also at the northern foot of Longya Mountain, and gathered five or six hundred soldiers in Jiming Village, where the ancient post road intersected with Chenshui.

Jiming Village is the territory of Chenzhou's native surname Xi, only twelve or thirteen miles away from Longya City.

Chenzhou Xi clan and Yuzhou soldier Cao joined the army Xi Zhen as the patriarch of the Xuzhou Xi clan was a branch more than 100 years ago, is a line of the late previous dynasty, its patriarch Xi Ying from his father at this time inherited the position of Chenyang County magistrate, is a heavyweight in Chenzhou.

Although a cliff called Laolongtou in the south of Jiming Village is the real boundary between Xuzhou and Chenzhou, the Fanmin controlled by the Xi clan almost encroached on a large area of valley south of Laolongtou to cultivate and built a village there.

It's just that at present, the Chenzhou Xi clan does not have the strength to ignore the existence of several native surnames in Xuzhou, and directly occupy the old Xi Village.

Just as the Chenzhou Xi clan guarded against Han Qian's movements, Han Qian also had to guard against the Chenzhou Xi clan.

In fact, Han Qian chose to gain a foothold in Longya Mountain, which was closer to the native surnames of Chenzhou, and the Fanzhai under the jurisdiction of the four surnames Feng, Xi, Xiang and Yang in Xuzhou was mainly distributed in the mountains and rivers south of Qianyang City.

On this day, Xi Ying and Zhao Ting'er led 30 households and more than 200 slaves and maids brought from Yandangji to live in Longya City; They also brought a lot of livestock, chickens and ducks from Wufeng Mountain, and suddenly the dragon tooth city, which was still in ruins, was much more lively.

Xi Ying spent not much time in the old Xi village in her childhood, but she still has an impression of the nearby mountains and rivers, although most of the buildings in the village were burned to ashes, but the withered wall of artemisia grass still left her childhood memories, and she was full of emotion for a while.

"My lord, my lord, what you say can be done!"

Xi Ying climbed the wall, which had not yet had the energy to repair, and was somewhat deep and shallow, and saw Du Junyi holding an iron bar, stumbling from the iron-making yard behind the village, running over with his hands dancing, and shouting at Han Qian, who was also standing on the wall, looking at the surrounding mountains.

Different from lime kilns, brick kilns, and coal crushing yards, Han Qian had earlier ordered Ji Xiyao to build the ironworks directly behind Longya City, and in order to facilitate the use of water drainage and hydraulic forging hammers and sufficient water, he even did not hesitate to dig a two-mile-long narrow canal in the past two months to divert the flowing water from a natural mountain lake in the mountains to the vicinity of the ironworks behind Longya City.

After Han Qian arrived in Xuzhou, he directly sent a guard to guard the ironworks, and the craftsmen, craftsmen and dependents used were also concentrated in Longya City, and they were not allowed to enter and leave at will.

Xi Ying stayed in Qianyang City for the past few days, and he didn't know what magic method Han Qian taught Du Junyi, but Du Junyi, a Confucian scholar who was born in the poetry and book family more than half a year ago, actually dressed as an old craftsman, holding an iron bar and dancing like a treasure.

Du Junyi was too lazy to go around to the east and walk through the gate of the village to enter the Dragon's Tooth City, directly touched the rugged pit on the outside of the wall, climbed the wall two zhang high, and handed the iron bar in his hand to Han Qian.

With a little force, Han Qian bent the iron bar that was a finger thick and half a palm wide, and saw that there was no iron slag peeling off in the bend, it was indeed a good piece of soft iron and stainless steel, and he was also very happy, and ordered: "You and I will remember this method in our minds, and don't fall on the paper and ink for the time being." ”

Large-scale steel casting and iron smelting caused the consumption of charcoal to be extremely high, and Han Qian and even Jia Cao of the county prince's mansion were pondering replacing the expensive charcoal with much cheaper briquettes.

Xuzhou seems to be densely covered with forests, but cutting firewood is much more laborious than mining coal, not to mention three or four catties of firewood to burn a pound of charcoal.

However, the iron and steel structural parts cast by untreated coal and stone are brittle and easy to break, and the quality is inferior compared with the crude steel produced by the current steel frying process.

If you want to further use it to forge hundreds of steels, a whole iron bar may become iron slag and peel off, and finally nothing will be gained.

Han Qian has also been thinking about this problem, and he also thought of the key points in Jinling, but he was afraid of leaking secrets, so he stayed up until Xuzhou to conduct the experiment.

In fact, the idea is very simple, the rich and noble people in the world use charcoal for heating instead of firewood directly, mainly charcoal is flammable, smokeless, and lightweight.

The smokelessness of charcoal burning shows that the impurities that firewood will burn to produce smoke during the carbonization process of the kiln, which have been removed to a considerable extent.

When the world called coal coal or coalstone, it was completely unknown how this black, combustible stone was formed, but after a thousand years, most elementary school students can easily answer this question.

To put it bluntly, coal is the evolution of plants buried in the ground over thousands of years, and it is no different from the main component of firewood.

In Jinling City, Han Qian thought that he could try to use the method of burning charcoal to process coal, but in the process, he had to deal with the colorless and odorless poisonous charcoal gas, which could not be carried out in the courtyard, so he had to build a charcoal kiln in an open place.

And Han Qian really wants to put briquettes or coal stones into the charcoal kiln on a large scale to smolder, and the movement is relatively large, which is easy to attract the attention of the outside world, and he can only hold back to Xuzhou to conduct the test.

Coal is the coal dug out of Longya Mountain, after the preliminary washing, it is put into the charcoal kiln to ignite the fire and smoldering, the kiln is diverted with water to extinguish the remaining fire, and the coal that has been washed and smoldered is picked out to make iron and forge steel parts, and the same process is compared with charcoal.

Chen Jitang was responsible for assisting Lin Haizheng in supervising the construction of the Wuliuxi water diversion weir and exploring a new coal washing method and iron smelting method, and Han Qian handed it over to Du Junyi to be responsible.

A year ago, Du Junyi was still a weak scholar, because his father was coerced into surrendering to the Liang army during the Jingxiang War, and was liquidated after the war, Du Junyi, Du Junming's brothers and old mother were sent to the hard labor camp as slaves, and finally because the young sisters of the Du family were given to Han Qian by the third prince and were rescued.

Du Junyi read poetry and books, knew medicine and knew the law, and was a standard Confucian scholar in the world, and when he came to Han Qian's side, he initially assisted in transcribing the books in Jinyun Building, and then helped Han Qian compile the "Book of Heavenly Craftsmen", and also participated in the construction of Yandangji brewery and forging room.

After all, there is no insurmountable obstacle to the iron-making process in the world for Confucian scholars who know how to practice and can be pragmatic, and Du Junyi himself did not expect that it would take only half a month to verify that the method taught by the adults is indeed feasible.