The children were able to enter the school to learn literacy and hyphenation, and the sergeants of the Pingxi Army seemed to see hope at once, and their enthusiasm was much more energetic. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The construction of the wall of Jingqiang Village is progressing rapidly, and Zhong Hao estimates that it will be completed before the autumn harvest, and it will definitely not delay the autumn harvest work in the village.

Zhong Hao couldn't help but praise this situation, and immediately announced that in the future, meat dishes would be changed from once every three days to once every two days, and the enthusiasm of the craftsmen and laborers would be even higher.

……

When the potatoes are harvested, Zhong Hao is very much looking forward to the yield of potatoes.

The potatoes were harvested by the women of the Pingxi Army under the command of Zhong Hao and those half-grown children, and they were still relatively careful in their work, and the potatoes were basically not damaged or omitted.

In the end, the six acres of potatoes planted in Jingqiang Village harvested a yield of fifty stones. Although the fields where potatoes are planted in Jingqiang Village are fully irrigated, because of the limited seeds of potatoes and sweet potatoes last year, the planting is relatively sparse, and although Zhong Hao is not satisfied with this yield, he feels that it is quite acceptable.

Zhong Hao just thought it was acceptable, but the women who had seen the potato production were all bright-eyed. This potato is more than eight stones, and according to Master Kiyi, this thing is delicious. This acre of potatoes can top the yield of seven or eight acres of wheat. Seeing such a high yield, it is impossible not to let the women who are accustomed to planting the land lose their eyes.

In the past, even if the harvest of one acre of land was better, it was difficult to feed one person. One acre of land and one stone of grain is considered a good harvest, but one stone of grain is not enough for a laborer to eat in a year. However, Jingqiang Village can grow these potatoes, but one acre has enough production of seven or eight stones, and this acre of land is enough to feed four or five people. The eyes of those women could not help but be full of longing, with this potato, I am afraid that they will never have to go hungry again!

Those women looked at Zhong Hao's gaze, and they couldn't help but be more full of respect, full of expectations for the future of Jingqiang Village.

Fifty stone potatoes will be used to make seeds next year, and Zhong Hao estimates that it should be no problem to plant a small 200 acres. When the potatoes are harvested again next year, there is no need to worry about potato seeds.

Zhong Hao found some soldiers and dug several large cellars in the camp to store potatoes. Of course, when the sweet potatoes are harvested in the future, they will also be stored here.

The potato harvest is acceptable, just wait for August to see how the sweet potato production goes.

Hopefully, the yield of sweet potatoes will be satisfactory as well!

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Since Zhong Hao and the Yang family caravan cooperated in the soju business, the horse team of the Yang family caravan for the first time in the Silver Star and City Trade has returned.

This time, the Yang family went to the caravan of Silver Star and City to trade, and brought back forty war horses to Zhong Hao.

The Yang family's caravans generally go to Silver Star and City once a month to trade.

The caravan of the Yang family to trade in Yinxing and the city cost a lot of money to clear customs back and forth, and naturally they didn't just bring shochu, they brought a lot of types and quantities of goods, and they needed to prepare for a long time. When I arrived at Silver Star and the city, the time for trading and selling was not short, so I could only go back and forth once a month.

After Han Hu saw the forty war horses brought by the Yang family's caravan, he praised those war horses a lot, and said to Zhong Hao: These war horses are all authentic Hequ horses from eight to fourteen years old, and they are all very good war horses.

Zhong Hao has a limited understanding of various war horses, and at the moment Han Hu explained to Zhong Hao the history and advantages of the river meandering horse.

The first meandering place in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, with abundant water and grass, is an excellent place to raise horses. During the Han and Tang dynasties, it has always provided a large number of excellent war horses for the Central Plains Dynasty. Later, after the weakening of the Tang Dynasty, this place was occupied by Tubo, and they grazed and settled here. Now the rise of Western Xia has seized this excellent horse breeding land from the Tibetan people for a large number of war horses.

The Hequ Horse has made great achievements in the history of ancient warfare. At that time, the Qin people obtained a large number of Hequ horses from the nomadic Qiang people in this area, used them in the military, and trained and organized powerful cavalry troops. It can be said that without the cavalry of the Qin State, which was equipped with a large number of Hequ horses obtained from the Qiang people, there would have been no unified dynasty in China.

In the Han Dynasty, in order to improve the horse breeds in the Central Plains, the imperial court had introduced the excellent horse breeds of the Western Regions to graze in the Hequ area, and the descendants of these horses made "sweat and horse contributions" for the Han Dynasty's conquest of the Xiongnu. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he conquered Dawan several times in order to ask for "sweat and blood horses" for improving horse breeds.

The river meandering horse has strong pulling force, medium speed force, and can be durable and durable. The hippock has a strong adaptability to the cold and changeable climate environment. In the case of herding all year round, the fat gain is fast in summer and autumn, and the fat loss is slow in winter and spring, which shows that the ability to deposit fat in the body is strong, and the body condition does not change significantly with the season. It has strong resistance to general diseases, and common diseases such as common gastrointestinal diseases rarely occur.

Moreover, the river meander horse is extremely resistant to rough feeding, and the range of forage is very wide, especially in the dry grass season, it can eat all kinds of edible weeds, residual grass in all seasons, and even fragrant firewood and willow shoots can be eaten, thus forming the quality of grasping fat quickly, losing fat slowly, and preserving fat.

Hequ horses have a strong memory, and the horses know clearly where to drink water and graze, and they never forget where the pasture is good and where there is a water source in each season. Moreover, it is said that the river meandering horse has a strong ability to read the way, and even if it travels thousands of miles, it can return to its original pasture by itself.

Zhong Hao couldn't help but be very happy after listening to Han Hu's explanation, it seems that Yang Wenguang is very authentic in doing things, he didn't take some bad horses and old horses to fool himself, he bought himself a prime-aged Hequ horse, and the price of fifty yuan is really quite cost-effective.

…………

Zhong Hao divided the forty war horses into five of the war camps, and let them start to take turns to train on horses.

The three hundred pairs of riding bows that Zhong Hao applied for in the Shuai Division have also arrived. If you don't get on the horse, practice foot shooting first.

Although the soldiers of these war battalions in Jingqiang Village are all selected strong men, they used to do logistics and heavy work in the service battalions, and they basically never really went to the battlefield, and they basically had no fighting skills, let alone very difficult riding and archery skills.

The Great Song Dynasty forbidden army shot the longbow with one stone and two buckets as the best, and the cavalry took the eight buckets as the superior with the eight bucket riding bows, Zhong Hao thought that these riding bows were all customized according to the standard of the superior cavalry.

These soldiers in the war barracks had no brute strength and no skills, and now they even struggled to stand on the ground and draw a bow with an empty string, let alone shoot arrows.

Even if you stand on the ground and learn to shoot an arrow, I'm afraid it will take a lot of time.

Mounted archery requires riding on a bumpy horse, controlling the horse with both legs and drawing the bow with both hands free. Zhong Hao felt that the barracks in Jingqiang Village couldn't ride horses, couldn't shoot arrows, and the road to learn to ride and shoot was still very long, very long.

Although you can't ride and shoot, you may not be a good cavalry, you can also ride a horse to rush into battle, but this riding and killing is not something that can be practiced overnight, and the war battalion of Jingqiang Village is still a long way to go on the road to becoming a real cavalry.

Although Zhong Hao did not have much hope that the Jingqiang Village Battle Battalion would become a qualified cavalryman, Yang Huaiyu taught him very seriously.

When Zhong Hao came to see the training of the war barracks, he always saw that Yang Huaiyu was in charge of the war barracks for him, and he tirelessly explained the skills of riding, the skills of controlling the horse with both legs, and the skills of stabbing the horse lance when the cavalry was hedging.

The soldiers in charge of Yang Huaiyu are now listening to Yang Huaiyu's explanation very carefully. At first, a few people who thought Yang Huaiyu was young and were not convinced by his few thorns have long been convinced. Horse battles, foot battles, fists and feet, guns and sticks, Yang Huaiyu won without surprise.

Zhong Hao didn't expect Yang Huaiyu to be young and young, but his martial arts were so high. It seems that the children of the Jiangmen family are not all useless people, at least not the children of the Yang family.

Zhong Hao also saw that Yang Huaiyu also took out the explanation album of cavalry training and passed it on to the soldiers, and couldn't help but be very interested.

Zhong Hao looked at Yang Huaiyu's cavalry training atlas, and saw that it was very clear and fine, such as when the cavalry was hedging, which part of the horse lance should be tied to the horse, and which part of the person was pierced, there were detailed illustrations, which were much more than simply explaining the image.

It seems that Yang Huaiyu really wants to make some achievements, and Zhong Hao is more and more appreciative of Yang Huaiyu. The children of the Jiangmen family, but they can do things like this, and the future will definitely be good.

Zhong Hao felt that this album must be the family heirloom of the Yang family. Since Yang Wenguang allowed Yang Huaiyu to take this atlas to help Jingqiang Village train cavalry, it seems that Yang Wenguang is really concerned about what he wants, and he wants to have a good relationship with him. Zhong Hao felt that he and Yang Wenguang should have a good relationship in the future, and since they showed sincerity, they must also express themselves.

The training of cavalry does not take two or three years to grind the work, and it is difficult to train cavalry with sufficient combat power.

Zhong Hao felt that if he wanted to quickly form some combat power, it seemed that he should study firearms, which would be more reliable.

Historically, the profession of alchemists has always been used, and although they make a living by fooling people, they are not useless.

While these alchemists continued to improve their smelting skills in order to refine more elixir products that were easier to fool people, they also refined "cinnabar", a pigment that was loved by emperors, and also researched some home remedies for treating diseases by the way.

Of course, one of their main achievements was the development of gunpowder, one of the four great inventions of ancient China, in improving smelting technology.

Gunpowder was developed by some alchemists in the late Tang Dynasty, and it was developed by accident when refining pills.

However, gunpowder weapons have been used in the late Tang Dynasty, but until the present day of the Great Song Dynasty, there has been no great progress, and there are still some simple gunpowder firearms such as rockets, fireballs, and thistles.

Now the Kaifeng Mansion Yin of the Great Song Dynasty, Hanlin scholar Zeng Gongliang, in the previous years of Qingli years in the book "Wujing General Essentials" introduced three gunpowder formulas, with different auxiliary materials, to achieve flammable, explosive, poisoning and smoke screen for different purposes.

However, although the court of the Great Song Dynasty now has some understanding of gunpowder, the court does not pay much attention to the research of gunpowder weapons.

In Zhong Hao's memory, it was not until Song Shenzong, who wanted to work hard, came to power that he began to pay attention to the research and use of gunpowder and firearms.

During the Xining period, an ordnance superintendent was set up to oversee the manufacture of ordnance throughout the country. The Ordnance Supervision employs more than 40,000 workers, and is divided into 10 workshops, each producing gunpowder and gunpowder weapons, and occupies a very important position.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, firearms with relatively large explosion power also appeared, such as "thunderbolt cannons" and "earth-shaking thunder". This type of firearm is mainly used to fortify or defend cities.

Zhong Hao's later generations were also half of the military fans, and he had some understanding of the knowledge of black ~ gunpowder, but he remembered the best proportions of black ~ gunpowder methods summarized by later generations, and he also remembered the practice of granular black ~ gunpowder.

Zhong Hao felt that gunpowder and firearms were still worth studying.

Since he came to Jingqiang Village, there has been no Xia army to disturb him. But yes, you can't always rely on luck, now it's almost the autumn harvest season, and Xia Jun may come back when.

Relying on the war camp to resist the Xia army is afraid that it will not be able to count on it for the time being, so it can only speed up the construction of the wall, and it must be repaired before the autumn harvest, and then it will be relied on the village to resist the Xia army.

However, these crops are afraid that they will be ruined by Xia Jun. Zhong Hao felt that he should take advantage of this time to study gunpowder and make some gunpowder weapons, even if he couldn't hit Xia Jun, he would have to scare them.

……

Zhong Hao said that he was doing it, and he thought of developing gunpowder weapons, so he asked people to go to Lanzhou to purchase saltpeter, charcoal, sulfur, and other materials for making black~ gunpowder.

However, although there were some craftsmen in the Pingxi Army, there were no craftsmen who studied gunpowder.

Zhong Hao wanted to keep the gunpowder and gunpowder weapons he developed secret, and he was afraid that his research results would be leaked when he found craftsmen from outside, so he had to take a few skillful and steady old craftsmen to study them slowly. Of course, in fact, even if Zhong Hao wants a craftsman who understands gunpowder technology, I am afraid it is not easy to find. In this era, there are very few people who understand gunpowder technology.

Do-it-yourself, with plenty of food and clothing, Zhong Hao felt that since he knew the method of this black ~ gunpowder, this black ~ gunpowder was not a big problem.

Zhong Hao remembered that the best ratio of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal that he saw in later generations was made according to the weight ratio of these three materials fifteen to two to three, which was a kind of black ~ gunpowder with a good effect.

At that moment, Zhong Hao instructed the old craftsmen to carefully grind saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal into powder, and make some good according to the weight ratio of fifteen to two to three.

Gunpowder testing is a rather dangerous thing and requires a lot of care.

Zhong Hao asked the craftsman to take only a little bit of the prepared gunpowder and put it in a small iron can, leaving a small hole in the iron can, and then connecting a velvet as a lead. And the velvet is very long, so after igniting, there is enough time to run far.

Putting the tin can in an open place, Zhong Hao lit the velvet and quickly ran away.

Soon, Zhong Hao heard the blasting sound of the iron can as he wished, and after a muffled sound, a puff of black smoke rose from the iron can, with a heavy smell of gunsmoke.

When the smoke cleared, Zhong Hao and several old craftsmen stepped forward to check, but found that the blasting effect of the gunpowder was not too satisfactory. The explosive power of gunpowder is very small, and the iron can is only cracked along the hole of the flannel, which is far less powerful than the black ~ gunpowder that Zhong Hao has seen in later generations.

Although the blasting effect was not very good, the first gunpowder test was also considered a success, and the first cannon finally sounded, Zhong Hao and a few old craftsmen were still very happy. (To be continued.) )