The training of 15,000 soldiers of the Changyi Army was completed, and then the daily drills were carried out, Zhang Yue handed over these matters to Shi Chenghong, and sent someone to find Shi Deyuan in the east of the city to negotiate the recruitment and training of the township soldiers and the supply of equipment. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Chengdong Prefecture Government is not far from the Jiedu Mansion Office, Shi Deyuan came over quickly, walked into the signing room behind the government office, and saw Zhang Yue sitting behind the table and digging through the roster of officers, as well as the number of Ding Zhuang in each state, so as to recruit suitable reserve township soldiers.

"The lower official has seen the envoy!" Shi Deyuan stood at the door, hesitating in his heart whether to meet according to the new-style military salute or according to the officialdom etiquette. He was originally also a martial artist, but now he is a civilian official, so it is inevitable that he will be a little entangled.

"Come in and sit!" Seeing that he was a little at a loss, Zhang Yue guessed in his heart, raised his head and put down the brush, and said with a smile: "You are now an official in any state, and you should focus more on civil affairs, you don't need to be an official for the time being, and if you have the opportunity to lead troops again in the future, you can also lead the troops again." ”

"Then who is in charge of this recruitment of township soldiers? The number of soldiers in the Changyi Army is already very large, if you recruit more township soldiers, how much should be recruited? Shi Deyuan was a little depressed, he didn't know that firewood and rice were expensive, and the township soldiers would consume a lot of money and food.

"The purpose of the formation of three full-fledged brigades in the whole army this time is to facilitate the training of drills, but the soldiers of these three brigades may not all meet the requirements of elite soldiers, and then 3,000 people will be eliminated at the end of the two-month training, and the Changyi Army will maintain 12,000 in the future, which is exactly two brigades and two regimental armies. Wouldn't it be just right for the 3,000 people laid off to be the backbone of the township soldiers? ”

Zhang Yue explained with a smile, paused and said: "In this way, the township recruits 7,000 soldiers, and the officers are also available, so they can be deployed to the states as soon as possible, and they can also be transferred as auxiliaries in wartime." ”

"Those three prefectures plus a military town, each conscription of 2,000 township soldiers, Jingzhou 4,000, with regiments as a unit, this large number of military uniforms ......" Shi Deyuan thought, such a large batch of equipment, submitted to the Tokyo Privy Council for application, I am afraid it will be difficult to pass.

"It's okay, you just do it! Six or seven new armies were built in Liangzhou, and when the time came, Marshal Hou of Hexi would return to Beijing to thank him, and by the way, he would report on his work and let him receive more equipment to bring us a batch to achieve his goal. ”

"Oh well! The lower officials began to handle this matter, and after the autumn harvest in mid-August and late August, they began to recruit village soldiers for training. "Shi Deyuan has been very busy recently, the two new county towns in Jing and Yuan have not yet been completed, and the tax grain collected in the summer of this year has been intercepted, and it is not enough to go in full, and 50,000 stone of grain has been loaned from the Jingnan Army in Pizhou, and it will not be paid back until next year.

After two or three months of busy work, the military and political affairs of the four prefectures of Jingyuan were initially straightened out, and by the end of July, the assassins of Wei and Yuan sent by the court arrived in office, and Gao Changhai and Du Yanhui finally got out of the state affairs and returned to the team and entered the training camp for training. Zhang Yue was finally able to get out of the way and decided to go to Huizhou to see how the new armor was being built.

Early that morning, Zhang Yue sent people to the teaching camp to find Bian Ji, summoned out dozens of students who had stayed in the hall after the government examination at the beginning of the year, selected 20 of them, and left Jingzhou with 200 personal soldiers. Zhai Congen and Chang Deben took a group with them when they took office in Huizhou, and now there are only these people left.

These Jingzhou students felt that it was hopeless to enter the Beijing Academy, but they were also willing to seek a position as a small official in the state and county, but they took these people with them, and walked very slowly on the road, and only arrived at Shannanbao in Huizhou after five or six days. Zhang Yue asked Yang Xuanli to send them to Liangzhou, and gave Hou Zhang as a staff member, or as a state and county official, while Zhang Yue and Bian Ji went north along Qu Wu Mountain and went directly to the mine.

Bian Ji's talent is enough to be on his own, but he has no qualifications, and Zhang Yue is not able to give a high-level official position for the time being, so he has to take it with him. Arriving at the mine in the south of Quwu Township, there are actually several towns here, where tens of thousands of miners have worked for a long time, and the population flow is large, and the merchants and vendors also come to join in the fun, and make a lot of money by the way.

The soldiers stopped two miners to lead the way, and soon arrived in the next valley of Quwu Mountain, which was the ore smelter. Before entering the valley, I heard all kinds of dry sounds, especially the hydraulic stone crusher, and the sound of hammers hitting ore was deafening.

The person in charge here is a Yecheng of the Yanzhi Prison, Zheng Jiupinshang, named Li Congyou, who was transferred from the Shaofu in Tokyo, but the five or six of his subordinates are all Jingzhou Township Gong. Hearing that Zhang Yue came to inspect in person, Li Congyou wore straw sandals, rolled up his sleeves, and greeted him with swag.

This is what it looks like to do things, Zhang Yue suddenly had a good impression, smiled mildly and waved his hand: "Li Yecheng doesn't have to be polite, tell me about the situation on the mountain, how many ores can come down in a day?" ”

"If the weather is good, the valley in the east can roll down tens of thousands of catties along the slope of the ravine in a day, and it will be broken here by carrying more than two miles, and the smelting workshop at the foot of the mountain will be set up, and a large village will be set up, and the idle people will not put it in. If you want to see it, you will lead the way. Li Congyou said with a respectful smile.

"No hurry! Let's take a look at the efficiency of the hydraulic stone crusher first? Zhang Yue thought, the hydraulic stone crusher had a large-scale application in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yue just drew a sketch to improve it, if this is done, the shaft furnace of the smelting workshop, and the hydraulic forging machine for armor forging can also be done.

"The river is running low on water, so the officials asked the miners to build a dam upstream, and the stone crusher is under the dam." Li Congyou led the way in front and introduced as he walked.

Zhang Yue had already seen the towering dam, three huge waterwheels side by side at the foot of the dam were constantly rotating along the impact of the water, and there was a loud noise in the shed on the bank of the river, which was the gravel field.

Walking into the greenhouse, the rotating water wheel axle extends in, driving the stone crushing unit in the shed, the middle of the wheel axle is transversely equipped with two sledgehammers in the form of connecting rods, there is a stone platform below, and the large pieces of ore are lifted up by manpower, and the sledgehammer rotates naturally to break.

The other main engine is a large square bucket cast of steel, the lower fuselage is two iron mills that rotate opposite to the middle, small pieces of ore are poured into the square bucket, and are crushed by the iron mill and leak out from the bottom, and there is a field under the stone wall on the river bank below, and the miners pull it to the smelter with large plate cars.

Zhang Yue looked at it, felt very satisfied, turned to the bottom of the machine, and saw that the miners were struggling to pull the cart, so he pulled up his robe and tried to pull the cart. Zhang Yue stopped, gritted his teeth and pulled a while, feeling that the board car was not good, not only the wheels were cork, but the axles also squeaked and couldn't rotate at all.

"Looks like we're going to improve the axles!" Zhang Yue clapped his hands, gave the cart to the miners to pull away, and thought that he must order the craftsmen to cast steel marble and marble bowl bearings. Don't underestimate this revolution in mechanical technology, with this, many mechanical problems can be solved.

He also asked Li Congyou to lead the way to the smelter, which was a military fort covering an area of nearly 100 acres, and there were soldiers stationed there. Zhang Yue raised his hand to return the salute, and walked to the smelter without stopping.

Walking into the smelting area in the workshop, I felt a heat wave hitting people from afar, and there were all kinds of noises inside, a busy scene. The smelting site is also a large shed, after all, it is time-consuming and laborious to build a brick house, but it can be slowly rebuilt.

There are several shaft furnaces, all of which are about five feet in diameter and more than two zhang high, made of refractory bricks, and are anti-explosion furnaces, and three iron chains are tied to the waist of the furnace. On the left, there is a bellows in the shape of a long wooden cabinet, and three sturdy miners are sweating loudly to push the lever, and the wind is whirring in the furnace, and the furnace mouth is full of fire. There is a square pond of more than five feet in length and width at the bottom of the furnace on the right side, facing the iron outlet at the bottom of the furnace. On the other side, there is a slag outlet to drain the slag.

Zhang Yue understood at a glance that this shaft furnace uses charcoal as fuel, and if coal is used, it needs to be made of steel with a crucible, but the crucible must withstand at least 1,500 degrees, and it is not easy to make a crucible. It is rare to have this kind of shaft furnace to smelt pig iron, and after pouring and heating pig iron, it can also be used to make weapons with good steel quality.

"Haven't you made a crucible yet?" Zhang Yue was a little depressed, obviously there was good quality coal, but it couldn't be used for the time being.

"Not yet, blacksmith Xu Pingzhong is busy rushing to make it, so that you can go and see the wrought iron furnace to fill the steel, even if you use pig iron and wrought iron to refine it, you can also make a good weapon." Li Congyou showed displeasure when he saw him, and he was suddenly a little worried.

"Isn't there a test of cold forging technology?" Zhang Yue asked dissatisfiedly.

"The preparation of Guangxiang Fort armor has been able to make armor pieces and weapons, but it is said that compared with Qingtang armor, it is slightly worse, but the technology is becoming more and more mature."

"That's good...... Li Yecheng is busy first! Zhang Yue sent Li Congyou away, and Bian Ji took his own soldiers up the ore mining site in the mountain for a turn, and found that there were many miners, but the efficiency was still a little low.

Because in these years, mining and quarrying, it is generally necessary to let the stonemason first drill deep holes in the ore, and then manually beat it with a sledgehammer to crack the ore, which is a stupid method, but there is also a kind of fire burning, and then pouring water, thermal expansion and contraction, the ore can also crack, but this will damage the quality of the ore.

"If only there were explosives!" Zhang Yue looked at the busy miners, couldn't help muttering, and a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, and he was immediately excited, and left the mine in a hurry, deciding to find a craftsman to secretly make gunpowder and explosives, if nothing else, even if it was used to open a mine.

Thinking of it, he was ready to do it, Zhang Yue went to Guangxiangbao Military Industry Manufacturing City on the way to think about it, and his thinking gradually became clearer, but he planned to look at the progress of armor manufacturing first, and then choose a hidden ravine, and form a team of craftsmen to specialize in production.

When I arrived at Guangxiang Fort, it was already dark, the wall of the military city was two feet high, but the wall was not very thick, and there was a battalion of soldiers stationed for a long time.

The forge was also brightly lit at night, and Zhang Yue asked Li Duojin to take a look around and inquire about the management mode of this armor preparation military city, as well as the progress of weapon building.

There are only two kinds of people living here, craftsmen and soldiers with their families, fully enclosed management, mainly divided into iron forging, leather armor, wood and paint processing, assembly of four teams, the current inventory of new armor can only equip two regiments. (To be continued.) )