The two people Xia Houlan brought, one carrying two sacks containing half a bag of things, the other carrying a bow and arrows, and holding a wooden frame in front of him, containing two sticks that he didn't know what to do.

Walking into the hall and obtaining Liu An's permission, Xia Houlan motioned for the two to start.

The farmer who took the sack opened one of the sacks, poured some cotton into the wooden frame, still with cottonseeds, and took a wooden stick that looked like a miniature version of a mace.

Liu An stepped forward to take a closer look and found that one side of the wooden frame turned out to be an iron mesh, with dense small holes on it.

The thorn on the mace is not just a simple spike at the end, but has a small barb.

Under Liu An's gaze, Zhuang Ren reached into the frame, piled the cotton in it into the net, and then used the barbs on the mace to hook out the cotton exposed in the hole.

When the cotton on the net is almost hooked, press the cotton again, and new cotton will be squeezed out, and then use the barb to continue to hook the cotton outward.

Liu An paid attention to it, the hole on the mesh is very small, and the cotton can pass through, but the cotton seed will be left in the frame, and will not be hooked out with the cotton.

This method of extracting lint is slow, but it does make it possible to extract the lint.

Liu An nodded, indicating that he had understood, and Xiahou Lan asked Zhuang Ren to stop the operation and move on to the next step.

This time the farmer opened another sack and poured out some lint without cotton seeds, and then the farmer, who was carrying a bow, placed the bowstring on the lint, and took another wooden stick and struck the bowstring.

With the vibration of the bowstring, the cotton was bounced up, dropped, and bounced up and down, and after repeating this, Liu An found that the original lint looked more fluffy and soft, which was more suitable for quilts and cotton clothes.

But again, this method is time-consuming and laborious, and the muscles will be numb after holding the bow in the arm for a long time, and the action of striking the bowstring with a wooden stick is obviously extremely physically demanding.

Liu An can only say that the method is simple and crude, and the cotton can be successfully extracted that can be used directly, but the efficiency is extremely low, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

However, Liu An was still very satisfied that Xia Houlan was able to complete what he had explained, and if he were to change it himself, he might not be able to think of this method to process cotton.

However, after all, Liu An has been trained by all kinds of modern high-tech, and the pattern is not at the same level as Xia Houlan, and he knows that the efficiency of modern factories using large machines to process cotton is not the same.

Therefore, according to the method that Xia Houlan had in mind, Liu An thought of an enhanced version that could improve efficiency.

"Fuzheng is doing a great job!" Liu An first affirmed Xia Houlan's achievements, and then said: "But did Fu Zheng think about combining the wooden frame with ...... Well, wouldn't it save a lot of effort and speed up the hooking of cotton if the wooden stick is fixed and a rocker is installed on one side of the wooden stick? ”

Seeing that Xia Houlan was seriously thinking about his proposal, Liu An stopped to give him time to think about it, and only after a while did he continue:

"The same is true of the bowstring, and if the man holds the bow for a short time, his arm will be sore, so it is better to fix the bowstring on both sides on a large wooden plank, leaving a groove in the plank, in which the cotton to be treated is placed. There is still a lot of room for improvement in this process, and it is necessary to work hard and assist in more thought, and you can communicate more with the craftsmen, and you may be able to gain something. However, there is no urgency in this matter, Fu Zheng wrote it down first, and thought about it slowly. By the way, don't sell cotton until the cotton processing process is improved. ”

Xia Houlan clenched her fists and promised, and Liu An continued: "Another question, how many fields can be planted this year with the seeds of each crop harvested last year?" ”

Liu An also asked Zhuang Ren how much cotton he could play in a day, but now he has got a similar answer, with today's technology, I am afraid that if a hundred people are arranged to play cotton, the shipment will not be too much.

"Ming Gong, wait a minute, let me do the math." Xiahoulan only recorded the yield and the number of seeds harvested, and did not calculate how many acres of land could be planted.

Among the crops, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and soybeans are not only fruits, but also can be used as seeds, and only need to be calculated according to the number of harvests and seeds per mu.

Liu An nodded in agreement, then looked at Zuo Wei and asked, "Zuo Wei, how many soldiers can fight in Zhuangshang?" ”

Zuo Wei left the table and replied: "Back to the owner of the village, a total of 1,500 soldiers have participated in the battle, but there are only 200 people in the village as standing soldiers, and the rest work with other villagers on weekdays. ”

"Hmm. How many people are there in the village? Liu An wasn't sure if Zuo Wei knew about this problem, so this question was asked to everyone present.

After all, Xia Houlan, who should know this matter the most, was still calculating the question he had just asked, and Liu An didn't intend to disturb him.

At this time, He Guan, who was in charge of the construction of the manor, left the table and replied: "Back to the owner of the village, including the victims outside the village, there are now more than 5,400 men, women and children in the village, including about 2,900 young and strong, more than 1,400 women, and the rest are old and young. ”

"Hmm......" Hearing this result, Liu An fell into deep thought.

Zhuang Shang already has 2,900 young people, and if he trains well, he can fight against the Yellow Turban as a regular soldier in a year.

Three thousand well-trained officers and soldiers, if they can be fully armed, can definitely fight against the rabble yellow turbans with hoes and farm tools and no armor, and they will definitely be able to fight against 10,000, or even more!

Liu An remembered that during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it was Cheng Yuanzhi and his deputy general Deng Mao who led 50,000 Yellow Turbans to invade Zhuo County, while Liu Bei and the three only had 500 soldiers.

And these 500 soldiers are still newly recruited soldiers who have not been strictly trained.

If Liu An can build Zhuang Shangqing into a well-trained soldier, and then equipped with sophisticated armaments, it will be easy to defeat Cheng Yuanzhi's 50,000 army, and he will not even have to defend the city.

Although Zhang Fei was sent to Liaodong to follow Liu Bei, Liu An still had Lu Bu, and perhaps Guan Yu could still be left, even if Guan Yu finally left, his Gao Sheng and others were not afraid of Cheng Yuanzhi's disciples.

At that time, the credit for repelling tens of thousands of yellow scarves will be in Liu An's pocket.

was thinking about it, but he heard Xiahou Lan say in the hall: "Ming Gong, I have come to the result." ”

"Well, let's talk about it." Liu An put down the matter of training Zhuang Ren for the time being, and said softly.

"Potatoes can be planted 330 acres, corn can be planted 60,000 acres, soybeans can be planted 2,400 acres, spinach can be planted 3,000 acres, sweet potatoes can be planted 630 acres, carrots can be planted 200 acres, red peppers can be planted 1,300 acres, cotton seeds have not yet come out, can not be counted for the time being."

When Liu An heard the corn, his face couldn't help but show shock.

He was not personally involved in the cultivation of corn, and he did not know how many seeds were needed to grow one acre of corn, so although he had just heard about the yield of corn, he had no idea what he could cultivate.

Hearing Xia Houlan say that he could actually plant 60,000 acres, he was directly shocked.

With so many fields, even if we start collecting manure now, I am afraid it will not be enough to fertilize.

And all the crops combined, it's a huge statistic.

However, this year's drought is even worse than last year's, and the reservoir he has made people dig on the manor will certainly not be able to provide irrigation for so many fields.

But Liu An didn't want to plant fewer crops, after all, now relying on the system alone, he couldn't save the seeds of the entire Han field for a lifetime.

It seems that the collection of manure and the excavation of larger cisterns are about to begin immediately.

On it together