After Dong Hu met Ouyang Xuan, he knew the reason for the Thunderbolt Army's full tuntian this time. It turned out that Ouyang Xuan had no intention of tuntian outside the mountain, and the current thunderbolt army had carried out large-scale tuntian in the mountain. If the grain from these cantonments is used sparingly, and the harvest from hunting, although it can meet the needs of development in the mountains, it still cannot support large-scale military operations. Large-scale tuning requires a large amount of grain as seeds, but the Thunderbolt army does not have enough surplus food, and of course it is not possible to large-scale tuntian. However, the food obtained by the bandits, especially Huang Dagen's windfall in the rootless mountains, was far beyond his expectations, which was not only enough to support the development and combat operations of the Perak Army, but also provided sufficient food for the reclamation of new wasteland. He was also impressed by the way the rootless mountain people coped with the harassment. He immediately consulted with Li Shuang, Yu Zhu, Lu Dezhi and others, and decided to carry out large-scale tuntian outside the mountain.

For the Perak Army, there is undoubtedly a huge risk in going out of the mountains at present, especially since Tuntian not only has a long cycle, but is also extremely vulnerable to attacks by external hostile forces. However, in order for the Thunderbolt army to develop and grow, it must take root in the plains through the tuntian, and then accumulate and resist the strategic resources such as food and population of the Mongols. At present, there are about 17,000 people under the rule of the Thunderbolt army, which is more than half of the population that can be controlled by the four county governments under the rule of Chongqing. Of course, the population of the Perak Army was not included in the statistics of the Chongqing government, and the outside world still thought that the Perak Army only had a few thousand Qiang, Fan and other foreigners. It is not surprising that there were so many people in the Perak Army, partly because the government never had accurate demographic statistics, and the powerful landlords and local officials often hid their population and land in order to evade taxes. At present, the governance of western Sichuan is collapsing, and the government's population statistics are even more inaccurate. The population under the rule of the Thunderbolt army is large, and more importantly, because of the war, the people have left the fertile fields of the plains and fled to the mountains to save their lives.

Although there is strength in numbers, there is also a lot of food in need. According to Li Shuang's estimates, the current grain stockpile, combined with hunting, fishing, and dried fruit gathering, can barely last a year, but if the army is used on a large scale, it will not be enough. Although the 60,000 mu of newly cultivated land in the mountains this year can be sown, due to the relatively cold climate in the mountains and the lack of light, they can only harvest one season.

The reason why Ouyang Xuan made up his mind to go down the mountain to develop and Tuntian was because he judged from the current situation that this was the best time. At present, Pu Zezhi is leading the elite of the Sichuan official army and the main force of the Xichuan Mongolian army to fight for Chengdu City, and the main bandits within a radius of 50 miles from Hengyuan Town have been eliminated, which has created a stable environment for Tuntian. The current decline of the western Sichuan Plain is mainly due to several large-scale burnings by the Mongols and the looting of rangers from time to time, which is also related to the oppression of the government and the rampant banditry. The destruction of agricultural production leads to food shortages, which in turn lead to starvation and mass deaths, which in turn lead to the halt of agricultural production, creating a vicious circle in which villages and fertile fields become a paradise for wild beasts. Wolves, wild boars, jackals and other beasts of prey are born in large numbers, these beasts not only hurt people, but also destroy and steal crops with wild sheep, deer, wild ducks, pheasants, etc., and even cause no harvest in serious cases, and even lone Thunderbolt soldiers have been repeatedly attacked. Now the Mongolian army and the official army have no time to take care of it, and most of the bandits have been eliminated, and the small group of bandits who have escaped the net do not dare to brush the beards of the Thunderbolt army. As for the beasts, it is even less of a concern, because the Thunderbolts have long regarded hunting as part of their daily military training. Even if they don't come to destroy crops, these beasts are mass-hunted by Thunderbolt soldiers, providing valuable meat in addition to training military skills.

In terms of season, the early spring is still cold but starting to warm up, and it is a suitable season for planting. In terms of preparing materials for spring ploughing, in addition to a large number of buckwheat, sorghum, wheat, and barley seeds, the Perak Army even prepared rape, beans, and rice seeds. In order to ensure the production of agricultural tools, the Perak Army even stopped some arms production and used industrial production to ensure spring ploughing. As for the land, it is not a problem, the rootless mountains and plains are originally widely spread and fertile fields, but the Mongols have long burned and plundered these anointed lands into ownerless wilderness, and only need to burn artemisia grass and small trees to sow seeds, and ash is an excellent fertilizer.

Only the labor problem was slightly more troublesome, and the number of laborers and guards responsible for the construction of Yokohara Fort exceeded 2,000, not including the labor force for burning cement and transporting it. At the moment when the top management of the Perak Army was hesitating, it was Lu Wenan, the manager of the engineering company, who made everyone make up their minds about Tuntian. As the person in charge of the construction of Hengyuan Fort, he reported to Ouyang Xuan that due to the cold weather, it takes half a month for the foundation and frame poured with cement concrete to dry, and after drying, the city wall can be continued to be poured. Lu Wen'an's words made Ouyang Xuan overjoyed, and he immediately decided to transfer the surplus personnel to Tuntian without affecting the progress of fort building. According to the order, among the soldiers of the Perak Army, except for the reconnaissance company and the guard company and other military forces that carry out military duties, the rest of the personnel are also involved in the tuntian. After all, although it is true that Yokohara Fort is the number one project, and military training is also very important, food is extremely important.

The plan of the top level of the Perak Army on grain production is: 60,000 mu of newly cultivated sloping land in the mountains, and it is estimated that 9 million catties of grain can be obtained from 150 catties per mu; 10,000 acres of rootless mountain reclamation can obtain 2 million catties of grain according to the yield of 200 catties per mu; The reclamation of 10,000 mu in the plain area can reach 3 million catties of grain according to an average of 300 catties per mu, and this year's autumn harvest can add 14 million catties of grain, which is enough for the economic development and military operations of the Perak Army. In fact, the yield per mu mentioned above is only a conservative estimate, because the newly cultivated land is fertile and the grass ash produced by the large amount of burning will definitely exceed the estimate this autumn. You must know that the rootless mountains and plain areas can achieve two crops a year, through reasonable arrangements to achieve winter sowing and summer harvest, spring sowing and autumn harvest, and the total grain output of the two seasons in a normal year can reach more than 600 catties per mu. It's just that it's spring sowing time, and the newly cultivated land in the rootless mountains and plains of the Perak Army can only harvest one autumn crop this year.