In the name of learning the tactics of the sailors, Liu Bei stayed in Anhui for a few days, waited for Liu Qi and his party, and then went up the river to Xiangyang.

Before returning to Xiangyang from Yuzhang, the waterway was nearly thousands of miles away. Today, from Wuhui to Yuzhang, the waterway is also close to a thousand miles away, and there are about two thousand miles of river waterway, which is against the water, which is enough for Erliu to spend time on the road.

Bidding farewell to the two in Anhuikou, Huo Jun returned to Wancheng to continue to deal with his business of farming and governing the army.

Previously, Huo Junli overrode public opinion and chose the abandoned Anhui City as the new county governance of Poyang County, which was difficult for everyone to understand. However, the unique resource and geographical advantages of Wancheng have gradually swept away the original doubts.

The Wushiyan that has been repaired and completed, the water of Anhui is diverted to irrigate more than 4,000 acres of fields on the east and west banks, and the people who have moved to Anhui City have used fire to cultivate water rakes, and have begun to plant rice since last year, and the wind and rain are smooth, this year's rice harvest is abundant, the government does not collect taxes, and the families of the soldiers who moved to Anhui City can finally have enough food for themselves.

In fact, Huo Jun's account of supervising 10,000 soldiers and horses is not correct. The 10,000 soldiers did not belong to the full-time soldiers, but belonged to the military households, and they were busy with training and farming in their spare time, and only tax exemption was used as a condition for recruitment, and in order to ensure military discipline and combat effectiveness, soldiers were also paid when they fought.

After the Battle of Danyang, the materials, money and grain from Jingchu gradually dried up, and Yuzhang and Luling were also unable to make ends meet. The interests of the sergeants in the war depended more on the capture after the war, so after pacifying Wu County, Er Liu took out the gold and silver from the treasury to reward the soldiers. Its purpose is not only to divide the merits of the war, but also to inspire the idea of the next battle.

After Jiang Zuo was pacified, Huo Jun kept 10,000 soldiers under his tent, which had lost the meaning of existence. In addition to retaining the 1,000-person elite under the command of Ding Feng, Huo Jun divided the remaining 9,000 people into three batches of rotation, each batch of 3,000 people, and defended Shucheng and Chaohu for two months.

The 10,000-strong sergeants were composed of Jingzhou Haoren, Xunyang miners, Poyang fishermen, and Jiangzuo defeated soldiers. Almost all of these 10,000 sergeants and their families were arranged by Huo Jun to go to the Jiangbei Valley in Poyang County. There was no fighting, and 10,000 sergeants served in the army for four months a year; In the event of an emergency battle, 10,000 sergeants can be assembled within 10 days.

There is fertile land to house the army's families, and another resource in Anhui City is also used by Huo Jun, that is, the iron ore resources in Tianzhu Mountain.

Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, with the development of Jianghuai, the Qianshan Basin, where Wancheng is located, has a large number of people living in it, and the iron ore around Wancheng has also been discovered. To the north of the diving, there is an iron ore excavated in the water throat pavilion on the edge of Tianzhu Mountain, that is, the mountain to cast iron stone and cast farming tools.

Today, Huo Jun took a boat from Anhui to dive north, just to inspect the progress of the iron ore at the Throat Pavilion.

On the dive, several boats went up the river, to the muddy river beach on the riverside, Huo Jun pointed to the river and said: "Diving out of Tianzhu Mountain, the river is turbulent, don't look at the left and right banks, the water rises in spring and summer, and the precipitation in autumn and winter can be a place for paddy field cultivation." ”

As he spoke, Huo Jun looked at Sima Zhi and asked, "Is the more than 4,000 hectares of fertile land in Wushiyan enough today?" Most of the acres of land I see are cultivated by the people, and there is little waste. ”

During the Han Dynasty, one hectare of land was 240 acres, and 4,000 hectares of land was about 960,000 acres, according to the estimate of 100 acres of land for a family of five, it was only enough for 9,600 households to cultivate, and it was not included in the fact that there were people who occupied more acres of land because no one cultivated.

The Wushiyan that was originally designed to be irrigated initially met the farming and living needs of the current military families and the people who migrated here. If Wancheng wants to expand further, it is imperative to build a diving weir.

Sima Zhi, the chief bookkeeper, pondered a little and said: "Qiyu Fujun, the Anhui water flows into the river, and the people have the sparing of fish and shrimp, and there is the cultivation of water acres, which is enough to eat. It is not impossible to build a submersible weir and irrigate water into the field to cultivate the land, but the manpower is limited, the people lack buffalo farming, and there are few agricultural and animal husbandry tools. ”

At present, there are military households and Jiangbei displaced people farming in Anhui City, and there is a population for the time being. Fire cultivation is a means of cultivating paddy fields, but it does not mean that paddy fields do not need to be cultivated by oxen. There are no ploughing oxen to carry the weight, so people can only work, and the lack of iron farming tools also further restricts the manpower to develop Anhui City.

Therefore, Sima Zhi did not agree with Huo Jun's suggestion to build a diving weir, but suggested that he should obtain ploughing cattle for the people as much as possible and build iron farm tools.

After a little silence, Huo Jun said: "Wu will have the benefits of copper and iron, the rao of sea salt, and a certain letter asked Chengming to send a batch of farm tools." And Kong Ming controlled salt and iron by hand in Danyang, and he could also buy and sell farm tools. As for the ploughing cattle, let's see how they will be captured in the future. ”

Iron farm tools, Huo Jun can still get some from Jiangdong, but he can't start plowing cattle. In all dynasties, the Central Plains Dynasty was generally short of cattle, and in the war years, there were even fewer cattle.

Ploughing cattle has a lot to do with regional agriculture, for example, the wealth of the region is not only due to early development, but also due to the distribution of ploughing cattle. During the Han and Tang dynasties, why the fields in Guanzhong were fertile and fertile, it had the factors of the benefit of the northwest, the livestock in Liangzhou in the northwest was the world's rao, and a large number of cattle could be obtained in Guanzhong for farming.

The Sichuan-Shu region, which is close to the breeding areas of ethnic minorities in the west and south, can also get a large number of cultivated cattle. Jianghuai is rich in cattle, and it will not be until the Song Dynasty, with the economic transfer to the south, the two Zhejiang, Fujian, and the two lakes are rich in cattle.

"No!"

Sima Zhi arched his hand and said, "Zhi will consider the number of farm tools and report to the prince at that time." ”

"Hmm!"

The boat went north against the river and arrived at the Shui Throat Pavilion Iron Smelting Workshop in Tianzhu Mountain. The Hose Pavilion Iron Smelting Workshop is located on the site of the mining area, and it is built on the basis of diving. The three functions of mining, smelting, and casting soldiers were combined into one, and Liu Zhong was responsible for supervising and managing the construction.

Liu Zhong introduced the workshop to Huo Jun and said: "The iron and stone were excavated and sent to the smelter, so that he could hit the iron and stone, seek the iron in it, burn it into water, and then let the craftsman forge it and make it into a weapon." ”

After the end of the war, Huo Jun began a vigorous military development, not only building a shipyard, gathering shipwrights, and building sailors. and wrote to Liu Qi to ask for 100 blacksmiths in Jiangzuo, and recruited people in the three counties of Yuzhang, Poyang, and Luling, and built a three-in-one arsenal in Shuiyuting. The prisoners of war who were defeated by Cao Wei before were used as mining laborers, and they were exempted from crime after five years and given civilian status.

As he spoke, Liu Zhong pointed to the water row next to the diving side and said, "On the order of the prince of the palace, I will ask Zhuge Junshi for advice and get the method of making the water row." It is made at the torrent, erects a wooden vertical shaft, and the wheel is lowered with water, and the wind is blown with a whirlwind, and the iron and stone are smelted, which can save the power of the craftsman to blow the wind. ”

Iron smelting requires air blowing, and in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Nanyang Taishou Du Shi invented water rows instead of old-style horse rows for iron smelting. Liu Zhong was from Xunyang, knew something about copper and iron smelting, and could be said to be a technical bureaucrat, so Huo Jun asked Liu Zhong to ask Zhuge Liang for advice on how to make water drains.

Looking at the vigorous construction site, Huo Jun asked, "When will the iron mill be available?" How many blades, armor, and arrows can be produced? ”

Liu Zhong estimated the time and said: "Qiqi Mansion, the iron workshop is only a thousand people, the scale is not large, and it can be completed in about ten days." But how many blades and armor can be produced, Zhong dare not say anything, as far as Zhong knows, the workshop of a thousand people, divided into two positions of iron smelting and casting, and when the time is fixed, the first knife can be eighty or ninety in the month, and the iron armor can be out of seven or eight collars, and four or five thousand arrows. ”

For generations, wars have been fought in logistics, and weapons also have durability, and it is almost impossible to fight a war without carrying extra weapons. For example, chopping wood, opening roads, and rejecting horses not only employ people, but also use knives and axes.

Huo Jun shook his head and said, "There are too few weapons, armor, and arrows. After the completion of the iron workshop, a group of astute farmers from Poyang and Yuzhang were recruited into the workshop, and the number of armor and ring knives must be increased. ”

Not only did Huo Jun lack craftsmen, but the entire Jiangdong lacked blacksmiths. For example, in order to develop military strength and refine the troops, Liu Bei is also building weapons and armor. And after the war, the people returned to work in the fields, and they also needed farm tools to work.

"That's right!"

Huo Jun corrected and said: "In the future, you can save arrows and cast more short spears." ”

After fighting a water war for so long, Huo Jun gradually discovered the disadvantages of bows and arrows. In the battle on the river, the bow and arrow seem to be convenient and lethal, but on the river and lake, the accuracy of the bow and arrow is touching. Unless a person like Gan Ning, who is proficient in archery and practices the art of water warfare, ordinary people fight on rivers and lakes and cannot play a very big role.

After Huo Jun pondered deeply, he decided to add javelins to the fleet to increase the lethality, that is, five hundred arrows and fifty short spears. Bow and arrow are used for long-distance combat, and when engaged in close-range combat, they can be thrown with a pole and then with a javelin. With such equipment, the firepower of the naval warships increased by a few points.

"No!"

Liu Zhong was pragmatic as an official, and he didn't ask much, just nodded in response.

(End of chapter)