After settling down the Qian clan members, Ouyang Xuan focused his energy on education and scientific research. The Perak Army still has five urgent matters at present, namely the construction of Hengyuan Fort, the southbound march of armed caravans, farming in the mountains, the development of industry and mining, and reconnaissance of the enemy. Among these matters, Ouyang Xuan is in charge of military affairs, and General Li Shuang is in charge of government affairs. Lu Dezhi, Yu Zhu and others each bear their own responsibilities.
Among them, Yu Zhu was responsible for supervising the construction of Hengyuan Fort. The current progress of building the fort is very fast, but the technical staff of Luwen'an's construction company and the soldiers and migrant workers who participated in the building of the fort are still working overtime day and night, and even constructing with torches at night.
Ouyang Xuan requested that the construction of Hengyuan Fort be completed in May. The public reason was that it must be before the rainy season. However, only a few senior leaders of the Perak Army knew the internal situation.
Brother Xuan once told them privately that the battle of Chengdu will end in May, and Pu Zezhi will be defeated by the Mongols, and they must repair Hengyuan Fort before the Mongolian army attacks.
For this reason, Yu Zhu and Lu Wen'an tried to discuss increasing the manpower for building the fort. The reason why it was not implemented in the end was that the construction area of Hengyuan Fort was not large. Too many manpower would not improve efficiency but would make the construction site more chaotic.
Farming in the mountains is coordinated by Lu De. The farming season in Jiguan Mountain is about half a month later than outside the mountain, and even a month later in high-altitude deep mountainous areas.
More than 40,000 acres of the newly reclaimed 60,000 acres of cultivated land in the mountains are located in low-altitude areas. The sowing has been completed some time ago. This period is suitable for sowing the remaining cultivated land in high-altitude areas.
Although Lu Dezhi was over fifty years old, he worked tirelessly and vigorously. From the perspective of a traditional scholar, farming was the foundation of the Perak Army, and the significance of admonishing farmers to grow mulberry trees cannot be overstated.
The development of industry and mining was coordinated by Yang Xiucai. Currently, all the mines in the mountain are at full capacity. There are nearly a hundred iron, coal, lime ores, sulfur and nitrate mines, and even a small copper mine.
However, due to the imbalance of mineral types, the minerals produced cannot meet the production needs of industrial companies. More importantly, some mines are about to be mined, such as iron, nitrate, and copper.
At present, coal and lime mineral resources are the most abundant in the mountains, and these two minerals account for the majority of all mines.
Although there are few sulfur mines, a large amount of sulfur is produced as a by-product during iron smelting, so there is no shortage. As the most core resource, there are currently nine iron ore mines, three of which are about to be exhausted. Nitrate and copper mines are not abundant in the Jiguan Mountains, and they are minerals that are always in short supply.
Yang Xiucai and mining company manager Dang Shijian adopted two methods for this purpose. In addition to strengthening exploration in Jiguan Mountain, they also searched for minerals in other places controlled by the Pili Army, such as Meihua Village behind the mountains of Yongkang City and Qianjia in Huojing County. Village and other places.
Ouyang Xuan also ordered the scouts to focus on iron, saltpeter, copper and other mines. Of course, he also requested that minerals whose safety is not guaranteed should not be exploited for the time being to prevent them from being used as wedding dresses for others.
Regarding the improvement of industrial production capacity, it is not on the agenda now. In addition to the limitation of raw materials, it is also because there is too little flat land suitable for building factories in the mountains and the transportation is inconvenient.
In the future, the Pili Army's new industrial base will still have to be built in places with convenient transportation and easy defense. For example, Xinjin City, Wugen Mountain District, and the peninsula where three rivers flow together in Yongqu Township are also good choices.
Boss Qian, Dong Hu and Zhu Tiaozi were responsible for the preparations for the southbound journey of the armed caravan. Boss Qian and Zhu Tiaozi mainly prepare funds, goods and logistical supplies, which are very familiar to them. The more troublesome thing is the training of the armed caravan.
According to Ouyang Xuan's order, after Cao Ergou returned to Wanjiaping to resume his duties, Dong Hu took over the training of the armed caravan.
On the one hand, this is because the backbones who serve as platoon leaders of the armed caravan squads are all transferred to the internal guard battalions that are better at reconnaissance and combat. On the other hand, the armed caravan is not only engaged in trade and commerce, but also undertakes intelligence collection tasks.
Dong Hu's trouble is that the armed caravan has strong individual capabilities but loose discipline. In particular, some members of the Qian clan are procrastinating and disobeying orders. The leader is Qian Laosan's son Qian Bao - the armed caravan. A company commander.
Qianbao was in his twenties, strong but rebellious. When Cao Ergou was training the armed caravan, he was frightened by Cao Ergou's reputation but was still honest.
But as soon as Cao Ergou left, he started to become arrogant when he saw Dong Hu looking like an honest mountain man, and he repeatedly contradicted Dong Hu.
Dong Hu was afraid of breaking the cooperation agreement between the two parties, so he was a little timid. Dong Hu had no choice but to report the situation to Ouyang Xuan.
Ouyang Xuan received the letter, sent someone to forward it to Boss Qian and sent a message:
"The importance of military affairs lies in the execution of orders and prohibitions." The letter and words from Ouyang Xuan made Boss Qian furious. He immediately ordered someone to tie up Qian Bao and whip him a hundred times in front of all the armed caravan members. He beat Qian Bao until Qian Bao screamed and begged for mercy.
It is said that Qian Bao was whipped and saw Dong Hu's ability in the subsequent training. Instead of hating Dong Hu, he admired him and simply worshiped him as his teacher.
Seeing Qian Bao like this, everyone dared not violate military orders and disciplines again. The reason why Ouyang Xuan predicted that the next step would be a turning point in the Song-Mongolian battlefield in Sichuan.
The large-scale reconnaissance operation some time ago made Ouyang Xuan know that the trajectory of history has not changed significantly, but he still needs to grasp the pulse of history at all times in order to make timely responses.
It's just that at this stage, there are only more than 30 people dispatched for reconnaissance, focusing on the direction of Chengdu City. With the return of the Mongolian army's New Lin Department and the arrival of reinforcements from the direction of Lizhou, the Mongolian army defending Chengdu changed its retreat and began to use its mobility to carry out small-scale counterattacks and frequently plundered surrounding areas.
During this period of time, refugees and scattered defeated soldiers of the Song Army fled to Hengyuan Town one after another. According to the news of the defeated refugees, the Mongolian army and the Song army are currently engaged in a tug-of-war in Chengdu, and the situation is deadlocked.
Both sides consumed huge amounts of personnel and materials, so they unanimously resorted to looting to obtain food, grass and baggage.
The difference is that as long as the people do not resist, the Song army usually only robs but does not kill, while the Mongols adopt Sanguang's scorched earth policy, wherever they go they are like locusts passing through.
During the looting, the people fled in various directions, especially the prefectures and counties in the northwest and east of Chengdu that were looted by the Mongolian army, and suffered particularly serious damage.
Although the above five things are very important, because there are people who perform their own duties, Ouyang Xuan does not get too involved, fearing that he will cause trouble if he manages too carefully, so he simply spends time in the laboratory of the institute.
On the contrary, he can play his best role in the laboratory. After all, in this era, when it comes to modern scientific literacy, he does not dare to be the first.
Even so, his experiments were often interrupted. Although subordinates only ask for instructions and reports when encountering major events, after all, there are many things under the rule of the Pili Army, and the laboratory inevitably has several batches of visitors every day.
But it was strange that it was Cao Ergou who came to visit today. During this period, Cao Ergou was responsible for the construction of Hengyuan Fort and the guarding of the settlement points in the piedmont plains. Although there were not many things to do, they were very important and should not appear in Wanjiaping.
"Could something big happen?" This thought startled Ouyang Xuan and he hurriedly let him in.
