Both Qin An and Jiang Bao performed hard labor in Dayi County. The difference was that Qin An served in the iron mines in Heming Mountain and was engaged in iron ore quality control because of his blacksmith skills. This was also a technical job.
Jiang Bao was assigned to a management position in the military factory in Dayi City because he was educated. Although Ouyang Xuan has attached great importance to cultural education since its establishment, after all, literacy classes cannot compare with systematic cultural learning.
In addition, the Pili Army is expanding too fast and is in urgent need of clerical management personnel. Naturally, teachers like Jiang Bao are very welcome.
In fact, in addition to Qin An, Jiang Bao and others who were sent to Dayi to serve, the Perak Army also sent a large number of personnel to participate in the construction of Dayi.
Among them are refugees, construction craftsmen, and management and technical personnel from factories and mines. Dayi City has become the third city under the rule of the Perak Army - the first two are Chongqing Fucheng where the headquarters is located and Qiongzhou City, the economic and commercial center.
It is now late September and the autumn harvest is complete. During this period of time, the Mongolian army showed no sign of launching an attack on the Perak Army. Only a small number of reconnaissance cavalry floated across the Jinma River and Nanhe River. However, under fire from firearms, they did not dare to approach the city and settlement points at all. They were rushed after hearing the news. The Perak troops attacked in all directions and had to leave the country in a hurry.
According to reconnaissance by Dong Hu's men, the Mongolian army in Chengdu was grabbing food and building warships during this time. There is also unreliable news that the Mongolian army is also trial-producing firearms. They have trial-produced grenades based on the Jin Kingdom's Thunder Thunder. It is said that they are trial-producing artillery.
After the defeat at Hengyuan Fort, the Secret Master lost most of its power, and power in western Sichuan now fell into the hands of Liu Heima and Baiyan Badulu.
Niulin was leading his army to attack eastern Sichuan according to the order of Meng Ge Khan. In the view of the senior officials of the Mongolian army, although the Pili army's firearms were powerful, they still had few soldiers and generals, and they only occupied the territory of two or three states, which was just the itch of scabies.
The correct strategy is to capture Chongqing Prefecture and go down the river to Lin'an. Out of fear of the Perak Navy and the Jiading Navy, Newlin's march into eastern Sichuan did not go down the Minjiang River to the Yangtze River, but towards Jianzhou, and in Zizhou, the troops split into land and water to Xuzhou. go.
Taking advantage of this rare period of stability, Ouyang Xuan focused his energy and focus on internal affairs such as political power construction and industrial and agricultural production.
Based on the priorities of his affairs, he shuttled non-stop through various cities and settlements. The first stop he arrived at was Dayi City.
In the plan, Dayi will become the future military industrial base of the Pili Army. Compared with other cities, Dayi has incomparable advantages in geography, mineral resources, water transportation, water conservancy, etc.
From a geographical point of view, Dayi City is located in the middle of Qiongzhou City and Chongqing City, forty miles away from the two cities. From a security perspective, Dayi City is located in the hinterland of the Perak Army Control Center, with towering mountains to the north. , there are double protections of Jinma River, Wenjing River, Nanhe River and Xiejiang River to the east and south. If the Mongols attack when the Perak Army controls the waterway, it will simply cost them their lives; in terms of minerals, Heming Mountain to the north of Dayi City The types and reserves of ores in Wuzhong Mountain are much richer than those in Jiguan Mountain. There are nitrate, copper and lead-zinc ores that the Pili Army urgently needs. It is especially worth mentioning that the quality of the iron ore is particularly high.
According to the local old blacksmith, there is a kind of miscellaneous iron ore mixed with crystal-clear substances. If it is repeatedly smelted and refined, the iron tools made will not only be extremely hard but also not easy to rust.
Ouyang Xuan was overjoyed when he heard the news. He knew that the so-called miscellaneous ore was chromite, a raw material for making stainless steel.
Although it is currently impossible to make stainless steel due to technical reasons, using it to make weapons will greatly improve the quality; from the perspective of transportation conditions, Dayi City not only has official connections with Chongqing Fucheng, Huojing, Qiongzhou, Hengyuan Fort, Xinjin and other places. The roads are connected and can lead to various cities through the Xiejiang River adjacent to the city, which is especially important for the transportation of bulk items.
There is another important consideration in Ouyang Xuan's decision to use Dayi City as a military industrial base, and that is the issue of power.
At present, the Perak Army's machinery manufacturing has begun to take shape, but currently it mainly relies on humans and animals as power. Not only is the efficiency low, but some large components cannot be manufactured at all.
Ouyang Xuan knew that steam engines or even electric motors were of course the best power, but it was simply not possible with the current technical level, so the next best option was hydraulic power.
After investigation, it was found that several mountain streams near Dayi City not only have fast currents but also large volumes of water, and are particularly suitable for water storage and dam construction.
After the power problem is solved, forging machines, hydraulic presses and various machine tools can be built in batches, which will greatly increase the production capacity of industry, especially the production capacity of military industries such as artillery and muskets.
In order to ensure that military production was not interrupted, Ouyang Xuan did not order the military factories in Liuliba and Wanjiaping to be moved to Dayi. Instead, he only moved some tools and machine tools, but moved most of the technical personnel to the foot of the mountain, and moved them from various counties. Hundreds of blacksmiths, carpenters and other skilled personnel were selected and sent to the military factory for training while working, in order to increase military production capacity as soon as possible.
It’s just that Ouyang Xuan knows that the accumulation of technology is a gradual process, and only increasing investment will promote quantitative changes into qualitative changes.
Compared with technological breakthroughs, technological diffusion is much easier. Therefore, in addition to strengthening the comprehensive review of the background, conduct, and family background of personnel entering the military factory, the Pili Army has also taken strict measures to prevent technical leaks.
As the drawings and formulas are managed exclusively by loyal and reliable people, military industrial personnel are not allowed to leave the area under the rule of the Perak Army.
Personnel entering Dayi City are subject to pass management, and there are strict regulations for entering and exiting the factory. Core technical personnel are not even allowed to leave the military factory.
This is not because the management of the Thunderbolt Army is unkind, but because there are never many people who want to steal the Thunderbolt Army's firearms technology.
This year alone, Dong Hu's counterintelligence company has arrested more than two dozen spies trying to steal firearms technology. These spies are sent by Mongolia, Yu Xing, and even Liu Zhen from as far away as southern Sichuan. Sent.
Ouyang Xuan ordered the Mongolian spies to be executed immediately, while other spies sent by the Song army were ordered to serve in the mines for life.
According to the military industrial layout plan, the Pili Army will have three military factories in the future. The first place is Liuliba, where the Perak Army started. A small military factory will be retained here.
Due to technological iteration, old-fashioned grenades and fortress guns are mainly produced here, which are mainly used to supplement the artillery of the forts in Jiguan Mountain.
After the Battle of Hengyuan Fort, the Pili Army successively moved all the artillery in Jiguan Mountain to peripheral places such as Guankou Village, Sandushui, Baizhang City, Pujiang City and other places. Even the artillery in Wanjiabao was moved away. There are only a few artillery in Hengyuan Fort; the second one is in Qianjiazhai.
The armed caravan has now moved to Qiongzhou City, where transportation is more convenient. Ouyang Xuan saw that Qianjiazhai was easy to defend, difficult to attack and easy to keep secret, so he moved some military production capacity there.
The weapons produced by the military factory here are also old-fashioned artillery and grenades, which are mainly used to supplement the city defense force in the direction of Qiongzhou and can also be used for trade. The third and most important military factory is in Dayi City, but it is not in the city. But in the ravine beside the city, this is both for confidentiality and for defense needs.
The Perak Army also built a castle at the only exit of the ravine where the arsenal was located. This castle is smaller than Yokohara Castle, but its defensive power is even worse.
The Dayi Military Factory is large and equipped with advanced equipment. In addition to the weapons research institute, there are also three factories with hundreds of people each, which produce new types of artillery, grenades and muskets. The technology and production capacity far exceed the other two military factories.
In fact, Qianjiazhai and Liuliba can only produce old-fashioned weapons. In addition to tools and equipment, the more important reason is that important strategic resources such as copper, refined iron, mercury, and nitrate must be optimized to satisfy the Dayi Military Factory.
