During the two months that Ouyang Xuan was away, all the undertakings under the rule of the Pili Army were carried out in an orderly manner. In terms of agriculture, the hungry people actively responded to the "grain-oriented" strategy and sown 3 million acres of wheat and more than 600,000 acres of broad beans, peas and rapeseed after the autumn harvest. In addition, in Wugen Mountain, Changqiu Mountain and A large amount of pasture is planted in the hills of Pengshan County. At present, the cultivated land within the jurisdiction of the Perak Army has basically been fully cultivated. Being able to cultivate so much land in more than a month was not only due to the high enthusiasm of the military and civilians who worked early and late, but also because of the large input of animal power and the widespread use of high-quality iron farm tools. Under the current rule of the Perak Army, there are more than 10,000 large livestock such as horses, cattle, and mules, most of which can be used for farming.
In order to improve efficiency, the Pili Army's agricultural department has implemented classified management of farmland. The fertilized land in the plain areas insists on intensive farming, using full seeds, and giving priority to water conservancy facilities and fertilizer supply. As for the sloping farmland in hills and mountainous areas, the yield per mu is much lower than that in the plains and is more susceptible to the impact of bad weather. Management and maintenance are much more extensive, and they mainly rely on God to provide food for them. In the current Pili Army agricultural production, apart from unpredictable natural disasters, what worries Li Shuang most is the fertilizer issue.
"The crops are just a flower, and they all depend on fertilizer." To increase grain production, in addition to varieties, it is fertilizer. It takes a very long time to select and breed excellent varieties, so increasing the use of fertilizers is the only way. Sufficient fertilizer can more than double food production or even more. Li Shuang organized manpower to collect human and animal excrement extensively, dug pond mud and used grass for fertilization, but these fertilizers were still far from what was needed. The technology for manufacturing fertilizer is not complicated, and Ouyang Xuan also knows the general production process, but it is extremely difficult to produce it. In addition to the lack of raw materials, there is also a lack of systematic chemical industry foundation and production equipment.
Industrial production also faces the same problem. Under the guidance of Ouyang Xuan, the institute has achieved many scientific research results, but it is also unable to industrialize production due to a lack of raw materials or production equipment. This is true for new gunpowders such as TNT and A-picric acid, as well as technologies such as the sealing of gun barrels and chambers. These things can only be produced in small quantities at the moment, and they are extremely expensive and cannot be mass-produced at all. Ouyang Xuan has guided the medical school to cultivate penicillium and successfully blown glassware for cultivation. However, with the current equipment, it is impossible to purify penicillin from it and achieve sealing and long-term storage.
Compared with the difficulties in producing high-tech products, the production capacity of primary coal and iron products is now showing signs of excess. Currently, the Pili Army has dozens of mines, large and small, and a considerable part of them are coal and iron mines. Due to the widespread use of gunpowder in mining, mining efficiency is dozens of times higher than manual excavation, and large amounts of iron ore and coal can be produced every day. Since the main force in mining are prisoners of war serving hard labor, the Pili Army naturally cannot let them idle. Except for a few rest days, the mine production does not stop. After the mined iron ore and coal are refined into refined iron and coking coal, part of it is used for industrial production, and the other part is stored in warehouses. Over time, the quantity has become extremely considerable. If it weren't for the sales of agricultural tools and cold weapons signed with various tribes in Miao territory, this inventory would probably be increasing.
Compared with the surplus of coal and iron, cement is still in short supply. The Perak Army is currently in a period of rapid development. Whether it is building forts and sentry towers for the military, or building residential buildings, schools, and factories, the demand for cement is huge. In order to meet the huge gap, Li Shuang has ordered people to prepare cement plants in Dayi, Baizhang, Pengshan, Qiongzhou, etc. There are still shortages of nitrate, mercury, copper, lead, etc., especially the gap of copper is still huge. Among other industrial products, glass products are extremely popular and highly profitable, and have become the new trump card product of the trade team.
The production of the arsenal is tepid, and there is obviously a gap between the requirements of the military. In fact, the military has no objection to the production volume of grenades, landmines and artillery shells. As long as the raw materials, especially fire and salt, are guaranteed, these firearms can be produced very quickly. What the military is dissatisfied with is the production of muskets and artillery. Li Saner, who is in charge of industrial production, also has difficulties to express. Although the raw materials for the production of muskets and artillery are sufficient and the production processes and technologies are relatively mature, the production of gun barrels and cannon barrels has not been ramped up. The fundamental reason is that although the boring and milling method has been introduced, it consumes a lot of man-hours and has a negative impact on production. The personnel requirements are also high, and if you are not careful, the products will be scrap. Faced with pressure from the military, he had no choice but to increase production sites and machine tools on the one hand, and on the other hand, step up training of technical workers, but these would take a long time.
The military's complaints are actually justified. Yu Zhu led his army to Liuqiu, and not only took away a thousand elite combat troops, but also took away a large number of firearms. Ouyang Xuan has extremely strict requirements on the quality of firearms. Even so, the number of firings of the muskets and artillery produced is about 300 times. Exceeding this number, in addition to inaccurate shooting due to rifling wear, is more likely to cause the barrel to explode due to metal fatigue. Since Liuqiu was far away overseas, Ouyang Xuan ordered the best muskets and artillery in the army to be allocated to the Yuzhu Department to ensure its combat effectiveness. However, as a result, each brigade was originally insufficiently equipped with firearms, and the quality of the remaining firearms was unsatisfactory. In addition, the backbone elites were removed, and the combat effectiveness dropped a lot.
The navy brigade with the greatest decline in combat effectiveness. The main force of the thousand people who went to Liuqiu was the Liao Nilu Battalion of the Navy Brigade. This battalion was also the most powerful battalion of the Navy Brigade. The navy brigade originally had only 1,500 people, but one-third of it was transferred away at once, which seriously damaged its vitality. The navy is a technical branch. If you are not familiar with water, you will not be able to adapt to it within three to five months, let alone become an elite soldier. When Ouyang Xuan was still in Bozhou, the Mongolian army sent out reconnaissance cavalry to frequently harass him. Huang Dagen ordered the arsenal to give priority to equipping the navy with firearms. The other brigades had no objections to this. Only Cao Ergou cooed a little, but Huang Dagen shot him back with one sentence.
Huang Dagen only had one sentence to criticize Cao Ergou: "There are many good horses in the field brigade at present." Except for the captured Mongolian horses, the horses of the Perak Army came from the Tibetan area. When the field brigade cavalry battalion was first formed, there was a shortage of horses. The main problem was to solve the problem of availability. Therefore, the quality varied, and it was better to have bad horses than no horses. Later, as the number of horses increased, the inferior horses were gradually eliminated and used as post offices, factories, and mines. After Ouyang Xuan became the deputy envoy of Chengdu's pacification and obtained the rights to manage the Yi and Tibetan affairs on the Sichuan border, the trade volume between the Pili Army and the Tibetan areas increased sharply, and more horses were obtained. Cao Ergou selected many good horses from them to eliminate the sick and disabled horses in the army. The strong horse power naturally increased the combat effectiveness of the cavalry battalion. Therefore, when Huang Dagen mentioned the horses, Cao Ergou did not dare to say anything.
It is said that although the caravan's purchase of horses from Fan District went smoothly this year, there were some twists and turns, and it almost came into conflict with Yazhou. Cao Zhizhou was naturally very unhappy with Ouyang Xuan becoming his nominal boss, but he had no choice but to instruct his confidants to use some underhanded tactics. However, the Perak Army caravan was very cautious and well-guarded, and was willing to spend money. Therefore, Cao Zhizhou's minions did not find an excuse. Instead, two people accepted the caravan's money and secretly informed them. However, a conflict caused by a pig gave Cao Zhizhou an excuse to detain the caravan.
