Ma Zhong's sword is of course not a precious sword, it is just a sword that Ma Zhong asked someone to buy from Chengdu.
If there is anything different from the ordinary swords of this era, it is forged from fine steel made by the secret method of the military.
In fact, it is made of the same material as the Miao knife. It is made of fine steel obtained by pouring steel. In terms of toughness and hardness, it has reached the highest standards that can be achieved in this era.
After listening to Ma Zhong's story, Zhang Xi was dubious and asked Zhang Yi to find a Miao Dao from the army and find a stone. He chopped off the good guy with all his strength. His hands were numb from the shock, but the stone also appeared. A crack.
Okay, now Zhang Xi knows how big the difference in force value between himself and Ma Zhong is.
Hmm. From this point of view, it’s really not the problem with Ma Zhong’s sword, but the problem with the stone.
This stone, let's call it hard, is indeed very hard. It can't be destroyed by ordinary farm tools or people like Zhang Xi who have low martial arts value.
But if you want to call it soft, it is quite soft. It will break into pieces if you carve it with a knife or axe, and it cannot be made into strange mountains or rocks or sculptures.
There are too many such stones in Xianxian County. It is obviously not possible to rely on such stones to make stone carvings to increase people's income.
Zhang Xi was suddenly a little embarrassed. He knelt down and looked at the stone for a while, wanting to see what it was.
Then, the more Zhang Xi looked at it, the more he felt that the stone looked familiar. After thinking about it for a long time, he seemed to have an idea and asked someone to move it back.
After returning to the Governor's Mansion of Zangda County, Zhang Xi ordered people to find charcoal and put the stone on the charcoal fire to calcine it. After calcining the stone until it cracked and shattered, Zhang Xi finally got confirmation.
This stone is really limestone.
Limestone comes out of Xianggao County? !
Thinking about it carefully, Ma Zhong seemed to have said just now that a lot of land in Zangqi County is made of clay, and the farming efficiency is extremely low. Wouldn't it be a bit of a waste if it was not used to practice cement? !
Cement is great, a must-have for time travellers.
And this thing is not difficult. You just need to calcine and break up clay, quicklime, and the waste residue left from ironmaking, and then dry it.
Although it cannot reach the quality of cement of later generations, in this era, it is simply a construction artifact.
Zangda County. Treasure County! ! !
If cement could be made, would this place have no chance of getting rich? !
But Zhang Xi turned around and thought, it seemed wrong.
Cement is a military product in this era. It is impossible to leave it to aristocratic families to take care of. After all, there is no good way to destroy cement now.
Therefore, the cement production method must be kept secret, and only the Liu Bei Group can master it. These aristocratic families should just use coke to make money.
As for the people who cannot rely on a cement factory to house the people, for a large local county, the people's livelihood still has to be farming.
However, with this cement, Zhang Xi felt that it would attract the Liu Bei Group's attention to Zangyi County. After all, in the entire Yizhou region, only Zangyi County can make cement. In this case, in order to ensure the local stability of Zangyi County, the local Certain financial subsidies should be possible, right? !
This is always a good thing for the people. At least they don't have to worry about the population loss caused by the scarcity of arable land in Zangda County.
Zhang Xi quickly thought about these things in his mind, and then decided to interrupt his inspection work and go directly to the county.
He had to have a good talk with Zhuge Liang. Zhang Xi always felt that if he thought about the matters here alone, there would inevitably be mistakes.
The method of making cement must be a secret. Zhang Xi has no intention of teaching it all to Ma Zhong now. He must wait until Liu Bei makes a decision. Even if necessary, even if a cement factory is built, heavy troops must be sent to strictly guard it. .
This is a thing that can build a city overnight, and in terms of sturdiness, it is even stronger than many earth cities and city walls today. It is an important military material.
In addition, there was still the matter of Yuexun County's trial implementation of the imperial examination system in his mind. Now that these two important things were piled together, Zhang Xi no longer had the intention to continue patrolling the place. He hurried back before the winter came in November. Went to Wei County and found Zhuge Liang who had not yet had time to return to Chengdu, and the two of them made a careful calculation.
After listening to Zhang Xi's suggestion, Zhuge Liang thought about it for a while and felt that it was feasible to temporarily try out the imperial examination in Yuexun County.
After all, Nanzhong has just experienced a rebellion in name, and when everything is in dire straits, many things can be done "specially" and no one can say anything.
Zhuge Liang even believed that not only could the imperial examination be promoted in Yuexun County, but there was a serious lack of management talents in the entire Nanzhong. Especially when the mines began to be mined and the plantations began to operate, this lack of talents would become more obvious.
The Yizhou aristocratic families, whether they are from Nanzhong or Shuzhong, may not lack management talents. After all, they are all families with heirlooms of poetry and calligraphy for more than a hundred years. If we tap the potential from within, some of the descendants of the grassroots management family still cannot. Short.
But if the government does not have corresponding grassroots officials to connect with them, they will not be able to start many things. Once the delay is delayed, it is they who will really lose the most.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang believed that the temporary trial implementation of the imperial examination system in Nanzhong would not encounter widespread opposition from the Yizhou family.
The Liu Bei Group in Chengdu can use this temporary imperial examination to accumulate experience and lay the foundation for the subsequent use of the imperial examination as the last assessment of the imperial examination system.
This matter is really important, so important that Zhuge Liang wants to return to Chengdu immediately to discuss with Liu Bei whether to trial this assessment method in Nanzhong first to increase local management talents.
But Zhang Xi still kept Zhuge Liang for a few days. This was the first thing, and there was also the second thing.
Zhang Xi dragged Zhuge Liang and came to his secret experimental workshop again. He used the coal brought back from Xuzhou County to calcine the limestone brought back from Xuzhou County to obtain quicklime. He then combined it with the local clay from Xuzhou County to make a three-to-one ratio. Mix the proportions and bake out a pile of powder.
Finally, Zhang Xi mixed the powder with gravel, added water and mixed it, and built a wall in half a day. The next day, he asked Zhuge Liang to test the hardness of the wall himself.
After Zhuge Liang pushed a few times and asked his soldiers to hammer hard with a hammer, he turned around and dispersed everyone, directly asking for Zhang Xi's fired cement formula.
How could Zhuge Liang not know the importance of this thing? Almost in a blink of an eye, he understood what Zhang Xi meant by letting him see these powders.
Then Zhuge Liang really couldn't stay in Nanzhong anymore.
During this trip to Nanzhong, he discovered a lot of things, and none of these things were small. He had to go back to Chengdu quickly to discuss with Liu Bei and others.
The entanglement and interests of the aristocratic families in the copper mines in Nanzhong are one thing. This is related to whether the Yizhou aristocratic families may have a clique or a rift. It has important reference significance for the Liu Bei Group to divide and utilize and rule Yizhou.
The registration of plantations and barbarians in Nanzhong is one thing. This is related to the population changes in Nanzhong and the increase in taxes and corvee in the future. It also needs to be reported to Liu Bei in time.
The trial implementation of the imperial examination in Nanzhong is related to the future talent selection system of the Liu Bei Group, as well as weakening the influence of the aristocratic family in the private sector, and providing an upward path for children from poor families.
Finally, there is the matter of cement. This is a major military matter, and it is also what Zhuge Liang is most anxious about now.
There may be buffer space for other things, but the last thing must be done quickly.
In particular, Zhang Xi told Zhuge Liang that this cement can not only be used as an adhesive to build city fortresses, but can also be used to build roads. The most important thing is that it dries and solidifies very quickly, which can greatly improve the current road conditions in Yizhou.
Zhuge Liang immediately thought of the bad mountain roads from Yizhou to Hanzhong, and then from Hanzhong to Liangzhou or Qinchuan.
Yizhou has always been easy to defend but difficult to attack. It does benefit from the difficulty of traveling on these mountain roads. This is a good thing, but it is also a bad thing.
From a purely defensive perspective, the mountain roads in Yizhou are difficult to navigate and serve as a barrier to guard Yizhou.
But now that the Liu Bei Group has occupied Yizhou, what needs to be considered at this time is not whether Yizhou is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but how high the cost of transporting grain will be due to such unlucky road conditions during the Northern Expedition.
In history, Zhuge Liang had to withdraw his troops in four of his six Northern Expeditions because the mountain roads were difficult to navigate and food supplies were not timely enough.
The rugged mountain road and the difficult road conditions make the grain transport team seem to travel thirty or forty miles a day, but the mountain road is long, and this supply line is twice as long as on the flat ground.
Moreover, the road condition is not good, and if there is any accident, it will also affect the speed of transporting grain. Therefore, from Yizhou to Liangzhou or even Qinchuan in the north, the grain road is the biggest factor restricting Yizhou's troop dispatch.
Well now, with this thing called cement, even if a road cannot be built, a channel for transporting grain can still be built, right? !
How much time will this save in transporting food?
This matter must be done before the cultivation of life in Yizhou and Hanzhong is completed. Time really waits for no one.
Zhuge Liang really couldn't stay in Wei County any longer. Zhuge Liang, who originally planned to return to Chengdu at the end of the year, hurried back to Chengdu in mid-November to discuss "big construction projects" with Liu Bei.
As for Zhang Xi, he will continue to stay in Wei County and serve as his own commander-in-chief.
After getting most of the things in order, Zhang Xi has a lot less things to do. The remaining things are just to decide whether he needs to make changes and adjustments based on the progress of things.
Next, Zhang Xi's most important job is just daily government affairs management work.
In addition, not long after Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu, he sent Jiang Wan from Chengdu to Nanzhong.
At first, Zhang Xi thought that Jiang Wan had offended Liu Bei, so that Zhuge Liang had to send Jiang Wan to another place. Just like when Zhuge Liang sent Jiang Wan to Badong County where Zhang Xi was located as a county magistrate.
But this time, Jiang Wan was not assigned. He was specially appointed by Liu Bei as the governor of the Gajiang Governor's Office, to be Zhang Xi's deputy.
The purpose is to preside over the temporary imperial examinations in the six counties of Nanzhong, assist Zhang Xi in managing the selection of grassroots talents in the six counties, and plan to build a cement factory in Xangqi County.
Obviously, this is a proper reuse.
(End of chapter)
