Before Han Zhen could go to check the ordnance, he saw the accountant of the barracks warehouse walking over with a mournful face.
Seeing this, Han Zhen asked curiously: "What's going on?"
When he came closer, the accountant immediately cried out: "County magistrate, you have to make the decision for me!"
"What exactly happened? Tell me in detail."
Han Zhen looked strange.
Could it be that this guy was killed by a good soldier like Long Yang?
"The county magistrate asked them to save money in the past two days, and many people did. But those Qiu Ba went too far. Not long after depositing, someone came to withdraw money, and they didn't get much. They only got ten or twenty coins. .After taking it out, it was immediately deposited into the warehouse, and this was repeated several times."
The accountant said angrily: "You know, County Magistrate, that although I have a little more leisure time on weekdays, I am not without errands to do. If it were just a soldier like this, it would be fine, but dozens or hundreds of soldiers all took this as an excuse. Happy. If this happens every day, then I don’t have to do anything."
After listening, Han Zhen understood in his heart.
The psychology of soldiers can be understood. For them, keeping money in a bank is not as secure as having it in their own hands.
Although he felt that Han Zhen would not be greedy for their money, he still couldn't help but murmur.
So, I wanted to try to see if I could take it out.
I found out that it could actually be taken out, so I immediately put it back in. After repeating it several times, I was completely relieved.
Some soldiers even enjoyed it because life in the military camp was boring.
But the problem is, it's okay for one soldier to be like this, but if dozens or hundreds of soldiers are like this, the accountant can't stand it.
Withdrawing money is not that simple. The accountant must first check the anti-counterfeiting mark on the deposit receipt, then check the soldier's information, and finally check the password. Only after confirming that it is correct will the money be released and the accounts kept.
Otherwise, if something goes wrong, Han Zhen will find him to blame.
For the accounting clerk, this is a thankless job.
It happened that the sparring on the school field had ended at this time, and Han Zhen waved his hand and said: "You come with me!"
Leading the accountant directly to the high platform of the school ground, Han Zhen said loudly: "Don't take a rest yet, I want to say something."
The soldiers formed their formations and all looked at him.
Looking around at the crowd, Han Zhen said sternly: "In order to take care of the brothers who have no family members, I asked you to store the money in the warehouse and use it whenever you want. This is for the convenience of the brothers. If you have any doubts, you can I understand, but I can’t access it over and over again, or even take pleasure in it!”
Pointing to the accountant beside him, he continued: "Accountant Hong also needs to work every day. Helping you with deposits and withdrawals is a courtesy, but you are teasing him!"
Hearing this, many soldiers knew they were wrong and lowered their heads silently.
Han Zhen said sternly: "From now on, if a soldier deposits or withdraws, he will be charged a penny. I will not take this penny, but give it to Hong's accountant for his hard work. Do you have any objections?"
The handling fee of one penny is not much, but it can prevent soldiers from taking pleasure in it.
"No!"
The soldiers chanted in unison.
Accountant Hong looked grateful and bowed his head repeatedly to express his thanks.
"Let's leave after I've finished speaking."
Han Zhen waved his hand and called Nie Dong to walk towards more than thirty carts of ordnance.
Lifting the cowhide oilcloth covering the wooden cart, Han Zhen picked up a half-length armor and looked at it carefully.
Although it is a half-body armor, it is not light in weight, weighing seventeen or eighteen kilograms.
It is not a whole piece of iron plate, but is made up of hundreds of fish scale-like armor plates stacked up. It only covers the chest, back and shoulders, and the remaining parts are leather armor.
Don't think that leather armor has no defense, just find a piece of dry leather and chop it with a knife.
Nie Dong on the side also picked up one piece to observe, and commented at the same time: "These armors are quite old, they should have been made during the period of Emperor Shenzong."
Han Zhen asked curiously: "How can you tell?"
"The iron armor forged today is slightly different from that of Emperor Shenzong's time. The first is the way the scales are arranged, and the second is that today's iron armor has an extra layer of cotton inside, which can relieve force."
After Nie Dong explained, he continued: "These armors have signs of repair, but the craftsmen are very skilled and it does not affect their use."
"As long as it doesn't affect it."
Han Zhen waved his hands, not caring about these innocuous minor flaws.
It took the two of them more than an hour to inspect all the more than 30 vehicles of ordnance, and selected dozens of shoddy ordnance items.
When it was the turn of the last two wooden carts, Han Zhen lifted up the oilcloth and was slightly startled. He said in an uncertain tone: "Is this a catapult?"
The entire catapult was disassembled into several pieces, but it can still be roughly seen.
"That's right!"
Nie Dong nodded.
Han Zhen asked: "What's the power and range?"
Nie Dong replied: "It requires fifteen people to operate. It can throw up to 100 kilograms of weight. The range is about ninety steps. Is it powerful? It's acceptable."
Ninety steps?
Han Zhen couldn't help but frown slightly.
The ancients used to lift their feet once as a step and to lift their feet twice as a step.
The so-called one step is equivalent to two steps in later generations, which is approximately equivalent to one and a half meters. Ninety steps is equivalent to one hundred and thirty-five meters.
To be honest, Han Zhen was disappointed with this range.
Not to mention big killers like the three-bow crossbow and the divine arm crossbow, even an ordinary powerful crossbow with two stones and seven buckets has a range of 180 meters.
This thing can only fight with the wind when attacking a city.
Once the city's defense strength is sufficient, the effect will be greatly reduced.
Han Zhen suddenly asked: "You have been in the border army for many years, have you ever heard of returning artillery?"
"Backfire?"
Nie Dong was stunned. After thinking carefully for a moment, he shook his head and said, "The general has never heard of it."
"Okay."
Han Zhen looked regretful.
The Hui Hui Pao is known as the pinnacle of cold weapons and cannons, and it is the great weapon of the Yuan army in conquering the world.
When the Yuan army destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, Hui Hui Pao was the number one contributor.
According to the "Records of Xiangyang City Defense", the firing range of Huihui Artillery is 250 steps, about 400 meters, which is far beyond the width of Xiangyang City's moats and trenches. It can throw huge rocks weighing 150 kilograms. Moreover, the operation is simpler than that of a catapult and requires fewer manpower.
After inspecting the ordnance, Han Zhen ordered: "The ordnance has arrived, and I will prepare to expand the army tomorrow."
When Nie Dong heard the word "army expansion", his eyes suddenly lit up and he asked hurriedly: "How much does the county magistrate plan to expand the army?"
"Three thousand people!"
Han Zhen replied.
After these 3,000 new recruits enter the camp, half of the original 700 veterans will be promoted and serve as junior officers such as team leader and captain.
Thanks to Han Zhen's previous strategy of elite soldiers, with these veterans serving as the backbone, combat effectiveness can be quickly formed after just practicing for a period of time.
After bidding farewell to Nie Dong, Han Zhen rushed to the upper reaches of Xiaodong River without stopping.
At this time, the upper reaches of the Xiaodong River changed from a desolate scene to a lively one.
Two huge waterwheels stand above the river.
Water-powered mills had been built and had long since been put into use.
Ox carts and mule carts brought rice and wheat into the workshop, and then bags of shelled rice and ground flour were moved out of the workshop.
After inspecting the mill, Han Zhen walked towards the forging workshop.
The workshop is almost complete, and Craftsman Yuan is currently making final adjustments.
When you walk into the workshop, you will see a huge gourd-shaped blast furnace, and on the other side is a row of hydraulic forging hammers.
At this time, there is no way to directly smelt pig iron into steel. The pig iron must first be fried into mature iron in a blast furnace, and then the wrought iron must be repeatedly forged to remove impurities before it can be made into steel.
However, during the Tang Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty developed a mature cold forging process, which, combined with hydraulic forging hammers, greatly increased the productivity of steel.
"County magistrate!"
Seeing Han Zhen's arrival, Craftsman Yuan and others immediately stepped forward to greet him.
Han Zhen asked: "What's wrong?"
Craftsman Yuan raised his hands and replied: "It will be put into operation the day after tomorrow at the latest."
Patting his shoulder, Han Zhen said with a smile: "You have worked hard during this period. When it is officially completed, you will be rewarded for waiting!"
"Thank you, County Magistrate."
Craftsman Yuan quickly thanked him.
Han Zhen ordered: "Take me to look around."
"This is the county magistrate, please."
Craftsman Yuan extended his hand and led Han Zhen to visit the forging workshop, while he continued to explain.
"Please see, County Magistrate, the entire workshop is an assembly line operation. After the pig iron is put into the blast furnace, it only takes two hours to fry the mature iron. After the wrought iron is released from the furnace mouth, it will be immediately sent to the hydraulic forging hammer. According to each Cold forging into different steel materials to meet the needs of style ordnance.”
"Finally, these steel materials are transported to the government-run workshops in the county and made into ordnance. In this way, the efficiency is improved several times compared with before. Take iron armor as an example. A pair of heavy armor goes from pig iron into the furnace to finished. It only takes seven days.”
Han Zhen asked: "If we only build heavy armor, how much can we produce in a month?"
Craftsman Yuan muttered: "If the pig iron can be supplied, hundreds of pairs will not be a problem!"
"good!"
Han Zhen nodded, very satisfied with this efficiency.
If replaced by long knives or spears, there could be at least thousands of them.
Then, led by Blacksmith Yuan, he visited the structure of the hydraulic forging hammer.
To be honest, the structure of the hydraulic forging hammer is far more complicated than Han Zhen thought. Just looking at the large and small wooden poles connected to the main shaft of the water wheel makes people dizzy.
By the time the inspection was over, it was already evening.
Han Zhen mounted his war horse and returned to the county town.
…
The next day.
Early in the morning, as the gate of Linzi County opened, teams of government officials left the county and went to various villages to post recruitment notices.
Soon, the entire Linzi County people knew that the Qingzhou Army was recruiting troops.
For a time, young men continued to rush to the military camp from various villages.
Especially Xiaowang Village has the largest number of people, with nearly a thousand people.
Nowadays, no one in the entire Xiaowang Village knows how well treated Qiu Ba is.
Three dry meals a day, one meat meal every three days, plus a monthly salary of 500 yuan.
That's all. The key is to give a generous reward. If you behead one level, you will be rewarded with four pieces of money.
In the village, the first soldiers to join the army all built brick houses in their homes, and many even bought cattle. They lived a prosperous life.
Even many young men in the county chose to join the army.
However, even with the expansion of the army, Han Zhen did not lower his requirements.
The height should not be less than five feet five inches, which is 1.7 meters, and the body shape should not be too thin.
Those with physical disabilities or intellectual disabilities will not be accepted.
What makes Han Zhen dumbfounded is that in order to successfully apply, many people actually put pieces of wood in their shoes, trying to get through.
(End of chapter)
