Chapter 260 My Barracks and My Soldiers (Part 1)
Before his rebirth, a TV program said that the average age of people in the Tang Dynasty would be thirty years old, but Fang Jun didn't really believe it. If we say it was the beginning of the Tang Dynasty and the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, it was almost the same. Thirty-six rebels against the king, seventy-two smokes and dust captured each other and killed each other, and the common people were not alive.
As for now, Fang Jun doesn't believe it even more...
Take a look at these people in front of you. They are white-haired and very old. Just a few of them can raise the average age of Guanzhong by several percentage points...
"This..." Fang Jun pointed at the dozen old men and looked at Wen Shutong in disbelief: "Master Jianzheng, do you want them to work for the lower officials, or do you want the lower officials to provide for them in their old age?"
These people are so old that their hair is gray, and the wrinkles on their faces are almost as old as dried orange peels. They are all over sixty, right? It's also difficult for Wen Shutong. After searching the entire Guanzhong, it's not possible to gather so many people...
Wen Shutong is also a little embarrassed. He is indeed a little older, but his younger self is still working. Isn't it a waste of resources to hang out with you?
"My dear nephew, you must not underestimate these people. Although they are a little older, they are all skillful old craftsmen. They are all priceless treasures of our weapons supervisor! In the entire weapons supervisor, they are almost the leaders. The apprentice who came out..."
Wen Shutong explained warmly.
Fang Jun looked at him and thought to himself, I'm afraid these apprentices' apprentices' apprentices have started to take charge of their apprentices, right?
But forget it, although they are a little older, they still seem to have strong bones, and the tasks they have arranged for them are not heavy. The older they are, the more stable they will be.
Seeing Fang Jun's acquiescence, Wen Shutong quickly waved to the secretary.
"Go and get the map of our workshop in the south of the city, and ask Mr. Fang to select a piece of land as a workshop for trial production of new weapons."
The clerk quickly agreed and trotted to find a map with severely distorted proportions. Looking at the map, Fang Jun couldn't help but grin. The mountains, rivers and rivers looked like graffiti by a primary school student, but the general direction was still clear.
He knew that the ancients did not realize that the earth was spherical and did not understand projection technology. Therefore, when drawing the map, it was not based on the scale of the earth's projection, but a "planning and drawing" technique, so it looked seriously distorted.
There were no special requirements for the place he needed, but the fewer people the better, so he randomly drew a circle on the map near Zhongnan Mountain, covering about twenty acres of land.
Before leaving, Wen Shutong probably felt that it was unkind to assign these dozen old-fashioned craftsmen to Fang Jun, so he gave them to a secretary named Li Tuo. This man was in his thirties, with a stocky build and quick eyes. He seemed to be a smart man at first glance, and he could be easily dispatched by Fang Jun.
You can't just run an errand, you have to assign those old men...
After leading a group of old men out of the arms prison, Fang Jun became more and more upset as he watched. Are we going to create an elderly Yangko team?
He had no choice but to send the cart driver who was delivering the iron ingots back to Zhuangzi and call for a dozen or twenty young men to get a few carriages while he and the others walked slowly and leisurely.
There is no way, I can't go faster even if I want to...
Fortunately, the servants at home were strong. They came out of Zhuangzi in Lishan, crossed Baqiao, and instead of entering Chang'an City, they walked directly south around the city wall and caught up with them within an hour.
Fang Jun asked the old craftsmen to get on the flat carriage, while he and his servants rode a tall horse along the path along the Fengshui River to the foot of Zhongnan Mountain.
The Ordnance Supervisor's workshops are spread out one after another at the foot of the mountain, like a small town.
The land Fang Jun chose was at the innermost part of the workshop, but when he arrived, he saw a row of dilapidated houses halfway up the mountain to the south.
Fang Jun frowned. He didn't need good hardware facilities, but confidentiality was a top priority. If he set up a workshop here, wouldn't it mean that he would be completely exposed to others?
"Is that place above a house or a village?"
Fang Jun asked the secretary named Li Tuo. The clerk scratched his head and obviously didn't know. However, he heard an old craftsman on the carriage say: "That was a military camp in the former Sui Dynasty, but it was abandoned during the Wude period. From there, it can be reopened." Going up and over several ridges is the Ziwu Valley Military Camp.”
In ancient times, there were six main roads that crossed the Qinling Mountains to the southwest and surrounding areas. From west to east they were: Chencang Road, Baoxie Road, Tangluo Road, Ziwu Road, Kugu Road, and Wuguan Road.
The Qinling area has high mountains and deep valleys. Although these six roads all occupy dangerous positions, they have still been broken down or smuggled through many times in wars throughout the ages. Among them, the Ziwu Road in Ziwu Valley is one of the six ancient roads. The only dangerous fortress that has been attempted many times to smuggle in, but has never been successful.
Therefore, there is the admiration of "the six paths of the Qinling Mountains, Ziwu is the king".
With both a military camp and such a fortress, the confidentiality conditions were unique. Fang Jun was overjoyed and asked Li Tuo: "Can someone set up his workshop there?"
"You can be wherever you want, the young eunuch. This area is all wasteland and no one is cultivating it, and the barracks have been abandoned for a long time, so there must be no problem."
Li Tuo looked very respectful, but he couldn't help complaining in his heart: As long as you don't cause trouble in the weapons prison, our Lord Inspector will do anything with you...
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This abandoned barracks is located in a small valley, and there is even a small stream flowing in the middle of the valley. It's just that it has been abandoned for too long, and the house made of yellow mud has been damaged by the wind and rain, and it is really unfit to live in.
But it’s hard for Fang Jun...
He didn't go to the Ministry of Works to mobilize people to help repair the house, not because of his high style, but because the head of the Ministry of Works Department was Lu Zesong. Fang Jun was afraid that someone would block him back when he opened his mouth, which would be too embarrassing... Fortunately... The Fang family has its own engineering team, and Liu Laoshi’s uncle is He took his second son Liu Tianyang with him, who was not doing his job properly. After learning the art of making kangs from Fang Jun, he gained some fame in the Xinfeng area and gathered a group of masons to make kangs, build houses and build walls. I took on a lot of jobs.
The large number of houses for disaster victims since the beginning of spring has given this patchwork "atypical engineering team" a valuable opportunity to practice, and it finally has a model.
After Fang Jun gave an order, Liu Tianyang put down all the business at hand and led fifty or sixty people to Zhongnan Mountain.
Carloads of red bricks and bags of cement were continuously transported to the mountains. All the remaining barracks were demolished and spacious and bright houses were built.
At the same time, Fang Jun, who received "strong support" from Wen Shutong, ordered the procurement officials of the Ordnance Supervision to purchase the items needed for "trial production of new weapons" according to the list he issued.
Sulfur, wohuang (also a type of sulfur), flame salt, Maru, dry lacquer, starch, bamboo sticks, yellow pill, yellow wax, varnish, tung oil, rosin...
This made the official in charge of procurement confused. Even Wen Shutong was confused when he saw the list: Is this a trial weapon or a dog-skin plaster?
Naturally, Fang Jun would not explain. Could it be that telling them that he was going to open a Pandora's box?
That's right, he is planning to get black powder out!
Farming peoples always suffered a lot from nomadic peoples. Even when the Han and Tang Dynasties were at their peak of military power, there were victories and defeats for each other. When they were strong, they drove these grassland peoples far away. Once they became weak, those grassland peoples came back to life. The clanging iron hooves trampled through the defenses, burning, killing and looting.
Looking through history, the two men who have the most merit in dealing with the prairie cavalry are Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di.
How did these two men do it?
Based on the combat principle of "the muskets are in the front and the cavalry are in the back", the Shenji battalion cooperates with infantry and cavalry to defeat the Mongolian cavalry and pursue death to the north!
It can be said that only firearms are the only way to contain the cavalry!
Now Fang Jun can't make a volley gun, or even a matchlock gun, but he can make black powder!
Black gunpowder has appeared in the notes of Chinese alchemists since the eighth century, but the best formula for preparing gunpowder with saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal did not appear in both China and Europe until at least the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Since then, it has filled the fields with blood and rivers, conquering most of the world with the footsteps of European colonists.
Fang Jun is like opening Pandora's box in advance, and the course of history will be completely different.
However, he cannot take out the black powder directly...
My state is quite bad. I wrote, revised, and deleted this chapter for nearly four hours... I will take a bath and sleep later, and try to code out three chapters at night!
(End of chapter)