Chapter one hundred and seventy seventh division of military households
At dusk, Shi Zhenlin rushed to Dayuzhai, where the Huangjian Inspection Department was located, and found Xu Huai in a porcelain kiln near Dayuzhai.
This porcelain kiln is located next to a stream on the left bank of the Huangjian River. It is only six or seven miles away from Dayuzhai. The mountain road is treacherous. It has an eighty-nine-acre yard surrounded by adobe walls and several rows of simple houses used to store pottery clay and glazed stones.
There are warehouses for finished products and workshops for making and glazing tires. Two kilns were built on the northernmost slope. At this time, one of the kilns was out of flames, but there was billowing black smoke rising from the other kiln. Many people were in the kiln.
Busy in front of the stove.
Shi Zhen walked to the kiln and saw Xu Huai wearing a short shirt. His clothes were stained with soot and his face was dirty, but he was squatting in front of the kiln indifferently. Zheng Dingqing was watching the heat wave in the furnace.
of fire.
People around Shi Zhen and Xu Huai have long been accustomed to this scene.
Niu Erxian was extremely bored and sat on the muddy ground. He had picked up a bag of juicy sour fruit from the mountain. He was chewing it and sucking the sour juice with winking eyes and a wrinkled face. Dozens of guards were standing guard on the left and right in an orderly manner. As Huang
Wang Zhang, the inspector of Jiandu and the right army's capital Yuhou, was wearing armor. He couldn't stand the high temperature in front of the furnace and stood aside with a sweat towel to wipe the sweat on his face.
But there were several potters standing in front of the kiln, so nervous that they didn't know where to put their hands and feet, for fear that if they slacked off even a little bit, they would be killed.
Jiang Xie, Shen Lian and others came over to greet Shi Zhen.
Han Gui temporarily served as the magistrate of Nancai County, and Jiang Xie, who also joined the army as a reporter, was fully responsible for drafting and issuing military orders. It was normal for him to follow Xu Huai.
Shen Lian is the coal and iron supervisor under the Construction Institute. He has been responsible for promoting coal and iron mining, smelting and other matters in Huaiyuan and other places. He is by Xu Huai's side at this time. It can be seen that Xu Huai's visit to Ruzhou this time is far more than just a visit.
To patrol the defense line.
Seeing Shi Zhen coming over, Xu Huai stood up, patted the soot off his clothes, and said to Shi Zhen:
"You came here just in time - we need to find more big kilns to test coal and coal, and explore both raw and cooked coal. Lushan Huaci was in decline before the war. Why? It's not the firewood capital along the Beishui River.
After all the porcelain was cut down, no high-quality and low-cost porcelain could be produced. There were only a few large kilns famous for producing exquisite celadon and white porcelain. The price of porcelain was high, so there was no fear of buying the best mulberry wood cut down in the mountains for kilns, so they could survive.
To be nourished – but that’s not what we’re after.”
The Funiu Mountains and Song Mountains are rolling for more than a thousand miles and are rich in forest resources. However, due to backward transportation methods, only the wood in the deep mountains and old forests near streams can be cut down before it can be released into the mountains during the annual flood season.
However, the trees near the stream are limited.
Ruzhou's ceramic industry has been flourishing for nearly two hundred years. It reached its peak during the 50th year after the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty. At that time, there were nearly 200 kilns built along the Beihuishui River and thousands of kiln workers.
Work all day long.
At that time, in addition to using firewood for kilns, a large number of kiln households and kiln workers lived concentratedly in cities and towns in Ruzhou, Lushan and other places. The population was much higher than that of towns in other areas, which greatly increased the demand for firewood.
In the past hundred years, the valley slopes near the water in Funiu Mountain and Song Mountain have been gradually reclaimed due to the sharp increase in mountain residents.
All these have resulted in excessive deforestation of forest resources near streams and streams in Fushan Niu and Songshan Mountains.
People were forced to go deeper into the mountains to cut wood and burn charcoal, and took great pains to transport it out of the mountains. Although it was not impossible, the cost was much higher than before.
Just like the iron smelting industry developed in Huaiyuan and Xinyang, the total charcoal resources in Tongbai Mountain are sufficient, but the charcoal resources that are cheap and easy to cut and burn are limited.
This year, the combined iron output of Huaiyuan and Xinyang smelting will exceed 5 million jins. Next year, the production will be expanded to an annual output of over 10 million jins. If the large amount of cooked coal is not used, charcoal will continue to be used to smelt iron ore.
The cost will almost double.
Ruzhou porcelain is limited by the shortage of cheap charcoal resources. In recent decades, its development has declined greatly from its peak a hundred years ago.
Xu Huai hopes that Ruzhou Porcelain and Jishan Porcelain can develop better than in their heyday. The most urgent issue is to successfully apply the cheap and almost endless raw and cooked coal to the firing of ceramics as soon as possible.
Go in.
At this point, compared with the conservative Lushan kiln owners, the Jishan kiln owners have worked tirelessly for hundreds of years to overcome the disadvantages of complex impurities in the local clay minerals and unpredictable kiln changes, and developed new products based on contemporary celadon, white porcelain, and black porcelain.
Jishan porcelain with gorgeous colors and controllable kiln deformation is naturally much more valuable.
Jishan kiln owners have also accumulated richer and more sophisticated experience in ceramic firing and other aspects.
Although Shi Zhen had promoted work in this area before, Xu Huai felt that it was not enough and asked to organize more kilns to explore the technology of firing porcelain with raw and cooked coal.
Xu Huai took the sweat towel handed by the guard and wiped the stains on his face.
The porcelain kiln was only seven or eight miles away from Dayuzhai. Xu Huai did not ride a horse. He walked along the mountain road while talking to Shi Zhen, Jiang Xie, Wang Zhang and others:
"Burning pottery has been around since ancient times, and porcelain has developed to its peak since the previous dynasties. There are countless folk kilns in the north and south of the country, and there are eight types of famous ones in the world. To regain the glory of Ruzhou porcelain more than a hundred years ago, in addition to fuel
Regarding the problem, new porcelain kilns should be distributed along the North Shuishui River as much as possible. Longtanling in the Dongzhao Valley also plans to build some new kilns this year. I imagine that Ruzhou porcelain has truly entered a new peak period, exporting 100,000 pieces of porcelain every year.
Hundreds of thousands of pieces are far from enough. This amount can be consumed in the Chushan area - the output must reach at least three to five million pieces every year to achieve the initial goal..."
Several master craftsmen who had been recruited from the Jishan kilns also accompanied him to Dayuzhai.
After hearing Xu Huai's words, they did not dare to show any disrespect, but secretly exchanged glances, as if they had heard some nonsense.
When Ruzhou porcelain was at its peak, there were nearly 200 large and small kilns distributed along the Beishui River, ranking first among the eight major kiln systems, but only four to five million pieces of porcelain were produced in a year - Xu Huai opened his mouth and said
The annual output of Ruzhou porcelain will have to reach three to five million pieces in the future to be considered as expected. No wonder they think it is a fantasy.
Four or five years ago, most people disagreed when Xu Huai said that Chushan's annual iron smelting output must exceed five million kilograms to be considered initially qualified. However, Chushan has indeed exceeded this goal this year.
Since the amount of iron materials used in Chushan is increasing year by year, the refined iron produced in Xinyang and Huaiyuan is mainly used for the internal production of various instruments, soldiers' armor and agricultural tools, and its external export is limited.
Except for Nanyang Mansion, the outside world has not yet felt much about the power of Chushan Jingtie's external expansion.
After Fangcheng and Xiangcheng Counties were classified into the Chushan Mountains at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, Xingying also found high-quality iron and steel near Longtanling in the upper reaches of the Dongzhao River at the west source of the Tangbai River based on the distribution of local iron households.
Coal and iron resources.
Shi Zhen has already made a plan to dispatch a group of workers and craftsmen from Huaiyuan to Longtanling to prepare for the construction of an iron-making blast furnace, but this needs to be arranged according to the situation this winter.
If Yue Hai Tower and Cao Shixiong organize hundreds of thousands of troops to attack again this winter, Chushan will have no spare capacity to do anything else except carry out comprehensive military mobilization again. Even the existing production system will be severely affected.
Big weakening.
Now hearing that Xu Huai said that he would build an additional new kiln in Longtanling this year to bake porcelain, Shi Zhen asked doubtfully: "Shuai Jie thinks there won't be any big movements in the west of Beijing and Heluo this winter?"
"..." Xu Huai nodded and said, "I just got news that Yue Hailou and Cao Shixiong will officially organize military households in Heluo, west of Beijing, and place them in Luoyang, Zhengzhou and other places."
"...It seems that there will be no big movement in the west of Beijing and Heluo this winter," Shi Zhen frowned and said, "The Chihudong Route Army failed to conquer Huainan last time, and it also hurt some of its vitality.
Continuing to gnaw at us without success will only shake our confidence and will not bring any other benefits - they seize this time to organize military households, and the time left for us is even more urgent."
"Yes!" Xu Huai nodded and said.
Military household is not an unfamiliar word in today's world.
As early as the late Han Dynasty, in order to prevent soldiers from escaping, warlords in various towns gathered family members for management and made their descendants serve as soldiers for generations. This was also the origin of the early "military households" and the military system.
Xu Huai is not afraid that the Chi Hu people will continue their offensive this winter.
Although Huaishang, Huainan and other places will once again face severe tests, as long as they survive, it will not only further stabilize the Qinling-Huaihe defense line, but also shake the confidence of the Chihu people themselves.
More importantly, continued consumption will further shake the foundation of the Red Husbands and surrendered troops in Hehuai.
At this time, Jingxi and Heluo began to organize military households. It is foreseeable that the Chihu people will make the same move this year in Jingdong East Road, Jingdong East Road, Hedong, Hebei, Guanshan and other places.
Although this prevents the enemy from sending troops southward this winter, it will consolidate their occupation of Hehuai and other places.
Although Dai Viet practiced a recruitment system, most of them were recruited from refugees and hungry people, or prisoners as assassins. In addition to serving as soldiers for life, they also sent their children to accompany the army.
After the fall of Bianliang, the Jinxiang troops in Hedong, Hebei, Guanshan, Gyeonggi and other places surrendered to the Chihu people on a large scale, and their families and children were also controlled by the Chihu people.
This provided great convenience for the Chihu people to implement the military household system in the Central Plains.
Vietnam did not establish a land system and did not suppress annexation. Eighty-nine percent of the land was concentrated in the hands of the gentry and nobles. After the fall of Bianliang, the gentry and nobles fled south one after another. The Red Husbands and surrendered troops directly occupied these lands and interacted with the people in the occupied areas.
At least there will be no direct conflict on the land.
After the military households were organized, the Red Husbands and surrendered troops could directly allocate these lands to military households on a large scale for occupation, and the occupied areas could actually be cultivated by the people who became military household vassals.
Although the organization of military households and the implementation of a world-wide military system will have various disadvantages in the long run, at the beginning, it is definitely a terrifying and lethal strategy.
This is also the place where Xu Huai is most afraid of the Red Husbands.
Compared with the Hulu tribe who repeatedly invaded the south in the past, the Chihu people had a more complete military and political system, which helped them consolidate their occupation of the Central Plains in a short period of time.
Once the Red Husbands gained a foothold in Guanshan, Hehuai and other places, Dai Viet was unable to organize a large-scale counterattack in a short period of time. The Red Husbands could then free up their hands to attack the Dangxiang people...
