Liu Jing heard his heroic words and praised him generously: "Zi Jin has such ambition, why worry about not being able to achieve great achievements in the future."
Ma Zhou has a great reputation and a great reputation. This is what Liu Jing admires most about him. A real man can have nothing but ambition.
Liu Jing thought in his heart: "If we talk about people with great ambitions in the world, no one can surpass me..."
Ma Zhou felt quite proud and said: "A thousand-mile horse also needs Bole, otherwise even though it is a famous horse, it will be humiliated in the hands of slaves and die in a stall, and it will not be called a thousand-mile horse."
Here Ma Zhou quotes Liu Jing's "Horse Theory" and praises Liu Jing as his great talent. He also calls himself a thousand-mile horse.
"Well said." Liu Jing said with a smile, stroking his hands.
As soon as the conversation between the two stopped, Zhong Shui, Huang Fu, and Professor Hua from Pingyang Township immediately came forward with fear and fear, bowed to him and said: "Your Majesty, Huang Fu (Hua Professor), pays homage to the Ming Dynasty."
Liu Jing glanced at the two of them, the smile on his face dropped, and he nodded slightly and said: "Recently, the county Prime Minister Yan Bomu has been rectifying the administration of county officials. He is very dissatisfied with the situation in Zhongshui and Pingyang Townships. He has repeatedly wanted to go south. He has been criticized by me. Ting stopped.
This court believes that Erxiang was previously controlled by the Gong family and other powerful surnames, and has been suffering for a long time. It is inevitable that you will be unsatisfactory in your haste. I also think that you have been brave enough to do things recently. Even if you have no merit, there is still hard work. As long as it is not If the public resentment boils over, even if there are minor mistakes, they can be tolerated temporarily.
However, Yan Bomu has always been an upright person. We are very respectful and can only suppress him this time. If he lets him get hold of something in the future, then you will be lucky."
"Thank you very much for the pardon from the Ming court..." Huang Fu and Professor Hua knelt on the ground at the same time, with their foreheads on the ground, sweating profusely and said: "The officials of the Ming Dynasty will definitely remember the words of the Ming court and never dare to forget them."
Liu Jing said calmly: "I hope so." Then, surrounded by Ma Zhou, Huang Fu, Hua Shi and others, Liu Jing boarded a carriage with a canopy and headed for Zhongshui Township.
On the other side, after delivering Liu Jing safely to his destination, Chu Fang immediately led the battalion and patrolled the water between Xiang and Zhong by boat to prepare for bandits.
After staying at Zhongshuixiang Temple, Liu Jing continued to pull Ma Zhou to ask questions. Although the two of them had corresponded from time to time in the past few months, the letters were limited by the number of words, so it was difficult to cover everything. Some things still had to be asked in person, such as the southeast Jingman in the mountains.
The seven Jingman villages in the southeastern mountains were deeply favored by Gong Ying and Gong Fu. They responded to Gong's call and sent 1,800 coalition troops to help Gong. However, they were ambushed by Liu Jing at the foot of Ling County. Almost the entire army was wiped out, and only a few hundred people managed to escape back to the mountains.
Suffering such huge losses, the seven Jingman villages were suddenly severely weakened and fell into depression.
The Jing Man have lived in the mountains for a long time. In order to survive, they have always believed in the law of the jungle. They fell into weakness and immediately attracted the attention of other Jing Man. They were already exhausted when facing "their own people", so naturally they had no time to trouble Liu Jing. .
What Ma Zhou learned from the Han merchants was that so far, five of the Jingman's seven villages had been annexed, and the remaining two villages were only able to survive because they were merged into one, but they were just hanging on.
When Liu Jing heard this, he was completely relieved. Although enemies like Jing Man did not pose a fatal threat, they should not be underestimated. Over the past hundreds of years, the Han army had shed countless blood. General Fubo Ma Yuannan Jingluo Yue, attacking Wuhuan in the north and slaughtering Shaozhong in the west, were invincible, but they were killed because of them.
The situation Liu Jing is facing now is quite serious, so as long as Jing Man does not come out to cause trouble, Liu Jing will not bother to care about them for the time being.
…………
Among the mountains of Hengshan.
At the foot of a sloping mountain ridge, water trickles down, and when it reaches the foot of the mountain, the sound of the waterfall is like thunder. A barbarian village built of bamboo and wood stands at the foot of the ridge.
At this time, a raging fire broke out in the barbarian village, thick black smoke covered the sky and the sun, and the sound of fighting reached into the sky.
A Jingman warrior holding a sword and bun with bare feet looked at the burned and collapsed village gate and the enemies pouring in like a tide. He had a look of horror on his face and did not dare to fight at all. He turned around and headed towards the village.
He ran deep into the depths, shouting as he ran: "The stockade is broken, the stockade is broken..."
He was not the first person to escape. In fact, all the people guarding the gate of the village were fleeing. Only a few people chose to face the enemy directly and fight to the death. However, they were overwhelmed by the enemy tide in the blink of an eye.
The reason why there is such a lack of resistance is because their opponent is a fearsome one who can stop a child from crying at night.
Since Shan Rixi returned with thousands of warriors a month ago, he has launched a crazy revenge operation. In just over twenty days, five of the six villages that participated in the attack on Shanjiazhai in the past have fallen to Shanjiazhai one after another.
Hand of Rixi. This village is now the last one.
The moment Shan Rixi came back, he openly declared that he would only kill the "jingfu" and other culprits. If he didn't resist, he could save his life. If he resisted, he would be regarded as an accomplice of the "jingfu". Not only would he die, but his family would also die.
Die together.
Shan Rixi's approach destroyed everyone's resistance in one fell swoop, so he was able to win consecutive battles. There was even a mountain stronghold, but before he could launch an attack, Jingfu was killed by his men, and he raised the stronghold to surrender to Shan Rixi.
Danrixi, with his hair in brocade clothes and large gold rings in his ears, entered the last enemy stronghold like a victor under the protection of dozens of Jingman warriors.
Although there were fires everywhere in the stronghold, the resistance was far from fierce. This was naturally related to Shan Rixi's practice of "only punishing the first culprits and never asking for threats."
In fact, this idea came from Liu Jing's suggestion. The hatred between the two sides was as deep as the sea, and there was no room for maneuver. If they could not effectively divide each other, just by recruiting a thousand men in a single day, even if they were all paid, they might not be able to succeed in revenge.
Shanri Sui had always been convinced by Liu Jing and adopted this opinion without much thought.
Facts have proved that his decision was right.
The last resistance forces of the enemy village were all gathered in the village tower at the foot of the mountain.
However, this move was nothing more than a fight between a trapped beast and hundreds of people from all directions surrounded the village building in a single day.
This confrontation lasted until Shan Rixi arrived in person, shouting that if Jingfu was captured and surrendered, everyone in the building would be spared death.
The village tower first fell into a deathly silence, and then a fierce fighting broke out.
Soon, the gate of the village building was opened, and Jingfu's hands were tied and he was forced to stand in front of Dan Rixi.
This person was the culprit who caused the Shan family's tragedy. Shan Rixi's eyes suddenly turned red, he kicked him to the ground, stepped on his face hard, and asked: "Have you ever thought about today?"
"
Jingfu knew he was going to die, so he became very erect and cursed: "You little brat! I just wish I couldn't kill you that day..."
Shan Rixi laughed angrily, took the wooden crossbow from his entourage, pointed it at the person at his feet, pulled the trigger of the crossbow, and the sharp crossbow arrow instantly penetrated his chest.
"Ah..." Jingfu couldn't help but scream in pain.
Shan Rixi deliberately avoided the vital parts of his body, and the screams of the other party were like celestial music to his ears.
In the past six months, he often couldn't sleep at night. Even when he slept, he mostly thought about revenge. Now that the enemy he was thinking about all night was right in front of him, he needed to relieve his depression. He would definitely not let the other party relax so easily.
die.
Dan Rixi unhurriedly loaded the arrow, pulled the trigger of the crossbow, loaded the arrow again, and pulled the trigger of the crossbow again...
Jingfu was hit by more than ten arrows, his body was like a hedgehog, his blood was almost drained, but he was still not dead.
This enemy that he had hated so much that he could sleep at night was now lying on the ground like a dead dog. Shan Rixi couldn't help but lose interest in continuing to torture him, and handed the wooden crossbow to his brother Shan Qin who followed him out.
Let him take action and finish off the other party.
Shan Qin is only fourteen years old this year. He is no more than five feet tall. He is short, thin and dark, but he has a fierce look on his face. He took the wooden crossbow without hesitation and shot Jing Fu in the head.
.
Watching the last enemy die in front of him, Shan Rixi's heart suddenly became empty. However, he quickly cheered up. The great revenge has been avenged, but the great kindness has not been repaid. Liu Jing once told him that Changsha will definitely be in the next few years.
There will be changes, and he must integrate the villages as soon as possible and wait for Liu Jing's call.
…………
Zhongshui, Pingyang Erxiang, Xiangjiang River, and both sides of Zhongshui are full of golden scenery. The yellow rice ears hang heavy heads, making the people laugh from ear to ear.
This is especially true for the people who have been granted land. They have worked as slaves for the rich all their lives, and their biggest wish is to have a piece of land of their own. However, who could have imagined that something they never dared to dream of would actually come true one day.
The common people shuttled through the fields, working hard to harvest rice, and thought sincerely: "This is all Liu Jun's kindness..."
During the autumn harvest, the people were extremely busy, and Liu Jing was unwilling to jump out and "add to trouble" at this time, so he only appeared in public once after coming to Zhongshui and Pingyang Townships.
On this day, Liu Jing, accompanied by Ma Zhou, came to the place where Gong's smelting factory used to be. The reason why he chose this place was that firstly, Gong's smelting factory had the largest scale, and secondly, there was an open-pit iron mine nearby, which was no more than four feet deep.
Five feet, easy to obtain raw materials.
After Ma Zhou's effective integration, the company is now equipped with all kinds of furnaces, furnaces, and forges, and can produce a large number of agricultural and warfare tools every day.
Liu Jing was very interested in iron smelting in the Han Dynasty. He immediately ignored the scorching heat and observed the two furnaces at close range. He saw flames jumping inside and molten iron splashing everywhere.
These two furnaces are both made of masonry that can withstand high temperatures. They are about eight feet high, with a circumference of about four feet at the top. The upper and lower parts are narrow, and the furnace belly is more bulging. Through the front of the furnace, additional furnaces are added inward.
Firewood and iron ore are used to smelt pig iron.
It takes about two hours to make a furnace in this way before pig iron gushes out from the iron mouth.
While Liu Jingjing was watching the iron smelting, he asked Ma Zhou beside him from time to time.
Ma Zhou grew up in his own iron shop. Although he doesn't like blacksmithing, he has been exposed to it for a long time and can be regarded as an expert. He can basically deal with Liu Jing's problems with ease.
Liu Jing knew nothing about iron smelting in his previous life. He only knew that coal could be used as fuel instead of charcoal and firewood, which could greatly increase iron production. However, there are disadvantages to using coal as fuel, that is, burning coal will affect the quality of pig iron.
After visiting the Iron Smelter, Ma Zhou led Liu Jing through the smelter and into the row houses at the back.
After Liu Jing entered, he found a group of people immersed in sewing and sewing armor. When everyone saw Ma Zhou arriving, they all put down their work and left the table to worship.
Ma Zhou just wanted to introduce Liu Jing to everyone, but he stopped him with his eyes. Ma Zhou immediately said nothing and led him straight into the back room.
Liu Jing's eyes were quickly caught by a bright and mighty fish scale armor.
The rut refers to short clothes, and the robe refers to long clothes. If the armor that can only protect the upper body is called ru armor, then the armor and skirt of this piece of armor goes from the knees to the calf, which is enough to be called robe armor. Use
In later generations terms, it was full body armor.
This armor seemed to be quite heavy. Liu Jing couldn't help turning his head and asked Ma Zhou: "How many pieces of armor are used in this armor and how much does it weigh?"
Ma Zhou replied without thinking: "This armor uses a total of 1,857 armor pieces and weighs more than 100 kilograms, reaching 108 kilograms."
Liu Jing was secretly stunned when he heard this. Although the Han Jin was much lighter than the modern Jin, one hundred and eight Han Jin weighed almost twenty kilograms.
Liu Jing asked again: "How long does it take to make such an armor?"
Ma Zhou replied: "Thirty blacksmiths will take about four or five days to make one set."
"Does it take so long?" Liu Jing frowned upon hearing this. In other words, thirty leather blacksmiths can produce seventy to ninety pieces of this kind of armor in a year?
Even if the number of leather blacksmiths is expanded tenfold, it will be difficult to exceed a thousand every year. The problem is that Leiyang, the only city in Jingnan with an iron officer, cannot afford three hundred leather blacksmiths, right?
Liu Jing couldn't help but feel cold, and asked again: "I wonder how much this armor cost?"
Ma Zhou replied: "A piece of armor costs more than sixteen thousand coins."
An ordinary servant in the city can earn a thousand yuan a month. He would have to go without food and water for sixteen months to buy such an armor.
This price is shockingly expensive, but Liu Jing is not too surprised by this figure. It is worth the price, especially in troubled times.
Ma Zhou couldn't help but said: "Liu Jun, the materials used for such an armor are enough to make two jackets, which is more than enough."
Liu Jing thought about it comprehensively and thought that Ma Zhou's words were reasonable. He already had a lot of troops. Cai Sheng's Sima camp had more than a thousand people, Chu Fangjiang's county soldiers were 800, Ma Zhou also had Zhong Shui, and Ping Xiang's second army.
The township was organized into households and the people were organized into a battalion of 800 people, with a total strength of nearly 3,000.
However, the number of armors equipped was only over 200, with a ratio of only ten to one.
At this time, there is no need to blindly pursue the "quality" of the armor, but to improve the "quantity" first.
Thinking of this, Liu Jing nodded and said: "Zijin, what you said makes sense. I simplified things before."
Ma Zhou smiled and said: "This armor is very fine. If Chu Ziping puts on this armor and uses it to charge into battle, who can be worthy of it?"
Liu Jingdao: "Then let's make a few sculptures first, one for each of you."