On that day, Cao Jie, the general of Junshui Camp, ordered his cavalry to bring enough rations for six days, and then took a step forward and led his troops to leave Yanshui Camp, which was the pioneer army camp of Lord Pingyu of Chu.
Before leaving, he was entrusted by Zhao Hongrun to lead 500 cavalrymen across the Yan River to Anling, and then took the 200 officials from the Ministry of Industry who had followed the Junshui battalion from Daliang to the front line with them. The craftsmen took them to Yanshui Camp.
Zhao Hongrun had nothing important to do at that time. When he heard that officials and craftsmen from the Ministry of Works had arrived at Yanshui Camp, he went to the camp in person to greet them.
Baili Ba, the general of Junshuiying, was puzzled when he saw it, but when he saw that Zhao Hongrun had gone to greet him in person, he had no choice but to accompany him, so they went to the camp gate to greet him together.
The dignified King Su and the General of Junshuiying went to the gate of the camp to greet him. Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry who led the team, was quite flattered by this courtesy, and he quickly bowed and returned the courtesy.
During this period, the accompanying Zongwei Shen Yu also felt puzzled. After all, the Ministry of Works was the lowest among the six ministries. His Royal Highness Zhao Hongrun clearly treated both the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War with courtesy, but he was the only one who treated the Ministry of Works with special courtesy. This made He was a little confused.
In fact, it is very simple, because Zhao Hongrun knows in his heart that although the Ministry of Industry has the lowest status among the six departments of Shangshu Province, this government office directly affects the rise and fall of the entire country.
Don't think that the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry is to build gardens for the emperor. In fact, the Ministry of Industry is responsible for farming, water conservancy, dam building, road construction, river digging, building the Great Wall, building cities, iron smelting, mining, textiles and many other things. , Furthermore, any official artifacts are also made by the Ministry of Industry, including various tools for formulating weights and measures, as well as large-scale equipment for making copper coins by the Ministry of Revenue, and even building imperial mausoleums, etc.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Ministry of Works is responsible for a wide range of things, and civil engineering is just one of them.
Therefore, in Zhao Hongrun's view, the Ministry of Industry is actually the most important government agency for a country among the six ministries, because it directly affects the fundamental national strength of the entire Wei Dynasty.
The strange thing is that although the Ministry of Industry is such an important government agency, it has the lowest status among the six ministries and has the least say in the court.
To be honest, Zhao Hongrun felt sorry for them.
"Mr. Meng, everyone from the Ministry of Labor has worked so hard to come here, and you really have a heavy responsibility entrusted to you."
After inviting Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Industry, to the commander's tent, Zhao Hongrun bowed respectfully to the man.
Seeing this, Meng Wei, the left minister of the Ministry of Works, quickly returned the salute and repeatedly said that he did not dare: "I can't bear the courtesy of His Highness Prince Su. What are your orders? Although Meng has everything to do with the Ministry of Works... But I have something to say first, Meng is really not good at fighting..."
Seeing the hesitation and embarrassment on Mr. Meng's face, Zhao Hongrun seemed to have guessed something and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Mr. Meng, how can I be a man of overqualified talents and let the people from the Ministry of Works carry knives to fight against the Chu people?... Everyone from the Ministry of Industry, your lives are very precious in my heart!"
Meng Kai happily listened to Zhao Hongrun's compliment and felt very happy in his heart. After all, few people in Daliang would take officials like them from the Ministry of Industry seriously.
"Thank you for your highness. Even if your highness asked me to carry a knife and fight against the Chu people, I would still admit it!"
"Haha." Zhao Hongrun laughed a few times. He held Meng Kai's arm and led him to the table in the tent. He pointed at some drawings on the table and said: "Mr. Meng, I hope that everyone from the Ministry of Industry can help our army increase Strengthen the defense of this military camp."
"So that's it." Meng Wei suddenly realized it. He lowered his head and looked at the drawings on the table, with a look of surprise on his face: "Huh? These drawings..."
He couldn't help but pick up the top drawing and look at it carefully.
It was a bird's-eye view. It was the military camp that was drawn. But what surprised Meng Wei was that the drawing was extremely neat and detailed. It was definitely not drawn casually, but rather as if it was drawn with a measuring tool such as a ruler.
The painting was done meticulously. The length, width, and direction were even marked on it, so that Meng Wei, who had been immersed in this road for a long time, could clearly understand the general scale of the military camp and the buildings in the camp at a glance.
"..."
Meng Kai seemed to have spotted something unusual. He reached out and carefully touched the straight line on the drawing, and then looked at Zhao Hongrun thoughtfully: "Charcoal?"
Zhao Hongrun smiled and nodded.
Yes, the drawing in Meng Wei's hand was made with charcoal. It's not that he deliberately showed off. The reason is that it is difficult to draw a straight line that satisfies him when using a brush to draw such drawings. Furthermore, the brush can easily drip ink.
Contaminated the entire drawing.
Therefore, Zhao Hongrun asked the Zongwei to find a few willow branches and burn them into charcoal, and then use a sharp blade to cut the charcoal into the shape of a pen to make the simplest charcoal pen.
Drawing straight lines with charcoal is much better than drawing straight lines with a brush.
Meng Wei curiously picked up a charcoal pen on the table and asked: "Charcoal?"
"No, it's charcoal from willow branches."
"Oh..." Meng Wei nodded suddenly. Immediately, he found a few pieces of dried steamed buns broken into pieces on the table. The broken pieces were obviously black. With a slight movement in his heart, he carefully picked up the charcoal pencil and marked the blank space on the drawing.
I drew a line on the spot, then picked up a piece of dry steamed bun and wiped it gently a few times.
As he expected, the charcoal traces on the drawing were gradually wiped away. Although there were still traces, it was obviously much better than drawing with a brush.
This is pretty good, our Ministry of Industry can imitate it...
Meng Wei thought happily, after all, for officials of the Ministry of Industry, drawing drawings has always been their biggest headache, because the drawings drawn with a brush dipped in ink cannot be modified, and often the entire drawing will be scrapped if a single mistake is made.
.
The method used by Zhao Hongrun can obviously greatly improve the fault tolerance rate.
When he came back to his senses, Meng Wei, who was happy to see the hunter, saw Su Wang Zhao Hongrun looking at him with a smile but not a smile. He couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed and laughed at himself: "This is how I am, I forget about good things when I see them... Your Highness, what are you planning to do?"
How to strengthen this camp?"
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun picked up another drawing, pointed at it, and said, "Master Meng, please take a look."
This second drawing is a cross-section of the wooden wall of the camp. Because Zhao Hongrun drew it very regularly, Meng Kai could understand what he meant after just a few glances.
"Your Highness, what are these things that are fixed to the ground outside the wall and are tilted outward?"
"It's like this. Our army has just won a great victory. We have confiscated countless weapons and equipment from the Chu army. I plan to use those Chu army's spears here and fix them outside the wall to prevent the Chu army from approaching and climbing the camp wall."
"Well...these on the wooden wall..."
"It is also a sword confiscated from the Chu army. I plan to embed it from the inside of the camp wall and make the blade rush out. This is also to prevent the Chu army from climbing the camp wall."
Meng Wei thought for a moment, nodded and said: "This is not difficult...but are the collected enemy equipment enough?"
Zhao Hongrun smiled when he heard this, thinking that he had the swords and guns of the 60,000 Chu army.
"Let's use it. First make sure the south and east and west sides. The north can be ignored."
"The north of the camp is close to the Yan River. Xiaguan had already noticed it when he came." Meng Wei nodded knowingly.
Immediately, he reached for the third drawing.
"This is...a ballista?"
"No, no, no." Zhao Hongrun waved his hands repeatedly and explained with a smile: "It's like this. Among the equipment collected from the Chu army, many were longbows. I saw that these longbows were useless anyway, so I
I was wondering if I could modify it to use it as a defense for the camp.
Guard... Master Meng, look, this long bow is fixed in a cross shape on a square log. Grooves that can accommodate arrows are carved on the square log, and these utensils are fixed on the wall of the camp.
, in this way, the soldiers only need to add arrows inside..."
"Then how to aim?"
"Look here, the front section of the square wood is not fixed. You can adjust the level of the arrow up and down slightly..."
Hmm. It's similar to a crossbow, but based on the range of a longbow, it seems to have a much longer range than a crossbow...
Meng Wei thought it over in his mind, nodded and said, "This is not difficult."
After that, he took the initiative to pick up the last drawing on the table. However, this drawing made his entire face look much more serious.
"Chariot?...No, this is...Jinglan chariot? Hmm, it looks quite similar...but this, this is too high, isn't it? Three feet?"
"Three feet." Zhao Hongrun nodded: "I have marked all the detailed requirements on the drawings. I believe everyone in the Ministry of Industry can understand them at a glance."
"Hmm..." Meng Wei nodded slowly and said thoughtfully: "It is not difficult to strengthen the defense of the camp, but it is not easy to build this well-mounted chariot..."
"It's not urgent." Zhao Hongrun waved his hand and said with a smile: "The next wave of Chu troops will invade in about six days. During this time, we will first cut down the nearby forests, transport them to the camp, and strengthen the city wall first.
The wells and carriages are slowly being rebuilt."
"Understood." Meng Wei nodded, folded several drawings and put them into his arms, and said seriously: "That matter should not be delayed, please His Highness to allocate some soldiers to your subordinates..."
"How many people are needed?"
Meng Wei thought for a moment, frowned and said: "If we go by what His Highness said, I'm afraid it would take more than ten thousand, only more than ten thousand manpower to cut down enough trees and transport them to the camp within these six days.
" At this point, he paused and added: " In just six days, unless we work day and night, it will not be enough to complete His Highness's entrustment... In other words, it will take more than 20,000 people."
At this time, Bailiba, the general of Junshui Camp, was listening quietly. He frowned when he heard this: "Twenty thousand people? Your Highness, we only have thirty-five thousand in total... No, Cao Jie's five
Thousands of people have already left the camp, which means there are only 30,000 left. Of these 30,000, 20,000 are allocated to strengthen the camp, which may directly affect the subsequent defense of the camp."
The implication is that if 20,000 people are used to cut down trees to strengthen the camp and are exhausted, when the king of Chuyang City, Xiong Tuo, leads the army, will this battle still be fought?
"The general has misunderstood. Master Meng means that there are ten thousand people during the day and ten thousand people at night..."
"Then..."
Zhao Hongrun raised his hand to interrupt Bailiba's words, and said with a smile: "General, don't forget, there are 30,000 prisoners of the Chu army in our camp. The 10,000 people during the day can save at least seven or eight thousand..."
"A sharp tool for chopping wood for prisoners?" Bailiba frowned and reminded, "I'm afraid something might happen."
"Of course not... Our soldiers will be responsible for cutting down the trees, and the prisoners will be responsible for transporting them. The whole process will be supervised by the soldiers of Junshui Camp. If anyone takes the opportunity to escape or cause trouble... kill him!"
"Hmm." Bailiba nodded and said, "It's a good arrangement like this."
After saying that, he glanced at Zhao Hongrun thoughtfully, feeling a little curious.
Could this be the reason for keeping those 30,000 Chu army prisoners? I always feel that His Highness has other intentions... (To be continued.)