Everyone sat down, and Guo Song said to everyone: "To manage 500,000 refugees, our army alone cannot do it. We must be autonomous. These 500,000 are huge resources. We must make full use of them. Scholars, craftsmen,
Farmers and herdsmen, etc., established schools, organized armies, built cities, took soil to bake bricks, and built houses. This is a very tedious and huge task, but it must be implemented immediately. Two things must be done first. From among the scholars
Recruiting officials, followed by recruiting soldiers, are the top priority and cannot be delayed for a moment. We will start today. Pan Changshi and Cao Biejia. You are responsible for these two tasks. If you need manpower, I will transfer it from the army. Liang Wu
!”
"The humble post is here!" Liang Wu stood up and said.
"Recruiting troops is more professional. You are responsible for assisting Pan Changshi in recruiting troops!"
"I humbly obey orders!"
Guo Song clapped his hands and said, "That's the end of the discussion. Let's go to work. If you have any questions, you can come to me alone!"
Everyone got up and went out. Cao Wannian stepped forward and said with a smile, "I have something to ask the envoy."
Cao Wannian has been promoted to Biejia of Hexi Jiedu Prefecture. The magistrate of Zhangye County should be replaced by Yu Xude, the magistrate of Jiuquan County. Biejia was originally a governor, which is equivalent to the position of assistant to the mayor. Biejia of Hexi Jiedu Prefecture is actually in charge of government affairs.
"Let's talk as we go!"
The two walked out of the tent, got on their horses, and their staff and soldiers followed behind. When Cao Wannian served as Guo Song's staff in Fengzhou, he was responsible for the resettlement of locust victims. He was very experienced in resettling refugees and knew Guo Song's requirements.
Therefore, after he established the refugee camp, the most important thing he did was to build hundreds of toilets, use a large amount of quicklime for disinfection, and set up medical camps. All sick people were sent to the medical camps for resettlement. This was decisive for the convenience of the people and preventing the spread of epidemics.
function.
Cao Wannian said: "Is there any requirement for recruiting scholars? Is it necessary to take an exam? Let me clarify this need first."
Guo Song thought for a moment and said, "What are your opinions?"
"Meng Xuezheng proposed to write the Analects silently and take a calligraphy test at the same time. Being able to write the Analects silently is the foundation. Those who are good at calligraphy can be admitted as officials, and those who are not good at calligraphy can be recruited into the academic administration to prepare for opening a school."
"Have you counted how many scholars there are among the refugees?"
"Preliminary statistics suggest that there are between 1,000 and 1,500 people. Many people originally came from superior families, but when the Tubo people came, they had nothing, and they had no power to tie up the chickens. They had to take care of their families and live a difficult life.
It’s very difficult.”
Guo Song pondered for a while and said: "I am not running a charity home. Scholars can use it, but it must be of good moral character. You just understand what I mean."
"Biji understands! In addition, Beiji also wants to know what your consideration is in establishing a new county."
Guo Song chuckled, "Isn't it too early to consider building a new county now?"
"This is not what your Majesty said back then. Plan early, prepare early, and start construction early. These are the three things your Majesty said back then. I dare not forget this in my humble position."
Guo Song nodded, "Fengzhou is different from Hexi, but it is better to prepare early and have sufficient manpower. When everyone returns to Longyou, no one will be found. I suggest building a new city by the Zhangye River, a distance of
Zhangye does not exceed a hundred miles, and the perimeter of the city wall is about thirty miles. It can garrison troops for defense. In fact, it is built based on Guzang County. However, the villages must be built faster, built in batches, and people moved out in batches. Understand what I mean.
What do you mean?"
"I understand the humble position!"
Guo Song explained a few more words and asked Cao Wannian to go and get busy. Seeing that it was still early, he returned to the military camp.
During this time, he has been paying close attention to Yang Jun's progress in developing firearms. Yang Jun has a high understanding of gunpowder and has successfully made a fuse. Although it is still a little short of his requirements, it can at least be used.
Guo Song entered the camp and went directly to the firearms testing camp in the southeast corner. A 30-acre testing site was set up here with several large tents. Yang Jun led 30 Guo Song's soldiers to take charge here.
Firearms development and testing.
There is also a ceramics workshop in the city, where several ceramics craftsmen fired ceramics according to Yang Jun's requirements.
In the big tent, Yang Jun was leading a few soldiers to fill a porcelain jar with medicine. When he saw the man coming in, he quickly stood up and saluted.
Guo Song smiled and said, "Has the porcelain jar been made?"
The sealing of the porcelain jar is a big problem, which seriously affects the explosion effect. Guo Song drew a sketch of the thread opening before setting off to Dadou to pull the grain. I don’t know if it was burned out.
"Your Majesty, the porcelain pot was fired a few days ago, but we found that the porcelain pot was too small, so we re-fired a larger one."
Guo Song saw that the porcelain jar on the table was quite large. He picked it up. It weighed at least forty kilograms. More importantly, the wall of the jar was very thick, as much as half an inch thick. Such a porcelain jar would not be damaged even if it was dropped high into the soil.
It cannot be broken by ordinary rocks, it must be broken by a hammer."
He looked at the lid again. The lid was very small, with three turns of screws on it, which could be screwed together with the screws on the bottle. There was a small hole in the middle, which should be the hole for inserting the fuse.
"Have you tried it?"
"I tried it with a small bottle and it went very well, but the power is still not good enough. I'm going to try a big bottle today."
After saying that, the gunpowder was filled in place, Yang Jun tightened the bottle cap tightly and said with a smile: "The craftsman said that this threaded mouth is a good thing and can be used in many places."
"Stop talking nonsense and give me a test quickly."
Yang Jun quickly agreed, and he and several soldiers carried out the large porcelain jar weighing dozens of kilograms and placed it in a very solid wooden house.
"Wait a minute!"
Guo Song stepped forward and asked: "How to control the explosion time?"
"Based on the burning time of the match rope, we put a length of match rope in the bottle. If the soldiers defended the city, they could throw the match rope down when it burned to the mouth of the bottle. Then the explosion would take place three times after the drum beat, almost exactly when the bottle hit the ground.
At that time, of course, it was not very accurate yet, and we still had to experiment. There is no other way to do this, but to keep experimenting and improving again and again."
A soldier lit the match rope with a fire stick, turned around and ran, ran dozens of steps, jumped into the pit and covered his ears. Everyone around him covered their ears. In a moment, there was a loud bang!
It was blown to pieces, and the fragments flew high into the air, with the furthest piece of wood flying thirty steps away.
The soldiers cheered, hugged and jumped up and down. Yang Jun was also very excited and said: "We have bombed this wooden house more than ten times without damaging it. This time we finally succeeded."
Guo Song was overjoyed and asked quickly: "How many can be made in ten days?"
"The key is to burn porcelain. We can probably make more than a hundred."
Guo Song nodded, "Hurry up, I plan to use it to defend Liangzhou!"
...........
Early the next morning, the Hexi Army began to recruit soldiers outside the refugee camp. The conditions for recruitment were very favorable. The military salary was paid three times a month. If there was a battle, the military salary would be doubled. In addition, if the recruit was selected, a one-time reward would be given.
Three sheep or one cow, the condition is that those who are under thirty-five years old, over seventeen years old, and have served in the army are outstanding.
Yesterday afternoon, the Tang Army had widely publicized the campaign in the refugee camp, and there were so many applicants that there were long queues at the five recruitment points.
The recruitment requirements for the Hexi Army are relatively high. First, the height must be no less than five feet seven inches, which is no less than 1.75 meters. The second is weight lifting. You must lift a hundred kilograms of stone locks above your head at one time. Then there is the physical strength, which requires carrying three
Run 30 miles with ten kilograms of weight within the specified time.
These conditions may seem relatively high, but in fact if you have been a soldier, these conditions are not high. When marching, you have to carry armor, spears, bows and arrows, swords, dry food, water bottles, blankets and other items weighing forty or fifty kilograms.
You can only rest after running for dozens of miles.
Guo Song was also at the scene to watch the grand occasion of recruiting soldiers. The recruitment was like a festival, attracting tens of thousands of people to join in the fun, and countless people stood on both sides to cheer and cheer for the runners.
The process is not cumbersome. The young and strong man first reports his family name, place of origin, name, age, whether he has served in the army before, and then goes to have his height measured.
The second step is to stand in front of the height column and measure it. Generally speaking, it is over 5 feet 7. If you are under 5 feet 7 and have special skills, you can also sign up, but you need to go to another table to sign up.
The third step of the process is to lift the stone lock. This is a hard requirement. A tall and strong young man shouted and easily lifted the stone lock weighing 100 kilograms over his head. After initially passing the test, he got a number plate and then quickly put on a pair of leather armor.
, carrying a pair of bows and arrows, and carrying a spear, which weighed almost thirty kilograms. As if it was not heavy enough, he picked up a knife and ran towards the north with his long legs.
Someone will register his number plate fifteen miles ahead, and then turn back and run back. The time is half an hour, which means he must run back within an hour.
"This young man is interesting!"
Guo Song smiled at the soldier and said, "Others wish they could take less, but he doesn't think it's enough. What's his name?"
The soldier went to inquire about it and came back after a while: "I heard about it. This man's name is Wang Wuning. He is from Tianshui. He was a soldier of the Lintao Army in Longyou."
Guo Song burst into laughter, "Has he been captured by us?"
"It should be."
After watching for a while, Guo Song urged his horse to go to the official camp.