Northern Prefecture Rivers and Mountains

Chapter 175 Craftsman
The iron mines in Chishan and Weishan are all open-pit, so you can just take people there to dig.

Liu Daogui originally had a camp in Chishan, which was just right for turning into an ironworks. The only problem was that there were no coal mines nearby, so he had to buy coal from the Central Plains.

Although Cao Ji's caravan was there, the price was quite high.

All the money was spent on transportation. The canal systems of Yingshui and Bianshui were in disrepair for many years, and many sections were silted up. Transporting goods could only be done by wooden carts and manpower, which increased the cost of transportation.

In fact, if you want to forge high-quality weapons, it is better to use charcoal. The iron smelted from coal is brittle and has poor flexibility, and it breaks at the touch. Charcoal has fewer impurities, burns relatively stably, and has fewer cracks inside the weapons.

Since he had nearly four or five thousand slaves under his control, Liu Daogui simply opened four charcoal kilns and cut wood to make charcoal.

"All weapons will have their names engraved on them. Those with high quality and minimal damage will be rewarded with five strings of cash and ten dan of grain at the end of the year! Those with poor quality and extensive damage will be publicly whipped ten times every month!"

There is no order without rules. Without a reward and punishment system, craftsmen will lack enthusiasm.

Marking the name of the craftsman on objects has been an old tradition since the Spring and Autumn Period.

Compared with the Hu people in the north, Liu Daogui was already very polite.

During the Wei and Jin dynasties, craftsmen had the same low status as military households and were slaves of the aristocratic families.

The military households do not have to fight all year round and can rest for a few months, but the craftsmen are busy all year round. The gentry of the Wei and Jin Dynasties were arrogant and extravagant, and the craftsmen were busy until they died.

The imperial court directly issued a decree stipulating that a good family member does not include doctors, witches, merchants, or businessmen.

An explicit decree prohibited the nobles, scholars and common people from marrying craftsmen, pushing the craftsmen to the bottom of society.

Liu Daogui personally feels that the more chaotic the world is, the greater the role of craftsmen. Craftsmen in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were able to make all kinds of incredible things, and their technology reached an unprecedented level.

The world is in chaos now. The reason why the northern barbarians are becoming more and more powerful is that they have mastered the technology of China.

At least in terms of weapons and armor, they are not weaker than the Southern Kingdom.

"Five strings of cash and ten dan of grain?" The craftsmen's eyes lit up.

"From now on, you won't have to farm. You can focus on forging weapons and receive monthly wages. If you create innovative weapons or train successful apprentices, you'll receive generous rewards. Also, I remind you that official positions within the Artisan Battalion have yet to be determined. Anyone who wishes to become an official will rely solely on their skills."

Liu Daogui always believed that there would always be brave men when there was a big reward.

"We will definitely risk our lives!"

There is no need to restrict the status of craftsmen so strictly. As long as they can help improve Chinese civilization, they should be given corresponding status. One of China's advantages is that its craftsmanship and technology crush the surrounding ethnic groups.

In any case, the contributions of these craftsmen were greater than those of the nobles in the temple.

The gentry in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period were still able to take the world as their responsibility, but most of the gentry in the Jin Dynasty were parasites, incompetent and shameless.

When the Northern Kingdom fell, Wang Yan, then Prime Minister, led an army of 200,000 soldiers and civilians southward. He was pursued by Shi Le's 8,000 light cavalry and was defeated and captured. To save his life, Wang Yan knelt and begged Shi Le to become emperor. Even Shi Le could not bear it and ordered his soldiers to push down a wall and crush Wang Yan to death in the middle of the night...

Liu Cong then captured Luoyang. To save his life, Jin Huaidi Sima Chi served as a wine-serving servant at a banquet. After Chang'an fell, another emperor, Sima Ye, was captured. He held the halberd and cleared the way for Liu Cong, served wine and washed cups, and even held the toilet lid when Liu Cong went to the toilet and emptied it...

When China was in danger, these noble families and princes behaved in an ugly manner.

China's destiny and dignity were destroyed in their hands.

In less than three days, the first batch of axe, hammer and spear samples came out.

Liu Daogui took an axe, which weighed about five or six pounds. As a weapon on the battlefield, it was actually very heavy. Without a certain amount of physical strength, one would not be able to hold it for long.

However, this weapon was not originally intended for ordinary soldiers.

The hammer was lighter, weighing about a jin (approximately one jin) with a short handle. With one blow, it dented armor and fractured bones. Liu Daogui hadn't anticipated the heaviest weapon: the long spear. Its head resembled a short sword, but it was significantly heavier, weighing nearly four jin (approximately one jin), equivalent to the weight of two ring-handled swords. Combined with the 18-foot-long jujube wood shaft, it weighed nearly fourteen jin (approximately one jin).

With one strike of the spear, a hole was made in the armor.

If you ride a warhorse, the iron armor will be like paper in front of it.

"Prioritize the long axe and long spear, and put the other weapons aside for now."

The long axe was the main weapon of elite infantry, and the long spear was the weapon of cavalry.

Combined with long spears, bows and crossbows, and shields, you can have an elite force.

As for heavy cavalry, Liu Daogui is not planning to get it at the moment. First, there are too few war horses to get them. Second, cavalry is a strategic branch of the army, mainly used for raids and surprise attacks. The front battlefield still has to rely on heavy infantry.

Unless one day we can acquire a piece of horse-raising land and have a stable and excellent supply of war horses.

Weapons were fine, but the production of armor was extremely slow. It required multiple processes, including forging, rough grinding, and punching the iron sheets, taking at least three months. High-end armor like Mingguang armor and Heiguang armor required the collaboration of thirty or forty people for over two hundred days...

Everything is just beginning now, and there is a shortage of manpower, so Liu Daogui can only make do.

The current military uniforms and armor are barely adequate.

The armor coverage rate of the Eight Battalions was as high as 40%, which was quite exaggerated. The armor coverage rate of the Northern Palace Army was only about 10%.

During the Battle of Luocheng during the Three Kingdoms Period, Sima Yi was killed by Zhuge Liang and three thousand of his soldiers were beheaded, which shocked the entire Yongliang region.

During the Battle of Feishui, the 80,000 Northern Army only managed to gather 7,000 soldiers to cross the river and launch a fierce attack on the Di Qin army of over 200,000.

Of course, after the military expansion, the armor rate will drop to about 30%, but it is still quite high.

Wear shoes that fit your feet. It is not easy to have 900 soldiers with such a small territory. Most of them were captured from the battlefield.

With this configuration, the combat effectiveness of the eight buildings increased sharply.

Each building has one hundred long-axe armored soldiers, and some strong warriors also wear a set of chain mail inside. Each person has a bow or crossbow with fifty arrows, and the long-range attack capability and defense capability are maximized.

The other soldiers were equipped with long spears and bows and crossbows.

When encountering the enemy, they would first fire three rounds of volleys, then use long spears to attack, the cavalry on the left and right wings would harass, circle around and attack the weak points, and finally the long-axe soldiers would defeat the enemy head-on.

This is a set of tactics that Liu Daogui summarized by combining the military strategies of Wu Zi, Liu Tao and others, as well as his own practical experience in the past two years.

The rest depends on the soldiers' ability to execute.

Liu Daogui wouldn't say he was an expert at small-scale wars involving less than 10,000 men, but he was quite experienced.

Especially the battle of Onozawa Minami, which accumulated a lot of experience. The strength of an army does not depend entirely on equipment. Marching ability and cohesion are also of paramount importance.

Commanding a war with more than 10,000 people is much more difficult.

The difficulty of organizational ability, mobilization ability and logistical support has increased sharply.

Just when Liu Daogui was concentrating on military affairs, a spy came to report: "General, there is movement in Changliu."

"The fox's tail is finally revealed." Liu Daogui sneered.

(End of this chapter)