Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 861 Disposal of Forty Thousand Captives

In the establishment of the military academy, apart from the first period of quick training for officers in March, every officer who is promoted in the future must go to the military academy for half a year of quick training, which is called on-the-job training.Moreover, its long-term goal is to directly recruit graduates from middle schools in various states and train professional military officers.To undertake such an important task, the Ministry of War must participate, so Zhang Ziwen, the Minister of the Ministry of War, was appointed to take up this position, managing school affairs and serving as a lecturer of martial arts studies.Zhang Ziwen, the first envoy of military affairs, was not an ordinary person either. He had good knowledge of military affairs, literary talent and military strategy, and he was a rare figure carefully selected by Ye Chen from among the officials of the whole dynasty with Yang Jiye, Han Xizai and Ma Wentao.

Zhang Ziwen came to patrol around this day to check the training methods of the instructors in each platoon.He is a civil servant, and both Han Xizai and Gao Wuyang talked to him before he came. In order to prevent officers from a certain faction from having too much influence on the military academy, Yang Jiye, Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, Zeng Shangfei and others carefully selected dozens of instructors. The nominal mountain chief Zeng Shangfei With him as the military affairs envoy, it did not affect the ability to appoint the first batch of instructors.These carefully selected instructors come from all units of the army. All instructors must have at least second-class military exploits, good martial arts, proficient in writing, and understand the art of war. It can be said that they are all leaders in the army wherever they are placed.Ye Chen and Yang Jiye were counting on these people to build a capable military officer class.

What's more, Gao Wuyang is 'Genzheng Miaohong', who came from the Huaxia Weifu, and was the first person to follow His Majesty to conquer the world.Therefore, Zhang Ziwen did not dare to neglect at all.However, he knew that although these instructors were all heroes in the army, their troops had different styles, and their own personalities were also different, so their styles naturally differed.For example, although Gao Wuyang was born in a grassy rivers and lakes, he joined the Huaxia Weifu five years ago and often served as Ye Chen's personal guard. In the past five years, he has been deeply influenced by Ye Chen. The same goes for entering the force.As for Han Tao from the Black Wolf Legion, although the training was harsh, once he disbanded, he would drink and gamble with his subordinates and do everything; there are also some instructors who are more kind and less powerful, or have no kindness... Although the "Regulations on the Training of All Armies" was promulgated , clearly put forward various training indicators and drill procedures, but to build a truly powerful army, it also needs to have truly capable officers and fair supervision of rewards and punishments.The development of these things cannot be solved by the promulgation of a "Regulations".Therefore, Zeng Shangfei and Zhang Ziwen had discussed this matter in depth long ago, and Zhang Ziwen knew his responsibility, which was to restrain these instructors.

But Zhang Ziwen came to Gao Wuyang this time because of other things.He walked to Gao Wuyang's side and said with a smile: "Some time ago, several legion commanders wrote to His Majesty about a lot of questions about military judges, so His Majesty asked the Military Justice Department to train the military judges sent out. Into the army. Just after receiving the letter from the Military Command Department, the Military Judiciary Department will send a group of military judges to the Military Academy to participate in training together."

Gao Wuyang didn't understand what he meant, so he didn't speak. He just looked at Zhang Ziwen silently, knowing that he would continue to explain. Sure enough, Zhang Ziwen paused, looked at Gao Wuyang again, and said: "But those who dare to take over the training of these military judges... Among all the instructors, there are only officers like you and Han Tao who are strong in military force and come from the Huaxia Weifu. Originally, Han Tao, as the brigade commander, is more suitable to entrust these people to them, but Han Tao's training is too daring some, so"

Gao Wuyang's heart suddenly brightened, he smiled lightly, and said: "I understand, these people will be deployed in the army in the future, responsible for enforcing military laws, and supervising officers at all levels, but few of us, the first batch of instructors, will be in the military. After staying in the academy for a lifetime, sooner or later they will have to return to their respective units, and it is inevitable that they will run into these enemies. Training at this time should not be taken lightly or seriously.”

Zhang Ziwen nodded with a wry smile, "Exactly."

A mocking smile suddenly appeared on the corner of Gao Wuyang's mouth. He weighed the soft whip in his hand and said lightly: "Since they want to come, let them come under my control. I want to see first, what are these so-called military judges? How many eggs did they grow?"

Zhang Ziwen didn't expect Gao Wuyang to agree, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief, and said with a smile: "These people only come to train for three months, and then they have to go back to the Military Law Department to train for half a year. The chances of that are very small.”

Gao Wuyang suddenly looked at Zhang Ziwen, his face twitched, he smiled slightly, and said softly: "Master Zhang, there is no need to explain. I, Gao Wuyang, have never experienced anything with His Majesty, so I am afraid of some military judge! To tell you the truth, Master Zhang, when I was in the Xuanwu Army , I whipped a military judge in my battalion."

Zhang Ziwen smiled and said: "That's good. It's getting late, I'll go first."

Gao Wuyang hurriedly bowed his body and clasped his fists, saying: "The last general will send Master Zhang off respectfully."

...

...

While Xiangfu Kingdom's third round of military reform was vigorously unfolding, another major event was also going on in Xiangfu Kingdom.

Last year's Shibeng Valley victory near the end of the year captured more than 4 Liao troops. How to deal with these people is naturally a major event, and it is also a very troublesome matter. Of course it is impossible to kill them all. Let them go back unless Ye The minds of Chen and the officials of Xiangfu Kingdom were all burnt out.But keeping them for nothing all the time is not a problem!
In the end, after discussions between Xiangfu's monarch and his ministers, they were divided into four parts to work on the gold mine in Sancha Valley, the iron mine and coal mine that Wushishan is about to develop, and the Hetao Plain and Ningxia Plain, which still have more than 500 million acres of fertile land. Reclamation is needed.

You know, because of Ye Chen's insistence, Xiangfu Kingdom does not allow free labor, and the imperial court asks the people to do anything, including transporting food and grass during wars, and they have to pay, not to mention mining and cultivating fertile land. These things require money accumulated over the years Down is definitely an astronomical figure.According to the latest estimate of the Ministry of Household Affairs, if these 4 captives are well utilized, they can save at least nearly 100 million taels of silver for the Xiangfu country's finances every year.

Yu Wen has been very busy recently, because the research and development of steel in the equipment production base has made great progress. Naturally, this is something worthy of congratulations by the entire Xiangfu Kingdom, but it has brought a lot of things along with it.

First of all, of course, it is necessary to fire refractory bricks, and then choose a furnace site in a place with strong water flow to build an iron furnace.It took a month to build a six-person-high shaft furnace, built with refractory bricks, oval in shape, about ten circumferences thick, and the chimney soaring into the sky.The furnace next to it is slightly smaller, called an open hearth furnace, and the middle is built with refractory bricks to form a brick grid as a heat storage room. The chimney is made of pig iron as an induced draft fan, which is the same as the shaft furnace open heart furnace, and is blown by a water wheel.There is also a water tower beside the casting trough of the open hearth furnace, which is used as a tool to control the speed of water to cool the molten iron.There is also a spiral ladder beside the fire, so you can get close to watch the fire.

At the beginning of the founding of the country, Ye Chen told the master craftsmen of the equipment production base about the technology of pig iron and steelmaking. After a year, he finally made a big breakthrough.In the last month, five blast furnaces have been built, gradually summing up experience and forming written scientific research results that can be referred to.At the same time, Ye Chen also asked people to try to burn the peat into coke.

At the very beginning, although there was no need to worry about manpower, the firing of refractory bricks and the manufacture of waterwheels cost the production base a lot of manpower and financial resources.

But of the first five blast furnaces built, four of them collapsed in the end, and one was unsatisfactory, and none of the furnaces produced could be called pig iron.If this method was not proposed by His Majesty the great emperor, these master craftsmen would really suspect that there is something wrong with the idea of ​​this method.

One year's persistence, countless experiments, summaries, calculations, and researches have finally paid off, or maybe they have a good foundation in ironmaking in this era.One day before the Battle of Shibenggu, the first furnace of pig iron was released, and four or five tons of pig iron were smelted in one furnace. Then it was smelted separately with coke in the open hearth furnace, and finally the steel was smelted.

It's just that this method consumes a lot of raw iron and coal. Xiangfu couldn't find such a large amount of iron ore and coal in the country for a while, and it was even more impossible to import it from Song and Liao.Ye Chen recalled the geography knowledge stored in his mind, thought for several days, compared ancient and modern maps, and finally remembered that there is a large iron mine and many coal mines in Wushi Mountain.That's why Xu Xuan, Tang Xingwu and Lu Yuqing of Song State negotiated and signed the unequal demarcation treaty, coercing and deceiving Wu Shishan from Song State.

After Wushishan was in his hands, Ye Chen ordered to set up military camps at the two entrances of Wushishan facing the Song Dynasty as quickly as possible, and sent a brigade of soldiers to each.Although the Song people were dissatisfied, they still did not pay attention.

Now that the Shangyuan Festival has passed, the Equipment Department of the Military Shuttle Department, with the assistance of the Zhengshitang Engineering Department, has used various forces to hire [-] blacksmiths with high salaries across the country, and after half a month of training by the master craftsmen of the equipment production base After that, he was led by Lu Wanquan, the deputy director of the Equipment Department of the Military Hub, and took a large number of tools to Wushi Mountain.

According to Ye Chen's instructions, Wushi Mountain will build the largest steel production base in Xiangfu Kingdom.

On the 28th of the first lunar month of the second year of Tianding, Xiangfu Kingdom held a small court meeting. Yu Wen brought the first batch of farm tools and weapons made of pure steel into the palace, and came to ask Ye Chen for his order.

In the Hall of Government Affairs, Yu Wen presented steel farm tools and iron farm tools commonly used in the world one by one, and then had people demonstrate them on the spot. Han Xizai, Zhang Bo, Ma Wentao and others even tried it with their own hands.

Holding a hoe in his hand, Zhang Bo was amazed and said, "This kind of farm tool is much lighter than the farm tools used by the common people today, and it looks more durable."

Ye Chen smiled slightly, but he didn't say anything, but he already knew that the fact that Yu Wen was asked to demonstrate at the Xiaochao meeting today was just because the important officials in the court understood the importance of steel.If civil servants such as Zhang Bo, Han Xizai, and Ma Wentao were excited by the benefits of steel in civil affairs, then it was the turn of generals such as Yang Jiye to open their eyes.

(End of this chapter)