Chapter 70: Poems revisit the Chinese dream, and the fierce soldiers rejuvenate the soul of the Han Dynasty

It is said that Zhao Jin received Chinese celebrities, gave them the opportunity to display their ambitions, and asked them to show their strengths to contribute to the rise of Yan Han and the spread of Chinese culture. Ordinary "famous people" are often those who mislead the country, and their reputation is nothing more than chasing each other. Therefore, Zhao Jin was originally quite afraid of the word "famous man". However, looking at these famous people, they should be worthy of their name. At least they are not officials of the Yuan court, cherish their hometown, and their loyalty and integrity can be seen.

So Zhao Jin arranged positions for them. Zhou Mi is the imperial doctor's order, Wang Yuanliang is the Taile order, and Liu Chenweng and Yu Jingren are Hanlin bachelors. As for Guan Hanqing, he knew Zhao Jin when he was still a wanderer. As the saying goes, "the knowledge of poverty and lowliness cannot be forgotten", and he was awarded the title of brother Wang. Guan Hanqing was free and loose and did not like to hold an official position, so Zhao Jin let him. As for Huang Daogu, considering that there is no Wang Gu's statement, she is a simple working woman and does not love titles or official positions. Zhao Jin did not seal her and gave her a salary equivalent to five-grade officials, so that she did not have to care about any chores and concentrate on invention and production guidance.

With the arrival of Huang Daogu, Yanhan's cotton textile industry has been rapidly developed. Huang Daogu has six kinds of cotton spinning machinery, which is an advanced invention in this era. As long as there are enough raw materials, it is enough to make the soldiers and people of Yan and Han have no worries about clothes. Central Asia under the control of the Haidu Khanate is an excellent cotton-producing region. Yanhan has allied with the Haidu Khanate and can trade cotton with it. In addition, Azerbaijan has a warm climate and is suitable for growing cotton. In the future, it can also become one of the main sources of cotton. After the battle of the Southern Expedition, the relationship between Azerbaijan and Yanhan has become closer and economically complementary.

In addition to cotton spinning, wool spinning can also develop simultaneously. Cotton has almost no suitable place for cultivation in Yanhan, but wool and cashmere are self-sufficient raw materials. Huang Daogu used to live in Hainan. There was only cotton spinning in Hainan, so she invented cotton spinning machinery. Now you can ask her to invent a new wool spinning machine.

In this way, Yan Han's "rich clothes" are just around the corner. So what about "sufficient food"? Most areas of Yanhan have a cold and dry climate, with low grain yields per mu; the agricultural population is scarce and it is impossible to reclaim too much wasteland. In pastoral areas, raising horses is the primary task, followed by cattle and sheep, so the output of meat and milk is not too high. Up to now, the food produced by agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and hunting can only barely supply the civilian needs of the military. Once the army fights, a large amount of food and fodder will be consumed, which is not enough. At the beginning of Zhao Jin's uprising, a large amount of grain and grass were hoarded in the new city; now, the old grain has been gradually eaten up, the new grain supply is insufficient, and the warehouse is gradually empty.

How important is the food problem? To solve this problem fundamentally, we must start from three aspects: First, the army is fielded. 2. Capture the grain-producing area. III. Expand food trade.

If you want to live in the field, you need a relatively peaceful environment, and the army does not need to be moved too much to live in the field. For example, in the three years of Xuanhuang, the Yanhan wars were frequent, and the national army was almost transferred once, and some were transferred two or three times. How can they store the fields?

In order to seize the grain-producing area, the target must be determined first. There are three large grain-producing areas close to Yanhan: the Fergana Basin in Central Asia, the Mesopetan Plain in Western Asia, and the southern Plain of Eastern Europe. One of the first two is in the hands of the Haidu Khanate and the other is in the hands of the Illi Khanate. Don't look forward to it. The latter, the area of modern Ukraine, is the granary of the former Soviet Union. Now it is mainly under the control of the Grand Duchy of Kiev and part of the Principality of Rostov. Therefore, the spearhead of Yanhan's future is this area.

To expand the grain trade, the top priority is to seize Haikou! Land transportation of grain is very laborious and costly. Only by sea can a large amount of grain be imported. The Principality of Rostov is the mouth of Yan Han.

"Rostorp must take it." Zhao Jin didn't know how many times he had said to the important ministers: "If you don't take it down, you can't do it. China's food is not enough to make ends meet. In this way, in two years, the people may not be full!"

But attacking Rostov is bound to consume a lot of food and fodder. And Rostov, that is, a large area of border with the Grand Duchy of Kiev. The Grand Duchy of Kiev is the head country of the Dongsi countries, with more than 100,000 troops. If there is a conflict with Yan Han and a big fight, can Yan Han's military food withstand consumption?

It has been more than three years since the founding of the country, and it is lucky that there have been no serious disasters. But who can guarantee that there will be no disasters in the future? What should we do if there is a disaster and food production is greatly reduced?

Therefore, despite the successive victories and the continuous expansion of the territory, the basic survival problems have still not been solved. In fact, he is still in a very dangerous situation.

The Rostovians dug the Fudon Canal, and the progress was very slow. If it goes on like this, it is estimated that it will not be completed until around August next year. Zhao Jin discussed with the important ministers: "Well, I decided to seize the time to implement Tuntian at the beginning of next year, and the Beijing battalion troops and militia will send 50,000 people to open up wasteland. After the wasteland was reclaimed, the militias were used to take turns to cultivate, keeping 5,000 people in the field to take care of the crops, and then transferred people to help during the busy farming season. What do you think?"

Sannong Yu said silently, "What the lord said is very true. Tuntian is the top priority, and it is urgent.

Liu Shide, the minister of Taicang, said: "You can build additional warehouses in the suburbs to collect and store them on the spot without moving them into the city, saving manpower."

They come up with ideas. Si Koqing and Zhang Han suddenly said, "Master, have you forgotten? Captives are also available.

Zhao Jin patted his thigh: "That's right!"

During the southern expedition, the Han army captured more than 10,000 people in Georgia. Zhao Jin ordered the people to select 5,000 people from among them, compile them into their own army, and disperse them into the local garrison. Georgians are generally strong and a good source of soldiers. There are many Georgians in the slave army of the Egyptian Mamruq dynasty. Yan Han wants to enrich his army with Georgians, which is the principle of transforming the enemy's power into his own strength as described in Sun Tzu's Art of War. However, I'm afraid that it will be difficult for them to get together, so they have to spread out.

The remaining 6,000 or 7,000 prisoners have not been arranged. They might as well be used as farmers to build warehouses and houses in the suburbs of Anhan Prefecture, settle down, and take care of the farmland reclaimed by the army in the future.

As for Princess Dulan, who was captured by the Han army, Zhao Jin released her back to the Illi Khanate. Originally, she wanted to knock her father Tek Dihan for a ransom, but considering the need to ease relations between the two countries, she simply released it for free.

Is it because Du Lan is a beautiful woman and pitiful? Zhao's school grassman felt pity for the jade again at first sight, so he was released for free? - Feiye, don't underestimate Zhao's school grass. Beautiful women are precious, and national affairs are more important. This is actually a wise consideration to judge the situation. After the defeat of Holmes, Tekdi Khan's vitality was not restored and his reputation was ruined. If his daughter is captured and extorted by Yan Han for ransom, his reputation will inevitably decline again. It is hard to guarantee that this will not cause him to become angry and send troops to fight Yan Han and turn back to his face. Now that Yanhan has taken the initiative to send it back, he has a face and can say, "King Yanhan is afraid of me. Even if he gets my daughter from Georgia, he will immediately return it to me." The face of a man is very important, and the face of a monarch is even more important. So don't do anything, and don't provoke people who shouldn't be provoked. Zhao Jin has a deep understanding of this.

In addition, Zhao Jin is engaged to the Byzantine princess Su Feiya, and Su Feiya's sister Julia is the concubine of Tekidi. In this way, Zhao Jin and Tekodi are also informally connected. Since it is a future relative relationship, you might as well be more or less polite now.

Dulan returned to China and explained to his father that Zhao Jin treated him politely and treated himself as a niece. He also said that Zhao Jin is a tough king and is very good at using soldiers. Tekodi then gave up the idea of fighting with Yan Han. Georgian king Dimitel later sent an envoy to welcome Dulan, but Tekodi was angry with his incompetence and did not give it. Du Lan then stayed in Tabriz, the capital of the Eli Khanate.

Zhao Jin dealt with the remaining things after the Southern Expedition and arranged the layout of agricultural production next year, that is, to shift the focus to military and military industry.

The Meng brothers brought superb Damascus weapon forging technology and instructed Yanhan craftsmen to improve the process. Zhao Jin looked at the newly forged batch of swords, which were indeed extremely sharp. Several iron ores in Oblast produce "myster iron", that is, special steel with high rare metal content, hardness and toughness. Combined with new forging technology, the quality of the weapons produced is comparable to that of authentic Damascus weapons. From then on, Yan Han used weapons of ordinary materials and processes for export, and used high-quality weapons made with basal materials and Damascus forging as reserved embargoes, only for the use of the national army. Strong bows and powerful crossbows are also not exported. Yan Han manufactures a large number of crossbow machines as a long-range attack weapon of the navy and army, which is not comparable among neighboring countries.

Zhao Jin also racked his brains to develop firearms. However, all the firearms craftsmen of the Golden Horde fell into the hands of Haidu, and the origin of saltpetre raw materials was also in the hinterland of Haidu Khanate. The manufacture of firearms is not a secret in this era, and saltpeter is listed as an embargo by Haidu in their country. Yan Han has neither talent nor raw materials in terms of firearms, so he can't get started.

In fact, the ratio of gunpowder alone is far from as simple as ordinary people think. Westerners heard about a few decades ago that Eastern gunpowder was made of saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal and other things, but a group of "wizards" (Christians opposed science and discriminated against scientific scientists at that time and discriminated against them) for decades, but no one deserved it.

In the 16th year of the Yuan Dynasty (1279), after the destruction of the Southern Song Dynasty, firearms craftsmen from all over the country were concentrated in Dadu. After several years, the formula of gunpowder was readjusted, which increased the efficiency of the same volume of gunpowder by about three times. Therefore, in this era, the firearms of the Yuan Dynasty were far ahead of the world. Europe has no firearms at all, and even the ratio of gunpowder was not understood until a shocking experiment by a man named Bacon...

Zhao Jin aimed to lead all ethnic groups of China to return to the Central Plains, regarded the Yuan Dynasty as the ultimate enemy, prepared for a rainy day, and wanted to develop firearms to compete with the Yuan Dynasty in the future. If there is a lack of raw materials, you can not produce them first and give a small amount of raw materials obtained from various channels to the craftsmen for experiments. As long as you can match the effective gunpowder and make several practical valuable firearms, it will not be too late to produce them in large quantities in the future. This is Zhao Jin's idea. However, so far, there has been no progress in research due to the lack of professionals.

There are no conditions and cannot be forced. There are many examples in history. Even if the equipment is far inferior to the enemy, it can defeat the enemy with passionate fighting spirit.

The goal is ambitious, and the future will be more difficult. Only invigorate the spirit, make sharp soldiers, and make progress step by step.

(To be continued 71: Wen Tianxiang is in trouble, and the rebels are everywhere)