Chapter 66: Like Fire and Thunder

  After escaping a flood, Baili Zhou was like a large construction site.

  On the Yangtze River bank of Ba Miao Tan, several cargo ships were moored beside a huge barge. The cargo on board was not grain, nor cotton cloth, nor local products, but huge rocks!

  On the flatboat, a high iron scaffolding was erected, and more than a dozen workers were pulling ropes to slowly unload a huge boulder from the cargo ship into the water: this is for building the base of the giant waterwheel!

  Several workers had ropes tied around them, submerged in the water, looking up at the massive stone slowly descending. In the water stood wooden stakes marking the position of the massive stone.

  "Three inches east!"

  The workers in the water shouted. Qin Wuchao, on the punt, heard the shout and muttered to himself, then bellowed at the four workers under the scaffolding: "Two and a third turns to the right!"

  Four workers shouted "Yo" in unison, puffed out their cheeks and pushed the wooden lever with all their might. The pulley below the scaffolding turned accordingly.

  A piercing metallic friction sound came, and the lever of the scaffolding slowly turned eastward.

  "Alright! That's enough!"

  The workers in the water saw that the position of the giant stone was already aligned and shouted: "Release the stone!"

  Workers pulling on the ropes slowly moved forward, the stone inch by inch fell into the water, with a huge sense of relief came, the stone had steadily fallen into the water, and was placed on the base.

  A burst of cheers came, and Lin Chunhong, who was watching from the shore, was excited. He couldn't help but pat Qin Wuchao's shoulder and say: "Good job, Brother Qin! This scaffolding is much stronger than the Hercules!"

  Qin Wuchao was smiling heh-heh, his face flushed bright red, unable to utter a single word.

  Qin Wuchao is a honest and reliable blacksmith, not good at talking, but his hands-on skills are impeccable. The entire waterwheel's transmission system was designed by him, after designing it well, due to waiting for the waterwheel frame to be set up, he who couldn't stay idle also designed this scaffolding. Qin Wuchao often muttered a sentence: "Wood? What use is wood? My iron in hand can bend into whatever shape I want, can wood do that?"

  Qin Wuchao was a die-hard supporter of using iron for everything, and would never use wood where iron could be used. This had caused Li Chengzong to scold him countless times: "You're a spendthrift, don't you know that iron is very expensive? We have piles of wood that we're not using, but you insist on using iron!" However, Lin Chunhong was extremely supportive of him, not only putting him in charge of all the ironwork workshops, but also directly promoting him to deputy manager, a position second only to Li Chengzong in terms of technical expertise.

  In the past, the transmission system of waterwheels was made of wood. The main wheel and the driven wheel both had a number of protruding wooden spokes. It was only through the pushing of these spokes that the driven wheel rotated. This kind of transmission not only wasted power but also could not rotate at high speed, let alone bear great forces. Qin Wushao's transmission system, however, was made of iron. The main wheel and the driven wheel were both processed into a saw-tooth shape - this is the original gear!

  "Qin brothers, the edge of this gear doesn't have to be processed into a triangle shape, that's also a waste of energy. Think about it and see what shape is the most energy-efficient!" Lin Chunhong said, staring at the creaking gears on the scaffolding.

  Qin Wu Chao bowed his head in response, the temptation of money had little effect on him. Half a year ago, he rose from being penniless to becoming a small rich man overnight. Now, the only thing that could stimulate him was the praise and admiration of his brothers around him.

  Looking at Qin Wuchao's reverent appearance, Lin Chunhong secretly laughed and said, "Go ahead, Qin brothers, try your best to find it. Without the support of three-dimensional geometric analysis, this difficulty is too great! Maybe this is an opportunity to promote the development of mathematics in the Great Ming Dynasty!"

  "The production of armor must be accelerated, the carriage can be put aside first, and only five sets of helmets have been made in a month, which is too slow!"

  When it comes to craftsmanship, Qin Wuchao is not at all wooden and retorts: "Five sets in a month are already very fast, according to the adults' instructions, we are making plate armor, if we were to make fish scale armor, I estimate that one set would be difficult to make in a month! The main reason is that forging takes too much time and manpower."

  "Alright, slow and steady wins the race, but this manual forging is too laborious. Once the waterwheel is built, let's try using water power!"

  Qin Wuchao's face showed a relieved smile. The waterwheel at Bayetan would not be used for drainage every day, and the spare time had caused the craftsmen to scramble for it. Phyllis said she wanted to use the waterwheel to mint silver coins, Zedekiah said he wanted to use the waterwheel to process wood, and Qin Wuchao said he wanted to use the waterwheel to forge armor... Now Lin Chunhong agreed to use the waterwheel to forge armor, which naturally satisfied Qin Wuchao's request.

  Just as Lin Chunhong was speaking eloquently, a guard suddenly came to report: "Duan Shiwen has brought more than 300 people from Shuangmiao Mountain to participate in the martial arts selection!"

  Lin Chunhong was startled: "Damn it, this little rascal won't have brought all the Dingkou from Shuangmiao Mountain here, will he?"

  Lin Chunhong immediately mounted his horse and rushed towards Liu Xiang's place.

  Long before Lin Chunhong went to Jiangnan, he began to expand the army and required as many archers from rural areas as possible to participate in the Wu Yun selection. Duan Shiwen was responsible for gathering archers in Shuangmiao Village.

  Baili Zhou Liu Xiang Wharf.

  One by one, the small boats came upstream and docked at the newly renovated Liu Xiang Wharf. Nowadays, there are fewer and fewer small boats at Liu Xiang Wharf, let alone over a dozen arriving together! Wu Zhi stood proudly on the bow of the lead boat, looking around with satisfaction, taking in everything about the wharf. This time, he brought 350 archers to participate in the autumn military training selection!

  Is it just a mere Shuangmiao Mountain that has gathered 350 archers?

  News spread like a plague in Baili Zhou, and as Duan Shiwen was about to arrive, more and more people gathered at the dock, all wanting to see Duan Shiwen's joke.

  "Look at him, Xiao Douzi is actually still so smug! Who knows what kind of chronic illness he's suffering from!"

  "The old, the young, the sick and the disabled are all right, but who knows if this kid will bring many women! Haha... "

  A loud burst of laughter erupted from the crowd, and a little kid continued: "It's great to have women, after ten or twenty years, the kids can also go to war..."

  ……

  All kinds of ridicule and sarcasm poured in, haha, the common people of the Ming Dynasty had few entertainment programs, boasting and chatting became their greatest pastime, and now they are having fun with little Douzi again.

  However, as boat after boat of sturdy young men disembarked, the onlookers were shocked to the point that their mouths hung agape - Xiao Douzi had actually brought a group of uniformly robust and handsome young men!

  "Report, formation complete!"

  "Report, Second Company is formed up!"

  ……

  "Everyone's ready, let's go!"

  The loud report sounded, the young men quickly formed a formation under the leadership of Doushi Wen, leaving the dock and heading to the lecture hall. Following them was a lingering dust that could not disperse for a long time, as well as a group of onlookers who did not understand what was happening.

  The orderly command made Lin Chunhong, who had just arrived, smile: Xiao Douzi was again taking advantage of the policy loophole, and in all likelihood, he had recruited strong men from other villages!

  On the martial arts arena, dust flew everywhere. Xiaodouzi deliberately commanded 350 archers to march back and forth on the field to show off his achievements. These archers marched in unison, under a series of commands, not daring to move left or right, nor backward or forward, truly meeting the requirements of strict discipline.

  Watching Lin Chunhong ride up on horseback, the little bean ordered the archers to stand at attention. All that could be heard was a rustling sound, as over 300 people stood like wooden stakes. Although they were sweating profusely under the scorching sun, not one person raised their hand to wipe away the sweat.

  At first, Duan Shiwen carefully selected and chose more than 30 seedlings in Shuangmiao Mountain. However, the young and vigorous him could not accept that only a few people were recruited, so under Gu Xiangxing's reminder, he sent all the archers to other villages to recruit archers. The preferential policies attracted hundreds of thousands of young men to sign up, Duan Shiwen drove away the local rascals and hooligans, and selected the best from among them, recruiting more than 500 people. From then on, this group of archers was considered to have entered a situation of deep water and scorching fire, under Duan Shiwen's devilish training they were miserable, and within a day, more than 100 people secretly ran away, later another batch was eliminated, leaving only 350 people.

  Du Shiwen was the only one, how could he manage? Fortunately, Shi Wawa and other archers had a certain foundation and could help Du Shiwen share many things. After stumbling for a month, Du Shiwen trained these archers like his own arms, and commanding them became particularly smooth. In the process of training these archers, Du Shiwen also figured out many secrets of leading troops and gradually matured.

  "Report, the archers of Shuangmiao Mountain have assembled, please inspect, sir!" Dou Shiwen's voice was like a loud bell, loudly reporting to Lin Chunhong with a hint of pride.

  Lin Chunhong jumped off his horse, puffed out his chest and sucked in his belly, standing straight as a rod, shouting: "Archers return to camp!"

  "Promise!"

  Doushi Wen stood with his feet together and turned around, shouting: "Return to camp!"

  All I could hear was a string of slogans rising up, and the archers walked in neat rows towards the camp.

  As the archer walked out of sight, Lin Chunhong punched Dou Shiwen's shoulder and laughed: "Little bean, you actually came up with this trick to fool me! To be honest, how many Dings are there in Shuangmiao Mountain?"

  "Thirty-four!" Xiao Douzi giggled and said.

  "Alright! Remember what I said, if you can't select twenty people out of these thirty-four, don't even think about participating in the autumn training!"

  "Don't worry, sir, none of these young men will be left out!"

  "Are you sure?"

  "Let's show it to the adults tomorrow..."

  The selection project is very simple, that is, carrying a load of sixty catties at night and walking thirty miles on foot within an hour. Those who arrive at the destination smoothly are considered qualified. This regulation immediately eliminated those with nyctalopia and some lazy vagrants. Generally speaking, lazy vagrants do not engage in production, and their endurance cannot be compared to that of good farmers.

  This project is mainly aimed at the nomadic cavalry of the Northern Dynasties and the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty. The main force of the nomadic army was its cavalry, although it could not be compared to the cavalry of the Jin dynasty or the Khitan-led Liao dynasty, but its movements were swift and should not be underestimated. Given the current severe shortage of horses, Lin Chong and Zhou Wang's goal is to build an infantry that can match the mobility of cavalry and deliver a fatal blow to the enemy in night battles.

  This is just a temporary measure, the infantry's instantaneous mobility and impact force can't keep up with cavalry no matter what, the formation of cavalry units can only be hoped for after having a large number of war horses in the future.

  Xiao Douzi didn't brag, all 34 bowmen from Shuangmiao Mountain were selected, and more than 230 other bowmen were also chosen. Heroes see things similarly, bowmen from other villages spontaneously adopted Xiao Douzi's approach, and suddenly over 5,000 bowmen gathered in Baili Prefecture, selecting over 3,000 people, adding to the previous thousand or so, expanding the team to over 5,000 people, directly entering the main camp, preparing to face the cruel autumn training test.