Chapter 71: The Initial Preparations for War

  To win over Zhu Zhiyu, Lin Chunhong put aside his work and accompanied Zhu Zhiyu to inspect his one mu three fen land.

  Lin Chunhong and Zhu Zhiyu's first stop was Changping Warehouse in Baili Zhou.

  The Changping Warehouse is located near the Liu Alley Wharf in Baili Zhou, covering an area of over 100 mu, with a total storage capacity of over 200,000 dan! Each warehouse was built on a high platform, with various fire-fighting equipment placed beside it, and a team of guards armed with swords and guns patrolling around.

  As far as the eye can see, row upon row of warehouses stretch out endlessly, a magnificent sight.

  Zhu Zhiyu was shocked, his sharp eyes staring blankly at Chang Ping Cang, he really couldn't understand how a task that neither the province nor the prefecture could complete was accomplished by Lin Chunhong.

  Zhu Ziyu sighed, "If all the prefectures in Shaanxi can establish granaries on this scale, how could the peasant uprising have gotten to the point of being uncontrollable? Even if there were three years of severe drought, what could they do to me?"

  After finishing, a group of people opened a Changping warehouse, which was filled with grains. Zhu Zhiyu couldn't help but insert his hand into the grain, and it felt quite dry to the touch, indicating that the stored food had been carefully dried.

  Lin Chunhong smiled and explained: "This Changping granary has been under construction since the first year of Chongzhen, it took five years to reach this scale. By autumn this year when the grain is ripe, we can store up to 300,000 dan (a unit of measurement)!"

  Zhu Zhiyu clicked his tongue in surprise and exclaimed: "The Great Ming is suffering from food shortages everywhere, where did the grain for the tax payments come from?"

  "It's a good buy, taking advantage of the low price of silver and the cheapness of millet. With this silver, we can make a purchase!" Lin Chunhong said casually, "To tell you the truth, sir may not believe it, but these grains were all purchased in Zhijiang!"

  This remark made Zhu Zhiyu even more surprised: "How is it possible? The population of Zhijiang Dingkou is only 600,000! Where can there be so much surplus grain?"

  "Some, who only rented land from King Hui, have already purchased over 30,000 dan of summer grain this year..." Lin Chunhong then went on to explain in detail the policies regarding Bali Zhou and renting land from King Hui to Zhu Zhiyu.

  Finally, Lin Chunhong said: "Now, every household basically has old people, women and children working together to manage the land in their hands. The hard work on the land is sufficient, so the yield per unit of land has naturally increased."

  Zhu Zhiyu listened with increasing delight, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Benefiting the people also benefits oneself, this is a great method that suits the imperial court's promotion. However, it requires a large amount of silver, does the current imperial court have so much silver?"

  "What the imperial court cannot do, being in a distant place, one cannot help but exert a little bit of weak effort. As a student who has been engaged in that humble profession for many years, having accumulated some silver coins, it's better to store more grain."

  Lin Chunhong's words were ambiguous, which made Zhu Zhiyu somewhat displeased. Zhu Zhiyu asked: "Tell the truth, what is the purpose of storing so much grain? Is it also to learn from those unscrupulous merchants and exploit the common people?"

  Lin Chunhong mysteriously smiled and said: "Sir, don't be impatient, let the student take a look at a few more places, and the student's purpose will be clear to you!"

  Immediately afterwards, Lin Chunhong and his party went to the shipyard to inspect the production of three-masted river ships.

  Zhu Zhiyu grew up in Songjiang Prefecture and had seen countless sea ships, including many five-masted sailing vessels. He had also visited shipbuilding workshops in depth. The bustling scene of the shipyard did not surprise him, as the shipbuilding workshops in Ningbo Prefecture were only better than others, but what surprised him was the huge piles of giant trees, which had been specially treated and were particularly suitable for shipbuilding.

  Zhang Zhao explained beside him: "Mr. Zhu doesn't need to be surprised, the Zhushi family was originally founded by logging, so it's not surprising that there are more ships stored."

  Zhu Zhiyu shook his head and sighed: "The shipyard in Jiangnan is short of wood, it's a waste to use these talented people to build jiangzhou."

  Lin Chunhong sighed, "This is also an unavoidable thing. If students can build a shipyard by the sea, they will stir up the entire ocean and turn it upside down. Where would Zheng Yiguan dare to look down on the imperial court?"

  "The court has many disasters and difficulties, these things have a distinction between urgency and non-urgency. Currently, the court's focus is on the bandits and the construction of slaves, it is beyond their power to deal with the East Ocean, and appeasement is also an unavoidable matter. When they have time, how can they tolerate these pirates being arrogant?" Zhu Zhiyu was very concerned about the court, and he often thought about the court's strategies, that's why he said this.

  Just then, a long and drawn-out shout came: "Open the sluice gate and release the water..."

  Everyone was attracted and turned to the place where the sound came from. It turned out that a three-masted sailing ship had been built and was about to set sail from the dock into the Yangtze River.

  "Whoosh......" A huge rush of water sound came, the surging Yangtze River poured directly into the dock, and in the blink of an eye, it lifted the giant ship, floating on the surface.

  The giant ship rises higher and higher under the action of the water flow, its body becomes more majestic, and one needs to raise his head to see its whole appearance.

  The shouting continued, interspersed with the strange tones of foreigners. After a round of curses and yells, two thick ropes as big as arms were pulled from the ship to both banks. A group of workers grabbed hold of the ropes, waiting for orders.

  "Into the river..." As the order was given, "Heave ho... Heave ho...", the low chant came, and the sturdy men were pulling the giant boat into the Yangtze River with ropes.

  Zhang Zhaohui said: "The sailboat of Zhu Laoban in Jingzhou has been built, haha, 1.8 million taels of silver are in hand..."

  Zhu Zhiyu exclaimed: "180,000 taels of silver for one ship? How many ships like this can be built in a year?"

  Lin Chunhong stretched out two palms and smiled: "Ten ships! At present, the workshop is still expanding. Please look over there, two shipyards are being built. We currently have eighteen ships on hand, just nine of which are orders from Jingzhou!"

  Zhu Zhiyu's heart is with the imperial court, every sentence is about worrying for the country and its people: "Pitiful and lamentable, the imperial court can barely come up with 100,000 taels of silver, yet unexpectedly, just in Huguang, merchants have such wealth..."

  Lin Chunhong said, "Sir, you should know that we also pay taxes when building ships. For every thirty ships, one is given to the imperial court as tax, which amounts to six thousand taels of silver per ship. How can this compare with Zheng Yi, who doesn't pay a single penny in taxes to the imperial court and yet collects three thousand taels of silver from passing ships as tolls?"

  Zhu Zhiyu nodded and said: "No wonder the Tian Shi has silver to buy grain, building ships is indeed a huge profit!"

  Lin Chunhong shook his head and said, "The income from building ships is only a small part of it. The bulk of it is still in the warehouse, sir. You'll see for yourself in a few days."

  What Lin Chunhong did not know was that the Huishang had a keen sense of smell, and upon hearing about Chongzhen Emperor's retention of the Zhongnan Governor's memorial, a wave of buying three-masted sailing ships was triggered, directly leading to a shortage of Lin Chunhong's sailing ships. This is a later story, not to be told for now.

  A loud cannon sound drew Zhu Zhiyu and his entourage back to the lecture hall, where Zhu Zhiyu watched the training of archers, which was one of Lin Chunhong's plans.

  The archers of today are undergoing autumn training, the entire martial arts arena is boiling, everywhere is the sound of shouting and killing!

  Zhu Zhiyu, who had never heard the sound of war drums before, turned pale with fear and stuttered as he pointed at Lin Chunhong: "Why... why did you raise... private troops?"

  Lin Chunhong said slowly, "Sir, haven't you heard the emperor's edict? 'Encourage local soldiers to defend against bandits.' Although the rebels are currently concentrated in Shanxi and Shaanxi, it's hard to guarantee they won't spread to Henan and Huguang. As a student, I'm preparing for battle, also with the intention of being prepared before the rain comes. Moreover, didn't Wu Daren openly attack Dayang County a few years ago?"

  Zhu Zhiyu's eyes widened and she couldn't say a word.

  Lin Chunhong continued: "The Great Ming dynasty is plagued by frequent disasters, the court is busy with one thing and neglects another. As a student who is not talented, I also have the ambition to help the world. Taking advantage of my current surplus energy, I will train a team of brave and skilled archers, which can be considered as fulfilling my duty to the court!"

  Lin Chunhong's words cannot convince Zhu Zhiyu, whose idea of loyalty to the monarch and the country is deeply rooted. With 5,000 archers carrying cannons and supplied with grain and armor by Lin Chunhong, can this still be considered a court army?

  Zhu Zhiyu was shocked too much, muttering in his mouth: "Support the universe... Support the universe..."

  Lin Chunhong saw Zhu Zhiyu as if he had lost his soul, and did not disturb him. Indeed, in this era, most literati had an inexplicable trust and foolish loyalty to the imperial court.

  The current archers are conducting primary cavalry confrontation drills!

  Lin Chunhong selected over a hundred skilled archers from among 5,000 bowmen and had them perform reconnaissance and battlefield blocking tasks. When necessary, they would also exploit the advantages of cavalry to support the main battlefield.

  All equipment was prioritized for the cavalry. The horses were high-priced, fine breeds from Hetao, with two horses allocated to each person. Less than a hundred sets of plate armor in the entire Bontai group were also allocated to them, and they had two precision steel sabers per person, which rivaled Japanese swords in sharpness and were considered priceless. They also held precision steel *! That* had a range of over 180 steps, surpassing ordinary bows, and due to its crossbow structure, its accuracy far exceeded that of bows and arrows, but its firing speed was lower than that of bows and arrows.

  Moreover, they also have a battle-hardened commander: Zhou Wang! Zhou Wang followed Li Chengliang for many years and has been entangled with the Mongols all along, with especially rich experience in cavalry warfare.

  Cavalry also has a task, which is to act as an imaginary enemy in training, enhancing the infantry's ability to counter cavalry!

  Now, the cavalry is fully armed and waiting in formation, staring intently at the opponent's general.

  The tactics of cavalry are diverse and require a detailed explanation that would take three days to complete. However, the current hundred or so cavalrymen have too few numbers and their combat skills are still awkward, only able to be used to let infantry adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield.

  Zhou Wang rode out alone, at the forefront of the troops. He wore a wooden armor and an iron helmet with a red tassel tied to it, looking exceptionally majestic. Suddenly he raised his horse sword and shouted: "Charge!"

  Over a hundred tall horses accelerated slowly, maintaining their formation, charging towards Wei Yue's infantry phalanx.

  The speed got faster and faster, the whole earth was shaking, the stirred up sand and dust covered the sky, burying over a hundred horses and men. The momentum of over a hundred galloping horses was indeed extraordinary, deeply shocking those muddy legs.

  As they got closer and closer, the archers in the infantry phalanx became increasingly tense, and Wei Yuxiang stared with his eyes wide open, calculating the distance.

  But several archers finally couldn't bear the oppressive feeling of the battlefield, and hastily shot out the bows and arrows in their hands. Wei Yuxiang saw the weak arrow shafts thrown in front of the cavalry, and his eyes almost burst into flames.

  They're closing in, the cavalry is about to enter bow and arrow range! Wei Yuxiang's breathing became more urgent, his heart almost jumping out of his chest cavity, just as he was about to give the order to fire, but saw the cavalry suddenly divide into two teams, whistling away to both sides.

  One round of training ended, Wei Yue Xiang roared: "Drag out the bastard who shot the arrow ahead of time!"

  Several archers were immediately dragged out, stripped of their leather armor, and the military stick fell mercilessly on their buttocks, wailing filled the martial arts arena...

  Zhu Zhiyu silently watched all of this, his heart unsure whether it was joy or worry, and his sharp eyes also dimmed.

  Lin Chunhong said beside him, "Sir, today we watched the archers' exercise, tomorrow shall we go and take a look at the armor workshop?"

  Zhu Zhiyu gritted his teeth and said, "Look, go take a look, you must figure it out!"

  The Bong-ah-bong workshop was moved from Daito Castle to the eight-acre beach in Hyakuri Island, where a giant waterwheel had already been built.

  All the way, Zhu Zhiyu kept asking about some things of the archers. Lin Chunhong told him everything without any reservation: "... ten archers form a squad, five squads form a team, five teams form a sentry post, and five sentry posts form a battalion. Currently, there are three infantry battalions, as well as an artillery battalion, which is specialized in operating cannons. In addition, there is also a cavalry battalion, but the cavalry battalion has only more than 100 people..."

  Zhu Zhiyu listened and did not comment, only asking: "The vehicle camp is independent and has a considerable scale. Where do the artillery and gunpowder come from?"

  Lin Chunhong smiled and said: "The cannons were bought from the French, but some of the tiger squatting cannons and gunpowder were made by ourselves."

  Zhu Ziyu was silent for a moment, then said: "The Wei state has already rotted from the roots, how can we rely on it? Now everyone relies on generals to recruit soldiers on their own, I fear that the disaster of Cao Mao will recur."

  Lin Chunhong said: "Wei Wu once said 'If there were no lonely people in the world, I don't know how many people would claim to be emperors and how many people would claim to be kings.' Without Cao Cao, the great Han Dynasty at that time would have disintegrated long ago. The ones who suffered were just ordinary people."

  Zhu Zhiyu turned his head and stared at Lin Chunhong, his piercing gaze making everyone secretly shocked.

  "The world is for all people, not just one family or surname! To save the people from suffering and create eternal peace for all generations, this is our duty. I consider it my personal responsibility, until death..."

  Lin Chunhong's words scared Li Chongde on the side, he nervously stared at Zhu Zhiyu, deeply afraid that Zhu Zhiyu would explode in anger.

  Who would have thought that Zhu Zhiyu shook his head and nodded, let out a long sigh, looking at the rolling east-flowing river water in silence.

  There are still ten miles to Li Bahu Beach, and the majestic waterwheel stands before everyone's eyes. Zhu Zhiyu saw it and asked in surprise: "What is that? How can it stand upright in the river?"

  Li Chongde said proudly: "That's the waterwheel, using the Yangtze River's water flow to drain the floodwaters into the river. The entire state of Bangtai exhausted all its craftsmen's efforts, spending nearly 100,000 taels of silver and taking a year to complete it. Building one waterwheel, constructing one long dike, we forcibly took from heaven itself nearly 200,000 mu of fertile land!"

  "Ah..." Zhu Zhiyu pulled the reins of his horse, jumped down from the horseback, parted the grass, and examined the soil color of the dam.

  Everyone jumped down from their horses and stared at Zhu Zhiyu.

  Lin Chunhong smiled and said, "This year's first half has just been completed, and in the summer, it experienced a grand flood. Fortunately, my brothers handled it seriously, and the dam withstood the test."

  Zhu Zhiyu patted his hands to remove the sand, and a smile finally appeared on his face: "This matter of Dian Shi can be recorded in history books for future generations to admire!"

  "Modesty aside, the construction of the great dike and the manufacture of water carts cost nearly 450,000 taels of silver in total. Spread out over each mu of land, it comes to about three taels or less per mu. I merely thought this was a worthwhile investment, which is why I did it."

  Zhu Zhiyu burst out laughing: "Haha, doing good and eliminating evil is investigating things, benefiting the people and benefiting oneself, what's wrong with that? Public interest should be discussed, private interest should also be taken into account. If everyone in the world can balance public and private interests, achieving eternal peace won't be just a fantasy! Di'an Shi building large dikes and creating waterwheels is also a great virtue!"

  Lin Chunhong was overjoyed, tightly grasping Zhu Zhiyu's arm and saying: "Benefiting the people is a great virtue, annihilating bandits and driving out foreign barbarians is even greater virtue, if one can bring about eternal peace, they can be considered a sage! Sir, do you have any intention?"

  Zhu Zhiyu smiled and said: "Let's take a look at the waterwheel first, after all, is it really a waste of manpower and money..."

  ……

  About half an hour later, everyone finally arrived beside the waterwheel, gazing up at the towering waterwheel and discussing it in a flurry.

  The waterwheel stood at a height of eight zhang, with its main structure consisting of six oak wood pillars, each four zhang long. The surrounding area was fixed with dense wooden boards, all made from specially treated oak wood that was particularly resistant to soaking. The six oak wood pillars were surrounded by numerous high-quality wooden supports, all nailed together firmly with rivets. At the center of the waterwheel was a cast iron rod as thick as one chi, set on a sturdy iron base. Even at the connection point between the cast iron rod and the iron base, oil had been applied to reduce friction.

  At this time, the waterwheel is slowly rotating under the drive of the Yangtze River's current, emitting a piercing creaking sound that makes people involuntarily cover their ears. The casting rod is also slowly rotating under the drive of the waterwheel, with the side closer to land being longer and extending into a wooden box.

  Inside the wooden box is a transmission system designed and built by Qin Wu Chao, which accelerates and changes the direction of slow rotation as required. The transmission system is covered with a wooden box, mainly to prevent rain, and currently there are no good anti-rust measures, only to isolate the invasion of rainwater.

  Zhu Zhiyu's mouth was agape, staring blankly for a long time, unable to utter a word. In the face of this artificial giant, he deeply felt his own insignificance and was profoundly shocked by the power of humanity itself!

  He couldn't conceal his excitement and exclaimed: "It's too magnificent! If Song Changgeng were here, I wonder what he would be like with joy!"

  The people of Bontai Group couldn't help but reveal proud smiles. Only Bontai people can create such a giant waterwheel!

  A wooden crate stretched all the way to a row of houses built on top of a large embankment, and from inside the house came a loud "ding-dong" sound that made Zhu Zhiyu extremely curious.

  "Over there is the steel forging workshop!"

  Zhu Zhiyu reluctantly followed the crowd into the workshop, walking while constantly turning her head back, no matter how she looked, it was not enough.

  However, as soon as he entered the workshop, Zhu Zhiyu was immediately attracted by the busy working scene.

  A thick iron rod, about one foot in diameter and ten feet long, had ten claws on it. When the iron rod rotated a circle, the ten claws brought up and down ten long iron hammers to strike once. Beside the ten long iron hammers, there were more than ten workers who were busy under the heat of the furnace behind them, sweating like rain.

  Some workers put the red-hot steel blocks under the iron hammer, and under the impact of the hydraulic iron hammer, sparks flew everywhere in an instant. Some workers directly put the cold steel ingot under the iron hammer, and the cold steel ingot was instantly crushed into the shape of the required parts...

  Lin Chunhong said beside him, "This is hot forging, which can remove impurities from steel... This is cold forging, which can make steel more solid... We also have a steel furnace in Qingjiang, which has never used coal, only charcoal. The weapons we forge are extremely sharp..."

  While speaking, Lin Chunhong walked to the back, took out a horse knife, grasped it with both hands, and said to Li Guangzu: "Come on, take out your pu dao, let's try chopping each other!"

  Li Guangzu unsheathed his wooden sword and bitterly smiled, "It would be better if the Imperial Historian had equipped us with finely crafted steel swords earlier. This thing in my hand is practically a piece of tofu dregs!"

  Lin Chunhong shouted: "Be careful!" and swung his horse knife to chop at Pu Dao, Li Guangzu concentrated on catching the knife.

  All that was heard was a loud "dang" sound, and Li Guangzu's wooden sword was left with only half of it in his hand, the other half stuck straight into the ground, still trembling there!

  Lin Chunhong sheathed his sword and used his left hand to touch the blade, smiling: "A small nick!"

  The crowd gathered around, watching the horse knife, Zhu Zhiyu praised: "Such a knife on the battlefield, there is no enemy under the knife!"

  Everyone burst out laughing.

  Lin Chunhong said, "At present, the main thing in the forging workshop is still making wooden armor, and only about a hundred horse knives have been made. Unfortunately, only about 40 sets of wooden armor can be made in a month, which is far from enough for use! Moreover, this is also the limit, and only so much fine steel can be produced in a month."

  ……