Chapter 106: Ironmaking in Qu'a
In February of the fourth year of Zhongping, the people of Xingyang County rose up in rebellion. The rebel army attacked Zhongmu, beheaded Zhongmu magistrate Luo Hao and chief clerk Pan Ye, and their momentum gradually grew.

Qu'a County, Wujun.

More than half a month had passed since the battle of Wucheng County. Jin Mao left Ling Cao, who had just been promoted to the commander of the second battalion of the main force, to stay in Wucheng County.

The two thousand newly recruited Yue troops were also handed over to Ling Cao for training.

Now that the territory has become larger and several places are important, Jinmao has to divide its troops to guard them.

He brought two thousand men to Qu'a, a place that had to be defended.

In the future, Jinmao will dispatch Yu Fan to Qu'a to take charge. But Yu Fan is still on the way, and when there is no one available, we have to learn to adapt.

After this period of training, Jin Mao saw Xi Zhicai's outstanding military talent and decisively transferred him from internal affairs to be a military adviser.

Therefore, the strategist currently stationed in Qu'a is Xi Zhicai.

"Has Zhicai figured it out?"

“How many kilograms of iron can Qu’a produce in a year?”

This is the only thing Jinmao cares about, and the entire Wujun Campaign is for this.

"My Lord, these dogs burned the bamboo slips before they left. How can I count them?"

What Xi Zhicai said was the stupid thing that the former iron official of Qu'a County did when he was ordered to retreat, and the source of everything could be traced back to Xu Gong.

It was difficult for Jin Mao to punish this official because he was a member of the Zhu family in Guzhuang County, Danyang Prefecture.

This Zhu family has nothing to do with Zhu Jun, but it also produced a great man, Zhu Zhi, a general under Sun Jian!
No matter how powerful Zhu Zhi is, Jinmao doesn't want to confront Sun Jian over this matter.

Since they are half classmates, what if they hook up?
Now, with Jinmao's status and position, it is impossible for him to surrender to Sun Jian, but he can cooperate with him!

There are three strong men in the Sun family. Not to mention "Sun Shiwan", Sun Jian and Sun Ce are really strong.

In the future, if Jinmao encounters an enemy that is difficult to deal with, he will have to pay some price and ask Sun Jian for help.

Just thinking about that scene makes me excited.

As for Sun Jian’s counterattack?

Jinmao believes that those who can leave a great name in history are not fools.

Even if something unexpected happens, Jinmao will not be a pushover.

Back to the topic.

Qu'a Tieguan is a member of Zhu Zhi's family. He cannot be punished but can be dismissed. Jinmao does not want to let an outsider hold such an important position.

However, he did not have many people under his command who were trustworthy and capable, so Jin Mao asked He Wei, who had been serving as a messenger in the army, to take over first, and then replace him when a suitable candidate was found later.

"Don't worry, lord!" This time He Wei said in an uncharacteristic way: "I will definitely live up to your trust!"

It turned out that the experience during this period made He Wei realize that if he had no strength of his own, it would be of no use to rely solely on Jinmao's trust for his future.

Seeing Ling Cao, He Qi and others coming out on top one after another, He Wei could do nothing but worry.

Now that there is such a good opportunity in front of him, He Wei wants to give it a try.

"Xiao Rong said it well!" Jin Mao praised: "You have been my son's wife, I believe you are qualified for this small official position!"

This sentence made the two "my Zifang" present feel very uncomfortable.

He Wei was embarrassed to be compared with Xi Zhicai.

Xi Zhicai hates this cheap title. Can't he give it an exclusive one?

The iron smelting furnaces in Qu'a County are all small spherical furnaces. According to the description of the old blacksmith, a furnace running at full power can produce about 300 kilograms of pig iron every day.

There are ten furnaces in Qu'a, which can produce three tons of pig iron in a day at full power!
It looks impressive, but Qu'a cannot produce iron at full capacity for one reason: energy shortage.

The energy sources that can be used for iron smelting currently include charcoal and coal, but coal resources have to be transported from Hanoi County, and the freight alone is an astronomical figure.

Therefore, Qu'a has always used charcoal to smelt iron.

There are no mountains or forests nearby, and most of the coal has to be imported. This has also led to Qu'a's iron smelting output being very low, with only one or two furnaces operating all year round.

Jin Mao immediately issued an order: "Establish charcoal-making workshops in the six counties of Wushang, Taimo, Shan, Zhang'an, and Yongning."

Kuaiji County doesn't have much in it, but it has many mountains and trees, making it a perfect place for the charcoal-making industry.

As for the problem of backward steel-making method and low steel quality, it will not be too late to improve it after the output increases.

After all, steel is not only needed for the military, but also for agriculture.

The more developed the agriculture is, the more advanced the military can be. The order of the two cannot be confused.

In addition to the energy problem of iron smelting, there is also the manpower problem.

The previous batch of prisoners who were engaged in iron smelting were drafted by Xu Gong to serve in the army, and now they are short of people.

"I should have kept Yan Baihu's three thousand men."

Jinmao feels extremely regretful, those are all resources!

"Tell the people below to try not to kill any prisoners next time."

Another strange order.

What should I do now?

Jinmao set his sights on the army. Since they needed physical training anyway, he might as well bring them all in to make iron.

How can iron smelting be the same as field training?

Within a few days, Dong Xi was promoted as a representative to give suggestions to Jinmao.

"My Lord, you can't always have the same group of people smelting iron. Others have to smelt too!"

Dong Xian complained, "Can't everyone who is strong just keep smelting iron?" Obviously, Dong Xian was also one of the miserable ones.

"What's wrong with iron smelting?" Jin Mao patted Dong Xi's sturdy arm: "Look, you've become stronger again."

Dong Xi was straightforward and betrayed his teammates in one go: "It's nothing for me, they just don't want to make iron every day."

"They?" Jin Mao fell into deep thought. It seemed that everyone was very resistant to iron smelting.

"That's it, train the last 300 people to make iron every day."

Jin Mao said: "If we open more furnaces in the future, we will increase the number of people."

"Thank you, lord!" Dong Xian said happily, "I can finally report to my brothers."

Seeing Dong Xian as happy as a 200-pound kid, Jin Mao couldn't help but think of his three new generals.

Needless to say, Bai Shi and others have a strong influence of Jin Mao and they imitate him in everything they do.

Only Dong Xi, Ling Cao and He Qi each have their own characteristics.

Dong Xi is brave but not good at speaking, and his subordinates are the most honest among the three.

Ling Cao was ruthless to his enemies, but united his subordinates with loyalty and had the strongest cohesion.

He Qi likes luxury and often uses rewards to win people's hearts. He is the fastest to gain power, but also the least stable.

Jinmao doesn’t know which one is better, so it just waits and sees what effect the change will have when the time is right.

After all, this is a military system established with reference to later generations, and it is definitely different from the current one.

The manpower and energy for iron smelting in Qu'a were solved, but there was still one problem: blacksmiths.

Fortunately, Jinmao had formulated a policy of preferential treatment for blacksmiths, so he asked Xi Zhicai to redraft a new announcement to the entire county and even the neighboring Danyang County.

If you describe the policy prospects and benefits in detail and simplify the process, you will always be able to recruit some people.

Especially the neighboring Guangling County. Guangling County and Jiangdu County are both major iron-producing counties. Zhu Jun’s caravan used to buy iron from here. There are many blacksmiths there.

As for the affairs of Qu'a County, Jinmao only took care of matters related to railway officials and did not interfere in other government affairs.

The magistrate of Qu'a County was a very capable man named Gu Yong, with the courtesy name Yuantan. He was from Wu County, Wujun, and was very young, only 20 years old.

The two met for the first time in the county court, where Gu Yong was hearing a civil dispute.

Jin Mao led a large group of people passing by, scaring away the onlookers, and even the victim was so frightened that he dared not speak.

The first sentence Gu Yong said made Jin Mao curious.

He said: "Yuzhang Taishou is a fair man, you don't have to be afraid of him."

It was the first time that Jinmao was praised for being fair, and he felt a little embarrassed, so he sat on his horse and listened to the dispute.

The matter was very simple. Two parties had a dispute over the ownership of a cow. The poor man said that he borrowed it from a rich family and would need it for a year; the rich man said that he only lent it to the poor man for one month and it would expire this month.

The poor man is too honest to lie, but the rich man demands the cow be returned on the spot.

Both of them had good points, but no one could convince the other of something that had been agreed upon verbally without any evidence.

Jinmao became more interested and wanted to see how to deal with it.

Gu Yong stood up and walked in front of the two people, his eyes scanning them carefully.

After a while, Gu Yong returned to the hall and ordered the poor man to return the cow.

"Wait!" Jin Mao was the first to speak up and stop them: "How can you be sure that he (the rich man) is telling the truth?"

Jin Mao didn't notice that the poor man was secretly happy the moment he spoke, but Gu Yong saw it all.

Gu Yong did not say much, but explained: "He (the poor man) has been farming for generations, but now there is no mud between his fingers, which means he has not been engaged in farming for some time. Why is that?"

Jin Mao suddenly realized: "Because he rented the borrowed cows to others, so he didn't have to work in the fields every day."

Gu Yongxing bowed and said, "The governor is wise."

Jin Mao scratched his head embarrassedly. It was clearly Gu Yong's achievement, but now it was being made to seem like it was his achievement.

"This guy is pretty nice." Jin Mao thought.

Since then, Jinmao has not interfered in Qu'a's political affairs.

But Gu Yong is also a strange man. Faced with Jin Mao's recruitment, he neither obeyed nor refused. He was just like a piece of pig iron.

"Isn't it just tempering steel?"

When it comes to talents, what Jinmao lacks the least is patience.

The next day, Jin Mao came to see Gu Yong again.

"Please wait a moment. I need to finish these matters before answering your questions."

As a result, it was time to get off work, and Jinmao felt embarrassed to disturb them any longer, so he left.

On the third day, Jin Mao came again. Gu Yong received him politely and answered Jin Mao's questions carefully.

The two asked and answered each other, and time passed quickly. Before he knew it, Jinmao was hungry.

Wait until Jin Mao invites: "Please join me for dinner."

But Gu Yong refused: "I have delayed a lot of things for you, I need to deal with it as soon as possible."

Jinmao failed again.

"It's just three visits to the thatched cottage!"

Jinmao was determined to win the third time.

(End of this chapter)