Chapter 61: Keel Overturned...
If Qiao Yan was short of staff before, he would have missed this inquiry before recruiting anyone.
But it is different now. Even if it is not for the purpose of suppressing Chu Yan's arrogance, she has Cheng Li, Xi Zhicai, Cai Yong and his daughter, Yang Xiu, Qin Yu and Xu Fu mother and son, as well as Lu Yuan in the literary field, and Zhao Yun, Dian Wei, Zhang Yang and others in the military field. It can be said that she has people in all aspects. It doesn't matter to her whether Chu Yan is there or not.
Given that we have long since gotten rid of the situation of having no one but ourselves, it is very important to recruit people selectively.
As the output of the paper mulberry clothing industry stabilizes and yam planting gradually gets on track, it is actually not so important whether there is a Chu Yan as the hub connecting her and the Black Mountain Army.
Of course, Chu Yan has his indispensable significance, especially in mobile combat.
However, such words of praise cannot come from Qiao Yan's mouth when the master-servant relationship is not determined, so as not to indulge the evil nature of the Black Mountain Army commander.
So all the thoughts in her mind finally turned into one sentence: "Why choose you?"
It is probably not much different from modern recruitment, where people are required to demonstrate their competitiveness.
Chu Yan has considered this issue before.
He replied without hesitation: "Because I can train a special force for Lord Qiao."
"The people of Leping County are well fed and clothed, and can even be called rich in this season, but Leping's defense is still far from sufficient. Zhao Zilong leads the county officials to patrol, which can be regarded as a regular army, but there is still a lack of a detachment to fill the gaps in the four directions."
Seeing that Qiao Yan had no intention of stopping him from speaking, nor did Chu Yan have any ill feelings, Chu Yan continued, "Marquis Qiao can probably refute me that the presence or absence of this special force does not affect the defense of Leping. Just like when Zhang Niujiao and I led the team here before, we fell into Marquis Qiao's trap.
But this is just a fishing hook, which is done intentionally but unintentionally. If we are on guard like this every day, we will use the great talent of Marquis Qiao to guard against bandits like us, and end up at a disadvantage. ”
Qiao Yan found it a little funny.
The technique of praise and criticism in Chu Yan's words was quite interesting. With that said, Qiao Yan really couldn't bring up his previous defeat anymore.
"In addition, I have some knight-errant friends in Changshan County. Previously, due to the three debates of Qiao Hou, they were unwilling to revolt under the name of Yellow Turbans. However, if they can find a place where they can serve with food and clothing instead of becoming rebels, they may not be unwilling to follow me."
"In today's Leping, it is not difficult to attract refugees, but if we want to form a guard, it is better to directly recruit these rangers and warriors by selecting from the refugees."
"If Marquis Qiao is willing to give Chu Yan a horse, a sword, and a piece of paper to prove his ability, and is even more willing to give me a chance to show my skills, Chu Yan can guarantee that the Leping Mountains will become a barrier that will be strictly guarded."
This is no small promise...
Qiao Yan had to admit that a capable man like Chu Yan was indeed a bit arrogant, and the words "strictly guard against and die" were not something that could be said casually.
But perhaps more interesting was what he said immediately afterwards.
He suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Let me say something outrageous. Lord Qiao has the appetite to eat up nine thousand Black Mountain bandits like us. If one day we can send troops out of Leping, it will be a surprise force..."
Qiao Yan interrupted him with a smile and clapped his hands, "That's enough for you."
If she continues talking, she will not be able to fool her counselor system.
She looked him in the eye and said slowly, "You are right. Leping needs a small army to protect it, and even needs a fighter who can train in mountain warfare. You are more courageous and capable than Zhang Niujiao and Wang Dangsun Qing, especially in making clear your position. You are much better than them."
"I can give you the horse, the sword, and the paper you want, but you can't go to Changshan alone. Let Zhao Zilong go with you."
Qiao Yan raised his hand, signaling Chu Yan not to speak any more. "I'm not doubting you, but I heard that Zilong still has a brother in Changshan. Now that winter has passed and Jingxing is accessible by car, why not bring him to Leping? Zilong will naturally do this personally. You recruit your people, he will pick up his people, and we will travel together."
Chu Yan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
This was equivalent to making his position clear in front of Qiao Yan.
After putting this burden down, he looked at Qiao Yan again and couldn't help but feel that his previous impression of the other party's heavy aura might just be an illusion because he had not yet received this answer.
This county marquis who had supported the people of Leping single-handedly smiled at the yam fields that had not yet sprouted. In fact, he was still -
Still quite friendly?
What's more, what he got later was not only the horses, weapons and written certificates promised by Qiao Yan, but also a bundle of five-zhu coins and three pounds of gold!
When he saw the luggage, he couldn't help but look at Qiao Yan in surprise.
"Don't employ people you doubt, and don't doubt people you employ. I have told Lu Yuan about my rules before. This applies to her and to you as well."
Today, Qiao Yan came to see off Chu Yan and Zhao Yun, holding a long sword at his waist. Although he was still young, the sharpness between his eyebrows and eyes was not diminished at all. But to Chu Yan, who was holding the package tightly in his hand at this time, this meant a sense of repaying each other's kindness.
In fact, he himself couldn't quite explain it. If there hadn't been this process of first criticizing and then praising, would he have been as shocked as he is now, and even more convinced by the trust that came from letting go?
But he knew two things.
One is that his choice to serve Marquis Leping was his own and had nothing to do with anyone else.
Secondly, isn't what he expecting is for someone who can be seen as loyal to him to put aside his narrow-minded view of the bandits and trust him wholeheartedly?
So whether he received this treatment when he initially established meritorious services or he received this treatment now, why bother about it so much!
Anyway, he didn't cheat Qiao Yan's money and run away.
Now that he has the money to settle down, it will be easier for him to find his former companions who have returned to his hometown!
This was undoubtedly a much better situation than he had ever imagined.
Qiao Yan watched the two of them leave. No matter how he looked at her, he felt that Chu Yan exuded an aura of joy and excitement.
She couldn't help but shake her head and laugh, then walked back towards the county government office with her hands behind her back.
If the fact that Chu Yan showed signs of becoming more and more homesick despite not speaking a word was good news today, then meeting the messenger from Luoyang when she arrived at the county government office was undoubtedly another piece of good news.
This messenger was sent by Bi Lan!
It was almost April, and Bi Lan lived up to Qiao Yan's expectations by completing the rollover she had asked about and delivering it to her.
Of course, it was impossible for Bi Lan to actually make a complete rollover and send it into the barrier of the Taihang Mountains.
However, this eunuch, who was able to gain Liu Hong's trust with his ingenious objects, made a scaled-down model that was large enough for Qiao Yan to see the structure clearly.
Qiao Yan remembered that the Han Dynasty's tipping cart was the first application of ancient chain drive, and this was also what was shown on this scaled-down model.
She asked someone to bring in a basin of water and placed the small cart on the edge of the basin.
After rotating the driving sprocket, the keel blades will scrape the water up along the groove and be sent upward along the overlapping long grooves.
This device that is operated from the outside is very labor-saving to use. Although it still requires manpower, it saves much more effort than before if it is used to transport water up the hillside.
Along with the model came a letter from Bi Lan.
In the letter, he mentioned that Qiao Yan asked him to make this thing last year, which was when Bao Hong sent him the letter. This year, the fire in Nangong Palace happened. He took the opportunity to present the semi-finished product of this thing to Liu Hong, and modified it into a first version that could be used to draw water for irrigation of palace roads. He received praise from Liu Hong, which made him feel that he was actually indebted to Qiao Yan and was somewhat unfair to her.
He thought that he had to perfect the car, so he went to Malan for this purpose.
The Fufeng Ma family produced many great craftsmen, but Ma Lun inherited his father's talent for calculation in stargazing, but not his grandfather Ma Yan's craftsmanship. For this reason, she invited a young man from the Fufeng Ma family to Luoyang.
[Ma Zijun, a clever young man, is a branch of the Ma family. He is extremely talented in craftsmanship, but not good at speaking...]
“……” Qiao Yan’s expression changed immediately when he saw this.
Ma’s Zijun, Ma Jun!
He was one of the most famous inventors during the Three Kingdoms period. The improvements on Zhuge Crossbow, the invention of the compass chariot, and the improvement on the catapult were all his work.
Qiao Yan had not originally expected to hear this name. After all, Ma Jun was active during the reign of Emperor Ming of Wei, which was after 237 AD.
But if you think about it carefully, this is not impossible.
Most of the Ma family’s descendants lived long lives. For example, Ma Rong lived to be eighty-eight years old, Ma Yan lived to be seventy-two years old, and Ma Lun could also be considered long-lived. So what about Ma Jun?
She continued reading the letter and saw that Bi Lan wrote that although Ma Jun was only fourteen years old this year, he played a very important role in helping him complete the production of the cart. Because the other party was only a side branch and his family was poor and he had no way to go to school, Ma Lun planned to sponsor his studies. While he was studying in Luoyang, Bi Lan would teach him the art of craftsmanship.
Now that he knew the other party's location, Qiao Yan couldn't help but feel relieved.
She put the letter away, bowed back to the messenger, packed up another portion of Leping's specialties, and asked the messenger to pass it to Bi Lan.
After sending the people away, she immediately recruited carpenters from the county and the Montenegrin Army.
Now that Bi Lan has delivered the tipping car model, the irrigation device connecting the hillside must be completed as soon as possible.
The people in Leping County have become somewhat accustomed to Qiao Yan's swift and decisive actions. Besides, the work of cutting wood in the mountains and making wood carts are ultimately for the benefit of the county, so they are quite motivated to take action.
According to Qiao Hou, moist soil is not conducive to the reproduction of locusts. If even the mountains are properly irrigated, then except for the locusts coming in, they will be in a relatively safer farming environment.
But this year's spring rain only lasted for a while and then stopped, which inevitably made people feel uneasy.
For this reason, the production speed of this keel overturned car was much faster than Qiao Yan expected.
However, in just fifteen days, long trenches had been laid diagonally on the mountain where yam was planted, connected to long chains of keels.
Of course, the longer the chain, the less easy it is to operate as the hand-cranked model that Qiao Yan had used before. Fortunately, Bi Lan and Ma Jun had thought about this problem, and when it came to using the force to push, they considered using livestock to pull the model.
Therefore, when this keel tipping cart starts to operate, it is the oxen that drive the sprocket.
Qiao Yan looked up from the bottom of the hill.
The yam seedlings that showed signs of growth fifteen days ago have now completely broken through the soil and have even grown some leaves. Although they are not yet lush and green, they are already looking like the first stages of farming.
The supports above the green seedlings have also been built up one after another, forming a strange landscape that has never been seen in Bingzhou before.
Qin Yu reported beside Qiao Yan: "There are 500,000 mu of arable land in Leping County. This time, an additional 60,000 mu of land was reclaimed in the mountains. The survival rate of the yam planted in these 60,000 mu of land is about 80%. According to the instructions of Marquis Qiao, the yam that failed to sprout was directly removed and soybeans were planted."
This is also a crop that locusts hate.
Qiao Yan estimated in his mind that if this was the case, leaving aside the soybean yield, the yield of yam itself, based on the current survival rate, even if calculated based on a low-quality yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu, could reach nearly 900,000 dan!
What an astonishing number!
At the same time as Qin Yu's voice was heard, there was the sound of water gurgling up from the stream between the wooden frames of the mountain gate.
This is the sign that the keel waterwheel is operating successfully!
She murmured, "This thing can be used in the mountains, and it can actually be used on flat land as well. Go ask the county residents if they are willing to build a few more dragon bones."
Since you are going to do it, do it more decisively!
If this can be accomplished, Leping's measures to prevent locusts will be fully armed from beginning to end.
Although this was a bit too much preparation, in this period of frequent disasters, she had no experience in governing a county, so she might as well do as she had promised Qiao Xuan before -
It's always a good idea to cover all aspects first.
Qiao Yan originally wanted to ask Qin Yu, who had been in charge of farming, and Lu Yuan, who was more eloquent, to complete the persuasion work together, but he did not expect that when Lu Yuan came to report, he had a subtle smile on his face, "Yesterday, when the keel was turned over, in addition to the carpenters who took the job in the county, there were also many other residents in Leping County who came to watch."
"They think that being able to change the normal flow of water from high to low is a blessing. When they heard that Lord Qiao wanted to add two keel branches for irrigation, they were not dissatisfied. The only request was that the lines be planned to leave some space for crops that don't need water as much."
Qiao Yan replied: "That's natural."
Since the top and the bottom had reached a consensus and they already had the experience of successfully building the first keel rollover, the entire Leping County immediately took action.
Although the carpenters in the county do not have the inventive skills of Bi Lan and Ma Jun, they have their own ways to ensure the operating efficiency of the keel tipping car.
For example,
The paint used for the anti-corrosion parts of the keel cart is produced in the Taihang Mountains, where there is lacquer wood. They specially selected several types of paint. The same applies to the core bearings. In the subsequent improved version of the cart, they chose the golden sandalwood that can be seen in the Taihang Mountains, which is also one of the most suitable trees for making axles.
This qingtan wood also became the material used for the wooden spear that Qiao Yan used to practice spearmanship.
After she informed the prefect Guo about the overturned keel, she wrote a letter and sent it to the governor's office, asking Zhang Yi to pay more attention to the matter. After several more letters were sent out, the five mountain road keels and the four criss-crossing plain keels in Leping County were officially completed.
It was on this day that Qiao Yan received two sections of three-piece wooden guns from a carpenter who had previously received a request for a custom-made wooden gun.
The trunk of the eucalyptus tree is originally yellowish brown, but the color of the wooden spear presented to Qiao Yan is closer to dark brown.
She opened the joint between the two halves of the door, and the long spear became two short guns. After they were put together and the mechanism was tightened, there was no sign of them being easily disconnected.
This is exactly what she wanted!
Seeing her undisguised love for the wooden spear, Lu Yuan asked, "Does Qiao Hou intend to formally learn martial arts?"
Qiao Yan's ancestors had served in the military, and she had almost died among the refugees during the Yellow Turban Rebellion. Now that even the irrigation work in Leping has been completely completed, it is not incomprehensible that she wants to further acquire the ability to protect herself through martial arts.
What's more, she is still young and is at the right age to learn martial arts.
In Lu Yuan's opinion, Qiao Yan's cultural foundation and political literacy have far exceeded the level that she should have at her current age, so it is normal for her to devote some of her energy to martial arts.
However, she immediately heard Qiao Yan reply: "Not just me, but you as well."
"In years of natural disasters and epidemics, only the strong and healthy have a chance to survive. This is the survival of the fittest." Qiao Yan slowly turned the gun in her hand in a circle, making an awkward arc, but she was obviously quite enjoying herself.
It was the first time that Lu Yuan heard the term "survival of the fittest", but he could vaguely understand it.
This statement is interesting.
She heard Qiao Yan continue to say: "Even if you are not going to fight in battle, it is good to strengthen your body, don't you think?"
"Don't you want to see Le Ping's future after many more years?"
Perhaps, it’s not just Leping.
This reason... not only Lu Yuan couldn't refuse it, even Xi Zhicai, who was not interested in the word "training", couldn't refuse it.
But he couldn't help but write a few more letters, each with the same sentence:
[In one day, I went up and down the mountain ten times. The mountain peaches were very good, but I was so tired that I couldn't smell the fragrance of the flowers. 】
Everyone who received the letter fell into silence.
Xi Zhicai is...is he showing off his great improvement in physical strength, or is he asking for help?
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