Chapter 402 Spring Work
This spring, in addition to spring ploughing, intensifying iron ore mining, and casting more iron weapons, the main work of the Great Zhou was to continue recruiting and training soldiers, while also capturing more wild horses and taming them into suitable war horses.
Although the previous news made Zhou Xu realize that there were other enemies of the Lizardmen on the opposite continent, this news also gave Zhou Xu a new understanding of the strength of the Lizardmen.
You know, the Lizardman was in a 'one-on-one' situation or a 'one-on-two' situation before, the situation was completely different.
Now it has been proven that the Lizardmen are probably outnumbered 'one to two'.
This shows that the other party's true strength is far stronger than he had previously expected.
In view of this situation, Zhou Xu undoubtedly needs more troops to ensure that their Great Zhou has the ability to protect itself in the next battle.
For now, as long as Zhou Xu doesn't worry about the labor issue, conscription will be easy.
After a winter, the captives who had been captured from the mountains were already enjoying their stay here.
Some prisoners even felt that being a hard laborer here for the rest of their lives was better than their previous lives.
After all, the living conditions in Da Zhou are there. In this era, there is a world of difference between other primitive tribes and Da Zhou.
Under this premise, the previous conscription campaign also made these newly captured prisoners realize that there is another path forward: joining the army.
However, no matter from which perspective, it was impossible for Zhou Xu at that time to recruit the newly captured prisoners as soldiers right away.
The previous conscriptions were mainly composed of citizens of their Great Zhou and captives such as Li Tie who were recruited earlier.
Now, this part of the troops has been almost recruited, and the life in the Great Zhou with food, shelter and clothing for a winter is enough to make these captives forget what they did before.
Of course, the more important reason is that if he does not relax the conscription scope, he will not be able to recruit soldiers.
With this as a premise, when the latest conscription order was issued, the conscription scope was directly expanded to the two earliest batches of prisoners recruited in the previous winter.
However, the number of conscriptions this time will be slightly restrained. After all, a lot of soldiers have been conscripted before, and now they are in need of labor.
If all these people go to the army, who will do the remaining work? In this way, according to Zhou Xu's idea, he plans to recruit soldiers twice more.
We will recruit once now, and then again in early summer, recruiting thirty people each time. We will talk about the rest later.
After letting the 'messenger' leave with the conscription order, Zhou Xu stretched his muscles a little and set his sights on the last roll of animal skin on the table.
"This is the last report for today."
While muttering to himself, Zhou Xu took the roll of animal skin and spread it out in front of him.
At this moment, when he was reviewing these work reports, it was not so much because the workload was too heavy, but rather because it was difficult to read the handwriting of these guys that was like oracle bone inscriptions.
This is a report written by Wang Dashi, the current Minister of the Ministry of Construction. Simply put, it is an application for the mobilization and transportation of material resources.
Because according to the new tasks he assigned to the engineering team after the beginning of spring, in the new year, the engineering team had to go to the two hills that they had just conquered in the winter to work on the construction of the new village.
A lot of materials and transportation capacity need to be mobilized during this period, and an application must be made.
After reading it once, Zhou Xu thought there was no problem and approved it directly.
After reviewing the last work report, Zhou Xu didn't have much time to spare today. He stood up and walked outside.
"I'm going back to Black Moon Village. Tell Jinghong about it."
Ever since Li Ce went to take charge of the garrison camp at the border, Ye Jinghong's workload in Caoyuan Village has obviously increased.
In the past, he only had to be responsible for some daily affairs of Caoyuan Village, but now, the training of new recruits sent to Caoyuan Village also falls on his shoulders.
In addition, capturing wild horses on the grassland was something that Li Ce and his team had originally done during training, and now he also needed to arrange it.
As a result, Ye Jinghong has been so busy that he is rarely seen these days.
Zhou Xu didn't have time to look for him. After saying something to the guards guarding the village, he rode back to Black Moon Village on horseback.
The first thing he did when he returned to Black Moon Village was to rush to the equipment research and development department.
The head of the Equipment Department is Zhuang Mengdie, but you have to know that the scope of "equipment" is actually very broad.
Therefore, various branch departments have been established under the Equipment Department based on different needs.
The reason Zhou Xu rushed here at this moment was not because Zhuang Mengdie had developed some new weapons.
At this point in time, Zhuang Mengdie is still busy making the three-bow crossbow and has no spare energy to develop any new weapons.
Walking into the open-air test site of the Equipment Department, I saw a corner of the site filled with various sand and dust. Several figures were there, holding a large wooden stick, stirring the ground, and they didn't notice Zhou Xu approaching at all.
"Come on, add some more water, that's enough!"
Amid the shouting, the young man gritted his teeth and continued to stir the matter with sweat all over his forehead.
Today alone, he has been here for most of the day. Although he has taken turns to rest in between, he is still exhausted now.
"Let me do it."
Hearing this, the young man let out a long breath, then handed over the wooden stick in his hand out of habit.
"Okay, I'll leave it to you."
Until the figure who reached out to take the stick walked past and began to stir up the pile of mud-like stuff. The three members who saw the figure clearly changed their expressions instantly.
"D-King!"
At that moment, the young man who handed the stick to Zhou Xu felt dizzy.
[What the hell did I do? I actually asked the king to work?! ]
Even though Zhou Xu took the stick on his own initiative after seeing that the young man was exhausted, the young man still felt that he was crazy.
My brain lost the ability to think for a moment, and then my first reaction was to quickly get the stick back.
But he was stopped by Zhou Xu.
"Okay, don't make a fuss. I asked you to give me the stick. Pay attention when you do the experiment."
Almost at the same time Zhou Xu spoke, the gray mud in front of him became more viscous as he stirred it.
"That's enough. Just stir it to this extent."
Seeing this scene, several members of the equipment department were all cheered up.
"My lord, leave the rest to us."
Hearing this, Zhou Xu didn't intend to force himself to work. He rode his horse all the way from Caoyuan Village to here, without even taking a breath, and went straight to the open-air test site here. His condition was not much better.
Taking the wooden sticks from Zhou Xu, the three members of the equipment department, as if they had seen the results, maintained their excited state, took a portion of the mud, and then directly smeared it on the sand and gravel on the side, and then used another wooden board as a tool to spread the mud as evenly as possible.
Needless to say, what they are studying now is the thing called "cement".
Updated, thanks to book friends 'Eternal Star-Da' and 'Leonardo D Xinhan' for their tips (end of this chapter)
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