Daqin Engineering Corps

"But there is another reason. If Wang Jia of Zhao abandons the northern land, the northern land will definitely be destroyed by the Xiongnu."

"If you don't migrate with Zhao Wangjia, you will stay and be captured by the Huns."

Wang Ben said "oh" again, and agreed:

"It's true what the general said."

"That's why the people in the North left their homes and followed Zhao Wangjia."

"But it is conceivable that this trip was not what they wanted, and the relocation of Daiguo is just a helpless move."

Shen Bing nodded and said:

"That's true."

"If one day the Kingdom of Dai is broken, and our army is holding the Northland in Yunzhong County, and there is a tendency to move westward to recover Hetao, the captain thinks..."

Wang Ben nodded repeatedly and said:

"General wise!"

"I will treat the old and the weak in the North kindly today."

"In the future, the people of the Northland will flock to help, and it will be no problem to recover the Hetao."

Shen Bing said:

"exactly."

"This is what the young master said, 'he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world', does the captain think so?"

Wang Ben admired Shen Bing so much, he bowed his hands in shame and said:

"Wang Ben has been taught!"

Similarly, Fusu also looked at Shen Bing with a look of surprise.

He didn't understand how Shen Bing did it?

What Shen Bing said just now seemed to combine Legalism and Confucianism into one path.

This is unimaginable in this era, because everyone knows that Legalism and Confucianism are incompatible with each other...

But in fact, this is not surprising.

There is a saying in China that "too much is not enough".

The full legalist view is an extreme.

Using all Confucian methods is another extreme.

The Chinese pay attention to the "golden mean".

That is to say, use both, and it is just right to reach a balanced state.

So of course the two are similar in many ways and can be discussed together.

After being stunned for quite a while, Fusu asked:

"General, what should I do next?"

Shen Bing replied without thinking:

"Mining nectar to smelt iron!"

Chapter 295 Ore

In fact, Nirvana does not need to be mined from Taiyuan.

Taiyuan is [-] kilometers away from Yunzhong County. Although the Nirvana stone can be dug out and used at almost no cost, it will take at least ten days to transport it from Taiyuan, and the transportation manpower and cost are also not small.

More importantly, if Shen Bing transported Nieshi from Taiyuan on a large scale for a long time, it would not take long for Zhao Gao and Li Si to pay attention, and they would naturally investigate and cause trouble.

This may cause Shen Bing to be unable to keep the secret.

The solution is very simple, more than 100 kilometers south from Yunzhong County to Hequ Village.

The reason why Hequ Village is called Hequ Village is because the Yellow River almost circles a semicircle here and then moves forward along the original trend.

Shen Bing remembers that this is the northernmost point of the famous Hedong coalfield in Shanxi.

That is to say, there must be coal below. The disadvantage is that it is generally deep, and there are more than ten steps from the ground.

But this is not a shortcoming. For Shen Bing, it means that more people dig down layer by layer, and the coal seam can be dug in a few days.

This shortens the shipping time to two or three days.

Fusu was quite surprised by this, and asked:

"How does the general know that there is Nirvana here?"

Shen Bing replied:

"I heard people say before that Nirvana Stone was cultivated in this area during farming."

"It's just luck for me to dig the Nirvana Stone now."

Fusu was dubious, but apart from Shen Bing's statement, there was no other reasonable explanation, so he could only believe it.

Another shortcoming is that this place already belongs to Yanmen County. If Shen Bing, the Northern General, takes any action here, he will exceed his authority.

This is not difficult to solve.

Shen Bing only needs to find an excuse to inform the magistrate of Yanmen County...

"Hequ Village is an important place for supply in Yunzhong County."

"Because I was worried about the sneak attack and harassment of the Huns cavalry, I stationed [-] troops here to prevent accidents!"

This excuse is reasonable, and the sheriff of Yanmen County has no reason to disagree.

At the same time, the three thousand soldiers stationed here to build the city will not arouse suspicion.

It's just that the walled city was not built to defend against the Huns, but to collect Nirvana inside.

Shen Bing used the Daliang Army, and all of them were descended from the original Wei State.

The reason why the original Wei State was chosen to surrender troops was because Shen Bing wanted to defend Li Si and Zhao Gao.

The Wei soldiers were all selected by Shen Bing and Wei Wei, and it is unlikely that they would be bought by Li Si and Zhao Gao.

But Shen Bing also knows that it is very difficult to hide this matter... It is not a secret if a third person knows it, not to mention thousands of people are needed to mine it.

So Shen Bing kept another hand ready to cover up: the Nirvana stone is widely used as fuel for soldiers and civilians to light fires and keep warm.

One day, if Zhao Gao and Li Si noticed something unusual and asked about it, their first thought would be... Shen Bing picked Nieshi just to meet the needs of cooking and heating.

This is quite normal, because more of the area around Yunzhong County is desert and grassland, with fewer trees.

If the trees were to be used to make equipment and city walls, then Nirvana stones would naturally be used to make fire and keep warm.

As a result, the sky over Yunzhong County immediately filled with a strong smell of burning coal, whether it was day or night... a fire was lit for cooking during the day, and warming at night.

Shen Bing, who was not used to this kind of smell, became dizzy for a moment and couldn't breathe.

But for the sake of future development, I can only endure it.

Especially at this time, the Xiongnu already looked like they were going to do something...

As soon as Shen Bing gave up and set up Jiuyuan, the Xiongnu immediately followed up, and then pressed the border line all the way to Yunzhong County.

Of course the Huns don't attack cities, the Huns are not good at attacking cities.

Not to mention the Warring States period, even at the peak of the Mongolian cavalry nomads, they were not good at siege.

In terms of grand strategy, the Mongols used their broken tactics of cavalry mobility in great depth.

To put it simply, every time the grain is harvested, they cross over the enemy's cities to plunder, take away what can be taken away, and burn what cannot be taken away. One lap and then return with a full load.

In this way, the loss once or twice may be acceptable.

But year after year, day after day... the crops here have been planted and failed to harvest over the years, and the people farming outside the city are still in a state of unprotected being burned, killed and looted by enemy cavalry. How can the people bear it?

So the people had to keep moving out in order to survive, and within a few years the city became empty.

Mongolia did not need to do this in the middle and late stages, because after occupying a large area of ​​the Song Dynasty and controlling many Han people, it was possible to use the Han people to form a slave army and let them attack the city... The Yashan naval battle that marked the demise of the Song Dynasty was fought by the Han Chinese Zhang Hongfan.

At this time, the strategy of the Xiongnu was similar to that of the early Mongolia.

Similarly, the cavalry crossed the city and went deep into the Central Plains to plunder.

This may not be called "strategy", but the nature of nomads' plundering... At this time, they don't even know what "strategy" is.

Fortunately the Xiongnu were very cautious, they just sent small cavalry across the raid and returned quickly.

On the one hand, it was because they had been ambushed by Li Mu many times before, so they were worried that they would lose the battle again due to the ambush.

On the other hand, it is not yet the season of grain harvest, even if they go south to plunder, they will not gain much.

Therefore, Shen Bing also had some time to prepare.

The matter of iron smelting was handed over to Bian and Qiang by Shen Bing.

Bian is Shouchun's iron official, Shen Bing saw that he was capable, so he took him with him... It is not difficult for Shen Bing to want a few people in his current status.

Bian and Qian have their own strengths: Bian is better at iron smelting and Qiao is better at casting. In addition, Bian brought a group of apprentices from Shouchun, so the smelting and production of ironware is not a problem.

As for the iron ore, Shen Bing doesn't have to hide it like the Nirvana mine, he can make a request to Ying Zheng openly.

For example, the lack of agricultural tools in the North requires iron smelting to develop agriculture.

Another example is the need for ore to relieve the worries of guarding the city in Yunzhong County...

These are all normal, just like when Xiang Yan guarded the Rushui defense line, he also required Ruyin and Chengfu to produce their own equipment.

Among them, arrows are especially powerful weapons for defending the city, and at the same time they consume a lot of energy. Tens of thousands of defenders need to shoot tens of thousands of arrows in one volley. The city is in danger...

Once the arrows are used up and the logistics are not delivered?

Or is the transportation line cut off by the enemy or the arrows taken by the enemy?

Therefore, Ying Zheng had no reason not to agree to Shen Bing's request, and immediately sent people to continuously transport iron, copper, tin and other ores to Yunzhong County.

In remote areas, it is not even ore that is transported, but smelted iron, copper, tin... The geographical location is far away and transportation is inconvenient, and it is too wasteful to transport ore.

Chapter 296 Blast Furnace

While preparing these, Shen Bing organized an iron smelting workshop in the city.

The iron smelting workshop was placed in the barracks by Shen Bing.

This is very rare, because at this time, all countries, including Qin, did not pay much attention to iron smelting... The technology has not kept up, and iron products can only be used in agricultural systems, so of course they are not taken seriously.

But of course it will be different in Shen Bing's hands.

The reason for placing it in the barracks is of course out of confidentiality.

For this reason, Shen Bing had to bring the blacksmith's family and gather them together and send soldiers to guard them. This is what others call "hostages."

Shen Bing didn't want to do this, but one was to protect the safety of the blacksmith's family, and the other was to use him as a pledge.

Shen Bing said this to the blacksmith:

"Iron smelting is no small matter."

"We are fighting the Xiongnu outside the Great Wall. Once the smelting technique is leaked to the enemy, the Central Plains will be in great trouble."

"That's why Shen Bing has to be careful, I hope everyone will forgive me!"

This also makes sense.

That is to say, it is the enemy, the Huns, and foreigners who are so strictly guarded against.

Then there is nothing to say, of course we have to guard against it desperately, otherwise if this technology is leaked, the weapons and equipment made by the Xiongnu will be used to attack the Central Plains and kill the people...

Although the countries in the Central Plains are fighting each other, they have never been ambiguous about resisting foreign invasion, especially the brutal Xiongnu, and the people agree with it.

How could they have thought that Shen Bing was not only defending against the Xiongnu, but also against Zhao Gao and Li Si.

Bian and Qiang didn't feel anything at first, they even thought that Shen Bing was a little too cautious.