Chapter 49: No harvest at night

If the matter is not important, the scholar can solve it himself. He specially sent someone to ask Ying Yi, explaining that it was not a trivial matter.

Ying Yi cheered up and listened.

The scholar then said: "Earlier, my lord told me about military uniforms and armor, and I have always kept them in mind. I haven't come up with any good ideas these days. But the mountains and rivers are over, and I didn't expect to hear this from a woman's mouth. idea."

"Oh?" Ying Yi's eyes lit up: "Come and tell me."

I heard the scholar say: "A woman preparing gun barrels accidentally mentioned..."

The manpower in Crescent Valley has now been sorted out by scholars. There are a total of more than 23,000 people in Crescent Valley, of which nearly 9,000 are young adults, with slightly more able-bodied women, and the rest are old and weak children. More than 3,000 soldiers have been recruited, and more than 5,000 young men are left, all of whom will be invested in the construction of Crescent Valley and Bibo Valley. Therefore, when it comes to preparing gun barrels, the choice of manpower can only be done by young and strong women.

While supervising the preparation of gun barrels, the scholar heard something from a woman.

This is an era of sinking, and ordinary people are in dire straits. Can't afford to eat or wear clothes. The woman accidentally mentioned that there was a kind of thorn vine in Fangcheng Mountain. It was cut and soaked in water for about half a month. Then it was taken out, cleaned and sorted, and turned into handfuls of twine. These twine are soaked in tung oil for three days, dried in the sun, and then soaked in water for two days. After being taken out, washed and dried, they can be used for textiles. The clothes produced are extremely durable.

"The woman also said that if soaked in tung oil several times, the clothes woven from this kind of thorny twine will be more durable."

After Ying Yi heard this, he couldn't help but said, "Have you ever seen the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, scholar?"

The scholar laughed and said, "I know what you mean. In the novel, when Kong Ming was conquering the Southern Barbarians, there was a Wu Tu Gu with a group of vine-armored soldiers, which caused a lot of trouble to Kong Ming."

"Yes, it's the Vine Armor Soldier." Ying Yi said: "When I heard this Thorn Vine Weaver, I felt like I was familiar with the Vine Armor Soldier."

The scholar nodded: "My subordinates were the same way at the time. So I think it may be in line with your Majesty's requirements."

Ying Yi nodded: "If it can be compared with the rattan armor, no, as long as it is half as effective, I will credit you with a great contribution. But is this kind of thorn vine common, and can it meet the needs of thousands or even tens of thousands of military uniforms?"

The scholar said: "My lord, I have also thought about your worries. I asked the woman and she said that this kind of thorn vine is very common in Fangcheng Mountain. I thought that tens of thousands of sets would not be possible for a while, but thousands of sets should be OK. Bar?"

Ying Yi smiled and said, "In that case, why are you hesitating? Just go ahead and do it."

He said: "The manpower and silver are at your disposal. On the premise of not delaying the preparation of the gun barrel, try to make the rattan armor as much as possible."

"Yes." The scholar was very happy: "I will live up to your expectations."

Ying Yi was also very happy. An army must have all the weapons and armor in order to be able to go to the battlefield. But the current situation is extremely difficult. If we can find a replacement, it will open up a new situation. The benefits of this to Ying Yi are self-evident.

"If this kind of thorn vine is very effective in making armor, remember not to break the roots of the thorn vine. It is best to prepare for large-scale planting just like planting food. We cannot only have these three thousand soldiers and horses, and there will definitely be more and more in the future. The more." He then ordered carefully.

Sun Xiucai understood.

"The situation near Ye County is getting more and more serious." Ying Yi said: "I may not be able to take care of the mountains for a while. Everything here will be left to you."

Sun Xiucai bowed solemnly.

In Crescent Valley, Ying Yi didn't stay long. After meeting the scholar, he returned to Bibo Valley overnight, quietly took the woman named Yuan away, and returned to Xiaowangzhuang.

Now there is no need to hide this woman. I was careful before because I wanted to hide it from Zheng Yunzhi. Now that Zheng Yunzhi is under house arrest by him, there is no need to cover it up anymore.

"This woman is a descendant of Yuan Chonghuan."

Ying Yi called Zhou Li and Zhu Bingkun over: "She was the one who leaked the news about military pay to the bandits."

When the two of them heard that Zhou Li had nothing to do, Zhu Bingkun started to curse: "Sure enough, the son of a mouse knows how to dig holes. What kind of thing is Yuan Chonghuan, and what kind of thing is this bitch." Yuan Chonghuan died with a thousand cuts, and the whole world was in uproar. At that time, the people in the capital even ate his meat.

It shows how much people hate him.

As the governor of Liaodong, he commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, but he actually allowed the Tatars to attack the capital city.

If you were caught off guard and the capital was breached, you can imagine what would happen to the people. How could you not hate him? !

Zhou Li might not know it clearly, but Zhu Bingkun knew it. He couldn't help but get angry and cursed a bitch.

"Okay." Ying Yi waved his hand: "This woman has gone crazy. What's the point of arguing with a madman? She is still useful. It's good to keep her in custody for the time being."

After handing the woman surnamed Yuan to Zhou Li for custody, Ying Yi said: "The bandit army is heading south. I am worried about Zhang Shi and plan to go and have a look immediately. You should be careful and remember my previous instructions."

Hearing this, Zhou Li hurriedly said: "My lord, you have been working hard all night, why don't you go down?"

Zhu Bingkun said the same thing.

Ying Yi said in an unquestionable tone: "I'll go, you guys guard this place."

...

South of Ye County, beside the woods.

An army was encamped here.

The fire is dotted with torches, shining brightly on each other.

At five o'clock in the morning, except for the occasional sound of horses neighing and vague patrols and sentries, it was completely silent.

On a grassy slope about two or three miles away, there were several figures prostrate. Zhang Shi folded his arms and curled up into a ball. While staring closely at the bandit camp, his teeth chattered and said: "Damn, it's so cold. Wang Er and Li San, you guys sleep for a while while I watch. Later." Keep rotating.”

"Go to sleep." One person said, "My penis is so cold that it hurts, so I can't sleep."

Zhang Shi grinned and exhaled a breath of white air in the darkness: "If it's cold, eat some dry food."

Another person suddenly said: "Boss, you said that this bandit suddenly went south, what will our Lord Ying do? I heard that Lord Ying is unparalleled in bravery and kills people like chickens. Not even a thousand bandits die in his hands." Eight hundred. Will you have a fight with the bandits?"

Zhang Shi chuckled and said, "Why, are you scared?"

"I'm afraid of nothing." The man said disdainfully: "Thieves are all beasts. I, Li San, am afraid of beasts?! I wish I could kill more of them!"

Wang Er patted Li San on the shoulder and said, "Boss, you don't know that Li San's hometown was massacred by bandits..."

In this era, except for places that have not been ravaged by bandits, there is probably no real pain. How many people in the world do not hate bandits? Burning and slaughtering the city, looting and looting, what kind of unscrupulous things cannot be done by thieves? !

Although the Ming government was corrupt to the core, it still maintained stability. For the vast majority of people, stability is paramount. As long as labor can keep me alive, I will not break the stability no matter how difficult it is.

The bandits shouted slogans loudly, saying that they are not willing to pay for their food, but their behavior was worse than that of animals. Maybe at the beginning, people still believed in them, but after they saw clearly what they were like, how could they be so angry?