Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 275 Winter Training
"Your Highness, our thoughts are all on the cotton armor."

Seeing that King Yu's complexion was not good, the assistant craftsman Shoufang Quan said immediately.

"Oh? What do you say?"

"Your Highness, considering that the army is mostly used in the north, the cotton armor is just right. Everyone in the entire craftsman camp is making cotton armor, and there are about two thousand pairs every month."

"That's not bad!"

Compared with chain mail, cotton armor is more convenient, of course, cheaper, and it can also keep warm.

Zhu Yixi nodded and sighed: "You still have to work hard, you can't continue like this, you have to expand production."

Fang Quan couldn't stop nodding his head respectfully.

As for firearms, regulations have been formed long ago, no more, no less.

There are five red-clothed cannons per month, twenty Fran cannons of [-] to [-] catties, and fifty tiger-squatting cannons similar to mortars per month.

There are thousands of guns and flintlock guns each.

There are also seven or eight hundred rods per month for other short cavalry guns.

Therefore, there are 10,000 people in the entire firearms battalion, and there are [-] musketeers and [-] artillerymen.

As a result, a craftsman camp of nearly 20,000 people was created, with a large scale, forming a craftsman city.

The air was heavy and choking, and there was such a constant clanging and banging that every craftsman or apprentice had to wear earplugs.

After a while, he had tinnitus.

Now, Zhu Yixi's desire to inspect was extremely reduced, and he couldn't wait to leave the craftsman city.

The wall, which is three feet high and twenty miles long, is almost all made of earthen bricks. It looks like a county town. There are workshops near the river, and living quarters further back.

They did not leave by boat as they had come, but wandered nearby.

Because King Yu wanted to see the first industrial city.

In other words, it is a small town attached to the Craftsman City.

Only a few hundred steps out of the city, a town without city walls appeared in front of me, and it was very lively.

From a distance, it looks like the army came here to camp and set up tents. Large areas of simple houses are built in disorder, two streets are horizontal and vertical, and shops are densely packed.

When I got closer, I saw that the dirt road was very lively, and there were many people selling things, restaurants, and stalls.

Basically service industry.

In the feudal farming era, apart from cities, there were very few cities and towns with a concentrated population. The population was scattered all over the place. Most of the people made a living by farming. General markets were held at intervals, called grass markets.

And permanent markets in the countryside, even in the south of the Yangtze River, are rare.

Many craftsmen, apprentices, etc., like to go shopping during the rest time. In the winter, wearing short clothes with pockets around their stomachs can be found everywhere.

Of course, many of them were bachelors, full of anger, and naturally there were many prostitutes, even everywhere.

There are a few tents, and there are direct figures of people, and the sound of beating can be heard endlessly.

And the men and women on the street are all used to it, but the children occasionally peek at it for fun, and then they are pulled out by their ears.

Assistant craftsman Shoufang Quan felt a little unsightly, his face flushed, and his slightly thick neck swelled a little: "Your Highness, there are many rough men in the army, and they don't understand etiquette."

"There's got to be an outlet, right? I understand."

Zhu Yixi didn't take it seriously, and looked at it recklessly. Apart from brothels, the busiest place was the wine shop, and the smell of a lot of wine wafted away, which could be regarded as cleaning the nasal cavity.

"Mr. Wang is getting old, you need to help him."

King Yu said lightly.

Fang Quan couldn't understand what it meant, he suppressed his joy in his heart, and kept nodding his head: "Don't worry, Your Highness, there will be no troubles in Jiangcheng City."

"Money rewards alone are not enough. The craftsmen are working hard, and there are also needs in other areas."

Zhu Yixi smiled slightly, pointed to these shops and said: "This market must also be included in the artisan city. It is a mess, and it is easy to breed green-skinned rogues."

"Also, many craftsmen's mother-in-law problems, children's schooling problems, and drinking water problems must be solved as much as possible, so that they can have peace of mind, so that they can work wholeheartedly."

In the first year of Hongguang, His Royal Highness King Yu reformed the craftsman camp, changed the nature of personal attachment, and liberated productivity.

To put it simply, it is to cancel the craftsman's registration and no longer be oppressed by the court.

For example, the exempt silver that is regularly paid every year naturally does not exist, which is equivalent to exempting from corvee; children can take the imperial examination and change their careers.

Almost changed the composition of a family.

For Huguang as a whole, after subordinate officials, artisans are the second exempted from the shackles of household registration.

As for military households, they exist in name only.

Fang Quan was taken aback, and was overjoyed immediately. This is the expansion of power, and he hurriedly responded: "I hope Your Highness can rest assured, I will definitely do my best to complete it."

Zhu Yixi nodded, noncommittal.

……

Xiangyang Prefecture, Zaoyang County.

After the autumn harvest in September, just two days after the rest, the whole county was busy.

"咚咚-"

The sound of knocking on the door continued, and Wang Chunqing woke up helplessly. Seeing that the sky was still dark, she couldn't help cursing inwardly, put on her military robe, and washed her face with cold water to be considered sober.

"Stop knocking."

Wang Chunqing opened the door, and a delicate wheat-colored smiling face came into view.

"Boss, this winter training has started again, hurry up, the county lord has to give a lecture!"

Zhou Shangde said with a smile, there was no eagerness on a slightly delicate face.

"Let's go!" Holding the knife and stepping on the boots, Wang Chunqing walked away with her head held high.

During the Battle of Ruzhou last year, he was transferred from the army station to the auxiliary army. Because of his diligent delivery of food, many people, including him, were incorporated into the local defenders.

Two hundred in small counties, three hundred in large counties, exterminating bandits, subduing refugees, suppressing localities, it can be said to be a mess.

That's all, after the autumn harvest every year, there will be one and a half months of winter training.

All males aged sixteen and under thirty, as long as they are in good health, have to practice military formation, register and make records, and undergo winter training required by the shogunate.

And the winter training was actually included in the examination results of the officials, and the officials supervised the guards, so they had to carry out.

Wang Chunqing is the team leader, and it's his turn to host this ten days.

When he came outside the city, there were nearly a thousand people, many in tattered clothes, but all of them had flushed faces and were extremely excited.

According to the regulations, the common people must be provided with a meal during the winter training. In order to save some rations for the family, it is nothing to be tired.

With a stinky face, he woke up early in the morning and disturbed his lucid dream.

The magistrate was not very interested, so he left after saying a few words.

Then Wang Chunqing came on the stage, nothing more than teaching some signals such as flag orders, horn sounding gold, etc., and then he chopped and slashed, walked left and right, and other routine operations.

Responding to the urging of his subordinates, he brought a jug of wine and drank it to warm himself up.

"Oh, it's not easy to earn hundreds of Wen a month!"

After sighing, a big man suddenly ran over and shouted, "Captain Wang, I'm calling you!"

Wang Chunqing was taken aback, and hurriedly left.

Immediately, he learned a piece of news: the shogunate will select a team of guards for each county, two hundred civilian husbands, as auxiliary soldiers.

And he was honored to be selected.

Wang Chunqing was very excited: "It's finally time to fight, I don't have enough money."

(End of this chapter)