Troubled times: Start practicing spiritual practice by taking care of your sister-in-law

Chapter 216 From today on, call me Chen Shuai

After learning that the "briquette pounding" had been successfully produced, Chen Mo, who was practicing archery, immediately rode on the Snow Dragon and rushed to the county seat.

At this moment, as the city gate opened, the vegetable farmers and vendors who had been waiting for a long time spontaneously lined up in long lines, were inspected by the soldiers guarding the city, issued their credentials, and then swarmed into the city.

Then he rushed to Fuze Tower and picked a good spot in the streets around Fuze Tower. The vegetable farmers arranged their dishes and the vendors set up their stalls.

Soon, breakfast stalls were set up one after another in the streets and alleys.

Less than half an hour later, the streets around Fuze Tower were as lively as going to a market.

With two consecutive bumper harvests in Pingting County, the current price of food in the city has returned to the price in peacetime.

Of course, in order to prevent large households from taking advantage of the low price to buy wantonly, the Yamen issued a grain restriction order. Proof of purchase must be issued, and each person must not purchase more than a few kilograms of grain at a time.

And with the stability of the county, the yamen no longer gives out free porridge.

And an announcement was made to collect taxes one after another starting from February next year.

This does not violate Chen Mo's original promise, and the one-year tax exemption has come.

If there is no tax exemption, the yamen will have an unbalanced income and expenditure.

The taxes collected by the yamen are nothing compared to the taxes collected by the imperial court. If the taxes cannot be collected, the people will not be able to survive.

Of course, for some poor households who really cannot afford to pay taxes, they can submit tax exemption applications to the yamen. After review, the yamen will send people to investigate in person. If they are really poor households, they will be exempted from tax.

Such a humane announcement has won the support of the people.

Of course, tens of thousands of people must be dissatisfied.

In their opinion, it would be better not to pay taxes for the rest of their lives.

After all, the world is such a big place and there is everyone.

If they don't pay taxes even if they have money, the yamen will definitely let them know how powerful the tax collectors are.

Compared to the bustle around Fuze Building, the streets near the arsenal were silent.

There are heavy patrols outside the arsenal, and people are not allowed to set up stalls around it, and no one else is allowed to approach at will.

"The county magistrate."

"The county magistrate."

"..."

Geng Songfu, Zhao Daoxian and Zhang Xiaolou, the chief engineer of the arsenal, had been waiting outside the arsenal for a long time. When they saw Chen Mo coming, they stepped forward to greet him one by one.

Chen Mo turned over and dismounted. When he heard this title, he frowned slightly and said immediately: "It's time to change the title in the future. The title County Magistrate is a bit too petty now."

As soon as these words came out, Geng Songfu and others were stunned.

Geng Songfu said: "What should I call him? Magistrate?"

"Just call him Chen Shuai." Chen Mo thought that it was time to step down from his post as county magistrate.

".No." Geng Songfu nodded. It was indeed inappropriate to call him the county magistrate. After all, from the perspective of the Tianshi Army, Chen Mo was in charge of seven counties. A few more counties would make him one county. In the past, you could be called a county guard.

However, the title County Sheriff was an official title from the previous dynasty, and there was no title conferred by the court. It was a bit strange to call him by himself. The title Chen Shuai was not bad, and Chen Mo was already Fangqu Shuai.

"No need to be polite, show me how to pound briquettes." Chen Mo looked at Zhang Xiaolou.

"No, Chen Shuai." Zhang Xiaolou asked someone to bring a "briquet pounder" that was almost the same as Chen Mo's previous life. After Chen Mo took it, he pulled it, and the effect was good.

"Chen Shuai, what's the use of this briquette pounding?" Even though Geng Songfu was well-informed, he couldn't see the use of this thing.

"You will know soon." Chen Mo gave it up for the time being and turned back to Zhang He and said, "Bring the things up."

Geng Songfu looked at Zhang He and the others behind Chen Mo.

Several people from Zhang He came forward carrying a sack, opened the sack, and poured out a pile of black stuff.

"Is this coal?" Geng Songfu asked. He knew coal. After all, the sulfur in the county was extracted from pyrite and burned with coal.

Chen Mo nodded, and then ordered Zhang He to use iron bars to grind the lumps of coal into pulverized coal, and then bring in clean water.

Briquettes are easy to make. The simplest method is to mix pulverized coal and water in a ratio of ten to one, then pound and press the briquettes into shape, and let them dry in the sun for two or three days.

If it is not easy to form, you can also add some yellow mud.

If it is difficult to burn, you can add some lime, charcoal powder, sawdust and other mixtures to assist combustion.

Soon, Zhang He stirred the pulverized coal evenly. Chen Mo took the briquettes, pounded them, put a pestle into the coal balls, and then pressed it into the open space next to it, and a not-so-perfect briquette was created.

For a better experiment, Chen Mo directly used the innate spiritual energy to steam the honeycomb briquettes to dryness, and then lit them.

After the briquettes burned on their own for a while, Chen Mo said, "You can get closer and grill."

Geng Songfu, Zhao Daoxian, Zhang He and others tried it in turn.

Zhang He and Zhang Xiaolou have little knowledge and still don't quite understand. What is the use of this thing besides being used to warm the fire? The smell is still pungent, so there is no firewood to use.

But Geng Songfu looked deeper. He even looked at the place where the holes were made, and found that this thing burned quickly and had strong firepower. The most important thing was that it continued to burn for a long time, was more durable than firewood, and the production method was also simple. "Good." Geng Songfu praised, and then said: "This thing can not only be used for heating, but can also be used to boil water for cooking. It is much more convenient than chopping wood to start a fire, but the smoke is strong and a bit pungent.

Chen Shuai, this thing should be non-toxic, right? "

"Just keep it ventilated."

As for the problem of the smoke causing choking, Chen Mo knew that anthracite was smokeless and odorless, but he didn't know how to make anthracite. He could only wait and see if anyone could figure it out in the future.

"County Chen Shuai, do you want to use this thing to help the people survive the winter?" Zhao Dao interjected first.

Chen Mo nodded. What Geng Songfu said just now can help people boil water for cooking. So on this basis, coal stoves can also be made.

The coal stove is also simple, just roll it up with a piece of iron sheet and you're done.

"Then the cost shouldn't be low, right? Can the common people afford it?" Zhao Daoxian said.

"Don't worry, Master Zhao." Chen Mo smiled: "It's very cheap, so cheap that you can't even imagine it. Of course, the price still needs to be discussed, but it's definitely cheaper than firewood."

Chen Mo has plenty of coal.

If you pound the briquettes, you can make a dozen or so, which can be reused, or you can even use wood instead.

Chen Mo only needs to pay some labor costs.

To put it a bit exaggerated, it is a business without capital.

Geng Songfu bowed to Chen Mo and said, "I would like to thank Chen Shuai for his great kindness on behalf of the countless cold-blooded people."

"What is Geng Songfu doing?" Chen Mo quickly helped Geng Songfu and said, "After all, I am also the parent officer of Pingting County."

"If it had been the time of Emperor Jing, Chen Shuai would have become a famous minister and would be sought after by future generations." Geng Songfu said seriously.

Emperor Jing of the Song Dynasty, the grandfather of today's emperor, recruited talents during his reign, emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, despised corvee and reduced taxes, and reduced punishment, and was loved by the people all over the world.

It's a pity that he didn't live long.

His son, Emperor Xuan of the Song Dynasty, not only continued the policies of Emperor Jing of the Song Dynasty, but also pacified the Vietnamese barbarians in the south, conquered the powerful barbarians in the north, and expanded the territory. Unfortunately, he lived too long. Most of the current troubled times were caused by Emperor Xuan of the Song Dynasty in his later years. .

"Mr. Geng County Cheng praised me."

Chen Mo smiled and walked towards the arsenal. Since he was here, he wanted to see how the arsenal was developing.

At present, the weapons produced by the arsenal are roughly spears, crossbows, horizontal knives, short knives, and arrowheads.

Basically, according to Chen Mo's requirements, each person is equipped with five weapons (horned bow, spear, horizontal sword, short sword, and round shield.).

There are currently 500 brave guards equipped with five weapons.

A thousand brave guards, equipped with swords, daggers and bucklers.

All brave and powerful men are wearing armor.

After Chen Mo entered the arsenal, a hot breath hit his face. The temperature inside was much higher than outside.

There are more than a dozen large furnaces inside, and hundreds of blacksmiths (including apprentices) are hammering away.

Geng Songfu followed behind, pointed behind him, and said: "Chen Shuai, the arsenal is still expanding, and we are trying to increase the production of Mingguang Armor from fifty pairs a month to one hundred pairs. The red copper currently accumulated in the warehouse is enough to make Three thousand pairs of bright light armors came out."

"Is the money enough?" Chen Mo asked.

"Please rest assured, Chen Shuai, if the expenditure is insufficient, Laozhuo will not expand. After the taxes are collected next year, it can be expanded. The county school is also cultivating talents." Geng Songfu said.

Chen Mo's eyes brightened slightly, and he immediately said: "Geng County Cheng, I currently have about 600 war horses in my hands. Can I build a heavy cavalry of 200 people?"

Heavy cavalry equipment, lance + horn bow + 30 arrows + mace + two-handed knife + one-handed knife + buckler.

Geng Songfu thought for a while, then shook his head and said: "There are still too few war horses, and the cost of building heavy cavalry is too high. The effect of two hundred heavy cavalry is not obvious. Instead of building heavy cavalry, it is better to equip a five-man army." A hundred men’s light cavalry.”

Hearing this, Chen Mo nodded and could only suppress this thought for the time being.

Qingzhou was severely damaged by the Tianshi Army. This attack on Qingzhou also recruited tens of thousands of civilians. Coupled with the forced conscription, the population of Qingzhou plummeted. If not for this reason, Chen Mo was now in charge of several counties and could develop rapidly. .

Yuzhou is not bad, but the people were moved to the rear by Liang Song, obviously to prevent this.

……

In the afternoon of that day, Sun Meng, Liu Ze and others drove into Pingting County with the troops from Quanyang County.

It was snowy and it was difficult to move. Tens of thousands of people walked on the official road in a mighty manner. The sentries stationed at various intersections were so frightened that they quickly returned to the Yamen to report, thinking that the enemy was invading.

I was relieved when I found out it was one of my own.

Except for Shenyong and Shenwuwei among them, everyone else was arranged to enter Qingting County.

By the next day, Chen Mo was carrying out restructuring without stopping.

First of all, the soldiers who were originally trapped in the formation guard were classified into the brave guard.

More than 8,000 soldiers of the Heavenly Master were reorganized into trap guards, and winter training officially began. Elites were selected from among them and filled into the brave and powerful guards.

(End of this chapter)