『PS: I went back to my hometown today.』

————The following text——

"Pu"

"Pu"

This continuous and strange sound is the sound of the horse pulling a carriage and its horse's hooves step on the sleepers in the track.

During this period, the entire carriage was running at an incredible speed. The speed of the carriage shocked the messengers of the countries in the carriage.

Because they were shocked to find that the speed of these war horses riding on horses was no less than that of a single person riding. How could this be possible?

You know, there are six or seven people in the carriage!

Could it be that there is any mystery they don’t know?

The envoys from all countries have their own thoughts when experiencing the speed of the track carriage.

Bao Yuan, Han Chao, Zhao Zhuo and others from South Korea carefully looked at the overall structure of the track carriage, obviously preparing to imitate Wei after returning to China to build several track carriages. After all, South Korea has long moved Xindu to Jicheng, and inconvenient transportation and transportation will inevitably become a major factor plaguing the development of Jicheng. If you can secretly learn the track carriage from Wei, I believe it will definitely play a crucial role in the development of Jicheng.

Compared with South Korea, the young master Xing of Lu State and the old minister Ji Shu were thinking about the incredible speed of the track carriage purely from the perspective of craftsmanship, and did not think about stealing the master.

It is no wonder that Lu State is so big, it is comparable to Wei State. Even if you ride a horse, you can get from one end of the country to the other end in just a few days. There is no need to lay any track carriages in one fell swoop. The current road situation in Lu State is enough to deal with most things.

As for the Weiyang Jun Ying Hua and others from Qin, Xiong Hu from Chu, and Gongzi Yu from Wei, they were more surprised than the demand for such track carriages. To put it bluntly, they did not have any demand, but they knew very well that laying track carriages like Wei State would definitely consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and this consumption was not necessarily affordable by Qin, Chu, and Wei.

In other words, they are more inclined to invest this financial resources in other aspects.

For example, Wei State, which has not even planned to build cavalry yet, how can we bear to use the best war horses to ride horses and carriages? After all, Wei State is not like the current Wei State, holding three natural pastures suitable for grazing war horses, Sanchuan, Hexi and Hetao.

The straight-line distance between Yecheng and Xiaohuang County is about 80 miles. Under normal circumstances, this may take one or two days to reach the distance, but with the rail carriage, they arrived from Yecheng from Xiaohuang County in just three hours.

This highway made the envoys from various countries secretly frightened, and at the same time, the Han general Bao Yuan finally learned the truth - recalling the "Wei-Han dispute" two years ago, Wei and South Korea also carried out at the same time on three battlefields. However, the logistics and food and supplies of South Korea were always not as timely as the Wei army, or even on time.

At that time, the generals and ministers of South Korea secretly speculated that the Wei State might have requisitioned a large number of civilians, which ensured the demand for food and supplies of as many as 400,000 Wei troops on several battlefields.

It was not until this moment that after witnessing and personally experiencing the convenience and speed of the track carriage, Han Jiang Baoyuan understood the reason.

For this reason, Bao Yuan was worried.

You should know that the only confidence in South Korea's resistance to Wei State is that the depth of South Korea's territory makes Wei State afraid of being afraid: that is, the Wei State is not sure to destroy South Korea in a short period of time, for fear that once this war falls into a quagmire, it will allow Chu State to take the opportunity to grow and replace Wei State's current status.

Can the existence of this kind of rail carriage enhance Wei's offensive against South Korea?

To be fair, the war model of Wei State is slightly similar to that of Chu State, both of which are a bit fierce and weak in the early stage. However, the difference is that Chu State is accustomed to using large-scale troops, which makes it difficult to support food and grass in the later stages; while Wei State has the speed of the army's advance far exceeds the speed of logistics troops transporting food and grass, especially in the face of the deep-seated South Korea and Chu State - the front-line army lacks food, even if the Wei soldiers are brave, it will be useless, right?

However, this kind of rail carriage greatly increased the speed at which Wei State transported food and grass to the front-line army.

Han general Bao Yuan couldn't help but fantasize: If Wei sent troops to attack him, and lay track carriages on the captured Han soil, so that the Wei locals could transport food and grass to the front line continuously, how would he, Han, resist Wei?

It's almost hard to resist.

Especially after witnessing the Wei State's attainments in building war weapons with his own eyes, and seeing the Wei State's catapults and crossbows collapsed a high wall that was no less than the city walls in Handan, Jicheng and other places in just half an hour, Bao Yuan became more and more afraid.

It is a very stupid idea to pin your hopes on Wei State giving up the strategy of his South Korea.

Bao Yuan naturally would not have any extravagant hopes for this. He believed that if Wei had enough power to annex his South Korea, the young king of Wei would never show mercy. On the other hand, the same was true.

Therefore, if they want to resist the attack of Wei, they had to work hard to strengthen themselves, work hard to govern, train better soldiers, and create better war weapons.

Among these envoys from various countries, the most calm one was Wu Qi, the envoy of Yue.

In Wu Qi's view, although Wei is strong, it does not necessarily pose any threat to him. After all, the distance between the two countries is too far away, not to mention that the land of Wu and Yue is complex and desolate. The Central Plains army, which is not familiar with the local environment, will be the end of the land, just following the Chu army that invaded Yue.

Before the evening of that day, Zhao Hongrun and his party arrived in Xiaohuang County.

At this time, the county magistrate of Xiaohuang County, "Wuji", led a large number of people to wait for Zhao Hongrun and others to arrive in the experimental field outside the city.

Obviously, these people have already learned the news.

Wu Ji is the cousin of Wu Guipin, the mother of Zhao Run's sixth brother Zhao Zhao. He is about forty years old this year. He is average in his ability, but he is diligent. Therefore, two years ago, after being transferred to the position of Xiaohuang County, he was recommended by Wang Fu, the director of the General Administration of Metallurgical and Engineering, and was appointed as the county magistrate of Xiaohuang County by the court.

Although Zhao Run and his sixth brother Zhao Zhao had a very unhappy relationship some time ago because of their stay or departure. Wu Guipin, who was once a relationship between Zhao Run and the Wu family, was recently taken to Qi by Zhao Zhao, but these two incidents did not affect Zhao Run and the Wu family in Xiaohuang County.

After all, with Zhao Run's current status, he did not need to rely on external forces at all. Instead, local tycoons such as the Wu clan hoped to climb this high branch.

Originally, Zhao Hongrun decided to lead the envoys of various countries to visit the experimental fields set up by the Yefa Bureau in Xiaohuang County, but because of the whim this morning, the envoys of various countries visited Yecheng, so there were some departures in and out of time. When Zhao Hongrun and his party arrived in Xiaohuang County, it was already getting late.

Therefore, Zhao Hongrun decided to rest in the residence of the Wu clan tonight and to take envoys from various countries to visit the experimental fields tomorrow.

So that night, in the ancestral home of the Wu clan, the Wu clan was flattered to host a banquet to entertain Zhao Run and his group.

That night, the wind was calm and there was no change.

Think about it, Xiaohuang County is one of the old nests of the black crows. In this county, at least hundreds of black crows who kill without blinking are lurking. If anyone dares to come here to cause trouble, it can be said that he is really impatient to live.

Early the next morning, after breakfast, Zhao Hongrun led envoys from various countries to the experimental fields outside the county as planned.

This time, the person in charge of the accompanying explanation was Zheng Zhao, one of the heads of the General Administration of Metallurgical Engineering.

While taking envoys from various countries to visit the test field, Zheng Zhao first explained to these envoys the origin and function of the "test field".

To be fair, visiting a few broken rice fields naturally would not make the envoys from various countries interested.

It was not until Zheng Zhao revealed the yield of these experimental fields that the envoys from various countries showed a stunned expression and looked at Zheng Zhao with disbelief. The expression seemed to be questioning: Are you deliberately teasing us? What a joke? How could there be such a high yield of this per capita?

At this time, Zheng Zhao continued to introduce: "...After research by our General Administration of Metallurgy and Engineering, we unanimously believe that the yield per mu of rice fields is closely related to the following points. First, whether the rice seeds are full. It is undeniable that shriveled rice seeds can also sprout, but they are obviously not as good as the seeds that are full. Secondly, irrigation... Please look at the canal."

As he said that, Zheng Zhao pointed to a canal about two meters wide in the north of the test field and said seriously: "For these test fields, our General Administration of Metallurgical Engineering asked the Ministry of Industry to recruit civilians to dig a canal directly to the river, and introduced the river water here, solving the irrigation problem once and for all."

The envoys of various countries raised their heads, and suddenly, they found that there seemed to be a plowing field in a low-lying land near the hills in the distance, but strangely, the plowing field was not like the plowing field here, and there were no crops planted, which made the envoys of various countries feel a little strange.

Just now, Mr. Lu asked, "Master Zheng, are the fields over there also affiliated with your office? Why don't you see any crops?"

Zheng Zhao looked up and nodded and said, "Yes, that is also the land that was requisitioned by the General Administration of Metallurgical Engineering. The reason why they do not plant crops is because those fields are "salty soil."

What he calls "salty soil" actually refers to "salt-alkali land". Because the soil contains too high salt content and is not suitable for crop growth, it can be called a inferior field among inferior fields.

But unfortunately, such poor fields are actually not uncommon in all countries of the Central Plains. Some are formed naturally, and salt is accumulated in the soil due to the relationship between terrain and groundwater. The farmers who are not sure of the final analysis spend a lot of effort to reclaim the fields, but eventually they have a field where crops are almost impossible to grow; while others are artificially caused by improper irrigation, the original high-quality fields gradually deteriorate into saline-alkali land.

"Is your office trying to find a way to cure this kind of salty soil?" Gao Qi, the Shangqing of Qi State, moved his heart and couldn't help asking.

After hearing Gao Jie's words, the other envoys from various countries also subconsciously turned their attention to Zheng Zhao.

Think about it, looking at the Central Plains countries, which country does not have such a saline-alkali land that can only be viewed? In fact, not only every country has it, but also has a large number.

If the Wei people had a way to cure this saline-alkali land and turn it into a high-quality and suitable for planting crops again, it would be a blessing in the world.

Under Gao Jie's inquiry, Zheng Zhao shook his head and explained: "It's still being studied... Two years ago, when officials from my country's Ministry of Industry went to Sanchuan County to investigate the soil, they found that there were a large amount of naturally formed salty soil in the "Chuzhong" in the central part of Sanchuan County, as well as the "Guoshan" and "Hangu" in the west. Now, the area under investigation has a height of hundreds of thousands of acres of salty soil. The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Industry hope that our General Administration of Metallurgical and Construction can find a way to cure these salty soil."

"How effective is it?" Xiong Hu, the Pingyu Jun of Chu State, couldn't help asking.

You should know that the saline-alkali land in Chu State is far more than these hundreds of thousands of acres.

Speaking of which, although the Chu State has a large land area, many of its land is undeveloped and remote, especially in western Chu and central Chu, which is full of dense primitive jungles and swamps, so that in the huge Chu State, there is not much land that can be cultivated.

What's worse is that farmers in this era generally do not know how to "food farming". They often cultivate on the same field for several years. After exhausting the nutrients in the soil, they give up the land and find fertile fields suitable for planting. At the same time, due to unscientific irrigation methods, the original fertile fields deteriorate into saline-alkali land.

This has caused the Chu State to reclaim fields every year, but the number of fertile fields has never increased much - of course, even if you look at the entire Central Plains, this is actually the case.

After hearing Pingyu Jun Xiong Hu's inquiry, Zheng Zhao subconsciously glanced at Zhao Run's expression, and then said vaguely: "For the time being, there is no clue yet."

"Honest man..."

Zhao Hongrun shook his head secretly.

In fact, the State of Wei has made considerable progress in curing saline-alkali land.

This is due to the fact that Wei State had an outstanding monarch - although the officials of Wei State were helpless with saline-alkali land, Zhao Hongrun knew the origin of the deterioration of this land and the corresponding way to improve this inferior land.

For example, the "salt washing method" using live water.

But this secret is obviously not suitable to disclose to the envoys from various countries.

"Master Zheng, let's take us to visit the experimental field before." Zhao Hongrun quietly tried to change the topic.

Upon hearing this, the envoys from various countries became even more clear in their hearts: Wei must have come up with some way to cure "salty soil", but they just don't want to disclose it to them.

This made them feel so angry that they knew that even if it were them, they would never tell them the truth.

Given the "disloyal" of the monarch of Wei, Zhao Run, the envoys from various countries could only collect any information about these test fields through their own eyes.

Not to mention, they have found some unusual things one after another.

For example, although it is only early March and there are still some days before spring planting, the experimental fields of Wei State have loosened the soil early and mixed some things like wood ash and animal excrement, as if preparing for the upcoming spring sowing.

In the small warehouse next to these experimental fields, envoys from various countries also discovered plowing tools for plowing fields.

In this regard, the old minister of Lu State, Ji Shu carefully inspected the plow. He found that this plow was better than the cattle plows that originated from the Lu State in the Central Plains. It was obviously the craftsmen of Wei who made improvements based on the cattle plows of Lu State.

Going further forward, everyone saw another workshop.

This workshop is built next to the canal, and several large water trucks are erected beside the canal. As soon as I saw these water trucks and workshops, a word popped up in my mind: Hydraulic workshops.

After seeking Zhao Run's permission, Uncle Ji visited these workshops.

As he had previously guessed, these workshops were all workshops that used hydraulic power to replace human power with machinery. Some were used to pound rice (to remove the rice from shells), and some were used to grind noodles. Looking at these extremely familiar hydraulic equipment, Uncle Ji felt as if he had returned to Lu.

You should know that the Mohist children in Lu were most keen on "helping the world". They often helped the common people in Lu to farm for free, and taught them how to use water wheels to irrigate, pound rice, grind noodles, etc., which made the territory of Lu full of hydraulic workshops, and the agricultural foundation of the entire country was quite solid.

Today, the Wei State seems to be developing towards Lu-style agriculture, and has achieved quite good results.

For example, those equipment that use hydraulic power, although Uncle Ji was born into the Three Huan nobles and had no close ties with the Mo Sect, as an old minister who had been in charge of the rule of Shandong for decades, his vision was naturally vicious.
To be continued...