The person brought in by the magistrate Zhou was a man in his forties. He was tall and tall, and looked very smart and capable. His surname was Shan, and he was one of the major managers of the Wu family business in Jiangling. The middle-aged man entered the lobby.

Kneel down and salute, "Little Min Shan Yue pays homage to the governor of the state!"

Liu Jing smiled and waved his hand, "No need to be polite, please get up!"

"Master Xie Zhou!" Manager Shan stood up.

Liu Jing asked again with a smile: "I heard from the magistrate of Zhou that Manager Shan just returned from Jiaozhou?"

"Yes! Xiaomin only returned from Fanyu County, Nanhai County yesterday."

"I see!"

Liu Jing pondered for a while and asked again: "I probably knew at the beginning of the year that Liu Bei's army had a fierce battle with Shi Xie's army in Hepu County. I wonder what the result was?"

"Report to the governor of the state, this battle was over long ago. Shi Xie's army was defeated by Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei occupied Hepu County and Gaoliang County. He ordered the general Chen Dao to lead his army to defend Hepu County. Then Zhuge Liang led 20,000 troops to fight against Nanhai County in the east.

Just last month, the prefect of the South China Sea, Wu, was killed by Guan Yu. He heard that more than 10,000 troops in Fanyu City surrendered to Zhuge Liang. When I came back, I happened to meet Liu Bei, leading civil and military officials and his family to Fanyu from Cangwu.

”

Liu Jing nodded. Shi Xie was not Liu Bei's opponent. He had expected this, but he did not expect that Liu Bei's army would progress so quickly. The nine counties of Jiaozhou had occupied six counties. He pondered for a while and asked, "Then you."

Do you know about Shi Xie’s situation?”

"Xiaomin only heard that the Shi family retreated to Jiaozhi County, and now there are only Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan counties, and the army has suffered most of the losses. Now Shi Xie is asking for peace from Liu Bei."

"Ceer to Liu Bei?"

Liu Jing immediately asked with interest: "Is the news true?"

"Xiaomin only heard some local people talking about it at the tavern in Cangwu County when he came back. Someone saw Shi Xie's envoy, his younger brother Shi Yi. Xiaomin cannot guarantee whether the peace is true."

Liu Jing smiled and said to Liu Xian: "It seems that Uncle Liu chose to go to Jiaozhou. If he took the right path, he would at least have a foundation."

Liu Xian shook his head, "Frankly speaking, I don't like Uncle Liu. Although Jiaozhou was run by Zhao Tuo, it is still a barren land, which is worse than Jingnan, let alone compared to Jingyi.

If you occupy all Jiaozhou for ten years or twenty years of hard work, there will be no improvement, let alone the battle for supremacy of the Central Plains. It will be impossible."

Everyone was talking, and at this time, a personal soldier reported in the hall, "Qi Bizhou Governor, Jiangxia Ma Xue sent someone to send trust!"

Ma Xuezheng is Ma Jun, who is an official general and is a general of the Central Army. The craftsmanship he founded is still in Xiakou and has not moved to Xiangyang yet. Liu Jing nodded and smiled, "Let the sender come in!"

After a moment, Ma Jun's apprentice Liang Yi quickly walked into the lobby and saluted Liu Jing and said, "I am sending a letter to the provincial master on his order. When I went to Chengdu, I realized that the provincial master was in Jingnan and rushed over again.

”

Liu Jing laughed, "It's so hard to chase Lingling County."

Liang Yi took out Ma Jun's letter and submitted it to Liu Jing, "Please check it out!"

Liu Jing took the letter and looked at it without panic. He asked with a smile: "I care very much about how your master is talking now?"

"Thank you for your concern to the Lord. There is no problem with the master speaking slowly, but if you are anxious, you will not be able to say a word. I was very anxious to develop wooden oxen a few months ago and didn't say a word for three days."

What Liu Jing is most concerned about is the progress of the development of the wooden ox, which is related to his northern expedition. He opened the letter and read it, and immediately stood up. The letter said that the development of the wooden ox was successful, and Liu Jing could no longer hold on.

Unable to stop the expectation in his heart, he smiled at everyone and said, "It seems that I have to set off for Jiangxia tomorrow!"

.........

Five days later, Liu Jing's fleet arrived in Qichun County. At this time, Ma Jun was not in Xiakou, but in the mountainous areas of Qichun County. According to the agreement reached by Jingzhou and Jiangdong, Qichun County is now composed of two companies.

It was officially handed over to Jingzhou in September. Currently, the prefect of Qichun was Bu Zhi, but the county magistrate was Tao Zheng, and there were no garrisons in the county.

Bu Zhi was just the nominal prefect of Qichun. He also served as the prefect of Lujiang. Most of the time Bu Zhi stayed in Lujiang County, which was actually controlled by the county magistrate Tao Zheng.

It can be seen that the Tao family also invested in Qichun County, renovated the Qichun County Wharf, and moved the Tao family fleet supply station and warehouse from Wuchang County to Qichun County, so that the Qichun Wharf was full.

The boats and the pier are coming and going, and it is also particularly lively.

After Liu Jing got off the boat, Tao Zheng and Ma Jun immediately came up and saluted together, "See the governor of the state!"

Liu Jing and Tao Zheng exchanged a few greetings and turned their attention to Ma Jun. After all, he came from all the way to Ma Jun's wooden ox. He immediately asked with a smile: "Where can I see the wooden ox?"

”

Ma Jun also bowed and smiled, saying very slowly: "We have made a total of twenty vehicles and built a test site in Yundan Mountain in the north of Qichun County. It is still a hundred miles away, but there are also in the county town.

One car..."

Before he could finish speaking, Liu Jing smiled and said, "I can't wait, so I'll go to the county town!"

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In the back hall of the county government office, there is a black wooden cart, about six feet high and ten feet long. From the appearance, it looks like a wooden cow. There is also a cow head carved in front, and the body of the cow in the middle is actually grain

The cabinet is very wide, but there is only one wheel under it, which is a bit like a deer cart.

Liu Jing gently stroked the wooden cow and could see that there were many mechanisms, which were definitely not a simple deer cart. A disciple of Ma Jun next to him introduced: "The wooden cow has two major characteristics, one is that it has a large storage capacity.

Four stone rice can be placed in the grain cabinet, which is equivalent to the load of two mules and two deer carts. Secondly, it is lightweight, and can be operated by one person. When the mule needs to eat grass, the deer cart needs to be operated by two people. If you walk on the mountain road, you will still be operated by

It’s very inconvenient, our wooden cows walk on the mountain road like flat ground.”

"How can I do this?" Liu Jing asked curiously.

"This is really hard to describe!" Ma Jun said slowly with a smile: "The key is that the wooden cow tripe has a copper mechanism."

He asked someone to turn the wooden cart over, and there was indeed a set of copper disc-shaped mechanisms below, which seemed very complicated.

Ma Jun pointed to the mechanism and said slowly: "This mechanism is mainly used to adjust the height of wheels and boxes, as well as front, back, left and right, and adjust according to different terrain. In this way, you can deal with it whether you go uphill, downhill or walk on rugged mountain roads.

.”

Liu Jing frowned slightly, "It seems that the manipulation is very complicated!"

"It is indeed not easy to operate, and this is the only trouble. People who use wooden ox need to train for several months to proficient in operation."

Liu Jing could no longer suppress the expectation in his heart and smiled: "I hope to see the actual performance of the wooden cow in the mountains immediately."

.........

Yundan Mountain is located about a hundred miles northeast of Qichun County. It belongs to the remnant of Dabie Mountain. The mountains are steep and the heights are very different. The mountain roads are rugged, the mountain streams are gurgling, and the forests are lush, which is quite similar to the terrain of Zhongnan Mountain.

, is the most ideal place to test wooden cows.

In the afternoon of the same day, Liu Jing and his group arrived at Yundan Mountain in a mighty manner. At this time, more than 100 Ma Jun's disciples had already built dozens of tents at the foot of the mountain as the base for testing wooden oxes, before Liu Jing's future

They have been experimenting and revising for more than three months, constantly adjusting and improving, and finally took out twenty prototypes.

On the open space in front of the tent, twenty black painted wooden oxen were neatly placed. Ma Jun's twenty disciples were ready. They were all tall and strong, very suitable for manipulating wooden oxen, counting behind them.

Ten steps away is a winding and rugged road up the mountain. There are two Taoist temples on the mountain. This mountain road is the path up the mountain for Taoist temples to transport supplies.

Liu Jing walked forward, patted one of the wooden cows gently, and smiled at Ma Jun and said, "I'll wait and see, let's start!"

"Put the food!"

Ma Jun's other disciples carried bags of grain from a large tent. This was the standard grain bag in Jingzhou. One bag was exactly one stone of rice. They put four bags of grain in each wooden cow's grain cabinet, and then

The cabinet door was locked, and twenty disciples who were manipulating the wooden cow put their belts on their shoulders and were ready.

"Set off!"

With Ma Jun's order, twenty disciples pushed the wooden ox to start line up, and Liu Jing followed them with hundreds of soldiers and observed the action of the grain team. As expected, twenty

The grain truck is very light. Although it carries nearly 500 kilograms of grain, it can still walk on the mountain road as if it is flying.

It is a little hard to go uphill, but it can still be pushed up slowly. When going downhill, it changes the mechanism so that the wooden cow can walk slowly without rushing down all at once. The key is that the wheels are very flexible and can easily avoid the big rocks in front of you.

.

Through the stream and through the jungle, twenty wooden oxen always maintained their formation and walked like flying. Even the disciples who controlled the wooden ox seemed not tired. They walked twenty miles and finally came to a Taoist temple.

There are already more than a dozen disciples waiting.

Soon, Liu Jing led his soldiers to the Taoist temple, and saw twenty wooden oxen parked neatly in front of the Taoist temple. The wooden oxen was intact, and it was true. Not only did Liu Jing's eyes be filled with praise and smiles, but

His soldiers also exclaimed. This was a living mule, without eating grass, and had a large load. It was a treasure for transporting food and supplies in the mountains.

At this time, Ma Jun and his disciples also arrived, bowed and smiled, "Are the provincial governor still satisfied?"

"Satisfied, very satisfied!" Liu Jing said with a smile: "But I have another requirement!"

"Please say it to the state governor!"

Liu Jing pulled him forward and said, "I am considering on the road that I can directly order soldiers to transport food without collecting civilians. When encountering enemy situations, soldiers can put down their wooden cows to fight. So, can they convert the wooden cows into one at the same time.

A weapon.”
To be continued...