Ganquan Castle is still a vast expanse of white. After half a year's absence, Chen Qing once again returned to this solid castle that he missed so much. Nothing has changed, as if they had just left yesterday.
Ganquan Fort is very important to Chen Qing. It is geographically remote and located in the north. There are no trees within a radius of fifty miles. The nearest county town is also a hundred miles away. Any army that wants to attack it must prepare a large amount of equipment, but
It will not be easy to capture it.
But for the Jin soldiers, Ganquan Fort was of no value. They occupied it just because they did not want to give the Song army or the Xixia people an advantage in vain.
There were only 300 puppet Qi troops in the castle. When Niu Gao led 2,000 troops, they surrendered.
There were no residents in the city. All the residents had been evacuated by Chen Qing. There were only empty houses, which were turned into a mess by the defenders looking for their belongings.
When Chen Qing arrived, Niu Gao had already led his soldiers to clean up and renovate the city. More than 300 families of Jurchen generals brought from Fengxiang and the rescued Song girls were also placed in houses.
But Chen Qing is still concerned about the issue of food and grass. Although they brought a large amount of food and grass from Xi County, how long can this food and grass last them?
Ganquan Fort also has some food. The three hundred garrison can only store 600 shi of food, which is of little significance. They must get food and grass.
Hu Yanyun said to Chen Qing: "Beizhi went to various counties to look around. There are about 4,000 shi of grain in Qingshui County and Chengji County. Adding the grain reserves in several other counties, Beizhi estimates that there are about 2,000 shi, which is six thousand shi of grain.
, which can support our ten thousand soldiers for two months.
Then you can buy grain from large households. I think there is no problem in raising another five thousand shi of grain. Forage and sheep can be purchased from the Qiang people. According to the situation last year, there is no problem in purchasing 30,000 sheep and 100,000 dans of forage. These are all
It’s enough to last us until spring.”
Spring will arrive in two months, and their main force will arrive, bringing a large amount of food and supplies.
"Are there any difficulties now?" Chen Qing asked.
Hu Yanyun nodded, "The biggest problem now is the lack of fuel. It is difficult to boil water and cook."
This is indeed a big problem. There are no trees around Ganquan. The previous residents relied on collecting bushes or wheat straw for fuel. Local residents also purchased large amounts of charcoal from outside every year.
Therefore, in several wars last year, the wood obtained from clearing battlefields was collected, and the reusable ones were reused, and the unusable ones were used as fuel.
"I remember there is still a lot of wood left in the warehouse, is it still there?"
"There is still a lot of wood that can be reused, but the wood used for fuel has been almost consumed by the defenders, or they are demolishing civilian houses."
In private houses, only the beams are made of wood, and the rest are made of mud or stones, which have little use value.
Seeing Hu Yanyun hesitate to speak, Chen Qing smiled and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it!"
"Bizhi found a pile of charcoal in the barracks, as well as traces of burning. The captured soldier said that he bought it from locals, and Bizhi is investigating."
Coal is coal. This reminds Chen Qing that if there is no wood as fuel, they can use coal! There should be coal in Ganquan Fort. When they first came here last year, they heard that Qinzhou was rich in coal, but they didn't take it to heart.
.
"Take me to see it!"
Soon, Chen Qing saw a pile of coal in the corner of the barracks. The quality was very high, but it was relatively fine.
This discovery made Chen Qing very excited. Since he was buying from locals, there must be coal nearby, and it should be an open-pit mine.
He immediately said to Hu Yanyun: "This kind of coal can completely solve our problem of insufficient fuel. Find out who discovered them as soon as possible."
Hu Yanyun silently remembered the word coal in his mind. Soon, the word coal gradually became popular among people, and everyone called it coal.
Early the next morning, Niu Gao led two thousand cavalry and one thousand camels to collect food from various places in Qinzhou, while Chen Qing followed Hu Yanyun to a mountain depression about fifteen miles south of Ganquan Fort. They were led by a group of
The deputy commander of the puppet Qi army who surrendered was named Wang Zhong, who was from Guanzhong. It was he who bought a batch of coal.
"That's it!" Wang Zhong pointed to several houses in the distance.
There are five or six families living in the mountain col. Several children were playing outside. When they saw someone coming, they quickly ran home.
"Old man Liu! Is old man Liu here?" Wang Zhong shouted loudly.
A skinny old man came out and said with a smile: "It turns out that the head of the capital is here!"
Wang Zhong was a little embarrassed and quickly whispered: "I am Song Jun now, this is"
Before he could introduce him, the skinny old man knelt down in fear, "It turns out to be General Chen, I didn't recognize him just now!"
"you know me?"
"I have transported stones to Ganquan Fort and met General Chen."
Chen Qing smiled and said: "I see, Wang Zhong, you bought the coal from this old man Liu?"
"Exactly! Old man Liu, the coal you sold me last time is called coal. Where did you find it?"
"That thing was found in Crow's Hole. There are a lot of them over there."
Place names like "Crow's Pit" are called randomly by local people. Chen Qing doesn't know where Crow's Pit is?
Chen Qing then smiled and said: "Take us to have a look. If we find it, I will reward you with twenty coins!"
When Old Man Liu heard that there was a reward of twenty guan, he laughed so hard that he couldn't close his mouth and said repeatedly: "Go! Go! I will take you there right now."
The so-called Crow Pit is located seven or eight miles east of Ganquan Fort. It is a basin with a radius of about twenty miles. Old man Liu rode a strong donkey and led everyone down the basin. He pointed to a place not far away covered by heavy snow.
The covered slope said: "It's right here, you can see it if you peel away the snow."
More than a hundred soldiers, all carrying shovels, stepped forward to shovel the snow.
Chen Qing smiled and asked Old Man Liu: "How do you use this kind of coal?"
"Put it in the clay stove and burn it directly!"
"Aren't you afraid of the stove burning?"
Old man Liu understood immediately and hurriedly explained: "You can't use the previous kind of stove, you must use a red clay stove. There are many in this area. Isn't the Moon Mountain opposite Ganquan Castle made of red clay?"
Hu Yanyun said to Chen Qing: "Don't worry about the stove. I have seen the stoves used by the soldiers who defended the city before. They are very simple and convenient. There are many refractory clays around. In fact, the earthen stoves in every household in the city are made of this refractory clay."
, you can completely burn coal directly, and the chimney is ready-made."
What Chen Qing actually thought of was how to burn coal for heating in the room. When he was a child, there was an iron stove at home, and he made a chimney out of iron sheets to avoid gas poisoning. The family lived around the iron stove all winter.
It's not realistic now. There aren't that many irons alone. It's better to use a fireplace or find a way to burn charcoal. Although there are no trees here, there are large forests in Chengji County and Qingshui County.
"Found it!" the soldiers shouted.
Chen Qing urged his horse forward and saw that the soldiers shoveled away a large piece of snow, revealing the soil layer under the snow. The soil layer was about one foot and eight feet high, and the middle layer was black coal, which was more than three feet thick.
, equivalent to one meter. It is estimated that this area is made of open-pit coal. The quality is quite good. It is a kind of fat coal and is very suitable for household use.
And it is quite easy to mine. A few hundred soldiers can dig dozens of tons in a day.
The Song Dynasty had long used coal in large quantities, especially in Bianliang, Tokyo. It was even more common for middle-class and above households to use coal. Blacksmiths used coal to make iron, and weapons supervisors smelted metal.
There may be less in Jiangnan, but it is most common in Guanzhong and the Central Plains area, and Chen Qing's soldiers are all familiar with it.
Huyanyun is even more familiar. Huyanfu in Bianliang uses coal.
Chen Qing was overjoyed and asked Old Man Liu with a smile: "What other minerals are rich in this area?"
Since he decided to use Ganquan Castle as his base, he would naturally make full use of the various minerals here, preferably iron ore, oil, and saltpeter. That would be perfect.
