Qin Liang returned to Lujiang County and spent a few days inspecting the private soldiers and military garrison in various places.
The total military strength of the Wei Dynasty is about 500,000, most of which are military camps that usually farm, otherwise the army will not have enough food to eat. Among them, the military strength controlled by Wang Lingjie, the governor of Yangzhou, is 80,000 or 90,000, including more than 20,000 soldiers from Lujiang County. Tuen.
Yangzhou is the most important front line against Wu State, followed by Xuzhou and Jingzhou. Regardless of offense and defense, Yangzhou is a strategic location that controls water and land. Therefore, the Huainan and Huaibei areas of Yangzhou have a huge proportion of soldiers and garrisoned troops. .
Because of the extraordinary ratio of soldiers to civilians, a large number of soldiers and villages are usually engaged in farming, and only a few soldiers and horses take turns to guard and train.
(Historically, Guanqiu Jian was able to dispatch 60,000 elite troops to fight in the north, while Zhuge Dan gathered 150,000 troops in Shouchun. This was due to the high proportion of soldiers and garrison troops on the front line in Yangzhou. However, the imperial court was already alert at that time and moved in from the north. Some soldiers who were sent to Huainan by mistake were sent to Huainan. When Zhuge Dan was the governor of Yangzhou, there were more soldiers in the north. When fighting against the imperial court, they had no strong will to fight. They only wanted to eat and did not want to fight, and they were more likely to run away.)
If the Wei Dynasty wanted to launch a large-scale campaign in the direction of Yangzhou, it would have to adjust grain along the Ru River, Huai River, Ying River, Wo River and other waterways to mobilize a large number of soldiers in Yangzhou. Otherwise, the population of Yangzhou would not be able to support it. The 100,000-strong army that does not farm the land, under the command of Wang Ling and Zhuge Dan, has no more than 30,000 standing troops, mainly Chinese and foreign troops.
In fact, the population that the imperial court can control cannot support an army of 500,000 for fighting. Most of the time, the army is just farming. The Wei State's national strength can mobilize more than 200,000 people at the same time, which is a relatively extreme operation.
As the governor of Lujiang County under the rule of Yangzhou, Qin Liang's situation was similar to that of Wang Ling. Lujiang County served as the front line and had more than 20,000 troops. In theory, he could mobilize more than 20,000 troops. On paper, his military strength far exceeded the counties in the interior.
However, Lujiang County still cannot afford to raise so many soldiers. The actual standing force is about 4,000, which is mainly used to defend the county town of Liu'an. In the past, the rules of Lujiang County were that four-fifths of the military garrison rested in rotation, and one-fifth was on guard duty. There is not enough, so there are only 4,000 soldiers in normal times.
The southern part of Lujiang County is an uninhabited land and the isolation zone between the two countries, while the central and northern parts are military bases.
Qin Liang worked hard for more than a year in Lujiang County to make compost and make plows, but he still could not gather all the more than 20,000 troops for training. The land and population of Lujiang County were not enough to support such a large army.
However, Qin Liang still thought of a way. While stationing troops to garrison Lu'an City, he reorganized and trained the original organization.
There used to be about 4,000 troops stationed in Lu'an City. Now Qin Liang issued a decree and the garrison was reduced to nearly 3,000. After these troops gathered in Lu'an, he reorganized the nearly 3,000 troops into a fighting force. The unit is still called "department" according to the custom at this time, which is equivalent to the mixed brigade.
Qin Liang discovered very early that Wei, Wu and Shu were all organized into large corps on the battlefield and were relatively loosely organized. This would be an opportunity to organize their troops into mixed brigades of two to three thousand men.
With more than 20,000 troops stationed, seven mixed brigades can be obtained. Adding the governor's troops stationed in Shushui, Qin Liang can have eight brigades on paper.
He also promoted a large number of low-level generals and sent out assistants from counties and counties to teach the generals how to read. He also worked with experienced generals to teach the generals the technical means of marching and forming formations...
Captain Ma Jun is indeed talented. The silk weaving machine and keel waterwheel he invented were very practical, and the imperial court also awarded him a reward as a reward for his work.
But the repeating crossbows and rotating stone carts he improved later were really of little use.
Qin Liang was a little curious at first, but later Ma Jun built a real object in the Lu'an Duwei Mansion, and Qin Liang once again deepened his trust in junior high school physics.
For example, most of the single-shot crossbows used by the army are full-strength crossbows, and most of the body's strength is used to open the crossbow to store potential energy. The potential energy stored in the continuous crossbow will be greatly reduced, otherwise the law of conservation of energy will be violated. No matter what you do,
No matter how sophisticated it is, it can't break through the laws of physics, let alone the current materials are not good enough.
Zhuge Liang may have used it to deal with the unarmored savages in the southern mountains and forests. Putting it on the Central Plains formation, it was like scratching an itch. The key point was that it cost a lot of arrows, and it was not easy to make arrows.
There is also the stone-turning cart made by Ma Jun. For the same reason, dozens of stones can be placed at once, and the effect can be imagined with the energy of two people turning the big wooden wheel. Moreover, those wooden wheel transmission mechanisms are easy to break.
On a carriage without shock absorbers, it will be useless after walking for a short distance.
No wonder Ma Jun later built things in Luoyang and no one wanted to talk to him. The young Pei Xiu liked to argue and had many arguments with Ma Jun.
However, Ma Jun cannot be entirely blamed for this situation. The way of thinking of the ancients was originally different. Ma Jun did have talent, which can be seen from the damask weaving machine and rollover he built. Later, the drawings of the Quyuan plow given by Qin Liang,
Ma Jun also built it quickly after perfecting it. There was also a four-wheeled carriage. Qin Liang couldn't remember the specific structure of the steering device. Ma Jun spent several months tinkering with it and continued to improve its reliability.
, it should be practical.
When Qin Liang came to the Duwei Mansion and talked with Ma Jun, he thought that Ma Jun was also a stubborn person, so when he talked about the tumbler, Qin Liang was more euphemistic and said, "It is indeed very exquisite. The original catapult was dozens of years old."
If I pull the rope in front, it is very laborious and the effect is not very good."
He just wanted to use the word "same", implying that the wheel-turning stone chariot was not that good either.
Sure enough, after saying this, Ma Jun looked thoughtful and muttered: "What's clever is clever, but it's not perfect yet."
Qin Liang said in his heart: The direction is wrong, how can we make it better? In the era of relying on human and animal power, repeating weapons are inherently evil.
He reminded: "It is better to change the method and pay more attention to the power of throwing stones. Although it is slow, it can throw far and cause great damage, and it is still practical."
Ma Jun didn't say anything for a while, and stretched out his hand to touch his beard. His face had low cheekbones and his face looked strange. The reason was the beard. The beard at the philtrum was very thick, but the chin was very sparse.
Qin Liang added: "The original catapult was like a bow. Dozens of people used force at the same time to throw stone projectiles. As long as it was like a crossbow, it could accumulate power in advance and release it in an instant. Torque and gravity could be used. I'll look back later.
Come up with a rough idea first, then have Labor and Deheng perfect it and try it out."
Ma Jun nodded and said, "That's fine."
Qin Liang said again: "By the way, Deheng has a lot of experience in wooden wheel transmission. Can paddles be installed on the ship?"
Ma Jun thought for a moment and said, "It should be possible." He then smiled and said, "The general also has a lot of experience. In recent times, several new things have come out, and the servants are not as good as the general."
Qin Liang said casually: "I'm just making some summaries based on the wisdom of my predecessors. I can't compare with De Heng's talent."
Ma Jun may have thought he was being modest, but Qin Liang was just telling the truth.
Those who can create one or two things by themselves are very talented people, such as Ma Jun. Qin Liang has no talent in this area. He is just copying things he has already seen. The difficulty is not the same at all.