After having a few right-hand assistants, Qin Chuan rarely participated in civil affairs and farming, and only looked at relevant documents from time to time and asked about the relevant situation.

He began to be busy preparing for next year's plan.

Now it is winter. If the court wants to send troops to attack him, it will only send troops next spring.

If history continues to advance according to the original trajectory, Huang Taiji will lead a large army to break through the Xuanda border wall and burn and kill and loot in central Shanxi and northwestern Hebei.

Judging from the last time Huang Taiji sent Oboi to lead 200 Jiannu slaves to sneak into Loufan and wanted to attack Qinchuan, Huang Taiji would definitely take the opportunity to attack Jinglelan County and sweep Qinchuan's territory.

Moreover, the Later Jin Dynasty in history did break through Ningwu Pass and robbed the Jingle area when entering the pass this time.

Next year, Qin Chuan is likely to face both the imperial army and the vicious Jiannu.

He wants to expand his army.

Moreover, we must expand the army explosively and directly recruit 5,000 new troops to make the Guandi Army's strength reach 10,000.

From now on, the military and political separation must be completely separated. The Guandi Army will not participate in any civil affairs or agricultural affairs, and will only be dispatched to various places to maintain public order during the busy farming period.

Except for two days off every month, all the Imperial Army soldiers need to be trained on other days.

Training and training.

Moreover, Qinchuan would continue to increase the food of the Guandi Army. Regardless of new recruits and veterans, they would be half-sparse and dried. The so-called half-sparse means serving a bowl of porridge and a steamed bun or a big cake in the morning, and ensuring that everyone can eat meat for lunch every day.

In short, his soldiers must be strong and well-trained.

In addition, 5,000 reserve troops were recruited, and the treatment was slightly worse than that of the Guandi Army. In addition, they had to participate in agricultural affairs and training during slack farming.

When necessary, these reserve troops will be directly incorporated into the Guandi Army.

The reason why he did not recruit more soldiers was because of the food issue. Now his territory has a population of 70,000, and every seven people has one Guandi Army and half a reserve soldier. Then, workers from various factories, the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled are removed, and there are only about three labor forces participating in farming.

In other words, a farming laborer must plant a land that feeds at least two people, about six or seven acres.

Ten thousand Guandi Army and five thousand reserve troops are already the limit.

If you enlist another 5,000 soldiers, you may not have enough farming labor.

This little force may be able to defend against the Ming army, but it is difficult to defend against the Jiannu.

Therefore, Qin Chuan had to use his own advantages to build a steel city wall in a suitable location.

The first location is Qianhu Institute in Ninghua.

The small military fort needs to be renovated. On the basis of the original city wall, the city wall will be thickened and raised with steel and cement, and the enemy platform will be added, the gate will be rebuilt, etc.

If Ningwu Pass is lost, there is still a military fort stuck on the road to Jiannu going south.

There is also Zhai Shanggou on Luya Mountain north of Lancheng, where a small military fort was built, because the terrain was steep and the military fort did not need to be too large. It would be enough to station up to 1,000 people.

In addition, there is Luyukou to the east, Mafang Village to the west, Dashetogou to Xingxian to the northwest, and at the intersection of East-West Huluchuan to the south, these four dangerous transportation routes are all required to build military forts.

Among them, Dashetougou is on Luya Mountain, which is more steeper than the Zhaishanggou north of Lancheng, so only two troughs are built, one on the left and the other on the right and one on the hillsides on both sides of the ravine.

The terrain at the intersection of East and West Hulu River is also very dangerous, and only two piers can be built.

But in the east Luyukou and in the west Mafang Village, we have to build an army fort, one to guard against the Ming army from Taiyuan and the other to guard against the enemies from Yongning Prefecture and Shaanxi.

The weather is too cold now and it is not suitable for pouring cement, so Qin Chuan first asked someone to dig the foundation at those locations and slowly transport the required materials. When the weather gets warmer in the spring next year, the construction will be started.

During the introduction, more manpower will be invested to build four military forts and piers within one month.

As long as you rely on the military fort and firmly curb these important transportation routes, you can rest assured that the hinterland of Luliang Mountain will be safe.

Therefore, Qinchuan added a new department in the Industrial Department, called Infrastructure Science and specialize in construction projects. There are also four institutes under it, in charge of civil engineering, railways, roads, and construction.

Among them, the Civil Engineering Institute is responsible for building military forts and building houses.

The railway is responsible for planning and laying railway tracks. Qinchuan plans to allow railway tracks to be connected between the three places in Jinglelan County, Loufan, within two years.

The road is responsible for building highways, and Qinchuan also plans to pave the main roads between the three places with cement roads within two years.

Build the production of pipe steel bar factories, brick factories, cement factories and sand and gravel factories.

Water conservancy projects are still under the management of the Ministry of Revenue, and the main labor force for water conservancy repairs is still ordinary people. However, if some reservoirs with larger capacity need to be covered with concrete, the Civil Engineering Institute will send an engineering team to assist.

Water conservancy is a people's livelihood project. No matter how much investment is, Qin Chuan will not be stingy.

After arranging both military expansion and infrastructure work, Qin Chuan began to formulate plans for next year.

The hinterland of Luliang Mountain cannot support many people, so his territory should be expanded.

He planned to take the opportunity to capture Xingxian, Guilanzhou, and even Hequ and Biedouguan areas when he defeated the imperial army next year, or when he sent troops to resist Jiannu.

There is a natural danger to the Yellow River to the west, the Great Wall to the east, and the Outer to the north.

After occupying this area, he could rely on the natural danger of the Yellow River and the inner Great Wall to resist the Ming army, and then find a way to negotiate with Zhu Youjian.

In a short period of time, he did not want to capture other places because it was difficult to defend, and his troops were too few. If he spread the plates out at once, it would easily collapse.

The lean camel is bigger than a horse. He has no way to go out to confront the Ming court head-on, so he can only rely on the dangerous terrain defense.

If Zhu Youjian reconciled with him, he would point his troops to the north, expand out of the Bitou Pass, and use an indestructible military fort to snatch the Hetao area from Jiannu.

In addition to military forts, the expansion of territory is also indispensable for the development of firearms.

Artillery and muskets need to be made in large quantities.

...

On the seventh day of November, Qin Chuan, as usual, wanted to go to the gun factory to specialize in rifled rifles with Li Xuejing, Luo Wentian came over and told him something: the group of merchants who came a few days ago were a bit strange, and the iron materials and iron pots were transported to the town. They were looking for various excuses to postpone the transaction, and they also said that they wanted to meet Qin Chuan and had a big deal to interview him.

Qin Chuan couldn't help but frowned.

This group of people are not here to buy iron.

Apart from iron materials and iron pots, and robbery, he had no big deal to do.

Outsiders asked him to cooperate in robbing...the possibility is slim.

Qin Chuan soon thought of Zhu Youjian's life...

So Qin Chuan asked Luo Wentian to tell the group that he would meet them in person tomorrow.

Qin Chuan found Luo Daniu again and asked him to pick out eight hundred elite Guandi Army, including two hundred flintlock guns. He sneaked into several yards around the group's residence in the dark in the middle of the night, and acted at the opportunity tomorrow morning.

Luo Daniu went to make arrangements, while Qin Chuan continued to go to the gun factory.

Li Xuejing has scrapped more than a dozen threaded shafts because the threads are not uniform enough and the rifle drawn out is not uniform, so it is impossible to use at all.

In the era of precision manufacturing, the construction of threaded shafts depends on experience and feeling. No matter how good the craftsman is, he will easily make mistakes.

Qin Chuan was also a little helpless, this thing was really not easy to make.

But when Qin Chuan went to inspect other sheds, he saw the craftsman opening the screw hole for the gun barrel, he suddenly had an idea: by opening the screw, carve the threads of the thread shaft.

When Li Xuejing heard his description, he felt as if he had a clue and suddenly realized.

The screw opener has only two or three threads. When it is rotated into the barrel, the screw opener advances smoothly and evenly, and the threads rotated out are very precise.
Chapter completed!