Wei Fufeng was slightly startled and said, "You mean to use lychee wood to make crossbow arms."

"Well, the material of lychee wood is acceptable. With the one-meter-long bamboo bow body and the iron crossbow machine, the crossbow-bow is not inferior to the orthodox military crossbow, but it is not inferior to ordinary bows and arrows. The main reason is that the crossbow is easy to use.

, it is highly accurate and can be used by ordinary people." Zhao Lin said.

Wei Fufeng nodded thoughtfully, the Luzhou Army was a ragtag group and wanted to become an elite with strong combat effectiveness. Armed with crossbows and arrows was a shortcut to a strong army, but they lacked iron materials.

Huben guard Cai Yong whispered: "It is not easy to make a crossbow in a short time."

Zhao Lin turned his head and said: "The main reason is that there are many rules for making bows. They can be made easily. Although they are not durable, they can be made as spares. When the enemy comes, one bow can be used ten times."

Wei Fufeng nodded and asked, "Zhao Lin, can you make a crossbow?"

Zhao Lin nodded and said: "Back to your lord, my subordinates have made bows from their ancestors. If your lord is willing to make crossbows, I can make one thousand crossbows and ten thousand crossbow arrows within three months, but it requires the support of materials and manpower."

Wei Fufeng nodded and said, "Okay, now that you've made up your mind, you will return to Luzhou and be under the direct supervision of the Arms Supervisor of the Governor's Mansion."

"Promise! I am willing to serve you." Zhao Lin stood up and paid a military salute.

Wei Fufeng waved his hand to sit down and said with a smile: "But if you use lychee wood, you can't cut it down indiscriminately. We don't want to leave the reputation of lychee extinction."

Zhao Lin nodded and responded: "I choose an old tree to use."

Wei Fufeng nodded and said: "Although lychees cannot be used as food, they are a major specialty in southern Sichuan. If in the peaceful and prosperous times, lychees were sold down the river, the profit would be quite rich."

Zhao Lin nodded and said: "Being able to transport it to Chang'an in the past was very profitable."

Wei Fufeng nodded and said: "We will first strive to protect southern Sichuan and maintain peace. In the future, you will all be officials. Those who do not want to lead the army can at least be county magistrates. Those who lead the army can have a descendant with a hereditary military position."

The four subordinates looked at each other, and Zhao Linchi asked: "Sir, what do you mean by hereditary military positions?"

Wei Fufeng said in a harmonious voice: "The soldiers sacrifice their lives just for the sake of wealth and for their relatives to avoid poverty. In the future, the generals of Baihu Hall will be able to obtain hereditary military positions from their descendants.

However, those descendants who are capable can obtain leading military positions, while those who are incompetent can only obtain hereditary official pay and status.

The descendants of a Huo Chang who dies in battle can obtain the hereditary title of Ya General; the descendants of a Ya general who dies in battle can obtain the hereditary title of Soldier and Horse Commander."

The four subordinates nodded silently after hearing this, and Wei Fufeng continued to eat calmly. He was drawing a beautiful pie for the soldiers in southern Sichuan.

The ancients valued the incense of future generations the most, as it could strive for a better future for their descendants and stimulate the fighting spirit and cohesion of generals.

When the Southern Sichuan Festival was first established, most of the hundreds of thousands of people in Luzhou came from other places. As refugees, they longed to return to their hometown and would only adopt a stop-gap mentality in a foreign place.

Wei Fufeng needed the hearts and minds of the refugees outside Luzhou and had the mentality to take root.

In addition, Wei Fufeng's military government system was inferior to other generals in feudal towns in terms of benefits and authority for the leading generals, and it was easy for some truly capable generals to feel resentful.

If a general feels resentful, even if there is no chance of rebellion, he can still bring some close friends with him and decide to leave to serve other vassals.

Military positions are hereditary, which can at least divide the dependence mentality of lower-level generals (fire chiefs) on senior generals.

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Even if a senior general is really capable, he will not dare to leave without permission as long as he cannot take many subordinates with him. Being alone means helplessness.

However, Wei Fufeng's military position was hereditary, which resulted in an increasing number of bureaucracies and increasing financial expenditures. However, in the early stage of establishment, he could only use various means to win over people's hearts.

After Wei Fufeng appeased his subordinates, he hurried back to Pingquan County, Jianzhou to join a thousand troops, and decided to return to Rongzhou. He stayed there for three days to inspect the Shunan Military Mansion, and then returned to Luzhou.

Upon arriving in Luzhou, Wei Fufeng learned of a major military situation. Yang Shouliang, the governor of Shannan West Road Jiedu, sent troops to capture Kuizhou.

Kuizhou is the gateway to the rivers of Bashu and is subordinate to Jingnan Jiedushi.

According to the geographical location, the upper reaches of the river in Kuizhou are Wanzhou, Zhongzhou, Yuzhou, Luzhou and Rongzhou.

Among them, the Three Gorges area where Zhongzhou, Wanzhou and Kuizhou are located all belong to Jingnan Jiedushi. Yang Shouliang actually sent troops to invade and occupy Jingnan Jiedushi.

That meant that Yang Shouliang's ambition began to expand, and he attempted to conquer the entire Bashu region. His next goal was the Jiedu region in southern Sichuan, and then to seize the Jiedu region in Dongchuan.

Wei Fufeng knew that the Jingnan area had suffered from war disasters for many years, and was attacked by Qin Zongquan, the great man-eating demon king who ravaged the Central Plains, leaving all ten houses in Jingnan empty.

Luzhou has nearly 100,000 refugees from Jingnan.

The Jingnan area changed its owner several times in the chaos of war, and the current Jiedu envoy is said to be named Ru.

Cheng Ru was originally a subordinate of Chen Ru, the military governor of Jingnan. He was jealous of Chen Ru, the military governor of Jingnan, so he left and occupied Guizhou, which was located downstream of Kuizhou.

Later, Qin Zongquan's army attacked Jiangling Mansion in Jingnan and plundered it.

After the main force left, Cheng Rui, who had been sitting on the sidelines in Guizhou, took the opportunity to send troops to defeat Qin Zongquan's remaining troops, occupied Jingnan and became the military governor.

Shannan West Road Jiedu envoy Yang Shouliang invaded Kuizhou. Wei Fufeng guessed that due to the defeat in Jingnan, Jiedu envoy Chengru could only garrison troops to defend Guizhou and was unable to send troops to compete with Yang Shouliang for the Three Gorges area.

The threat from Yang Shouliang came earlier than Wei Fufeng expected. Wei Fufeng sent people to inquire about Yang Hui, the Yuzhou supervisor.

It is said that the governor of Yuzhou treated the supervisor army and his party as honored guests. After sending 5,000 troops to Luzhou last time, the governor of Yuzhou also allocated a thousand regiments to train, and they were assigned to the supervisor army and became the guardian army.

Wei Fufeng understood rationally that it was impossible to unite with the governor of Yuzhou to resist the enemy. The governor of Yuzhou was just a grassroots and would only wait and see the situation and rely on the strong.

However, Wei Fufeng never wanted Yuzhou to be taken away by Yang Shouliang.

Yuzhou is different from Kuizhou. Kuizhou is a military important area, and its population and output are far less than that of Yuzhou. If Yuzhou falls into the hands of Yang Shouliang, Luzhou will definitely not be able to defend it.

Regarding the gains and losses of Yuzhou, Wei Fufeng was in a dilemma.

If Yang Shouliang captured Yuzhou first, he would be able to recruit tens of thousands of troops from Yuzhou.

Yuzhou originally had a population of more than 100,000, but the migration of refugees caused by the war increased the population of both Yuzhou and Luzhou to hundreds of thousands.

In the severe situation, Wei Fufeng should seize Yuzhou preemptively and control Yuzhou's resources first.

But how can Yuzhou be easily captured? The consequences of a large army's campaign are 80% likely to result in both sides losing.

Even if they win and occupy Yuzhou, Yang Shouliang's military strength will follow, and the result will be that the Luzhou Army will fall into a situation of internal and external troubles.

Wei Fufeng's choice can only be to wait and see, hoping that the governor of Yuzhou will not give up.

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Feeling lost in Yuzhou, he took the initiative to seek cooperation from Wei Fufeng.

Just when Wei Fufeng was worried about the survival of Jiedu in southern Sichuan, there was sudden military news. Kuizhou was taken back by the Jingnan Jiedu envoy. Yang Shouliang's 20,000 troops in Kuizhou were defeated by the Jingnan army.

This sudden change in military situation surprised Wei Fufeng. The Jingnan Jiedushi was so courageous that he dared to start a war with the Shannan West Road Jiedushi.

Wei Fufeng wondered why there was a need to fight for Kuizhou in the upper reaches of the river when there were so many fertile fields in Jingnan (Jingzhou) and there were enemies peeping from the north and south.

The military importance of Kuizhou is mainly to prevent the downstream from entering Bashu. Could it be that the Jingnan Jiedu envoys were determined to enter Bashu and did not hesitate to seize Kuizhou, which was a strategic military location.

Wei Fufeng was confused and asked many Huben guards to discuss it. Huben guard Qinshan gave an explanation. The reason was that Yun'an County in Kuizhou had salt wells.

Yun'an well salt is the lifeblood of Jingnan. Because of the numerous vassal towns in the troubled times, Jingnan can no longer get the sea salt from Huainan Road.

Wei Fufeng suddenly realized that the easiest things to profit from in troubled times were food, salt and iron.

Jingnan Jiedushi lost the Yun'an salt wells and paid a huge price to buy salt. No wonder he desperately sent troops to recapture Kuizhou.

Although Yang Shouliang lost Kuizhou again, Wei Fufeng's worries did not diminish. All he could do was to step up preparations for war and establish an ordnance supervisor directly under the governor's office. Zhao Lin was appointed as the captain of the ordnance supervisor.

Three thousand soldiers were also selected for Zhao Lin's use. They were both craftsmen and the first batch of self-sufficient crossbow troops. The fire chiefs of this crossbow army still took turns and were directly on duty with the fire chiefs of Fengli camp.

The announcement of Wei Fufeng's hereditary military position aroused great repercussions in the Luzhou Army. Some soldiers asked whether it was possible for brothers to be hereditary and adopted sons to be hereditary.

Because of the deaths in the war, many soldiers had no descendants, and many adopted adopted sons.

Wei Fufeng gave permission, saying that the successor would be a relative designated by the soldiers, and he put it into effect.

Any fire chief who was killed in the Changzhou war, his immediate male subordinates could obtain the official position of Yuhou, which was equivalent to the official position of Yajiang, and could receive a fixed official salary, and personal taxes would be exempted from half of the tax.

However, men with hereditary military positions are military figures. Once a war breaks out, they must be called into the army and become the commander's bodyguard (fire chief) to participate in the war, and receive an extra fire chief salary.

If you pass the military assessment, you can become a regular tooth general, and your hereditary official salary will be upgraded to a tooth general salary.

Wei Fufeng stayed in Luzhou for fifteen days, and his planned departure had to be postponed.

After spending ten days in Luzhou, Wei Fufeng learned many things, and his confidence in establishing a foothold in southern Sichuan increased day by day. The main reason was that Luzhou's military strength had expanded to 80,000.

If the military strength of Shunan Military Palace and Jingnan Military Palace are added, the total number of active troops in southern Sichuan reaches 100,000.

After joining the army, they were given land allotments and various preferential treatment, which led to an increasing number of people joining the army.

What's even more gratifying is that the bandits surrendered and joined the army on a large scale, totaling 20,000 people, and the bandits' family members also numbered 30,000.

Wei Fufeng had already issued an order to encourage the refugees to reclaim wasteland. He promised that the cultivated land would belong to the refugees within a quota, and the government would pay for the excess land and lease it to the reclaimers.

Therefore, in Changzhou, under the careful management of the governor Yang He, a craze for land reclamation quickly formed.

Soon after, large-scale land reclamation and land reclamation also occurred south of the Yangtze River in Luzhou and Rongzhou.

The news of Luzhou spread to Yuzhou, which also caused a large number of refugees and bandits in Yuzhou to move to Luzhou to naturalize.

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!