Feng Yi and Kong Xirong climbed over the mountain to enter the estate. Only then did Shen Yang have Han Qian lead everyone to see the lime kiln site selection.
The lime kiln was selected at a creek bend below the estate. This area had lower terrain and gentle water flow, where boats could sail directly in from Chishan Lake.
Seven or eight households originally lived here. In the past two days they had all been relocated out, leaving seven or eight earthen houses vacant. Fan Xicheng’s side took it upon themselves to directly occupy these several earthen houses. There was also a grain-drying yard about three or four mu in size—the place was quite spacious.
Besides the lime kiln, they could continue to level out large areas of land. After walking around once, Han Qian secretly felt the estate could concentrate on building a fairly large-scale workshop here.
The Dragon Sparrow Army’s garrison camp was on the south side of the estate. In the future, building houses and constructing embankments for garrison field cultivation on the north shore of Chishan Lake would require vast quantities of tools.
And for the Dragon Sparrow Army to truly be organized, armor and weapons as well as military uniforms—hoping for allocations from the national treasury was unrealistic. It mainly had to rely on the garrison camp here to purchase or produce things themselves.
Han Qian thought that the estate building some workshops still had great potential.
Han Qian didn’t presently harbor hopes of touching the Dragon Sparrow Army’s military authority, but no matter what, he had to find ways to extract some benefits from the Dragon Sparrow Army, or it wouldn’t be worth the enormous risk he took献presenting the “Treatise on Plague Water.”
How could others know what petty calculations Han Qian was making in his heart?
The several stone burners Fan Xicheng hired from Jiangcheng County were all dark and thin little old men, their faces wrinkled like old tree bark. Seeing important personages like Shen Yang and others arrive, they were so nervous they couldn’t even speak smoothly. It took quite a while to figure out their method for building kilns to burn lime.
These past days Han Qian had read the “Records of Examination of Craftsmen” and the “Guming Pharmaceutical Compendium,” both of which mentioned methods for burning lime, but the descriptions were extremely brief.
From reading books, Han Qian thought people of this age had the annoying habit of being overly concise. But after questioning these five stone burners Fan Xicheng had hired, he learned that lime burning methods in this age were extremely primitive.
Using stones or yellow clay to build a kiln, laying a layer of firewood then a layer of bluish-white stone in the kiln, stacking two or three layers, then smoldering for a day and night before it could be used—even more crude was digging an earthen pit in the ground to pile wood and burn stone.
According to these stone burners’ experience, each person handling stone gathering, woodcutting and other tasks could burn about thirty to forty dan of lime in a year to make a living.
Never mind Han Qian—even Shen Yang frowned directly upon hearing this.
According to what the Treatise on Plague Water stated, to control the epidemic with so many plague-infected starving refugees, with the garrison camp spanning over ten li in radius, large quantities of lime had to be used to exterminate the gu poison in ditches and excrement. Without thirty to forty thousand dan of lime annually, it wouldn’t suffice.
Using this traditional stone burning method would require nearly a thousand stone burners to be sufficient. But now with thirty to forty thousand starving refugees gathered, even if a thousand able-bodied laborers capable of heavy work could be selected, what about other tasks?
“Build large kilns! Stone gathering, woodcutting and other matters shall each have dedicated personnel,” Han Qian said.
In this age, workshops for salt, iron and other industries were already quite substantial in scale.
Under the Left Workshop Bureau of the Privy Treasury, there were over two thousand iron craftsman slaves to manufacture weapons and armor. And at the salt fields established in Hailing, there were as many as over twenty thousand salt households exclusively engaged in salt boiling.
These two industries could already be called primitive industrial systems. While lime in this age, besides being used as medicine, was only used by an extremely few wealthy nobles to whitewash courtyards. With demand being extremely low, larger-scale lime kilns hadn’t yet appeared, but it wasn’t that they couldn’t appear.
Although the person from the dream realm, Zhai Xinping, also had no memories of burning lime, Han Qian thought the general direction wouldn’t be wrong.
The several stone burners looked at each other in dismay. The stone burning skills they knew were all passed down from generation to generation—how could they just change them?
It was just that before Shen Yang, Guo Liang, Han Qian and others, these several stone kiln workers dared not say no. They just stood there dumbly, not knowing how to respond.
And even if they were willing to comply with Han Qian, they didn’t know how this so-called “large kiln” should be built.
Seeing Shen Yang also look over, Han Qian steeled himself to take on this matter, saying: “I’m recovering from illness at the estate these days. I’ll find a way regarding the kiln building.”
Han Qian completely didn’t feel that taking charge of building a large stone-burning kiln was a lowly trade. Moreover, if he didn’t take on this matter, unable to set his father’s mind at ease, who knew what trouble his father would stir up.
Han Qian said he was still on sick leave. Shen Yang only smiled slightly.
With thirty to forty thousand plague-infected starving refugees in chaotic disorder, sorting out the threads would involve a thousand complications. Even if Han Qian couldn’t be formally kept on the military office side to serve, Han Qian staying at the estate now to “recover from illness” while shouldering the kiln building matter—for Shen Yang, this was also a good thing.
Although court rumors said Han Daoxun’s only son was unlearned and incompetent, over these three or four months teaching lessons at the Marquis of Linjiang’s residence, the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu as well as Feng Yi, Li Chong, Kong Xirong and others were mostly lost in fog, while only Han Qian sitting in the study hall had clear, bright eyes. Obviously the content he taught, Han Qian could take it all in.
Today seeing the “Treatise on Plague Water” Han Daoxun wrote again, Shen Yang would never think that Han Qian, who had such profound family learning, would be a wastrel.
Guo Liang and Zhang Qian looked at Han Qian with quite some surprise.
Han Qian also feared Guo Liang, Zhang Qian and others would lose patience, so right then he had these five stone burners first build stone-burning kilns here at the workshop according to the old method. He also called over Guo Nu’er’s squad of household troop children to help and learn. Once they finished preparation work here and burned the first kiln of lime, he would come again to deliberate on how to rebuild the large kiln.
Next, everyone didn’t return to the estate. Instead, Shen Yang discussed with Village Head Zhang Qian borrowing his residence south of the Qiuhu Mountain Villa to temporarily serve as the garrison camp office.
If possible, Shen Yang could also recommend Zhang Qian to serve as an office member at the garrison camp.
Zhang Qian, a mere minor village head who dared not even offend the Han family’s young master Han Qian—how would he dare offend Shen Yang, who served as imperial prince’s teacher?
Moreover, with all of Taowu Market designated as the garrison camp, Taowu Market would no longer exist, and next year’s field taxes and corvée labor would become a bad debt.
If he didn’t immediately resign from his village head position, once someone caused trouble and calculated this bad debt onto his head, even if Zhang Qian bankrupted his entire family, it would be difficult to eliminate the disaster.
Even though Zhang Qian worried the epidemic wouldn’t be controlled, at this time Shen Yang recruiting him into the garrison camp to serve as an office member was one of his few options.
Though Shen Yang looked dried up and thin, his energy was vigorous. Having requisitioned Zhang Qian’s residence to serve as the military office, that night he invited everyone over for a hasty meal, then gathered everyone to discuss matters of rebuilding the garrison.
The Dragon Sparrow Army at full strength had twelve thousand five hundred soldiers. Correspondingly, the garrison camp at full strength also had twelve thousand five hundred military households. The army used five hundred soldiers as one battalion, while the garrison camp used five hundred military households as one garrison, requiring twenty-five garrisons to be established.
The Ministry of War controlled by the Crown Prince’s faction drove out Taowu Market’s original residents to prevent them from being used by the Third Prince.
For this side, the greatest benefit was that over ten natural villages and several hundred crude dwellings were vacated, all of which could be used to give these many plague-infected starving refugees a place to shelter from wind and rain, so they wouldn’t freeze to death on cold nights.
The garrisons could be expanded step by step on the foundation of these natural villages.
Corresponding to battalion captains or commanders, each garrison needed to establish one garrison commander, also called garrison camp captain, with five to ten garrison chiefs below them to manage garrison field cultivation, training and other matters.
How to arrange these garrison camp captain positions—never mind that Han Qian had no way to interfere, even Shen Yang had no way to interject.
Garrison camp captains and garrison chiefs were the foundation for controlling the Dragon Sparrow Army in the future. Having read the “Treatise on Plague Water,” Li Pu knew the gathered ten thousand-plus plague-infected starving refugees were still worth expecting. He had already献dedicated one hundred household troops belonging to the Marquis of Xinchang’s household to the Third Prince Yang Yuanpu, dispatched here to serve. And these household troops’ families would subsequently also move here and be incorporated into the garrison camp, becoming the Dragon Sparrow Army’s true military households.
Twenty-five garrison camp captains and quite a batch of garrison chiefs would naturally be selected from among these one hundred people. And the two marquis household stewards the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu dispatched here would also serve as office members beside Shen Yang, separately managing warehousing, budgeting and other matters—the money and grain needed in the early stage all had to be transferred from the Marquis of Xinchang’s household. The Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu obviously also didn’t want warehousing, budgeting and other garrison camp matters to fall under Shen Yang’s control.
The Marquis of Xinchang’s household leading the Dragon Sparrow Army’s revival to thereby build the Third Prince Marquis of Linjiang’s team was something His Majesty Emperor Tianyou semi-openly approved. Shen Yang was more concerned with doing things well. As long as the Marquis of Xinchang’s household was willing to cooperate with maximum ability at this time, he didn’t care who did it.
Han Qian had even fewer household troops in hand to dedicate, and had no intention of touching these low-level military positions like garrison chief, squad leader, or team leader.
And although the Marquis of Xinchang’s household nominally dedicated over a hundred household troops to the Marquis of Linjiang Yang Yuanpu, just how much loyalty these household troops actually had toward the Third Prince was truly hard to say now.
Of course, these household troops together with their families, forcibly incorporated into the garrison camp by the Marquis of Xinchang Li Pu and mixed together with thirty to forty thousand plague-infected starving refugees—even holding office positions, they must have some resentment in their hearts, right?
Of course, at this time those with the greatest resentment still had to be Feng Yi and Kong Xirong.
Besides gaining one more identity as office members, they hadn’t obtained the slightest benefit from this matter. Yet at this time they had to risk infection by the plague, staying at the military office to listen to Shen Yang discuss garrison matters with Guo Liang, Zhang Qian and others. Listening made them yawn directly, yet they couldn’t leave early.
When matters finished being discussed, the stars and moon already filled the sky.
Riding horses back to the city would also take most of an hour. Moreover, after nightfall the city gates were all closed. Even if Feng Yi and Kong Xirong wanted to enter the city, it would be very troublesome. That night they stayed overnight at Han Qian’s place.