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Fangling County is located west of Xiangyang. It is a record of thousands of miles of mountains and forests, and is surrounded by high tombs. It is named after the Wudang Mountains in the county, Wudang and other mountains are undulating, with valleys and many streams and rivers.

Although Fangling County has a wide terrain, its population is not large. The entire county only governs two counties: Fang County and Wudang. The west side of Fangling County is Shangyong County. Shangyong County is also located south of the Han River, and the two counties are bounded by Dushui.

A military city was built on the other side of Dushui in Shangyong County, called Yongnan City. It has a dangerous terrain and is a strong dangerous city with thousands of Cao troops stationed there. From here, you can directly cross Dushui to Shangyong County on the other side.

Cao Ren and Xu Huang crossed the water from Yongnan City and entered Shangyong County. The day after Cao's army crossed the river, the Jiangxia army reached Yongnan City about 15,000.

Yongnan City is already an empty city, with the red flag of the Jiangxia army rising from the top of the city, while Cao army's flag is still flying from the Shangyong City on the other side.

Liu Jing stood above Yongnan City, staring at Shangyong City on the west bank with a dull look at Shangyong City. Shangyong City was built in a dangerous place. The city was high and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack. He also had a lot of grain to store troops, so he could provide tens of thousands of troops for years.

This time, Liu Jing made a mistake in his judgment. He thought that the Cao army would cross the Han River from the nearest Wudang County to the north and return to Fancheng. He had already sent warships to advance west along the Han River, controlling the Han River, and blocking the Cao army from the north.

However, Cao's army rushed to Wudang and sent thousands of people to pretend to be Li, but Li quickly withdrew Shangyong County.

This made Liu Jing's plan to siege Cao's army in Fangling County fail. When he got the information and rushed to Yongnan City, he was eventually too late, allowing Cao's army to cross the water, which made Liu Jing secretly angry.

At this time, Jia Xu walked up and smiled, "The governor of the state should not be annoyed. This must be Cheng Yu's plan. He suggested that Cao Ren retreat westward, how could he not know the benefits of the Jiangxia naval army? Therefore, Cao's army could only retreat to Shangyong and would not cross the Han River to the north. Besides, Cao's army and our army had the same force. If Cao's army was desperate and fought against the water, even if we defeated the other side, we would have a tragic victory. It would be a great result to be able to seize Fangling County without bloodshed."

Liu Jing nodded silently, Jia Xu pointed to Shangyong City and smiled, "Shangyong is a must-pass for entering the Han Dynasty. If you can seize Shangyong City, it can be used as a logistics center for entering the Han Dynasty. However, now is not the time to enter the Han Dynasty. You must stabilize Jingzhou before you can consider entering the Han Dynasty. However, you can consider seizing Shangyong City first and making preparations for combat."

Liu Jing frowned slightly, "Mr. I mean, attack Shangyong now."

"Of course not now"

Jia Xu laughed, "There are 20,000 Cao troops in Shangyong City now. How to attack the city requires waiting for Cao's army to retreat northwards, and then can we attack Shangyong."

Liu Jing also meant this. Now is not the time to attack Shangyong. He nodded, "Since that's the case, we can garrison troops in Yongnan City and then withdraw back to Xiangyang."

"Have the provincial governor considered the status of Xiangyang?" This is what Jia Xu is most concerned about. He advised Liu Jing to move the provincial capital to Xiangyang.

Liu Jing smiled and said, "I won't consider it for the time being. After defeating Cao's army, I will officially move the prefecture to Xiangyang."

Jia Xuxin breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Liu Jing was trying to stabilize the morale of the army and the people, but this was not bad. The layout was more relaxed, but what should Shangyong do?

Liu Jing seemed to know what he was thinking and immediately added: "Strive to win Shangyong next spring."

The two looked at each other and laughed. At this moment, a soldier suddenly pointed to the river in the distance and shouted: "Prince, a fleet is coming."

Liu Jing looked at the curtain with his hands and saw a fleet of ships coming from the water river in the distance, about a dozen ships, all of which were about five stones. Obviously, they were not warships, but cargo ships.

But this fleet did not hang sails, and could actually sail against the current, and the speed was not slow, which made Liu Jing stunned. He had been in Jiangxia for many years and had a deep understanding of the performance of the ship. This situation was only possible for small boats to row.

If a cargo ship like this type is not able to go against the current without sailing, but this impossible situation appears before him.

In fact, this situation is not impossible. For example, there are many oar boats in the West, where countless sailors row in the cabin, and long oars can even drive Thousand Stone boats to sail in the sea, but the fleet in front of us is obviously not many oar boats.

The fleet is getting closer and closer, and the flag on the bow is clearly visible. It is the double carp flag with yellow bottom and black patterns. It turns out to be the Tao family's fleet. Liu Jing never thought that he would meet the Tao family fleet here.

He couldn't help but wonder whether the Tao family was secretly transporting supplies to Shangyong Cao's army.

But soon, Liu Jing's doubts disappeared, and the fleet slowly anchored on the side of Yongnan City. As the ship walked down, a young man in a white robe was explaining something to Jiang Xiajun. Liu Jing recognized him, which was Tao Li.

Liu Jing smiled and said to Jia Xu: "This person is my wife's uncle, the second in command of the Tao family."

Jia Xu also stroked his beard and smiled: "You can actually sail against the current. The governor of the state needs to ask carefully what the reason is."

After a moment, the soldier brought Taoli to the top of the city wall, and Liu Jing smiled and greeted him, "How could he meet the second uncle here?"

Tao Li saluted and said, "I came from the Han Dynasty. I heard that there was a battle in Xiangyang, so I waited on the Yongjiang section for more than ten days. Yesterday, I passed the mouth of Dushuihe River and happened to meet the Jiangxia warship. When I learned that the governor of the state was in Yongnan City, I came over to take a look."

Liu Jing nodded and asked again: "I don't know what goods my second uncle is selling this time."

"If it is medicinal herbs, Gastrodia eucommia, Eucommia ulmoides and Angelica sinensis are all the best. They cannot be sold in Han, but if they are shipped to Jiangdong for sale, they can make ten times the profit."

At this time, Jia Xu asked with a smile: "We are very curious that the Tao family's fleet can even sail against the current without hanging sails. Why is this?"

Tao Li couldn't help but say proudly: "When Tao's horses were sold before the New Year, the most problem was cargo transportation. Using a mule and horse team to travel to the land was not only time-consuming, but also lacked cargo volume. Although it can be transported by Han River, the water flow from Shangyong to Han section was quite fast, and there was no problem with going along the water. However, it was difficult to go against the water. Even with sails, this problem has plagued the Tao family for several years. It was not until this summer that we met experts and finally solved this problem."

"How did it be solved?" Liu Jing asked curiously.

"It's very simple. Install wooden paddles on the bottom of the boat, and the boatman pedals in the cabin. Only six people can take the boat to go against the water on the Han River, which solves the problem of the ship's push."

Liu Jing then suddenly realized that it was using artificial power, which was a good idea.

Jia Xu was even more curious and asked with a smile: "I really want to know which expert solved this problem for you."

......

Liu Jing brought Jia Xu and a dozen generals to the dock. In front of them was the Tao family's cargo ship. Almost everyone's eyes looked to the bottom of the ship. They saw two impellers installed on both sides of the rear of the ship, which were a bit like water trucks for irrigation, but people were pedaling in the cabin.

Everyone got on the boat again and walked into the cabin to visit. Everyone was curious. They had been in Jiangxia for a long time and had a deep understanding of water wars and ships. If there were really ships sailing against the current, this would have a huge boost to the water navigation.

I saw that at the back of the cabin, there were rows of pedals on both sides, and there were pedals. People could sit and pedal. There was a wooden shaft to connect the supporting shafts of only pedals, and finally formed a strand force, and the wooden shaft drove the wooden wheel pulp outside the ship.

At this time, the famous boatman demonstrated to everyone, but saw that the people cooperated tacitly and pedaled very lightly and effortlessly. This was due to the long chain of the shaft, which saved a lot of effort.

The exquisite workmanship and ingenious design made everyone praise it. Liu Jing even more wanted to know who the master who designed this pedal pedal was actually quite a bit about the principle of transmission machinery in later generations.

At this time, Taoli brought a young man about twenty-five or six years old in the year, and introduced to Liu Jing with a smile: "Qi Bingzhou Mu, this man is the maker of this kind of wooden oar blade. Guanren, surnamed Ma, is famous for making instruments in Guanpo. This time he happened to follow the ship and wanted to improve the oar blades."

Liu Jing was moved. This young master is not Ma Jun.

The young man seemed a little nervous, stepped forward to salute Liu Jingshen, and stuttered: "I'm dismounting...Ma Jun, whose courtesy name is Deheng, Guan Fu...Man Fufeng, see...Master."

He was quite struggling to speak, but Liu Jing could hear it clearly. This person was the famous inventor Ma Jun. Liu Jing was overjoyed. He never expected to meet Ma Jun here.

Ma Jun also became a late artist. He was from a poor family since childhood and suffered from severe stuttering. At the age of sixteen, he went to Zhongnan Mountain to seek immortality and seek Taoism. Unexpectedly, he met an old man who lived in seclusion for decades and called himself the descendant of the Guigu School and was skilled in Qimen Machinery.

It was under the careful teaching and influence of the old man that Ma Jun, who was eager to seek the truth, gradually became obsessed with mechanical manufacturing. After the New Year, he returned home and improved the spinning machine, which increased the efficiency by more than ten times, making him famous.

Ma Jun focused on various exquisite mechanical designs and gradually became Guan Mingjiang. It was his reputation that gave him the opportunity to step into the imperial guards who were of great family background.

At this time, Ma Jun had already made a name for craftsmen in Guan. When Taoli was worried about sailing on the Han River, he was willing to offer a high price to solicit solutions. The famous Guan merchant introduced Ma Jun to Taoli.

After Ma Jun's careful design and more than a dozen tests, he finally invented the pedal wooden paddle, which solved the problem of boats sailing against the current when river water is relatively urgent.

Ma Jun himself also knew that this invention was of great significance. He was worried that new problems would arise and kept following the ship to observe and improve. Today he followed the ship to observe again, but unexpectedly he happened to meet Liu Jing.

Since Liu Jing met Ma Jun, of course he would not let him go. With him, many of his military mechanical problems can be solved easily, such as the improvement of crossbow arrows, the improvement of stone catapults and stone cannons, etc. These all require a superb craftsman.

"It turns out that you are Mr. Deheng. Liu Jing has long been famous. Liu Jing is confused and wants to ask Mr. for advice. I wonder if he can give me advice."

Ma Jun was silent for a moment and said, "I'm off... the trip to the boat has not been completed."

Tao Li was anxious next to him. He also knew that Ma Jun was not a person who was inclined to the enemy, but Liu Jing was his niece and his relationship was extraordinary. How could he disappoint Liu Jing?

Tao Li was about to persuade him, but Liu Jing waved his hand and smiled, "Then I will try it with the ship with my husband."

After stopping, Liu Jing smiled and explained, "It's just me, no soldiers bothered me."
Chapter completed!