In the base area, all the Han people did not have to worry about winter. They practiced, studied, and worked every day.

Because you can eat mutton every now and then, you can eat two dry meals every day until you are 70% to 80% full, and many people have become strong.

Huang Yi led some people around every day, and rarely came back empty-handed. He always hunted gazelles, goats, rabbits, roe deer and other prey.

The blacksmith workshop was built in the abandoned military fort, and it was steaming with heat every day. Lan Jinkui, Qi Dashan, Qi Xiaoshan, and seventeen or eight young Han men were all sweating profusely.

Half of these young adults had been apprentices in the blacksmith shop before, and two of them had already graduated.

The young blacksmiths were all making farm tools. Lan Jinkui and Qi Dashan, the most skilled, made mini guns according to the drawings drawn by Huang Yi.

It is relatively easy to make farm tools, but the gun barrel required by Huang Yi is not simple.

First, the Su steel must be repeatedly forged with a sledgehammer to increase the density of the material, and then the gun barrel can be drilled.

The two old masters were researching and trying at the same time, but unfortunately they worked for nearly a month and still could not make one that met the quality requirements.

Huang Yi was not discouraged. If he couldn't do it in one month, he would give it two to three months. As long as he could finish a rifled barrel when Su Gang ran out, it would be victory.

He has realized that the current rifling drill bits are not hard enough and the craftsmanship is not good enough. The rifled gun must rely on Lan Jinkui and a master like Qi Dashan to work carefully. Whether it can be completed depends not only on craftsmanship but also on good luck.

This production method not only costs too much, but also directly makes mass production difficult.

Therefore, Huang Yi recognized the reality and did not expect to have a hot weapon army using rifled guns in a short time.

Bows and arrows, bird guns, Rumi guns, raised guns, squatting tiger cannons, French cannons and other equipment that the Ming Dynasty had are the mainstream.

In fact, the weapons of the Ming Dynasty were not backward at all. The main reason for its failure was that it was extremely corrupt.

Those who serve as soldiers for the country are despised, their military pay is deducted at all levels, and they are unable to eat enough to feed their families. They naturally disperse when they confront the Jiannu. How can we expect them to be loyal to the country?

Huang Yi believes that if he shares the joys and sorrows with all the soldiers and tells them heroic stories every day, such a team will surely be able to fight bravely.

There has always been education in the base area.

Women also followed Huang Yi and Wang Baishan in literacy and training, and they were still sewing backpacks out of cowhide and sheepskin based on the shape of Huang Yi's backpack.

Huang Yi's request is that everyone should have a share of this kind of backpack, and first ensure that young and middle-aged men can wear backpacks and participate in battles.

There is no cotton on the prairie, but there is a lot of wool. Women basically spin wool and weave felt.

Huang Yi once instructed Zhang to knit a natural sweater with wool and wear it on top of a stab-proof jacket. It felt much warmer inside the jacket.

Knit a pair of woolen trousers and put them on, plus a body armor and cotton armor, and you won't have to worry about the severe cold of -20 degrees Celsius.

Huang Yi doesn't know how to knit sweaters, but he knows how to do so because he used to often see his wife knitting sweaters with bamboo needles.

The vast majority of Han women are ingenious and know that sweaters are very warm when worn close to the body and can be woven by hand using a few thin bamboo sticks. They all come to Zhang to learn the technique.

Then everyone's ingenuity came to light, and many women used their imaginations in their work.

In less than two months, there were several types of needles, Zhi, Yong, Shuang, Quan, Peng, the two brothers Hu Xiaochuan, Wang Baishan, etc. all had a sweater that was white and slightly yellow.

This is the natural color of wool.

Humans are social animals and are actually most afraid of loneliness.

The settlement area in the base area was crowded and lively. In the large and warm classroom, women gathered together to knit and talk and laugh. Of course Bi Gu liked it.

The three children finally had a new playmate, and they refused to leave once they arrived.

The six members of the Bi family no longer live in the thatched huts on the other side of the mountain col, but have moved to the base area to live in small nests.

Bi Daxi was the happiest during this period, because he had friends like Zhang Dong, Qi Xiaoshan, Huang Dazhi, etc. who were similar in age, and he could read and listen to stories.

This young man grew up in the mountains, and walked across the mountains and ridges as if on flat ground. He had learned archery since he was a child, and he was talented in this area. His skills were not inferior to the Mongolian "Zhebie".

Huang Yi discovered his special skills and rewarded him with a powerful walking bow and two full arrows.

Although the base area was simple and crude, Bi Zitong felt an indescribable feeling...

how to say?

He is uneducated and cannot speak!

This is actually a positive spirit!

Bi Zitong saw that Huang Yi seemed to like Bi Daxi, so he shamelessly asked Huang Yi to accept Bi Daxi as his disciple.

Huang Yi originally started as a retainer, and changed the names and surnames of Zhi, Yong, Shuang, Quan, and Peng.

Later, I felt that he was a time traveler and should have the mind to look at the world and embrace all rivers. There was no need to do this, so I didn't change anyone's name.

In ancient times, the relationship between teachers and students was very important, and those who deceived their teachers and destroyed their ancestors would never survive.

Huang Yi taught everyone how to read and arithmetic, so he was naturally their mentor.

Bi Zitong asked Bi Daxixing to worship Master to further strengthen the master-disciple relationship, and Huang Yi certainly accepted it.

Bi Daxi's apprenticeship ceremony was a leopard he hunted after getting a strong bow.

Huang Yi accepted the meeting gift and gave him a pair of leather armor in return.

In the following days, everyone was either working or practicing combat skills, and Huang Yi was hanging around all day long.

Bi Daxi is a local and has lived in this mountainous area for more than ten years. Of course he is the best guide.

In addition to Bi Daxi, Huang Yi sometimes goes out with fully armed Zhi, Yong, Shuang, Quan, Hu Xiaochuan, etc.

Sometimes I take Huang Dapeng, Hu Xiaogu, Zhang Dong, Zhao Yong, Zuo Guanghu, etc., anyway, I take at least ten people with me every time I go out.

It’s impossible without bringing so many people.

Because Wang Baishan had already learned from Bi Zitong and his son that several groups of horse thieves had their dens in the mountains.

He was worried that Huang Yi would be killed by horse thieves when he went out, so whenever Huang Yi went out, he must bring at least ten guards with helmets and armor.

Little did he know that Huang Yi searched the mountains several times just to find and observe the lair of horse thieves, and that hunting was just a side trip.

Bi Zitong was familiar with the nearby mountain people and had introduced the situation to more than a dozen households. During this period, seven households of mountain people came to seek refuge with their families.

There are eleven people in these seven households, with a population of thirty-seven.

They all longed to live a pastoral life where men farmed and women weaved, and they all came because of Huang Yi's promise to allocate acres of land to those who participated in land reclamation.

These families have lived in the mountains for many years, and are actually very lonely.

When they came to the base area, just the popularity here made all the young people unwilling to go back to the mountains.

Huang Dazhi and Bi Daxi became chief and corps commander respectively, and their subordinates were all young mountain men.

These people are in good physical condition. They are all hard-working children who have participated in hunting and gathering wild fruits since childhood. After getting the powerful walking bow, they all couldn't put it down.

After just a few days of adaptive training, these teenagers who have been using hunting bows for a long time can master the walking bow proficiently.

Their archery accuracy is only inferior to that of Bi Daxi and Bi Zitong, and is on par with the brothers Huang Dazhi and Hu Xiaochuan.

Of course, this is only infantry shooting. If it is compared to mounted shooting, these young mountain men are far behind.

Huang Yi did not insist on mounted archery, because the power of the mounted bow was much smaller than that of the infantry bow.
Chapter completed!