Fan Ning walked out of the government office and saw a house being built in the southeast corner of the county town. Several of them were arguing about something. It seemed that the sound was loud, which attracted many people to stop and look back.

Fanning was a little surprised, so he turned over and urged the horse to run towards the southeast corner.

After all, the county town is twelve miles away, and it is at least four or five miles from the government office to the southeast corner, so riding a horse is more convenient.

There is obviously a dormitory building in the southeast corner. Judging from the foundation that has been laid, there are at least 100 large houses. According to the previous plan, this place should be a dormitory for craftsmen and boatmen, and then a military winter dormitory is built in Xicheng. The tent is only used now. In winter, the tent cannot withstand the severe cold.

The reason why wintering has become a big problem for the Song army is that the army is mainly naval soldiers, most of which come from the south of the Yangtze River. If they live in tents, they may not be able to withstand the severe cold of tens of degrees below zero in winter.

Therefore, building a winter house has become a top priority at present.

Frankly speaking, Zhao Zong was unsatisfactory in the construction of winter houses before. Perhaps he did not realize the seriousness of the problem and delayed it for several months. Now it is only in September that construction has started.

You should know that September is the lunar calendar, and the Gregorian calendar is already October. It will snow here in another month and a half, and the snow is very heavy. That is to say, hundreds of houses will be built in a month and a half, but now only more than twenty houses have been built, so Fanning is anxious and puts the wintering problem in Class A affairs that are urgently resolved.

Fanning urged the horse to come over, and the two craftsmen leaders stopped arguing and came up to greet each other.

"Why are you two quarreling?"

"We report to the Censor Fan, we are not consistent in terms of whether to build brick houses or wooden houses. Building brick houses is warmer, but it takes time and build wooden houses faster, but it is not warm enough in winter. It is more suitable to build brick houses."

Another craftsman said: "I am not against building brick houses, but mainly because it is too late to get up, and it takes a long time to burn bricks alone."

"It's quick to burn bricks with charcoal. As long as there is enough manpower, you can burn enough bricks in half a month."

Fanning's heart moved, "Did you find Carbon?"

"Just three miles south, we found a carbohydrate mine. It was very shallow and had better calorie than wood. It could also burn charcoal to keep warm in winter, and it also burns charcoal in winter in Beijing."

Fanning knew that the sulfur content in Japan was too high, and it was not suitable for burning fire for heating, so it could only be used for smelting, burning bricks, etc.

He shook his head and smiled: "Burning charcoal can easily produce poisonous gas, so he can only burn it outside. When burning in the room, you have to prepare an iron stove and use iron sheet to make a chimney. It is too luxurious. Anyway, there is a lot of wood here, so it is better to burn wood in winter.

That’s it! It’s better to build a wooden house. The wood is not cut open, but it is built directly with logs. However, each house must be built with bricks against the wall to make a stove to facilitate the creation of fires in winter. So at least one wall should be built with bricks, and both stoves and chimneys should be made with bricks. You can place the brick wall on the north side. You know what I mean!"

The two nodded, "We understand what the censor means!"

"Save the time to build a house, I'll catch you strong men!"

He then turned his head and ran towards the barracks. Soon after, Fan Ning came to the central army tent. Di Qing and Lin Rui were discussing something. Seeing Fan Ning come in, Di Qing smiled and said, "Master Fan, you are going to send someone to find you!"

"I want to find you too!"

Fanning walked into the tent with a smile, "You can tell me first, see if it's not what we are considering, is it a matter."

Lin Rui bowed slightly and said, "Yesterday I went to find the chief of the Kun tribe. He told me that the winter in Kunzhou is very cold, and the snow is all over the waist. I guess living in a tent can make it difficult to keep the cold and winter, so I discussed with Shuai Di that the soldiers should change their houses."

Di Qing apologized to Fan Ning: "Two months ago, Censor Fan reminded us, but I and the General Secretary didn't take it too seriously. Now it seems that Censor Fan is indeed foresighted and does not know if it is still time to remedy it."

Fanning nodded and smiled, "It seems that we are thinking of going together, I'm here to talk about this."

Di Qing was overjoyed, "It's still time?"

"Now there is still one and a half months before the first snowfall. As long as you hurry up, it should be too late, but I need manpower and at least two thousand soldiers."

"I want so many people?" Di Qing was a little surprised.

In fact, there are still five thousand soldiers on the island now, one thousand of whom are stationed in the north horse farm, and the other two thousand soldiers are building warehouses. The remaining two thousand soldiers are training in the military camp. Fanning wants two thousand soldiers, which is equivalent to asking everyone. Di Qing of course hesitated a little.

Fan Ning said lightly: "Actually, I still think there are few two thousand soldiers, but there is no way. One thousand soldiers will log and prepare to build houses and winter wood. One thousand soldiers will participate in building houses. In this way, I promise to build five hundred wooden houses within a month."

Di Qing also knew that there was no time to train now, and ensuring that the soldiers and boatmen spent the winter was the top priority. He pondered for a moment, then nodded and said to Lin Rui: "I agree with Yushi Fan. All two thousand soldiers were involved in logging and building houses!"

"Abide by the orders!"

With the issuance of military orders, the vigorous logging and house building movement began to unfold, and the entire Tangcheng and nearby forests became a vigorous construction site.

Fan Ning took Xu Qing on the boat and took a big boat to the northern ranch with a lot of worries. If the horses in the Central Plains were unable to adapt to the water, soil and climate of Kunzhou, what's the point of occupying Kunzhou?

.............

The large ship Fanning was riding on arrived at the horse farm in three days. Compared to the first time, it took five days. This time, the trip north was greatly reduced, and it was against the wind, which was due to the crew becoming more familiar with the nearby sea conditions.

Although the sea route is very convenient, the plan to build a direct road from north to south is still listed as a Class B plan by Fanning, which is the project to be implemented next year. After all, land representatives live in it. Once the road is built, a large number of Han people will gradually appear on both sides of the road after moving north to Kunzhou.

On the other hand, sea routes are also quite dangerous. Two months ago, a cargo ship transporting grain hit a reef near the coast, losing more than 10,000 stones of grain and more than a dozen crew members. Of course, the convenience of sea transportation is incomparable to land transportation. Even if the road is built, land transportation cannot replace sea transportation. However, when encountering harsh sea conditions, there is one more room for choice.

On the big ship, Fanning stood by the side of the ship and looked at the distant land. At this time, Xu Qing asked with a smile: "Little official, how many Japanese workers do we plan to recruit to work here?"

Fanning glanced at him and asked strangely: "Why did you think of asking this question?"

"I chatted with the soldiers yesterday and everyone talked about this. Several soldiers still wanted to stay in Kunzhou to settle down and marry another young and beautiful Japanese lady."

After saying that, Xu Qing smiled self-deprecatingly and added: "I guess these soldiers were seduced by the Japanese lady in the restaurant."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "The initial plan is to recruit 10,000 workers, build cities, build roads, mines, build wood, build wharfs, and recruit another thousand young ladies, mainly engaged in growing vegetables, weaving, milking, etc., but I am worried that I may not be able to get it."

"Can't be recruited!"

Xu Qing smiled and said, "I heard from Yu Xiaonian that there are constant wars in Japan, and there are so many taxes. Ordinary people are forced to have no way to survive. Not to mention wages, if you can have enough food, you have to kowtow to thank God."

Fanning nodded. In fact, he thought so, and then recruited workers after the spring begins next year.

The ship slowly landed, Fan Ning got off the boat, and Yang Yun, the chief supervisor of the horse farm, saw the big ship, and immediately rushed to the dock to greet him.

This time, the Group Herders Department sent a total of 18 officials and seven veterinarians to Kunzhou to establish a ranch, three of whom remained on Danluo Island, and the remaining 15 officials and seven veterinarians came to Kunzhou. The highest official was a deputy chief supervisor. In addition to the fifteen officials, there were also a hundred herdsmen. Of course, compared with the five thousand horses, the number was indeed not enough. The court's horse raising regulations were that every five horses were matched with one shepherd and one soldier, and fifty horses were matched with one herdsmen.

However, the court was in captivity, and here was free-range, which was different, so it was recruited to help raise horses and barely take care of them.

The horse farm office and the stables were not far from the sea. On a hillside, Yang Yun rode on a horse and rushed over. He turned over and dismounted to salute, "See Censor Fan!"

"How about it?"

Fanning asked anxiously: "How is the horse's condition? Has it worsened?"

"No deterioration, it's getting better!"

Yang Yun showed joy on his face and sighed slightly: "I finally found the reason!"

Fanning was overjoyed and asked quickly, "What's the reason?"

Yang Yun waved his hand and said, "Go to the office! Let's talk as we walk."

The two walked towards the office several miles away.

"The horses were affected because of poisoning. There is a kind of grass here. We have never seen it before. It should not be in the Song Dynasty. This grass itself is tender and juicy. Horses like to eat it very much. But in winter, it will produce a small white fruit. This small fruit is poisonous. There is no problem with eating less. However, after eating too much, the toxins accumulate to the limit and the horses will die. After we keep the horses in captivity, there will be no death again. Moreover, the sick horses will recover slowly, which means it is not a problem of water and soil, but a problem of grass."

Fanning immediately breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the reason was found, there would be a solution.

He asked again: "What should I do? Will the organization organize the people to shovel this kind of grass?"

"We need to take a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, we organize people to pick this fruit in large quantities to reduce its number year by year. Secondly, when feeding horses, we should add some of this white fruit appropriately so that the horses can resist the toxins of this fruit, and we will not be afraid in the future. In fact, there are poisonous weeds everywhere in the grasslands. The key is that the horses themselves adapt. Most of the horses in the Song Dynasty were kept in captivity and did not have the constitution to survive in the wild, so they can only be cultivated slowly. I believe that in five years, our horses will be able to adapt to survival in the wild and become real war horses."

Fan Ning sighed in her heart, it will take five years to get used to it!
Chapter completed!