Iron was relatively easy for Ren Baqian to solve. He only needed to build a blast furnace and use water power to forge iron. Even if he used manpower to pull a heavy hammer with ropes, it would be more efficient than repeatedly hammering it.
As long as there was enough steel, he could also equip every soldier with a breastplate. Aboriginal warriors had strong vitality, and a breastplate could reduce casualties. Furthermore, it wouldn't affect their movements.
However, Ren Baqian was a little puzzled about the issue of food.
Pumpkins, potatoes, and sweet potatoes had just been popularized, and it would take at least half a year for a considerable harvest. At that time, these crops could be targeted at the commoners, reduce the consumption of meat, and replenish the army.
There was a problem that he hadn't realized before. For aboriginal warriors, especially on the battlefield, they had to eat a lot of meat in order to maintain sufficient physical strength. This was because the strength of warriors came from food, and the meat of animals in this world contained the most substances that could be converted into calories.
No matter how much pumpkins and potatoes there were, they couldn't be used as staple food, let alone as staple food for the army.
If they only ate sweet potatoes, potatoes, and pumpkins, they wouldn't be able to do anything else for the day. After breakfast, they would have lunch. After breakfast, they would have lunch. After lunch, they would have dinner. After dinner, they would have supper.
In this case, there was only one way to replenish the army's rations, and that was to fish.
The aboriginals didn't eat much fish. On one hand, they were used to hunting and raising livestock and didn't have the habit of fishing. On the other hand, fish had thorns and were more troublesome to eat.
Furthermore, fish weren't like livestock that could be sent somewhere alive. With Dayao's weather, they would start to stink after a day.
Therefore, unless it was along the river and there was a lack of other food, fish wasn't usually on the menu of Dayao.
Ren Baqian had an idea. The two reasons why the aboriginals didn't like fish could be solved with one method — canned fish, similar to canned sardines. After being processed at high temperatures, even the thorns could be chewed and eaten.
This was a feasible method.
There were two choices. One was glass canned food, which was easy to achieve since the glass factory was readily available. After filling a glass bottle, it would be heated at high temperatures, stuffed with a wooden cork, and sealed with wax. Although the shelf life wasn't as long as vacuum canned food, it was enough.
The drawback was that it was more troublesome to transport. The glass bottle was too heavy, and the canned food had to be packed with layers of grass. Otherwise, with Dayao's roads, it would only be glass shards.
The other one was tin cans. However, Ren Baqian did not know if there were any tin mines in Dayao.
What's more, making a tin can didn't just require iron and tin. It also required many other techniques.
When the empress saw that he was frowning, she asked him about it. He then told her about his idea of making canned fish.
After hearing this, the empress wrinkled her nose slightly and seemed to be somewhat happy. "This is a good idea. Glass cans will do. You can make them bigger. I always felt that the cans on your Earth are too small. They can't even be eaten in one bite. "
Ren Baqian clapped his hands and said, "Yes, we can make them into glass barrels or terrariums. Make them thicker, and it will be easier to manufacture and transport them. Your Majesty is indeed talented, to be able to think of such a good solution in such a short time. I didn't expect it. "
The empress snorted happily and tilted her head up slightly.
Ren Baqian felt that the empress was becoming more and more adorable. His heart was always tempted to kiss her.
However, he still had to return to Earth at night. In order to prevent himself from returning in a seriously injured state, he gave up on this tempting idea.
"My intuition tells me that you seem to be up to no good just now." The empress gave him a sidelong glance.
"Your Majesty … I'm innocent!"
That night, Ren Baqian returned to Earth. He recruited an assistant and found someone to prepare the exam papers. At the same time, he searched for ancient forging press drawings on the internet.
Based on the learning progress of these aboriginal students, their literacy level was roughly at the level of a fourth grade primary school student. Mathematics was also at the level of a second grade primary school student. Physics and chemistry were outstanding subjects, and their progress was different. It was impossible for them to simply pass the exam papers in school. They had to find someone to specially come up with a set of exam questions.
When the news of Ren Baqian's search for an assistant was discovered by the nation, there was another round of intensive analysis. After analyzing the gender, age, appearance, height, personality, and other aspects, Ren Baqian had an assistant by his side a few days later.
Looking at the Adam's apple and the gender on the information, it should be a woman. The way she spoke and walked was a little like a man. Her appearance was more masculine, and she was also flat-chested.
This was the most suitable result after many people analyzed the situation.
When Ren Baqian saw this candidate, he didn't know what to say. Even though the previous candidates were either not very pretty or seven feet tall, he had no choice but to reluctantly give up even though he approved in his heart.
However, this person really exceeded his requirements, right?
Furthermore, there was a man's name, Shen Feng.
Putting the gender of this person aside, the other aspects were very much in line with Ren Baqian's requirements.
In the future, Ren Baqian could hire this person for anything.
After some thought, he hired this person to bring along the exam papers and the street lighting equipment.
These two days, he hesitated on whether to bring the street lighting equipment or salt. Bringing 600 kilograms of salt at a time was completely inadequate for Dayao.
To ensure that more than 30 million people consumed salt, they would need about 2 million kilograms of salt a month. This was under the current situation where the salt intake of the people in Dayao was only half that of the people on Earth.
To achieve the normal salt intake, they would need at least 4 million kilograms of salt.
Ren Baqian would return to Earth after five days of classes every month. At most, he would only need 2,600 kilograms of salt, which wasn't very meaningful.
It was better to set up the street lamps in the palace first.
He would go to the Black Pool in a few days to take a look at the salt. If it didn't work there, he could only go to the Yun Nation to snatch it.
…
After the first day of discussion, the imperial court of Dayao discussed for a few more days. The matter of attacking the Yun Nation was almost decided.
As for Great Xia, no one considered it. In any case, they would deal with it as it came.
Contrary to everyone's expectations, Gu Zicheng wasn't sacrificed to the heavens. Instead, he was sent to prison. Everyone in the embassy was sent to prison. Only one person was sent back to Great Xia with a letter of credence.
However, everyone was clear that the day Great Xia attacked was the day Gu Zicheng would be sacrificed to the heavens.
It was time for this legend, who had lived for so many years, to come to an end.
On the fourth day of the discussion, news came from Ping City. Three days ago, Dayao had increased its troops by 200,000 at Tiesuo Pass, Qingyang Pass, and Yunluo City.
On the same day that the empress received the questioning from the emperor of Great Xia, the reinforcements from Great Xia arrived at night.
These few days, the Protectorate of the North discovered that there was more smoke in these three cities than usual. They used the drones that Ren Baqian left behind to detect it from the sky.
The reinforcements from Great Xia were faster than expected. This also showed that, like what Ren Baqian said, the emperor of Great Xia was just looking for a reason to attack. He simply didn't care about the empress's explanation. The war was already inevitable.
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