Wars are strength. A strong victory over the weak is a high probability event, and a weak victory over the strong is a low probability event. Although there are many successful battles in history where weak defeat the strong, the conditions for success in such battles are quite harsh. If you base your hope on chance, it is very unrealistic.

In the war with the Sima family, Cao Liang never expected to achieve the final victory through a battle. This war will surely be a long-term, protracted war and arduous one. You must have enough patience, confidence, perseverance, and no chance to take advantage of it.

The basis of war is population, and population represents soldiers and taxes. The Sima family occupies the vast majority of the territory of the Wei State and controls more than 80% of the population. In this way, the Sima family's war strength is the strongest.

Cao Liang only controls Bingzhou, and Bingzhou has relatively weak economy and a relatively sparse population. Even if Cao Liang forced the people to move into Hanoi, the population of Bingzhou was only 600,000 to 700,000. According to a 10-to-1 military and civilian allocation, a population of 600,000 to 70,000 can only support a maximum of 600,000 or 700,000 troops. At present, the number of Bingzhou troops has basically reached the upper limit. If you recruit troops again, it will be beyond the scope that the people of Bingzhou can afford.

Of course, Cao Liang can also solve the problem of food and salary of the army through military farming and reduce the burden on the people. However, military farming is also a double-edged sword. It has great benefits in solving the supply of food and grass for the army. However, if the army participates too much in agricultural production, it will inevitably reduce the time for training, so that the combat effectiveness of the army will be reduced.

What’s even more troublesome is that once a large-scale battle starts, the army that farms must be recalled and put into battle, and the fields they farm will inevitably be abandoned.

Therefore, under the current situation, farming is not impossible, but the scale must be controlled, and the combat effectiveness of the army cannot be affected, and the combat effectiveness of the army cannot be reduced.

The military farming method adopted by Cao Liang was to combine military farming with civil farming, mainly civil farming. The military and civil farming did not come from the active army, but were mainly prisoners of war, Hu people, prisoners, and refugees. All these extra personnel were included in the military farming sequence to enrich the foundation of military farming.

The agricultural production efficiency in the Han and Wei dynasties was very low, with wide planting and thin harvesting, which was completely different from the agricultural production of future generations. For example, rice was the yield per mu in later generations. However, now, it is probably not even 100 kilograms that were in later generations. In this era, an adult labor force worked hard for a year and could only support a family of three. This also requires God to be open-minded and have good weather. If there is a famine, there is no food to eat, and he can only eat soil.

In this regard, Cao Liang also expressed his helplessness. After all, the development of agricultural technology needs to be passed down from generation to generation, especially the selection and breeding of grain crops is extremely critical. Without Yuan Longping's hybrid rice, it is likely that 1.4 billion people in China would still be hungry.

Cao Liang could not transform into hybrid rice, nor into corn. When crops such as potatoes came, he could only honestly engage in military farming, build water conservancy, expand the area of ​​irrigated land, and change the farming model that relies on the weather to make a living.

In terms of farming tools, Cao Liang widely promoted iron farm tools and designed curved plows.

The plowing technology in the Han and Wei dynasties was relatively mature, but the plow in the Han Dynasty was a long straight-rod plow. When ploughing the land, it was not flexible enough to turn around. It was laborious to raise soil and was relatively low efficiency. When Cao Liang inspected the military farm, he saw that the villagers used straight-rod plows to cultivate the land. He had a sudden idea and went back to design a curved plow.

The emergence of Quyuan Plough in history was in the late Tang Dynasty, and the real technological maturity was in the Song Dynasty. Cao Liang once visited the museum and saw Quyuan Plough in the Song Dynasty. At that time, the tour guide proudly introduced that it was the emergence of Quyuan Plough that changed ancient agriculture from extensive management to intensive farming, greatly improving agricultural production efficiency.

Cao Liang had a deep impression of the curved plow, so after he returned, he drew a little memory and drew the drawings of the curved plow. So he summoned several carpenters and blacksmiths to build the curved plow according to the drawings. After several improvements, the first sample of the curved plow was finally released.

After trial in farmland, everyone was surprised that this curved plow was flexible and convenient to use, which saved a lot of manpower and animal power, and the effect of arable land was directly doubled.

If the efficiency of arable land is doubled, it is very terrifying.

Bingzhou has a large land and a sparse population, and the shortage is the population. The most important thing is land. If the arable land effect can be doubled, it means that the area of ​​arable land can be doubled. If the arable land is doubled, it means that the grain output will be doubled. Even if it is subject to other factors, it will only increase by 50% or 60%, which is an amazing achievement. In order to solve the problem of food shortage and to increase the military's organization, it has practical significance.

Cao Liang ordered to recruit more blacksmiths and carpenters, and even temporarily stopped the weapons workshop in the military camp, and made every effort to create a new style of curved plow.

This was invented and designed by Cao Liang when he was the governor of Bingzhou. Three or four years have passed since then. Now at least in Bingzhou, the curved plow has completely replaced the straight plow. Bingzhou's agricultural production has increased by at least 70% compared to the previous period, and the grain produced must be increased by more than 50%.

Grain production has increased by more than 50%, which is already a very terrible data. Today, Bingzhou has a wealthy warehouse and every family has surplus grain. It can be seen that the promotion and use of Quyuan Plough has played a huge role.

A single curved plow can have such obvious and effective effect, which undoubtedly gave Cao Liang a hundred times more confidence. Solving the food problem of the people of Bingzhou will undoubtedly ensure the improvement of the army's organization. Qian Hong's Zuowei Camp and Liu Jing's Right Guard were quickly established. In addition, the Xiaoqi Camp also expanded from a 5,000 to a 10,000 troops, and the number of Bingzhou troops increased from a 5,000 to an 80,000.

This is just the number of mobile legions, not including the county soldiers guarding each county. If all the guards in various places are counted, there will probably be a hundred thousand people.

Thinking about Shu's population of one million and only has 100,000 troops, Bingzhou can raise 100,000 troops with a population of six or seven hundred thousand. This number is indeed a bit incredible. In addition, Bingzhou has many mountains, a drought and little rainy climate, and low agricultural production efficiency. It is not easy to achieve such achievements.

But Cao Liang was really not trying to be a militant force, but built the raising of troops on a reasonable basis. The invention and expansion of the curved plow played a decisive role.
Chapter completed!