Just as he had a breakthrough in smelting iron, Ma Jun's other invention made Ding Huai even more excited. What invention?
Ma Jun saw that his lord had been racking his brains over the problem of beer not being able to be sealed, so he also thought of a way to invent a container that could completely seal the beer, and could also take the wine out without opening the container. In the end, he really found a way. With Zheng Hun's help, a cylindrical container that was as tall as a person was made. It looked like the oil storage tank that was used today. There was a small lid on the top of the container, which was used to pour beer. Once it was filled, the lid would be sealed.
There was something similar to a tap under the container. This was a simple tap that Ma Jun had made according to Ding Huai's description of the tap. It was used to release the beer in the container, and the most important part was this tap. Although it was very small, Ma Jun had set up two layers of mechanisms inside, which could completely seal it from the outside world. As it could be completely sealed from top to bottom, after testing, the beer could be stored in the container for at most half a year. Of course, it was enough time to sell the beer to the northernmost part of Youzhou Province.
Ding Huai named this container the Ma Jun can, which meant that it was a can invented by Ma Jun. With the Ma Jun can, Ding Huai's beer began to be sold to various places in the thirteen provinces of the Great Han Dynasty. Of course, there were three foundations for this. First, it was after the horses from Western Liang arrived. Second, Ding Huai wrote to the Spirit Emperor, stating that in order to preserve the quality of the beer, he needed to mine a large amount of iron ore to make the Majun cans. In this way, even if he were to mine iron ore in a ostentatious manner, no one would suspect him. Third, Ding Huai had expanded the scale of production first. Otherwise, he would not be able to guarantee the supply of goods to the entire country.
In addition, Ding Huai also thought of the recycling of the majun cans. This was something that Ding Huai thought of based on the recycling of beer bottles in modern society. When the beer was being sold, the majun cans had already been sold at a high price, but there were only 500 liters of beer inside. Once the majun cans were finished, they seemed to be useless. Ding Huai sent people to collect large quantities of majun cans all over the country, but the price they received was less than half of the original price. Ding Huai still received a very high evaluation. Everyone thought that Ding Huai's actions would not only save iron, but also not make everyone's house full of Majun jars and useless.
Later on, what was even more ridiculous was that there was even a new profession. Some people actually specialized in purchasing the Majun cans and then sold them to Ding Huai's beer factory, profiting from them. This made Ding Huai extremely shocked. He did not expect that people at the end of the Han Dynasty would have such business acumen. It was really unexpected. In order to support this profession and save his own manpower, Ding Huai finally stopped sending people to various places to purchase the Majun cans. Instead, he gave these people some space to make money and waited for them to automatically deliver the Majun cans to Hanzhong.
Just as the sales of the paper and beer were a huge success, Ding Huai decided to use troops against the bandits in Hanzhong. This year was the third month of the sixth year of Guanghe. After obtaining the approval of the provincial governor Zhang Qiao, Ding Huai personally led 4,000 troops with Pang De, Gao Shun, Cheng Lian, and Zhang Ren as generals. He ordered Xu Rong to lead the remaining 3,000 cavalry to stay in Nanzheng.
Although there were many bandits in Hanzhong, most of them were useless. Moreover, they had no choice but to become bandits because of the pressure of life. Once they heard that the prefect had really led his troops to encircle and suppress them, they all surrendered. Ding Huai knew that they were all good people, so after a round of education, they were all released and returned home.
However, there were two relatively large groups of bandits at Mt. Dingjun and the southern valley entrance. Mt. Dingjun had 3,000 people, and the southern valley entrance had 2,000 people. In addition, Mt. Dingjun and the southern valley entrance were easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although they heard that the government troops were besieging them, the bandits in both places had no intention of surrendering. Instead, they stepped up the construction of defense projects to resist the government troops 'attack.
Ding Huai had already done a lot of intelligence work in advance and had a clear understanding of the situation in the two places. Compared to the south valley entrance, it was easier to attack Mount Dingjun. In addition, Ding Huai learned that the leader of the bandits on Mount Dingjun was actually
Leng Bao was a famous general of Yizhou in history. However, he had met Liu Bei's two generals, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan. Coupled with his underestimation of the enemy, he had been captured carelessly. In fact, this person was quite capable.
The reason why the South Valley Entrance was called the South Valley Entrance was because it was a valley. There were protruding stones and thorns everywhere in the valley. Ordinary people could not enter at all. However, the entrance of the valley was very spacious. Because the entrance of the valley faced south, it was called the South Valley Entrance.
The bandits here had built their stronghold against the mountain. The stronghold was built at the entrance of the valley, completely blocking the entrance. After Ding Huai led the four generals to inspect the terrain of the southern valley entrance, he could not help but frown. This place was indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack. If they forcefully attacked, they might be able to take down the southern valley entrance, but their 4,000 soldiers would probably be wiped out. There was no need to continue fighting on Mount Dingjun.
As he thought about it, Ding Huai suddenly thought of a way. It was to lure the enemy out. As long as he could lure the bandits out, he would have the initiative. At the thought of this, Ding Huai's brows relaxed.
Returning to the tent, Ding Huai ordered Pang De to lead 1,000 troops to challenge the enemy's camp. The leaders of the South Valley were two brothers, Zhu Kun and Zhu Ning. They were both brave and powerful. Since the fierce generals of the late Han Dynasty had not left the mountain yet, the two of them had the idea of looking down on everything. Besides admiring Leng Bao's martial arts, they also thought that they were invincible.
He had long heard that the new Hanzhong Mayor was a young child in his teens who only knew how to recite poems and draw, so he did not take Ding Huai to heart. He did not expect that this fifteen-year-old mayor would actually lead an army to encircle and annihilate him. Apart from being angry, the two brothers did not put the government troops in their eyes at all. They wanted to fight for a while and see how good the local generals were. If the other party was good at martial arts, they would not go out. After all, the South Valley Entrance was an easy place to defend and difficult to attack. As long as they could hold on for half a month, the government troops would naturally retreat without food. Zhu Kun and Zhu Ning were quite clear about the food situation in Hanzhong. If the enemy general's martial arts skills were average, he might be able to kill a few enemy generals and then defeat the government army.
The two brothers 'plan was quite good, so when Pang De led a thousand soldiers to challenge them, the two brothers did not hesitate to lead the army into battle.
Looking at the messy formation of the opposing army and the wretched form of the enemy general, Pang De really regretted fighting the first battle. If they wanted to fight, then so be it. But his lord only allowed him to use 30% of his martial arts and 30% of his strength, and he had to pretend to be real. This made it difficult for Pang De. But since he had already invited him to fight, he had no choice but to go. In desperation, Pang De could only brace himself and go into battle.
"Hey, the bandits have heard. My prefect has been ordered to punish you today. If you want to save your lives, quickly put down your weapons and surrender.”Although Pang De was prepared to feign defeat this time, he still had to say these words. Because he was not in good spirits, his words were not harsh. Ding Huai, who was in the camp, could not help but shake his head secretly. He thought that Pang De was too straightforward. He could not even pretend. Forget it, it seemed that the plan was going to change. Pang De would probably kill the enemy leader.
Initially, Ding Huai's intention was for Pang De to feign surrender so that the bandits would think that the officers and soldiers were easy to bully. In addition to the repeated failures of the 1,000 Su Gu's crusade, the bandits would definitely not choose to hold on and not come out. As long as the enemy could walk out of this camp, Ding Huai was confident that he would be able to wipe them out. Of course, it would be better to be able to recruit them to surrender, so Ding Huai did not want to kill the enemy's leader yet.
As expected, Zhu Kun and Zhu Ning felt disdain in their hearts when they heard Pang De's soft 'threatening'. They thought that Pang De was afraid, so Zhu Kun stepped on his horse and flew out of the formation. He shouted,"If you want grandpa to surrender, you have to ask grandpa's treasured saber first.”With that, he swung his saber and slashed, not taking Pang De to heart at all.
With a clang, their sabers collided. If Pang De had not remembered Ding Huai's instructions and used only 30% of his strength, Zhu Kun's saber would have flown back to his original position. Even so, Zhu Kun's hand was still numb from the shock and he almost lost his grip on his saber. After the first round, both of them were somewhat regretful. Pang De regretted using less strength. Otherwise, this fellow might very well retreat and not come out. Pang De knew about Ding Huai's plan and was afraid of ruining it. What Zhu Kun regretted was that he didn't expect this yellow-faced man to be stronger than him. He really shouldn't have gone out to fight. It would have been great if he had held on and not come out.
Both of them were stunned on the spot. Pang De was worried that Zhu Kun would turn around and run away, ruining his lord's plan. Zhu Kun, on the other hand, was worried that he would lose his life after seeing that his opponent's strength and martial arts skills were above his. In the end, Zhu Kun gritted his teeth and went all out again. However, he couldn't lose in just one round. That would be too embarrassing. No matter what, he had to last for three to five rounds.
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