The two people Xia Houlan brought, one was carrying two half-filled sacks, the other was carrying a bow and arrow, and they were holding something like a wooden frame in front of them, with two sticks in the frame that they didn't know what they were used for.

After walking into the hall and obtaining Liu An's permission, Xia Houlan motioned for the two of them to start.

The villager who took the sacks opened one of the sacks, poured some cotton with cotton seeds into the wooden frame, and took out a wooden stick that looked like a miniature mace.

Liu An stepped forward to take a closer look and found that one side of the wooden frame was actually an iron mesh with dense holes on it.

The thorns on the small mace are not just simple spikes at the end, but have a small underhook.

Under Liu An's gaze, the villager put his hand into the frame, piled the cotton inside hard onto the mesh surface, and then used the barb on the small mace to pull out the cotton exposed in the hole.

When the cotton on the mesh is almost hooked, press the cotton again and new cotton will squeeze out. Then use barbs to continue hooking the cotton outward.

Liu An looked carefully and saw that the holes on the mesh were very small, allowing cotton to pass through, but the cotton seeds would be left in the frame instead of being hooked out along with the cotton.

This method of extracting lint is very slow, but it can indeed extract the lint.

Liu An nodded, indicating that he understood, and Xia Houlan asked the villager to stop the operation and continue to the next step.

This time the villager opened another sack and poured out some lint without cotton seeds. Then the villager carrying a bow placed the bowstring on the lint and picked up another wooden stick to beat the bowstring.

With the vibration of the bowstring, the cotton was bounced up, dropped, and bounced up and dropped again. After repeating this, Liu An found that the original lint looked more fluffy and soft, and was more suitable for making quilts and cotton-padded clothes.

But again, this method is time-consuming and labor-intensive. After a long time, the muscles of the arm will become sore and numb after holding the bow for a long time, and the action of tapping the bow string with a wooden stick is obviously very physically demanding.

Liu An could only say that the method was simple and rough and could successfully extract cotton that could be used directly, but the efficiency was extremely low and there was still a lot of room for improvement.

However, Liu An was still very satisfied with Xiahou Lan's ability to complete what he had told him to do. Moreover, if it were him, he might not be able to think of this method to process cotton.

However, after all, Liu An has experienced various modern high technologies, and his structure is not on the same level as Xia Houlan. He knows that the efficiency of modern factories using large machines to process cotton is not the same as this.

Therefore, based on the method Xia Houlan thought of, Liu An thought of an enhanced version that could improve efficiency.

"Fu Zheng did a great job!" Liu An first affirmed Xia Houlan's achievements, and then said: "But has Fu Zheng ever thought about fixing the wooden frame and... well, the wooden stick, and fixing it on the wooden stick?

Installing a rocker on the upper side would save a lot of effort and speed up the extraction of cotton."

When Liu An saw Xia Houlan thinking seriously about his proposal, he stopped to give him time to think about it. After a while, he continued:

"The same goes for the bow string. After holding the bow for a long time, the Zhuang's arm will get sore. It is better to fix both sides of the bow string on a large wooden board. Leave a groove in the wooden board and place the cotton that needs to be processed. This process still exists

There is a lot of room for improvement, and I need to trouble Fu Zheng to put more thought into it. You can communicate more with the craftsmen, and you may gain something. But there is no rush in this matter. Fu Zheng will write it down first and think about it slowly. By the way,

Don’t sell cotton until the cotton processing technology is improved.”

Xia Houlan clasped his fists and agreed, and Liu An continued: "Another question, how many fields can be planted this year with the seeds of each crop harvested last year?"

Previously, Liu An asked the villagers how much cotton they could play in a day, but now he has gotten a similar answer. With today's technology, if one hundred people are deployed to play cotton, the shipment volume will not be too much.

"Ming Gong, wait a minute, let me do the math." Xia Houlan only recorded the yield and the number of seeds harvested, but did not calculate how many acres of land could be planted.

Among crops, potatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, and soybeans are both fruits and seeds. You only need to calculate them based on the harvest quantity and seeds needed per mu.

Liu An nodded in agreement, then looked at Zuo Wei and asked: "Zuo Wei, how many soldiers can we fight in the village now?"

Zuo Wei left the table and replied: "Back to the owner of the village, a total of 1,500 soldiers participated in the battle, but there are only 200 soldiers on the village as standing soldiers, and the rest work together with other villagers on weekdays."

"Hmm. Do you know how many people there are in the village?" Liu An was not sure whether Zuo Wei knew this question, so he asked this question to everyone present.

After all, Xia Houlan, who should know the most about this matter, is still calculating the question he just asked, and Liu An doesn't intend to disturb him.

At this time, He Guan, who was in charge of the construction of the manor, left the table and replied: "Back to the manor owner, including the victims of the disaster outside the manor, there are now more than 5,400 men, women, and children in the manor, of which about 2,900 are young and middle-aged, and one is a woman.

There are more than 1,400 people, and the rest are all young and old."

"Well..." After hearing this result, Liu An fell into deep thought.

There are already 2,900 young men in the village. If they are trained well, they will be able to fight against the Yellow Turbans as regular soldiers in a year.

If three thousand well-trained officers and soldiers were fully armed, they would definitely be able to defeat three thousand against ten thousand, or even more, against the ragtag Yellow Turbans armed with hoes and farm tools and without any armor!

Liu An remembered that during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Cheng Yuanzhi and his deputy Deng Mao led 50,000 Yellow Turbans to invade Zhuoxian County, while Liu Bei and the other three only had 500 soldiers. After Zhang Fei and Guan Yu killed Deng Mao and Cheng Yuanzhi respectively, the Yellow Turbans were defeated.

Countless people have fallen.

And these five hundred soldiers were newly recruited soldiers without strict training.

If Liu An could turn Zhuang Shang's young men into well-trained soldiers and equip them with sophisticated weapons, it would be easy to defeat Cheng Yuanzhi's 50,000-strong army without even having to defend the city.

Although Zhang Fei was sent to Liaodong to follow Liu Bei, Liu An still had Lu Bu and might be able to keep Guan Yu. Even if Guan Yu finally left, Gao Sheng and others under his command would not be afraid of Cheng Yuanzhi's followers.

By then, the credit for repelling tens of thousands of Yellow Turbans will be in Liu An's pocket.

While I was thinking about it, I heard Xia Houlan say: "Ming Gong, I have reached the result."

"Well, let's talk about it." Liu An put down the training of the villagers for the time being and said softly.

"Potatoes can be grown on 330 acres, corn on 60,000 acres, soybeans on 2,400 acres, spinach on 3,000 acres, sweet potatoes on 630 acres, carrots on 200 acres, and red potatoes on 630 acres.

Chili peppers can be planted on 1,300 acres, and the cotton seeds have not yet been harvested, so it is impossible to calculate for the time being."

When Liu An heard about corn, he couldn't help but show a look of shock on his face.

He has not personally participated in the planting of corn, and does not know how many seeds are needed to grow one acre of corn. Therefore, although he has just heard about the yield of corn, he has no idea of ​​the cultivated land that can be planted.

He was shocked when he heard Xia Houlan say that he could actually cultivate 60,000 acres.

There are so many fields, and even if we start collecting manure now, I'm afraid there won't be enough fertilizer.

And all crops added up are also a huge amount of data.

However, this year's drought is more severe than last year. The reservoir he ordered to be dug at the manor will definitely not be able to irrigate so many fields.

But Liu An didn't want to plant less crops. After all, relying on the system alone, he wouldn't be able to save the seeds for the entire Dahan field in his lifetime.
Chapter completed!