My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 177 Fear of Insufficient Firepower

After the military council in Liangyi Hall ended.

Li Chengqian returned to the Eastern Palace.

Although the current strategic direction has been determined, there is still a lot of preparatory work to be done.

The Ministry of War is responsible for dispatching generals who lead troops.

As emperor, Li Shimin appointed the chief commanders of various armies, but the selection of the subordinate lieutenants and colonels was the responsibility of the Ministry of War.

The household registration system had to start counting the population and send orders to Hedong, Henan and Hebei to begin gathering laborers in preparation for war.

The Ministry of Industry must also begin full-scale work to produce the necessary military equipment for the army.

Fighting with a large army is never an easy task.

It had a great impact on the entire Tang Dynasty.

"Your Highness, Hou Junji sent someone to tell you that the war horses and military equipment you need can be delivered at any time."

The prince led the army in person, and Hou Junji, as the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Road, first arranged for the prince's war horses and armaments. No one could find fault with this.

"Okay, send it to the training ground outside the city as soon as possible so that the soldiers can get familiar with it."

"Also, pass on my order to open the East Palace treasury and purchase the Xiaoshi with all your strength."

Li Chengqian ordered.

The eunuch Wen Zhong couldn't help but say, "Your Highness, if this is the case, the ice-making method will probably be leaked."

When Li Chengqian bought Xiaoshi before, he would mix it with other things.

If you buy the ice cubes separately now, anyone who pays close attention will definitely be able to deduce that the key to ice making lies in the ice cubes.

"It doesn't matter. Let it be leaked."

Li Chengqian said indifferently.

The profits from ice making are now somewhat unnoticed.

Tens of thousands of money a day is indeed a lot. If a large-scale war is launched, you can even earn hundreds of thousands of money.

But this is too small compared to the profits from coal mines.

Instead of spending this time on building another coal mine, it would be better to do so.

Just a few tens of thousands of dollars, can't you get it by digging a few shovels of coal?

Since we were about to launch an eastern expedition to Goryeo, we naturally had to prepare enough black gunpowder.

Compared with the results achieved by Goryeo, the benefits of ice making seem insignificant.

In fact, in terms of the current craftsmanship level controlled by Li Chengqian, the current situation in the Eastern Palace has already reached the standard for making cannons, and it can even directly skip bronze cannons and make steel cannons.

In terms of artillery shells, in addition to solid shells, we can also start researching shrapnel shells.

The production of a cannon barrel is actually quite simple, but the difficulty lies in accuracy, which requires engraving rifling inside the barrel.

But now, if it is only used for siege, the demand for accuracy is not high.

After all, there is such a big city in front of us, all we have to do is make sure the distance of the attack is enough.

The shrapnel bomb is ultimately a problem of model and the testing of the amount of gunpowder used.

With the blast furnace steelmaking, the difficulty of making artillery shells was greatly reduced.

The reason why Li Chengqian still chooses to use crossbows to replace cannons and mainly uses them to project gunpowder bags is to maintain confidentiality.

There is no need to conduct continuous trials for the test firing and test explosion of artillery.

The loud noise was obviously difficult to conceal.

It is also impossible for Li Chengqian to secretly build the cannon and then use it directly on the battlefield without testing it.

If it explodes, it will be a huge joke.

In comparison, whether using a catapult or a crossbow to drop gunpowder bags is more stable.

In an era like this, gunpowder bags are enough to attack the city.

"Go to Wu Lei Tang and have a look."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Wu Lei Tang is where Li Chengqian made gunpowder in the Eastern Palace.

This place is not under the jurisdiction of the Prince's Household Order Temple, but is directly under the jurisdiction of Li Chengqian himself.

Come to the courtyard of Wu Lei Hall.

You can see that a large number of drying racks are covered with densely packed small particles.

This is granular gunpowder.

"Meet His Highness the Crown Prince."

Hearing the noise, Xiang Ke hurried out to check, and when he saw that it was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself, he bowed and saluted.

Xiang was once a disciple of Wei Lingfu, one of the two Taoist priests in the Eastern Palace.

Wei Lingfu had previously performed the Five Thunder Method for Crown Prince Li Chengqian, which was actually the effect of igniting gunpowder.

So Li Chengqian used this as an excuse to set up the Wulei Hall and study gunpowder.

"How much gunpowder is there in stock now?" Li Chengqian asked.

Xiang Ke replied: "Your Highness, there are now more than 2,000 kilograms of gunpowder stored in the warehouse."

More than 2,000 kilograms of gunpowder; this was the result of Xiang Ke’s half-year production.

This output is actually very low, but there are only five people in Wu Lei Tang including Xiang Ke.

Li Chengqian nodded and then went into the house to inspect.

Li Chengqian once secretly tested black gunpowder under the pretext of going out of the city to train the government soldiers.

One ounce of black powder, or 50 grams, can explode with extremely spectacular power.

The explosion radius is approximately one meter, and the surrounding debris, branches, and leaves will be shaken off or blown away by the strong shock wave.

The so-called guards who followed at the time were all alarmed, and even the horses were frightened. They thought it was a bolt from the blue, and they hurried to protect His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Everyone had a look of panic, fear and confusion on their faces, not knowing what had happened.

Li Chengqian naturally did not explain and just said it was an accident.

One ounce can have such an effect, so what about one pound or ten pounds?

The gunpowder bags made by Li Chengqian have two specifications.

Ten kilograms and twenty kilograms respectively.

First wrap it with paper, then cover it with a layer of cheesecloth and tie it tightly with a rope.

Grind the black powder into a very fine powder, add it to the paste, and then soak it with cotton thread.

After soaking, take out the cotton thread and dry it, and the lead is ready.

After drying, quickly dip the lead in melted wax to allow the wax to form a thin protective film on the surface of the lead.

There is a thin wooden tube in the interlayer of the cheesecloth to prevent the gunpowder bag from exploding accidentally during the throwing process.

Most of the fuse is in the small wooden tube, leaving only a little on the outside to be ignited.

A complete gunpowder bag is now made.

"Take me to the warehouse to have a look."

Xiang Ke's heart skipped a beat when he heard the prince's words.

The other apprentices did not know the power of gunpowder, but Xiang Ke knew it very well.

The warehouse is an extremely dangerous place for Xiang Ke. If it explodes, the entire Wu Lei Hall will probably be blown to the sky.

If more than 2,000 kilograms of thunderbolt exploded at the same time, how big would the scale be?

Xiang Ke couldn't dare to imagine it. Whenever he had nightmares, he would think of the scene of flames rising into the sky.

Wu Lei Tang has strict rules and regulations, and no open flames are allowed.

Xiang Ke and a few apprentices could only work during the day and had to go out to eat.

Once it gets dark, they will leave Wu Lei Tang and guards will come to keep a close watch.

Even during normal work, there will be guards monitoring, and anyone who does not abide by the rules will be stopped and reprimanded immediately.

Xiang Ke knew the danger involved, but the other apprentices did not.

In their minds, the gunpowder mud is like dough, and their daily work is to knead the dough, make it into small particles, ventilate it, dry it, wrap it with paper, pack it with cotton cloth, and install wooden tubes and fuses.

There was once an apprentice who thought it was some unique delicacy and secretly licked it with his tongue, only to find it was extremely bitter.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Under the leadership of Xiang Ke, they passed through three gates and arrived at the warehouse where the gunpowder bags were stored.

There are a large number of wooden racks here, which are suspended in the air to prevent the gunpowder from getting damp.

"Your Highness, currently there are 100 kilograms of Thunderbolt Fire and 60 kilograms of Thunderbolt Fire."

Report to Kebao.

Li Chengqian took a look and nodded slightly.

He walked out of the storeroom and ordered, "In two days, I will assign you a few more men. Before July, you have to make 600 pieces of 10-jin and 200 pieces of 20-jin."

Xiang Ke bowed and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

After looking around, Li Chengqian left.

Ten thousand kilograms of black gunpowder is enough to play a huge role in this battlefield.

In fact, although I have never seen the city defenses of Liaodong City, as for the city defenses of Chang'an, if they weighed several thousand pounds, not to mention the city gates, even the city walls would have been blown up.

It can directly blast out a passage.

But there was no way, because Li Chengqian suffered from the same disease as most people in later generations, fear of insufficient firepower.

Ten thousand kilograms of black gunpowder would be enough to blow Goryeo through and through if used to blow up the city gates.

According to Li Shimin's military deployment, Li Chengqian and Li Daozon were responsible for the feint attack on Liaodong City.

After Hou Junji and Li Ji conquered Gaimu City, they gathered their forces and launched a general attack on Liaodong City.

Feint?

Ha ha.

The Eastern Palace in the evening was a quiet place for Li Chengqian.

The matter of opening a coal plant has now stabilized.

Li Yuanchang no longer has to return to his fiefdom, and Zhao Jie no longer has to serve as the governor of Yangzhou.

Now we are following the order of the Crown Prince to coordinate the opening of coal mines.

With the previous experience, it will be much easier to open a mine later.

However, because of the war against Goryeo, the people of Hedong, Hebei and Henan will be conscripted as laborers.

We will be busy with the autumn harvest later, so it is impossible to recruit workers in these three places.

Fortunately, there is the Grand Canal.

So Li Chengqian issued the Prince's Order to the three regions of Shannan, Jiangnan and Lingnan.

Ask the state governments to help release recruitment information, and then transport all these workers here by water.

All expenses and costs along the way are borne by the government.

The first foundation of industry is workers. Coal mines, iron ore, and cement all require a large number of workers.

One cement factory employs 10,000 people. According to the current situation, the Tang Dynasty needs at least dozens of cement factories before it can gradually start building cement roads.

This means hundreds of thousands of people. Not to mention the cost, it is simply unaffordable given the population.

There are also coal mines. For now, according to the standards of Jinzhou Coal Mine, one mine costs 10,000. Currently, we are preparing ten mines, which means 100,000.

Even if all the hidden population in the world were pulled out, it would still not be enough.

After all, if everyone becomes a worker, who will farm the land?

Therefore, launching a war against Goryeo was strategically effective.

Goryeo had a population of over three million and a military force of three hundred thousand.

Not to mention bringing in all the troops, it wouldn't be too much to just bring in 200,000 to develop industry.

When capturing prisoners for development, they don’t need to be paid except for their food and drink.

Whether it is mining coal, iron ore, or making cement, it is very useful.

Although this may seem a bit inhumane, in the dynasty era, if you want to develop quickly, sometimes you can't care about so much.

At least Li Chengqian would not abuse the prisoners. He would use the saved wages to ensure they had enough food and drink so that they would not have to work on an empty stomach.

"How many copies of the newspaper have been printed now?"

In the study, Li Chengqian asked the eunuch Wen Zhong about the situation.

The layout of the official report had actually been prepared in April, but Li Chengqian did not publish it last month because of his full-time labor service.

By May, it can be released.

"Your Highness, there are more than 400,000 copies in the warehouse." The eunuch Wen Zhong replied.

Two hundred craftsmen, each of whom can print more than a hundred copies a day, make twenty thousand copies a day, and two hundred thousand copies in ten days.

It has been printed for more than 20 days today.

"The newspaper shops in every district."

"Everything is ready."

A newsstand is a place that specializes in selling newspapers.

The housing prices in Chang'an are high, and it would be a huge expense for Li Chengqian to buy a shop in each district.

So when Li Chengqian did something wrong, he had people build a small wooden house next to the notice board in each neighborhood to use as a newsstand.

After all, selling newspapers doesn't require a lot of space, so you can save a lot of money.

Moreover, the bulletin board is usually in the middle of the block, which is well located and convenient.

"We will arrange for it to be delivered tonight. The price for the small workshop is 1,000, the medium workshop is 1,500, and the large workshop is 2,000."

"The remaining newspapers can be sent to various states of the Tang Dynasty through post stations, and local government offices can help sell them."

The eunuch Wen Zhong said, "Yes, Your Highness."

The 108 wards in Chang'an can be roughly divided into small, medium and large. Small wards have about 5,000 to 6,000 people, medium wards have 7,000 to 8,000 people, and large wards have basically more than 10,000 people.

About 200,000 copies are purchased here, and the remaining 200,000 copies are distributed nationwide.

There are more copies in states with large populations, such as big cities like Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Taiyuan. It is not a lot to distribute 100,000 copies in total.

Another 100,000 copies were distributed in various regions.

The content of this newspaper, the political affairs section and the border section mainly focused on introducing Goryeo and the Tang Dynasty's preparation to launch a war against Goryeo.

It tells the story of Goryeo's invasion of the Tang Dynasty's border, including various dynasties in history, how Goryeo rebelled against the Central Plains dynasty, and how it harmed the people on the border.

The Tang Dynasty's eastward expedition to Goryeo was to protect the people living in the border areas, defend the country, and eliminate potential dangers.

This is a legitimate reason.

The agricultural production section mainly announces the establishment of an agricultural college in Datang and the importance Datang attaches to agriculture.

The business trade tells the origin of the Silk Road, which can be regarded as popularizing basic knowledge to the people of the Tang Dynasty.

The key point of poetry scholarship lies in Li Chengqian’s own Qingyu’an Yuanxi.

The anecdotes tell the story of the prince being assassinated by a Goryeo assassin in Furong Garden, how dangerous the situation was, and how the prince turned the tide.

Li Chengqian naturally spared no effort in creating public opinion for himself.

This section of anecdotes will be used to tell stories related to Li Chengqian himself for a long time.

Let the people of the Tang Dynasty become more familiar with what kind of person their prince is.

Late at night, Li Chengqian went from the study to the bedroom.

At this time, Theodosius was already waiting in the palace.

More than three months have passed, and Crown Princess Su Yuer feels that the time has come.

Theodosius was naturally willing.

Li Chengqian naturally would not refuse.

"Please have mercy, Your Highness."

(End of this chapter)