My father, Li Shimin, please call me Crown Prince

Chapter 220 How Can I Be Willing to Depose the Crown Prince?
East Palace.

Since Li Shimin came in person, naturally the eunuchs would notify him first.

When Crown Princess Su Yuer heard this, she hurried over.

Also accompanying them was the Roman princess Theodosius.

"It's been a long time since I came here."

"Except for the last night when I played chess with the prince."

Come in from the side door of Taiji Palace, walk through the passage between two high walls, and then enter from the side door of the East Palace.

Just twenty steps.

But when Li Shimin came here, he felt that everything was so strange.

Last time I came at night, I didn’t feel anything.

This time I could see it very clearly during the day, but the clearer it was, the more unfamiliar it felt, as if the layout of the East Palace had changed a little.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the previous time was in the 13th year of Zhenguan."

"That year the prince fell from his horse and broke his leg. Your Majesty has been here many times."

Li Shimin was startled and asked, "What happened next? Did I never come here again?"

Zhang Ananda shook his head slightly: "Since then, Your Majesty has not come here again."

Li Shimin thought about it carefully.

It seems that I really don’t have any impression of having been here.

Not counting the war chess game, it has been four years since the last time.

I can't help but sigh: "If a son is not taught well, it is the fault of the father. As a father, I have not visited my son for four years."

"The mistakes made by Cheng Qian were also caused by me."

Suddenly, Li Shimin seemed to understand the prince a little.

Over the years, Li Shimin always felt that he, the crown prince, was a pretty good person. Although he had some preference for the King of Wei, he never thought of deposing him.

But can the prince understand?

From the prince's perspective, this is probably a fall from favor.

Zhang Ananda heard this and didn't say anything more.

Soon, Crown Princess Su Yuer and Theodosius came over.

"Meet my father."

"Greetings to His Majesty the Emperor."

Li Shimin nodded: "No need to be polite."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Su Yu'er asked hesitantly, "I wonder if your Majesty has any instructions for coming to the East Palace."

Now that the Crown Prince of the East Palace is not here, His Majesty's sudden visit makes Su Yuer a little nervous.

I don’t know what your Majesty means.

"I just came to take a look."

"I heard that the prince has hired many craftsmen in the backyard and has come up with many new and interesting things, so I am a little curious."

After hearing His Majesty's explanation, Su Yuer immediately felt relieved.

Then he replied: "I don't know about the things arranged by the prince. They have always been the responsibility of Wen Nei Shi and Jia Ling Si Cheng."

After saying this, he turned to Wen Zhong, who was standing respectfully beside him, and said, "Eunuch Wen, please take His Majesty to have a look."

Wen, the eunuch, bowed and said, "Yes."

Li Shimin nodded.

Left under the leadership of Wen Zhong.

Theodosius was a little nervous. This was her first time to have such close contact with the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

But obviously, the Emperor of Tang would not talk much with her.

Theodosius breathed a sigh of relief. At least the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had no intention of driving her out of the Eastern Palace.

As long as she is in the East Palace, she is a huge threat to the Arab Empire.
-
The backyard of the East Palace.

When Li Shimin arrived here, he was quickly surprised by the scene before him.

This is the courtyard where bamboo paper is made.

Groups of craftsmen are working in an orderly manner.

Each of them is only responsible for the part they do.

You have to know that traditional paper craftsmen complete a set of processes by themselves, which is completely different.

"Is this okay?"

Li Shimin was a little curious.

Yang Qifan, the Prince's Household Secretary, said respectfully, "Your Majesty, this is what the Prince said, it's called division of labor and cooperation."

"The original papermaking process, pulping, conditioning, papermaking, and processing, is now carried out separately."

"A new craftsman only needs to learn one of these techniques, and they will be able to get started more quickly and become proficient more quickly."

"For complicated steps, we assign more people, and for simple steps, we assign fewer people. This way, the speed of papermaking is greatly improved."

"Your Majesty, don't underestimate us because there are only 200 people here. We can produce more than 10,000 sheets every day."

After listening to this, Li Shimin was surprised and asked, "More than 10,000 pieces of paper?"

Yang Qifan, the Minister of the Imperial Household, nodded and said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

After hearing the affirmative reply, Li Shimin asked Zhang Ananda, "How many sheets of paper do the three hundred paper craftsmen in Taiji Palace produce every day?"

Zhang Ananda replied, "Your Majesty, about a thousand or so."

Li Shimin said in a deep voice: "The number of people is almost the same, but the difference is ten times?"

Zhang Ananda explained: "It's not the palace papermakers' fault. All paper mills have roughly the same output."

Li Shimin asked: "So, only the prince's output is particularly high, is that right?"

Zhang Ananda nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty."

Li Shimin pondered for a moment, and then said: "That's why the prince can make so much money by selling paper. Bamboo paper is one aspect. For the same wages, the paper sold by the East Palace is ten times more than others. No matter how you sell it, you will make a lot of money."

Yang Qifan, the secretary of the Imperial Household Department, explained at this time: "Your Majesty, the Eastern Palace does not sell paper, only books."

"After paper was made, it was carved and printed into books, which were then sold in various bookstores in Chang'an."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin said, "Take me to see the place where the East Palace is rubbing."

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan nodded quickly: "Yes, Your Majesty.

Soon, Li Shimin saw the same scene as before.

The rubbing of paper is also divided into many steps.

Most craftsmen only need one of these steps.

If you are doing carving, just do carving. If you are doing rubbing, just do rubbing.

The binding and cutting are different.

Li Shimin looked carefully and found that these craftsmen were very skilled. Even some of the younger ones worked slower than others.

I couldn't help but say: "The prince has recruited a group of good craftsmen. Even though they are apprentices, their skills are no worse than those of the masters."

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan said: "Your Majesty has misunderstood. Most of the people here are apprentices, and there are not many masters."

“Because they only need to learn this one, it is faster to learn and easier to use.”

“If you do the same thing every day for a long time, you will naturally become proficient at it.”

After a pause, Yang Qifan explained, "It was not easy for the prince to recruit craftsmen at the beginning, so most of the craftsmen in the East Palace were apprentices. Then, according to the prince's instructions, everyone learned a step in a craft."

"In this way, it doesn't take much time to get the hang of it. Some smart people can be as good as the masters after learning for a month or two."

At this time, Li Shimin had fully understood the benefits of division of labor and cooperation.

Not only does it greatly improve production efficiency, but it also allows apprentices to get started faster.

"According to this method, the craftsmen of Taiji Palace must also do the same."

Li Shimin instructed Zhang Ananda.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Zhang Ananda replied.

Even if His Majesty does not instruct him, he will make such arrangements after he returns.

With such high efficiency, what is created is money.

It turns out that the prince has such a good way of making money.

Feeling that he had a general understanding of the situation, Li Shimin wanted to go and see the ice cellar in the East Palace.

At this moment, Li Shimin suddenly heard a loud bang. He couldn't help but ask, "What is that sound? Why is it so loud?"

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan said: "Your Majesty, the ironworks has started forging iron."

Li Shimin listened carefully and said, "Who forged iron with such a loud noise and such great strength, and yet was so calm and composed?"

The sound is loud but steady, continuous and powerful.

It rang for more than ten times in a row, with no sign of stopping or dying down.

Li Shimin also knew something about forging.

What kind of blacksmith must be able to do such a thing with ease?

It's such a waste of energy to be a blacksmith.

If he were on the battlefield, he would definitely be a top-notch warrior.

Li Shimin immediately became interested.

At the same time, some people blame the prince.

How could such a capable person be allowed to do the work of a blacksmith?

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, this is not human power, but hydraulic power. It is a device designed and manufactured by the Crown Prince, called a hydraulic forging hammer."

"Your Majesty, please follow me there and we will know for sure."

Hydraulic?

Non-human power?
Li Shimin's curiosity was immediately aroused.

Accompany the prince's household secretary to find out the truth.

Iron smelting workshop.

Li Shimin saw this big guy that made a loud noise.

What a big hammer.

However, behind it, there is a huge waterwheel.

As the water flows, the hammer is slowly lifted up, and then when it reaches a certain height, it suddenly falls down and hits the forging table.

Hammer after hammer, steady and continuous.

The tremendous force hammered out all the impurities in the pig iron.

The blacksmiths would turn the pig iron while the hammer was gathering power, which was easy and comfortable.

"Good stuff, this is really good stuff."

"With this, wouldn't it be possible to produce fine steel endlessly?"

Li Shimin immediately realized the advantages and benefits of this thing called hydraulic forging hammer for building armaments.

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan's voice was filled with pride: "The fine steel produced by the East Palace is all top-grade fine steel, and the output is abundant and sufficient."

"In just one day, we can produce several sets of Mingguang armor."

"Especially in terms of armor plates, it is easy to forge armor plates as thin as a cicada's wing. Not only is the defense stronger, but the weight is also lighter."

"The Mingguang armor that the crown prince wore during his expedition to Goryeo was forged with this hydraulic forging hammer. It is the best among all Mingguang armors."

"If it were a blacksmith, he would probably not be able to make a set even if he worked for ten days or half a month, and it would not be as good as this."

There is a huge difference between a blacksmith forging iron and a hydraulic forging hammer.

When quenching impurities, a blacksmith usually only has a few dozen kilograms of force in one hammer, and cannot hammer for a long time, which requires a very high level of physical fitness from the blacksmith.

The hydraulic forging hammer alone weighs hundreds of pounds, and one strike can exert a force of a thousand pounds.

And it is a continuous force of thousands of pounds.

It can be said that in the case of wrought iron, impurities can be removed to the greatest extent possible, a level that human power can never achieve.

Greatly shortened the forging time.

Of course, the subsequent shaping still needs to be done by a blacksmith, but the efficiency and quality are very different.

This level of efficiency is dozens of times or even higher than manual labor.

"With this hydraulic forging hammer, we will be able to produce large quantities of top-quality Mingguang armor."

Li Shimin's tone couldn't help but be a little excited.

However, this is not the end.

"Your Majesty, please follow me to the front. There is something else."

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan said respectfully.

Li Shimin followed and came to a large courtyard.

There are a lot of things inside, like spinning wheels, but they are not used for spinning.

You can see the craftsmen constantly stepping on the stone, driving a series of wooden tools, causing the grinding stone in the middle to rotate rapidly.

The craftsman only needs to place the nail piece on the grindstone to polish it quickly.

Make sure all parts of the nail are polished evenly.

Then replace the coarse grinding stone with an oilstone for fine grinding.

Finally, replace it with a plywood wrapped in leather to polish the nail.

These processes are constantly repeated, and perhaps one process can be completed in just one or two sticks of incense.

According to the previous situation, it would take more than an hour to roughly grind a piece of nail.

Fine grinding with an oilstone also takes more than an hour.

Polishing takes about half an hour.

This means that a craftsman, no matter how skilled he is, can only make two pieces of nails at most in a day.

In fact, most craftsmen can only produce one piece of nail plate every day.

A set of Ming Guang armor has about 1,300 armor plates.

This is why it takes several experienced craftsmen more than two hundred days to make a set of Ming Guang armor.

But now at this speed, the efficiency has increased by more than ten times.

Li Shimin asked: "How long will it take for the East Palace to make a set of Ming Guang armor?"

Temple Secretary Yang Qifan explained: "Your Majesty, the Eastern Palace does not count by date."

"The prince stipulated the size and made all the parts of the Ming Guang armor separately. This is the armor plate room, and there is also a helmet room, a breastplate room, a shoulder armor room, an arm armor room, a skirt armor room, and a shin armor room."

"Each component is measured to the same size and then snapped together."

"According to the current speed, it takes about two days to make all the parts of a set of Ming Guang Armor. There are about a hundred blacksmiths making the armor. Now, fifteen sets of Ming Guang Armor can be produced every month."

Li Shimin subconsciously calculated: "With only a hundred craftsmen, if we can produce fifteen sets a month, we can produce one hundred and eighty sets a year."

"If there are a thousand blacksmiths, they can produce 1,800 sets a year."

As soon as he said this, Li Shimin took a breath of cold air.

This efficiency is so terrifying.

The Tang Dynasty currently has more than 20,000 sets of Ming Guang armor.

Only a small number of these Ming Guang armors were made during the Tang Dynasty.

Most of them were built during the early Sui Dynasty.

The Sui Dynasty was tyrannical and forced hundreds of thousands of craftsmen to build various types of military equipment.

Among them, the Ming Guang armor took more than thirty years to produce, but only 17,000 to 18,000 sets.

After the Tang Dynasty, the Ming Guang armor was created.

Up to now, twenty-six years after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, there are only a little over twenty thousand people in total.

Of course, the reason why there are so few is that it involves many factors such as forging and iron ore collection.

But as of now, the speed at which the Eastern Palace forges high-quality steel and produces Ming Guang armor has surpassed the royal workshop by more than ten blocks.

Moreover, the Ming Guang armor produced is of better quality and has stronger defense.

Once this method is promoted.

With the assistance of thousands of blacksmiths, I'm afraid thousands of sets of Ming Guang armor can be produced in a year.

Just ten years.

There are tens of thousands of sets of Ming Guang armor.

Tens of thousands of sets.

If there were 100,000 sets of Ming Guang armor, how powerful the Tang Dynasty’s army would be.

In this world, is there any country that can withstand the military force of the Tang Dynasty?
You have to know that even a cavalry team of 3,000 wearing Ming Guang armor can easily charge into an army of tens of thousands of people.

At this moment, Li Shimin, who was already worried about deposing the crown prince.

My heart suddenly began to waver.

(End of this chapter)