Dahan first prince

Chapter 399 The Age of Steel
Leaving Luban Garden and sitting in the carriage returning to Chang'an City, Liu Ying couldn't help thinking secretly.

More than three years ago, relying on the "destroy Wiman Korea" battle, which was called an armed parade, Liu Ying had initially established martial arts and accumulated her own prestige.

But whether it was Liu Ying, who was the emperor, all the officials in the court, and even the common people, they all understood very clearly: For the emperor of the Han Dynasty, there is only one victory worthy of being called "martial arts".

——Follow the Huns to the north!
In the original history, from Emperor Taizu Gao Liu Bang, to Emperor Taizong Xiaowen Liu Heng, to Xiaojing Liu Qi, Xiaowu Liu Che;
All the kings of the Han family have never had the idea of ​​going north to chase the Hu.

For example, Liu Bang, the emperor Gao, used a very insulting siege of Baideng to prove that the chariot soldiers must be eliminated!

Later, Taizong Xiaowen Emperor Liu Heng, based on the "Jibei King Liu Xingju Rebellion" that had been prepared for many years and spent countless money and food, but in the end he could only compromise and make peace with the Huns so that he could turn around and put an end to the rebellion of the clan princes. It proves that if the Han Dynasty wants to fight against the outside world, it must first settle inside;

So later, Emperor Jing Liu Qicai couldn't wait to start cutting down the vassals as soon as he ascended the throne, and even detonated the conflicts between the Chang'an Central Committee and the clan and princes in the Guandong, and borrowed a rebellion between the seven kingdoms of Wu and Chu to completely eliminate the hidden dangers of the clan princes. eradicate.

Later, after more than 15 years of "recuperation" and "internal integration" by Empress Dowager Lu for 24 years, Emperor Xiaowen's 16 years, and Emperor Xiaojing's 50 years, the Han Dynasty was finally able to complete the Northern Expulsion of the Huns in the hands of Emperor Xiaowu Emperor Liu Che. historical mission.

But right now, the same problem was placed in front of Liu Ying.

——Is it the same as in history, the empress Lu who was willing to be a green leaf, and the two emperors Wen and Jing endured humiliation, recuperated, and accumulated wealth for future generations that was enough to defeat the Huns?

Or fight for the fate of the country, bite the bullet and do it, and eradicate external hidden dangers for future generations?

Liu Ying also thought about this issue for a long time.

Everyone in the world knows that the first emperor swept the six kingdoms and ruled the world, but they always ignore the phrase "Qin Fen VI's survivors" that the first emperor Yingzheng often talks about;
Everyone in the world knows that Han Wubei expelled the Xiongnu and revitalized Liu Han, but they would always say the last sentence in a ridiculous way: the rule of Wenjing is a hammer, it is either a marriage or a submissive, and Emperor Wu is the emperor through the ages!
But even so, it is still impossible to erase the great contributions to Chinese civilization of the Chinese emperors who were willing to be green leaves generation after generation, and even willing to bear the scolding of later generations, but also to lay the foundation for future generations.

Especially the five kings of Qin before Qin Shihuang, as well as the founding emperor and empress Wen Jing before Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty Liu Che.

Liu Ying also thought about whether to spend her whole life building the Han Dynasty into an extremely powerful centralized regime and laying an extremely solid foundation for future generations.

But soon, Liu Ying denied her own idea.

Because after a short investigation and research, Liu Ying discovered that the reason why the Han Dynasty in history had to endure the battle from Emperor Taizu Gao Liu Bang Baideng to Emperor Wu Liu Che sending Wei Huo to the north, the humiliation of nearly a hundred years was simply because Because of the development model of the Han Dynasty.

——In history, from Taizu Liu Bang to Xiaohui Liu Ying;
Liu Gong was young in the past, and Liu Hong was young in the future;
Then to Emperor Wen Liu Heng and Emperor Jing Liu Qi, the Han Dynasty has always implemented the word "province".

The state treasury relies on agricultural tax to support the operation of the court, and if there is less money in the mansion, the maximum amount of money will be saved and saved;
After saving for nearly a hundred years like this, it was not until Emperor Wu ascended the throne that the Han Dynasty was able to save enough money, food, and enough horses to support three to five decisive battles with the Huns!
But as a later generation, Liu Ying knows very clearly: money is not saved, but earned.

Especially in today's golden age when even the feudal social system has not yet been perfected, and all "deviant" ideas have not been hindered by the "ancestral system". If the feudal emperors in power want to make money, there are simply not too many ways.

In other words, in the few years before and after Liu Ying ascended the throne, Shaofu’s income from grain storage on behalf of the people and government-run grain and rice is enough to match the original history of the three generations of kings, Xiaohui, the former Shao, and the latter, which lasted for 15 years. grades!

As for the salt and iron that rose up later and gradually showed their power, it made the central financial level of the Han Dynasty reach the middle and late period of Emperor Wen in the original history in just six years after Liu Ying ascended the throne!
In the annals of later generations, the description of the rule of Wenjing is: the living and the people live and work in peace and contentment, the pheasants and dogs in the countryside hear each other, and the people do not communicate with each other until they grow old and die;
Men have farming, women have weaving, children have support, old people have support, the hungry have rice to feed their stomachs, and the cold have cloth for clothing;
The government treasury is full and overflowing: the new rice has not entered the warehouse, but the old rice is poured into the Weishui River;

Then compared with the rule of Wenjing in history, what kind of picture does the Han Dynasty look like today?

——The common people will not suffer from hunger and cold. Liu Ying dare not say that it has been fully achieved, but at least within the Guanzhong area, the common people "don't have to suffer from the fluctuation of grain prices", but it has already become a reality;

Liu Ying can't guarantee that the treasury is full to the point where the stored grain is moldy and the ropes that string money are festered, but at least when necessary, Liu Ying can take out tens of millions of grains and hundreds of millions of copper coins with her eyes closed. And said easily: It's okay, it's a trivial matter.

If there is anything else, it is absolutely inferior to the rule of Wenjing in history. That is to say, due to time reasons, the Han Dynasty does not have as many as 72 horse gardens and tens of millions of horses in reserve. .

But compared to the "saving money" model that was implemented from the early Han Dynasty to the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in history, today's Han Dynasty, under the leadership of Liu Ying, has a complete set of stable and long-term profit models.

In the future visible to the naked eye, the rule of Wen Jing in history will inevitably become the rule of filial piety in this timeline where Liu Ying lives.

That being the case, why did Liu Ying insist on adopting a conservative approach of "developing in the late stage", instead of taking advantage of the opportunity that the Huns have not yet completely unified the grasslands to eliminate the threat from the northern grasslands in one fell swoop?

After figuring this out, the Military Industry Department that the Shaofu was ordered to establish came into being.

——If you want to defeat the Huns, the only thing that Liu Ying can create an advantage for the Han Dynasty today is logistics!
To be more specific, it is sufficient food supply, perfect pension system, and weapons and equipment beyond the times.

Therefore, Liu Ying's official business of grain and rice has repeatedly increased the strength of the army's pensions;
Therefore, the Military Industry Department of the Shaofu was formally established three years ago, and became the only department under Jiuqing other than the lieutenant and general Zhonglang who had reached the level of two thousand stones.

At the very beginning, Liu Ying also naively thought: As long as countless resources are poured into it, even if she does not have her own "traveler" to open the plug-in, with such a huge R&D resource, the Military Industry Department will inevitably produce something;
But soon, Liu Ying found out: she was wrong.

The limitations of the times and the limitations of thinking are almost infinitely magnified in the military industry, an industry that is related to the destiny of civilization;

Liu Ying's first investment in the military engineering department only got a batch of better-made old-style weapons that were no different from the past, such as daggers, spears, swords, halberds, and crossbows that were not much different from the past.

The only unexpected harvest is that the craftsmen of the Military Industry Department used the records left by Qin Shi to recreate Qin Shi's black technology that once dominated the Central Plains: the bronze hand crossbow.

Other than that, nothing else.

Realizing this, Liu Ying didn't hesitate any longer, and fired all her firepower almost immediately;

Scale armor, plate armor, mo knife, god arm crossbow, all the weapons and equipment that appeared in Liu Han's memory in Liu Ying's impression, were all put on the agenda by the Military Industry Department of Shaofu.

The urgent need for forged steel technology was naturally placed in front of Liu Ying after the research and development of this series of new equipment began.

After that, Liu Ying conducted another survey;

However, the conclusions obtained are not satisfactory.

Today, although the Han Dynasty has stepped into the Iron Age with one foot, not to mention steelmaking, even iron smelting technology is still in a very backward initial stage.

Compared with the bronze smelting technology that reached the peak level hundreds of years later in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the iron smelting technology mastered by the Han Dynasty today is like a child pinching mud.

In most cases, the performance of the ironware that appeared at this time point is even better than that of the same type of bronze products!
Corresponding to the backward smelting process, the output of ironware is so low that it is outrageous: aside from the Shaofu, the whole world is only 20 catties a year;

It is equivalent to less than [-] tons for later generations, and when piled together, it is a piece of iron billet with a length of one foot, a width of one foot, and a height of more than half a foot...
This is the case with iron and steel, so there is no need to mention it.

——Nowadays, the only mature steelmaking process mastered by the Han Dynasty is the steel frying method;

According to the description of Shaofu Yangchengyan, a skilled steelmaker can fry hundreds of catties of steel a year;
But there are only a few dozen craftsmen of this level in Shaofu.

Before the layout of Shaofu along the way, the annual output of steel and iron in the entire Shaofu was only [-] catties of steel and more than [-] catties of iron.

What is two thousand catties of steel enough for?
——Thirty breastplates that meet Liu Ying's requirements can be made, or forty qualified Mo Dao.

one year;
This is Shaofu's annual steel output.

Obviously, what Liu Ying wanted was not a convoy of dozens or hundreds of people, but an elite field force composed of tens of thousands of people;

And such a field force, especially a new type of heavy infantry force equipped with mo knives and plate armor/scale armor, is definitely not something that the Shaofu can complete the supply of weapons and equipment by relying on an annual steel output of [-] jin. ·····
"If you fight the Huns, since you don't have horses, you can only work hard on weapons."

"Especially iron, or even steel weapons, in order to occupy a cross-age advantage in front of the bronze weapons of the Huns."

"Ugh······"

"Hundreds of steelmaking..."

With a gloomy expression, she sighed, and a trace of regret appeared on Liu Ying's brow.

Liu Ying knows that the biggest difference between steel and iron is that iron is a simple substance of iron, while steel is a composite metal, which is often called an alloy in later generations.

The best way to turn iron into steel is actually to use iron as the main raw material to support the hardness of the steel, and then add other metals to provide toughness.

To put it more bluntly, it is to make the alloy have the advantages of multiple metals through the mixing and smelting of two or more metals.

But in today's Han Dynasty, iron is made into steel, but it can only be forged to fuse iron and carbon to form an "iron-carbon alloy", which is carbon steel in the population of later generations.

Compared with other types of alloy steel, carbon steel obviously has shortcomings such as too single performance, not good enough, and complicated production in the current era;

But as far as the current stage is concerned, Liu Ying can only settle for the next best thing...

"Let's do it first."

"Get out the carbon steel first, and form a new army;"

"In the future, we can make high-carbon steel, medium-carbon steel, and low-carbon steel separately, and then consider more complex alloys."

Thinking so, Liu Ying shook her head implicitly, and immediately focused on the bamboo slips in front of her.

This scroll of bamboo slips is a hand-copied version of the letter of the Huns sent to Chang'an some time ago.

For this letter of credence, Liu Ying just sneered at the unambiguous request of the Xiongnu Shanyu Modun, or the proposal to order the Han Dynasty to revoke Andong County to create a "strategic détente zone" for both sides.

In the past so many years, the Han and Hungarian sides have long been familiar with each other, and have a deep understanding of each other!

Let’s just say that now, the Han Dynasty established Andong County on the Korean Peninsula. From the map, it seems to be directly bordering the sphere of influence of the Huns;

But in fact, it is not difficult to find out what area of ​​the Xiongnu is north of Andong, and it is not difficult to find out: the "strategic detente zone" in Maodu's mouth is simply something for three-year-old children to play with!

——North of Andong, or northwest, are the Xianbei and Wuheng Mountains in the Xiongnu territory!
These two mountains were used by the Huns to exile prisoners!

For example, at the moment, the two slave tribes that once belonged to the overlord of the grassland: Donghu were sensed by the Huns and named after the two mountains: Xianbei tribe and Wuheng tribe.

Such a "bitter and cold place" used to exile prisoners in a world of ice and snow, needs to establish a "strategic detente zone"?
joke!

——Since the arrival of Han and even Ji Zhou, the grassland peoples went south to the Central Plains. Didn’t they break through from generation to generation?

Not to mention the Xiongnu Far East where Xianbei and Wuheng are located, even the eastern half of the border of Yan Kingdom, such as the direction of Youbeipingping, is rarely chosen by nomads as a breakthrough point for their southward plunder.

Therefore, Liu Ying decided...
"Since you want a 'strategic détente zone', don't talk about Anton;"

"Wouldn't it be better to just empty out the river loop?"

Thinking like this, Liu Ying also made up her mind, and began to prepare the letter of credence for Maodun in her heart.

The Hetao area is the pearl of the grassland, and at the same time, it is also an indispensable place for raising horses for the Chinese nation;
In order to completely eradicate the external threat of the "Xiongnu" in their lifetime, the Han Dynasty needed such a horse breeding land to provide a steady stream of horses for the cavalry.

As far as the current strength comparison between Han and Hungary is concerned, the Han Dynasty still needs to make a lot of efforts to regain Hetao.

To be precise: there are still many things Liu Ying needs to do...

(End of this chapter)