The rise of the prince

Chapter 343
"What's the situation in Guanbei now?"

"who knows"

"If... if the Liao people break through Guanbei, what should we do?"

"Yeah, there's no news for so many days. It's too abnormal. It's worrying. If Guanbei is broken, you can go to Kaiyuan soon after passing Jiangzhou. The road is flat and there are many people in Liao. How can you Don't worry."

"It's useless to talk about it. Every time I see Mr. Lu in this building's "The Great Storm on November [-]th", I have the idea of ​​joining the army and following Ban Chao's ambition. I wish I could go to the battlefield and kill two more Liao people. No chance, what a pity."

"Hey, how can you blame brother, it's just the way of the world."

"That's right, there is no way for us to serve the country, and ambition is hard to be rewarded. This is the way of the world."

Listening to the discussion in Yulou early in the morning, Li Xingzhou sat at the door with his legs crossed, almost laughing when he heard it.

Indeed, the world is really strange. People in Su, Lu, and Guazhou are in dire straits, starving to death, corpses lying all over the field, and they don’t hear complaints all day long, but follow him desperately. Can these few scholars eat vegetables comfortably in the Yulou After drinking, it turned out that there was no way to serve the country.

Li Xingzhou had just returned from the court meeting, and there was basically nothing wrong with him at the court meeting. The emperor was urging the Privy Council to come up with a solution and get news from the north as soon as possible.

Zhong Daoyu is very knowledgeable about current affairs, he is very old, so it is normal to report illness.

So Wen Daoli can only bear it, and it is estimated that he is also in a state of desperation recently.

As the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, Wen Daoli is supposed to be his superior. However, Li Xingzhou has not had much communication with him. After all, his various identities have made him detached from the Privy Council and not under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. The only person who can control him is the emperor. .

However, compared to Zhong Daoyu, Wen Daoli gave him a more tactful feeling, so he was more able to deal with the world.

He also asked the officials in the twelfth room of the Privy Council about the northern affairs. After all, he is also a member of the Privy Council. On the way, I came back in a few days.

As a result, when Wen Daoli reported to the emperor, he said that he had sent a hundred fast meteor horses, but he didn't say that those fast horses returned without success in the end. What a cunning trick.

The Meteor Express horse is not ordinary, he travels day and night in a hurry, takes the iron plate of the Privy Council, changes horses as soon as he arrives at the post station, and leaves, he can travel five hundred to seven hundred miles a day.

Sometimes there may even be cases of running to the death, either because of excessive fatigue, or because some sections of the road are densely covered with mountains and forests, and there are wolves, tigers and leopards infesting, and if you are not careful, you will become the prey of wild beasts.

The reason why the road has been blocked for so long is, to put it bluntly, an unsolvable problem in ancient times.

If there is a road collapse, we can only rely on the local government to organize repairs. Some local governments are highly efficient, while others are not good at handling affairs, so the efficiency is naturally low.

The emperor issued an imperial decree for several days, asking all the states and counties in the north to do their best.

But in ancient times, because of transportation and information technology, the central government’s control over the localities was not firm. Think about the situation where it takes several months to travel from the central government to the farthest local decrees.
Regardless of how the decree is implemented, it is difficult to pass it on in the marginal areas.

Rebellions and rebellions also occurred from time to time, until the centralization of the monarchy reached its peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, this situation was reduced, but the powerful officials still rebelled, and the implementation of government orders was even more procrastinated.

So Li Xingzhou didn't have much hope for this matter, the only thing he could do was wait anxiously.

The reason why he came here today is still thinking about cement, what is wrong with him?
It wasn't until noon that Li Xingzhou and his personal guard Yan Peng were eating in Tingyulou, and then they left slowly.

Tomorrow, the third and fourth Dingnan-class ships of the Wangfu will be launched. For this reason, he has also adjusted the interior of the Wangfu, and completely handed over the restaurants such as Tingyulou, Zhiyuelou, and Zhiqiulou to Yan Kun. The three shopkeepers were selected to take charge, and Yan Kun will be in charge of the Wangfu Hangyuan from now on.

Because Hangyuan may often have to "go on business trips" to connect with various ferries, and Yan Kun in the palace is the most eloquent and tactful, so it is more reassuring to let him take charge of this matter.

Thinking of this, Li Xingzhou was a little groggy looking at the sun above his head, probably because he was listening to Yulou to drink two more glasses, and his alcohol was getting stronger.

Yan Peng, the better nurse behind him in the palace, is also Ji Chunsheng's apprentice.

Because the emperor gave Yan Shen an official position, Li Xingzhou transferred him to the new army. First, there was a shortage of manpower to train the new army. Second, Yan Shen had presided over the production of gunpowder and firearms, so he was most familiar with the new equipment of the new army. .

Yan Peng is much younger than Yan Shen. Ji Chunsheng said that he is very skilled, but he has never tried it.

"Yan Peng, have you ever been on the battlefield?" Li Xingzhou asked curiously.

Yan Peng followed behind and nodded: "Go back to the lord, someone has done it."

He was surprised and said, "I've been to school at such a young age!"

"Yeah, I've been there since I was eight years old, with Uncle Ji." Yan Peng scratched his head and smiled.

He was taken aback for a moment, and then he laughed too. Going to the battlefield at the age of eight, people in later generations really can't imagine how cruel it was, "Then you are really powerful, have you ever killed someone at the age of eight?"

Yan Peng nodded: "But it's not that I'm good. Killing people depends on iron."

"Rely on iron?"

"Well, I picked up the iron piece, but the man didn't have it. I cut his neck open with the iron, but he chased me for a long time before he died." Yan Peng said with some fear.

"Where is it?" Li Xingzhou asked curiously.

"Wuguan."

"Wuguan!" Li Xingzhou suddenly thought of the battle of Wuguan ten years ago. It was also the battle where his father, King Xiao, died. Jingguo's fortunes also began to decline from that battle. It can be called a battle of fate.

Li Xingzhou patted Yan Peng on the shoulder: "Hearing what you said, I feel that things are easier. I used to like to think about messy things. Looking at it now, the only thing I can win is an extra piece of iron in my hand.
Your iron can easily cut his throat, but he doesn't have such a thing, even if you are only eight years old, your strength is definitely not as strong as his
The sharpness of one place can break through ten thousand strengths. "

Yan Peng half-understood, and said with a smile: "Hey, I don't understand all the rationale that the prince said, but I was lucky enough to pick up the shattered sword fragments on the battlefield, so I survived, I think it was God's arrangement."

Li Xingzhou smiled: "You are right to say that."

Then he frowned, as if thinking of something: "Iron sheet. Iron, yes! No iron!"

Li Xingzhou slapped his head and finally remembered.

The composition of cement clinker is always a bit vague due to memory loss. I only remember that there are tricalcium silicate (C3S), dicalcium silicate (C2S), tricalcium aluminate (C3A) and so on, so he always thinks it is correct. , clay provides Si, Al, and limestone provides Ca, which seems to be perfect.

As a result, just talking to Yan Peng, he realized that he still lacks iron!
There is also tm's tetracalcium aluminoferrite, which he forgot because the name is hard to remember. The reason why his cement is pale, which always feels wrong, is because there is no iron added!
Thinking of this, Li Xingzhou burst out laughing and hurried to the back mountain.

There are a lot of iron powder in the palace, because iron powder is needed every time Xiaogang is refined to achieve the final decarburization. Those iron powders are ground with water, and after use, they are always collected again and melted into molten iron again before casting iron ingots. Very troublesome and inefficient.

Just like chicken ribs, it's tasteless to eat and it's a pity to throw them away, but now, Li Xingzhou thinks of a better place to go.

He hurried all the way to the iron-making crucible in the back mountain. Now there are more than 50 steel-making furnaces in the back mountain of Wangfu, and the monthly production of Xiaogang in Wangfu has exceeded [-] shi, and it is still increasing.

Excluding the manufacture of firearms, artillery, and even a dagger and bayonet for each new army, the steel production still has a surplus, and about [-] shi of steel are stored in the inventory every month.

Shiyu suggested that he could make it into other things, such as pots, or agricultural tools for sale.

Li Xingzhou also thinks it is reasonable, and after a large number of such high-quality farm tools flow into the market, it will definitely promote agricultural production. Since before, the palace has allocated about one tenth of the blacksmiths to the production of farm tools.

Hurrying to the back mountain, looking at many neatly arranged blast furnaces and hundreds of workers in full swing, Li Xingzhou saw at a glance that black iron powder for decarburization was piled up beside each furnace.

When Tieniu and Guan Zhong heard that he was coming, they rushed over too.

"My lord!" The two happily bowed their hands together, their movements awkward.

Li Xingzhou smiled: "Take two buckets of iron powder and follow me."

The Shibo Department has government offices in coastal prefectures, which are responsible for managing waterway trade, with foreign trade as the most important, such as trade with Liao, Jurchen, Koryo, and Wa from the waterway.

There is a branch office on Jingxi Road. The coastal area is based on Lai County, and there is a Jingxi City Shipping Office. Because Lai County is adjacent to the Bohai Sea in the north, most business travelers traveling with Liao, Jurchen, and Korea will land from here.

Lai County Shipping Department is very busy, far exceeding the mainland, but a few unexpected guests came to the yamen today.

Tiju, Lai County Bosi, did not dare to neglect, because several people were dressed luxuriously, had extraordinary conversation, Chinese was unfamiliar but could be understood, and accompanied by a dozen guards, they claimed to be Jurchen envoys.

He is entertaining a few people now, and then dispatched a fast horse to report to the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture on Jingxi Road.

That night, Judge Ying Tianfu came to Lai County in person, took many officials from the shop chief's house, and talked all night with those who claimed to be Jurchen messengers. Early the next morning, he hurriedly left Lai County and went west to respond to Tianfu.

Bo Siti of Laixian City sent the brigade away and wiped the sweat from his brow. It seemed that these people were really Jurchen messengers. Fortunately, he didn't neglect them at the beginning.

Then he thought, the Liao people in the north went south, the road collapsed, and there was no news, and now the Jurchens sent envoys to Jingguo again?Didn't Jurchen submit to the Liao Kingdom? Why did they come to Jingguo?
This world is really getting more and more chaotic, which makes him a little confused and completely confused about the situation.

But if you can't figure it out, you can't figure it out. Is it a little person like him who needs to worry, or is it because his wife's bed is comfortable? Thinking of this, he smiled and went into the house.

In July, the world is full of wind and clouds.

(End of this chapter)