Tibet.

Chapter 1282: Inspection of the New City
The next morning, Empress Dowager Zhang issued an edict, appointing Regent Li Ye as the heir to the throne, while allowing him to continue to serve as Regent.

This means that Li Ye became the official and only heir to the throne of the Tang Dynasty, taking the most critical step towards ascending the throne.

At the same time, Li Ye was inspecting the city expansion construction outside the East City with several important officials.

The construction of Chang'an's expansion has been going on for several months. In addition to the early land reclamation and leveling, the construction of the city wall has now begun. The foundation is currently being laid, and the Ba River is full of stone-carrying ships.

A large amount of granite was transported from Lantian County, and stonemasons chiseled them into large square stones, which were then laid in the dug and compacted trenches of the city wall to form the foundation.

The construction of the city wall requires great care. A layer of pebbles is laid at the bottom first. The soil on the foundation and the surrounding area must be melted and mixed with lime, and then covered with soil and compacted. This ensures that grass will not grow on the foundation and rats and snakes will not dig holes. This is the same as the construction of the Tang Straight Road.

After laying three-foot-thick stone slabs, they began to lay bricks using glutinous rice paste mixed with lime as mortar. The bricks are also large blue bricks fired, which are very strong and durable. They make a metallic sound when knocked, and are guaranteed to last for a hundred years.

Li Ye stood with his hands behind his back on the top of the east city wall. In the distance, thousands of people were busy building the city wall, and to the south was the sparkling Qujiang Lake. The city expansion did not involve the Qujiang Lake, but extended eastward from the north of the Qujiang Lake.

Li Xian, the Minister of Works, said to Li Ye: "Your Highness, the original plan was to build the outer city and then demolish the inner city wall, but now it is generally required that the inner wall should not be demolished and Chang'an be divided into the inner city and the outer city."

Li Ye smiled and asked, "Has it been discussed in the Political Affairs Hall?"

Wei Jiansu beside him smiled and said, "Reporting to Your Highness, the Council of State has discussed it and everyone agrees that the inner city wall should not be demolished, but they hope to open a few more city gates."

Li Ye nodded and said, "I will not interfere with whether the city wall should be demolished. The decision will be made by the Political Affairs Hall, but I hope that everyone can think together and consider it more carefully."

Wei Jiansu bowed and said, "I understand!"

At this time, there was a commotion in the distance, and hundreds of people were seen coming towards them with wooden sticks and hoes, shouting all the way, and they were very excited. They rushed forward to stop the craftsmen from working.

Li Ye's face sank, "What's going on?"

Li Xian sighed, "These are all farmers whose land was expropriated. The government bought their land at a price of 100 guan per mu, and promised to give each household two mu of residential land in the future. At that time, they were all very happy to pay the money for the demolition. Later, someone instigated them, saying that they were losing money by selling it at 100 guan per mu, and that it would be worth 1,000 guan per mu if it became residential land in the city in the future, and then they started to make trouble."

Li Ye frowned, "How long has this been going on?"

"About two months! They come here almost every day. Today is still relatively small. A few days ago, several thousand people came with their relatives and friends. It was so noisy!"

Li Ye's expression became increasingly ugly, and he asked coldly, "Aren't they here to ask for money?"

"Why ask for money? The money has already been given to them. I have confirmed that every household has received it."

"Will the county government not care if they make such a fuss?"

Li Xian shook his head. "Of course they came to manage us, but the yamen runners couldn't beat them. Every time they came to manage us, they beat us up."

Li Ye took out the gold medal and handed it to the guard behind him, "Go and notify the inner guards to come and arrest them. Bring them all to the inner guard office and give each of them fifty sticks. If you dare to make trouble again, you will be exiled to Lingnan!"

Soon, thousands of inner guard cavalry rushed over, full of murderous intent. They used iron rods to knock down a dozen of the most violent ones, breaking their bones and tendons. They lay on the ground wailing. The other hundreds of people were terrified and squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands, not daring to move, and were obediently taken away by the inner guards.

The high-ranking officials in the Council of State were stunned. When the county runners came out, they were not like this. They fought desperately, beating the runners until they were bleeding and fled in embarrassment. But it was different when the inner guards came. They all became obedient all of a sudden. It was really that they feared power but not virtue.

Li Ye was too lazy to explain and turned around and left the city.

Li Ye then came to the School of Engineering. This was his second visit to the School of Engineering after returning from Youzhou. Last time he came to inquire about the progress of the steam engine, which was almost successful, but he still needed to wait patiently for a while. Today he came to inspect the research and development of materials. There was a copper and iron materials institute in the School of Engineering. Although it was in the School of Engineering, it was under the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau.

The College of Copper and Iron Materials has more than 300 students, seven professors and more than 30 craftsmen who are responsible for researching various new types of iron materials and copper alloys.

Their latest achievement is to refine a batch of top-grade hard steel, that is, high-carbon steel, which is used to make thousands of three-pointed, double-edged swords, which are extremely sharp and comparable to the Mo Dao.

Some of the internal guards have already been equipped with this three-pointed, double-edged sword, and they will manufacture tens of thousands of them for use by the border troops.

This kind of strong steel is of great significance. It is as sharp as the Mo Dao, but its cost is much lower than the Mo Dao. It can be promoted on a large scale and will double the combat effectiveness of the Tang army.

You can imagine that if the enemy's sword is cut off in one encounter, the battlefield will become one-sided.

The chief officer of the Copper and Iron Materials Institute was Du Wensheng, who was also the junior supervisor of the Military Equipment Inspectorate. He brought Li Ye and other senior officials to the test room and handed Li Ye two copper tubes.

"Your Highness, please look. Last time, Your Highness mentioned the copper tube. We have made it!"

Li Ye was overjoyed and quickly took the copper tubes for a closer look. Both copper tubes were about the thickness of an egg. One was a seamed copper tube and the other was a seamless copper tube. The seamed copper tube was easier to make as it was rolled into a tube and then poured with copper liquid and welded. However, the seamless copper tube was difficult and needed to be formed in one go.

"How is this copper tube made?" Li Ye asked, pointing at the seamless copper tube.

"First, we made a tubular sand mold and poured molten copper into it at once. We made ten in total, but only this one was qualified. The others all had sand holes."

Li Ye nodded and asked, "Who made the mold?"

Du Wensheng smiled and said, "Your Highness, we asked the craftsman from the Firearms Bureau to make the mold for the iron fire bomb shell."

Li Ye suddenly realized that the craftsmen who made iron fire bombs in the Firearms Bureau were the best craftsmen in the Tang Dynasty. They were skilled in making molds, shells, nitroglycerin and explosives, etc. Among them, the craftsmen who made molds were originally the ones who made outer molds for copper coins. The molds they made were of extremely high quality and could basically be cast in one go.

The copper tube was very smooth, obviously polished. Du Wensheng handed Li Ye a magnifying glass. Li Ye used the magnifying glass to carefully examine the copper tube and indeed did not see a single sand hole.

Wei Jiansu stood aside and couldn't help asking, "What can your Highness do with copper pipes?"

Li Ye smiled and said, "In the future, the territory of the Tang Dynasty will become larger and larger, but our army will not be enough. There is only one way. One person can do the work of ten people. If we station a hundred soldiers in one place, we can deal with the rebellion of thousands of people. How do we rely on firearms, powerful firearms. This copper tube will be used to make a very powerful firearm in the future."

After that, Li Ye said to Du Wensheng: "Success is only the first step. I want to be like them in making iron fire bomb shells. I want to make eight out of ten and eight out of ten copper tubes. That's the real success!"

"I understand. I plan to invite these old craftsmen to give lectures and train young craftsmen. I also want to record their techniques and tricks in pictures and texts."

Li Ye said happily: "That's right. Many of our ancestors' excellent technologies have disappeared because they were not passed down. It is completely correct to record them in pictures and texts, but the awareness of confidentiality must be strengthened, especially military secrets, which must be strictly controlled."

"Your Highness's teachings, I will remember them!"

"Also, this kind of seam-filling tube is useful."

Li Ye pointed at the copper pipe with seams and said, "We need this kind of pipe, but not this thin one. We need to make it bigger and thicker. I'll draw a blueprint later and you can try it out."

"Wei Chen obeys the order!"

(End of this chapter)