Tibet.

Chapter 1371: Divine General
After lunch, Zhang Hao hurried back to the office to organize the report. Wei Jiansu and Zhang Li accompanied Li Ye to the new city for inspection.

The new city of Chang'an was completed last month. As long as it is expanded in the three directions of east, west and south, after discussion among all the civil and military officials in the court, as well as soliciting opinions from tens of thousands of people, the court finally decided not to demolish the existing city walls. The newly added Chang'an city will be called the Outer City, including the Han Chang'an City. The new city has been integrated with the Han Chang'an City.

The old city inside is called the Inner City, and then there are the Imperial City and the Palace City.

In addition, the walls of the West Inner Courtyard and the East Inner Courtyard were rebuilt into tall and solid walls to increase the privacy of the Inner Courtyard. The West Inner Courtyard was where the troops were stationed, and the East Inner Courtyard was completely the emperor's back garden. Female cavalry would patrol the Inner Courtyard every day.

Li Ye stood on the former west city wall. He looked back at Yonghefang behind him, where he lived when he was young. The area in front of him used to be farmland, but now it has become a city. Thousands of laborers are busy building roads, and more than a dozen wide and flat official roads have begun to take shape.

A few miles away is the new city wall. There is currently no house on the vast land. All the villages have been demolished, and each household will receive one acre of residential land and five hundred strings of cash as compensation.

"Is there anyone coming to buy land now?" Li Ye asked with a smile.

Wei Jiansu smiled and nodded, "Of course there are. There are many every day. The rich and powerful families in all the counties and cities in the world want to own a house in the capital, so there are endless inquiries every day. The land will be measured in two days, and the land will be sold after the measurement is completed."

At this time, He Yuantu, the chief official in charge of building the city in the Ministry of Works, came forward to see the emperor. Li Ye smiled and asked, "When will the road to the outer city be completed?"

"Your Majesty, everything will be completed by the end of the month. Then we will level the land, build riverbanks, and plant trees in the spring."

Li Ye saw the craftsmen laying stone slabs and asked again, "Are all the roads paved with stone slabs?"

"Your Majesty, the main roads are paved with stone slabs, so the roads in the town cannot be paved."

Li Ye nodded and smiled to Wei Jiansu and Zhang Li, "I'm afraid this place will be completely different in ten years."

"Yes! The Tang Dynasty has entered a period of prosperity and rejuvenation. This gives us hope. There are big changes every day."

Li Ye said happily: "I will come back in a few months, I hope there will be new changes!"

After inspecting the city wall, Li Ye then came to the Firearms Research and Development Institute. The Firearms Institute was a newly established military weapons manufacturing department, which included five major departments: Firearms Department, Gunpowder Department, Alum Refining Department, Iron Smelting Department, and Materials Department. The new inspector was Duan Xueshi. He was obsessed with new weapons and took the initiative to resign from his high post as Privy Councilor to prepare for the establishment of a new Firearms Institute.

Li Ye and two prime ministers came to discuss the matter. Duan Xueshi happened to be here too. When he received the news, he hurriedly led a large group of officials to welcome them.

"Your humble servant Duan Xiushi pays respect to Your Majesty!"

Li Ye saw that he was dark and thin, and estimated that he had suffered a lot during this period. He couldn't help but sigh and said, "If you don't take good care of yourself, you will have to retire in ten years."

Duan Xiushi smiled and explained, "It's mainly because the Firearms Bureau has just been established, so there are a lot of things to do and it's quite tiring. Once it's running normally, it won't be so tiring."

"Take care of yourself! I can't persuade you."

Li Ye walked into the courtyard and happened to see Hu Jiuling, the military weapons supervisor. He was the second-in-command of the newly established military weapons supervisor. Li Ye saw that he was also pale and thin, so he could only smile bitterly and asked, "Are there any new firearms recently?"

Hu Jiuling bowed quickly and said, "Your Majesty, you came at a good time. You have indeed been testing a new type of firearm recently."

Li Ye was in high spirits and asked quickly, "Where is it? Let me take a look!"

Duan Xiushi smiled mysteriously, "Your Majesty and the two Prime Ministers, please follow me!"

Wei Jiansu and Zhang Li accompanied the emperor on the visit. They were not very interested. They looked at each other and had to follow the enthusiastic emperor to the backyard.

Coming to the stone platform in the backyard, Li Ye saw at a glance the cannon he had been looking forward to for a long time. In fact, he also guessed that it was a cannon. After all, the one-piece casting technology had been mature for a long time, and after so many years of continuous accumulation and exploration, the copper tubes cast last year were very dense and had no sand holes. In addition, he, the master of cheating, drew the drawings and principle explanations, so it should be developed soon.

Li Ye gently stroked the Shenwu General, which was about 1.5 meters long and polished very smoothly. It had two gun hoops to prevent the barrel from exploding. The bottom was very thick, and the muzzle was the size of a medium bowl. There were four large characters engraved on the gun: "Shenwu General!"

“How many people are usually needed to operate it?” Li Ye asked again.

"Usually three people are enough, a gunner and two assistants!" "Was the experiment successful?" Li Ye asked again.

"It was a success, but we are not satisfied with the shooting distance and power. We are still adjusting the formula of gunpowder and conducting repeated experiments to find the most satisfactory result."

"Solid bullets or fire bombs?"

Hu Jiuling said quickly: "Your Majesty, we must use solid bullets now, and we will switch to fire bombs after they are completely successful."

Li Ye nodded, "We can cast more cannons, long, short, thick, thin, and even use pig iron to cast them. A good article is made through repeated revisions. Similarly, a good firearm is also made through repeated tests to determine the amount of powder and bullet weight, and then perform standardized operations."

Seeing that no one understood, Li Ye explained, "The gunpowder required for each round must be placed in a special wooden barrel or bamboo tube. There is no need for personal experience to measure. According to the range and weight of the shell, there are gunpowder tubes with different amounts of gunpowder. Do you understand what I mean?"

Everyone was an experienced expert, and they immediately understood what the emperor meant. It was the same as arrows. Different types of arrows would be used depending on the combat environment, the type of bow and crossbow, and the required shooting distance.

Li Ye was very pleased to see that everyone understood his standardization ideas, and said with a smile: "I will not give you a time limit, you must be patient and continue to experiment."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. We will conduct repeated tests and will never disappoint the general!"

Li Ye encouraged everyone. He turned around and saw Wei Jiansu and Zhang Li standing beside him in confusion. He smiled and explained, "This is a catapult among firearms. It can project a fire bomb several miles away. If we are attacking a city, launching a fire bomb can blow up the city gate or collapse the city wall. If two armies are facing each other, we can attack the other side from a distance of two or three miles. This can be said to be the longest-range projectile weapon, and it is incredibly powerful. With it, we are invincible."

Wei Jiansu was overjoyed and said with a smile: "Not only is he invincible, but he is also making a lot of money!"

Everyone laughed.

The three of them returned to Daming Palace. In the carriage, Li Ye thought of something and said to Wei Jiansu with a smile, "I have a private matter that I may need to trouble Prime Minister Wei."

"Your Majesty, don't be polite, just say it directly!"

"Yesterday I promised my daughter that I would let her school board the Dawn to study in Jiangnan next spring. They may need to be received by government officials along the route, but I will bear all the expenses personally."

Wei Jiansu laughed, "This is not just a private matter for your Majesty! My two granddaughters also study with the eldest princess, and they will go with us!"

Zhang Li beside him also said: "My eldest granddaughter is also in the Hongwenguan Girls' School!"

Li Ye laughed in silence and said, "It seems that it won't work if I pay for it alone!"

The three of them laughed together.

Wei Jiansu smiled again and said, "Your Highness, don't worry about this matter. I will let Hongwen Academy make the arrangements. Studying abroad is part of education, and this kind of expense should not be borne by the students' families."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said, "Because their study tour next year will be different from that of ordinary students. First of all, the safety requirements are very strict, and there are local officials to receive them. In addition, the expenses for food and accommodation along the way are not small. They are still riding on my 30,000-stone Shuguang ship. I will pay half of all their expenses, and the other half will be paid by the inner treasury."

Wei Jiansu shook his head. "Your Majesty doesn't have to pay for it personally. This has always been a custom. When a Tang prince or princess travels to a certain place, all expenses are paid by the inner treasury. This has been going on since the time of Emperor Taizong."

Li Ye thought for a moment and said, "I was talking about the girls' school just now, so the same applies to the Hongwenguan boys' school. We can arrange a study tour tomorrow spring. The male students can go to Longyou and Hexi to study, riding horses and living in tents. The conditions will be a bit difficult. The prince can also go with them to train them to endure hardships and all expenses will be borne by the inner court."

Zhang Li laughed dumbly and said, "Your Majesty, I am biased! Girls should be pampered and spoiled, while boys should endure hardships and work hard."

Li Ye also laughed and said, "That can't be helped. Girls are the treasures of every household, and they have to be spoiled. You little brat! You will have to shoulder the responsibility of the Tang Dynasty in the future, so of course the requirements will be stricter."

Wei Jiansu nodded, "I agree with you very much, but the prince is here, so we can't be careless about safety and protection!"

Li Ye hesitated for a moment and said, "I will arrange for the internal guards to be fully responsible for security."

(End of this chapter)