Li Ke chuckled and got up from the ground, then sat down next to Li Shimin and quickly started acting cute: "Dad, look at what I did is great!"
Li Shimin got goosebumps all over his body when Li Ke said "Dad", "Can you speak properly?!" Li Shimin leaned back with a look of disgust.
"Ahem, Dad, just tell me, is there any use in rewarding craftsmen?" Li Ke began to show off his skills.
"This was also developed by craftsmen?" Li Shimin's expression became more serious.
"Yes, the road is just a concrete road made of cement mixed with gravel and sand. Although it has been used for a long time, for example, based on decades of history, it is indeed not as hard as stone as a whole, but it is more malleable and can be repaired It’s also easier and faster to get up, and it can become hard in twelve hours.”
"In addition, if you add steel bars inside it, the reinforced concrete formed by it can really be used to build a bridge over the Yellow River!"
"And the city wall built with it cannot be shaken even by a large trebuchet!" Li Ke said seriously, "Currently, Erchen is still developing methods to speed up its production. If the craftsmen make progress in this area, cement Increased production, dad, can you imagine the effect after all the official roads in the Tang Dynasty were paved with cement?"
All official channels in the Tang Dynasty? ! Li Shimin was a little excited by Li Ke's words. The official roads in the Tang Dynasty were all dirt roads. Once it rained, they would become muddy. In addition, the roads in many places were uneven, making it extremely difficult for carriages to travel, but they were still the best roads.
If all cement roads are built, no matter whether it rains or snows, there is no need to worry, and the roads are extremely smooth. For the same stretch of road, the material consumption of transporting food can be reduced by at least 30%.
From here to Longyou Road Jiuquan, Dunhuang and other places, the time is estimated to be at least ten days ahead of time.
Likewise, Datang's strategic goals were naturally different.
"You, you did a good job indeed." Li Shimin nodded with satisfaction. Don't look at Li Ke making trouble, but Li Ke also really does his job. "By the way, you recruit the craftsmen in the blacksmith shop with ten times the salary, you support me." Can you live there?"
"You can hold on, dad, don't worry." Li Ke said with a smile.
Seeing Li Ke's smile, Li Shimin had a bad premonition. This kid... wouldn't he have dug a hole for Changsun Wuji and others again? But Li Shimin couldn't say anything more. He had not intervened in this matter from the beginning, which meant that he would not interfere unless the matter was brought to his attention.
"Besides asking me to apologize, do you have anything else to do when you come here today?" Li Shimin looked at him and asked.
"Yes, I want to start promoting Quyuanli." Li Ke said. He had mentioned the role of Quyuanli before. Although Li Shimin did not come to ask, he must say hello to Li Shimin for the promotion of this matter.
"Oh? This is a good thing. What do you need me to do?" Li Shimin instantly thought of Li Ke's large-scale recruitment of blacksmiths. Is this guy waiting here?
"You don't need to do anything, just tell you, because the promotion of Qu Yuuli cannot be completed in a short time, so I have to say hello to you in advance." Li Ke said without changing his expression.
Li Shimin narrowed his eyes and greeted me in advance? There is something in this. Of course, he knew that the Quyuan plow could not be promoted immediately. Although the only plowshare used for farming was iron, the pig iron consumed by the entire Tang Dynasty was still a huge number. This was not something that could be achieved in the short term. It can be done.
That's right, only the plowshare of this era was made of iron, and the plowshares on both sides were made of wood polished and inlaid because there really wasn't that much iron, unlike later generations where the entire plow was made of iron.
Especially since the Tang Dynasty has been engaged in foreign wars, a large amount of iron tools have to be used to forge armor, and even less can be used for people's livelihood.
But Li Shimin didn't ask, he just said he knew.
"By the way, Dad, there's one more thing. I have my own blacksmith shop now, so I decided to forge Mingguang armor for my own guards so as not to consume the treasury. Don't say I'm rebelling." Li Ke called his dad first. Say hello.
Li Shimin: "..." If I were afraid that you would rebel, would I have given you the Mingguang Armor before?
However, Li Ke wanted to forge it himself, and Li Shimin didn't care. He waved his hand and said "I know, get out of here" to indicate that he knew. Although the armor was forbidden to be owned by the public, Li Ke's status as a prince naturally did not count. What's the use of having armor but no one in rebellion?
After leaving the palace, Li Ke did not do anything else. He just asked Tian Meng to prepare. Five days later, with the release of the next issue of Datang Daily, he was going to start selling Quyuan plow plowshares and other iron tools.
In fact, since pig iron began to be smelted on a large scale, Li Ke's work has not stopped. The plowshares of Quyuanli have been being made. In addition to the plowshares of Quyuanli, Mingguang Armor has also been making. Build.
The only difference is that the armor plates used in the Mingguang Armor of the Tang Dynasty are iron plates, but all the armor plates used by Li Ke here are steel plates! Li Ke's steel sheets are different from Datang's die forging. He is directly die-cut. Although his hydraulic device is very crude, there is no problem in cutting the steel sheets about 3 mm thick into long strips. .
Many people think 3mm is thin, but in fact the thickness of the cast iron armor of Datang Mingguang Armor is only about 2mm. Li Ke even thickened it a part. In fact, the protective ability of 3mm steel... is already super strong. .
There is a lot of waste after such cutting, but it doesn't matter if there is waste. Li Ke's waste can be returned to the furnace and re-fired into shape, then extruded into an iron plate of this thickness, cut again, and drilled with a simple machine tool. His speed is faster than that used by Datang It is much faster for a blacksmith to forge armor pieces with manual molds and then punch holes manually.
In fact, this thing is already the most crude manual machine tool, including the hand-operated grinding wheel used to grind the edges of the armor.
Even if it is a superficial industry, it is still an industry, so the Mingguang Armor that Li Ke forged by himself should not be too fast. In addition, Li Ke also made some improvements to the Mingguang Armor. There are two round iron plates on the left and right chests of the Mingguang Armor. , this is the main protective area. In fact, in the Tang Dynasty, even these two bowl-sized plate armor protective areas were difficult to build, and they were also the most expensive part of the Mingguang Armor.
And Li Ke is stamped here. The plate armor on both sides of the chest is made into a shape similar to the human rib area, only slightly smaller, which increases the protective area without affecting the movement. In addition, , even a piece of plate armor was added to the abdomen to increase the protective area.
The armor plates on the back have been enlarged to form a unified protective area. All the armor plates are passed through by leather ropes, and there is a layer of raw cowhide inside to avoid abrasion. The raw cowhide is also lined with sheepskin. .
It can be said that in Datang, the slowest work was making armor plates and other work, but here in Li Ke, the slowest work was sewing. However, there are a large number of women working in Li Ke, so the sewing speed is very fast. Not slow either.
Li Ke is actually building Mingguang Armor very quickly here. In up to half a month, all the 2,000 guards under his name can be equipped with new Mingguang Armor.
