Under the leadership of Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu visited the hydraulic hammer workshop inside and out, and while his eyes were opened, he always felt that there were still some subtleties that could be improved, and he couldn't help but want to ask Li Su himself for advice.

For example, he felt that Li Su engaged in the cuirassiers of "leather armor lined with iron cuirassals", although the cost was taken into account, but the loopholes in the protection were still too big.

It is certainly overkill to use a large hydraulic hammer to forge the armor and even the scale armor leaves, but forging some large heart goggles for the protection of vests, or forging some curved, half-covered armor pieces on the outside of the thighs and upper arms, the process cost should be within an acceptable range, and the rest of the parts should be leather.

Anyway, it's still a pilot project, and it always has to be adjusted a little bit, and Guan Yu also knows that these must be changed - not to mention anything else, in the half day he inspected today, he walked so many workshops, and found that there was a small accident, and everything showed that Li Su's current construction is still crossing the river by feeling the stones, and it is not perfect at all.

The matter is not big, there are no casualties, it is a toothed chain structure of a waterwheel to the forging hammer, because the strength of the wooden steering wheel and hemp rope chain is not enough, the result is broken, and the hammer head falls directly to the ground, fortunately there is no one standing next to the anvil.

Zhuge Jin seemed to have experience in dealing with this kind of thing, and ran over to let people measure and record to see what size the broken transmission steering wheel and rope chain were. According to the accounts, it was found that this was an early forging waterwheel built in February this year, which had been used for three months.

Zhuge Jin instructed with familiarity: "Write it down, use beech wood to make the transmission steering wheel, the spokes must be more than four inches thick, this three-inch thick can not be used in the future, the main shaft should be one foot two inches thick, Huanghuali is equivalent, and mahogany oak can be reduced by two percent in diameter."

Well, it's a pity that this one is more completely broken, who of you saw with your own eyes at the time, whether the rope chain broke first or the rudder gear broke first? ”

The craftsmen next to him were ashamed that they didn't see it.

Zhuge Jin shook his head: "Then you can only rectify both of them, and keep an eye on them in the future." If you can review the sequence of accident damage, Master Hou has an order to reward 300 yuan each time - but you must not cause accidents, let alone lie. The person who caused the accident was beheaded, and he didn't have a wife? Those who commit lying and misleading will be punished for three years! ”

The craftsmen hurriedly said: "Master Hou treats us so kindly? Can you feed your family with enough food a day, and how many meals of meat do you have a month? How dare you deceive? ”

An accident during the trial production period was dealt with in this way? Who made Li Su have no better scientific management and scientific research methods.

Guan Yu looked at all this and knew that the first half of this year was definitely not the time for mass production at full speed. Have you traveled all over these workshops? I just saw hundreds of semi-finished iron cuirasses, and the quality is still uneven? It has not yet been officially sewn onto leather armor. It seems that it is because the production of new leather armor is also insufficient? Temporary restrictions on the package.

……

After leaving the armor forging workshop, Guan Yu asked Zhuge Jin: "Where is the boya people?" I have some advice to tell him. ”

Zhuge Jin thought for a while: "A few months ago, Brother Bo Ya built a separate courtyard on the side of the river in Dujiangyan? It is specialized in the trial production of various water conservancy equipment. Before the general returns? He's tinkering with something, almost eyebrows, and it should still be there. ”

Guan Yu: "Let's go, let's go and have a look." ”

Speaking, the group doesn't ride horses? I walked a few miles on foot and came to the "Guanban" on the side of Dujiangyan.

What is the name of the place, "Kansaka"? At the end of the Han Dynasty, it was a market town under Du'an County, to put it bluntly? It is a scenic spot to visit Dujiangyan.

"Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" recorded that Liu Chan later died a year and a half after Zhuge Liang's death? Only then did he get rid of Dong Yun's preaching control? Traveling out of the palace for the first time? 'Climb the view of the Ban Wangwen water flow', that is, climb the view of the Ban to visit Dujiangyan and climb the heights to view the scenery. (Liu Chan was still miserable in eating, drinking, and having fun in his early years.) After he ascended the throne and Zhuge Liang was alive for 12 years, Liu Chan couldn't travel out of the palace at all, and the number of concubines who favored palace maids was also limited by Dong Yun)

Therefore, Li Su put his "Water Conservancy Research Institute" in the Dujiangyan Scenic Area in Guanban, which is not only convenient for relaxing and having a good working environment, but also convenient for testing new gadgets in the vicinity from time to time.

Guan Yu is also here for the first time, so he can't help but sigh like other ordinary foreign tourists: "This fief of Boya is really a good place, and he will really choose a place to build another courtyard, called official business, but in fact, he takes into account pleasure, this person...... Gee. ”

Pushing open the door of the "Research Institute", Guan Yu didn't have to be polite to Li Su, and went straight into the inner hall, and no one would stop him because of secrecy.

After meeting Li Su, Guan Yu got straight to the point and told him his suggestions for improving the iron cuirass and asking for the addition of rear heart guards and leg guards.

Li Su was also very simple, stopped busy washing his hands, and said that he could rectify it: "It's okay, you can try it slowly, now the leather armor production capacity is insufficient, and it has not been sewn up, but it can be changed."

Originally, I planned to forge some armor parts for storage first, and after dredging the Nanzhong trade road this year, I would take more Nanzhong animal skins, increase the production capacity of leather armor, and then create finished products. The production of rhino skin, elephant skin, and turtle skin (crocodile skin) is abundant, and the texture is tougher than that of the cowhide used in the northern swallow armor, which is a good material for making nails. ”

This is not Li Su's innovation at all, because in history, Zhuge Liang Pingnanzhong, the main strategic materials requisitioned, in addition to gold, silver, pearls and emeralds, are mainly animal skins, lacquer, pack animals, and cinnabar.

The tropical beast leather resources in Nanzhong were the main source of high-quality leather armor in the late Shu Han period, and although the horses in Nanzhong were not good at galloping on the plains as war horses, they were strong and suitable for mountain transportation. Since Li Su is familiar with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he will definitely not let go of the answers that he can copy.

And he went to Nanzhong to ask for much more things than Zhuge Liang, and the area of Zhaotong in Yunnan and Liupanshui in Guizhou in later generations was a famous high-quality coal mining area, much better than the bituminous coal in Sichuan, and the sulfur content was also low. These places were converted to the end of the Han Dynasty at the junction of Zhuti County and Jianning County, and the mountainous areas on both sides of Tushui in the south of Zhuti County belonged to the relatively easy to transport.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, there were already craftsmen who used coal instead of charcoal to make iron on a small scale, and the reason why it could not be promoted was because the quality of coal was uneven in various places, and if there was no high-quality sulfur anthracite, iron could not be made, otherwise sulfur would reduce the quality of iron.

Therefore, of course, Li Su wanted to conquer, and he worked hard to open up the shipping of Lushui and Tushui, and let Guoyuan Tuntian manage the waterway, for these interests.

In the heyday of the late Han Dynasty, the annual output of steel in the country was only 1,000 tons, and the peak of the Sui and Tang dynasties was about 1,500 tons.

The main reason why the steel output of the Northern Song Dynasty jumped to three or four thousand tons per year was that by the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, the craftsmen finally generally figured out "what coal has low sulfur content, and which coal mines can be used for smelting steel on a large scale", thus popularizing coal ironmaking, which can reach 2.5 times the steel output of the previous dynasty.

In other words, when Li Su entered Shu, according to the archives of Liu Yan's tenure that he consulted, the annual steel output of the entire Yizhou was about 200 tons in later generations.

If he can get the high-quality anthracite coal mines in Zhuti County and Jianning County, and only add the variable of "promoting coal and ironmaking" under the condition that other smelting technology conditions remain unchanged, it will still be interesting to increase the annual output of Yizhou iron and steel from 200 tons to 500 tons.

The extra 300 tons of iron, making tools, making instruments, and making iron armor, is not it beautiful?

A piece of iron cuirass is counted as wear and tear, and fifteen kilograms of iron are ready for forging. Three hundred tons of extra iron, roughly equal to the consumption of twenty thousand pieces of iron cuirass. Even if only a small half of them were used to create weapons and armor, there would be thousands of sets.

Li Su couldn't tell Guan Yu all these words for a while, so he just drew a big pie and let Guan Yu know that "the current construction is only a pilot period, and it has not been promoted on a large scale." All large-scale production must wait for the continuous transportation of material resources from Nanzhong. ”

Guan Yu originally didn't understand geography very well, but after hearing this big cake, he was also eager to try, and expressed his willingness to let Gao Shun's trapped camp also go to Nanzhong to see the world, and when the time comes, he can even train in battle, so that the newly incorporated soldiers in the trapped camp can see more blood - just like the iron armor they need to expand their army is earned by going to Nanzhong by themselves.

Li Su dissuaded again and again: "Yun Chang doesn't have to worry, there is an opportunity." Nanzhong is not convinced, and must crusade. But the road is dangerous, and you can't send too many troops. At that time, I plan to let the soldiers follow the grain convoy to the front line in rotation, train more soldiers, and take into account the loss of military supplies. Anyway, if there is a chance, I will definitely work Yun Chang and Yide. ”

Li Su's mention of "letting the troops rotate with the grain convoy" means that in the course of Pingnanzhong, every time a fleet transports grain to the front line, the soldiers who escort it stay on the front line to fight, while the soldiers who have been fighting for several months will escort back empty ships or ships full of plundered supplies from Nanzhong. This allows a large number of recruits to see blood and reduces the threat of casualties caused by tropical diseases. If you can return to your hometown on a holiday for a few months, the soldier's environmental adaptability will be greatly improved, and the next time it is your turn to go south, with the first buffer, it will not necessarily be unadaptable.

Guan Yu didn't think of any of these yet, so he listened to Li Su's arrangement for the time being.

"Or Boya is thoughtful, I don't need to say more." Guan Yu was impressed, while casually observing the semi-finished products that Li Su was tinkering with, and seeing a few machines, he was a little curious, so he couldn't help asking, "What are these?" Could it be that it is also a national weapon that is convenient for building weapons and armor? It looks very delicate, how did you come up with it. ”

Li Su subconsciously glanced at it and said with a smile: "Oh, this, this is something I have been doing recently in my spare time, anyway, I won't be able to get anything else, so I'll do some tricks related to people's livelihood-

The business of the water-powered mills I asked Ziyu to build has not been very good, and the people are not willing to pay the price of 30% of the rice bran to come to the government-run mill to mill rice, preferring to grind or even cook rice at home.

So, I wanted the peasant women to find something to do. Get some government-run Dashu brocade workshops, so that peasant women know that they can weave some Shu brocade in the government-run workshops at this time when they are cooking rice at home, and earn more, so that I can promote more efficient productivity. ”

Li Sugang said this, Guan Yu didn't understand it, Zhuge Jin first shouted on the side: "Brother said this, but I wronged us." At present, the dozen or so mills that have been built, basically each of them is full, grinding rice noodles for at least ten hours a day, and sometimes even at the expense of lighting lamp oil, and lighting a small lamp at night to continue to send people to take care of it, is this still not a good business? ”

Li Su smiled: "The account can't be calculated like this, I've seen it, at present, there are still some large households who use ships to transport grain for fifty or sixty miles to Pixian County to mill rice, so the production capacity can be full, and we all rely on the number of mills to have business."

But looking at the proportion, within a few miles around the mill, the people who are most convenient to transport the grain, at least eighty percent are still grinding by themselves, which is our sorrow. ”

Guan Yu heard it in a fog and interrupted curiously: "Can you say it from the beginning." ”