"Your Majesty, now our Ministry of Industry has set up 38 large and small workshops in Xingquan Fucheng and Zhengtai County, with more than 48 craftsmen, 1,000 apprentices, more than 3,000 prisoners of war, and more than 2,000 ordinary employees, and this month is expected to produce 600 muskets, 4 800 catties of artillery, 2 1,000 catties of artillery, and 15 catties of battalion guns!"

"In addition, a large number of military uniforms and quilt covers and other military supplies are also produced!"

Standing in front of Li Xuan to report on the affairs of the Ministry of Industry's workshop was the new Ministry of Industry Shangshu Zhou Kesong!

This person was previously a Lang Zhong of the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of Industry, and because of his excellent work ability, he was recently promoted to the Ministry of Works!

Half a month ago, Shang Shu, a veteran stone blacksmith of the Ministry of Industry, was transferred to Datang's newly established scientific research department 'Royal Research Institute' as the president for various reasons!

The stone blacksmith was transferred away because of his hard work and his advanced age, so Li Xuan specially asked him to enjoy Qingfu and arranged a position as the director of the research institute for him.

But in fact, the stone blacksmith was transferred to be the dean, not because of his great merit, but because he was really unsuitable to be an official!

This person used to be a blacksmith who didn't know how to read big characters, and no one was available in the original Tang Dynasty, and the Ministry of Industry at that time was actually just a workshop, so the stone blacksmith became the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty, but with the development and growth of the Tang Dynasty, various departments gradually improved.

Nowadays, high-ranking officials in various departments of the cabinet and even in other institutions can basically no longer find people who are illiterate, and many of them are official scholars with a reputation for showing off their talents.

At the same time, the task of the Ministry of Industry is also from the beginning of the iron and gun making, to deal with a lot of official business, not to mention, more than 30 workshops under the Ministry of Industry to manage, that is a super troublesome thing.

A long time ago, Zhou Kesong was already in charge of the actual affairs of the Ministry of Industry, and the stone blacksmith was just a scholar.

Now taking advantage of the establishment of the Royal Research Institute, Li Xuan also took advantage of the situation to transfer the stone blacksmith to be the dean, and promoted Zhou Kesong, a practical person, to be a scholar.

As the actual person in charge of the Ministry of Industry, Zhou Kesong is naturally very familiar with the situation of the Ministry of Industry, and he opened his mouth to say the number of many workshops and employees in the Ministry of Industry today.

And still talk about the situation of each workshop one by one!

Listening to what he said, Li Xuan also had a new understanding of the many workshops under the Ministry of Industry!

Most of the 38 workshops under the announcement are concentrated in Xingquanfu City, and Zhengtai County has not built any large-scale workshops in the follow-up except for a few workshops temporarily established in the first half of the year.

And in such a workshop, the largest is the musket workshop located in the city of Xingquanfu, this musket workshop has more than 1,000 craftsmen and workers, and the monthly output can reach 500 muskets, while the musket workshop in Zhengtai County has a monthly output of only dozens now, which can basically be ignored.

The workshops on the side of Huangzhu Mountain have already moved out of the mountain, and most of the craftsmen have been assigned to Xingquan Fucheng.

The second largest after the musket workshop is the artillery workshop in Xingquan Fucheng, which also has a scale of hundreds of people.

There are also gunpowder workshops, cannonball workshops, buckshot workshops, wood workshops, sword workshops, bow and arrow workshops, armor workshops, military uniform workshops, and so on.

It basically covers the production of all kinds of ordnance materials that are currently needed by the Tang Dynasty!

It's just that in addition to gun-related workshops, many other workshops are not large-scale, such as military uniform workshops, which are actually small in scale, and are only responsible for dyeing fabrics and making officers' uniforms.

Otherwise, in the era when it was only hand-sewn, with the work of Bailai in the military uniform workshop, the Tang Dynasty would not be able to provide tens of thousands of people with clothing, shoes and socks and other materials in just a few months.

They were provided with dyed fabrics and uniform sewing styles, and then ordinary people, especially women, were allowed to sew military uniforms, and after sewing the uniforms, these people could receive a small amount of money per piece.

On the one hand, it is to increase the production of military uniforms in a short period of time, and on the other hand, it can be regarded as a livelihood for the people of Xingquan Mansion, especially the old and weak, women and children, who have withered after the war!

In fact, not only the quilt, but also many other ordnance products that require a large number of manpower, but do not require any technical content, the Ministry of Industry is outsourced!

Military uniforms, quilts, shoes, socks are the most basic, as well as wooden supports, handguards and so on needed to produce muskets!

To put it mildly, today's Xingquan Fucheng is a huge production base for military products!

In addition to thousands of craftsmen and prisoners of war, there are thousands of people who directly or indirectly work for the workshops of the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty.

I'm afraid the number of these people will not be less than 5,000!

With so many workshops and workers to relocate, it is definitely not an easy task!

So Li Xuan never thought of relocating from the beginning, the workshop here in Xingquan Mansion has already formed a scale effect, as long as the supply of raw materials is up, the output will be more every day than every day, and to relocate at this time is basically equivalent to giving up these outputs.

Li Xuan's idea was to set up new workshops in other places, especially those close to the output of raw materials and with more convenient transportation, at most a part of the number of workers and technical backbones from Xingquan Prefecture, and a large number of workers in the later period would still rely on prisoners of war or be recruited from the local area.

When Li Xuan told Zhou Kesong this idea, Zhou Kesong said: "What Your Majesty said is that Xingquan Mansion is located in a remote area, there are few people, the number of workshops is large, and the scale is large, not only will the cost rise a lot, but it will also be more and more difficult to recruit young and strong employees. ”

"Moreover, it is also troublesome to transport raw materials, and it is also difficult for finished products, especially a large number of heavier ordnance materials, to be transported to the front line!"

"If we can set up new workshops in other places, especially places with convenient transportation and relatively close to the front-line troops, it will naturally be able to greatly alleviate the current predicament!"

Li Xuan said: "In this case, according to Zhou Aiqing's view, where is the current place suitable for preparing for a large number of workshops?" ”

Zhou Kesong showed a hint of embarrassment at this time, and then said: "At present, except for Xingquan Mansion, I'm afraid that other places are not very suitable, the basic situation of Liping Mansion is similar to Xingquan Mansion, and we have already transferred the craftsmen of Liping Mansion back to Xingquan Mansion, if we want to open a large number of workshops in Liping Mansion City, I am afraid that we still have to transfer them from Xingquan Mansion, and the gains outweigh the losses!" ”

However, after saying that, he showed a hint of expectation and said: "But I heard that General Hao's army has begun to move south to Guangxi, if the front-line army can seize Liuzhou, Wuzhou and other places, and even Zhaoqing, Guangzhou and Foshan, these places are suitable for a large number of workshops, especially in Foshan, which is originally an important place for iron production, and is used to establish guns and other weapons workshops, which is the most suitable!" ”

Hearing Zhou Kesong say this, Li Xuan was quite speechless, if he wants to go to Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and even Foshan, Guangzhou, then he has to wait for later, but what I asked now.

Moreover, who dares to know when Hao Bonian's army will be able to conquer the Liangguang region!

But the key thing is that now Li Xuan just wants to expand the scale of the workshop and increase the production of various weapons to supply the army to fight!

Before Hao Bonian went to war, he repeatedly asked for the allocation of guns and various weapons and ammunition, but the Tang Dynasty was in short supply of guns, and Li Xuan embezzled a lot of guns and artillery that were originally given to the Second Infantry Brigade and the Fifth Infantry Regiment, so that the First Infantry Brigade was equipped with guns and ammunition.

However, after the First Infantry Brigade moves south to Guangxi, weapons and ammunition will definitely be consumed, and this consumption needs to be replenished in time, otherwise the First Infantry Brigade, which is equipped with a large number of guns and artillery, will lose its combat effectiveness.

Once the 1st Infantry Brigade, which is equipped with a large number of firearms, runs out of ammunition, its combat effectiveness is not as good as that of pure cold weapons!

To supply two infantry brigades and a fifth infantry regiment, as well as other auxiliary units, the supply of ordnance in the Tang Dynasty has always been quite tight, and it has never been able to make the troops truly full.

Not to mention, Li Xuan's pace of army expansion has never stopped!

Before Hao Bonian led the army to set off, Li Xuan divided the baggage regiment, cavalry battalion, artillery battalion and other troops into two, and the other troops all said, but after the artillery battalion became two artillery battalions, theoretically speaking, it would need twice as much heavy artillery.

In addition, Li Xuan also plans to set up a new Sixth Infantry Regiment and form a new Third Infantry Brigade with the Fifth Infantry Regiment as soon as the recruits of the Fifth Infantry Regiment arrive!

The expansion of the regular army will not stop, and this means that the demand for weapons and equipment will never end.

However, after discussing with Zhou Kesong, it was found that in addition to continuing to increase production in Xingquan Mansion, at present, the Tang Dynasty was not suitable for setting up large-scale workshops in Liping Mansion or other places in Guizhou.

Because the current strategic expansion direction of the Tang Dynasty is to go south to Guangzhou, this expansion brings not only the transfer of political and military gravity, but also the transfer of industrial centers!

Therefore, after thinking about it, Li Xuan still gave up his plan to continue to expand the workshop in the nearby area in a short period of time, and planned to wait for good news from Hao Bonian's side, especially after Hao Bonian conquered Liuzhou Mansion.

The establishment of a temporary military industrial production base in Liuzhou can effectively alleviate the various weapons and ammunition needed by the front-line army.

However, even if a workshop is established in Liuzhou, it can only be used as an initial emergency measure, just like on the side of Xingquanfu.

If the front-line army can successfully and quickly conquer Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and other places, then these two places are more suitable, and Guangzhou in the later period is also more suitable.

However, if the front-line war is protracted, for example, Wuzhou cannot be taken for a year and a half, then Liuzhou will become a relatively important logistics production base.

Now, with the strategic focus of the Tang Dynasty on the Liangguang region, it can be said that a group of people are looking forward to Hao Bonian's victory, successfully winning Liuzhou all the way, and then advancing eastward along the Xijiang River, and winning Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and other places all the way.

And where is Hao Bonian, who has borne the expectations of many people, now?

Now he is outside Huaiyuan County, the northern bridgehead of Liuzhou Mansion in Guangxi!

Directly in front of him, the Tang Army of more than 5,000 people is advancing towards the city wall of Huaiyuan County, and it will not be long before they will launch a general attack on Huaiyuan County and start the first battle of going south to Guangxi!