"Your Majesty, the relocation of the weapons test site in the river has been completed." At the beginning of February of the second year of the Apocalypse, Chang'an's university was finally finished, and the sun was shining brightly on the snow outside.

Xu Tianxiang couldn't help but complain when he saw that Li Xuanqing had prepared skates: "I said that the emperor, you won't really be ready to go skiing, right?" If you go skiing with a team of guards, it is estimated that it will soon spread all over the world. ”

"Spread it, spread it, what are you afraid of." Li Xuanqing took off the skate blade in desperation and asked, "The shooting range was moved to the vicinity of Zhongshou City and did not disturb the people, right?" ”

Xu Tianxiang shook his head and smiled: "Don't worry, there is a grassland with no one for thousands of miles, and there is a barbed wire fence around it, a cordon has been pulled, and the National Guard has been arranged to be stationed for defense." The equipment department has also moved most of the weapons factories in the river, and now the site on the other side of the river has been given to Chang'an to settle down, and is preparing to open a large agricultural processing factory there, and I heard that the machinery and equipment have been ordered. Last time, An Jia found Qiaoxi and bought the technology of that bread, so he should be preparing to produce this. ”

It seems that An Qixuan really plans to spend time on agriculture and deep processing of agricultural products. In this way, the speed of development of agriculture cannot keep up with industry and commerce, and it is also a good thing that some people are willing to calm down. Li Xuanqing said with a smile, pulled Xu Tianxiang and walked in the direction of the cabinet, and said, "Speaking of this, I was just thinking of one thing, and I plan to discuss with Mr. Cen whether it will be carried out at that time." ”

Xu Tianxiang was a little curious, and was pulled by Li Xuanqing to Cen Tianshi's prime minister's office before he could ask, he heard that Cen Tianshi was busy with his feet on the ground, and asked the secretary to prepare the materials of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and asked the secretary to prepare the materials of the Ministry of Agriculture. The beginning of spring is imminent, not only the affairs of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce need to be supervised, but also the affairs of the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, plus the spring ploughing of the northern land, he is so busy that he can't get along.

"Why is the emperor here?" Cen Tianshi saw Li Xuanqing walking in with Xu Tianxiang, and thought that something was wrong, so he was startled, and waved his hand to let the secretary in the office go out before asking.

"Mr. has worked hard this time, but there are some things that can be done by the ministers of various ministries, and isn't Brother Si Jian also in Chang'an, just let him share a part, and it's better to work less." Li Xuanqing's eyes were bloodshot when he saw Cen Tian, and at first glance, it was because of serious lack of sleep.

"There's no way, the emperor's ambition is too great, and the cabinet can only do its best not to drag the emperor back. However, the emperor can rest assured that all this year's plans have been arranged, and the provincial planning cabinets are also seizing the time to review them, so they will definitely not delay the matter. Cen Tianshi was in good spirits, made a cup of tea for the two of them, and said with a smile: "Won't there be anything wrong with the emperor coming to the cabinet?" ”

"I was going to discuss with you about reducing agricultural taxes, but seeing that you are so busy, I plan to talk about it later." Li Xuanqing said with a smile: "Tianxiang reminded me of this matter, if An Qixuan hadn't taken over the land of the Hezhong Weapon Range to prepare to open a large-scale agricultural product processing factory, I wouldn't have thought of this piece." ”

"Agricultural tax relief?" Cen Tianshi was stunned for a moment, and then thought about it and said, "Your Majesty, is it too early for agricultural tax reduction and exemption at this time?" Although agricultural tax reduction and exemption will benefit farmers, the price of agricultural products will inevitably fall accordingly. ”

Li Xuanqing also nodded: "I also know that the decline in the price of agricultural products will inevitably impact the industrial and commercial market, which will lead to a decline in the price level of the entire society. However, we can try to gradually reduce the method, so that the impact on the society will also be hedged by the speed of our economic development every year. When the cabinet has time to study, and then work out a suitable strategy, compared with the agricultural tax we are now formulating, it is still relatively heavy, and the peasants will not have the desire to buy goods without money in their hands, and it will be detrimental to economic development over time. Li Xuanqing is talking about the economic theory of later generations, if the scissors difference between industry and agriculture is too large, it will actually hinder economic development, especially in this era when foreign trade is basically zero, if the internal demand cannot be reached, it will definitely dampen the enthusiasm of industrial and commercial development.

Cen Tianshi thought for a while and nodded: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will convene Murong and Jingyu to hold a meeting to study after I am busy for a while, and gradually reduce and reduce agricultural taxes, so that the people can also benefit." ”

After saying this, Li Xuanqing did not delay Cen Tianshi's time, and walked out of the cabinet building with Xu Tianxiang, because Xu Tianxiang wanted to preside over the affairs of Tiance Mansion, so the matter of downsizing and changing clothes of the troops was handed over to Yang Tiancheng to be responsible. Disturbed by him, Li Xuanqing also had no desire to ski, returned to the Qianqiu Hall and discussed with Qiaoxi, and the two of them set off from Chang'an with the guards and went directly to Zhongshou City, ready to see what the new musket looked like.

It was already mid-February when they arrived in Zhongshou City, but because most of the military enterprises in the river moved here, Zhongshou City ushered in a warm spring, all kinds of factories started in the snow, and huge chimneys stood high, emitting thick black smoke, which made Li Xuanqing frown, but then he didn't pay attention to it. In this era, the world's primary forests have no problem digesting this pollution.

When Li Xuanqing arrived, Qin Yao was organizing the technical workers of the equipment department to install various equipment. Today, the armament department has formed three major bases, the headquarters in Guanzhong, the production base near Tianjin in Youzhou, and the weapons test base relocated here. The three bases have a full set of production equipment, but they have their own emphasis, and this layout surprised Li Xuanqing to see a little shadow of the future.

When Li Xuanqing came, in fact, most of the factories here had already been reassembled and put into production again, and only some of the core equipment still needed to be supervised and installed by Qin Yao himself. And many troops also gathered near the city of Zhongshou, and they came to change their clothes according to the orders of the General Staff. In addition to the troops in Jiangnan, the first batch of reoutfits were Li Feixue and Lu Yi's Central Garrison Battalion. In the environment of large-scale layoffs in the Tiance Army, the central garrison battalion was almost passive except for the two of them, so Li Feixue was very energetic during this time.

When Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi arrived at the new shooting range, Li Feixue was bragging with Yang Tiancheng, and the two of them sat in the handsome tent in the winter, while roasting the fire, listening to Li Feixue foaming at the mouth, boasting about how heroic and invincible the guard battalion was during the battle with the Huangjia in the Shangjing area last year.

"Feixue, it's not good to brag during the day, be careful of being stoned to death by the cow." Li Xuanqing opened the tent door and walked in with Qiaoxi, and glanced at the former personal guard general.

"Your Majesty, Queen, why are you two here?" Yang Tiancheng was surprised when he saw Li Xuanqing and his wife walking in, and hurriedly pulled Li Feixue over to greet him.

"When I was in Chang'an, I heard that Brother Li was bragging, but I didn't expect to hear it when I got to the grassland." Qiaoxi took the chair that Yang Tiancheng came over and sat next to Li Xuanqing, and as soon as he opened his mouth, Li Feixue was embarrassed, but Yang Tiancheng was still coaxing the seedlings on the side, and several people were laughing in the big tent, and finally stopped, Li Xuanqing rubbed the corners of his eyes and smiled: "How many of your troops have completed the redress?" ”

"At present, only the Guards Battalion and the battalion directly under it are being redressed in the north, the first and second battalions in the south have received new weapons near Jinling and are being trained nearby, and the weapons and equipment of the third battalion and the mountain battalion have been shipped from Tianjin and are ready to be reequipped on the spot. Because the Western Route Army shouldered the task of marching into Nanzhao, it planned to give priority to Chen Yu's Southern Group Army, change clothes while fighting, and test the results in actual combat. Yang Tiancheng looked at the progress chart in his hand and said.

"Let's go, don't stay here, let's go to the shooting range and see how the new musket works compared to the last test piece. Have you two tried it? Li Xuanqing took a few people out of the camp tent and walked on the side.

After a few people entered the shooting range, they saw that there were soldiers coming to the guard battalion to test shooting, the whole shooting range was divided into more than a dozen shooting training sites, and the sound of muskets firing came and went, Yang Tiancheng introduced on the side: "The new shooting range is relatively large, so it is divided into a firearms test site and an artillery test site, and there is also a naval gun test site, the three shooting ranges are independent of each other, and we are located here in the northwest of the firearms test site." After speaking, he asked the guards around him to fetch a few new-style muskets, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, please see, this is the latest musket." The gun is one meter three long, the barrel is one meter long, it can be loaded with bayonets, a total of about one meter six, the total weight is about eight catties, and a flint firing ignition device is used, with a caliber of one centimeter. ”

Yang Tiancheng gave a brief introduction and then handed it to Li Xuanqing and said with a smile: "The emperor tried it, the loading of Mini bullets is still relatively fast, but it is not fun to load a bullet once." ”

Li Xuanqing took the musket and tried it in his hand, eight catties is a little lighter than the previous ten catties experimental gun, it seems that Qin Yao has worked the weight in addition to studying and portraying rifling this year, and the sights also use the knife-type sights he brought from later generations, which is more convenient and easy to learn. Li Xuanqing tried to put a shot, the yellow explosive as the base agent is not only more powerful than the black powder, but the smoke produced when shooting is also very small, not so choking and not obvious. It's just that Li Xuanqing found that the muzzle of the gun shook slightly when the bullet was discharged, which caused a slight deviation between the projectile that was discharged and the expected aim, and the part that was hit on the target 100 meters away was not in the bull's-eye position.

Li Xuanqing was silent with the musket, and Qiaoxi next to him also saw the problem, but even if the couple knew when the two of them would have a solution, it would be difficult to have a solution to this problem, which required special mechanical analysis. However, according to the current error, it is not a big problem to calculate, after all, the standard combat method of the breech gun formulated by Li Xuanqing is a three-stage type, and this combat method does not require too high accuracy, but requires the density and persistence of firepower.

After Li Xuanqing put down the musket, he nodded and said with a smile: "Although it is not satisfactory, at least it can already equip the troops." ”

Li Xuanqing's words made Li Feixue suddenly nervous again, "Your Majesty, our personal guard battalion is the first unit of the Tiance Army to be equipped with muskets, do you want to give a separate banner, when I put it up on the battlefield, the enemy will know that the ace army of the Tiance Army is coming, and I will definitely be scared to surrender without a fight." ”

"Well, it's time to give a separate banner, it's called the braggart team." Li Xuan glanced at this guy innocently, and scolded with a smile: "In the future war, do you think you still want to charge the two armies like before, and you will fight back and forth?" If that were the case, wouldn't it be in vain for me to put so much effort into muskets? Take advantage of this time to send me to the military academy to study hard, if you let me know that you are absent from school and see how I clean you up. ”

Li Feixue's fart slapped on the horse's hooves, making Yang Tiancheng on the side laugh and ignore the extension of this guy's grudge, accompanied Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi to walk back, and said, "The emperor seems to be a little dissatisfied with this Apocalypse II musket?" In the past few days, the soldiers of the personal guard battalion who participated in the experimental shooting have all felt very good. ”

"Brother Yang, the accuracy of this rifle is still not good enough, ordinary soldiers can't feel it when they use it, but if they are on a sniper mission, they still can't, unless they are very familiar with this error and then correct it artificially." Qiao Xi pointed out the defect on the side and said, "Big brother, is it planning to go to Brother Qin?" I'm afraid that he may not be able to solve this problem. ”

Li Xuanqing shook his head and said: "I'm not asking him to solve this problem, I'm going to take a look at the machine he assembled to depict rifling, if it is mass production, then the error should be uniform, let's adjust the machine to naturally correct the error." However, this is only a palliative treatment, and the key is that the Institute of Science and Technology needs to be able to train qualified physics talents as soon as possible, otherwise this problem will continue. ”

This kind of natural science is not able to produce talents overnight, the Institute of Science and Technology has been trained in the past few years are basically practical talents, for this need to specialize in basic discipline research in the short term is not able to cultivate, even if the Imperial Academy of Sciences has been established, but the research of physics is still sluggish, basically still eat the old foundation of the predecessors, and a lot of knowledge brought by himself and Qiaoxi has not been thoroughly studied.

Thinking of this, Li Xuanqing also secretly worried that most of the scientific research in ancient China was based on practicality, similar to the abstract research of the later Western disciplines, which seemed to be born with insufficient soil. Qiaoxi on the side saw the worry in Li Xuanqing's heart, and Wen Yan comforted: "Big brother, don't worry, it's okay to go from figuration to abstraction." We have set the standard, and we are not afraid that the later talented people will not understand it. In the end, the time is still too short, and it is normal that they have not been exposed to it before. ”

"That's what I said, let's go and see what it's like inside Qin Yao's arsenal." Li Xuanqing put his tangled questions behind him, and said with a smile: "It's also that I'm impatient, we have only been in a short period of five or six years from the beginning to the current scale, and Qin Yao has done his best to the current logistics scale, and I can't blame him completely." ”

The three of them quickly came to the outside of the city and went into the military factory outside the city, and after finding Qin Yao, they came to the special workshop for engraving rifling. After Li Xuanqing's guidance, Qin Yao had already found the mineral of diamond and obtained stable raw materials for drill bits, and at this moment, more than a dozen large rifling and engraving instruments in this workshop were in full swing processing barrels under the drive of steam engines.

"Your Majesty, this is a rifling engraving workshop for gun barrels, which can produce fifteen hundred qualified barrels per day." Qin Yao rubbed his hands and said, "I plan to expand the production capacity and build another workshop, so that I can ensure the output of three thousand pieces a day." ”

"Brother Qin, the scale setting of the main machine must be refined when this rifling is depicted, otherwise there will be errors when the barrel is produced." Qiaoxi pointed to these machines and said: "These belong to precision instruments, and professional workers need to be selected to operate, and the industrial group is already making preparations in this regard, and you can connect with the industrial group at that time, and the large laboratories over there have operational standards dedicated to precision manufacturing." ”

Qiaoxi's words made Qin Yao's face become solemn, and he nodded and said, "What the queen mother means is that this kind of small but refined manufacturing industry needs to be re-planned, and the professional operation is right?" ”

"That's the truth. When the eldest brother tried the gun just now, he found that the accuracy of the rifle was not enough. Although the problem is not big now, our precision manufacturing industry still needs to develop and progress. Qiaoxi continued to point. In fact, the progress of the industrial group in this regard is already a little higher than that of the equipment department, but it is still not enough to see the processing to the millimeter level with the later generations. But it has also basically explored a new path.

"There is also the rifling characterization can not be taken for granted, you need to specialize in mechanics, this aspect can not help you for the time being, after all, the development of basic science is lagging behind, you need to formulate your research results and then bring them to the Institute of Science and Technology, provide them with materials, and then use the progress of basic disciplines to promote the progress of manufacturing in turn." What Li Xuanqing didn't expect was that his words to Qiaoxi today made Qin Yao determined to study this knowledge well, summarize the laws from continuous practice, and in just a few years, he relied on the knowledge he had scraped together to improve the basic theory of mechanics and become a pioneer in this area.