Li Xiang smiled: "That's fine." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info "I thought to myself, these literati always speak so vaguely. You directly said that the mining area is a square with a side length of 20 kilometers, there are 840 guards on the defensive, shifts change every six hours, and there are 2,100 garrisons, where did you get ten steps and one post?

After returning to Lin'an from Lanxi, Li Xiang was no longer too worried about the supply of steel materials. Judging from the current situation, the iron, copper and other metal ores produced by Lanxi, as well as coal, cement and other production raw materials, can fully meet the needs of the factory in Lin'an. After all, it is not yet the large-scale construction of the entire Great Song Dynasty, and nearly 80% of the factories are distributed near Lin'an. If it is used in the manufacture of weapons and machinery and equipment, the supply of copper and iron is not a problem for the time being, not to mention that pig iron ingots from other places are also continuously transported to Lin'an.

However, in addition to the improvement of weapons and tools, the court also made a special decree: in the vicinity of Lin'an, as well as in the cities and prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, the local government will take back the damaged farm tools and return the new farm tools to the people after a year. For the court, this move seems to be somewhat indispensable, but Li Xiang knows that this just solves two problems. One is to prepare suitable agricultural tools for next year's large-scale rice planting, and the other is to recycle thousands of tons of iron. Iron tools in the Song Dynasty were not cheap, and the common people had almost no idle agricultural tools. Broken shovels, hoes, etc., are also given to blacksmiths to re-forge with iron, because the cost of rebuilding them is much less than buying the same farm implements.

Li Xiang finally put his mind at ease, because as long as the supply of raw materials for production is solved, the rest is how to do it. According to the plan, the next task is to solve the problem of the ship's power and weapons.

Li Zong picked up Li Xiang's recital and glanced at it, showing a slight look of surprise, thinking to himself how the handwriting of today's recital was different from the previous times? However, he remained silent and continued to watch. This letter was written in great detail, and although Li Xiang had already told the contents of the letter in front of the ministers, Li Zong still read it in detail, and then raised his head and asked, "What do you think of Li Qing's suggestion?" ”

Li Xiang's plans were on how to expand the size of several shipyards, how to add steam engines to power ships, and how to improve the ability to sail to the sea. Of course, the most important point is also mentioned how to add artillery to the ship.

Li Xiang had long had the idea of renovating the ships, but in his original plan, he should have improved the ocean-going fleet first. However, in the past few days, Li Xiang has changed his original intention and is ready to transform the warship and the merchant ship together. Because he knew that in two years, Mongolia would gather warships from the sea to attack the Southern Song Dynasty. If we do not step up the improvement of the warships at this time, I am afraid that the weapons of the infantry alone will not be able to effectively stop them. Of course, Li Xiang's knowledge of history is naturally correct, but he doesn't know that the current situation is very different from the past, and his arrival has changed the original history beyond recognition.

Li Boyu said: "Your Majesty, what Master Li said is very true. Although the infantry had artillery and crossbows, the Yangtze River was separated from Mongolia by the Yangtze River, and Mongolia could also directly attack Lin'an from the sea, so it had to be guarded. ”

In fact, in the past year, the thinking of the ministers of the DPRK and China has changed greatly. When the artillery was first built last spring, the generals thought that they could use this weapon to recover the Henan region and drive the Mongols back to their homeland completely. However, a large part of the territory of the former Northern Song Dynasty had been occupied by the Mongols, and new weapons were emerging one after another, so the ministers were no longer satisfied with defeating the Mongols, but wanted to completely recover the entire Jiangbei, even including the sixteen states of Yanyun, which the Song Dynasty had never recovered. Of course, everyone knew about this matter, but it was never formally discussed at the court meeting. Because although the current number of weapons is enough to win a small-scale war, if a full-scale war is to be waged in Jiangbei, even if it wins, I am afraid that it will suffer heavy losses.

Lu Wenxin stood up and said, "Your Majesty, the Great Song Dynasty is connected to Mongolia by water and sea. If there is a war in the future, it is imperative that the warship transformation that Master Li said will be carried out. ”

Li Zong said: "Since all the secretaries think that this move is feasible, I will naturally be allowed to do it. However, the prime minister proposed otherwise, and the ministers might as well listen to the prime minister's meaning. Everyone heard that Ding Daquan had other opinions, and they all turned their heads to look at Ding Daquan for a while to see what he said.

The day after returning from Lanxi, Li Xiang met with Ding Daquan, and talked about the whole situation in Lanxi, and talked about the transformation of the ship. In fact, Li Xiangda didn't have to discuss with Ding Daquan about the transformation of warships, but he felt that the role of ships was not only for combat, but also for commercial trade. And Ding Da is the prime minister and is in charge of the economic development of the Great Song Dynasty, so naturally we have to listen to his opinions first. Although Ding Daquan is a traitor, Li Xiang can't help but face it.

Ding Daquan stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the role of large ships is not only for warfare, but also for ocean trade. Although our dynasty is rich, the lives of the people in the past few years are still extremely poor, which is much worse than more than ten years ago. The reason for this is that because of the war with Mongolia, the people of the Great Song Dynasty who originally lived in Jiangbei fled to Jiangnan. Most of these people lived in Huainan West Road and Jingnan South Road, and most of these places were heavily defended by the Great Song Dynasty. When the people arrived in Jiangnan, they naturally had to eat and wear, but because these people had not been here for a long time, their foothold was not stable, and they had lived near the border for a long time, it would inevitably affect the supply of grain and grass for the border soldiers. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Households, in the past 10 years, more than 11 million people have moved from Jiangbei. ”

What Ding Daquan said was naturally completely true, and the ministers were silent for a while, after all, those who fled were the people of the Great Song Dynasty, and the Great Song Dynasty naturally could not leave these people back.

Li Zong nodded and said, "I already know what the Prime Minister said. It's just that since the prime minister said this, there must be a solution? ”

Ding Daquan said: "Back to the emperor, in fact, the method that the minister came up with is not perfect, it can only be said that it is in response to a momentary emergency." Chen means that the production of arable land, grain, cloth, salt, herbs and other necessary things in the Great Song Dynasty has increased greatly in recent years, and it is naturally not a problem to feed these people. Therefore, the minister thought that since the arable land would not increase any longer, and it would take a year or two for the new rice varieties to become widespread, our dynasty would be able to continue to expand its maritime trade with the Western countries. Today, China's exports mainly include silk, porcelain, sugar, textiles, tea, and some metals, and imports include ivory, coral, agate, pearls, benzoin, pepper, and hundreds of other goods. At present, the tax revenue obtained by the city shipping company through the import of goods has accounted for nearly 20% of the total tax revenue of the country. This makes Lin'an a great trade transit point. (To be continued.) )