The Beihai County Armory Workshop covers an area of about 500 acres, surrounded by barracks, and there are soldiers standing guard at the door, and no idle people are allowed to enter the workshop, even if the craftsmen's families are not allowed to enter.

In fact, there is a blacksmith concentration in the armory workshop, and the three thousand blacksmiths recruited from all over Qingzhou are concentrated here, sweating like rain every day to build weapons, but this is the case, the weapons built by three thousand craftsmen are far from meeting the consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops, because weapons are relatively easy to damage, and after a big war, each soldier's weapons must basically be replaced, and the broken armor must be repaired or even replaced.

War is fought on national strength, not only refers to the consumption of food and money, but also the continuous supply of weapons and material resources, and the use of a large number of people's and animal power.

The reason why Zhang Xuan attaches great importance to cargo ship shipping is to save people and animal power, so that his material transportation can be convenient and low-cost, which is also a powerful guarantee for the war, and it is also the key to his victory in several major wars.

Also considering the cost of transportation, Zhang Xuan placed the weapons workshop near the mouth of the Juyang River, so that pig iron, coal and other materials transported from the sea could be easily transported into the workshop, and the weapons produced could be quickly transported.

There are four large warehouses in the workshop, one is used to stack various raw materials such as pig iron, one is used to stack coal, the other is to store various semi-finished products, and the assembly of knife handles and gun barrels is also carried out here, and the last warehouse is used to store finished products.

In addition to the warehouse, there are nearly 100 blacksmith furnaces, although it is still the fifth day of the first month, but thousands have already begun to work in full swing, in order to strengthen the war preparation, the imperial court gave twice the wages, so that the workshop began to operate on the second day of the first month.

The workshop was steaming hot, with green smoke curling and a choking smell of soot, but the craftsmen had long been accustomed to it, and they were constantly flowing through the workshop, each busy, some hammering iron, some adding medium to burn, responsible for controlling the fire, and many people pushing wheelbarrows, carrying dozens of semi-finished products to the warehouse.

After inspecting the workshop, Zhang Xuan went directly to the finished product warehouse, which covers an area of about several acres, made of bluestone, the buildings are tall and wide, and the corners of each are full of various weapons that have been made, as well as scabbards and spear scabbards brought from other places.

In the middle of the warehouse sat a large table at least five zhang long and one zhang wide, piled with spears and knives, and on either side of the table sat dozens of craftsmen, most of them old, who were meticulously examining their weapons, and around them were heaped with scabbards and spear scabbards.

Lai Kai whispered to Zhang Xuan: "This is the last process, and if you pass the inspection, you can transport it out of the workshop." ”

Zhang Xuan walked to the big table, the table was full of cold and shining war knives, he picked up a horizontal knife casually, and looked at it horizontally in front of him, this is an eight-pound knife, which can only be used by soldiers with strong arm strength, the back of the knife is quite thick, the blade is extremely sharp, the weight is even, the knife surface shows a kind of cyan, and the handle is engraved with the name of the knife maker: Zhao Wufeng, a knife worker of the Great Sui.

Zhang Xuan pulled out a knife flower and slashed a few times in the air, the feel was not bad, and the workmanship was fine, but compared to the Lu knife that Zhang Xuan admired, this knife was still too far behind.

But Zhang Xuan will not compare with his own war knife, he is more concerned about whether the war knife is qualified, he walked to a wide iron plate, the iron plate is covered with spotted knife marks, this is the place to test the knife, next to the knife test craftsman stands.

Zhang Xuan asked, "How many knives are qualified?" ”

The craftsman didn't know Zhang Xuan, but he knew the ordnance supervisor Shaoqing Laikai, he saw that Shaoqing was very respectful to this general, he didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly bowed down and said: "Return to the general, three knives are not notched, and ten knives are not broken, even if they are qualified." ”

"Does every knife have to be tested?"

"Of course not, test one or two knives from each imprint knife worker on the same day, if it is unqualified, it will all be returned for rework, and if it is unqualified three times, it will be canceled from the imprint qualification."

Zhang Xuan nodded, of course, it was impossible to experiment with every knife, but doing so would put a kind of pressure on the master knife maker, forcing him to make every sword seriously.

Zhang Xuan let out a low snort and swung his knife towards the iron plate, "Dang! There was a loud bang, sparks splashed, and all the inspectors looked back at him.

Zhang Xuan slashed five times in a row, a small gap appeared on the blade, and he slashed fifteen times in a row, only to listen to 'click!' With a sound, the knife was broken into two sections, Zhang Xuan nodded, with his own strength, it actually took fifteen knives to break, this knife is really good.

"How many knives can be crafted in a day?" Jang Hyun turned around and asked.

Lai Kai thought for a while and said, "Back to Your Highness, it's about three hundred handles a day." ”

"It's only three hundred!"

Zhang Xuan is really a little dissatisfied, there are only 10,000 handles a month, but he has an army of 200,000, and he will have to wait a year and a half to be fully equipped, it doesn't hurt if it is an era of peace, but now is the era of war and hegemony, this speed is too slow.

Lai Kai felt Zhang Xuan's dissatisfaction, and hurriedly explained: "The main reason is that the pass rate of the knife blank is not high, and the average five knife blanks can have one qualified, even if it is the former ordnance supervisor, the fundamental reason is that the iron quality is not good, there are too many impurities in it, and the impurities must be repeatedly forged to remove the impurities, so the output is not high, and it takes about three days for a knife to be completed from the blank to the final inspection, in addition, there are only more than 900 knife makers, as well as spearsmiths, rods, etc., there are many processes, and cumbersome, three thousand people are not enough, as His Highness said, The Ordnance Superintendent must have at least 50,000 or 60,000 craftsmen to ensure that the weapons are abundant and replenished in a timely manner. ”

Zhang Xuan also knew the problem, his army was expanding too fast, and a lot of logistics support could not keep up, but fortunately, he still had a little stock, which could support it for a period of time, so he could only expand the ordnance supervision as soon as possible after moving the capital to form a large-scale effect.

At this time, a personal soldier hurriedly came and handed a copy of the express report sent from Yidu County to Zhang Xuan, Zhang Xuan looked at it, it was Pei Ju and Su Wei who jointly asked him to return to Yidu County immediately to discuss important matters, Zhang Xuan immediately encouraged everyone a few words, and quickly left the armory

Zhang Xuan led three hundred cavalry to gallop overnight in the vast snowfield, the next morning, they arrived in Yidu County, Zhang Xuan did not have time to go home, immediately rushed to the official office, in fact, he vaguely guessed that Pei Ju and Su Wei were looking for something for themselves, it must be related to what happened in Chang'an, although there is no clear news, but from the previous signs, Li Yuan's ascension to the throne is already an ironclad thing, in addition, it is impossible for there to be anything else to make the two Xiangguo so nervous, as for major military operations, it should also be known first.

Zhang Xuan came directly to the account of the Ministry of Internal History, and saw Xiao Yu who was about to enter the account at the door of the tent, Xiao Yu came from Chang'an not long ago, he was originally the Inner History of the Great Sui, and Yu Shiji held great power together, this time he came to the New Sui, and was also appointed as the Inner History Waiter, due to Su Wei's advanced age, a large number of affairs in the Inner History Province were actually undertaken by Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu also saw Zhang Xuan, and hurriedly greeted him and said with a smile: "Your Highness just came back!" ”

Zhang Xuan nodded and said with a smile: "I didn't dare to delay when I received a joint letter from Su Pei and the two prime ministers, so I rushed back overnight, but for the sake of Chang'an?" ”

Xiao Yu nodded, "Li Yuan ascended the throne in Chang'an, announcing that the Sui Dynasty in the world has ended, and I hope that people of insight in the world can support the Tang Dynasty. ”

"This is a funny thing, does Li Yuan want to fight with us?" Jang Hyun couldn't help but laugh.

"It is estimated that he wants to use the imperial examination to test the status of the new dynasty in the hearts of the people of the world, and we can't test it before or after it, only by holding the imperial examination at the same time as us, can we see who is more important."

Zhang Xuan also felt that Xiao Yu was reasonable, he looked at the big tent and asked with a smile, "Is Su Xiangguo here?" ”

"Not yet."

As soon as he said this, Xiao Yu saw Su Wei who was hurrying in the distance, and said with a smile: "Su Xiangguo is here." ”

Zhang Xuan also saw Su Wei, he waved his hand to say hello, and said to Xiao Yu: "Let's have a small court meeting to discuss!" Please ask the waiter to inform me, and all the high-ranking officials above the third grade will attend. ”

Xiao Yu bowed and left, Su Wei walked quickly, and said urgently: "Does Your Highness know about Li Yuan's founding and enthronement?" ”

"I already know, does Sangkook think this matter is serious?"

"Of course it's very serious, it will make the people of the world feel that the Great Sui is indeed dead, and the new dynasty should begin, which will affect the confidence of the people of the world in us, Your Highness, Li Yuan's strength is actually far stronger than ours, this is a fact, we must deal with it, and we can't sit back and watch Li Yuan's founding of the dynasty cause an unpredictable storm."

Zhang Xuan nodded, "Later, we will have a small pilgrimage meeting to discuss specific countermeasures." (To be continued.) )