"Yifan, don't you want to know what the kind of steel pipe you produce is used for, come with me to have a look!" Li Su smiled and said to Yifan next to him.

"I ...... Can I go too? Yifan looked very excited, Perak Island is not an ordinary place, this is the second place in the entire Tang Dynasty that can produce gunpowder weapons after Chang'an Perak Courtyard, usually the island can be said to be only in and out, all the craftsmen on the island have to stay here almost all their lives, outsiders are even forbidden to be close to the island within ten miles, even her father has no permission to come in, I didn't expect that today Li Su would agree to go in by himself.

"Haha, of course you can, the reason why people weren't allowed to come in here in the past is because two new weapons are being tested on the island, one is worried about leaks, and the other is also worried that the people who break in will be injured by these two weapons, so the defense is so tight, but these two weapons have also reached the stage of actual combat, so there is no need to keep it secret." Li Su said with a laugh.

The Perak Courtyard on Perak Island was built when the original expedition to Goguryeo, and most of the firearms used on the battlefield of Goguryeo were produced on the island, but after the destruction of Goguryeo, there was no strong opponent in the eastern frontier of the Tang Dynasty, which made Perak Island a little redundant. For the kindness of the emperor's father, Li Su naturally would not refuse, and he had long been greedy for Perak Island.

After obtaining Perak, Li Su immediately reformed the management of the island. Not only did it vigorously improve the status of craftsmen, but it also induced literacy for all craftsmen. The production and research of firearms were documented, and top craftsmen were selected to establish a weapons design institute. Specializes in the improvement of firearms and the invention of new firearms. It can be said that Perak Island, in the hands of Li Su, has slowly turned into an inner academy and an outer comprehensive arsenal for the production of firearms.

When the management of Perak Island was on the right track, Li Su finally put forward the research topic of muskets and artillery in later generations and handed it over to Perak Island to develop it with all its might, and now there are some results, and it can finally be put into actual combat.

Perak Island was deliberately chosen by Li Su at the beginning, and there are steep cliffs on three sides, unless it has wings. Otherwise, it can't be climbed at all, the only place where the side is relatively gentle, but Li Su ordered people to build a tall city wall, the whole city wall is built according to the mountain, are made of rocks and cement on the island, up to two zhang thick, the city head can allow three carriages in parallel, it can be said that it is strong and abnormal, even if it is bombarded with cannons, it is not so easy to blast away. Only one gate was opened on this wall. After entering the city gate, there is an urn city, and after passing through the urn city, you can be regarded as entering the interior of Perak Island.

Yifan couldn't help but look around when she entered Perak Island, when she had come to deliver supplies to the island. At most, you can only go to the city gate, and if you break into the urn city inside, it is not a joke. Maybe even a small life will be lost.

After passing through the inner gate of the urn city, Yifan was stunned by the scene. Because what was presented in front of her was a very lively market. Many men, women and children are picking goods in the market, it seems that there are at least thousands of people, and the things sold are some daily necessities such as melons, fruits, vegetables, cloth, etc., and even some people sell bicycles, which seem to be similar to the markets seen on weekdays, but the only difference is that among the people who sell things, there are many soldiers wearing armor, these soldiers are not holding weapons now, but smiling behind the goods, bargaining with the people who come to buy things, no different from the ordinary small traders next to them.

"Your Highness, this ......" Yifan felt a little unacceptable, she never dreamed that the situation in Perak Island that she had been guessing would be like this?

Li Su had known the situation on the island for a long time, so he didn't feel strange at all, and when he saw Yifan's surprised expression, he also explained with a smile: "There are more than 5,000 craftsmen on Perak Island, plus their families, then the total population has reached nearly two people, so many people live together, naturally there are needs for food, clothing, housing and transportation, and because of the particularity of this place, it is difficult for them to go out, so I simply let them live together in the way of a town, this is the largest market in this town, Thousands of people buy here every day. ”

"What about them?" Yifan pointed to the soldiers who were selling things.

"Oh, that's a kind of benefit for the soldiers on the island, because the residents of the island have people working in the Thunderbolt Courtyard and are paid very well, so the residents here are not short of money, and the soldiers on the island are stationed here all the year round, and they are usually relatively boring, so give them a chance to make extra money, and the soldiers will go to the outside world in batches to buy a batch of goods, and trade with the residents of the island, and the income is their own, but the pricing of the goods has to be reviewed, and the price is generally consistent with the outside world." Li Su explained with a smile again.

Yifan blinked after hearing this, she didn't expect that there would be such a management method, but it's not bad to think about it, after all, so many people live together, if it is changed to other management methods, I am afraid that there will really be chaos.

When the people in the market saw Li Su coming, everyone bowed and saluted. It's not the first time Li Su has come, so everyone here knows him, and Li Su is also smiling and greeting everyone. After passing through the market, there is the town where the inhabitants of the island live, and the houses in the town are very uniform, all of them are small two-story buildings with detached families, and there are two wings on both sides, and the outside of the houses are all painted with white lime, which looks neat and beautiful.

After passing through the town, we wore a long quarantine area and finally came to the very center of Perak Island, which is also the place where gunpowder weapons are produced, and there is a quarantine area around and other places, mainly to prevent any accidents from spreading to other places.

The gunpowder weapons production area is divided into five major areas, which are mainly divided according to the five main weapons produced, namely the grenade area, the rocket area, the blaster area, the artillery area, and the musket area. The first three weapons were all developed by Li Su at the beginning, and they have long been equipped with the army, while the last two weapons were secretly developed by Li Su and have not yet been tested in actual combat. As for the most critical gunpowder production area, it is placed in a separate area of Perak Island, mainly because gunpowder production is more dangerous than weapon production, so it needs to be produced separately.

The reason why Li Su didn't go to the first three areas is that the grenades and other three weapons need to be loaded with gunpowder, so there is a lot of gunpowder in those three areas, if it accidentally explodes, it is estimated that even a whole corpse will not be found, and Li Su is the prince of the Tang Dynasty, and his subordinates naturally dare not let him take risks, so Li Su can't enter the three areas anyway.

"See Your Highness!" As soon as Li Su walked to the gate of the musket area, he saw a stout white-haired old man standing there, followed by several craftsmen of different ages, and immediately saluted very respectfully when he saw Li Su.

"Old Wu, your body is getting tougher and tougher!" Li Su stepped forward to help the white-haired old man up and said with a smile. This old man's surname is Wu Mingqiao, and he used to be the head craftsman of the iron workshop in Li Su's mansion, and he was called Lao Wu Tou, but Li Su generally likes to call him Lao Wu. As a serf of Li Su, Lao Wu had no problem with his loyalty, and he could take care of the relationship, so he was entrusted with an important task by Li Su and sent to Perak Island to supervise the production of muskets.

"Your Highness Xie cares, your subordinates' old life can help Your Highness for at least twenty years!" Old Wu Tou said with a smile, he was familiar with Li Su's temper, so he was more casual when he spoke.

When Li Su heard this, he also patted him on the shoulder and laughed, and then said a few more gossips, and then entered the musket production area. As soon as Yifan entered, he immediately felt a wave of heat rushing towards his face, and saw that it was like a huge blacksmith inside, and countless shirtless men wielded hammers to create delicate parts.

And after these parts are finished, they will be sent to a separate factory in the back, where Yifan finally sees the kind of steel pipes produced in his own factory, but these steel pipes have been processed and assembled with some other delicate parts to become a strange-shaped weapon.

I saw that this weapon was mainly the kind of steel pipe produced in his own factory, the steel pipe was fixed on a piece of palm-sized wood, and the fixed end had many exquisite designs, originally Yifan was very proficient in these clever things, but he didn't know much about gunpowder, so he looked at it for a long time but didn't understand how to use this musket.

At this time, Li Su picked up a gun that had been completed, pulled up the hammer behind him, and then pretended to aim, and at the same time pressed the trigger with his fingers, and the hammer immediately bounced to its original position, and at the same time, the flint on the hammer hit the anvil in front, shooting a string of undetectable sparks. It's a pity that there was no gunpowder and projectiles in the gun.

"Your Highness, how do you use this thing, is it a pipe to smash people?" Yifan also picked up a musket and studied it for a long time, but unfortunately there was a specialization in the art industry, although she figured out the structure of the musket, but she didn't understand how to use this thing, it is said that this is a gunpowder weapon, but where should gunpowder be placed?

Seeing Yifan's distressed look, Li Su laughed, he didn't expect that the extremely smart dean of the Academy of Sciences would also have a difficult day, but this is not to blame Yifan, after all, she is not familiar with the characteristics of gunpowder at all, where would she think of the use of this musket?

"Hehe, Yifan, don't worry, let's go and see the production process of artillery first, and then I'll show you what the real era of thermal weapons is!" In the end, Li Su said that the whole person became arrogant, and at the same time his eyes also looked to the northeast, where there was a small island country, using the stolen gunpowder formula to imitate the firearms of the Tang Dynasty, but Li Su would soon let them know what a real thermal weapon was! (To be continued.) )