Ten days later, the secret agents sent by Wei Ran, the prime minister of Qin, rushed to Xinzheng.

At this time, Xinzheng had changed greatly, and the prince hired a large number of commoners to carry out the most "great" urban road renovation work in the Warring States Period. The bumpy dirt roads and gravel roads in the past have all been turned into cement roads, which makes all the people who come to Xinzheng for the first time agree. There have been keen businessmen who have inquired about the price of cement, but the reply they get is all two words--- not to sell.

The training of the Yulin Army was also very effective. Referring to the wrought iron technology of later generations, Prince Ran imitated the Mingguang armor of the Tang Dynasty. Whether in terms of protection or flexibility, the new armor completely threw out the armor of this era.

That is, the prince is willing to invest, and the three thousand Yulin army, from the captain to the pawn, everyone is dressed in iron armor, or rather, a steel helmet. The weapons used by the whole army are also made of a hundred years of steel, which can be described as "cutting gold and jade, and sharpening iron like clay".

The most important difference between steel and iron is the carbon content. Pig iron has a high carbon content, is hard and brittle, and has little plasticity. Wrought iron has very low carbon content, soft quality, good plasticity, and easy deformation, but its strength and hardness are very low. Steel is somewhere in between, and is the best material for making zuò weapons.

Prince Ran used pig iron, which was easily available, as raw material, and adopted the steel frying method of later generations, obtained a large amount of steel, and made a full set of equipment for the Yulin Army.

In order to build the equipment of the 3,000 Yulin Army, countless pig iron was consumed. According to a rough estimate, it is worth enough to arm an army of 100,000. You know, at this time, most of the soldiers are unprotected. Even if there is it, it is thin leather armor. As for iron armor, only officers with more than 100 generals are eligible to wear it.

Among the eight kingdoms today (plus the Lu state), the Chu State is able to use local materials to make a large number of rhino armor and other armor equipment soldiers.

In order to facilitate the battle in the future, the prince ordered the Yulin army to follow the Hufu cavalry of King Zhao Wuling. At the beginning, there were still a few stunned young people with the attitude of "learning barbarians is shameful". Li Mu had a flash of inspiration and stipulated that the last few who had the worst training results every day should be washed for the whole army. These stunned youths only lasted for one day before they obediently changed into "Hu clothes" and devoted themselves to training.

From the children of a good family who stumbled and rode horses to the Yulin army who were skilled in arching horses, it took less than two months for Meng Fu and Li Mu to train a capable army for Tai Ziran. Of course, there are Wang Ziran's contributions, such as preferential treatment and new weapons and equipment, but more importantly, Meng Fu and Li Mu have devoted themselves to it.

In Wang Ziran's imagination, an iron-blooded army is not qualified to be called a strong force without experiencing a few tough battles. If an army does not have a military spirit, it can win for a moment with its blood and bravery, but it cannot dominate from generation to generation. The equipment of the Yulin Army is the best in the world, the treatment is the best in the world, and the discipline is the strictest, but this does not mean that the Yulin Army must be the most capable army in the world.

Meng Fu and Li Mu, as the main generals of the Yulin Army, also knew very well that without the test of the battlefield, the Yulin Army was just a tiger with baby teeth. This tiger still has a long way to go if it wants to grow into a tiger king, and maybe one of them will be bitten to death by a hungry wolf if he is not careful. Therefore, staying vigilant at all times is the style cultivated by the Yulin Army.

Raising soldiers with war is the best soldier. The crown prince naturally knows why Meng Fu and Li Mu have repeatedly asked for war, but now that the four seas are peaceful, even if it is only on the surface, there is really no war. Therefore, for the Yulin Army's request for battle, the prince turned a blind eye every time, and each time the reply was "When you can unsaddle and ride freely, I will arrange for you to go on the expedition."

The Yulin Army is the greatest effort of Prince Ran at present, whether it is papermaking, cement, or forging, all of them are to serve the army. In this era, young and strong farmers are farmers when they are busy and soldiers when they are free, and there are only a few professional soldiers in each country.

The truth that there are not many soldiers but fine is clear, but there are many ants that will bite the elephant to death. The prince planned to make a bold attempt, before the reunification, the system of half-cultivation and half-army could not be changed, but a small number of professional soldiers would be recruited. In this way, even if the country suddenly suffers a major defeat, it will still have the strength to recover. If there are some small battles, they will be pacified by the elite.

The disadvantage of South Korea is that there are few soldiers, there are very few people who are willing to join the army, and most of the kings of the past dynasties are the kings of the defense, and the Korean army can only rely on defending the city and relying on sophisticated weapons to offset the strengths of the enemy country, after all, it does not need many people to defend the city, and if the weapons are better, they are enough to be invincible.

Wang Ziran planned to use the war, with the help of years of melee wars, to quickly cultivate a group of backbone forces in the army. This is a world of great contention, and the fight may be dead without a whole body, but retreat, it must be broken bones. The crown prince deliberately promoted the treatment of soldiers, on the one hand, to stimulate the patriotism of the soldiers, and on the other hand, it was not to test the reaction of the nobles.

Ploughing warfare Ploughing warfare, the basis of a country is population, in this era when population and land are one qiē, ploughing is used to get more land, and war is used to get more population.

Some people are born rich, and naturally some people are born poor. For the common people who have no cultural knowledge, joining the army is one of the few ways out, they can get a knighthood, they can get wealth. But the aristocracy did not want the soldiers who had been mud-legged to be friends with them and live with them in the court.

In the eyes of the aristocracy, a soldier could get money and even land by virtue of his military merits, but a knighthood was absolutely indispensable, especially if it was hereditary. The reason is very simple, the cake of power is so big, everyone can get some, but once a new person joins, everyone has to share some more. In the eyes of the hereditary aristocracy, this was absolutely impermissible.

Wang Ziran also knew that before he had absolute power, he couldn't take this risk. As a result, whether it was the Battle of Huayang, the Battle of Yewang, or the Battle of Yique, some of the meritorious soldiers obtained land and money, but none of them were knighted for their dukes.

In order to reduce the opposition of the domestic aristocracy, the prince also recruited many noble children when selecting the source of the Yulin army. In this way, the preferential treatment did not cause too much controversy, otherwise it might be another argument of "being reckless and ashamed of the ancestors".

In the past few days of following King Han to deal with court affairs, the crown prince has thoroughly realized the strength of the Korean nobles. Of the officials of the Manchu Dynasty with more than 500 stones, the Han family accounted for half of them, and many of the remaining half were close relatives who were close to Zonggui. They have controlled the government of Korea for generations, but when they see the rotation of kings and the fall of Zonggui, they are talking about Korean Zonggui.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

Just when the crown prince was painstakingly pondering how to suppress the power of the sectarians, Meng Biao and Li Mu visited together.

"It's you two! If you don't train well in the barracks, will it be possible to come to me again to drink and drink? The prince said with a smile.

When he had nothing to do, Prince Ran refined a high-concentration wine. There are two kinds of liquor in this era, one is a sweet wine with a very low degree, which is called "liquor", which is what Zhuangzi said in "the friendship of villains". The other is brewed with koji and has an alcohol content between 10 and 20 degrees.

And what Tai Ziran refines is a distilled liquor of more than 50 degrees, which is spicy and bitter. The reason why such a high alcohol content is refined is that the prince is not to make a profit by selling alcohol. In an era when food is so scarce, no country will encourage winemaking; People in this era still like koji or liquor, and the distilled liquor is too chong and there is no market at all.

Invented distilled spirit, Prince Ran wanted to use it for disinfection on the battlefield, although it was not as good as the disinfectant alcohol with an alcohol content of up to 75% in later generations, but it was better than nothing. However, Meng Fu and Li Mu seem to be exceptions, and they actually like to drink such a high concentration of wine.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, you said that as long as we unsaddle and gallop freely, you will arrange for us to go on the expedition, is this sentence still true?" The outspoken Meng Fu asked.

"Count!" The prince was stunned for a moment, and said with a smile.

Meng Fu and Li Mu glanced at each other, smiled knowingly, and asked: "Please ask His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to check, the Yulin Army has met the requirements of His Royal Highness the Prince." ”