Because of the great drought, so there is a lot of idle labor, since there is no hope of saving the crops in the field, then don't save it, if you have the strength to carry water to save the crops, it is better to go to the big city to work, and the copper money earned is far more valuable than a few crops in the field.

The food provided by the government was reserved for the old and weak, enough for them to feed until the next year, while the strong men went to the nearest city to find food on their backs, either on foot or in ox carts.

Chang'an City poured in the most labor, Li Er took advantage of the situation to begin to renovate the Furong Garden, this is an area of more than 1,000 acres, 17 miles long royal garden, was previously rewarded to Li Tai, the result Li Tai is annoyed, mainly because he can't find enough labor to rest, a dilapidated garden left by the former Sui, want to repair it, not a year or two can do.

Now that there is labor, Li Er is willing to increase investment, so the Furong Garden is now crowded, the Gongyi family is responsible for the overall design and construction, and the Gongyi family is now a master craftsman, and has commanded countless constructions over the years, from camel cities to bridges, and now it is just a landscape garden, which is not a big deal.

Furong Garden is not a big deal, but the statue of Li Er, which is about to be erected, is a big problem, the height of this statue is more than forty feet, and the weight has reached a terrifying 500,000 catties.

The huge crane has been built, and there is no machine in this world that can lift this statue, the hoist, the crane, plus the lever, and a huge door, are the main force.

Li Er stood on the platform of the Wanmin Palace and could see the construction site, he found that there were countless carriages going to the city canal sand, constantly piling up the river sand around the base, obviously the river sand was already very much, and those people seemed to have no intention of stopping. Still canal sand.

"Elephant, do you know why they are piling yellow sand on the pedestal?"

"Returning to the emperor's grandfather, my grandson knows that the weight of the entire statue is too large, according to the calculations of the academy, it is not less than 500,000 catties. There is no tool in this world that can lift the statue and finally place it on the pedestal, so the most primitive sand piling method can only be used, first pile the sand around the pedestal, then drag the statue to the sand pile, and finally adjust the position with a hoist, crane and other spreaders, and then slowly clean the sand under the statue. Let the statue be recognized on the pedestal, and finally only need to use the winch and crane to straighten the statue, so that the statue will stand firmly on the pedestal, and the final work is to clean up all the surrounding sand and transport it away, and the whole project is completed. ”

Li Er was very satisfied with Li Xiang's explanation, Li Xiang has made great progress over the years, and he is not as frizzy as he was in the early years. Li Er didn't think the project would be as simple as Li Xiang said. But it is also a skill to be able to explain the general face of things in a few simple words, which is why he kept Li Xiang by his side as a secretary.

In the year of the catastrophe, construction was carried out. It is already a consensus in Datang to create a livelihood for the people, so it is not only Chang'an City, Luoyang, and Jinyang that are building large-scale construction, but also county orders from all over the country have also led the people to take advantage of the dry season to repair rivers and repair water conservancy facilities. The Chidao in Guanzhong also began to pave cement pavement, and the related kilns and steel industries were in full swing, and Guanzhong was like a huge construction site at this time.

Li Er returned to the Wanmin Palace and asked Li Xiang to take a huge scroll, and after opening it, he carefully measured the distance on the map with his finger. Although the firearms workshop had been completely restored, and the original output had increased by 30%, Li Er was still very dissatisfied, and the speed of weapon replacement of the imperial army still lagged behind a lot.

He very much hoped that all the armies in various places would complete the refitting in the shortest possible time, and the surplus weapons would be destroyed, so as to strengthen the imperial court's complete control over the army.

Gunpowder workshops and firearms workshops are only allowed in Chang'an City, and like the workshops for minting coins, no branches are allowed in other places, which has been written into the laws of the Tang Dynasty, and it is strictly forbidden for anyone to change them, including later emperors.

Without gunpowder, the combat power will be reduced by at least half, Li Er believes that as long as he controls the gunpowder and refined oil, as long as he has the powerful Sixteen Guards, he will not have to worry about the rebellion of the foreign domain.

The local troops can only take on the responsibility of guarding, as for the battle, it is the responsibility of the Sixteen Guards, the East China Sea Division, the South China Sea Division, and the Xuanjia Army, and the sixteen armies will take turns guarding the fortresses that the empire needs to defend the most, so as to maintain the strong combat effectiveness of the Sixteen Guards.

"Go and ask Yun Ye, can you still increase the production of firearms, the local army has been trained, and now waiting for his firearms supply, hasn't he already established three workshops? Why can't they all be started, they have to be rotated, and one workshop must be left empty? ”

Li Er was good at pointing out the map and made arrangements to Li Xiang.

"Grandpa Huang, mainly saltpeter, and sulfur can't keep up, the East China Sea Fleet can't transport these raw materials from Iwo Jima, Yunhou has a special excerpt here to explain to you why you have to take turns to produce, he thinks that if there are conditions, six firearms workshops should be built, half of them should be sealed, half of them will be used, and they will be rotated every half a year, so that the possibility of accidents can be minimized." As he spoke, Li Xiang took out Yun Ye's recital from the big cabinet next to him and showed it to the emperor.

Li Er still had an impression of this excerpt, so he took it and read it again, and pondered for a long time before saying to Li Xiang: "Ask someone to draft a decree, and call Shangguan Yi." ”

Li Xiang rang the golden bell, and with little effort, Shangguan Yi walked in, and the one-year prison life had worn off the literati popularity on his body, and the whole person became lifeless.

"Ordered Yun Ye to start building three more dormant firearms workshops."

"Ordered Zhang Liang to ensure a sufficient amount of saltpeter and sulfur, otherwise he will be severely punished!"

"Ordered Sun Renshi to control the output of the oil, and not a drop of the refined oil must be left outside, otherwise he will come to see him.

"The eldest grandson Wuji must ensure that the military department has sufficient money, and there must be no delay, otherwise he will be severely punished.

"Order the Xuanjia army to be stationed in Hanzhong, block the Golden Bull Road, and the merchants who come and go will turn to Shu Road, and there must be no violation."

Li Eryi issued five orders in a row to ensure that the army could complete the change of equipment in the shortest possible time, and it was obvious that as an army, in addition to the sixteen guards, the first one that needed to be completely redressed was the Xuanjia Army.

Soon, the will came to Yun Ye's hands, and the documents of the army system still need to be signed by him, the secretary of the military department, no, now the fire oil is not only available in Beiting, but also in the Sixteen Kings, could it be said that the eldest grandson Wuji did not report this news to the emperor at all? What's going on with this guy?

Moreover, fire oil has now become a large quantity of civilian goods, and not a drop of oil is allowed to leak out, which is simply not possible. The circle of interests involved in this is too big, the defenders of Yumen, the Hexi Army, and Xue Rengui's defenders of Ranshi City are all involved, once it is completely banned, I am afraid that there will be chaos, the copper coins are yellow, and people's eyes are red.

Zhang Liang's documents and Xuanjiajun's documents were quickly distributed, and Yun Ye, the document for Sun Renshi, hurriedly rushed to the Wanmin Palace to see the emperor in his arms, and this will could not be implemented at all.

"What? You say my will cannot be carried out? ”

"Yes, Majesty, fire oil is everywhere now, Yanchang County has also found this thing, Qiuzi, Zhaowu Jiu surname, Shazha Country has found this thing, and now the distillation method is not a secret, if you want to ban fire oil, this is impossible, Your Majesty!"

Li Er stood up abruptly and looked at Yun Ye and said, "You said that Yanchang, Qiuzi, Zhaowu Jiu, and Sansa all have this thing?" ”

"That's right, now the stone fat water in Yanchang County has been controlled by the military, but the stone fat water in the sixteen kings, we only have a twenty percent share, in fact, the country with the most stone fat water is Dashi, not our Datang, now the lamp oil in the south is obtained through the sea trade, once we ban the oil of fire, the biggest profit is still the merchant of Dashi, they will die of laughter."

Li Er angrily smashed the mutton fat jade bottle in his hand, and said angrily: "The desire for profit is consumed, knowing that this is a heavy weapon of the military and not knowing how to cherish it, one by one wants to rely on him to make a fortune, Yun Ye, I ask you, is there your share in this matter?" ”

Yun Ye blinked his eyes and said, "Your Majesty, no, you know, as long as the business has something to do with the heavy weapons of the military state, the Yun family has never been involved." Your Majesty, these things Weichen has already submitted the documents to the Menxia Province for reconsideration, why don't you know? ”

Li Er was choked all of a sudden, it was obvious that this was a means for the eldest grandson Wuji to frame Yun Ye, and he couldn't explain it clearly, so he forced himself to suppress his anger and asked Yun Ye: "Since this matter has been eroded, how do you deal with it?" ”

"Your Majesty, our military's fire oil reserves have been exceeded, ten fire oil depots have been filled, Wechen is most afraid of this thing now, he is more dangerous than gunpowder, in case of explosion, Wechen is estimated to blow up the Weishui flow, now the fire oil depot is all on the edge of Weishui, this thing must be made and used, after a long time, he will be dissipated like wine, there is no way to seal it, so Wechen will acquiesce to the storage of fire oil transactions!"

Yun Ye said as he took out the account book from his arms and handed it to Li Er for inspection, Li Er hurriedly checked it, then handed it to Li Xiang and said, "Give it to the Dushui Supervisor for a thorough investigation, and every oil drum must be checked." ”

After doing these things, his face slowly improved, and he sat down and asked Yun Ye, "Why is my Datang's oil so least?" ”

Yun Ye rolled his eyes and said: "Your Majesty, this thing is not a big place, but it depends on whether your country is lucky, obviously, in the matter of fire oil, the big cannibals are luckier than us." (To be continued......)

PS: Section 2