Accompanied by Hu Gui, Li Yuan walked around again. Although a satisfactory formula has not yet been refined, Li Yuan is quite satisfied with the layout here. In the future, if there is an opportunity to produce gunpowder in large quantities, it can be used as an arsenal. In addition, a large area of enclosed land could be used to build a house to make all kinds of gunpowder-related materials needed.

Before leaving, Hu Gui brought the account book and carefully reported the details of the money spent to Li Yuan. Li Yuan also probably understood that in addition to the huge amount of money that had to be spent on the construction of twenty Dan furnaces and the construction facilities here, the rest of the money was used to purchase raw materials such as sulfur saltpeter.

The output of these things is not high, and in addition to the alchemy used by the alchemists, they can basically be used as medicines, and the price is ridiculously high in this troubled world, and the amount of twenty Dan furnaces consumed is even more amazing.

These warlocks who are almost fanatical about alchemy don't care how expensive the materials are, anyway, there is a big gold lord who is covered, they only care about refining furnace by furnace, and they don't care how much money they spend, so it has led to the twenty Dan furnaces becoming twenty big furnaces that burn money, and they are pulling out Li Yuan's money bag at an astonishing speed.

Li Yuan was glad that he had made the decision to close the eighteen Dan furnaces today, in fact, this was also the purpose of his coming here today. The business of refining recipes can't be stopped, but you can't take money to burn them like this. At the beginning, Li Yuan had the idea of casting a wide net, thinking that the east would not be bright and the west would be bright, and there would always be people who could make some famous names among the twenty alchemists, but now Li Yuan didn't think so.

Since he had promised in front of his family that the refining of gunpowder would no longer be spent on the inner treasury, he had to do what he said, and before the money problem was solved, the only way to do it was to gather the warlocks and continue refining the recipe with the small amount of raw materials in the existing inventory. Although Li Yuan saw a slight expression of loss on the faces of some warlocks, Li Yuan didn't care about their feelings.

On the way back to the Governor's Mansion, Li Yuan was thinking about how to solve the problem of money.

Making money is actually a long-term solution, what do you do without money? It is not just a matter of simply refining gunpowder, many ideas about the army in the future need the support of money, and all kinds of ideas in one's mind cannot be limited by money and cannot be implemented, and this will be the biggest obstacle to restricting one's own development and strength.

In the main hall of the Governor's Mansion, Li Yuan sat down and didn't take a sip of tea, when he heard a noise coming from a distance in front of the mansion gate, and on the staggered steps, Luo Erhu scolded in a loud voice, and seemed to be very angry.

"What are these things? Do you want us to be called Hanako? Forget about the lack of money and food, and send these things, the court is too deceitful! Is the Metropolitan in the Governor's house? I want to find the Metropolitan Governor to comment, what is the court going to do? Mother's ......"

Li Yuan frowned slightly when he heard this, and when he put down the tea cup, he saw Luo Erhu leading four or five generals into the main hall, and when he saw Li Yuan sitting on the top seat, he hurriedly stepped forward to salute together.

Li Yuan got up from behind the eucalyptus and walked to the bottom of the hall, and said with a smile: "Erhu, why are you angry?" ”

Luo Erhu said loudly and angrily: "Governor, the money and grain escorted by the imperial court have arrived!" However, the number was completely inconsistent with the list, the money was only 300,000 yuan, and the grain was less than 100 carts...... But when I look at those things, it's really terrible! ”

It turned out that the "ransom" given by the imperial court came! It's really a send-off...... While delighted, Li Yuan was puzzled: "How many armor blades are allocated by the Ministry of War?" That's done, it cost us a lot of money to build our own armor and blades. What's more, the military department has always been used by the forbidden army, and it can be called well-equipped, why do you look bad? ”

Chai Kewu on the side shook his head helplessly and sighed: "What Luo Du said is true, Dadu Governor, why don't you go to the treasury to take a look!" Those armor blades, really, really a little miserable......"

Li Yuan exhaled a breath of turbidity, got up and said, "Let's go, follow the governor of Pontus to take a look." ”

The crowd rushed out of the door, got on their horses, and went straight to the armory across the street from the governor's palace. After a while, they arrived at the square outside the storehouse, but saw hundreds of carts parked in the field at the entrance of the storehouse and on the street leading to the storehouse, except for the more than 100 cars loaded with money and grain in front, the cars behind were all piled with armor and blades.

Li Yuan and the others rode along the gap next to the convoy to the door of the warehouse, and saw two court officials wearing official robes standing in front of the door of the warehouse talking loudly, seemingly arguing with the treasurer in charge of the Wuping armory.

Seeing Li Yuan coming, the treasurer officials hurriedly stopped the quarrel and came forward to salute respectfully, Li Yuan turned over and dismounted and shouted in a deep voice: "Treasurer Wang, what happened?" ”

The treasurer of the king hurriedly bowed his head and said: "Back to the Governor, these two are officials of the imperial court who escorted money, grain and materials to Wuping, and they want us to unload these armor and blades into the warehouse. However, Luo Du's envoy ordered that he should not enter the warehouse, so he quarreled here. ”

Luo Erhu puffed up his chest and said, "Yes, I want the treasurer of the king not to enter the warehouse!" Since the things have been sent to our Langzhou, we must ask the Metropolitan Governor to see what they are sending, right? The lake and the lake have been included in the warehouse, and I thought we had some treasure from the imperial court! ”

Li Yuan frowned and glanced at the two trembling court officials, and the two officials naturally knew that the person who came was the famous Langzhou Governor Li Yuan, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

I saw one of the obese officials humbly arch his hand and said, "Your Majesty will meet the Governor!" The lower official is Zhong Ming, a member of the household department, and the other one is Li Shouji, the secretary of the treasury department of the military department, and the two of us were ordered by the imperial court to escort money, grain and materials to Langzhou, as a sign of His Majesty's reward and grace to the governor.

But somehow, several generals of the Wuping Army were reluctant to unload their trucks and put them into storage, what is the reason? Could it be that the lower officials will escort all these armor and blades back to Jiangnan? ”

"Open your eyes and take a good look, what kind of is being delivered? Is it called Hanako? Love to pull away, pull away, Lao Tzu is not rare. Luo Erhu said angrily beside him.

"You, you...... How can you be so rude? How can this be justified, how can this be justified! Zhong Ming blushed with anger, and was very angry at Luo Erhu's rudeness, but Langzhou is Li Yuan's territory, after all, it is not Jinling, and no matter what grievances you have here, you have to hold back honestly.

Seeing this, Li Yuan just waved his hand and said expressionlessly: "Second Tiger, and be more restrained." These two are officials of the imperial court, so why bother them. It's all about food and errands, and it's not easy to walk from Jinling to Langzhou. ”

"Oh, it's still the Metropolitan Governor who is reasonable! is worthy of the first general of our dynasty, both civil and military are polite! Where is it like you reckless people, who speak unreasonably......" Zhong Ming seemed to have found a savior, bowing down and smiling.

Luo Erhu and several generals around him were about to go crazy, but they saw Li Yuan snort lightly, and they had to hold back their anger.

Li Yuan slowly walked to the front of a large cart, the materials on the cart had been lifted from the tarpaulin, and half of them had been unloaded on the ground. Chai Kewu, who had always acted calmly, couldn't hold back at this time, stepped forward quickly, took a random piece from a pile of armor on the ground, and unfolded it for Li Yuan to see.

"Governor Dadu, this is the armor that the imperial court gave to us Wuping, look at this, half of the armor on it has fallen off. Also, this one, there are even holes on it, and the places where there are armor pieces are also badly worn, can this kind of shoddy thing allow the brothers to wear it to the battlefield? It's not good for protection at all, and it's better to wear these armors than to wear a cloak ......"

Li Yuan frowned and looked at the armor, judging from the style alone, it was not at all the standard armor worn by the soldiers of the Southern Tang Forbidden Army. It appears to be a piece of leather armor, and a type of armor that was obsolete at least fifty years ago. The so-called armor is actually a layer of leather in addition to a layer of leather, and a layer of leather armor is put on the front and back of the body.

The entire nail stomach is in tatters, the leather nail pieces fall off more, and most of the sewn threads are on the surface. The leather is worn almost transparent in several places. Not only is it an outdated armor, but it should also be a long-term used armor, which is estimated to be from the old warehouse of the local state capital at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Yuan personally picked up a few other items to check, almost all of them were almost in tatters, and they were just for show, and the protective effect was minimal.

"Governor, do you see? Isn't the court perfunctory to us? Luo Erhu said angrily.

"Rest easy, and then look at the big car behind you." Li Yuan's face had gradually become gloomy, and he waved his hand and said coldly.

Everyone moved to the cart loaded with blades, lifted the tarpaulin, and bundles of blades were stacked on the cart, and a smell of rust immediately came to the nostrils, and the weapons in the cart were rusty, like a scrap heap.

Li Yuan stretched out his hand and pulled out a long knife, the blade of the handle was covered with rust, and the edge of the blade was mottled with red rust. Li Yuan swung his knife and slashed at a tree trunk with the thickness of an arm next to him, the blade could enter several inches, but it was so embarrassed that he couldn't even pull it out.

Now everyone's faces became even more ugly, using this weapon to fight against the enemy is simply self-defeating, how can you cut the opponent's armor and stomach? This is already a near-scrapped blade.

Then Li Yuan came to the cart full of spears, pulled out a spear with a "swish", and looked at the rusty and blunt head of the spear and was silent. Everyone saw that the face of the Metropolitan Governor was completely gloomy, and they were all silent, and no one dared to speak casually, but they all suppressed the fire in their hearts and stood silently behind Li Yuan.

At this moment, Li Yuan knew in his heart that there was no need for any more spot checks, as Luo Erhu said, this batch of armor and blades was indeed all tattered, and I was afraid that the Ministry of War would move out all the most rotten goods that had been pressed on the bottom of the warehouse for a long time and send them to Langzhou.

"Governor, did you see that? How can we collect these rags? I said that it is better to ask them to pull back all these armor and blades, and let the court exchange them for money and food again, we don't want these things. Luo Erhu blushed and said in a low voice.

Li Yuan quietly stared at the two court officials in front of him who were whispering, hesitated for a moment and sighed lightly: "That's it, order someone to unload the car and enter the warehouse." ”

"What?" Luo Erhu's eyes widened, and he almost thought that he had heard it wrong, and the surrounding Chai Kewu and other generals were also surprised.

Li Yuan reprimanded loudly: "Do you want the governor of Pontus to say it a second time?" All are put into storage, repaired what should be repaired, repaired what should be repaired, and grinded that should be milled. In short, don't waste a single thing, this is the heart of the court, the heart of Your Majesty! ”

After that, Li Yuan left Luo Erhu, who was standing in a daze, and walked towards the two officials of the household department and the military department, squeezed out a smile and arched his hand: "The two of you have worked hard from afar!" The governor of the city has already let people unload the car and put it into the warehouse, so why don't you go to the governor's mansion with me to drink some tea, and at noon the governor of the city will set up a banquet to entertain the two in person. You rushed from Jinling to Langzhou, and it was not easy to walk through mountains and rivers along the way, which was really hard. ”

In the entire Southern Tang Dynasty, who hasn't heard of Li Yuan's prestige? Zhong Ming and Li Shouji were still a little worried, but when they saw that Li Yuan actually agreed to unload the car, and did not say a word of blame, they were amiable, and they were secretly relieved when they were surprised.

At that moment, the two hurriedly thanked each other and followed Li Yuan to the Governor's Mansion. Luo Erhu and Chai Kewu stood in front of the warehouse door with all the generals staring dryly, and Treasurer Wang came up and whispered: "Luo Du, this, can we unload the truck?" ”

Luo Erhu said angrily: "Unload!" Didn't you hear what the Metropolitan Governor said?! Unload the truck, put it into storage, you are busy! Mend your armor, sharpen your swords and guns, and you'll do it! ”

After saying that, Luo Erhu angrily turned over and walked away, Wang Siku stood in place with a sad face, and cast a gaze at Chai Kewu and other generals for help, but Chai Kewu and others were also indifferent, and then they all moved neatly and left.

The treasurer of the Duliu King shook his head and sighed, and muttered in a low voice: "Alas, it is still unlucky to be lowly after all...... Come on, unload the car and put it into storage! ”