The weather is gradually getting warmer, and it is raining in Chang'an. The rain drifted in the breeze, blowing away the black smoke from the chimney of the brick house of the military workshop of the craftsman's house, like a cloud.

Li Si and a few people walked into a room, took the umbrella and shook the rain on the robe, he immediately frowned and covered his nose with a handkerchief, and a choking smell of burnt came to his face with a heat wave!

The house was very noisy, and the noise was so loud that it was very uncomfortable to buzz in the ears.

It was spring ploughing, and Weishui and Jingshui had passed the dry season. In the basement, donkeys and mules pull huge wheels to make a "chirping" tooth sour sound, driving a whole row of blowers to blow air against the stove, and the blast furnace with bricks and mud on the outside is the main source of heat in the house. There is also the sound of a blacksmith striking, swinging a hammer.

Li Si looked over and saw a few topless blacksmiths, Huang Cancan's muscles were full of sweat, and they were swinging hammers and beating their heads.

After a while, a big man in a thin ragged linen shirt walked over, wiping the white ash from his face with a sweat towel. An official in front of him said, "Deputy Envoy Li, he is Xu Sheng."

The big man also clenched his fists and bent down and said, "The little one is going to meet Deputy Envoy Li."

Li Si looked him up and down and said, "You said you could make an iron pipe that firearms could be fired?"

The big man who called Xu Sheng replied loudly, otherwise he couldn't hear it, he said, "I don't know yet, Deputy Envoy Li would be two days late!" Wait for the iron to burn. There is no blast furnace in the civilian workshop, but there is one in the military workshop, so I will try it here."

This Xu Sheng is a blacksmith in the civilian workshop, and he asked to come to the Weishui Military Workshop, and Li Sicai heard what he was doing. Xu Forging has been testing new firearms according to Wang Rong's requirements, but he has not been able to solve an important problem of tubular firearms, that is, exploding the chamber.

After Xu Forging visited everywhere, he finally found Xu Sheng in the civil workshop, and knew that this person's attainments in iron smelting were extremely high, so he transferred this person from the civilian workshop. The military workshop had a great demand for iron, and built a blast furnace for molten iron, and Xu Sheng said that he wanted a blast furnace, so he came here to test. ap.

Li Si attaches great importance to this matter.

Wang Rong specially set aside a piece of land in the Forbidden Garden for the craftsman institute to set up a firearms workshop, specializing in trying to make firearms, raising so many people, and spending a lot of money every year, but after a few years of development, he did not make a name.

To get that "stone fire bomb", it actually took a whole stone to drill through the air and use a catapult to throw it, which is really chicken.

In the past, whether it was the impurity removal method of saltpeter dissolution and filtration, the faster combustion of gunpowder granulation, or the stone fire bomb, it was Wang Rong's own idea, and the military workshop only implemented it.

Now that it has passed the beginning of the year, Li Si wants to summarize the results of the workshops of the craftsman institute last year.

This made Li Si feel very difficult. Fortunately, this craftsman has brought him a little expectation recently.

"Can you try it?" Li Si asked.

Xu Sheng hesitated a little, and said loudly: "Anyway, if the gun is cast, it will have a big hole and a thick body, and the gunpowder will run out of gas, and it won't be able to hit far!" You have to use the method of forging."

"With a cold stick as the core, wrapped in an iron plate?" Li Sidao, "Didn't you try?"

Xu Sheng said: "Yes, wrought iron is too soft, and it will be deformed when it is fried; Slightly hard and brittle, it cracks as soon as it is fried. But I've thought about it, and there are two things that are wrong, one is that the iron is not good, and the other is that the gunpowder is not good."

Li Si turned back to one of the scribes accompanying him and said, "You write down what he said."

"Why?" The scribe hurriedly took out his pen and ink from his bag and prepared it.

Xu Sheng said, "The gunpowder we use is too strong, it burns too fast, and it is easy to burst the iron pipe; There was little smoke, and the projectile did not go far in the chamber. The gunpowder blew things up, and the lead bullet was not very useful. I readjusted the ingredients and added more charcoal.

In addition, the iron used to forge the gun pipe is too ripe and soft, and it is brittle if it is slightly hard. I've tried a lot of methods, and adding limestone can get better. However, I used to hammer wrought iron while adding limestone powder, and the slag was all hammered into the iron. Now think about it again, and add it to the furnace molten iron!"

Li Si asked, "What is the reason for this?"

Xu Sheng looked dazed: "The little one doesn't know, the three generations of the small family are all blacksmiths, and they rely on experience."

He pointed to the hot big behind him

The furnace said, "After the molten iron was recast into pieces, I repeatedly burned red and forged iron, and struck mature iron. Then the pipe is re-forged with this wrought iron."

Li Sidao: "If you do it, you will be rewarded with a hundred yuan!"

Xu Sheng's eyes widened: "Vice Envoy Li's words are true!"

Li Si said categorically: "As long as you do it, this official will reward you with money!"

But it will take at least more than a month for this thing to be made into an experiment, Li Si can't wait, and after more than a month, the plan of the previous year has already been completed! It is better for him to write down the information he has collected than to write "Nothing has been gained for nothing."

As soon as Wang Rong walked into the study room of the Liangyi Palace, he saw that there were many chapters on the imperial case, most of which were admonished to make the eldest son of the emperor the king, and they had been classified, so he threw them aside and refused to approve them, and then rejected them together.

The posture must be sufficient, if you take the initiative to make your son king as soon as you come, it will be very ugly; You have to get a lot of people to support you, and you have to "make it difficult" to do this. Although Wang Rong himself also wanted to make the eldest son of the emperor king.

And Wang Rong still has some things to think about, so he can't be in a hurry. When he ascended the throne, he did not have too high a title of meritorious hero, and now it is time to consider it. Moreover, it is an indisputable fact that the current system of forbidden military power is suitable for the situation of regular large-scale wars, but it is not conducive to ensuring the security of the imperial power.

Although the strength of the Governor's Office in charge of the five armies is very strong, they are all foreign troops and are stationed around Chang'an. Xiaojiewei took over the defense of Chang'an, but the number of people is a disadvantage, after all, elite soldiers are rare.

Today, each state has its own mobile forces, just like the military districts of later generations. The strength is strong, and it is acceptable for a short time, but there are hidden dangers after a long time. The reason why Taizu of the Northern Song Dynasty released his military power with a glass of wine was also because he saw the risks. Wang Rong also wants to draw a scoop to release the military power with a glass of wine? He denied this practice because his military philosophy was completely different from that of Zhao Kuangyin. And according to that method, the imperial court really doesn't have so much money to "redeem" the generals' military rights.

Wang Bian decided to wait.

At this moment, a piece of music from the Craftsman's Academy came into Wang Rong's eyes. He sent most of the other recitals to the civil and military generals of the government hall and the Governor's Office of the Five Armies for discretion, but he was very interested in the recitals of the Craftsman's Academy. Ancient scholars didn't pay much attention to technology, but Wang Rong's concept was different after all.

Li Si's handwritten recital, in which the ink mentions a craftsman named Xu Sheng's attempt to build an iron pipe.

Wang Rong was very engaged, and he only felt that it made sense. I have the impression that the musket is not Huang Cancan's bronze casting, it is really an iron pipe! It's just that in the past, the craftsman's yard used bamboo pipes, and the range was too close, so they were all pasted on the enemy's face, but it was just to burn the enemy into a pig's head. The craftsman's institute tried to use iron pipes many times without success, and only then did it come up with a nondescript-looking fire gun like a bamboo pipe gun.

As for the principle of adding lime powder to iron?

Wang Rong pondered for a long time and didn't understand, picked up the pen and scribbled some chemical equations on the paper, but unfortunately his chemical knowledge was only limited to middle school, and he forgot most of it! If he had studied metallurgy, he might have been able to figure it out now, but unfortunately he wasn't. Wang Rong is also half a pot of water, and he doesn't know a lot of things.

Fortunately, he had worked as a blacksmith before to make a living, so he still knew a little about the craft at this time.

He couldn't understand the principle of the craftsman's process, and guessed that the iron ore contained too much sulfur or some impurities that affected the strength of the metal, and the added additives could remove the impurities?

In any case, we must encourage craftsmen who can innovate! When Wang Rong picked up the pen, he remembered that Li Si was in this study.

Wang Rong raised his head and said, "Deputy Envoy Li."

Li Si hurriedly got up, walked over, bowed and said, "The minister is here."

Wang Rong returned the piece to him: "This Xu Sheng, if he can really make an iron pipe, tell him that he will get a heavy reward!" Pick a house in Chang'an City, Jingzhao Mansion will allocate a piece of official land, and give another thousand yuan of money."

Li Simian was surprised, after all, he was just a small craftsman.

However, Wang Rong has always been generous to the matters he cares about, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Find a vacancy in the firearms workshop and give him an official status."

Li Si couldn't help but say, "This person is a craftsman, I'm afraid he can't read a few big characters."

Wang Rong said, "This matter is very important, Xu Shengruo

can make meritorious contributions, even if you are a craftsman, you can afford a heavy reward. I also want him to be an example, and those who are talented are not only good at writing."

Li Si had no choice but to bow and say, "Holy Wisdom."

After a while, Wang Rong accidentally found a very interesting book on the imperial case, which was written by Yang Shu, the former prime minister of Bashu.

actually persuaded Wang Rong to set the country's foundation early! Because there were too many people who persuaded this, the music was divided into categories, and Wang Rong almost didn't find out. Fortunately, Chu Kun's recital is placed at the top, so it is easy to see, probably because the governors of the political hall paid attention to Yang Shu's recital and did it deliberately.

Speaking from the heart, Wang Rong doesn't like Yang Shu in his heart!

He stood up and paced to the west side of the Liangyi Palace, where the governor of the political hall and the governors of the five armies stood up. Wang Rong turned his head to look at them and asked, "What do you think it is like to reinstate Yang Shuguan?"

Several people looked at each other, and Chu Kun hugged his fists and said, "Before the Eastern Crusade, Yang Zhoumu strongly opposed it, and said that the Holy One could not win. Now that the saint has returned victorious, he is very tolerant of Yang Zhoumu, which is the heart of the East China Sea."

In fact, Yang Shu disobeyed Wang Wei at the beginning, because he opposed the ruling power of the Emperor Taishang, and made a bunch of bad things, but Chu Kun didn't mention it.

Moreover, Chu Kun advocated reinstating Yang Shu's official position, and the reason was not what he said, and the most critical reason was not easy to put on the surface!

Yang Shu's identity is very special, he is an old minister of the Yongming Emperor of the previous dynasty, and he has never been accepted as a confidant by Wang Rong. At this moment, many former ministers will have a wait-and-see attitude in their hearts. After all, once a son of heaven and a courtier! If Yang Shu, the person who is bounced against the dragon's beard, is fine, do the former ministers and officials still have to worry about their own positions and interests?

Since they are all officials, and they are not of different races in the Central Plains. As long as his own interests can be protected, Wang Rong puts himself in his shoes: assuming that he is such an official, he will definitely be an official and does not want to oppose the emperor at all.

As for Chu Kun's reasoning, it doesn't matter, his attitude is the most important. It is estimated that Chu Kun and others have also seen this.

Sure enough, the emperor also said one after another: "The saint is generous, and the world is in the heart. The minister thought that the talent of the prime minister of Yangzhou was very fortunate to be forgiven by the saint."

Wang Rong was also very neat and straightforward, and when he heard that the people in the political hall had the same attitude as himself, he immediately turned around and said: "Come on, go to Bashu to spread the decree, and ask Yang Shu to return to Chang'an to be on duty in the political hall, what he used to do, what he does now."

The guard on duty was Zhang Xu, and said in a loud voice, "The last general will obey the order."