In the imperial study, the emperor quietly looked at the bracket on the wall. His brow furrowed.

Next to him, Prime Minister Ouyang Si, Zhongshu Ling Guan Zhengqing, and Imperial Historian Zhao Duo stood quietly.

After a while, the Emperor turned his head and sighed: "Do you think I'm acting rashly?"

At this time, the Great Emperor seemed to be a little tired, and he did not call himself 'I'.

Zhao Duo was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, although Wei Zirong wants to get something from us, he is right, this is indeed our opportunity, an opportunity to break through the blockade of the East." ”

The Great Emperor took a deep breath and shook his head: "Guan Zhengqing, you say." ”

Guan Zhengqing came to Zhao Duo's side and pointed to the bracket elephant on the wall: "Lord Zhao, do you see the location of our Qixia Country?

If the crusade is indeed won, it will be very bad news for us. Because, at that time, the country of Jinyang and the country of Danyang were our 'east', do you think these two countries will make us feel better?"

"This ......" Zhao Duo was stunned for a moment.

Guan Zhengqing's tone was a little heavier: "For us, maintaining the current situation is the biggest victory. ”

Zhao Duo was stunned for a while, and finally asked a little tremblingly, "Then...... So we ...... How can we break through the blockade?"

Guan Zhengqing did not speak, but his eyes were turned to the West. Zhang Hao's words finally spread slowly in the court, and aroused the 'thinking' of some people who were determined and brave and had keen eyes.

Perhaps Guan Zhengqing, Ouyang Si and others are not 'agreeing' with Zhang Hao's views for the time being, but at least they have begun to think about this issue.

Expanding eastward, to the land, is obviously not going to work.

Ouyang Si continued: "Also, I don't think this Eastern Crusade can be won, even if you add Langya and Qingyun.

To be more precise, Langya and Qingyun may be victorious, but we, the six Western countries, may not be victorious. ”

Zhao Duo was even more confused, "Isn't the Kingdom of Jinyang ready to unite Qingyun and Langya?

Ouyang Si slowly explained: "First of all, I think that the country of Canglan and the country of Taihua have dominated the trade routes for thousands of years, and the country is strong. Its hidden power is by no means idle.

And the country of Langya and the country of Qingyun absolutely do not have the ability to defeat Canglan and Taihua. Their approach should be to temporarily suppress the development momentum of Canglan and Taihua, buy time for themselves, or obtain some of their own interests through war.

And we, the Western countries, are just tools used by them, using us to contain the power of the two countries.

After the war, Western countries will inevitably be subjected to even harsher and retaliatory exploitation by the two countries!"

"That's impossible!" Zhao Duo made his own analysis, "It's impossible for countries such as the Kingdom of Jinyang not to think of this. Also, if Qingyun and Langya unload the mill and kill the donkey, they won't be afraid of the unscrupulous retaliation of Canglan and Taihua afterwards?"

Ouyang Si nodded: "But the country of Qingyun and the country of Langya are not weak countries, they don't need to win, as long as they fight a war fiercely, and Canglan and Taihua are painful, then Canglan and Taihua can only lick their wounds in a short time."

However, Canglan and Taihua are only afraid that they will not be willing to be frustrated, and they definitely need to vent.

Where do you think they're going to vent?"

Zhao Duo's mouth trembled, and he said in a dumb voice: "Xi...... And their best trick is to continue to block trade routes!"

Ouyang Si nodded: "So, whether from the perspective of geographical location or current politics, we should withdraw the army, reserve our strength, and prevent the worst from happening." ”

............

"The country of Qixia!" Wei Zirong quickly left the country of Qixia, with a look of indignation, "A bunch of short-sighted mice! A bunch of rats who are reluctant to make a living! Hmph, there are times when you regret it!"

In the evening, Wu Fanghai received an order to withdraw his troops. Wu Fanghai didn't say a word, and immediately led the team away.

Of course, the coalition forces of the rest of the countries were 'furious', and the crown prince of the Kingdom of Jinyang had a cold face, and then pointed to the Eastern Legion stationed outside the capital, and sent 'blessings': I hope you can leave safely.

Wu Fanghai didn't speak, and left Anqing, the imperial capital of the country of Jinyang, with everyone, and headed west.

Of course, the actions here attracted the attention of more than 300,000 troops from the east.

However, Wu Fanghai's more than 50,000 people, all of whom were above the foundation building period, everyone ran wildly, and when the more than 300,000 troops in the east began to move, Wu Fanghai and others had already broken out of the encirclement and went away to the west.

Seeing this, Sima Tao, the general of the Shangzhu State of the Land of Canglan, thought thoughtfully: "Could it be that there is internal strife in the six Western countries......?" Interesting!"

............

Zhang Hao is completely unaware of the changes in the form of the country, and now Zhang Hao is taking Huang Mingshan and others to work overtime to study 'steel'.

Although after the division of labor, because Yue Yun and Zhao Baishi were in charge of steel, the Zhang family's technical system was still weak at this time, and they needed to be fully invested.

The research and development of scientific theories spearheaded by Huang Mingshan is extremely important. In particular, the heat treatment of steel, which has been studied recently.

The properties of steel are related to two parts: composition and heat treatment.

And both of these things need to be studied repeatedly, and none of them are as simple. The law or something, it's still being explored.

Under the command of Zhang Hao, everyone used their brains, carburizing, forging, quenching, tempering, and even covering soil quenching, etc., and everyone was busy with their feet not touching the ground.

Late at night that day, Huang Mingshan wiped a handful of sweat from his face, leaving gray and black marks on his face.

"Young Master, according to our current research, every ton of 99% pure Xuantie can absorb the aura of about 20 million lower-grade spirit stones at most.

However, as long as 1 million low-grade spirit stones are absorbed, the comprehensive performance in all aspects can reach ninety percent of the peak. It's useless to absorb too much. ”

"In terms of steel processing, the steel after 7 folding, forging, carburizing, quenching, and tempering is the best.

Its hardness can reach the hardness of the top magic weapon, and it has strong toughness, and its ability to conduct spiritual qi can reach more than ninety percent of the same purity of dark iron. ”

"However, such a process is complicated, and it is only suitable for the production of small batches of weapons. If it is a high-volume production, it can be extruded, carburized, quenched, and tempered.

The hardness of such steel can reach the best grade. ”

"According to the results of the current experiment, the cost of producing one ton of excellent, 99% pure steel is about 1.2 million spirit stones. The contract is 1200 spirit stones per kilogram.

This price is still very expensive, if you build a 10,000-ton ship at this price, the cost price of materials alone will be as high as 1.2 million high-grade spirit stones. Considering the investment in all aspects, its final price may exceed two million high-grade spirit stones.

This...... The whole country can't come up with so much wealth now!"

Zhang Hao was not shocked, the high cost was completely expected. Moreover, a 10,000-ton ship is not equal to 10,000 tons of steel, about two or three thousand tons of steel is enough.

Zhang Hao didn't explain this, thought for a while and asked, "Most of the cost comes from spirit stones. Right?"

Huang Mingshan nodded, and looked at Zhang Hao expectantly: Could it be that the young master has a solution?

I heard Zhang Hao say slowly: "What if I have a way to save the spirit stone?"

"Really?!" Zhang Shengye, who had been listening to him for a while, jumped up.

But at this moment, Zhang Shengde suddenly came in, with a shock on his face: "Xiao Hao, Xinglintang sent you an invitation letter, which is a handwritten letter from Master Zhou Shuhai. ”