Chapter 940 Sugar-coated shells
The names of these four nobles given by the people have been widely spread, and Li Shimin has long known about them. After all, the emperor who holds the three divisions of Zhenfu Division, Dianqian Division, and Baiqi Division has sharper eyes and ears than anyone else.
In this regard, Li Shimin even accepted this statement, and quoted this statement several times in the hall. He even said that the four nobles in Zhenguan were different from the four nobles and five nobles in the Sui Dynasty. Flattery and flattery mean to meet the treacherous officials of the emperor.
As for the four nobles of Zhenguan, they are the heroes who have truly made great contributions to the country. They are all very talented people who have made great contributions to the country.
With the emperor's affirmation, the name of the four nobles became more and more solid, and even became an official statement.
"There is news from Liaodong that the Goguryeo people are really recruiting people and starting to build the Great Wall. And I also heard that the Goguryeo people are making ordnance in Anshicheng, and Persian craftsmen are making Uzi knives for them. and iron chain armor." Li Shimin stroked his beard, "Is this the start of your plan?"
"The plan code-named Old Iron has indeed been launched, and the plan is proceeding smoothly as expected. The spring Gai Suwen is enshrined to those Persian craftsmen like a treasure, especially after seeing the crows they built there. After Zisteel knife and Persian iron mail armor, he was even more excited. The smugglers arranged by the minister have already begun to make contact. I believe that Quan Gai Suwen will be fooled soon, and he will pay a high price to hire the ship owner to smuggle black for him. Steel ingots and wires, etc..."
Li Shimin turned around and walked behind him, and took out a scimitar from the shelf, but it was an authentic Damascus sword, forged from Tianzhu Uzi steel ingot, and it was made by the royal swordsmith of the Persian Sasanian royal family.
"I really feel a little bit reluctant to give such a treasure to the Goguryeo people like this."
"Saint, to the Goguryeo people, this is poison. The more they make, the more powerful the poison."
Li Shimin has already seen the truth in Qin Lang's secret performance, and he understands and agrees with it. For a country, such things as Uzi sword and fine iron mail armor are of course good things.
However, this kind of thing actually depends on the specific situation for a country. If the overall strength is strong enough to create a sufficient number of treasured swords and armor and equip soldiers, of course it can make the combat effectiveness to a higher level.
But if you don’t have enough strength and force this kind of treasure, you will consume the already precious strategic materials, the materials and cost of making an ordinary knife, and you use it to make an Uzi sword. Li Shimin is very clear about the consequences.
Just like the armored cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, this kind of heavy cavalry, if used in the right place, is a strategic force, but even the strength of the Tang Dynasty cannot support too much.
To make a simple ratio, one light infantry needs to be supported by five peasant households, and one cavalry can support five infantry.
An armored cavalry equipped with both horses and men may cost as much as ten light cavalry.
On the battlefield, sometimes one heavy cavalry can count as ten or even hundreds, which can play a pivotal role, but you can’t rely on heavy cavalry alone.
Heavy cavalry can only be used in key places.
The support cost of a heavy cavalry may be that of a hundred light infantry, but training and maintenance is not such a simple account.
For example, light infantry is more sustainable in terms of replenishment. Even when the war is critical, young and strong farmers can be directly recruited and handed a long gun to barely act as a light infantry.
But an elite heavy cavalry can't be trained for a few years, even his mount can't be trained overnight, and its equipment is extremely time-consuming.
If a heavy cavalry is lost, it is extremely difficult to replenish or rebuild.
This is also true that although the heavy cavalry is great, even if the Tang Dynasty unified the world, the number of heavy cavalry is actually only maintained at a very small number.
If anyone insists on training a hundred and eighty thousand heavy cavalry, it will drag down the country's finances, and even such an army is not necessarily easy to use.
In the same way, Mo Dao soldiers are worse than spears, but Mo Dao soldiers have stricter quality of soldiers, training time, etc., and it is more difficult to replenish them. Therefore, although Mo Dao soldiers are excellent in the Tang army, they are far inferior to spearmen and shield soldiers. Make up a lot.
Qin Lang prepared more poisons for the Goguryeo people than this, and more craftsmen will follow the smuggling boats to escape to Liaodong. There will be city builders who have been arranged in advance, and they will give the Goguryeo people the gift of building the city. Law.
Including the construction of tall and sophisticated Great Wall, fortresses, fortresses, etc., these are absolutely top-notch, and even directly are Datang's existing top-level fortification technology.
It will definitely be hundreds of times stronger than the Goguryeo people.
There will also be craftsmen who burn city bricks and teach the Goguryeo people how to burn those city bricks weighing tens of catties, etc. Giving these good things to Goguryeo is not a good thing, but a bad thing.
According to the existing technology of the Goguryeo people, they built the Great Wall of Liaodong, that is, the rammed earth city, or even the mountain stone wall, and then some earthen city stone walls or something.
But if Qin Lang taught them better technology, the Goguryeo people might not be able to resist using it. Then they will adopt new technology, build a big city, and build a strong wall.
The defensive performance of the Great Wall and the fortress can definitely be improved a lot, but the cost of labor and materials will naturally increase exponentially.
It may even intensify the consumption of their national power.
These are actually leftovers from the Chinese ancestors. For example, the Zheng Guoqu in the Qin State during the Warring States Period was itself a product of exhausting the people.
Things are good things, but they may not be good things for you.
Like the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty, it runs through the north and the south, connecting the east and the west. Good things, good things that work in the present and benefit in the future, are still in use even after thousands of years.
But on the issue, the construction of the Grand Canal cost too much people and financial resources in the Sui Dynasty, especially because the construction period was too fast, which exhausted the people.
Combined with the subsequent three expeditions to Liaodong, this also became the key reason for the death of Sui II.
Even the Sui Dynasty, which had just experienced the prosperity of the first emperor and the prosperity of the great cause, could not stand it. The size and national power of the Sui Dynasty were more than ten times that of the Goguryeo people.
Building a simpler Great Wall of Liaodong, maybe the Goguryeo people will build it slowly, and it will be able to survive with a little more time.
But if they build a more advanced Great Wall, catch up with the construction period or something, and at the same time start to build those advanced weapons and armor, this will make the Goguryeo people worse, and it will actually be a slow suicide.
"You sent the craftsmen who made Uzi knives to the Goguryeo people, did you really give them Uzi steel ingots?"
"I don't have any real Uzi steel ingots. I have only found Uzi iron mines in Tianzhu so far. I don't have the ability to get these from Tianzhu for the Goguryeo people. Those things are very expensive and very rare. However, the iron mines I built in Foshan, Guangzhou At present, blast furnaces are used to smelt iron and steel in open hearth furnaces. Through technological improvement, there are ways to produce some steel ingots similar to wootz steel. The effect is worse than the real wootz steel ingots, but it is indeed very good. Things, using the Uzi knife forging method, using this steel ingot to forge, can indeed forge a sharp weapon that far exceeds the quality of ordinary swords."
Li Shimin smiled, "Then it's not cheap to smuggle this thing to Goguryeo?"
Qin Lang laughed like a fox.
"Good things are not cheap."
"Is the cost of this kind of steel ingot smelted in Foshan Iron Works high?" Li Shimin asked with concern.
"Compared to the real Uzi steel ingots, it is indeed much higher than ordinary steel ingots." Qin Lang sold these fake Uzi steel ingots to the Goguryeo people through smuggling. The price must be the real price, even higher than the real one. The goods are still expensive, after all, there are risks in smuggling.
"How is the new workshop of the Military Weapons Supervision in Foshan going?" Li Shimin turned to ask about it.
"Everything is going well, trial production has started."
"Can they use the Uzi steel from the Foshan Iron Works to forge this Uzi sword?"
Li Shimin couldn't bear it after all.
"I have talked with the weapons supervisor and suggested that they use this new steel to create new types of ordnance. However, because of the high cost of this new type of steel, they cannot make ordinary standard ordnance. They can only make some weapons for generals, or Weapons of some elite units, such as the Mo Dao of the Mo Dao Shou, the Bu Leng Head of the Bu Leng Shou, etc."
Mo Dao is the king of infantry weapons, and it can fight with Ma Jian. During the battle, a row of Mo Dao hands stand in front of the formation, waving Mo Dao, pushing forward like a wall, that is, the light of the sword flashes, and the people and horses are smashed.
However, the cost of Mo Dao is also astonishing, and Mo Dao hands are also the elite of the military elite.
Therefore, there has always been an express provision that prohibits Modao from being buried with him, and it is even more forbidden to own Modao privately. Anyone who violates it is a crime like possessing a crossbow.
If the manufacturing cost of Mo Dao is slightly lower, then the proportion of Mo Dao hands in the Tang army can be appropriately increased, and the combat effectiveness of the Tang army can also be greatly improved.
Under the original cost, this is an unattainable luxury.
"The iron factory can develop steel ingot formulas with special quality characteristics according to the requirements of different weapons such as knives or lance blades that the military supervision department wants to cast. At present, these new steel ingots will be named "镔钢环铁· ..."
"What about the Persian chain mail, can you also develop the same armor as the Persian chain mail?"
"Your Majesty, the excellence of Persian iron chain mail lies first in its raw materials and second in its craftsmanship. At present, Foshan Iron Works is confident that it can narrow the gap in materials a lot. As for the gap in craftsmanship, I plan to recruit more craftsmen and promulgate Heavy rewards, key research breakthroughs, some progress has been made, but there is still some gap from the excellent Persian mail armor, but compared with the imitation mail armor of the Sogdians, Tubo people, and Tianzhu people, it is already comparable. How long, we will definitely surpass them."
Li Shimin's eyes lit up, "It's better than the chain armor imitated by the Military Arms Supervision Armor Workshop?"
"A lot stronger!"
Li Shimin was overjoyed, "Good!"
(end of this chapter)