Valley Emperor

"Reporting to Your Majesty, now our Ministry of Industry has set up thirty-eight workshops in Xingquan City and Zhengtai County, with more than 480 craftsmen, 1,000 apprentices, more than 3,000 prisoners of war, and more than 2,000 ordinary hired workers. People, this month is expected to produce 600 guns per month, four guns of 800 catties, two guns of 1000 catties, and fifteen guns of 150 catties!"

"In addition, a large number of military supplies such as military uniforms and quilt covers are also produced!"

Standing in front of Li Xuan and reporting on the workshop affairs of the Ministry of Works is the newly appointed Minister of the Ministry of Works, Zhou Kesong!

This person used to be the clerk of the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of Industry. Because of his excellent work ability, he was recently promoted to the clerk of the Ministry of Industry!

Half a month ago, the veteran stone blacksmith Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry was transferred to the "Royal Research Institute", the newly established scientific research department of Datang, as the director for various reasons!

The stone blacksmith was transferred because of his hard work and age, so Li Xuan specially let him enjoy the blessing and arranged for him the position of the director of the research institute.

But in fact, the stone blacksmith was transferred to be the dean, not because of his great credit, but because he was really unfit to be an official!

This person used to be a blacksmith who didn't know big characters. At the beginning, there was no one available in Datang, and the Ministry of Industry at that time was actually just a workshop, so the stone blacksmith took advantage of the trend to become the Minister of Works of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty developed and expanded, and various departments were gradually improved.

Nowadays, there are basically no illiterate people in the various departments of the cabinet and even high-ranking officials in other institutions, and many of them are official scholars with the reputation of being a scholar.

At the same time, the task of the minister of the Ministry of Industry has also changed from making iron and guns at the beginning to someone who has to handle a lot of official business. If nothing else, it is a super troublesome task to manage more than 30 workshops under the Ministry of Industry. thing.

A long time ago, Zhou Kesong was already in charge of the actual affairs of the Ministry of Industry, and the stone blacksmith was just a title of Shangshu.

Now, taking advantage of the establishment of the Royal Academy, Li Xuan also took advantage of the opportunity to transfer the stone blacksmith to be the dean, and promoted Zhou Kesong, a practical man, to be a minister.

As the actual person in charge of the Ministry of Industry, Zhou Kesong is naturally very familiar with the situation of the Ministry of Industry. He opened his mouth to say the number of workshops and employees in the Ministry of Industry today.

And still talk about the situation of each workshop one by one!

Listening to what he said, Li Xuan also gained a new understanding of the many workshops under the Ministry of Industry at present!

Most of the thirty-eight workshops announced today are concentrated in the city of Xingquan, while in Zhengtai County, apart from a few temporary workshops established in the first half of the year, no large-scale workshops have been built in the future.

Among such workshops, the largest is the musket workshop located in the city of Xingquan. This musket workshop has more than 1,000 craftsmen and workers, and the monthly output can reach 500 muskets. The musket workshop in Zhengtai County, Today, the monthly output is only dozens, which can basically be ignored.

The workshops on the Huangzhu Mountain side have already moved out of the mountain, and most of the craftsmen have been assigned to Xingquan City.

The second largest artillery workshop in Xingquan City was the artillery workshop, which also had hundreds of people.

Others include gunpowder workshops, shell workshops, lead bullet workshops, wood workshops, sword workshops, bow and arrow workshops, armor workshops, military uniform workshops and so on.

It basically covers the production of all kinds of ordnance materials needed by the current Datang Wang Shi!

Except for the workshops related to guns and guns, many other workshops are not large in scale. For example, the military uniform workshop is actually not large in scale, and is only responsible for the dyeing of fabrics and the production of military uniforms for officers. As for the production of military uniforms for ordinary soldiers, In fact, it was subcontracted to sew for ordinary people inside and outside the city.

Otherwise, in the era of hand-sewing, relying on hundreds of workers in military uniform workshops, the Tang Dynasty could not provide tens of thousands of quilts, shoes, socks and other materials in just a few months.

They all provide dyed fabrics and uniform sewing patterns, and then let ordinary people, especially those women, sew military uniforms. After sewing the military uniforms, these people can receive a small amount of pay per piece.

On the one hand, it is to increase the production of military uniforms in a short period of time. On the other hand, it can also be regarded as a livelihood for the people of Xingquan Prefecture, especially the old and weak women and children, whose livelihood has withered after the war!

In fact, it is not only the quilts, but also many other ordnance products that require a lot of manpower, but do not require any technical content. The Ministry of Industry is outsourced!

Military uniforms, quilts, shoes, socks are the most basic, as well as wooden supports, handguards and more for the production of muskets!

To put it bluntly, Xingquan City is now a huge production base for military products!

In addition to thousands of craftsmen and prisoners of war, there are thousands of people who work directly or indirectly for the various workshops of the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty.

These numbers are probably no less than 5,000!

With so many workshops and workers to relocate, it is definitely not an easy task!

Therefore, Li Xuan never thought of relocating from the beginning. The workshops in Xingquan Mansion have already formed a scale effect. As long as the supply of raw materials is high, the output will be more than every day. To relocate at this time is basically It is equivalent to giving up these production.

Li Xuan's idea is to set up new workshops in other places, especially near the production of raw materials and with convenient transportation. Rely on prisoners of war or recruit locally.

When Li Xuan told Zhou Kesong about this idea, Zhou Kesong said: "What Your Majesty said is that Xingquan Mansion is located in a remote area with few people, and the number of workshops is large and the scale is large, not only will the cost increase a lot, but also think It's also getting harder and harder to recruit young workers."

"And it is also troublesome to transport raw materials in, and it is also difficult to transport finished products, especially a large number of relatively heavy ordnance materials to the front line!"

"If you can set up new workshops in other places, especially in places with convenient transportation and close to the frontline troops, it will naturally be able to greatly alleviate the current predicament!"

Li Xuan said: "In that case, according to Zhou Aiqing's opinion, where is the right place to build a large number of workshops?"

Zhou Kesong showed a hint of embarrassment at this time, and then said: "At present, except for Xingquan Mansion, I am afraid that other places are not suitable. The basic situation in Liping Mansion is similar to that of Xingquan Mansion, and we have already used Liping Mansion before. The craftsmen of the mansion are all transferred back to Xingquan Mansion, if you want to open a large number of workshops in Liping Mansion, I am afraid that you will still have to transfer from Xingquan Mansion, the gain will outweigh the loss!”

But after he finished speaking, he showed a hint of hope: "But I heard that General Hao's army has begun to move south to Guangxi. If the front-line army can seize Liuzhou, Wuzhou and other places, even Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, Foshan, these All places are suitable for setting up a large number of workshops, especially Foshan, which is originally an iron-producing area, used to build guns and other weapons workshops, it is the most suitable!"

Hearing what Zhou Kesong said, Li Xuan was quite speechless. He wanted to go to Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and even Guangzhou Foshan, but that would have to wait later. What I'm asking is now.

Besides, who would dare to know when Hao Bainian's army would be able to conquer the Guangdong and Guangxi regions!

But the key point is that now Li Xuan wants to expand the scale of the workshop and increase the production of various weapons to supply the army to fight!

Before Hao Bainian went to battle, he repeatedly requested the allocation of guns and various weapons and ammunition. However, the Tang Dynasty was in short supply of guns and guns, but Li Xuan misappropriated a lot of guns originally intended for the 2nd Infantry Brigade and the 5th Infantry Regiment. The 1st Infantry Brigade was stocked with guns and ammunition.

However, after the 1st Infantry Brigade goes south to Guangxi, the weapons and ammunition will definitely be consumed, and this consumption needs to be replenished in time, otherwise the 1st Infantry Brigade equipped with a large number of guns will lose its combat effectiveness.

Once the 1st Infantry Brigade equipped with a large number of firearms has no ammunition, its combat effectiveness is not as good as they are equipped with pure cold weapons!

To supply two infantry brigades and a fifth infantry regiment, as well as other auxiliary units, the supply of ordnance in the Tang Dynasty has always been quite tight, and it has never been able to make the troops truly full.

Not to mention, Li Xuan's military expansion has never stopped!

Before Hao Bainian led the army to set off, Li Xuan divided the baggage regiment, cavalry battalion, artillery battalion and other troops into two. Double the heavy artillery.

In addition, Li Xuan also intends to set up a new 6th Infantry Regiment immediately after the recruits of the 5th Infantry Regiment are in place, and form a new 3rd Infantry Brigade with the 5th Infantry Regiment!

The expansion of the regular army will not stop, and this means that the demand for weapons and equipment will never end.

However, after discussing with Zhou Kesong, we found that in addition to continuing to increase production in Xingquan Mansion, at present, the Datang Dynasty is not suitable for setting up large-scale workshops in Liping Mansion or other places in Guizhou.

Because the current strategic expansion direction of the Tang Dynasty is to go south to Guangdong and Guangxi, this expansion will not only bring about the transfer of political and military focus, but also the transfer of industrial centers!

Therefore, after thinking about it, Li Xuan gave up the plan to continue to expand the workshop in the nearby area in a short time, and planned to wait for good news from Hao Bainian, especially after Hao Bainian took down Liuzhou Mansion.

Establishing a temporary military production base nearby in Liuzhou can effectively relieve the supplies of various weapons and ammunition needed by the frontline army~www.wuxiaspot.com~ But even if a workshop is established in Liuzhou, it can only be with Xingquan Mansion is the same here, as an initial emergency measure.

If the front-line army can successfully and quickly conquer Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and other places, then these two places are more suitable, and Guangzhou in the later stage is also more suitable.

But if the front-line battle persists, for example, if Wuzhou cannot be taken down for a year or a half, then Liuzhou will become a more important logistics production base.

Now, with the strategic focus of the Tang Dynasty on the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, it can be said that a group of people are looking forward to Hao Bainian's victory, winning Liuzhou all the way, and then going east along the Xijiang River to win Wuzhou, Zhaoqing and other places all the way.

And where is Hao Bainian, who has shouldered the expectations of many people?

Now he is outside Huaiyuan County, the northern bridgehead of Liuzhou Prefecture in Guangxi!

Directly in front of him, the Tang Army of more than 5,000 people is advancing towards the city wall of Huaiyuan County. It will not take long for them to launch a general attack on Huaiyuan County and start the first battle south to Guangxi!