Datang: Let you supervise the country and become an emperor through the ages

Chapter 153 Thinking Simple
Not long after, Li Mingtang, the general and supervisor of the palace, came to Li Shimin and knelt down to salute.

"Your Majesty, what orders do you have from the old minister?" Li Mingtang is over fifty now, but he looks like a strong man in his thirties and forties, and he speaks with full of air.

"Li Mingtang, I want [-] Mo knives now, when can I build the prison, please give me some time, I'm good..." Li Shimin said casually, but unexpectedly Li Mingtang collapsed on the ground dumbfounded. .

"Li Mingtang, what are you doing?" Li Shimin was startled by Li Mingtang's gaffe.

The princes present also looked at Li Mingtang one after another. Everyone was very dissatisfied with Li Mingtang's gaffe.

Li Mingtang couldn't control those, and smiled wryly at Li Shimin, "Your Majesty, you want the life of this old minister. Even if this old minister has great abilities, there is no way I can give you a thousand Mo knives!"

"Don't talk about a thousand Mo knives, even if there are ten Mo knives, I'm afraid the veterans don't have the ability to forge them!"

Li Mingtang's voice instantly attracted everyone's attention. Cheng Yaojin's eyes widened when he heard the words, "Li Mingtang, what are you talking about? I'll let you hit a few knives here. Your Majesty is missing." Where is your money?"

"Just a thousand Mo knives, you are still grinding and hawing here, as if you want your life, this Mo knife seems to be troublesome, but your majesty didn't just ask you for the time, and didn't give you a time limit, you said that you ?"

"Lu Guogong, don't pretend to understand if you don't understand!" Li Mingtang directly rolled his eyes at the gold, "It's not a matter of time, it's a matter of materials and craftsmen."

"It takes a lot of manpower and energy to build a Mo knife. As for the Mo knife you see now, it took us hundreds of blacksmiths to build it day and night, without sleep for four consecutive days. of!"

"One Modao takes four days, and one thousand Modao takes four hundred days. This is still in the case of sufficient manpower. That is to say, one thousand Modao requires at least a thousand skilled blacksmiths, and it takes one year to make it. .”

"But the question is, can you wait for a year? What's more, in the entire Chang'an City, and even the border of Guanlong, there is no blacksmith with a little bit of skill!"

"What? What did you say? Say it again!" All the princes were shocked.

Not to mention the time it took to build a thousand Mo knives, but only to mention the blacksmith, the blacksmiths in Guanlong area and Chang'an City are gone, what's going on?

Yuchi Jingde coldly shouted: "You old guy, how can you talk, you talk nonsense when you encounter difficulties, how can there be no blacksmiths, such a big land!"

"As far as I know, those blacksmiths are all in the Prince's Mansion!" Li Mingtang said surprisingly, and the expressions of everyone present suddenly changed.

"What? Prince's Mansion, are you sure?" Changsun Wuji's face instantly became gloomy.

"I'm sure." Li Mingtang said firmly, "The Prince's Mansion has recruited all the blacksmiths with good skills in Chang'an City and the Guanlong area these days, but they are not in the Prince's Mansion."

"What? Why is the Prince's Mansion recruiting so many blacksmiths? They are not in the Prince's Mansion. What is this for?"

"It's mysterious. Doesn't the prince know that this is a taboo?"

All the princes looked at each other, and then at Li Shimin, none of them dared to speak nonsense.

The blacksmiths in the Tang Dynasty belonged to low-ranking low-ranking jobs among scholars, farmers, businessmen, but because of their particularity, blacksmiths have always been concerned by the rulers and the military, and there will be registration books, because blacksmiths can forge weapons.

Now the Prince's Mansion has quietly recruited so many blacksmiths, but they have not arranged them in the Prince's Mansion. The intention is unknown, and it is easy to suspect that the Prince has evil intentions.

All the Dukes had such thoughts in their hearts, but no one took the initiative to speak out, after all, there was no evidence.

Li Shimin naturally saw the thoughts of the princes, but he didn't think the prince would rebel.

Li Fu's character is really too tired and lazy, he doesn't even bother to be the prince, how could he rebel, so Li Shimin is very relieved of Li Fu.

However, it is an indisputable fact that Li Fu recruited so many blacksmiths. Li Mingtang will not tell lies.

After thinking about it, Li Shimin waved his hand at Li Mingtang, "Li Mingtang, I will arrange the matter of the blacksmith. Apart from this, if you have any problems, tell them all, and I will find a solution."

Hearing this, Li Mingtang hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, in fact, whether there are enough blacksmiths is just a small problem, but it is not easy to solve the pig iron for making Modao!"

"Your Majesty, you know that a Mo Dao weighs 43 catties. According to the blueprint you gave, the special Mod Dao will be even heavier, so to make a qualified Mo Dao, it must be at least [-] catties. pig iron."

"But the annual pig iron output of our Tang Dynasty is less than [-] catties. You want a thousand Modao, which is equivalent to the amount of iron produced by Datang in a year, all of which are used to make Modao."

As soon as Li Mingtang said this, the princes present suddenly fell silent.

People's problems are easy to solve, Guanlong doesn't have any, just go to other places to transfer them, but the problem is pig iron, it doesn't mean that you can have it if you have it.

What Li Mingtang said is correct, the Tang Dynasty produces tens of thousands of catties of pig iron every year, all of which are used on the Mo Dao, which is absolutely unrealistic, and neither the army nor the civilians will agree to it!
"Hey, it seems that it is not so easy to build this Modao team!" Changsun Wuji's own family runs Datang's iron mines, and he knows the truth of Li Mingtang's words, so his words made everyone present. No one dares to question it anymore.

Because everyone knows that it is indeed impossible, who dares to use a year old pig iron to make a Mo knife, isn't that a joke!
Now that the Tang Dynasty is still in a situation where a thousand things are waiting to be rebuilt, pig iron is not needed in all aspects of the people, and even the weapons in the army. Therefore, it is simply unrealistic to use a year's worth of pig iron to make the Modao.

"Then is it possible to use only a few thousand catties of pig iron every year to make Modao?" Li Jing suddenly had a proposal.

"No." Changsun Wuji shook his head and said, "Even if it is a thousand catties, it will be very difficult. The military department uses half of the pig iron every year, which is not enough. The folks only have less than half of the amount, and it needs to be made into ironware for daily use. "

"If you open your mouth to talk about a few thousand catties of pig iron, it will be equivalent to bringing many aspects of the country to a standstill. No, absolutely no!"

"This won't work, and that won't work. Doesn't that mean that the Modao team can't be built?"

"It's not that it can't be built, but that it needs to be done step by step. The current situation in the country is like this, and there is no way!"

"But time doesn't wait. If we wait, will there be a Modao team in the Year of the Monkey?"

Li Shimin looked at the officials who were blushing, and felt powerless for a while. He didn't expect that he still wanted to be simple...

(End of this chapter)