Beihai County Weapons Square covers an area of ​​about 500 acres, with camps around it and soldiers standing guard at the door. No idle people are allowed to enter the workshop, and even the craftsmen's family is not allowed to enter.

In fact, there is a concentration of blacksmiths in the Weapons. Three thousand blacksmiths recruited from various places in Qingzhou are gathered here, sweating profusely every day to create weapons. But even so, the weapons made by the three thousand craftsmen are far from satisfying the consumption of more than 100,000 troops, because weapons are more easily damaged. After a war, each soldier's weapons must be replaced, and the broken armor must be repaired or even replaced.

War is about national strength, not only refers to the consumption of food and money, but also the continuous supply of weapons and resources, and the use of a large amount of civilians and animal power. If a war lasts for a long time, the weak country will be dragged down first.

The reason why Zhang Xuan attached great importance to cargo ship shipping was to save the civilians and livestock, so that his material transportation could be convenient and low-cost. This was also a powerful guarantee for the war and the key to his winning several wars.

Also considering transportation costs, Zhang Xuan placed the weapons workshop near the mouth of the Juyang River, so that pig iron, coal and other materials transported by sea can be conveniently transported into the workshop, and the weapons produced can also be transported away quickly.

There are four large warehouses in the workshop, one is used to stack various raw materials such as pig iron, one is used to stack coal, and the other is used to place various semi-finished products, assemble the handles of the knife, and the gun rod is also carried out here. The last warehouse is used to place finished products.

In addition to the warehouse, there are nearly a hundred blacksmith furnaces. Although it is still the fifth day of the first lunar month, thousands of people have already started working hard. In order to strengthen combat preparations, the court gave twice the wages, which made the workshop start operating on the second day of the first lunar month.

The workshop was steaming hot, and the blue smoke was surging, and there was a choking smell of coal smoke. But the craftsmen had long been accustomed to it. They were busy in the workshop, some of them swung hammers and irons, some of them burned fires, and many people were driving wheelbarrows and carrying dozens of semi-finished products to the warehouse.

Zhang Xuan inspected the workshop and went straight to the finished product warehouse. The finished product warehouse covers an area of ​​about several acres and is made of bluestone. The building is tall and wide. Each corner is filled with various weapons that have been made, as well as scabbards and spear sheaths transported from other places.

In the middle of the warehouse was a large table at least five meters long and ten meters wide, with spears and swords piled up on both sides of the table, sitting dozens of craftsmen, most of whom were old, were meticulously checking weapons, and were piled up with scabbards and spear sheaths around them.

Lai Kai whispered to Zhang Xuan: "This is the last process. If you pass the inspection, you can go out to the workshop to transport it away."

Zhang Xuan walked to the big table, and the table was filled with cold swords. He picked up a horizontal sword and looked closely in front of him. It was an eight-pound knife, which could only be used by soldiers with strong arm strength. The back of the knife was quite thick, the blade was extremely sharp and the weight was even. The surface of the knife appeared a green color, and the hilt was engraved with the name of the knife maker: made by Zhao Wufeng, a sword craftsman, on the handle.

Zhang Xuan pulled out a sword flower and slashed several times in the air. The feel was pretty good and the workmanship was quite fine. However, compared to the Lou sword worn by Zhang Xuan, this knife was still far behind.

But Zhang Xuan would not be more concerned about whether the sword was qualified. He walked to a wide iron plate, which was covered with sword marks. This was the place to test the knife, and a knife test craftsman stood next to him.

Zhang Xuan asked, "How many swords are considered qualified?"

The craftsman did not know Zhang Xuan, but he knew Shaoqing, the military weapon supervisor. When he saw that Shaoqing was very respectful to the general, he did not dare to neglect him. He quickly bowed and said, "Report to the general, if you don't have three swords, you will be qualified if you don't break ten swords."

“Does every knife need to be tested?”

"Of course not. Just test one or two knives made by each inkjet knife worker on the same day. If they fail, they will return all the work. If they fail three times, they will be disqualified from the inkjet qualification."

Zhang Xuan nodded. Of course, it was impossible to test every knife, but doing so would put the master knife maker in a pressure, forcing him to seriously fight every knife.

Zhang Xuan shouted softly, swung his knife to slash at the iron plate, "Dang!" With a loud bang, sparks flew everywhere, and all the inspection craftsmen turned around and looked at him.

Zhang Xuan slashed five times in a row, and a small gap appeared on the blade. He slashed fifteen times in a row, and with a sound of "crack!", the knife was broken into two pieces. Zhang Xuan nodded. With his own strength, he actually needed fifteen times to break. This knife was really good.

"How many battle swords can you create in a day?" Zhang Xuan asked back.

Lai Kai thought for a while and said, "Report to Your Highness, there are about 300 handles a day."

"Only three hundred handles!"

Zhang Xuan was really a little dissatisfied. He only had 10,000 troops a month, but he had an army of 200,000. He had to wait for a year and a half before he was fully equipped. It would be fine if it was an era of peace, but now it is an era of war and hegemony, so the speed is too slow.

Lai Kai felt Zhang Xuan's dissatisfaction and quickly explained: "The main reason is that the passing rate of the knife blank is not high. On average, one of the five knife blanks can be qualified. Even the military weapon supervisors used to be the same. The fundamental reason is that the iron is poor, there are too many impurities inside, and it must be repeatedly forged to remove impurities. Therefore, the output is not high. It takes about three days for a knife to complete the final inspection. In addition, there are only more than 900 knife makers, as well as spear makers, rod making, etc. There are many processes and cumbersome, and 3,000 people are not enough. As Your Highness said, the military weapon supervisor must have at least 50,000 or 60,000 craftsmen to ensure that the weapons are large and timely replenished."

Zhang Xuan also knew the problem. He expanded his army too quickly and many logistics support could not keep up. Fortunately, he still had some inventory and could support him for a period of time. He could only expand the military equipment supervision as soon as possible after moving the capital, forming a large-scale effect.

At this time, a personal soldier hurried over and handed Zhang Xuan a quick report sent from Yidu County. Zhang Xuan looked at it. Pei Ju and Su Wei jointly requested him to return to Yidu County immediately to discuss major matters. Zhang Xuan immediately encouraged everyone and quickly left the military equipment shop.

Zhang Xuan led 300 cavalrymen to gallop overnight in the vast snowfield. The next morning, they arrived in Yidu County. Zhang Xuan had no time to go home and rushed to the official office immediately. In fact, he vaguely guessed that what Pei Ju and Su Wei were looking for him for must be related to what happened in Chang'an. Although there was no clear news, the previous signs were a foregone conclusion that Li Yuan ascended the throne. In addition, there was no other thing that made the two prime ministers so nervous. As for major military operations, he should have known it first.

Zhang Xuan came directly to the Inner History Provincial Department of Account. He was seeing Xiao Yu who was about to enter the account at the entrance of the account. Not long after Xiao Yu came from Chang'an, he was originally the Inner History Minister of the Great Sui Dynasty and held great power with Yu Shiji. This time he came to join the New Sui Dynasty and was also appointed as the Inner History Minister. Because Su Wei was old, a large number of affairs in the Inner History Provincial Department were actually undertaken by Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu also saw Zhang Xuan, and hurriedly came up and said with a smile: "Your Highness has just come back!"

Zhang Xuan nodded and smiled, "I dare not delay the letter from Su Pei, two prime ministers, so I rushed back overnight. Is it because of Chang'an?"

Xiao Yu nodded, "Li Yuan ascended the throne in Chang'an, announcing that the Sui Dynasty in the world has ended. I hope that those with knowledge in the world can support the Tang Dynasty. I heard that Li Yuan will also hold the imperial examination, and the time is set in mid-April, which is completely consistent with our imperial examination time."

"This is an interesting thing. Does Li Yuan want to fight with us?" Zhang Xuan couldn't help but smile.

"I guess he wanted to use the imperial examination to test the status of the new dynasty in the hearts of the people of the world. He could not test it before or after us. Only by holding the imperial examination with us can we see who is more important."

Zhang Xuan also felt that Xiao Yu was right. He looked at the big tent and asked with a smile: "Is Su Xiangguo here?"

“Not yet.”

As soon as he said this, Xiao Yu saw Su Wei who was walking hurriedly in the distance and smiled and said, "Suiangguo is here."

Zhang Xuan also saw Su Wei. He waved his hand and said to Xiao Yu, "Let's discuss it in a small court meeting! Please inform the minister, and all senior officials above the third rank will come to attend."

Xiao Yu bowed and left. Su Wei walked over quickly and said anxiously: "Do your Highness know about Li Yuan's founding and ascending the throne?"

"I already know, does the Prime Minister think this is serious?"

"Of course it is very serious. It will make the world feel that the Sui Dynasty has indeed died. A new dynasty should begin. This will affect the world's confidence in us. Your Highness, Li Yuan's strength is actually far stronger than us. This is a fact. We must deal with it and cannot sit idly by and watch Li Yuan start the founding of the country and cause an unpredictable storm."
Chapter completed!