After accompanying Zhao Zhen to worship Zhao Heng, Li Zhang returned to the imperial village again. The potatoes this year have been planted. In addition, in winter last year, a batch of about 10,000 kilograms of potatoes were transported to Huiweizhai, and then a series of potato-made dishes were launched, such as the classic and ordinary shredded potatoes with vinegar, beef roast potatoes, etc.

As the saying goes, rare things are expensive. Although potato dishes may not be more delicious than other dishes, their prices are not low. And I don’t know the rumors that potatoes have the effect of nourishing yin and nourishing the kidneys. As a result, they were even more sought after by a group of people. As a result, the potato dishes launched by Huiweizhai require reservations every day. Later, the potatoes were used up, which made many people sigh and regretful.

However, potatoes can only be popular for one season at most. When the potatoes are harvested this year, the price will definitely drop. Even after two years, when potatoes are planted near the capital, the price of potatoes will be reduced to mud. At that time, the grain will be low and the farmers may be injured. However, this requires Wang Qinruo and the others to have a headache. Of course, the land near the capital cannot only plant potatoes. In the short term, crops such as wheat will definitely be mainstream.

Last time Li Zhang took Zhao Zhen to see Li Shunrong. He was worried that Liu E would have some suspicion, but he didn't expect that there was no movement in the palace, which made Li Zhang slowly relieved.

"Wu, wu, wu..." In the military camp in front of the imperial village, three hundred musketeers lined up in three rows, with one hundred people shooting forward alternately. The targets in front were blown away by the bombardment of wood chips, and the school ground was soon covered by gunpowder.

"Stop! Cavalry attack!" With the order from Hu Yan Shouxin next to him, the musketeer who had already walked to the target immediately stopped shooting. A cavalry with a team of 100 people on both sides rode his horse and waved the long sword in his hand, and cut the targets into pieces in the blink of an eye. Li Zhang next to him also nodded repeatedly.

Originally, in Li Zhang's vision, he wanted to build the musket battalion into a pure firearm team. At first, he and Hu Yan Shouxin did the same. However, later Hu Yan Shouxin discovered that if they were all musketeers, although they had a strong advantage in medium and long distances, if the enemy had cavalry and rushed to the front regardless of casualties, even if the musket was equipped with bayonets, they would definitely not be able to stop the enemy's cavalry.

Therefore, in this case, Hu Yan Shuixin suggested adding a portion of the cavalry, so that when encountering the enemy's cavalry rushing towards the front, it also has a certain counterattack ability. After all, the best group of troops to deal with cavalry is also cavalry. In addition, when the musket strikes back the enemy, if the enemy flees, the cavalry can also take the opportunity to chase and kill, thereby expanding the results of the battle.

Li Zhang didn't know much about the matter on the battlefield, and he believed in Hu Yan Shuixin's vision, so he agreed with his suggestion, so the musketeer changed from five hundred to three hundred, and the other two hundred to cavalry. This was also the family-borne military of the Hu Yan family. In order to enhance the power of the cavalry, Hu Yan Shuixin sent one of his brothers, Hu Yan Shouyi, who was the first to bet by Kingsoft because of excessive gambling. Although this guy is good at gambling, he is all top-notch riding and martial arts. He is also a powerful general on the battlefield.

After the training, Hu Yan Shouxin commanded the soldiers to clean the battlefield, and then came to Li Zhang and said, "Commander, our musket battalion is already very skilled in training. However, no matter how well the training is, it is still a fancy way to never go to the battlefield. In fact, I am the same. No matter how many military books I read and how long I have learned martial arts, as long as I don't go to the battlefield, I am still a new recruit. So I think we should ask the Queen Mother and pull our musket battalion to the battlefield to try it. I heard that the northwest and Hebei areas have always been uneasy?"

Hearing Hu Yan Shouxin wanted to pull the musket camp to fight, Li Zhang also showed a thoughtful expression. After a while, he nodded and said, "The musket was made for killing people, so it must be tested on the battlefield. But what we have to say about this matter is not the end. I will find an opportunity to go back to the capital and ask for instructions in the palace."

Hu Yan Shouxin was waiting for this sentence. He also smiled and said, "As the commander Shi, as long as you speak, Your Majesty and the Queen Mother will definitely agree. Speaking of which, we are very pitiful. Most of us can only live in the imperial guards. If you want to go to the battlefield, you have to nod the priests in the court."

Li Zhang couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard Hu Yan Shouxin's words. He was really unlucky when talking about the generals of the Song Dynasty. Since Zhao Kuangyin failed in the Northern Expedition, he had no intention of recapturing the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, so he began to suppress the generals on a large scale. Later, when Zhao Guangyi was in power, he even faced the situation of no generals available. After the Chanyuan Alliance, the generals were suppressed more thoroughly.

For example, in order to prevent the generals from cultivating power in the army, people from generals generally can only serve in the imperial guards, and the imperial guards can only guard the capital. Unless the emperor personally leads the expedition, it is impossible to go to the battlefield. Of course, there are also generals who can break out of the imperial guards' cage and enter the border army. That is where the generals should go. For example, Cao Wei, known as the God of War in the Song Dynasty, is now in the area where Qingzhou is stationed, but there are too few people who can truly reach the level of Cao Wei.

It is also worth mentioning that the decline of the generals is also related to themselves. For example, although the generals are suppressed, their salary is higher than that of civil officials of the same level, especially among the imperial guards, which is several times stronger than the border troops. In addition, the imperial guards do not have to go to the battlefield. On the one hand, they are safe and rich, while on the other hand, they are less money from fighting to death. In this way, most people will choose the former. It can be said that the Song Dynasty began to raise some generals as pigs.

After chatting with Hu Yan Shouxin for a few words, he stepped out of the military camp and came to the musket workshop under the jurisdiction of Liu Shu outside the imperial village. Now the entire musket workshop is quite large, and the manufacturing of muskets is becoming more and more standardized. This is mainly because Li Zhang personally formulated many strict processes. As long as he followed this process, the muskets produced generally would not have too many problems.

"Commander, the iron material was a few days late this month. I urged him many times, but the boss just refused to give it. He said that the iron material we consumed was too large and the Zhou case had already had an objection." As soon as Li Zhang came to the musket workshop, Liu Shu ran to complain to him.

As musket manufacturing became more and more standardized, Li Zhang also began to ask musket workshops to stockpile some muskets. On the one hand, he replaced Hu Yan Shouxin and others, and on the other hand, he also prepared to expand the scale of the musket battalion in the future. However, as the iron material consumption became more and more, the Zhou case could no longer withstand it.

"You don't have to worry about iron materials. Just urge the Zhou case. I have already had a solution to this matter. This time I went back to the capital to handle it together!" Li Zhang said confidently at this time. It was not the first time that Liu Shu had said that the lack of iron materials was not enough, so he has been considering this matter for a while. Speaking of which, the steel production in the Song Dynasty was actually very high. The main reason is that the best iron materials needed to make muskets, so the supply was insufficient.

After hearing Li Zhang say this, Liu Shu finally felt relieved, but then he asked curiously: "You are going back to the capital again, what's the reason for this time?"

"Brother Shouxin wants to bring the musket camp to the battlefield to fight in practice. I think it makes sense, so I am going to go back to the capital to report to the palace. In addition, you also pick out some craftsmen to prepare for the army. In addition, you have to mobilize a batch of spare muskets as replacements, and there are also sufficient ammunition." Li Zhang said again at this time. Although the muskets are powerful, they are also easy to damage, so craftsmen must go with the army. In fact, cold weapons are also easy to damage, so craftsmen have always been indispensable in the military camp.

"No problem. Brother Shouxin had already talked to me about this two days ago, and our workshop has not stopped for a while. The inventory of muskets and ammunition has always been very sufficient. Not to mention one musket battalion, even two musket battalions can support it!" Liu Shu patted his chest and promised when he heard Li Zhang's words.

Hearing Liu Shu's words, Li Zhang nodded with confidence. Liu Shu is a rude person, but in fact he is meticulous and has a strong ability to do things. Otherwise, he would not have been able to get from a craftsman to his current position, so Li Zhang would be relieved to leave the matter to him.

Now Li Zhang walked around the workshop and returned to his residence. Then he took out a piece of information he wrote in his own hand from the box at the head of his bed. This information was found from the information he sorted out from the computer. It was mainly about the refining of steel. In fact, it is two techniques of blast furnace iron and pig iron that are very commonly used in later generations.

Speaking of the ironmaking technology in ancient China was still very developed. During the Han Dynasty, steel-making method was invented to produce high-quality steel, and later improved it to the steel-filling method. This is also the method of producing high-quality steel in the Song Dynasty. However, this steelmaking method consumes too much and the output is not very high. In addition, the amount of high-quality steel needed by the Song Dynasty army was large, so the problem of insufficient iron material occurred in the musket workshop.

Li Zhang took out the two techniques in his hand and read them again, and replaced some of the terms from later generations, trying his best to make people in the Song Dynasty understand these two methods. Blast furnace iron smelting mainly produces pig iron, while pig iron cannot be made into weapons. It must be refined into steel of better quality, which requires the pig iron to be refined into steel, or even cooked iron.

In fact, the so-called pig iron, steel, and cooked iron are essentially the same metal, but the carbon content varies from high to low. Of course, in addition to carbon, the iron refined generally contains a large amount of impurities, and the most harmful one is phosphorus. If the phosphorus content is too high, the steel will become brittle.
Chapter completed!