Carefree Prince In Tang Dynasty

A sunny day. The temperature in Guanzhong had already started to pick up. People took off their thick jackets and gradually put on thinner spring shirts. The sons and young masters from better families brought their maids to take advantage of this beautiful spring to go out for an outing in the city, but Li Xin did not.

Of course, it's not because he doesn't want to, but because he has more important things to do.

During the previous military exercise, he found that the rations the soldiers ate were very poor, so he wanted to make some canned food to improve their conditions.

The principle of canning is simple. To put it bluntly, it is sealed to prevent corruption. As long as it is handled properly, it should not be a problem to store a can for three or two years. However, when it came time to realize it, Li Xin suddenly discovered a problem.

The cans that people are familiar with in later generations are all tin cans. But in today's Tang Dynasty, if you want tin cans that are sufficiently sealed, there is no other way than relying on blacksmiths to make them with a little bit of hand. This also means that the cost of canned food will be much higher than the current military ration, that is, millet.

As we all know, many problems are ultimately economic problems. Since the cost of canned food is high, using it as military rations will inevitably increase military expenditures. This is no easy task.

So, Li Xin wondered if he could use other materials instead.

He found several potters, asked them to make some pottery pots that could be sealed, and carefully tested their tightness. It turned out not bad. Just when he was planning to make something and put it in the clay pot to test how long it could be preserved, he suddenly thought of the fatal flaw of the clay pot——

fragile.

During the Tang Dynasty, the transportation conditions were very poor, and the environment in which the army fought was also very difficult. Most of the time they were in barren mountains and wild mountains. How many bumps will a batch of clay pots with food withstand during transportation? Even if there is a cushion of straw on the transport vehicle, there is no way to ensure that the clay pot will arrive intact.

Moreover, if the clay pot is completely broken, that's all. It would be scary if it just cracked stealthily, breaking the seal. For one thing, clay pots don’t swell like tin cans, and it’s obvious that they’ve gone bad; second, it’s all sergeants who eat canned food. Most of them come from poor backgrounds, how could they be willing to waste things? Maybe even if it smells wrong, they will eat it abruptly.

Wouldn't that be food poisoning? Aspergillus flavus is no joke.

If the sergeants were killed because of this, Li Xinzhen would be a sinner. To make matters worse, if this affected the direction of the war, it would not be an exaggeration to convict Li Xin of collaborating with the enemy and treason.

Thinking about it this way, Li Xin suddenly lost interest in the pot while playing with the clay pot in his hand.

This thing really didn't work.

He sighed. It seems that for the time being, the soldiers can only be wronged to eat that kind of military rations.

Many things that are commonplace in later generations are actually based on the progress of science and technology and the development of productivity. It's like a small can, but behind it is advanced metallurgical technology, industrial equipment, and assembly line operations. Anyway, it's really not something Li Xin can do with a slap on his head. After all, he is just an ordinary person.

"It would be great if the output of iron could be higher." Li Xin murmured. But then he sighed again. Of course he knew that, rationally speaking, no matter how advanced the iron and steel industry of Datang was, it was impossible to reach even one-tenth of the level of later generations in a short period of time. However, even if the cost of canning cannot be solved, as long as the output of iron increases, the productivity of Datang can still be improved to a considerable extent.

Li Xin put the clay pot on the ground casually, and looked up at the blue sky.

The potter has been standing by the side, carefully observing the changes in Wang Ye's expression.

Li Xinfa was stunned for a while before he came back to his senses. Seeing that the potter was a little nervous, he smiled and said, "It's nothing. You've done a good job. Go to Wang Gui to receive the reward."

The potter nodded repeatedly, thanking the prince hastily. The king of Chu, Li Xin, is famous for his generosity. As long as he says to give a reward, the amount of reward will be more than you imagined.

Seeing the potter leave with a smile, Li Xin was in a daze for a while, and finally decided to make iron.

To be honest, he is not familiar with metallurgy knowledge, he only knows a little bit, and he needs to try a little bit of specific parts.

From what he knows, the first thing to do to improve ironmaking technology is to build a new ironmaking furnace. Today, the blast furnace used by Datang is quite good, with special blast equipment, but this equipment is driven by manpower or animal power, and the production capacity is seriously insufficient.

If he remembered correctly, in the Song Dynasty there was a blowing device powered by water flow, called Shui Pai. This thing is built on the edge of the turbulent water, and the blowing effect is much better than the traditional device. With this kind of thing, the production capacity of pig iron will definitely be able to keep up.