Chapter 818 Decision
The sword in hand is held in hand. Although its forging process and performance are far inferior to the previous two, as a weapon equipped for soldiers and requiring mass production, it is is a suitable choice.
Seeing this, Li Gan added another sentence at the right time.
“In terms of toughness, it has indeed declined, but as long as it is enchanted, the toughness will not be much worse than the original crystal iron sword, and it will be harder and sharper.”
As the head of the Ordnance Forging Department in Xianyang City, he has undoubtedly studied enchantment, a method closely related to the strength of ordnance.
‘Basic Weapon Blessing’ can improve the toughness and sharpness of weapons.
At the same time, he also studied the difference between a crystal iron sword with and without enchantment.
So he has a basic idea of the improvement here.
From the current point of view, upgrading all existing crystal iron weapons to this diamond-infused version has more advantages than disadvantages.
As for weapons of higher specifications, just continue to use pattern steel hammered from crystal iron for forging.
"Can ordinary craftsmen in the blacksmithing department also forge this version with diamond added?"
Li Gan has undoubtedly confirmed this issue a long time ago.
“After adding diamond, due to the change of metal properties, the probability of fracture increases, so the difficulty of forging is slightly higher than that of the previous crystal iron weapons. However, as long as you practice more, you can basically forge it. At present, The ministry already has a group of craftsmen who can complete the forging relatively stably, and the efficiency will not be much slower than before."
Zhou Xu nodded with satisfaction after receiving this answer.
"Then use this to replace the existing crystal iron weapons to arm elite troops. In addition, how is the forging of steel weapons used for ordinary soldiers?"
"From the establishment of the project to now, two batches have been sent out. The third batch should be completed before the end of the month."
"You hurry up and complete the third batch of steel weapons. I will send someone to pick it up then. , I will send someone to notify the Ministry of Military Affairs, you don’t have to worry.”
According to his earlier order, the steel weapons forged by the Ordnance Forging Department are given priority to the border defense forces here.
The specific implementation will be carried out by the Ministry of Military and Political Affairs.
But the situation is different now. War broke out in the southern border. In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the southern border garrison, the equipment upgrade was given priority to them.
After simply arranging these things, Zhou Xu rewarded the research and development team headed by Li Gan with three thousand silver coins as a reward, and then let Li Gan accept the reward and retire.
Immediately, Zhou Xu, who seemed to have remembered something again, quickly returned to Qinzheng Hall and wrote a letter to Shi Lei who was in charge of Anling City, asking him to keep an eye on every move of the strange force on the other side. .
Under normal circumstances, it is unlikely that a force will temporarily mobilize troops against surrounding forces in winter. Even if it wants to mobilize troops, it will wait until the spring of next year.
Now that winter is coming to an end, and it seems that the beginning of spring is not far away, a war has already broken out with the rat people in the southern border.
Zhou Xu obviously wanted to avoid the situation of fighting on two fronts as much as possible.
However, judging from the latest situation, it seems unrealistic to quickly deal with this new batch of ratmen in a short period of time.
From the latest report sent by Soros, it is not difficult for him to see that the size of the Ratman army this time cannot be underestimated.
And in the subsequent analysis, Soros also pointed out that the rat people have never been a race that can be wiped out in one go.
The reason why they were able to destroy the Claw Clan was because they were caught off guard by a big battle.
From the perspective of the Talon Clan at that time, they did not know the existence of Dazhou at all, and thought that their only enemies were the lizardmen.
And they are here to complete regular annual projects.
From this step on, their thinking and judgment have already gone wrong. Only then did they suffer heavy losses in the subsequent battles. The main force suffered heavy losses and their vitality was severely damaged, allowing them to seize the opportunity and destroy the opponent.
But this time the Skaven were different. During the simple fight, Thoros had already vaguely felt that the opponent's strength was probably above that of the original Claw Clan. .
Moreover, the opponent was also very vigilant. Several times Soros wanted to take some action, but the opponent immediately relied on the numerical advantage of the rat tide to block him.
It is currently unrealistic to destroy the opponent like the Claw Clan was destroyed.
Unless they, the Great Zhou Dynasty, concentrate all their forces to the south.
But this is undoubtedly an unrealistic idea.
Nowadays, their territory as large as the Great Zhou Dynasty requires a sufficient number of garrison troops to garrison it.
Not to mention there are other potential enemies around.
It would take at least half a year for the large army to come and go, and this does not include the time to deal with the rat men.
When the time comes, I’m afraid not even my hometown will be raided.
Therefore, from Soros's perspective, the war with the Ratmen in their southern border will most likely enter a normal mode again.
Soros has no idea about this.
After all, they, the lizardmen, have been here for so many years.
Treat the war with the Ratmen as part of your daily work, but that's really all.
If you really say it, it will give their soldiers in the south an opportunity to accumulate practical experience.
However, in contrast, the expenditure on military expenditures and even related materials will definitely increase.
From the perspective of a ruler, this is obviously not what Zhou Xu wants to see.
Tapping his fingertips on the desktop of his desk, Zhou Xu looked at the document spread out in front of him, and after pondering for a while, he made a decision.
"Send a message that I will form a 500-strong Praetorian Guard. The candidates will be selected from various troops. Then, on the grounds of increasing troop reserves and replenishing the strength of various border guards, I will recruit 2,000 troops across the country."
It has not been two years since the last war ended, and Zhou Xu obviously did not want the news of the war to cause panic among the people.
So I found someone to select suitable candidates from various troops to form the Imperial Guard, and then made such a set of arrangements on the grounds of increasing troop reserves and replenishing troops.
But since it is just a normal increase in troop reserves, it is impossible to recruit too many at once, so even a fool can see that there is a problem.
Zhou Xu thought about it for a while and felt that two thousand was a more appropriate number.
Taking the current situation in the southern border as an example, adding two thousand troops would be enough to affect the situation to a certain extent.
In addition, he naturally had other considerations in forming the Imperial Guard.
Since he settled in Xianyang City, the task of garrisoning Xianyang City has been given to the trapped camp.
But on the other hand, once the trapped camp is gone, there will be no garrison of sufficient size in Xianyang City, and the manpower of his personal guards is not enough.
In this way, in order to liberate the trapped camp, the formation of the Imperial Guard has become a top priority.
And what Zhou Xu is doing now, needless to say, is preparing for the eradication of the rat people in the south!
When the division is well-established and can mobilize troops directly, rather than endure the long-term consumption, Zhou Xu would rather invest in one wave and avoid future troubles in the shortest possible time!
(End of this chapter)