Although the Three Koreas are nominally divided into South Korea, Central Korea and North Korea, in fact, the Three Koreas are only divided into two parts. South Korea was divided separately by Li Min, who moved all the local indigenous people out and only allowed Han people

Of course, there are actually some nobles from Baekje and Silla in South Korea, but these nobles have now lost all their privileges and have no mass base. They even receive strange looks when they get along with Han people.

.

It is also worth mentioning that the number of these original nobles of Baekje and Silla was very small, only two to three thousand people in total, and they were scattered throughout South Korea. At the same time, in order to eliminate the strange eyes of the Han people, these original nobles

They have been working hard to integrate into the Han people, and they have all been educated in Chinese before, so in a few years, even they themselves may forget their original origins.

South Korea only allows Han people to migrate, but this ensures local security. In addition, Li Min has implemented a series of preferential policies for South Korea, so the number of Han people in South Korea has increased greatly, and most of them are from Dengzhou.

As well as Hebei and Henan, the total population has now reached 300,000. Among the territories controlled by Li Min, the Han population is second only to Taiwan.

Corresponding to South Korea, there are a large number of former Baekje and Silla people living in North and Central Korea. The population there has reached four million, of which Silla people account for two-thirds, and the rest

Then they are all Baekje people. In fact, Silla people and Baekje people have the same ancestor, and there were some ethnic minorities in both countries. However, after the demise of the two countries, they were generally called Xinluo people.

Luo and Baekje people.

Li Zhi's first stop was South Korea, the state closest to Dengzhou. When Li Zhi's fleet entered the port not far from Sixian City, Lu Hong, who had received Li Min's order, stood on the dock.

, welcomed Li Zhi into Sixian City with a smile on his face.

Although Li Zhi did not know Lu Hong, he had heard of his name and knew that this man was a rare capable minister. He was highly regarded by his sixth brother Li Min and his status was equal to that of Wang An. He was now in charge of the government affairs of Sanhan and Japan.

, Sixth Brother could send him to greet him, Li Zhi also guessed some of the intentions.

After resting one night at the royal palace in Sixi City, Li Zhi originally wanted to go to Lu Hong and ask him some questions. However, Cai'er happily took them to visit the Sixi palace, the front half of the palace.

There is nothing special about this part, but the back garden at the back is a very scenic spot. It is a pity that it is not March, otherwise Li Zhi and Sizi can enjoy the beautiful scenery of the cherry blossom garden.

The Houyuan was originally built by the King of Baekje. After it was occupied by Li Min, he invited many craftsmen from the Tang Dynasty to carry out a new round of renovations, making the Houyuan combine the art of Baekje and the Tang Dynasty.

The characteristics have become even more charming. Even Li Zhi and Si Zi, who are used to seeing various gardens in Chang'an, were full of praise when they saw it. Si Zi was even more noisy that he must live here for a while in the future. But this

This time it didn't work.

After visiting the palace, Li Zhi had the opportunity to go to Lu Hong. First, he wanted to ask him to arrange his trip in Sanhanzhou. Second, he also wanted to ask some questions. However, Lu Hong had already received Li Min's order.

, had already arranged the matters at hand. So he was prepared to accompany Li Zhi throughout the whole process, which of course made Li Zhi very happy.

In the afternoon of that day, Lu Hong accompanied Li Zhen to an emerging industrial city called Steel City, twenty miles south of Sixi City. As can be seen from the name of this city, the main industry of this city is steel smelting. In fact,

The reason why South Korea State drove out all the original Baekje people was to build a steel base here to meet Li Min's demand for steel.

When Li Zhi saw the Steel City on horseback, he found that there were many huge furnaces towering in the city. They were important equipment for iron-making. At the same time, these furnaces emitted streams of thick black smoke, covering the sky above the entire Steel City.

They were all dyed gray. When Li Zhi entered the city, his nose was filled with the smell of steel and coke, which was very pungent.

This time Si Zi and Cai'er did not come with Li Zhi. Firstly, they felt a little tired after playing in Dengzhou for a few days and taking a boat all the time. They are now staying in the palace to rest. Secondly, Li Zhi

The first time I visited was the steel factory, which was really not interesting for a girl, so I didn’t come along.

After entering the Steel City, Li Zhi discovered that the entire Steel City was actually a huge steel factory. Both sides of the street were lined with rows of production plants. Moreover, except for the garrison of 2,000 people, there were no soldiers at all in the city.

All residents, all workers working here, all live in a valley five miles outside the city. It is densely forested and has a beautiful environment. They can stay away from the unhealthy atmosphere emanating from the Steel City, and there is a two-way road from the valley to the Steel City.

The railway makes it easier for workers to enter and leave the steel city.

Steel City is the most important steel producing area in South Korea, with an annual output of 2,000 tons. In addition, there are several other smaller steel bases in South Korea. Coupled with the steel production in Taiwan, Li Min can produce 2,000 tons of steel every year.

Five thousand tons of steel were obtained from these steel plants. This number will not be worth mentioning in the eyes of later generations, but for

In the seventh century AD, it was already very impressive. You must know that before Li Min crossed over, the annual steel output of the Tang Dynasty was only a few thousand tons. Later, Li Min still used coke to make iron, plus

After reforming some smelting technologies, Datang's annual steel production is now only about 10,000 tons.

As the prince, Li Zhi was naturally very aware of the steel output of the Tang Dynasty, so when he learned that the annual output of the steel city in front of him had reached one-fifth of the entire Datang Dynasty, he was naturally stunned, especially when he knew that the annual output of the steel city in front of him had reached one-fifth of the entire Tang Dynasty.

It was even more unbelievable to him when there were only over 10,000 workers in the city, but after he visited the Steel City, he finally dispelled his doubts.

This is mainly because Li Zhi discovered that in the steel production workshops of Steel City, steam engines have been widely used to replace manpower. For example, the use of a gravel conveyor belt has saved a lot of labor. In addition, there are gravel crushing, drum

Wind, etc., were all replaced by human power by steam engines. Such a large-scale popularization of the use of steam engines was definitely the first in the Tang Dynasty. Those textile factories that used steam engines as power were simply not worth mentioning compared with here.

"Bang! Bang..." In the center of the Steel City, here is the production workshop for producing fine steel. Compared with the annual output of two thousand tons of iron, the steel output of the Steel City is less than 100 tons. This is not steel.

The city cannot produce more refined steel, but compared to expensive steel, iron has a much wider range of uses, so the current steel output has been controlled by Li Min. It is enough every year, and there is no need to expand it for the time being.

Yield.

Li Zhi looked at the steel ingots being transported from the conveyor belt in front of him, and then looked at the workers around him who were sweating and wiping their sweat with towels from time to time. He couldn't help feeling a little emotional. In the past, he only knew the importance of steel to the country, but

But this was the first time I saw the production process of steel.

Shi Ye saw the workers around him for the first time. Almost everyone had burns on their arms. Some workers even had large burns on their faces, which made them look very scary. I heard that they were splashed by molten iron in an accident. They

If you are lucky, you are not dead; if you are unlucky, you can't even find the body.

"Mr. Lu, since the work of smelting steel is so hard and dangerous, why not let slaves do it? Don't Sixth Brother have many slaves working in various places?" Li Zhi looked at the workers who were disfigured by molten iron and was very dissatisfied.

Xie De asked Lu Hong. He knew that Sixth Brother asked Lu Hong to accompany him to answer some questions for him. Now Li Zhi found out that all the workers in the steel city were Han, so he asked this question.

Seeing that Li Zhi could ask such a question and was not arrogant towards him at all, Lu Hong also nodded secretly, thinking that he was worthy of being the younger brother of His Highness King Qi. If this man ascends the throne and becomes emperor in the future, he will definitely be a wise master.

Lu Hong smiled slightly, bowed to Li Zhi and said: "Your Highness, your proposal is very good, but there is one thing that is not well thought out. That is, steel is the top priority for a country. The production of steel

The same is true for technology. If those slaves are used to replace the workers here, there will inevitably be some mistakes. If the slaves here are allowed to escape, then the steel smelting technology that our Datang has worked so hard to research will be all cheap.

Are those alien races?"

Li Zhi suddenly felt enlightened when he heard this, and blurted out: "So that's the case, no wonder Sixth Brother wants to move out all the Baekje people in South Korea, and also prohibits non-Han people from living there. It turns out that this is to preserve the steel smelting technology."

ah!"

Seeing Li Zhi reacting so quickly, Lu Hong also nodded proudly. He and Wang An had thought of this method at the beginning, and he continued: "Your Highness is wise, the people who moved here are indeed moved here to keep it secret. After all, these

Foreign ethnic groups cannot be trusted. Unless they are completely Chineseized, South Korea will never allow people from other ethnic groups to move in!"

However, when Lu Hong said this, he suddenly paused, then looked up at Li Zhi, and then spoke again: "In addition, not only must the technology be kept secret, but also the military must prevent these alien races, such as His Highness

In terms of the armies in hand, although there are armies from Samhan, Japan, Linyi and other countries, these armies cannot compare with the Han army in terms of weapons, equipment and training. As for the firearms armies, only Han soldiers can

join!"
Chapter completed!