Insufficient Silkworm Cocoons: Li Zhi's New Idea

When Fuyun learned that the Tang army had crossed from the west side of Qinghai Lake, his heart turned ice cold. The fact that the Tang forces had arrived here without his knowledge meant that all his troops were already lost.

Weak and trembling, Fuyun lay on the ground. In his mind, a single voice echoed relentlessly: It’s over. Everything is over.

Without his armies, Tuyuhun could no longer rule this vast land. Even if the Tang did nothing further, the Qiang people who had lived here for generations would soon drive the Tuyuhun completely away.

Li Jing gave Fuyun no time to accept this reality.

He spoke again, “At present, our Tang forces have divided and are attacking throughout the Tuyuhun territory. It won’t be long before the state of Tuyuhun falls.”

Fuyun could no longer bear the blow. He gasped sharply several times, then coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. His head tilted to one side, and he lost consciousness.

Su Lie hurriedly summoned a military doctor from the Dragon Cavalry to treat him. Fuyun could not die now; the Tang needed him to sign the surrender documents to legitimize incorporating Tuyuhun into the Tang empire.

The war was virtually at this final stage.

If Fuyun were to die now, it would require much more effort to deal with the aftermath.

After a simple post-war cleanup, Li Jing and the army stayed at Fusi City. Li Jing ordered Su Lie to lead the Dragon Cavalry to escort Fuyun, his family, and the Tuyuhun court officials back to Chang’an.

This ensured safety on the journey and also symbolized that the Dragon Cavalry's mission was fully accomplished.

The Dragon Cavalry had earned many merits here; lingering any longer would be pointless.

Upon receiving Li Jing’s orders, Su Lie cheerfully led the Dragon Cavalry forth.

At that moment, Su Lie did not know that Li Zhi, in Chang’an, was waiting for him to return and expand the Dragon Cavalry.

In Chang’an, Li Zhi looked at Li Yin with excitement.

Li Yin was earnestly explaining the petroleum refining process he had designed.

Due to other constraints, this process was far more complex than modern methods and not very efficient.

But none of that mattered to Li Zhi.

At least it meant the Tang now possessed the capability to refine oil.

Li Zhi felt incredibly fortunate to have encountered a genius like Li Yin at this early stage.

Li Yin not only grasped the knowledge Li Zhi imparted with ease but had hands-on skills far superior to Li Zhi’s own, by more than tenfold.

With Li Yin’s presence, Li Zhi only needed to continually find research topics and assign them to him.

As for other matters, Li Yin could find solutions on his own.

This freed Li Zhi to focus on other affairs without wasting energy worrying about the Tang’s industrialization.

Next, Li Zhi needed to urge Yan Lide, his brothers, Yang Siqi, and others to accelerate steam engine research.

Only by solving the power problem could petroleum extraction and production speed up.

Li Zhi also set himself a task: to quickly build a simple generator by hand.

Though he lacked deep knowledge of electricity, this didn’t prevent him from proposing theories and applications of electrical power.

Li Yin’s arrival gave Li Zhi great confidence.

He believed that if he put forward more theories, interested parties would soon take the initiative to conduct research.

In the following days, Li Zhi busied himself.

First, he asked Yan Lide to help make some fine copper wires.

With improved iron smelting techniques, copper refining had also seen significant advancements, making copper wire production easier.

Then he sought out Baken to help smelt silicon steel sheets.

This material had no current use, so Baken had not researched it before.

Li Zhi spent several days with Baken studying silicon steel smelting.

With all materials ready, building a generator became much easier.

Li Zhi completed a simple generator prototype in just half a day.

With this prototype, the rest of his work became much simpler.

He could use the generator as a foundation to gradually compile his knowledge of electricity into books.

Once these books reached the hands of Yan Lide and others, naturally there would be deeper research.

While Li Zhi busied himself pioneering new fields, his textile workshop encountered difficulties.

The aristocratic families’ advance orders for silkworm cocoons finally came into play.

April had arrived, the season when spring silkworms began spinning.

Pei Mingli promptly arranged for personnel to procure raw materials for the textile workshop.

Unexpectedly, many places’ cocoons had already been pre-ordered.

Moreover, this caused the price of cocoons to rise.

Upon learning this, Pei Mingli immediately sought out Li Zhi.

As a savvy businessman, Pei Mingli understood the cause of this situation.

He said to Li Zhi, “Your Highness, it seems the aristocratic families have responded. How shall we deal with this going forward?”

Li Zhi replied, “Send more people to more distant places to procure cocoons and try to secure long-term contracts with some.”

Pei Mingli warned, “That means directly competing with the aristocrats, likely causing prices to soar.”

Li Zhi pondered briefly, then said, “You focus on acquiring raw materials first. I will think of ways to reduce production costs.”

Pei Mingli suggested, “Your Highness, perhaps we should focus on high-end silk this year and temporarily slow production of mid- and low-grade silk.”

Li Zhi shook his head, “The surge in cocoon costs will inevitably drive up prices of mid- and low-grade silk as well, which will hurt sales.”

Pei Mingli countered, “Isn’t that all the more reason to continue producing high-end silk?”

Li Zhi said, “That does not align with my goals. I want more common people in Tang to wear exquisite silk.”

Pei Mingli asked, “But the price increase is clearly due to raw material shortages. Do you have a solution?”

Li Zhi answered, “I have some ideas but need to consult with Minister Zhang of the Ministry of Agriculture and Finance. If feasible, the raw material problem will be easily solved.”

Pei Mingli nodded in puzzlement but said no more.

He knew Li Zhi often came up with ingenious solutions.

But this time, he had overestimated him.

Li Zhi’s idea was simple: to promote silkworm cultivation in the southern barbarian regions, expanding the Tang’s sericulture areas.

This would not only increase cocoon production but also accelerate development of the south.