stubborn thief

Chapter 674

January of the ninth year of Chongzhen.

At the beginning of the new year, after experiencing the baptism of war last year, the solemn atmosphere in Xi'an was finally dispersed by the sound of firecrackers bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.

The people of the city finally smiled happily during the New Year's greetings.

Of course, this is not the surprise that people got when they discovered that the Marshal's Mansion was renovating the Temple of Heaven and Earth and planning to hold a ceremony, and suddenly realized that they were about to become the people of Xijing.

The main reason was that Liu Chengzong announced before the New Year that the government would continue the tradition, sealing the city from New Year's Eve to the third day of the first lunar month, while officials and people would have a total holiday of 15 days, including the Lantern Festival.

The word "seal" originally means that when the government takes a holiday, the official seals and passes are sealed and locked up.

On New Year's Eve last year, the generals of the Marshal's Office gathered together with Liu Chengzong to celebrate the New Year as per the six-year tradition.

But there has been a good change this year. Most of them can spend the New Year with their families.

In the past, because of the wars, there were always front lines and rear lines, which resulted in the generals always being with Liu Chengzong, while their families always celebrated the New Year with the old grandfather and the old lady.

This year they finally gathered together to celebrate and feast in the Qin Palace in Xi'an.

It's just that the latest news that came out before the New Year was that the Grand Marshal was planning to march north to Ningxia and Yansui, which made the faces of the generals have murderous looks on their faces, and they were all ready to fight.

Although Liu Chengzong repeatedly said that it was finally the New Year and everyone was gathering together to drink, eat, and watch fireworks, in the end they inevitably turned the conversation to armor, weapons, horses, and mules.

Some people even said that since the Eastern Tartars had proclaimed themselves emperors, the Grand Marshal should also be called an emperor.

The fool who said this was none other than Chu Huer, who came all the way from the northern Tianshan Mountains.

Zhou Riqiang and Chu Huer fought a beautiful battle north of Tianshan Mountain and captured Taimengwei. They had sent the news earlier. However, Chu Huer set off just as Liu Chengzong's news was delivered.

He didn't have any other thoughts, he just had nowhere to go.

Chu Hur's territory was in Altai. Zhou Riqiang repaired half of the bridge for him there and then went to Tomsk to fight.

After it was conquered, it was renamed Taimengwei. Zhou Riqiang worked very hard there, repairing forts, building houses and planting rye.

They even established a military school and a military equipment bureau to teach children of the newly recruited Kyrgyz Banner Army to read and make three-barreled guns.

In full swing.

But Chu Huer couldn't stand it. That damn place was too cold and there were no battles after the fall.

At least he had something to do if he stayed there on Sunday, but he could only pull an Eastern European guy to hang on the wall today to freeze to death and play with ice cubes, and then pull another one to throw into the river to freeze to death and watch the ice sculptures tomorrow.

The key point was that he didn't keep enough prisoners to last a whole winter during the war, so there was no point in staying there.

On the other side of Tianshan, everyone hated him, even Liu Chengzu didn't like him.

There is no way. Liu Chengzu really treats Oirats as his own territory, and Chu Hur is the biggest destabilizing factor in Oirats.

Batur Hun Taiji hated his younger brother to the extreme. When he heard that Chu Hur wanted to come to Tianshan after fighting in the north, he thought to himself, "If you bastard comes here, I won't be able to have a good New Year."

He quickly went to Liu Chengzu for advice. Liu Chengzu thought, what's the difficulty? Let Chu Huer go to Gansu to find Cao Yao. If two bastards get together, they will definitely get along.

Chu Huer thought to himself, why am I looking for Cao Yao? I don’t even know him.

But Liu Chengzu's idea did give Chu Huer a good idea.

The devil of Oirat remembered that there were still people in this world who loved him.

Chu Huer thought to himself, I'll randomly pick a lucky Khan from Yarkand, rob, oh no, extort some war horses, cattle and sheep, and go to Lanzhou to celebrate the New Year with the Marshal!

Then Chu Huer came with 1,500 cavalrymen, rushed into Turpan and plundered it, occupied two towns and played around for more than ten days, extorted 200 cows and 300 sheep from Berk, and seized more than 300 horses before he let the town be redeemed.

On the way, he first caused trouble in Hami. He beat Babai Khan because of his poor hospitality. However, there were really no good things left there, so he finally took away five sets of armor and ten horses. Chu Huer was so angry that he beat Babai Khan again.

Later, outside Jiayuguan, they clashed again with Kang Liangfu, the commander of Chijinwei. This time, they did not beat the commander violently, but robbed 112 kilograms of gold and 32 boxes of kerosene, and set fire to Kang Liangfu's newly built house in Dunhuang.

Then, with the proceeds from extortion, they knocked on the gate of Jiayu Pass, saying they were here to pay tribute to Marshal Liu.

It was not until the news reached Xi'an and Liu Chengzong replied with a letter that Chu Huer behaved himself and did not cause any trouble inside the Great Wall. He patiently made his way to Xi'an.

He presented a list of gifts to Liu Chengzong: one hundred flintlock pistols, five Eastern European bandits, one hundred and fifty cattle, two hundred and twenty sheep, three hundred and sixty horses, a set of armor, one hundred kilograms of gold, and thirty boxes of kerosene.

Liu Chengzong was at a loss whether to laugh or cry at the gift list, thinking that all the gold that my mother Chijinwei had mined with great effort was brought to me by you.

  With this ability, why do you want to be a general? Just go and work as a courier!

As for the loss of twelve jin, Liu Chengzong also knew that Chu Huer had given it as a reward to the Gansu soldiers who escorted him all the way, and he would cut a little if he was happy.

This guy is just a savage who acts according to his heart and has no rules.

The key is that this thing is quite useful in the northwest, and Liu Shizi can't deal with it.

On the day Chu Huer entered Xi'an city, Liu Chengzong deliberately played with weapons in the palace. As soon as Chu Huer was brought in by the guards, he was thrown a stick and asked to go up and practice.

After beating him for three rounds in a row, Liu Shizi finally calmed down and pulled Chu Huer, who was so tired that his forehead was smoking, up from the ground. He patted him and said, "I'll leave you a house in Xi'an. Come over in the winter. It's warm here."

However, although Chu Huer was beaten up when he arrived in Xi'an, he felt good.

Not only Liu Chengzong liked him in the Marshal's Office, but also the Grand Commander of Gansu Cao Yao, the Minister of Rites Zhang Xianzhong, the Marshal of Guannei Road Zhang Tianlin, the Marshal of Haixi Road Xie Erhu, and the General Luo Rucai, all of them were people with wild imaginations. Not only could they chat with each other, but they were also fascinated by each other's experiences.

The six brothers sat there.

Cao Yao held his temper and listened attentively. Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Tianlin and Luo Rucai talked excitedly and incessantly, Chu Huer was delighted but stammered, and Xie Erhu told a few words about his experiences and then translated them.

Just bragging, they can talk about anything, including the geography of mountains and rivers, tactics of leading troops, methods of looting, ways of attacking cities, the quality of horses, and clothing taste.

Of course, the main topic is how he messed up the world before he met Liu Chengzong.

It made Chu Huer find the long-lost feeling of home.

As they chatted, they came to the topic of the Later Jin Taiji proclaiming himself emperor. Chu Huer slammed the table and shouted in the Oirat dialect of Chinese taught by Teacher Zhou of Tianshan: "If Taiji can be called emperor, why can't the Khan be called emperor!"

Xie Erhu and Luo Rucai were so scared that they grabbed Chu Huer's arms on each side and pushed him back to his seat.

Talking about this, are we still going to have the New Year’s Eve dinner?

Fortunately, Chu Huer's Chinese was a proper dialect, and Liu Chengzong had to ask him to speak slowly without an interpreter.

This guy slammed the table and stood up, talking so fast that no one could understand him. Everyone thought he was having a fight with someone.

Liu Shizi rolled up the sleeves of his leather-yesagon robe, intending to beat him again.

Later, when he heard Xie Erhu running up to him and whispering the translation, he put down his sleeves, smiled and pretended not to hear.

He is not Huang Taiji, who was born into a feudal aristocratic family. His father Nurhaci has already done what the feudal tribes can do to the utmost.

All the wars fought after he ascended the throne, including the conquests of the Ming, Mongolia and Korea, were invasions and looting, and the nobles who held the Eight Banners were the vested interests of the Later Jin.

Therefore, whether Huang Taiji proclaimed himself emperor or not, the people in power and in charge were all the leaders of the Eight Banners. Even after the conquest of Mongolia, Korea, and the Ming Dynasty, these people were still the ones who reaped the benefits.

Liu Chengzong was different.

Founding a country, becoming a king, or becoming an emperor is for the purpose of distributing benefits, not just for impulse or for fun. As long as Chu Huer made a mistake in the Marshal's Office, Liu Chengzong didn't think it was necessary to care about him as long as there was no big problem.

It doesn't matter if this guy is stupid, he is the only one who has his own talents and enough room to use them.

In Liu Shizi's mind, Chu Huer is just a feudal lord specially used for Tai Mengwei's westward conquest. His virtues are not important.

As long as he can fight and does not cause harm in traditional Han and Mongolian areas, it doesn't matter how much of a bastard he is north of the Tianshan Mountains. In fact, the more bastard he is to the enemy, the better.

It's impossible to get a group of good men and women to go to a cold and bitter place to open up territory, right?

Although Liu Chengzong gave the military and civilians under the Marshal's Office a fifteen-day holiday, he became busy the next day.

On the first day of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Liu Chengzong first accepted congratulations from his officers at the Prince of Qin's Mansion, and then he took the officers and officials to visit twelve camps, distributing rewards to the soldiers and wishing them a happy New Year.

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, he took his teacher Cheng and I to the Shaanxi Military Equipment Bureau in the city.

The name was changed by Liu Chengzong. It was previously called the Military Equipment Bureau, but the responsibilities and powers were the same.

This military equipment bureau was established in the third year of Jiajing's reign. It was set up and built on the advice of Yang Qin, the imperial envoy of the Qing army, Yan Hong, the eunuch in charge of the garrison, and Wang Wei, the governor of Shaanxi.

The specifications are very high.

Liu Chengzong knew this because there was a monument erected outside the Military Equipment Bureau, which explained the historical background and reasons for the establishment of the Military Equipment Bureau.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the military equipment and miscellaneous manufacturing bureaus of local garrisons were responsible for repairing weapons and armor. Traditional cold weapons were only manufactured when the superiors gave the task.

Normal swords, bows, guns, crossbows, armor, and battle jackets, as well as weapons, military equipment, needlework, and saddles and reins, all belong to the inner treasury and are managed by the eunuchs.

Outside, there was an armor factory under the Ministry of War, which was managed by Langguan.

As for the production of firearms, only the Neiku Bingzhang and Junqi Bureau cast them in the inner palace. Their importance was the same as that of plaques and tokens. This was the so-called sharp weapon that could not be shown to others.

It was not until the Zhengtong period that military pressure on the border increased and the weapons manufactured by the imperial court could no longer meet daily needs. The court then authorized the border garrisons to manufacture their own firearms, such as bronze cannons and pistols.

By the beginning of the Jiajing period, the military equipment of the local garrisons in Shaanxi had begun to manufacture firearms such as rockets, muskets, and cannons in addition to conventional cold weapons, but it was still in the barbaric growth stage, with each garrison making its own weapons, with no unified management and no supervision from top to bottom.

In order to change this situation, integrate Shaanxi's firearms manufacturing technology and ensure the quality of the output of military weapons, the Qing army censors, garrison eunuchs and governors in Shaanxi proposed to the court to establish this military weapons bureau.

It was not until the sixth year of the Jiajing reign that the Military Equipment Bureau located in the city of Xi'an was completed.

The core idea behind its establishment is that the politics of the world lies in the law, and the law of the world lies in the people.

Therefore, we pay special attention to the division of responsibilities and powers and the supervision procedures.

The main officials of the Military Equipment Bureau are the Ambassador, Deputy Ambassador, City Director, and Engineering Director.

Among them, the ambassador was of the ninth rank, and the remaining three were not of the highest rank.

However, it had jurisdiction over the military equipment bureaus of the four guards in Xi'an, each of which had a warden who was a thousand households strong.

At the same time, there was also a supervisor who served as the patrol officer or the military commander.

These officials form a pattern of mutual restraint and supervision.

If the Arsenal does not perform its duties conscientiously, the responsibility lies with the institute; if there are problems with the materials, the responsibility lies with the municipal department; if there are problems with the quality of the equipment, the responsibility lies with the engineering department.

If there is a problem in any work link, the supervisor will be held responsible.

It was the establishment of this military equipment bureau that enabled Liu Tianhe, the commander-in-chief of the three northwestern borders during the Jiajing period, to provide the three borders with 4,800 chariots and 9,300 wrought iron Portuguese cannons, thus completing the replacement of the northwestern border army's military equipment and improvement of its tactics in a very short period of time.

Liu Chengzong took advantage of the craftsmen's holiday to inspect the General Administration of Military Equipment. In fact, his original intention was the same as that of Shaanxi officials when they proposed to set up this Military Equipment Bureau.

It is time to reintegrate Shaanxi's military weapons manufacturing industry.

The military industry of the Marshal's Office is very weak compared to its current size which accounts for half of the country.

But this is not a problem with their military industry, otherwise it would be reflected in their military during the Eastern Expedition.

On the contrary, it was the extremely rapid development of the Marshal's Office's military industry compared to the Hehuang region that enabled them to successfully capture the two provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

But after that, the rapidly expanding territory and army made the Marshal's Office busy and chaotic, and the raw materials, production capacity and supply could not keep up.

There is no way. The standard equipment style of the Marshal’s Army is different from that of the Ming Army.

Xining Prefecture, which Liu Chengzong ran the longest, was capable of full-scale mass production.

Corning Mansion, headed by Liu Guoneng, can produce a large number of accessories, but because the transportation is too difficult, they have no plans to manufacture finished products in large quantities.

Gansu, where Huang Shengxiao was stationed, was able to produce a small amount of muskets and artillery.

At the same time, the Lintao Prefecture, which was presided over by my teacher Cheng I, was very ambitious and surpassed the Xining Prefecture in terms of resources and planning.

It is just that it suffers from insufficient operating time. It has various equipment manufacturing methods, but its production capacity cannot match that of Xining in a short period of time.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong's military equipment now mainly relies on captured weapons and tricks.

Fortunately, the quality of their makeshift and fooling around was pretty good. They had captured too much equipment from the Ming army. If they didn't have a thousand-jin cannon, they would use a large general. If they didn't have enough heavy guns, they would use small Portuguese guns and bird guns to supplement them.

And you can also pick the good ones to use.

But even so, the pressure I am under as a teacher is very great.

Therefore, just after the Chinese New Year, he could not wait to offer Liu Chengzong the suggestion of unified management of the Military Equipment Bureau of the Marshal's Office, and he also took Liu Chengzong to the General Administration of Military Equipment to see the management methods there.

"General, the Marshal's Office should also set up military equipment divisions in each prefecture, with ambassadors, deputy ambassadors, market divisions, and engineering divisions. Each division should have a supervisor, who should be a military officer. Another supervisor should be a military officer."

As he spoke, Shi Chengwo raised his hand and pointed at the ground beneath his feet: "The branch office is under the jurisdiction of the General Administration of Military Equipment, and is under the supervision of the Gongya. The three parties supervise it."

"They will all be granted the rules and regulations of the Xining Prefecture Military Equipment Bureau. In this way, in two years, the military equipment of the Marshal's Mansion will be sufficient to support the Marshal in his fight for the world."

The Xining Prefecture Military Equipment Bureau refers to the Xining Guard Military Equipment Bureau and the Jurwan Arsenal.

The complete set of workshops and factories for various crafts and military equipment there have been developed very completely, basically reaching the limit of what can be developed there at present.

But if the plan that Master Cheng and I mentioned can be implemented, then Lintao, Gongchang, Xi'an, Hanzhong and other places will soon surpass the Xining Arsenal with their advantages in craftsmen and resources.

However, due to population limitations in some places, it may be difficult to reach the planned production capacity as scheduled.

After all, the damage caused by the war to Shaanxi over the years is immeasurable.

Liu Chengzong looked around the buildings of the Military Equipment Bureau and the Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau, nodded and approved Shi Chengwo's proposal, and said, "Let's do as you say. We will first send people to various prefectures and counties to consider the location of setting up the Military Equipment Branch, and then give a budget to the Household Department."

When he finished speaking, he looked up and found that Shi Cheng was hesitant to speak, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I would also like to ask the commander-in-chief to allow the yamen to recruit one person."

"Who?"

The master said to me: "King Zheng of Sanyuan."

Good morning!