Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2396: Changes (XV) Wang Gongchang

In the southwest corner of the northern city of the capital, Wanggongchang was still under construction.

This Wanggong Factory was under the Ministry of Industry, and was responsible for the research, manufacture, storage and transportation of gunpowder for the Beijing Camp. Nowadays, the Ming army has more firearms than swords and guns, so the amount of gunpowder used has also increased. Not only that, the various construction departments of the Ministry of Industry, the production and construction corps under the Five Military Governors' Office, etc., also need to use it for mining. Therefore, Wanggong Factory was greatly expanded during the years of aiding Korea to fight against the Japanese pirates, and the production scale was further expanded.

Gunpowder will ignite when exposed to fire and is extremely dangerous. Because it cannot withstand open flames, work is not allowed at night. But now the amount used is huge and production cannot be delayed. So on weekdays, craftsmen and hired workers have to report before daybreak and start work as soon as it gets light.

At this moment, everyone was queuing up to be searched. Anything that could make fire was not allowed to be brought in, even ironware was not allowed to be brought in for fear of sparks. If found in the search, the person would be beaten.

As they were busy as usual, they suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves not far away. A group of soldiers and horses were escorting an official sedan chair along the road. When they got closer, they were very well behaved, extinguished the lanterns and torches, and several armored soldiers surrounded a person who got out of the sedan chair and walked towards the gate.

These fully armed soldiers brandished their unsheathed goose-feather swords and shouted, "The Imperial Stables are doing their business, everyone else please get out of the way!" Upon hearing this, everyone quickly moved to the side of the road, fearing that if they were too slow to do so, they would be hit a few times.

When they reached the door, the guard came down the steps and greeted them, saying, "Greetings, gentlemen. Which gentleman is visiting our factory? What can I do for you?"

The leader raised the sign in his hand and said, "Quickly inform your factory supervisor, the Imperial Household Supervisor, and the Imperial Horse Supervisor to come and convey the emperor's order!"

Upon hearing this, the gatekeeper dared not delay and quickly led everyone to the flower hall to sit down and serve tea. Someone had already rushed to the signing room to inform the factory supervisor Wang Yao.

Wang Yao was worried when he learned that Li Wenjin was coming to visit him suddenly, so he hurried to the flower hall. He saw a middle-aged man in a red python robe sitting in the middle seat. He had a white face and no beard, and an extraordinary demeanor. It was Li Wenjin, the eunuch who was in charge of the Silijian and the Imperial Stables.

Wang Yao hurriedly took a few steps, lifted his robe, and knelt down to greet him: "This servant greets Grandpa Guard, I hope you are well."

Li Wenjin smiled slightly, put down his teacup, nodded and said, "Xiaoyaozi, there is no need to be polite. We came here early this morning to convey the emperor's oral instructions."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yao quickly stood up, straightened his clothes, and then knelt on the ground again, bowing and saying, "Your servant Wang Yao respectfully accepts the Holy Instructions. Long live the Emperor!"

Li Wenjin waved his hand and said with a smile: "Little Yaozi, get up. Today I am just conveying an oral instruction, not an imperial decree to you, so there is no need to perform such a grand ceremony. Come, come, sit down and have some tea, and I will tell you in detail." After saying that, he gave a wink, and a young eunuch from the Imperial Stables came over to help Wang Yao get up.

Wang Yaolian said he dared not, and took advantage of someone to help him, and stuffed a Ming Liansuo silver note and a few taels of silver into the hands of the young eunuch. The young eunuch did not change his expression, and stuffed the silver into his sleeve, and pretended to add tea for Li Wenjin, pressing the silver note under the teacup. Li Wenjin took the opportunity to serve the tea, and slipped the silver note into his sleeve. He could even see the face value of the silver note, which was a large note of 500 taels.

The two of them understood each other, but Li Wenjin's smile was more friendly. He saw Wang Yao bending over and standing by, and smiled and said, "Little Yaozi, there is no need to be like this. It's really not a big deal. I just missed you for a long time, so I came to see you... sit down and talk."

Wang Yao bowed slightly and said with a smile, "How can I sit down in front of you? It's too impolite. Grandpa, if the emperor has any instructions, just give them to me. I will do my best. However, if I want to do the job well, I have to ask you for your instructions, so as not to be careless and make trouble for the emperor."

Li Wenjin was very satisfied with his attitude. He nodded with a smile and waved his hand: "You guys go wait outside." Upon hearing the order, the entourage hurried out of the hall and guarded outside the door to prevent others from approaching.

Li Wenjin then turned to look at Wang Yao, who was staring at him eagerly, and chuckled, "How much gunpowder does Wang Gongchang have in stock now?"

Wang Yao had expected this and quickly replied, "Let me know, Grandpa. Today, Wanggong Factory has more than 296,400 kilograms of various gunpowder in stock, of which 60% is for artillery, 30% is for guns, and 10% is for other categories."

Li Wenjin was stunned for a moment, and said in surprise: "Why are cannons used the most? I remember that in the past, guns were used the most."

Wang Yao explained, "Grandpa, you don't know that some military towns that use a lot of gunpowder have replaced the Wanli three-style muskets first. The guns are very expensive and require a new type of gunpowder, which is said to have the least smoke and the strongest firepower. However, Wanggong Factory has not yet obtained the manufacturing method for this gunpowder, and only Jinghua Ordnance Factory can produce it. Therefore, the production of gunpowder for muskets is now less.

As for gunpowder for cannons, we now produce more because Beijing has switched to producing new gunpowder for muskets. As a result, Wanggongchang has more gunpowder for cannons than for muskets. "

Li Wenjin suddenly realized, and said to himself, "So that's it... Humph, I guess the new gunpowder for the guns is more expensive, and Jinghua Ordnance is too lazy to compete with you for the order for the guns, right?"

Wang Yao smiled bitterly and said, "There is nothing we can do about it. After all, behind Jinghua is the old man Yuanfu. How dare we, Wang Gongchang, compete with Jinghua?"

"Humph, you dare not fight with him..." Li Wenjin sneered twice, but did not continue. Instead, he changed the subject and said, "Let's not talk about these nonsense for now. Let me ask you, how many people can this gunpowder supply?"

Wang Yao was slightly startled, and said hesitantly: "I wonder if what Grandpa meant by "enough" is the base number?" Li Wenjin was also stunned, and asked back: "What is the base number?"

Although it was a bit outrageous that the chief eunuch in charge of the Imperial Stables, who held the military power of the Jing Army, did not even know this common sense, Wang Yao dared not show any sarcasm - he was not calling Li Wenjin "grandfather" randomly, the eunuchs had strict rules in the inner court, and this "grandfather" meant that in the inner court where "adopting father" was the basis for distinguishing who was one of their own, Li Wenjin was the adoptive father of Wang Yao's adoptive father!

Wang Yao explained carefully: "The term base number is a logistical calculation method created by Yuan Fu when he first led the army. Different firearms have different measurements. For example, for infantry muskets, one hundred rounds are considered a base number, but for artillery, thirty rounds are considered a base number.

Grandpa just asked about gunpowder for the gun, which must be referring to the infantry musket, which can be divided into two categories: the Wanli Type 2 musket, which was the most commonly equipped, used 3.2 grams of gunpowder per shot, but the newly equipped Wanli Type 3 musket only needed 3 grams of gunpowder because the gunpowder was better. However, my Wanggong Factory does not produce new gunpowder, only the old gunpowder used by the Wanli Type 2 is in stock.

Just now I said that the gunpowder in Wanggongchang’s stockpile accounted for about 30%, which is about 89,000 kilograms. If we take the base distribution amount as an example, it can be used by 27,000 to 28,000 troops.”

Li Wenjin didn't care how Wang Yao calculated it, but asked in surprise: "Wang Gongchang is so large, but the stockpile of gunpowder is only enough to distribute less than 30,000 people?"

Wang Yao smiled apologetically, "Grandpa, you don't know that although the production capacity of Wanggong Factory has increased a lot in the past few years, Wanggong Factory is in charge of production after all, and the storage is settled monthly... Ah, to be frank, it has to be transferred to the Arsenal every month, so the inventory left in Wanggong Factory does not exceed one month's production."

Li Wenjin suddenly realized again: "Oh... I see, I see. It seems fortunate that we came at the right time, otherwise in a few days, wouldn't your luck be gone again?"

"Grandpa Ming Jian Wanli, that's exactly what happened." Wang Yao quickly replied, and then asked tentatively: "Could it be that the emperor wants to use the gunpowder in the factory? Logically speaking, this matter should be reported to the Arsenal Department of the Ministry of War..."

"Why would we come to you when we can go to the Arsenal?" Li Wenjin waved his hand and said, "Zhou Yong and Song Yingchang are all followers of Gao Rixin. How difficult is it for our Tengxiang Four Guards to get some gunpowder?

When I tried to reason with them, they said that the capital city had the Imperial Guard deployed and was as solid as Mount Tai... What a joke. The Imperial Guards were deployed to defend the capital city from outside, but isn't it the job of our Jingjun to defend the capital city from inside? Your Imperial Guards wanted gunpowder, but our Jingjun didn't want it?"

Wang Yao agreed with Li Wenjin's idea, but...

He asked carefully, "Grandpa, what you said is reasonable. Only when the inside and outside are coordinated can the defense of the capital be as solid as a rock. How can we only focus on the outside and not the inside? But...if we break the rules, and the Ministry of War investigates, the Wang Gongchang will not be able to bear the blame. Grandpa, is this really the emperor's oral order?"

"What's the matter, Xiao Yaozi, do you suspect that our family is forging the imperial edict?" Li Wenjin narrowed his eyes and glanced at Wang Yao.

Wang Yao was greatly shocked, and he knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "How dare I, how dare I."

"What is our status? It's not surprising that anyone in this world can forge an imperial edict, but it's impossible for us." Li Wenjin snorted and said, "There are some things that the emperor can't do too obviously for Gao Rixin's sake, but the emperor also knows what the Jing army needs, so he temporarily transferred troops from your Wang Gongchang by oral order. In this way, unless Gao Rixin insists on explaining it to the emperor, the Ministry of War will have to pretend to be deaf and dumb and pretend nothing happened... Do you understand?"

Wang Yaocai was of a low rank, how could he understand? How could he dare to understand? But since "Grandpa" said that this was the emperor's order, what could he say? He could only obey orders.

"Yes, yes, I understand. I understand." Wang Yao could only put aside his doubts, gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, and replied: "Since it is the emperor's order, you can use the inventory of Wang Gongchang as you like."

Li Wenjin was very satisfied. After thinking for a while, he explained, "That's the thing. But you just heard it. After all, the emperor doesn't want to ruin his relationship with Gao Rixin, so you don't have to make a big fuss. Just quietly transport the gunpowder to the four guards of Tengxiang."

Just as Wang Yao was about to agree, Li Wenjin remembered something and quickly added, "Oh, by the way, don't go north from Chengtian Gate, so as to avoid passing through Zhaohui Jinggongfang. Go directly north to Deshengmen, turn right, go around the inner city and deliver it to the Wine and Vinegar Bureau. We will send someone to the Wine and Vinegar Bureau to pick up the goods."

Why should we avoid Zhaohui Jinggongfang? Because the Jingguogong Mansion is located in this place. Bypassing Zhaohui Jinggongfang is essentially bypassing the Jingguogong Mansion.

Wang Yao nodded repeatedly and replied, "Don't worry, Grandpa. This amount of gunpowder sounds like a lot, but if it is packed well, it will only take up more than ten trucks. If we transport the small ones separately, others will think we are going to the Wine and Vinegar Bureau to load New Year's goods. Don't worry, Grandpa."

Li Wenjin was very satisfied. After thinking about it, he seemed to have missed nothing. He nodded and stood up. He walked forward to help Wang Yao up personally, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Good job, good job! You have done a great job. I will transfer you back to the Imperial Horse Administration next year and let you manage the Imperial Store in Tianjin."

Wang Yao's eyes lit up, and he thanked him profusely. The Imperial Store in Tianjin was a good place for the imperial treasury to sell "excess tribute" overseas. It was so rich that it might not be worthwhile to exchange it for a provincial eunuch!

Li Wenjin laughed loudly and left in style. As he walked out of the door, he looked at the overcast sky and the snow dancing in the wind, and muttered to himself: "Holding power, how beautiful it is... How can a man give it up?"
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