prosperous age

In Wei Guangde's office, several people discussed the Ministry of Works' affairs for more than an hour.

The Ministry of Works had a plan in advance regarding how much money it had each year, how much it could obtain from the Ministry of Revenue, and how it would spend it.

Now, Wei Guangde is demanding improvements to the musket manufacturing process, including lengthening and thickening the barrel, which will certainly be unfamiliar to the craftsmen at first.

This is not something that can be easily overlooked simply because people are not used to it. This means that the Ministry of Works may slow down the production of muskets in the near future because the success rate of the barrels will decrease.

"The current power of the arquebus is sufficient for use on the Japanese battlefield. Should we adjust some workshops to switch to producing this more powerful arquebus?"

Jiang Zhi thought of the document he had seen from the Ministry of War a couple of days ago, which required him to hand over muskets and cannons to the armory within a specified time, and he felt a bit of a headache.

"We still need to prioritize the Japanese battlefield, where firearms are being used up in large quantities and need to be replenished in a timely manner."

Shunqing's words make sense. The Ministry of Works does not need to immediately switch all workshops to produce new arquebuses. Given the needs of the newspaper's eastern expeditionary force, the excess production capacity can be converted to produce them.

Once the war in Japan is over, the other workshops will be replaced.

Furthermore, your three-barreled guns also need to be adjusted; reduce workshops and output, and reassign all craftsmen to produce matchlock guns.

Multi-barreled firearms were also researched in the West, but they were eventually abandoned, and the focus was mainly on muskets and cannons.

And facts have proven that mastering these two weapons is the key to success.

Under Wei Guangde's intervention, the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works had long since stopped the research and development of many flashy but impractical firearms, including so-called rocket designs like the "rush" rocket.

In fact, these methods were originally devised by military commanders in border towns, mainly because there was a shortage of archers in the army, which was a necessary measure.

The training time for archers was too long. In the past, at least one archer in every hundred-household unit of the Ming army was a squad leader, which meant that they accounted for about 10%.

However, in recent years, the number of archers has only reached 30-40%, or even 20-30%, of the normal archers.

Therefore, after the Chenghua era, many Ming generals came up with the idea of ​​using rockets to supplement the shortage of archers.

After learning from this experience, the Ministry of Works actually went on to develop such weapons.

The armory of the Beijing garrison contained hundreds of such weapons.

However, it's really not easy to use. The shots are inaccurate and just fly around randomly, though they look scary.

At Wei Guangde's instruction, these things were naturally no longer being invested in and production had already ceased.

"And what about cannons? Between the cannons cast by the imperial court and Western cannons, which is stronger?"

After discussing the muskets, Wei Guangde began asking about cannons.

"In terms of artillery, our technology is actually no worse than that of the barbarians, especially in small and medium-sized general cannons. We use a lot of iron casting, while the barbarians can only use bronze casting."

In the past, the artillery of the barbarians was more mobile; they would place the cannons on gun carriages for easy to tow and move.

My Great Ming Dynasty, however, is accustomed to using pedestals, which means that the cannons need to be readjusted every time they are moved.

However, the Ministry of Works has taken note of this and has copied the artillery carriage for testing, believing it to be no worse than the cannons of the barbarians.

Jiang Zhi spoke up.

"I remember that in the early years, Nanjing tested the difference between the cast cannon and the trench cannon. After handling the cannon, the accuracy was still a bit worse."

Zhang Xueyan suddenly reminded him, "I remember they said it might have been caused by a deviation when the craftsmen cast the cannon barrel. I wonder if that's been resolved now?"

When Zhang Xueyan served as the governor of Liaodong, he naturally had a lot of contact with firearms and heard a lot of news.

Zhang Ke nodded and looked at Jiang Zhi.

"I will have the craftsmen do their best to solve this problem, but I think the reason for the inaccuracy lies more with the Ministry of War."

The gunners selected by the Ministry of War don't know how to use the aiming instruments made by the Ministry of Works. Our craftsmen can't teach them even after teaching them for a long time. That's why they can't aim accurately; they can only rely on the gunners' experience to fight.

Jiang Zhi then pointed out the shortcomings of the Ministry of War, indicating that the inaccuracy was not entirely due to problems with the cannons cast by the Ministry of Works, but rather with the gunners.

The group went back and forth, undermining each other, while Wei Guangde listened quietly.

Finally, Wei Guangde understood and waved his hand to interrupt the conversation, saying, "I understand now. The cannons cast by the Ministry of Works are indeed inferior to those of the barbarians, right?"

When Wei Guangde said this, he looked at Jiang Zhi.

"Yes, in order to speed up the casting of artillery, we cast it in sections and then weld them together."

However, we have now mastered the integral casting technology, using the lost-wax method to cast the entire gun body, thus reducing defects in the gun barrel.

What we are currently trying is a composite casting method using an iron core and copper body, which we believe will soon solve the problem of cannon casting.

Jiang Zhi quickly explained.

"Standards, the key is standards. When artillery is manufactured, the most important thing is that no matter which batch of artillery it is, the standards must be similar."

In terms of process and materials, consistency must be maintained.

As Shunqing just mentioned, the iron ore comes from all over the country, but the iron produced can be of the same quality.

It cannot be said that iron ore from different places will produce different iron products.

If all else fails, select a single deposit of iron ore and use it entirely to cast a specific type of cannon, ensuring complete uniformity.

Wei Guangde suddenly interrupted and said.

Standardization can be considered the foundation of modern industry.

The origins of standardization can be traced back to 1798, when it was proposed by American Eli Whitney during the manufacture of rifles.

However, around the 15th century, Europeans were already aware of this.

Most industrial bases begin with military equipment. When France formed its artillery units in the 15th century, it mounted bronze cannons on horse-drawn carriages for rapid deployment.

Improved loading and accuracy, increased efficiency of breech-loading smoothbore guns, gun carriages and aiming instruments, diversified ammunition, and enhanced lethality of iron shells and shot.

Moreover, they have consciously adopted unified standards for production and use, which significantly improves the rate of fire and battlefield adaptability.

One of the key reasons why France was able to maintain its status as a major European power for a long time was its advanced artillery technology.

They were conscious of it, but they didn't extract the core essence.

Wei Guangde's idea, though a clumsy one, was the most effective method of the time.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty had no chemistry, and Europe was also very rudimentary, lacking the ability to analyze the composition of iron.

However, the iron content varies greatly from place to place, and even with skilled craftsmen, it is difficult to refine iron with a similar composition.

However, if the ore comes from the same place, such differences will be smaller.

In the casting of firearms, the differences in materials used in those days had a significant impact on the quality of the firearms.

After finishing his business with the Ministry of Works, Wei Guangde didn't care what Jiang Zhi would do next. He had made his point clear, so he turned to Zhang Ke and said seriously, "The job of a gunner is actually more troublesome than that of an archer."

Archers, I suppose. They select tall, long-armed soldiers from the army and train them diligently; they can become archers in two or three years.

But gunners need to have a certain level of knowledge.

Just as Wei Guangde finished speaking, Zhang Ke opened his mouth as if to say something.

Come to think of it, although there were many military graduates in the Ming Dynasty, they were all sons of hereditary military officials and came from official families, so they were naturally literate.

For ordinary military households, even getting enough to eat was a problem, let alone pursuing education.

However, Wei Guangde did not let Zhang Ke interrupt, but continued to speak on his own: "In the past, Uncle Da and I promoted schools all over the country so that children from poor families could study. I remember that at that time, we asked the Ministry of War to strengthen the construction of schools in various garrisons. Has the Ministry of War done a good job?"

In the Ming Dynasty, after the establishment of the garrison system, Zhu Yuanzhang initially attached great importance to it, not only allocating land but also providing various preferential treatments, including schools within the army.

However, after the military settlements fell into disrepair, even if there were schools, no military households' children would go there to study, and the military schools naturally failed as well.

After promoting schools among the people, Wei Guangde also instructed the Ministry of War to restore the system in the military garrisons and rebuild the dilapidated schools.

At that time, Tan Lun was still in charge of the Ministry of War. But clearly, this rule was not implemented by the Ministry of War, or rather, not seriously implemented.

"The gunner is someone who is good at arithmetic and uses aiming instruments to quickly aim at the target and fire."

The soldiers were mostly roughnecks, so of course they couldn't fire artillery accurately and could only rely on experience.

But there are few opportunities to fire artillery in the military, and apart from those with exceptional talent, how many can do it well?

When I get back this time, I will quickly select soldiers in the army who can do arithmetic and train them to be artillerymen.

To ensure there are enough people, the military academy must also be opened.

They initially envisioned opening a military academy specifically to train generals, but the Ministry of War ended up sending a bunch of second-generation rich kids there to get their resumes gilded. I won't even go into details; it's all about connections.

But the gunner's profession is different from others; I must do it well.

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Ke and gave him instructions.

It's not that Wei Guangde would fulfill all his requests perfectly just because he used his own people. In fact, he did some things seriously, but he did many things perfunctorily.

Even when Wei Guangde knew something, he didn't mention it for various reasons.

However, at this moment, he couldn't help but complain to the Ministry of War.

"ShanDai, what exactly are you doing all this for?"

Jiang Zhi asked with a puzzled look.

Zhang Ke knew that Wei Guangde planned to sell the firearms cast by the Ministry of Works abroad, especially if a war broke out in Europe. He believed that selling large quantities of weapons abroad would make a lot of money and wouldn't backfire.

After all, Europe was too far away from the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, firearms cannot be used for a long time simply by being carefully maintained; there is a limit to how long they can be used.

Once a firearm has been used a certain number of times, it must be scrapped. This has nothing to do with maintenance; it's just that it's worn out, becomes inaccurate, and is unsafe.

"If the firearms cast by the Ministry of Works meet the standards of the foreign firearms, there may be a chance to sell them to them."

Zhang Ke blurted out the words without thinking.

“Selling firearms? That won’t do. These are vital military weapons; how can they be shown to others so easily?”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhi didn't think twice and immediately replied.

"It's not that we can't sell them; countries like North Korea have bought some."

Zhang Xueyan took it in stride, as the Ministry of Revenue would also receive a share of the profits from the firearms sold, which would go into the national treasury.

The Ming Dynasty sold off a lot of old firearms and also acquired a small number of the newest ones, but the total amount was strictly controlled.

“The barbarians are fighting thousands of miles away, and it would take more than half a year to transport the goods there. What’s the big deal about selling them to them?”

Wei Guangde looked at Jiang Zhi and asked with a smile.

"Barbarians? They can make it themselves, why would they buy it from us?"

Jiang Zhi didn't believe it; most of the firearms the Ming Dynasty had today were learned from the barbarians.

If you can do it yourself, why buy more?

"The scale of the war is too large; their limited production capacity is far from sufficient."

Wei Guangde replied with a light laugh.

Wei Guangde was not lying about this.

The current political system in the West means that their courts don't actually have much money, and they rely on local lords and nobles to bring troops to fight wars.

The taxes the king collected were barely enough to cover his family's expenses and maintain a royal guard.

At this time, European industry was mainly based on private workshops.

Of course, the king would also establish his own armory, order weapons from private workshops, and urgently recruit troops when there was a threat of war, and then distribute the weapons.

However, one point is that Europe actually had the concept of a reserve force at that time.

They will keep the veterans in the military, even during peacetime.

In the event of war, these people can serve as the backbone, and a group of civilians can be recruited to form an army. After simple training, they can be sent to the battlefield.

The size of the standing armies of various countries has always been very small.

The British Navy is actually similar these days.

The king didn't own many warships. When war broke out, he would requisition armed merchant ships. The king would fill the cannon emplacements on the ships, pay them wages, and then they would set sail to fight.

After you finish, give me some money as a token of appreciation.

Of course, it's hard to say whether this set is good or bad.

The Ming Dynasty had a large standing army, but it wasn't very effective.

Because Europe also has this decentralized military production model, Wei Guangde had the idea of ​​smuggling arms to Europe.

Ultimately, if it weren't for the European delegation, Wei Guangde wouldn't have been so knowledgeable about this matter in Europe.

After all, these were originally hearsay from merchants, and who would dare to believe them?

This is a matter of habitual thinking. People subconsciously assume that the outer vassal states are similar to the Ming Dynasty because of its administrative system.

However, by this time, the Burmese military report had already reached Zhang Xueyan's hands, and Jiang Zhi had just finished reading it.

With his limited military knowledge, he naturally couldn't figure it out, so Zhang Ke had to explain it to him.

Youzan Tea simply marked a few locations on the tea table, which gave Jiang Zhi a general idea of ​​what had happened in the West.

"So, the Ministry of Works is to prepare a batch of firearms like those used by the barbarians and find an opportunity to sell them to them."

But what if they don't fight? I remember a couple of years ago, the Pope was the one who called the shots, and all the kings had to listen to him?

Jiang Zhi hesitated before speaking.

“Now some people are unwilling to listen, including Anelia, France, and Prussia. The nobles in the Cologne region have actually raised the banner against the Pope, which is why this war has started.”

Zhang Ke explained.

Because China was ruled by an emperor, when introducing the situation in Europe, the Pope was generally compared to the Ming Dynasty emperor, and the European countries were like feudal states.

However, European states had internal political power, unlike the Ming Dynasty, where the states were only nominally so.

This explanation made the Ming Dynasty officials understand the European political model immediately.

In fact, more than a thousand years ago, China was in a similar situation. It was not until the Han Dynasty that this system was completely abandoned and replaced by the centralized system established by Qin Shi Huang.

What if a fight doesn't break out?

Jiang Zhi still had concerns; it was just a piece of news, and for now it was still a small-scale operation.

"Even if there is no fighting, we can use them ourselves, and the government troops should also be equipped with firearms."

Wei Guangde laughed.

"I understand. I will personally oversee this matter and make sure a batch of excellent firearms is manufactured."

Jiang Zhi spoke up.

"The Ministry of War will then send a letter to Burma, instructing them to send people to Goa and the Philippines to inquire when the previous letter of credence was sent back."

Wei Guangde then thought of the agreement signed between the European delegation and the Ming Dynasty a few years ago; these were the only two countries he could contact. (End of Chapter)