I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 17 Contradictions
Due to Zhu Youxiao's special instructions, Xu Guangqi's question book was placed on Zhu Youxiao's desk the next day.

He looked through it and found out that last year, the Minister of Punishment, Huang Kezuan, and the Governor of Taining, Chen Liangbi, supervised the construction of the Luzon Bronze Cannon (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Hongyi Cannon) in the Beijing Camp, and sent part of the cannon to Liaodong to defend against the enemy.

It seems that I really underestimated the importance these feudal bureaucrats attached to artillery. Their knowledge of artillery was indeed higher than the level at that time.

Xu Guangqi handed over all the remaining Hongyi cannons in the Beijing camp to the Ordnance Bureau, and asked him to use them as samples to manufacture and improve them in large quantities.

The cabinet voted to agree, and I also thought it was feasible. How rotten the Beijing Camp was now, these artillery pieces were useless.

So he drew a circle and praised it, and then asked Wang An to quickly send the title book to Xu Guangqi through the cabinet.

······
At this time, Xu Guangqi was worrying about matters at the Arms Bureau.

Originally, the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry was responsible for the ordnance manufacturing in the capital. It should have been the strongest and largest in terms of quantity and quality.

But today he took his clerk to inspect the warehouses (Wuziku and Guangjiku) under the Ordnance Bureau to check the status of the reserve materials.

The Ordnance Bureau's warehouses have many reserves, among which the Wuzi warehouse stores bows, arrows, armor and other items, and the Guangji warehouse stores sulfur, saltpeter, firearms and other items.

He took a brief look at the account books and physical objects, and found that the situation was extremely unsatisfactory. The quality of the ordnance inside was extremely poor, and the quantity was far less than the prescribed amount.

At the same time, he also counted the number of craftsmen registered in the Ordnance Bureau based on the roster, and the result surprised him.

The scale of the Ordnance Bureau's manufacturing industry is not getting bigger, but showing a trend of getting smaller and smaller.According to his investigation, when the Ordnance Bureau was established, there were originally 3589 craftsmen, but now, the number of craftsmen is only 986.

Xu Guangqi was frightened by the large number of vacancies. He questioned Zong Chengzhi, the director of the Arms Bureau, about this matter.

But Zong Chengzhi was ultimately helpless.

It is only said that the Ordnance Bureau manufactures it, and the weapons in reserve are mainly responsible for supplying the Beijing camp.

At present, the number of soldiers and horses in the Beijing camp is seriously insufficient, there are many empty names and the training is perfunctory.Therefore, the only requirement for weapons is "availability", not quality.

Of course, the rest were for shoddy goods, cheating, corruption and other reasons, which he could have guessed even without mentioning Xu Guangqi.

The low requirements for weapons led to a reduction in the quality of manufacturing. At the same time, for craftsmen, they had to go to the Ordnance Bureau to perform corvee service for three months at a time, which resulted in many craftsmen being overwhelmed and many deserters.So much so that this is the current situation.

After Xu Guangqi learned about it, he had no choice for the time being. He just followed the original instructions and gathered the cannon-casting craftsmen to form a separate artillery bureau to specifically cast Hongyi artillery.

He had also learned from Western missionaries earlier that the West paid high salaries to craftsmen who were proficient in cannon casting.To encourage them to learn and improve technology.

Xu Guangqi also wanted to do this, but the 10 taels allocated by Zhu Youxiao were originally insufficient for casting artillery.

Now I can only aggrieve the craftsmen, wait until the cannon is successfully cast, and then ask for rewards from the emperor.

Just as he was discussing the establishment of the Artillery Bureau with the officials of the Ordnance Bureau, an urgent document from the cabinet was sent to Xu Guangqi.

After he opened it and read it, he casually wrote Zhu Youxiao's reply, and then said with a smile:

"The Emperor has approved the request. Zong Cheng has decreed that you will send someone to the capital camp later with the approval document to bring the Hongyi cannon that was cast in the capital camp last year to Guangjiku."

Zong Chengzhi read the approval and quickly sent people to the capital camp.

The Jingshi Jingying is also called the Three Great Battalions, including the Five Army Battalion, the Three Thousand Battalion and the Shenji Battalion.

In normal times, the Fifth Military Battalion practices camp formations, the Three Thousand Battalion practices patrolling, and the Shenji Battalion practices firearms.

But now the Beijing Camp is completely ruined. The three major battalions plus the Warrior Camp and other battalions now have a total of more than 13 people.However, since they have not practiced fighting for many years, the number of people registered is seriously inconsistent with the actual number.

According to the results of the inventory of the Beijing camp in the 46th year of Wanli, it was found that there were more than [-] people registered.

Less than one-third of those who can actually take up training are only half of those who are able to take up their posts.After Chen Liangbi, the newly appointed governor of the capital camp, Taining Marquis, took office last year, he was determined to reform. He wanted to change the current situation of the capital camp, repair weapons, and reform tactics.

So he made an appointment with Huang Kezuan and asked him to hire a cannon-casting craftsman. He provided the space and funds for the Jingying camp to supervise the construction of the Hongyi cannon, and prepared it for the Jingying camp to use for training.

However, the clerk of the Ordnance Bureau did not know where exactly the Hongyi cannon was located in the capital camp, so he had to go to the "Rongzheng Hall" in the capital camp first.

The Rongzheng Hall was originally the agency responsible for managing the Beijing camp during the Jiajing period in order to prevent eunuchs from occupying the Beijing camp and rectifying military affairs.One of the military ministers was ordered to serve as "Governor of Beijing Camp and Military Affairs", and the current one is Chen Liangbi, Marquis of Taining.

Chen Liangbi was not usually in charge, and there was usually nothing going on in the capital camp. But today he had something to talk to the Marquis of Xining, so he stayed in the inner hall of the Rongzheng Hall for a while before getting ready to leave.

The clerk of the Ordnance Bureau went to the Secretary's Office with the approval document and asked for the handover of the Hongyi cannon. After the Secretary's office saw that the verification was correct, he sent someone to talk to the clerk of the Ordnance Bureau to hand over the cannon to the Shenji Battalion.

Chen Liangbi saw that it was getting late and was getting ready to get off work at midnight. When he came out of the inner hall, he saw the clerk writing documents, so he asked casually

"Is there anything you can do today?"

When the clerk saw Chen Liangbi asking, he immediately stopped writing and said:

"The Marquis has only two things to do today, both of which are related to the Ministry of Works. One is that the Battalion and Maintenance Department of the Ministry of Works sent someone to say that the late emperor's mausoleum is almost finished. In order to speed up the progress, five hundred more sergeants need to be dispatched."

Every time the palace was repaired, soldiers had to be transferred from the Beijing camp to work on the mausoleum, which seriously disrupted the training in the Beijing camp. This had become an unwritten rule, and Chen Liangbi had nothing to do.

"Well, where's the other one?"

"Another thing is that the Ordnance Bureau of the Yu Heng Division of the Ministry of Industry sent a clerk over and said that he wanted to take away the Hongyi cannon that was newly cast last year. When the humble official saw that he had the approval document from the cabinet, he approved it and sent someone to hand it over. ”

"What?" Chen Liangbi couldn't help but be surprised. After jointly supervising the construction of the Hongyi cannon and Huang Kezuan, it was only reported to the Ministry of War, and no one else knew about it.

How did the Ordnance Bureau know that the Ministry of War approved that six units be sent outside Liaodong, and the rest were kept for themselves to reorganize and train in the Beijing camp.

Now if the Ordnance Bureau takes the cabinet approval and takes it away, then my previous efforts will be in vain.

"Send someone to stop him now and tell him that the Commander-in-Chief of Hongyi Cannon has other important matters and it is not appropriate for the Ordnance Supervisor to move away."

"Master Marquis, the emperor also approved the approval document of his cabinet. The emperor blamed it because he was afraid..." The clerk would be in trouble.

"I also know about this, but you need to send someone to stop him first. I will go to the palace to see the emperor tomorrow and explain the reason." Chen Liangbi waved his hand.

Seeing Chen Liangbi's insistence, the secretary's office quickly sent people to Shenji Camp to stop the people from the Arms Bureau.

Chen Liangbi watched the matter end and walked out of the Rongzheng Hall. After some thought, he asked someone to tell the Marquis of Xining that he had something to do and couldn't go.

Then we went in the direction of Huang Kezuan Mansion.

Fortunately, the Hongyi cannon weighs a lot, ranging from a few hundred to a thousand kilograms, so it takes a lot of effort to move it.

Therefore, the people from the Rongzheng Department rushed to stop the people from the Arms Bureau before the Hongyi cannon could be moved away.

When the clerk from the Ordnance Bureau returned to the Ordnance Bureau, he told Xu Guangqi the whole story.

Xu Guangqi also wondered why Chen Liangbi stopped him. Did he think he would take away his credit?But no matter what, the artillery casting cannot be stopped.

Now that the matter has come to this, all we can do is submit a letter to the Emperor for a ruling.

　Ask for recommendations, collect!
　　


(End of this chapter)