I open a history tutorial class in Daming

Chapter 121 Lift...Lift the Sea Ban?!
The night is getting darker.

When Xu Yungong came out of Song Shen's house, Song Shen asked him to stay overnight. After all, the curfew in the early Ming Dynasty was quite strict. If he was caught accidentally, it would be difficult to escape no matter how noble his status was.

Fortunately, Xu Yungong had an excuse. He now mixed in the three major camps every day and was the son of the Duke of Wei. It was normal for him to have some privileges.

Nowadays, the agency responsible for the capital's public security is called the Bingma Zhihuisi, or Bingmasi for short.

The responsibilities of the Bingmasi were extremely complex. In addition to being responsible for the capital's public security during the day and at night, it was also responsible for fire bans, catching thieves, dredging waterways, maintaining social stability inside and outside the capital, and so on.

The people here include those recruited from the grassroots and naturally some from the military camp.

With Xu Yungong's background, it would be no problem for him to talk to the boss of the Bingmasi, let alone a mere curfew.

After learning all this, Song Shen secretly sighed that the powerful can get away with anything in any era, and he sent Xu Yungong out of his house.

Returning to the study, he logged into the system and sighed as he looked at the drawing he had torn off.

It’s not that he doesn’t believe Xu Yungong.

This young man seems to be a man who values ​​friendship and loyalty, otherwise I wouldn't have known him for so many years.

However, in this day and age, he had to be careful and cautious when using a flintlock rifle, and keep a backup plan for himself.

Although Jinyiwei appeared in the 15th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang had already used it to eliminate Hu Weiyong before it appeared. It is probably called Yiluansi now? There are even records of its related events with Song Lian in history books.

It is said that one day when Zhu Yuanzhang was chatting with Song Lian, he casually asked who were the guests at the banquet hosted by Song Lian's family last night. Song Lian was so scared that he reported his own guest list and dishes. As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled slightly and asked if there was a dish missing. Song Lian was frightened to death at that time.

With such an intelligence network rooted in the homes of hundreds of officials, Song Shen found it hard to believe that the Xu family had not been infiltrated.

And this is also the reason why he insisted on moving out of the Song family, because he had too many secrets and could not live in the Song family which was like a sieve.

In his opinion, he was just a blind and amnesiac eldest grandson of the Song family. Even if he had a good status, as long as he moved out, Zhu Baba would not send someone to squat on the beam of his house, right?
That's too outrageous, it's clearly a waste of resources!

"I don't know if Xu Yungong can successfully find a suitable craftsman to make a flintlock rifle first..."

"I hope what he just said about being able to do it is true."

Song Shen muttered to himself, then called the servants to help him prepare to wash and go to sleep.

…………

in the palace.

The Wuying Hall was still brightly lit.

Not only Zhu Yuanzhang, but also Zhu Biao and Zhu Di had been waiting here.

They all knew that a more powerful weapon would undoubtedly be of great significance to the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Northern Yuan Dynasty was driven away, there are still many remnant forces lurking inside and outside the Ming territory. They came from the grassland more than a hundred years ago, and now they can thrive after returning to the grassland. The most difficult thing for the Han people to understand about the grassland people is that they do not farm, but only want to plunder the Central Plains by force.

To protect the Central Plains, we must fight again and again, and fight them every time, either to drive them thousands of miles away from the Central Plains, or to exterminate them. This is why Zhu Yuanzhang decided to launch a northern expedition, and even a benevolent ruler like Zhu Biao did not dissuade him.

There were hurried footsteps coming from outside the door, followed by heavy breathing.

"Your Majesty, I have brought Xu Yungong here!"

Jiang Li's panting voice reached the ears of several people, causing these three people of extremely high status to stand up at the same time.

Zhu Di was very considerate. He personally ran to open the door and ushered in Jiang Lin and Xu Yungong. At the same time, he also instructed the palace servants at the door not to disturb them casually. If there was any emergency, they should report it outside and not enter without permission.

After everything was arranged, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the two of them.

Both Jiang and Xu looked exhausted, and it seemed that they had come here on horseback rather than in a carriage.

He hesitated for a moment, and instead of looking at Xu Yungong who was talking to Song Shen today, he looked at Jiang Li:
"Let's talk about the flintlock later. Did you notice any problems with Song Shen?"

Jiang Li knew that the flintlock rifle was very important, but the value displayed by Song Shen now was probably much more important than a flintlock rifle. The fact that His Majesty valued Song Shen was enough to explain a lot of things.

He immediately bowed.

"Mr. Xu didn't understand the situation, so I had no choice but to threaten him from the beam. Fortunately, he didn't let anything slip, and all the previous things were smoothed over. Song Shen didn't notice anything unusual."

As he spoke, Jiang Lin bowed sincerely to Xu Yungong:
"I'm sorry, I had to act in an emergency. I'm sorry for offending you, Master Xu. If you want to punish me, I'll let you do whatever you want."

Xu Yungong is still a commoner and has no official position, so he cannot call himself a subordinate or something like that.

The apology was indeed sincere, but...

In this scenario, sincerity doesn't seem to work that well.

Xu Yungong gritted his teeth.

He couldn't possibly lose his temper in front of His Majesty, could he? The Yiluansi people were just thinking about His Majesty and trying to avoid revealing anything in front of Song Shen. He was the one who almost let the cat out of the bag because he talked too much. Who could he blame?

Didn’t you see that His Majesty clearly already knew about the flintlock rifle, but the first thing he asked was Song Shen.

It's obvious that Song Shen is more important than this thing!

"…It doesn't matter. It's all for the Ming Dynasty."

He squeezed out the word of forgiveness from between his teeth, and finally looked at the big shots in front of him.

To be honest, even though he was the eldest son of Xu Da, Duke of Wei, even though his name was given by His Majesty the Emperor, and even though it was said that he often went to the palace when he was a child, the final analysis showed that Xu Yungong had not seen His Majesty at such a close distance for many years.

Without an official position, it was impossible for him to attend court or serve as an official. He could only hang around in the barracks, waiting for his father to arrange him to the right position one day. He could not act on his own.

The dukes would naturally go to the palace to attend banquets during festivals, but unfortunately Xu Da was not in the capital all year round. Although he was the eldest son, his status was not enough to represent his father to participate in such palace banquets. Xu Da also did not like him to stand out too early, so on weekdays when there were palace banquets, Madam Xie, the legal mother, would represent the Duke of Wei to appear in front of the female family.

In the past, it could be said that it was okay for a young man to enter the palace for fun, but now Xu Yungong is already an adult of seventeen or eighteen years old, and Zhu Di, who is of the same age as him, has already married and had children, so it is naturally not appropriate for him to enter the palace again.

In short, due to various reasons, Xu Yungong calculated that he had not entered the palace for about seven or eight years, nor had he seen the emperor again - except for the last time when he was drunk at the gate of the three camps.

"I, Xu Yungong, greet your majesty."

Xu Yungong was quite polite. He first bowed respectfully to Zhu Yuanzhang, and then bowed to Zhu Biao and Zhu Di in turn.

Even though Zhu Di was nominally his brother-in-law, the hierarchy must not be messed up in the palace now.

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at him for a while, and suddenly remembered the previous class.

At that time, Song Shen was discussing in the space how to eliminate the powerful families of the Tang Dynasty. The people of the Zhu family didn't really care. Only Zhu Biao was attending class seriously, while Zhu Yuanzhang chatted with Zhu Di in private for a while.

In the space, the age difference between them was not that big, both of them had gray hair. Even though Zhu Di had a deep-seated fear of him, after chatting for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang had actually accepted him for the most part.

During the conversation, he asked about the Xu family intentionally or unintentionally.

Because Xu Da had always been an honest, cautious and dutiful person, Zhu Yuanzhang in the real world had no intention of taking action against him after observing him for a while. But later, when he learned that Zhu Di's Jingnan Rebellion had been successful, he had to re-examine the Xu family.

If in the subsequent Jingnan Campaign, there are people from the Xu family other than the married Xu Miaoyun who participate, such people must not be allowed to stay.

If you can help Zhu Di the first time, perhaps you can help others the second time.

At that time, Song Shen mentioned Xu Yungong and said that when Zhu Gaochi and Zhu Gaoxu were studying in Beijing, their uncle Xu Yungong had also warned them not to cause trouble outside. He seemed to be a decent person like Xu Da, but no one knew what happened to him later.

But what Zhu Di said shocked Zhu Yuanzhang greatly.

Xu Yungong had a good relationship with Xu Miaoyun, but he was not very familiar with his other brothers and sisters in the family.

But no matter what, although he had a brother-in-law who could become emperor if his rebellion was successful, Xu Yungong had no intention of helping Zhu Di. He always served as the main general, covering his own retreat, and even led his troops to fight Zhu Di head-on. He won many battles and made the Yan army suffer a lot. It was only because the Emperor Jianwen at that time was a stupid guy who gave random orders that he lost the battle that was originally a sure win.

Xu Yungong even suggested to Zhu Yunwen that the three heirs of the King of Yan who were staying in the capital should be detained, especially Zhu Gaoxu...

Zhu Di reluctantly told him that he could only imprison Xu Yungong and that he could not use him anyway, and Xu Yungong himself was unwilling to do so...

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang felt mixed emotions.

This boy is a true Chunchen, exactly like his father, with the same stubbornness and loyalty.

It’s a pity that I didn’t meet a wise leader.

"Yun Gong, I haven't seen you for so many years. You have grown up and become a big boy now."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to come closer to him and patted his shoulder vigorously:

"Your arms and legs look stronger than your father's when he was young. Not bad, you look a bit like him!"

"Okay, don't talk about common people anymore. I gave you your name, so you are my half-nephew. Just call us you!"

Xu Yungong was flattered.

He originally thought that since he had lost such a big person at the gate of the three camps, the emperor would have some opinions about him, but he didn't expect that he would actually praise him now!
"Don't dare, don't dare..."

As if he remembered something, Xu Yungong took out a piece of paper that was obviously torn from his pocket and presented it with both hands:
"Your Majesty, this is what Brother Ziwei took out, the blueprint of the flintlock rifle."

"But he didn't seem to give me all the drawings. He only gave me part of them and asked me to find a trusted craftsman to make them first and see if they can be assembled. If I can't even do this first step, I can't consider mass production."

"That's easy to explain, but what's puzzling is that he actually gave two parts that look different..."

"I asked him at that time, but Brother Ziwei only said that one of the two flintlock rifles was more powerful and he was not sure if he could make it, so he gave me both so that I wouldn't have too much burden and could just make both." "Take a look."

Zhu Yuanzhang took the drawings with a little surprise and found that there were indeed two copies.

The sizes of the parts above are clearly marked, even accurate to a few centimeters. It is best if they are accurate to the millimeter.

But there are only spare parts, no markings on how to assemble them, and no finished product drawings, so even if someone gets all the parts, it is impossible to make what they want, because these parts are confusing to look at.

He pulled Zhu Biao to watch together——

Among the five people present, only Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao had seen the drawings of the steam engine in the space, so they felt fortunate for something that dazzled ordinary people.

Fortunately! Fortunately, Song Shen didn't take out a steam engine blueprint for someone to build it!

It's not that they don't want to. Which emperor wouldn't be envious of the beautiful blueprint that Song Shen drew?
The problem is that although we have the idea, we lack the ability. There are very few people who can understand the blueprints. Most importantly, Song Shen made it clear that the steam engine needs rubber trees as raw materials, but the rubber trees today are still far away across the ocean. Even if it is really built, it will be useless without an important component.

I watched it for a long time.

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed to one of them and said:
“This one should be the more difficult one to make.”

Zhu Biao couldn't help but nodded.

According to their experience in class, the more parts there are, the harder it is to make.

In Song Shen's words, this thing is very demanding on the yield rate. If any component is of the wrong size or of poor quality, the whole thing will be scrapped.

"Although Song Shen told you to treat both equally, we have to hurry up now. Let's make a relatively simple one first, and let him assemble it and test its power before deciding on the subsequent rules."

Zhu Yuanzhang made the decision:
"Yun Gong, before you come, I have already discussed with Biao'er and Lao Si. You can pick any craftsman from the Baoyuan Bureau. I guarantee they will keep their mouths shut. Their nine clans are all under our control and are directly monitored by the Yiluansi. There is no chance that the news will leak out."

"First, work overtime to make these things and give them to Song Shen. You can get some saltpeter and other things from the Baoyuan Bureau. No matter what kind of musket you are, you can't avoid using those things. I'll give you a token later, and you can get them. No need to ask for permission."

"If the flintlock rifle can be successfully manufactured and its effect is better than the current musket, then we will set up a separate government office for firearms. Biao'er will be the leader, and you and Lao Si will handle the specific matters. By then, this government office and this official, let me put it here, will be no worse than those people in the Secretariat!"

Xu Yungong was stunned after hearing this.

What does it mean?
If he could successfully develop the flintlock rifle, he would set up a separate government office for firearms, and he...he would be one of the persons in charge?!
He is barely twenty years old, how could he be qualified to take over such a big business!

Moreover, the Prince of Yan is also in this yamen... What if people misunderstand that he entered the officialdom early because of his father's influence, and add nepotism or something? When my father comes back from the border, he will be beaten to death!

Xu Yungong hastily declined:
"Your Majesty, I am still young. My father wants me to gain more experience in the military camp for a few years so that I can calm down and do my job well, so as to avoid mistakes in the future. I really can't bear the responsibility of entrusting such an important matter to me!"

"How about I give you the blueprints and send whoever you want to look at them. I just need to talk to Brother Ziwei about it, okay?"

Zhu Yuanzhang ignored his refusal and just raised his eyebrows:

"Then think about it yourself. Apart from you, who else can gain Song Shen's trust and get the remaining drawings?"

"If you don't personally participate in this matter, how can you help us consult Song Shen if there are any problems with firearms in the future?"

"He has always thought that you are helping him secretly, but if you just sit back and do nothing, how will you answer him if he asks you how the craftsmen are doing?"

These three questions directly blocked Xu Yungong's words of refusal.

Yes, that is the most important question.

Although Song Shen was blind, he was not a fool. If he didn't know anything, he would be suspicious, and then the matter would be easily exposed. It was reasonable to tell Song Shen frankly that he had handed over the flintlock rifle to the court, but it would be extremely difficult to get information from Song Shen in the future.

He didn't want to break off contact with his brother, and he didn't want to disappoint His Majesty.

Gritting his teeth, Xu Yungong closed his eyes and bowed:

"The minister obeys the order!"

"only……"

Zhu Yuanzhang said:
"Just what?"

Xu Yungong hesitated and said:

"It's just the ins and outs of this matter. If my father returns to Beijing to beat me up, Your Majesty, can you help me put in a few good words?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, and then burst into laughter.

He patted Xu Yungong's head lightly before saying:

"You kid, are you still bargaining?"

"Okay, okay, okay. When your father comes back, we won't let him go home. We will summon him to the palace and explain everything to him, so that you don't get beaten up unjustly. Okay?"

Xu Yungong was overjoyed and kowtowed repeatedly:

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty. Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty!"

After the matter was over, Zhu Yuanzhang really gave Xu Yungong a token and allowed him to leave the palace and go home.

Zhu Di then pulled his elder brother aside and asked secretly:

"Brother, why is Father's attitude towards my eldest brother-in-law so unusual? It's like he's treating him like a nephew?"

"To be honest, apart from you and the Yunnan Mu family, I have never seen him be so kind to any other child!"

The "which family" he was referring to was naturally the Huaixi nobles, those dukes and marquises who had followed his father to conquer the world.

Oh, Song Shen is an exception and doesn’t count.

Zhu Biao also heard from his father about a man whose current name was Xu Yungong, who later changed his name to Xu Huizu.

He lamented:

"Because this kid will be a loyal minister in the future. He is obviously your brother-in-law, but after you started the Jingnan Rebellion, not only did he not help you, he even personally led his army to defeat your Yan army several times, until he was captured when the city was broken. He would rather be imprisoned by you than surrender."

"Dad cherishes loyal and honest ministers like this the most. The Mu family has loyal ministers like this, Duke Wei has loyal ministers like this, and Xu Yungong has loyal ministers like this too."

"You should be nicer to your eldest brother-in-law in the future. Even if the emperor is really angry with you for something, if you pull him to stand with you, he can help you get back on your feet."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Di's first reaction was that the Xu family was a typical example of not putting all their eggs in one basket.

If the rest of the Xu family did the same thing as Xu Yungong, then obviously they wouldn't single it out. Since there wasn't one, it meant that Xu Yungong was a special case, and the Xu family was trying their best to help him.

But then I thought about it...

Judging from the eldest brother-in-law's temper, he has an average relationship with his other half-brothers and sisters in the family, and he has a stupid stepmother. It seems not impossible that he will break with the rest of the Xu family and choose to be a loyal minister after his father-in-law dies.

hiss.

What a fool!

"Ming...understood."

Zhu Di wiped the sweat off his forehead and said that he fully understood what his elder brother meant when he asked him to curry favor with someone powerful.

Followed by.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was sitting in the main seat, suddenly spoke up and asked:

"You two stop mumbling and come here for a moment."

The two brothers felt their scalps tighten at the same time and walked over obediently.

Generally speaking, when the father speaks in this tone, it means that he has something important to tell them and they can't be careless.

Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at them and thought about it again and again before saying:
"We have an idea."

"Since we are going to change our national policy, we might as well figure it all out at once."

"Didn't Song Shen want us to make that first plan?"

"The first one is to change the feudal system. This has already been issued, and we can announce it to the world once the others return."

"The second one, which is repeatedly stated in the national policy, is the maritime ban."

"If we expand this matter into details, perhaps we won't be able to complete it all, but we still want to give it a try."

"After all, Song Shen has already taken out the flintlock rifle. Maybe he has other good things in his hand, but he has no way to take them out. In addition, if we can have weapons with longer range and larger range, let alone dealing with the Japanese pirates, it is not impossible for us to directly take down all the surrounding territories in one go."

"So in the first plan, although we can't directly talk about things related to flintlock rifles, we can express the attitude of our Ming Dynasty to actively improve firearms. After all, Song Shen also mentioned in class that the so-called hot weapons, that is, the development of firearms, plus overseas trade, will be the key to the great power's dominance in the next few hundred years."

"After learning the lesson of the feudal monarchy, we have also learned a lesson. As a founding emperor, we must always have a long-term vision. Otherwise, there is no telling how many fools will be born in the future. We must first determine the path."

"Even if I die suddenly one day, if we make a few more plans and let them follow the steps, it can help the Ming Dynasty survive!"

"What do you two think? Is this the truth?"

Zhu Biao and Zhu Di: After saying so much, are you still expecting us to reply?
Are we tired of living???

(End of this chapter)