Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 21 Equipment
Early this morning, Zhu Cilang returned to the Ministry of War to arrange with the clerks to recruit militiamen, but as soon as he entered the door, Qian Qianyi cried and begged him to ascend the throne.

Zhu Cilang naturally refused. Not to mention that he knew what kind of person Qian Qianyi was, even if he didn't know, he would not have ascended the throne with such a makeshift team at this time.

What's more, once he ascends the throne, he will have to recruit officials. Having officials sandwiched between him and the executors would be tantamount to handing over the initiative that he had worked so hard to seize.

Qian Qianyi never thought that his proposal would be rejected by Zhu Cilang, so when things did not develop as the script, Mr. Qian was at a loss as to how to deal with it.

Hongguang lost the will of heaven and the people's hearts when he abandoned his country. The Donglin Party, which had never supported the succession of a traitor to the country, was ultimately powerless to save the country after fighting bloody battles to protect the former emperor and the crown prince, and had to break out.

Look how perfect it is.

As for the bloody battle, the Tartars must have scouts, and it would be even easier to take the prince who advocates fighting away from Yingtian.

Once he agrees to ascend the throne, Mr. Qian will be able to use his own people to sideline him.

By then, who would care what a 15 or 16-year-old kid says?
Once he leaves Yingtian, his family has the merit of fighting bravely and is also known as the crown prince of the previous emperor. What can a tyrant who abandoned his country and fled use to compete with his family for legitimacy?
Of course, all these beautiful wishes disappeared with Zhu Cilang's rejection.

Seeing that Mr. Qian was still a little unresponsive, Zhu Cilang had no time to pay attention to him. After arranging the recruitment of militiamen, he took several old officials from the Ministry of Revenue and rushed to the warehouse and arsenal in the city.

Needless to say, most of the silver in the treasury was taken away by Hongguang and Ma Shiying, leaving only a few thousand taels in the huge warehouse. However, Zhu Cilang made quite a harvest in the granary.

There are 48 guards stationed in Yingtian, with a total of more than 250,000 people, and all their consumption is supplied by Yingtian granary.

Originally, these foods were only enough to feed the garrison for more than a month, but Hongguang and Ma Shiying took away most of the troops, and these foods were enough to feed the remaining 60,000 people for four or five months.

Of course, this was the case when there were only 60,000 troops stationed in Yingtian. If the recruited militiamen were included, it would naturally be far from enough.

However, with the novice gift pack from the Xincheng Earl's Mansion, it should not be a problem to gather food for two or three months.

By then, reinforcements will arrive anyway.

When Zhu Cilang left the granary, he thought the sunlight seemed especially brighter, but when he entered the armory, he didn't know whether to be angry or laugh.

There was no shortage in the armory. It not only contained various weapons and armor, but also more than ten thousand firearms of various types.

But these weapons would break as soon as they were cut, all the firearms would explode, and most of the armor was made of cotton-padded clothes. Some of them didn't even use cotton and were simply made of paper.

Zhu Cilang couldn't understand why it had to be made like this after spending so much time and effort on making it.

In the end, it was the omnipotent Wang Fuping who solved his puzzle.

Although iron is not too precious, there is a fixed amount of iron that should be used in each weapon.

But the amount of charcoal used for burning is infinite, and the difference between burning more or less for a while is so great that ordinary people cannot imagine it.

Things made from iron that is not heated to a sufficient temperature will naturally be brittle.

Zhu Cilang thought about the fact that the silver vault was empty, and also thought about the fact that the granary was empty, but he never thought that the seemingly full arsenal had nothing that could be used.

No wonder Hongguang and the ministers all ran away. How could they possibly defend Yingtian with such things?
"It's melted."

Zhu Cilang was in a daze in the armory for a long time, and finally left after saying something, while Wang Fuping chased after him and shouted repeatedly: "Your Highness, you can't merge."

"Why?"

"Your Highness should melt it down and rebuild it, but there are only a few apprentices left in the craftsman camp, and there are few masters."

"Where's the master?"

"They were all transferred away from Yingtian."

"Where did you go?"

"It seems like it's some adult's private work."

Zhu Cilang was stunned when he heard this, and then he smiled bitterly.

He had heard of these things in later generations, but for a moment he had forgotten them. But why was Wang Fuping acting like a novice instructor?
"Brother Wang, how come you know about the things in the craftsman camp?"

Wang Fuping was a little embarrassed when he heard this: "All kinds of people have been imprisoned in the prison, not just military generals."

Zhu Cilang's doubts were somewhat resolved, but he continued to ask, "How many apprentices are there in the craftsman camp?" "I'm not sure exactly, but there are at least three or four hundred."

"Lead the way."

The Artisan Camp was not far from the armory. As it was a very important place, it was built near the imperial city, so it only took a cup of tea for the group to reach the gate.

Unlike the storage arsenal, the craftsmen camp was not included when Zhu Cilang assigned personnel yesterday, so they were stopped as soon as they entered the gate.

In this situation, the benefits of taking a lackey with you when you go out become apparent.

"How dare you! This is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

The man who was blocking the door stopped talking and turned around and ran inside, still shouting, "Master, I'm coming! I'm coming!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cilang immediately became interested. It was obvious that the person in charge of the camp had already guessed that he was coming.

No one stopped them, so the group naturally would not stay here and wait foolishly. They then entered the camp under the leadership of Wang Fuping.

It is called a camp, but in fact it is just a big workshop. Various materials are piled up on one side of the road, while on the other side are furnaces and forging platforms connected together.

Zhu Cilang stopped and observed carefully for a while, and finally had to admit that he had thought too simply.

According to his original idea, if the entire workshop could be transformed using the assembly line operation method of later generations, then production would definitely be greatly increased.

But when he looked for a while, he found that the furnace forges in the same row were exactly the same, but there were some differences between each row.

Isn't this an assembly line?

"Meet His Highness the Crown Prince."

Zhu Cilang was still worrying about the uselessness of himself as a time traveler, but he heard the sound of footsteps. When he turned around, he saw a group of beggars kneeling not far away under the leadership of an old beggar.

"Who are you.?"

"Wang Quangui, the master worker of the Grassroots Artisan Camp."

"Get up and talk."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

The trip to the Jiangzuoying was not in Zhu Cilang's plan, so Zhu Cilang didn't waste any more words and went straight to the point.

"How long would it take to remake all the weapons in the arsenal?"

"this."

"Speak directly if you have anything to say."

"Your Highness, it will take about half a year to master close-combat weapons like swords and knives, as for muskets." Wang Quangui stopped here.

"Just say what you want to say." Zhu Cilang's tone was a little heavier than before.

"The musket cannot be made."

Wang Quangui’s directness stunned Zhu Cilang for a moment.

Yingtian was the secondary capital of the Ming Dynasty, so how could it not make muskets? But he reacted in a flash.

"Is it because there is no master?"

"Your Highness is wise."

"Then how many weapons can you make every day if all of you start working?"

"Which one are you talking about, Your Highness?"

How would Zhu Cilang know which one it was?
He knew about swords, spears, halberds, axes, hooks and forks, and also knew about powerful weapons such as guns, artillery and missiles, but what was the use of them? The army needed to cooperate in fighting. Did everyone rush up with a knife and chop each other?
(End of this chapter)