The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 22 Not doing business properly
Wanli completely controlled the Beijing Camp, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Imperial Guards, and he finally had some confidence in his words.

Zhang Siwei came over pretending to surrender.

He knew very well that this guy would never really give in.

However, he can use the force in his hands to do something.

As for what to do, it is naturally to engage in militarism and make the military force in their hands stronger and stronger!
Because the strength of his military force represents the strength of his imperial power. As long as he controls enough military force, he can completely regain the imperial power.

This is the most important thing right now.

He would not listen to those civil servants and he just wanted to engage in warmongering.

Nowadays, whoever has the bigger fist is right.

The next morning, at about 1 a.m., when it was just getting light, he came to the imperial study and sat there to ponder carefully.

Now the only military force he can expand is the Beijing Camp. He can start considering the Beijing Camp's troops, weapons and equipment, food and wages, etc.

He had just finished thinking about it when a message came from outside: "Your Majesty, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works He Qiming and the Earl of Yongnian Wang Wei request to see you."

finally come.

Wanli said loudly without hesitation: "Announce."

Soon, the two of them walked in quickly, bowed, and stood up, saying, "Greetings to His Majesty."

He Qiming is also in his fifties and is dressed very decently. He looks similar to Zhang Siwei, and he looks a bit gloomy no matter how you look at him.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei is only in his forties, and has a vague resemblance to Queen Wang. He looks quite capable.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, the two men began to give a detailed introduction to the renovation project of the imperial palace.

The renovation of this palace was extremely troublesome. Many doors and windows had been deformed after more than ten years of exposure to the sun and rain and had to be replaced. The walls also had to be repainted, and all the wooden components had to be repainted. The roof was leaking so badly that it even had to be removed and re-tiled.

This time they recruited thousands of craftsmen, and the construction period would take at least more than a month.

He Qiming and Yongnianbo Wang Wei introduced for a long time, but Wanli just nodded mechanically without making any comments, as if he was sleepwalking.

He didn't bother to care about these things. After waiting for the two to finish their introductions, he immediately stood up and said, "He Aiqing, please arrange for the work to begin. Father-in-law, please follow me to Kunning Palace. Xier wants to see you."

After saying that, he motioned Yongnianbo Wang Wei to follow him out.

He Qiming was a little confused.

What does this little emperor mean?
Wang Wei, the Earl of Yongnian, had no idea what Wanli meant.

He really wanted to see his daughter, but he came to the palace on official business. He had to keep an eye on He Qiming while he was repairing the palace.

Why did Wanli take him to Kunning Palace?

As soon as they turned the corner of the corridor in front of the Qianqing Palace, he couldn't help but remind them, "Your Majesty, the cost of renovating the palace is very high. I can't help but keep an eye on it."

Are you still worried that He Qiming will embezzle the funds for repairing the imperial palace?

I just want him to be greedy.

If he dares to be corrupt, I will dismiss him from his post, investigate him, confiscate his property and exile him.

Wanli smiled slightly and said, "It's alright, let He Aiqing get busy. I want you to help me make something."

what?
Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei couldn't help but ask curiously, "Your Majesty, what do you want me to make?"

Wanli said solemnly: "Waterwheel, can you make it?"

This will happen naturally.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei asked carefully, "Your Majesty, what kind of waterwheel do you want to make?
There are many kinds of water wheels: some are used to draw water for irrigation, some are used to pound rice, some are used to push millstones, some are used to tell time, some are used to crush ore, some are used to blow air, and so on.

He guessed that Wanli did not want to do the most common kind of work, which was to pump water for irrigation, because it was impossible for Wanli to farm.

That's why he asked this question.

Are there so many types of water wheels nowadays?
Upon hearing this, Wanli asked with interest, "Oh, are there people who specialize in crushing ore? They must be very powerful, right?"

How do you say this?

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei explained, "Your Majesty, this depends on how big the waterwheel is to drive the hammers that pound the ore. If it's two or three feet high, it can only drive hammers weighing around 20 kilograms. If it's fifty or six feet high, it can drive hammers weighing around 30 or 40 kilograms."

This seems to be enough motivation.

Wanli asked again with great interest, "How heavy is the hammer that a blacksmith uses to forge iron?"

Why are you asking about the blacksmith's hammer again?
Yongnian Earl Wang Wei said, "It depends on what it's used for. If it's a small hammer used for fine hammering and shaping, it usually weighs a few pounds.

If it's a hammer used for forging, it depends on the blacksmith's strength. An average blacksmith can only swing a hammer weighing about ten pounds, while a strong blacksmith can swing a hammer weighing more than ten to twenty pounds."

It turns out that only those with great strength can swing a hammer weighing more than ten or twenty pounds.

Wanli said excitedly, "What you mean by forging is hammering it hard over a fire to remove the impurities from the pig iron, right?"

You actually know this?

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, once the pig iron is tempered, it takes an ordinary blacksmith a day to forge it with a hammer. Generally, a ten-pound pig iron ingot will be forged to about seven pounds. This is the first-fire wrought iron, which can be used to make ordinary farm tools."

This father-in-law is indeed an experienced foreman, and he is so familiar with blacksmithing. There is no need to waste words.

Wanli said very straightforwardly: "I want fine iron with more than ten tempers, or even steel with a hundred tempers. I want to make weapons, armor, muskets and cannons."

This was his real purpose in letting Yongnian Earl Wang Wei and his family enter the palace.

Originally, he wanted to build muskets and cannons for the Beijing Camp to improve its combat effectiveness. However, after he learned about the weapons and equipment status of the Beijing Camp from Qi Jiguang, this idea became more urgent.

The current Beijing camp is really rotten.

Qi Jiguang carefully examined the weapons and equipment of the Beijing Camp and was speechless.

The swords, spears, knives and halberds equipped by the Beijing Camp were all inferior goods, all made of one-fire wrought iron. They would break in pieces with just one strike when they encountered the ten-fire fine iron weapons made by the border army's military craftsmen!
The muskets and cannons equipped by the Shenji Camp were even more serious. Because the materials were substandard, the probability of explosion was too high. Using such muskets and cannons to fight the enemy would not only blow up the enemy, but also blow up yourself.

Weapons and equipment are directly related to the combat effectiveness of the Beijing Army. If the Beijing Army uses the current garbage equipment to fight against the elite border troops, even if there are officers and soldiers of the Qi Family Army leading them, the 50,000 Beijing Army may not be able to defeat the 20,000 to 30,000 elite border troops.

If the Beijing camp was equipped with swords, spears, halberds and even armor made of ten-fire fine iron, and Qi Jiguang was allowed to train his officers, then they would definitely have no problem fighting against 50,000 elite border troops.

This is not a big deal.

If the 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing Camp could be equipped with several thousand muskets and hundreds of tiger squat cannons to form a mandarin duck chain formation, then these 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing Camp would have no problem fighting against 100,000 elite border troops.

In other words, after the Beijing Camp is equipped with sufficient equipment, its combat power can be increased three or four times.

Naturally, he had to quickly find a way to produce equipment for the Beijing Camp.

However, iron and steel smelting is now extremely labor-intensive. It takes two blacksmiths to take turns swinging the hammer for ten days to forge ten pounds of fine iron. Moreover, after ten pounds of pig iron, only three pounds will be left.

That is to say, it would take two craftsmen more than a month to equip a soldier with more than ten kilograms of cold weapons.

If he wanted to equip 10,000 soldiers of the Beijing Camp with cold weapons made of ten-fire refined iron, he would have to mobilize 20,000 blacksmiths to work for more than a month.

This is nothing. Muskets and cannons have higher requirements on materials. You can only barely make them with Ten-Fire Refined Iron, and there is still a risk of explosion. Muskets and cannons must be made of Hundred-Refined Steel to ensure that they will not explode.

According to his plan, the Beijing Camp will be expanded to 50,000 troops next year, and to 300,000 or 400,000 troops in a few years.

With so many troops and horses, and the need to equip them with muskets, cannons, and even armor, it would be insufficient to mobilize tens of thousands of blacksmiths to continuously forge them.

Would Zhang Siwei let him gather so many blacksmiths to forge weapons and equipment?

Don't even think about it!
Even if he didn't go through Zhang Siwei and used a forceful approach, he still had to consider the issue of wages. He couldn't ask the craftsmen to pay for making weapons and equipment for him, and the craftsmen couldn't afford so much money.

Therefore, he could only find ways to improve mechanical power and increase efficiency as much as possible, so that craftsmen could make money by making other things while making weapons and equipment.

Only in this way can a virtuous cycle be formed and weapons and equipment for hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the Beijing camp be fully manufactured.

The most common mechanical power nowadays is the water wheel. As for the steam engine, no one knows how many years it will take to develop it.

He has no time to wait, he must start manufacturing weapons and equipment for the Beijing Camp this year.

After hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei finally understood.

It turned out that His Majesty wanted to use a waterwheel to drive a sledgehammer to forge fine iron and even refined steel.

It seems no one has tried this yet, but it's not impossible.

As he was thinking, he actually made the motion of swinging a sledgehammer with one hand and started to demonstrate.

At this time, everyone had arrived at Kunning Palace. Queen Wang walked out quickly, hurriedly saluted Wanli, and then couldn't help asking, "Dad, what are you doing?"

Yongnianbo Wang Wei was stunned and said, "Dad is thinking about how to use the water wheel to swing the sledgehammer."

what?
Queen Wang was stunned when she heard this.

At this time, Queen Wang's uncle Wang Jun and two younger brothers Wang Dong and Wang Bing all ran out.

Wang Jun is probably in his thirties, Wang Dong is probably seventeen or eighteen, and Wang Bing is probably fifteen or sixteen.

These are three good laborers.

After the three of them exchanged greetings, Wanli said impatiently, "Xi'er, let's move to the Wanshou Palace. This palace will take at least a month to repair."

Wanshou Palace?
Queen Wang nodded gently and said, "Very well, Your Highness can move anywhere he wants."

The whole family moved to the Wanshou Palace with the imperial guards.

It seemed that Wanli had started to slack off from his job. He actually followed Yongnianbo's family to build water wheels next to Taiye Lake every day.

The water in Taiye Lake is still and has no thrust at all. What's the point of building a waterwheel?
The excuse he gave was that it was for fun, he wanted to build a small waterwheel for Princess Rongchang to play with!
A little princess who is less than one year old plays with a water wheel that is two or three meters high?
It's amazing that he could come up with such a lame excuse.

When Zhang Siwei received the news, he was a little confused.

I guess the little emperor wants to build a waterwheel for himself to play with?

This kid actually started to do something else instead of doing his job. This seems like a good thing.

What is the use of building a waterwheel?

For the emperor, the waterwheel can only be used for fun.

Since the little emperor likes to play, let him play to his heart's content!
(End of this chapter)