Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

"Go back and cancel the artisan registration of all those in the Ordnance Department, and do not restrict their descendants from engaging in other industries! Consider this my reward to them!" Zhu Jian said softly.

"Your Majesty, I, Bi Maokang, acting on behalf of the artisans of the Ordnance Department, kowtow in gratitude!"

The Ming Dynasty's system of registering one's place of origin was quite problematic. Once registered, one's entire family would be registered there for generations, creating a stagnant situation that no one wanted to be associated with. Not only were the benefits poor, but the social status was also low...

"How many of these self-propelled muskets can the Ordnance Department produce in a month, given its full efforts in manufacturing them?" Inspector Zhu asked.

Bi Maokang pondered for a moment: "Two thousand!"

"That's too few! There are many refugees outside the city! Go and recruit some suitable people! Equip the craftsmen with enough for a production scale of 20,000 pieces per month! Don't stop the armor production either!"

"As you command!"

During this period, firearms production was done on an assembly line basis, with parts produced separately and then assembled together. It was not a single craftsman who handled everything, so the skill requirements for manpower were very low. This is why the peasant army did not lack firearms.

"Leave this one here! Tomorrow I'll have someone test the self-propelled musket!"

"yes!"

The next morning, Zhu Jian went to the drill ground early from the Wuying Hall. There, several wooden targets sat crookedly, clearly indicating that the drill ground hadn't been used for a long time…

Along with Zhu Jian, some military officers and soldiers, including Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, and Cao Bianjiao, also arrived at the drill ground.

"Bi Maokang's copy of the Franz Collection self-propelled flintlock musket! Have a few soldiers take turns testing it!" Zhu Jian said, handing the flintlock musket in his hand to Cao Bianjiao.

Sun Chuanting, standing nearby, said, "Your Majesty, these firearms don't require matchlocks, but large-scale deployment requires a large amount of flint, and the Ming Dynasty has very little high-quality flint!"

Sun Chuanting had recently tested the primitive self-propelled musket left behind by Zheng Zhilong and found it very practical. However, after repeated research, he discovered that it was extremely expensive to manufacture and lacked raw materials. Therefore, he had always been willing but unable to produce it. In Sun Chuanting's view, if equipping soldiers with new muskets would cut off their pay, it would be better not to equip them at all...

Zhu Jian nodded slightly. He knew that high-quality flint was scarce, but this step had to be taken. At least 100,000 flints should be provided to the new army as an elite force!

"Let's give it a try! Make as many as we can! If we run out of good flint, we'll make muskets!"

Before the words were finished, a soldier stood in front of the wooden target, holding a musket against his shoulder, half-kneeling on the ground, aiming, and firing.

After a gunshot, the soldier slowly rose and strode to Zhu Jian, Sun Chuanting, and the others: "Your Majesty! This firearm is about as accurate as a musket! But it loads and fires much faster!"

Zhu Jian pointed to the soldier beside him: "Give him a try!"

"yes!"

"Your Majesty! Self-propelled muskets have a clear advantage in field battles against the Eastern Barbarians! But they are not as useful as artillery in siege warfare!" Lu Xiang-sheng said as he walked to Zhu Jian's side while watching the soldiers test-firing muskets.

"Minister Lu is right! But I have a premonition that within the next hundred years, the world will belong to these self-propelled muskets!"

"Bang!" After a gunshot, the second test-fire soldier slowly got up, began loading gunpowder, and inserted lead bullets into the muzzle. Then another gunshot rang out.

The soldier then strode forward and reported to the group: "Your Majesty! This firearm is superior to the musket in terms of reloading and firing! It can be fired as soon as it is loaded!"

Zhu Jian nodded: "Return to the palace!"

Currently, the self-propelled musket that Bi Maokang is imitating is quite good in terms of power, loading, and firing speed, and it can be mass-produced!

Back in the palace, Zhu Jian summoned Bi Maokang, the Director of the Ordnance Department: "Director Bi, we have already test-fired these self-igniting muskets. Produce 20,000 of them according to this standard!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Bi Maokang took the flintlock pistol that had been test-fired, examining it closely as if it were his own child; it was the culmination of his hard work.

"Bi Maokang is hereby awarded the rank of Assistant Commander of the Five Armies, Second Grade, as a commendation!"

"Your subject Bi Maokang kowtows to thank Your Majesty!" Bi Maokang said, bowing and kneeling.

Now, Zhu Jian has essentially emptied the Five Military Commands of the government of meritorious officials. The Five Military Commands were already largely ineffective, and now they've become nothing more than honorary titles. From this day forward, the Five Military Commands established by Zhu Yuanzhang have completely disappeared from the power structure of the Ming Dynasty…

After Bi Maokang left, Sun Chuanting stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty! The new army has now completed its training and is ready to be deployed to various locations!"

The nine border towns are now practically useless. The three towns in Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia are completely empty. Most of the fortified villages and military strongholds in Shanxi, Datong, and Xuanfu have only a dozen or so people left to guard them, and some even have only a few left! Only the Jizhou and Guan-Ning-Jinzhou defense lines have a relatively large number of troops! In addition to the 50,000 troops that went to the three provinces to deal with officials in cooperation with the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, there are more than 100,000 troops near the capital. This part can be completely dispatched to garrison the border!

"I believe it would be better to station troops near the capital! Now that the number of bandits in the south is decreasing, the main threat facing the Ming Dynasty is the Jurchens in the north!" Lu Xiang-sheng expressed his different opinion.

Lu Xiang-sheng was a staunch opponent of the Jurchens. He believed that the Jurchens posed the greatest threat, followed by the bandits. Now that the court had directly exempted all taxes and corvée labor for three years, the breeding ground for bandits was gone, and there was no need to divide the troops.

If we divide our forces again, we might be defeated one by one if we encounter the Qing army entering the pass!

Zhu Jian thought about it repeatedly, then shook his head: "Mr. Sun was thinking about defending the Great Wall area, but now the Great Wall can no longer stop the Jurchens..."

Upon hearing this, Sun Chuanting's eyes narrowed, and he abruptly looked up. The word "sir" completely shattered his understanding... He had always thought the emperor merely used him, but never truly trusted him. The fact that he hadn't been imprisoned for the rift with Yang Sichang over the bandit suppression was already a testament to the emperor's leniency...

The title "Sir" is not a common, casual form of address, but rather a highest level of courtesy and a symbolic political gesture.

"Your Majesty, I dare not accept the title of 'Master'!" Sun Chuanting bowed deeply.

Lu Xiang-sheng, standing nearby, was also taken aback. He hadn't expected that the emperor, besides the eunuch faction, would also trust them, the court officials... He had assumed the eunuch faction existed to check and balance them...

"You and Lu Xiang-sheng both deserve the title of 'Mr.'"

He then said meaningfully, "I know that in your hearts you feel that the appearance of Wang Dehua and his ilk is like returning to the era of Wei Zhongxian! But I can tell you two gentlemen, Wang Dehua is Wang Dehua, and Wei Zhongxian is Wei Zhongxian! My elder brother was only sixteen years old when he ascended the throne! You two were still studying the classics when you were sixteen, weren't you?"

"Your Majesty! I passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-five!" Sun Chuanting said with a sigh.

"I passed the imperial examination at the age of twenty-one!" Lu Xiang-sheng replied.

"That's it! My father passed away suddenly after only one month on the throne! My elder brother, at the tender age of sixteen, hastily assumed the throne. Seven years later, he too passed away, and I, barely twenty, took over the Ming Dynasty from him! These past ten-odd years feel like a lifetime!"

After saying this, Zhu Jian put his hands behind his back and muttered to himself, "My brother should be like Yao and Shun!"

"I am going to betray my elder brother's trust!"

"We are willing to risk our lives for Your Majesty to fulfill the duty between ruler and subject!" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan said in unison.