Xue Xiang's voice became softer and softer, and in the end, he didn't even dare to continue to defend himself.
He leaned down on the ground, knelt down and said, "I know my sin..."
Although Xue Xiang's reasons were very good, he only dispatched craftsmen to make cement on Lao Zhu's order, which resulted in insufficient steel production and affected the manufacture of ordnance and weapons.
But Lao Zhu didn't care so much. Now war could break out at any time. At this critical juncture, the imperial court needed weapons and weapons, but the Ministry of Industry could not provide them. That was the fault of the Ministry of Industry.
"Knowing your guilt, what's the use of knowing your guilt?" Fengtian Palace was filled with Lao Zhu's roar.
"If cutting off your head can replenish the weapons and weapons, do you think I will hesitate?"
When Xue Xiang heard this, he didn't dare to say a word. He knelt on the ground and let Lao Zhu handle it.
Others did not dare to offer advice. After all, even the Ministry of Industry could not provide enough ordnance, so what could they do?
You can hear a needle drop in Fengtian Temple, and it's eerily quiet. Even the candlelight, which was jumping wildly, stopped at this moment, as if being held in place by an invisible force.
There was silence for a long time, and finally Lao Zhu spoke.
"Get up. Starting tomorrow, the Ministry of Industry will go all out to make ordnance. In addition, cement production cannot be stopped. You can prepare the rest by yourself."
Although Lao Zhu softened his tone, the anger in his words did not diminish at all.
Seeing that Xue Xiang was still kneeling on the ground, he couldn't help but said sharply: "Why don't you get up? Do you want me to help you?"
Lao Zhu, who was already dissatisfied, spoke harshly.
"How dare I have such delusions," Xue Xiang said quickly after hearing this, and then simply gritted his teeth and said, "I would like to report to the emperor that the lack of weapons is due to the lack of enough steel."
Lao Zhu became even more angry after hearing this, but his tone was unusually calm.
"Why is there a shortage of iron? Don't some of the iron be smelted every year for spare use?"
During the Hongwu years, iron-making was loosely managed. Generally, when the imperial court ran out of iron, the Ministry of Industry would smelt part of it. When sufficient iron reserves were available, it would stop refining. When the iron reserves were almost used up, the furnaces were started to make iron again.
Private workshops were even allowed to smelt iron privately.
At the same time, the Ming Dynasty had very strict management of iron materials. Iron materials could be freely circulated within the Ming Dynasty. This was no problem, but smuggling iron materials out of the country was absolutely prohibited. Smuggling iron is a serious crime, and if caught, the person is usually beheaded.
"There are sufficient reserves of iron materials, but what is lacking now is steel. Due to the lack of craftsmen, the forging of steel is much slower..." Xue Xiang had no choice but to do it even at the risk of being beheaded by the emperor. These situations must be reported clearly. Otherwise, if the situation is not explained clearly now, when the emperor takes the blame later, it will not be a matter of beheading, but the whole family may be killed.
Although iron-making technology has made great progress since the Hongwu period, the amount of iron produced every year is about 20 million kilograms, or 10,000 tons. However, since iron-making at this time usually used wood, the temperature of the furnace It's not enough. What you get from training is just ordinary iron, not even crude steel.
If you want to obtain steel, you have to refine the iron ingots again. The craftsmen constantly beat and fold them with hammers to remove the impurities in the iron, and then purify it into steel.
Lao Zhu was naturally extremely angry, but he had no good solution. Now he could only place his hope on the Ministry of Works. So he said directly: "Deploy the craftsmen and do your best to forge steel materials from now on. You can forge as much steel as you can." After finishing speaking, Lao Zhu couldn't help but sigh slightly, "I hope it's still late."
"Old minister, I obey." Xue Xiang kowtowed before getting up from the ground and sitting aside.
After uncovering the article about the Ministry of Works, Lao Zhu looked at the Ministry of Household Affairs again.
"Hubu, do you have any questions? Is the treasury full?"
Xu Hui, the Minister of Household Affairs, suddenly felt a bitter taste in his mouth.
However, no matter how bitter he was, he did not dare to object to Lao Zhu's plan to prepare for war. He could only rack his brains to find a way to change things and speak more tactfully, so as to at least not let the emperor's sword fall on his head.
"Back to the Emperor, there is still some balance in the treasury, but not too much. Since the Baobao Collection Department has not printed Baobao for a month, if this money is spent, what if the Baobao will be lost later? The Bank of China has been unable to provide treasure banknotes, so the treasury may have a huge deficit this year. Please give me a clear warning, Your Majesty."
Lao Zhu himself knew the situation of the treasury, and he just wanted to ask Xu Hui to express his position. But now Xu Hui kicked the problem back to Lao Zhu, which made Lao Zhu a little difficult to make up his mind.
After thinking for a moment, Lao Zhu still felt that preparation for war was more important. After all, the treasury is empty, so there is still time to figure it out and find a way. And once the war preparations are insufficient, if they are defeated by Can Yuan, once Can Yuan enters the pass, it will be a disaster.
"The Ministry of Household Affairs will prepare food and supplies first. As for the treasure banknotes, I will send someone to urge them."
In the end, Lao Zhu made up his mind to prepare for war.
"Yes." Xu Hui agreed simply.
Anyway, he has already told the emperor what needs to be said. Now that the emperor has his own way, even if something goes wrong in the future, the emperor will not be able to punish him.
Next, Lao Zhu took Xu Da, Tang He, the Minister of War and others to discuss the movement of Can Yuan and the possible route of sending troops until late at night.
Lao Zhu finally finished discussing with Xu Da and others before dragging his tired body to the Queen's Palace.
Queen Ma had already gone to bed, but when she got the news that the emperor was coming, she got up and put on her clothes.
When Lao Zhu saw Queen Ma greeting him in the palace, he quickly asked her to get up and comforted her: "It's late at night, sister, you've already gone to bed, why are you getting up? We can still take care of ourselves."
Queen Ma helped Lao Zhu take off his dragon robe and put it in the hands of the maid. She asked, "Why are you so busy today? Is there something important?"
Queen Ma helped Lao Zhu take off the crown and put it away.
Lao Zhu took off the shackles of the dragon robe crown, and he suddenly felt relaxed in his casual clothes. He said casually: "There is news that there seems to be something strange in Can Yuan Ping Zhang Nai'er Bu Hua, so we will find the second brother and the others. After some discussion.”
Empress Ma also followed Lao Zhu all the way. As someone who was used to war, she seemed very calm about the news of the change of the residual element.
"Is this going to be a war again?"
"The information is unclear now and we can't be sure yet," Lao Zhu thought for a moment and shook his head. "But we still need to prepare early, just in case the residual element takes advantage of it, and if it breaks through, it will be bad."
Queen Ma didn't care after hearing this, and while directing the maid to serve the food, she said: "It's so late at night, I think you're hungry too, so let's eat something first. Can Yuan has been fighting with Ming Dynasty in these years, and they have been fighting. They lose more and win less, maybe this time they just want to harass the border as usual, they don’t have the guts to enter, right?”
"In a land of war, one has to be cautious in matters of life and death." Lao Zhu shook his head, sighed softly, and continued: "But even if the residual Yuan wants to go south, I hope they can delay it."
Empress Ma noticed something was wrong with Lao Zhu's tone, and suddenly became nervous and asked, "What's wrong? Is there any trouble with the court?"
Lao Zhu nodded, "The Ministry of Industry's steel reserves are insufficient, and ordnance manufacturing has been greatly affected. Although we have given orders to the Ministry of Industry and asked them to go all out to forge steel, this may not be solved in a short time. .”
Lao Zhu sighed deeply. He had no choice but to rely on the Ministry of Works for the lack of steel materials. But the Ministry of Industry is not a fairy. He can turn iron into steel with just a finger.
Queen Ma was speechless for a moment. She knew very well how difficult it was to turn iron into steel.
Thousands of times tempered, hundreds of times tempered into steel.
These are not empty words.
So, he had no choice but to comfort Lao Zhu and said, "Don't worry too much. Maybe Can Yuan will get the news about your preparations for war and they will give up the idea."
"I hope so." Lao Zhu didn't want Queen Ma to worry, so he forced a smile and said casually.
Banknote Bureau.
The five-meter-long rails were placed one by one on the square logs. Han Du reached out and knocked on the rails.
There was a clear clanking sound from the rails.
Han Du was very satisfied. It seemed that the blast furnace steelmaking was successful.
I looked over the rails carefully and found that the tops were exactly the same. After all, they were cast from the same mold, so that's how it should be.
The difference at the bottom is somewhat large due to inconsistent cooling.
But it doesn't matter. Anyway, sleepers are placed under the rails. Then you just need to adjust the height.
After the inspection, Han Du stood up with satisfaction. These rails fully met the requirements and could be used without any problems.
Looking at Mr. Huang who was smiling apologetically, Han Du praised: "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Huang. These rails are good and fully meet my requirements."
"It's not hard, little old man. Since it works, I'm relieved." Huang Lao smiled and was humble to Han Du, and continued: "On the contrary, you are really a Wenqu star who has descended to the earth. Your method of making steel is really impressive to me. It’s an eye-opener. I have been a blacksmith all my life, and I never thought that one day steelmaking would be as easy as ironmaking.”
As an old blacksmith, Mr. Huang has been using hammers all his life. He used to be proud of his steel forging skills, but he never thought that one day steel making would become like this.
Like iron smelting, the water-like steel liquid flows out of the furnace and is poured into the prepared mold. After cooling, various steel parts are ready.
After Mr. Huang cooled down the first rail, he carefully looked at it step by step. The quality of the steel produced in this way was even better than what he had knocked out with a hammer.
Mr. Huang looked a little confused and sighed.
"Sometimes, the little old man wonders if the hammer in his hand is useless."
Han Du patted Mr. Huang on the shoulder to comfort him.
"There's no need to be so exaggerated. Craftsmanship is still useful."
