Zhu Cixiang nodded slightly and cast an approving look at his senior brother Zheng Sen.
It would be great to have the son of a richest man as a senior brother!
We have 5,000 fire guns here, and most of them are lightweight Japanese bird guns or high-quality bird guns produced in Foshan, Guangdong. Although this kind of bird gun is not as powerful as the turtle dove foot fire gun, it is more suitable for individual soldiers to use because it is lighter, less than ten kilograms, and it is easy to install a bayonet.
Now that there are four thousand and hundreds of Japanese bird cannons, Prince Zhu will be able to equip four real fire cannons in no time!
When he thought that there would be four fire gun associations soon, Zhu Cixi felt that his waist was getting hard!
"Brother," he asked with a smile, "are all these iron cannons and guns usable?"
Zheng Sen replied with a smile: "Whether it can be used, you have to test one by one... Just looking at the surface workmanship of a fire blunderbuss is not enough. How is the iron material? How is the workmanship of the blunderbuss tube? How is the air-holding ability? You have to try it before you know it, so you have to have experienced and responsible veterans test the gun."
"Experienced and responsible..." Zhu Cixiang frowned, "Where can I find such a good person?"
Zheng Sen said: "It's not difficult to say... We just need to delegate the authority to purchase firearms, gunpowder and projectiles to the generals who lead the troops. Westerners, Japanese and my Zheng family's firearms soldiers That’s how it all works.”
It is incredible to say that many so-called militarily advanced countries in the West these days are far behind the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty in terms of military and political management systems. Even an advanced capitalist country like the United Kingdom did not seek a standard weapon that could be mass-produced until 1714 for the first time through tendering to private arms dealers, which was the later famous Brown Bess flintlock musket.
Before the emergence of this kind of rifle, the British method of purchasing firearms was to directly allocate funds to the officer corps and let them purchase the equipment themselves!
What is even more speechless is that many positions in the officer corps can also be purchased with money!
Under this system, the British national army was more like a group of private war contractors than a regular army.
During the Opium War, the notorious commander of the British invasion force, Viscount Hugh Gough, was born in a "donation class" - he donated a major to be a major in 1804! Among the Qing armies that were hostile to them, there were a large number of martial arts scholars, martial arts examiners, and martial arts scholars. They were all national heroes with both civil and military skills and unparalleled martial arts skills...
Zhu Cixiang was of course resistant to the idea of letting the officer corps contract the purchase of weapons. He shook his head and said, "We don't produce firearms here in Nanjing, so why should we ask the officers leading the troops to go to Foshan to buy them?"
"Master Chitose, there are not many workshops in Foshan that can produce fire guns." Zheng Sen said, "And these fire guns are consumed a lot in wartime, and a gun will be damaged and scrapped in a short time.
If Chitose wanted to equip his army with firecrackers as the main battle weapon, he would need to bring together craftsmen from Foshan, Japan, and the West to Nanjing. Let them open more firecrackers and gunpowder workshops... A firecrackers workshop can produce ten to fifteen firecrackers per month. Two hundred workshops can produce tens of thousands of firecrackers per year, enough to cope with an army of 100,000. of used. "
Zhu Cixiang frowned and asked, "Can't we open a big factory to produce thousands of firecrackers every month?"
Zheng Sen shook his head and said, "A good master, who is willing to be a craftsman? They start their own business, shoot fifteen muskets a month, and do some other ironwork, and it is easy to earn dozens of taels of silver a month. If they become a pawn, Craftsmen, this... If Mr. Qiantose has this intention, I'm afraid the Chen family will have nowhere to attract craftsmen to come to Nanjing."
In fact, there were no real craftsmen households in the Ming Dynasty. As early as the 41st year of Jiajing, craftsmen no longer worked shifts, but instead levied silver, and the court hired workers in silver. As a result, a large number of craftsmen households turned into industrial and commercial businesses, while the government-run handicraft industry in the imperial court gradually declined due to the lack of good craftsmen.
If Zhu Cihong wanted to build a large-scale official arsenal in Nanjing, the first problem would be that there were not enough craftsmen.
The second problem is management, especially quality control!
Zheng Sen added: "It is extremely difficult to make a fire blunderbuss. The selection of materials and craftsmanship are very particular. It requires experienced craftsmen and they have to work hard. If the craftsmen are self-employed, they will starve to death if they do not make good things. If it is an official How do you want Master Qiantose to supervise the craftsmen? If they don’t do well, will they be beheaded?"
There is no concept of standardization in the factory handicraft industry of this era. Take the iron materials used for fire guns as an example. Currently, there are no two pieces of wrought iron in the world that are close to the same (not exactly the same, as long as the difference is small)!
Even the most basic ingredients of wrought iron are different. How to carry out standardized production? Without standardization, assembly line production is even more impossible. It's really shameful to say that during the Warring States Period more than a thousand years ago, the Qin State adopted a large-scale and standardized production model in the production of bronze cold weapons, and probably also used a method similar to assembly line production.
But Zhu Cixiang, a time traveler in the Ming Dynasty, really had no way to use this method to produce firecrackers in a short period of time... He was in finance, not metallurgy, in his previous life, and he didn't know how to do it. Open gold fingers for metallurgy, casting and forging.
But Zhu Cixi knew that he had to lure craftsmen who could make excellent muskets and artillery to Nanjing to start a business!
If you lure them into starting a business, there will be cruel market competition and the possibility of technological progress!
Zhu Cixiang nodded slightly and said to Zheng Sen: "Brother, you are right. We really need to attract craftsmen to Nanjing to run workshops. The method of craftsmen working in shifts is absolutely useless and I will not restore it. As for how to attract craftsmen to Nanjing, we will not restore it. Come, how to make industry and commerce prosperous at the mouths of South Zhili and along the river, we will discuss it slowly after your father comes to Jinling from the north."
Zheng Sen's father-in-law is of course the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong... He has to be tricked, no, he must be invited to come to Nanjing!
There are so many investment opportunities in Nanjing that when the richest man comes, Xu is reluctant to leave.
In addition, Zheng Sen seems to have many younger sisters who are not married...
He smiled and said to Zheng Sen: "I have heard Tang Ruowang say many things about the West, and I have also heard people say things about Japan. Both Western countries and Japan are big countries with prosperous cultural relics and a long history, and there are some aspects that are worthy of our heavenly dynasty. study.
Confucius said: When three people are walking together, they must have me as their teacher. The same is true between countries. Even if a country thousands of miles away has any advantages over the Central Plains, we should not be ashamed to ask. Your Majesty is familiar with overseas affairs, and I would like to ask him for advice first. "
Zheng Sen was very happy when he heard this, and immediately said to Zhu Cihong: "I will write to my father when I get back and ask him to come to Nanjing as soon as possible." He paused, "My father has always wanted to issue edicts to Japan on behalf of the imperial court these years. But there are always some misunderstandings between the imperial court and Japan that are difficult to eliminate..."
He was making a request to Zhu Cihong, hoping to gain greater authority for his father Zheng Zhilong's exchanges with Japan.
Japan's Tokugawa shogunate implemented a strict isolation policy. Only merchant ships holding the "Goshu Seal" could enter and leave the Nagasaki port to trade with Japanese merchants. This kind of trade is strictly controlled, and only forty Chinese merchant ships can enter and leave Nagasaki with the royal seal every year.
Although most of these forty Chinese merchant ships belong to the Zheng family, Zheng Zhilong is still not satisfied and hopes to occupy a larger share.
To achieve this goal, he needs more support from the Ming court!
"No misunderstanding, no misunderstanding." Zhu Cixiang smiled and waved his hand, "I know that it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who attacked Korea during the Wanli Period, and the one who rules Japan now is the Tokugawa Shogunate who eliminated the Toyotomi clan. The Tokugawa Shogunate is the Ming Dynasty. Friends, the shogun is my friend. Friends should share their needs and interact with each other on an equal footing. Senior brother, do you think this is feasible?"
"That's great!" Zheng Sen said with a smile, "With what Qiantose said, my father will definitely come as soon as possible."
Zhu Cixiang nodded, and when he was about to say something more, he heard a commotion at the entrance of the pier, as if someone was arguing there. Military advisor Li Yan soon walked up to Zhu Cixiang with joy, bowed and reported: "Master Qiansui, someone wants to file a complaint."
"Oh?" Zhu Cihong asked, "Who are you suing?"
"Indict Xu Yongji, the commander of the Yangzhou Guard, for colluding with the admiral of the Water Transport Bureau and the Marquis of Funing, Zhu Guobi, for treason!"
