After Zhu Youxiao established the hierarchy and reward and punishment system for craftsmen, he immediately issued the edict to Zhang Zhiji, the chief producer of the arsenal, and Li Yongfang, the supervising eunuch.
He asked the two of them to count the existing craftsmen in the arsenal first.
He also allocated 500,000 taels of silver to Wei Zhongxian, allowing him to continue to expand the scale of the arsenal and recruit a group of teachers from the private sector.
Starting from today, in addition to making ordnance, these craftsmen will also have an hour every day to read and write.
When the edict to merge was issued to officials, an uproar quickly arose.
In particular, officials from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs were panicked after receiving the news, and they rushed to each other to unite.
They are going to tell His Majesty that this is a way of bringing disaster to the country and the people. What on earth do Your Majesty want to do?
"Your Majesty, there are twenty-one officials gathered outside the Meridian Gate. Most of them are the construction chiefs of the Ministry of Industry and the doctors in charge of affairs. Each of them is holding a memorial. They are kneeling on the ground and shouting to come to the palace to see Your Majesty!"
Zhu Youxiao sneered and said:
"It seems that in the eyes of these people, money is really more important than life. Could it be that I have been too good to them during this period?"
In addition to corruption and fraud, officials in the late Ming Dynasty basically had a stable income, which was related to their positions.
Just like the Ministry of Industry, it has jurisdiction over many matters. Whether it is construction, water conservancy, roads, manufacturing, anything related to industry, everything falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.
Therefore, there is a lot of oil and water here. I am afraid that only the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War can be higher than the Ministry of Industry.
Zhu Youxiao's three-party merger has touched their cake this time. The Arms Bureau and Wang Gongchang not only know how many officials have been attracted to take risks for corruption.
The most important thing is that from now on, the arsenal will be independent. Officials like them who serve in the Ministry of Industry will no longer be able to extract oil and water from it. This will make everyone anxious.
Yang Huan knelt on the ground and said:
"Your Majesty, would you like me to disperse them?"
"Are you, the Jinyi Guards, on vacation some time ago? Are you still asking? According to their crimes, I will send them all to prison."
Yang Huan was shocked and immediately replied:
"I understand, I will do it now."
After saying that, he bowed all the way and retreated.
Not long after Yang Huan exited, the three cabinet ministers entered the palace together.
"You must have guessed the reason why I am ordering you to come here today. I wonder if you have any good suggestions."
Despite the fact that Zhu Youxiao had killed countless officials, and the court had replaced capable ministers and officials as the chief officials, he was still far from being able to speak his mind, and he did not even reach the power of Emperor Xianzong.
But it was much better than during the Wanli period. At least his imperial edicts would not be rejected by the censors in the Sixth Section.
As long as the cabinet minister agrees to affix the seal, there is no need to even ask the six ministers.
Xu Guangqi immediately supported:
"I agree with your Majesty's reform move. Corruption is rampant in the Ordnance Bureau. It is not only the officials who are responsible for it, but also the craftsmen."
"If we don't vigorously rectify it, it will only get worse and I'm afraid it won't be rectified in the future."
"They secretly took away the refined iron and raw materials for making armor and weapons, and then sold them to the private sector at low prices. Finally, they changed hands a few times, and were purchased by the imperial court at high prices. This cycle started over and over again, causing many incidents."
"The Ministry of Works complains about poverty every year, saying that the funds allocated by the Ministry of Household Affairs are too small, but in fact they are just stealing."
"Wang Gong Factory is also similar to the Ordnance Bureau. The people in charge are corrupt. As a result, the quality of the firearms and cannons developed are extremely poor and the workmanship is extremely rough. The sergeants of my Ming Dynasty don't even dare to use them. This shows how harmful it is."
As a master of firearms, Xu Guangqi was well aware of the true power of firearms and artillery, and also knew why Ming Dynasty's firearms were becoming increasingly unusable.
When he was still training troops in Tongzhou, he had already changed his mind. Most of the firearms in Tongzhou he trained were made by craftsmen he recruited from the private sector.
Wang Xiangqian and Wang Zaijin also nodded secretly. This is indeed a major drawback. Part of the reason for the weakness of the army is that, as Xu Guangqi said, there are still few explosive firearms.
There are also those armors, swords and bows, which are obviously made of the above-mentioned high-quality raw materials and fine iron, but the result is that they can't even defend against a kitchen knife, which is really shocking.
Zhu Youxiao immediately issued another edict, conferring Xu Guangqi and Song Yingxing as masters and joining the Military Preparation Pavilion as ministers, and conferring Bi Maokang as a grand master and the president of Tiangong Academy.
Then, with the three of them as the main ones, they recruited skilled craftsmen and officials like them from all over the country, and ordered them to take exams in the arsenal and Tiangong Institute. If they passed the examination, they could serve as managers.
It is a pity that Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" has not been written yet, otherwise many things would have been put on the agenda.
The framework is now set up, but if you want to really implement it, you won't see the results for more than three to five months. The merger alone will take a lot of time, and there will also be many tedious tasks such as checking personnel, registering and registering.
Yang Huan quickly rushed to the Meridian Gate with more than a hundred guards and royal guards. The officials kneeling at the Meridian Gate were not uneasy when they saw that it was the murderer who came.
Yang Huan looked at these ignorant courtiers, sneered and waved his hand.
The Jin Yiwei behind saw him and immediately rushed forward. Upon seeing this, the officials quickly shouted:
"What's the point of a common man?"
The royal guards did not answer. They formed a group of two, carrying the officials one to the left and the other to the outside of the palace.
The officials thought they were being ordered to drive them home, and they became more courageous. One of the officials struggled and shouted:
"You idiots, we are here to serve the great Ming Dynasty and our ancestors and the country, but you dare to pervert the edict and do such a heinous and unethical thing?"
Some people took the lead, and others also joined in. They were almost crazy, trying to break free from the constraints of Jin Yiwei.
Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Yang Huan immediately strode forward and slapped the Yuan Wai Lang until he was stunned.
Before he could react, Yang Huan said immediately:
"His Majesty ordered Liu Xiong, a construction worker at the Ministry of Industry, to embezzle five thousand taels of silver issued by the late Emperor Mo in the first year of Taichang. During his tenure at the Ordnance Bureau, he avenged his personal vendetta and murdered the craftsman Ma Sanliang's family. As a result, Ma Sanliang was unjustly imprisoned and the artillery he built If you cut corners and use materials that cannot be used, you should be arrested immediately and put in jail as a crime!"
Liu Xiong's facial expression changed after hearing this, and he shouted angrily:
"Goucai, you are a slanderous person. If you dare to frame an important official of the imperial court and harm the loyal and good, the world's scholars will not let you go."
The other officials beside him naturally supported him, and they criticized Yang Huan one by one. If mouth and saliva could kill people, Yang Huan would probably not even have ashes left.
"Are you all clean one by one? If you don't want others to know, you have to do nothing yourself."
Yang Huan then called out the names of several more people and listed their charges one by one. As soon as these officials heard this, they immediately stopped making noise and bowed their heads in silence one by one, allowing the Jin Yiwei to lead them away.
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