Zhang Zhiji, the Ministry of Industry, and the Cabinet presided over the merger of the Arsenal, Ordnance Bureau, and Wang Gong Factory. After repeated discussions over the past few days, they finally came up with a specific charter.
First, check all the craftsmen and other personnel of the Ordnance Bureau and re-compile the books. Then, according to the Ordnance Bureau's previous records, select craftsmen with superb skills, honesty and excellent skills.
There are a lot of people in these three yamen, tens of thousands in number. It is not easy to re-register, but it must be done.
Then we should set up a department specifically responsible for purchasing refined iron, wood and other raw materials. In the future, purchasing funds will be directly sent to this department to avoid transfer to corruption.
The purchasing department will be composed of officials, Jinyiwei, Dongchang and many other people with different social status.
These people have different responsibilities. For officials, their job is to calculate accounts and make statistics. They are absolutely not allowed to go out to make purchases, and even the money is not in their hands.
The reason why he did this was to avoid corruption as much as possible. Corruption can never be eradicated, because there will always be people who are greedy for money and will try their best to reach out.
All he can do is to set up a more reasonable mechanism and system to keep them in check and not go too far.
The Procurement Department must make statistics every month and clearly record all the expenditures of the previous month. Then he, the emperor, will send people to verify. As long as the verification is wrong, the entire department will be severely punished. This is modeled on The continuous sitting system of the Qin Dynasty.
And if someone takes the initiative to report it, he will also receive a reward from him, but he doesn't have much hope.
The entire Ordnance Bureau needs to be overhauled, and all factories and internal equipment and facilities must be inspected and inspected. All those that are unqualified or damaged must be remade.
Then the whole thing will be renovated. The Ordnance Bureau will no longer make hot weapons such as guns and cannons, but will only be responsible for making cold weapons such as swords, guns, swords, halberds and armor. The rest will be handed over to the arsenal.
Then a factory building was designated in the Ordnance Bureau, completely renovated, and troops were stationed there. All the equipment, tools and facilities inside were the latest and best, and the Tiangong Institute was temporarily located here.
Zhu Youxiao sometimes thinks that he might as well not make armor at all. The future development direction will definitely be towards thermal weapons, and new methods and tactics of warfare will emerge. These traditional ones have begun to become outdated and will be slowly eliminated in the future.
But the size of the Ming Dynasty's army is really too big. There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the Nine Borders alone. In just three to five years, tens of millions of silver will not even think about such a thing. Now the national power can only barely support him. Yulin Army.
Song Yingxing gave him a memorial, which was about the amount of gunpowder, production methods, etc. In his opinion, since the weapons have been updated across generations, the gunpowder must also be changed, and it must be closely matched with the new gunpowder.
It carefully states what standards the gunpowder equivalent used in a firegun must meet, how to protect and store it during the production process, and then to loading and use. These processes are clearly written.
For this matter, he specifically asked Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang, two masters in firearms, and after two days, he finally submitted the memorial to his imperial case.
Zhu Youxiao adopted his suggestions and made some additional changes based on his later knowledge.
The shortcomings of black powder in this era are very obvious. The most important thing is that it is too susceptible to moisture. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to use firearms on rainy days and humid places.
In addition to the shortcomings of the musket itself, gunpowder is also the key.
Now that flint-fired Shenwu fire guns have been developed, the shortcomings of the matchlock have been made up, but the shortcomings of gunpowder are still there, which is not acceptable.
Moreover, the management and storage of gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty was really poor. It was not strict at all and did not pay attention to this aspect at all.
In the end, he reaped the consequences. In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, a huge explosion occurred in the Wang Gong Factory, a gunpowder workshop only three kilometers away from the imperial city.
Historical records record that there were endless thunderclaps in the ground, self-immolation with gunpowder, smoke and dust in the sky, and flames reaching into the sky.
The entire sky was lit up, tens of thousands of houses collapsed, and nearly a thousand people were killed or injured. The scale and destructive power of this explosion were evident. (The actual records of the Ming Dynasty, the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, the actual records of the emperors, and the Northern Strategy of the Ming Dynasty cited by the author here are not as reliable as the actual records of the Ming Dynasty. The report that tens of thousands of people were killed and injured is not even considered unofficial history. It is folklore. The earliest is "Heaven" Appearing in "Biandi Bao" is equivalent to today's self-media.)
The most important thing is that this explosion directly led to the complete death of Emperor Tianqi. His only surviving son died due to the explosion, which directly changed the direction of history.
The Wanggong Factory explosion is still a big unsolved case hundreds of years later, because it happened so suddenly and strangely that no matter what reason you find, you can't fully explain it.
In order to avoid the tragedy, he planned to move Wang Gong Factory. This was really too dangerous. It was just three kilometers away and one of his people might be killed one day.
Moreover, this kind of place can easily become a point for some people to take advantage of. Natural disasters will happen from time to time, but man-made disasters will always exist. This must be guarded against.
Zhu Youxiao plans to completely merge the Wang Gong Factory and the Arsenal to make gunpowder and firearms together. Some testing and other aspects will be much more convenient.
Then a factory was built specifically to store the prepared gunpowder.
In addition, a fence must be built around the factory, and personnel must be assigned to strictly guard it at all times. Entry and exit require the approval of the general manager.
He planned to transform the old site of Wang Gongchang into a military camp for the Imperial Guards to station, so that they would not have to travel to and from the city every day. This location was perfect, only three kilometers away from the Imperial City, so it could be said to be the best choice.
"My lord, please prepare an edict to stop all affairs at Wang Gong Factory and immediately begin moving it to the arsenal. The British Duke Zhang Weixian will be in charge."
"I will allocate one hundred thousand taels of silver from my internal funds and let the British Duke Wang Gongchang plan and transform it into a military camp. In addition to residences, playgrounds and horse stables are also required, and a warehouse will be built to store weapons and other items."
"My slave obeys the order!"
Wang Chaofu, who had been serving beside him, immediately started writing.
Zhu Youxiao started the budget, which was another big expenditure.
After careful calculation, a wave of blood was inevitable in the end, amounting to two million taels of silver.
This was all collected from the hard work of those who knelt down at the Meridian Gate to admonish the officials last time. It was gone before they could warm themselves up. It was really uncomfortable.
In addition to the expansion and relocation of the arsenal, the two million taels of silver also include short-term procurement and research and development funds, as well as the Anjia silver of the craftsmen.
Although he has nearly 40 million taels of silver in his internal funds, he doesn't dare to be a rich man and spend money lavishly. He has to think about death to live.
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