It has to be said that Huang Mengyu, a pragmatic person whose name he never read in history books in his previous life, was actually quite efficient in his work.
After accepting the highly pragmatic task, Huang Zhenshou summoned all the gunmen from Datong City and several surrounding fortresses overnight. Early on the next morning, the sky was just turning white, and there were two dark circles under his eyes. Huang Zhenshou took them to visit Deputy Ambassador Gao.
To be honest, Huang Zhenshou's serious work attitude surprised even Gao Pragmatic - he had been a so-called "little cabinet elder" for the past six months, and he had already witnessed the court officials doing things while accompanying the prince to watch the government every day. Due to the procrastination, it often takes about a month for the capital to get feedback on a cabinet decision.
It would be even more speechless if it was in a remote area. For example, when Liu Xian took office in Guizhou and suppressed the rebellion, from the time when the central committee approved the decision to when Liu Xian sent troops, there was only three to five months, and there was basically no response.
Although he also knew the standard of communication in this era, it was not surprising to have to shout if you were close and walk if you were far away. However, the post system of the Ming Dynasty was obviously quite developed, and a "delivery office" was specially set up to strengthen it. For logistics, Jingshi even has institutions such as Huitong Pavilion and Wumanyi.
In fact, it took less than a month for the cabinet's resolution to arrive in Guizhou, and a round trip was considered two months at most. The soldiers and horses Liu Xian brought were from his headquarters. They were foreign troops fighting all year round, so it didn't take much time at all. After training, why does it take five months to send out troops? This shows the low efficiency of officials at all levels.
After such a comparison, Gao Pragmatic can understand why so many emperors favored eunuchs - they are like an arm and a finger!
This kind of work attitude could only be achieved by Gao Pragmatic, a young cadre who had received many years of teaching from the party and the people, that is, when he learned that he might be promoted soon. Comparing the two, it almost made him feel a little ashamed. .
Huang Zhenshou and seven of the prison guards met Deputy Ambassador Gao respectfully. Gao Pragmatic smiled and gave them seats. As a result, only Huang Mengyu sat with half his buttocks like yesterday, and the other seven guards The gun officers all said that they had no business sitting down in front of Gao Shidu.
However, Gao Pragmatic knew that the reason why they didn't dare to sit down was not because of himself as the prince's companion, but because of Huang Mengyu.
There are actually many rules among the eunuchs, even stricter than the hierarchy of civil and military officials. When they saw Huang Zhenshou, the dignified Datong guarding eunuch, they only dared to sit down with half their butts cautiously in front of Gao Pragmatic, thinking that they themselves were higher than Huang Zhenshou. If it's more than one level lower, how can you still sit? If I don't dare to drop my butt, I might as well not sit down instead of squatting.
Because Gao Jingshi "worked" in the Wenhua Palace, the eunuchs he usually dealt with a lot on weekdays. Knowing their difficulties, he did not force himself, so he said to Huang Mengyu: "Huang Zhenshou did a good job, the emperor and the young master and the I will tell them the truth about Meng Zhangyin."
Huang Zhenshou's face was filled with a smile. Although he was sitting, he bowed his head and said, "I would like to thank you, Sir Gao, for taking care of me. In fact, this is my responsibility and is not worth mentioning."
Hey, this posture is really low enough.
You must know that eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty were different from other dynasties. For those with a status such as the eunuch guarding Datong, even in front of the emperor, they did not call themselves "slaves" but called themselves ministers.
But after all, Huang Zhenshou is also a good person. The most classic sentence is "It's not worth mentioning at first" - It's not worth mentioning at first, but Gao Shidu, you must always mention it!
Gao Shidu was not a junior official in the officialdom, so he immediately laughed: "How can I not mention my due credit?"
Huang Zhenshou saw that he understood the three tastes of officialdom so well, and smiled even more happily, and complimented: "I heard a long time ago that the noble minister was very talented and erudite. I just wish I had never met him. Today I know that the ancients have not deceived me." , Sure enough, there is no false person under the great reputation..." He praised Gao Pragmatism to the sky.
"Zhengshou Huang deserves the award..." Gao Pingshi saw that this was not the way to go. When could he get to the point if this continued, he quickly interrupted: "Does Zhenshou Huang have any plans for what I said last night?"
When it came to business, Huang Mengyu immediately stopped bragging and said seriously: "Master Gao read the report, there are three gun guards in Datong City, who are in charge of three firearms warehouses. One of them shoots muskets, one shoots cannons, and the other sets fires." Medicine. There are four forts near the outside of the city where prison guards and gunmen are set up, but they are not so detailed. The cannons, muskets and gunpowder are all together. According to the slave's wishes, the four outside are scattered. , I’m afraid it will be difficult for us to check them one by one today, so we might as well check these three in Datong City first. As for which one to go to first, I’d like to ask Gao Shi to read you to decide, I’m all here.”
Gao Pragmatic understood what Huang Mengyu meant by "doing everything": Although the gun supervisors were responsible for the management of the firearms warehouse, what they managed was only the warehouse. As long as there was no difference in the quantity of guns, artillery and gunpowder, they did not care about the quality. Yes - that's a manufacturing and quality inspection problem, not their warehouse management personnel's fault.
Whether Huang Mengyu and his group of people secretly sold gunpowder, guns and artillery, it stands to reason that Gao Pragmatic can "observe politics", but he is not very interested.
With his pragmatic consciousness, of course he would feel that he was not here to be the anti-corruption director of Datong. Why should he be distracted by such nonsense?
His goal is clear: to produce conclusive evidence to prove that the firearms equipped by the Northern Army are not only outdated, but also of poor quality. Therefore, even if the court does not have the financial resources and determination to make a comprehensive reform of the military-industrial system, it must at least carry out pilot reforms-that is, Allow private arms factories to be opened on a pilot basis.
Uh... To put it bluntly, it's actually an excuse to open a military factory.
Could a person like him, Gao Shidu, be a great philanthropist who opened a charity hall to do good deeds for free? Don't be kidding, even if he did open a charity one day, it would definitely be for fame, not out of conscience. After all, in Gao Pragmatic's eyes, even if a charity is opened, the court should open a relief home, because it is the duty of the court to help the disadvantaged groups. Privately opening a charity is either a brain defect or has an agenda in mind.
At this time, Gao Pragmatic thought for a while and made a decision: "I am here to inspect armaments, mainly to see firearms, and you probably understand the original intention, which is that I may have to face retaliation from An Da. If I want to send troops Attack, in fact, although the cannon is very powerful, it can't actually hit a few people, so let's look at the fire cannons first."
Gao Pragmatic still insisted on his previous point of view: the main role of cannons is in field battles and sieges. Using cannons to defend cities is completely a cult behavior at least in this era. Only people like Governor Yuan would use it as a magic weapon to win.
