Only half an hour later, Gao Pragmatic was led by Huang Mengyu to the gun warehouse in Datong City.
The so-called "gun warehouse" was defined by Gao Jingshi himself. Huang Mengyu didn't introduce what it was actually called, and Gao Jingshi didn't care about it and didn't ask.
This warehouse is very large, and there are more than one or two rooms. It is made up of about twenty large bungalows, arranged horizontally and vertically. It can be seen that there are a lot of cannons stored. Of course, Gao Pragmatic cannot check them one by one and can only conduct random inspections. However, in order to show strictness, the spot inspections must also randomly check a batch in each warehouse.
After entering the first warehouse, Huang Mengyu began to introduce to Gao Pangshi responsibly: "Gao Shidu Rongcheng, our Ming Dynasty's firearms manufacturing has two major sources, one is made in the capital, and the other is made in the local area. Made in the capital The main sources of firearms are the three major bureaus, namely the Ordnance Bureau, the Military War Bureau, and the Saddle and Riding Bureau. It is impossible to elaborate on the local self-made ones, as long as they are found in places approved by the imperial court. Our Datong is one of the nine important towns, and firearms The origin has always been complicated. Some were made in Beijing and some were made locally. Now this warehouse...Liu Ping, this warehouse——"
A young eunuch quickly walked out from the eunuchs behind him, bowed and said: "Guardian, this warehouse contains all kinds of muskets from the War Bureau."
Huang Mengyu nodded with satisfaction and looked at Gao pragmatically.
Seeing that the warehouse was full of neatly arranged large wooden boxes, Gao pragmatically could not see the firearms inside, so he said, "Open it and take a look."
Huang Mengyu didn't wait for Gao Jingshi to elaborate, and waved to the young eunuch named Liu Ping. Liu Ping quickly imitated the wave to the group of people behind him and shouted: "Gao Shi has an order, open it and take a look!" Liu Ping is the prison officer here, the "leader in charge". Of course, there are a group of people below him, so it is impossible for him to even open the wooden box himself.
Because Gao Jingshi did not explain which one to open or which ones to open, these people did not dare to neglect and quickly opened the wooden boxes in front of and around Gao Jingshi one by one.
Gao Pragmatic stepped forward to check. By coincidence, the first thing that appeared in front of him was a three-eyed gun. However, he reached out and picked it up and found that it was quite heavy. He thought it would be difficult to pick it up, and he couldn't help but feel a smile on his face. A little embarrassed.
Huang Mengyu saw the opportunity quickly and pretended not to see Gao Pangshi's situation. He excitedly reached out to pick up the three-eyed gun, put it in front of Gao Pragmatic's eyes and said with a smile: "Look, Gao Shidu, this three-eyed gun is ..." As he spoke, he also moved his head closer to the three-eyed gun, looked at it carefully and said: "Sheng Zi No. 43,674 - Liu Ping, which year should this number be from?"
Liu Ping hurriedly replied: "Go back to guard, this should be born in September of the 44th year of Jiajing."
Seeing the strangeness, Gao pragmatic went over to take a look. Sure enough, the gun was engraved with the words "Sheng Zi No. 43674". He was a little surprised and asked: "Every firearm has it." Such a number?"
Huang Mengyu didn't answer this time. He only signaled Liu Ping with his eyes. Liu Ping stepped forward and said respectfully: "Returning to Gao Shidu's words: Every firearm has a number, but the firearms produced by the three major bureaus of Jingying are numbered. The first characters are different, and the numbering formats produced by local bureaus are also different. The pole you see now was produced by the Jingshi Military and War Bureau during the Jiajing period. The first characters at the beginning are all "win". If it was made during the Jiajing period, the first character would be 'electricity'. If it was made during the Longqing period, the word 'Wei' would start with the word "Wei" for the War Bureau, and the word "英" would start with the word '英' for the Ordnance Bureau."
Gao Pragmatic nodded and thought to himself: It seems that this management system is not very bad. Every gun is numbered.
He was afraid that if he didn't know enough about it, he might make a joke or misunderstand him. He also saw that Liu Ping seemed to be quite familiar with his "business", and Huang Mengyu asked him to answer directly several times, maybe with the intention of promoting him. He simply smiled and said: "Liu Ping, I see that you are quite familiar with these rules and regulations. Why don't you explain it in more detail - I am referring to the manufacturing and management of firearms."
Liu Ping was secretly happy and hurriedly stepped forward to introduce Gao Jingshi. When Huang Mengyu saw Gao Jingshi smiling at him, he immediately understood that Gao Jingshi was determined to fulfill his wishes and quickly smiled back to show his gratitude.
In fact, Liu Ping was Huang Mengyu's nephew. Although Huang Mengyu was less than ten years older than Liu Ping, he was the latter's uncle. However, although the two were related, Gao Pingshi discovered from Liu Ping's detailed introduction that this person was indeed "skilled in business" and was not just a free man doing nothing.
According to Liu Ping, the production of firearms in the Ming Dynasty was indeed strictly controlled by the state: "Except for the number of weapons stored for preparation, the rest are stored in the warehouse - no private production is allowed." Although the imperial court in the twelfth year of Yongle ordered all the military offices in the world to set up their own positions and manufacture weapons, this was only limited to ordinary cold weapons.
As for firearms, the local government has always prohibited the manufacture of firearms. "All firearms are under the control of the Military Affairs Bureau of the inner government and are not allowed to be manufactured outside. For example, "in the sixth year of Zhengtong, the border generals Huang Zhen and Yang Hong requested to set up a shrine in Dushi, Xuanfu. The Gun Bureau manufactures firearms," but the imperial court banned them because "firearms were made outside the country for fear of spreading to the Mei Dynasty." Therefore, before Hongzhi, the Ming court had always used the Ordnance Bureau and the Military War Bureau as the main firearms production departments.
Four years after Hongzhi, the imperial court successively approved some local guards in Huaihe to have restricted firearms manufacturing. For example, Huguang and Guangxi were approved in the fourth year of Hongzhi; Sichuan's self-made weapons were approved in the last year of Zhengde; Qingzhou Zuowei was approved in the fifth year of Zhengde; Xuzhou was approved in the seventh year; and Liangzhou and other places were approved in the tenth year. Firearms in general. This is where the self-made weapons at the border began.
In the fourth year of Jiajing's reign, Liaodong was ordered to make its own poisonous fire flying cannon. In the thirteenth year, Shanxi was ordered to make some firearms. However, for the weapons manufactured by the local guards, they were only allowed to produce some hand-held copper blunderbuss and general cannons used in castles. If there were losses or needed to be replaced, local officials had to report it before they could make their own. At the same time, the firearms produced must also be prevented from being stolen or learned by others: "Tightly guard against them, and the styles are not allowed to be revealed. Violators will be guilty of serious crimes."
The raw materials necessary for making firearms and gunpowder, such as saltpeter, were also strictly controlled by the court. First of all, factories and bureaus were set up in saltpeter-producing provinces to implement official sales. Private frying of saltpeter was not allowed, and violators were severely punished. Secondly, it is necessary to strictly control the circulation of saltpeter. For merchants who transport saltpetre and sell it, the government issues business invoices. These business invoices are issued by the chiefs of the provincial firearms manufacturing bureaus, such as Fu, Yuan, Bingdao, etc., and state the amount of nitrate used by the bureau before the merchants are allowed to pay taxes and traffic. No other official documents are allowed to be used. In order to prevent merchants from communicating with Japanese pirates, a maritime ban was also issued. Merchant ships in Fujian, Guangzhou and other places were not allowed to carry saltpeter and sulfur. If found, they would be severely punished.
Gao Pangshi was a little surprised when he heard this. It turns out that the sea ban is related to this?
