Huang Zhenshou's nephew Liu Ping seemed to have good business skills. He immediately explained the system of Daming firearms production and raw material control to Gao Jingshi clearly. After listening to this, Gao Jingshi felt that it was quite good to be able to do this in this era. But what he doesn't understand is that since the system is quite rigorous, why is the quality still bad?
Gao Pragmatic looked suspicious and thought to himself: Could it be that the problem lies in the warehousing? But if there is a problem in the warehousing process, it is impossible for Huang Mengyu to be completely unaware of it, so why would there be no way to explain why he took the initiative to take me to see it? You don't want to bribe me, do you? He is from Meng Chong. He should know that I can make a fortune just by relying on Jinghua Soap. What did he bribe me with?
Over there, Liu Ping saw his hesitation and thought he had not spoken clearly enough. He suddenly became a little nervous. Gao Pingshi saw him and comforted him with a smile: "You said it well, but you only talked about production and raw material channels." Management, inspection, distribution and warehousing have not been mentioned yet, please continue.”
Liu Ping felt relieved and continued talking.
It turns out that before the Ming Dynasty's firearms were manufactured, in addition to the required materials being listed by the officials of the Bureau of Ordnance and the Bureau of War according to the quantity to be manufactured, the Er Commission officials were also required to monitor the purchase of raw materials. If there was any infringement of materials, they would be severely punished. In addition, in order to ensure that there are sufficient quantities of weapons when they are used, officials from the Ordnance Bureau and the Military Warfare Bureau must often check the number of weapons in each government warehouse. If there are any shortages, they must be replaced in time and sent to the internal government warehouse for storage.
If each health post or the Chief Secretary needs to make more firearms, the governor and other officials must hold a collective meeting and list the required number in a memorial. The emperor organizes ministers to discuss and then send it to the Ministry of Industry, which will prepare the materials for manufacturing. . If a new type of firearm is developed, the Ordnance Bureau will first produce a sample, which will be tested by the Ministry of War before the government allocates funds for mass production.
For example, in July of the 23rd year of Jiajing, Weng Wanda, the governor of Xuanda, developed a variety of firearms and asked for them to be made in this way. After the experiment, the Ministry of War found that some firearms, such as the three-shot continuous ball and the hundred-shot spearhead iron rod, were convenient and usable and should be made in large quantities. As for some firearms, such as fire beasts, mines, cannons, etc., they were considered "unnecessary" and it was recommended not to build more. All of them were approved by the court.
As for the weapons manufactured by the guards, there are regulations in terms of variety and quantity. The weapons manufactured must be reported to the court every month. However, Huguang, Tonggu and other guards, the so-called "those with a long way to go", are reported once a year.
Every five years, the imperial court would send patrol censors and inspectors to conduct inspections, and officials who made firearms that did not comply with regulations or misappropriated materials would be punished, such as demoted or dismissed.
After the firearms were made, in order to ensure the quality, the imperial court would send officials such as Shi Zhonghe and Yushi to take a sample from the War and War Bureau to compare with the finished firearms, and then conduct tests. Only qualified products could be collected and stored. Those that fail must be remade, and such inspections occur every three months.
Later, a testing hall was set up at Xi'an Gate to inspect the weapons requisitioned and sent to Beijing from various military stations. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War each sent personnel to conduct tests. The qualified ones were kept for their own use, and the unqualified ones were ordered to be remade.
Overall, the manufacturing of important firearms in the Ming Dynasty was managed by the Ministry of Industry and manufactured by the two bureaus of the inner government, while the Ministry of War was responsible for the division of branches.
For general firearms, each military post can produce them. If there is a shortage or urgent need, you have to go to the Ministry of War to ask for it. The Ministry of War will decide whether it is possible. There are certain years for the distribution of general firearms, which are once every three years and once every six years. , once every twelve years.
According to Liu Ping, Xuanda receives it every five years and can receive 40,000 copper bullets as a rule. In Ji Town, he only knew that firearms were received once every three years, and in Shuntian Mansion once every five years. He was not sure about the number.
There are also regulations for the firearms collected during the Beijing Camp Spring and Autumn Exercises. They must be collected from the Ordnance Bureau during the opening time and returned after the exercise ends. Firearms distributed to each side, in order to ensure that the firearms are not lost, the names of officials must be engraved on the firearms, and some even have the name of the guard station written on them. If there is a loss, compensation must be made.
Even from a highly pragmatic point of view, such a system can be called strict, but the question turns back - since the system is strict, why is it still rubbish?
Could it be that the poor quality of Ming Dynasty firearms only occurred in the years when the Ming Dynasty was about to die, and the current firearms are pretty good? However, according to Liu Xian, Ma Fang and Qi Jiguang, who had direct communication with Gao Pangshi, the Ming Dynasty's firearms were obviously bad enough now!
With doubts in his mind, Gao Pragmatic simply put aside the institutional issues for the time being and personally selected a batch of firearms from these warehouses for on-site live ammunition testing.
What made him laugh or cry was that he almost couldn't find anyone for this test - the clerks on the gun guard's side expressed their fear to go up and test the gun even in the face of the power of the imperial envoy. The reason is that Gao pragmatically wanted to check how many shots these firearms could fire continuously, so he asked to keep firing until the firearm exploded.
In the end, it was Wang Chonggu and Ma Fang who helped and brought in the captured White Lotus remnants and Mongolian prisoners. Together, there were about a hundred people, which satisfied the high pragmatic needs. As for the suspicion that doing so was illegal, anyway, Wang Chonggu and Ma Fang, the governor and the general soldier agreed, and with the full support of Huang Mengyu, the eunuch of Datong, Datong governor Fang Fengshi remained silent.
The results of the test made Gao Pragmatic very satisfied, and he felt that it met his needs - of course it was not that the quality was very good, but that it was indeed junk.
According to the highly pragmatic spot check test results, the average number of shots of various types of handheld firearms sent by the Beijing Camp is just over five times. Among them, the products of the Ordnance Bureau will cause explosions or other malfunctions every 5.4 shots on average. Zhanju's products will cause a chamber explosion or other malfunction every 4.9 rounds.
But the weapons made by Wei were even worse, with an average of 3.4 shots required to explode the chamber!
The most amazing thing is that during the test, the three-eyed blunderbuss produced by a certain guard actually had excellent results of exploding the barrel directly after the first shot. Wang Chongguo's face turned as black as a dragon after hearing the news. The picture looked like a picture, and Ma Fang, General Ma on the side, had an angry look on his face. The veins in his left hand holding the sword were bulging. He looked pragmatically and was afraid that he would order to call the commander of the guard station and chop him down directly.
The body of a three-eye blunderbuss is inherently thicker than that of a bird blunderbuss or a sagun blunderbuss. It stands to reason that the chamber explosion ratio should be lower. However, with a mass that will explode the chamber after firing four or five rounds on average, why is the ratio so low? To sum it up, if a three-eyed gun explodes after four or five shots, wouldn't a bird gun explode after just one or two shots?
How can this be considered a war? Isn't this suicide?
In such a situation, even Gao Pragmatic, who originally wanted to "collect unfavorable evidence", became silent, and then became as dark-faced as Wang Chonggu - did the Ming Dynasty rely on these soldiers holding fire sticks to guard the border?
At this moment, even he felt a chill running down his spine!
