prosperous age

Chapter 719 Chapter 818
"I guess His Majesty was dissatisfied with the misappropriation of customs duties by the Ministry of Revenue at the end of the year, so he made the plan to dispatch ministers."

Wei Guangde said bluntly that he knew that today might make the emperor unhappy, but there was nothing he could do about it because he was a civil servant.

"How do you think it's appropriate?"

Li Chunfang did not immediately summon others to discuss the matter, but asked him.

"Let the local government send officials to assist, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate selects the censor of Chaoguan to inspect the Chaoguan. The time can be set in the middle of the year. The inner court can send ministers to accompany the censor to inspect the Chaoguan in various places."

Wei Guangde set the inspection time in the middle of the year, and also deliberately avoided the end of the year and the beginning of the year, because it was usually at this time that the Ministry of Accounts misappropriated banknotes.

As soon as the new year begins and merchant ships come and go, the new tax money will naturally make up for the misappropriated part.

"But, take this memorial and go to Zhengfu and talk to him. If you don't have any objections, just vote on it.

Chaoguan cannot be controlled by people in the inner court, otherwise with their urine, there is no telling how much trouble they will cause.

If you just go on patrol with the censor, that's fine. "

Li Chunfang also said.

"Then Mr. Li Ge, I will take my leave."

Wei Guangde took the memorial back from Li Chunfang and left the duty room, then turned and entered Chen Yiqin's duty room.

After a brief exchange between him and Chen Yiqin, Chen Yiqin naturally had no problems. He and Li Chunfang had the same attitude and just reminded: "Before the vote is drafted, you should hand a note to the Ministry of Household Affairs to let them know about it. "

Wei Guangde nodded, indeed he had forgotten to mention this just now, so he said: "Both the Ministry of Revenue and the Metropolitan Procuratorate need to say hello. Previously, in the Qianqing Palace, His Majesty asked the cabinet to convene the Ministry of Revenue and the Metropolitan Procuratorate to discuss this matter. "

"Send me a note. If they have no objection, the matter will be handled as we discussed. You can vote directly. If you have any objection, just call everyone together for discussion."

"it is good."

Wei Guangde left Chen Yiqin's duty room and returned to his own room. He immediately wrote two notes and asked Lu Bu to make two copies of Zheng Dajing's memorial. He sent the two notes to the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Metropolitan Procuratorate respectively, and gave them to Liu Tiqian and Wang Ting.

Two days later, the Ministry of Revenue replied in agreement, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate also responded that the selection of the censor of Chaoguan was in progress. Wei Guangde found Zheng Dajing's memorial, and then drafted it and sent someone to the Supervisor of Ceremonies.

More than half a month had passed since the parade, and on this day he received a note from Zhu Heng of the Ministry of Industry, saying that one of the things he wanted had been made and asked him to take a look.

Wei Guangde naturally knew what Zhu Heng was talking about, so he immediately replied and made an appointment to go to the Ordnance Bureau tomorrow.

The next day, outside the Ordnance Bureau, Wei Guangde got off the sedan and saw several people standing at the door. The leader was Zhu Heng, Minister of Industry.

He walked quickly and saluted, and Zhu Heng returned the salute.

Although Wei Guangde is a cabinet minister, Zhu Heng is a senior in the imperial examination and a fellow countryman, so Wei Guangde has always been so polite to him and will not act like a cabinet minister.

"As for the cannon, the first one is the most difficult to make, but as long as you think it's feasible, they can make other ones at the same time, and the speed will be faster."

After explaining to the head of the Ordnance Bureau, he led the way and led Wei Guangde and Zhu Heng into the Ordnance Bureau and went to a workshop. Zhu Heng said to Wei Guangde while walking.

Arriving outside the workshop, Wei Guangde saw something covered by a piece of red cloth from a distance, guessing it was the artillery piece.

But to be precise, it should be an artillery model. After all, this thing can only be seen but not used.

Next to the red cloth, there were a few people dressed as craftsmen chatting and laughing, seemingly the guards.

When he got closer, Wei Guangde asked curiously: "Does every artillery piece that is manufactured have to be covered with this red cloth?"

"Back to Mr. Wei Ge, this is an old rule of the artillery workshop, which means that the things made are sharp and powerful."

The chief replied respectfully, then went to the red cloth, gently opened the red cloth, and a thick barrel appeared in front of Wei Guangde.

The artillery of the Ming Dynasty was very simple to manufacture. It was just a barrel. There were no complicated auxiliary devices, not even a gun carriage.

The main reason is that most of the artillery used by the Ming army these days are light artillery, or small artillery.

For long-distance transportation, it is directly towed on a large vehicle. When it reaches the battlefield, it is dug into a hole or fixed with sandbags. The angle is adjusted by placing rocks or wood under the gun body, so there is no choice to build a special gun truck for the artillery.

However, the cannon in front of me is much larger than the cannons manufactured by the Ordnance Bureau in the past.

Wei Guangde's visual inspection showed that the cannon body was probably more than four meters long, far longer than the ten feet he wanted. It exuded a yellowing metallic luster. It was obviously not made of wrought iron, but made of copper.

"How about it? It should be as big as you want."

Zhu Heng walked beside him and said.

"Master Zhu ordered the young queen to complete it as soon as possible, so the official summoned the craftsmen in the workshop to study day and night, and finally made one the day before yesterday. I also asked your Excellency to evaluate it."

The person in charge of the Arms Bureau came up to flatter him.

Wei Guangde nodded, then circled around the cannon, inspecting the cannon from different directions.

At this moment, the cannon was lying flat on its back with sandbags. Although it didn't look powerful enough, the style was similar to the artillery relics he saw in his memory.

This cannon does not have a gun hoop like a bamboo joint, but the whole body is relatively smooth and streamlined. According to Wei Guangde, it is thin at the front and thick at the back. The cannon even has tiger and leopard patterns engraved on it.

The caliber of the artillery is not large, only about three or four inches. From this, we can also know the thickness of the artillery wall.

To be honest, Wei Guangde is still very satisfied with this cannon, especially since the cannon casting work can be completed in such a short time.

He had not mentioned this matter to Qi Jiguang and Emperor Longqing before. In fact, he was worried that the Ministry of Industry would not be able to complete it on time.

If you can't do it, you won't be able to participate in the Grand Parade.

It's still less than half a month before the Grand Parade. Yesterday, he had received news that the elite border troops had arrived at the Beijing camp. After a day's rest, they would start joint training tomorrow.

Wei Guangde planned to wait for two days before going to the capital camp to see the situation of the border troops.

The cannon he saw today was in line with the image he had in mind, at least there was no major difference in appearance.

According to the chief officer, it was perfectly okay to build nine more such cannons before the Grand Parade, so he had the idea to take the cannon away and let Qi Jiguang have a look.

Wei Guangde was still hesitant as to whether to place this cannon in the Shenji camp to be reviewed with the team or to be put on the stage at the end.

While thinking, Wei Guangde reached out and gently touched the cannon body, and immediately felt something was wrong.

After putting his hand on the cannon, it didn't give him any sense of weight. With a little force, the cannon actually shook when he pushed it.

"what."

Wei Guangde exclaimed, then pushed hard again, and sure enough he felt that the artillery didn't seem to be heavy.

When he saw Wei Guangde shaking the cannon body, the person in charge behind him broke into a cold sweat without realizing it.

"what happened?"

Zhu Heng also noticed Wei Guangde's movements and asked.

The director of the Ministry of Industry was so frightened by Zhu Heng's questioning that he fell to his knees, almost lying on the ground.

Wei Guangde had already arrived in front of the muzzle and looked in along the muzzle.

But it was pitch black inside the barrel and nothing could be seen.

Looking back at the people around me, many of the craftsmen and clerks in the surrounding weapons bureau looked pale at this moment, and even had cold sweat dripping from their faces.

Wei Guangde's heart moved, and he knew that there must be something fishy in building this thing so quickly, so he simply stretched his hand through the muzzle of the cannon and felt the cannon wall with his hands.Sure enough, the feel of the tentacles was different from before. The metallic texture when touching the gun body was gone.

"Did you make the main body of this cannon out of wood? Is it covered in copper?"

Withdrawing his hand and looking at the yellowed cannon body, Wei Guangde asked.

"My lord's atonement, my lord's atonement."

After hearing Wei Guangde tell the secret of the cannon, the director of the Ministry of Industry kowtowed and kept talking.

"Whoa."

The few clerks from the Ordnance Bureau who followed in and the craftsmen next to them all knelt down at this time, not daring to say a word.

"I asked you to cast it, and you will make a wooden cannon for me?"

Zhu Heng, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, was also very angry at this time and felt that he had been deceived by the people below.

"Sir, it is impossible to build such a large artillery in one month, and it may not be possible in half a year."

The principal raised his head slightly and said, then he lay down again.

Wei Guangde waved his hand and said to Zhu Heng: "Brother Shi Nan, don't be angry. They are not to blame for this matter."

In fact, it was just a whim at the beginning, but after leaving the Ministry of Industry, Wei Guangde realized that it might be too late, even if it was just a fake product.

So when he received Zhu Heng's note, although he was happy, he was still a little confused.

When he saw it today, it was exactly what he thought.

"When I first got the news that the casting was completed, I was wondering if you cast the cannon body in sections and connected them into one piece. Anyway, it was just for a look. I didn't expect you to be so smart and know that processing wood is faster, haha."

Wei Guangde said easily, without any sign of anger.

"Shandai, you failed to handle this matter. Come down and I will take care of them."

Zhu Heng had already arrived beside Wei Guangde and whispered to him.

The people here are all from his Ministry of Works. As an official of the Ministry of Works, even if he does something wrong, he can only deal with it internally, and he doesn't want to deal with it in front of Wei Guangde.

"It doesn't matter, he's just a decent guy, this gun looks pretty good."

Wei Guangde just chuckled, because he really didn't think of the method of making a wooden model and then covering it with copper.

Originally it was just a make-up, to deceive the surrounding vassal states. Wei Guangde planned to tell the truth to Emperor Longqing, but only said that it was a newly designed artillery piece by the Ministry of Industry, but it was not completed.

He would not commit the crime of deceiving the emperor. If someone finds out about it at a bad time, he will be dismissed from office, or his head will be lost.

This is why he said that the Ministry of Industry should continue to study casting methods, and it would be best to create cannons that can be used in actual combat.

"Then this can be submitted during the Grand Reading?"

Zhu Heng asked, pointing to the artillery model.

"Okay, hurry up and build nine more cannons, and form an artillery array with ten cannons, so that the surrounding foreign envoys can see the sharp firearms of our Ming Dynasty."

Wei Guangde replied, but then he thought again before pointing to a carriage pulling materials not far away and said: "This artillery needs to be designed with a special artillery carriage. The artillery must be placed on it and used for pulling by mules."

"Not on the cart?"

The Ming army mostly used four-wheeled carriages to transport artillery, and the Shenji Battalion was equipped with many of them, which were used to transport general cannons and large Franco cannons.

"Is this cannon so big? If it's not light enough to be cast, it would be difficult and dangerous to transport. It would be best to install it on a gun carriage."

Wei Guangde said that he did not expect that two soldiers would be able to lift such a large artillery piece up and down during the parade.

Too fake.

Although there is a suspicion of fraud, the fake must be as real as possible, at least not in front of outsiders.

It's just that these words cannot be said on this occasion. You can talk to Zhu Heng in private.

"Artillery carriage? That's okay, but artillery carriage is still not suitable after all."

Zhu Heng did not object after hearing Wei Guangde's words. Perhaps he also thought of this, but he still added one sentence.

"How come it doesn't apply?"

Wei Guangde frowned and asked after hearing Zhu Heng's words.

"Shan Loi, you must have seen sex, how could you not know?"

Zhu Heng also looked at Wei Guangde with a strange expression and said: "Before the formation, these artillery pieces usually use local materials, either digging holes or padding them with soil, and placing sandbags on the body of the artillery to prevent the artillery from turning over or retreating after being released.

Even if it is mounted on a tank, it can only be placed on its side and fixed with multiple wooden frames. Sandbags are usually pressed on the gun body.

But this cannon is so big that it cannot be placed sideways on the cart. It can only be arranged along the way. Once it is fired, the artillery cart will inevitably retreat several steps or even ten steps. How can it be arranged in the military formation? "

When Wei Guangde was in Baoan Prefecture, he certainly saw the Ming army releasing firearms on tanks. Indeed, as Zhu Heng said, the artillery was placed horizontally on the tanks, making it difficult to advance and retreat.

Because the muzzle must be pointed at the enemy, the tanks are placed horizontally.

But at that time, Wei Guangde didn't feel that he existed. In later generations, he saw the same situation in some albums, so he subconsciously took it for granted.

But at this time, Wei Guangde realized that it was not that the Ming craftsmen did not consider building a gun carriage, but that they did not solve the problem of fixing the gun carriage.

Without a gun barrel suppressor, there is no way to solve the problem of gun recoil.

The first-generation artillery mostly adopts a gun base design. This kind of artillery is preloaded and adopts a base design. The purpose is to increase the weight of the artillery and prevent the gun barrel from deflecting due to excessive recoil and causing inaccurate hits. The gun barrel and The gun mount came to forcibly bear the recoil.

When it came to the second-generation artillery, the designer designed two improvements. One was to lengthen the barrel to increase the range. At this time, the artillery also adopted the method of rear-loading shells, which is the modern loading method; the second point was to start using telescopic Type gun barrel, which is to add an air storage chamber on top of the artillery as an air cushion to buffer the artillery launch.

Wei Guangde knows the principle, but he also knows that it is impossible to do it now.

Today's Ming Dynasty, and even Western countries, find it very difficult to cast such cannons, and they also need to be modified. It is estimated that it cannot be achieved without one or two hundred years of technological development.

But Wei Guangde certainly knew how to fix the gun carriage.

Some heavy artillery in later generations had cannon nails, which were nailed directly to the ground. Some even did not use manual labor and directly drilled holes mechanically.

"Pull that car over."

Wei Guangde pointed to the carriageway in the distance.

Soon, the carriage came closer.

Wei Guangde called the chief and the surrounding craftsmen to explain using the carriage as a reference.

According to the impression of later generations, Wei Guangde made requirements for the brackets of the gun carriages to have holes for ground nails.

If it is still not secure, just make two rings on the left and right in other parts of the frame, even at the muzzle, put on rattan rope and fix it with ground nails.

Anyway, if one is not enough, just install a few more, which will always solve the problem.

(End of this chapter)