Daming 1805

Chapter 17 The Busy Work Department
Before the resurgence of Renwu, the Ministry of Industry had the lowest status among the six yamen. If you transfer from the Ministry of Engineering to another department to be a bureaucrat at the same level, it can be regarded as a promotion.

After the restructuring of Renwu, the importance of the Ministry of Industry rose rapidly, and soon surpassed many of the original Qing and noble yamen, and became the most important and largest department.

Mainly in the process of industrialization, various engineering construction projects and various industrial and technological development projects are becoming more and more important.

Buildings, cities, mines, docks, railways, factories, shipyards, water conservancy, cannons, warships, science, technology, inventions, etc., are theoretically under the control of the original Ministry of Industry.

The Qing Li Division under the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry also quickly split, expanded, and increased to more than a dozen from the original Yingzhan, Yuheng, Dushui, and Tuntian.

Due to the growing size of the yamen, the Ministry of Industry has been split and adjusted several times in the following decades.

First of all, the related affairs of roads, railways, and wharves were separated out, and the post station system of the Ministry of War was added to form the "Huibu", which means "connecting the world".

Water conservancy-related matters such as canals, dams, reservoirs, irrigation, and water supply were separated out, and a separate "water department" was established to take charge of the construction and management of all water conservancy projects.

Buildings, palaces, fortresses, urban planning and construction-related matters were separated out to form the "Ministry of Construction", which is almost the Ministry of Construction.

The management of minerals and mines was handed over to the expanded Taipu Temple, which became the Ministry of Natural Resources, and oversaw the registration of horses, vehicles, and ships.

But at the same time, the design and production of weapons scattered in multiple departments were all transferred to the division of the Ministry of Industry.

The current functions of the Ministry of Industry are mainly industrial and factory management, design and production of weapons and equipment, design and production of military and civilian ships, and research and promotion of technological development.

However, there has been a trend recently, and the functions related to weapons, equipment and ships should be separated out and set up as a separate department.

Let the Ministry of Industry only take care of industry and technological development, because the capacity of the concept of industry continues to expand with industrialization, and it is not too small to stand alone now.

What's more, there is also the function of promoting technological development and managing the title of master craftsman, and it is no problem to list a separate science and technology department.

In other words, the Ministry of Works, which has been demolished several times, is still a large department.

The main tasks of the Ministry of Industry in this upcoming reform include coordinating industrial affairs in the industries opened up by the royal consortium, coordinating the differences in industrial norms between the empire itself and the vassal states and between the vassal states in the process of withdrawing the vassal state, Coordinate various rights and welfare merger affairs of feudal artisans and imperial artisans, etc.

It's all busy work.

Fortunately, the affairs related to the Labor Bureau were handed over to the Ministry of Personnel. In fact, this matter could be left to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households, but the Ministry of Households might be busier than the Ministry of Industry.

They have to deal with the civil rights and hukou adjustment of the people of the vassal state, which involves the future social status of hundreds of millions of people.

However, in matters related to the Labor Bureau, the Ministry of Industry is not completely out of control, but has only become an auxiliary role.

It is still necessary to cooperate with the work of the Ministry of Personnel, to submit various materials for the determination of labor remuneration, labor hours, etc., and to summarize and transmit the suggestions of the craftsmen.

Now the entire yamen, inside and outside, is full of officials holding and holding various documents, walking, exchanging, and rummaging between various rooms and departments.

All kinds of noisy human voices, the ringing and talking of wired telephones, mixed together in the entire office area, which was extraordinarily lively and noisy.

Zhu Jianyan's father and son walked into the door, the obviously fretful receptionist tried his best to squeeze a smile, finished the phone call as quickly as possible, and ran out to greet him.

Although I vaguely felt that Zhu Jianyan and his son were coming here to cause trouble, no one could neglect a prince, a prince, and an official of the book level.

The official at the reception invited the father and son to the reception room, brought tea and chatted with patience, and arranged for someone to immediately notify the Minister of Industry.

Zou Bingtai, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, is 64 years old this year, and has reached the edge of the retirement age stipulated by the new Renwu system.

He was originally going to retire with the old emperor, just to give the new emperor an extra post of minister, but as a result, he encountered such a large-scale reform when he was about to retire.

Zou Bingtai, who couldn't put the phone down, felt a little helpless when he heard the news from his subordinate officials.

He attended the royal meeting last night, and he knew what responsibilities the two fathers and sons had now, and that Zhu Jingyuan had the imperial decree to make all the yamen cooperate.

It's just that Zou Bingtai can't imagine what these two fathers and sons can do when they come to find them, are they going to intervene in the industrial-related affairs of the vassal state?

But no matter how doubtful he was in his heart, whether it was Zhu Jianyan, who held the title of Shangshu, or Zhu Jingyuan, the emperor's grandson who was favored by the civil and military of the Manchu Dynasty, Zou Bingtai couldn't let it go.

Zou Bingtai finished the phone call as soon as possible, then quickly sorted out his appearance, and hurried to the guest room to greet Zhu Jianyan and his son.

When the two sides formally met, the chief officer and the elders put on a very friendly gesture, greeted each other cordially and politely, and said a few noisy words with laughter.

However, the Ministry of Industry is very busy now, so the chatting session will be over soon, Zhu Jianyan speaks directly to help his son to explain the purpose of his visit:
"I came to harass Da Sikong today, because the child Jingyuan has some immature nonsense ideas on weapons. I hope Da Sikong will send people to help verify..."

Da Sikong is the honorific title of Minister of the Ministry of Industry. This honorific title originated from similar positions in the Zhou Dynasty. The six ministers and seven ministers and other important ministers had corresponding titles, which was also a custom at that time.

With the increasing number of court departments, a large number of newly added department ministers do not have similar titles. Officials standing in the original six departments and seven ministers like this title even more.

After listening to Zhu Jianyan's words, Zou Bingtai finally understood the intention of Zhu Jianyan's father and son, but doubts arose in his heart.

Zou Bingtai knows better than Zhu Jianyan that weapons are becoming more and more sophisticated than before, and only highly educated craftsmen can participate in research and development.

Even if Zhu Jingyuan, the 15-year-old grandson of the emperor, can have some good ideas, they must be very immature, and most of them are just a whim.

But no matter what he thinks in his heart, Zou Bingtai will definitely cooperate with Zhu Jianyan's father and son's request.

There is no need to be awkward with the two princes in such a place, and the two princes are so polite.

Anyway, although the Ministry of Industry is very busy as a whole, the personnel related to weapon design are no different from usual.

They usually have a large number of verification projects, and they just include Zhu Jingyuan's ideas. At most, some experimental materials are wasted.

So Zou Bingtai smiled and stroked his beard, and asked Zhu Jingyuan very actively and directly:
"Oh, what is your highness Jingyuan's fantastic idea, can you tell me for the old man to take a look at it."

Zhu Jingyuan knew that the other party was mostly polite, but politeness was also an attitude of accepting himself, so he immediately began to describe his thoughts:

"Has the Ordnance Department considered creating a military vehicle that carries fixed artillery, covered with iron armor, and is track-driven, and cooperates with infantry to conduct positional assaults?"

People in this world may be able to imagine what a tank is, but they should not know the word tank.

Because the word is an English transliteration, the original meaning is "water cabinet".

Therefore, Zhu Jingyuan could not mention the tank, and could only describe what the tank corresponds to in the most popular way possible.

Zhu Jingyuan was worried that Zou Bingtai would not understand, and was ready to wait for the other party's questions before continuing to explain himself.

But Zou Bingtai seemed to understand immediately:
"Your Highness is talking about a self-propelled armored shield car?"

Zhu Jingyuan was stunned for a moment. He seemed to have seen this strange name. It was said in a news newspaper that the front-line army was equipped with this kind of new equipment.

The Ming Empire's own military equipment is named after this style, which has been in the same line from ancient times to the present.

At the time, Zhu Jingyuan was simply browsing the news, and he didn't pay much attention to the specifics of this thing. There was no detailed description in the newspaper, and there were no photos.

Zhu Jingyuan instinctively thought that this should be an upgraded version of the shield car.

Now I come back to my mind and think about it. It can move on its own, has iron armor, and has a shield. Is this thing a tank?
"What Da Sikong means is that the Ministry of Industry has already built this kind of thing?"

Zhu Jingyuan was a little surprised, a little surprised, a little disappointed, and a little embarrassed:

"Are there any photos of the real object, as well as the basic structure and outline drawings, can you show me?"

(End of this chapter)