Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Chapter 103 Inspection of the Ministry of Industry

As soon as he opened his eyes, in order to avoid Master Yan, Lu Mou ran directly to the Ministry of Works.

With sufficient funds guaranteed, the entire factory of the Casting Department of the Ministry of Industry is really in full swing. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as thick smoke and fire.

Bi Maokang's actions were not unreasonable. In just half a month, the blast furnace renovation of the smelting plant of the Ministry of Industry was completed. Moreover, by using the superimposed smelting method of pig iron and wrought iron, the first batch of low carbon steel was actually produced.

This made the entire Ministry of Industry rejoice,

The iron mold casting method left over by Sun Yuanhua not only cast all-steel lightweight steel cannons, but was also used in the manufacture of gun barrels, improving the efficiency and quality and achieving uniform caliber of gun barrels.

Therefore, our time-traveling lighthouse once again opened its golden fingers, and implemented an assembly line manufacturing system for the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry, and stipulated unified production standards. It was so strict that two identical parts must be indistinguishable. If errors occur, wages will be deducted and spanked.

A class of craftsmen only makes one part, which not only greatly improves work efficiency, but also cultivates craftsmen who are most skilled in this one part.

At the same time, the parts of different guns can be interchanged, which improves the service life of the flintlock gun on the battlefield.

Regarding this novel production process, Bi Maokang and a group of officials all praised the prince for his unparalleled wisdom.

After experiencing the huge advantages of assembly line production, Bi Maokang concluded happily: "The prince's method has endless magical effects. The flintlock assembly line alone can make guns more than ten times faster than before. With this I can guarantee that with sufficient supply of raw materials, all weapons will be replaced by the end of next year."

The actual situation is that Bi Maokang was too confident. At the end of the 18th year of Chongzhen, he failed to achieve his goal of redressing the entire army. The reason, the reason is that the Ming army doubled.

"Why are there not enough raw materials?"

"Because most of the iron smelting plants in the northwest are in areas occupied by rogue pirates. The raw materials we obtain only come from Luanzhou, so there is a shortage of raw materials."

Lu Jian held his chin and looked at the terrifyingly huge warehouse area of ​​Wang Gong Factory, thoughtfully.

You are right, Wang Gong Factory is the same Wang Gong Factory that was blown up by the Apocalypse explosion. However, after eighteen years of continuous construction, it has returned to its original size, or even bigger.

"Let's go to Wang Gongchang's warehouse to have a look."

A group of people followed Lu Mou to the Wang Gongchang warehouse area.

You don’t know this by looking at it, but you’ll be shocked when you see it. Lu Mou was not startled at all, but shocked.

When I opened a huge warehouse, I was greeted by a rotten and moldy smell, and then I saw the mountains of weapons, swords and guns inside.

And these swords and guns are already rusty.

Lu Mou asked the Ambassador of the Ministry of Industry and Cang next to him: "How many such swords and guns are there here?"

The warehouse ambassador replied: "This is a weapon to equip 100,000 people. And there are nine such warehouses."

Hearing such data, Lu Mou staggered. If he hadn't held on to the door frame, he would have been shocked and fell.

"When were these made?"

"Most of them were produced in Tianqi's 4th and 5th year."

In the 4th and 5th year of Tianqi, it was when Wei Zhongxian came to power. He worked hard to save money, so that he could accumulate such a fortune for Ming Dynasty.

"But as far as I know, our original army was not equipped with weapons and weapons. Many soldiers used wooden sticks. There were even more troops and a weird grenadier."

There is a type of unit in the Ming Dynasty's army called grenadiers. But don't get me wrong, the reason why such a unit exists is because they have no weapons, not even a stick. When you go to the battlefield, you pick up a stone and are always ready to throw stones at the enemy. This is a branch of arms formed for this purpose.

Do you think this is funny or sad?

"There are so many weapons and equipment, why not distribute them to the soldiers to fight the enemy?" Ambassador Cang replied naturally: "Because they can't afford to pay for the damage."

Lu Mou was puzzled: "What does it mean to lose money?"

"This means that if the military in various places wants to receive equipment, they must pay a loss to the Ministry of Industry.

For example, if the army from outside comes here to get a big sword, they have to pay one tael of silver, and a cherry gun has to pay five taels of silver. The armor costs 10 taels of silver. "

"Then how much does it cost to shoot a weapon like this?"

"The big sword is more expensive, costing about one tael of silver, while the cherry gun costs three coins."

No wonder the Ming Dynasty's equipment was so poor, because they couldn't afford to use swords, guns, or wear armor. They are even owed military pay for dozens of months or even years. To survive, they have to rely on their parents to beg for food, and their wives and children to work half-way through the door. How can they have the money to pay this abominable loss money?

"That's not right. When I was reorganizing and expanding the army, I purchased so many fine armors and so many five-eyed machines, firearms, swords, and shields. Why didn't you ask me for any loss money?"

The Cang Ambassador smiled: "That's because Mr. Qian Tonghe quietly paid on behalf of the prince."

Lu Mou was surprised and began to miss the old man again.

No, we must find an opportunity to bring that old man back.

"So now that I'm extracting weapons and equipment, do I still have to pay you that bullshit damage fee?"

"Of course not now."

"why?"

Bi Maokang replied: "Because everything produced by the former Ministry of Industry was built with its own money. Now that the finances are unified, the Ministry of Industry no longer has to raise its own money. If you want to build any weapons and equipment, you only need to go to the Ministry of Household Affairs Just go and apply for funds. In fact, there is no other way to lose money."

Lu Mou sighed. The result was that the disadvantages of this financial division had created millions of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty. They had no weapons and equipment. In the end, they could not even defeat the rogue bandits, and almost ruined the Ming Dynasty.

Then he went to the artillery warehouse and looked at the artillery of various sizes piled up there so densely that it made people suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He asked again, how many of these are there?

Ambassador Cang was a little troubled: "The warehouse manager has fled to the south. I really haven't made careful statistics. However, in the 30th year of Wanli, our Ming Dynasty cast three thousand light and heavy artillery pieces in one year. One hundred cannons.

Is that an exaggeration? No exaggeration at all.

The Battle of Ulsan was a famous battle in the Ming Army's War to Resist Japan and Aid Korea. According to the "Records of Pyongyang in the Two Dynasties" written by Zhuge Yuansheng of the Ming Dynasty: (Ming Army) There were 1,244 generals, artillery, and rockets. 118,000 sticks, 69,745 kilograms of gunpowder, and 1,796,967 kilograms of large and small lead were all sent to Liaoyang to guard Zhang Dengyun. As for the three-eyed blunderbuss, iron beard dustpan, sap, artillery, fire cannon, tuanpai, folangji and other weapons, they are all weapons that the Japanese are deeply afraid of, and they are all prepared.

This shows that there were many artillery pieces at that time.

After inspecting several warehouses, Lu Mou couldn't help but sigh that this big empire has such a solid foundation.

Lu Mou pointed at these weapons and artillery and said to Bi Maokang: "My Lord, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, are you still short of iron? Take all the iron things here, except armor, and re-smelt them into steel to recast muskets and cannons. .”

Bi Maokang was simply stunned: "Your Majesty, this is a waste of money."

Lu Mou shook his head: "This is not a waste, this is the utilization of waste. Now our army is dominated by firearms. In the future, I will develop all armies into firearms and replace cold weapons with hot weapons. Then, I will What do we need those cold weapons for? We can already make steel cannons, so what do I need those bulky iron cannons for? So, remelt them all into steel, forge new weapons, and arm the entire army."

Then he gave instructions to Ambassador Cang: "Check all the armors, eliminate all the junk, check all the shields, chop all the unqualified ones and burn them on fire. Cancel the production of bows and arrows, but keep the bed crossbows and three crossbows, and mobilize craftsmen to repair and maintain them." .”

Then he rushed to the gunpowder manufacturing factory to inspect the gunpowder production.

(End of this chapter)