back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 373: Initial Cannon Completion ([-])

After those craftsmen thanked them a thousand times, each of them shared half a bowl of porridge, and they were so excited that they were reluctant to eat it for a long time.It was Su Song who was forced by Lu Chengqi to eat a bowl of porridge before allowing him to go to the test range.

When the Military Weapons Supervision was set up on the northern outskirts of Chang'an City, a large open space was reserved for the future development of the Military Weapons Supervision and the test firing of long-range weapons.Rao was levying commercial tax at that time, which earned more than 200 million guan.However, spending more than one million guan at once, investing in the construction of the Military Weapons Supervision, the Royal University and the Royal Military Academy, still made Xu Chongguang, who had just become the chief assistant of the cabinet, very distressed.Accustomed to living a miserable life, now he has become rich, but Xu Chongguang's stingy habit has not changed.

In particular, the Military Weapons Supervisor invested so much money to produce a magic bow, the magic arm bow.Although he defeated the Khitan army with this divine arm bow, he forced the Khitan people to sign an agreement.However, the Military Weapons Supervisor invested too much. If it hadn't been rewarded by Chi Dao, the officials of the household department would have complained long ago.

There is no way, the historical limitations of the ancients could not see the development prospects of firearms, and it is understandable to only focus on cold weapons.These court ministers did not understand, and had handed in memorials several times, insinuating that the Military Weapons Supervision was "a waste of money, and the production of weapons was not abundant", hoping to reduce investment in the Military Weapons Supervision.

Lu Chengqi understood the thoughts of these ministers.All they thought was embezzlement of public funds openly, even if Lu Chengqi ordered that when applying for government expenses, he must submit a plan for the use of public funds.But these old fritters who specialize in taking advantage of loopholes have already understood the rules and deliberately exaggerated where the money will be used, so that they can get more money from the household department and put it in their own pockets.

Lu Chengqi had already learned through the Supervision Department that an official had dirty hands and feet.It's just that they were very cautious and didn't take much each time, which made Lu Chengqi feel that it was not educational enough, so he let them go.If they dared to steal more than a hundred guan, Lu Chengqi would definitely depose them.Even though the Dashun Dynasty never had a precedent of dismissing officials, rules are meant to be broken, right?
In the eyes of these officials, the money in the treasury is not taken for nothing.This is inseparable from the character of the Chinese people who are greedy for petty gains. In this time and space, there are strict supervision by the Supervision Department, and these officials still take risks.It's no wonder that those big corrupt officials in later generations dare to accept bribes, embezzle public funds, and consume public funds... In their view, the money is not for nothing!Don't worry about scarcity but inequality, especially the officials who handle money. They have to handle so much money every day. Compared with their own wages, those who can control themselves not to be greedy are already at the level of saints.

And upright courtiers like Li Jie, Li Ran, Su Song, Tang Xun, Shen Kuo, and Su Shi are very few.Lu Chengqi's duty is to put these virtuous and talented courtiers in the right positions.After all, Dashun has a vast territory, how can it be managed by Lu Chengqi alone?This is how the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats ruled the world together.

Following Su Song's footsteps, Lu Chengqi came to the test range behind the Weapons Supervision.For safety reasons, the test range has a radius of nearly twenty miles.The purchase of this land alone cost no less than 50 guan.

If you follow the practice of the Dashun court in the past, "Under the whole world, is it the land of the king; on the shore of the land, are the ministers of the king", the imperial court thinks highly of you when it expropriates your land.The whole world belongs to the Lu family, so it is benevolent to use your family's land to give you some compensation.In this way, no matter the farmers or the officials, gentry and landlords, they dare not speak out.

Lu Chengqi knew before he was born again that those who forcibly seized the land, those who forcibly expropriated the land, and those who did not give compensation, would cause a lot of trouble in the end.The land is the lifeline of the farmers. Losing the land is equivalent to losing their jobs. If no compensation is given, isn't that forcing them to die?

It's right to be cruel to the enemy, but it's a fool to be cruel to your own people.Lu Chengqi would rather offend all the scholars in the world than offend the farmers who really decided the fate of Dashun.Scholars rebelled and failed in ten years, Lu Chengqi was not worried.What he worried about was that if the farmers had no livelihood and were organized by ambitious people, it would be over.No matter whether it is finally suppressed or not, it will cause great harm to the local area, and I don't know how many years it will take to recover.Therefore, Lu Chengqi strictly ordered the household department to fully compensate these farmers according to the market price.

The peasants whose land had been expropriated had already accepted their fate and planned to become tenant farmers for the landlords of Jingzhao Mansion, but unexpectedly the court was so "considerate of the people" that they sent a full amount of money the next day.

The land price in Chang'an City is not too much to describe as an inch of land.Even the fields in the suburbs can be sold for fifty cents per mu.After receiving this huge sum of money, the farmers all knelt down and bowed in the direction of Chang'an City, and said with tears in their eyes, "Long live the Holy One, long live the Holy One!"

The inspector who came to give money saw this scene and was moved by it.They were born in the frontier army, and they were also poor people before joining the army. If the world was ruled by a little emperor, why did they choose the path of no return as a soldier?There is a saying that good iron does not make nails, and good men do not serve as soldiers.Who is willing to serve as a soldier if there is a way to survive?The border was not peaceful at that time, and the Khitan people would go south every year to fight grass valleys, and one who was unlucky died on the battlefield.If there was a way to survive like these farmers, they wouldn't be the leading soldiers.It's just that one drink and one peck will count for days, they don't serve as soldiers, how can they have the status of today's supervisors?
The supervisors also vaguely understood why Lu Chengqi wanted to buy people's hearts like this.In fact, these farmers really don’t need much, they just need to survive.No, with this money, you can become a small landlord if you go to the remote areas of Jingzhaofu to buy fields.

After Lu Chengqi made his will on these things, he seldom pursued them.He knew that if someone disobeyed the imperial decree, he would definitely be impeached by Yushitai.These censors only hate that there are no officials to impeach, lest they have nothing to do.Furthermore, when Lu Chengqi handles state affairs every day, if he can pay attention to everything, it is a "sacred grace".

Only things that Lu Chengqi cares about, he will put aside state affairs and come to watch, such as this huge thing in front of him.Lu Chengqi was startled: "This...is this artillery?"

Su Song and Tang Xun were both proud, nodded and said, "Your Majesty, do you want me to test fire a cannonball later, so that Your Majesty can test the power of this cannon?"

A feeling of powerlessness surged in Lu Chengqi's heart: "What kind of shit is this? This is unscientific, I clearly drew the size of the cannon, uh, although the drawing is a bit poor, you can still see it clearly! Don’t tell me, you haven’t seen mine at all design diagram!"

Seeing Lu Chengqi's speechless look, Su Song thought that Lu Chengqi was shocked by this thing, and said proudly, "Your Majesty, do you want me to demonstrate it?"

(End of this chapter)