Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 386 Armament Supervisor and Cannon Workshop

Yuan Pengnian suddenly saw a man in a scarlet robe, with a jade belt around his waist, and a picture of a crane on his chest, who was too young to stand, he couldn't help being startled, his face changed drastically, and he said, "Mr. Chu?"

Wang Yan smiled slightly, and under Yuan Pengnian's astonished gaze, he walked to the side and sat down, and then said: "Yuan Yushi's words just now are really words of seeking the country!"

Yuan Pengnian's heart was full of turmoil, how could Wang Yan be in Guangzhou?His heart suddenly moved, and he immediately understood that the reason why the Qing soldiers withdrew from Guangzhou probably had a lot to do with Wang Yan.

At this moment, Yuan Pengnian's expression turned ugly. Wang Yan is a Nanming stone pillar, holding a heavy army. If he supports His Highness Tang Wang, then Gui Wang will definitely not be able to gain a foothold in Guangdong.

"I don't know that the Duke is going back to Guangdong, and I didn't see you in advance, please forgive me~" Yuan Pengnian calmed down, saluted and said: "Just now, the Duke also said that the words of the official are polite, and the Duke must also know that the enemy is at hand. Consequences of disputes over the same surname. At present, there are great changes in central Fujian. Most of the emperors have fallen into the hands of the Qing court. King Gui is the successor of Shenzong. The king of Tang abdicated and returned to the vassal, and supported the king of Gui to inherit the great rule."

Yuan Pengnian thought that Wang Yan returned to Guangdong from Huguang, and didn't know that Wang Yannan went to Jiangxi to meet Shengjia, so he tried his best to win Wang Yan over.

"Yuan Yushi may not know that His Royal Highness Tang Wang has abdicated and returned to the vassal."

"What?" Yuan Pengnian was overjoyed when he heard the words, "His Royal Highness Tang Wang really understands the general situation and understands the righteousness. He is a wise king in the world."

Wang Yan smiled and said: "It seems that Yuan Yushi also agrees with His Royal Highness Tang Wang's approach, so please Yuan Yushi tell His Highness Gui Wang, and also ask Gui Wang to abdicate and return to the vassal! The governor has welcomed the emperor to Guangzhou, and the emperor is safe and sound. , King Gui can be relieved of his heavy burden."

"The holy car is safe and sound?" Yuan Pengnian's smile froze as if he had been struck by lightning.

Wang Yan stood up at this time, "Yuan Yushi, get ready, and come to the palace with the governor to have an audience! Afterwards, the imperial court will send an envoy to return to Zhaoqing with you. The governor hopes that Yuan Yushi will not forget what he said just now, and don't let him go." Don't let King Gui do anything inappropriate."

After speaking, Wang Yan got up, and after turning back to the screen, Su Guansheng also got up and left, leaving only Yuan Pengnian stunned.

It has been the third day since Wang Yan returned to Guangzhou. In the past three days, he has dealt with a large amount of backlog of official affairs. As a scholar, he has to negotiate with Gui Fan and Lu Fan, and he is too busy with everything.

There are so many affairs in the imperial court, but now there are not enough officials in the six ministries, and there is a serious shortage. Wang Yan originally thought that he was in the cabinet, but it was just a false name, but now it seems that he is completely wrong.

In addition to court affairs, Wang Yan, as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, also had a lot of affairs to deal with, especially Guangdong had experienced another big battle, and many affairs were enough to overwhelm Wang Yan.

In fact, Wang Yan didn't know that his staff, Chen Bangyan, and others had already dealt with the trivial matters that were easy to handle, and of course what was left to him were some tricky things.

The imperial court moved to Guangzhou, but there were no supporting palaces and government offices in Guangzhou before. The Governor’s Mansion, the Governor’s Office, and the Guangzhou County Office were all used to house officials of the imperial court. The court became the temporary government office of the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.

A large pile of files filled several large houses, and more than 20 staff members shuttled back and forth among them, extremely busy.In the morning, Li Suiqiu brought in more than a dozen official documents from the side hall, and said to Wang Yan, "These official documents have been approved according to the Duke's wishes. Please have a look at them!" Materials, money allocation, but also directly participated in the decision-making of many major affairs, on many matters, Wang Yan will also listen to his opinions.At this time, Wang Yan rubbed his temples, picked up the cold ginseng soup, and said with a wry smile: "Since Mr. Mei Zhou has already made it, I don't need to read it, just forward it!" "I obey! Li Suiqiu turned around and was about to leave, when Wang Yan suddenly remembered something, and quickly stopped him, "Let me have a look at the official document that pays for the fallen soldiers." Li Suiqiu took out one of the files and handed it to Wang Yan, " Please take a look at it!" This time he left Guangdong, he fought for more than a year, and countless of his subordinates died in battle, so the families of the soldiers naturally had to pay compensation, but except for a very small number of soldiers and horses under his command, most of them had family members. People who have lost their country and lost their families are like the troops reorganized from the Shun Army. They were originally rogues. They retreated all the way to Huguang. In addition, most of the ordinary soldiers have become homeless ghosts.

Wang Yanpu opened the file and read it carefully. Except for [-]% of the soldiers who died in battle, they could find their families and pay pensions, and nearly [-]% of the soldiers who died in battle could not find their relatives.

This saved Wang Yan a lot of money, but Wang Yan would rather spend the money.

At this time, the imperial court's finances were bankrupt, but Wang Yan's Five Loyalty Army still had some money. The property they seized from Wuchang, Jiangxi, and Zhang Cunren was at least 200 million taels left after rewarding the soldiers.

These silver coins are independent of the imperial court and can be regarded as the small treasury of the Five Loyalist Army.

After Wang Yan read the dossier and returned it to Li Suiqiu, he pondered for a moment and said: "The governor wants to build a martyr's shrine in Yuexiu Mountain, enshrining all the military plaques of the fallen soldiers, and paying homage every year so that the fallen soldiers can have A home. What does Mr. Mei Zhou think?"

"I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money."

At present, the imperial court's finances are tight, and it may not be able to provide salaries for the army for a long time. Although the treasury of the Five Loyalty Army still has some money, is it worth spending a lot of money to build a martyr's shrine for a group of soldiers who have died in battle?
In Chinese history, many temples were built for loyal ministers and famous generals, but there seems to be no precedent for building temples for ordinary soldiers, so Wang Yan can see that Li Suiqiu is not interested.

At this time, Wang Yan tapped his fingers on the table twice before he made up his mind and said, "Use the [-]% of the pension that cannot be paid to build it. If it is not enough, the governor will pay for it himself to build the Martyr's Shrine. We deserve it~”

"Since the Duke has decided, I will immediately prepare the matter."

Li Suiqiu nodded, turned around and walked away quickly. At this time, a soldier said from the side again: "Mr. Song is here."

Wang Yan then said, "Please come in~"

At this time, Wang Yan straightened his body, and quickly found a file from the table, which contained suggestions on the establishment of an additional military inspection and the reopening of the artillery casting workshop. It was a memorial to Chen Yujie, the commander of the artillery team. It has been agreed, and written a memorial, reported to the court, and ordered the Ministry of Industry to implement it, but the current situation of the court basically has no manpower to deal with it, so Long Wu beat him back and let him handle it with full authority.

The matter of firearms is Daming's advantage. Wang Yan also won many battles by relying on firearms, but Daming's firearms are too rough and randomly made, which seriously affected the performance of the army.

As the commander-in-chief of the army, Wang Yan naturally knew that excellent firearms were more suitable for the Ming army than bows and arrows, so he decided to set up a military weapon supervision and a cannon casting workshop to manufacture excellent firearms for the army. A large amount of manpower and materials, and the shortage of craftsmen who are good at making firearms, has become a problem that he must solve.Now the inventory of Ming firearms has been basically exhausted, and the Ming army has fallen into the predicament of retreating into the era of cold weapons.

"Duke, are you looking for me?" Song Yingxing came in and saluted.

Seeing him, Wang Yan quickly withdrew his thoughts and said with a smile: "This governor has something to ask Mr. Chang Geng. The imperial court will set up a military supervisor under the Ministry of Industry. This governor intends to recommend Mr. Chang Geng to be the chief director. I don't know. Would you like to, sir?
(Thanks to shyion, Yuedong Woxin for the reward, thanks to the descendants of Ziye Sanlang and Yuedong Woxin for the gift, and thanks to Brother Xiaotian for the very calm monthly pass. In order to celebrate the first rudder of the starting point, the descendants of Ziye Sanlang, will add more tomorrow! "

(End of this chapter)