Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 69 A Battalion Needs 18 Taels of Silver ([-])

Next to the barracks in Wuzhai Fort, there is an ordnance bureau, in which the armor, uniforms and weapons of the flag troops of Wuzhai Fort are specially placed. Next to it, there is a magic hangar and a gunpowder bureau, which specially stores the firearms and gunpowder used by the sergeants.

Not far from the Weapons Bureau is the Weisuo Craftsman Camp where military craftsman Liu Tianlu Liu Zongqi led a group of military craftsmen to forge weapons.

"Sir, please come inside."

After the military parade in the morning, Huang Laifu hosted a banquet for the officers of hundreds of households to have lunch. After going back to the house of Qianhu and planning for a while, Huang Laifu led Jiang Dazhong and other family members to the Armament Bureau. device.Huang Laifu is now very concerned about how much money he has.

Huang Ruzhen, the deputy warehouse envoy of the Military Weapons Bureau, heard the news, and led a group of small officials to wait outside the door.Huang Ruzhen is 40 years old this year, and he is a cautious person. Because he is a distant relative of the Huang family, he can be in charge of such an important place.Seeing that Huang Laifu came, looking business-like, Huang Ruzhen did not dare to neglect, and knelt down at the door to greet him. Huang Laifu stopped his politeness, and said straight to the point: "Vice Envoy Huang, you don't need to be too polite, I'm here , came to inspect the equipment in the warehouse."

Huang Ruzhen responded respectfully, and then led Huang Laifu to check in the Military Weapons Bureau.While looking at the account book, Huang Laifu followed Huang Ruzhen around to check it.After counting the property, the weapons and equipment inside include:
Not a single pair of armor, not a single military uniform is superfluous.But there are five pairs of arms and hands.There are fifteen flags on the back, fifty flagpoles, sixty combined bows, seventy bow strings, and seven thousand five hundred large arrows.There are 15 waist knives, 20 spears, 24 belts, 34 coconut ladles, [-] Qianhong rain cages, and [-] Qianhong felt jackets.

In addition, there are rattan cards, handles, wolf wands, hook guns, iron pointed poles, and some big sticks.Saddle pole, bridle, girth, belly roll, wooden trip, grass guillotine, several pairs of tripping ropes.

Then go to the Shenhang and Gunpowder Bureau next to it. There are 70 bird guns, 50 hand guns, 50 sticks, 40 tin turtles, 50 rockets, 10 arrow baskets, 20 oil covers, and matchlocks. [-] sticks.There are also medicine tubes, lead bags, gun holsters, gunpowder, and some lead.The most precious thing inside is a tiger squatting cannon, equipped with a hammer, a pair of scissors, an awl, a medicine wire box, a medicine booster, and two wood gifts.

It seems that these are all of Huang Laifu's inventory.

Huang Laifu said in disbelief: "It's over? Is that just a little?" Excluding the weapons at hand of the bannermen, the little weapons in it can barely renew the bannermen in the fort, which is far from enough for Huang Laifu's long-term plan .

Huang Ruzhen thought that Huang Laifu suspected that he was greedy for ink, so he panicked and said: "Go back to my lord, all the swords and equipment in the castle are here, and my subordinates will never dare to lie to your lord."

Huang Laifu was stunned, and laughed loudly: "Don't worry, I don't suspect you of being corrupt. Well, you come with me, let's take a look at the craftsman's camp together." Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu behind Huang Laifu also laughed.

Huang Ruzhen breathed a sigh of relief and smiled awkwardly.

※※※

Wuzhai Fort Craftsman Camp!

I saw the tinkling here, the military craftsmen of Wuzhai Fort are working in full swing, many of them are still naked, showing their strong muscles, compared with the sallow and thin appearance of these people at the beginning of the year, now everyone is completely changed.

Everyone seldom spoke, and they all concentrated on making the waterwheel tools and other things in their hands.Since Huang Laifu hired them last year, he has set up reward and punishment measures. Now their remuneration is linked to their work. Anyone who doesn't work hard will be punished.Those who work hard will be rewarded generously.In this way, everyone is working hard to get higher treatment.

Now they have made Huanglaifu big water truck, Huanglaifu big irrigation water truck, Huanglaifu hand press machine and other things, and they are already very familiar with them.Moreover, the quality of the waterwheels and other materials they made is extremely high, and it is impossible for tools that are not of good quality to flow outside.

According to Huang Laifu's regulations, everything they make needs to be checked and tested by a special person. On the top of each waterwheel, there is an endorsement of someone who made it at a certain time, a certain year, and a certain season.If there is a problem with the quality, he will pay for it personally.If there are too many problems, this person is finished, and it is impossible to stay in the craftsman camp.

As Wuzhaibao's bumper harvest is just around the corner, non-local civilian fortresses are also buying more and more waterwheels and other things from Wuzhaibao, and these military craftsmen are working more happily, because every time they make a waterwheel, they There is also a commission.The tallest person actually got two stones and five buckets of monthly rations.

Liu Tianlu and Liu Zongqi are inspecting the waterwheels and other things made by everyone, stopping from time to time to instruct someone.

During these times, Liu Tianlu and Zongqi Liu can be said to be full of spring breeze. Not only is he now well-fed and well-fed, he no longer lives the same hungry life as before, but also because of his outstanding work, he is rewarded by the adults of Qianhu from time to time. Now his thatched hut that is about to collapse is gone It was newly renovated into a brick and tile house, becoming one of the newly wealthy people in Wuzhaibao.Liu Zongqi also knows that his good life now comes from Mr. Huang Laifu, so he has never dared to neglect Huang Laifu's orders.

At this time, Liu Zongqi saw Huang Laifu, accompanied by Huang Ruzhen and several servants, came to the craftsman camp. He hurriedly greeted him, and respectfully knelt down and kowtowed to Huang Laifu: "I respectfully welcome you, my lord."

Huang Laifu said softly, "Get up."

Under the guidance of Liu Tianlu and Liu Zongqi, he inspected the entire craftsman's workshop. Seeing that everyone was busy and focused, no one dared to speak, no one dared to whisper, lazy and slack in work, he couldn't help but nodded with satisfaction.However, this was originally a place where weapons were made, but now it has become a place where agricultural tools are produced, which makes people feel a little weird. "

He told Liu Zongqi: "Master Liu, there is one thing that I want you to do starting today."

Liu Zongqi hurriedly cupped his fists respectfully, and said, "Your Excellency, but I have orders, and my subordinates will obey everything."

Huang Laifu said: "Starting today, I want you to divide the craftsman workshop into two parts. The first part is for making waterwheels and other civilian objects. It is called Wuzhaibao Civil Artifacts Workshop. The location of the workshop can be found elsewhere in the fort. For this point, you can go to find Steward Yang, he will cooperate with you with money, food and manpower. One part is Wuzhaibao Military Craftsman Workshop, which resumes the making of armor and weapons. I plan to start from today until the beginning of June next year, at least Three thousand knives, guns, and other equipment must be forged."

Speaking of this, Huang Laifu thought of something: "By the way, this year's Wuzhai Fort's military quota, how much have you completed?"

According to the Ming Dynasty system, the military bureaus of all the guards in the world need to produce some ordinary armor and bows and knives. , each with forty copies.In the second year of Hongzhi, the order was halved and changed to 160 sets and [-] sets.

The manufacturing quota of these weapons had to be handed in, and Wuzhaibao also had to hand in [-] pairs of weapons every year. The contents of each pair of weapons were: one helmet, one armour, and one waist knife.One bow, two strings, thirty arrows.A pair of sacks, five guns and arrows, and one spear.

These annual quotas for military equipment for various guards are a heavy burden for some impoverished guards, because the materials and expenses required for these productions must be handled by the military guards themselves. Only four years after Zhengde, Zouzhun gave Xuanfu 20 catties of wrought iron.Twenty-two years after Jiajing, the Jiazi library in Neiku will also support 22 catties of wrought iron in each town every five years.However, the guards do not have this kind of treatment, and all the money for these raw materials must be paid by themselves.

Like the former Wuzhai Fort, a large amount of wrought iron, buffalo leather, cotton rope, jute, wrought copper, fishing line glue, raw lacquer, tung oil, etc. were needed to manufacture these weapons every year, which Wuzhai Fort did not have. , spend a lot of money every year to buy food.The former Wuzhai Fort was not rich at all, and the purchase and production of these military equipment made things even worse.But this year Huang Laifu is the master of the house and the economy is improving. The production of these weapons is not worth mentioning to Huang Laifu. Now that I think about it, I am just asking casually.

Liu Zongqi said respectfully: "Returning to my lord, my subordinates have never dared to slack off on matters in the fort. At present, 15 sets of weapons have been produced. There will be no problem with the release of the weapons at the end of the year."

Huang Laifu nodded.

Liu Zongqi tentatively said: "Your Excellency just said that our Wuzhai Fort will manufacture [-] pieces of weapons and guns by next year? I don't know why Your Excellency wants to manufacture so many weapons?"

Huang Laifu sighed, and said, "I'm not guilty, but I'm guilty of carrying jade. Right now, our Wuzhai Fort is about to have a bumper harvest. What should we do if there are villains coveting such a good harvest? We need to protect ourselves."

Liu Zongqi and Huang Ruzhen, who was listening respectfully and respectfully at the side, suddenly realized, nodded and said: "Your Excellency is wise and considerate, and I admire you." Their interests are all connected with Huang Laifu, as Huang Laifu said. There are villains coveting, and Wuzhaibao's property is taken away, and they will definitely return to their old life of eating chaff and swallowing vegetables.This is something that everyone in Wuzhai Fort is unwilling to do, so once foreign enemies invade, in order to keep the current good life, everyone in Wuzhai Fort will definitely do their best.

Huang Laifu said: "We not only need to make knives and guns, but also armor. There are more than [-] banner troops in Wuzhai Fort, and we should have at least [-] sets of armor."

At this time, there was a strange phenomenon in Ming Dynasty, that is, everyone in the cavalry had armor, and except for some officers in the infantry, the small soldiers, including the firearms soldiers, did not have armor, even the Qi family army led by General Qi Jiguang before.But Huang Laifu believes that the lives of soldiers are precious. As long as his financial ability allows, he doesn't mind spending more money to protect the lives of soldiers.

Liu Zongqi pondered and said: "According to what your lord said, the money, food, iron and other goods needed will be a lot."

(End of this chapter)