Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 812

The eunuch organization in the Ming Dynasty was extremely large, known as the "Inner Palace", with twelve prisons, four divisions and eight bureaus.The Bingzhan Bureau is one of the eight bureaus, which handles the manufacture of military weapons, including knives, guns, swords, halberds, whip axes, armor, bows and arrows and other weapons.

In the Ming Dynasty, at the very beginning, the agency responsible for making firecrackers was the Baoyuan Bureau, and later it was changed to the Military Battle Bureau and the Weapons Bureau.Among them, the Military Weapons Bureau was set up in the 13th year of Hongwu, and the Military Warfare Bureau was set up in the 28th year of Hongwu.

During the Yongle period, the imperial court transferred the right to firearms casting to the center, "all firearms are under the control of the Bingjue Bureau of the inner government, and they are not allowed to be made outside."The firearms required by each region must be declared and manufactured by the central government, and then sent to each region.At this time, the Bingzhan Bureau was under the control of the Neifu system. Its main function was to produce various firecrackers and launch gunpowder. It was a specialized firearms manufacturing department.

Compared with the two bureaus, the casting technology of Bingzhan Bureau is slightly higher than that of Military Weapons Bureau. It is recorded in "Records of Yingzong" that in the four years of Zhengtong, the emperor believed that the quality of the firearms manufactured by the Military Weapons Bureau was not high, and ordered the Military Weapons Bureau to use the weapons manufactured by the Bingzhan Bureau as the standard.The original text is "Biwen (Military Weapons Bureau) made too many unlawful, and they took one from each of the military battle bureaus as a style."

However, because the manufacturing organization of the center is out of touch with the army and does not understand the actual needs of the army, the firearms produced are inevitably not practical. , which is terrible to use.

So in the 14th year of Zhengtong, the imperial court began to gradually relax the ban, "every side made their own, starting from Sichuan in the 14th year of Zhengtong".When the local government manufactures firearms, they must report the specific quantity, and only after the approval of the central government can they be manufactured, and they cannot be manufactured privately.

However, these regulations have gradually undergone new changes after the military industry and private sector implemented them.

The most interesting aspect of this change is that both bureaus have begun to change from manufacturing departments to testing and inspection departments.

Because the production department is basically taken care of by private factories now.

In the private military sector, Jinghua is the strongest in firearms production, and Wang is the strongest in cold weapon production.At present, only in terms of armor, the official bureaus are still stronger.

However, this is also caused by Jinghua's lack of interest in armor manufacturing. Since Gao Pragmatic does not pay much attention to this area, Jinghua is mainly responsible for providing iron materials in this regard.On the other hand, the Wang family was limited by limited capital and did not dare to monopolize the manufacture of "offensive" and "defensive" weapons. This made it necessary for the two bureaus to retain the production department.

Of course, since their production has been limited to armor, as for the business of firearms, they have no choice but to feel wronged, cut and cut again, and now they only do tests and random inspections.

It was under such circumstances that Jinghua's "Wanli Type I bayonet musket" was sent to the Military Bureau for testing.

In fact, the test process of the Military Warfare Bureau was originally provided by Jinghua, including those projects that Gao Yushi did when he was ordered to inspect the military equipment, such as range, effective killing range, shooting accuracy, reloading speed, continuous shooting reliability, etc. Wait.

If there is anything to add, it is probably cost-effective.

Back then when I was highly pragmatic in promoting the private sector of the military industry, I once pointed out that any weapon that does not have high cost performance is not a good weapon-your 100 taels of silver musket, even if the reload speed is doubled, it is not as good as five 20 taels common goods.

This is Daming, and he is not afraid to take the quantity and pile it up hard, but he is afraid that the cost of individual soldiers is too high to be used.

However, the Wanli Type 30 does not seem to be in line with Gao Yushi’s cost-effective concept, because its unit price is as high as [-] taels of silver, which is almost twice that of the existing Longqing Type [-] muskets.

In other words, it only cost 150 million taels to equip a 300-strong army with the Longqing II style, but if it is replaced with the Wanli I style, it will cost [-] million taels.

In fact, the imperial court only replaces more than 2 to less than [-] Longqing Type [-] muskets a year. If it is replaced with the Wanli Type [-], if the imperial court does not increase the allocation, it will only be [-] to [-] Supported?
This... Da Ming's army of one million, when will it be finished?

As the eunuch of the Royal Horse Supervisor, Chen Ju is also under his actual management of the military battle bureau, and he is also very entangled in this issue.

It stands to reason that he and Gao Wushi are old friends, and Gao Wushi has never cheated him in these matters, but he is still hesitant about whether to support the replacement of the second Longqing style with the Wanli style.

Is Wanli Yi a good gun?The answer is in the affirmative. The test result of the Bingzhan Bureau is that unless the gun body of this gun is used to block the mace dropped by the enemy cavalry when charging, it is very unlikely to be damaged on the battlefield. The bayonet is even more exaggerated. That "half Tang knife" is enough to pierce through any existing armor at close range when the user is powerful!
Even if you use it to fight swords, you are not afraid. The existing standard Yanling swords and Miao swords (Qijiajun version) will be cut off in reckless fighting. Only the simple sword will not break, but it will also have a gap.

This is amazing. You must know that simple knives and bayonets are not heavyweight weapons at all, so Gao Pragmatically said that this bayonet is a new generation of "leading weapon" formed by the latest smelting technology, and it is indeed not bragging.

It's just this price... such a short cut...

It is so expensive that it is almost equivalent to silver of the same weight.

After hearing the report, Zhu Yijun also had a headache.

The goods must be good goods, needless to say, although he couldn't watch the actual shooting (live ammunition in front of the emperor is not allowed), but the military battle bureau arranged a demonstration of "fighting bayonets". It deserves the reputation of "cutting iron like mud" and "cutting hair and breaking hair".

But if muskets with such a price were to be installed, the Ministry of War would definitely have a grin on its face, but the Ministry of Finance would probably go crazy.

The key point is that he also reduced or exempted a large amount of taxes this year. This gap is expected to be made up by the increase in commercial taxes in several major ports. How can he get such a sum of money to replace weapons now?
Of course, Zhu Yijun's idea is to change the speed of replacement, and replace [-] to [-] pieces a year, rather than keep the allocation and reduce the number.

There is also a problem with reducing the quantity. Now the frontier troops of Longqing II want it all over the country. Several towns have been scattered one after another. Needless to say, there is a war in Liaodong. The reason is that I am in urgent need here; other towns are not welcome, such as Shaanxi. That is to say, with I Da's serious illness (it was only when he was seriously ill before), both the East and the West are now a little unstable. If there is a fight, we can't stop it.

The three towns of Xuanda Shanxi said that because I Da was seriously ill and worried that the situation would change after his death, the number of cavalry in our three towns had actually decreased in recent years.

Even Qi Jiguang from Jizhou joined in the fun, saying that after the completion of the hollow enemy tower, although Jizhen was safe, it suffered from insufficient firepower and was still unable to cause enough damage to the invading enemy troops.

If you want to say that their frontier army is really needed, then forget it, the Beijing camp is also sloppy, saying that the frontier army's change of clothes is actually stronger than the Beijing camp, this is simply putting the cart before the horse. , is Your Majesty, your strongest force to shock the world, how can you fall behind?Therefore, my Beijing camp also needs to change clothes vigorously-if it is [-] a year, my Beijing camp will need [-]!

Are you ashamed to say that you are the strongest force in Ming Dynasty?
Zhu Yijun pretended not to see all these statements, and distributed them according to his own ideas. Basically, Liaodong took the lead, Jizhen and Xuanda and other places followed suit, and Shaanxi basically made up the numbers. If it is the Southern Army, then even less.

However, the Ministry of War in Nanjing does not eat dry food, and they have a unique trick: let's buy it ourselves.

Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places are relatively rich. If you squeeze in the yamen of governors and governors, you can collect a few 10,000+ taels to buy from Jinghua—as long as the Nanjing Ministry of War uses the seal.

The system of the Ming Dynasty is very unique. The real power of the Nanjing Ministry of War is very great. The military equipment of the southern provinces is directly managed by the Nanjing Ministry of War. Only important events will be reported to the Beijing Ministry of War or the imperial court. Purchases from such places can be completely decided by the Nanjing Ministry of War.

It is impossible for the Nanjing Ministry of War to object to local self-purchases - and it does not want it to pay for it. The local army is strong, and their Nanjing Ministry of War is strong, so of course they will not object.

Although Beijing has lost the burden of changing the southern provinces, the strength of the Beijing Camp and the Nine Frontiers is far greater than that of the South. If the price of guns doubles now, the problem will still be big.

Where can I get money?Zhu Yijun began to have a headache.

"Practical..." After hesitating for a while, Zhu Yijun still opened his mouth: "Look at this Wanli style, how about selling 28 taels? Now the household department is really nervous, and last year Yao'e got married, this year Yaoyao got married, next year Lu Wang We're going to get married again, and we're a little bit embarrassed about the internal funds..."

Don’t think it’s just two taels of silver, but changing clothes is a big business. If you change 6 pieces a year, you’ll save 30 taels of silver. If you change clothes for 60 pieces in ten years, you’ll save [-] taels.

This is the first time that the emperor negotiated the price in person, and this face has to be given.

Although 6 taels is not a small amount, it is still acceptable to be highly pragmatic. After all, the account of this transaction is not Zhu Yijun's algorithm, he is an amateur's algorithm.

Now the cost of this new carburizing steel is relatively high, mainly because the production process is not mature enough. The products produced now are actually products from the temporary production line. In the future, there will definitely be deployment and upgrading of the production line. The proficiency will gradually increase, the yield rate will definitely increase, and the cost will gradually decrease. If the original price is maintained at that time, it must be profitable.

Cough, because even the second style of Longqing has considerable profits, let alone the first style of Wanli?
So as long as you change your mind, you will find that even if you earn less in the first one or two years, the cost will definitely drop significantly in the third year at the latest, and the profit will naturally increase all at once.

Therefore, getting the order is the key.

Gao Wushi sighed, and said solemnly: "The king has an order, how dare I refuse to obey, the emperor said 28 taels, so let's go to 28 taels, Jinghua... I will find a way to explain it to them."

Well, Jinghua is a business group. Gao Wushi has said this to Zhu Yijun many times, and Zhu Yijun can understand it.

Seeing that Gao Wushi agreed, Zhu Yijun breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly finalized it: "Well, as far as the household department is concerned, from my point of view, it is really not possible. If there is too much money, the household department will pay half of it, and the internal funds will pay half."

Hey, you now have the awareness of the three major signs?
(End of this chapter)