Chongzhen: I am the king of prosperous times

Chapter 660 Military Industry Revitalization Plan
Corruption is still a serious problem in Daming at this stage. Corruption in the officialdom is serious, and corruption in the military is serious. This has caused many problems in Ming Dynasty.

If there had been no corruption in Ming Dynasty, many things could have been avoided.

Just like the bandit rebellion in Shanshan and Shaanxi, the incentive is the frequent disasters that have occurred over the years, making the people of Shanshan and Shanxi very poor, and their ability to resist risks is extremely poor. Gradually there was no way out, which led to the emergence of the rebellion.

However, the initial bandit rebellion formed in Shanshan was still relatively small in scale. If the rebellion was properly suppressed, the rebellion could be resolved gradually.

However, the bandit rebellion in Shanshan presented another situation. The more the imperial court sent troops to suppress it, the larger the scale of the rebellion became, until it got out of hand.

The root cause is corruption.

Local officials are corrupt.

Local generals are corrupt.

This led to more groups with no way out, a large number of disaster victims, laid-off postmen, and border guards, who turned to the rebels one after another, trying to overthrow the Ming rule in Shanshan, so that they could have enough food.

Compared with Wang Jiayin, Wang Ziyong, Zhang Xianzhong, Gao Yingxiang and other rogue leaders, in fact, the low-level rogue group does not have so many ambitions. Just live.

However, this wish, which was so ordinary that it couldn't be more ordinary, became a very extravagant thing in the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen Dynasty. The lives of the lower-level groups were not even as expensive as the dog raised by the rich and powerful.

The root cause is that the atmosphere is broken!
What a sad thing.

In addition to this bandit rebellion, as in some past situations, such as the Bailian rebellion, the wage mutiny, the degeneration of the army, the chieftain's rebellion, etc., most of the incentives were caused by corruption.

Emperor Chongzhen sometimes thought that if Daming did not have severe corruption and could effectively avoid these problems, it would not be passive now.

Measures to rectify the administration of officials and deter corruption are a gradual process, and only when they are implemented in stages can they achieve the desired results.

What Emperor Chongzhen is doing at this stage is to focus on the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty. Through a series of combined punches, the situation of the northern provinces is changed and the control of the northern provinces is strengthened. When the changes in the northern provinces can bear initial results, then The mastery of the initiative is more.

As for the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and the provinces in the southwest, even if they knew that there were various problems and bad governance, Emperor Chongzhen would not start the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and the southwestern provinces on a large scale before he had a real grasp of a basic market.

the reason is simple.

Da Ming didn't have that much confidence, and at the same time faced with the turmoil that erupted everywhere, once Da Ming fell into the quagmire again, the reformation would be considered a failure.

After all, without the stability of the overall situation, it is purely whimsical to talk about development and changes.

Concentrate on solving some problems first, so that the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty can gradually change, so that the imperial court can grasp certain advantages, and then the following things will be easier to handle.

Even if the Jiangnan or Southwest provinces of Ming Dynasty were affected by Liangming's Reformation and there would be a large-scale rebellion in the future, Emperor Chongzhen would still have the confidence to dispatch troops to suppress it!
In war, what is fought is money and food.

At present, there are many areas where Ming Dynasty needs money and food, and there is not so much money and food that can be wasted in ineffective wars, so Emperor Chongzhen should try his best to avoid these.

"It is said that governing the country is like cooking a small dish, but in my opinion, this statement is too easy."

Inside the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Chongzhen's emotional words sounded, "If you are not in charge of your family, you don't know how expensive the firewood is. Facing such a complicated national situation, there are too many things to consider. If you don't think about it, it is very likely to lead to a big disaster." Disaster, isn’t Liaodong, which has become increasingly severe and turbulent before, the best proof?”

Song Yingxing, Jiao Xu, etc. from the Armed Forces Academy who were summoned, Qian Sule, Huang Daozhou, etc., the ministers in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhang Jinzhong, Lu Yongbao, etc., the ministers of the government office, all showed different expressions.

"An issue of official corruption has ruined many things."

Emperor Chongzhen leaned on the dragon chair, looked at the officials in the hall, frowned and said: "No one knows how to learn lessons from experience, no matter how many times it happened in the past, the results are always surprisingly similar.

The Ningxia rebellion made me feel heartbroken and extremely ridiculous.

I really shouldn't say how many rebellions and mutinies have occurred in the past, which shouldn't have happened, but it was because of severe corruption that these emergencies happened. "

The Ningxia rebellion has come to an end for the time being, and there may be some small-scale wars in the future, but this will not affect the general situation.

With the soldiers of the Beijing camp fighting on the front lines and the military aircraft department in the rear, Emperor Chongzhen didn't think there would be any problems, but there was one thing he had to think about in advance.

That is, if the military reform in the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty is to be gradually implemented, how to meet the problem of large-scale refitting in the face of the gradually reorganized army.

This is a very real problem.

"Song Yingxing, referring to the current operating model of the Armed Forces Academy, how many military industries are planned?" Emperor Chongzhen calmed down, looked at Song Yingxing and said.

Emperor Chongzhen wants to rectify and develop the military industry!

Song Yingxing stepped forward and bowed: "Your Majesty, in addition to planning and setting up military industries in Xishan, Fangshan and other places in the area around Gyeonggi, to meet the needs of the various troops defending Gyeonggi and allocating various consumption needs on the front line, for To alleviate the corresponding pressure, Tianjin, Baoding, Ningyuan and other prefectures followed His Majesty's will and successively set up a certain scale of military industry.

However, these military industries alone cannot effectively meet the current actual needs. After all, the demand for various types of armaments is constantly increasing, although..."

Listening to what Song Yingxing said, Emperor Chongzhen felt emotional in his heart.

Although the standardized flow operation of the military industry can increase production, control costs, and reduce defective products, the production process is not a panacea.

Especially the current military industry has not yet got rid of the manual production mode. When the special steam engine can be added to the corresponding production process, the output can be further improved.

However, the development and application of the steam engine could not be realized in a short period of time. If things were really that simple, then Emperor Chongzhen would not have such a headache.

Emperor Chongzhen calmed down, looked at Zhang Jinzhong and said, "Zhang Jinzhong, how are the state-owned factories under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the establishment of the smelting and forging field of Sheji in various places?"

Your Majesty, what are you trying to do?
Faced with Emperor Chongzhen's questioning, Qian Sule, Huang Daozhou and several ministers in charge frowned slightly, and after looking at each other, doubts arose in their hearts.

"Report to Your Majesty."

Zhang Jinzhong stepped forward and bowed: "Affected by various factors, at this stage only the field of smelting and forging, which belongs to the two places of Beizhili and Liaodong, is developing the most rapidly and comprehensively.

Especially in Gyeonggi, Baoding, Tianjin, Ningyuan and other places, there are a number of large-scale smelting and forging industries. Not only the state-owned factories are developing well, but there are also many private factories.

Secondly, it belongs to the territory of Shandong. The smelting and forging in the two prefectures of Denglai is better developed. After all, the previous two prefectures of Denglai focused on the development of the shipbuilding industry.

In addition, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan, which started relatively late, have established a number of state-owned factories for the mining of various mineral deposits, but most of the factories involved in the field of smelting and forging are still in the early stages of preparation, after all..."

Zhang Jinzhong objectively stated that the government offices under his jurisdiction, some of the current situation, the development is lawful and gradual.

Even if it is primitive industrialization, it is impossible to advance in one step. Putting aside the objective facts, it is unrealistic to implement it on a large scale in the local area.

Even if it is really planned forcibly, it will not become a good government that benefits the people, but will become a bad government that harms the people. All these must be taken into account.

"The situation, you all understand."

Emperor Chongzhen lifted up the sleeves of his robe, looked around the court and said: "The current situation is that the supply and demand of all kinds of military equipment produced by the military industry are insufficient, and the construction of the smelting and forging field is still slow.

Beijing Camp's dress-up problem.

Gyeonggi's dress-up problem.

The rectification of Liaodong.

Counterinsurgency in Ningxia.

Counterinsurgency in Liaodong.

A question of supply and demand in the Northwest.

These are all placed in front of me without reservation. The court needs to solve these problems, but I don't believe that there are officials in the foreign court.

Why don't you believe it?

It's all caused by the corrupt atmosphere. Regardless of the fact that the Metropolitan Procuratorate is now carrying out inspections and investigations, the administration of officials in the Ming Dynasty is still very severe.

If such an important matter is entrusted to the supervision of the ministers of the foreign court, how much of the 100 million taels of silver allocated by the court can be really used? "

The hall was extremely quiet.

Qian Sule, Huang Daozhou and other ministers in charge were in very complicated moods. Although they were shocked by what the emperor said, they recognized some of the current situation.

It is an objective fact that officials are corrupt.

"Your Majesty, do you want the Ministry of Internal Affairs to prepare and build a number of military industries in various places?" Huang Daozhou thought for a while, stepped forward and bowed, "Are you going to meet all the needs?"

"Yes."

Emperor Chongzhen said concisely.

"Your Majesty, if this is the case, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to accomplish this matter."

Huang Daozhou continued: "Even if this matter is bypassed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it may be difficult to gather so many officials at once.

What's more, the military industry is very expensive, completely bypassing the foreign court, and only relying on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to supervise this matter, the food and salaries consumed are difficult to support.

Not to mention the need to supply a large amount of armaments in the future, if there is no allocation support from the national treasury, it will be difficult to maintain it if it is undertaken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs alone. "

"My minister agrees."

Qian Sule followed closely and said: "In addition to the above-mentioned problems, most of the money stored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs at present has a fixed amount. If the planning and deployment of the military industry are rashly implemented, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not be able to turn around at all."

"My minister agrees!"

Li Changxiang and Shen Tingyang also stepped forward to second the proposal.

Seeing several ministers in charge speaking to him one after another, Emperor Chongzhen was not angry. After all, what Qian Sule and the others said was to explain the situation from their point of view.

However, planning to build a larger military industry is something that must be done.

If this matter is to be effectively promoted, it is impossible to rely on the government offices of foreign courts, or even involve too much with the local government. A corrupt official can ruin many things.

However, the emerging team of officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has not yet suffered from the invasion of bad atmosphere, which can play an excellent role in the early stage of development.

"There are always more solutions than problems."

Emperor Chongzhen calmed down, looked at Qian Sule and the others, stretched out his hand and said, "I said that I want to build a military industry, but I never said that I will catch up with Xishan, Fangshan and other military industries as soon as I come up.

This matter should be figured out slowly.

When it comes to the planning and deployment of the military industry, I plan to use five years to initially build a batch of military industries under the rule of the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to meeting the needs of various armaments, it is also necessary to effectively drive the development of the smelting and forging fields in various places, forming a virtuous circle of development.

It is equivalent to saying that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has a 5-year period. Relying on the disaster relief agencies in various places, it will gradually clarify and prepare for the military industry. Can the consumption of food and salaries in the early stage be relatively shared? "

"This……"

Qian Sule, Huang Daozhou and the others were silenced by what Emperor Chongzhen said. This gave them the feeling that it was not as simple as simply preparing to build a military industry.

Isn't this about politics?
If the Ministry of Internal Affairs really wants to do this, wouldn't it take away some of the powers of the cabinet, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry?
"What's more, the military industry prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be purchased in the form of orders in the future, and the imperial court will pay for it. There is no need for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to supply it alone."

Emperor Chongzhen continued: "However, in this way, the quality of every piece of military equipment produced, ranging from small ordnance to large artillery, must be guaranteed. If there is any problem, it must be traced back to the factories where it was produced. , they will be punished accordingly.

The military industry is different from other industries. The armaments produced will affect a lot, especially in wars. If there is a problem with a large amount of armaments, then the battle should not be fought at all. Just surrender to the enemy. . "

In fact, what Qian Sule and the others had in mind was right. Emperor Chongzhen's deployment of the military industry was to take away some of the powers of foreign officials.

After all, these planning concepts cannot be implemented in foreign courts, so Emperor Chongzhen wanted to use the special medium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to promote the development and innovation of the military industry.

When the Ministry of Internal Affairs completes its historical mission and it is time to abolish it, not only the military industry involved, but also other industries will be transferred to the newly established government offices.

"When it comes to other ideas, I have written them down."

Emperor Chongzhen took out an official letter, looked at Qian Sule and the others, "The purpose of summoning all the ministers to the palace is actually very simple, you should draft a memorial as soon as possible.

Within the next five years, the development and planning of the military industry will be related to the formation of an effective implementation plan, and the disaster relief agencies in various places will gradually implement it. After the formal drafting of the memorial, it must be submitted to the imperial court as soon as possible. I attach great importance to it. this matter. "

(End of this chapter)