Optimus One Pillar of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 49 The Army is Rotten to the Roots

Emperor Jiajing was thinking about the pros and cons of turning Wang Daoqiu into a prince. Wang Daoqiu was still foolishly thinking that he could trick the emperor, but he felt secretly happy in his heart.A black-shoe primary school student ran over, clasped his fists at Lu Bing and reported, "Sir, the craftsmen said the furnace can be started."

"Oh, okay, let the craftsmen prepare to open the furnace."

"promise"

When he heard that the furnace could be turned on, Lu Bing looked at Emperor Jiajing's eyes and ordered the furnace to be turned on.After receiving Lu Bing's order, Black Boots Primary School hurriedly agreed and ran back.

After Black Boots Junior School ran away, Lu Bing whispered: "Master, let's go there too!"

"Um"

After saying "Yeah", Emperor Jiajing walked towards the blast furnace.When Emperor Jiajing led Lu Bing, Lu Fang and Wang Daoqiu to the blast furnace, the craftsmen had just finished all the preparations before opening the furnace, and opened the furnace door with a hook.

As soon as the furnace door was opened, the tens of thousands of kilograms of hot red molten iron in the furnace slowly poured out of the furnace, and then flowed through a special channel to the converter at the other end.

Looking at this torrent of blood-red steel, Emperor Jiajing smiled, feeling very accomplished.The money to cultivate Taoism and become an immortal is available, and the steel support behind the supreme imperial power is available.

Five feet away, Emperor Jiajing patiently watched the entire torrent of steel. When the molten iron in the furnace turned into a thin line, he motioned to Wang Daoqiu to let him see what it was like. He turned tens of thousands of pounds of molten iron into molten steel.

According to the discussion last night, Lu Bing and Wang Daoqiu led Emperor Jiajing and Lu Fang to a high platform three feet away from the converter and seven feet above the ground.Lu Bing and Emperor Jiajing were sitting there drinking tea, while Wang Daoqiu stood beside Emperor Jiajing, explaining the principles of steelmaking to Emperor Jiajing in simple and down-to-earth terms.

After a while of dry mouth, he explained for more than half an hour. Regardless of whether Jiajing understood it or not, after the molten steel was smelted, the craftsmen began to pour it into shape.

The molten steel was poured into the mold. Emperor Jiajing was also very interested. He got off the platform and walked to the converter. Regardless of the heat wave, he stood and watched the craftsmen pouring.Then he was very interested to see the hammering ingots made by the head-cutting machine and the extrusion casting of large bluestones.

Emperor Jiajing's understanding was higher than that of Lu Bing. He understood the secret at a glance. He stood there and sighed affectionately: "The things in this world can only be thought about. How simple is steelmaking! For hundreds of years, craftsmen only know how to knock with hammers, it’s so sad!”

After sighing, Emperor Jiajing turned back to Lu Bing and Lu Fang and said: "Jinyiwei and Dongchang, this matter must be taken care of, and no outsiders can learn from it. We must also immediately investigate the severe punishments in the counties north of the Huaihe River and Qinling Mountains within three years." Convicts, all the able-bodied ones will be gathered together, and they will be sent to work in our steel factory in the future. Those with lighter punishments will also be selected to be able-bodied, and they will be sent to mine in the future."

"promise"

"promise"

Emperor Jiajing gave the order, and Lu Bing and Lu Fang hurriedly agreed. Wang Daoqiu, who was standing aside, looked confused after hearing Jiajing's order.Damn it, a modern steel company that was built due to labor shortages, just one word from the old bastard Jiajing, turned it into two labor camps!
Can the production efficiency of this labor camp be compared with that of enterprises with modern management systems?Ma De, this Emperor Jiajing is settling a small score again and wants to have sex for free!
In his heart, he despised Emperor Jiajing's pettiness. At this moment, Wang Daoqiu really wanted to teach Emperor Jiajing an economics lesson.But reason told him that when it came to money, Emperor Jiajing was petty and greedy. If you told him about profound and long-term things, he would think you were just farting and send you to a labor camp.

Helpless!He is the boss, he is the leader, he has the final say.Feeling disappointed, Wang Daoqiu could only comfort himself that this time it was a failure, and he should try harder next time until he has the final say.

After visiting the ingot processing, Emperor Jiajing was in a happy mood and said to Lu Bing: "Please make arrangements. Let's fly at night tonight and try to reach the Red Stone Mountain early tomorrow morning." "Promise"

…………

At night, more than fifty large ships with the Jinyiwei logo sailed away from the Yongding River Pier in Wanping County.The protagonist this time is Emperor Jiajing, who is sitting in the cabin meditating on immortality.

Wang Daoqiu and Lu Bing were sitting on the bow of the boat chatting. Lu Bing chatted with Wang Daoqiu and said, "Xie Yuanlang, you said that with steel, let's replace all the swords of our Ming sergeants with steel. What did you say?" Those Tatars should not dare to approach the Great Wall."

What a naive idea!Lu Bing's words reminded Wang Daoqiu of the richest people in the world with a piece of cloth on their heads.The weapons and equipment of their army, except for the beautiful country, who in the world dares to compare with them!But the combat effectiveness of their army is probably only as good as that of the men's football team of a large Eastern country!
Thinking of those people with a piece of cloth on their heads, I am the richest in the world. When faced with Lu Bing's question, Wang Daoqiu replied sadly: "Master Lu, you have been on the front line of Jizhou for many years and have fought life and death battles with the Tatars several times." Lu My lord, tell me, as for the swords and guns in the hands of the Tatars, can they compare with those of the Ming Dynasty? But why do our Ming army always suffer when we encounter them?"

"This……."

"Master Lu, what we lose to the Tatars is not sword fighting, but people, and the seriousness of rewards and punishments for military merit. Most of the officers only want to get promoted and make a fortune, and they will not get rewards for their hard work as soldiers. If they die, they will bring trouble to their parents at home. The white-haired man gives away the black-haired man, and the wife and children at home have no one to support them and are bullied.”

Having said this, Wang Daoqiu was extremely sad. The Ming army was really rotten to the core.

Wang Daoqiu talked about the reason why the Ming Dynasty's army was weak in combat effectiveness. Lu Bing had served in the border army, so of course he knew what was going on.But there was nothing he could do about it. After all, the three feet of ice did not freeze overnight. The nepotism and interest groups among the middle and upper echelons of the army were already deeply ingrained.

The lower-level soldiers in the army were like slaves, cattle and horses. They had no fighting spirit and just wanted to leave the army. They even wanted the Mongols to come in and kill all the officers who usually bullied and exploited them or bring them back to the grasslands to be slaves.

Officers regard the power in their hands as a means of making money and getting promoted.Soldiers are bullied and exploited by this system every day. Let alone loyalty to this regime, it is because they are too cowardly.How could an army composed of two groups of people like this have combat effectiveness?

To be honest, if the Mongols were willing to agree not to rob or kill the families of those Ming soldiers after entering the customs, it is estimated that millions of Ming soldiers would have surrendered to the Mongols.Just like when the Qing Dynasty invaded the pass, a few Ming armies in various places resisted, but basically all surrendered. Who should be blamed for this?

Thinking about these unpleasant things, Wang Daoqiu said in his heart: "Wait, wait for more than three years, wait for more than 1 Mongolian cavalry to arrive in Beijing, put their swords to the throats of the Ming Dynasty monarchs and ministers, wait for hundreds of Mongolian cavalry, just If it can deter 10,000+ Ming troops from hiding in the city and military camps, not daring to come out to fight, then the Ming monarchs and ministers will be determined to purge the army."

After Wang Daoqiu sat there thinking about it, Lu Bing spoke again: "Actually, the emperor and all the princes in the court know about the affairs in the army. But the army is different from the civil servants in the various yamen of the court. They have swords and guns in their hands. The bad thing is that the world will be in chaos, and the emperor and all the princes in the court will throw themselves into fear!"

"What's the point of throwing a rat into a trap? To put it bluntly, I just don't want to take on this responsibility and cause trouble for myself! Even many princes in the court are privately collecting money from those bastards in the army."

"What, Jie Yuanlang, are you saying that there is a close minister who is hooking up with the commander?"

"Absolutely! Otherwise, how could we pass the review of military expenditures and use of military resources every year?"

"Xie Yuanlang, you are causing trouble, do you know anything? Can you give Lu a hint?"

(End of this chapter)