Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 37: Rectification
Everyone's faces turned purple from holding their breath, but they couldn't even lift the memorials in their hands.

Liu Yuliang, editor of the Imperial Academy, said, "Your Majesty, I only have this one son, my only son!"

"Your Majesty, I only have this one nephew. My eldest brother had a son in his old age..." Chen Yan, the president of the Hanlin Academy, also knelt on the ground and cried loudly.

All the ministers burst into tears.

Zhu Changgan looked at them and laughed angrily, "When your nephew first joined the Jinyiwei, why didn't you think he was the only son? Why didn't you think he was born in old age?"

"You're telling me this now?"

Zhu Changgan waved his sleeves and ignored the ministers, and walked into the Qianqing Palace, "Close the door for me, they can cry if they like."

As the eunuch closed the gate of the Qianqing Palace, the painful expressions on the faces of all the civil servants suddenly disappeared, and were replaced by bitterness.

"What should I do? What should I do?" Chen Yan clapped his hands and asked the Minister of Works and the Minister of War, "I have never taken a penny from your Ministry of War and Ministry of Works. If anything happens to my nephew, I don't care if you are a minister or not. I will directly submit a memorial to His Majesty to impeach you."

Guang Shiheng, the military official, said hurriedly, "No, we must not submit this petition. Don't you understand? His Majesty is waiting for us to submit this petition so that he can investigate the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War?"

Liu Yuliang, the editor of the Imperial Academy, snorted, "We in the Imperial Academy have no business interfering with the affairs of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War. If I die without an heir, you won't have an easy life."

"Stop arguing here. It would be disgraceful if His Majesty heard it," said the Minister of War Yang Sichang with a gloomy face.

……

Inside the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Changgan took the tea that Wang Chengen had prepared for him and took a sip.

"Your Majesty, are you really going to let the Jinyiwei flow into a river of blood and kill all the officials' sons and nephews?" Wang Chengen couldn't help asking.

"Rivers of blood will certainly flow, but they won't all be killed."

What he wanted was to make use of the Military Equipment Bureau under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Works, rather than getting into a dead end with the people from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works.

Sure enough, these civil servants did not leave. Not only did they not leave, but more people came, among which the largest number of censors were from the Donglin Party.

The censors of the Donglin Party were good at stirring up trouble in the court. When they arrived, they knelt on the ground one by one.

"Your Majesty, this is a perverse act... We request that we temporarily stop the military training and find out the cause of the musket explosion before resuming the training."

"Your Majesty, I believe that firearms are important national weapons. If such a big problem occurs, we should pay attention to it and improve it..."

The Donglin Party was the Donglin Party after all. When they first opened their mouths, they neither said that the emperor was not allowed to train troops, nor did they say that it was a problem with the Ministry of War or the Ministry of Works. Instead, they attributed all the problems to firearms.

If you elevate this issue to a national priority, then your decision as the emperor alone will not count and the matter will need to be discussed in court.

That is to say, it should be brought to the court for the ministers to discuss. Once it is brought to the court, isn't it the ministers who have the final say?

Zhu Changgan listened to the noises outside and waited until he was full before he got up, walked to the door and opened it again.

"The Jinyiwei cannot stop training. Your sons and nephews will not go into battle until tomorrow, which means there is still one day. You can use this time to find the cause of the musket's explosion and solve it, isn't that enough?"

"If you have the time, go and solve it. What are you doing here?"

"..." The ministers were stunned again, and His Majesty kicked the ball back again.

"Your Majesty, isn't this time too short? I'm afraid the people from the Ministry of Works may not be able to solve the problem in a short time." The Minister of Works Liu Zunxian replied with a bitter face.

Zhu Changgan sneered and said, "My Arms Department has already solved this problem. You may want to contact them."

"..." The ministers were speechless again. The emperor's words were in line with their rhythm, making them think about how to ridicule the emperor and comment on the bloody training of the Jinyiwei. Now that they were being criticized by the emperor, they were unable to continue speaking for a moment.

……

Killing is not the goal; letting the ministers follow their own pace is.

Zhu Changgan had no doubt that they had the ability to solve this problem. These people were smart and would definitely find a solution before tomorrow.

I have already instructed the Armory to keep it strictly confidential, so it is naturally impossible for me to hand over the design of the flintlock rifle to the Ministry of War.

But there is no problem in producing a matchlock gun that does not explode.

The Bingzhang Division had already begun producing flintlock rifles, but the maximum production capacity was 300 rifles a day, which was far from enough. Zhu Changgan then turned his attention to the Military Equipment Bureau.

But it is almost impossible to go to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Industry and ask them to let the Ordnance Bureau and the Armory Department produce muskets.

But on the other hand, if the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works contact the Armory in return, things will become much simpler.

There is not much difference between a flintlock and a matchlock, the main difference being the barrel. His idea was to let the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry be responsible for producing non-confidential parts, and the Armament Bureau be responsible for producing confidential parts.

This will speed up the equipment of firearms.

Watching the civil servants outside leave one by one, Wang Chengen couldn't help but smile and replied, "Your Majesty, you are still amazing. They all went back."

Zhu Changgan smiled faintly and said, "It's not that I'm good, it's that they're all too smart."

The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty were so smart that they always knew what to do to maximize their benefits.

"Wang Chengen, I want to raise the salaries of the inner court and the Jinyiwei, and at the same time, launch a rectification campaign in the inner court."

When Wang Chengen heard about the salary increase, his eyes suddenly lit up, but then he was stunned when he heard the emperor talking about rectification and reform. "Your Majesty, what is rectification and reform?"

"The first item is self-examination and self-correction. If there have been corrupt officials in the East Factory, Jinyiwei, and Yongweiying before, they can report it themselves to reduce or even avoid triggering. However, if they conceal it and fail to report it, they will be severely punished according to the law if they are found out."

"I will give you a high salary..."

Simply put, it is to maintain integrity with high salaries. No matter whether it is the East Factory or the Embroidered Uniform Guard, both are the emperor's guards and attendants. If they continue to break the law as before, what is overdrawn is the emperor's credibility, and no one will believe in the emperor.

Especially for the Jinyiwei, those who know the law but break it will be punished more severely.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Wang Chengen knelt on the ground. "I will now discuss a specific plan with Eunuch Cao, and carry out a rectification from top to bottom in the Imperial Household Department."

……

At noon, Zhu Changgan had lunch with Concubine Yuan. During the lunch, Concubine Yuan kept hinting at the emperor, but was always ignored by the emperor.

At the same time, the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard launched a rectification and reform campaign in full swing.

For a while, there was an atmosphere of panic within the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

But Zhu Changgan knew that the rectification movement had its unique significance. It could greatly improve the ideological awareness of the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, unite them unprecedentedly, and form a powerful fighting force.

"Hey, I remember there was an extremely powerful army. Where did they go?" Zhu Changgan suddenly remembered something.

(End of this chapter)