Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 70 A Battalion Needs 18 Taels of Silver ([-])

Now the price of a catty of pig iron in the Ming Dynasty is about one cent and five cents of silver.According to what Huang Laifu said, three thousand knives and guns were to be made, and one thousand pairs of armor were to be made. According to the calculation of the common blue cloth iron armor of the Ming Dynasty, each pair of iron used fifty catties, and the minimum amount of iron used for a thousand pairs of iron armor was More than 5 catties, the silver money that Jia bought iron would cost about 7000 taels.

There are still several thousand knives and guns, not to mention the high-quality rubbing knives and red hob knives. Calculated based on ordinary waist knives and spears, a knife and gun uses ten to fifteen catties of iron, and three thousand knives and guns use only the amount of iron. Three to forty thousand catties, and it takes four to five thousand taels of silver to buy iron here.

Of course, there are more than that. To manufacture armored swords and guns, a large amount of cotton cloth, soft cooked leather, cotton rope, red velvet tape, silk hanging thread, wax paint, tung oil, etc. are needed, and a lot of money is needed here.

If you have iron armor, you need a helmet, right?Iron armor can't be matched with vermilion leather helmet, right?It might as well make leather armor.We can't afford good pointed helmets, so let's make the more popular eight-petal helmets.How much iron does a helmet use?And how much does a thousand helmets cost?There are also red shoulder tassels and Qianhong felt jackets that go with the armor, which again cost money.

Not to mention the artificial moon food that craftsmen need to make weapons and armor, and the wear and tear of weapons is very fast. Knives and guns need to be replaced at least once a year or two, and armor often needs to be repaired. Make up, this is also very expensive.A pair of ordinary armor will cost dozens of taels of silver in the end, and a thousand pairs of armor will cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver.

This is still on the premise that you have the money and material to work smoothly, and it takes a lot of time to make it. Fortunately, the swords and guns will be better. If you want to make a thousand pairs of armor, according to the number of these military craftsmen in Wuzhai Fort. It will take two years to come up with the fastest speed...

Following Liu Zongqi and Huang Ruzhen's explanations, Huang Laifu's face turned from red to black, and then from black to green. The cost of raising soldiers is really too high, just the armor, knives and guns There is not enough money and food, and there are many other weapons and equipment, such as raising cavalry, it is even more expensive.

Forget it, if I don’t talk about the artillery battalion in Jizhen like Qi Jiguang’s, it is an ordinary cavalry battalion with 3000 people, equipped with appropriate firearms, equipment, soldiers’ food and horses, and the cost of buying horses. It costs seventeen to eighty thousand taels of silver a year.If you want to come to a battalion like Qi Jiguang's artillery battalion, I am afraid that 8 taels of silver will not be enough.

With my current wealth, where can I get so much money?Huang Laifu pondered, it seems that he has to think more about money.

Speaking of firearms, Huang Laifu naturally knew the role of firearms in the future. He asked Mr. Liu: "By the way, Mr. Liu, regarding firearms, such as firecrackers, can you build them?" He didn't ask about artillery, You don't need to ask to know that you can't make it.

Liu Zongqi said with some embarrassment: "Back to my lord, the talents of the lower ranks are shallow, and I can only repair some damaged bird guns. If you want to make long-handled fire guns, there is nothing you can do. But if you only want to make some copper If you have a pistol in hand, you can do it under your job."

Speaking of this, Liu Zongqi said softly: "Does your lord want to make big firearms? Our Wuzhai Fort is just a small house of thousands of households. If we let military craftsmen make these firecrackers, I'm afraid someone will gossip?"

The production of firearms in the Ming Dynasty has always been strictly restricted. Except for military weapons and the second round of military battles, the towns and guards of each army are not allowed to make unauthorized ones. People will be impeached for misconduct.After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, except for Jizhen, an important town in the north, which could manufacture some advanced firearms, other capital guards could only produce some general firearms, such as muzzles for handles and the like.Even medium firearms such as bird guns are generally only produced in some counties and counties, and are handed over as part of the tax.

In fact, there are many firearms in the Great Ming Dynasty. Every year, the military battle bureau will create a general, two generals, three generals, four-eyed iron guns, Franji iron guns, ten-eyed copper guns, wooden box copper guns, divine machine bronze guns, and ten-eyed guns. There are countless copper cannons.This military battle bureau is a place where Ming Dynasty specializes in manufacturing various firearms. It is under the command of the Inner House Supervision Bureau, and there is a eunuch, who manufactures dozens of military firearms every year.

There is also the Ordnance Bureau under the management of the Ministry of Industry, which also manufactures some long guns, guns, guns, bags and other firearms every year.In addition, some conventional military weapons and military uniforms will be manufactured, and [-] pieces of armor, waist knives and other equipment are manufactured every year.

Strict restrictions are on the one hand, on the other hand, excellent firearms talents are all in the Military Weapons Bureau and the Bingzhan Bureau. Even if Huang Laifu has a way to break this restriction, there is no such talent.

However, firearms are indeed very important. In addition to finding a way to get the approval of the imperial court for the production of firearms in Wuzhaibao, why not buy them from some state and county guards first?But Huang Laifu immediately dismissed this idea.Except for the military battle bureau, the quality of firearms produced in various places in Ming Dynasty is worrying.

Back then, the Qi Family Army had a bad example. When the Japanese were eliminated, the firearms of the Qi Family Army were distributed by some local prefectures and counties. , dare not hold the gun with both hands for precise aiming.There are also some artillery, the size of the lead bullet and the caliber are often not suitable, and some artillery cannot even ignite the fuse.Because of this situation, the scope of use of firearms in Qi's army is very limited.

The lessons learned from the past must be guarded against. Huang Laifu does not want his soldiers to be bombed instead of shooting.

There is no way to do it for the time being with firearms, let's use bows and arrows first, but Liu Zongqi said that the raw materials needed to make bows and arrows are too much, and it is not worthwhile to make them by himself, so he suggested that Huang Laifu buy them from outside.As for the military uniforms, we can mobilize the girls and daughters-in-law of Wuzhaibao to make them. Anyway, as long as the clothes are warm, whether they look good or not is secondary.

Huang Ruzhen, deputy envoy of the warehouse, sighed and said: "It would be great if our Wuzhaibao had connections in Beijing, but there are so many materials in the ten treasuries of the inner government. As long as the money is spent, we can have as much as we want." Huang Ruzhen is acquainted with the brother-in-law of Lord Zhizhou in Kelan Prefecture. The brother-in-law is in Beijing at this time, and he also met an eunuch in Beijing. Sometimes when he returns to Kelan Prefecture, he will also visit Wuzhai Fort. I will discuss this with Huang Ruzhen.

Huang Laifu and Liu Zongqi nodded together. The military uniforms of the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are generally handled by the Needlework Bureau and stored in the B library of the Ten Treasurys of the Inner Mansion. Inside are fat military jackets, combat shoes, military trousers, and sergeant coats. hat etc.In the T-shaped library, there are countless tung oil, varnish, fishing line glue, hematoxylin, jute and white hemp, ramie, yellow wrought copper, wrought iron, sheep skin, feathers and other materials.In the Wuzi library, there are countless armors, bows and arrows, waist knives, strings, bright strings, bags and other military weapons.

Huang Laifu imagined that there were so many materials in the ten treasuries of the inner mansion, and he was also envious. It would be great if they all moved to his own Wuzhai Fort.

He coughed, and said to President Liu: "Okay, Mr. Liu, you can make some armor, knives, guns and other things first, and you also need to make copper handles. You don't have to worry about money, food and materials. The officials will solve it themselves. However, you must ensure the quality of these forged military artifacts. Relevant rewards and punishments will still follow the old rules."

Liu Zongqi cupped his hands and said respectfully: "I accept orders from humble officials."

※※※

After replacing thousands of households, going through the military parade, and checking the warehouse, Huang Laifu has a bottom line in his mind, and he can start his own military training plan.That night, he finalized some specific details in his training outline.This training outline was written intermittently by Huang Laifu in the past few months, and it was basically set according to Qi Jiguang's military training records. After final confirmation tonight, it was finally decided.

According to the training outline, the most important thing in it is that soldiers must be honest and willing to fight.This point Qi Jiguang also received a profound lesson before. At first, the soldiers he led were some guard soldiers, who often ran away as soon as they went to the battlefield, leaving Qi Jiguang as a poor commander.In the end, they found the Yiwu soldiers, and they became the invincible Qi family army.

The lessons learned from the past must be guarded against. Huang Laifu does not hope that when he goes to the battlefield in the future, he will be the only one who rushes forward, and everyone else will run away.Fortunately, Wuzhaibao is a poor place, and there are still few such soldiers. Moreover, after Huang Laifu appeared, everyone bid farewell to the life of having no clothes, and each of them lived a life full of food and clothing. Good day.

All of them are grateful for Huang Laifu's kindness and are willing to fight to the death for Huang Laifu.But the difficulty is that there are too few young and strong people in the Wuzhaibao Banner Army, and more of them are old and weak. Even if these old and weak have been raised for a few months, according to their physical conditions, they still cannot meet Huang Laifu's requirements.According to Huang Laifu's calculations, the more than 300 flag troops in Wuzhai Fort will be screened in the future, and only [-] will be able to stay in the future. The rest will have to be sent to work on the farm.

Another point is that although there are fewer soldiers in the Wuzhaibao Banner Army, there are probably more officers. Those officers from hundreds of households and the General Banner, based on their performance in the military parade that day, may all be slippery. Don't slip away, these people must never stay.

How to deal with these people is a problem. Although these officers cannot stay in the army, they are still needed in other places in Wuzhai Fort. Huang Laifu thought about it for a long time, and finally came up with a plan.

(End of this chapter)