"Um?"
Zhao Jun turned his head and looked at him. "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the Yellow River management?"
Since the Yellow River management method proposed by Jia Changchao was the most reliable in history, after the Minister of Works Han Ju suddenly passed away last year, he was transferred from the position of Minister of Education to the position of Minister of Works, and served as the Co-Director of the Ministry of Political Affairs, in charge of the projects of repairing the Bian River and the Yellow River.
He had already completed a number of small projects and had successfully dug and built the first diversion canal, connecting the Yellow River and the Yu River. The subsequent planning had basically been completed, so he did not supervise on site.
Jia Changchao asked, "This morning the emperor suddenly decided to form a new army. I want to know what this means."
"Establishing a new army is a normal development direction. Is there any problem?"
Zhao Jun asked back.
"But shouldn't we communicate with the Constitutional Yuan?"
Lu Yijian said with some dissatisfaction, "Such a sudden move really left us completely unprepared."
"What kind of defense is this?"
Zhao Jun laughed and said, "The military power is in the hands of the emperor. How dare you point fingers at the emperor?"
"Forehead"
Lu Yijian choked for a moment, then said, "Of course not. It's just that such a big matter requires everyone to discuss it."
Zhao Jun thought for a moment and said, "It's not a big deal, it's just an upgrade of firearms. In the future, we need to transform the era of cold weapons into the era of firearms. This is the development of the times, a rolling wheel that no one can stop."
"The Qing Dynasty lagged behind in the age of firearms, stubbornly believing that horseback archery was their only source of strength. They stopped striving for development, became complacent, and were ultimately left behind by the times."
"So grenades and cannons only increased the chances of winning a war. The emergence of muskets was a groundbreaking product, making firearms the mainstream."
"We've already completed all the design, manufacturing, and testing for this thing. Within a few years, we've reached the peak of the Ming Dynasty, which is almost the peak of the pre-industrial era. We're completely capable of crushing traditional cavalry."
"But these things are definitely confidential. Once the Liao people learn of them, they will undoubtedly mobilize the entire nation to march south. Furthermore, mass production has only just begun, and the military has always been under government control. It's only natural to temporarily form a new firearms army and conduct secret experiments."
He looked around at everyone and said, "This matter is the highest secret of the Great Song Dynasty. You must not disclose it to anyone. If we were not all colleagues in the Constitutional Council, I would not have easily told you this matter."
This statement is obviously very reasonable and logical.
No one thought much about it, but Lu Yijian couldn't help but sigh, "The age of firearms has finally arrived. I'm afraid that countless weapons and equipment manufacturing workshops in Bianliang will go bankrupt in the future."
"There's nothing we can do about it. A grain of sand from the era can become a mountain when it falls on a person's head."
Zhao Jun said, "But they can also switch to civilian use. High-quality steel will surely become more and more abundant in the future. In an era without industrialization and mechanization, craftsmen will still be needed. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for them."
"Will this alone arouse opposition from both the government and the opposition?"
Wang Zeng hesitated.
Zhao Jun wondered, "Why are the government and the opposition opposing this?"
"Because there are many interested parties involved, including your wife's Cao family."
Lu Yijian looked at him meaningfully.
"Cao family?"
Zhao Jun asked in confusion: "What does this have to do with the Cao family?"
Cai Qi said, "The Cao family has three weapons manufacturing workshops in Bianliang, all of which supply more than 20 battalions including the Sun-Bonding, Tiger Wing, and Ma Si."
"A few years ago, several noble families, including the Li, Wang, Shi, Gao, and Liu families, requested that the imperial court hand over the production of hand grenades from the Firearms Department. At that time, you were on a southern tour, but the emperor and I refused."
Song Shou also said: "We also know that gunpowder is a secret and must not be leaked. But with the emergence of gunpowder, ordinary weapons and equipment are obviously no longer needed, which seriously infringes on their interests."
Zhao Jun's brows suddenly frowned.
"The Cao family supplies weapons and equipment for over twenty battalions, which means over ten thousand men. A set of weapons and equipment for the Imperial Guards costs at least twenty or thirty strings of cash, and as much as a hundred strings of cash. Can you guess how much profit is involved? If they completely switch to firearms, how much will they lose?"
Lu Yijian couldn't help but smile as he looked at him.
During the early Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin prohibited local production of weapons and equipment, moved a large number of craftsmen to Bianliang, established a military equipment supervisory office, and established an official weapons production system.
This move can, on the one hand, concentrate the scale of the industry and create an upstream and downstream structural system for the entire weapons and equipment manufacturing; on the other hand, it can also weaken local weapons manufacturing and achieve the "strong trunk and weak branches" strategy originally set by Zhao Kuangyin.
However, as time went on, problems such as poor quality, low efficiency, and chaotic management of weapons and equipment manufactured by the government became apparent, making the court's army unwilling to use these weapons and simply purchasing them from the public.
Moreover, the private sector has gradually opened up to weapons manufacturing, and even some banned weapons can be produced privately.
The main operators among them were the powerful and generals. They recruited a large number of skilled craftsmen from the official weapons workshops, set up private weapons workshops, and gradually became weapons suppliers for the court.
To some extent, this is also a beneficial reform.
After all, the income of craftsmen in the previous state-run workshops was stable, and the supervision system was poor, which made many craftsmen perfunctory and had no motivation to make good weapons.
After privatization, in order to seize the market, a large number of private manufacturing workshops in Bianliang had to improve the quality of their products.
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