Seeing that Chongzhen did not blame him, Li Banghua immediately breathed a sigh of relief and began to think about the problem seriously.
The number of firearms and gunpowder in the capital is the largest in the country. With his status as the Minister of War and the Prime Minister of the Cabinet, he can transfer at most 20% of them. At the same time, he needs to find someone to pretend to receive these 20% of firearms!
Although it is only 20%, this number is already quite large.
The only thing I'm not sure about is a caravan.
Although the merchants he recruited would keep the information strictly confidential, there were many gossipy people under the merchants' command, and they might leak the news.
If you want to keep the secret, you need to get the Jinyiwei stationed in the caravan involved.
Fortunately, Xuanfu is only more than 300 miles away from the capital, and the caravan can make a round trip every ten days.
After the calculation, Li Banghua said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, I can give 20% of the capital's firearms and more than 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder to Huang Degong in the name of the Ministry of War. The caravan responsible for the transportation will go south after leaving the capital, then change the flag and go north. After bribing Tang Tong, they will pass through Juyongguan and quietly transport the weapons to Xuanfu."
"Okay! Prepare the formalities in advance, and send someone to transport it as soon as Yan Yingyuan recaptures Xuanfu!"
"As you wish!"
"The third thing!" Chongzhen looked to the southwest, "I will allocate 500,000 taels of silver from the treasury plus a secret letter. Find a way to deliver it to Huang Degong."
"I obey your order!" Li Banghua left Huangji Palace after receiving the order.
As soon as the former left, Chongzhen immediately ordered Wang Chengen to draft an imperial edict: "Secretly draft an imperial edict for Huang Degong, telling him to ignore the imperial edict drafted by the Ministry of War and continue to go to Beijing to defend the emperor."
"After arriving in Northern Zhili, don't take the official road. Do everything you can to avoid the eyes of the imperial court, especially the Ministry of War!"
"After drafting the imperial edict, send a trusted eunuch to deliver it to Huang Degong. It can be slow, but it must be faster than the imperial edict drafted by the Ministry of War!"
Wang Chengen did not dare to delay and quickly got up and went to the inner court to draft the decree.
Chongzhen leaned back on the dragon throne and regained the feeling he had just had when he traveled through time.
The continuous mental activity made him a little sleepy. Just as he was about to fall asleep, a young eunuch came to Chongzhen and whispered, "Your Majesty, Li Ruolian, the commander of the Jinyiwei, is here to see you."
Chongzhen opened his eyes: "Announce!"
Li Ruolian limped in. Just as he was about to kowtow, Chongzhen waved his hand to stop him: "Forget it. What's wrong with Commander Li?"
It would have been better if he hadn't asked, but this question made Li Ruolian's face turn red.
He replied in a coy manner: "I recently recruited more than a thousand Jinyiwei in the capital. Yesterday, when I was teaching them to climb over the wall, I slipped and fell off the wall and sprained my ankle. I am sorry to have embarrassed your majesty."
Chongzhen smiled and shook his head, then got down to business: "Commander Li, how many Jinyiwei are there in the capital who are good at monitoring officials?"
Li Ruo Lian counted on his fingers: "About 200 people."
"Okay!" Chongzhen's eyes were filled with murderous intent. "From now on, immediately send people to secretly monitor all officials in the Ministry of War. From the third-rank assistant minister to the low-ranking clerks, monitor them all. If there are not enough personnel, ask the East Factory to borrow some. I have already informed them."
"Everywhere they went and every person they met was recorded in the book."
"Whether there are any abnormal conditions or not, don't touch them for a short period of time!"
"I obey the decree!"
After Li Ruolian left, Chongzhen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After returning to the Qianqing Palace, I had lunch and took a short nap. After waking up, I returned to the Huangji Hall again.
At this time, the Huangji Hall was full of people!
Some of these people wore court robes, some wore brocade clothes, and some even wore the lowest grade cloth clothes.
Most of them were entering the imperial city for the first time and coming to the Huangji Palace for the first time.
He looked here and there, full of curiosity and awe about everything here.
Those who didn't know might have thought they were attending a big fair, but only those present knew that they were all from the Ming Dynasty Capital Manufacturing General Bureau and Research Institute.
Fan Jingwen was standing at the front. When he saw Chongzhen coming, he led everyone in kowtow three times and bow nine times to perform the etiquette between the emperor and his subjects.
Chongzhen was very happy!
After screening by the Ministry of Works, thousands of scholars and craftsmen were recruited in more than ten days.
The more than one hundred people who came to Huangji Palace are the best among the best.
"Everyone, I set up the Manufacturing Bureau and the Research Institute for only two purposes: to pass on the legacy and to carry forward the legacy!"
"Who among you is a mine worker, an iron smelter, or a firearms maker?"
The crowd was confused and more than ten people stood up.
Chongzhen nodded, turned around and asked Fan Jingwen: "Minister Fan, what problems do you think exist with Ming Dynasty's firearms?"
"Take the Ming Dynasty artillery as an example. First, it takes a long time to cast. Second, it is easy to explode. Third, it is too heavy to move. Fourth, the loading speed is slow. Fifth, rainy and snowy weather will cause the gunpowder to become damp and ineffective..."
“Although there seem to be many problems, the biggest issues in use are still the production time, bursting and weight.”
Fan Jingwen had previously worked in the Ministry of Works, so he was well aware of the flaws of firearms.
Casting a cannon is a delicate job. First, the mold needs to be made, and then it can be dried in the shade before proceeding to the next step. This process can take as short as one or two months, or as long as several months!
Unfortunately, the mold that is made with great effort has to be discarded after one use.
The cost of casting a cannon is first the labor cost of carving the mold, and then the cost of materials.
This is why artillery casting is slow and expensive!
Chongzhen nodded and looked at the craftsmen: "I need you to solve these three problems! Let's discuss it now and see if there is any theoretical solution."
More than ten people stood in the center of the Huangji Hall, gathered together and discussed the matter.
At first they were intimidated by the majesty of the court and did not dare to speak loudly.
But as they talked, they completely forgot about it, and then the discussion turned into an argument.
In the end, if everyone hadn't stopped them, these people would have started fighting on the spot.
Jiao Xu's face was filled with anger. He rolled up his sleeves and wanted to rush forward to hit someone, but was stopped by Fan Jingwen's angry rebuke.
"How dare you! This is the Imperial Palace, how can it be a place for you to fight?"
Chongzhen did not blame them. He stared at Jiao Xu and asked, "Jiao Xu, why did you hit someone?"
Jiao Xu was an official after all, so he bowed deeply and said, "I told them that the cannon molds don't have to be made of clay, iron should also work! Not only did they not believe me, but they also wanted to beat me up!"
A burly man suddenly stood up.
Although Fan Jingwen had taught him etiquette before he came, he had already forgotten most of it by now. He imitated Jiao Xu and said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, although I have never made a cannon, I have cast a hand gun with an iron mold!"
"Ironware made with iron molds is white iron, which is too brittle! Not to mention cannons, even hand cannons can explode, so I say you can't use iron molds to cast cannons!"
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