That night, Wu Zheng, Xiong Rulin, Zhang Guowei, Zhang Huangyan, and Mo Zhinian discussed behind closed doors.

"Let me first tell you what happened in the capital. First, Qian Qianyi resigned from the post of first assistant, and His Majesty approved my recommendation, and Huang Daozhou, the first assistant of the former Longwu Dynasty, took over, second, His Majesty wanted to form a musket army and buy 15,000 muskets from me, third, His Majesty ordered me to lead the army to the west to recover Huguang, and fourth, I wanted to set up Jingjiang Guard Town to guard the Jingjiang ....... ”

"Princes, now we can't fight with the Qing court for the time being, which is also in line with our reality, the Northern Expeditionary Army needs to be repaired, supplemented, trained, and needs to develop and improve weapons. The people need to recuperate, and business needs to develop...... If you have any objections, or want to say something, you may as well speak up. ”

The meetings convened by Wu Zheng have always been concise, clear and straightforward, and there is no beating around the bush.

Zhang Guowei said: "Mr. Youxuan has arrived at Shaoxing Mansion a few days ago and sent someone to send a message to see the prince...... But I think what the prince is considering seems to be a little inappropriate, Mr. Youxuan is indeed a rare talent for governing the country, and the General's Mansion needs someone like him at this time, why does the prince still recommend him to the imperial court? ”

Wu Zheng said with a smile: "I really had this thought before, but people's eyes are above the top, and even Emperor Chongzhen doesn't pay attention to them, how can I pay attention to our little county king with a different surname." ”

Zhang Guowei also smiled: "That's right, when Mr. Youxuan sent an envoy to Shaoxing Mansion to ask for help before, he was really disrespectful to the prince...... But at that time, the prince was just a waiting earl, right? ”

Wu Zheng frowned, shook his hand and said, "The past, don't care." There is a saying that yesterday he ignored us, and tomorrow we will let him not climb high. ”

Wu Zheng's child's temper made the four of them laugh.

Zhang Guowei said: "But this time is different from the past, the prince has become the king of the county, and Mr. Youxuan should look the other way." ”

Wu Zhengzheng said: "It's not that I really hate him for ignoring me...... In fact, I have two considerations in my heart, one is that Huang Daozhou's heart is like Chen Zilong and others, in the eyes of these people, I am nothing more than a powerful minister, or even a person with different intentions. Instead of getting bored with each other, it is better to do their own thing, and when he really finds that he can't go according to the old way, he will naturally find that the scenery here is unique. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Zheng laughed, "So, you have to rely on the princes." Internal affairs, I am really not as good as the princes, we said before, the internal affairs, I let the princes do as much as they want, I only lead the troops to fight, once the fight is handed over to the princes to govern. ”

The four of them burst out laughing together.

Indeed, Wu Zheng still counts what he says, from the appointment and dismissal of the chief officials of various prefectures to trivial matters, Wu Zheng said that if he doesn't touch his hands, he won't touch his hands, and let these four people have the final say.

Wu Zheng is at most a general outline, and he will not interfere easily, which also allows these four people to give full play to what they have learned and ambitions.

After the five of them finished laughing, Wu Zheng continued: "Another point is that today's Yixing Dynasty is not when I and the princes are here, and the princes don't know that Qian Qianyi is selling the emperor's official title to collect money. I really don't understand, does the emperor really don't understand or pretends not to understand, how can the correct result be achieved by wrong means? Although we can't control it, but after all, we are under the same banner of the Ming Dynasty, so I recommended Huang Daozhou to take over as the first assistant, at least, with Huang Daozhou's integrity, it will not make the emperor go too far wrong. ”

Zhang Guowei nodded and said, "That's the truth." It's just that there is one thing I don't understand, our muskets were purchased from overseas through Wei Kuangguo at a high price, and the total stock is only 30,000 rods, and now His Majesty wants to buy 15,000 rods from here, so won't we form a new army ourselves? Besides, the prince also said just now that he would set up a new guard in Jingjiang. ”

Wu Zheng asked: "What is the output of the military workshop today?" ”

Zhang Guowei said: "In the beginning, there were only a dozen or twenty strokes a day, but since a month ago, after the craftsmen are skilled, they can already produce 40 or 50 strokes a day. But it is also difficult to continue to improve, after all, the workshop is so big. ”

Wu Zheng nodded, this is the bottleneck in scale, and once a craftsman is proficient, it will be very difficult to improve to a higher level, that is to say, it is almost impossible to improve again, and it will take a very long time.

Wu Zheng said: "Then build a new workshop...... Build it two more. ”

These words immediately reversed Zhang Guowei's tone, "In fact, fifteen thousand rods can be scrapped, and it is a big deal to deliver the inventory to the imperial court ...... first." ”

Wu Zheng smiled and pointed at Zhang Guowei with his finger, and said to the rest: "Look, look, our Zhang Gong is also slamming the door now." ”

Several people laughed, and Zhang Guowei blushed and said: "The prince doesn't know, I am also a person who has seen the world, and I have dared to love in the court for more than ten years, but I have never seen such a silver as the prince...... Has the prince counted the money you have spent in the past few years? I have roughly estimated, let's put it this way, according to this year's tax revenue of the six prefectures, it will take at least five years to have this figure. Lord Wang, I don't blame you, it's just that if it weren't for Mo Lao's support in the past two years, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to pay the officials' salaries and military salaries. ”

Wu Zheng smiled apologetically at Mo and said, "It's really hard work." ”

Mo Zhizhi hurriedly got up and said: "It's not worth mentioning." ”

Wu Zheng said solemnly: "But what I just said is not a joke, we really need to expand two more workshops." ”

These words suddenly made the faces of the four of them change, and Zhang Guowei said: "The two workshops are at least 400,000 or 500,000 taels of silver, counting the hired workers and materials, and the prince also said just now, there is no big battle to fight between the north and the south for the time being, and this silver should be used to the blade." ”

Even Mo obsessed with it: "Forty or five hundred thousand taels, there are still some squeezes, but it is not cost-effective to produce muskets and hoard them in the warehouse." ”

Wu Zheng smiled: "Then sell it." No, the emperor already wants fifteen thousand strokes? After a while, I am afraid that the northern Tartars will also buy muskets in large quantities. ”

These words surprised the four even more.

Zhang Huangyan frowned and said, "How can my sharp weapon be able to do it to others?" The court is just that, selling to the enemy, isn't it helping the enemy? ”

Wu Zheng said suddenly: "How can this be called helping the enemy? You must all know by now that the cost of producing a musket is only about ten taels, but how many taels do we buy? Sixty taels, how many times the profit? According to me, as long as the Qing court wants to buy it, we can sell it vigorously, and the profit from selling one rod can produce more than four rods. ”

Zhang Huangyan was stunned for a while and said: "But once the Qing army has musketeers, plus cavalry, the advantage we just have will be gone." ”