Since the establishment of the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty and the management of ordnance production during the Huangzhushan period, the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty has never met the needs of the military for the production of various ordnance.

In fact, as the first hard-working department in the Tang Dynasty, many officials from top to bottom are trying to continuously expand production.

From only making dozens of muskets and a few artillery pieces a month in the past, to producing nearly 2,000 muskets a month now, the Datang Ministry of Industry has made great efforts!

And as the construction of the Foshan Iron and Steel Plant slowly enters the final stage, after the completion of this steel plant, the Tang Dynasty will be able to increase steel production by at least one-third in a short period of time, and the steel output of state-owned factories is expected to directly double.

Foshan Iron and Steel Plant, this and Foshan Iron and Steel Plant are two completely different factories, although the latter is also owned by the Ministry of Industry, but its target is civilian output, from ironmaking to the production of various agricultural tools and other iron products, its steel production is relatively limited, but Foshan Iron and Steel Plant, although only a word difference, but is a large number of modern machinery, and the use of new technology, ready for large-scale iron-making of large-scale iron and steel plant.

The most direct impact of the substantial increase in steel production is that it can effectively alleviate the current urgent demand for steel in the Tang Dynasty, and at the same time, it can also effectively reduce costs.

These are also important factors affecting the output of guns and other ordnance products.

In order to match this, the Ministry of Industry has specially expanded the scale of the Foshan Arsenal in the Foshan area, preparing to increase the production of muskets, iron artillery and other products that have a very large demand for steel.

By this time next year, Foshan will replace Zhaoqing as the first heavy industrial base of the Tang Dynasty!

However, even if the Ministry of Industry worked so hard, the demand for guns and artillery in the Datang military was almost endless.

At present, the output of more than 2,000 muskets a month is still unable to meet the huge demand of the Datang Army!

There is no way, who let the main force of the Tang Army be reorganized, expand the number of musketeers, and at the same time expand the army on a large scale.

Whether it is the main force or those supplementary brigades or even new barracks, a large number of muskets are needed, not only the reorganization and expansion of the troops, but also the existing troops need a steady stream of supplementary muskets, because muskets will be damaged during combat and training, and the proportion of damage is not low.

After a big battle, there are not a few muskets that need to be replaced and replenished.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, the officers and men had enough muskets to use, and the logistics department successively sent more than 6,000 muskets to Huguang and Jiangxi, and these more than 6,000 muskets were specially used for supplementary use.

As for the muskets needed for the reorganization of the troops, they have not yet been counted!

That's it, or because the front-line troops used a large number of muskets captured from the Ming army on the spot, otherwise, the number that needs to be replenished is even greater!

And the output of artillery is even more so, because the demand of the military is too great, almost every arsenal on the Ministry of Industry will produce iron five-kilogram field guns and two-kilogram shotguns, which also leads to the output of the above two types of artillery, which actually accounts for more than two-thirds of all artillery production in the Tang Dynasty.

In the autumn and winter offensive last year, the First Army and the Second Army lost hundreds of artillery pieces of various sizes due to various reasons, such as being destroyed and scrapping their barrels, of which the loss of iron five-pound field guns alone was more than 20 pieces, which was enough to equip an artillery battalion.

And these lost guns need to be replenished!

The supplementary guns are there, and they don't need to be produced in the arsenal of the Datang Ministry of Industry!

The original production task of the Datang Ministry of Industry was extremely heavy, and the equipment needed for the reorganization plan of the existing main division had not yet been produced, and now that one division and two mixed regiments had come, this production task was even more severe.

However, the officials of the Ministry of Industry were also suffering and happy, especially those in charge of the arsenals, as long as they could increase the output of the arsenals they were responsible for, it was easy to be promoted.

Moreover, the Ministry of Industry Shangshu, in the Tang Dynasty, is also listed as the two most powerful Shangshu in the Tang Dynasty along with the Ministry of Taxation.

Because of the more than a dozen Shangshu in the cabinet, only these two Shangshu can enter the imperial study with the title of Shangshu alone and become the minister on duty in the imperial study.

The other two ministers on duty in the imperial study of the cabinet civil officials, that is, Liu Bagou and Qian Mengjiu, they were the ministers on duty in the imperial study as university scholars and founding heroes, and with their respective titles of household secretary and army department secretary, they actually couldn't enter the imperial study.

The ministers on duty in the imperial study have maintained the scale of seven people for more than a year, namely Zeng Ziwen, director of the Operations Department of the Privy Council, and Bao Yifen, director of the Military Command Department of the Navy Command, two representatives of the army and navy, and then the president of the Inspectorate and the four secretaries of the cabinet.

The above seven people constitute the seven ministers on duty in the imperial study, and there are more than ten ministers on duty, who are selected from the ministers of various departments of the military, deputy ministers, and the heads of various cabinet ministries, such as the secretary of the cabinet, the squire, and the inspectorate.

Of course, the difficulties of the Ministry of Industry and the power struggle in the imperial study naturally had nothing to do with Qin Zhifu, an anti-Ming fighter, who was awarded the title of viscount, brigadier general, and served as the deputy commander of the Seventh Infantry Division.

Soon he was integrated into the life of the big family of the Tang Dynasty, first brought the family members on Nanao Island to Zhaoqing, this mansion did not have to be purchased by himself, Li Xuan directly gave him a mansion, the scale is not large, but it is located in the mansions of many nobles and important ministers of the Tang Dynasty.

This made Qin Zhifu get great vanity satisfaction, and after settling down with his family, he also wanted to take office as soon as possible to start his military career in the Tang Army.

However, the first division commander of the Seventh Infantry Division, the former chief of staff of the First Army, Major General Wang Chaohong, gave him an order to stay in Zhaoqing temporarily, and gave Qin Zhifu a major task, that is, to 'run the department' and strive for better and faster recruits and guns for the Seventh Infantry Division.

Before Major General Wang Chaohong left Zhaoqing and went to Jiangxi, he patted Qin Zhifu on the shoulder and said: "Old Qin, this is the important task entrusted to you by the division headquarters, you have to do it well, whether the more than 10,000 brothers of our Seventh Infantry Division can eat and drink spicy food depends on you to maneuver around the rear!" ”

Qin Zhifu was moved when he heard this, and he was glad that he had met an enlightened boss.

You don't have to go to Jiangxi, you don't have to fight, the first few years of general military career on Nanao Island, to be honest, has made him have a certain sense of crisis on the front line, even though the Tang Army is incomparable, but the guns on the battlefield are not long-sighted, and they will not specifically avoid senior generals, and in fact, the Tang Dynasty division does not distinguish between sea and land, and the casualty ratio of middle and senior officers is not low, which is mainly because of the low means of communication in these years, many times senior generals need to go to the front line in person to command the troops to fight.

Officers of the rank of regiment commander and battalion commander were killed and injured from time to time.

And stay in Zhaoqing to be prosperous and rich, how good it is!

As for the relationship between the running department, he is good at this, so Qin Zhifu accepted it with a smile.

And for his happy acceptance, Wang Chaohong was also relieved!

What are you kidding, he fought for life and death on the front line, and only then did he get a position on the throne of division commander, and he naturally attached great importance to the Seventh Infantry Division, how could he put up with a general like Qin Zhifu anyway, and he didn't have any fart skills, and he couldn't even understand line operations as his deputy division commander.

So he specially went to Li Xuan to complain, and finally got Li Xuan's tacit consent, he could leave Qin Zhifu in Zhaoqing, and after leaving Qin Zhifu in Zhaoqing, although a considerable part of the affairs of the Seventh Infantry Division would fall on his shoulders and make him work a lot, Wang Chaohong didn't care about it.

No matter how tired you are, you can compare it with a pig next to you, if you are injured on the front line or have other accidents and can't command, this pig will directly take over the command of the entire Seventh Infantry Division!

So Qin Zhifu, how far you have to go!

In this way, it was a joy for both sides, Qin Zhifu could stay in Zhaoqing and enjoy the world of flowers, and Wang Chaohong finally kicked aside the deputy division commander who was forced to him from above.

After receiving the major task of staying in Zhaoqing, he began to visit the ministers and deputy ministers of the Privy Council one after another the next day, in fact, many people did not have a good impression of him, but he couldn't stand Qin Zhifu's shameless request to see him again and again.

And after seeing people, Qin Zhifu will not be stupid to play any bribery or other means, but now there is such a thing as Hantong in the Tang Dynasty, and the military is regarded by Li Xuan as the basic plate, and the Hantong eagle dog is very strictly monitored, plus the current generals are basically rushing to be the founding heroes, wanting to win a higher title, and even a hereditary title, there will be a little bit of small profits, he is playing what he likes.

I have to say that Qin Zhifu's means of winning over the relationship are really strong, and under deliberate flattery, he actually became Zeng Ziwen's guest, and it is rumored that Zeng Ziwen spoke highly of him.

And after the relationship is good, it is much easier for the Seventh Infantry Division to grab the ordnance recruits, under his hard persuasion, Wang Chaohong has not yet arrived in Nanchang to take over his Seventh Infantry Division, Qin Zhifu has already been Johnson & Johnson snatched the quota of 2,000 muskets from other troops, and then shipped to Jiangxi to be rationed to the Seventh Infantry Division.

After Wang Chaohong in Jiangxi got the news, he was overjoyed, this Qin Zhifu didn't seem to have no ability at all, he was able to win a quota of 2,000 muskets for his Seventh Infantry Division under the tiger's mouth of many troops.

It seems that he really did the right thing to keep him in Zhaoqing!