With Zhu Cihong's suggestion, after nearly a month of exploration, the assembly line operation mode gradually succeeded and proved feasible, and then the flintlock pistol production line changed the production mode, and finally produced about 500 flintlock pistols a day, and the Ying Long army could be completed in less than three months.

The paper-shell bullets were also eventually successful, greatly speeding up the reloading. Only alloy steel has not made any breakthroughs, although it has really been made a steel that is slightly stronger than 100 steel, but it is still not enough, but in the end there is a successful incentive, proving that this direction is feasible, and everyone firmly believes that if it goes on like this, it will definitely be able to make steel with strong enough strength.

"Your Majesty, recently, several officials have secretly accepted bribes from businessmen or subordinates." Zhang Kuishan came directly to the imperial study to report.

"Who are they?" Zhu Cihong asked.

Zhang Kuishan counted the people one by one.

"Smack!" Zhu Cihong angrily slapped the desk in front of him.

"A group of moths, dead nature, more than half of the officials in the court this month alone have been found to have accepted bribes, except for a little Qingshui Yamen, almost everyone is greedy for bribes, even Liu Zongzhou has privately taken care of a few businessmen, accepting their silver, I have only appeared in the Ming Dynasty in the past three hundred years a really not greedy Hai Rui, sad." Zhu Cihong gritted his teeth.

After being angry, but helpless, the Ming officials' silver is very low, just relying on the silver is just enough for a family of five to live a simple life, even a maid can't afford to raise, worse than a medium-sized farmer, as a group of officials who hold power, who will be willing, in fact, Zhu Cihong also knows that the corruption of Ming officials is excusable, and it is forced by his old Zhu family.

If we want to tackle corruption, we have to change at the roots.

The next morning, Zhu Cihong didn't talk nonsense, and said bluntly to a group of officials.

"I have decided to increase the amount of money to all of you, five times more than the original, but what I want to tell you is that from now on, everyone will give me a little more restraint, and if anyone dares to take bribes to find out to me, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Zhu Cihong's expression was sharp, and the meaning was obvious, that is, he clearly told everyone that he knew about your corruption and bribery, and because of the low income in the past, he understood it, so he would not pursue it, but from now on, no one can commit it again, and corruption must be eliminated.

The courtiers looked at each other, and Ma Shiying stepped forward and asked.

"Your Majesty, you, what do you mean?"

"What do you mean?" Zhu Cihong stared at Ma Shiying and said coldly: "Ma Shiying, don't pretend to be confused, you dare to say that you haven't received offerings from your subordinates this month?" And the few loads of tea given to you by those big tea merchants are really heavy enough, I'm afraid it is not less than one or two hundred catties, if it is calculated by changing it to two, is there three or four thousand taels? ”

"This" Ma Shiying trembled, and cold sweat broke out.

"And Liu Ge Lao, a hundred or so cloud brocade is also worth a lot of silver." Zhu Cihong looked at Liu Zongzhou, with a little heartache, and then helpless, it seems that Confucianism also wants to live.

Liu Zongzhou's face turned red and he didn't dare to speak.

"In the past, I didn't give you much, and you all have to spend money on it, so I understand, I won't pursue the bad debts in the past, but you have to forget about it, do things well, don't think about those dirty and bad things all day long."

Zhu Cihong was outspoken, and said that a group of courtiers bowed their heads, no one dared to refute half a sentence, the emperor even grasped the handle of Ma Shiying and Liu Zongzhou, who knows if there is his own, everyone is weak-minded, which is equivalent to acquiescing to Zhu Cihong's words.

In the following period, Zhu Cihong began to vigorously rectify corruption.

The matter of adding money to all the officials of the Ming Dynasty was spread to all the states and counties that were still under the control of the Ming Dynasty, followed by a group of Jinyi Guards, focusing on supervising officials around the country, and the duties of the Jinyi Guards were originally to supervise, but originally only the big mansions would have Jinyi Guards stationed, and now they have expanded to any county, and the Jinyi Guards have also expanded from 5,000 to more than 20,000 people, and all the personnel were drawn from the Beijing Camp and the Imperial Forest Army.

This is not only a sharp sword hanging over the heads of officials in various places, but also to prepare for the next step of reform, and these Jinyi guards distributed everywhere are not only to supervise the officials there, but more importantly, to spy on intelligence, for this reason Zhu Cihong also asked Zhang Kuishan to select hundreds of clever ones, scattered to various parts of the north, monitor the movements of the Qing soldiers and thieves there, and send back information from time to time.

Zhu Cihong's anti-corruption action has intensified, and as many habitual corrupt officials have fallen one after another, the alarm bell has sounded in the hearts of all officials, so that they can clearly know that the emperor is playing real this time.

For these corrupt officials who did not listen to the warnings, as long as they caught conclusive evidence, Zhu Cihong did not say a word, all of them raided their homes and demoted officials, and in less than a month, they raided the homes of dozens of officials, showing no mercy, and frightened all the officials for a while, and did not dare to accept anyone's silver taels, lest they be caught, and the next person to fall off the horse was himself.

Not only for officials, but also for the bribery of businessmen were also purged, the light is fined, the heavy is raided, there are also dozens of businessmen have been caught, these businessmen are so rich one by one, Zhu Cihong was unceremonious, all of them were fined more than ten times the amount of silver, and if the bribery was serious, they directly raided their homes, so that businessmen everywhere were also conscientious and avoided all officials.

Not only to the officials of the Ming Dynasty, but also to the troops stationed in various places, whether they are on the front line or not, will be paid three months' salary, and promise never to owe wages in the future.

For those generals who dare to deduct the salary of the soldiers privately, once the evidence is caught, Zhu Cihong is not soft, and uses thunderous means to send brocade guards to wait for the opportunity to capture, although this forced out a few rebellions, but Zhu Cihong's move is the desire of the army, in line with the interests of all soldiers, all those who dare to rebel in this situation, almost most of them did not wait for the imperial court to send an army to exterminate, and the leader of the rebellion was exterminated by his own subordinates, and the head was transmitted to Nanjing City, producing a strong deterrent, which had an unexpected effect. Zhu Cihong never expected it.

Although the Ming Dynasty had an army of nearly one million and tens of thousands of officials, Zhu Cihong spent tens of millions of taels of silver at once, but Zhu Cihong's treasury actually did not lose much silver, and dozens of officials were raided, although there were no big tigers like the Xu family and Jiang Yueguang, but with the dozens of businessmen who were also fined, Zhu Cihong alone got more than five million taels of silver, making up for half of the deficit.

A severe punishment and heavy punishment was quite effective, not only did not cause a little turmoil, but made the Ming Dynasty suddenly show a lot of political clarity, the people's hearts returned, those people in the north who were still occupied by Li Zicheng and the Qing soldiers heard about such a thing, and all of them regained expectations for the Ming Dynasty.

"I can't imagine that the little emperor of the remnants has such means, it seems that he can't be underestimated." In the Regent's Mansion of Beijing City, after Dolgon heard about Zhu Cihong's actions in Jiangnan, his heart tightened and he was faintly anxious.

If it weren't for the fact that the main force of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty was in Shanxi and Li Zicheng's battle with Li Zicheng had entered a critical moment, he really wanted to immediately wave his troops south, not give the little emperor of the remnant Ming a chance to breathe, and interrupt the change of the remnant Ming, Dolgon gradually began to see Zhu Cihong as a real opponent.

"Someone, send Balza to this king." Dorgon commanded.

"Minion Balza see Regent." After a while, a Manchurian man came to the Regent's Palace.

This man was born with a white flag, a thirteen-year-old bear hunter, and was one of Dorgon's right-hand men, and he was trusted by Dorgon.

"This king wants you to immediately set off south to Hubei, persuade Zuo Liangyu to raise troops against the Ming, and by the way, take dozens of Eight Banner warriors to the south, and if you have the opportunity, sneak into Nanjing to try to get rid of the little emperor of the remnants of the Ming Dynasty." Dolgon's eyes were vicious, he didn't take the remnant Ming in his eyes at first, but now he felt that the threat of the remnant Ming little emperor Zhu Cihong seemed to be greater than Li Zicheng, and he had to find a way to get rid of it, otherwise it was likely to hinder the great event of the Qing Dynasty unifying the world.

"Slaves obey!" Balza commanded.

...