Although the ministers involved in the afternoon dynasty in the main hall did not speak, they were quite unimpressed by Ma Wensheng's invitation.

The Tatars are on the side, and your military can't shrink back, and it is clearly cowardice, but you want to blame the backwardness of weapons, and this is to find a reason to excuse it!

But Ma Wensheng is a famous minister, and he is also an old minister with outstanding achievements, in the replacement of the seven kings of the court in the thirteenth year of Hongzhi, only he and Liu Daxia, who had just taken office as the head of the household department, did not change their positions, and the rest of the books and the imperial history of Zuodu were all transferred from their original positions.

Although Emperor Hongzhi did not accept the impeachment, Tu Tu asked for his own request, and finally got the permission of Emperor Hongzhi, and the emperor gave Tu Tu three stones per month and four miscellaneous servants to return to their hometowns.

Now replacing Tu Tu as the secretary of the ministry is Ni Yue, who has just returned from Nanjing.

Ni Yue is a bull, Hongzhi six years is the Ministry of Rites, but because of the blocking of Xu Qiong, who has an in-law relationship with Queen Zhang's family, Hongzhi was transferred to Nanjing in the ninth year of the Ministry of Officials, and then served as the Secretary of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, and so on Xu Qiong, he returned to the capital and served as the head of the six departments.

Bai Angzhishi, the secretary of the criminal department, replaced him is Min Gui of the Zuodu Imperial Shi, who is now Dai Shan, the former secretary of the Nanjing Criminal Department, and the secretary of the Ministry of Rites is filled by Fu Han, the original left waiter of the Ministry of Rites.

Xu Guanzhishi, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, replaced him by Zeng Jian, the left waiter of the Ministry of Industry.

Because sitting on the seat of the six Shangshu is for the cabinet ministers who are not from Hanlin, the official has already done it, and if he wants to remove it, he must either transfer between the six Shangshu, or he can only beg the old man. Even if there is a little mistake, the emperor wants to punish him, and he is embarrassed to be demoted, it is obviously inappropriate to let a Shangshu go back to be a waiter, and it is not easy to dismiss the official, after all, those who can do Shangshu are fifty or sixty-year-old ministers, and there is no merit and hard work.

Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, as long as the official was in the book, if anyone was impeached, this piece was handed over, and the other end had to be written and begged for bones, which basically became a rule.

If you are a courtier, you can't embarrass the emperor, and the emperor can reject the impeachment note, but you can't be a minister. Of course, if Jane is in the emperor's heart, everything will naturally be based on the emperor's will, and no one will dare to make a noise if he really wants to force you to stay.

As a result, there are many new faces in the court, but these new faces are actually old faces for the minister. There are only so many prestigious ministers in the court, and the Ming Dynasty can do Qiqing and Ge Lao, all of whom have worked hard in the court for many years, and everyone looks down and doesn't look up, so they are acquaintances.

Lao Chen basically has a characteristic, that is, he observes words and looks, does not do things against the emperor's will, and looks at the emperor's face first in everything, and then speaks.

Emperor Hongzhi did not say anything about what Ma Wensheng played this time, but the ministers below would think about it...... The emperor is not satisfied!

Ma Wensheng Jingtai was an official for two years, and now he is a veteran of the Four Dynasties, and he can be regarded as a figure who will enter the prime minister.

But this time, Ma Wensheng invited him to change equipment and increase military salaries for the frontier soldiers, and the emperor did not allow it, that is, he did not agree in his heart, but it was difficult to refuse.

The court is short of money.

The end of the army in the northwest, the Tatars are killed again, the Yellow River flood has just ended, this year North China and the Central Plains are a major drought, and other places are also large and small disasters, no matter how rich the court is, it can't withstand the toss, even if it is a good year, the emperor has to think about changing the equipment for the army, let alone this kind of time.

I don't want to spend money, but I want to win the war, there is no such good thing in the world, there is nothing wrong with Ma Wensheng's invitation, the equipment of the Ming Dynasty army is backward, and it is almost inferior to the Tatars who drink blood on the grassland.

At present, the Ming Dynasty and the Tatars are at loggerheads, and the war will be indispensable in the future, so if you don't change your equipment quickly, it will be difficult to deal with it when the Tatars come back.

The emperor didn't want to spend money, so the ministers below could only help to say something, and the right capital Yu Shi Lin came out and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers think that the frontier soldiers avoid fighting, not in weapons and armor, but in the heart of cowardice, the Tatar cavalry is only tens of thousands, and there are hundreds of thousands of defenders in my Ming frontier, why can't they hold on?" ”

Shi Lin's voice fell, and Shi Daishan, the Zuodu Imperial Shi who was the same Jinshi as Liu Daxia, couldn't help glaring at Shi Lin, obviously Shi Lin's words were not quite in line with Dai Shan's intentions.

Dai Shan and Liu Daxia have a good relationship, and they also get along well with Ma Wensheng, and they are full of people, who doesn't respect a veteran of the Four Dynasties like Ma Wensheng? It's just that you directly refute Ma Wensheng's opinion in front of the emperor, and you also say a "secret that cannot be disclosed", that is, this time the Tatars committed the border, and the Ming Dynasty did not drive away the foreign Yi by force, but watched the Tatars leave after the robbery.

But this can only say that an old minister like Shi Lin can't rub sand in his eyes, even if you Ma Wensheng is outstanding and ranks as the seventh secretary? I am on the left and right sides of the imperial history on the matter, I think you are wrong, why don't you speak and point it out?

Xie Qian muttered there: "If there are really hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Beiguan, it will not be like this." ”

Zhu Youzhu nodded, but he didn't know whether he agreed with Shi Lin's statement or agreed with Ma Wensheng's request, Zhu Youzhu looked at Zeng Jian, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and asked: "How many weapons are still in the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry?" ”

This question stumped Zeng Jian.

Zeng Jian was promoted less than two months, and he used to be responsible for the water conservancy supervision of various provinces in the position of Zuo Shilang in the Ministry of Industry, because the floods in the Hongzhi Dynasty were serious, and the most important thing for the imperial court was the governance of the major rivers.

Ma Wensheng glanced at Zeng Jian, and knew what was going on, in Ma Wensheng's opinion, it was better to leave the burden of supervising the manufacture of weapons to the Ministry of Industry, so that it would be better to coordinate up and down.

Ma Wensheng said: "Your Majesty, there are 6,000 pairs of obsolete weapons in the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, including 4,000 spears, more than 1,000 long knives and short knives, and bows and arrows are scarce......

Zeng Jian was ashamed, the things in his yamen, on the contrary, Ma Wensheng, an outsider, knew better than him, which was really a bit unreasonable, but if you think about the relationship between Xu Guan, the former secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Ma Wensheng, and Ma Wensheng is a practical old minister, it is not unusual to know about these things.

After Zhu Youzhu listened to Ma Wensheng's report, he pondered a little, thought for a while, and said: "Bows and arrows can indeed come in handy when defending the city......

In one sentence, Zhu Youji's character and his thinking logic are exposed.

As the emperor, Zhu Youzhu is not the kind of person who is good at conquering cities, nor does he have the ambition to expand the territory and completely subdue the grassland tribes, he just wants to keep the rivers and mountains handed down by his ancestors, so the priority is to defend the city!

Ma Wensheng said: "Your Majesty, the minister heard that when the Francophile bombarded the port of Thorn Tong, the artillery used was very powerful, and now there is an artillery piece transported to the capital, I wonder if the Ministry of Industry can be ordered to copy it and equip the border army?" ”

Zhu Youzhu thought about it, it seems that he had talked about this matter before, but he dealt with too many pieces every day, and he didn't take this kind of trivial matter to heart at all, and immediately moved his eyes to Liu Jian, the first assistant who had not spoken.

Liu Jian replied: "Back to Your Majesty, before the Ministry of Works, the Franc machine artillery was nothing more than a strange trick, and it couldn't be compared with my Ming artillery!" ”

Zhu Youzhu asked Zeng Jian: "Zeng Shangshu, but is this so?" ”

Zeng Jian may not know about the Ordnance Bureau, but he still remembers it vividly, because he personally signed this recital. Zeng Jian replied: "Your Majesty, it is true. ”

Zhu Youzhi had the support of Liu Jian and Zeng Jian, and he had a little more confidence to reject Ma Wensheng, and said: "In this case, the imitation of artillery played by Ma Qing's family, let's not mention it for the time being......"

Ma Wensheng was unrelenting, and hurriedly asked again: "Your Majesty, please think twice, the old minister does have merits in the Franc machine artillery......

Ma Wensheng's remark made Zhu Youzhu feel very embarrassed.

At this time, Li Dongyang spoke: "Ma Shangshu has not seen the cannon of the Francophone with his own eyes, how can he know that it has merit?" How can a mere barbarian have the skill of my Chinese craftsmen? ”

The main reason is that Li Dongyang is very famous in academics and education, he has many disciples, and there are many people who befriend him, on the contrary, Ma Wensheng's upright character is very easy to offend people, and Ma Wensheng is not good at learning, except for his boss, subordinates and a few friends, he has not many people who have introduced him as a friend.

Even if Ma Wensheng has a strong temper, he knows that it is not good to openly collide with Li Dongyang.

At this point, the ministers present felt that perhaps the matter should end here, anyway, the treasury was empty and there was no money to make weapons, and it would be good to settle the matter, lest the imperial court use these reasons to owe money, which would really be a hell of a life!

But at this time, Xie Qian, who had been silent, walked out and said, "Your Majesty, there is a pattern of the Francophile machine cannon here, please take a look at it." ”

The words made all the ministers present stunned.

I saw Xie Qian take out a stacked drawing, hand it to the eunuch, and let the eunuch enter in front of the emperor.

When Emperor Hongzhi opened, the drawings were very large, there were as many as two pages before and after, the first page was a rough drawing, divided into several parts, and the second page was the relevant parameters, including the gun body, the length of the gun chamber, the width, etc., even if you don't understand the professional data above, you can feel that this is a work of heart just from the graphics.

Zhu Youzhu glanced at it roughly, looked up at Xie Qian, and asked, "Xie Aiqing, where did you get this pattern, but the Ministry of Industry submitted it?" ”

Xie Qian wanted to say that this was Shen Xi's master, but when he thought about it, this would cause trouble for Shen Xiaoyou.

"Back to Your Majesty, this is painted by the old man." Xie Qian took the good things on himself again as a matter of course.

The more Zhu Youzhu looked at it, the more he felt amazed, and then read the text on it, and couldn't help but praise: "Xie Aiqing is really a capable minister who governs the world, and he can study the artillery of the Franc machine man so thoroughly in a short period of time, but I don't know how the Franc cannon is different from the artillery of our dynasty?" ”

Xie Qian was speechless for a while, but he quickly thought that Shen Xi had written these things down in the notebook in his arms, but it was not so appropriate to take out the notebook and read it in front of everyone, because it would let the emperor and ministers know that the drawings were not actually drawn by him.

"Your Majesty, the Franc machine cannon is indeed quite powerful, why don't you take a look at it for yourself to verify it?" Xie Qian's mind spun quickly, and he immediately came up with a good idea.

Zhu Youzhu thought about it and felt a little interesting, maybe he had been in the palace for a long time and wanted to go out for a walk, after all, he rarely had the opportunity to go out of the palace except for borrowing fields.

"Okay, just thank Aiqing for what he said." Zhu Youzhu nodded.

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PS: The third update is here!

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