In late June, a shocking incident occurred in the DPRK and China.

It turned out that although the Military Construction Bureau under the Smelting Bureau was left behind by the Military Casting Bureau in the first ten days of iron sword production, in mid-June, it had already surpassed the Military Casting Bureau by nearly 2,000 iron swords, and by the end of June, the Smelting Bureau had already led the Military Casting Bureau by more than 3,000 iron swords.

When this news spread all over the DPRK and China, officials such as the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Officials were all dumbfounded, and even the Ministry of Industry, which originally stood on the side of the Smelting Bureau and silently supported it, was a little incredulous.

Everyone was dumbfounded, and they never thought that the Military Casting Bureau, which had specialized in military-style weapons and equipment for tens of hundreds of years, would be overtaken by the Smelting Bureau.

This incident alarmed Li Wei, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and the old man personally went to the treasury of the Ministry of War and witnessed the people of the Smelting Bureau transporting truckloads of finished iron swords to the warehouse, and the officials of the Ministry of War counted and recorded them one by one.

"What is the color and texture of the iron sword made by the Smelting Bureau?"

Li Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of War, secretly asked Tao Wei, the treasurer who was in charge of the armory of the Ministry of War.

The Treasury Shiro Tao Wei glanced at Li Jin, who was already dumbfounded not far away, and sighed secretly in his heart, and said to Li Yan: "The texture and color are not inferior to the iron sword cast by my ...... Armor Bureau."

"This ......"

Li Wei, the secretary of the military department, showed an unacceptable look of surprise in his eyes.

Although he also understood that since the Smelting Bureau was planning to compete with the War Casting Bureau for the army's weapons manufacturing orders, it was bound to be fully prepared, but it was so easy for the Smelting Bureau to surpass their War Casting Bureau, which made Li Wei really a little unbelievable.

"How so? The Arsenal Bureau has invested nearly 2,000 groups of craftsmen, and as far as the old man knows, the blacksmiths in the Smelting Bureau. It's just four or five hundred people, how can you ......?"

Li Fu frowned.

Glancing at his boss, the Treasury Shiro Tao Wei lowered his voice and said, "Lord Shangshu, look at this." ”

With that, he took out five iron swords from the bamboo basket where the smelting bureau held the iron swords, and placed them neatly on the ground one by one.

Li felt confused at first. But when he carefully compared the five iron swords, he suddenly found a very incredible coincidence: that is, the specifications and styles of these five iron swords, whether the length, width, thickness, or length of the hilt, were almost identical.

The Armor Casting Bureau could not do this, and the iron swords they created had this certain difference in the specifications of the blade and the hilt, some with slightly longer blades and some with slightly thicker blades. This is not surprising, because each iron sword in the Armory Bureau is individually crafted by a different group of craftsmen, so there must be differences.

But this batch of iron swords of the Smelting Bureau is almost the same in this regard, what does it mean?

"Is this true of all iron swords forged by the Smelting Bureau?" Li Fu asked in a low voice.

Kurabe Shiro Tao Wei sighed and nodded emphatically.

Seeing this, Li Wei opened his mouth. But it closed silently.

Obviously, this must be because the people of the Smelting Bureau came up with a way to mass-produce iron swords. Just like the group of people who mass-produced candles in the first place, only iron swords made of molds of the same specification would be almost identical in appearance.

But iron is not a candle, so what did the people of the Smelting Bureau do?

Although Li Fei couldn't guess after thinking and meditating, the facts were in front of him, and he couldn't believe it: the Smelting Bureau. We have mastered the mass production technology of iron swords.

This is amazing news, after all, if the Smelting Bureau can produce iron swords, then it will naturally be able to produce other weapons such as swords, guns, swords, halberds, etc. The difference is not huge.

This is not good news for the Warcast.

Li Fei felt that it was necessary for him to personally visit the Vertical Arch Palace.

Thinking of this, the old man went straight to the palace without saying a word.

At this time, the news that the latecomers of the Smelting Bureau were on top also spread to the Vertical Arch Hall by the pervasive inner guards, and when they learned that the Smelting Bureau only took forty days to completely surpass the Soldier Casting Bureau in the casting of iron swords, which made the new Zhongshu Right Cheng Feng Yu stunned.

admitting defeat in the gamble, he had to take out thirty taels of silver and lose to Wei Tianzi, as well as Lin Yuyang and Yu Ziqi.

In all fairness, the rank of the Zhongshu minister is better than that of the squire, but the influence is even greater than that of the officials of the Shangshu rank, and the thirty taels of silver are just a small amount for ministers like Feng Yu, but the problem is that losing money is a trivial matter, and losing it inexplicably is the key.

"Weichen really doesn't understand, why did the Bing Casting Bureau lose to the Smelting Bureau?"

Seeing Feng Yu's confused face asking questions, Wei Tianzi, Lin Yuyang, and Yu Ziqi were secretly amused in their hearts.

To be honest, they didn't have full confidence in the Smelting Bureau at the beginning, but they knew very well Zhao Hongrun's hard work, His Royal Highness King Su, often drummed up something enough to subvert the original concept, for example, a while ago, he squeezed through the candle molds of large and small candle workshops in China.

But at this moment, in front of Feng Yu, the "junior", Lin Yuyang and Yu Ziqi, as the "old men" of the vertical arch hall, naturally have to put on a face of "I have already seen through everything", so that Feng Yu can't help but feel that these two senior colleagues are really "unfathomable".

Jokes are jokes, what should be proposed, Lin Yuyang and Yu Ziqi still have to mention.

No, after reining in his smile, Lin Yuyang immediately said to Wei Tianzi: "Your Majesty, the Smelting Bureau has won the Bing Casting Game in this gamble, which is enough to prove the talent of His Royal Highness King Su, but ...... How should the War Casting Bureau deal with itself in the future? ”

He said it very vaguely, but Wei Tianzi naturally understood what he wanted to express.

Indeed, the foundation of the War Casting Bureau lies in casting weapons and equipment for the domestic army, but if their forging ability is chased by the Smelting Bureau, then what is the meaning of the existence of the War Casting Bureau?

"The minister thinks that the smelting bureau must have adopted a new process of casting iron swords, and the minister suggested that the smelting bureau should teach the new process of the military casting bureau to improve the casting capacity of the military casting bureau......

"......" Listening to Lin Yuyang's words, Yu Ziqi frowned slightly, and before Wei Tianzi could speak, he took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, the minister thinks what Lord Lin said is inappropriate!" …… The Metallurgical Bureau has improved the new process, and the credit lies with the Metallurgical Bureau. Asking the Smelting Bureau to give the painstaking research to the War Casting Bureau for no reason, isn't this a marriage for people? If Your Majesty ignores the efforts of the Metallurgical Bureau, I am afraid that he will not be able to convince the public. ”

"What are you talking about, Lord Yu?" Lin Yuyang turned his head and frowned and said: "The Metallurgical Bureau is now building and expanding dock ports in Bolangsha and Xiangfu Port at the same time, and at the same time building dozens of ships carrying goods for the warehouse, and now it is involved in the construction of weapons...... That's a big step. It is not conducive to the development of the Metallurgical Bureau. ”

I have to say that Lin Yuyang is indeed to the point, in fact, even Zhao Hongrun feels that the steps taken by the Smelting Bureau are too big, resulting in places everywhere that need money, so that he now owes a lot of money to the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry, fortunately, the Smelting Bureau has a dividend cast by candles, otherwise, the Ministry of Household may not be at ease to ask the Smelting Bureau to owe such a huge amount of money on credit.

But even so, Zhao Hongrun gritted his teeth to support it. There is no way, in order to make the country strong as soon as possible, the only way is to invest manpower and material resources at any cost, and let him give up one or two of these projects at this time, I believe he will never agree.

And this point, Yu Ziqi, the left minister of the Chinese book who has always been good friends with Zhao Hongrun, also knows it, and when he heard this, he said unceremoniously: "Whether the steps of the Smelting Bureau are too big, Yu Mou said that it doesn't count." It doesn't matter what Lord Lin said, it depends on what His Royal Highness King Su means. …… Yu just thinks. Today, the Metallurgical Bureau has been separated from the six ministries and 24 divisions, and is self-employed, and the household department no longer allocates funds to it. But Lord Lin wants the Smelting Bureau to teach the new technology to the Soldiers' Casting Bureau in vain, how is this different from the banditry? ”

Yu Ziqi's words are very heavy and not very good, but the truth in the words is obvious. Lin Yuyang couldn't refute either.

But the problem is that if this matter is left unchecked, sooner or later the War Casting Bureau will be crushed by the Smelting Bureau.

Unless the imperial court deliberately favors the military casting.

But in this way, the problem came again, obviously with the new technology of the Smelting Bureau, the imperial court still used the old process of the Military Casting Bureau. What is this? Abandon the beautiful jade and take the stubborn stone?

At this time, Feng Yu, the right man of the Chinese book, said beside him: "Why don't you merge the Military Casting Bureau with the Smelting Bureau?" Or, merge with the new one? ”

"......" Lin Yuyang and Yu Ziqi were suddenly dumbfounded, and glanced at Feng Yu with strange expressions, they said in their hearts, are you Feng Yu lacking heart eyes? The War Casting Bureau is the son of the Ministry of War, how can the Ministry of War merge the War Casting Bureau with the Smelting Bureau? Not to mention merging with the Military Construction Bureau, a subordinate of the Metallurgical Bureau?

"This ...... Not proper. In order to take care of this colleague's face, Lin Yuyang shook his head vaguely.

However, Feng Yu would be mistaken, and nodded when he heard the words and said: "Yes, it is really not proper, if this is the case, the Smelting Bureau is inevitably too big, and it has exceeded the specifications of the department......

Lin Yuyang and Yu Ziqi glanced at each other and pretended not to hear.

However, the conversation between the three of them made Wei Tianzi slightly moved.

It is true that the current stall of the Smelting Bureau is indeed a bit big, so that his son Zhao Hongrun seems to be constrained due to the limitations of manpower and material resources, but the value of the Smelting Bureau, Wei Tianzi cannot fail to see it.

As Zhao Hongrun once said, the Metallurgical Bureau may really become the standard of his top craftsmanship in Dawei.

Therefore, if the Military Casting Bureau can be merged into the name of the Smelting Bureau, Wei Tianzi believes that his son Zhao Hongrun can be more effective, the only problem is that this move will inevitably be strongly opposed by the Ministry of War, which is far more important than the loss of the right to host the imperial examination.

Just as Wei Tianzi was pondering, a little eunuch suddenly walked into the vertical arch hall and said respectfully to Wei Tianzi: "Your Majesty, Li Man, the secretary of the military department, asks to see you." ”

"Li Man? That stubborn old man is asking to see me at this time?'

Slightly stunned, Wei Tianzi immediately guessed the other party's intention in his heart: Li Man's coming this time was only possible because of the new process of mass production weapons of the Smelting Bureau.

After thinking about it, Wei Tianzi nodded and said, "Xuan!" ”

The little eunuch bowed down, and after a short time, Li Man, the secretary of the Ministry of War, walked into the vertical arch hall in a hurry, knelt down in front of the dragon case, and directly explained his intention.

"I beg Your Majesty to order the Smelting Bureau to transfer the new process of casting weapons, otherwise, the situation of military casting will not exist!"

At the same time, the son of Li Wei, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Li Jin, the director of the Military Casting Bureau, has personally come to the gate of the Smelting Bureau. (To be continued.) )