After Xu Guangqi finished talking with the emperor, he took his leave under the guidance of his inner servants. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Zhu Daming asked Wang Chengen to send Li Banghua again.

Recently, Li Banghua's busyness is similar to Xu Guangqi's, as soon as he went to Beijing to meet the emperor, he was soon arranged by the emperor for a lot of urgent affairs. Then, with the relevant personnel of the Ministry of Industry, as well as a cadre of officials, officials and craftsmen who had just been transferred from the Inner Court to the Ministry of Industry, they hurried to Baiye City and other places in Zunhua to survey the iron ore mines and smelters, and ran back and forth for nearly a month.

Accompanied by local state officials and folk iron smelting craftsmen, Li Banghua ran almost the entire Jingdong Prefecture capital, and basically knew where there were iron mines and coal mines in Zunhua, Qian'an, Fengrun, Kaiping, Luanzhou and other places, and he also had full confidence in reopening iron and steel smelting in Zunhua and other places.

In fact, the Zunhua Iron and Steel, Tangshan Iron and Steel, and Kailuan Coal Mines in later generations are all in this area, which belongs to a typical coal-iron combined industrial belt, and it is definitely impossible to make steel here. Of course, Zhu Daming knew about this situation for a long time, so Zhu Daming knew better than he knew what Li Banghua said in the article on Zunhua Iron Metallurgy, and he approved it without saying a word, transferred it back to the Ministry of Industry to do so, and ordered the Governor's Office to coordinate the relevant prefectures and counties to fully cooperate.

Li Banghua entered the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace, saw the emperor present, and immediately saluted. After Zhu Daming finished his salute, he invited him to sit down, and then said with a smile: "Li Aiqing has worked hard this time!" ”

Li Banghua bowed down and said: "Your Majesty Xie cares, this matter within the minister's responsibility, should not be hard." ”

Zhu Daming nodded and said: "Aiqing went to Zunhua and other places, and the mineral distribution of Jingdong Prefecture is now in Aiqing's heart, which can be regarded as a worthwhile trip and remarkable results." I am very satisfied with Aiqing's last time. ”

Li Banghua saw the emperor so happy, and his heart was also emotional, Zunhua and other places are so rich in coal and iron resources, but because of the courtiers' party disputes and abandoned to this, not only the iron works of many mines were abandoned, but also a large number of craftsmen were unemployed and became homeless.

Li Banghua reported to the emperor in person the distribution of iron ore around Zunhua, from Baiyecheng and Malanyu Mine Iron Works, all the way to Shirengou, Wujiagou, Baimayu and other mineral deposits, Zhu Daming's later generations known Zunhua, Qian'an and other subway mines, basically all discovered by Li Banghua and his entourage, and now they have begun to plan to recruit people for mining.

The washing plants, smelters, and foundries in Baiye City are also ready-made, and most of the original iron factory craftsmen have been collected and recalled, and a group of craftsmen from the surrounding artisans in Gyeonggi under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry have been selected, and now more than 2,000 iron smelting craftsmen are bringing their families in place.

Zhu Daming also talked to Li Banghua about his ideas on reopening iron ore mines, smelting iron and steel, and casting a large number of civilian ironware, armor, muskets, and artillery, and at the same time asked Li Banghua to consider recruiting refugees from Liaodong and refugees from Shanxi as miners; now that Liaodong has fallen, tens of thousands of Han people in Liaodong have fled to the vicinity of Beijing and Tianjin through the western Liaoning corridor or sea routes, and those who have family property can also buy homes to make a living, while those who have no property can only become hired laborers, displaced people, and even beggars, and many of them have taken risks and become thieves. Although mining and smelting iron is hard, it can be regarded as having a stable income and a reliable job.

Speaking of this, Zhu Daming said to Li Banghua again: "In the future, if there are enough miners for iron smelting, Aiqing can select a group of loyal and reliable people from among the young and strong miners, establish a mine camp, equip the ordnance and guns produced by the iron factory, and practice them with Qi Shuai's art of war to protect the mine and protect the factory. The upfront expenses can be withdrawn from the start-up money allocated by the Institute, and can be retained and paid by the private mining tax of the Jingdong Prefecture Government in the future. ”

When Li Banghua heard this, he was also shocked, what does the emperor mean by this, he is actually willing to let the minister train on his own outside? ! didn't dare to accept it at the moment, and immediately objected: "Your Majesty is gracious, and the minister is grateful for the five." It's just that His Majesty said that he gave his ministers the right to recruit people and train soldiers, although it was for the purpose of protecting the mine, but the formation of the mine camp was unprecedented. ”

Zhu Daming knew that the civil servants of this era had this kind of concern, and if it was someone else, Zhu Daming would not have given him the right to withhold mining taxes and recruit people and train soldiers. But for Li Banghua, he is completely relieved.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, after Zhu Youzhen committed suicide and martyrdom, there were only more than 20 people who committed suicide and martyrdom in the Manchu Dynasty in Beijing, and Li Banghua was one of them, Li Banghua was an auxiliary minister of the cabinet at that time, if he surrendered to the Shun army or the Qing army like other civil and military ministers, at least he could mix six Shangshu dangdang, but he did not, but after hearing that the emperor was martyred, he quickly gathered his family to choose to commit suicide and martyrdom. What else can't Zhu Daming trust about such a person?

Looking at Li Banghua, who was trembling and vigorously opposed, Zhu Daming said: "Aiqing is too worried, and I have no doubts about Aiqing's loyalty and filial piety. The ancients once said that they would not spare their lives for the country, since I trust Aiqing, why should Aiqing care about people's words? Besides, Zunhua is located in the border area, the Great Wall pass in the north is in disrepair, Longjing Pass, Da'ankou, Xifengkou Pass is dilapidated, once there is a police, only Jizhou Santun Battalion, Jianchang Camp Department of soldiers and horses, I am afraid it is not enough. Qing not only presided over Zunhua iron smelting, first recruited displaced people as miners, and then recruited troops from the miners to train the mining camp, not only to protect the mine, but also to go north to reinforce Jizhou at a critical moment to guard the left flank of the Beijing Division. I have been thinking about this for a long time, and Aiqing must not resign. ”

Li Banghua saw that the emperor had already spoken to this extent, and it was not good to be stubborn and resign, and he had also done military training, when he was the governor in Tianjin, the direct governor's standard battalion, although the number was small, but it was also very elite, and now in addition to a few henchmen who went with him to serve in the Ministry of Industry, the selected training of the standard people were given to Liang Tingdong, who came to take over. However, he still prefers military affairs in his heart, and he has read many military books, written military strategies, and has also studied the methods of military training.

In history, Emperor Chongzhen had ordered him to rectify the Beijing camp, and he did quite well, and then because he offended Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, who was in charge of the Beijing camp, he finally gave up halfway. Now the emperor allowed him to open mines and smelt iron, and in addition to organizing a training camp and guarding the left wing of the Beijing Division, this is not only the emperor's trust in him, but also the opportunity given to him by the emperor.

Thinking of this, Li Banghua asked again: "Your Majesty is trustworthy, and the minister is grateful." It's just that the minister is the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, in what name should he organize the mining camp without causing controversy among the government and the opposition? ”

Li Banghua's consideration is not unreasonable, after all, it is your duty to direct the mining and ironmaking of a Ministry of Industry, even if you organize some people to protect the mine and protect the factory, it is reasonable, but if you blatantly take the money and grain of the imperial court and compile and train the mining camp of the Eight Classics, even if the emperor agrees, the Manchu Dynasty's civil and military ministers and imperial historians cannot agree, and it will definitely cause a lot of war of words.

But Zhu Daming had already prepared for this problem. Zhu Daming said: "This morning, during the discussion at the Cultural Palace, I discussed with the cabinet ministers to add two cabinet ministers, one of whom intends to serve as the minister of military aircraft in the capacity of the cabinet minister, and the military aircraft department is in charge of military affairs. ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Daming looked at Li Banghua, who still had a calm face, and continued: "The two ministers today have recommended you to me. I also want you to join the cabinet and serve as the Minister of War and Aircraft. ”

At this moment, Li Banghua was not calm, and immediately got up and left his seat, knelt down in front of the emperor's bookcase, and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty Longen." ”

Zhu Daming motioned for him to be flat, and then said: "After Aiqing entered the cabinet, as the Minister of Military Aircraft and the Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, he went to Baiye City in Zunhua to command the reopening of iron smelting and the formation and training of the mine camp. I think there will be no controversy between the government and the opposition, even if there is discussion and I fully support it, Aiqing does not have to worry. ”

After listening to what the emperor said, Li Banghua was moved in his heart, got up again and knelt down from his seat to thank him, and said: "Your Majesty is gracious, it is difficult to repay the minister's broken bones. Please rest assured that your Majesty will not disappoint Your Majesty if you do anything to meet the iron smelting and mining camps. ”

After summoning Li Banghua to achieve the basic purpose, Zhu Daming told him some precautions for mining and smelting iron and manufacturing ordnance, and then talked about recruiting people to reclaim land in the plains and mountains around the mine and planting new crops, and of course he also focused on rebuilding Baiye City and making the city wall thicker so that the garrison could defend the city in the future.

Zhu Daming didn't want to send people to rebuild the Baiyecheng Iron Works, and in the near future, he would cheapen Huang Taiji, who led the troops to break through.

Baiye City more than 70 miles south of Zunhua City, from the Liao, Yuan Dynasty, has been iron smelting prosperity, iron yards everywhere, with the appearance of towns, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, especially during the Hongzhi period, the steel smelting industry of Zunhua Baiye City ushered in the heyday, not only became an important iron smelting town in the north, but also the weapons and armor that supplied the nine sides were also built here, in order to protect the safety of Baiye City, the imperial court demolished all the original earthen city walls, and used the boulders excavated by mining, expanded and built a more solid and majestic stone city.

It's just that after nearly a hundred years of use, especially since the late Wanli period, the city wall that lacks maintenance has been quite dilapidated, and if you want to garrison it in the future and resist the large-scale attack of Jianyu, it must be rebuilt.