"Your Majesty, the South China Sea Fleet has just defeated the Dutch and driven them out of Taiwan, will they cooperate with us?" Li Chunye felt that Zhu Youzhen was too young after all, and he still didn't understand the sophistication of human feelings.

"Xiyi is different from us, in the face of absolute strength, they will accept the status quo," Zhu Youzhen seemed to feel the pulse of the Dutch, "Xiyi will not value hatred, only eternal interests, no eternal enemies or friends." ”

"Your Majesty, Xiyi is a mother if you have milk, is this kind of cooperation reliable?" Li Chunye turned to another kind of worry.

"It doesn't matter, Daming is only cooperating with them, not brothers, our interests are still in our own hands."

"Oh!" Li Chunye doesn't seem to understand, but in fact, he doesn't set the relationship between Daming and Xiyi at all.

Zhu Youzhen suddenly thought of shipbuilding: "That Dutch shipbuilding expert, called Stern, how is it now?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, the craftsmen of the Fuzhou shipyard have already designed the drawings and are ready to build test ships, but Stern insisted on changing the drawings, he said that the ship is too wide, and the speed will inevitably drop, and, I don't know what's going on, he also added one gun on the left and right sides, bringing the number of guns on the new ship to forty-four."

"This Stern, is he really a talent?" Zhu Youzhen is overjoyed, it seems that this Stern must be retained, if there are more such talents, the development of Daming will be much faster.

"Whether it is a talent or not, you have to wait for the ship to be built before you can officially draw a conclusion." Li Chunye still doesn't trust these Xiyi people very much, if it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's strong support for Stern, he would never let Stern enter the Fuzhou Shipyard.

"Has the test ship been built?"

"Back to Your Majesty, construction has already begun, but it will take at least a year to get into the water."

"A year? So long? "Zhu Youzhen frowned, this test ship will take a year, so the real ship will be launched and listed, and it will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey?" Can you speed it up? Is there enough wood? ”

"Your Majesty, it's not a matter of materials, it's a matter of manpower."

"Manpower? Is there a shortage of shipbuilders in the Ming Dynasty? ”

"Your Majesty, the Fuzhou Shipyard is only a medium-sized shipyard with insufficient craftsmen."

"What about the shipyards in Nanjing and Guangzhou? Don't they have skilled workers? Aren't the shipyards in Nanjing and Guangzhou temporarily suspended? Draw these skilled workers over. ”

"And what will happen to these two shipyards in the future?"

"Now they are in the shutdown stage, and the workers are idle, and when production resumes in the future, let them go back."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Li Chunye felt that Zhu Youzhen was really generous, "If the number of workers is sufficient, the test ship should be able to be launched within half a year." ”

"Also, haven't you seen the production unit of the Firearms Bureau? Let these shipyards also start assembly line production, so that a large number of skilled workers can be trained soon, and the speed of ship construction will definitely be greatly accelerated. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty," Speaking of the Firearms Bureau, Li Chunye suddenly thought of the breech guns, "Your Majesty, 100,000 breech guns have been made, which army should be distributed to them?" ”

"Breech guns? Is it the fire# gun that was fired from the breech last time? Zhu Youzhen remembered that Li Chunye had told him.

"Your Majesty, this gun is more advanced than the flintlock pistol, when used, there is a bullet pouch hanging under the gun, which can hold five bullets, and if the soldier is skilled, these five bullets can be fired in a minute."

"Is the combat effectiveness of breech guns reliable?" The birth of a new type of weapon must go through a large number of tests, and without the test of the battlefield, Zhu Youzhen is a little uneasy.

"Your Majesty, after many verifications, there should be no problems in quality and workmanship, who dares to joke with the lives of soldiers? If the process is not mature, the Firearms Bureau will not mass-produce. Li Chunye felt a little strange, Zhu Youzhen has always been very enthusiastic about new firearms, why is he not interested in breech guns today?

"Is the bullet of a breech gun the same as a flintlock gun?" Zhu Youzhen didn't want the army to have a variety of firearms, and if it was time for a war and the bullets and guns did not match, it would be troublesome.

"Your Majesty, the bullet of the breech gun is not the same as the flintlock pistol, and the two cannot be used together." Li Chunye seemed to understand the reason why Zhu Youzhen was not enthusiastic.

Prosecutor General Zhu You thought for a while, "How is the reorganization of the army in Shaanxi?" ”

"Your Majesty, Xi'an has a firearms manufacturing plant, and the reorganization of the Shaanxi army has been accelerated, except for the original reorganization of the five armies, the rest of the army has been reorganized, and it has been reorganized into the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, thirtyth, and thirty-first five armies, but only the twenty-seventh army is equipped with firearms, and once the Xi'an firearms factory produces enough flintlock guns, it will be rationed to the army immediately."

"In this way, these 100,000 breech guns will all be transported to Shaanxi, equipped with the thirteenth, twenty-eighth, and twenty-ninth armies of the ancestors, and the flintlock pistols of the original thirteenth army will be transferred to the thirtieth army, so that Shaanxi is only short of the thirty-first army is not equipped with firearms, and the pressure on the Xi'an firearms factory will be less."

"Your Majesty, the breech gun is the most advanced firearm of the Ming Dynasty, isn't it equipped with the Beijing Division?" Li Chunye was puzzled, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing army has been the strongest, so that the political situation will be stable.

"Waiting for the quality, the Beijing Division Army has not had many opportunities to fight recently, and it is really a waste that these new firearms are distributed to the Beijing Division Army."

"Your Majesty, the breech gun is distributed to the Shaanxi Army, are you going to fight Tatar Mongolia?"

"Not for the time being," in fact, Zhu Youzhen's biggest headache is the nomads in the north, who use the speed advantage of the cavalry to plunder the materials and population of the Ming Dynasty from time to time, so that the north of the Ming Dynasty is not at peace, "The Tatars will fight sooner or later, they have pinned down the 300,000 troops of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty will now fully support the South China Sea Fleet, and will not provoke a war against the Tatars for the time being." ”

"Oh, I understand."

"In addition, breech guns do not need to be produced."

"Why? Your Majesty, the range of the breech gun is not inferior to that of the flintlock pistol, and the rate of fire is faster than that of the flintlock pistol. Li Chunye said in his heart that the breech gun was at least half a generation more advanced than the flintlock gun.

"The breech gun is only a transitional firearm, and it will soon be replaced by a new type of fire#."

"New firearms?"

"The newer musket, the bullet is loaded with gunpowder inside, and there is no longer a need for flint, it is very convenient to use, whether on the ground or on horseback, it can be loaded and aimed," Zhu Youzhen remembered the vertical gun, which is actually the oldest rifle, "Unfortunately, the bullet case is made of red copper, which needs to consume a lot of red copper." ”

"Your Majesty, the Firearms Bureau is already developing this kind of fire# gun, the last time I went to the Firearms Bureau to observe, they are already developing, but it has not been successful."

"Oh? When I have time, I will definitely go to the Firearms Bureau. Hearing that the rifle has landed, Zhu Youzhen immediately became excited, once the rifle is successfully developed, the machine gun will not be far away, this kind of continuous machine gun is the treasure of the infantry.

"Your Majesty......" Li Chunye was hesitant.

"Let's just say what you want, there are no outsiders here."

"Your Majesty, at present, thirty-two new armies have been reorganized, plus Ma Shilong's 100,000 troops, Jizhou's 100,000 troops, and Liaodong Sun's 100,000 troops have not been reorganized, and the Ming army has exceeded 1.3 million, plus the government soldiers in the five central provinces and the five southern provinces that have not yet been reorganized, I am afraid it has exceeded two million, and this military salary is a lot of silver......"

"Well," Zhu Youzhen nodded slightly, now the production speed of flintlock pistols is accelerating, but it can no longer be reorganized without restrictions, Li Chunye's worries are reasonable, the salaries of the new army are much higher than the original government soldiers, no wonder the imperial court's tax revenue has increased, but the financial situation has not fundamentally improved, if it weren't for the plundering of several wars, I'm afraid I would have been unable to make ends meet," Hou Zheng is right, it is necessary to consider it all. ”

"Your Majesty, do you still want to reorganize the army of the Jingshi?"

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, "The 100,000 troops of Lord Sun in Liaodong are now just road construction workers, and Lord Sun is now the governor of Liaoning Province and has left the army, and when the first avenue is completed, all these 100,000 people will retire, or return to their hometowns, or settle down in Liaodong, in short, all of them will be turned into ordinary people." ”

"Your Majesty, this saves 100,000 people from military salaries."

"In addition, Jizhou is no longer the front line, these 100,000 troops are no longer needed, you go and let people disband this army, except for a very few particularly outstanding soldiers or officers, the rest are all retired and turned into ordinary people."

"Your Majesty, Jizhou is the northern gate of the Beijing Division, once the Jizhou army is disbanded, isn't the northern gate of the Beijing Division wide open?"

"Don't worry, in the north of Jizhou, there is already Horqin of the Ming Dynasty, and there is also a garrison of the Ming Dynasty, today's Tatars are no longer the Mongolian iron horses of the past, if I don't conquer them, they should burn high incense."

Li Chunye thought that Zhu Youzhen had already laid out outside the pass, and there was a garrison of the Ming Dynasty outside the pass, and in fact, the possible battle line had been greatly moved north, no matter whether there was a war or not, the Beijing division was no longer a country, "Your Majesty, the 200,000 troops that have been laid off have saved a lot of military salaries, so what about Ma Shilong's 100,000 troops?" Abolition or reorganization? ”

"There are 200,000 new troops in the Beijing Division now, and these 100,000 troops are not needed for the time being," Zhu Youzhen suddenly thought of one thing, "In this way, these 100,000 troops will be reorganized into an army on the basis of merit, with Ma Shilong as the commander, and the rest of the soldiers, let them retire." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Chunye secretly exclaimed that Zhu Youzhen had laid off 270,000 troops in three strokes and two blows, and that the soldiers' salaries alone would save more than 1.6 million taels a year, and if weapons, equipment, and food were added, it should be no less than 2 million taels.

"Wait for the question, in this way, all the soldiers in the five northern provinces have become professional soldiers, right? Can their combat effectiveness be guaranteed? ”

"Your Majesty, now soldiers can not only receive their salaries on time, but their treatment is very different from before, and the combat effectiveness of soldiers has been preliminarily tested in the Northern Expedition and the Southern Expedition."

"The government soldiers of the five northern provinces have been completely solved, and after the beginning of the year, the government soldiers of the five central provinces will be solved, and it is best for the government soldiers of the five southern provinces to solve it together, and the imperial court cannot leave this cancer forever."