Chongzhen and his party came to the door of the war bureau, and a fan soldier stepped forward, showing his waist card to the two small soldiers guarding the door, and explained the identity of Chongzhen and his party.

When the two soldiers heard this, they were immediately stunned and immediately ran in.

Chongzhen looked at the outside of the War Bureau, it looked relatively old, a bit of a dilapidated house in disrepair, if the people inside were cleared, it would be a bit of a murderous house in the middle of the night.

After a while, two middle-aged men dressed as eunuchs (,,,at least once) led out with a few servants. The two leading eunuchs saw Cao Huachun at a glance and knew that he was the eunuch of Dongchang's palm print, and the young man dressed as a rich man next to him should be the current Emperor Chongzhen.

The two eunuchs walked up to Chongzhen, knelt down and kowtowed: "Slave and maid soldier battle bureau palm seal eunuch/admiral armory eunuch, Liang Chenghe/Ding Qitong, meet Your Majesty!"

Chongzhen looked at the two kneeling in front of him, one fat seemed to be overnourished, and the other was thin like malnutrition, and said with a smile in his heart, this "combination" is really a good match.

"Get up!" Chongzhen forcibly suppressed the smile in his heart and said with a serious face.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" With that, the two of them stood up.

"I'm here today to see the weapons made by the War Bureau, and I'll lead the way." Chongzhen said.

"Yes!" The skinny Liang Chengsi said flatteringly.

Under the leadership of Liang Chengsi and Ding Qitong, Chongzhen entered the military battle.

As soon as he entered the military battle, a busy scene came into Chongzhen's eyes. The craftsmen were all busy, and the sound of "clanging" was heard, but they didn't notice the arrival of Chongzhen and his party, and it was impossible to guess that His Majesty the dignified Emperor Ming was actually next to them.

When Liang Chengsi was about to ask those craftsmen to stop and pay homage to the emperor, Chongzhen stopped him, but walked up to an old craftsman and asked, "Uncle, how old are you?"

Although the old craftsman didn't know that Chongzhen in front of him was the current emperor, he could also guess from the flattering appearance of Liang Chenghe, the eunuch of the War Bureau, that this was a big official. At this time, seeing this senior official come to him and ask himself, he hurriedly stopped what he was doing, stood up, bowed and said, "This adult, I am sixty years old this year!"

Looking at the old man in front of him, Chongzhen said, "The old man is so old?" I don't know what the old man's name is? How much can I get paid in a month? ”

"If you go back to the adult, the little old man's name is Wu Laosi, and he earns two dollars a month, barely making ends meet." The old craftsman said.

"Only two dollars a month? How do you feed your family? Liang Chenghe!" Chongzhen shouted.

"Your Majesty, the slave is here!" Liang Chengsi walked over and said.

And the old man Wu was stunned when he heard Liang Chengsi call the person in front of him His Majesty. It turned out that the person who asked himself the question was actually the current emperor, and as soon as he ascended the throne, he eradicated the eunuch "Holy Son of Heaven" His Majesty.

Wu Laohan hurriedly knelt down for Chongzhen tremblingly, and the other craftsmen had already heard the movement here, only to know that it was actually the emperor who personally drove to the military battle and knelt down one after another.

"Liang Chenghei, why is this craftsman's salary so small?" Chongzhen asked.

"Back to Your Majesty, the wages of the craftsmen of this military war bureau have been like this since Emperor Taizu Gao." Liang Chengsi also heard a hint of anger in Chongzhen's words, and quickly knelt down and said.

"Yes, Your Majesty, this was set when Emperor Taizu Gao was there." Ding Qitong, who was chubby on the side, also came over and knelt down to give Liang Chengsi a round speech.

"Cao Banban, is that really the case?" Chongzhen asked Cao Huachun beside him in a low voice.

"Indeed, Your Majesty." Cao Huachun replied in a low voice.

Only then did Chongzhen know that he had misunderstood Liang Chenghei, and that his ancestor dean (Yuan Zhang) had set it too low, so he said with a hint of embarrassment: "So, I misunderstood you, get up!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Liang Chengsi stood up and said.

"Get up, don't kneel." Chongzhen said.

A group of craftsmen kneeling on the ground stood up, and Chongzhen said loudly: "From now on, all craftsmen of the War Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau will be paid one tael per month, and in addition, the War Bureau specializes in making firearms, and swords, guns, swords, halberds, etc. will be handed over to the Ordnance Bureau. Craftsmen who can only make weapons such as knives, guns, swords, and halberds are transferred to the Ordnance Bureau, and craftsmen who are good at making firearms in the Ordnance Bureau are also transferred to the Military Bureau. I hope that you can make high-quality weapons for my Ming Dynasty, so that my Ming soldiers can kill all enemies. ”

When the craftsmen heard that the emperor had raised their wages, they immediately rejoiced and shouted long live.

"Ding Qitong, take me to the armory for a look!" Chongzhen said.

"Yes! Your Majesty, please. Ding Qi said.

Under the leadership of Ding Qitong, Chongzhen and his party walked to the armory.

And Wu Laohan was like a dream at this time, as if he had a dream. First, the emperor asked himself kindly, and then his wages were raised.

Wu Laohan said to a young craftsman next to him: "Dog, pinch me to see if I'm dreaming!"

The dog pinched Wu Laohan's face with his hand, and Wu Laohan suddenly shouted "wow": "You really pinched it?"

Over there, Chongzhen walked to the armory with Ding Qitong and Liang Chengsi, and ordered a Dongchang officer to take out a few bird guns from it and take them in his hand to look at them.

Chongzhen took a handful of bird guns, and the first feeling was, this workmanship is too rough, right? I don't know if I can use it or if it will blow up.

"I'm going to test shoot, find me a place." Chongzhen said.

"Your Majesty, by all means!" Liang Chengsi and Ding Qitong knelt down at the same time and bowed. The quality of the firearms produced was like a chicken eating fireflies—they knew that five or six out of ten could blow up. And the one in Chongzhen's hand is obviously a defective product that can't be repeated, and if you use it, nine out of ten will be blown up. And if the Emperor is wounded in their territory, then even ten heads will not be enough for them to cut off.

In fact, he can't be blamed for this, after all, the money allocated by the palace every year is only so little, and the wages of craftsmen are pitiful, so the selection of materials and workmanship are terrible. And they are dutiful, at least they don't enrich themselves in a big way, although they occasionally embezzle a little public money, but not much, and not often.

Chongzhen knew what they meant when they said no, and he said that he was only testing them, and he could see from the roughness of this suspected object that it was necessary to blow it up. He didn't have the courage to risk his own life.

Chongzhen deliberately said: "Why can't you test fire?"

Ding Qitong said: "Your Majesty, this bird gun is rough in workmanship, if it is used, it is estimated that it will explode, if it hurts Your Majesty's dragon body, then it is not a pity that the two slaves and maids are cut by a thousand knives!"

"You are really bold, you dare to take out such a bird gun to Your Majesty, fortunately Your Majesty has not used it, otherwise, you will be the capital crime of the Nine Clans." Cao Huachun said angrily.

"Forget it, I know from the workmanship of this bird gun that it can't be used." Chongzhen said, "From today onwards, the Inner Government will allocate enough silver taels to the War Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau, and issue a reward and punishment order to craftsmen, and craftsmen will be rewarded with three coins of silver for each qualified firecracker. Crafting a qualified cannon rewards twenty taels of silver. All firearms must be engraved with the name of the craftsman, and if there is a phenomenon that cannot be used, such as exploding, the manufacturer will be held accountable. Chongzhen said, sometimes it is just a radish in one hand and a stick in the other.

Liang Chengsi and Ding Qitong had already been frightened by Cao Huachun's words, and now they heard that Chongzhen had forgiven his crimes, and he also allocated more silver taels to the War Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau. Immediately bowed: "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"In addition, for each qualified gun produced by the War Bureau, the two of you will be rewarded with two taels of silver, and for each qualified artillery piece produced, each of you will be rewarded with ten taels of silver." Chongzhen said.

Liang Chengsi and Ding Qitong were already staying, not only were they not questioned, but they were rewarded. Cao Huachun looked at the stunned two and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, Your Majesty!" The two kowtowed again. I secretly made up my mind that I must do good deeds and strive to pass every gun and every artillery.

"By the way, in addition, I ordered to go down, and the ammunition ration will be wrapped in kraft paper in the future, so that it is convenient for the soldiers to reload." Chongzhen said.

Liang Chengsi and the two hurriedly responded: "Obey!"

"You two get up, and get me a few skilled craftsmen!" Chongzhen said again.

After a while, Liang Chengsi came over with five craftsmen, including the old man Wu just now.

The craftsmen walked up to Chongzhen, knelt down and kowtowed, "Meet Your Majesty." The sound is uneven, and it sounds extremely awkward.

"Let's be flat." Chongzhen said calmly, "You are all skilled craftsmen, I came to you to hand over a task to you!"

"Your Majesty, please speak." Wu Laohan took the lead in saying.

"I want you to work together to develop a new kind of firecracker."

"A new firebolt?" Everyone asked, along with Liang Chengsi and Ding Qitong.

At this time, Cao Huachun coughed, and everyone realized that they were rude, and said, "Your Majesty forgives you."

"It's okay" Chongzhen smiled: "It's the new firecracker, where is this firecracker?" It's new in it without arquebus. ”

Looking at everyone's questioning expressions, Chongzhen asked Cao Huachun, "Cao Banban, is there any flint?"

"Back to Your Majesty, the slave has it." Then, Cao Huachun took out a flint from his arms and handed it to Chongzhen.

Chongzhen took the flint and said, "You see, this flint can ignite a fire under the blow, so can you put this flint on this bird's gun?" This eliminates the need for an arquebus ignition in the future, and rainy weather will not be affected much, and most importantly, it can speed up the speed between each shot. ”

"This matter will be handed over to you, Liang Chenghei, Ding Qitong, the two of you fully cooperate, if it is developed, I will be rewarded. In addition, you can also talk to other craftsmen that whoever can make it, I will be rewarded. Chongzhen stood up and said.

"The grass people/slaves obey the order," the crowd prayed.

"Get up!" Chongzhen said, looking at the few craftsmen in front of him, Chongzhen said in his heart, if the flintlock pistol can be developed, then improved, and then rationed to the new army, then it should be much easier to eliminate Jianyu.