Early the next morning, under the escort of his own soldiers, Huangfu Wujin came to the yamen of the household audit department that caught fire last night, only to see the ruins and broken walls, the charcoal-burned beams were still curling with green smoke, the entire yamen was burned to the ground, more than 20 officials of the household department were cleaning up the ruins, and the surrounding area was full of people who came from all over to see the excitement, and dozens of officials were maintaining order and not allowing them to enter the ruins.

Far away, Zuo Yundou, the county commander of Jiangning County, saw that Huangfu Wujin was coming, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, "See Your Highness!" ”

Wu Jin turned over and dismounted and asked, "Are there any casualties?" ”

"Back to His Highness, there is only one firefighter who fell and was injured, and there is no major problem, and the others are not killed or injured."

Wu Jin nodded, he saw that there were some burnt and deformed iron boxes in the open space next to the ruins, so he asked, "What is in that iron box?" ”

"In that box were molds for coinage and patterns of tax money from all over the world, and only they were not burned, and everything else was gone."

"What about you Shen Shaoyin? And Lord Han, have they all been here? ”

"Shen Shaoyin came for a while last night and left, Lord Han is sick and can't come."

Wu Jin smiled, it seemed that an old fritter brought out a small fritter, at this time, Yu Guangcai happened to pass by, Zuo Yundou hurriedly called him, "Lord Yu, His Royal Highness King Heiliang has come down." ”

Yu Guangcai snorted heavily, but he didn't pay attention to it, he was not stupid, after calming down last night, he gradually guessed that it was Huangfu Wujin's hand, and traces of fire oil were also found in the warehouse and clerical building this morning, obviously someone set fire, who else but Huangfu Wujin?

He was extremely resentful in his heart, ignoring Zuo Yundou calling him, but Huangfu Wujin said coldly: "You are a little outsider, do you dare to despise this king?" ”

Yu Guangcai's heart was extremely resentful, but he had no choice but to step forward and hate the courtesy, "Humble Yu Guangcai, see Your Highness!" ”

Huangfu Wujin said lightly: "Lord Yu, the Department of Household Affairs has been fine for decades, you have only been here for two months, and such a serious incident has happened, burning important archives for decades, Lord Yu, you have a great responsibility!" ”

Yu Guangcai couldn't hold back any longer, he said angrily: "It is someone who destroys the evidence and sets fire to the building, I am guilty of poor storage, but it is not as big as the crime of being embezzled in Chuzhou!" ”

Huangfu Wujin's face changed, stared at him coldly, and said word by word: "You dare to slander this king and shake the heart of our army?" ”

Yu Guangcai also let it go, "That's the case, when Lord Chen arrives, count the materials, check the tax and silver in kind, and everything will be revealed." ”

Wu Jin wanted to kill him with an excuse to shake the army's heart, but suddenly his mind changed, and he smiled disdainfully: "Very good, when the time comes, we will check the physical objects one by one, but I want to tell you that I have a lot of military supplies that are not in Jiangning, but it will take time, can you afford it?" ”

Yu Guangcai gritted his teeth and said: "What I have is time, one day is not a month, a month is not three months, as long as you don't oppress people with power, I will definitely check it out." ”

Huangfu Wujin's eyes narrowed, "Okay! I won't deceive you, we'll just speak with facts. ”

He waved his hand, "Let's go!" ”

He led his guards to turn over their horses and gallop towards the western camp of the navy outside the city.

．．．．．．．． The west camp of the navy is located in the west of the battalion directly under the jurisdiction of the navy, although it is named after the navy, in fact, it has nothing to do with the navy, here is a shipyard in Jiangning Mansion, covering an area of hundreds of acres, surrounded by a wall Ten years ago, after the shipyard moved to Jianye County, Jiangning Prefecture, this shipbuilding was vacant for placing the abandoned ships of the navy.

Before Wu Jin set out on the expedition for two months, he set up this place as the Navy Weapons Manufacturing Bureau, which was specially used to build weapons and armor and make artillery.

A quarter of an hour later, Wu Jin and Zheng Yannian, the deputy general of Meihuawei, rushed to the western camp, he came before leaving a few times, it was full of all kinds of abandoned wooden boats, very desolate, but now it has changed, the old wooden boats are piled up into a hill, seven huge sheds have been built in a wide open space, and dozens of rows of houses have been built against the fence in the south, where are the dormitories of the craftsmen.

Thousands of craftsmen are busy nervously, the sound of tinkling percussion is endless, responsible for the management of the newly established ordnance department, is the former ordnance superintendent Wei Jin, he is a native of Jiangning Mansion, three years ago because of the ordnance superintendent warehouse fire was dismissed, living in Jiangning Mansion, was invited by Wujin to serve as the commander of the naval ordnance department, responsible for the construction of 200,000 army equipment.

He is very capable and experienced, and although there are only nine of them under him for the time being, the Ordnance Department is still well managed by him.

Wei Jin is about forty years old, shrewd and capable, clear thinking, he took Wu Jin to check in the artillery casting battalion, the artillery battalion is located in the east of the Ordnance Bureau, there is a wall and the ordinary Ordnance Bureau in the west is separated, although the first to make artillery Wang Blacksmith is skilled, with a dozen apprentices can, but the management of thousands of blacksmiths, he can't, he is the technical director, and the management of the entire artillery casting battalion is personally responsible for Wei Jin.

Fifty years ago, gunpowder craftsmen mastered the technology of the lead, and gradually invented gunpowder arrows, gunpowder paper kites, and later gunpowder packets and ceramic gunpowder canisters, thirty years ago, they invented the blasting thunder and water mines with pig iron as the shell, and at the same time there was a sudden fire gun fired with a bamboo barrel, and soon, the Shuzhou Firearms Bureau invented a simple firearm fired with an iron pipe.

However, whether it is a assault rifle or a firearm, because the shooting distance is only a dozen steps, it is far less powerful than the crossbow arrow, and it is cumbersome and very easy to damage, so the imperial court did not promote this new type of firearm.

Wei Jin did not expect that one day he would see more advanced flintlock pistols and artillery, which made him ecstatic, and at the same time he was also drunk and indulged in it, and through his previous connections, he invited thirty senior craftsmen who cast firearms, and everyone worked together to develop and improve artillery, which greatly improved the development level and casting success rate of artillery, and in the past two months, they have cast 600 qualified guns of various styles.

Wei Jin is now an expert in flintlock pistols and artillery, he took Wu Jin into a row of bungalows, this is the finished product warehouse, he took a flintlock pistol from the wooden frame, and said to Wu Jin: "We have made three thousand flintlock pistols, and now the craftsmen are already very skilled, and in another month I can make another three thousand and complete the task of six thousand according to His Highness, but now there is a problem, we only have a thousand qualified craftsmen, if we make guns with all our might, the progress of making cannons will be delayed, and Your Highness may need to make a choice." ”

Wu Jin pondered for a moment and asked, "Isn't it okay to add more craftsmen?" ”

Wei Jin smiled bitterly and said: "It's okay to add more craftsmen, but to become a qualified craftsman, it will take at least a month, Your Highness said that the time is relatively tight, I am worried about ....."

Time is indeed very urgent, and it is necessary to equip the army and retrain, I am afraid it will be too late, but Wu Jin's plan is indeed to need six thousand guns to form a flintlock army, but casting artillery is more important, it really can't work, five thousand is fine, he was just about to speak, Wei Jin said again: "There is another plan, for His Highness's reference." ”

"You say!"

"Another plan is to entrust some parts to private workshops to manufacture, give them patterns, we only build the core components and assemble them, so that in a month, I can also make 3,000 guns, but the number of craftsmen, I can cut it by half, and concentrate on making cannons."

This plan is not bad, and there is no need to worry about leaks, Wu Jin nodded and said: "Can the people make qualified parts?" ”

"There must be no problem, the Qian family in Yuhang County and the Zhou family in Donghai County are both big jewelry stores, each with hundreds of craftsmen, as long as there are standard patterns, there is no problem in handing them over, and there are simple wooden gun bodies and butts, which can also be handed over to carpenters outside."

Wu Jin readily agreed, and then asked, "If that's the case, when will a thousand artillery pieces be built?" ”

"A month!"

Wei Jin would definitely answer him, "There will definitely be no problem in a month." ”

Wujin knew that Wei Jin was a very stable person, since he said a month, there should be no problem, and he asked Zheng Yannian with a smile, "What about you?" I need the instructor to train out no. ”

Wu Jin confessed to Zheng Yannian before leaving, asking him to train five hundred musketeers and three hundred musketeers within two months, shooting artillery is relatively simple, the key is the musketeer, not only requires proficiency in the use of flintlock pistols, accurate marksmanship, but also to understand the structure of the gun, and even be able to assemble parts by himself, and then let these five hundred people serve as instructors, each with ten recruits, to continue to train musketeers.

Zheng Yannian nodded and said with a smile: "Compared with making guns, our training is a minor problem, and it has fully met the requirements of His Highness." ”

"What about you? Have you practiced well? Wu Jin asked him again.

Zheng Yannian was born as an archer, and he had a soft spot for long-range shooting weapons, so he didn't answer directly, he took off a flintlock pistol at any time, and spread his hand to Wei Jin, "Gunpowder and projectiles!" ”

Wei Jin took out two boxes from the shelf next to him and handed them to Zheng Yannian, Wu Jin opened the iron box very curiously, one was a box containing iron projectiles, and the other was a gun powder, which was made according to his standardized ideas, one was a yellow nitrified paper medicine bag, which contained propellant, and the other was a small thin-shelled wooden bottle painted red, which contained ignition powder.

The nitrified paper medicine bag is his idea, which is similar to the bullets of later generations, with sufficient weight and hard paper shell, which can fall directly into the bottom end of the gun chamber, and no longer need to be killed with a strip, which can save the time and time of reloading.

But he was most interested in the small thin-shelled wooden bottle containing the gunpowder, because according to his idea, it was a powder spoon or a small porcelain bottle, but the powder spoon was inconvenient to take the medicine, and the gunpowder was easily damp, and the small porcelain bottle was a bit heavy.

Unexpectedly, the clever craftsmen actually invented a thin-shelled wooden bottle, the weight is very light, the outside is coated with a layer of waterproof wax, which can be put into a bullet belt made of cotton, the most amazing thing for Wu Jin is that the bottle mouth is plugged with a small cork, and a wooden wedge is inserted horizontally on the wooden stopper, this wooden wedge is a very critical detail, with it, it is easy to pull out the wooden stopper, and the wooden cork is pulled out with the nail cover of the thumb gently upward, and the wooden cork is pulled out, Wu Jin has to admire the creation of the craftsmen.

I saw that Zheng Yannian's movements were very skillful, his legs clamped the body of the gun, stuffed the yellow nitrified paper powder bag into the barrel, and then loaded the projectile, he picked up the gun, took out a thin-shelled wooden bottle, and gently pushed it up with the nail cover of his thumb, the wooden stopper fell off, poured the gunpowder into the gunpowder pool, and immediately raised the gun to aim at the wall fifty steps in front of him, pulled the trigger, and only listened to 'Boom!' There was a thud on the ground, a flash of fire, and a bullet had hit the wall with unmistakable accuracy.

He smiled smugly at Wu Jin, "It's twice as fast as a crossbow arrow, and you can pierce the armor sixty steps away." ”

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(To be continued)