Lin Yuan saw his expression of great importance, and he also lowered his voice and said, "If there is anything, you can just say it." ”

Su Mao approached Lin Yuan and said, "Lord Lin, do you remember the last time the imperial court came to check the Machine Bureau?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "It's not been a few days, how can I forget." ”

Su Mao said: "Although a group of people were cleared that time, all the idlers were cleared last time, and a group of people who should be cleared still remained. ”

Lin Yuan asked, "Who is it?" ”

Su Mao said: "There are too many officials in our Machinery Bureau, if we compare our Machinery Bureau to a person, this person is like wearing more than a dozen layers of clothes on a hot day." ”

After all, this Su Mao has been in the officialdom for many years, so he speaks tactfully everywhere, but Lin Yuan has already heard what he means, Lin Yuan said: "What do you mean: the organization of our machine bureau is bloated, there are too many redundant personnel, and there is no need for so many officials." ”

Su Mao said: "Yes, it would be good for one official to take care of it, but if you have to get four or five, in this way, the annual silver is a lot of expenses." ”

Lin Yuan said: "Okay, after you go back, make a list for me as soon as possible, and try to streamline the personnel, you estimate, how much silver can be saved in this way?" ”

Su Mao said: "I dare not say more, there are still tens of thousands of taels." ”

Lin Yuan said: "Okay, just do as you say, and lay off the useless people." ”

Su Mao said: "My lord, this is not easy to do, those people and the ministers of the DPRK and China are holding the rope and pulling the thread, in this way, are there too many people who have offended?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "It's okay, just let them come to me." ”

Su Mao took out the pen and paper and wrote down Lin Yuan's words one by one.

Lin Yuan said again: "When I was arguing with those foreign craftsmen just now, I heard you say that their wages are twelve times that of our craftsmen? ”

Su Mao said: "These craftsmen came with them when they bought machines, and they are usually quite arrogant in the factory, after all, many places can't do without them, and that Ryan and his men are the most difficult in it!" By the way, Lord Lin, I'm worried! If something like this happens today, what should those foreign craftsmen do if they don't work hard in the future? ”

Lin Yuan said with a smile: "There is one thing you may not know, they are not willing to return to China, because they are far less treated in their own country than here, and they cannot be monolithic inside, after all, people like Ryan are a minority." ”

Su Mao nodded with relief, he sighed, looked out the window blankly, and his tone was full of expectation: "When will we not be subject to these foreigners?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "You don't have to worry, with me, this day will not be far away." ”

Su Mao looked at Lin Yuan, his eyes were full of confusion, and his feelings of serving the country made him think over and over again about how the Qing Dynasty could catch up with the foreigners in weapons, but he thought about it for decades, but he never thought of a way out, this Lin Yuan in front of him, can there really be a way?

Next, the pages of the book are all specific lists of salaries for employees and craftsmen, including items such as food and lodging, coal, medicine, etc., Lin Yuan turned them over and stopped at one page, on that page, is the list of purchases, the list of the ancients is very interesting, the title of all the items is "one", not like later generations, written as "one, two, three, four".

The top line reads: Buy all kinds of copper, iron, steel, lead, paint and miscellaneous materials from foreign countries for a total of 373,483 taels of silver.

Then there was another line of words: Buy, buy, buy, and buy a total of 286,537 taels of silver from the mainland.

Lin Yuan looked at those raw materials and sighed, the reason for the failure of the Qing court's Westernization movement was not only that it did not change the feudal system, but it can be seen from the purchased raw materials that it did not have its own industrial base, and everything from raw materials to mechanical processing equipment had to be bought from foreign countries, and how could it be possible to win the war by buying weapons?

Lin Yuan thought silently: "How can these raw materials bought from foreign countries not cost money?" A brilliant idea came to his mind, and that was to be a pirate and snatch these things, but it was not easy to do, and he had to plan it carefully.

Lin Yuan turned a few more pages, and the production capacity was recorded on this page, for example, the annual output of black medicine is 400,000 catties, and the annual output of chestnut medicine is 200,000 catties. ”

Su Mao said: "This was specially built by Li Zhongtang for the Machinery Bureau, and Li Zhongtang specially explained that I have a very long coast in the Qing Dynasty, so the mines can be consolidated ......."

Lin Yuan said: "Even the navy is gone, what's the use of asking for mines!" The coastline of the Qing Dynasty is so long, how many mines do you need to be able to protect! ”

Su Mao was speechless for a while, and Lin Yuan said again: "A mine should be filled with at least a few hundred pounds of picric acid explosives, right?" Picric acid explosives are the chestnuts you wrote here, you can make 200,000 pounds of picric acid explosives a year, and you can only make 2440,000 pounds of picric acid explosives when you work overtime. ”

Su Mao said: "At least 100 should be built, which is also Li Zhongtang's explanation, he said that now that the Qing Dynasty has no navy, it is necessary to build more mines, if Xiyi dares to invade, it will be defended by mines." ”

Lin Yuan smiled bitterly and said: "Stop the production line of the mines, leave that part of the gunpowder for me to make shells, and the machining equipment can be emptied, so that there will be more lathes to make shells." ”

Su Mao smiled embarrassedly: "This, don't you need to ask Lord Zhongtang?" ”

Lin Yuan shook his head lightly and said with a smile: "No need, Lord Zhongtang will give it to me, and I will convince him." ”

Su Mao thought to himself: "Lord Lin! You're really not afraid of heaven and earth! As soon as he came, he angrily scolded the foreign craftsmen and offended the foreigners; He also had to reform personnel and offend many officials; Now that you are disobeying Lord Zhongtang again, you are not offended by the Holy Lord and Lafayette left in this Great Qing Kingdom! ”

To Su Mao's surprise, Lin Yuan flipped through a few pages, frowned suddenly, and asked, "Why is the Shenji Battalion still receiving weapons from us?" Last year, I took away 200 Mauser guns! ”

Su Mao said: "Yes, the Shenji Battalion will receive another 1,000 fast guns this year." ”

Lin Yuan said: "Now the front line is in urgent need of guns, why don't these guns be sent to the front line!" ”

Su Mao said, "My lord, don't you know where this Divine Machine Camp came from? In the tenth year of Xianfeng, the British and the French burned the Old Summer Palace, and in the early years of Tongzhi, the saint thought that the Eight Banners were embarrassed and useful, so he specially selected the elite from the Eight Banners to form the Shenji Battalion, which was the heart of the saint! ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "Needless to say, they can't get a single gun!" ”

Su Mao thought to himself: "Lord Lin, you can really do it!" Now, you've offended everyone! ”