Wen Xuan saw Chongzhen looking at Mi Yue and smiled silently, and said: "Your Majesty, in the past few days, Ni Yuanlu and the three of them have been in extensive contact with new officials, and there are signs of the rise of party strife. ”

"Oh, you just have to sort out their movements, and you don't need to interfere and comment." Zhu Youjian said coldly.

"I know." Wen Xuan remembered Chongzhen's warning last time, and hurriedly shut up.

"Stand down."

Zhu Youjian retreated from Wen Xuan, put down the secret music, and summoned Tian Shouxin into the hall.

"Inform Chu Charter, and arrange for him to go and see the arsenal."

"Yes."

Tian Shouxin was just about to go out, but Zhu Youjian stopped him again, "Let people go out of the palace to spread the word to Zheng Sen, and take him to the Arms Bureau to see him!" ”

"Yes."

Chu Xianzhang is one of the eight bureaus of internal supervision and the chief eunuch of the War Bureau. Since before he set out for Liaodong, Zhu Youjian arranged for him to cooperate with Yueban and his son to make new weapons.

On the eve of returning to Beijing, Zhu Youjian sent John Tang to the arsenal.

But after such a long time, no news came up, Zhu Youjian was a little anxious, and took advantage of the fact that he was okay to go out of the palace to have a look.

Fortunately, the civil and military officials before the Jingshi were all taken down, and the new officials did not dare to interfere too much in the emperor's actions, so that Chongzhen had the freedom to enter and leave the palace at any time.

Zhu Youjian didn't want too many people to know his whereabouts, so he took a simple carriage and squeaked out of the palace.

He has the memory of Chongzhen and knows that there are multiple institutions in the military industry department of the Ming Dynasty.

One is the Ordnance Bureau under the Ministry of Industry, which is in charge of building weapons and equipment such as halberds, knots, horns, gongs, knives, shields, bows and arrows, and armor, and has the function of distributing armaments.

The Ordnance Bureau is a nine-grade unit, which is set up not only by the central government, but also by various political envoys.

The other is the Internal Supervision and Military War Bureau managed by Chu Charter, which mainly produces firearms, and almost all of the Franc machine guns and tiger squat cannons used by the Guanning Army on a daily basis are manufactured by the Military War Bureau.

After Zhu Youjian recovered the Beijing Division, the Ordnance Bureau and the War Bureau were merged into a single bureau, called the Arms Bureau, which was jointly managed by the Ministry of Industry and the Internal Supervisor, and was directly responsible to the emperor.

The new arsenal was relocated to the former Zhenyu Factory, and some surrounding houses were requisitioned and expanded along the Jinshui River.

At this time, the officials of the Arms Bureau, big and small, lined up at the gate to greet the Son of Heaven.

The carriage stopped steadily, Zhu Youjian leaned out, looked around, and slowly walked out of the carriage.

"The ministers knock on the emperor, long live my emperor, long live."

"Get up."

Zhu Youjian saw Yueban's father and son just now, and the three of them looked excited and stood in the front row.

I even met John Tang, who had never met before.

I saw that he was blonde and blue-eyed, dressed in a priest's clothes, exactly as he remembered in his head.

Zhao Jiadi, the newly promoted secretary of the Ministry of Works, was also notified to be present, and he stood at the front, looking at Chongzhen at this time.

"Zhao Jiadi, you're also here, just right, let's talk about it, how is the current progress of the Arms Bureau?"

"In the past month, thanks to the efforts of Father Pintho and Father John Tong, 127 all-round craftsmen have been trained, 1,548 ordinary craftsmen, and another 1,846 apprentices are being trained while working.

2,000 grenades, 50 mortars and 500 shells have been produced.

400 rifles and 4,000 rounds of ammunition were newly made.

All weapons have undergone rigorous testing and correction and can be used directly in actual combat.

In addition, the expanded plant has been completed and is ready for use. ”

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, this person still did some homework, and he knew everything about staffing, talent training and production capacity.

"Very well, take me to see it."

Zhao Jiadi bowed down and led the way, and went straight to the arms warehouse.

As soon as he entered, he saw a door of mortars lined up, boxes of grenades neatly stacked, and Zhao Jiadi opened a box full of rifle bullets.

Zhu Youjian grabbed a handful casually, checked it in his hand, looked at it carefully, and felt a sense of peace of mind, this is the weapon he is familiar with.

"Okay, if each thousand-man team is equipped with 50 mortars, and each person is equipped with a rifle, my Ming infantry, what are you afraid of the cavalry charge, what are you afraid of archery and horse shooting!" Zhu Youjian is very satisfied.

"Your Majesty, please rest in the main hall." Zhao Jiadi saw Chongzhen with a smile on his face and put his mind at ease.

Zhu Youjian waved his hand, "Don't go to the main hall, what is there to see there, take me to the factory, I want to see the production process." ”

Zhao Jiadi said that he obeyed the order, and walked to the factory with Chongzhen in a familiar car.

Zhu Youjian nodded secretly.

Because no one expected the emperor to visit, there was no stoppage. As soon as I entered the factory, my ears were filled with all kinds of noisy sounds.

The whirring sound of the blower, mixed with the percussion of the craftsmen, made Tian Shouxin frown slightly, but seeing that Chongzhen was full of interest, he did not stop the craftsmen's movements.

In fact, no one needed to stop it at all, and when the craftsmen saw the man in the dragon robe coming, they knew who it was with their toes.

They knelt down and shouted long live.

Zhu Youjian hurriedly gave orders, performed their duties, and continued to work.

With the emperor around to inspect, who would be lazy, the noise was louder than just now.

Zhu Youjian smiled and checked them one by one, from mold manufacturing, to the smelting workshop, to the casting process.

I just saw that the blower and other tools were all operated by manpower, and sighed slightly.

Zhao Jiadi immediately observed this, and after thinking about it for a long time, he didn't know what was wrong, which made the emperor unhappy, and carefully observed everything ahead, hoping to find out what the problem was.

However, all the workers were not wrong, and all the processes were running normally, Zhao Jia was confused at first, so he had to desperately remember every detail here, and prepared to wait for the emperor to leave for a meeting to analyze.

Zhu Youjian walked up to a master who looked to be in his 50s, stopped to watch, and the man hurriedly put down the barrel of the gun that was about to take shape in his hand, knelt down and kowtowed.

Zhu Youjian made him stand up and asked, "Do you know how many steps the rifle barrel takes?" ”

The old craftsman panicked and whispered: "The barrel is made in four steps, rolling, connecting, drilling, and beating. ”

"Tell me more."

"First of all, the pre-made iron material is broken into sheets, bent, and a cylindrical insert is added to the middle, which is continuously forged and tightened, and then the insert is pulled out and slowly corrected. Finally, the hole is drilled to smooth the inner wall of the barrel. The old master said a lot.

Zhu Youjian nodded, turned his head and asked Zhao Jiadi, "How many experienced masters like this are there in the Arms Bureau?" ”

Zhao Jiadi hurriedly said: "There are more than 100 people. ”

"How many rifles can they make in a day?" Zhu Youjian asked again.

"This ...... One person, 5 to 7 days to make a handful! "Zhao Jiadi is a little weak-hearted, how many handfuls can be completed in one day, are you kidding?

"At this rate, when will we be able to get 100,000 soldiers to have a rifle in their hands?"

Zhao Jiadi's head exploded when he heard it, and 100,000 soldiers had a hand?

"My good man, it can't be in my life! Am I doing something wrong, and the Holy One wants to take the opportunity to kill me? Zhao Jiadi thought to himself.

Seeing that Zhao Jiadi didn't speak, Zhu Youjian said: "I plan to get at least 30,000 rifles before this winter, this speed is impossible!" So ......"

Without waiting for Chongzhen to finish speaking, Zhao Jiadi fell to his knees, "The minister is guilty!" Please be gracious! ”

Zhu Youjian was stunned, "What are your crimes?" ”

"The minister really can't make 30,000 rifles in four or five months, please ask the emperor to surrender the crime, read that the ministers have the old and the young, and leave the ministers alive!" Zhao Jiadi's expression was sad and he kowtowed heavily.

Tang Ruowang also hurriedly came over, "Your Majesty, Lord Zhao is conscientious, and it is not his fault that the output cannot keep up, I beg the emperor to forgive him." ”

"I didn't say I was going to punish him." Zhu Youjian was speechless, "I just want to find a way to help you increase production capacity!" ”