Gao Qiqian was a little embarrassed: "Long live the lord, the old slave doesn't need to be ugly, right?" ”

"If I tell you to beat you, you'll fight." Chongzhen said, "If you don't hit, you will be punished, and the court staff will be eighty." ”

"Huh? Eighty of the cane?! "Gao Qiqian almost cried, did I provoke you?

"For every second of delay, add another staff." Chongzhen snorted and said, "Eighty-two rods!" ”

Gao Qiqian was startled, and quickly took the rifled rifle from Chongzhen's hand, loaded it, and then shot at the humanoid target one hundred and fifty steps away, and finally reported the target, which was actually the bull's-eye.

At this time, Chongzhen was really a little surprised.

I didn't expect this old gelding to be so good.

Even if it is a rifled rifle, it is not difficult to hit a humanoid target from a hundred meters away, but it is still quite difficult to hit a bullseye from a distance of two hundred meters.

"Give me the gun." Zhu Cijiong couldn't wait to snatch the rifled rifle from Gao Qiqian's hand.

After only one shot, Zhu Cijiong fell in love with the rifled rifle, which was too accurate.

"That's a good gun!" Zhu Cijiong couldn't put it down, "Father, give this gun to your son." ”

"Okay, if you like it, you can stay." It's just a rifle, Chongzhen naturally won't be stingy, and at the same time, he asked Zhu Cihong to find Zhan Yangzhi.

"Zhan Yangzhi, a member of the Ministry of Ministers, please ask the Holy Jin'an."

Zhan Yangzhi quickly came over and bowed to Chongzhen.

"Zhan Weng, how many rifles can the Ming Arsenal produce per month now? Are there two thousand? ”

"Back to the saints, less than 2,000." Zhan Yangzhi said with some shame, "There are only 1,500 sticks." ”

"Fifteen hundred a month?" Chongzhen frowned and was displeased, "You didn't say that at the beginning of last year, you said that you would be able to increase the monthly output to two thousand after a year." ”

Zhan Yangzhi said helplessly: "The main thing is that there is a shortage of manpower, it is too difficult to train a blacksmith who can skillfully roll the pipe, and it is not easy to cultivate, and it was soon poached by other workshops, and in the past few months after the Chinese New Year, our Daming Arsenal has lost hundreds of blacksmiths." ”

"Who is so bold as to dare to dig into the corner of the Daming Arsenal?" Gao Qi said angrily.

"High companion?" Chongzhen glared at Gao Qiqian coldly, "Don't let the blacksmith move freely and choose a career, do you want to restore the previous artisan household system?" ”

Gao Qiqian felt very aggrieved.

The heart said that I am not also thinking about Da Ming?

At that moment, Gao Qian argued again: "Long live Lord, you can't let those Diao people come from you, right?" ”

"Who is Diaomin? Paying a high price to hire a blacksmith becomes nonsense? Chongzhen's face fell, "The blacksmith who co-authored the Ming Dynasty is only worthy of a low salary in the Ming Arsenal, so he can't go to another house to get a high salary?" Father-in-law Gao, you are really majestic, otherwise let all the blacksmiths of the Ming Dynasty come over and work for the arsenal in vain? ”

Hearing this, Zhan Yangzhi broke out in a cold sweat.

Before, he really planned to take advantage of the strong position of the Daming Arsenal to coerce those handicraft workshops to fire the blacksmiths who were poached from the Daming Arsenal with high salaries, and Zhan Yangzhi was even ready to clean up these blacksmiths who coveted high salaries, so as to set a rule for other craftsmen, so that others would not dare to follow suit easily.

Otherwise, the situation will only get worse.

It's just that this matter was finally stopped by Zhu Cihong.

Because Zhu Cihong told him that Chongzhen would not agree to do so.

Now it seems that the prince is right, and the saint is really against it.

Of course, Chongzhen is against doing this, because what he wants is an official overseer and a private office, not an official superintendent and an official office.

If the government directly uses the public power of the government to set rules for craftsmen, and only allows them to receive a meager salary in the Daming Arsenal, and they are not allowed to go to other workshops to get a high salary to support their families, what is the difference between it and the previous craftsmen?

According to this method, the Daming Arsenal will soon be reduced to another military bureau or weapons supervisor.

And the flintlock pistols produced by the Daming Arsenal will soon become the inferior bird guns of the past.

At that moment, Chongzhen asked Zhan Yangzhi: "Zhan Weng, since other workshops can give blacksmiths high salaries, why can't the Daming Arsenal give blacksmiths high salaries?" ”

"Holy Lord, this minister really can't do it."

Zhan Yangzhi said bitterly: "Those workshops that dig people only need one or two blacksmiths with good skills, so the salary can be given to five or even ten yuan per month!" However, the number of blacksmiths in the Daming Arsenal was 3,000, and after the 6,000 apprentices recruited last year became full-time craftsmen, the number of blacksmiths reached 9,000. ”

"If you give each blacksmith a monthly salary of five yuan,"

"Forty-five thousand dollars for nine thousand blacksmiths alone."

"Counting the salaries of the craftsmen in the other workshops,"

"The craftsman's salary alone is more than 50,000 yuan a month!"

"50,000 a month, 600,000 in a year."

Speaking of this, Zhan Yangzhidu was about to cry: "Holy Lord, how can this be done? ”

"The Daming Arsenal can only produce 18,000 rifles plus 500 4-inch guns a year, which is only 345,000 yuan at 2.5 yuan per rifle and 600 yuan per gun."

"That is to say, after a busy year, the minister has to accompany 300,000."

Chongzhen was also a little embarrassed when he heard this: "This, I will go back and talk to Ma Mingluo." ”

After a pause, he said: "But even if the price is raised by you a little, it will never rise too much, so you have to figure out how to do this by yourself, you can sign a long-term contract with the blacksmith apprentice." ”

"What the Holy One said is very true." Zhan Yangzhi said, "The minister has begun to sign long-term contracts with craftsmen. ”

"That's right." Chongzhen said happily, "In short, you must do things according to the rules, don't think about what privileges you can enjoy if you are a Daming Arsenal, there are no privileges, everything has to be done according to the rules." ”

After a pause, he asked, "So the production of rifled rifles is even slower?" ”

"Yes." Zhan Yangzhi said with a bitter face, "Drawing rifling is too labor-intensive and time-consuming, it only takes a month at most to drill the rifling, but it takes at least two months to draw rifling, if all the rifled rifles are produced, only five hundred rifled rifles can be produced every month, which is almost only thirty and a half of the flintlock guns." ”

Chongzhen also sighed when he heard this, the level of productivity is still not good.

If there was a steam engine, which could use mechanical power to drill the barrel and draw rifling, the speed would be increased tenfold and hundredfold, and tens of thousands of rifled rifles could be produced in a month at that time.

After all, we have to get the steam engine out as soon as possible.

At this stage, there is no steam engine, and only priority can be given to ensuring the production of smoothbore guns.

It's just that small batches of line-rifled rifles also need to be produced.

At that moment, Chongzhen said in a deep voice: "Zhan Weng, fifty rifled rifles must be produced every month, and it can't affect the normal production of smoothbore rifles, but the price of rifled rifles is still negotiable." ”

Zhan Yangzhi originally planned to refuse desperately, but when he heard this, he immediately changed his words: "How much can the saint give?" ”

A businessman is still a businessman in the end, as long as it is profitable, everything can be discussed, if it is not profitable, then everything is not discussed, and there is no businessman who talks about his family and country feelings regardless of interests.

Chongzhen never expected Daming to have such a businessman.

After pondering for a moment, Chongzhen said, "Five yuan one!" ”

"Ten dollars a piece!" The lion of Zhan Yangzhi opened his mouth and said, "At least ten yuan." ”

"Yes, it's ten yuan a piece." Chongzhen responded in one bite, and the output in two years was only 1,200, and a mere 10,000 yuan was not worth it for him, the emperor, to bother for this.

Zhan Yangzhi was a little annoyed, is it going to be less?

After Chongzhen left the Daming Arsenal, he went straight to Qingliangfang.

As a result, as soon as he arrived at Jinchuan Gate, Wang Chengen received a secret letter from Beijing.

After reading Li Ruolian's secret letter, Chongzhen's face suddenly became a little embarrassed.

Because what MeSign says is not good news, but bad news.

Dolgon actually completed a major reform of the Eight Banners system, not only canceling the Eight Banners military merit system, but even the Eight Banners political system was also abolished, and then set up a military machine room.

Originally, most of the ministers of military aircraft in the military engine room were filled by the princes of the banners, the princes of the counties, Beile and Beizi, but in the recent battle of Dagukou, the prince of the Eight Banners, Beile Beizi or something, was actually killed by Yan Yingyuan with a cannon, and the entire Manchu clan except for the minors, there were only two brothers left, Dolgon and Duoduo.

Then Dolgon promoted a large number of Manchurians from the banners into the military engine room.

For example, Sony, who is under the yellow flag, and Aobai, who is inlaid with the yellow flag, have all become ministers of military aircraft.

At this time, Dorgon's control over the Qing court reached an unprecedented level.

Therefore, it is completely foreseeable that the cohesion of the entire Qing court will be unprecedentedly strengthened.

This matter is of course not a good thing for the Ming Dynasty, originally Chongzhen planned to use the internal contradictions of the Eight Banners to divide and disintegrate the power of the Qing court, but now it seems that his intention is afraid that he will be stillborn.

After reading the secret letter, Zhu Cihong comforted Chongzhen: "Father, even if Dolgon completes the reform of the Eight Banners system, even if the Eight Banners Manchuria becomes monolithic from now on, we can still find ways to divide and disintegrate the relationship between the Manchus and the Mongols and Han ministers, especially Jiang Jiu, Wu Sangui, Hong Chengchou and others." ”

"Hong'er, you're a little wishful thinking." Chongzhen shook his head and said, "It is much more difficult to divide the relationship between the Manchu nobles and the Han ministers and the Mongolian nobles, because the relationship between the Manchu nobles and the Manchu nobles is reciprocal, and there is a conflict of interests between them, but the relationship between the Manchu nobles and the Mongolian nobles and the Han ministers is a master-slave relationship, a personal dependence relationship, and there is no competition of interests between them." ”

Zhu Cihong was a little puzzled: "Isn't it better to return to the Ming Dynasty as a person than to be a slave to Jiannu?" ”

"You don't understand that, do you?" Chongzhen sighed lightly and said, "There is a phenomenon called converting fanaticism, which refers to the fact that after an individual of a race converts to another race, he will show a bitter hatred for the original race, so as to prove the legitimacy and rationality of their conversion to other races, so don't expect Hong Chengchou to return to the Ming Dynasty." ”

(End of chapter)