"Everyone put down their work for the time being, take the group as a queue, and come out to gather!"

Zhu Gaoyu's personal guards walked into the workshops one by one and called out the workers who were buried in their work.

"Damn, what the hell is going on, just a bowl of clear rice porridge in the morning, Lao Tzu can't even walk, and there are so many shit."

"That is, I said that I was full for every meal, but now I don't want to say that I am full, and it is not enough to even stuff my teeth."

The workers complained and walked out of the door noisily under the leadership of the foremen of each group.

"Hey, that person seems to be His Highness."

When everyone came to the camp square, they suddenly noticed a young man in a reckless robe on the high platform in the middle.

"It seems to be really His Highness, I heard that His Highness didn't go to fight the Japanese Invaders."

"Hey, with His Highness's ability, it's not easy to destroy."

"Now that His Highness is back, we finally have support."

Many of the workers present had taught Zhu Gaoyu personally, and out of a good impression of Zhu Gaoyu, many workers believed in Zhu Gaoyu very much.

This period of time changed suddenly, and everyone was still angry at first, but then they heard a few engineers say that this was the arrangement of the imperial court, and it was not clear that His Highness had gone down to fight the Japanese invaders, and everyone did not unite to make trouble, and they were all looking forward to Zhu Gaoyu's return and justice for them.

"Your Highness. Your Highness, you have to be the master of the villain, my poor brother, because he said a few words, he was hung up and beaten to death by the bastard surnamed Jiang. ”

As soon as the workers came out of the workshop, a man rushed to the bottom of the steps crying, kowtowed to Zhu Gaoyu incessantly, and begged Zhu Gaoyu to administer justice to him.

Stretching out his hand to push away the guards in front, Zhu Gaoyu walked down the steps and helped the crying man up.

"Get up, I know all the grievances you have suffered, and I will do justice to you today." After speaking, he pointed to the corpse hanging next to him, "Look who it is." ”

The man who was helped up wiped the tears from his face, looked in the direction of Zhu Gaoyu's finger, and his painful expression suddenly turned into gritted teeth.

"It's him, it's him, it's him."

"Your Highness, it's this bastard who beat my poor brother to death, my sister-in-law's family cried to death when they heard the news, they still have three children, and as soon as my brother left, the sky in the family collapsed."

"I understand, I understand!"

Zhu Gaoyu patted the other party comfortingly, and then handed the whip in his hand to the man.

The man kowtowed gratefully, took the whip in Zhu Gaoyu's hand, and roared angrily and rushed towards the corpse with a wild whiff.

"Kill him, kill this bastard......"

"Well, he was already dead, I should have beaten him to pieces."

"Oh, yes, Brother Liu, beat him hard, beat him to pieces."

The onlookers applauded loudly when they saw the man holding a whip and frantically whipping the corpse.

"Your Highness, the officials in charge of the artisan battalion, except for one who has returned to the Ministry of Works, the rest have all been summoned."

The Left Army, which was ordered to summon all the officials, reported on the convening.

Zhu Gaoyu nodded, and said to Lu Fei next to him: "Go and bring all those defective guns." ”

Although he didn't understand what he wanted these defective guns, Lu Fei nodded and took some craftsmen to the warehouse to get the guns.

Turning around and returning to the high platform, Zhu Gaoyu sat in his position and waited quietly.

Such a big thing, the old man must already know.

The craftsman camp is related to the future development of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, and if there is such a big incident, the old man will definitely come over to take a look.

Although Zhu Gaoyu is the prince of a country, he is not qualified to deal with these officials, and he needs the old man to be present in person.

Who made the old man agree to the Ministry of Industry to enter the craftsman camp, Zhu Gaoyu didn't know, but this person must have had a lot of influence on the old man.

Otherwise, Zhu Gaoyu, his own son, made it clear that he would not let the Ministry of Industry participate, and the old man would not send someone over directly without asking.

In such a high-standard confidential place, why do the people in the Ministry of Industry dare to be greedy, Zhu Gaoyu already has a rough guess.

The old man forbade anyone to enter without his warrant, but he didn't have time to come often.

Zhu Gaoyu, the actual person in charge, did not come back from the war outside, and the craftsman battalion gradually became a hall of words in the Ministry of Industry.

As an important base for the manufacture of guns, artillery and ammunition, the artisan battalion has a very large monthly turnover.

The officials of the Ministry of Works, who gradually took control of the artisan battalion, watched the real money flowing in front of them every day, and it was fake if they were not moved.

The old man's strict protection on the periphery not only did not allow the artisan camp to develop better and safely, but gave these moths inside an opportunity.

It couldn't come without the emperor's order, and those who oversaw the imperial history of the Inspectorate naturally didn't know what was going on inside, and the brocade guards outside the door were not allowed to come in.

The people who can come in don't come often, and the people who really manage them are not there, so these greedy people start to think crookedly.

Perhaps at the beginning they only took a little, but as they took too much and had nothing to do, their appetite was infinitely magnified, and they began to move on various manufacturing materials and workers' food.

As for the weapons manufactured, how to explain to the imperial court.

This kind of thing is easier for them officials to deal with than to drink saliva.

It's not that these firearms can't be fired with a single shot, and they won't let those that are useless out of the warehouse.

Even if some of the quality is poor, people who are not professionals can't see it.

Sent to the soldiers, a few shots are absolutely no problem.

What to do on the battlefield when it's time to actually use it is none of their business.

It is the responsibility of the generals to defeat the battle, and it has nothing to do with them as officials.

Their weapons are made according to strict requirements, and they are no problem when they are tested.

As for what happened to the battlefield?

There are many reasons for that.

It may be that the soldiers are not operating properly, or it may be due to the weather and water, and all kinds of possibilities, the officials can find a lot of them.

If this can't be explained, they can also put the blame on the craftsmen, saying that their manufacturing skills are not up to par and they don't care about their work.

If that doesn't work, then push out another scapegoat or two.

In this way, from beginning to end, it doesn't take a month or two, and there is no clue at all.

With this month or two, they can use their connections and connections to smooth out the clues that connect them.

When Zhu Gaoyu returned, the officials of the artisan battalion knew about it.

They thought that they would arrange the following in the next two days, so as to fool this highness, the direct superior of the craftsman battalion.

In their minds, the son of His Royal Highness's daughter, now that he has a son, how can he have so much time to stay in the shabby place of the craftsman camp.

It is estimated that it is to take a few looks, and when you see that there is no problem with the work, you may go directly and will not come again.

However, the officials could not have imagined that Zhu Gaoyu attached more importance to the artisan battalion than they imagined.

In the morning, I just got off the court meeting, and I didn't even change my clothes before I ran over.

The officials of the Ministry of Industry who were present didn't even have time to prepare, and they were directly arrested.

Therefore, when the people above come down to check, they must be notified in advance, otherwise they will make some embarrassing things and everyone will not look good.

The officials of the Ministry of Industry who were called over kicked uneasy in their hearts one by one, and kept looking back at the direction of the gate nervously.

The person in charge, wailang, kept raising his hand to wipe the sweat on his forehead.

"Stomp, stomp..."

Not long after the workers and officials had gathered, the sound of horses' hooves came from far and near.

Everyone hurriedly looked back, and saw an old man in coarse cloth clothes, sitting on a horse with a cold face galloping over.

There are also officials such as Song Li, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and the left and right waiters.

"Holy Arrival!"

Hou Liang, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, who followed, shouted at everyone.

Everyone present, except for Zhu Gaoyu, all fell to the ground.

"Knock on Your Majesty, Your Majesty Holy Bow!"

The old man didn't pay attention to the salute people, and rode directly to the high platform.

"Daddy!"

Zhu Gaoyu hurriedly stepped forward and helped the old man get off the horse.

"You are the head of the artisan battalion, I only wear my eyes and ears today, do what you want."

got off the horse, raised his hand casually, and said a word to Zhu Gaoyu, and the old man walked under the umbrella on the high platform, and quietly watched the people who got up from the ground.

"Commander Hou, I don't know if you Jinyi Guard have anyone who is good at peeling skin and filling grass."

Zhu Gaoyu stopped Hou Liang, the commander of Jinyiwei, and asked something that made the other party stunned.

"Your Highness, if you want other talents, we don't have Jinyiwei, if you want to say that you are a master of peeling and filling grass, our Jinyiwei is everywhere."

Zhu Gaoyu nodded, and said slightly: "Then trouble Commander Hou, let Jinyiwei send a few masters in this area, and you may need it later." ”

Hou Liang turned sideways to avoid Zhu Gaoyu's salute, and replied: "Please wait a moment, Your Highness, the minister will let someone call them over." ”

The official of the Ministry of Industry, who had just dismounted and was heading to the side of the high platform, heard the conversation between the two, and his body trembled violently.

"Your Highness, the firearms have been brought."

As soon as the people on Jinyiwei's side went to find someone, Lu Fei came over with more than a hundred craftsmen, carrying large and small boxes.

Zhu Gaoyu walked to the box and asked people to open it, and took out a flintlock pistol from it.

The other parts of this gun are all made of uniform size, and there are not many requirements for quality, except for being brittle.

The problem is obvious at a glance, and it is the barrel.

The barrel is not a streamlined straight length, but is slightly bulging or concave in places.

Looking at such a barrel, the chill in Zhu Gaoyu's eyes became stronger and stronger.

When I saw the inside of the barrel, my face was even more difficult to see.

"When it was made, it was fine, but after firing a few shots, the barrel got hot, and it became like this."

Lu Fei also picked one up and explained why the barrel was like this.

Zhu Gaoyu nodded, and did not ask the other party why he knew that there was a problem with the barrel, so why he still had to assemble it.

With his understanding of the character of Lu Fei and the others, if they could really manage things, this kind of gun barrel would never be made.

Throwing the gun to Lu Fei, Zhu Gaoyu looked at the officials of the Ministry of Industry with indifferent eyes, and ordered: "Load, use the maximum amount of medicine." ”

Out of trust in Zhu Gaoyu, Lu Fei didn't ask much, and directly beckoned the craftsmen to reload directly.

And the gunpowder used is not the kind of gunpowder made by inferior punch, but the high-grade smokeless gunpowder specially made by Lu Yang.

"What's wrong?"

When the craftsmen loaded the guns, the old man walked down under the protection of Hou Liang and others and took a gun without charge.

What went wrong with the craftsman battalion, the old man didn't know, Jinyiwei's side just reported, and His Royal Highness King Yue directly killed one person after he went over, and then gathered everyone.

"What else can be a problem, some people see that you don't come often, and I'm not here, so they have some thoughts."

"Take the poor materials as shoddy, in order to catch up with the quantity, ignoring the quality of the gun, the barrel that was originally scrapped was simply loaded on the gun by them."

"The contracts signed with the workers were all rejected by them, and the daily meals were reduced again and again."

While pointing out the problem of guns to the old man, Zhu Gaoyu talked about the problems he found.

"If they do this, it will really save money, but they can only say that they have no ability, and their hearts are still good. Unfortunately, the amount of money coming into the account every day has not decreased, but has increased. ”

"My son took a look, and it was recorded in the account book yesterday that in order to celebrate his son's return from the expedition, the craftsman bought ten sheep to celebrate."

"But as a result, I asked the engineers and craftsmen, not to mention the mutton, they didn't even see a single wool, and even yesterday at noon they ate bran bran."

The more the old man listened, the more ugly his face became, and he glanced at the officials who were still trembling under the sun, his eyes full of murderous aura.

He knew that some of his officials were corrupt, but he didn't expect these people to be so bold that they even dared to interfere in the artisan battalion, which he valued the most.

This is still under his nose, and what he can't see, how much filth and squalor will exist.

"By the way, there are also those research materials of the craftsman battalion, according to Engineer Lu, you let them take away."

Without looking at the old man's increasingly ugly face, Zhu Gaoyu continued to talk about the problem of the craftsman camp.

"I know this, they said that this is a heavenly trick, and the Yongle Canon is an encyclopedia, so I asked them to move over and copy it, and told them to get it back when they ran out."

Hearing the old man's answer, Zhu Gaoyu didn't come up with a sigh of relief, and said with a suffocated face: "Dad, that's the top secret of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the content on every drawing is thoroughly studied, it can make a country step to the top of the world." ”

"Your old man collects documents for the Yongle Canon, and your son can understand it, but this kind of top secret, how could you think of letting others read it."

"Only a few people can see these secrets."

"Good guy, if you take it out, you don't need to talk about secrets or anything, it's just rotten on the street."

"When the time comes, don't think that Daming will dominate the world, if people study it first, just don't press us to the ground and beat us fat."

Zhu Gaoyu's unceremonious words, hearing the old man's face flush for a while, he really didn't care about this.

I just thought about registering these in the Yongle Dictionary and completing this encyclopedia thoroughly, and I didn't think about leaking secrets.

"Hou Liang!"

"The minister is here."

The old man's face was ugly and he instructed Hou Liang: "Give all those materials back to Lao Tzu, how much is in total..."

Saying that, the old man stuck his shell, and he couldn't remember how many pieces of information there were for a while.

"Twenty-six thousand three hundred and forty-six!"

Lu Fei, who was loading gunpowder next to him, hurriedly added a sentence for the old man.

"Yes, that's all, check it out for Lao Tzu, one less will cut them all, and I will arrest them all."

After Hou Liang took the people away, the old man complained: "You stinky boy, don't tell me such an important thing, I thought your information was open for craftsmen to read." ”

Zhu Gaoyu: "........."

This old guy didn't want to admit what he had done, and he put the blame on others.

Zhu Gaoyu ignored the old man with a dark face, lowered his head and asked the craftsmen to load a few more guns.

Regarding the leak, Zhu Gaoyu was not as worried as he said.

For the sake of secrecy, the information is composed of small seals and Arabic numerals, as well as some English numerals.

People who don't understand this, let alone read it, if Zhu Gaoyu personally explains it to them, it is estimated that they will be confused.

Technology is not something that anyone can play with if they want to, this thing has no talent, or if they have actually seen actual cases or objects, ordinary people can't play at all.

What he said just now was so serious, it was all to scare the old man.

Hmph, he obviously explained good things, but this old man just didn't listen, he always thought that when he became an emperor, everyone was not as smart as him, so he had to learn a good lesson.

Seeing that his son was really angry and understood that he had done something bad with good intentions, a touch of embarrassment flashed on the old man's face, and he circled around the craftsmen with his hands behind his back a few times, and then returned to the high platform under the umbrella and waited.

"Your Highness, the guns have been loaded!"

The defective guns that were brought over soon were all loaded under the command of Lu Fei, and they were still the maximum amount of medicine.

Zhu Gaoyu nodded, asked the craftsmen to pick up the loaded guns, and walked to the official in charge of the Ministry of Works, who had not been talked to since the assembly.

"Your Highness, is there some misunderstanding in this?"

Song Li, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, who was watching the whole process from the side, saw that Zhu Gaoyu asked people to go to those officials with guns, and thought that Zhu Gaoyu was going to kill all these officials, so he hurriedly stood up.

"Misunderstanding?"

Looking at the Ministry of Industry Shangshu who was blocking in front, Zhu Gaoyu shook his head with a chuckle.

"Song Shangshu, if there is a misunderstanding, we will know after the shooting is fired later."

"You just came back from repairing the river, and the cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods in it, I guess you don't know."

"I also know your character, listen to the king's advice, don't get involved in this matter, just watch from the side."

"If you get involved, it's easy to lose the night."

After speaking, he stretched out his hand and pushed Song Li away, and glanced at Jiang Shilang, who was standing behind Song Li, bowing his head and silently.

Another waiter who had helped Zhu Gaoyu repair the craftsman camp noticed Zhu Gaoyu's gaze, opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but in the end he sighed, closed his mouth and lowered his head.

took a group of people to the officials of the Ministry of Industry in charge of the craftsman battalion, Zhu Gaoyu didn't bother to talk nonsense with them, and directly waved his hand and asked the craftsmen to issue guns to the officials.

"These guns are all approved by you, but I am not at ease with this, so I bother you to test them yourself in front of Your Majesty and me."

Standing in front of the officials, Zhu Gaoyu stretched out a finger.

"Ten shots each."

"It's no problem to complete ten shots, I'll make amends, if something goes wrong......"

Zhu Gaoyu said lightly with a sneer on the corner of his mouth: "Then we have something to talk about, not only do we have a chat, but even your third uncle who has been missing for many years, the court can find out and chat with you." ”

(End of chapter)