Zhang Zongyi, with the assistance of Zhao Jun, interrogated the craftsmen of the Weapons Bureau, but these people didn't see it clearly, they only remembered the last sentence that Li Wei shouted, and insisted that Xu Yong had assassinated him.

Zhang Zongyi tried for several days and did not find anything else, and because Han Yike was supervised by the Metropolitan Procuratorate on behalf of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, he was not allowed to be tortured, so Zhang had no choice but to end the case hastily.

Li Weiguan was reinstated and returned to the position of the squire of the Ministry of Works, and with the blessing of the identity of a concubine, his status was better than before.

When Li Wei returned to the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, Sun Jian, a subordinate who had been beaten twice for entering the door with his left and right feet, couldn't help but secretly rejoice, fortunately, he did not find fault with Li Wei because he was demoted, and even sent a greeting post during the New Year.

After Li Wei came back, he immediately adjusted the various yamen he belonged to, needless to say the Ordnance Bureau, Xu Yong died, Lu Ti was naturally promoted to the chief envoy again, and then the other stewards were also replaced, and he who took the lead in applauding him was promoted.

Other leather bureaus and pottery factories have also been replaced by people they can trust.

Zhu Yuanzhang acquiesced to his actions and waited for him to come up with his results.

Li Wei plans to cast the cannon first, and now the artillery of the Ming Dynasty is still in its infancy, the actual combat performance is extremely poor, and there is a lot of room for growth, and a little improvement is enough to explain.

Now the Ordnance Bureau uses the mud mold method to cast the cannon, before the appearance of the hydraulic chamber bed, this method has lasted for hundreds of years, although the iron mold method appeared at the end of the Qing Dynasty, but the cannon made in that way because the iron mold cools too quickly, all that is made is white iron, the carbon content is high and brittle, and it is easy to explode.

Instead of going through that effort to study this thing, it would be better to study the bottom chamber bed, and now there is steel anyway.

Although the hydraulic borehole bed cannot be made for the time being, as long as the casting material is replaced with steel, and the structure of the gun body is improved, it is enough to use the mud mold method to make a high-quality gun with much leading performance!

Li Wei directly designed two simple artillery, one is similar to the Franc machine, which divides the cannon into two parts, one barrel with three sub-guns, although the firing range is only one or two miles, but the rate of fire is fast.

The other is a more traditional front-loading smoothbore gun, but the barrel is lengthened and the structure is optimized, and the firing range should be able to fight three or four miles.

The most important thing is that Li Wei has equipped both types of guns with sights and adjustable angle gun mounts, so that the accuracy of the cannons will be greatly improved in the future, unlike the current bulky cannons, which can only be fired blindly.

Moreover, the wheels used for the gun carriage and simple bearings greatly reduced the burden on the march.

In addition to these two, there is also a simple mortar, this thing is very simple, the barrel plus the bracket is on the line, but because there is no detonator, you still have to rely on the ignition fuse, it is a little troublesome to use, and the power cannot be compared with the flying thunder cannon, but the flying thunder cannon is not a conventional weapon after all, it is too dangerous to use, and you still have to use this mortar normally.

Back at the Ordnance Bureau, Li Wei gathered hundreds of more reliable craftsmen to form a new cannon foundry, and then handed over these three different artillery pieces to them to study and manufacture.

Li Wei also asked them to start producing glass in the pottery kiln, which is also very important, and they will have to use glass bottles to study chemistry in the future.

Hydraulic lathes must also continue to be studied, and in the future, the steam engine of the bore-making cannon will be inseparable from this thing, as well as the generator and motor, all of which must be continued.

Although he has to do all these things, he will not take out all the latest things, especially in terms of weapons, first break through the key technology and build the key components, but not assemble them, anyway, no one else knows what these things are for.

Li Wei's life returned to a busy state, and after the affairs of the Ordnance Bureau were arranged, he came to the Minghuang Chamber of Commerce again.

The economy is the lifeblood of a country, Zhu Yuanzhang attaches great importance to the military, but he doesn't know much about the economy, in addition to robbing, that is, he can only let himself develop, including the current Wenchen, most of them are also ignorant, this is an opportunity for him.

"I've seen the pony!" As soon as Li Wei entered the door, Wu Qi nodded to him and saluted respectfully. It's no longer the same as before.

Now he has not only recovered his official position, but also has the identity of a concubine, Wu Qi, as a domestic slave of the royal family, he is also half a master.

"Hmm."

Li Wei glanced at him and hummed softly.

This Wu Qi is really a dog minion. However, most of the eunuchs are like this, and there are only a few like Wang Jinghong, the little dezi.

Back in the main hall, Li Wei called someone to find Laifu and Shen Jing to learn about the situation of the Minghuang Chamber of Commerce.

I don't know, this question immediately made him angry.

"Master, there have been a lot of imitations of our own goods on the market recently, and I don't know where they got the secret recipe, and they are not much worse than us, Shen Bin's Chamber of Commerce used these imitations to steal a lot of our business."

Laifu said with a solemn face, and glanced at Shen Jing after speaking.

Shen Jing hurriedly explained: "Lord Li, this secret recipe is definitely not leaked by me, it is ......."

Shen Jing said, and lightly glanced at Wu Qi on the side, Wu Qi's eyes changed, and he hurriedly scolded in panic: "What do you think I'm doing?" The workshop is yours, not mine. ”

Li Wei frowned and was silent, many eunuchs were arranged by Wu Qi in Shen Jing's workshop, and the secret recipe in the workshop was leaked, either the craftsmen who worked, or those eunuchs who ate and took cards.

But it doesn't help to pursue these now, the secret recipe lets people know that they can make it.

Now there is no patent protection, and the only patent is a court monopoly such as salt and iron.

If he asks Zhu Yuanzhang to let him order the Minghuang Chamber of Commerce or the royal franchise, it will naturally solve these problems, but this is not the right way, and he will definitely be impeached by the courtiers and compete with the people for profit.

After thinking about it, Li Wei still decided to use commercial methods to solve business matters.

"Shen Jing, tomorrow you find some reliable merchants, I have something to talk to them." Li Wei said softly.

"Okay, Master Li."

Shen Jing saw that Li Wei did not blame him, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Then Li Wei instructed: "In the future, the packaging of our goods will be printed with the words of the Minghuang Chamber of Commerce, and I have His Majesty's imperial pen in my hand, and I will bring it over tomorrow." ”

"Lord Li actually has His Majesty's imperial pen? That's great! ”

Shen Jing and Laifu were both pleasantly surprised when they heard this, with this thing, although those imitations cannot be banned, they definitely dare not fake the name of their Minghuang Chamber of Commerce, and these royal pen words are also excellent publicity gimmicks.

Wu Qi was also shocked when he heard this, he thought that this Li Wei would fall out of favor after being demoted, but what he didn't expect was that now people were not only restored to their positions, but also became horses, and they took out His Majesty's imperial pen casually, and the saint was even better than before.

"Well, then let's do it first, Wu Qiling stay for a while, and you can retreat."

"Yes!"

Shen Jing and Laifu respectfully retired, and Wu Qi stayed alone with trepidation.

"What do you command?"

Wu Qi asked cautiously.

Li Wei glanced at him coldly, and said in a deep voice: "I know all about the corruption you sent those subordinates in Shen Jing's workshop, and I have asked Shen Jing to keep the evidence, if I present the evidence to Your Majesty, what do you think of you?" ”

Wu Qi trembled, his face turned pale in an instant, and he knelt down as soon as his legs were weak: "Master Horse!" Spare your life! The slave doesn't dare anymore! ”

Li Wei looked at him like this, and he was very disdainful in his heart, but he didn't plan to really kill him.

Instead of killing him and having the same thing again, it's better to hold the evidence in your hands and let him be honest.

"Withdraw all your people, and then hand over all the greedy money to me, I won't report this matter to Your Majesty for the time being, you can do it yourself!"

"Thank you, Master Ma!"

When Wu Qi heard this, he was pleasantly surprised, but then he looked embarrassed again: "Master Horse, it's no problem for me to withdraw people, but the money ......"

This money is not a small amount, they have already spent a lot, and now it is difficult to let them take it out.

Li Wei's face turned cold: "You must make it up to me, otherwise you will go and explain to Your Majesty!" ”

"Yes, yes, the slave must make up the money, must make up!"

Wu Qi was so frightened that he hurriedly agreed, if the money was gone, he could make it again, and if his life was gone, it would be gone, so he had to take out his previous family funds to make up for this hole.

"That's good, stand down!"

"Yes, yes, the slave and maid are gone."

Wu Qi reluctantly withdrew from the main hall.

After Li Wei dealt with him, he thought about it, and went to Laifu to look at the accounts of the last few months.

Sure enough, the profits in the past few months have shrunk significantly, which makes him frown.

asked Laifu about the specific situation again, and Li Wei silently thought of a way to deal with this Shen Bin in his heart.

Turning the accounts to the end, one of the incomes caught his attention.

"Where did the money come from?"

He asked, confused.

Laifu glanced at it and replied, "Oh, this is the money discounted from the old banknotes." ”

"What's the deal with the discount of old banknotes?"

"It's such a lord, isn't the imperial court now opening a bank to exchange old banknotes for the people for new banknotes, but due to the limited amount, many ordinary people still can't exchange old banknotes for new banknotes, some people are in a hurry, afraid that the old banknotes will be invalid, so they voluntarily discount, and when we collect the old banknotes, we will naturally settle with the discount, and then go to the bank to exchange for new banknotes, and you can earn some."

After hearing this, Li Wei immediately felt very surprised.

"In fact, not only that, some merchants also specialize in buying discounted old banknotes with new banknotes, and then go to the bank to exchange the full amount of new banknotes to earn the difference." Rifle added.

In fact, the phenomenon that the common people like the new and hate the old has always existed, after all, these banknotes are not easy to preserve, and they are very easy to damage, especially the words on it, which are pasted when they are stained with water, and the words are not clear, so the money will be wasted.

(End of chapter)