Chapter 448 447 Firearms
There was a rift between the Xuanfu governor Chi Fengxiang and the commander-in-chief Li Xian. Ma Fang mentioned it in his letter, but he did not expect that Li Xian would play such a big role and directly put Chi Fengxiang in the capital prison.
After all, Wei Guangde was pretending to be anxious, so he couldn't hide it from Zhang Juzheng.
Putting away his smile, Zhang Juzheng said: "It seems that Shandai has seen through it, and it is not difficult to think of it with Shandai's cleverness."
"Uncle, please stop being so pretentious and tell me what's going on."
Wei Guangde asked with a smile.
"This time, Li Xian and Chi Fengxiang may not have reached a good agreement after the silver reward was given out, and they made a big fuss. I don't know what Li Xian thought, but he actually mobilized the capital to impeach Chi Fengxiang.
No, Chi Fengxiang will go to jail, but it won't be easy for him. "
Zhang Juzheng said lightly.
Wei Guangde nodded, and it was similar to his guess, but he was a little curious about what the final result would be, so he asked curiously: "What will you say in the end?"
"Chi Fengxiang will be out in two days. It is impossible for Li Xian to stay in Xuanfu as the chief soldier. According to my teacher, it seems that His Majesty intends to let Ma Fang take the post of chief soldier in Xuanfu."
Zhang Juzheng smiled and said, this should be the main purpose of looking for him this morning.
Wei Guangde also smiled happily at this time. Who would have thought that Ma Fang got the better of Ma Fang in the fight between the two officials.
“Does this count as stealing the chicken but losing the rice?”
The two of them walked into the palace while laughing.
Not long after, the news reached King Yu's ears. In fact, the main reason was that neither Zhang Juzheng nor Wei Guangde meant to hide it.
Xu Jie told Zhang Juzheng that natural news is very reliable.
The two went in chatting and laughing, and met Yin Shizhen who had arrived first. After being curious and asking questions, the news naturally spread, and even King Yu knew about it.
Of course, this spread was only limited to Prince Yu's palace.
The fight between Chi Fengxiang and Li Xian was seen by the civil service group as a civil-military battle. Although Chi Fengxiang did not have a big boss behind him, he was standing by the entire civil service group, so naturally nothing would happen.
Those impeachment evidences of corruption and cruelty will turn into nothing even if they are true among civil servants and officials.
As for Li Xian, although he seems to have offended the civil servant group and seems to be in danger, he is a military general. As long as the emperor doesn't say anything, the Ministry of War is not easy to move. Moreover, Li Xian is not an unknown person. Behind him is the Xungui Group. Although he is an honorable noble who has fallen into despair.
In the eleventh year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing suddenly had a whim and found out the descendants of Cao Guogong who had been demoted by Ming Chengzu, and selected Li Xingfeng as the first Linhuai Marquis. The current Linhuai Marquis is Li Tingzhu, the admiral of Caojiang.
As for Li Xian, he is also a descendant of Li Wenzhong. He is just a side branch. Naturally, he did not inherit the title, but he can still be regarded as a member of the noble family.
After the incident was exposed, the cabinet and the Ministry of Justice who investigated the case naturally spoke for Chi Fengxiang, and the Duke Zhu Xizhong and the British Duke Zhang Rong naturally hurried to Xiyuan to meet Emperor Jiajing to support Li Xian.
After the two sides struggled, the matter was naturally raised high and put down gently. Chi Fengxiang was acquitted and awaited a new appointment, while Li Xian was transferred from the Xuanfu and returned to Beijing.
Soon, three imperial edicts came out in Xiyuan one after another. Chi Fengxiang was released and returned to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to wait for orders. Ma Fang, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Xuan Mansion, was ordered to serve as the chief military officer of the headquarters. Li Xianqian, the commander-in-chief of the Xuan Mansion, was ordered to serve The book contains the affairs of the Military Governor's Mansion.
Wei Guangde was curious about King Yu's position on this matter, so he found an opportunity to be alone with King Yu, and after some insinuations, he realized that Xun Gui's position in the eyes of the royal family was still stable.
Yes, King Yu didn't feel that Emperor Jiajing's handling was inappropriate. At least he would not punish the nobles severely, and it would be considered a severe punishment if he could be reprimanded.
Even though the nobles were no longer able to fight with the civil servant group in the court, the royal family still chose to support the nobles' children and release the eunuchs. This was the last resort.
Everything is for the stability of the imperial power.
At this time, Wei Guangde also understood that he had always thought that he had a firm foothold in the court based on his strength. Now that he thought about it, Emperor Jiajing valued promoting Wei Guangde, and maybe he valued his status as the uncle of the Duke of Wei.
Of course, Wei Guangde was able to think of this because of King Yu's suggestion. If King Yu did not point out that his wife was from the Duke of Wei, Wei Guangde would not be aware of this at all.
"The honorable Ming Dynasty rests with the country. As long as it is not treason, naturally everything can be forgiven."
King Yu said to Wei Guangde with a smile.
Having said that, Wei Guangde also knew that everything was actually in the emperor's heart.
From the Ming Dynasty to the present, how many nobles have been convicted, are they all treason?
Of course not. In fact, it all depends on the emperor's mood.
"By the way, Shandai, I remember you said that your father and brother's army was equipped with a large number of blunderbuss and Fran cannons. Are firearms really more powerful than swords and guns?"
Perhaps because of the recent war between the north and the south of the Ming Empire, King Yu has gradually become more interested in military affairs. At this time, he remembered that Wei Guangde had talked about the wars he had participated in, and King Yu asked curiously.
Wei Guangde thought about it and replied: "During the Taizu period, firearms were manufactured on a large scale, and during the Chengzu period, the Shenji Battalion was established to specialize in firearms. It can be seen that during the founding of the Ming Dynasty, firearms were already in large numbers in the military. use.
As for the two firearms mentioned by His Highness, as far as Shandai knows, they both come from the Western Yi countries. Among them, the Franco machine cannon was obtained from the trade with the Franco people. Both firearms are extremely sharp. "
Wei Guangde replied.
"How do you think Ming's original firearms are better than mine?"
King Yu frowned and asked. It seemed that because Wei Guangde said that such sharp weapons all came from overseas, King Yu had a long and short thought.
"Your Highness, I heard that the firearms currently produced by the Military War Bureau and the Ordnance Bureau are mainly bird guns and Franco machine guns, and the rest are three-eye blunderbuss and other firearms."
Wei Guangde did not directly answer King Yu's question, but stated the news he had heard.
Of course King Yu understood the meaning of Wei Guangde's words. The original firearms of the Ming army were not as good as others, so now they have switched to producing Western firearms.
"Tell me, how powerful are these guns and Franco cannons?"
King Yu became even more curious now, so he continued to ask along the lines of the firearm.
"This blunderbuss has a long tube and a small mouth. It can fire lead pellets at hundreds of steps to injure people. The ignition device of the blunderbuss is very interesting. It holds a match rope. When it is fired, the ignited match ignites the gunpowder in the powder pool and shoots out the lead pellets. , I heard that it was called a bird gun because the gun's action resembled a bird's beak.
In addition, this gun has a handle and a rear sight, allowing soldiers to aim. Experienced soldiers can achieve eighty-nine out of ten hits, with very high accuracy.
Of course there are disadvantages, and this is also a common problem with firearms, that is, reloading after firing is more time-consuming and is not as fast as a crossbow. "
Wei Guangde briefly talked about the blunderbuss, and then talked about the Franco machine gun. He had seen this thing when he was in Jiujiang Wei and Xuanfu, so he could talk about it in front of King Yu.
"This Fran cannon is actually not as good as the general cannon originally equipped by my Ming Dynasty, but its advantage is obvious, that is, it can fire very fast, almost five times that of the general cannon.
The secret to being able to shoot so fast lies in his sub-cannon."
Wei Guangde once again told King Yu about the power of the Franco machine gun.
To be honest, the design of the Fran cannon is indeed ingenious. After explaining the secrets to King Yu, King Yu was really eye-opening. He also admired in his heart that the Xiyi people really knew how to do it and could actually have such a thing. Wonderful ideas.
"In addition, when I was in Xuanfu, I also saw a firearm called the Baidu Fran machine, which is a reduced size of the Fran machine cannon used by individual soldiers. Because of the sub-cannon, it can shoot a large amount of lead in a short period of time. It is said that it is more troublesome to manufacture and less powerful to kill the enemy, so the frontier army prefers the larger Franco machine cannon.
However, these hundreds of Franchise machines can be used by cavalry, and they are also a sharp weapon when fighting Tatar cavalry. As long as they are hit by one shot, they will basically lose their ability to fight again. "
Wei Guangde told King Yu about the firearms he had seen used by the Ming army during this period, and King Yu also listened with great interest.
"Bian Town, do you have many firearms?"
Clicking his tongue, King Yu asked with some unfinished thoughts.
"In terms of quantity, it's quite a lot."
Wei Guangde thought about it before saying, "Your Highness just needs to know that our Ming Dynasty's border defenses stretch for thousands of miles and there are countless military forts. If we really distribute these huge quantities of firearms, in fact, the armies and military forts will not have much to use.
Moreover, the firearms hand needs to be trained frequently. This training naturally requires the use of large amounts of gunpowder, which is very costly. The lead is okay, and each army can make it on its own. However, the gunpowder distributed by the court is not enough. There are also soldiers in the border army who use it privately because of low military pay. Selling gunpowder to the people is a matter of course, so most of the firearmsmen in various towns have neglected their training. They can defend the city well, but it is more difficult to go into battle. "
Wei Guangde couldn't say that it was the generals who were reselling the gunpowder. He only said that the soldiers were reselling the gunpowder because of lack of pay. However, with King Yu's thinking, he would understand what happened after thinking about it.
"So that's it. No wonder with such sharp firearms, the border troops suffered defeats in battles."
Thinking of what Wei Guangde said before about how powerful firearms were, and then thinking about the Ming army's record against the Mongolian Tatars, King Yu felt that he understood a little bit what was going on.
"There are still too few firearms."
King Yu sighed: "But the imperial court lacks money and is unable to manufacture firearms and gunpowder in large quantities. It is really annoying."
"So the Ordnance Bureau recycled the general cannons from various guard posts and transformed them into Fran cannons. Although the range is shorter, the rate of fire is much higher, and it is more sharp against the Tatar cavalry."
Wei Guangde smiled and said: "Also, there should be a large number of firearms in the warehouses of the War and Weapons Bureau. It is also a waste that they are manufactured but not distributed to the towns in time."
"Really? Is there still such a thing?"
King Yu frowned and said: "The firearms are sharp and insufficient. Why don't the towns report them to the Ministry of War?"
"The inner court is in charge of firearms, and the firearms manufactured by the imperial court are also in the Ministry of Industry. If the war had not been tight, the Ministry of Industry would not have easily transferred these items to the Ministry of War for distribution. After all, they have cost the imperial court a lot of money."
Wei Guangde couldn't put it too bluntly. This actually involves money. If you want to pick up firearms from the warehouse of the Ministry of Industry, you have to pay money.
Therefore, Wei Guangde can only say that there is poor coordination between various ministries. As for the poor quality of Ming army firearms seen on the Internet in later generations, Wei Guangde only heard that firearms were manufactured in three, six or nine grades, but the ones he came into contact with were all of high quality. firearms, so this problem was not considered to exist.
If you think about it, you can understand that the bird gun Wei Guangde first came into contact with was an earlier bird gun imitated by the Nanjing War Bureau. The quality was naturally high. As for cutting corners and shoddy manufacturing, it would only happen later, when the technology and technology matured.
At the beginning, the materials were picked bit by bit without affecting the quality. Later, the appetite grew and grew, and finally the firearm was produced that was completely unusable.
Corruption is also a gradual process.
Not long after, Yin Shizhen came to report on the recent affairs and handling of the palace, and the topic naturally changed.
What Wei Guangde, Prince Yu, and everyone else in the palace didn't know was that the conversation between him and Prince Yu today was turned into words in the evening and sent to Xiyuan.
These things are naturally done by people arranged by the Supervisor of Ceremonies, or in other words, all the servants in the palace still have to take orders from the Supervisor of Ceremonies. That is the highest center of power for eunuchs, and it is the place that all eunuchs yearn for. Just like the status of the cabinet in the hearts of scholars.
At night, Emperor Jiajing was dealing with the memorials sent in the afternoon. He finally saw the document "Official Affairs of Prince Yu" presented separately by the Chief of Ceremonies, and was quickly attracted by its contents.
Side affairs were major state affairs that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty could not ignore.
His fingers tapped lightly on the imperial desk. Huang Jin on one side and Gao Zhong below naturally knew that this was the emperor's habit when he was thinking about things, so they carefully made a silent gesture to the servants around him.
There were some things in Wei Guangde's words that were not revealed clearly. He could hide it from Prince Yu for a while, but he could not fool Emperor Jiajing. He had been fighting wits with civil servants for his whole life. He understood the urinary nature of civil servants, but he just didn't know how to change it.
It is true that the disease has penetrated into the bone marrow, and it is difficult to treat it with medicine and stone, and it is difficult to be effective by non-iron-blood methods.
But can he do this?
cannot.
What's the use of getting rid of one group of corrupt officials and promoting another group of corrupt officials? It can only select those who can do things a little bit from these people.
If Yan Song can do things, he can be the chief assistant. If he can't do anything else, he can just go down there and cool down.
However, what Wei Guangde said seems to make sense.
Emperor Jiajing was thinking about what to do about this matter.
It is actually very easy to directly order the Ministry of Industry to hand over firearms, but it is hard to say what it will look like when implemented.
We can only find out after the Dongchang inspection. Maybe they handed over some inferior firearms to fool things. Now that group of people is getting bolder and bolder.
"Prepare pen and ink."
Emperor Jiajing suddenly stopped tapping his fingers on the table and ordered.
Huang Jin hurriedly stepped forward to make preparations, and then Emperor Jiajing wrote on the royal paper: "I have heard that the captives have been coming for a long time, and there are little guards on all sides. If you know a little bit about the fear, you can give firearms to all the castles to defend them. However, we still insist on not fighting, in order to rely on God’s protection.”
After finishing writing, he put down his pen and told Huang Jin next to him: "Send it to the Cabinet early tomorrow morning, and send a copy to the Ministry of War."
"According to the order."
Huang Jin replied hurriedly, waiting for the pen and ink to dry a little before putting the note away and preparing to send someone to deliver it tomorrow.
On the second day, Yan Song and Yan Shifan entered the cabinet and soon received the handwriting of Emperor Jiajing.
This order is not difficult to understand. It just requires the Ministry of Works to allocate firearms to the Ministry of War. Yan Song directly handed over the matter to Yan Shifan.
Naturally, Yan Shifan knew that he could not resist the order, so he just dialed in a few, and there were no defective products.