Chongzhen Wiretapping System

Chapter 211
Relatively speaking, Xue Guoguan knew less about military affairs, so he was the first to come back to his senses and said: "Your Majesty, this... is this impossible?"

He expressed his opinion again, with the same words, even with the same stutter.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen looked serious. He looked at him and asked, "What's impossible? I'm here to ask you. In the past, catapults were used to attack cities. At that time, could anyone think of using gunpowder?" The Hongyi cannon that propels iron bullets? In the past, gunpowder was used to set off fireworks, but have you ever thought that after the gunpowder formula is improved, it can be used in war..."

Listening to the examples he gave one by one, Xue Guoguan was speechless this time.Because of what Emperor Chongzhen said, he couldn't deny it!
After talking for a while, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the other two, and said earnestly, "Our Ming's craftsman level has stayed where it is for too long. In many respects, Xiyi has already gone ahead of us. I believe you Have you more or less seen what those Xiyi missionaries brought?"

In fact, even the Hongyi cannon was brought by Xiyi.That's why it's called the Hongyi Cannon.In addition, there are many other things, such as telescopes, mirrors, clocks, etc., all brought by Xiyi.

With the cleverness of Lu Xiangsheng and others, they have already guessed what the emperor wanted to express.Others may take this for granted.But Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting knew that Hongyi's cannons, binoculars, and Xiyi's cannon-casting methods and artillery techniques were indeed better than Daming's.If things go on like this, if Xiyi is closer to Daming, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, the expressions of the two of them immediately became serious.Among them, Sun Chuanting even played to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty is holy, it is time for my Ming to change!"

Although the other two people may still be unable to imagine the examples given by the emperor, this does not prevent them from finally agreeing with the emperor's idea.

So, the specific details, the monarch and his subjects began to discuss further.

Emperor Chongzhen has the brains and experience of later generations, and his courtiers are the top figures living in the contemporary era. After discussing together, they can be down-to-earth and operable.

At the end of the discussion, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng were about to take up their posts.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at Sun Chuanting and told him: "Qing went to Shanhaiguan, let go and do it, and take care of Shanhaiguan for me. Give me some time, and then counterattack Liaodong when the future is safe, and regain the lost ground!"

"My minister complies with the decree!" Sun Chuanting immediately accepted the decree after hearing this.

Then Emperor Chongzhen turned to Lu Xiangsheng again, and also explained to him: "I will try my best to satisfy the formation of the cavalry army proposed by you. It's just that Daming is currently short of horses, and it will take time to gather war horses. In addition, the matter of the navy is the It is the basis for Qing to rebuild Dongjiang Town, without waiting for news from the Fujian Navy, build warships and recruit sailors first."

"My minister obeys the order!" Lu Xiangsheng immediately accepted the order after hearing it.

He has always advocated taking the route of elite soldiers, and the order he received was that he rebuild Dongjiang Town and restrain Liaodong Jianlu. The best thing is to have a powerful cavalry army. Only in this way can Jianlu dare not do their best Go out, bypass the Mongolian grasslands and attack the pass.

Because, his idea had already been mentioned to Emperor Chongzhen before.The same is true for the words of Emperor Chongzhen.

They all knew that for now, the Ming army was no match for the Jianlu army.Even if the three major battalions under the Yumajian were sent out, even if there was a great victory in Tianjin, they would still not be the opponents of the Jianlu army.

Because nearly one-third of the three major battalions today are newly recruited soldiers; and their armor and armor are not as good as Jianlu, and their strength is even smaller than the main force of Jianlu; there are no surprises. It is too difficult to attack the possibility of being unprepared, to fight head-on, and to defeat Jianlu.

Therefore, the current situation must be stabilized, step by step, relying on Ming's national strength, to reverse the military gap between the two sides until Liaodong is flattened.

After finishing these words, it was already dark, and there was no further discussion between the monarch and his ministers.

A few days later, the blacksmith Liu Chengye and his wife returned to the west of the city from outside the city. When the neighbors saw it, they asked, "You're back?"

"Well, I'm back!" Liu Chengye agreed. When he was about to walk back to his yard, he suddenly thought of something and asked his neighbor: "Has anyone from the Yamen come to see me?"

"I don't know!" his neighbor replied, "I only came back half a day earlier than you."

His neighbor, Wang Dongming, was also a craftsman, a carpenter, and his family was outside the city, and some relatives died at the hands of Jianlu this time.

Speaking of this, Wang Dongming suddenly let out a long sigh of relief, "After worshiping, I feel a lot more relaxed. Otherwise, I will think about them all day long!"

Liu Chengye nodded after listening.These days, many people in the capital are like them. They went back to pay homage to their relatives, and talked about the rape of the captives, so that their relatives could rest in peace.

Seeing that his daughter-in-law's eyes were still a little swollen, Liu Chengye didn't say anything, went into the house with his daughter-in-law, and put away his luggage.

After finishing all this work, the two sat at the table, relatively speechless for a while.When his daughter-in-law was about to speak, she saw him standing up, walked to a corner of the room, picked up a wooden board that was placed there, reached out to dust it off, looked carefully, and then turned and walked towards the door.

When his wife saw it, she was a little surprised and said, "Why are we still hanging up the sign? Aren't we planning to go to Jiangnan?"

Hearing her words, Liu Chengye only stopped for a moment before continuing to go out, and at the same time said: "I'm not going!"

His wife was stunned after hearing this, and when he returned to the house, she asked a little worriedly: "Are you worried about Lu Yin?"

"No." After hearing this, Liu Chengye shook his head and denied it, but he didn't want to tell his wife about his promise, for fear that her daughter-in-law would worry.

After hearing this, his wife was silent for a moment, and then asked: "What should we do? Here in the capital, we can hardly live anymore!"

Hearing this, Liu Chengye was also worried.

He had inquired, and the official who let him go was Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Baoding.If you let him go, you are a good official, so you can't break the promise of a good official.If you say you won't escape, you must not escape.

However, on the capital's side, as the daughter-in-law said, it is really difficult to maintain it.In today's blacksmith shop, it is basically difficult to open fire, and finally sell a little iron, but the little money earned is not enough to buy food.If it weren't for the current food control in the capital, the whole family would starve to death.

Moreover, blacksmithing is a strenuous job. If you don’t have a full stomach and don’t have the strength to strike, how can you make good iron tools?If you can't make good iron tools, fewer people will come to patronize it, which will make it harder to make money.

Now, what should we do?Are you going to work hard?But these days, there is no shortage of people who work hard!
I thought about it left and right, but I just couldn't think of any good way to solve the predicament at hand.

The little money I earned before, even if I have been frugal, is almost used up.Then, what should we do next?Thinking about the current situation, Liu Chengye couldn't help feeling a little worried.

But even so, he never thought about breaking his promise and immediately going to the south to make a living.

His daughter-in-law should have also seen her husband's embarrassment, and didn't ask any questions, but just sat quietly.

In this way, the two were relatively speechless, and sat for an unknown amount of time, until the sound of footsteps came from outside the door, followed by a hasty knock on the door, and Wang Dongming shouted with a little excitement, "Master Liu, are you there? Open the door quickly." , great joy..."

What other great event can there be?The husband and wife looked at each other, both a little puzzled.

He couldn't understand, but it didn't stop Liu Chengye from going over and opening the door. He saw Wang Dongming standing at the door with sweat on his face, but with excitement.

As soon as Liu Chengye opened the door, Wang Dongming smiled and said excitedly: "Go and see, the court has announced that we are saved..."

The words were inexplicable, but Liu Chengye was moved by his emotions. After all, he was worrying about his future livelihood just now, so when he heard it, he asked curiously, "What announcement?"

"We can go to work for the emperor!" Wang Dongming said excitedly, "The one who gave the money, the original craftsmen were disbanded, there is a lot of money, and they said that if they did a good job, they would be rewarded, so that they don't have to worry about making a living. It's..."

The ravages of Jianlu and the skyrocketing prices in the capital pushed families like Liu Chengye back below the poverty line. The same was true for Wang Dongyang's family.

Although he still couldn't hear clearly, Liu Chengye could hear something, and quickly asked, "You said the craftsman was cancelled? Did you hire us instead? This...Is this impossible?"

He immediately thought of the army.In the past, the army was composed of military households, and they had been in the army for generations.But later on, that kind of army composed of military households could not be fought at all. During the Jiajing period, it is said that dozens of Japanese pirates were killed in the south, all the way to Yingtianfu City.From this, there was the recruitment of troops, the kind that paid soldiers.

It seems that the craftsman is about to change.However, craftsmen are different from military households, so it is not that important, will this change?

In his opinion, if the army is incompetent, as it is now, thieves are everywhere and captives are rampant, threatening the government's rule.Therefore, it is conceivable to change.But what about craftsmen?The incompetence of the craftsman seems to have little influence on the court, right?

Thinking of this, Liu Chengye couldn't believe it.Wang Dongyang saw it, pulled him away, and said excitedly: "If you don't believe me, just go and have a look. Let me tell you, you may not be able to go if you want to. Those who need to be assessed can only pass the assessment." Into..."

"My husband's assessment will definitely not be a problem." Liu Chengye's daughter-in-law suddenly appeared and said very confidently.

Liu Chengye turned around and saw his wife looking at him, her eyes full of hope.

Liu Chengye nodded, and hurriedly went to see the notice with Wang Dongyang without pulling him.

Along the way, he found that many craftsmen he knew were all excitedly rushing to the same destination.Obviously, everyone has heard the news and has to rush to check it out.

In today's world, except for those who are officials and the rich and powerful, everyone's life is very difficult.If there is such a good thing, it will just solve their plight, and naturally they are rushing to work.Even Emperor Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng and others did not expect this to trigger such an eager response.

Liu Chengye rushed to the place where the notice was posted, and it was already full of people.Basically, they are all craftsmen, talking excitedly.

When Liu Chengye saw it, he became even more excited for no reason. He squeezed in and listened to what they had to say.

"I'm going to work in the palace! For the salary, look, even ordinary craftsmen are paid two taels of silver a month, which is really great!"

"No, this is higher than the monthly salary of a soldier. Could it be true?"

"Why can't it be true? Can there be false information on this notice?"

"That's right, didn't you steal the homes of those Shanxi merchants? The cartloads of gold, silver and jewelry are too numerous to count. Is the emperor still short of silver?"

"That's right! Besides, do you think any craftsman can enter? Look, the notice says that there is an assessment. Only after passing the assessment can you be qualified to be an ordinary craftsman!"

"..."

Liu Chengye is confident in his craftsmanship, and the fine steel he forges is one of the best among all the blacksmiths in the capital.Therefore, for the assessment and so on, I automatically ignored it. I just wanted to read the notice. No matter what, I had to see it with my own eyes, even if I couldn't read.

The blacksmith has great strength, but even so, it took a lot of effort to squeeze in.Sure enough, I saw a newly posted notice, which is still very long and should have a lot of content.

So, he quickly turned his ears sideways and continued to listen. Naturally, there were literate people in the crowd.

It just so happened that a newcomer who was literate was reading the notice, so he listened quickly with his ears up.

Wang Dongyang was right, the emperor sent back all the craftsmen who were serving as craftsmen in the palace, and instead recruited craftsmen with good craftsmanship, and gave them a salary, and other rewards for good work...

"What? A knighthood?" Liu Chengye suddenly felt incredible as he listened, and quickly interrupted the man.

Finally, a literate person came, and the craftsmen around couldn't wait to listen to it again. When he interrupted him like this, they all glared at him, which made Liu Chengye a little embarrassed, and quickly said: "Go on, go on..."

This man obviously knew a lot, so he explained to them all: "This title is similar to the military merit title in the pre-Qin period, but it is awarded to five levels, which is different from the current Duke and Marquis. But there are also tax exemptions , do not pay homage to officials..."

Even though Liu Chengye thought his craftsmanship was good, he became nervous when he heard it. The conditions offered by the emperor are so good, will everyone come to grab him? Can he stand out and become a craftsman in the palace?

Other craftsmen have this idea even more. With such a good treatment, they are afraid that they will not be able to get in!Correspondingly, many people have opinions on this.

(End of this chapter)