lovenovelstory Chapter 31 Giving a Gun to the Eunuch
Chapter 31 Giving a Gun to the Eunuch
Chapter 031
"Father-in-law, you must be tired from your long journey!"
Chen Ying waved his hand at Song Xianze, who then took out a gold leaf from his person, weighing about four or five taels. Chen Ying was not satisfied and continued to reach out. Helpless, Song Xianze took out all the gold leaves from his person.
Chen Ying handed all four gold leaves to the head eunuch: "Sir, have some wine to warm yourself up!"
Lu Jiucheng accepted the twenty taels of gold, bowing respectfully to Chen Ying and saying, "Thank you for your generous reward, Lord Chen!"
He really didn't expect that Chen Boying would be so shrewd at such a young age. No wonder he was able to rise from an ordinary military household to become the commander of the Shahe Garrison.
Chen Ying lowered his voice and asked, "Eunuch Lu, what brings His Majesty to see me?"
"It cannot be said, it cannot be said, but..."
Lu Jiucheng laughed and said, "Lord Chen, this is definitely a good thing!"
Chen Ying smiled wryly and said, "Eunuch Lu, I have just arrived in Gonghua City and still have some trivial matters to attend to. Could I go to the capital tomorrow?"
"This... will do too."
Lu Jiucheng was also indebted to those who had served him. He knew very well that the Tianqi Emperor's summons of Chen Boying was to ascertain whether Chen Boying needed anything else.
"It's getting late, please come inside and rest, Eunuch Lu!"
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Lord Chen!"
The junior official beside Lu Jiucheng gave him a wink, and Lu Jiucheng understood: "Lord Chen, this is my first time in Gonghua City, may I look around?"
"No problem!"
Chen Ying smiled and said, "Then let me introduce you to Eunuch Lu!"
At this time, Gonghua City had become a huge construction site, with the carriage manufacturing bureau, gun and cannon bureau, gunpowder bureau, and clothing bureau all expanding their factories.
Factories and military fortresses are different types of building complexes, especially smelting furnaces like those of the Agricultural Implements Bureau, which have now been upgraded from the 1,200-kilogram capacity to the 3,000-kilogram capacity.
This means that each furnace needs to add at least 3,000 kilograms of pig iron, plus coke. More importantly, the size of the refining furnace has changed from a double-door refrigerator to a small cargo truck.
Adding iron and coke into the furnace is very inconvenient, which requires mechanical equipment. Chen Ying naturally thought of the multi-functional overhead crane of later generations, which is a lifting device that is placed on the top of the factory building and usually has the capacity to lift 15 to 60 tons.
Chen Ying did not need such a large lifting device for the time being, and instead switched to a manual overhead crane. The mechanical principle was almost the same as that of the multi-functional overhead cranes of later generations. The difference was that it was started by human power and used the principle of labor saving through the pulley system.
Because this equipment requires sufficient height, ordinary houses cannot be used as workshops for refining furnaces; they usually need to be three or four stories high.
Large quantities of dismantled blue bricks were piled up into a small mountain, while the craftsmen vigorously tamped down the foundation. Lu Jiucheng stared in disbelief at the foundation, which was about twenty meters wide and fifty meters long, and asked, "Lord Chen, what is this for?"
"This will be the future production workshop of the Agricultural Implements Manufacturing Bureau. The designed production capacity is 68,000 catties of refined steel per day. For example, the Tianqi Plow can be cast at least 1,360 times a day."
Chen Ying wasn't telling the truth. This place would be a refining furnace in the future, and also a factory for the Gun Bureau to cast cannons. Everything like carriages and farm tools would be moved outside the city.
Gonghua City is a small fortress, only one square kilometer, or about 1,500 mu. As a military fortress, this is sufficient. It can be garrisoned by one or two thousand troops, and it is impossible to conquer without tens of thousands of troops.
In the entire Shayu Garrison, Chen Ying only retained three centurions of soldiers, totaling 336 men. He appointed Chen Daniu, Wang Tiezhu, and Qin Siming as centurions.
The other centurions acted as foremen, leading the soldiers in their work. The Ming Dynasty possessed a very comprehensive technological reserve, with a wide variety of skilled craftsmen.
To be fair, although the Ming Dynasty was slightly inferior to Europe in terms of artillery at the same time, this was not because the Ming craftsmen were not skilled enough, but because the court did not provide them with enough iron and manufacturing costs, nor did it provide them with the treatment they deserved. Of course, they were relatively better off during the Ming Dynasty, but by the Qing Dynasty, their treatment was even worse, even worse than that of beggars.
The artisans of the Ming Dynasty could produce rapid-fire muskets, flintlock muskets, and rocket launchers, but unfortunately, due to cost issues, they could not fully utilize their advantages.
Taking arquebuses as an example, the production cost of a single arquebus during the Wanli era was approximately nine qian of silver (according to the "Notices on Factory and Warehouse Production" and other sources). However, due to financial difficulties during the Tianqi and Chongzhen eras, the cost dropped to five qian of silver, mainly achieved by using inferior iron materials and simplified processes. Other records show that the standard cost of the Ministry of Works in the 43rd year of the Wanli era was two taels of silver, and after simplifying the process in the 4th year of the Chongzhen era, it was approximately one tael and two qian of silver.
These are just the literal figures. In fact, during the Wanli era, the price of grain, such as millet, was only four qian of silver. By the third year of the Tianqi era, it had risen to seven to nine qian of silver. During the Chongzhen era, it rose to one liang and two qian of silver (the normal price during non-famine periods). During the Wanli era, ordinary craftsmen earned about thirty wen of cash a day, which could buy four to six jin of rice. It was difficult to cover family expenses, but they could still survive and not starve to death.
However, by the Chongzhen era, ordinary craftsmen could no longer even make a living.
The wages that Chen Ying paid to the military households of the Shahe Garrison were almost twice that of the artisans of the Ministry of Works' Gun and Cannon Bureau at the same time. More importantly, Chen Ying also provided meals, clothing, and protective equipment for the artisans.
These hidden benefits were not enjoyed by the court's artisans. Even though Chen Ying had only been in Gonghua City for three days, many escaped artisans came here to beg for a way to survive.
Lu Jiucheng followed Chen Ying on a tour of Gonghua City's Clothing Bureau, Machinery Bureau, and Construction Bureau, exclaiming in surprise, "Lord Chen, didn't you just arrive in Gonghua City three days ago?"
"yes!"
Chen Ying smiled and asked, "What's the problem?"
"That's way too fast!"
Lu Chengjiu asked in surprise, "You've built such a large carriage workshop, how many carriages do you plan to build?"
"Not too many, around ten thousand or eight thousand vehicles would be about right for the Gyeonggi region!"
Chen Ying's four-wheeled carriages and chariots are positioned as high-end vehicles, equivalent to the Rolls-Royce of carriages. He has already made preparations, and even the cheapest four-wheeled carriage will cost three hundred taels of silver each.
As for high-end ones, like Wei Zhongxian's carriage, it cost at least tens of thousands of taels of silver. Of course, it's estimated that no one would dare to be more luxurious than Wei Zhongxian's carriage.
Inside the carriage workshop, a colossal machine was in operation. Two mules, driven by craftsmen, were diligently pulling a wheel, which in turn powered saws.
The craftsman places a piece of wood on the table saw, and with a piercing noise, the wood is cut into planks. Compared to a hand saw, this animal-powered table saw is more than ten times more efficient. More importantly, even a carpentry apprentice can cut wood into neat planks as long as he marks the lines.
Without sufficient experience, it's easy to turn wood into scrap when using a manual saw. This is where technological improvements come in. In addition to animal-powered table saws, there are also planers that can precisely sand wood boards. They are much faster and more accurate than manual saws. An apprentice can learn to operate one after just three to five days of training.
The efficiency of carriage craftsmen was actually not high. With so many machines, they could process at most a thousand parts a day. In Chen Ying's view, this efficiency was even lower than that of small workshops in later generations. However, in Lu Jiucheng's view, the efficiency of the carriage manufacturing bureau was already frighteningly high.
"Bang……"
After leaving the carriage manufacturing bureau, I saw the craftsmen of the machinery bureau making various machines. In fact, most of these machines were made by the craftsmen themselves. Chen Ying was not omnipotent. He was only a professional in the field of metallurgy. In fields like textiles, he was a complete novice.
He paid high wages to craftsmen and also rewarded craftsmen who made inventions. He would give a certain reward for any machine that could improve work efficiency.
This sixty-four-wheeled spinning machine was made by a craftsman named Ye Xin. Chen Ying didn't actually have much money to reward craftsmen. Of the more than 2,600 mu of land that Zhu Youxiao had given to Chen Ying, Chen Ying took it out and directly rewarded Ye Xin with ten mu of land, plus a house on one mu of land.
This caused a sensation within the Thousand Households Bureau. You see, the craftsmen didn't ask for much; they would be content as long as they could have a full meal. But Chen Ying not only rewarded him with fifty taels of silver, which was equivalent to five hundred months' salary, but also gave him ten acres of farmland and one acre of residential land.
This is equivalent to Ye Xin going from being extremely poor to becoming a wealthy household with money, houses, and land overnight. Craftsmen like Ye Xin with certain skills began to abandon the idea of not passing on their ancestral skills and were ready to exchange their skills for money.
Chen Ying divided his thousand-household residence in two: one part became the Shahe School, and the other part was converted into the Chen Mansion, Chen Ying's private residence.
Fortunately, Chen Ying only had one wife and one brother-in-law, so they couldn't live in that many houses. The rest of the area was the school district.
As the headmaster of Shahe Academy, Song Xianze led sixteen scholars with basic literacy skills to divide the more than three hundred children into sixteen classes and began teaching.
"Heaven and earth were dark and yellow, the universe was vast and boundless..."
During recess, more than 300 children, like wild beasts released from their cages, quickly ran to the schoolyard to line up after saying "Goodbye, teacher." They weren't having free time; they were doing their morning exercises.
Braving the cold wind, the children, led by Song Xianze, began practicing their boxing.
Chen Daniu, Wang Tiezhu, and Qin Siming, the three trial centurions, led the soldiers in training. They wore brand-new mandarin duck battle jackets and trained according to Chen Ying's instructions.
Chen Ying was well aware that Zhu Youxiao did not intend for him to serve as the garrison commander of the capital. More importantly, the Jurchens would not break through the pass until October of the second year of Chongzhen's reign, and there would be no war in the capital region for the next six years.
Even if there were wars, he wouldn't be on the battlefield. His training methods followed the "New Book of Military Efficiency," with the Mandarin Duck Formation as the main method. The Mandarin Duck Formation can be considered the ancestor of close-quarters combat (CQB). 150,000 Japanese pirates proved with their blood the power of the Mandarin Duck Formation in close-quarters melee combat, which also created the reputation of Qi Jiguang's army.
Lu Jiucheng toured the entire city of Gonghua and gained a new understanding of Chen Boying, the newly promoted commander: "Lord Chen is truly remarkable..."
"Our Emperor has discerning eyes; he recognized Chen Boying as an exceptional talent, one in a million!"
Lu Jiucheng was actually one of Wei Zhongxian's confidants, and of course, he was also a confidant of Emperor Zhu Youxiao. He came to Gonghua City with the eyes of Emperor Tianqi to observe Chen Boying's character up close.
In his view, Chen Boying, with four or five thousand ragtag men, would have arrived in Gonghua City in three days, and they would be exhausted and surely dead.
As it turned out, these military households were in high spirits and well-trained. Chen Boying had already arranged everything and even resumed production.
What kind of efficiency is this?
Even the world's top generals would probably find it difficult to do this.
During the Battle of Sarhu, the imperial court conscripted the White Spear Army and the Zhejiang Army (Qi Family Army) to aid Liaodong. They were elite soldiers, but when they arrived in the capital after a long journey, they were in a terrible state.
Wei Zhongxian's biggest headache was that the situation in Liaodong was precarious. Although Mao Wenlong had defected to Wei Zhongxian and had a close relationship with him, Mao Wenlong was only a capable general. He was good at fighting some tactical battles, but he was completely incompetent at fighting large-scale battles.
If Chen Boying is a good fighter, it would be a great thing for Eunuch Wei.
Chen Ying didn't know how long he would be away from the Thousand Households Office. He could only do his best to make arrangements. First, he would continue to use his eight adopted sons, including Chen Yongren, to take advantage of their young age and inconspicuous excellence as secret supervisors of the entire Thousand Households Office. They would supervise the centurions, officers, and managers he had appointed to ensure that they would not take bribes or engage in any illegal or disorderly conduct after he left.
Secondly, there was Song Yanniang. As the wife and the chief financial officer, she had to control the logistics. Song Xianze carried out his plan. On the one hand, as long as the refugees and craftsmen who came to them had no problems after the investigation, they were all accepted. They were not afraid of having too many people.
Finally, we need to organize the purchase of coal from Xishan, mainly to ensure warmth and prevent people from freezing to death.
The next morning, Chen Ying accompanied Lu Jiucheng and the others for breakfast: "Eunuch Lu, did you sleep well last night?"
"Not bad!"
Lu Jiugong said with a wry smile, "It's just a bit noisy!"
"terribly sorry!"
Chen Ying laughed and said, "I have five or six thousand mouths to feed under my command, so we can't afford to delay in resuming production!"
"I understand, I understand!"
After the meal, Chen Ying instructed Chen Daniu to take fifty men with him to the capital. These fifty military households were not actually acting as guards, but as coachmen.
Chen Ying brought a total of twenty-five carriages to the capital at once. One of them was a four-wheeled carriage built for the Tianqi Emperor, and the other twelve carriages were four-wheeled carriages prepared for sale in the capital.
Of course, its specifications were slightly inferior to those of Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youjian, and its size was smaller. The four-wheeled carriage that Chen Ying himself rode in was the style prepared for sale.
"Please get in the carriage, Eunuch Lu, let's go to the capital together!"
Lu Jiucheng had naturally seen the carriage that Xu Xianchun had given to Wei Zhongxian, and he was shocked: "This... is..."
"Of course not!"
Chen Ying's four-wheeled carriage was only sixteen feet long and six feet wide, with a booth-style interior. Despite the howling wind outside, the carriage was warm and cozy inside.
Lu Jiucheng sat on the sofa, feeling somewhat surreal. Although he was Wei Zhongxian's confidant, he had never had the chance to ride in Wei Zhongxian's carriage. If he hadn't seen the trees outside the window receding, he would have thought the carriage hadn't moved at all.
"This is amazing!"
Chen Ying took a box out of the carriage and handed it to Lu Jiucheng: "Eunuch Lu, this is just a small token of my appreciation!"
"How could I possibly accept this?"
"Nothing more than a token gesture..."
Lu Jiucheng opened the box, and inside was not the gold and silver jewelry he had imagined, but a gleaming black revolver. He was immediately stunned: "This is..."
"A little gift for Eunuch Lu!"
Chen Ying skillfully picked up the revolver. It was a flintlock revolver with bullets made of paper. The biggest improvement was the use of pellet gunpowder.
"Eunuch Lu, would you like to give it a try?"
Lu Jiugong stared at Chen Ying speechlessly. "Giving a eunuch a gun? What were you thinking? Do I need this thing?"