The last time Liu Chengzong slept in the room was probably ten months ago. He returned to the safest environment. With his mind relaxed, he rarely took a nap and woke up at noon.
Because the conversation with his father made him realize that the family was destined to spend less time together and more separation in the future, he thought that he would do nothing today and spend time with his parents in Cowan.
As a result, he found out very embarrassingly that his parents did not need his company. When he woke up, the city was quiet, as if there was no one else.
He walked out to the door of the mansion and asked the guard standing guard: "Tianbao, who am I?"
The guard guard guarding the gate of the mansion is named Tianbao, who is also from northern Shaanxi, but he used to be a soldier of Zuo Guangxian. When he joined his army in Xining, he went to the training camp. He was transferred to the guard team only after he had made meritorious service in the south.
Tianbao said: "The old man went out before dawn. He took two of his men with him, including a cotton-padded armor, a cotton-padded jacket, a wild goose feather, a sword and a gun. He thought he was General Zu, so he only asked the younger one to heat up the water."
Liu Chengzong scratched his head and looked puzzled: "What did you do?"
"I took the college students to practice outside the city, danced with swords, shot arrows, rode horses and fired guns. Then I went back to the house to take a shower and eat. I said I went to the college to give morning classes to the students."
Liu Chengzong wiped his face. His father's hobbies and interests are increasingly abandoning literature and pursuing martial arts. Good health is a good sign. He yawned and stretched and asked: "What about my mother?"
"The old lady also went out in the morning. She took seven or eight young women with her and asked the Fan Guan team to go to the Juerwan market. She said that she would ask the Industrial Bureau to give Fan Guan Team some pieces of jewelry and measure a few sets of clothes." Liu Chengzong stretched out halfway and stopped: "My mother took Sanlang to make jewelry? Who are those seven or eight women, and she didn't bring a few guards."
"I don't know about this young one, but they all seem to be handsome old men." The guard shook his head and said, "I heard that there is the wife of Magistrate Yang and the wife of General Cao. I also heard the old lady calling the two women Bai.
Mother, Yun Niang."
It’s Sister-in-law Cao, Bailiuxi and Yunjiaoyue.
Sister-in-law Cao thinks that she was the wife of Yazhai back then, and she was skilled in bow and horse; Bailiuxi Yunjiaoyue also had martial arts skills, and the little golden melon could knock people's heads off with melon seeds. In addition, Fan Sanlang, who carried two muskets with him in the south and north, this
The lineup can disturb a city's peace.
Liu Chengzong was relieved. As he walked into the mansion, he heard Tianbao say: "The commander-in-chief, as well as General Zu, have taken Chen Chieftain back to Xining this morning to arrange for Chen Chieftain to guard Bajiao City."
"I got it. I'm going to wash up and let the brothers have a good rest for two days. You pick a few people to lead the horses and wait for me on the street, and go to the Ordnance Bureau."
In fact, in Liu Chengzong's eyes, this newly built city was full of flaws.
The ratio of the height and thickness of the city wall is not reasonable enough. It is built in a boxy shape without taking into account the blind spots. The position and direction of the city gate cannot be said to be a crooked gate or ramp.
Except for the blue bricks covering half of the city, it is almost a county town built in peacetime, or in other words, it is the simplest square array.
But there is nothing to criticize. Not everyone has the experience of both attacking and building fortresses like him.
It is even more impossible to expect my father to be like him, seeing a city and thinking about how to conquer it.
In fact, even this kind of thinking is of no use to this city. If we really hope to defend the city in Juerwan, it only means that the entire defense system of Qinghai has been breached and there is no ability to organize a field counterattack.
Liu Chengzong was not in a hurry to leave the city. He just stood on the top of the city and looked to the west. He picked up his telescope and looked at the bustling Juerwan Market from a distance.
Although there are no Mongolian noble customers, in a short period of time, due to the return of tens of thousands of soldiers from the Southern Expedition, the Juerwan market will not decline quickly.
Liu Chengzong distributed a silver reward totaling 160,000 taels to the soldiers who followed him. The vacation sergeants in the entire area around the lake blocked the valley with war horses and carriages. People brought bags of gold and silver and exchanged them for large amounts of lion tickets in the market.
Purchasing at will.
This prosperity will last for a long time.
At the Ordnance Bureau, Liu Chengzong did not let anyone report the news. He just led his guards to visit in the workshop courtyard. It was not until he visited most of the Ordnance Bureau that He Xin and I got the news and hurried over to see him.
The two of them were surprised that Liu Chengzong visited the Ordnance Bureau the day after he returned. They thought something big had happened, but they didn't know that when they met Liu Chengzong, they found that the commander was watching the craftsmen forge iron and steel.
"How much armaments can the Ordnance Bureau produce in a year?"
The teacher succeeded and I answered fluently: "Come back to the Commander-in-Chief, because the sale of Coul Bay takes up the craftsman's time, the Ordnance Bureau has established a rule of 960 pieces a year."
"Quite a few, go to the Yamen."
Liu Chengzong nodded in approval of this number, and asked the Ordnance Bureau official to take him to the Yamen, saying: "As we walked, we talked, what does each piece of armament have?"
This time I looked at He Xin. He Xin said: "Coming back to the commander-in-chief, a pair of military equipment has two military uniforms, an alms bowl, a collar for body armor, a sword handle, a bow, two bowstrings, and two arms.
One shield, thirty arrows, one scatter bag; two pairs plus a bird gun, a pair of tin turtle pouches, thirty medicine cartridges, three hundred lead pills, six pounds of gunpowder; the third pair plus a spear
, a long card."
With that said, I have already ordered the staff of the Ordnance Bureau to fetch three sets of armaments from the inventory.
Liu Chengzong laughed out loud after hearing He Xin's report, frowned and asked, "I don't remember that you worked in the Imperial Arms Bureau?"
This method of calculating armaments by deputy is very much in the personal style of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, and is full of distrust of officials.
To put it simply, if we don’t count them by pieces, these 960 pieces of armaments can be said to be more than 170,000 pieces of various types of armaments. If armor plates are also included, it can be said to be more than 300,000 pieces of equipment.
He Xin shook his head and said: "Come back to the Commander-in-Chief, I have never worked in the Ordnance Bureau. This is Xining. When the third general was in charge of Juerwan, he recruited some craftsmen from the Ordnance Bureau of Xining Guards. The imperial armament regulations were also followed.
Coming."
Liu Chengzong smiled and agreed, it turned out to be Cheng Yun who did it.
He has already discovered the problem. The Ordnance Bureau's production capacity is insufficient, and there is a serious lag in manufacturing equipment. Equipment regulations are still applicable to group equipment for one combat soldier and two auxiliary soldiers.
This made him feel that it was lucky that the Marshal's Mansion was born in this era. The forces of all parties had no lower limit, the natural environment constrained their upper limit, and the soldiers' requirements for him were also very low.
People are very loyal, even if they only have this pitiful ordnance production capacity. The entire army uses almost no self-made equipment except guns and artillery. With just one mouthful of food, it can conquer thousands of miles.<
/p>
Not long after, the Ordnance Bureau officials took more than ten apprentices and three sets of armaments to the Ordnance Bureau Yamen.
Liu Chengzong was right at first glance. This was the equipment of the three-person combat auxiliary team, but he had never seen the uniforms or armor inside.
This made him very helpless. Many of the soldiers who followed him on the southern expedition wore Ming army uniforms. A few veterans wore a winter coat from the Lion Camp for a year. Most of the soldiers, including the Basang Camp, wore
Captured equipment that may not fit properly.
Not to mention soldiers and armors, you can wear whatever you have and use them for whatever you have.
Their poor manufacturing capabilities and the long distance between the two palaces mean that the Marshal's Army is far from meeting the conditions for what they can build and use.
The military uniform is worn both inside and outside for summer and winter. The underwear is a khaki-coloured collar with a right lapel, middle coat and trousers; the outer garment is a calf-length cotton jacket and cotton trousers with cowhide reinforcement to protect the chest, back, crotch, legs and arms.
Two belts, two pairs of belts, and one pair of leather boots.
The armor is mainly made of a half-sleeved iron chain mail connected by a brazing process and is of excellent workmanship. It is also equipped with a pair of leather pad iron shin guards and arm guards.
Liu Chengzong was relatively happy when he was looking at the military uniforms. He could see that the marshal's palace was rich in furs, but when he saw the armor, he was not satisfied. He pointed at the chain armor and asked, "What does this mean?"
Liu Chengzong thought, my Ordnance Bureau treats my soldiers as miscellaneous soldiers, and they all go to the battlefield wearing these things.
To be fair, the welded chainmail is not bad, but Liu Chengzong feels that this set of armor lacks a lot of things. The combination of winter coat and chainmail is an excellent lining for heavy troops, but what about the outer armor? There is no outer armor.
We can’t say that everyone is a light infantryman.
So much so that Liu Chengzong lost all desire to look closely at swords, spears, shields and muskets. If his army relied on this chainmail armor to compete in the world, it would definitely be hopeless.
The most critical thing is that his army has no military pay. How can he buy armor accessories? This means that the soldiers have no chance to buy armor before going to the battlefield for the first time.
Shicheng and I didn't understand what he meant at first, but then I realized that the commander was dissatisfied with the armor, so he said: "Commander, both the iron armband and the cloth face armor can be equipped by the sergeant later.
”
"Self-provided?" Liu Chengzong frowned and said, "I think the Ordnance Bureau's manufacturing capabilities are not bad. Do we need soldiers to self-provide?"
He Xin was a little embarrassed and sat on the edge without daring to speak. Shicheng I suddenly realized the reason for Liu Chengzong's anger, and he immediately relaxed and explained: "Commander, please calm down, please forgive me for speaking frankly. The Marshal's Mansion has experienced many battles for a long time, and there are many things in Xining."
After the general's southern expedition, there were changes. Each ministry was not affiliated with each other, materials were not allocated well, and the cost of soldiers and armaments had to be considered."
Liu Chengzong said: "Go on."
"In the past, when the commander-in-chief was there, all ministries would coordinate with the commander-in-chief. No matter what happened, the commander-in-chief could make a decision with a single word. But after the Southern Expedition, everything remained the same as before, and no one dared to overstep in the new affairs and relied on hard work to maintain it."
The teacher Cheng I said one by one: "For example, the third general is in charge of the Juerwan market. The officers in the training camp want to eat fresh vegetables. However, our army only has rations of dried meat, pickles, vinegar and cloth as a rule. Fortunately, the Juerwan market is still profitable. The third general
He also has prestige and can prepare fresh vegetables to supply troops for training, which is nothing more than a cost."
"And the Ordnance Bureau needs millions of coal and tens of thousands of copper and iron. How can it be purchased? Xining Prefecture can only support itself with rations and cannot allocate materials. It can only rely on market profits to purchase materials and complete the tasks required by the commander-in-chief.
If you have a gun or a blunderbuss, you can only choose what to choose if you have standing ordnance."
After I finished speaking, Shicheng looked at the three pairs of mail armor in the hall and said: "Armor is the most expensive item, and my subordinates were afraid that they would be punished by the commander for making light armor, so they chose locks as the inner armor.
If you are dissatisfied with the armor, it is not considered useless and can be used as a sergeant's lining."
Liu Chengzong understood that, in the final analysis, the administrative mechanism of the Marshal's Office was too immature, and Juerwan was once a department directly under him.
When he was there, everything was fine. When he was gone, there was no replacement agency, which caused chaos in the management of Xining Mansion.
Even if his father serves as the prefect and manages the city of Irvine, he cannot command the various ministries like him. He can only coordinate and manage in the middle to survive.
Liu Chengzong thought for a moment without saying anything. He was wondering whether the same chaos would happen in Kangning Mansion.
Corning does not have departments like the Juerwan Market, the Ordnance Bureau, and the Military Training Camp that he manages alone, so management is much easier.
"I understand, this problem will be solved later."
Liu Chengzong asked: "How many craftsmen are there in the Ordnance Bureau now?"
"The Ordnance Bureau is divided into fifteen categories of workshops including small and large wood, lacquer, bows, arrows, metal fire, gunpowder, furnaces, castings, forgings, guns, cannons, charcoal, fur, and textiles. It is divided into twenty-seven courtyards. Each workshop has a total of
There are one hundred and twenty-eight master craftsmen, seven hundred and forty master craftsmen, and one thousand one hundred and fifty-three small and medium-sized craftsmen."
Liu Chengzong nodded slowly. The scale of the craftsmanship is very large, but the output is relatively small. This must be due to raw materials, costs, and management.
He thought for a while and said to his teacher: "Well, I've seen the Ordnance Bureau and there are a lot of things that need to be adjusted in my mind. Come back to the Marshal's Mansion with me... There is no need to make bows and arrows. Let's give the craftsmen a holiday first.
”
The two of them were shocked. Their commander-in-chief used to admire bows and arrows very much, but after a war in the south, he seemed to have changed his nature and stopped letting the Ordnance Bureau make bows and arrows.
Facing the surprised expressions of the two men, Liu Chengzong waved his hands and said: "In the past, our army was small and elite, and had no source of recruits, so we followed the imperial court's example, using bows for those who were strong and skilled, and blunderbuss for those who were weak...
…But you don’t know how many bows I captured in the south.”
Liu Chengzong was one of the first fleets to cross Qinghai Lake. The people behind him transported the spoils of war from Nanshan Fort to the Navy Yamen. More than 20,000 bows were seized successively, including some that had not been well maintained and glued after the battle in the valley. In fact,
I was too lazy to transport it to Juerwan, so I left it at the Navy Yamen for the time being.
This year of fighting made Liu Chengzong truly realize that he still had to rely on firearms and hand-to-hand combat to solve problems.
Whether he wants to admit it or not, bows and arrows are indeed of little use when fighting against well-armored regular troops.
Now Xikang has a large enough population to support him in recruiting troops, and depending on the nutritional level of the soldiers, it is more beneficial to train them to use muskets.
On the way back to the Marshal's Mansion, Liu Chengzong described his development blueprint for the Ordnance Bureau to Shi Chengga: "The simpler our weapons and armors are, the better. Moreover, the Ordnance Bureau in Juerwan does not have material advantages. Xining Prefecture has many mines.
, then build a factory under the mine to make iron, steel, copper, tin, and lead directly to reduce transportation costs."
"We selected places with strong currents along the river to build gunpowder factories, cannons, cannons, swords, spears, armor, and gunpowder. Each factory built large-scale hydraulic machinery first, and we used all the lathes that needed them."
Lathe is not a new word. In ancient times, machines that rotated with axles were called lathes, and the bases on which things were placed were called lathes, such as waterwheels, rollovers, cylinder cars, oxcarts, drilling machines, grinders, and weight machines.
"All swords, spears and armor have only one specification. A factory has several workshops, and each workshop only makes one thing. For example, a knife forging factory has a forging workshop, a grinding workshop, a polishing workshop, an adjustment room and an assembly room. Each workshop is
Just care about this one thing, and a worker only cares about this process."
Liu Chengzong said to his master Chengwo: "As long as one master craftsman can quickly bring out many skilled workers."
I was a little confused when I heard Shicheng, but I can probably understand the meaning. As a traditional craftsman, he can realize the benefits of this, and he can also realize that the skilled workers brought out in this way are absolutely inseparable from the Marshal's Mansion. p>
"Commander, you can do this with swords, spears, armor, and even artillery, but making muskets... matchlocks and bird muskets requires fifteen or six workshops, and flintlock guns require at least thirty workshops."
Having said that, Shicheng I nodded again and said: "But according to the commander-in-chief's arrangement, the output will definitely be improved."
"That's enough!"
Liu Chengzong smiled and said: "Now is a good time to use work as a substitute for prosperity. Our manpower has never been so sufficient."