Of course it is very easy. The Ming army, under the control of the civilian group, has already had endless problems. You can easily find a lot of problems.
In a military camp of the Datong Prefecture border army, Liu Yu, the commander-in-chief of the three sides, had just been named Jingbianbo, and had been promoted to Minister of War. However, because the war had just ended, he had not yet taken up his post in the capital.
For the time being, it is still the trilateral system of Datong, Xuanfu, and Shanxi.
Liu Yu accompanied Zhu Houzhao, Wang Hua, and Liu Jin to inspect the military camp. In his opinion, His Highness the Crown Prince came here to increase his presence and just come and take a look.
After all, they had just defeated the grassland people not long ago, and now everyone in the Ming Dynasty was praising the Ming army for its extraordinary bravery. At this time, he would never have thought that Zhu Houzhao was actually here to cause trouble.
On the huge playground, the frontier troops of Datong Prefecture stood neatly. Each one of them was in good spirits. They were wearing armor made by the Miyun Iron Factory and holding weapons made by the Miyun Iron Factory. Yanran was a strong army.
In fact, in the recent war, these frontier troops were indeed very brave. Stimulated by money, they fought bravely and were even more powerful than those military households.
At this time, the military households had all returned to their respective guard posts, and the border troops had also returned to their guarding places. The armor, weapons, and artillery donated by the Miyun Iron Factory naturally belonged to these border troops.
"Not bad, not bad, very impressive~"
Zhu Houzhao, who was on the general stage, looked at the army in front of him and nodded with a smile on his face.
His words also made Liu Yu smile. In order to cope with Zhu Houzhao's inspection, he had been busy for a while, pulling in all the strong men in the general household, and then he assembled what looked like a pretty good army in front of him.
"These armors and weapons look great, don't they?"
"Come here and show me this armor and weapons."
Zhu Houzhao had a smile on his face, and soon his eyes were fixed on the armors and weapons of these border troops, and he pointed at a big soldier in front and said.
The big-headed soldier was slightly stunned, a little at a loss, but the opponent was the prince, so he obediently took off his armor, then held the weapon flat on his head with both hands and presented it to Zhu Houzhao.
Zhu Houzhao picked up the armor and weapons and looked at them carefully.
Although the armor of Miyun Iron Factory is very thin, it is made of steel using a secret formula and has very good defensive power. As for the weapons, they are also made of high-quality steel. They are very sharp and strong. They are definitely top-notch.
Good weapons.
"Drink~"
Zhu Houzhao took a horizontal knife and slashed a large pillar on the stage. The pillar was cut off in an instant, and he nodded with satisfaction.
"This weapon and armor are very good."
"Are these armor weapons issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs?"
Zhu Houzhao asked Liu Yu beside him.
Hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Liu Yu suddenly panicked, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes, and then he quickly said calmly: "Back to Your Highness, these armors and weapons are all donated by the Miyun Iron Factory in the capital.
It is indeed quite good. These armors and weapons also contributed greatly to our victory this time."
"Oh, the armor and weapons were donated from the Miyun Iron Works in the capital~"
"What about the armor and weapons distributed by the Ministry of Revenue?"
"Bring some over here and take a look?"
Zhu Houzhao nodded with sudden realization, then thought about it and said.
Of course he knew that these armors and weapons were donated by Miyun Iron Works. He was the major shareholder of Miyun Iron Works. How could he not know this?
He asked deliberately, looking for something, and the first thing he looked for was weapons and armaments.
The imperial court allocates a batch of silver taels and materials every year to build weapons and equipment. For this war, Emperor Hongzhi personally used 1.5 million taels of silver from his own funds to fight the war, plus various kinds of money from the treasury.
All kinds of materials, including hundreds of thousands of taels of silver used to make armors and weapons.
Hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are used to make armored weapons, plus various other materials, etc. Logically speaking, the armored weapons made must be at least salable.
However, Liu Jin had already sent someone to find out in advance. This time, the weapons and armor issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs could not be used at all. They had blades as thin as cicada wings and cotton armor stuffed with some cotton.
It is estimated that only they themselves know how much money was embezzled.
Therefore, on the battlefield, both frontier troops and military households were extremely short of weapons and armor. Many people cut wood to make wooden guns for fighting, because wooden guns were much easier to use than the weapons issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Others go to the battlefield with hoes and kitchen knives. At least the kitchen knives and hoes are iron blocks and can kill Tatars. As for the armor and weapons issued by Hubu, can they kill people?
Being able to win this battle depends entirely on the stimulation of money. Without money, it is impossible to win this battle!
After hearing Zhu Houzhao's words, Liu Yu suddenly looked embarrassed and looked very embarrassed.
He is a trilateral leader, and he is very clear about the situation of the border armies. The dereliction of armaments is definitely not an empty talk, but a real dereliction of armaments.
It is said that money is allocated every year to make armor weapons, but there have always been very few armor weapons issued to the hands of the border troops. Even if there are, they are all to fool people and have no substance at all.
effect.
The Ming army did not dare to fight the Tatars in the field. The important reason was that they could not fight the Tatars with their bare hands without armor and weapons.
The firecrackers and cannons that were issued will explode after a few rounds, which is no better than burning fire sticks. No one dares to use them. The armor and weapons are equally terrible. The knife is a blade, and the armor is stuffed with a little blue cotton.
Cotton armor, do you expect to use these things to fight against the prairie people?
Liu Yu knew this very well, but he never reported this issue to his superiors.
Because he is a member of the civil service group, he is very aware of the operations of the civil service group. The state treasury allocates one hundred taels of silver to make armor weapons. Through layers of deductions and corruption, it would be good if he can finally have ten taels of silver to make armor weapons.
Already.
The craftsmen who made armored weapons were also very helpless. They were given 10 taels of silver, but they were asked to make the same effect as 100 taels of silver. You can imagine the quality of this armored weapon.
As long as no one talks about it, it will just go away.
In the past, when dealing with the Tatars, everyone would just stop fighting if they didn't want to, and they would leave after they had plundered enough, because they knew that they couldn't win at all.
If you don't fight, there won't be any big problems, but if you fight, there will be problems.
If it fails, the Ming Dynasty will be shaken, and the emperor may send people to investigate afterwards. With a casual investigation, all kinds of problems will come out, and naturally they, the officials, will not have a good life.
"This... Your Highness, the armors and weapons issued by the Ministry of Finance are actually pretty much the same. There is nothing interesting about them."
Liu Yu's mind was spinning rapidly, and he said perfunctorily after thinking about it.
"They're almost the same?"
When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately smiled slightly. If Jinyiwei had not been asked to go to Dongchang to investigate in advance, he might have been deceived by Liu Yu.
"Let someone bring some over and have a look. Since it's almost the same, let's see how much the difference is."
Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and said.
Hearing that Zhu Houzhao insisted on watching, Liu Yu was completely panicked. It seemed that Zhu Houzhao was clearly looking for trouble.
For a moment, he didn't know what to do.
The armor and weapons issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs cannot be seen by anyone at all, let alone Zhu Yu from Miyun Iron Factory in front of him, who cannot be seen by anyone.
Once it is taken out, this problem will be exposed immediately. At that time, Zhu Houzhao will use the excuse to investigate, and all these problems will be found out.
He, the uncle of Jingbian, and the Minister of War, will most likely be kicked off in just a few days, and may even be moved to another country by then.
The Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and even the entire civil service group will suffer a heavy blow from this. Once Emperor Hongzhi investigates the matter thoroughly, there is no telling how many people will be killed.
Thinking of this, big beads of sweat appeared on Liu Yu's forehead. He was at a loss for a moment and didn't know what to do.
"how?"
"My prince's words don't work?"
Seeing that there was no movement from him, Zhu Houzhao immediately frowned and said coldly.
"I don't dare~"
"I will ask someone to fetch it immediately."
When Liu Yu heard this, he knelt down quickly and then ordered to the people below: "Bring over some armor weapons issued from above."
Although the prince is not the emperor, he is still the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty. What's more, Emperor Hongzhi has Zhu Houzhao as his son, so his position is extremely stable. He, Liu Yu, does not dare to disobey the emperor's order, otherwise he will have a good life in the future.
"Hmph~"
Zhu Houzhao glanced at Liu Yu coldly and snorted in displeasure.
"The acting looks quite similar~"
Liu Jin on the side watched the whole show, and when he saw Zhu Houzhao's appearance, he couldn't help but want to laugh.
This Zhu Houzhao is really good at acting.
Soon, someone came to the Dianjiang Platform carrying some cotton armor and weapons issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs. They arranged these armors and weapons neatly and presented them all in front of Zhu Houzhao, Wang Hua, Liu Yu, Liu Jin and others.
Zhu Houzhao picked up a knife, looked at it carefully, and gently pulled it with his hand. The knife immediately bent, and as soon as he loosened his hand, it immediately kept bouncing.
"As thin as a cicada's wings, it can only be so soft when wrapped around your fingers~"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said.
His words also made Liu Yu break into cold sweat. This word was very accurate to describe these weapons, but it obviously had other meanings. He clearly felt that Zhu Houzhao was like a volcano about to erupt at this moment.
After looking at the weapons, Zhu Houzhao looked at the cotton armor again, and swiped it lightly with a knife as thin as a cicada's wings. It was instantly cut open, revealing a thin layer of black cotton inside.
