Chapter 124 Observing the government according to the order (7)
Huang Zhenshou's nephew Liu Ping seemed to have good business skills. He immediately explained the system of Daming firearms production and raw material control to Gao Jingshi clearly. After hearing this, Gao Jingshi felt that it was quite good to be able to do this in this era.
But what he doesn't understand is that since the system is quite rigorous, why is the quality still bad?
Gao Pragmatic looked suspicious and thought to himself: Could it be that the problem lies in the warehousing? But if there is a problem in the warehousing link, Huang Mengyu cannot be completely unaware of it, so why would he take the initiative to take me to see it?
There's no way to explain it? You can't possibly want to bribe me, right? He is from Meng Chong, and he should know that I can make a fortune just by relying on Jinghua Soap. What did he bribe me with?
Over there, Liu Ping saw his hesitation and thought he had not spoken clearly enough, so he suddenly became a little nervous. When Gao Pingshi saw him, he smiled and comforted him: "You said it very well, but you only talked about production and raw material channels."
Management, inspection, distribution and warehousing have not been mentioned yet, please continue.”
Liu Ping felt relieved and continued talking.
It turns out that before the Ming Dynasty's firearms were manufactured, in addition to the required materials being listed according to the quantity produced, the officials in charge of the Bureau of Arms and the Bureau of War were also required to monitor the purchase of raw materials. Any infringement of materials would be severely punished.
In addition, in order to ensure that there are sufficient quantities of weapons when they are used, officials from the Ordnance Bureau and the Military Warfare Bureau must often check the number of weapons in each government warehouse. If there are any shortages, they must be replaced in time and sent to the internal government warehouse for storage.
If each health post or the Chief Secretary needs to make more firearms, the governor and other officials must hold a collective meeting and list the required number in a memorial. The emperor organizes ministers to discuss and then send it to the Ministry of Works. The Ministry of Works and the two bureaus will prepare the materials for manufacturing.
.If a new type of firearm is developed, the Ordnance Bureau will first produce a sample, and then the Ministry of War will test it, and then the government will allocate funds for mass production.
For example, in July of the 23rd year of Jiajing, Weng Wanda, the governor of Xuanda, developed a variety of firearms and requested them to be manufactured in this way. After testing, the Ministry of War considered some firearms, such as the three-shot continuous ball and the hundred-shot pioneer iron rod, to be convenient and usable.
It is advisable to make more. However, some firearms, such as fire beasts, mines, cannons, etc., were considered "not necessary" and it was recommended not to make more. All of them were approved by the court.
As for the weapons manufactured by the guards, there are regulations in terms of variety and quantity. The weapons made must be reported to the court every month. However, Huguang, Tonggu and other guards, the so-called "those with a long way to go", are reported once a year.
Every five years, the imperial court would send patrol censors and inspectors to conduct inspections, and officials who made firearms that did not comply with regulations or misappropriated materials would be punished, such as demoted or dismissed.
After the firearms were made, in order to ensure the quality, the imperial court would send officials such as Shi Zhonghe and Yushi to take a sample from the War and War Bureau to compare with the finished firearms, and then conduct tests. Only qualified products could be collected and stored.
Those that fail must be remade, and such inspections occur every three months.
Later, a testing hall was set up at Xi'an Gate to inspect the weapons requisitioned and sent to Beijing from various military stations. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War each sent personnel to conduct tests. Those that passed the test were kept for their own use, and those that failed were ordered to be remade.
Generally speaking, the important firearms manufacturing in the Ming Dynasty was managed by the Ministry of Works and manufactured by the two bureaus of the inner government, while the Ministry of War was responsible for the division of branches.
For general firearms, each military post can produce them. If there is a shortage or urgent need, you have to go to the Ministry of War to ask for it. The Ministry of War will decide whether it is possible. There are certain years for the distribution of general firearms, which are once every three years and once every six years.
, once every twelve years.
According to Liu Ping, Xuanda received it every five years, and as a rule he could receive 40,000 copper bullets. Over at Ji Town, he only knew that firearms were received once every three years, and that from Shuntian Mansion was once every five years. In terms of quantity, he was
Not sure anymore.
There are also regulations on the firearms collected during the Spring and Autumn Exercises in the Beijing Camp. They must be collected from the Ordnance Bureau during the opening hours and returned after the exercises are over. In order to ensure that the firearms are not lost, the names of the officials must be engraved on the firearms distributed to each side.
Write it down on the firearm, and some even write the name of the guard station. If there is a loss, you have to pay compensation.
Even from a highly pragmatic point of view, such a system can be called strict, but the question turns back - since the system is strict, why is it still rubbish?
Could it be that the poor quality of the Ming Dynasty's firearms only occurred in the years when the Ming Dynasty was about to die, and the current firearms are not bad? However, according to Liu Xian, Ma Fang and Qi Jiguang, who had direct communication with Gao Pragmatic, the Ming Dynasty's firearms are clearly sufficient now.
Too bad!
With doubts in his mind, Gao Pragmatic simply put aside the institutional issues for the time being and personally selected a batch of firearms from these warehouses for on-site live ammunition testing.
What made him laugh and cry was that he almost couldn't find anyone for this test - the clerks on the gun guard's side, even in the face of the power of the imperial envoy, expressed that they did not dare to go up and test the gun. The reason was that due to their high pragmatic requirements
To check how many shots these firearms could fire continuously, he asked to keep firing until the firearm exploded.
In the end, it was Wang Chonggu and Ma Fang who helped and brought in the captured White Lotus remnants and Mongolian prisoners. Together, there were about a hundred people, which satisfied the high pragmatic needs. As for the fact that doing so itself was suspected of violating regulations,
Anyway, Wang Chonggu and Ma Fang, the governor and the general soldier agreed, and with the full support of Huang Mengyu, the Datong garrison eunuch, Datong governor Fang Fengshi remained silent.
The results of the test made Gao Pragmatic very satisfied, and he thought it met his needs - of course it was not that the quality was very good, but that it was really rubbish.
According to the highly pragmatic spot check test results, the average number of shots of various types of handheld firearms sent by the Beijing Camp is just over five times. Among them, the products of the Ordnance Bureau will cause explosions or other malfunctions every 5.4 shots on average.
Zhanju's products will cause explosion or other malfunctions every 4.9 rounds fired.
However, the weapons made by Wei are even worse, with an average of 3.4 shots required to explode the chamber!
The most amazing thing is that during the test, the three-eye blunderbuss produced by a certain guard actually had excellent results of exploding the barrel directly after the first shot. Wang Chongguo's face turned as black as a dragon after hearing the news.
The picture looked like a picture, and Ma Fang and General Ma Rong on the side had an angry look on his face. The veins in his left hand holding the sword were bulging. He looked pragmatic and feared that he would order the commander of the guard station to be called and beheaded directly.
The body of a three-eye blunderbuss is inherently thicker than that of a bird blunderbuss or a sagun blunderbuss. It stands to reason that the ratio of the chamber to explosion should be lower. But with a mass that will explode the chamber after firing four or five rounds on average, how is the ratio low?
Come on, if a three-eyed gun explodes after four or five shots, wouldn't it explode after just one or two shots if replaced by a bird gun?
How can this be considered a war? Isn't this suicide?
In such a situation, even Gao Pragmatic, who originally wanted to "collect unfavorable evidence", became silent, and then became as dark-faced as Wang Chonggu - did the Ming Dynasty rely on these soldiers holding fire sticks to guard the border?
At this moment, even he felt chills running down his spine!