Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 64 Yingtian Weapon Bureau
In early August, Zhu Cilang and Li Banghua came together to the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau" in Nanjing City. This was the last stop for Zhu Cilang's inspection tour outside the palace after he ascended the throne.

The chief officer of the weapons bureau who greeted them was none other than Zhang Huangyan, a successful candidate in the imperial examinations in the 15th year of Chongzhen's reign who was both civil and military.

When Zhu Cilang recruited talents from all over the world, he also responded actively. Because he already had the title of Juren, he was soon promoted by Li Banghua and entered the Ministry of War.

Now, more than half of the craftsmen in the entire Nanzhili and even some state-run workshops in Zhejiang have been transferred to Nanjing by Zhu Cilang's order.

However, due to the serious corruption and exploitation in the state-run workshops and the very loose grassroots management, many excellent craftsmen who originally served in the state-run workshops had fled, and in the end only more than a thousand available craftsmen were recruited.

However, the economy in the Jiangnan region was prosperous and the handicraft industry was developed, so there was no shortage of excellent craftsmen among the people.

When Zhu Cilang instructed Li Banghua to set up the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau", he directly asked the other party to offer a monthly salary that was 30% higher than the market price, or even twice as high. Sure enough, he quickly recruited more than 3,000 craftsmen from major cities in the Jiangnan region. Most of them could make various weapons, armor and muskets after just a period of training.

At the same time, he had also asked Li Banghua to recruit a group of craftsmen who could manufacture artillery and muskets from Fujian and Guangdong to meet the army's needs for weapons and guns.

During this period, the two places with the most advanced cannon-making technology in the Ming Dynasty were those with developed iron smelting and handicraft industries, and they were both close to Macau.

Under the instruction of Li Banghua, Zhang Huangyan gathered all the craftsmen together and left the craftsmen who made cannons, guns, bows and crossbows, and armor in the various weapons workshops under the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau".

As for the other types of craftsmen, those with excellent skills will also stay in the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau", while those with lower skills will be assigned to the weapons workshops of various military camps to do some repairs on weapons and firearms and manufacture consumable weapons such as lead bullets and arrows.

After discussion and planning by Zhang Huangyan and several military officials in charge of workshop affairs, the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau" was divided into more than a dozen workshops: artillery, muskets, bows and crossbows, swords and guns, armor, shields, etc.

Various cold weapons are naturally the strengths of local craftsmen. With sufficient materials, local craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty can also produce high-quality products such as the French cannon, the tiger squat cannon, the bird gun and other old-fashioned muskets and artillery.

The new muskets and artillery that Zhu Cilang planned to equip the army with in the future still needed to be purchased from Macau. The Ministry of War had already begun to recruit people from Macau's workshops, where there were many Han apprentices with excellent skills.

Not only that, when the officials from the Ministry of War set off for Macau, Zhu Cilang also instructed them to buy more books related to weapons manufacturing, military strategies and military formations.

He planned to translate the weapon manufacturing books he bought from Macau into Chinese characters and then print them into books, in preparation for establishing a special craftsman school and training craftsmen in batches.

This is of course not to say that the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were incapable of creating new firearms, but being able to make them by copying others and understanding the scientific theories involved, knowing the caliber ratios of different artillery pieces, and even the modules, and then continuously developing artillery technology, is another matter.

Otherwise, it is very likely that, like the Qing Dynasty, the cannons would become larger and larger, with increasingly fancy designs, but their power would become less and less powerful. Although production technology and systematic science may look very similar, they are actually not the same thing.

What Zhu Cilang had to do was to use his own knowledge gained in later generations to accelerate the establishment of a scientific system in the Ming Dynasty, so as to form an overwhelming weapon advantage over the Qing Dynasty, and even after recovering the Han territory, over the Russians in the north and the Dutch in the southeast.

The specific management of the workshop is the responsibility of the Ministry of War, and Zhu Cilang will naturally not interfere. However, the new management system, the organization of primary assembly line production, division of labor and cooperation, the training of new craftsmen, and a flexible salary incentive system, all of which are related to the efficiency and progress of firearms production, are things that he must worry about, and at the same time, they are problems that only he can solve.

These are the methods that Zhu Cilang used to improve productivity through management reforms without changing the science and technology of the era.

This is his advantage as a superior, and it is also a dimensionality reduction attack by future people on this era.

Accompanied by Zhang Huangyan, Zhu Cilang inspected the "Yingtian Weaponry Bureau" for three full days. He not only went deep into the workshop, but also cordially met with nearly a hundred craftsmen fighting on the front line of production. He asked them about their work situation, whether they encountered any difficulties, and whether their communication with their superiors was smooth.
The craftsmen of the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau" were completely flattered. They had never dreamed that they would be received by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. They were all very excited and said that even if they died of exhaustion in the workshop, they would definitely complete the forging of weapons and firearms.

Finally, Zhu Cilang ended his inspection of the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau" amid the warm farewell of thousands of craftsmen. Everything here had just been put on track. With Li Banghua personally supervising and Zhang Huangyan personally doing the work, no major problems occurred.

However, he did not leave empty-handed. He directly took away Zhang Huangyan, who was originally sent by Li Banghua to manage the Weapons Bureau. This was also the candidate for chief instructor recommended to him by the other party on the way here.

After three days of observation and long talks all night, Zhu Cilang had great confidence in Zhang Huangyan's abilities. He also knew that Zhang Huangyan was both civil and military, and had a strong strategic vision. Such a person was indeed very suitable to be the chief instructor of the Palace Army.

Of course, the formation of a teaching team cannot be completed overnight. Zhu Cilang plans to start a pilot project in Tianwu Zuoying. If the expected results are achieved, he will continue to expand this special team.

After finishing his inspection outside the palace, Zhu Cilang returned to the Forbidden City in Nanjing. Before he had time to deal with military and political affairs from various provinces, especially Sichuan, Huguang and Jiangbei, a group of ministers including Shi Kefa and Gao Hongtu rushed to "urge marriage" for him.

In such an extraordinary period, the Ming Dynasty still had no national foundation. This was an imminent matter of great importance. This time, the emperor personally went out of the palace to inspect. A group of civil servants headed by Shi Kefa were already dissatisfied, and now they took advantage of the issue to demand that Zhu Cilang hold a selection as soon as possible and then quickly give birth to a prince.

In fact, after ascending the throne, Zhu Cilang had already ordered the selection of ladies to enter the palace, and sent Han Zanzhou to arrange this matter in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places.

However, he had only been on the throne for less than three months, and as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he was subject to many constraints of etiquette and laws. The selection of concubines also had many rules. Even though officials from various departments had expedited the process, it had been delayed until now and had not been completed.

　Thanks to book friends "Yuekenlu Dazhuang", "Esha Sparta" and "Wei Que" for their rewards.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)