The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 44: Prodigal Things
Who is Master Miaofeng?

Why did Zhang Siwei ask for him to be appointed as the national teacher?

Wanli really didn't hate it.

Because he had no spies in the palace before, he had no idea what this guy had done with Empress Dowager Li.

He just remembered that Empress Dowager Li often mentioned Master Miaofeng and seemed to have great respect for him.

He could only let Luo Sigong investigate this matter first.

He didn't have time to care about whether he was a master or not. He still had to find a way to make muskets and cannons for the Beijing camp.

At around noon, the sun was rising, the sky was cloudless, and it was another sunny day.

However, it is now approaching autumn, and the upper reaches of the Chaobai River deep in the valley have become extremely cool.

At this time, to the north of the rows of water wheels, tens of thousands of craftsmen had gathered on the grassland where they had originally gathered for the expedition.

They seemed to be building a huge courtyard by the river, and the area enclosed by the wall was more than a thousand acres.

This is the large workshop where muskets and cannons are made.

However, the construction here has only been started for a few days, and the outer wall is less than one person high, and most of the middle area is still under foundation digging.

Wanli, accompanied by Li Xuancheng, Shan Sinan and hundreds of imperial guards, rode in on horseback and came directly to a large open space by the river.

Yongnianbo Wang Wei and his family are building a waterwheel here with a group of carpenters.

This time they built a waterwheel that was not twelve buckets long. The length of a single support seemed to be about two meters, and the thickness was almost the same as a thigh.

When everyone saw Wanli coming, they immediately stopped what they were doing and bowed to him.

Wanli quickly raised his hand and said loudly: "No need to be polite, no need to be polite. I've already said that there is no need to be polite when working. Everyone, just go about your own business."

After saying this, he dismounted and came to a large frame that his father-in-law Wang Wei was supervising the construction of.

This is not the support of the waterwheel, because its height is only about ten feet. Moreover, there is a cross-shaped wooden frame hanging from a rope in the middle of the two upright wooden beams, and below the cross-shaped wooden frame is another similar cross-shaped wooden frame.

To be honest, this thing is pretty weird and no one can figure out what it is for.

When Wanli saw this thing, he nodded repeatedly and said, "Well, it looks more or less like this. How is it? Have you tried it? How is the effect?"

Yongnianbo Wang Wei said rather embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, this is made of wood and it's a bit difficult to slide."

This is simple.

Wanli said without hesitation: "We have iron ingots, right? Just tie a ten-jin iron ingot to the ropes of the wooden frame."

This is indeed simple.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei immediately ordered someone to bring an iron ingot and tie it to the rope.

Then he ordered someone to pull the other end of the rope, pull the wooden cross frame above to the top position, and then loosen the rope directly.

At this moment, the cross wooden frame fell down along the slides on both sides.

In fact, this thing is modified from the guillotine. The cross wooden frame in the middle is replaced with a guillotine, which becomes the guillotine.

However, this thing is not used to behead people, but to forge gun barrels.

The muskets these days are still made of thin iron sheets. No matter how good the material is, the barrel will be deformed by the heat after firing a few shots in a row.

Moreover, the matchlock guns at that time were still loaded with ammunition from the front, and the back was blocked, with only a fuse hole, making it very troublesome to load ammunition.

Wanli decided to change to a solid gun barrel. He first used a clay mold and tempered steel to cast a blank, and then clamped clay-coated iron rods on both sides for forging. After forging into shape, he used the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to pull out the iron rods from both ends.

The bullets were also changed to ones with shells, and a pointed conical bullet head at the front.

In fact, such bullets are much simpler to process than purely spherical bullets, and they can also be pre-loaded with ammunition.

As for the style of the musket, he planned to make it in the style of a double-barreled shotgun, with a fuse hole on each side and the fuse of the bullet extending from the side, so that one bullet can be fired at a time, or two bullets can be fired at the same time.

He couldn't remember which book he had seen this style of matchlock gun in, but he felt that with the current processing level of the Ming Dynasty, this type of matchlock gun was the easiest to make.

He only needed to instruct Yongnianbo Wang Wei to make some auxiliary equipment, and he would be able to create a sample of this musket soon.

The key now is the equipment for forging gun barrels. In fact, this guillotine-like frame must be made of pure iron structure. Wood is definitely not suitable. The gun barrel must be heated red when forging, and a wooden frame can easily ignite if sparks splash on it.

The cross wooden frame in the middle cannot be made of wood, it must be replaced with a hundred-fold tempered steel mold.

The wooden frame he asked Yongnianbo Wang Wei to make was actually used as a wooden mold for casting. This simple forging equipment was almost done.

The problem of the barrel has been solved, and the next things to deal with are the bullets, the buttstock, the hinges for flipping the barrel, the buckles, and so on.

These things are not difficult to make, but it is not easy for someone who has never seen them to make them.

He was thinking about how to teach Yongnianbo Wang Wei to make these things when a horse suddenly came galloping from the south.

Soon, Li Xuancheng handed over a secret letter with both hands.

Luo Sigong finally investigated Master Miaofeng thoroughly!
Master Miaofeng, whose Dharma name was Fudeng, was a native of Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi Province. He often traveled to Qiyan Temple, Wangu Temple, and Puji Temple in Puzhou.

Wangu Temple in Puzhou collapsed and was destroyed during the Guanzhong earthquake in the 34th year of Jiajing's reign. It is said that Master Miaofeng was buried in the ruins for several days, but was found to be completely unharmed after being dug out.

Since then, Master Miaofeng became famous.

Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei invested in the restoration of Wangu Temple and got to know Master Miaofeng.

In the seventh year of the Wanli reign, Zhang Siwei brought Master Miaofeng to Beijing and explained more than ten Buddhist scriptures to Empress Dowager Li. Empress Dowager Li was amazed and admired him very much.

Afterwards, Empress Dowager Li invested more than one million taels of silver to build a large-scale construction project on Mount Wutai. After three years, she restored the Big White Pagoda on Mount Wutai and separated the pagoda courtyard that originally belonged to Xiantong Temple to build the Big Pagoda Courtyard Temple separately.

It is said that when the Datang Temple was being built, Master Miaofeng pierced his tongue and copied a copy of the Avatamsaka Sutra with his blood.

In August of the tenth year of the Wanli reign, the Datan Temple was completed. Master Miaofeng came to Beijing to present the Blood Sutra. Empress Dowager Li was very impressed and wanted to confer the title of Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty on Master Miaofeng.

Didn’t this blood donation thing happen during the Jiajing period?

However, that was just a play. In fact, there was no bloody history during the Jiajing period.

It seems that Master Miaofeng was packaged by Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei specifically to deceive Empress Dowager Li.

This should be an imitation of Xu Jie.

During the reign of Emperor Jiajing, Xu Jie invited the famous Lan Daoxing, whom Emperor Jiajing also admired very much.

At that time, Xu Jie had been enduring for more than ten or twenty years but was unable to do anything about Yan Song and his son. As a result, Lan Daoxing solved the problem with just one sentence!

Will this national teacher be conferred a title?

Wanli considered it carefully for a while, and finally asked Li Xuancheng to issue an edict to confer Master Miaofeng the title of Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty.

Anyway, he couldn't be fooled by Master Miaofeng, so he just wanted to see what else Zhang Siwei wanted to do by using Master Miaofeng.

As a result, around noon the next day, another imperial edict was sent back to him, with an imperial edict from Empress Dowager Li directly enclosed inside.

This imperial edict was intended to reward meritorious soldiers and provide compensation to the wounded and deceased soldiers, and a total of more than 800,000 taels of silver would be required from the national treasury.

The Empress Dowager Li's decree was to repair the Huayan Temple in Ningwu, which required a total allocation of more than 1.2 million taels from the national treasury!

This means that if you agree to allocate funds to repair the Ningwu Huayan Temple, the cabinet will issue an order to allocate more than 800,000 taels to reward meritorious soldiers and provide pensions for casualties.

Wanli finally understood that these guys were eyeing the surplus of seven or eight million taels in the national treasury. A large pagoda temple cost more than one million taels, and a large Huayan Temple cost more than one million taels. Building five or six temples would cost seven or eight million taels!

Also, there would be a surplus in the national treasury every year. They kept building temples, and all the surplus in the national treasury went into their pockets.

Because all the materials were theirs. The materials used to renovate the palace last time were purchased from the three major wealthy families in Puzhou, so they didn't even have to pay much for labor costs.

The wages of craftsmen in those days were very low. Not many craftsmen could be hired to repair the temples. Only about a thousand craftsmen were hired to repair the imperial palace, and they worked for more than a month, and their wages were at most two or three thousand taels.

In other words, if they trained a Master Miaofeng to deceive Empress Dowager Li, they could make a fortune. By investing a few thousand taels of money in materials and a few thousand taels of labor every year, they could earn hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels.

Moreover, they can also gain a good reputation, repair temples, and do good deeds.

They then used all their strength to flatter them, and each of them became a living Bodhisattva.

This move is really clever.

Empress Dowager Li, you are a spendthrift. People can just pick out a master and cheat you out of millions of taels. Sooner or later, the national treasury will be emptied by you.

Okay, you pay, I’ll pay too.

When you pay for it, you are giving it to others.

At least the money I spent can help strengthen our military strength and boost our soldiers' morale.

We'll see who loses and who wins then.

(End of this chapter)