Chapter 372 I wanted to resolve to eradicate adultery, but in the end I asked for peace!
After hearing this, Wei Boxiang realized that at this time, he really couldn’t admit that his side’s government was not good enough, otherwise it would be impossible to talk about respecting Neo Confucianism, respecting morality and emphasizing the church would be more clear.
Therefore, Wei Boxiang had no choice but to confess his guilt: "The lower official made a slip of his tongue, don't blame Yuan Fu!"
Wang Wenkui also calmed down when he saw this, sat down and waved his hands and said: "Forget it. It is your first time to join the Zheng Dynasty, and your impression of the official administration is only that of the Northern Puppet Dynasty. It is understandable."
"What Yuanfu said was that the subordinate officials hadn't changed their minds yet, so they had a misunderstanding. Fortunately, Mr. Mengge reminded you in time."
Wei Boxiang answered against his will, in order to admit that it is politically correct to restore the ancestral system and respect Confucianism alone, in order to allow the ethical hierarchy of monarch, minister, minister, father, son and son to continue to exist, and in order to allow the Han people to stand between meat-eaters and ordinary people. If there is a hierarchy of personality and political status, he must echo Wang Wenkui's statement.
It's like the emperor's new clothes.
Although everyone knows that the emperor has no clothes, it must be admitted that the emperor is wearing new clothes.
Wang Wenkui nodded in satisfaction, and said, "It's good that you can understand in time. As for the starvation you said all over the city, in fact, it was all caused by the treacherous minister Zhang Gui's disorderly government!"
“If it wasn’t for Zhang’s rebellion, which caused those officials who still obeyed him to expropriate and extort money in their jurisdiction, resulting in a large number of refugees, there would not have been so many refugees in Guangzhou, and starvation was everywhere in Guangzhou.”
"It can be said that the responsibility lies with him!"
After hearing this, Wei Boxiang glanced at Wang Wenkui in astonishment, and thought, "Can you still think like this?"
Wang Wenkui continued to say here: "The hateful thing is that Mao Yuanyi, a man with a hidden evil intention, actually deceived the servant, defected to the court, and became a traitor! Therefore, you can only be responsible for the casting of the cannon in the Industrial Department." , but fortunately, you are finally a sensible person, and you did not disappoint servants and Mr. Zhao Ge. You must forge this rifled cannon!"
"yes!"
Wei Boxiang cried bitterly as he spoke, and said, "However, Yuanfu, I'll go to the industrial department here to look at it. Frankly speaking, even if we know how the rifled gun is made now, we still can't make it. They are all shoddy. Although Xiaguan is only in charge of the warehouse there, the warehouse also needs to master some basic knowledge of gun barrels, otherwise it is not easy to maintain. As far as I know, the barrels that can make rifled guns need to be Better steel, currently our steel is not up to the mark.”
"Then what do you think should be done?"
Wang Wenkui asked.
Wei Boxiang: "Establish an Academy of Sciences to allow a group of artisans with knowledge and skills in this field to develop new steel products, give them official status, and promise that they will be promoted after they are manufactured."
"Absurd! How can this work!"
Wang Wenkui immediately scolded, saying: "Zhao Shichun's people have been impeaching servants and indulging in strange and obscene techniques. They set up an industrial department, saying that servants take advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves. Now they give some craftsmen and households official titles, just because They know how to smelt steel and iron, what is this? How is this different from the puppet dynasty that messed up the ancestral system? Are you going to be scolded by your colleagues in the court?"
"Yuanfu calm down, it's a slip of the tongue!"
Wei Boxiang said.
Wang Wenkui said: "Confucianism is the body, and miscellaneous learning is the application. These strange skills and tricks are used directly, and they are not fundamental, so why be too obsessed!"
"My servant sees that you are also deeply poisoned by the puppet dynasty. You should read Zhu Ziji's annotations to clear your mind. What about steel, I wrote to Zhu Zhiyu and asked him to find a way to steal some back. You just need to make cannons seriously. "
"yes!"
Wei Boxiang responded.
Next, Wei Boxiang could only continue the work of Mao Yuanyi, asking craftsmen to cast rifled guns with crude iron materials, and hoped that his undercover agent Zhu Zhiyu could really get new steel materials from the north.
Wang Wenkui never asked Wei Boxiang about casting cannons after that.
He is now in a state of desperation with Zhao Shichun and other powerful ministers of the puppet dynasty over where to get money and food to build the emperor's tomb.
The only price is to hire less barbarian soldiers and buy fewer barbarian ships.
On the eve of the arrival of Zhang Gui and Zhu Xieyuan leading the imperial army to the south, the puppet dynasty in the south, in addition to determining the strategy of "unity with the barbarians to suppress the bandits", adding the barbarian silver and embezzling barbarian silver to build the imperial mausoleum, they also did One thing is to give the posthumous title of Emperor Jianwen, posthumous posthumous title of Fang Xiaoru, and rehabilitate many Confucian officials, as a way to show that his court respects Confucianism and virtue.
In addition, on the eve of the imperial army going south, the puppet dynasty in the south also set up a "All Nations Come to the Court", inviting many foreigners to pay tribute to show that their court is in a prosperous age.
The puppet court took this opportunity and agreed with many foreign countries to send troops to fight against the imperial army, and the money was naturally paid by the puppet court in the south.
Foreigners such as the Folangji people in Haojing are willing to be employed by the southern puppet dynasty. First, they can make money, and second, they also prefer the southern puppet dynasty that voluntarily gave up their maritime rights and interests.
When the imperial army arrived at Yuezhou Prefecture, which was attached to the puppet dynasty, the land and water armies of both sides met here.
The imperial court has 80,000 elite guards lined up in Jiangdong, while the southern puppet dynasty has 100,000 troops and 30,000 barbarians lined up in Jiangxi.
When the guards began to fire artillery, the southern puppet government also started firing artillery.
But when the officials of the southern puppet dynasty opened the gunpowder box and prepared to reload the artillery, they found that a lot of gunpowder was actually mixed with a lot of sand.
"Such a fight! Damn, isn't this a scam?!"
Yang Zhenwei, the commander-in-chief of the southern puppet dynasty, was furious because of this, and led his troops away.
The hired Frangji mercenary Leed also ran away with his Frangji mercenaries, and said to Wang Wenkui after running back to Guangzhou:
"Yuanfu, we can help you eliminate bandits for money, but how can you deceive us by using sand as gunpowder?! Are you asking us to lose our lives for nothing?! Your behavior is abhorrent!"
"Sand as gunpowder?"
Wang Wenkui was also taken aback when he heard it, but he also believed that it was impossible for Liard to tell lies at this time, so he slapped the table angrily on the spot: "Zhao Shichun, you bastard, you dare to swallow gunpowder money!"
The reason why Wang Wenkui scolded Zhao Shichun at this time was because the gunpowder factory was managed by Zhao Shichun's people.
Zhao Shichun has also learned about the defeat of his army here, and also learned about the adulteration of gunpowder from Yang Zhenwei, and asked Zuo Mengtong, Minister of the Ministry of War of the Puppet Dynasty of his own party: "How can you make the gunpowder adulterated?" The sand is used as gunpowder for the army ahead?!"
Zuo Mengtong hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "Calm down your anger, the court has always been short of gunpowder. It can't be done otherwise! Only by temporarily filling the gunpowder with sand can the army be willing to go to the front to fight, otherwise, the army will definitely not want to leave! The imperial court is short of silver, how can the army not be short of pay and gunpowder? It can only be short of gunpowder, not silver!"
Zhao Shichun couldn’t say anything after hearing this. He also lost a lot of money from the Ministry of War for making gunpowder. He had no choice but to accept Zuo Mengtong’s argument, and said, “Now it seems that we can only make peace!”
"Old man Ge is wise, in fact, now is the opportunity to replace the king!"
The old-fashioned traditional civil servants will never forget the internal struggle. At this time, Zuo Mengtong also took the opportunity to suggest.
Zhao Shichun nodded: "Come here! Prepare the sedan chair, the servant is going to enter the palace!"
"Uncle Guo, we have won this victory, and the opponent has collapsed without a fight."
As for the officers and soldiers, Zhu Xieyuan had already come to Zhang Gui to report.
Zhang Gui was quite surprised after hearing this: "We will see the result so soon?"
Zhu Xieyuan said: "The lower officials also found it strange, but in fact, they did retreat, and they didn't even fire the cannon!"
Zhang Gui said: "It's better to be careful, there may be fraud! What do you think?"
Zhu Xieyuan nodded: "Uncle Guo is right. Logically, it is impossible to lose so quickly. The opponent also has land and water soldiers, and there are many barbarian soldiers."
(end of this chapter)