Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 563 Disbanding the Army by 300,000 (Part 2)
"Our Type 52 muskets, currently in the trial production stage, cost 12 taels of silver each. We also have bayonets, each costing between one and a half and two taels, bringing the total to less than fourteen taels of silver per set."

"So expensive?!"

"If we were to manufacture 40 of these, wouldn't that cost several million taels of silver? That's far too expensive!"

"400,000 guns are more expensive than 100 naval ships? 100 naval ships only cost 2.5 million taels."

Tao Guangyi had barely finished speaking when he was met with a gasp of surprise from the crowd, and he quickly gestured for an explanation.

"Everyone, please don't rush. What I just mentioned was the price of the prototype. Currently, the Jinling Arsenal is under construction in the northwest suburbs of Jiankang City. Once this rifle is mass-produced, the unit price will definitely drop significantly. I predict that the unit price of the first mass-produced rifle will drop to less than 10 taels in the first year."

"Furthermore, as workers become more skilled, production efficiency will also increase, and there will be room for the unit price to be further reduced. With the accumulation of total output, the cost will definitely become lower and lower, and it may even be reduced to six taels of silver per set."

Upon hearing this, the crowd quieted down. If each one cost ten taels of silver, then 40 units would cost 400 million taels. If each one cost six taels of silver, then 40 units would cost 240 million taels. Although it was still expensive, it was not so unacceptable for replacing the uniforms of the entire national army.

In fact, this price is based on historical records. The original Type 88 Commission rifle imported from Germany by the Qing Dynasty cost 17.3 taels of silver per rifle, while the domestically produced Hanyang rifle cost 66.7 taels of silver per rifle, which was four times the price of the import.

Similarly, there were the Czech-made Mach 4 rifles, which were Czech copies of the 98k, and each one cost 66.7 taels of silver.

The Belgian Mauser rifles imported by the Qing Dynasty, each with 500 rounds of ammunition, cost 23 taels of silver per set. The British gunpowder single-shot Martini rifles used in South Africa before the Boer War cost about 25 taels each. The Japanese Type 38 rifles had a factory price of 25 silver dollars, equivalent to about 18 taels of silver.

The data above shows that the rifles produced by these great powers, regardless of their export price, generally cost between 15 and 20 taels of silver at their own factory. However, it should be noted that these prices were after the large-scale circulation of silver in the Japanese and American markets caused inflation and a devaluation of silver's purchasing power.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was no large-scale influx of gold and silver into the market. Although Wang Dayuan brought back 1200 million taels of gold and silver from the Americas last year, all of this gold and silver was still piled up in the mint waiting to be made into silver coins. It had not yet entered the market, so it was not enough to immediately show the effect of inflation. The price of silver in the Ming Dynasty was still relatively firm. At this time, one tael of silver in Lu Jin could be used as two taels of silver in the late Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, compared to those foreign powers, the factory price of the Ming Dynasty's Type 52 rifle was between six and ten taels of silver, which was roughly the same as theirs, which ranged from 15 to 20 taels. This was an advantage of being able to produce it domestically; if it were imported, the price would be unpredictable.
After hearing the quote, Feng Guoyong nodded, then asked, "What about the annual production? Is it enough to supply the entire army with new equipment?"

"Supplying the entire army with new uniforms is definitely more than enough. As for the annual output, it mainly depends on the court's needs. In fact, the total output of 40 units is not that much." Tao Guangyi's seemingly random statement left everyone completely confused. Wasn't this just saying nothing at all?

"What do you mean? Minister Tao, please explain more clearly. What do you mean by 'seeing the needs of the court'?" Feng Guoyong immediately pressed for an answer.

Tao Guangyi then explained, "The flintlock muskets used by the Imperial Guards were all produced at the Luzhou Ironworks. In the beginning, the production line was designed to produce more than 800 muskets per month, which is enough for a battalion. Later, as the craftsmen became more skilled, they were able to produce 1,000 to 1,200 muskets per month and 12,000 to 14,000 muskets per year."

"However, this production capacity can be designed according to actual needs. If the imperial court needs it, the production scale can be expanded. For example, the Jinling Arsenal, which is under construction, can be designed to produce 40 pieces per year. It's just a matter of building a few more workshops and recruiting more craftsmen."

"But the imperial court's total demand is limited. If we produce 40 rifles a year, the factories and workers will be out of work after this batch is finished."
"If the design is to produce 50,000 rifles per year, it will take eight years to complete this batch of rifles. If the annual production is 100,000 rifles, it will take four years. The annual production volume depends entirely on how the imperial court arranges it. If the imperial court wants to expand the army, it is not entirely impossible to produce a million rifles a year. Moreover, there is the ex-factory price of rifles, which will definitely be cheaper the more they are produced."

After Tao Guangyi finished speaking, he stopped talking, while the others present looked at each other in confusion. It seemed that he wanted to make more rifles.

Producing one million rifles a year is not an exaggeration by Tao Guangyi. Historically, France during the Napoleonic era had such an exaggerated production volume. At that time, in order to mass-produce troops, Napoleon set up eight rifle assembly lines in France, as well as forty or fifty workshops to produce gun parts. He also sent special envoys to be stationed in each workshop to supervise the dimensional tolerances of the parts, so that the tolerance of each part was controlled within 0.03 millimeters.

This single method enabled Napoleon, at his peak, to produce over 90 standard flintlock muskets annually. This allowed him to send hundreds of thousands of troops on expeditions to Russia. Moreover, Napoleon's era still relied on water-powered machinery, while Lu Jin's Ming Dynasty had already adopted a combination of steam engines and various machine tools. If they were to unleash their full potential for military production, producing not only one million but even two million soldiers annually would not be impossible.
However, Feng Guoyong was the first to shake his head and said, "The more you make, the cheaper it is, but you can't make too many. The court's money doesn't grow on trees, and military funds are very limited. Even if you lower the price to 6 taels of silver per tube, 40 tubes would cost 260 million taels. The court doesn't have that much spare money. Besides, we can't use it all even if we buy it."

Upon hearing this, Tao Guangyi retorted in a low voice, "Although our main force is to be reduced to 40 men, the total number of internal guards nationwide is over one million, and the internal guards also need equipment."

Feng Guoyong immediately glared at him, "Spending seven or eight million taels of silver to equip the Imperial Guard with a million new muskets, who do you expect them to fight?"

Tao Guangyi immediately fell silent; this was indeed not a matter he could decide.

Moreover, the internal security forces are meant to maintain stability within the country. Whether distributing these millions of new muskets will maintain stability or incite trouble is truly uncertain.

In the event of a rebellion by the Internal Security Forces, the field army could have suppressed it by virtue of its superior equipment. However, if the Internal Security Forces also acquired the same weapons, the field army would lose its advantage in suppressing local rebels.

Besides, it's just local stability maintenance. Why do we need firearms? Some broadswords and spears are good enough. The cold weapons that the main force has retired can be transferred to the internal guards, which is not a waste.

Dangdangdang——

However, at that moment, Lu Jin knocked on the table again, immediately attracting everyone's attention. Only then did Lu Jin speak.

"Regarding the issue of production, let me explain. First of all, it is important to clarify that everyone must abandon the old ideas. Centralized production in factories is different from the previous practice of temporarily recruiting a group of craftsmen to forge swords and spears in weapon shops and workshops."

"Forging swords and spears is something any blacksmith can do, but firearms are more complex and cannot be learned to manufacture in a short time."

"Therefore, the workers in the factory can no longer be treated like the blacksmiths in the old weapons workshops, who can be summoned and dismissed at will. The court can only summon them when it needs them and dismiss them when it doesn't, leaving them to fend for themselves. Factories cannot be treated like that."

"Otherwise, after these 40 guns are manufactured, will we just dismiss them? Then when we want to replenish the batch of guns later, will we have to temporarily recruit another batch of workers? Weapons are urgently needed at the front lines of the war. Can you tell the enemy to wait a few more years until this new batch of workers have learned their skills and manufactured new guns before we fight them? Isn't that nonsense?"

"Therefore, once this arsenal starts production, it cannot be stopped easily. The imperial court must support these workers. There are two ways to do this: either let them keep making guns and the imperial court spends money to buy them so that the factory can have money to pay the workers' wages, or find other jobs for the factory and let them produce other civilian products."

"In short, as long as workers have work to do, the factory can remain open. If the factory remains open, the imperial court can produce new guns whenever it wants. This applies not only to arsenals but also to other factories in the private sector. This is the true organizational form of a factory, which is different from traditional workshops."

Upon hearing this, Shi Nai'an frowned and immediately asked, "Your Majesty, if production continues uninterrupted, who will use all those rifles? I'm afraid the court won't be able to use that many."

Lu Jin replied, “Of course I have thought about this issue. First of all, there is the issue of total production. The court has 40 troops, so it is impossible to produce exactly 40 guns. Guns are weapons and equipment. As long as they are used, they will be damaged and consumed. Therefore, in addition to the firearms used by the active troops, the court should also store a portion in the armory for emergencies. Is that normal?”

Everyone nodded in agreement. Every dynasty had its own armory, and there are even Han Dynasty armory ruins that have been unearthed in later generations. The equipment in just one Han Dynasty armory was enough to arm hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers. The sheer number of weapons was outrageous. So it's normal for the Ming Dynasty to have an armory as well, right?

"Therefore, my idea is to build the arsenal with an annual production capacity of 100,000 rifles. With 400,000 troops, 100,000 people will be re-equipped every year. The military reform can be completed in four years. After four years, the rifles produced will be transferred to the arsenal for reserves, but no more can be produced."

"At that time, we can reduce production and at the same time try to keep prices down as much as possible."

Lu Jin then looked at Tao Guangyi and said, "If you can reduce the price of each gun to five taels in four years, the court will order another 50,000 new guns every year, and ensure the factory has a continuous stream of new orders for twenty years." Before Tao Guangyi could even agree, Feng Guoyong frowned and said, "Your Majesty, even if we reduce the price to five taels per gun, 50,000 new guns a year would still cost 250,000 taels. That's equivalent to the navy's annual shipbuilding cost! And if we continue production for twenty years, that's a million guns! Even if the arsenal stores another 400,000, wouldn't there still be 600,000 unused?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin pointed out his finger.

"First, these guns can be used by the Imperial Guards. I know what you are worried about, and I won't say anything like that as long as the emperor is benevolent, no one will rebel. That's just self-deceiving nonsense. There are plenty of ambitious people out there. If someone incites the Imperial Guards, it's not surprising what might happen. As the saying goes, one should not have the heart to harm others, but one should not be without the heart to guard against others. It's not difficult to prevent the Imperial Guards from using these guns to rebel."

"Don't forget, a gun is a gun, and a bullet is a bullet. A musket without bullets is no different from a fire poker. At worst, the imperial court can control the ammunition reserves of the Imperial Guard. As long as they don't leave them too much ammunition, there won't be any major problems. If a real war breaks out, that ammunition will be used up very quickly."

Everyone nodded, and Feng Guoyong added, "That's one way too."

Lu Jin then extended a second finger, "Secondly, the Internal Guard is not only used to guard local areas, but also as part of the national defense mobilization system. In peacetime, it is fine to maintain only a small number of field troops to save military expenses, but when a national war is really needed, the Internal Guard must be deployed to the battlefield at any time."

"This means that the internal guard's combat methods should not differ too much from those of the main field forces. Therefore, the internal guard should also be able to use the weapons used by the field forces. The internal guard may not be equipped with too many muskets, but at least they should be able to use them."

"Isn't the current Internal Security Forces implementing a three-year military service system? One year of training, one year of farming, and one year of duty. So for each Internal Security Force, we can only issue one-third of the firearms, so that the training one-third can use firearms for training, while the others who farm and are on duty will still use broadswords and spears."

"Thirdly, regarding technology, even if we produce more of our current Type 52 rifles, there won't be much waste, because the next generation of rifle technology updates will mainly focus on bullets, and while it does have something to do with the gun, it's not that much."

"In other words, when we replace our rifles with the next generation, these existing rifles will only need to be slightly modified to be refurbished into new rifles. The cost of refurbishing each old rifle may be less than one or two taels of silver, and we can turn them into new rifles. We can continue to use the rifles we are making now in the future."

"Can this still happen?"

"I see."

"Then why couldn't the previous flintlock muskets be modified?"

Everyone gasped in surprise.

"Because the flintlock musket and the new gun have different calibers, and there's no need to modify them; it's not like the imperial court can't afford to make new guns," Lu Jin explained.

Everyone nodded again.

Lu Jin was referring to the trapdoor rifle, of course. It's already using a muzzle-loading rifled gun with a percussion cap. The next generation rifle will at most be an improvement on the metal cartridge, still using black powder, and then changing from muzzle-loading to breech-loading.

All you need to do is saw off the breech end of the barrel, replace the firing pin with a trapdoor, and nothing else needs to be changed to convert it into a breech-loading gun, just like the American Springfield trapdoor. The conversion cost is very cheap.

"Fourth, even if a third-generation rifle is produced in the future, when we replace our equipment again, these old rifles will not be wasted. We can still sell them. We may not make a fortune, but at least we can recoup some of our costs."

Upon hearing this, everyone could no longer hold back. Feng Guoyong immediately asked, "If Your Majesty really intends to sell these guns abroad, then who can the Ming Dynasty sell them to?"

Lu Jin immediately said, "I want to sell it to my own son, to a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Is that alright?"

Upon hearing this, everyone exchanged bewildered glances. Shi Nai'an hesitated for a moment before tentatively asking, "Your Majesty intends to enfeoff princes as vassal kings and even allow them to build their own armies?"

Lu Jin immediately said, “I know what you are thinking. In the Ming Dynasty and in Shenzhou, I will certainly not grant my princes land and fiefdoms. But there is more than just Shenzhou in the world. Across the sea, there is Lizhou, which is tens of thousands of miles long from north to south and twenty thousand miles wide from east to west. Such a large piece of land is occupied by a group of savages from the Jiuli tribe. They don’t even know how to cultivate, smelt iron, or make carts. Isn’t that a waste of resources?”

“In the past, the Yellow Emperor and Chi You fought for supremacy over the world. Chi You was defeated and the Jiuli were scattered. Now, why can’t we, the descendants of Yan and Huang, complete the unfinished work of our ancestors and bring the Lizhou across the sea into our Chinese territory? The Ming Dynasty is in the center as the Zhou emperor, and the vassal kings are guarding the overseas territories, establishing their own countries, dividing up the land and enfeoffing the vassal states. What’s wrong with that?”

“In the past, the Zhou emperor could enfeoff the Ji clan as feudal lords. It was the Ji clan feudal lords who pioneered and opened up the mountains and forests, which led to the current map of China. Otherwise, China would only have a corner of the Central Plains, surrounded by barbarians. How could there be the China of today?”
"My Gongshu clan is also descended from the Ji surname. Why can't we follow the example of our ancestors and send our princes overseas to open up more living space for the descendants of Yan and Huang?"

Everyone was speechless upon hearing this, unsure of what to say. If you said the emperor was stingy, he was planning to grant his sons fiefdoms and even allow these vassal states to govern themselves and form their own armies. But if you said the emperor was generous, he was planning to sell a batch of obsolete firearms to his sons—note, sell, not even as a reward. This was incredibly stingy, such a stingy old father.
Since the matter concerned the crown prince and the vassal kings, no one dared to bring it up, so Feng Guoyong simply changed the subject and said immediately.

"Then let's proceed with the arsenal as His Majesty has arranged. As long as the muskets produced have a place to go, that's good. The court can spend money, as long as it's not wasted." He then looked at Xia Yu, who hadn't spoken for a while, and asked again.

"Minister Xia, you haven't mentioned the organizational structure above the regimental level yet."

"Oh." Xia Yu immediately snapped out of his daze, picked up the documents, and introduced them again.

"Above the regiment level is a division, but it's not the three-regiment division of the past. Because the new regiment only has two thousand men, if it were still three regiments per division, the division's strength would be too small. So the new division-level organization is six regiments."

"The six regiments have 12000 men, plus division-level generals, plus a guard battalion, an artillery regiment with 32 heavy artillery pieces, and an engineer battalion to build roads through mountains and bridges over rivers."

"There is also a scout cavalry battalion with 460 cavalry scouts, used to scout the battlefield situation and also to launch surprise attacks; there is also a three-battalion supply regiment with 1500 men."
"The entire division has a total of 15,348 men, which is slightly more than the original division of 13500 men. However, its combat strength should be equivalent to that of the original army. After all, each regiment has 20 artillery pieces, and six regiments have 120 artillery pieces. In addition, there are 32 heavy artillery pieces attached to the division, which is 152 artillery pieces of various types. This number of artillery pieces even exceeds that of the original field army, which was only equipped with 128 artillery pieces."

"Up from the division is the army, which is still a three-three system. Each army has three divisions, which is 46,044 people. In addition, there is a 1700-person military dependents guard regiment, a 1700-person chemical defense regiment, and a 1700-person cavalry regiment. Each army has a total of 49,761 people, which is nearly 50,000 people. The number of people is roughly equivalent to the original army group."

"Then, when the army moves up the ranks, there are no longer any permanent units. This means that the original five field armies are reduced to five armies, totaling 15 divisions. In addition, the 11th Army Group of Duke Ying, Liu Futong, will also be reduced to one division, making a total of 16 divisions."

"Then add four Imperial Guard divisions to protect the capital, using the same organization as the field army, so that there will be 20 infantry divisions nationwide, totaling 323,240 people."

"In addition, the organization of cavalry divisions will also be changed to a three-three system. Each cavalry regiment will have three battalions under it, without artillery, and otherwise the same as the infantry. Therefore, each cavalry regiment will have 1700 men, and six cavalry regiments will form a division, with each cavalry division having 10500 men. This new cavalry division is not much different from the original one."

"In addition to the 20 infantry divisions, the army will also form seven cavalry divisions, totaling 73500 men."

"In this way, the total number of army units, including the national field army, the Imperial Guard, and the cavalry, was 396,740."

"This doesn't even include other personnel with military status, such as those in cultural troupes, technical staff of the General Armaments Department, and civil servants of the Privy Council. If you include them all, the number should be a little over 400,000, but that's still 300,000 less than the original 720,000."

Upon hearing this, everyone seemed to be deep in thought. A field army of 100,000 men was reduced to just one army and three divisions, nearly 50,000 men. That was a direct reduction of half. Would those officers be willing to accept that?
(End of this chapter)