Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 10: Armor! Armor!
No matter how Fan Yongkang delays.

Zhu Youjian didn't have time to wait for him to find the key.

Today was almost over, and he had barely gathered two thousand elite soldiers, which was still far from the number of seventy thousand.

Li Zicheng will arrive in the capital at noon tomorrow.

At that time, his life was on the countdown.

The cavalry cut off the rusty lock of the armory with one sword.

The Jinyiwei stepped forward and pushed open the huge door.

A cloud of dust gushed out, and a mountain of ordnance became visible in the twilight.

Under the friendly guidance of the Jinyiwei, the three accountants introduced the equipment in the armory one by one.

The more Zhu Youjian looked, the more frightened he became.

The 3,000 pieces of chain mail recorded in the accounts as manufactured in the fifth year of Chongzhen were actually made in the Zhengde period, and had already rusted like fishing nets.

The waist sword from the Jiajing period was covered with red rust, and the three-barreled gun from the Wanli period had turned into slag.

The twenty "Red Cannons" at the deepest part were wrapped in oilcloth, and when they were taken apart, they were actually wooden shells filled with sand.

"How much of this arsenal is still usable?"

Zhu Youjian asked a question casually, which immediately startled a group of rats.

The three accountants hesitated for a moment.

Xu Feng immediately drew out his sword.

The accountant rolled and crawled on his knees in the wood chips, "Your Majesty, spare me! Since the Tianqi era, all military equipment for the nine frontiers has been purchased by Shanxi merchants, not from the arsenal."

"Every year... every year, the maintenance and repair of the armory and weapons required by the Beijing Camp are all undertaken by the Duke of Cheng's Mansion. The actual number of armory weapons is recorded by the Duke of Cheng's Mansion's accountant. We are just transcribing them, so we really don't know the exact number!"

"So these are the 'fine iron waist knives' repaired by the Chengguo Mansion?" Zhu Youjian kicked the honeycomb-shaped iron pieces.

The three accountants just knelt on the ground and kowtowed to beg for mercy, not daring to say a word.

Zhu Youjian shook his head and sighed.

I comforted myself in my heart that everything was as expected. He dared to embezzle disaster relief funds, so what's wrong with being a little greedy from the arsenal?
It’s too late to hold anyone accountable now, so we should first gather enough equipment for the Yongwei Battalion.

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Youjian finally said, "Send the Minister of Works Zhang Fengxiang to me within half an incense stick of time, and bring him his head!"

In his memory, the Minister of Works Zhang Fengxiang was a traitor who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

But in this situation, the only people who can repair the weapons and armor are the craftsmen from the Ministry of Works.

He could certainly organize craftsmen to repair the armor and weapons as an emperor, but where would the craftsmen come from? Who would take care of their meals? How would the wages be determined? Who would inspect and approve the work? How would the various departments coordinate?

A person's ability is limited after all. Moreover, weapons and armor are a big deal for soldiers, but for Zhu Youjian, they are not a big deal.

The right way is to scrape the silver from the nobles and draw the entries.

Being able to become the Minister of Works at least proves that Zhang Fengxiang still has some ability.

Before the fall of the Ming Dynasty, who was not a loyal minister on the surface?

Not even a stick of incense.

The Minister of Works was dragged here by the Embroidered Uniform Guards on fast horses.

The old Jinshi, born in the 47th year of the Wanli reign, had his official robe disheveled and was trembling all over as he looked at the armor and weapons scattered on the ground.

"I'll give you two hours." Zhu Youjian's expression showed no sign of calmness or anger.

The spirit personally pulled Zhang Fengxiang up and said, "Call all the artisans in the military bureaus in the capital, bring all the materials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works, and repair the weapons and armor at any cost."

"Your Majesty!" Zhang Fengxiang's official hat rolled down to the dust. "All the craftsmen in the Ministry of Works fled three years ago."

"I'm not discussing this with you, understand Zhang Qing?"

"Early on, you need to produce enough armor to equip a thousand men. And by noon tomorrow, you need at least five thousand sets. If you're short of one, I'll have the Imperial Guards slash you. Forget about writing a joint petition of remonstration. Before Li Zicheng arrives, I have the power to chop your entire family into pieces!"

Xu Feng drew his sword at the right time.

Zhang Fengxiang, who hadn't yet understood what was going on, accepted this important task with tears in his eyes. ...

As the sun set in the west, more than a thousand pale-faced craftsmen were escorted to the parade ground by the Embroidered Uniform Guards.

They knelt in the dust, holding their ancestral files, hammers and pliers. One one-armed old craftsman even wore a badge from the Military Equipment Bureau during the Tianqi period.

"Repair a set of armor and I'll give you three dou of grain."

The Imperial Guards held up the Imperial Kitchen Supervisor's rice jar and shouted, "Make ten arrows and add salt to them!"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard supervised the entire process.

Zhu Youjian also deliberately kept the two thousand taels of silver donated by Wu Xiang.

Before leaving, he specifically instructed the Jinyiwei, "If you can't gather all the equipment for the Yongwei Battalion before midnight, throw Zhang Fengxiang into the furnace!"

The sound of abacus in the Ministry of War was as dense as rain.

Twenty clerks from the Ministry of Revenue were transferred here and knelt among a pile of abacus, flipping through the military equipment account books of previous years with a rustling sound.

"In the 37th year of the Wanli reign, there were 1,000 bird guns stored, actually in the Guangqumen warehouse!"

"Quick! Send someone to Guangqumenku!"

"In the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, a batch of discarded goose-feather swords were transported back from Ji and Liao. Half were melted down on site by Shanxi merchants, and the other half were stored in the You'anmen warehouse."

"Go to You'anmenku, it can be repaired and still be used!"

Zhang Fengxiang's hat had long been lost, and he didn't even bother to pick up his official boots that were stuck in the mud.

Throughout the capital, any warehouse that still stored weapons and armor was inspected by him, the Minister of Works.

Under the close protection of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the high-pressure pressure of Zhang Fengxiang, the Ministry of Works was surprisingly efficient from top to bottom.

Tiqi kept shuttling between every corner.

One after another, the Ministry of Works' carriages brought back the weapons and armor scattered all over the place.

Two quarters past the hour of Xu, which is half past seven in later generations.

In just three hours, twelve furnaces were erected in front of the armory.

The craftsmen sorted and dismantled the military equipment looted from various warehouses. They added Jiajing armor plates to Wanli armor, installed Zhengde arrowheads on Tianqi arrow shafts, and even some scrapped iron slag was recast into musket bullets.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty’s foundation has not been completely lost.

After some tinkering, they actually managed to put together a thousand sets of equipment.

"Sir, the equipment for a thousand men is ready!"

The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works held the list with shaking hands. "Seven hundred sets of armor, six hundred swords, and three hundred muskets."

He didn't expect that his people would act so quickly.

In the past, it would take a month just to build a stove.

"Not enough!" Zhang Fengxiang kicked the broken gun head at his feet away.

"These are all leftovers. They can be used after some repairs. Where's the equipment for the remaining four thousand men?!"

"Our Majesty is really getting impatient this time. We need to speed up, otherwise we won't be able to gather them by noon tomorrow!"

The Right Assistant Minister trembled and tried to persuade him, "Master Zhang, we can just make about 2,000 sets. His Majesty won't be inspecting them personally. If we make 4,000 sets, we won't even have enough iron, let alone manpower and time."

Zhang Fengxiang suddenly grabbed the right assistant minister by the collar and dragged him to the burning furnace.

"Shut up! You don't want to live, but I do. Can't you see that these bastards are different from the previous ones?!"

"Tear down the Ministry of Works and use it to cast armor! Melt down the copper door nails in Shuntian Prefecture and use them to make arrows! Chop up the plaques of various government offices and use them to make gun barrels!"

So the entire capital became a huge dismantling site.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards kicked open the doors of various government offices, and the copper scales of the Ministry of Revenue, the iron chains of the Ministry of Justice, and even the copper incense burners of the Imperial College were thrown into the furnace.

(End of this chapter)