Steel Dynasty - Chapter 877

[Chapter 875 Crazy again]

“This Li Chuyuan seems to have finally figured it out.”

Xiao Ming burst into laughter after reading Li Chuyuan’s excerpt.

At this time, he was in the Cabinet Office. All nine ministers of the cabinet were present. Seeing Xiao Ming smiling so happily, Pang Yukun asked with a smile: “The emperor is so happy. It seems that something good has happened.”

“That’s for sure. Li Chuyuan wants to buy more artillery, muskets and ammunition from us, and the scale is beyond imagination, because he lifted the ban on firearms in Chu State, and now the wealthy families in Jiangnan are stretching their necks one by one to obtain firearms to arm themselves. “The song.” Xiao Ming said.

“The ban on firearms has been lifted!” Pang Yukun was also a little surprised. “It seems that Li Chuyuan finally saw through the Sima family. He thought that the Sima family would help him, but he never thought that the Sima family had already had evil intentions.”

Fiji treats the Sima family the most. Understood, he said: “The old minister once said that if the King of Chu dies, only the Sima family can seize the country of Chu. Now it seems that it will come true soon.”

Xiao Ming nodded slightly, “If this is the case, I will be more confident.” There is a reason to send troops, but before that, we still want to think about how to make another big profit. “

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Zhan Xingchang said: “During the Northern War, we confiscated many export-type artillery from the lords. We took advantage of this. The opportunity is right to sell it to them, and the first batch of artillery had explosions due to material problems. Since they want better artillery, then sell them these artillery pieces that are about to be eliminated. “

“It’s just that .

The firearms seized from Goryeo have been sold to them, and if they still want them, they can only let the military workshops produce them,” Yang Chengye said thoughtfully.

“It doesn’t matter. The structures of matchlocks and flintlock guns are simple and easy to produce. If we draw a group of old workers from the military workshop and let them bring some workers to restart the eliminated production line, we can completely meet their requirements.” Xiao Ming said.

“If this is the case, the official will immediately order the mobilization of resources for production, so that we can make a fortune before going south.” Pang Yukun was very excited.

Obviously, the wealthy South will bring them more war dividends. With these dividends, the industrialization and railway construction in the North will speed up again.

They will have sufficient military expenditures to attack Japan and stabilize the north.

After deciding on this matter, the entire cabinet began to move, and nine people headed by Pang Yukun began to cooperate with this firearms trade in all aspects.

After receiving the order, the military workshop quickly pulled out some old workers, and soon the flintlock production line was fully restored, with flintlocks and matchlocks coming off the production line one after another.

For four months, from June to October, the court was in the midst of a firearms trade frenzy.

What didn’t disappoint them was that they really made a lot of money this time.

In addition to the normal purchases of the Chu Palace, the southern wealthy families showed their arrogant side this time. Now Xiao Ming finally understood how the people were rich and the country was poor in the late Ming Dynasty.

These southern gentry and wealthy families sell firearms with the same arrogance as the contemporary Shanxi coal bosses sell their houses. Basically, these wealthy families can absorb as much as they produce.

In order not to affect the firearms trade, he even postponed his plan to go south for a month. It was not until November that the firearms trade calmed down.

At this time, the silver taels, gold, tea, porcelain, silk, and ore shipped from the south have been equivalent to 60 million taels, which is approximately equivalent to 200 million gold dragon coins.

In these years, Qingzhou has recovered all the cost of manufacturing weapons, and has also made huge profits several times.

However, Xiao Ming is not satisfied with this figure, because he knows very well that even this is only squeezing a small part of the wealth of the wealthy families. The wealthy southern wealthy families still have a lot to draw from.

And this last blow will be solved by war.

On November 5, when the weather in Qingzhou gradually turned cold, the two divisions equipped with Falcon rifles took a train from Qingzhou to Dengzhou, and then boarded a ship from Dengzhou to go south to Jinling.

“Although the firearms trade is lucrative, it will definitely be more difficult to attack the south this time. I hope the Falcon rifle can really display its outstanding capabilities.”

Niu Ben was worried on the train.

This time, Xiao Ming, his concubines and the emperor’s heirs were also preparing to go to Jinling City. Now that the cabinet was operating stably and government affairs were being handled in an orderly manner, there was no need for him to stay in Qingzhou all the time.

Therefore, taking advantage of the opportunity to go south, he also planned to visit Jinling City for a while, and at the same time inspect Jinling Mansion. This place used to be a feudal state of the King of Wei, and there were many old people from the Wei Kingdom left behind.

Both Pang Yukun and Fiji have a headache here.

“General, why should you worry? The wealthy families in the south of the Yangtze River are calling me stupid while buying weapons. Do you think so too?” Xiao Ming said with a smile.

Niu Ben’s face turned pale, “Old minister, you must not dare.”

Xiao Ming smiled and said, “In fact, both the wealthy families and the merchant council know that I will go south. This is why they are rushing to buy firearms. For them, I know that buying weapons is to arm the enemy, but they don’t understand that they have no industrial base, and the muskets in their hands will soon become fire sticks? “

Niu Ben was a little confused.

Xiao Ming continued: “I have ordered Yue Yun to block the sea routes of Great Chongqing. Neither Britain nor France can supply them with ammunition from the sea. At the same time, I have asked Yizhou Prefecture to ban the sale of saltpeter to the south. In this way, “As long as they run out of ammunition, what’s the use of artillery and muskets?”

Niu Ben suddenly realized, “The general understands that Li Chuyuan deliberately pestered the merchant council to fight, so that their ammunition was consumed very quickly. There won’t be much left of them by the time we take action. “

“Exactly, in order to let Li Chuyuan continue to muddy the waters, I promised him prosperity and wealth for the rest of his life. “Xiao Ming looked to the south, he sent. After the officials arrived in Lin’an, Li Chuyuan secretly made this request.

The reason why he wanted to talk to the officials in Qingzhou was because he couldn’t believe anyone in Lin’an.

Niu Ben’s face relaxed a little, while Luo Quan was full of confidence. For him, the country of Chongqing had been divided for too long, and now they were finally about to complete the great cause of unification.

Three days later, Xiao Ming arrived at Jinling City.

When Xiao Ming came back again, he found that not only had the place regained its prosperity, but it was better than before. Through the pier, he even saw smoke columns floating in the sky. This was a typical feature of a steam engine factory.

Seeing this, Xiao Ming had to sigh, Jinling City indeed had too many advantages.

However, there are more places in Jiangnan that occupy excellent terrain, such as Songjiang, because this is contemporary Shanghai, and this is also the first place for this southward attack.

As long as we capture this place and build a dock, Qingzhou’s supplies can be transported directly to Songjiang, and provincial supplies can be transported from Jinling.

(End of chapter)