The Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 37: Prepare to build a military academy

Views:

"How much money is needed to form a military academy? If there are more silver, I am afraid that the Ministry of Households will disagree." In Zhu Youxiao's mind, since the military academy is so useful, it can be formed, but the silver cannot be taken out of the internal treasury. The military is fighting for the country. , Of course, the Ministry of Households pays the money.

"It won't be a lot. If you don't include meals, it will be about 20,000 taels." Zhu Youjian has already summed up. The current military academy is not a real military academy. It only provides short-term training for officers. Each period will not be too long and the number of people will not be too long. There will be too many, as long as the army of the capital is well trained, so the house and land do not need to be too big. If the imperial court can experience the role of the military academy in the future, it will not be too late to expand the scale.

"Well, you are responsible for the military academy's affairs. The selection of the military academy's location is discussed with the Ministry of Industry, and the funds are allocated by the Ministry of Households." As long as a mere 20,000 taels, two million tiger and wolf divisions can be trained for Daming, Zhu You The school felt that the money was well spent, and he didn't want his internal treasury to pay for it.

After leaving the imperial city, Zhu Youjian went directly to the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Engineering. With Zhu Youxiao's imperial decree, and not much money, the officials of the household department did not embarrass him. Even if the military academy did not have the expected effect, it did not matter. The right should be given to the young prince to go to the brothel to splurge.

Accompanied by personnel from the Ministry of Industry, Zhu Youjian quickly selected the address of the military academy outside Dongzhimen. This is a hilly area close to Fenwuying. It covers an area of about 50 acres and the terrain is relatively open. The land has no hope of being developed into cultivated land, so it is basically wasteland.

Although the delineated area is not large, there are still many open spaces on the periphery. This is an important reason Zhu Youjian chose this place in order to prepare for the future expansion of the military academy. The Ministry of Households allocated three thousand taels in the first phase as the start-up funds for levelling the land and delineating the walls.

The biggest headache for Zhu Youzhen now is the lack of manpower, he does not have a large number of staff to advise him, and he does not have enough manpower to run errands for him. No way, he had to transfer the special forces from Fenwu Camp, and let Captain Wang Mujiu take Li Jun’s first team as an overseer on the construction site of the military academy, and report to himself regularly; Wang Peng’s second team had 100 people as a supervisor. Your own guards and entourage are always ready to be dispatched; Zhang Lu's third team is temporarily training in the Fenwu Camp, and is always subject to his own enlistment.

The hardware construction of the military academy is proceeding in an orderly manner, while Zhu Youjian is busy with the compilation of teaching materials and professional design within the military academy.

According to Zhu Youjian's vision, the military academy should not only set up officer classes, but also staff classes, mainly to analyze information about possible opponents at home and abroad, and to provide reference for military operations; to set up an investigation class to collect information about opponents.

Knowing yourself and the enemy will never end in a hundred battles. Only by understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent can we adopt corresponding tactics according to the specific situation. This is Daming’s biggest weakness now. Daming has always attached great importance to internal supervision, but ignores external threats. Jinyiwei, Dongchang, and Xichang are all monitoring tools for domestic officials, but for foreign countries, even vassal states, Daming There is neither a garrison nor an embassy. The understanding of foreign countries is entirely an active statement by the other party.

As the instructors of the army, Zhu Youjian intends to obtain the consent of Zhu Youxiao to let retired officers, especially those with military merits, serve as trainee instructors. In order to prevent some military officers from teaching on the basis of experience, instead of putting their own guiding ideology through the teaching, all instructors have a three-month tenure.

The training of Fenwuying no longer needed Zhu Youjian's personal command, he just went to see it often, and couldn't let the first flower he watered wilt.

In addition to compiling teaching materials and supervising the training of Fenwuying, Zhu Youjian focused his energy on the Firearms Bureau.

There has been a certain progress in the manufacture of rockets, which is to add a base to the tail of the rocket and fix it on the ground for launching, so that it will not be disturbed by the terrain; the principle and completion of landmines and grenade, start to manufacture test mines; hot air balloon The manufacturing has not yet entered the finalization stage. The hot air balloons that have been manufactured are relatively small, and the charcoal brazier under the balloon occupies too much volume. Therefore, the carrying capacity of the balloon is very small, and it is not enough to send people into the sky.

The craftsmen of Daming still have a certain level. After hundreds of years of technical precipitation, especially the restriction of the craftsmanship system, the development of technology has been objectively promoted. If the craftsmen do not have a skill, they will not have a fixed income. Allow craftsmen to leave their homes. These craftsmen must master new and unique skills if they want to survive for themselves and their families.

It was the pursuit of technology that caused strange people like Ding Lan to appear. However, the craftsmanship system is not omnipotent after all. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, its disadvantages gradually emerged, especially the system of confidentiality between craftsmen.

As the saying goes, the disciples of the church starve to death the master. The skills mastered by craftsmen will not be used for communication, they will only be given to their children and grandchildren. In the Ming Dynasty, when the income of artisans was not high, this was probably the only property they left to their children and grandchildren.

If technology is not exchanged, there will be no development. This is also the reason why Daming Firearms still stays in the age of ancestors. In the five northern expeditions of the ancestors of the year, the Mongols could not find the north, and the firearms were indeed indispensable. The huge sound of the guns alone made the backward Mongols and war horses go away.

However, due to the secrecy behavior of the artisans of Ming Dynasty, or the artisanship system of Ming Dynasty, the firearms of Ming Dynasty did not achieve further development, and the Mongols gradually adapted to the sound of guns, coupled with political corruption, military superiority returned to On the Mongolian side, the northwest, where Daming and Mongolian tribes were in contact, was often looted by the Mongols. The Han people in the northwestern frontier lived under the threat of the Mongols and had no guarantee of their lives. Zhu Youjian secretly made up his mind: Once there is a chance, he must reform the Firearms Bureau.

Zhu Youjian still has one very important thing to do: cement. Opening a cement plant can not only bring stable economic income and provide continuous blood transfusion for Fenwuying, but more importantly, it can provide guarantee for the army's travel and supplies. In the Ming Dynasty's foreign war, apart from Cheng Zu's Northern Expedition and surrendering to Tatar and Oala, there were few victories, mainly because the logistics could not keep up.

The logistics of relying on mules and horses is not only slow, but also has higher requirements on the roads. If it rains and the roads are muddy, the horses and carts will not be able to walk. Only by building concrete roads, transportation will not be affected by the weather, and flat concrete roads can also increase the speed of carriages and horses.

In the history of his previous life, Zhu Youjian was a graduate of chemical technology. Although he mainly studied cutting-edge technology, he was also familiar with traditional crafts and methods. When he came to the Ming Dynasty, he was ready to gradually recall the basic skills he had mastered .

Cement is fired using 10% coal, 12% clay, a little over 70% limestone, plus a small amount of iron ore. It is calcined in a closed environment. If it reaches a high enough temperature, it can produce The clinker is ground together with gypsum and mixed in a certain proportion to obtain a mature cement product. In terms of technology, it is not complicated. As long as the raw materials are found and a well-sealed blast furnace can be built, cement production can be carried out.

Zhu Youjian asked Wang Peng to take a team of soldiers to find a craftsman, while he took Wang Mujiu and others to select a site for the cement plant. He originally hoped to get some shareholders to invest together, but considering that cement is a new thing, others might not believe that he is an underage prince, so they have to invest independently. However, independent investment is also good, and the profits will definitely be high. a little.

Wang Peng soon found some firing craftsmen among the military households, and Zhu Youjian personally trained them to master the basic methods of firing cement. In order to prevent technical leaks, Zhu Youjian not only paid the craftsmen a high salary of two taels of silver a month, but also signed a lifetime contract and confidentiality contract with them.

Acting in accordance with the law is the social goal that Zhu Youjian pursues. He should lead by example, starting from me, and gradually promoting the legal system in Daming.

Daming’s first cement road, and also the world’s first cement road, was from the military academy to Dongzhimen. It was lobbied by Zhu Youjian and funded by the Ministry of Households. In order to thank the Ministry of Household for actually advertising his own cement, Zhu Youjian decided to cut the price by 30%, and dispatched technicians to guide the watering of the cement. The current cement road is much simpler than later generations. There will be no heavy vehicles on the road, only horses, carriages, wheelbarrows, and pedestrians. The road does not need to be too thick, 5 cm, and the concrete does not need steel bars.

On the days when the cement road was in use, Zhu Youzheng ordered road repairers to lift the straw that covered the road, and tens of thousands of people watched along the way. In order to increase the advertising effect and allow more people to experience the benefits of cement roads, Zhu Youjian drew some soldiers from the Fenwu camp, or rode horses, or drove cars, to showcase the power of cement roads in the eyes of the public.

The wide concrete road, four carriages, or eight horses that can drive side by side. Galloping horses, galloping carriages, and cheering crowds made free and far-reaching advertisements for the cement road.

At the invitation of the soldiers, the onlookers also joined the ranks of the walkers and experienced this unprecedented spacious avenue firsthand.

Even Zhu Youxiao was alarmed by the cement road that caused a sensation in the capital. He summoned Zhu Youjian at the Palace of the Qing Dynasty. In Zhu Youjian's impression, this seemed to be the second time that he was formally summoned by the emperor's brother, and the last time was when he was named King of Letters.

"Fifth brother, what kind of cement road did you build?" In fact, Zhu You's proofreader didn't understand the cement road. He only learned about the existence of the cement road through the discussion of the ministers and eunuchs.

"Brother Huihuang, the ministers accidentally discovered the method of making cement from ironmaking and calcining lime." Of course, Zhu Youjian can't tell the truth. Sometimes, white lies can avoid all obstacles. Anyway, Zhu Youxiao again. I don't know what is going on with ironmaking and calcined lime.

"The officials of the six departments praised the cement road a lot, but they rarely have unanimous opinions! Haha!" Zhu Youjian's outstanding performance made the emperor who rarely cared about the outside of the palace very happy. "Fifth brother, you can talk about it. Look, what are the benefits of cement roads?" Zhu Youxiao doesn't care about cement manufacturing at all. If he has time to care about cement, he might as well make more sets of tables and chairs.