Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 323 The Giant Begins to Awaken (Part 2)
"This general and others greet Eunuch Wei."
"Oh, all the commanders. The general is a second-rank soldier. The eunuch in charge of the seal is a fourth-rank eunuch. You call yourselves the junior generals in front of me. Are you trying to flatter me to death?"
"I dare not. My Lord has worked hard for the country. I am just respecting your hard work."
"Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense. I know exactly why you came to my house."
After sitting down leisurely, Wei Zhongxian asked the eunuch to serve tea to the generals. Then he cleared his throat and said, "The Japanese pirates and Siamese thieves overestimated their own strength and invaded the Ming Dynasty, although they were just a small matter for the Ming Dynasty. However, Your Highness has been busy reforming domestic malpractices in recent years, and has recently been going all out to fight the locust plague. Therefore, facing these two clowns who have been planning for a long time, you are not well prepared for a while..."
What Wei Zhongxian said was actually the tone of the six major newspapers in recent months.
Zhu Youdong's principle regarding the Siam and Japanese invasion was: report truthfully and never conceal anything - because it could not be concealed.
However, when it comes to specific reporting, how to guide people’s thinking requires skills.
In short, the six major newspapers now have a unified tone: Yes, there is such a thing... Facing Siam , our Ming Dynasty suffered a little loss, at least Qiongzhou Prefecture was occupied for a period of time. The gate of Guangzhou Prefecture was also hit by several shells. Chongmingsha was defended by the fearless death squad and the desperate battle of Qi's army. And what about the Japanese pirates? Since our dynasty had to mobilize the army and organize the armaments after receiving the news, it took a little time. But who knew that North Korea was so incompetent that it was penetrated again in less than two months...
Why did our dynasty suffer a little loss? Of course, it was because the Crown Prince's regent work in the past few years was mainly to improve people's livelihood. You see, the salaries of officials have increased, right? The price of salt has dropped, right? After the household registration was reorganized, corvée and other things became more reasonable, right? There were fewer refugees, and public security was better, right? The establishment of banks made it much more convenient, whether it was starting a business or emergency relief, right?
Of course, the most important thing is that we, the Ming Dynasty, survived the super-large locust plague that began last year! In previous dynasties, locust plagues of this scale always killed millions of people. But what about our Ming Dynasty this time? Only tens of thousands of people!
These are all the achievements of the Crown Prince as Regent!
In short, for the sake of the people's livelihood, the Ming Dynasty has temporarily suspended its military investment. In addition, North Korea is too useless, so we let Siam and the Japanese pirates, these two clowns, jump around for a while. When we recover, we will be able to kill those two little guys!
All officials, soldiers and civilians in the Ming Dynasty still have many difficulties to solve in this country, but they are also in a special . They must unite closely around the royal family, farmers work hard, craftsmen produce seriously, soldiers train hard, and officials are honest and dedicated. In short, the shameless enemy took advantage of the disaster we encountered and blatantly launched a war without declaring war. In the early stage, they took advantage of it a little. But what kind of country is our Ming Dynasty? As long as we free our hands a little, a slap will be thrown, and these two clowns will definitely be in trouble.
While promoting in such a tone, as a time traveler, Zhu Youdong certainly would not forget the accompanying things.
Just like the Americans in later generations have a very poor understanding of geography. The people of the Ming Dynasty today also have a very poor understanding of geography. They know roughly where the Japanese pirates are, but what the hell is Siam? Where is it? What kind of rubbish countries are these?
Therefore, the six major newspapers also opened special editions to introduce in detail the history of Siam, Burma, Cambodia, Annan, Japan, Korea and other countries.
However, this kind of introduction is of course biased. For example, for Japan, the focus is on the fact that the Japanese samurai class took 50% of the farmers' harvest every year for free, and the miserable situation that most farmers could not eat white rice for their entire lives. For Korea, the emphasis is on the two-class system - if you are not born into aristocracy, you will never be aristocrats. As for Siam... To be honest, Rajafutu has governed Siam very well in the past ten years, and it can be said that the country is rich, the people are strong, and the government is harmonious.
However, Zhang Shize personally took action and imposed all the serfdom, feudal system, and right of primogeniture that existed in Myanmar and the southwest of the Ming Dynasty on Siam...
Therefore, although the Ming Dynasty suffered a small loss at this time, the prestige of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not decrease but increased.
After making an opening statement in the tone of the six major newspapers, Wei Zhongxian said, "Nowadays, the country has newly organized seven towns, and the guns and ammunition needed for daily training are overwhelming. The Ministry of Industry of the Grand Marshal, as well as the Honghe Industry and Fangshan Factory that we are responsible for, are all working hard to produce. However, in addition to supplying you, we also have to supply Liaodong Town, Chongmingsha, Guangzhou Prefecture and other places. This time, Siam invaded, Zhejiang and Fujian also suffered from the war, and the chief officer of Fujian is Mr. Sun, your highness. He asked me for it, how could I not give it to you?"
"So." Old Wei spread his hands helplessly: "It's no use for you to come to our house."
"Hey, Eunuch Wei." The one who stood up was Ma Chengen, the oldest among the generals of Zhuxin Town. "Who doesn't know that you still control the Armory and Gunpowder Bureau of the Imperial Palace? I heard that the gentlemen of Fangshan Laboratory recently equipped these two departments with production lines for the production of fixed gunpowder bombs. They also trained the former craftsmen of these two departments. So..."
"Oh, you are well-informed, all the commanders! The production lines of these two bureaus just started debugging yesterday. I ran back and forth between the two bureaus last night and was busy all night. Did you all know the news by noon today?"
"Hehehe, isn't it because the new recruits here don't have enough bullets to shoot all day long? All of us have turned into dogs and can automatically smell the smell of gunpowder, right?"
"Tsk! Marshal Ma, you are from a military family after all, how can you say such shameless words. That's why those civil officials don't like you."
"Hey! Eunuch Wei, why do I need people to like me? Bullets, I'm short of bullets right now. Even though my old man is still around, I still say the same thing, whoever gives me bullets, I'll call him dad~!"
"Alright, alright, I can't stand you guys anymore."
Sitting down and taking a sip of tea, Wei Zhongxian said seriously, "There used to be many craftsmen in the Imperial Palace, and they were divided into 24 yamen. Later, His Royal Highness the Grandson asked our family to take the lead in making changes. Most of the craftsmen were dismissed, and the few who stayed were also supervised by the internal officials. Since His Royal Highness made the decision to expand the new army in October last year, our family has foreseen that there will be a serious shortage of ammunition, muskets, cannons, etc. Therefore, in addition to letting the subordinate firearms factories in Honghe and Fangshan recruit new workers, we have also begun to make relevant preparations in the Imperial Palace.
At present, two bullet production lines and one firearms production line have been set up in Da Nei. All the craftsmen have been recruited and trained. Trial production can be carried out tomorrow. I will tell you all the commanders here. In a month at most, the things you need will be delivered to your barracks. Hehe, don't use the name of caring for the soldiers and not train them to death. "
"Oh! Eunuch, what are you talking about? As long as there are enough bullets , I will not stop until all those new recruits have their shoulders broken!"
After everyone laughed and chatted for a while, Wei Zhongxian said, "Let me tell you something more."
"Please make it public."
"The production line we just mentioned is actually very crude in the eyes of the Crown Prince. In the words of His Highness, it can only be regarded as a crude handicraft workshop. However, our family has an innovation that has been highly praised by His Highness."
"Ah? May I ask, sir?"
"Hehe, because the new army has expanded so much, the pressure on gun production is too great. So our family has invested a large number of craftsmen in the gun factory. Most of the people who produce bullets are now women."
"Woman? Father-in-law, this woman..."
"What's wrong with this woman?" Old Wei said with a serious face: "I have to remind you that His Highness is going to get married soon. If you openly discriminate against women like this, and let the Crown Princess know, I'm afraid you will be bullied several times!"
"Oh, haha, how dare we, how dare we. We all take Qi Shaobao as our role model."
"Humph! What do you know? These fixed-load paper shell bullets require a sense of touch, carefulness, and patience. Women are better than men in these three aspects! If you ask me, the bullets they make are more reassuring."
"I see, my father-in-law is indeed insightful."
"Hahaha, that's right. His Highness said that now that foreign enemies have invaded, all the people of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of gender, must mobilize together. Let these two jumping clowns take a good look. Once the Ming Dynasty mobilizes, the national strength displayed will make Siam and the Japanese pirates despair!"
