Guangdong is the commander of the Nanyangwei, a well-deserved manufacturing center in the world.

Guan Zun, the chief of the Weigang Ordnance Bureau, grinded a delicate long gun in his palm, and the master who was born as a craftsman did not make common porcelain in the official hall, and the lacquered wood high cabinets were placed in front of the screens on the left and right sides, and there were a gun racks in the cabinets, which were filled with all kinds of bird guns of various specifications.

From the old firecrackers, arquebuses to flintlock guns, the entire Ordnance Bureau official hall is like a firearms museum.

However, Guan Zun'er's hand is not made by the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau, the pipe is three feet three inches long, the tail casting of the inscription of the Wanli Emperor, the first casting of the world's Taiping four characters, equipped with a tenon connected to the thorn; The black lacquered poplar bed is made of oak wood, and the whole rod is well-made and exquisite.

This gun comes from the Forbidden City, and it is a sample gun sent by the Wanli Emperor to the three major military weapons towns, called the Tianxia Taiping Gun.

In addition to sending the guns, his other duty was to be the arms supervisor of the Nanyang Ordnance Bureau directly appointed by the emperor.

He was not the only one appointed by the emperor, he had several subordinates in Guangdong, including the ship supervisor, the artillery supervisor, the gun supervisor, and the first supervisor, who were directly under the control of the emperor, and wanted to firmly control the Ordnance Bureau in the hands of the Forbidden City.

The superintendent of the Ordnance Bureau asked: "How much is the amount of money related to the principal?" ”

"The head of the Ordnance Bureau has no grade, Guan's fortune is related to performance, and the Ordnance Bureau supervises the production of many weapons every month, and Guan can get as many cents of silver."

The gun supervisor raised his eyebrows, and then asked, "How many guns did the Ordnance Bureau make last month?" ”

Guan Zun's ears were expressionless: "Seven hundred and forty arquebuses, and one thousand one hundred and forty flintlocks." ”

In fact, there is not much difference between the arquebus and the flintlock bird in the production process, although the flintlock gun will be more complicated, but the complexity only means that the yield is low, but it is not too time-consuming, and the cost is not high, and the most time-consuming is the drill pipe.

To put it mildly, this is about a foreign trade version and a self-use version.

The huge output of the Nanyang Guard Ordnance Bureau frightened the ordnance supervisor, and the young brocade clothes hundredfold their brows and said: "The Ordnance Bureau has such an output every month? ”

There are too many Guan Zun Ears and Lu, who have no grade, so he can get nearly twenty taels in a month.

One person tops twenty Beiyang flag troops.

In fact, Guan Zun'er has a lot more money than this, he has a point for building an armor, and he has a penny for casting a cannon, and the position of the director of the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau is undoubtedly the world's first-class fat difference.

"Last month, there were less, a batch of artillery in Sichuan was urgent, and there were a lot fewer armor weapons, and there should be 2,000 rods in storage this month."

The ordnance supervisor from Jinyiwei didn't know what to say, and looked at Guan Zun'er's still young face for a pause, and then asked: "Xuanfu doesn't have such a high output, and Beiyang doesn't have either, why can the Nanyang Guard Ordnance Bureau make a firearm for arming a guard in January?" ”

Nowhere else can have such a large production capacity, there are thousands of craftsmen in Xuanfu and even fewer craftsmen in Beiyang, but none of them have such production.

The number of craftsmen in the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau is smaller, how can they make so many guns?

Armed with a guard in January?

Guan Zun smiled to himself, he liked such a title, he arched his hand and said: "It's not a secret, Nanyangwei has a huge production of bird-making guns, which originates from Guangzhou, which is closely guarding the center of Lingnan ironmaking, and Nanyangwei is only inspecting and assembling them. ”

Tens of thousands of Foshan furnace households were making iron and forging steel for the Ordnance Bureau, and the carpenters of Xinhui were processing a machine bed in addition to providing wood for the shipyard, and even with the huge output of Nanyangwei, it still did not saturate their productivity.

Because positivity is different.

In the past, these furnace households waited for the imperial court to allocate some work all year round, and made some iron pieces in their spare time to subsidize their families, and the sales channels only covered Lingnan, and many mountain owners had limited iron mines, and their excess productivity was nowhere to be released.

What's the use of making more iron tools?

Now it is different, the Annam Railway, Burma Railway, and Luzon Iron are constantly being transported from overseas, and at most the iron ships can dock at the mouth of the Pearl River seven times a year, and a large number of iron tools used to make ordnance are apportioned, and the commission is much higher than in the past, and the excellent furnace households can even get official status.

Two years ago, the Guangzhou Prefecture Lecture and Martial Arts Hall opened 30 research places to these blacksmiths, carpenters, and gunpowder craftsmen with excellent craftsmanship, and this year it has been increased to 50, and each of them will be given nine to five rank official positions according to their contribution and talent.

This kind of official position is privately called Doctor Craftsman, and sometimes it is divided into Doctor Blacksmith, Doctor Gunpowder, and so on according to the skill he has mastered.

Doctor is not a foreign word, as early as the Qin and Han dynasties, it refers to the official position of being familiar with historical affairs and classics, and in the Ming Dynasty, it has gradually become an official position of academic specialization or proficient in an art, and teaching apprentices, for example, Zhu Yunwen once named Fang Xiaoru as a doctor of literature.

In addition, the furnace wrought iron and drill bore are inseparable from the steam engine, and the higher productivity greatly simplifies the process of making the gun pipe.

The ordnance supervisor sent by the Forbidden City was extremely interested in this matter, and he asked: "I don't know what the main person thinks, can this division of labor and construction law be implemented in Xuanfu and Beiyang?" ”

"What the superintendent said is also worried, last year he sent a letter to the Beiyang Ordnance Bureau, hoping that they can use this method to increase production, and my brother also has this intention, but before that, the output of the Zunhua Iron Works must be increased, and then the entire Jingbei military craftsmen can be concentrated in one place, so that it can be implemented."

Guan Zun'er said and put the Taiping Gun in his palm on the table, looked carefully at the tenon of the gun, and only a moment to understand its structure, skillfully put the gun on the card, raised his head and said to the ordnance supervisor: "The superintendent can reply to Your Majesty, such a gun, the Nanyang Guard Weapons Bureau can make it, at first it can produce two thousand rods in March, and it is not difficult to use one thousand rods per month for the flintlock guns of the imperial court officials and soldiers in the future." ”

The ordnance supervisor frowned and said, "The output can't be increased again?" The arquebus guns are no longer used by all the armies, so why produce so many more per month, isn't it good to make 2,000 flintlock guns in a month? ”

It is undoubtedly a huge waste of productivity to make these obsolete antiques with huge productivity.

"Your Excellency doesn't know that in addition to the Nanyang Banner Army, the imperial court's overseas armies also include the Luzon Banner Army, the Annam Banner Army, the Burmese Banner Army, the Sulu Banner Army, the Javanese Flag Army, and the Goa and Japanese Flag Army.

"Therefore, this arquebus also had to be made, which is also the largest source of wealth for the imperial court overseas, and the copper and iron needed by the Ordnance Bureau are also earned back from these arquebuses."

The ordnance supervisor bowed his hand to the north, and said, "I also hope that the chief will explain that this matter also needs to be made clear to Your Majesty." ”

"This is natural, a arquebus, with seven pieces of silver for the use of materials, is sold overseas, the price varies, iron is used for iron, silver is used for silver, usually three to ten times the cost, these flintlock guns and artillery materials, our Ordnance Bureau stewards, craftsmen's wages, are exchanged for these arquebuses."

As he spoke, Guan Zun'er suddenly turned his head and asked the ordnance supervisor solemnly: "Guan Mou hasn't asked yet, I don't know how much money should the Ordnance Bureau provide for you when Your Majesty let the superintendent come here?" ”