Comparatively speaking, Xue Guoguan had less understanding of military affairs, so he was the first to come back to his senses and say, "Your Majesty, this is ...... It can't be, right? ”

He expressed his opinion again, still speaking, even with a stammer.

This time, Emperor Chongzhen had a serious face, looked at him and asked, "What's impossible?" I have come to ask you, in the past, catapults were used to siege cities, at that time, can you think of Hongyi cannons that use gunpowder to propel iron bullets? In the past, gunpowder was used to set off fireworks, but did you think that after the gunpowder formula was improved, it could be used in war......"

Listening to the examples he cited, Xue Guoguan couldn't speak this time. Because of Emperor Chongzhen's words, he couldn't deny it!

After Emperor Chongzhen said for a while, he looked at the other two and said earnestly: "The level of our Ming craftsmen has been staying in place for too long. In many ways, Xiyi has been ahead of us. I'm sure you've all seen what those Xiyi missionaries brought, right? ”

In fact, even the Hongyi cannon was brought by Xiyi. Because of this, it is called the Hongyi Cannon. In addition, there are many things, such as telescopes, mirrors, clocks, etc., all brought by Xiyi.

With the cleverness of Lu Xiangsheng and others, they have already guessed what the emperor wants to express. Others may disagree with this. But Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting knew that the Hongyi cannon, telescope, as well as the Xiyi cannon casting method, and artillery technology were indeed more powerful than the Ming Dynasty. If this goes on for a long time, if Xiyi is close to Daming, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, the expressions of the two of them immediately became serious. Among them, Sun Chuanting even played to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty Shengming, it should be time for my Daming to change!" ”

The other two, although they may still not be able to imagine the example given by the emperor, but this does not prevent them from finally agreeing with the emperor's idea.

So, the specific details, the monarch and the minister began to discuss further.

Emperor Chongzhen has the brains and experience of later generations, and his courtiers are the top figures living in the contemporary era, and they can be down-to-earth and operable when they discuss it together.

At the end of the discussion, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng were about to take up their posts.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at Sun Chuanting and explained to him: "Qing went to Shanhaiguan, let it go, and take care of Shanhaiguan for me." Give me some time, and when it is safe in the future, I will counterattack Liaodong and regain the lost territory! ”

"Wechen obeys!" Sun Chuanting heard this and immediately received the order.

Then Emperor Chongzhen turned to Lu Xiangsheng and explained to him: "I will try my best to satisfy the matter of forming a cavalry army proposed by Qing. It's just that Daming is currently short of horses, and it will take time to gather war horses. In addition, the matter of the sailor is the foundation for Qing to rebuild Dongjiang Town, and he does not need to wait for the news of the Fujian sailor, so he will build a warship and recruit sailors first. ”

"Wechen obeys!" When Lu Xiangsheng heard this, he immediately received the order.

He has always advocated taking the route of elite soldiers, and the will he received is that he rebuilds Dongjiang Town and contains Liaodong Jianlu, and the best thing is to have a strong cavalry army, only in this way can Jianguo not dare to use the main force and attack Guannei through the Mongolian steppe.

Because, his idea had already been mentioned to Emperor Chongzhen before. This is also the case, which is why Emperor Chongzhen's words are known.

They all know that for now, the Ming army is not the opponent of the Jianyu army. Even if the three major battalions under the command of the Imperial Horse Supervisor were sent out, even if there was a great victory in Tianjin, it would not be the opponent of the Jianyu army.

Because of today's three major battalions, nearly one-third of the troops are newly recruited soldiers; Moreover, their ordnance and armor are not as good as those of Jianyu, and their strength is still less than that of the main force of Jianyu; There is no longer the possibility of attacking them by surprise, and it is too difficult to fight head-on and win the Jianqing.

Therefore, it is necessary to stabilize the current situation, step by step, with the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, to reverse the gap in military strength between the two sides until it is leveled in Liaodong.

After saying this, it was already dark, and there was no further discussion between the monarch and the minister.

A few days later, the blacksmith Liu Chengye and his daughter-in-law returned to the west of the city from outside the city, and the neighbors saw it and said, "Are you back?" ”

"Well, it's back!" Liu Chengye agreed like this, and when he was about to walk back to his yard, he suddenly thought of something, so he asked his neighbor again: "Has anyone from the yamen come to look for me?" ”

"I don't know!" His neighbor replied, "I'll be back half a day before you." ”

This neighbor of his family, named Wang Dongming, is also a craftsman, a carpenter, and his family is also outside the city, and some relatives died at the hands of Jianyu this time.

Speaking of this, I heard Wang Dongming suddenly breathe a long sigh of relief and said, "After worshipping, I feel a lot more relaxed." Otherwise, think about them all day long! ”

Liu Chengye listened and nodded. These days, many people in Jingshi are like them, going back to worship their relatives and telling them about the traitors, which can be regarded as allowing their relatives to rest in peace.

Seeing that his daughter-in-law's eyes were still a little swollen, Liu Chengye didn't say anything, went into the house with his daughter-in-law, and put away his luggage.

After doing this, the two sat at the table and were relatively speechless for a while. When his daughter-in-law was about to speak, she saw him stand up, go to the corner of the room, take up a board that had been placed there, reach out and dust it, look at it carefully, and then turn and go to the door.

His daughter-in-law saw it and said with a little surprise: "What are you doing with the signboard, aren't we going to Jiangnan?" ”

Hearing her speak, Liu Chengye's footsteps just stopped for a moment and continued to walk out, and at the same time said, "Don't go!" ”

His daughter-in-law was stunned for a moment, and when he returned to the house, she asked a little worriedly, "Are you worried about the Lu Yin?" ”

"It's not." Liu Chengye listened, shook his head and denied it, but he didn't want to tell his daughter-in-law about his promise, for fear that his daughter-in-law would worry.

His daughter-in-law was silent for a moment, and then asked, "What then?" On the Jingshi side, we can't live anymore! ”

Hearing this, Liu Chengye was also worried.

He inquired, and the senior official who let him go was called Lu Xiangsheng, who was the governor of Baoding. Let him go, he is a good official, then he can't lose his trust as a good official. If you say you can't escape, you must not escape.

However, on the Jingshi side, as the daughter-in-law said, it is really difficult to maintain. Nowadays, it is difficult for blacksmiths to have a time to fire, and it is difficult to sell a little ironware, but the little money earned is not enough to buy food. If it weren't for the current food control in Jingshi, the two members of the family would starve to death.

Moreover, striking iron is a hard work, if you can't eat enough and you don't have the strength to strike iron, how can you make good iron? If you can't make good ironware, fewer people will come to patronize it, so it will be more difficult to make money.

Now, what to do? Do you want to work hard? But these days, there is no shortage of people who work hard!

Thinking left and right, I just can't think of any good way to solve the dilemma in front of me.

The little money I had saved before, even if I had been saving money, was almost running out. So what should I do next? Liu Chengye thought about the current situation and couldn't help but feel a little worried.

But even so, he didn't think about breaking his promise and immediately going to the south to make a living.

His daughter-in-law should have also seen her husband's embarrassment, and did not ask anything, but just sat quietly.

In this way, the two were relatively speechless, and sat for an unknown amount of time, until there was a sound of footsteps outside the door, followed by a quick knock on the door, and Wang Dongming seemed to shout with a little excitement: "Master Liu, are you there?" Open the door, great joy......"

What other great joy could there be? The husband and wife glanced at each other, both a little puzzled.

I couldn't figure it out, but it didn't prevent Liu Chengye from going over to open the door, and I saw Wang Dongming sweating on his face, but he was standing at the door with excitement.

As soon as he saw Liu Chengye open the door, Wang Dongming smiled and said excitedly: "Go and see, there is an announcement from the imperial court, we have saved ......"

This was inexplicable, but his emotions drove Liu Chengye, after all, he was worried about his future livelihood just now, so when he heard it, he was curious, and hurriedly asked, "What announcement?" ”

"We can go and work for the emperor!" Wang Dongming said excitedly, "The one who gave the money, the original craftsman was disbanded, there was a lot of money, and he said that he did a good job, and there was another reward, so that he didn't have to worry about his livelihood......

The ravages of Jianyu and the skyrocketing prices in Beijing have brought families like Liu Chengye back below the poverty line, and the same is true for Wang Dongyang's family.

Although he still heard it a little unclear, Liu Chengye heard something, and hurriedly asked, "You said that the craftsman service was canceled?" Hire us instead? This...... It can't be, right? ”

He immediately thought of the army. Originally, the army was composed of military households, and the army was for generations. But later, the army composed of military households could not fight at all, and in the Jiajing period, it is said that in the south, dozens of Japanese robbers were killed all the way to the city of Yingtianfu. From this, there is army recruitment, that is, the kind that pays the army.

It seems that the craftsman is also about to change. However, craftsmen are not the same as military households, so they are not so important, right, will this also change?

In his opinion, if the army is incompetent, it is like now, with thieves everywhere and prisoners raging, threatening the rule of the government. So to change, that's conceivable. But what about the craftsman? The incompetence of the craftsman doesn't seem to have a big impact on the imperial court, right?

Thinking like this, Liu Chengye couldn't believe it. Wang Dongyang saw it, pulled him away, and said excitedly: "If you don't believe it, just go and see, let me tell you, you may not be able to go if you want to go, and those who want to be assessed can only enter through the assessment......"

"My husband's assessment will definitely not be a problem." Liu Chengye's daughter-in-law suddenly appeared and said very confidently.

Liu Chengye turned his head to look, but saw that his daughter-in-law was looking at him, her eyes were full of hope.

Liu Chengye nodded, and then without Wang Dongyang's pull, he hurried to read the notice with him.

Along the way, he found that many craftsmen he knew were excitedly rushing to the same destination. Obviously, everyone has heard the news and needs to rush to verify it.

In today's world, except for those who are officials, there are also rich and noble families, and everyone is having a hard time. If there is such a good thing, it will solve their predicament, and they will naturally rush to work. At this point, even Emperor Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng and others did not expect that it would trigger such an eager reaction.

Liu Chengye rushed to the place where the notice was posted, and it was already full of people. Basically, they are all craftsmen, and they are all talking excitedly.

When Liu Chengye saw it, he became even more excited inexplicably, and while squeezing inside, he pricked up his ears to listen to what they said.

"It's to go to the palace to do things! Give it to Yu Lu, look at it, even ordinary craftsmen are two taels of silver a month, which is really good! ”

"But no, this is higher than the monthly salary of a soldier, could it be true?"

"How could it not be true? Can there be any fakes on this notice? ”

"Yes, didn't you raid the homes of those Jin merchants? The carloads of gold, silver and jewels are all too many to count, is the emperor still short of silver? ”

"That's it! Besides, do you think any craftsman can enter? Look, the notice said that it is to be assessed, and only after passing the assessment can you be qualified to be an ordinary craftsman! ”

“……”

Liu Chengye is confident in his craft, and the steel he creates is one of the best among all the blacksmiths in Beijing. Therefore, for the assessment or something, I automatically ignore it, just want to see the notice, no matter what, I always have to see it with my own eyes, even if I can't read.

There was a lot of strength in striking iron, but even so, it took a lot of effort to squeeze in. Sure enough, I saw a new poster, it's still very long, and there should be a lot of content.

So, he hurriedly turned his ear and continued to listen, and there were naturally literate people in the crowd.

It so happened that a newcomer, who was literate, was reading the proclamation, and he pricked up his ears and hurried to listen.

Wang Dongyang was not wrong, the emperor put back the craftsmen who were serving in the palace, and instead recruited craftsmen with good skills and gave them to Yulu, and there were other rewards for doing a good job......

"What? Knighted? Liu Chengye listened and listened, and suddenly felt incredible, and hurriedly interrupted the person to speak.

Finally, a literate one came, and the craftsmen around him couldn't wait to listen to it again, but when he interrupted him like this, they all glared angrily, which made Liu Chengye suddenly a little embarrassed, and hurriedly said: "You continue, you continue to ......"

This person obviously knew a lot, so he explained to them all: "This title is similar to the military merit knighthood of the pre-Qin Dynasty, but it is awarded to five levels, which is still different from the current prince. However, there are also tax exemptions and exemptions, and officials do not worship ......"

Even if Liu Chengye himself thinks that his craftsmanship is good, but after hearing it, he became nervous, the conditions offered by the emperor are so good, will everyone come to grab it, can he stand out and enter the palace as a craftsman?

Other craftsmen even have this idea, such a good treatment, for fear that they will not be able to enter! Correspondingly, many people have opinions about this.

。 m.