Although this was a trivial matter, Gu Yanwu had been active in the enemy-occupied area all the year round and had a special sensitivity to such things, so he still reported it to His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King.

"Oh? Where was this man? ”

"Back to Your Highness, this Gao Xiang was previously escorted to Nanping to work as a coolie."

Nanping is the seat of Yanping Prefecture, and its location is in the center of Fujing, and it is by no means easy to get the captives out here. Zhu Linmiao tapped his fingers on the wooden table, "Jianyu has spent so much time, there must be some secret in it." Master Gu wanted to ascertain his purpose as soon as possible. ”

"Subordinates obey." Gu Yanwu hurriedly said, "Jinyi Weibei Town has laid some eyeliner in the area of Zhili and Liaodong, and there will be news back soon." ”

After saying some information from all over the north, Gu Yanwu bowed down and retreated, and Song Yingxing, who had been waiting outside for a long time, hurriedly followed Shi Lin into the palace study.

After seeing Zhu Linmiao, he saluted, and then said hurriedly: "Your Highness urgently ordered the Ordnance Bureau to speed up the construction of the hunter gun more than half a month ago, and rush to produce a batch of heavy artillery.

"At present, 1,300 guns have been made and are being handed over to General Yu for inspection in batches. But I didn't expect that this Mini bullet would take a lot of effort to make. By the time of yesterday's count, there were only more than 30,000. ”

Song Yingxing explained in detail the production process of mini bullets, and Zhu Linmiao remembered that because there was no stamping equipment, it was indeed a very troublesome thing to quickly manufacture bullets with very accurate diameters.

The current way to make mini bullets is to pour melted lead into a mold, cool it and remove it, polish it smooth by hand by artisans, then drill holes in the bottom and then put it into the cork.

The slightest mistake in any of these processes will lead to an unstable center of gravity or a large caliber error.

Previously, there were only about 200 rifled guns in the whole army, which could barely be supplied by hand polishing, but now with more than 1,500 hunting guns, the supply of this gun and ammunition has become a big problem.

Song Yingxing said: "In addition, more than seventy percent of the guns are flawed in the production process, which is not only a huge waste, but also two craftsmen need to be assigned to supervise one person. In order to make these 30,000 mini bullets, nearly 4,000 taels of silver have been consumed......"

A bullet costs three cents of silver! "High-precision" weapons are really not something that the poor can play. Zhu Linmiao shook her head helplessly, "Let's do this for the time being." If the mini-bullets on the battlefield are really not enough, it can be used with buckshot wrapped in leather.

"When I come back from the southwest, let's take a good look at the hydraulic stamping equipment, and this problem can be solved."

"Yes." Song Yingxing had no choice but to give up, "The students will also make the craftsmen proficient as soon as possible and produce more finished products." ”

He paused, and then continued: "In addition, the process of standardizing the process of casting cannons has been roughly compiled into a book. The first batch of four nine-pounder guns cast according to this standard has been handed over to General Yu. ”

Zhu Linmiao nodded with satisfaction, casting cannons is a big matter, especially for the sailor.

Due to the extremely large number of guns on board the Galen ship, a 500-ton warship needed nearly 20 cannons of various calibers. The entire naval division needed at least one hundred and forty or fifty guns just for the initial planning.

And these cannons have to be prepared in advance, otherwise when the warship goes down, the sailors will have no cannons available, but it will be a joke.

Now that there is a standardized process for casting cannons, as long as you continue to invest money in it, you can continue to expand the scale of production and ensure the supply of cannons.

"Oh, by the way, Your Highness, a few days ago, there were several Helan merchant ships that unloaded more than 70,000 catties of copper ore in Yuegang." Song Yingxing continued, "The Ministry of Industry is now stepping up smelting. ”

In fact, this matter has been reported by the Ministry of Rites. In the end, the Dutch compromised, compensated the Ming 50,000 taels of "medical expenses", handed over a letter of apology, and promised not to attack merchant ships along the coast of the Ming Dynasty. Now the copper ore they traded has also arrived.

However, even if the Dutch did not attack merchant ships along the coast, they could not change the monopoly of the Ming shipping by them.

As long as it is more than 100 miles offshore, it is still the world of the Dutch fleet. With their current communication capabilities, even if they sank a merchant ship in the open sea, it would be difficult for the Ming to get news.

This is also the reason why Spain does not dare to approach the coast of Fujing for the time being.

Zhu Linmiao nodded and said, "Tell Weiyuan, you have to hurry up the matter of supervising the construction of heavy artillery." Although copper is used, a large number of copper mines will arrive in the future. ”

Limited to the casting level of this era, especially without Zhu Linmiao's guidance, he was still not at ease to let Xu Erlu use iron to cast heavy artillery.

You must know that in a naval battle, as long as there is one explosion, it is likely to incapacitate the entire warship.

But in this way, the copper required by the sailor to cast the cannon alone will exceed 400,000 catties. Such a large amount, at the monopoly price of the Dutch, I am afraid that it will be enough to spend nearly a million taels of silver.

This is also an important reason why Zhu Linmiao is eager to take Guangdong and get in touch with Portugal and Spain. The Philippines, India and other places are large copper producers, and after there are more supplies, sellers will compete to lower prices.

"Remember, students."

When Song Yingxing was ordered to leave, Zhu Linmiao asked Shi Lin to find Zhang Jiayu and instructed him to mobilize four thousand dragon guards to prepare immediately, and prepare the corresponding logistics baggage, and in the near future, he will send troops to the west to conquer Liangguang.

With the combat effectiveness of the Dragon Guard, even if he was only equipped with flintlocks, Zhu Linmiao was confident that he would defeat Ding Kuichu with three or four thousand people.

Now that there are more than 1,500 rifled guns, the strength of the Dragon Guard Army has been greatly improved, so 4,000 troops are enough to march westward.

In addition to the remaining 1,000 Dragon Guards, Zhu Linmiao also arranged side tasks for them.

The next day, the court meeting that had been temporarily held for a long time due to the auxiliary king's southern trip to Quanzhou was reopened.

In front of the Wenhua Palace, Pang Tianshou read out two holy decrees in public - of course, they were all from Zhu Linmiao's hand, and the jade seal was used after passing the cabinet.

This first holy decree is to bitterly state the eight major crimes of the rebel thief Ding Kuichu for rebellion, murder of the king, and failure to obey the call, and then immediately order His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King of the Dynasty to lead an army to the west to conquer the two Guangzhous and Guangzhou, and crusade against the rebellion. And spread the officials of the two Guangzhou, when the east greeted the imperial army, the violators were punished with rebellion.

In fact, since the fall of Zhu Yuao, courtiers have continued to impeach Ding Kuichu or ask the court to send troops to attack him.

However, at the beginning of Zhu Linmi's reign, the hearts of Fujing people fluctuated, and Ding Kuichu still controlled the land of Liangguang, with more than 10,000 troops, which was quite powerful.

It was Zhu Linmi, in order to seek the stability of the Ming Dynasty, that he had not mentioned the matter, and all the pieces of impeachment against Ding Kuichu were left by the cabinet.

At this time, the court meeting suddenly said that it was going to go west, but the officials were a little stunned. But they quickly reacted, and immediately fell to the ground and shouted, "I wish Your Highness a victory!" ”

This expedition to the west is not only a rebellion against the righteousness, but also a move to restore the society, and no one in the entire court dares not to express support.