Ming Dynasty: My Brother-in-law is Zhu Youxiao

After hearing this, Wei Boxiang realized that at this time, he really couldn't admit that his side's government was not good enough, otherwise it would be impossible to talk about respecting Neo-Confucianism, respecting virtue and emphasizing the church would be more clear.

Therefore, Wei Boxiang had no choice but to confess his guilt and said: "The lower official made a slip of the tongue, Yuanfu is not to blame!"

Seeing this, Wang Wenkui also calmed down, sat down and waved his hands and said, "Forget it. It's your first time to join the Zheng Dynasty, and your impression of the official administration is only that of the Northern Puppet Dynasty, which is understandable."

"What Yuanfu said was that the lower officials hadn't changed their minds yet, and they had a misunderstanding. Fortunately, Mr. Mengge reminded you in time."

Wei Boxiang answered against his will, in order to admit that it is politically correct to restore the ancestral system and respect Confucianism alone, in order to allow the ethical hierarchy of monarch, minister, minister, father, son and son to continue to exist, and in order to allow the Han people to stand between meat-eaters and ordinary people. If there is a hierarchy of personality and political status, he must echo Wang Wenkui's statement.

It's like the emperor's new clothes.

Although everyone knows that the emperor has no clothes, it must be admitted that the emperor is wearing new clothes.

Only then did Wang Wenkui nodded in satisfaction, and said, "It's good that you can understand in time. As for the starvation you said all over the city, in fact, it was all caused by the treacherous minister Zhang Gui's disorderly government!"

"If it wasn't for Zhang's rebellious government, which caused those officials who still obeyed him to expropriate and expropriate in their jurisdiction, resulting in a large number of refugees, there would not be so many refugees appearing in Guangzhou, and then causing starvation all over Guangzhou."

"It can be said that the responsibility lies with Zhang Thief!"

After hearing this, Wei Boxiang glanced at Wang Wenkui in astonishment, and thought, "Can you still think like this?"

Wang Wenkui continued to say here: "The hateful thing is that Mao Yuanyi, a man with a hidden evil intention, actually deceived the servant, defected to the court, and became a traitor! Therefore, you can only be responsible for the casting of the cannon in the Industrial Department." , but fortunately, you are finally a sensible person, and you did not disappoint servants and Mr. Zhao Ge. You must forge this rifled cannon!"

"yes!"

Wei Boxiang cried bitterly as he spoke, and said, "However, Yuanfu, I'll go to the industrial department here to look at it. Frankly speaking, even if we know how the rifled gun is made now, we still can't make it. They are all shoddy. Although Xiaguan is only in charge of the warehouse there, the warehouse also needs to master some basic knowledge of gun barrels, otherwise it is not easy to maintain. As far as I know, the barrels that can make rifled guns need to be Better steel, currently our steel is not up to the mark.”

"Then what do you think we should do?"

Wang Wenkui asked.

Wei Boxiang: "Set up an Academy of Sciences to let a group of craftsmen with knowledge and skills in this field develop new steel products, give them official status, and promise that they will be promoted after they are made."

"Absurd! How can this be possible!"

Wang Wenkui immediately scolded, saying: "Zhao Shichun's people have been impeaching servants and indulging in strange and obscene techniques. They set up an industrial department, saying that servants take advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves. Now they give some craftsmen and households official titles, just because They know how to smelt steel and iron, what is this? How is this different from the puppet dynasty that messed up the ancestral system? Are you going to be scolded by your colleagues in the court?"

"Yuanfu calm down, it's a slip of the tongue!"

Wei Boxiang said.

Wang Wenkui said: "Confucianism is the essence, and miscellaneous learning is the application. These strange skills and tricks are used directly, and they are not fundamental. Why be too obsessed!"

"My servant sees that you are also deeply poisoned by the puppet dynasty. You should read Zhu Ziji's annotations to clear your mind. What about steel, I wrote to Zhu Zhiyu and asked him to find a way to steal some back. You just need to make cannons seriously. "

"yes!"

Wei Boxiang responded.

Next, Wei Boxiang could only continue Mao Yuanyi's work and asked the craftsmen to cast rifled guns with rough iron materials, hoping that his undercover agent Zhu Zhiyu could really get new steel materials from the north.

But Wang Wenkui did not ask Wei Boxiang about casting the cannon after that.

Now he and Zhao Shichun, the powerful ministers of the puppet dynasty, are struggling with where to get the money and food to build the emperor's tomb.

In the end, Wang Wenkui and Zhao Shichun temporarily decided to embezzle part of the hired barbarians’ money to build the imperial mausoleum. After all, the imperial mausoleum was not only for the emperor’s face, but also to symbolize the stability of the court. Use this to apply a layer of oil and float away part of the hired silver that has been returned to the treasury.

It's just that the price is to hire less barbarian soldiers and buy a few barbarian ships.

On the eve of the arrival of Zhang Gui and Zhu Xieyuan leading the imperial army to the south, the puppet dynasty in the south, in addition to determining the strategy of "unity with the barbarians to suppress the bandits", adding the barbarian silver and embezzling barbarian silver to build the imperial mausoleum, they also did One thing is to give the posthumous title of Emperor Jianwen, posthumous posthumous title of Fang Xiaoru, and rehabilitate many Confucian officials, as a way to show that his court respects Confucianism and virtue.

In addition, on the eve of the imperial army going south, the puppet dynasty in the south also set up a kingdom of all nations, and invited many foreigners to pay tribute to show that their imperial court was in a prosperous age.

The puppet dynasty took this opportunity to agree with many foreign countries to send troops to fight against the imperial army, and the money was naturally paid by the puppet dynasty in the south.

For foreign countries such as Haojing's Folang Jiren, they are willing to be employed by the southern puppet dynasty. First, they can make money, and second, they also prefer the southern puppet dynasty that voluntarily gave up their maritime rights and interests.

When the imperial army arrived at Yuezhou Prefecture, which was attached to the puppet dynasty, the land and water armies of both sides met here.

On the side of the imperial court, there are 80,000 elite guards, lined up in Jiangdong, while on the side of the southern puppet dynasty, 100,000 troops and 30,000 barbarians are lined up in Jiangxi.

When the guards began to fire artillery, the southern puppet dynasty also started firing artillery.

However, when the officials of the southern puppet dynasty opened the gunpowder box and prepared to reload the artillery, they found that a lot of gunpowder was actually mixed with a lot of sand.

"Beat like this! Damn, isn't this a scam?!"

Yang Zhenwei, the commander-in-chief of the puppet dynasty in the south, was furious because of this, and led his troops away.

Seeing this, the hired Frangji mercenary Leed simply ran away with his Frangji mercenaries, and said to Wang Wenkui after running back to Guangzhou:

"Yuanfu, we can help you eliminate bandits for money, but how can you deceive us by using sand as gunpowder?! Are you asking us to lose our lives for nothing?! Your behavior is abhorrent!"

"Using sand as gunpowder?"

Wang Wenkui was also taken aback when he heard this, but he also believed that it was impossible for Liard to tell lies at this time, so he slapped the table angrily on the spot: "Zhao Shichun, you bastard, you dare to swallow gunpowder money!"

The reason why Wang Wenkui scolded Zhao Shichun at this time was because the gunpowder factory was managed by Zhao Shichun's people.

Zhao Shichun has also learned about the defeat of his army here, and also learned about the adulteration of gunpowder from Yang Zhenwei, and asked Zuo Mengtong, Minister of the Ministry of War of the Puppet Dynasty of his own party: "How can you make the gunpowder adulterated?" The sand is used as gunpowder for the army ahead?!"

Zuo Mengtong hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "Calm down your anger, the court has always been short of gunpowder. It can't be done otherwise! Only by temporarily filling the gunpowder with sand can the army be willing to go to the front to fight, otherwise, the army will definitely not want to leave! The imperial court is short of silver, how can the army not be short of pay and gunpowder? It can only be short of gunpowder, not silver!"

After Zhao Shichun heard this, he couldn't say anything more. He also lost a lot of money for making gunpowder from the Ministry of War. He didn't dare to delve into it, so he had to accept Zuo Mengtong's statement, and then said: "Now it seems that we can only make peace!"

"Old man Ge is wise, in fact, now is the opportunity to replace the king!"

The old-fashioned traditional civil servants will never forget the internal struggle. At this time, Zuo Mengtong also took the opportunity to suggest.

Zhao Shichun nodded: "Come here! Prepare the sedan chair, the servant is going to enter the palace!"

"Uncle Guo, we have won this victory, and the opponent has collapsed without a fight."

On the officer's side, Zhu Xieyuan had already come to Zhang Gui to report.

Zhang Gui was quite surprised after hearing this: "We will see the result so soon?"

Zhu Xieyuan said: "The lower officials also find it strange, but in fact, they did retreat, and they didn't even fire the cannon!"

Zhang Gui said: "It's better to be careful, there may be fraud! What do you think?"

Zhu Xieyuan nodded: "Uncle Guo is right. Logically, it is impossible to lose so quickly. The opponent also has both land and water soldiers, and there are many barbarian soldiers."