Chapter 311: Fire Spear
The palace guard is responsible for the palace guards, a total of 50,000 people.
There is one chief inspector and two deputy chief inspectors in front of the palace.
Wei Guogong Cao An served as the chief inspector in front of the palace, and the two deputy chief inspectors were Rongxian and Xuanping Hou Deng Xinhe.
Rong Xian is the younger brother of Concubine Rong, and Deng Xinhe, the Marquis of Xuanping, is the uncle of the Supreme Emperor.
Wei Guogong's post as the capital inspector cannot be moved for the time being, and Marquis Xuanping is not easy to move either. The only one who can move it is Rong Xian.
After his father left Beijing, Zhao Xing issued an order to transfer Rongxian to the western suburbs camp as the commander of the capital, and Zhang Feng took over as the deputy capital inspector of the front department.
Zhang Feng is still young, now in his early twenties, and has suddenly become a third-rank military officer. Even if he is a noble man and a young man, he has reached the sky in one step.
If the position were changed to another position, the courtiers would definitely object.
But the Dianqian Division focuses on nepotism, and Zhao Xing makes arrangements independently. There is no need to discuss with the courtiers, and the courtiers have no right to stop him.
Although Rongxian was promoted flatly, the Dianqiansi was one of the three yamen and had control over the world's troops. He seemed to be of the same rank, but in fact he was one level higher.
The most important thing is that the Dianqian Division belongs to the emperor's personal army. To use a later saying, more money means less trouble.
However, no matter how unwilling Rongxian was, there was nothing he could do.
Leaving aside the fact that Concubine Rong followed the Emperor to Luoyang, even if Concubine Rong was in Bianjing, it would not affect Zhao Xing's decision.
Zhao Xing doesn’t know what Rong Xian thinks, and even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.
After arranging the transfer of the front department, Zhao Xing was busy establishing the Firearms Department.
There were still many skilled craftsmen in ancient times, but unfortunately most of the time even if they invented something, they were not taken seriously.
Take war equipment as an example. Whenever the world is in chaos, great breakthroughs can be made.
If the world were at peace, there would be no progress for many years.
What Zhao Xing has to do is to let those craftsmen see the importance of the court, so as to stimulate their enthusiasm for research and development.
Because the Firearms Department was very dangerous, Zhao Xing ordered people to locate the Firearms Department in a remote place outside the city.
The place had been built not long ago, and Zhao Xing asked Cao Mian to lead the imperial army from the East Palace to garrison there.
At the same time, some skilled craftsmen were transferred from the Ministry of Industry to the Firearms Department, and then he gave the brochures about gunpowder and firearms that he had been idle to write to those craftsmen for them to study.
Zhao Xing also aims to recruit skilled craftsmen from across the country. Anyone with a skill and high technical attainments can sign up.
Anyone who passes the selection can work in the Firearms Department.
In order to stimulate the enthusiasm of craftsmen to sign up, Zhao Xing also specifically stated that those with outstanding performance can be promoted to official positions.
If you just work in the imperial department, truly capable craftsmen will not care much about it.
After all, people who are very accomplished in a certain field have no worries about making money.
It is not attractive to work in the Firearms Department, but being an official is different.
Although the six ministries of the imperial court have a Ministry of Works, the officials in the Ministry of Works are not craftsmen.
Although there are craftsmen who can hold managerial and other positions, in fact they are not even minor officials.
Since ancient times, people have always been full of enthusiasm for being an official.
Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce ranked first.
In the Song Dynasty, farmers and merchants could pass the imperial examination to cross class, but craftsmen could not.
Now that he has the opportunity to become an official, Zhao Xing does not believe that the craftsmen in the world will not be tempted.
This matter has also been opposed by many officials.
Zhao Xing suppressed the opposition by saying that he was only awarded a casual official position and did not hold any actual duties.
For a time, craftsmen who thought they were very skilled rushed to Bianjing after receiving the news.
Zhao Xing originally wanted to have local officials conduct a round of selection first, but after thinking about it carefully, he gave up.
If local governments do not pay attention to it, they will miss out on some talents.
A capable craftsman will not be short of travel expenses. If a craftsman cannot even earn travel expenses, he has little ability. Setting the place in Bianjing is itself a screening process.
As for the task of selecting craftsmen, Zhao Xing handed it over to Sheng Hong.
Now that Sheng Hong is the right minister of the Ministry of Industry, having him in charge can also show that the court attaches great importance to craftsmen.
Sheng Hong failed to become the governor of Kaifeng and was depressed for a long time.
After thinking carefully, he understood what the problem was.
Originally, he was prepared to serve as the right minister of the Ministry of Industry until he became an official, but he didn't expect that Zhao Xing would entrust him with such an important matter.
It can be seen from Zhao Xing's promise to grant official titles to those craftsmen that Zhao Xing attaches great importance to this matter.
As long as he handles this matter well, there may be a possibility of going further.
Sheng Hong, who wanted to make progress very much, was very enthusiastic about selecting craftsmen.
When the new king succeeded to the throne, he wanted to add Enke, and many scholars were also rushing to Bianjing. For a while, Bianjing was even more lively than usual.
…………
Longtuge
Zhao Xing was handling official business when a eunuch came in and bowed: "Your Majesty, the right minister of the Ministry of Industry wants to see you."
"Let him come in." Zhao Xing said.
After a while, Sheng Hong walked in, bowed and said: "I pay homage to Your Majesty!"
"Without courtesy." Zhao Xing waved his hand and said, "Why is Sheng Aiqing here?"
"Back to Your Majesty, today I screened the craftsmen and found a strange man. This man made something called a musket. It only uses a piece of bamboo with gunpowder and gravel inside, and can launch it dozens of steps away." Sheng Hong said.
"What?" Zhao Xing was shocked when he heard this and said, "Are you telling the truth?"
"How dare I deceive your majesty? This is what I saw with my own eyes." Sheng Hong said.
"Bring this person into the palace, I want to see for myself the power of this musket!" Zhao Xing said.
"Your Majesty, the sound of this thing is not small when it is launched, and the craftsman said it is dangerous. Your Majesty..."
"I will not get close, I will only look at it from a distance. What danger could there be? Just go and bring people into the palace." Zhao Xing interrupted Sheng Hong.
In his previous life, he had learned about the development of some muskets. The earliest muskets were called sudden muskets, which used bamboo tubes, added gunpowder and gravel, to fire.
But this thing seems to have been made only in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Could it be that someone has created it now?
If this is really the case, then you have found a treasure.
This person was able to develop a burst gun without any foundation, which shows that he has in-depth research on gunpowder.
Even if the power is average, if you provide him with some ideas, if nothing else, it is still possible to create a firearm with the power of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties.
Although there is a gap of two to three hundred years, iron firearms were invented during the Yuan Dynasty.
With the nature of the nomadic clan, they may not care much about things like skills.
It took several hundred years from the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty, so the technological gap should not be too big.
The reason why the Song Dynasty did not create it was because the skills lacked time to improve, not because of the technological gap.
Technology and skills seem to be the same concept, but in fact they are not the same thing at all.
Take papermaking as an example. Papermaking was invented during the Han Dynasty, but the technology at that time was immature. The paper produced was not only brittle, not conducive to writing, but also very expensive.
After hundreds of years of development, papermaking technology improved, and paper became the mainstream for carrying text.
Technology is limited by factors such as the materials of tools and equipment. It is difficult to achieve a breakthrough without progress in equipment materials. However, skills are a process from scratch.
Just like the firearms of later generations, even if they knew how to make them, they couldn't be made in ancient times.
But the musket craftsmanship of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties could be made if it were obtained now.
(End of this chapter)