Chapter 252 Loyal Dog The next morning, Yue Kuo Chaer spent a lot of money to purchase artillery from the black market, which attracted the attention of all the ministers who came to court.
The straight and slender barrel, the barrel as smooth as a mirror, the range of 350 steps, and the quality of being able to last twenty shots without exploding the barrel.
Such a magical weapon weighs only more than five hundred kilograms, and it also carries a wooden wheel cart with an iron frame underneath.
Two strong men can easily push it by grabbing the handlebars.
In contrast, the bronze cannons that the imperial court spent a lot of money to build became a complete laughing stock.
Ugly, bulky, and accident-prone.
The gunner's position, which was supposed to be the safest, was now kept at a distance by everyone.
If someone gets stabbed on the battlefield, at least a whole corpse will be left.
If the cannon explodes, everyone within five steps will be torn to pieces.
If you don't do it right, you won't even be able to pick up the bones and dregs.
As the saying goes, you are not afraid of not knowing the goods, but you are afraid of comparing goods.
Anyone who has seen the artillery made by the imperial court will inevitably feel disgraced when seeing the artillery bought by Yue Kuochaer.
Especially when I heard that the price of each cannon had increased ten times, and it was only more than 10,000 guns.
After the news that the imperial court had invested four million dollars in artillery over the past six months, everyone became even more furious.
Four million guan, four million is just a lot of copper coins, not banknotes issued indiscriminately by the court.
You must know that more than 70% of the Yuan Dynasty's treasury revenue came from several southern provinces.
Since the Red Turban incident, not a penny of taxes from the two major provinces of Huguang and Henan has been sent to the court.
Although the taxes of the two major provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi can still be transported by sea, the sea has been very uneasy recently.
Either the weather is rough or the pirates are causing trouble.
For every 10,000 guan of goods sent from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi to Haijin Town, more than 40% of it would be "flooded" along the way.
Coupled with the various unpredictable losses caused by people eating horse chews along the way, it would be good if half of the money can finally enter the treasury.
As a result, the treasury is now full of money, and even the annual salary for Beijing officials has to be pieced together to get it out.
Note 1 In such an embarrassing financial and tax situation, Ordnance Supervisor Li Hanqing actually spent 4 million dollars to build more than 100 artillery pieces.
The average cost of each cannon is three times higher than that purchased on the black market.
What does this mean?
This means that at least 3 million yuan in salary that should have been paid to officials was wasted, or collected. personal fanny pack Senior officials in the Yuan Dynasty usually did not believe in Confucianism, but they were extremely sensitive to business figures.
Therefore, before Yue Kuo Chaer's pre-arranged spokesperson could speak, Li Hanqing, the Han director of the Ordnance Bureau, had already become the target of public criticism.
Almost everyone who was not a member of the Tuotuo faction, including some nobles who had always had a good relationship with Tuotuo, wanted to immediately push Li Hanqing to the ground and strip him naked from head to toe to see where he had hidden the three million coins.
Although Li Hanqing is eloquent, in this case, everyone's opinion is the most powerful.
Fortunately, His Majesty, the Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, favored Timur with his "double pupils" and knew that he was wrongly accused.
First, he loudly dismissed the officials who besieged Li Hanqing, and then comforted the person involved with gentle words.
Finally, he adopted the proposal of Hama, the political minister of Pingzhang in Zhongshu Province, and promoted Li Hanqing to Minister of War in order to reward him for his contribution in building cannons.
The position of the Ordnance Supervisor was vacated, and the court selected another capable person to assume the position.
The so-called virtuous people naturally have to be jointly selected by several major forces in the DPRK.
After all, in this position, millions of copper coins will pass through every year in the future.
If you just rub it in, you can become rich.
Ever since, there was another overt and covert struggle, and finally a compromise was reached, allowing Ha San from Tianzhu to stand out.
As for Li Hanqing, after he was promoted to Minister of War, he was immediately assigned an important task: to prepare food and supplies for the southern expedition army, and to be ready to follow Prime Minister Tuotuo to conquer various rebels.
These things are easy to say, but the actual tossing is over by noon.
Tuohuan Timur said some more words of comfort, and then announced the dismissal of the court.
All the ministers shouted long live and bowed before going out.
Arriving outside the palace, they quickly divided into several waves.
Some met together to have fun, some gathered together to discuss plans to make a fortune, and still others, obviously sensing something amiss from today's court discussion, quietly gathered together and whispered to each other.
Tuotuo, Youcheng of Zhongshu Province, had no intention of joining in the fun.
After leaving the palace, he jumped on his mount.
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Li Hanqing, the newly appointed Minister of War, mounted another dark horse and followed him quietly.
Surrounded by guards, the master and servant ran out of the capital city along the long street.
It was not until they saw the campus outside the west gate in the distance that they sighed in unison and slowly pulled their horses.
"Fourth brother, I can't help you as a brother about what happened today," Tuotuo, Prime Minister of Zhongshu Province, said quietly without looking back, with his back to Li Hanqing.
"Sir, what are you talking about?"
Li Hanqing, the Minister of War, smiled, his face looking very haggard, "It was Xiaosi who failed to do things well and betrayed your trust, Your Majesty.
That's why our master and servant are in trouble today."
"You" Tuotuo's body trembled, and he gritted his teeth and shook his head, "You are still like this, refusing to treat me as your brother.
What happened today was obviously directed at me.
You are just unlucky to have done what I did.
It’s just a shield to take off” "I'm your book boy, I'm supposed to shield you from arrows, isn't it?"
Li Si smiled tiredly, turned over and jumped off his horse.
"Besides, these more than 150 cannons are already the best I can use.
I can't do better if I continue to work in the Ordnance Bureau.
Now that I can retreat bravely, it is a good result."
"Hey," Tuotuo heard this and let out another long sigh.
The breath he exhaled formed a white mist in the air that lingered for a long time.
The more open-minded Li Si appeared, the sadder he felt.
According to logic, in the court today, he, the right minister of Zhongshu Province, should lead his minions to protect Li Hanqing from the wind and rain.
However, when he saw that nearly 70% of the officials in the court had red eyes, he flinched.
From beginning to end, he never had the courage to say a word for his confidant.
Tuotuo knew why he was weak today.
It was not only because the quality of the artillery made under the supervision of Li Hanqing was far inferior to that of the artillery Yue Kuochaer bought from the black market.
That is only a small part of the factors, and the impact is actually not large.
Anyone with a clear mind, after the initial anger of shame and anger has passed, will clearly realize that there is an essential difference between making something yourself and buying it on the black market.
Especially for artillery, a powerful weapon to control the country, as long as you can make it yourself, even if it costs more and sells at a different price, it means that you can have as much as you want in the future and will not be controlled by others.
As for buying, it all depends on the seller’s mood.
Besides, not all red scarf thieves are so short-sighted that they even resell artillery.
When a transaction arouses Zhu Tutu's alert, those bold sellers will instinctively stop.
In addition, if you can make ugly artillery now, you can make mature products that can compete with southern products in the future.
From existence to perfection, it only takes time.
But coming from nothing is a qualitative leap.
During the court meeting in the morning, as long as I can stand up and explain the truth clearly, I believe that most of the civil and military officials in the court will not continue to be led by Hama, Yue Kuochaer and others.
However, Tuotuo did not speak.
It was not because he was unable to protect Li Hanqing, but because he saw his own brother, Timur's shrinking gaze.
In the battle in Henan, the responsibility of an army of 300,000 men was lost, and the imperial court never held him accountable.
If he stood up for Li Hanqing today, Xuexue and others, who would become angry and angry, would probably transfer their hatred to Mu'er first.
That was a weakness that he couldn't protect at all.
Even the most shameless guy in the world couldn't turn the dead into life or turn the defeat into progress.
And if Timur was not his younger brother Tuotuo, according to the laws of the Yuan Dynasty, he would have been beheaded long ago.
Family members and immediate relatives will be exiled thousands of miles away.
After repeated weighing, Tuotuo could only temporarily sacrifice his former book boy Li Hanqing.
After all, the officials' accusations against the latter had no basis at all, and even if they could pick out some bones from the eggs, the crime would not lead to death.
As long as Li Hanqing is not punished to death, he will have many ways to make a comeback by relying on the power of Zhongshu Sheng Youcheng.
There are many ways to compensate for the grievances of the latter and make the latter feel grateful to him.
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However, he never expected that instead of being knocked down by the ministers, Li Hanqing would jump up several levels because of the emperor's initiative.
Nor did he expect that Li Hanqing, who had just been promoted to the rank of Fourth-rank Minister of War, would be immediately entrusted by the emperor with the important task of partnering with him to supervise the food and grass supplies for his southern expedition.
This made all the compensation plans he had prepared in advance completely come to nothing.
And he has to face Li Hanqing at any time, and face the resentment and confusion in his eyes.
So, at this moment, Tuotuo really didn't have the courage to look back, looked into Li Hanqing's eyes, and frankly told his former book boy and good friend, I had to sacrifice you today because I wanted to protect Timur first.
I really don’t have the courage to tell the other party.
Although I have always said that I will treat you as a brother, in my heart, you are still, and will never be, as good as Timur.
"My lord, I can't guarantee that Xiao Si is right today."
Li Hanqing, however, always looked sober and rational.
He pulled his horse forward and said at Tuo Tuo's feet, "What Xiao Si said was not polite.
Your Excellency, you should know , Xiaosi and you no longer need to say any kind words.
Xiaosi will have to give up the position of Ordnance Supervisor sooner or later, either today or tomorrow.
Sir, you now have 300,000 elite troops stationed on the edge of the capital city, and Xiaosi is in the Ordnance Bureau.
It is the sharpest cannon and the strongest armored staff."
"What do you mean, you dare to alienate me?"
You Cheng Tuotuo woke up suddenly, feeling guilty, and instantly turned into a nameless karma.
"My lord, Xiaosi is your book boy."
Li Hanqing raised his head without fear, looked into Tuotuo's eyes, and continued to add in a low voice, "Without you, Xiaosi is nothing.
The emperor is suspicious of you, my lord, are you a little bit Didn't you feel it?
With your wisdom, you should have felt it a long time ago, but you just refused to believe it."
Note 1: Haijin Town is the current Tianjin area.
Maritime transportation was relatively developed in the Yuan Dynasty, and ships could directly reach Dagu Port of Zhigu from the south: