bookpower Chapter 136 Flintlock Gun
Chapter 136 Flintlock Gun
Li Shimin added: "In addition, from today on, the Ministry of Works will separate the supervisors and establish the Department of Craftsmanship, which will be on the same level as the six departments."
"Just obey my orders, no one else can interfere."
"The Craftsmanship Department has one Shangshu, who is on the Third Grade. There are six divisions, and six ministers, who are on the Fourth Grade. Each division performs its own duties, and they are not allowed to interfere with each other."
"From now on, this department will be responsible for the world's craftsmen."
"From now on, whenever Tang Dynasty craftsmen discover a new craft, they must report it to the country."
"Any skills that are listed as key protected by the state are not allowed to be passed on privately. Violators will be beheaded at the least, and the Yi tribe will be punished at the worst."
“From now on, papermaking, printing, compass manufacturing technology, and gunpowder manufacturing technology are also listed as national key secret technologies and are strictly prohibited from spreading to other countries.
"Once the violators are discovered, regardless of their status, they will be punished by the nine tribes!"
All the ministers were surprised by what he said.
You must know that the official position of Fourth Grade is already a very high official in the Tang Dynasty.
Because in the Tang Dynasty, every Second Grade position was a false position and was an official position.
The third grade is the administrative officer. The middle grade is the highest.
In the Tang Dynasty, 30 prime ministers were just the third grade.
Each First Grade is divided into two grades, namely, upper, middle and lower grades.
On Fourth Grade, it is the highest rank among Fourth Grade officials, which shows that Li Shimin attaches great importance to this newly established department.
And why is His Majesty suddenly so interested in the skills of craftsmen?
Is gunpowder for fireworks so important?
Isn’t it true that everyone in the world knows how to make paper?
Printing technology is used by people everywhere. Does it need to be kept secret?
Do these need to be strictly guarded against by the countries in the Western Region?
In short, at this moment, the officials of the Tang Dynasty were all confused.
Li Shimin continued: "In addition, steelmaking technology, casting technology and other technologies are not allowed to be passed on to outsiders. These are the foundation of our country.
"For future generations, we must strictly protect the inheritance of our various skills."
Soon, Li Shimin voted out all the ministers, leaving only the most trusted ministers such as Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Wei Zheng, and Li Jing, as well as the newly promoted Minister of Craftsmanship and six ministers.
This made the other six ministers and many officials secretly surprised. It seemed that the emperor was very interested in this newly established department.
I didn't know what they were going to talk about, and everyone was extremely curious.
And Li Shimin said to everyone who stayed: "I have important things to say when I keep you here."
"Do you know why I set up a separate craftsmanship department? Because only today do I understand the importance of industry, which is the foundation of a strong country."
“Someone said this to me: There is no government without scholars, there is no stability without farmers, there is no strength without workers, and there is no wealth without businessmen.
"Scholars, farmers, industry and merchants are the four indispensable classes of a country."
“Those countries from ancient times to the present have only valued scholars and farmers but not industry and commerce, so the dynasties from ancient times to the present have been large but not strong, but not rich.
"Occasionally, dynasties may be prosperous and powerful for a while, but they cannot last long."
Changsun Wuji disagreed with this and said: "Your Majesty, these words are biased."
"Businessmen love profits but do not value justice, which is detrimental to the country."
"What craftsmen are engaged in is just some manufacturing skills, which is beneficial to the country, but it takes up too much manpower, so it should be stopped in moderation."
Li Shimin laughed and said, "What you said is totally biased."
"Businessmen have the role of businessmen, we will talk about this later."
"As for this craftsman, the current technology does take up a lot of manpower, and the things created do not seem to be of much use to a strong country.
"But have you ever thought that it is because the technology is not strong enough?"
"Can you imagine what the skills of craftsmen will be like after thousands of years?"
At this time, Li Shimin took out a drawing and showed it to the ministers: "Please take a look at this drawing."
After everyone saw it, they didn’t understand: “What is this?”
Li Shimin said: "This is called a firearm, and it is a powerful weapon."
"You can take people's lives even if you're capable."
"And its firing speed is faster than that of a bow and arrow, and it does not require soldiers to have strong arm strength to use it."
"Training a soldier to use this weapon is ten times a hundred times easier than training an archer.
Hearing this, everyone was extremely surprised: "Really?"
Li Shimin nodded and said, "Then do you know what this weapon is made of?"
Everyone shook their heads, and Li Shimin said: "The most important thing used in this weapon is gunpowder."
"Do you understand now why I want to focus on protecting the technologies of gunpowder?"
"Someone also told me that if we don't pay attention to the technology of gunpowder and let it flow into the Western Regions casually, one day people from the Western Regions will use weapons made from gunpowder to knock on the door of our Tang Dynasty and slay our thousands of sons. civil.
"And I have seen the power of this weapon with my own eyes."
"If there are thousands of people using this weapon, even on the plains, thousands of troops and horses will not be able to rush over."
When Li Jing heard this, he was a little surprised and said: "Your Majesty, is it really so powerful?!" 273 Li Shimin replied: "When I make a batch of such weapons, you will understand after you use them."
"With an army of a thousand men like this, we can conquer the world."
"So we have to protect gunpowder technology."
"Whoever dares to pass on gunpowder technology to people who are not from our Xia clan will be committing treason and treason, and will commit the crime of annihilating the nine clans.
"Changsun Wuji, write this article into the laws of the Tang Dynasty. Anyone who dares to violate this law will not be forgiven, even if he is a relative of the emperor!"
Li Shimin then divided the flintlock manufacturing drawings into six and said: "In the future, the six departments of the Craftsmanship Department will each perform their own duties.
"The six divisions are divided into the Gunpowder Division, the Ammunition Division, the First Craftsman Division, the Second Craftsman Division, the Third Craftsman Division, and the Fourth Craftsman Division."
"Each of your divisions has control over part of these six drawings."
"And each department has several workshops under it to further divide this part of the drawing into several parts.
"Each workshop is only allowed to know the manufacturing methods of the parts they are responsible for."
"The workers inside are only allowed to know the drawings of the parts they want to make, and are not allowed to inquire about relevant drawings and technologies from any other workshops or other departments.
"Violators, no matter what level you are, will be treated as spies.