Chapter 576: Detaining the Joseon King

Both Zhu Youxiao and Sun Chengzong were very satisfied with Li Zong's statement. The two of them had no intention of continuing the conversation, so they brought Li Zong to a meal together, and after the meal, they sent Li Zong off.

What Li Zong was thinking no longer mattered.

After Li Zong left, Sun Chengzong and Zhu Youxiao sat together drinking tea and chatting.

There was something about this matter that needed to be discussed, and Sun Chengzong felt he ought to speak with His Majesty about it.

"Your Majesty, isn't selling weapons to them somewhat inappropriate?" Sun Chengzong asked with some hesitation.

What Sun Chengzong hesitated about was not the act of selling weapons, but having to consider Zhu Youxiao's attitude.

This emperor of theirs considered a great many things and acted with great decisiveness; under normal circumstances, persuasion was not so easy. This made Sun Chengzong's attitude somewhat cautious, afraid of angering His Majesty and triggering a rebellious reaction.

Glancing at Sun Chengzong, Zhu Youxiao smiled and said, "What do you think I'm going to sell them?"

"There are so many weapons in the capital's warehouses right now. If we don't move them out, they'll all just sit there and rot. Selling some to them is fine — at least we can earn a bit of money back."

Upon hearing that it was weapons from the capital's warehouses, Sun Chengzong breathed a sigh of relief.

As a staff officer in the operations division, he naturally knew what kind of weapons were stored in the capital's arsenals — essentially all of them were decommissioned.

Aside from flintlock muskets, there were also some matchlock muskets, and quite a few cannons — just not the later steel cannons; many were early bronze cannons and tiger-crouch cannons.

Many of them were things left over from the Jiajing era. Never mind using them — just maintaining them every year cost a fortune.

The Ministry of War had already said these things had no reason to exist and were ready to be melted down and reforged. The recovered iron could be forged into kitchenware or farm tools.

As for the recovered bronze, it could be made into ornaments, or they could see if it could be turned into copper coins. If that were possible, then nothing could be better.

And judging by His Majesty's intent, he planned to sell these things to the Joseon people.

"Will they even agree to that?" This time Sun Chengzong was truly hesitant.

He said in an uncertain tone, "These things are not the same as what they saw. If they don't want them, then what?"

"Why wouldn't they want them?" Zhu Youxiao said matter-of-factly. "These items are far inferior to what we use, but they're much better than what they have — even better than what the Japanese have. Why wouldn't they buy?"

"Buying is better than not buying. Want our most advanced? We don't even have enough for ourselves."

Sun Chengzong nodded.

But his habit of being overly protective of his own side flared up again, and he said with some hesitation, "If we give these things to them, won't they be able to reverse-engineer them? Even develop their own? If they manage to figure them out, we'll be in big trouble."

"Why not give these things to the border troops instead, or to the local garrison forces? There are still many people who can't get such equipment — our Great Ming is sorely lacking right now. Though these aren't the best and are somewhat outdated, they're still better than what's currently in use, aren't they?"

Zhu Youxiao looked at Sun Chengzong and sighed, "If our things were that easy to copy, that would be wonderful."

These words from Zhu Youxiao truly came from the heart.

How many years had the Great Ming spent, how much money had it invested, before achieving what it had now?

If others wanted to reverse-engineer what the Great Ming had developed, that was simply impossible — the industrial foundation was right there. To copy it, one needed that kind of capital first.

Never mind this era — even World War II couldn't do it. The Qing wanted to produce rifles, Chiang Kai-shek wanted to produce rifles — they all had to import production lines.

Want to reverse-engineer it on your own?

That was pure fantasy! Steelmaking failed the standards, all sorts of processes failed the standards — what could you even do?

Matchlock muskets and flintlock muskets were both muzzle-loaders — completely different from the breech-loaders they used now.

Just the metal-cased fixed ammunition alone — how much effort had that taken? How could it be so easily figured out?

On this point, Zhu Youxiao was very confident. By the time Joseon managed to figure it out, the Great Ming would have long since upgraded to a new generation.

Zhu Youxiao said, "Giving them to our own people — I have thought about that too. But you must understand, if the Imperial Guard Corps' current equipment isn't given to the local armies, it will likely provoke their discontent. If the border troops and the Imperial Guard end up in opposition, that would be bad."

What Zhu Youxiao considered was actually just a simple consideration — not really a reason at all. Using this point to convince Sun Chengzong was utterly hopeless.

Because maintaining a generational gap between central army equipment and local army equipment was not something done just once — and it wasn't just the Great Ming doing it; every dynasty had done it.

The most extreme example was the Song dynasty's Imperial Army and Provincial Army — those were completely two different things.

Even if people were dissatisfied, what conflicts ever arose?

None whatsoever. As long as people were drawn from the local forces into the Imperial Guard every year, maintaining that fluidity, there would be no problem at all.

Sun Chengzong roughly understood now — His Majesty looked down on those things and didn't want to equip his own country's military with them.

But he could understand it too. If those old things could be sold, they would certainly fetch no cheap price.

Using that money to make new equipment — wasn't that good? Why keep using those old things?

New equipment would surely be favored by more people.

"Then everything shall be as Your Majesty commands." Sun Chengzong nodded and said, "After I return, I will draw up a plan and look into the specific prices. I'll first go to the capital to inventory the stock and see how much can be sold to them."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said with a gentle smile, "That would be excellent."

"Don't pay too much mind to the Joseon king, Li Zong. When I return to the capital this time, I plan to bring him along, to let him see the Great Ming's capital. As for when he'll return — we'll discuss that after the talks are concluded."

What Zhu Youxiao was doing here had a certain flavor of taking a hostage.

If Joseon stirred up any trouble after Li Zong arrived in the capital — if someone rebelled — then nothing could be better, for the Great Ming would have an even better excuse to send troops into Joseon.

Helping you put down a rebellion — what a wonderful reason that was!

By then Li Zong would certainly be begging the Great Ming, and once the Great Ming's army entered Joseon, it wouldn't be so easy to leave.

Sun Chengzong and Zhu Youxiao had finished discussing this matter. He now understood His Majesty's thinking. Since he understood and there was no major impact, there was no need to remonstrate — he just needed to go back and prepare properly.

"If there is nothing else, then I shall take my leave." Sun Chengzong said directly.

Zhu Youxiao nodded, said nothing more, and watched Sun Chengzong leave.

Sun Chengzong was gone.

Zhu Youxiao glanced at Chen Hong standing beside him and said, "Spread this news — let everyone know that the Great Ming and Joseon have reached an agreement, and that the Great Ming plans to sell them weapons."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong hastily replied with deference, "This servant will immediately arrange for someone to handle it."

Ever since arriving in Liaodong, matters of public opinion had been the focus of Chen Hong's work.

After all these days of hard work, the results in shaping public opinion had indeed been very good. Now Chen Hong controlled more than half of the public discourse in Shenyang.

Having done these things so many times, he was now completely at ease with them — even in a new place, there was no awkwardness. As long as one understood the patterns, the layout could be completed very quickly.

Chen Hong and his people had already completed this layout, so once Zhu Youxiao's words were sent out, they would spread quickly, letting everyone who needed to know find out.

And those who should know were, naturally, the Mongols — the Khorchin tribes, the five tribes of the Inner Khalkha, and the other tribes as well.

Zhu Youxiao's purpose in doing this was to divide and intimidate the various Mongol tribes.

Why not give these weapons to the Mongols?

Are you kidding? They couldn't produce them themselves, and couldn't even repair them — once these things fell into their hands, they'd be useless.

The tiger-crouch cannon might be worth considering. If the Mongols wanted them, they could sell them a few, and let them haul them off to fight Ligdan Khan.

Anything more was out of the question — cannons that were too large would slow down their marching speed, and muskets wouldn't work either. If it were flintlocks, the formation drills were beyond them; forcing their use would only frustrate the cavalry, slow their pace, and greatly reduce their combat effectiveness.

As for better breech-loading muskets — forget it. There was no way those would be given to them.

Zhu Youxiao paced a few circles with his hands behind his back, found it rather uninteresting, and turned toward the rear.

In any case, once this news spread, the ones who'd get nervous would certainly be those Mongols, and quite a few would be tempted — Wukeshan, for example.

If he could have this equipment, he wouldn't fear falling out with the others. When the time came, whoever refused to listen to him, he could beat them, and could even swallow up their entire tribes.

Although Wukeshan might not have the guts to go to war with the Great Ming, after annexing all the tribes, his prestige and might would be a different matter entirely.

Sure enough, after the news spread, the entire city of Shenyang was thrown into an uproar.

Many subjects of the Great Ming couldn't understand — why, when they had good things themselves, would they sell them to Joseon?

The Joseon people were very submissive, but that was only because their strength was insufficient. Who knew whether, once they gained strength, they might covet the lands of Liaodong?

They didn't even need to guess — Joseon would certainly covet the lands of Liaodong. Wasn't this just raising a tiger to bring disaster later? How could they do such a thing?

The Mongols, on the other hand, weren't worried about that. What they worried about was whether the Great Ming dynasty would give weapons to Wukeshan.

If that were the case, then Wukeshan would possess formidable strength. The power of the Great Ming soldiers using firearms was still vivid in their memories.

And so these Mongols became busy once again.

Ever since arriving at Shanhai Pass, they had already sent word back, and their families at home had made their moves. For instance, the beauties each tribe had dispatched had all been delivered to Shenyang city by now.