Chapter 135

Ministry of War main hall.

"Assistant Regional Commander Li, you came at an unfortunate time.

The Ministry of War currently has vacancies for both Minister and Vice Minister, leaving only me, a bureau official, to preside over daily affairs.

Rebuilding the Yangzhou Water Fortress is such an important matter that I truly cannot make the decision."

Liu Qiming spread his hands.

The court's killing the chicken to warn the monkeys happened to hit the Nanjing Ministry of War right in the muzzle.

With a large number of officials in prison, he, a Junior Rank Five Ministry of War official, unexpectedly became the highest-ranking official in the Nanjing Ministry of War.

According to the Great Dayu Code, in the absence of superiors, lower-ranking officials can act on their behalf.

The law is one thing, and actual operation is another.

Handling daily affairs is fine, but involving major matters requires taking responsibility.

In officialdom, there is one radish for one hole.

Having finally waited for the ones in front to fall, and seeing a chance to advance further, one cannot cause trouble at this time.

Adhering to the principle of doing more leads to more mistakes and doing less leads to fewer mistakes, Liu Qiming decisively chose to postpone all matters.

"Minister Liu, you can only use such excuses to fool those who are ignorant.

Although I cannot say I know the 'Great Dayu Code' by heart, I still know the basic information.

The current Son of Heaven is wise, and the Ministers of the Six Ministries and the Grand Secretaries in the capital are all virtuous ministers.

If you act according to the law, who can pick faults with you?

Could it be that you are naturally lazy and do not want to fulfill your duties!"

Li Mu questioned sternly.

He naturally knew about the vacancies in the Nanjing Ministry of War.

If he didn't know that the Ministry of War lacked someone to take charge, he wouldn't have been in such a hurry to come over.

As the saying goes, without a tiger in the mountains, the monkey is king.

When the Minister and Vice Minister were there, he, as an Assistant Regional Commander, was just a small shrimp and had to report properly.

Even if he could get approval, the support from the Nanjing Ministry of War was up to them.

Now that the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of War are collectively vacant, and only a group of small officials are in charge, the deterrent power is naturally greatly reduced.

Just looking at Liu Qiming's performance, it is clear that this acting person in charge is obviously lacking in confidence.

The more lacking in confidence he is, the more confident Li Mu is.

Although there is a suspicion of bullying, in the Great Dayu Dynasty, it is difficult to be efficient if you don't do it this way.

"Assistant Regional Commander Li, you cannot speak nonsense!

The subordinate..."

Before Liu Qiming could explain, Li Mu interrupted first:

"Minister Liu, which sentence of mine was nonsense?

Is it that the Great Dayu Code is wrong?

Or do you think the Son of Heaven is not wise?

Or do you think the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet and the Six Ministries are not virtuous ministers?"

A series of questions made cold sweat break out on Liu Qiming's forehead.

Any one of these questions could cost a life.

Deep in his heart, he was nearing collapse.

He had long heard that a difficult Assistant Regional Commander had come to Yangzhou; this is more than difficult, he is clearly a living Yama.

It has always been the people from their Ministry of War who manipulated the local military generals; when has this kind of reversal of heaven and earth ever appeared before?

"The Great Dayu Code is naturally not wrong!

The current Son of Heaven is a rare restorer of the dynasty and is certainly wise!

The lords in the court are even more models for ministers and are all virtuous ministers of the current age!"

Liu Qiming said, suppressing his anger.

Admitting these contents is equivalent to tacitly agreeing to handle the rebuilding of the Yangzhou Water Fortress, otherwise, he would be derelict in his duty.

After opening the official document, the beginning content was all normal, but soon Liu Qiming discovered something wrong.

"Assistant Regional Commander Li, for rebuilding the Yangzhou Water Fortress, just rebuild it on the original site; why add so many camps?

And for the naval officers, just the ones named for transfer alone number over a hundred.

Could it be that the Yangzhou Navy is just an empty frame, and all must be drawn from navies everywhere?

The money and grain requirements are even more unreasonable!

300,000 taels of silver for preparation funds, and another 200,000 taels for maintenance every year; this is simply impossible.

You must know that the Jiangnan Navy only gets 200,000 taels a year, and their jurisdiction is the entire Nanzhili.

..."

Picking out a series of faults, Liu Qiming's complexion looked much better all of a sudden.

Since he was forced to handle the business, then everything would be done officially.

No matter what your background is, since you don't make me comfortable, then no one should think about being comfortable.

"Minister Liu, the locations of these camps were not chosen by me.

If you really want to know, just take a Yangzhou map and look at it carefully, and you will find the reason.

No need to be serious about this; even if it is taken to the Cabinet for discussion, it will be approved.

As for the personnel transfer problem, just as you said, the Yangzhou Navy is currently an empty frame.

To tell you the truth, the current Yangzhou Navy doesn't have a single soldier.

Reorganizing the navy from scratch naturally requires drawing personnel from other navies.

You can rest assured that these people are not well-regarded in navies everywhere.

Signing this transfer order, everyone will thank you; no one will come to make trouble.

The grain and pay problem of the navy doesn't require you to pay, so there's no need to struggle here.

I have already communicated with the Prefectural Office and the Provincial Governor's Office; they will bear half of the expenses.

The court's appropriation can probably solve one-fourth, and I will find a way to raise the remaining shortfall myself.

Whether the court will approve it, you don't need to worry; someone is responsible for solving it.

What the Nanjing Ministry of War needs to do now is to sign the transfer order and equip the personnel needed for reorganizing the navy as soon as possible.

By the way, issue shipbuilding orders to shipyards everywhere; I will send people to communicate specific warship quantities and specification parameters with them.

The costs required for shipbuilding will also come from the funds for rebuilding the Yangzhou Water Fortress, without bothering the colleagues in the Ministry of War."

Li Mu bluffed with a calm face.

Information asymmetry is his biggest advantage.

The masters behind the Huai'an salt fields are all the tiger skin he pulled up.

In fact, on the issue of rebuilding the navy, only Li Mu himself is active.

Guarding the salt fields with the army is enough; there is no need to spend great effort to reorganize the Yangzhou Navy.

But Liu Qiming doesn't know these things.

In his view, the fearlessness Li Mu showed is all the confidence given by the big bosses behind the scenes.

Just looking at the military funds, if someone hadn't said hello, the local government wouldn't have given money so readily.

It's quite possible that the Nanjing Ministry of War side had also been greeted, but because the people above were arrested, the matter was delayed.

Not notifying him is most likely because he was marginalized before.

Facing Li Mu alone, Liu Qiming would dare to create some trouble and let him know what the power of the "current manager" is.

After all, civil and military are different.

For a military general to want to reach into the civil official camp and carry out a retaliatory strike against him, the cost is very high.

Minor matters are not worth the Duke's mansion behind him spending a great price to take action.

But if it involves the people behind the Huai'an salt industry, Liu Qiming wouldn't dare to have this thought.

Although there is no direct evidence, analyzing from known information, it can still be determined that some civil official bigwigs have taken a share.

Having suffered the bitterness of offending people and being squeezed out by colleagues once, he doesn't want to experience it a second time.

After some brain-filling, Liu Qiming completely lost his temper.

Even if Li Mu wants to bypass the Nanjing Ministry of War and directly connect with the shipyard, he is too lazy to ask.

"Assistant Regional Commander Li, I have handled what I can handle.

For subsequent problems, you go busy yourself!"

Stamping the Ministry of War seal and leaving a copy of the official document, Liu Qiming served tea to see the guest out on the spot.

There is no way to make friends; seeing Li Mu's breezy appearance, he is full of anger.

The colleagues in the office are also not helpful, watching the fun the whole time, and not even helping to speak.

The clerks below performed even worse; when they saw Li Mu, they were even more enthusiastic than when they saw him.

Theoretically, he is acting as the Minister, the absolute boss in the office.

But in the eyes of everyone in the Ministry of War, he is still that bureau official without presence.

The current power is all empty.

Once the Minister and Vice Minister appointed by the court arrive, he will be beaten back to his original form immediately.

Besides putting on airs toward local military generals, his status in the office has not substantially improved.

"For today's matter, Minister Liu has worked hard.

For the following matters, I will try my best not to trouble Minister Liu."

Li Mu said with a smile.

In his view, this Minister Liu before him is very interesting.

He wants to climb up, but doesn't want to take risks.

Judging from the speed of picking faults from the official document just now, this person is absolutely a qualified ox or horse in the office.

He did no less work, carried no less black pots, and had no share of the benefits.

Misfortune and fortune.

If he had truly integrated into the Ministry of War's small group and followed them to divide the benefits, he wouldn't have the chance to sit here right now.

Coming out of the Ministry of War, Li Mu didn't stop and headed straight for the Longjiang Shipyard.

This ancient shipyard has a history that can be traced back to the previous dynasty, with a history of over three hundred years.

At its peak, it was once the largest shipyard in the Great Dayu Dynasty.

With the exhaustion of the court's finances and the daily decreasing investment in the navy, this ancient shipyard also declined.

In terms of scale, it was long surpassed by private shipyards, but its technical foundation is still in the first echelon of the contemporary era.

Called a shipyard, it is actually a composite arsenal.

Not only can it build warships, but it can also cast cannons, thunder-shaking bombs, stone cannonballs, and many other weapons.

"Assistant Regional Commander, the one you drew is a Western warship!"

Yan Jingcheng said with a frown.

As an official sent by the Ministry of Works to the shipyard, he has a certain understanding of warships.

The warship prototype on the blueprint is clearly not the same path as the mainstream warships of the Great Dayu.

"Can it be built?"

Li Mu asked with concern.

As a layman, the sailing warship blueprint he provided is limited to the exterior.

The specific internal structure can only be solved by the shipyard's craftsmen themselves.

"A few years ago, Fujian had a battle with the Franks, and we captured this kind of warship; we even studied it.

Building it is not difficult; the problem is that these warships have a deep draft and low practicality.

Sailing on the sea is fine, but once they enter inland rivers, they will run aground.

For the same load capacity, the cost is also much higher."

Chief Yan reminded cautiously.

If the warship is built and cannot be used, one has to take responsibility; ugly words must be said in advance.

"Chief Yan is right; I know all these shortcomings.

But this kind of ship also has its own advantages; it can carry more cannons.

"All rewards must be issued in full; no one is allowed to drift away!"

In the Fujian naval battle that year, the court dispatched quite a few warships to take down that fleet of the Franks.

I am not building all these kinds of warships; just building a few to support the facade and intimidate the pirates is enough.

For the remaining warships, we will still purchase conventional warships.

The requirements are very simple: the warships must be as sturdy as possible, and the cannons should be installed with large calibers as much as possible.

You can play freely with the size of the warships.

As long as combat effectiveness can be guaranteed, even if the bulk is a bit larger, I can accept it."

Li Mu said calmly.

Everything was as he expected; the technical threshold for early sailing warships is not high.

At the very least, for the Great Dayu, building this kind of warship is not a difficult thing.

It didn't become popular because, on one hand, officials felt it was impractical, and on the other hand, they were afraid of taking responsibility.

The military didn't change, and needless to say about the private sector.

In terms of transport capacity, the Great Dayu's treasure ships are much stronger than these things.

They can take into account both cargo transport and possess a certain defensive capability.

"If Assistant Regional Commander Li insists, then the subordinate will arrange for people to calculate the cost.

Because it hasn't been built before, the cost of the first warship will be much higher than a general warship.

The South Tongzhou matter, although it was quelled in time, the bad influence caused still affected their official career.

In the results of the Beijing assessment, including him, the Prefect, a group of civil officials, none of them received an excellent rating.

The Governor and the Provincial Administration Commissioner above were also implicated.

Without the Jiangnan Navy taking the blame, the Nanjing Six Ministries that moved military pay became the biggest victims.

Multiple officials, including the Minister and Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, were unqualified in the Beijing assessment.

Demotion and removal from office are light cases; officials who reached out to take money have now been arrested by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and are on the way to the capital.

It can only be blamed that they were unlucky; if these things were exposed at another time, they could still go to the capital to bribe and strive to turn big things into small ones.

Now it's different.

In order to guarantee the smooth flow of military supplies, the imperial court wants to kill the chicken to warn the monkey to deter all officials.

Sending themselves up to be the chicken, naturally, they have to be dealt with strictly.

Originally, there were many problems with them; the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigated deeply, and there were loopholes everywhere.

The specific situation has not been disclosed to the public; anyway, the stolen money confiscated used several ships to transport.

I guess the Minister of the Nanjing Ministry of War will become the highest official killed in the Tianyuan reign.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 136 =====

Li Mu promised on the spot.

The reward silver is the pie drawn for the craftsmen, and requesting merit is the big pie for Chief Yan.

The bureaucrats responsible for managing technology in the Great Dayu Dynasty have always been synonymous with being miserable.

No matter how well the work is done, the Qingliu faction's phrase "strange skills and techniques" wipes out most of the credit.

It is not generally difficult to show one's face in the court.

Naval generals know the importance of technology, but the problem is that their status is just like that.

In normal times, it is very good to be able to fight for one's own interests.

Where is there spare time to manage others!

Except for departments specifically casting cannons, bird guns, and other military equipment, which are valued by the court, other technical official positions are just exile.

"Since the Assistant Regional Commander says so, then the subordinate will do his best to do it.

Within three days, the subordinate will definitely come up with a preliminary budget.

As long as the shipbuilding funds are sufficient, the subordinate guarantees that the warships can be launched before the end of the year!"

Chief Yan said with an excited expression.

In the past, the superiors always issued tasks and then limited the time for completion.

If the task couldn't be completed, they would be dragged out and beaten with boards.

Rewards didn't exist; the lords above didn't have the heart to care about the thoughts of those below.

(End of chapter)