Chapter 179 Three bad old men are no match for the cobbler!

The Arms Bureau of the Ming Dynasty was located near the Grand Campus outside Taipingmen, with a total of 9,200 craftsmen.

Of course, this is only the number of people on paper. In fact, there have been continuous escapes in recent years, and the actual number of people is less than 7,000.

Even so, when the 7,000 craftsmen used all their firepower to forge weapons, the momentum was still huge and the sky was filled with fireworks.

But this was all in the old lunar calendar. When Zhu Yunxi entered the Ordnance Bureau, there were only sporadic jingles.

Half of the craftsmen inside were chatting and spanking, and the other half were squatting on the wall to bask in the sun. Only some of the craftsmen at work were tinkering with weapons.

The bureau ambassador in charge of the weapons bureau was so excited that he trotted over when he heard that His Royal Highness King Wu was coming to inspect on behalf of His Majesty.

When he saw so many people sunbathing idle, he immediately ordered them to work angrily.

"You lazy fools, why don't you get up and work quickly? Why don't you have to wait for me to whip you?"

After hearing the urging of the bureau ambassador, the craftsmen reluctantly got up from the ground, and then...and then nothing more...

"Ambassador, we don't have iron materials here, what do you want the kids to use to make weapons?"

"There's not enough charcoal, so you can't let us burn our thighs!"

When the bureau ambassador heard the complaints from the craftsmen, he couldn't help but cursed.

"Can't you work without iron materials? Can you clean the yard?"

"And you know that there is no charcoal, so why don't you go cut down trees outside the city? Do you have to wait until the charcoal is gone before you complain?"

The bureau ambassador scolded the craftsmen while explaining to Zhu Yunxi.

"Your Highness King Wu, look at these lazy guys, they are so restless!"

Zhu Yunxi frowned when he heard this and glanced at Huang Ligong beside him. Huang Ligong hurriedly stepped forward and explained.

"There is indeed a shortage of iron materials recently. Guard stations all over the country are building weapons, and our Ordnance Bureau in the capital cannot supply iron materials."

"How much is missing?"

Zhu Yunxi said this to the bureau ambassador, but the bureau ambassador was confused for a long time and could not give an exact number. In the end, Huang Ligong took out a pamphlet from his sleeve, flipped it through and said.

"Going back to His Highness King Wu, the iron smelting workshops in various places should have turned in 300,000 jins of refined iron this month, but the actual payment was less than 50,000 jins, leaving a shortfall of 200,000 jins."

"catty?"

Zhu Yunxi was stunned when he heard the measurement unit "jin". His concept of iron was still in "ton", and he felt uncomfortable when he heard "jin" at first.

"Only one hundred and twenty-five tons?"

After Zhu Yunxi converted the unit of measurement of iron into "tons", he immediately had an idea in his mind.

In later generations, this amount of iron would probably not even be able to build a building above seventeen stories, let alone building bridges. But in the Ming Dynasty, it was already a month's consumption of the Ordnance Bureau.

"Is there an iron smelting workshop under the Ministry of War?"

"have!"

"There are several places under the limestone mountains north of Xuanwu Lake, but they are not large in scale. They mainly rely on transportation from neighboring prefectures and counties."

"oh oh……"

While Zhu Yunxi was chatting with the two of them, an old craftsman who was watching the excitement came over and asked tentatively.

"Are you the grandson of the Living Bodhisattva?"

"ah?"

Zhu Yunxi was stunned again when he heard this. Who gave him this nickname? Why didn't he know it?

"I am indeed the grandson of the emperor, but I don't know what you mean by living Bodhisattva?"

The old craftsman took two steps forward, but was stopped two feet away by the guards brought by Zhu Yunxi.

"This is the grandson of the Third Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, who was recently named King of Wu by His Majesty!"

When the old craftsman heard this, he quickly knelt down and waved behind him.

"Everyone, come and see, the grandson of the living Bodhisattva is here. We will have a good life in the future!"

As soon as the old craftsman finished speaking, all the craftsmen who were standing under the wall to watch the excitement gathered together, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zhu Yunxi.

"You guys, kowtow to the grandson of the Bodhisattva!"

"The grandson of the Bodhisattva Emperor is a thousand years old!"

At first there were hundreds of craftsmen. As their shouts became louder and louder, other yard craftsmen also gathered around and kowtowed to Zhu Yunxi.

This sudden scene not only confused Zhu Yunxi, but also the bureau ambassador and Huang Ligong looked confused.

Only Zhu Yunxi's three masters looked happy and proud of being able to support the people.

"Old man, get up and tell me what's going on with this Bodhisattva emperor's grandson. When did I become a Bodhisattva?"

The old craftsman heard this and asked quickly.

"Aren't you the grandson of the Third Emperor who built a house for the craftsmen of the Silver Industry Bureau?"

Zhu Yunxi thought for a while after hearing this.

"yes!"

"I was building Prince Wu's Mansion, and by the way, I bought a piece of land in the north of the city and built a staff dormitory for the workers of the Banking Bureau to make it easier for them to work for me."

As soon as Zhu Yunxi finished speaking, the old craftsman said loudly.

"Then you are the grandson of the Bodhisattva Emperor!"

"Since the Mongolian Tatars came over, our craftsmen have not even been paid for our work, let alone anyone to build our houses!"

"Young people heard that you not only give working wages to people in the bank, but also give them houses. This is not a living Buddha!"

After hearing this, Zhu Yunxi finally understood why he had gained the reputation of a Bodhisattva. It was because of such a trivial matter.

It's natural to work and get paid. There's nothing to say about this, right?

Furthermore, the reason why I allocate houses to them is just to hope that they can live closer and have more time to work for me. This is far from being a kind intention or good deed...

However, he was called a Bodhisattva by so many craftsmen for just doing something a "human" should do, which made him feel extremely ashamed.

The lower limit of this noble Ming Dynasty is too low...

Zhu Yunxi looked at Wu Yaonou's head kneeling on the ground, and said with a little emotion.

"Fellow craftsmen, your good days are coming!"

"From now on, all workshops near the capital of Ming Dynasty will be under my control, Zhu Yunxi!"

"I won't brag with you either. I only promise two things."

"First, you can make money by working with me!"

"Second, you can have a house to live by working with me!"

"Third, I will let you eat meat every now and then!"

"fourth……"

"fifth……"

Every time Zhu Yunxi said something, there was a cheer.

No one cared that he didn't mean what he said. He had obviously said that he would only talk about two points, but he had already talked about seven or eight points. They even wanted him to talk about a few more points. The more he said, the better.

Qin Hengbo knew the sufferings of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen, and after hearing Zhu Yunxi's words, he only gave one evaluation.

"If this boy can really do that, not to mention all of it, even if he can only do half of it, then he will be the Bodhisattva in the hearts of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen!"

Yang Xinlu also echoed.

"yes!"

"The Ming Dynasty's craftsman household system is so immoral. It fixes people's status as craftsmen for generations. There is really no hope at all."

"If things go on like this, the generals will just escape from the labor force one after another, resulting in the Ming Dynasty's armament being depleted, and the soldiers and generals will no longer have weapons to use."

Gao Ming muttered quietly.

"As long as someone reads a few more history books, he will not follow the system of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty..."

"The system of the Meng Yuan Dynasty is so rough, and only one of them can be regarded as a treasure..."

When Qin Hengbo and Yang Xinluo heard what the rebel said, they unanimously took a step to both sides to show that they were not from the same group as the rebel.

Seeing that the two of them were so timid and fearful, Gao Ming hummed and stopped talking.

After all, he himself was quite uneasy about criticizing His Majesty.

Zhu Yunxi came here today to say hello to the craftsmen, and then, under the leadership of Huang Ligong, he visited the Ordnance Bureau's production environment, accommodation environment, etc.

An hour later, Zhu Yunxi walked out of the Arms Bureau with a heavy look on his face. He had only one thought in his mind: this place could be demolished!

Not to mention the backward production methods, the production environment is also shockingly poor. The floor is covered with red rust, and combined with the cross-flowing sewage, it presents an agate-colored filth.

The place where the craftsmen lived was also miserable. It was just a shed supported by a few sticks. There were no walls on all sides and there was only a pile of straw on the ground.
To be continued...