Chongzhen Chat Group

Soon, a decree came out that the assistant ministers of the cabinet, officials above the rank of minister of the six ministries, and the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, etc., were to meet him at the armory.

As soon as this decree came out, the senior officials of the Ming Dynasty hurriedly gathered in the armory. The suicide of three officials was reported to the emperor and inevitably spread. These senior officials of the Ming Dynasty were naturally within the scope of knowing about it at the first time.

When they heard that the emperor asked them to go to the armory to meet him, no need to guess, it must be about those three people.

Along the way, senior officials kept meeting each other, and then they went together. Among them, Nan Juyi, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, looked at the back of Wen Tiren who was walking in front and whispered worriedly: "According to the wishes of the chief minister, what does your majesty mean?"

"What else can we do?" Min Hongxue was next to Wen Tiren. When he heard the noise, he turned to look at Nan Juyi and said, "If the situation in the armory is verified by His Majesty with his own eyes, Long Yan will definitely be furious!"

This is for sure, but Nan Juyi is concerned about another thing. He still looked at Wen Tiren and said: "Chief Assistant, the Ming Dynasty is in troubled times now. Disaster relief in the capital is difficult to handle. The capital is still busy with the Ming Royal Cement Company, the Ming Construction Bank and the Ming Road and Bridge Company. At this time If there is another big case, I'm afraid people will be panicked and no one will be interested in doing serious things anymore!"

Another assistant minister, Cheng Jiming, nodded when he heard this, and also said in a low voice: "Nan Shangshu is right. The situation in the court is getting better. If a big case happens at this time, I am afraid that the good situation will be ruined." !”

Hearing what both of them were saying, Wen Tiren, who was hurriedly moving forward, finally reacted. He turned around, looked at his colleagues behind him, and said with a bit of annoyance on his face: "You also know that if this is really the case, Yes, it must be a big case? Now that we know this, why did we do it in the first place?"

"..." Nan Juyi and others were stunned for a moment, and then immediately explained, "The chief minister cannot say this nonsense. The tricks in the arsenal have existed since the past dynasties. But Xiaguan was in Fujian before. It has only been a few months since I took over the position of Minister of Industry."

Although he had only been the Minister of the Ministry of Industry for a few months, he knew that the emperor had already been lenient because of this the last time he built a siege. Now that so much time has passed, he has not reported the matter at the arsenal to the emperor. Regardless of whether he was involved in the previous corruption case, as the minister of the Ministry of Industry, he cannot escape responsibility.

It's not that he doesn't know the seriousness of this matter. But the issue of weapons, as he said in reply to the chief minister, has been a common problem in all dynasties. Anyone who dares to stir up this hornet's nest will be dismissed from office, or at worst, he may be attacked and convicted, and it is common for him to be sent to the army. Because of this, he didn't have the courage to touch it.

But no one expected that Emperor Chongzhen would personally visit the arsenal to inspect the formation of the new army. The number is shocking, and anyone will be angry. No one can guess what will happen under this anger!

Wen Tiren turned around and continued to move forward in a hurry, sighing and saying: "It depends on the situation. This situation has not been seen in many years. If we take the right measures, I am afraid that we can reverse the political predicament of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop. I don't want to see such a good situation." Interrupted!"

Hearing what he said, the officials behind him were somewhat relieved, but what happened in the end still depended on the emperor. However, looking at the scale of the emperor's summons of ministers, I'm afraid this matter will be difficult to resolve.

After a short while, Wen Tiren and others arrived at the armory. I saw the emperor's royal chariot standing in front of the warehouse and on the steps of the meeting hall. On the left and right sides, Cao Huachun, the eunuch of Dongchang, and Liu Xingzuo, the commander of Jinyiwei, stood. They all looked at them with serious faces as they entered.

In the courtyard in front of the imperial driver, there were three corpses, obviously belonging to those three people. The door of the armory on one side of the courtyard is wide open and guarded by factory guards.

This kind of formation made Wen Tiren and others feel nervous and had a bad feeling. Under the leadership of Wen Tiren, they quickly paid tribute to Emperor Chongzhen.

Sure enough, Emperor Chongzhen was not as kind as usual. With a cold face, he said flatly, and then asked them to stand on both sides of the corpse according to their respective official positions, waiting for other courtiers to arrive.

The courtyard was quiet, except for the sound of the flags fluttering in the cold wind, there was no other sound, and the atmosphere seemed a bit depressing.

Not long after, all the courtiers who were due to arrive arrived.

Emperor Chongzhen slowly glanced at the ministers below and nodded slightly to the commander of the Jin Yiwei.

So, Liu Xingzuo took a step forward, stood on the edge of the steps, and said loudly to the officials in the courtyard: "Today we found a total of armors in the armory..."

He slowly explained the general situation in the armory. There was a warehouse full of armor and weapons, but only a handful of them were barely usable. Everything else is just fake, and the armor doesn't have much protective power at all. To put it bluntly, it's not much different from paper. There are also firearms, not to mention those that are rusty. They are not rusty just because they were newly put into the warehouse. After the factory inspection, they found that the barrels are crudely made and can easily explode. They are worse than armor!

The number was a bit large. Liu Xingzuo spoke for a while before he finished. Then he stepped back and was still on one side with Cao Huachun, standing behind Yu Jia.

Emperor Chongzhen waited for a long time, and then said slowly and coldly: "Why has our Ming Dynasty been losing battles in recent years? We have no soldiers, no pay, and no sophisticated weapons. It is a rare thing to win under such circumstances!"

"Haha, money is constantly being allocated to build weapons like this, which is enough!" Emperor Chongzhen sneered, glanced at the ministers, and then asked coldly: "I don't want this to happen in the future. , do you have any good ideas?"

Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The emperor did not immediately accuse him! But they also heard that the emperor was suppressing his anger. If the emperor was dissatisfied later, it was likely that they would all explode together. It was hard to say what the situation would be like!

As the head of the hundred officials, Wen Tiren had to take the first step and said aloud: "We must strictly enforce court discipline and strictly investigate and verify. Once caught, we will be severely punished!"

"I second the proposal!" Min Hongxue followed up and said.

"I second the proposal!" Other ministers also followed suit.

This is what it should be, and only by doing this can the situation get better. But Emperor Chongzhen was dissatisfied. Wasn't this the case before? As long as we relax a little bit, this situation of joint corruption will definitely resume again soon. This way is not what he wants.

Therefore, after hearing this, he shook his head and said, "I am disappointed with this old system. Don't you have a better way?"

When Wen Tiren heard this, he couldn't help but feel moved in his heart. Could it be that the emperor had already thought of a better way?

The next update will probably be around six o'clock or later. I'm going to work as a mason in the afternoon, um, to invent cement!