Chapter 155 Ye Mingsheng's Reasoning
In order to meet the standards of military weapons, high-quality raw material iron ore and a group of skilled craftsmen are needed. Most of these resources are firmly controlled by Shangguan Hongyuan.

Even if some ambitious people spend a lot of effort to create a batch of weapons, the quality will definitely not be very good. If such weapons are equipped in the army, it will undoubtedly affect the combat effectiveness of the army!

It is precisely because of this that, in Ye Mingsheng's opinion, if Xu Zhaojie wants to get military weapons, his first choice should be to start with the Xuanwu Army led by him...

In this way, Xu Zhaojie is the commander of the Xuanwu Army. It is always more convenient for him to do things in his own territory. The difficulty and risk are much smaller than secretly manufacturing military equipment. Secondly, even if there are worn-out military equipment and weapons, the quality is likely to be much better than those he secretly manufactured!

According to this logic, there is a perfect explanation for why the Xuanwu Army had extremely strict requirements on the wear and tear of ordnance and weapons during that period!
With this view, Ye Mingsheng initially believed that Xu Zhaojie had bribed officials from the Ministry of War to play tricks in the handover of worn-out military equipment to the Ministry of War, such as falsifying numbers and secretly intercepting them.

However, the information recorded in the files made Ye Mingsheng dispel this view. The files recorded the number and types of weapons that the Ministry of War had recovered from the Xuanwu Army in the past ten years.

All the information is very clear. It can be clearly seen that the number of weapons recovered in the sixth year of Anhe is about 80% higher than in the past few years. This is also consistent with Ye Mingsheng's judgment that the number of worn-out weapons increased after the Xuanwu Army's strict requirements on worn-out weapons at that time...

In addition, the seven or eight procedures for this batch of worn-out ordnance, including the handover procedures, inspection procedures, and warehousing procedures, are all very detailed and well-documented, and it is basically impossible to falsify these procedures.

Because the different procedures that this batch of ordnance went through in the Ministry of War were all done by different subordinate departments. Some of these departments were directly under the Shangshu, some were under the Zuo Shilang, and some were under the You Shilang. Therefore, as long as there is a problem in any link, the whole thing will be exposed and will definitely be discovered!

If we insist that these evidences are forged and Xu Zhaojie bribed the Ministry of War, then there is only one possibility left, that is, the three giants of the Ministry of War, Shangshu Xu Bingyang, Zuo Shilang Chu Yuanshan, and You Shilang Li Kai, were all bribed by Xu Zhaojie!

There is no other way!
This is obviously impossible. Not to mention that Shangshu Xu Bingyang is the number one political ally of Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan, and Zuo Shilang Chu Yuanshan is Shangguan Hongyuan's trusted general, the grudges and conflicts between the Li family where Li Kai is and the Xu family where Xu Zhaojie is make it impossible for him to be bribed by Xu Zhaojie...
Even if we take a step back, among the six ministries of the imperial court, the Ministry of War is the one with the strongest control over it by Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan. If the top three figures can be bribed so easily, then Shangguan Hongyuan, the prime minister and the most powerful official in the Great Zhou Dynasty, would have been killed countless times!

Can it still be as steady as a rock like it is now, forcing the group led by Lin Shize to huddle together for warmth and resist step by step?
The more Ye Mingsheng thought about it, the more he felt that his investigation had hit a dead end.

Despite his understanding of Xu Zhaojie, Ye Mingsheng still firmly believed in his judgment that there was definitely something wrong with the worn-out ordnance of the Xuanwu Army in the sixth year of Anhe.

But unfortunately, he is not the Prime Minister Shangguan Hongyuan. He cannot convict people based on his own judgment alone, and cannot decide other people's life, death, honor or disgrace with just a word!
He needs to find evidence to convince others, but the embarrassing thing now is that neither the evidence nor the logic supports his judgment···············

Closing his eyes, Ye Mingsheng rubbed his temples in distress. He found that he might have thought things were too simple.

There are only two possibilities in the current situation. The first is that he was wrong and there was no problem with the worn-out ordnance of the Xuanwu Army in the sixth year of Anhe.

The second is that his judgment was correct. The reason why he has not found evidence to support his point of view is because Xu Zhaojie's way of playing is much more sophisticated than he imagined.

So if it was not intercepted privately, and Xu Zhaojie made a fuss about the number of worn-out weapons and weapons handed over between the Xuanwu Army and the Ministry of War, what would he do? Ye Mingsheng thought hard, if there was no problem with the handover, then this batch of worn-out weapons and weapons entered the control of the Ministry of War and left the control of Xu Zhaojie, then how would Xu Zhaojie play tricks on the territory of the Ministry of War?
How should he play tricks?
Realizing this, Ye Mingsheng opened his eyes, turned his gaze back to the files on the desk, and began a new round of inspection. He had a hunch that he could get some clues from these files.

"We received 5,057 worn swords, 3,732 worn spears, 518 worn three-barreled guns, 89 worn tiger squat cannons, 3,109 worn cotton armors, and 561 worn iron armors from the Xuanwu Army..."

Ye Mingsheng was becoming more and more confused as he silently read these data. These weapons could at least equip two battalions of the Imperial Guard. If the standards were relaxed, it could satisfy tens of thousands of people! This was definitely not a small number!
Could Xu Zhaojie, who harbored evil intentions, really just let these things go?

If not, how should he get the things from the Ministry of War?

After carefully rechecking every word on the file, Ye Mingsheng still couldn't find anything suspicious.

The file recorded the receipt from the Xuanwu Army, the inspection of worn-out weapons and ordnance, the storage, and the maintenance in the warehouse. It could be said to be very detailed, but Ye Mingsheng always felt that something was missing!
What is missing?

Ye Mingsheng frowned and thought hard.

After thinking hard for a cup of tea, Ye Mingsheng suddenly had an idea, and he finally thought of the key to the matter!

The files record how the worn-out weapons were taken from the Xuanwu Army and put into the warehouse.

However, there was no mention of what happened to this batch of worn-out weapons after they entered the warehouse!
Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng's expression immediately became excited. He excitedly pushed all the files on the desk to the ground, then found a piece of white paper and started writing on it.

A recast.

2. Repair.

3. External output.

After writing these words, Ye Mingsheng picked up the pen and wrote the third point, drawing a big circle and circling it tightly.

(End of this chapter)