Tianjin Machinery Bureau is located near Jiajiawa, east of Tianjin City. It was built in 1867, costing 230,000 taels and maintaining an annual fund of 450,000 taels. Tianjin Customs lifted 400,000 taels of customs, and the Navy Office cooperated with 50,000 taels of salary. It was originally named the arms manufacturing factory. In 1870, Li Hongzhang took over and was renamed the Tianjin Machinery Bureau.

During the 25 years since Li Hongzhang's operation in Zhili, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau became the strong logistics pillar of the Huai Army, and it can be said that it made great contributions. By the end of 1895, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau had an area of ​​3,000 mu, with 2,330 employees, and its fixed assets were expanded to 2.1 million taels. It mainly built black medicine factories, copper cap factories, chestnut factories, cotton medicine factories, smokeless medicine factories, gun bullet factories, machine forging factories, steel mills, mine factories, shipyards, etc. There were more than 30 auxiliary factories of all sizes, and each factory was equipped with complete sets of machinery and equipment. The main products were various gunpowder, copper caps, gun bullets and artillery shells, and the production was relatively stable. Among them, the annual production was 320,000 kilograms of black gunpowder, 113,000 kilograms of maroon cakes, 10,400 kilograms of cotton medicine, 3,600 kilograms of smokeless medicine, 4 million rounds of Mauser gunpowder, 28 million pieces of copper caps, and 20,000 rounds of various artillery shells, with a large scale.

However, the larger the scale, the more serious the losses. By the end of the year in 1895, the Tianjin Machinery Bureau spent 4.9 million taels, revenue and expenditure of 3.85 million taels, and the direct loss was 1.05 million taels. This did not include the debts. Among the 3.85 million taels of income and expenditure, there were also 1.2 million taels of debts in each province, most of which were made in white. Because local officials in the Qing Dynasty frequently exchanged, many of them were due to the situation where the previous person spent money and could not bear the debt, resulting in bad accounts and headless accounts as high as 900,000 taels. If these were included, the losses were as high as 2 million taels. The indirect losses caused by bureaucratic corruption, such as cutting corners, filling in the numbers, and taking kickbacks at high prices were no less than one million taels. These are the darkness under the glorious surface of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau and urgently needed to be solved.

Wang Chenhao first listed the Tianjin Machinery Bureau at his doorstep as a key target for rectification. His personal guards first controlled all exits of the Machinery Bureau, and allowed them to enter and not leave, so as to prevent the corrupt officials who were rectified from letting go to their backers during his rectification and begging them to come forward to save them.

Then, Wang Chenhao started from the top to bottom to rectify the rectification. The Beiyang Trade Office, Tianjin Customs and Naval Office and other departments brought him were responsible for reconciliation and accounting, inventory and inspection of the quality and ingredients of raw materials. From raw material procurement, processing and manufacturing, to finished product sales, he checked out all aspects, including cutting corners, filling in the numbers, and taking kickbacks to make fake accounts.

In the office of the General Office of the Machinery Bureau, Wang Chenhao and the former General Officer Cui Jingzhi sat at the table, chatting and laughing happily with each other. However, the smiles of the two were obviously different in nature. The smiles on Wang Chenhao's face were full of jokes, while Cui Jingzhi's smile was barely piled up.

"Adults are so diligent in government affairs at such a young age, which really makes the officials admire him."

"You've been working here for more than ten years. It's really admirable to operate like an iron bucket."

Cui Jingzhi coughed dryly, knowing that Wang Chenhao had something in his words, but he didn't dare to ask more questions.

Thousands of abacus beads next door were crackling, and Wang Chenhao didn't speak but listened comfortably, but in Cui Jingzhi's ears it looked like a death talisman. Every time he heard a certain calculation result, he couldn't help but tremble, and cold sweat came out from his forehead.

When the liquidation was settled at the end of the year, Cui Jingzhi had already taken a prepared account to deal with Li Hongzhang's people to inspect it. But now Li Hongzhang suddenly appointed Wang Chenhao to act as a machine bureau without saying hello, and Wang Chenhao's sudden attack made him unable to notify the account office to prepare, causing the account problems to be fully exposed.

Accountants and accountants were transferred from Tongwenguan and Customs. They master the most advanced international procurement, sales and inventory account analysis technology, especially several foreigners in customs. They do the most meticulously and conscientiously and constantly discover black holes in the internal accounts of Tianjin Machinery Bureau.

"Sir, it's the end."

When an accountant submitted the final accounting results to Wang Chenhao, Cui Jingzhi stood up immediately, staring at the things in Wang Chenhao's hand, and the cold sweat on his forehead was already flowing down.

"Every year, there is a deficit of at least 700,000 taels and 800,000 taels. After twelve years of operation, nearly 10 million taels of silver have disappeared from the books. Cui Jingzhi, you are so brave."

Wang Chenhao shouted loudly, which scared Cui Jingzhi so much that he staggered and fell to the ground with a plop.

"Sir, please spare me! Sir, please spare me!"

"If you want to survive, spit out all the money you swallowed over the years, including you and your partners."

Nearly tens of millions of taels of silver were deficit, and if this account could be obtained, it would be a huge amount of wealth. Wang Chenhao hoped that Cui Jingzhi could spit it out, but the result disappointed him.

Cui Jingzhi suddenly smiled bitterly and said, "Sir, you should know some rules. Can I, a small fourth-rank official, swallow this huge sum of tens of millions of taels of silver?"

Wang Chenhao took a deep breath and asked, "Is the problem complicated to say so?"

Cui Jingzhi silently stated that he neither admitted nor denied it, but he seemed no longer afraid of death, and he stood up by himself, but he seemed to have suddenly become much older.

Seeing Cui Jingzhi's expression and movements, Wang Chenhao was a little disappointed. He should have thought of this result. He looked very deep and fish very big. So he smiled bitterly and said, "Your expression is nothing to talk about?"

"I admit all the deficits, but I spent the money." Cui Jingzhi just smiled bitterly and stopped saying a word.

Wang Chenhao felt that there was no need to continue asking, and he was not interested in solving the case and asking the bottom line. His purpose was to use Cui Jingzhi as a warning to the monkey and facilitate the rectification of the Machine Bureau.

So, Wang Chenhao waved his hand and a soldier came forward to take Cui Jingzhi away. It would be better to leave the headache to Li Hongzhang.

The Machinery Bureau had a total of 2,000 people, but there were more than 700 officials and leaders. This huge redundancy really made Wang Chenhao a headache. Fortunately, Wang Chenhao directly arrested more than 300 officials of the Machinery Bureau in large and small, fired more than 200 leaders, punished more than 300 workers and leaders, leaving only a group of people with excellent skills at the grassroots level.

Wang Chenhao only left the core skeleton of the Machine Bureau, and removed all the meat that did not meet the requirements. Then he replenished the meat that met his requirements, thus completing the rectification of the Machine Bureau.

At this time, most of the weapons production lines of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau were outdated products. Wang Chenhao reached an agreement with German Mauser and Krupp respectively to introduce a complete set of Mauser 95 rifle and bullet production lines, as well as related technical authorizations. The 80, 105, 120 and 150 Krupp gun production lines and related technical authorizations were introduced from the Krupp Factory. At the same time, Mauser and Krupp Company provided a group of experts and engineers to come to China to be responsible for installing production lines, technology transfer and training of related technical personnel.

Tianjin Machinery Bureau has two 30-ton steel furnaces, which specialize in supplying its own steel products. However, Wang Chenhao's Zhili Steel Company is preparing to build large-scale steel smelting and rolling, so it just happened to take the opportunity to introduce Krupp Steel Armor smelting and forging technology with Krupp Company.

Since the Tianjin Machinery Bureau has been approved to change from the official office to the official supervision and commercial office, Wang Chenhao felt that he could take the opportunity to dig the bottom of the "state-owned enterprise". So after explaining his ideas to Li Hongzhang, after obtaining Li Hongzhang's consent, Wang Chenhao obtained the entire Machinery Bureau for a loan fee of 500,000 taels per year, so the name of the Tianjin Machinery Bureau was changed to Beiyang Weapons.
Chapter completed!