Entry
Tian-qi: Year 1, Month 4, Day 21
10 Jun 1621
The Minister of Justice, Huang Ke-zuan, memorialized requesting that there be training in firearms .... saying: "When I was deputy director of the Military Headquarters for the Capital Training Divisions, I conscripted artisans who were capable of casting Luzon large bronze cannons and they came to the capital where they cast 28 large cannons....one of which weighed over 3,000 jin...In the Military Headquarters, there are still 17 large cannons and 12 large Fo-lang-ji. If we conscripted 100 men and trained them so that they were skilled in their use, they would be equivalent to 10,000 or 20,000 troops from Zhe-jiang and Si-chuan..." The Emperor ordered that the relevant offices deliberate upon and implement the proposals.
Xi-zong: juan 9.24a-25a
Zhong-yang Yan-jiu yuan Ming Shi-lu, volume 125, page 0465/67
Preferred form of citation for this entry:
Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/reign/tian-qi/year-1-month-4-day-21, accessed January 22, 2019