Zhu Biao asked Lan Yu and Quan Xu to stay by his side, and the rest went to arrange the military affairs to which he belonged.

After Zhu Biao distributed the big cake, they also had to distribute the small cake, and they had to arrange their descendants, otherwise they would command the soldiers who would not move on the battlefield.

It's as if there is an obvious ambush ahead, but there is no way back, and when he has to rush, what if he arranges for someone to go up, but he is afraid to step forward?

When the time comes, it will be too late to kill him with a knife, the morale of the army is already in chaos, and the rest of the people are even more afraid, in case the pressure in the rear is too great, the forward is death, and the back is also death, and the mutiny is in an instant.

Therefore, the more you reach the storm, the more you have to arrange your own descendants, and only they will be willing to charge into battle for you, not afraid of sacrifice.

Zhu Biao led people up to a high platform in the school field, and the official soldiers below were practicing with firearms, but most of them were just posing, after all, ammunition was rare, and where was it willing to waste.

Zhu Biao looked at the dense crowd and military camp around him, and asked Lan Yu: "How many people are there in the 300,000 army, if you tell me the truth, I won't blame you." ”

The corners of Lan Yu's mouth twitched and said, "This..."

Zhu Biao said: "It's nothing more than the generals who drank the blood of the soldiers, this has been the case in all dynasties, and the generals have no intention of pursuing it, but the generals can't go out to fight and don't know how many soldiers and horses they have!" ”

Lan Yu took a step closer and whispered: "The 30,000 people from the Governor's Mansion brought by General Quan are real, and there are 30,000 of our 160,000 troops.........

Zhu Biao frowned, but he didn't say anything, 160,000 people and 30,000 living dead were enough to give him face as a prince.

If a soldier dies or is discharged from the army and does not report it, he still leads the army's salary according to the original roster, or even falsifies the roster to cheat the military salary, and of course the benefits flow into the officer's pocket.

It's not bad now, but in the late Ming Dynasty, the corruption of military officers directly led to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

In the battle of Sarhu, the Ming army is expected to send 400,000 troops, if it is really 400,000, Nurhachi will lose, and the problem lies in eating empty salaries.

Because the biggest hobby of the Ming army was to eat empty salaries, so that when the army assembled, the officers could not figure out how many soldiers they had, and some even made up the entire battalion out of thin air.

The result of this is that the Ming army's estimated 400,000 troops are actually 200,000 (some say 100,000, at least 120,000), such an army also has to adopt the tactics of "separate advance and joint attack", and there are only 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers and horses on each road, and both officers and soldiers are old and cunning people, although there are some loyal and brave generals, but it is strange that such a rotten army can win the battle!

Lan Yu looked at Zhu Biao's face with some caution, thinking that if His Royal Highness was angry and wanted to rectify military affairs, he would have to persuade him desperately, this matter could not be changed overnight, not to mention that this expedition was of great significance to the prince.

Seeing that although Zhu Biao's brows were tightened, he didn't mean to summon the generals, Lan Yu breathed a sigh of relief and persuaded: "This is also your commander, otherwise even if the King of Kaiping comes, there will be a deficit of 50,000 people, and these generals have already brought their own pro-army servants, I'm afraid that you will not be satisfied." ”

Zhu Biao almost laughed angrily, I have to thank them for this?

However, Zhu Biao was not too angry, he had expected this incident. Drinking the blood of soldiers and eating empty salaries is like civilian corruption, which cannot be eradicated, and all dynasties have tried their best to improve it, but the results are not good.

Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty described the chaos of the army at that time "eating empty salaries" and said: The generals who commanded the army in all parts of the world all fabricated and reported their military registration in order to fraudulently receive food and salary, and according to the actual calculation, the real number of soldiers in existence was less than six or seven out of ten, and if there was a situation of death in battle or desertion, the actual number of troops would be reduced by two or three tenths within ten years. ”

The fact that the proportion of "registered and unemployed" in the armed forces of the whole country has reached more than half, which shows the seriousness of the problem of "empty salaries" at that time.

Not only that, but even among the soldiers who are actually registered, there are still many invisible phenomena of "eating empty salaries"; many non-commissioned officers and soldiers just respond on time, but they have their own livelihoods in peacetime, and some even set up stalls in the market all day long to do small business.

At the beginning of the construction of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, in view of the harm of "redundant expenses" and "redundant soldiers" caused by the recruitment system in the Song Dynasty, turned back and changed to the "military household" system of "integration of soldiers and farmers".

However, this kind of military household system, which does not distinguish between good and bad and forcibly restricts military status, will inevitably embark on the road of ossification and decline over time. Due to the weakness of the military households, the late Ming Dynasty re-implemented the recruitment system, and the old historical problem of "eating empty salaries" also appeared, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was compared with the Tang and Song dynasties.

Zhu Biao sighed and said: "I don't care about their original rules, the salaries of these soldiers on this day must not be deducted anymore, Lan Yu, you go and convey it to the army, if the palace finds out at that time, don't blame the ruthless military law!" ”

Lan Yu's face was bitter, and it was the work of offending people, but Zhu Biao told him that he couldn't help but listen, and immediately agreed.

Zhu Biao was not in the mood, turned around and took Quan Xu back to the military tent, sitting on the chair a little bored.

Quan Xu stepped forward and said: "Your Highness, don't worry, our army is so Northern Yuan, even more so, they claim to be 100,000 iron cavalry every time, but there are only 30,000 or 40,000 cavalry. ”

Zhu Biao laughed helplessly, this is still worse than rotten.

This situation must change, but it can't be now, this matter involves almost all the nobles, and you can't kill all the nobles, then I'm afraid that the world will be in chaos again.

But it doesn't matter, Daming has just been established, and everything has a chance.

After Zhu Biao let Lan Yu go down, he asked Quan Xu, "Do you have 30,000 firearms?" ”

Quan Xu replied: "The Holy Lord has stipulated that there are 100 households in the mortal army, 10 guns, 20 swords, 30 bows and arrows, and 40 guns. ”

Zhu Biao nodded, the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty was indeed an important node in the development of firearms, and Zhu Yuanzhang was particularly fond of firearms.

According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang's army used various old and new firearms on a large scale many times, and was used in siege of cities, defense of cities and water warfare (gunboat bombardment).

Some firearms such as fire dragon guns, fire guns, large and small generals' barrels, iron cannons, magic arrows, fire thistles and "no help (incendiary firearms)" are equipped with a large number of firearms, and even the gunpowder recipes required for different weapons have been explored.

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