Zhu Hao paid special attention to the chief of the three guards, an old man in his fifties Yu Sichun was a guerrilla of the left guard of Xuzhou, and there were 2,000 people under him, which was the largest guard. Another black-faced man, Zhou Da, is the garrison of the right guard of Xuzhou, with more than 1,000 people, and the last middle-aged man with thief eyebrows, Wang Chun, is the guard of the central guard, with only seven or eight hundred people under him, and he has the most empty salary.

In fact, at this point now, there is no empty salary to eat in the local guards, only the border army in the northeast and the official army in the west to conquer and suppress the thieves have exhausted the national strength of the Ming Dynasty, how can the imperial court still have a balance to manage other places, and the capable generals such as Liu Zeqing, Zuo Liangyu and others have pulled up the team and worked alone, and the rest of the people are basically content with the status quo, eating and waiting for death.

Everyone was staggered for a while, and during this period, Zhu Hao had basically figured out the temperament of several people. Yu Sichun is old and afraid, cowardly, and has no bad intentions, so his subordinates respect him, and they show that they don't want to do it for a long time. Although Zhou Da has some military talent, he has a relatively upright personality, and such a person is easy to deal with, only Wang Chun always has a smiling face, which makes people feel a little uncertain.

After the meal, Zhu Hao found an opportunity to leave Yu Sichun alone to talk.

"I wonder what the old general plans for the future?" Zhu Hao tested him.

"Alas, don't hide it from the general, I'm old, my energy is not as good as before, and the only thing I want to think about now is to live the rest of my life safely and securely with my children, grandchildren and a few acres of thin land at home." Yu Sichun was a little emotional.

"Yes, the current situation is not as good as before, and I can't bear to let the old general continue to work, being a soldier should be a young man's livelihood." Seeing that Yu Sichun had no expression, Zhu Hao continued: "Don't hide it from the old general, I want to rectify the armament of Xuzhou as soon as possible, and I want to talk to you alone just to hear your opinion." ”

"Hey, I'm an old man who hasn't read anything, so if I have any opinions, the general will just watch it, and the old man will do everything."

"Okay, then I'll say it bluntly, the situation in the Ming Dynasty is becoming more and more erosive, if you want to revive the national prestige, you must first revive the military prestige, then you must reform the military system, select strong and strict training, and reproduce the glory of Wu Yigong, so" Zhu Hao paused and said, "I want to cut the old and weak in the army, choose the strong and trained, as for you old, if you don't want to stay in the army, I will set aside part of the land from the army to give away, which can ensure that the old general has no worries for half his life, and the same is true for other sergeants, or stay or go to listen to the respect." ”

"In fact, the old man has told the prefect that he is old, but he has not approved it, and now the general is in charge, and he has followed the old man's wishes, the general can rest assured, I will gather everyone tomorrow to explain the general's kindness." Yu Sichun did not hesitate and agreed.

Zhu Hao was overjoyed and gave him five hundred taels of silver on the spot, and both of them were overjoyed.

As for how Zhou Da and Wang Chun arranged, Zhu Hao really spent a lot of brains, Zhou Da is in the prime of life, it is not easy to hand over his position, and he cannot be removed at will, after all, he is a serious officer, and he can only be wooed by affection. Wang Chun gave people even more headaches, and he couldn't say it, so he had to start with Yu Sichun first.

Early the next morning, Yu Sichun passed Zhu Hao's order to gather the sergeants of the three guards to the middle guard to give a lecture, and his nominal position was higher than that of the other two, so the sergeants of the other two guards did not dare to openly contradict each other, and most of them came to assemble on time.

Zhu Hao looked at the military household dressed in tatters, staggered, with yellow and thin faces like flowers, and there was an old man with white hair inside, and his brows were slightly furrowed.

After Yu Sichun finished speaking, Zhu Hao said loudly: "This will be the new general of Xuzhou, and I learned that Lord Fuwang instructed me to preside over the armament of Xuzhou Sanwei." I now announce several orders: first, starting from today, those who do not wish to serve in the army will be given a year's salary and sent home, and each family will be allocated ten acres of land from the military field to support their families, and the officers and officials at all levels will be given silver according to their rank, in addition to the land allocated; Second, there are volunteers to serve as soldiers to stay and accept my assessment, I first declare that all my Zhu Hao's soldiers, food and clothing are enough, and the salary is not in arrears, but they must unconditionally abide by my general orders, after strict assessment, I don't want to be a soldier, who has any objection? ”

"My lord, according to the imperial court system, military households are not allowed to leave the army without authorization." Wang Chun said on the side.

"Extraordinary times use extraordinary methods, Wang Shoubei also knows, now that my Ming armament is erosive, if the old law is still used, the enemy will not be able to resist in the future, and if you lose the battle, who will be responsible? It's all about winning, you know? ”

"My subordinates understand." Although Wang Chun was unwilling to change the status quo, he also knew that what Zhu Hao said was reasonable, and besides, he was a Shangguan and did not dare to confront him in person.

As a result, after Zhu Hao announced the military order, in less than two days, less than 500 of the more than 2,000 officers and soldiers of Zhongwei were left willing to serve as soldiers, most of them were no one else at home, and a small number of people had a speculative mentality.

Zhu Hao did not break his promise, and sent most of the people home, just spending 20,000 taels of silver on silver, and the sergeants of the other two guards saw that they really had silver to take, and they also followed suit, so that in less than five days, there were only about 1,000 people left of the more than 4,000 people in Xuzhou Sanwei. Zhou Da and Wang Chungan stared at each other, they couldn't break their legs, right?

After three days of assessment, many people were eliminated, leaving only 600 strong. Zhu Hao took the opportunity to combine the three guards into one, and appointed Luo Yunqu and others under him as officers, although Zhou Da and Wang Chun still had the name of garrison, there was no one to take with them. Wang Chun couldn't get oil and water, and found Wang Yinzu several times to complain, but he ate soft nails. Zhu Hao saw that this person was really useless, so he gave Wang Yinzu an idea, and sent another letter to Ma Shiying, transferring Wang Chun to other places.

As for Zhou Da, he dared to go into battle to kill the enemy, and he still had some prestige in the army, and Zhu Hao planned to sharpen his sharpness before using it.

In 10 days, the newly established Xuzhou Army was finally completed, with a total of 2,600 soldiers, all of whom were young and middle-aged. What followed was two months of recruit training as usual, and under coaxing and coercion, these hundreds of recruits were finally put on the right track.

However, the size of the army is still too small, Xuzhou is strategically strong, this point of strength is a little weak and pitiful, Zhu Hao asked Li Dong to arrange, posted a recruitment notice outside Xuzhou City, and asked Luo Yunqu, Wang Boda and others to go into Shandong and Henan separately to recruit displaced people, and select young and strong people to coax and deceive them to get back.

After a period of Zhang Luo, Zhu Hao almost recruited more than 3,000 people, plus the strength in his hands, within two months, Zhu Hao's strength has increased to about 6,000 people, and the various expenses of so many people have also spent more than half of the 100,000 taels of silver brought by Zhu Hao.