Come together!

Chen Wudi, Qian Degong, Mou Wenshou, Huang Degong, Yang Yufan, and Li Ying, the chief military officers, were quite rare to gather in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and they were also busy these days - settling down their subordinates, building houses and camping.

After a simple hustle, Zhu Guoqiang looked at them and said.

"Just some ideas, let's share them with you."

After a pause, Zhu Guoqiang said.

"The General's Mansion is in charge of the soldiers and horses in Dalian, and in the future, the affairs of the army, the management of the army, the promotion of officials, the remuneration of military merits, the armor and the sword and other affairs will all belong to the General's Mansion, so please come over today, there are some things to discuss with you."

In this regard, of course, they do not have any opinions, in fact, as the chief military officer, they are usually responsible for leading the troops, operations, training, etc., as for other affairs, they are all under the jurisdiction of the governor and the military department, of course, it is inevitable that private individuals will be appointed, and it is inevitable that there will be deductions, but in general, they still agree in their bones that soldiers are soldiers of the imperial court, and now the imperial court has classified them under the command of the general, so these things are naturally asked by the general.

Of course, if it is a few years later, I am afraid that Zhu Guoqiang will have a headache, after all, the warlordization at that time was no longer a tendency, but a de facto warlordization, and the current generals of the Ming army are still accustomed to the set of military orders and the separation of military and political affairs of the civilian army. This trick is not clever, but it can be put aside for hundreds of years, and the same is true. At its core, it is nothing more than strengthening supervision, limiting the power of military leaders, and preventing the emergence of warlords. This is also the core of the separation of military orders and military and political affairs throughout the ages.

Subsequently, Zhu Guoqiang mentioned the idea of "eliminating the weak and retaining the strong" and reorganizing the army.

“…… With the money and grain in Shandong, it is definitely impossible to raise more than 200,000 land and water troops, so this "eliminating the weak and retaining the strong" is a must! ”

Huang Degong, Mu Wenshou, and Yang Yufan all frowned slightly when they heard the prince say that they wanted to "eliminate the weak and keep the strong", they all knew that they were half outsiders, so they were naturally a little worried, worried that their soldiers and horses would be cut. Huang Degong didn't say anything, but Mu Wenshou regarded himself as the confidant of the prince, and asked in a low voice:

"How does the prince plan to cut off the soldiers?"

Shaking his head with a smile, Zhu Guoqiang said.

""Eliminating the weak and retaining the strong" is not a simple retrenchment, and now is not a peaceful and prosperous era, if all of them are abolished, what will we do when the troops are used in the future?"

Disarmament, of course, cannot be dismantled, but when is it?

Troubled times!

In troubled times, large-scale disarmament didn't let the donkey kick your own head.

This "elimination of the weak" is not simply to eliminate them, but to place them in Dalian on the spot, where they farm and work, but they still have to retain their military status. ”

"Is the prince going to be in the Lushun Fuxing Guard?"

Huang Degong and they were shocked when they heard this, most of the people in this room were from the hereditary officers of the guard, even if it was Huang Degong, he was also from a military household, of course they knew the disadvantages of the military household and the guard.

"Please think twice, although the officers and soldiers in the army have military households, they are all recruited soldiers, if they know that the prince is weak and list them as military households, it will inevitably make people's hearts fluctuate, I am afraid that there will be chaos!"

They almost subconsciously thought that the officers and soldiers would definitely be very resistant. After all, they don't know what the advantages of the guards are, but they know the disadvantages very well, you know, many of those soldiers are from military families. How could they just come out of the wolf's mouth? Into the Tiger's Den Again?

"I know, what are you trying to say, how I don't know the disadvantages of the guard. The corruption of the officials in the guard is serious, not to mention the embezzlement of the land of the soldiers, and the soldiers are also suffering from the oppression and extortion of the officials, since the orthodox years, there is a phenomenon of military households fleeing, so when it came to Emperor Shenzong, he began to change to battalion soldiers, and the recruitment system, the guard post has only retained the framework until now, which I don't know, but the guard system is not useless......

When Mu Wenshou was about to speak, he was stopped by Zhu Guoqiang waving his hand.

"I know what you're trying to say! However, the guard system I want to implement is different from the old guard system, but it is different in essence, except that each soldier is given 100 acres of land, and he is given farm tools, seeds, and 15 taels of silver, there are other preferential treatments. ”

In fact, Zhu Guoqiang has been thinking about how to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army all along. He had consulted a lot of information for this. There are many sources that mention that modern armies consisted of a small number of elite officer corps and a large number of trained poor cannon fodder soldiers. As a consumable, the soldier is trained with a stick and a whip, and the soldier becomes a mechanical battle puppet, an integral part of the military formation, and fears the whip in the officer's hand more than the enemy's bullets.

However, there is also a saying that the combat effectiveness of the modern army is maintained by nationalism and patriotism. Which one is correct? Actually, both are true, except that the former was before the 19th century, and the latter was after the awakening of European nationalism in the early 19th century.

Of course, for the Ming Dynasty, the first one is more in line with the reality of the Ming Dynasty, and even Zhu Guoqiang relies on cruel military methods to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army, but this is only temporary, and what he needs is a long-term system.

In the end, after thinking about it, he still set his sights on the guard! The system may have shortcomings of one kind or another, but that doesn't mean there is no room for improvement. As long as it is improved, in fact, the system of health is still quite good.

"What are these perks? That is, the soldiers of the guard station led the army to lead the field not to accept grain grains, and the soldiers did not serve on errands and all kinds of conscription in peacetime! ”

Finally, Zhu Guoqiang threw out his killer move.

"In other words, it means not paying food, not being bad"

"Why don't you pay for food! Not bad! ”

Everyone was shocked, in fact, the military households of the Ming Dynasty did not pay food and did not accept conscription. But that's just in name.

In fact, the military households of the Ming Dynasty were similar to the Tuntian soldiers of the Wei Dynasty, more than half of the grain they obtained from the Tuntian had to be handed over as "grains", and even the exploitation ratio in many areas was as high as more than seventy percent, which was almost equal to the national serfs. Nominally, the grain was owned by the state and used as military rations for the fighting flag army, but in reality it was at the disposal of hereditary officers. Not only that, but the hereditary military generals seized a large number of fields in the garrison and enslaved military households for farming, and the military households became serfs of the military generals, and in this case, it was natural for the military households to be discriminated against and flee. Except for hereditary officers, who is willing to be willing to serve as a slave "by dedicating his life to his children and grandchildren".

It is precisely because they know the Tao in it that they feel that the restoration of the guard system will definitely cause a rebellion.

But now that the prince said this, everyone only saw the benefits. However, unlike the surprise of others, Huang Degong, who was born in an ordinary military household, flashed a happy color in his eyes, what does this seemingly simple "no food, no bad money" mean to ordinary soldiers.

"Lord Shizi, if this is the case, then the brothers will definitely be very happy, "no food, no bad" is just a show! ”

"Oh, even Xiucai can't compare, you know, it's only two stones of free food, just two Ding, that's worth this, Shiziye, is it a military family that doesn't need to serve conscription?"

"Yes, if they don't pay for food and don't pay for it, what do you want them to do?"

Faced with their inquiry, Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile.

"Of course, they are required to do military service! This is not to pay for food, not to pay for the grain, not to pay for the money and other miscellaneous taxes, not to pay the poor, in addition to not to serve the levy, the guard station cannot send them to do miscellaneous service, of course, this does not mean from time to time that they do not have to serve in the military, they still have to spare some time every year for training. ”

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers of the guard station "three points to defend the city, seven points to the tuntian", to the interior is "two points to defend the city, eight points to the tuntian", but in fact, whether it is the ordinary guard of the tun eight and two or the whole people of the tuntian, the full-time tuntian production will always account for the majority. Tuntian is the main business of the official army and the foundation of survival, and over time, most of the soldiers have become farmers.

Zhu Guoqiang, of course, will not make the same mistakes in history, after all, what he needs is a strong army, not farmers. And there are many successful experiences to learn from in the other world.

"Well, what do you say about this training? It is to practice for one day every few days, with 100 households as the unit, and every year when the farm is slack, the 1,000 households are the unit to enter the camp for two months. Training can be waived at the age of 40. In normal times, they only train locally, and when they need to be recruited, they will be ordered by the General's Office to be requisitioned......"

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is to turn the guard into a reserve, and there are many disadvantages of the guard system, but there are more benefits, the simplest benefit of the guard is that it is to achieve the fastest actual occupation of no man's land and the newly conquered area, just like Yunnan, the Tang Dynasty is called Nanzhao, and the Song Dynasty is called Dali.

It's not because the Mu family led more than 100,000 military households to garrison troops in various parts of Yunnan, so that Yunnan has become a part of China for hundreds of years. There are also Tusi in Guizhou and other places, how can they agree to change the land and return to the stream, it is because of the existence of the guard. The guard is the best means to encroach on the newly annexed area. What would have happened if hundreds of thousands of military households had been transferred to the Red River Valley after Yongle had conquered Annam in the sixth year?

Jiaozhi will definitely become an inseparable part of China.

There are many advantages of the Wei Institute, and the same disadvantages are not familiar, at least for these people here, they can't see any good things about the Wei Institute at all, after all, the Ming Dynasty has been established for so many years, and the Wei Institute has long been notorious by itself.

If you want to persuade them to accept the re-establishment of the guard, you have to let them see the real benefits, and for Zhu Guoqiang, this is not a big deal.

Military households should not be poor and do not pay food. That's a big deal!

How's that, scared?