July of the fifth year of Chenghua.

After several months of reform, all parts of the Ming Dynasty can be described as a new weather, all kinds of workshops, industries have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, in just a few months, the Ministry of Industry registered in the register of more than 80,000 new inventions, of which there have been more than 30,000 new inventions, new technologies in the Ming Dynasty began to promote the use.

Just three months ago, under the auspices of Liu Juntao, Daming officially reorganized the Yushan ticket number into the Daming Central Bank, specializing in issuing silver bills for the Ming private bank to exchange for silver, in preparation for the full implementation of paper money in the Ming Dynasty in the future.

The new-style schools in Daming are also in full swing, and the gentry and wealthy businessmen of the people have donated money and materials, in order to get the tax-free waist card issued by the imperial court, and they can reduce or exempt a certain amount of industrial and commercial tax according to the proportion of the donated property, and they can also get the commendation of the local government, and the servants gathered for a while.

Compared with the prosperous development of the people, the imperial court has also benefited a lot, just these few months of tax revenue, has exceeded the income of the Ming court in previous years, if according to the prospects of Liu Juntao's planning, after the completion of the law change in the future, the treasury income of the Ming Dynasty will increase by four to five times compared with previous years!

In this regard, Emperor Chenghua was naturally overjoyed. This is because under the auspices of Liu Juntao, following the high salary policy of the Great Song Dynasty, the civil and military officials of the imperial court have increased their salaries, according to the different levels of officials, the lowest is five yuan of silver per person per month from the ninth grade, and the highest is thirty taels of silver per person per month.

Although it doesn't seem to be a lot, compared to the official offerings before the Ming Dynasty, this amount of silver is already a lot, and even for some levels of officials, these low-cost salaries are comparable to the income of the previous whole year!

Moreover, Liu Juntao was also going to give pension silver to the officials who returned to their hometowns to retire, as well as various other subsidy silver, which really made the Manchu Dynasty civil and military excited.

In fact, this is also a strategy of Liu Juntao, that is, to maximize the forces of all parties, so that the vested interest groups that support the reform of the law become stronger and stronger, only in this way can the final success of the reform of the law be ensured, and the occurrence of the death of the people and the government can be prevented.

At this time, Liu Juntao saw that the reform had begun to bear fruit, and the opposition from the government and the opposition was almost extinct, and Emperor Chenghua was even more confident in the change, even more concerned than Liu Juntao, and summoned Liu Juntao almost every day to discuss the law change regulations, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief in his heart.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Juntao began to carry out the next plan, that is, to start preparing for the construction of the Ming New Army across the country!

Now that the Ming treasury is full, the local area is stable, and the research and development of various new technologies, especially new firearms, Liu Juntao realizes that the time is ripe for the formation and training of the new army and the comprehensive rectification of the Ming armament.

As a result, Liu Juntao submitted to Emperor Chenghua the "New Military Discussion of the Ming Dynasty", which opened the prelude to the comprehensive transformation of the Ming army.

In this note, Liu Juntao combined his years of experience in conquest and proposed that firearms are the sharp weapons of China's domination of the world, and that the future war will eventually be a battlefield where firearms are rampant, and only an army that fully controls firearms and is equipped with powerful firearms can defend China and defend the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Juntao proposed that the entire Ming Dynasty's more than 2 million troops should be reorganized one after another, and the soldiers and horses of the local guards should be completely abolished, and all the soldiers and horses of the Ming Dynasty should be reorganized into battalions and become professional soldiers. Liu Juntao is ready to refine the Ming Dynasty's army of more than 2 million, dismantle the old and weak soldiers, keep the standing strength of the Ming Empire at about 1.5 million, and implement the elite army line.

At the same time, Liu Juntao is ready to divide the country's forces in two:

The soldiers and horses stationed in various cities were garrisons, with 3,000 men as a battalion, of which 2,000 were equipped with firearms and 1,000 were equipped with spears and halberds.

These soldiers and horses will be scattered and stationed in various cities in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and will be responsible for the internal guards of the Ming Dynasty.

The soldiers and horses stationed at the border passes of the Ming Dynasty and the passes in various places are the national defense forces, all of which imitate the Tiance Army system, with the name of the Praetorian Guard, and the suffix number number, such as the First Janissary Army, the Second Praetorian Guard Army, and so on. The field army is all equipped with all kinds of new firearms, and is equipped with an organized iron cavalry army and large-caliber heavy artillery.

Liu Juntao prepared to establish 30 Ming National Defense Forces, the army number from the First Janissary Army to the Thirtieth Praetorian Guard, among these armies, Hanhai Metropolitan Protectorate, Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate, and Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate were each stationed in five, Beijing Division garrisoned three national defense armies, Nanjing garrisoned two national defense armies, and the remaining ten national defense armies were stationed in various parts of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, Liu Juntao also prepared to reorganize all the naval divisions in the Ming Dynasty into the Ming Navy, imitate the Dongping Island Navy for reorganization, and combine the warship styles of the Nanjing Navy Division and the Dongping Island Navy to carry out comprehensive refitting and new exercises.

As for the various departments of the Tiance Army, Liu Juntao is ready to play Emperor Chenghua and mobilize all the departments of the Tiance Army to the Beijing Division to garrison, which is equivalent to the Northern Army of the Han Empire.

Emperor Chenghua was very much in favor of Liu Juntao's military reform, and only two days later approved Liu Juntao's "Playing and Practicing the Emperor's New Military Proposals", and ordered the military department to fully implement it.

The fifth year of Chenghua is destined to be a year that has left a strong mark in history!

This year, more than two million soldiers and horses in the Ming Dynasty began a comprehensive rectification, with the training camps that have been built up in various parts of the Ming Dynasty at this time, the guards and battalions in various parts of the Ming Dynasty began to take turns to reorganize and train, some of the old and weak soldiers were sent home, and the remaining elite soldiers were all reorganized into garrisons and national defense forces according to the level of combat effectiveness, and began to go to the training camps in various provincial cities for the second round of training.

In the second round of training, these soldiers and horses will be recruited and trained according to the standards of the Tiance Army, and various skills such as physical fitness, fighting skills, battle formations, survivability, willpower, and the use of firearms will be fully trained.

At the same time, the military bureaus built in various parts of the Ming Dynasty also began to start work in full force, and a steady stream of weapons and equipment were prepared for the preparation of the new army of the Ming Dynasty.

On the official road leading to the military camps and training camps in various places, there are constantly convoys transporting firearms, armor, and military equipment passing by, and the people of all parts of the Ming Dynasty are greatly inspired by the people's hearts when they see this, and they rejoice that the Ming Dynasty is becoming stronger and stronger.

And in the coastal areas, the Ming civil and government-run shipyards are also working day and night, the Ministry of War has newly established the Army Department and the Navy Division, of which the Army Division naturally does not need to say much, has sent a large number of orders to the Ming Dynasty War Bureau, and the Navy Department is even more arrogant, Liu Juntao prepared 30 million taels of silver for the Navy Division, and the Navy Department directly sprinkled the 30 million taels of silver to the shipyards around the country, which suddenly made the output of the Ming shipbuilding industry achieve a blowout growth! In Liu Juntao's recital to Emperor Chenghua, he mentioned: "A year later, the Ming Navy will usher in great development, all kinds of naval warships will be built and launched like dumplings, my Ming will be warships, and the four seas of the South China Sea will become the Huangming Inner Lake!" ”

With the establishment of the Navy Department and the issuance of a large number of shipbuilding orders, sailors from all over the Ming Dynasty, even fishermen and pirates from Congliang have emerged, and they have received the recruitment of the Ming Navy, and entered the Bibo Hall established in Shandong, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian and other places, and began to study regular naval warfare.

After these people complete their studies, they will become the new force of the Ming Navy and contribute their strength to the Ming Dynasty.

However, with the all-out construction of the new army and navy of the Ming Dynasty, some very thorny problems have also emerged.

First of all, saltpeter and sulfur for the manufacture of gunpowder began to be insufficient, and then there was a shortage of suitable wood for the construction of battleships.

For these two problems, Liu Juntao has also anticipated them, and has begun to solve them in advance.

First of all, Liu Juntao has instructed the Ministry of Finance to contact Japan and ask Japan to increase the export of sulfur, and contact the Dutch to ask the Dutch to increase the export of saltpeter.

At the same time, Liu Juntao also ordered the Ministry of Industry to set up saltpeter factories throughout the country and comprehensively promote the local method of nitrate, so as to solve the shortage of saltpeter and sulfur.

Second, Liu Juntao ordered the Ministry of Finance to inform Japan to vigorously export logs, and ordered the Liaodong Jurchen [Doudou] ministries to pay tribute to logs suitable for the construction of warships.

Three months later, Liu Juntao's measures have achieved initial results, although it is not enough to solve the shortage of saltpeter, sulfur and logs for the time being, but the material gap has begun to gradually decrease, and these measures can be completely solved in the foreseeable future.

However, Liu Juntao, who has been accustomed to being prepared for danger in times of peace, is not satisfied with this, after all, what kind of goods is Japan, what kind of urine is the Dutch, Liu Juntao knows very well, now that the Ming Dynasty is in full swing, they can obtain benefits through peaceful trade in the Ming Dynasty, and they can be very obedient and cooperative, but once the Ming Dynasty changes, or the attitude of Japan and the Netherlands towards the Ming Dynasty changes, the two will definitely cut off the delivery of strategic materials to the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible!

As the saying goes: it's better to have a father and a mother than to have yourself!

So Liu Juntao set his sights on Annan, which is rich in saltpeter mines and timber resources! As for the sulfur mine, Liu Juntao decided to put the strategic resource destination of the sulfur mine in Japan in the future!

Of course, these are all later words, and we must wait for this change of law and the complete success of the construction of the new army, and when all the contradictions and matters within the Ming Dynasty are resolved.

However, Liu Juntao believes that according to the current development speed of Daming, this day will not be too far away!

It didn't take long for Liu Juntao to suddenly receive a notice from the Dutch to terminate the trade!

This notice was submitted by the Dutch through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, which was later set up by Liu Juntao on the infrastructure of the Honglu Temple, specifically to deal with the affairs of other countries and the affairs of various ethnic groups in the Ming frontier.

In this document, the Dutch considered the foreign trade policy of the Ming Dynasty to be very harsh, and demanded that the previous treaty with the Ming be revised, and before it was re-signed, the Dutch decided to terminate all trade with the Ming Dynasty and stop exporting saltpeter to the Ming Dynasty!