The old general has been in Jizhou for nearly 20 years, and although the Qi family army has been transferred, the soldiers in Jizhou still follow Qi Jiguang's training methods, and their combat effectiveness is beyond doubt; The military facilities in Jizhou have also been strengthened and refurbished after Qi Jiguang left office, and it is not easy for either Houjin or Mongolia to break through. So at the moment, in Zhong Nan's view, there is no need for him to carry out drastic reforms, the most important thing is to be familiar with his own team, and to run in the Jizhou soldiers and the Dongchang soldiers he brought to create a larger "Zhong Family Army".

In the blink of an eye, it has been more than a month since Zhong Nan came to Jizhou, and all the affairs in the army have been straightened out, and the only thing that makes people feel uneasy is the old general Wu Weizhong. Now the old general's physical condition is not optimistic, and he fainted to the ground again two days ago, and then has been in bed to recuperate. Although he was at home, the old general's heart still couldn't let go of the defense of Jizhou, and after his health was a little better, he would go to the barracks from time to time to check, which made Zhong Nan admire, and sighed in his heart: If there are such generals in the Ming army, I believe that no matter how powerful the invaders are, it will be difficult to cross the border.

One day in early September, Zhong Nan was taking several generals and guerrilla generals to inspect the military deployments and facilities near the Great Wall under his jurisdiction. Recently, there has been no peace in the jurisdiction of Jizhou, and there are often Mongols who come to "fight the grass valley", although there has been no conflict for the time being, but Zhong Nan feels that it is necessary to deal with it in advance.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongols were mainly composed of three parts, the self-proclaimed orthodox Tatar (Eastern Mongolia) and the protagonist of the famous "Tumubao Change" (Western Mongolia). In fact, in addition to the two parts of Tatar and Warat, there is also a part of Uliangha, although they were attached to the Ming Dynasty at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but in fact they were an important political force active between the Ming Dynasty and Eastern and Western Mongolia.

The Tatars inhabited the southern part of present-day Lake Baikal and most of the Mongolian People's Republic; The Warat tribe inhabited the western part of the present-day Mongolian People's Republic and the Junggar Basin; The Wuliang Ha tribe lived in the area of the present-day Laoha River (in Inner Mongolia) and the Liaohe River Valley.

In fact, since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, after the Yongle Emperor conquered Mobei many times, the Mongols died down for a long time, and it was only later that with the decline of the strength of the Ming Dynasty, the constraints on Mongolia gradually weakened, so that it grew stronger again.

After the change of "Tumubao", the elite army of the Ming Dynasty was lost, and the border defense policy changed from active offensive to passive defense, and finally formed the famous nine-sided defense system, and at the same time, in the military system, the battalion system gradually emerged.

Until the Longqing period of the previous dynasty, the Mongol Qiyuan tribe of the Ming Dynasty attacked the Ming Dynasty, and then reached an agreement with the imperial court, he was named the king of Shunyi by the Ming Dynasty, and restored and developed the tributary relationship with the Ming, which is the famous "Altan Khan". During the Alta period, the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia was acceptable, and the border market was also prosperous. It's just that after the death of Altan ten years ago, the Mongolian tribes were no longer restrained by powerful people, and the Tatar, Chahar, Horqin and other tribes gradually became stronger. In order to compete for supplies, they began to wreak havoc along the border of the Ming Dynasty and became a major hidden danger in the Ming Dynasty.

Inspecting the border defense with Zhong Nan today are General Liu Hu, Guerrilla Jing Tianchu, and General Chen Kepeng, Cui Dazheng, Ouyang Shan, and others. Liu and Jing are the confidants of the old general, and now they are also completely marked by the "Zhong Family Army"; Chen and Cui, not to mention, are proper brothers; Ouyang Shan is also not a stranger, as Zhong Nan's subordinate when he served in Dongchang Mansion, he came to Jizhou together after being moved. These five people are now the backbone of the "Zhong Family Army" and the real power of the Jizhou military, and they will work with Zhong Nan to guard the border and protect the border security of the Ming Dynasty.

The establishment of the Jizhou army is different from that of other places, as one of the important towns on the nine sides, its soldiers are full of 80,000 or 90,000 people. In addition to Xuanfu, Datong and Liaodong, most of the troops in other important towns and thirteen provinces are much smaller than those in Jizhou, so low-level generals such as generals and sentinels here can also command thousands or hundreds of people.

In fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, the military establishment in various places was mainly based on the battalion system, and there were no strict regulations, from the general army to the general can be independent into a battalion, so the number of each battalion is uneven, and the scale of the establishment is likely to be very different.

For example, in volume 416 of the "Ming Jing Shiwen Edition", it is said: "Fifty people are in a team, and the team has two people." Five hundred people are the division, and the division has one person. Thousands of people are the sentry, and the sentry has one person. Three thousand people are in the battalion, and the battalion has one Chinese soldier. In volume 252 of the same book, it is also said: "The Wu people are together, the second Wu is the one, and the outer Li Shi is one long." Sanshi is a team and a captain. Three teams for the whistle. A member of the Outer Sentinel. The five whistles are the general, and the external general is a member of the general. The five are all battalions, and they all belong to the main general."

During the Jiajing period, the battalion barracks in Shandong were basically organized into a battalion of about 3,000 people. According to Wanli's "Ming Huidian", "in the thirty-second year of Jiajing (1553), it was proposed to select six cadres from Shandong Minzhuang and divide them into two camps." In the 42nd year of Jiajing, "it was also agreed that starting from the first month of the 43rd year, the Shandong militia should select a sufficient number of three cadres and recommend one member of the staff for training."

During the Longqing period (1567-1572), Qi Jiguang trained troops in the four towns of Jizhou, Changping, Baoding and Liaodong as the governor and governor, and their establishment was different. Take his infantry battalion as an example, that is, it is organized in the order of department, division, bureau, flag, and team. A team of 12 people is set up, and each team has a team leader; The three teams are one flag, each flag has a total of one flag, and the whole flag has 37 officers and soldiers; The three flags are a bureau, each bureau has a total of 100 people, and a total of 112 officers and soldiers; The four bureaus are a division, each division has a total of one general, and a total of 449 officers and soldiers; The two divisions are one department, each with a total of 1,000 people, and a total of 889 officers and soldiers. The three divisions consisted of one battalion, with one general, one Chinese army, one firearms officer, and 2,697 officers and men below the division, totaling 2,700 people.

It can be seen from this that the establishment of the armies in various places in the late Ming Dynasty was completely determined by the military masters in the future, and the imperial court did not interfere and unify the requirements. This has also led to the serious phenomenon of "empty salaries" in the armed forces in many localities, especially in the Liaodong Army, and at the most exaggerated time, the actual number of its soldiers was not even half of the registered soldiers. However, these situations, from the emperor to the military department, are known to everyone, but they cannot be corrected for various reasons.

Towards the end of the inspection, a scout reported that two groups of Mongols "beating grass valleys" had appeared in the area at the same time, each with about 100 people. After hearing the report, Zhong Nan did not panic, and said "I know" with a calm expression, and asked the scout to continue to inquire about the news. After a simple arrangement, Zhong Nan turned around and beckoned the generals to continue the inspection.

Recently, the Mongols have been moving frequently, which makes the vigilant Zhong Nan feel a little uneasy. After the inspection, he summoned all the middle and senior generals to the old general's camp and prepared to discuss the matter in detail. Wu Weizhong, who was lying in bed, saw this kind of scene and knew that it was not a trivial matter, and he also supported his sick body to discuss the military situation with everyone.

Now the military affairs of Jizhou are actually presided over by Zhong Nan, which is also the arrangement of the old general, but nominally, the post of chief soldier is still Wu Weizhong, so whenever there is something important to discuss, most of them are in Wu Weizhong's camp.

After everyone sat down, Zhong Nan spoke first: "Recently, the activities of the Mongols have been too frequent, and there are dozens or one or two hundred teams to attack every three or five days, I don't think it's normal!" ”

The old general also thought so, "I have been guarding Jizhou for many years, and the frequency of the Mongols recently 'beating the grass valley' is indeed strange. ”

Since the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Zhu family has never relaxed its military attack on the Mongols, and the Yongle Emperor once drove them back to their hometown in Mobei. In the middle, except for the time when Yingzong was humiliated, until the Wanli period now, the Mongols have been relatively quiet and have not made any major moves, so the recent actions are really abnormal.

Most of the generals here are martial artists who don't know a few big characters, and they don't discount the execution of their superiors' orders on weekdays, and they may be able to talk about fighting a war, but they are unable to analyze this kind of politics and strategy.

Fortunately, there are still a few people with considerable knowledge and vision among the people, especially the guerrilla general Jing Tianchu. He was originally born in the literary examination, but later abandoned the literature and joined the military, and was promoted to the position of guerrilla in Jizhou because of the accumulation of military exploits, which shows his ability, and he was an important think tank of Wu Weizhong before.

Jing Tianchu frowned, and fell into deep thought, he was more familiar with the habits of the Mongols than Zhong Nan, an outsider. He knows all about the other party's actions recently, but he has never thought about it much, and now that he is being pushed a little by the deputy chief soldier, he suddenly finds that things are definitely not so simple, and it is likely to be said by Zhong Nan. He thought for a long time before he spoke in a deep voice: "The old general, Deputy General Zhong, the last general thinks that the Mongols are probably brewing some big moves. ”

"Oh!" Wu Weizhong stroked his gray beard and didn't say much, just glanced at Zhong Nan next to him.

"Is there any evidence for Jing Guerrilla's judgment?" Zhong Nan asked.

"Although the last general has no direct evidence, he has been dealing with the Mongols for so long, and he finds that every time they make a big move, they will frequently 'fight the grass valley', and to some extent, it is also to inquire about our military situation." Jing Tianchu's tone was affirmative, "In the first two or three years, they didn't come to commit more than ten times a year, but in the last two months, the Mongols have come thirteen times. Counting today, the number of offenses in the past half a month is seven. So I believe that the Mongols did not move without purpose, but probably to make a big move. ”

"Yes, I think Jing's guerrilla analysis is reasonable and well-founded!" Zhong Nan is very satisfied with this subordinate of his.