The selection of people in this army is generally based on their ability, mainly to see whether a person can inquire or not, as long as you can dare to fight and obey orders, no one will consider age or anything, unless your hair and beard are gray and you are still standing on the ground with a gun and panting, so things that affect your image are another matter. The veteran standing in front of Cai Fuyi now looks at his age of only thirty years old, which belongs to the age of being able to fight, Zhang Jingan actually didn't want him to kick him to Zhao Shujiao to prepare for his retirement, which made Cai Fuyi very dissatisfied. The latest free chapters of the book can be found here.

Cai Fu nodded and waved his hand to let the veteran retreat, then turned his head to Gao Di and said: "Lord Gao, I think that Zhang Zongbing's approach is debatable, a veteran in his thirties who is still willing to fight, he actually retired people and let him retire, so how many experienced veterans can be left?" If they do it like this, there will be all new recruits left in the army for less than a year, how can this battle be fought? ”

Gao Di was also puzzled: "The last batch of people only followed their wishes, and did not say that they should be based on age, does Zhang Jing'an have any new tricks?" But why haven't we heard of it? ”

Gao Di and Zhu Xieyuan and Cai Fuyi and others looked at each other, you look at me, I look at you, they are a little confused, although they don't know why Zhang Jing'an did this, they can only be sure that this matter has nothing to do with the three of them□ Qiao coughed lightly at this time and said: "Adults, don't guess this matter, blame me, I can't remember well, so I let Yang Lian and Lord Yang write everything, I took it out and read it twice in the camp that day, who knows that an important thing was leaked." Later, when I was in Mr. Zhang's barracks, I suddenly remembered and said it, and I was going to say it to a few adults when I was empty, but who knew that I was busy and forgot about it later, so I asked a few adults to forgive me. ”

Gao Di said: "I can understand it, is it this new rule that distinguishes people by age?" And who is this whimsical to be different? ”

Liu Qiao said: "This is exactly what happened, but this is not unconventional or whimsical, but the conclusion reached by the emperor after analysis." ”

Hearing that this new regulation was set by the emperor, Gao Di couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, hurriedly took out a silk scarf and wiped his sweat, and then said: "Since it is the emperor's regulation, it must be reasonable, Lord Liu has forgotten such an important matter and should be punished, so I will punish you to tell us the reason." ”

Liu Qiao said repeatedly: "It should be punished, it should be punished!" But this matter is a long story, everyone sit down and listen slowly, Gao is the fifteenth day of the first month of the Beijing departure, about the beginning of March when Ni Dafang made a new cannon, it is said that the blow is far away and the sound is loud, not to mention that the enemy's horse is still easily frightened, this is indeed a good thing ♀ after the cannon is made everyone is very happy, but there is a disadvantage that it is too heavy, much heavier than the red-coated cannon bought before, the king of the Bohai Naval Region personally returned to Beijing to see it, and found that he could not get on the ship after being very unwilling, In the end, everyone unanimously decided that this cannon could not be used in field battles, but could only defend the city. ”

This is not far from the house, seeing so many people visiting here, someone has already moved some benches and chairs and tea, after everyone sat down, they heard Liu Qiaodong not a word in the west, saying why the selection of people by age and the cannon and Wang Zaijin, Gao Di couldn't help frowning, he asked: "I know that this Ni Yuanlu is thinking about a new type of cannon, but what does this have to do with the selection of people?" Could it be that the new cannon can only be lit by a boy in his teens? Can't fire a cannon at the age of thirty? ”

Liu Qiao said with a smile: "Lord Gao is joking, this has nothing to do with artillery, just because with the new type of artillery, Ning Yuan and Lianghekou don't need so many reserve troops, plus Liu Xingzuo, Vice General Liu, who has returned from the new surrender, assisted Lord Yuan Keli in rectifying the army, and Shanhaiguan doesn't need so many people." After learning of this situation, the emperor immediately asked Ma Shilongma, who was guarding the Shanhaiguan, to take 10,000 cavalry to Jiayuguan outside Suzhou, and asked him to reorganize the northwest border army to prevent the Mongol Wara from attacking. ”

Everyone saw that Liu Qiao was originally talking about how to select people in the Guizhou army, and when he was talking, he talked about Ni Yuanlu in Beijing City and Wang Zaijin in the Bohai Naval Region, and then went further to Liu Xingzuo in Liaodong and immediately pulled Ma Shilong to Jiayuguan, almost talking about the frontier of the Ming Dynasty, but it just didn't talk about the key point. Everyone didn't know where to start if they wanted to ask, so they all stared at Liu Qiao with their eyes open, seeing how many turns he had to make to get to the subject.

Liu Qiao said: "At the beginning, I said that the emperor wants to rectify the border army and send people to enrich the border areas, which requires a large number of people to go to Ganzhou, Suzhou and even to live outside Jiayuguan to live and cultivate. However, ordinary people are reluctant to leave their hometowns and abandon the land left by their ancestors to go to a place where they are not familiar with life, but fortunately, the emperor has long planned to send people who have committed serious crimes in the whole country to the border gates, and those who have committed capital crimes and do not want to die are not allowed to leave one place for the rest of their lives, and those who are not capital crimes can return to their hometowns ♀ after completing their sentences in another place. ”

Seeing that Liu Qiao was talking about things, Gao Di asked, "What's the problem?" ”

Liu Qiao said: "People have found that nearly half of the criminals in the homicide case of killing many people at one time were once soldiers who played with knives, and among these soldiers, veterans accounted for the vast majority. ”

Zhu Xieyuan shook his head and said: "I believe that more than half of the murderers who kill many people used to be soldiers who play with knives, because only those who have experience in killing people and play well with knives can kill a few people in a row without shaking their hands and not panicking. But it is nonsense to say that veterans account for the vast majority of them, who retired at a young age before? Those who retired were the old, the weak and the disabled. ”

Liu Qiao said: "Lord Zhu didn't understand the meaning, this army is about military merits, if a soldier reaches a certain age, if he has more combat achievements, he must already be an officer, and when he is in his thirties, not all hundred households are a general flag, and the lowest and lowest should be a small flag." What does it mean if a person is in his thirties and still nothing? ”

Zhu Xieyuan thought for a while and said: "What you said has a certain truth, my Ming army is still relatively fair in terms of military merits, if a person in his thirties has no merit, either this person is usually timid and afraid of things and only dares to hide behind others, or this person is short of money to exchange military merits for silver." ”

Cai Fuyi suddenly pointed to the old soldier at the beginning and said, "Tell me what position you are now?" Is there much military merit? ”

The veteran stood up and said, "Back to my lord, the villain turned out to be a general flag officer in charge of fifty people, and he didn't make many military achievements. The reason why he didn't have much military merit was not that the villain didn't use his strength, but that his luck was too bad, and every time he won a battle, he didn't have his turn to rush forward, and finally he was on it, and before he could cut off a few of the enemy's heads, the troops were defeated. ”

Cai Fuyi waved his hand to make him stand back again, turned his head and asked Liu Qiao: "It seems that in addition to being timid and lacking heart, there is also a lack of luck, Lord Liu will tell me what is the conclusion of the court in the end?" ”

Liu Qiao said: "The conclusion of the imperial court is that he is too old to become a veteran officer of a certain level, and his hands-on ability on the battlefield has deteriorated, because he has not become an officer and his ability to use his brain is not used, maybe he is still dissatisfied and slacks off without all his strength, and the best outcome is to retire as soon as possible and work in another place." The new conscription system of the imperial court is that everyone has to serve five years of military service, starting from the age of sixteen, and after five years, that is, at the age of twenty-one, those who have not become the chief flag officer will retire, if they have special ability to continue to stay and be directly promoted to the general flag, five years later, that is, at the age of twenty-six, they have not become a hundred households, then they have to retire. ”

Cai Fuyi thought for a while and asked: "In this way, the army is full of new soldiers, can such people fight?" Besides, at the beginning, it was also said that the vast majority of the criminals in more than half of the murder cases are retired veterans, and it is not excluded that they are disgruntled, grumpy and other reasons, so that such people are not afraid of their crimes when they retire? ”

Liu Qiao said: "I don't know about this, but I heard that the result of many people's discussion is that trained young people are better than veterans, at least they have good physical strength and flexibility, and they are not so slippery and listen to commands." As for the fact that veterans are indeed unstable after retirement, this is also the reason why the big iron company accepts veterans, giving them a sense of responsibility to do things to make them have a sense of responsibility, and letting them have a sense of accomplishment in doing things according to their interests, which is also a disguised control and constraint. ”

Gao Di thought for a while and said: "This is actually right, although a person in his twenties is not as strong as his thirties, but people in their twenties have good energy, body and mind, and are indeed more suitable for fighting with the enemy." Nowadays, more and more people have to use muskets, and the soldiers who use muskets mainly pay attention to the formation and fight overwhelmingly, let alone those veterans who run away when they see that the situation is not good. Besides, it is also important to farm and prepare grain, when Wang Sanshan was chased and killed when he ran out of food, Guiyang City was also besieged to the point of cannibalism. ”

Gao Di's words reminded people of the past, and Cai Fuyi also nodded and said: "Yes, it is said that there were nearly 100,000 people before Guiyang was besieged, and then the number of people was less than 1,000 after the imperial court lifted the siege. I heard that although they defended the city well, they were besieged by An Bangyan with a fence to besiege the outer city, and the imperial court was using troops against Liaodong and had no time to take care of coming to Guiyang in time, and the people in the city ate the forage after eating the livestock, and ate the armor leather made of the skin after eating the forage, and finally began to eat the dead and the living! I heard that a political officer killed his daughter for everyone to eat, and a county magistrate killed himself for the people who defended the city to eat, and I can't look back on it. ”

Zhu Xieyuan waved his hand and said: "Don't say it, Lord Cai, these things make people's hearts palpitate, thinking of the tragic scene in Guiyang at that time, I feel that everything I ate at noon today is like a crime!" In this way, the emperor is right to let us gradually besiege and gradually advance, first surround and then draw out his hand to practice the soldiers, eliminate the old and weak, and at the same time farm and store grain, and finally win the victory and win the hearts of the people, after all, only the leaders of the rebel army such as An Bangyan and Yu Chongming should be damned, and the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, Miao, Yi and other people should not die. ”

Liu Qiao said: "All the adults have a point, but we have to look at the good place, since everyone has seen the actual situation, we will go into the house to rest, and by the way, let the two talents of the Red Tree Company tell you about the new things, not only the grain production will increase but also other good things." ”