At that time, the rules of the guard house formulated by the Ming Taizu had many congenital problems. Even though the Ming Dynasty has only been established for less than 50 years, and the military system of the guard has not yet been completely corrupted, there are already signs that it is difficult to maintain.

Zhu Gaoxu also understands such things. When Taizu established the Ming Dynasty, he had to re-establish the order from all aspects, and there were many things, and it was inevitable that there would be unreasonableness. It's just that future generations have to continue to repair and improve, and it is obviously not possible to stick to the ancestral system.

At noon the next day, Zhu Gaoxu hosted a banquet for civil and military affairs in the middle hall of the old courtyard, including the honorable ministers who accompanied the army, the officials of the three divisions of Beiping, and the generals of the border guards who went to Beiping to report on their work. Then arrange the generals, and come in turn in the next few days to perform official business.

The banquet here is naturally different from the banquet in the Jingshi Palace.

Almost none of the generals of the border army participated in the banquets with perfect etiquette in the court, and some of them followed Zhu Gaoxu to the northern grasslands during the Northern Expedition at the beginning of Wude, and were accustomed to eating together in the tents of the Chinese army. After the prostration in the middle hall, there was a commotion. The generals were very loud, which made the atmosphere very lively.

When the wine and meat were served, everyone raised their glasses to bless Zhu Gaoxu, and said some good things like longevity and boundlessness.

After doing this three times, Zhu Gaoxu took the initiative to pick up his wine glass and watched the civil and military forces in the lobby. Everyone got up, and the noise finally subsided a little.

Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth to speak and said directly: "I will say a few words." The money collected from foreign trade is under the control of the city's general manager, and the generals and their families are not allowed to take care of these matters in the future. You should perform your duties, and the soldiers only need to train and defend the territory. Subsequently, the imperial court would send people to issue a decree and set up a yamen to take care of the affairs of the border customs and markets. ”

Someone was whispering just now, but at this time, everyone was silent, and the middle hall became quieter and quieter.

Zhu Gaoxu then eased his tone and said kindly: "However, I think that we should improve the treatment of the guards and soldiers, and try to be as fair as possible. In the future, the military generals' salaries should be paid in full, and the soldiers who defended and fought in the Beijing camp should be paid the same military salaries as the soldiers of the Beijing battalion. The salary may be less, but I will reward the soldiers according to the income of the household and whether the guards are diligent in training. In addition, the imperial court had to rearrange the method of supplying military supplies and guarantee the price of grain and salt in the border areas. ”

Everyone echoed and said: "Holy Kindness" and "Holy Wise ......" The atmosphere of commotion soon returned to the hall.

Probably because Zhu Gaoxu said good things later, everyone was no longer nervous. The previous words can warn only a few people. Those who engage in smuggling and trading with the Uliangha and Tatars should only be able to share in the benefits, and most of the generals do not care.

"!" At this time, Zhu Gaoxu raised his glass and said.

The warriors also responded one after another, and drank their wines one after another. Zhu Gaoxu hung the wine glass in the air and turned it upside down to signal, then put down the wine glass, picked up the chopsticks and began to eat.

Anyway, he has already made his words very clear, and they are all clear words. In the past, because of the accumulation of shortcomings and neglect, Zhu Gaoxu was not too harsh on those generals who made money illegally; But today he clearly expressed his attitude, and it will be up to him to see the performance of those generals in the future.

In the noisy atmosphere of staggered cups, Zhu

Gao Xu was still pondering the issue of military salaries. He estimated that in all parts of the Ming Dynasty today, the number of guards who really took turns to guard was probably between 300,000 and 500,000. The army of the guard station is divided into tuntian and rotational guarding, and the military households of each guard are the majority, and the soldiers do not need to pay the military when they are tuntian, and the soldiers of the Beijing camp are also like this.

If each person is given three new coins a year (the value of the newly minted copper coins is twice the value of the old money), the annual fixed military salary expenditure of the imperial court will increase by 1 million to 1.5 million yuan, which is a completely affordable expenditure for the imperial court at present. Zhu Gaoxu could easily think that the military salary could not be set too high, and if he wanted to motivate the soldiers, he could use the form of an irregular reward. In order to avoid the fact that when the finances are not good, the soldiers will not be able to pay their salaries, which will make the soldiers even more dissatisfied, and even a mutiny may be possible.

At the same time, Zhu Gaoxu was still planning to carry out a comprehensive reform of the military supply system of the border army. It is probably the same as the reform of the Iron Works of the Southern Department of the Imperial Palace, starting from the supply of raw materials and labor.

All the materials such as armor, weapons, salt and grain in the guard were originally like the supply system of the imperial court yamen, which belonged to a scattered short-term supply and was very chaotic; Things are uneven, and it is impossible to find out the responsibility. Zhu Gaoxu is ready to set up a long-term transshipment envoy to carry out centralized procurement scheduling.

Including the salt merchants who participated in the "opening of the China Law" (the merchants used the credit of transporting military rations and other merits to support the border passes, in exchange for salt quotations), they originally directly took vouchers from the border army generals in exchange for salt quotations, and this power should also be returned to the transfer envoys. The use of salt or cash by transshipment to purchase the materials in the hands of merchants.

The method of guaranteeing the price of grain at the border is also very simple, and Zhu Gaoxu remembers the fact that the government used to collect grain and give subsidies in cash. Now it is only necessary to build granaries everywhere and buy the grain of the soldiers in Tuntian to hoard it; At the same time, by establishing sea transportation routes to bring more abundant supplies from the south to the northern border, the government would be able to provide enough food for the price.

This series of ideas improved the treatment of the officers and soldiers on duty (military pay and rewards) and reduced the burden on the soldiers of the military cantonment (paying for the purchase of military cantonment food). The burden was passed on to the entire Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Gaoxu believed that it was absolutely necessary for the imperial court to shoulder the burden of border defense. Taizu's idea of "raising a million soldiers, not costing the people a meter and a penny" was very good, but it only made the combat effectiveness of the Weisuo army quickly erode, and everyone wanted to escape from the army.

The whole revolution had to be done at the same time. If you just throw money, when the border gates are imported money and lack of materials, prices will only skyrocket, and only a small number of profiteers and colluding border generals will get cheaper.

The luncheon continued, but after that, it was all the singing of the civil officials and the simple loyal compliments of the military generals, and Zhu Gaoxu barely said anything more. It wasn't that he was unhappy, but he wanted to impress some generals more than what he had said today.

In the afternoon, Zhu Gaoxu retreated to the backyard and came to the study where he had stayed before.

Zhu Gaoxu writes well, but now he usually doesn't like to write. It was only because the idea was a bit complicated that he wrote it down and marked it with some black lines.

Domestic rectification is also closely related to foreign vassals. If we want to ban the smuggling of border generals, we must open more mutual markets, and even directly exchange markets with the Tatar tribes, otherwise we will definitely not be able to stop them.

The more forbidden things are, the greater the benefits, and there will always be people who are willing to take risks. Especially the Wuliang Ha Sanwei, the Ming court did not directly rule them. If there is an embargo on the Tatars, it is good

The current situation of the Kazakh people will definitely try to change hands and make a fortune. If it is too tough on the Uliangha, it is very likely to accelerate the alliance between the Uliangha Sanwei and the Korqin tribe.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered a certain era when the state promulgated a ban on alcohol, but it was the wine merchants who celebrated it.

And the Tatars are willing to trade with the Ming market, not to mention that the situation has taken a turn for the better this year. Although Arutai was motivated by conspiracy, he did send an envoy to promise to be a vassal and be entitled, and if he continued to promote this, then the Ming and the Tatars would be able to directly exchange markets.

In recent years, Arutai's operation has indeed been as fierce as a tiger, not only sowing discord, but also plotting to advance eastward, hoping to promote the alliance between the Horqin Department and the Uliangha Department. It is no wonder that some ministers of the DPRK and China are far more wary of the Tatars than of the Warats.

But in the only knowledge that Zhu Gaoxu haded, he vaguely remembered that there was a very famous Tumubao incident in the Ming Dynasty and the emperor's capture, and the mastermind was the Warat tribe. Coupled with the insights and suggestions of some ministers in the DPRK and China, Zhu Gaoxu also preferred to believe that the Warat tribe may be gradually moving towards a period of rise.

Arutai, the leader of the Tatar Asut tribe, looks like he should be a capable leader. However, the times create heroes, and even heroes are difficult to control the torrent of the general trend.

Zhu Gaoxu pondered for a long time, and based on the previous judgment of himself and his ministers, he roughly concluded that it no longer seemed to be in the interests of the Ming Dynasty to continue to suppress the Tatar tribes as the greatest enemy at this time. And it may be necessary for the Tatars to maintain a certain strength and become an important force to contain the Warat tribes in the west.

Zhu Gaoxu thought about it while writing hard. When he stopped, he suddenly noticed that someone seemed to be shaking outside the screen, so he said, "Come in and talk." ”

At this time, the eunuch Cao Fu bent down and walked in, bowed his hand and said: "The slave didn't dare to come in when he saw that the emperor was busy, and I wanted to wait for the emperor to be free." ”

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at the paper in front of him, only to find that the writing was very sloppy and almost unrecognizable. He put the brush on the edge of the inkstone, looked up and said, "It's not a matter of a while, you ask someone to make tea and come in." By the way, what did you do just now? ”

Cao Fu said: "The slave maid is going to make tea." Previously, it was the Khan concubine Asari who wanted to see the emperor, and she took the initiative to see her, but if the emperor didn't want to see her, the slave wanted to send her. ”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "Let her come, listen to what she wants to say." ”

"Yes." Cao Fu bowed, retreated to the side of the screen, and then turned around and walked out.

After a while, the palace maid Xiaohe came in first and brought a small bowl of tea. She is a palace maid from the south, and it seems that tea is used to making tea separately, and there is no tea in this bowl of tea. Xiaohe first put a silk scarf, then put down the tea bowl, and said softly: "Wait a while, beware of the burning." ”

Zhu Gaoxu listened very comfortably, in addition to the eunuchs on his northern tour this time, there were only two palace maids around him. It is not unreasonable for this palace maid, who is not very beautiful and looks nearly thirty years old, to be selected by Cao Fu for Zhu Gaoxu. She does some trivial things, and she is really gentle and considerate.

"The slave and maid retired first." Xiaohe said interestingly.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded in agreement and sat there, waiting to see the Tatar Asari.