Since it was decided to take Henan Mansion quickly, Mao Wenlong would inevitably need more soldiers and horses. Mao Wenlong was not worried at all, he was more worried about how to effectively defend after capturing the entire Henan Mansion.

He currently has nearly 100,000 elite soldiers and horses, of which half of the 50,000 troops are definitely a division of a hundred battles.

And nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses to defend the entire Henan Mansion will be dwarfed, if the imperial court or Houjin attack afterwards, Mao Wenlong will inevitably fall into the embarrassing situation of exhaustion.

In order to avoid such a dilemma, it is necessary for him to recruit at least another 100,000 troops in a short period of time.

This is a large amount, and it also costs a lot of grain and grass, and with the current shortage of grain and grass in Mao Wenlong, it is almost impossible to accomplish this feat.

"Alas, in the end, there is still not enough food and grass!" Mao Wenlong and Hong Chengchou were in the conference hall, and after discussing for a long time, they reluctantly let out such an exclamation.

And Chen Jisheng, who was recalled two days ago, was at the next place of Mao Wenlong, and he had listened carefully to the discussion between Mao Wenlong and Hong Chengchou just now. At this moment, he summed up some situations, Mao Wenlong needed these 100,000 soldiers and horses not for war, but only for defending the city.

In this way, in fact, there is no fear that recruits will not be able to go into battle to kill the enemy, and there is no fear that recruits will not be strong in combat. To put it bluntly, just recruit some young and strong people to come over, and then after a little training, you can take your weapons and go to the city wall to defend.

Such 100,000 soldiers and horses are actually no different from those rebel armies that have been climbed all over the sky by the imperial army. And to recruit such a person, Chen Jisheng, who has already seen the world outside, feels that Mao Wenlong's calculation is seriously biased.

With a certain number in his heart, Chen Jisheng stepped forward and said: "Chief soldier, my subordinates think what you just did is wrong. ”

Mao Wenlong was stunned for a moment, and said suspiciously: "What's wrong?" ”

Chen Jisheng hurriedly explained: "I just heard that the general army counted the grain and grass for 100,000 newly recruited soldiers and horses, and it was calculated based on the current use of our Dongjiang Army, but in fact, this is very wrong. ”

"Oh......" Mao Wenlong frowned.

Seeing Mao Wenlong's doubts, Chen Jisheng didn't dare to hang people's appetites anymore, and said bluntly: "In fact, the living conditions of the people in the Central Plains are far beyond the imagination of the general army. If the general army still uses the Dongjiang Army's standard for distributing military rations to recruit new soldiers, let alone just recruiting some people, it is completely okay to recruit some imperial army troops. ”

Hong Chengchou was very dissatisfied when he heard this, and he interjected: "Just want the imperial army to rebel with just grain and grass, you can't help but brag too much." ”

has worked as an errand in the imperial court, even commanded a large army, and served as a trilateral governor for a month, Hong Chengchou can be said to know the situation of the imperial court army well. Although because of Zi Yan's unwarranted disaster, Hong Chengchou did not have a good impression of the imperial court at this time, but everything was the same thing.

Chen Jisheng actually despised the imperial court so much, which was definitely a big taboo in military affairs. As the saying goes, a dead camel is bigger than a horse, no matter how bad the old ship of Daming is, he is still an absolute big ship at this moment.

It is definitely not Mao Wenlong's small boat that can be underestimated, after all, the background of the people is there. No matter how powerful Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Army is, it will not be able to win the big ship of the imperial court for a while.

Chen Jisheng was not in a hurry, he chuckled and said, "Lord Hong may have misunderstood Chen, I didn't mean to underestimate the imperial court. But what I just said is indeed the truth. ”

After a pause, Chen Jisheng saw that Hong Chengchou's face was still unconvinced, so he continued: "Lord Hong hasn't been outside for a long time, and maybe he doesn't know the current situation outside, so it's inevitable that you will have such thoughts. ”

"What the hell is going on outside, you should tell me quickly!" Mao Wenlong directly complained dissatisfied.

Chen Jisheng smirked innocently and continued: "The imperial court may have had enough food and grass to support the army before, but now you go and see how serious it is for the officers of those military stations to report empty salaries. ”

"And the biggest drawback in the imperial army is to support the soldiers, every general uses the greedy money and food to take out some to support the soldiers. These pro-soldiers are indeed okay, but their number is often small, and most of them are only under the orders of their own masters, and are not included in the establishment of the imperial army. ”

Mao Wenlong looked at Hong Chengchou and saw that his face was cloudy, but he didn't have any intention to refute what Chen Jisheng said. Obviously, Hong Chengchou should also know the drawbacks of Chen Jisheng's pro-soldiers and military establishment.

The military household system of the Ming Dynasty was implemented from Zhu Yuanzhang, and it was indeed very brilliant at first.

Organize according to the establishment of the health center, Tuntian. The border guards guarded the city, and the rest all went to work and cultivate. In the territory, two percent of the city is defended, and the rest are cultivated.

Each sergeant was given fifty acres of land and cattle and farming tools, and the proceeds of the harvest were given twelve stone to the sergeant for his own consumption, and the rest was used as food and storage for the officers of the guard.

Under such a system, the imperial court did not need to give any food and salary at all.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang once said proudly: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost a grain of millet to the people." ”

However, such a system has been followed to this day, and it has long been full of loopholes. Most of the army's tuntian was occupied by officers, haoyou, and internal supervisors. The situation of arrears in military pay is getting worse. Coupled with the deductions of the officials, the soldiers can receive very little money.

Hong Chengchou was silent for a moment, and he said heavily, "Go on." ”

Chen Jisheng felt that Hong Chengchou was in a bad mood, and he didn't dare to say it recklessly, but looked at Mao Wenlong and gave him an inquiring look.

Mao Wenlong nodded slightly, indicating that he would continue.

Only then did Chen Jisheng talk about the disadvantages of generals raising their own soldiers.

It is an extremely common phenomenon for generals to withhold food and salaries from soldiers. They used the proceeds of pickpocketing to live a corrupt life of spending all day and drinking, and offered bribes to military officials, surveillance eunuchs, and Ji Gong Yushi and others to seek promotion or exoneration.

As a result, the upper and lower levels could not be concentric, and the contradictions between the officers and the non-commissioned officers continued to intensify. Once there is a war, no one is willing to die at all, and over time, the combat strength of the imperial army will deteriorate.

In order to maintain their position, those generals began to adopt the method of supporting their own families. They took out some of the money they had withheld, raised a small group of selected soldiers, and gave them better living conditions and equipment such as horses and equipment.

After such a vicious circle, the ordinary soldiers in the guard center became more and more unhappy. Like many of the guards he had seen with his own eyes, many of them were now worse off than those rebels.