Zhu Pingqi (DUI) is fifteen years old this year, only a few days younger than Zhu Pingjian. He is the thirteenth son of Zhu Zhiyi, the king of Neijiang, who was raised as an adult, ranking twenty-one, and the youngest son of the king of Neijiang so far.

The king of Neijiang was at the west gate of Chengdu, and keenly found that the small sedan chair had sunk too much, and the sedan chair driver was tired, so he concluded that there were people hidden in the sedan chair. He caught Chen Shiqi's concubine and the anti-thief Liu Moumou, and seized the ironclad evidence of the collusion between Chen Shiqi and the anti-thief King Fushun, and made the first contribution to the great cause of the Shu king's family to set things right.

In line with the principle that meritorious service must be rewarded, the prince Zhu Pingjin personally gave a banquet to the two county kings of Neijiang and Shiquan, and asked them what they wanted.

King Shiquan replied that he wanted to sell the iron factory in Xuzhou Mansion to King Shu's Mansion at a price, and then use the money from the sale to invest in the Sichuan Machinery Bureau. The prince readily agreed at that time. When the king of Neijiang answered, he said that as the county king of the small sect of the Shu domain, he should contribute to the Shu domain, and he did not deserve any reward from the prince. Not only that, Zhu Zhiyi, the king of Neijiang, also recommended several of his young sons to the princes, so that they could join the army on behalf of their father and continue to serve the Shu domain.

It is rare for the King of Neijiang to understand the righteousness so well, Zhu Pingjin was very happy at that time, and personally poured a glass of wine for the King of Neijiang and drank it with him. Subsequently, Shiquan Wang's share of the shares in the Sichuan Machinery Bureau, Neijiang Wang got all of them. The king of Neijiang excused himself and said that he had no money, so Zhu Pingjin gave instructions to lend 10,000 taels of silver to the king of Neijiang without interest from the annual sacrifices of each small sect, and asked him to pay the share capital first.

The king of Neijiang made his son join the army on behalf of his father, which has both advantages and disadvantages.

The pampered princes weren't too angry with their father. After a few days of training, these guys have been complaining and are clamoring to quit. Only the youngest son, Zhu Pingqi, is very adaptable to the hard life of the army. Not only was he as high-spirited and meticulous on the playground as he had just arrived, but he also did not look like a proud son of heaven at all, and soon had a hot fight with the hereditary officers, mischievous students and straw markers of the cadet company. Even Song Zhenzong and Yin Jialin, who secretly had a headache, were full of praise for Zhu Pingqi.

Want to leave when you come? It's not that easy! Even if it's a piece of, you have to squeeze out the oil! This is Zhu Pingjin's style of doing things.

"Old eight, I heard that you can speak well, and your writing is not bad, and you can reach out to the allusions and anecdotes in Shuzhong! Are you interested in working for the Renaissance Newspaper? It's a place where literati gather, and you can just use your expertise! ”

The eighth Zhu Pingxie is twenty-seven or eighteen years old, but he has already thanked early. He was knighted as the general of Zhenguo, the eldest of the six brothers who were in the army. Hearing the praise of the prince, there was still a chance to get out of the sea of suffering, and a heartfelt smile appeared on his tanned face. But he was worried about being scolded by his father, so he was a little hesitant.

Zhu Pingjin observed his words and said to Zhu Pingxie that the current circulation of Fuxing Bao is not large, and there are less than 1,000 copies a month. After problem searching, the main reason is that the content and title of the article are too rigid and cannot fully mobilize the reader's desire to read. Therefore, he decided to innovate an entertainment page and a fashion edition in the newspaper to attract young and middle-aged whites and female readers, and this special edition was handed over to Lao Ba. With the steady increase in circulation, Fuxing Bao will shorten the circulation cycle, expand the distribution area, and make more and greater contributions to the great cause of protecting the country, the people, and the peace of the world. Working in Fuxing Daily is both a challenge and an opportunity.

"It is very important for the government and the opposition to discuss clearly!" Zhu Pingjin solemnly pointed out to his brother, "If my brother can use the pen as a knife and show his talents, it is tantamount to adding tens of thousands of troops to Shudi!" ”

One person tops 10,000 people, this is the greatest compliment. It was very difficult for Zhu Pingxie not to get on the boat.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, and if you get the first one, the next few will be easy.

Those who like horse racing are assigned to the horse shop, which is in charge of the identification of military horses;

Those who like to sing are assigned to the newly integrated art troupe, and they can be picked at will;

Those who like to revolve around women were assigned to the weaving bureau, and when they looked up, they were full of women;

Even the old seventeen, who had nothing to do and liked to play with birds, Zhu Pingjin also arranged for him to be the head of the carrier pigeon communication team in the communications section of the intelligence bureau.

Walking in front of the last child, Zhu Pingjin's face became serious. Genes produce magic, and this brother is like a projection of him in the mirror, even his height and width are about the same.

Seeing Zhu Pingjin walking with a stiff face, the young playmate of the prince was not nervous. He showed a friendly smile and was about to say hello, but Zhu Pingjin had already admonished in a stern tone:

"As for you, little twenty-one, you have nothing to do, you can't do anything! You can stay in peace and be a soldier in the caravan! If you violate military rules, this son will never tolerate it! ”

……

The conference presided over by Zhu Pingjin, the son of the Shu dynasty, was called the "Left Guard Reform and Development Mobilization Conference".

The meeting took place under the rostrum in the playground as usual. Of course, the Ming Dynasty did not have a rostrum, and the official name was "School Reading Platform". But whether it is the rostrum or the school review platform, it is a high platform in the middle of the playground. It can be seen that because the genes of culture have not been interrupted, many things in China are in the same line. It's just that it's hard for us to calm down and appreciate this from a detail of the past and present.

There were quite a few people attending the meeting.

Seeing that the officials and deputy officials of more than 1,000 households were basically all there, nearly half of the officers with more than 100 households who were on duty in the palace came, and even ordinary sergeants, Yin Jialin also selected about 100 middle-aged and elderly soldiers with prestige in each village according to the orders of the prince. In addition, there are more than a dozen specially invited veteran leaders.

Zhu Pingjin has a unique status, sitting alone in the middle of the school reading platform. Zheng Anmin, Song Zhenzong, Shu Guoping, Cheng Xiangfeng, Yin Jialin and others sat on both sides of the school review stand. Hundreds of pairs of eyes looked together at the stage with hope, resentment, or numbness. Except for the absence of microphones and a long table covered with white cloth, it is almost exactly the same as the venue that Zhu Pingjin was familiar with in his previous life.

After the ceremony, the meeting officially began. The official meeting of the Shu Palace, which is generally presided over by Shi Zheng Anmin, the right chief of the Shu Palace, but today Zheng Anmin is not only responsible for presiding, but also responsible for the main speech. He changed out of the half-old official robe he used to wear a few days ago, and replaced it with a new official robe, and even the black gauze hat was replaced with a brand new one, and he suddenly looked much more energetic.

Zheng Anmin stood up, bowed to Zhu Pingjian, walked to the front desk, and announced the meeting to the people sitting below, emphasizing the discipline of the meeting. He then began by talking about the two main topics of the day:

First, why should the Left Guard be reformed? How to reform?

Second, the treatment and diversion of personnel after the reform.

……

Why should the Left Guard be reformed? The reasons are very good and no one can challenge this issue.

In the past, there was Liu Quanzhong's rebellion against the party, and then there was the dereliction of duty of the Tiren Gate, and the items were taken out, all of which were guilty of killing the head. At this turbulent moment, opposing reform is to exonerate Liu Quanzhong and his party, and to disregard the safety of the palace. The person on the stage buttoned down a big hat, and that was to kill himself. Even if a few people have a brain and look at the atmosphere around them, they know that this is not the time to object. Therefore, what everyone is concerned about is not whether the left guard will be changed, but how the left guard will be changed.

How to change the left guard, Zhu Pingjian, Zheng Anmin and other courtiers have had a long process of thinking and practice from discovering problems to solving them, and have formed a relatively clear line of thought. This idea is not the "reducing personnel and increasing efficiency" that Zhu Pingjin once boasted about in his previous life, but "recruiting Ding into the team and serving the people; The land is not moved, and the rent is reduced and the property is divided".

There are more than 20,000 left guards on the left, which is the data left on the household registration paper after the Qing army many times. There were men and women, old people and children, and there were only 7,000 people between the ages of 16 and 60. If the age of conscription is set at 16 to 25 years old, the number of qualified soldiers is at most 1,800, less than one-tenth of the total number.

There are more than 60,000 acres of military land on the left guard, which is also data on paper. The 300-year-old military field is gone, and there are no more than 10,000 acres left. Except for about half of the more than 50,000 mu of land that was illegally converted into private land and was confiscated because of Liu's adverse property, the owners of the rest of the land were all officers of the left guard. As for the ordinary sergeants, very few had the privilege of becoming yeoman farmers, and the vast majority had become tenants of the officers. In other words, those officers are the gentry who give Zhu Pingjin a headache on weekdays.

The per capita cultivated land of the left guards reached nearly three acres, which was an acceptable figure on the surface. However, due to the large number of people in Sichuan and the lack of land, a large number of displaced people from other places poured into the wealthy Chengdu Prefecture, prompting the officers of the Left Guard to use cheap manpower at a lower cost. This not only pushed up the price of land, but also exacerbated the poverty of ordinary sergeants, and made the contradictions between hereditary officers and hereditary military households more prominent.

In order to reform, the Left Guard must face the above-mentioned basic situation. Zhu Pingjian's reform plan was formulated in response to this reality.

"Collecting Ding into the team, entertaining the soldiers in the people" refers to the use of two passages to include the Cheng Ding of the left guard into the combat sequence of the two teams in Shangzhuang, and form a strong and legitimate military group on the territory of the left guard.

The first passage is the caravan. On a voluntary basis, through the preferential treatment of the caravan, the men of the appropriate age of the left guard are attracted to join the caravan. Among them, men of appropriate age refer not only to sergeants, but also to officers.

What should I do with the men who haven't been picked up? Take the second passage: the village guards.

The name of the Ming military system is called the "world military system". Once the people are gathered into the army, not only will they be in the military for life, but their children and grandchildren will be in the army for generations. The remaining men of the left guard have been soldiers since birth. If you want to break away from the military, you can only be a civil official who is above the second grade, such as a high-ranking official like Zhang Juzheng. It is impossible for Zhu Pingjin to completely give up this rich military resource left by his ancestors. Therefore, the healthy men of the age of fourteen to forty who remained in the left guard grange were all incorporated into the village guard team and became the local army and reserve army.

The soldiers of the left guard must join the army, and the people of the left guard must also join the army. Displaced people from other towns are incorporated into the local nationality and included in the unified management of the Left Guard. Men of appropriate age can voluntarily join the caravan caravan, and the rest are all incorporated into the caravan team. The Left Guard Team continues to use the name of Left Guard to the outside world.

Those who are shunted to the manufacturing bureau or other wangzhuang will also not be able to escape the status of reservists. They are either assigned to the Guardian Team, or to the Guardian Team, or to the Guardian Team X...... In short, wherever they are, they will be included in the team of protectors. It's just that most of these people are not taken off or half-off. Only those who are integrated into the cadre contingent are eligible to be completely discharged.

"The land is not moved, and the rent is reduced and the industry is divided" means that the pattern of land interests formed by history should be respected, and the existing land use rights and tenant agreements should be retained. The 25,000 acres of land of the Liu family and his party will remain unchanged except for the owner and the lessor who have become the Shu Wangfu. The 10,000 acres of military land that was fortunately retained, as the public land under the name of the left guard, is still treated as such.

However, the fact that there has been no major change in the pattern of interests does not mean that fine-tuning is not being made.

The Shu Wangfu fully implemented the five-five rent reduction in Wangzhuang, and the five-five rent reduction of the left guard was also imperative. Wu Yuankang and some other officers with a keen sense of political smell have already moved in advance. In addition, Zhu Pingjin also decided that on the basis of the five-five rent reduction, the left guards will fully implement the compulsory purchase of surplus grain, that is, the output of land, fifty percent of the tenants, one percent of the landlords, and the remaining forty percent will be purchased by the Shu Wangfu at the market price. The implementation date is set for this year's autumn harvest.

In addition, because there are few people in the left guards, the human resources of the left guards will also be transferred from pure agricultural production to handicrafts and primitive industry. Several manufacturing bureaus under the control of the palace will give priority to recruiting from the left guards, which is the meaning of the so-called "division of business".