What exactly is an army? For the civilian clique of the Ming Dynasty, this is a monster that must be constantly vigilant and constantly controlled. An army that loses control will use all its resources to feed and strengthen itself, turning the whole country into a living hell.

From the secession of feudal towns in the late Tang Dynasty to the melee in the Central Plains of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the history of nearly 100 years of martial rule has carved an indelible imprint on the upper elite and the lower level of the entire country, making them prefer to endure the threat of foreign invasion rather than see a powerful military group appear.

However, for later generations of Chinese, the people's soldiers created by a certain great man have never feared their own army. Whenever there is a crisis in this country, the army will always appear at the first time and become the greatest support of the people.

Even in middle school politics textbooks, the political commentary on the military is: ... It is an armed group that carries out political tasks and is the main tool of violence for external resistance or aggression and internal consolidation of political power. The people have never associated this with the soldiers, who have always had the belief that the soldiers and the army in books are two different things, and that they will never become a violent instrument of suppression of the people.

Su Changqing also has such a simple cognition, in his opinion, only the soldiers who defend the people can be regarded as a real army, and the others are just violent forces. It is because of his good impression and trust in the army that no civilian official in the entire Ming court can match.

If the General Staff Headquarters is the brain of the new army of the Ming Dynasty, then the young officers trained by the military academies of various armies are the backbone of the entire new army. The professional ethics and personal moral standards of these young officers determine what kind of armed force the new army of the Ming Dynasty will become.

Chongzhen established a material supply guarantee system for the new-style army, and absorbed a large number of low-level soldier elites and small intellectuals as reserve supplements to the officer corps, so that the new-style army broke away from the old army's general-gate tradition and self-enclosed military household system from the very beginning, and became a national army that communicated with all levels of society.

Although the new army inevitably retains many of the customs of the old army, at least this army has accepted from top to bottom that defending the country is its most fundamental task. Because of the abundant supplies they received, the soldiers of the new army were also more obedient than those of the old army.

For the officers of the army, what they value most is the emperor's improvement and maintenance of the status of soldiers. Every year, nearly half of the award objects are from the military, and two-thirds of the places are for grassroots officers and soldiers, and this kind of award ceremony not only improves the status of soldiers, but also greatly enhances the sense of honor of soldiers.

However, in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, in order to prevent these sergeants from feeling compassion for the victims of the disaster in their fellow villagers and allowing the victims to flee their hometowns, thus causing irreparable disasters, the General Staff Headquarters had to adopt the method of mobilizing troops from other places to block the main transportation routes in various parts of Henan.

But for these soldiers of the New Army, the tragic situation in the disaster area in Henan still makes them feel sorry. If it weren't for the obedience cultivated by good military training and the efforts of the imperial court to relieve the victims, I am afraid that many sergeants would have found it difficult to carry out their tasks.

However, even so, some soldiers transferred from Shaanxi and Hebei have petitioned their superiors one after another, willing to save half of their rations to help the "women" and children in the disaster areas.

A group of young officers in the army, such as Chen Qixin and Cheng Guoxiang, were dissatisfied with the ** set off in the capital. When the hungry people in the disaster area were waiting to be fed, these officials did not think about how to try to raise food to enter the disaster area, but instead used the theory of heaven and man to sense ghosts and gods to "force" the emperor to issue an edict, which is simply putting the cart before the horse.

Therefore, when the dust settled in the capital, the Henan locality, under the leadership of these young officers, was the first to stand up and speak out in support of the cabinet's decision. In particular, Xia Yunyi and Niu Jinxing in Henan Mansion, and Wang Qi in Guide Mansion, these elites who were the most "colorful" among the young scholars of the Ming Dynasty, also criticized Jin Shengsi, Wu Weiye and others for their undisguised "color" actions.

The voice of criticism soon spread from Henan to the northern provinces, and the object of criticism also expanded from Jin Shengxian and Wu Weiye to all the southern scholars and doctors who did not care about the overall situation. It was also at this time that the Cabinet decided to expand the area of surplus grain collection from more than 70 counties to 149 counties, and decided to set up grain collection teams and inspection committees to carry out compulsory grain collection in all counties.

Although the Southern gentry were extremely resistant to the surplus collection system imposed by the cabinet against their opposition, the voices of these gentry did not command the sympathy and support of the Northern gentry, making them a minority in political decision-making for the first time in decades.

And at this time, Mu Tianbo, the twenty-one-year-old Duke of Qianguo, entered Nanjing City with dozens of generals and several army staff officers. Although it is only separated by the Yangtze River, the displaced people who can be seen everywhere north of the Yangtze River suddenly disappear when they reach the south of the Yangtze River, and there is no scene of any famine in the city of Nanjing.

Compared with the simple and vigorous city of Beijing at this time, Nanjing City is like a young woman in a young mansion dressed up, gentle and affectionate but decadent and extravagant. Seeing that the prosperity in Nanjing City was still there, Mu Tianbo was also relieved, and the tragic situation of the displaced people he saw all the way south was really uncomfortable for him. And this is still the scene after the imperial court controlled the disaster area and settled most of the victims in their hometowns.

Mu Tianbo, who grew up in a wealthy environment since he was a child, knew for the first time that people would have no food. And if a person is extremely hungry, there is no morality at all. He has seen a lot along the way, parents can abandon their children for a piece of bread, husbands can abandon their wives, and the people mentioned in the book are almost nothing in front of food.

He went all the way south, taking the Jinpu Railway through Shandong, because there were food and materials transported by the railway and the Grand Canal, so the victims gathered by the railway and the Grand Canal could barely survive. But he had heard that the disaster area, located outside the railroad and the Grand Canal, had begun to die continuously. As for the hardest-hit areas in Henan, in some areas, entire villages have already starved to death.

Mu Tianbo, who almost grew up next to Chongzhen, although he still has some small "faults" from a noble family, he does not lack compassion for ordinary people. Therefore, after seeing with his own eyes what happened to the victims in the disaster area, he immediately attached great importance to his mission to the south.

After a blind date with the female emperor of Japan, although the girl's appearance was not as scary as the palace maid around her, she was just an ordinary-looking woman, not as good as the maid next to Mu Tianbo. Therefore, after returning to the capital, Mu Tianbo submitted an application to the Navy General Staff Headquarters to go to the overseas defense zone.

The Navy General Staff Headquarters naturally did not dare to easily agree to Mu Tianbo's application, although Mu Tianbo still has two younger brothers, but he is now related to the marriage with the Japanese imperial family. Mu Tianbo had no choice but to make a request to the emperor in person. At his begging, Chongzhen finally nodded and agreed, and after he got married next year, he could go to the North American Governorate to take up a post, but he had to go south to complete a mission first.

The task given to him by Chongzhen was actually not very difficult, that is, to go south to Nanjing to supervise the Nanjing New Army, and if necessary, to assist the grain collection team sent by the imperial court to the south to complete the grain collection task. He came all the way, and when he arrived in Nanjing, it was just before the autumn harvest in the south, so Mu Tianbo was very relieved after entering the city, feeling that he should still be able to complete the task assigned by the emperor.

After entering the Yifeng Gate, the generals around Mu Tianbo asked him: "Little grandfather, should we find a place to rest for the night first, and then go to the Nanjing Garrison Mansion tomorrow to hand over official business?" ”

After Mu Tianbo looked at the sky, he shook his head and said, "It's only a little afternoon, and it's not bad to walk down such a long road." First go to the Nanjing Garrison Mansion and hand over official duties to the Marquis of Funing, and then ask him to find a place for us to live. The autumn harvest is coming soon, and this grain collection cannot be delayed..."

The Nanjing Garrison Mansion is actually the Chinese Military Governor's Mansion of the Five Military Governors' Mansions, which is located on the west side of the imperial road in the Hongwu Gate. The Nanjing garrison was an official position set up after the Yongle Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, and was in charge of controlling the Nanjing guards, as well as Nanjing's left-behind and protective affairs. After the first year of Hongxi, he was garrisoned with eunuchs, and in the Jingtai period, he added one more person to the garrison. There is also a counselor and maintenance officer, who is also the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department.

That is to say, the Nanjing Guards and all the armies are in the hands of these four people. There are 200,000 soldiers and horses on the books of the Nanjing Jingying, which can be said to be the most powerful force south of the Yangtze River. The two positions of Nanjing garrison and Nanjing town guard eunuch are indeed high and powerful, but the Nanjing Jingying, like the Beijing Jingying, has long existed in name only, although there are still 50,000 or 60,000 heads, but the combat effectiveness is not at all.

When Chongzhen ascended the throne to train the new army, he ordered Lu Shanji to set up the Nanjing Army Military Academy in Nanjing, and reorganized the Nanjing Beijing camp and various guard posts. However, although a new army in Nanjing was pulled out, the old Beijing battalion was still not completely cut off like Beijing.

After all, these Nanjing nobles are far away from the Son of Heaven, and they are not so reverent of imperial power, so they are naturally unwilling to completely lose the opportunity to eat empty salaries. And the Jiangnan gentry did not want to see an army completely subordinate to the emperor stationed in Nanjing, so they also tried their best to obstruct it.

Lu Shanji, who was not famous enough, could not compete with such a powerful local force, so he had to adopt the tactic of abandoning the car to protect the commander, just hoping to be able to control the Nanjing Army Military Academy and the Nanjing New Army, and returned the Nanjing Beijing camp and guard to the Nanjing nobles, which could be regarded as alleviating the contradictions between the two sides.

Even in order to eliminate the influence of Nanjing Xungui on the New Army and the Army Military Academy, Lu Shanji directly relocated the New Army and the Military Academy to the vicinity of the Longjiang Shipyard outside the city. However, because of this, the Nanjing New Army has not been able to form a climate, and it has not been able to build a division until now.

There were too many affairs before, and Chongzhen had never worked hard to start with Nanjing's military affairs. After all, sending an important minister to Nanjing to rectify military affairs will make the movement too big. And sending an ordinary minister over is difficult to clean up the situation where the nobles and gentry are one.

The Marquis of Nanjing, the Marquis of Nanjing, who was in charge of Nanjing's military affairs, and Cao Huachun, the eunuch of Nanjing's town guard, were all good at saying good things for the nobles of Nanjing and the gentry in Jiangnan.

So taking advantage of the Taihu bandit robbery case, Chongzhen withdrew Cao Huachun, and kept the eunuchs in Nanjing vacant. Now he was going to teach these Nanjing nobles some lessons.