After Zhu Youzhen named Zhaba Oz as Zhangjia Living Buddha, he asked Liu Jingting to send Zhaba Oz back to the Zhantan Temple.

As soon as Zha Ba Se left, Sun Chengzong was taken by Lu Qi to the conference room on the second floor. After the completion of the West Garden, it was the first time he came to this place.

Although Sun Chengzong felt that such an architectural pattern was a bit stingy, standing on the corridor on the second floor could see the scenery of the entire courtyard, which was more open-minded than the dull courtyard house.

It is said that the total cost of the more than 1,200 square meters of Xiyuan Jingshe reached 80,000 silver dollars. Even if the housing prices in the capital have been rising in the past two years, the new courtyard house of this size will probably not exceed 12,000 silver dollars.

But looking at the wrought-iron railings and rows of glass windows on the porch, Sun Chengzong roughly knew where the silver dollars were spent. However, even if Sun Chengzong felt that the cost of this fine house was a bit high, he did not plan to learn from those colleagues to write to Chongzhen to advise.

Although the cost of Xiyuan Jingshe is not small, it is still a small amount compared to the construction of the palace. What's more, compared to his grandfather and brother, Chongzhen is already quite frugal in personal consumption, which even those Qingliu people recognize. Not to mention, his ability to manage money is incomparable to the previous emperors.

Sun Chengzong felt that as long as Chongzhen could maintain his ability to govern since he ascended the throne, this little extravagance in life was not worth admonishing. Of course, the emperor put down his official duties today and sat here for a morning with a monk, which made him a little worried.

After entering the reception room and saluting Chongzhen, Sun Chengzong reported to the emperor the news from Shenyang.

After Zhu Youzhen listened, he asked Sun Chengzong: "Mr. Sun, what do you think we should do with this news?" ”

Sun Chengzong said confidently: "The minister thinks that we should be prepared with two hands, one is the preparation of Lin Dan Khan's army to lose, but the people are ready to return safely; The second is the preparation that Lin Dan Khan will not be able to return. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "The General Staff can discuss the two preparations in detail according to what Mr. said, and then send them to me for confirmation."

In addition, let Chengde and Fengzhen prepare for war, and after being prepared, the Jin army changed its plan halfway and turned to raid the northwest of our country, and it was also necessary to strengthen ties with Chahanhot. ”

Sun Chengzong nodded, and then moved on to the next topic: "The minister has another thing to do when he comes here this time to get His Majesty's permission, which is to postpone the discharge of the new army officers and soldiers next year. ”

Zhu Youzhen paused for a moment before saying, "So fast, has it been five years since the establishment of the new army?" But why postpone? I remember, wasn't the discharge in the border army always done smoothly? ”

Sun Chengzong said very bluntly: "Those who have retired from the border army are either old and incompetent, or some soldiers. Letting them leave the army has increased the combat effectiveness of the border army, so where will anyone hinder this good thing.

But these soldiers in these new armies are different, they were only about 20 years old when they joined the army, and in the past five years, they have learned various skills in the army, and participated in wars such as the defense of Jizhou. Now this group of soldiers is the backbone of the new army, and it is too wasteful to let them go home at this time. ”

After listening to Sun Chengzong's explanation, Zhu Youzhen gently patted the armrest of the sofa and thought for a long time before he replied: "Sir, where does the combat effectiveness of my Ming New Army come from?" ”

Sun Chengzong lowered his head and thought for a moment, and then said with some uncertainty: "The training of the army, the courage of the soldiers, as well as the sophisticated equipment and perfect logistics organization, the minister thinks that this should be the case." ”

If it was three years ago, Sun Chengzong probably wouldn't have such an understanding at all, but the establishment of the General Staff was not only to change the Ming army, but also to change the knowledge of soldiers like Sun Chengzong.

The strength of the organization will always overwhelm the talent of the individual, not to mention that there is no military genius in the Ming army that is ahead of the times. After three years in the General Staff, Sun Chengzong felt that he had learned a military command knowledge that he had not learned in the past 30 years. This also made him more and more estranged from his colleagues who liked to talk on paper.

The existence of the General Staff Department finally made Sun Chengzong understand how an army should be formed, used and fought, rather than pinned on ethereal loyalty, stratagem and destiny.

The General Staff Headquarters has also changed from an office originally used to organize the Jingying army to a pre-imperial military organ that controls the establishment, training, and wartime command of all the Ming troops. Naturally, an organ with such tremendous power is unwilling to be weakened by its own power.

Therefore, even Sun Chengzong and others, who were in favor of the retirement system in the army, thought that the retirement system could effectively suppress the formation of the martial arts group, and at this moment they were a little reluctant to let these young, strong and obedient officers and soldiers return home.

However, Zhu Youzhen's thinking is different from Sun Chengzong's, after all, the position of the two sides is not the same. As the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, he naturally couldn't just think about maintaining the strength of the new army.

After glancing at the sunlight outside the window, Zhu Youzhen cleared his throat and said, "What Mr. said is good, but I still don't agree with it, I think that the most fundamental strength of an army should come from the support of the people.

Without popular support, the army cannot obtain a qualified and loyal army; Without the support of the people, the army would not have access to supplies for war; Without popular support, the army cannot recover from defeat.

In other words, an army that was cut off from the people, such as the Eight Banners Army of the Later Jin, would only become a killing machine in the hands of a few, and make the army the private property of some people, and for the Ming Dynasty, such an army would be a feudal town, an object that should be eliminated.

In addition to learning how to fight, the soldiers recruited by the new army have been taught the principles of life and the explanation of the imperial court's reform policies for more than four years.

It is not clear to him that by October of this year, the peasant associations had initially established a backbone system in the seven northern provinces. Townships, li, and villages below the county level have now been changed into counties, towns, townships, li, and communes.

In the previous Shuntianfu area, the number of communized villages had reached 80 percent, and in Hebei Province, where Shuntian Fu was located, the number of communized villages accounted for about 6 percent or 7 percent, and about 3 to 40 percent in Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and other places.

According to the data of the Ministry of Households, the commune villages pay 10% more taxes than those natural villages, but the income of the villagers is still more than 20% higher than that of the natural villages. ”

Sun Chengzong is a native of Gaoyang, Baoding, Beizhili, although he has always been honest as an official, but the Sun family is still a large landowner who occupies a lot of land in Gaoyang. He had naturally heard of the communalization movement and the peasant association movement in the countryside. Even Gaoyang's clansmen and fellow villagers wrote to him to complain, hoping that he would interfere with the actions of local officials, but he ignored them.

Chongzhen's question, he immediately recalled the grievances of those clansmen and fellow villagers, so he replied: "What Your Majesty said is not that after communization, the fields appointed by large families were abolished, and these families were no longer allowed to come to collect land rents without permission, and they could only obtain fixed land rents from the commune?" ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "After abolishing the land system of large households and implementing the policy of reducing rents and interest rates, the income of the peasants will naturally rise. The existence of the commune not only clarified the hidden fields, but also reduced the behavior of large households in various places in arrears of land taxes.

Of course, the income of the court and the common people has increased, so the income of the local landlords is naturally shrinking. It's just that the fist of the imperial court in Gyeonggi is relatively large, and I have relaxed the restrictions on industry and commerce, so although the big landlords in the north are dissatisfied, no one is raising their heads to make trouble with the imperial court..."

When Sun Chengzong heard this, he immediately remembered the big families, nobles, and even clans who had been exiled overseas in the past two years, and it was obvious that these people should not only have committed crimes, but also had something to do with obstructing the reform of the commune and opposing rent and interest reductions.

Zhu Youzhen did not notice the change in Sun Chengzong's face, but continued: "However, although the commune reform and rent and interest reduction can be slowly implemented in the north, after crossing the Huai River, there is hardly any sound to be heard, and after crossing the Yangtze River, no one takes these two policies seriously.

Speaking of which, it is because the south has not suffered much in the past two years, so the local clan power is stronger than the power of the government. Compared with the northern provinces, the congenital disaster is **, and the local clan power is crumbling, so no one dares to stand up against the imperial court.

However, as long as there are interests, these northern clans will fight back sooner or later. The peasant associations and the communes were the two pillars of the imperial court in the countryside, and if these two pillars fell, how would the imperial court levy troops and pay taxes from the countryside?

If you want the peasant unions and communes to remain in the hands of the imperial court, these soldiers who have served in the army are the best supporters of the imperial court. After they recover, let them take on certain responsibilities in the grassroots peasant associations and communes, then at least the power we have taken from the local magnates and landlords will not be easily taken back by them..."

Even a figure like Sun Chengzong cannot easily betray the interest group to which he belongs. Of course, he now belonged to a new group of military bureaucracy, and was no longer an ordinary scholar-bureaucrat.

In this discussion about the veterans, Sun Chengzong still accepted Chongzhen's proposal, let the first batch of more than 1,000 officers and soldiers be discharged from the army on time, and arranged them in communes, peasant associations, and patrol police stations in various places, so as to strengthen the control and policy propaganda of the grassroots people, and carry out work for the full implementation of the compulsory military service system in the future.

When Sun Chengzong walked out of the Xiyuan Monastery, he realized that he seemed to have forgotten to talk to the emperor about keeping the emperor away from these tantric monks. He hesitated, but finally didn't look back, he felt that Chongzhen didn't seem to have summoned these monks because he liked Tantra.