A recipient of the fourth- or fifth-class medal may be an ordinary soldier, and he will not have to bow down when he sees officials from the sixth rank or below, including the county order of the seventh rank.

If this soldier returns to his hometown and sees the county magistrate whom he particularly admired before, now not only does he not have to kneel, but he can also enjoy family cooking, drinking wine, and visiting the Qinglou on an equal footing, what kind of honor it should be in his hometown and in front of the villagers! Although he has not returned to his hometown, he can at least raise his eyebrows in his hometown.

Of course, only if you receive the Medal of Honor.

The Ming Dynasty has a strict hierarchy, and under the repeated preaching of Cheng Zhu Lixue, it has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and the bone marrow, and in the eyes of the people, the emperor is the immortal who came down to manage the world, and there is a world of difference from ordinary people.

How many wives the emperor wants to marry, and who he wants to marry as a wife, are all natural and righteous, and if he can't marry a wife, that is because he has no ability, and the emperor and hundreds of officials have married a large number of wives, which has nothing to do with the imbalance between the male and female populations at the grassroots level.

It is a hundred officials, and they are also all kinds of stars in the sky, but when they are in the sky, they are only one or several levels lower than the emperor.

This kind of hierarchical system has restrained people's thoughts, and it has hindered the development of the Ming Dynasty and prevented the Ming Dynasty from reaching the top of the world again, but Zhu Youzhen does not know what to do with cultural innovation, and if he only relies on his own strength, he uses imperial power to enforce equality between people, and it may not work.

In the face of cultural innovation, apart from blood, there is only graduality.

Therefore, in the last reform, Zhu Youzhen only advocated equality before the law, but did not use high-pressure means to force all scholars and doctors to agree that everyone is equal in one step.

The people of the Ming Dynasty themselves do not have many equal requirements.

If someone disregards human life, bullies men and women, bullies the market, relies on the strong to bully the weak, and forces the good to become prostitutes, the people naturally hope that the government will make decisions for them.

Zhu Youzhen's decision to exempt the soldiers who have received the Medal of Honor from bowing down is on the one hand to encourage the soldiers to strive for meritorious service, and on the other hand, it is to gradually promote the sense of equality among the people.

The third element of military reform is the issue of the titles of military personnel.

Li Chunye hoped to restore the titles of duke, marquis, uncle, son, and male as a reward for the soldiers who had made meritorious contributions.

The title only has the title of lulu and status, but does not confer the actual position, among which the titles of duke, marquis, and earl can be hereditary, but they are reduced by one rank per generation until the viscount, and the viscount and baron cannot be hereditary.

In order to prevent a large number of lords from appearing in the country and putting pressure on the finances of the Ming Dynasty, all titles cannot be hereditary, but with the special approval of the emperor, the time of demotion can be delayed, such as two generations of downgrading, or three generations of generals.

This is what Zhu Youzhen meant, in his mind, once the Ming Dynasty establishes the kind of system he expects, not to mention that it will not be replaced for hundreds of years, at least in hundreds of years, so he cannot set up a hereditary title, lest after a hundred years and a thousand years, throw a small stone in Beijing, it may smash a hereditary lord, which is similar to the Ming clan, and will become a social tumor again.

Of course, Zhu Youzhen has another reason, if the establishment of a hereditary title, it will inevitably become the goal pursued by many people, once the hereditary, descendants will be happy, then his descendants will only enjoy the shade of their predecessors, and thus lose their enterprising mind.

The imminent knighthood of military personnel was unanimously opposed by the ministers.

The Ming Dynasty is a country where civil officials control the government, which is also the root of the lack of expansion consciousness in the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the imperial court wants to implement a knighthood system for soldiers, civilian officials who are not interested in expanding their territory naturally oppose it with all their might, with Shi Fenglai, vice minister of personnel, opposing it most fiercely, and even Premier Huang Liji, who has always supported Zhu Youzhen, has also expressed his opposition, believing that the imperial court treats soldiers too highly.

Although the National Defense Yuan supports the draft reform, the number of people in the National Defense Yuan is too small.

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and smiled bitterly.

The Ming Dynasty was a dynasty of civil rule and martial arts, as long as the military generals did not have the status of civil officials such as Jinshi, no matter how big the official was, when he saw the civil official, he had to bow down and call himself "the lower official".

If a military general is awarded a knighthood for his military exploits, he will basically be on an equal footing with civilian officials, and civil officials will certainly not give up their privileges.

However, Zhu Youzhen knew the history of later generations, knew that the Ming Dynasty was at the crossroads of historical development, and if he took a step forward, he could expand his territory, turn potential into effective force, and gradually establish a modern country; If you take a step back, rest on your laurels, confine yourself to inheritance, and indulge in the great power of the Celestial Empire and the treasure of the earth, the Ming Dynasty will be surpassed and fallen by Xiyi, and in the future international reshuffle, it will be at a disadvantage, and even have the disaster of destroying the country and extinction.

The Ming Dynasty wanted to take a step forward, in addition to domestic reforms, that is, the defense of the territory and the opening up of the territory by the soldiers, so Zhu Youzhen relied on a strong army.

Zhu Youzhen can't be angry, these civil officials are different from himself after all, they don't have hundreds of years of strategic vision, and their decisions come from the cultural circle they live in, and culture determines values.

Since there were too many objections, they had to be shelved and left for discussion later.

Although this military reform was planned by the National Defense Yuan, the ministers all knew that the National Defense Yuan had the full support of the emperor, and this was the first time that Zhu Youzhen was refuted by the ministers at a court meeting.

The fourth element of military reform is the implementation of a military rank system.

The military rank system is divided into soldier rank and officer rank.

There are three levels of soldier ranks: soldiers who officially join the barracks are privates, and epaulettes are a folded bar; After one year of service, a private is promoted to a private with a two-fold bar; A senior soldier who has military merits or is assessed as excellent, can be promoted to a non-commissioned officer, divided into squad leader and deputy squad leader, and the epaulettes are all three-fold bars.

Privates, privates, and non-commissioned officers are not officers, but non-commissioned officers are the reserve of officers, and if they have established military merits, or if they are evaluated as excellent, or because of the needs of expanding the army, they can be promoted to second lieutenant.

This is a great change to the army system of the Ming Dynasty, in the previous Ming Dynasty, soldiers were always soldiers, even if they made military merits, or had excellent performances, they would always be soldiers, and they could never be promoted to officers, at most they would get some material rewards.

The implementation of the non-commissioned officer system has opened a door for the promotion of soldiers at the grassroots level, although this door has only opened a gap now, and the soldiers have hope after all.

The rank of an officer is three dan and ten ranks.

Deputy platoon commander: second lieutenant, epaulettes of one bar and one star; Platoon commander: lieutenant with epaulettes of one bar and two stars; Deputy company commander, company commander: captain, epaulettes are three stars. Ensigns, lieutenants, and captains are called lieutenant officers.

Deputy battalion commander: major, epaulettes with two bars and one star; Battalion commander and deputy regiment commander: lieutenant colonel, with epaulettes of two bars and two stars; Regiment commander and deputy brigade commander: colonel, epaulettes are two bars and three stars; Brigade commander, deputy division commander: colonel, epaulettes with two bars and four stars. Majors, lieutenant colonels, colonels, and colonels are called colonel-level officers.

Division commander and deputy commander: major general, epaulettes are one star of gold branches; Commander: Lieutenant General, epaulettes with two stars of gold branches.

In addition, the rank of general was established, and the epaulettes were three stars of gold branches. The general has the power to command several armies to participate in battles, which is equivalent to the commander of a group army, and in wartime, if necessary, he can be temporarily crowned commander and command large battles.

According to the war situation during the Chongzhen period and the ability to command the army in peacetime, six general ranks were established for the first time, namely Yuan Chonghuan, commander of the First Army, Hong Chengchou, commander of the Fourth Army, Zuo Liangyu, commander of the Fourteenth Army, Mu Qiyuan, commander of the Nineteenth Army, Zu Dashou, commander of the Thirteenth Army, and Sun Chengzong, governor of Liaoning Province.

In addition, the National Defense Yuan mentioned that Emperor Chongzhen was the emperor immediately, and in order to better command the soldiers and horses of the whole country, Zhu Youzhen was crowned as the generalissimo.

For such a position, Zhu You originally felt that it didn't matter, but he took into account that the status of the Ming soldiers would definitely be improved, if the soldiers only knew their own generals in the future, and did not know the emperor, the generals might support their own troops and set up the post of generalissimo, so that the soldiers and officers could think at any time that the emperor and the generalissimo were the supreme commanders of the army, so they accepted the seal of the National Defense Yuan on the spot.

The National Defense Yuan explained, the implementation of the military rank system, is not to soldiers and officers salary increases, some time ago the Ming Dynasty carried out the Northern Expedition and the Southern Expedition, after the end of the war, in addition to the material rewards to the soldiers on the front line, but also according to the battlefield table xiàn assessment of the merits, but the Ming Dynasty used new firearms, soldiers died in battle rarely, therefore, the promotion of officers is extremely difficult.

For example, if a brigade commander has accumulated combat merits, he should be promoted to deputy division commander or even division commander according to the law, but the deputy division commander and division commander are in their original positions, and there is no shortage of deputy division commanders and division commanders in other armies, so it is impossible to place this brigade commander who should be promoted.

In the past, this situation was rare, every time there was a big battle, even if the Ming Dynasty won, it was a tragic victory, the casualties of officers and soldiers were very heavy, even more than the losing side, the Ming Dynasty basically relied on the advantage of numbers in the war, so that there would be many vacancies for promotion of officers.

The current Ming Dynasty, relying on the huge superiority in equipment, casualties are very few, therefore, it is difficult for officers and soldiers who have established military merits to be promoted, if they cannot be promoted according to the law, it will weaken the enthusiasm of the soldiers for national merits, and the National Defense Yuan has established a military rank system.

The establishment of the military rank system is to allow those officers and men who have obtained military merits and should be promoted to their military ranks when there are no vacancies for the time being, and then be promoted when there are vacancies, which is like the "alternate system" for civilian officials.

The ministers heard that the military rank system was only equivalent to the candidate system, and there was no need to re-issue the salary, and there was no need to spend additional money at all, so there was not much opposition in their hearts.

Besides, they have just refuted the fifth-class title system for soldiers, and Zhu Youzhen must still be on fire in his heart, so don't touch his head again on this inconsequential issue.

Of the four contents of the second military reform, three were approved by the court, and one was initially rejected by the ministers, but it was not completely blocked, and when Zhu Youzhen found it difficult to get through, he temporarily avoided contradictions and conflicts on the grounds of "discussing it later."

The meeting then moved on to the next item, and Finance Minister Bi Ziyan reported on the new land sale and farmland development in the DPRK.