readx; Because there were already "three chapters of the law" with the generals, Zhu Youzhen's practice of only rewarding land and not giving him knighthood did not cause any waves. The pen fun pavilion www.biquge.info ∽ ↗ top ∽ ↗ point ∽ ↗ small ∽ ↗ said, thinking that the only military general who has been knighted since the emperor ascended the throne is actually Zu Dashou, and all the generals also know in their hearts that if the emperor really wants to give someone the title, maybe this person will be unlucky. Of course, on the other hand, most of the soldiers were rewarded, and the more exploits they had, the more they reaped, and everyone rejoiced.

Where there is a reward, there is a punishment. The soldiers who were rewarded were mainly the three major battalions of the Beijing Division with the Qin soldiers as the backbone, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army, and part of the Liaodong Border Army. And those who are about to be punished are naturally the officers and soldiers of the various guard posts in Henan Province who are dependent on Zhu Changxun's rebellion.

Since Hong Chengchou's Xiangyang Mutiny and Zhu Changxun's usurpation of Luoyang, almost all the provinces of Henan have rebelled. Xu Dingguo, the commander of the Henan capital in Kaifeng and the commander-in-chief of Henan, took the lead in responding to the rebellion, and all the guards under his jurisdiction also joined the rebels except for Zhangdewei north of the Yellow River.

According to the establishment of the guards, the officers and troops of Henan Province are under the jurisdiction of the Henan Metropolitan Command and Embassy, and have jurisdiction over 11 guards, including Henan Wei, Xuanwuwei, Chenzhouwei, Suiyangwei, Xinyangwei, Nanyangwei, Ruzhouwei, Hongnongwei, Huaiqingwei, Zhangdewei, and Yingchuanwei, as well as a number of independent thousand-household offices, which are distributed throughout Henan, with a registered strength of about 70,000. However, due to the severity of the "empty salary," the actual strength of the army was only about 40,000, such as the 5,600 men of Zhangdewei, but the actual number of troops was less than 2,000.

The only exception is the Ruzhou Guard, who is responsible for guarding Luoyang, because Zhu Yousong has long been rebellious, and colluded with the White Lotus Sect to secretly control the official army of the guard, so the number of troops is greatly exceeded the establishment. The salaries of the previous supernumerary soldiers were all secretly provided by Zhu Yousong, and the reason was also very high-sounding: to guard Luoyang and prevent thieves from attacking the city again. Although Li Dingguo was killed during the siege of the city, and most of the rest fled, nearly 8,000 rebels still had no time to escape, so they had to obediently put down their weapons and become prisoners.

For these prisoners, the ministers of the DPRK and China insisted on killing them. The reason is also very sufficient, these people acted as officials and soldiers in vain, and even attached themselves to the rebellion and resisted the emperor's personal conquest, saying something unpleasant, this is what the common people said "smashing the pot after eating meat", which is really a crime that cannot be punished. The cabinet has already made a vote, except for a small part of the troops under Zuo Liangyu, to sentence all the generals and non-commissioned officers of Ruzhou Wei to death for the crime of treason, just waiting for Zhu Youzhen's approval.

Zhu Youzhen thought about it again and again, but rejected the ticket plan and wrote a long Zhu batch in his own handwriting, patiently explaining to the courtiers why he couldn't kill these people.

First, the officials and soldiers of the Henan Guard Station were deceived by Zhu Yousong, Hong Chengchou and others, thinking that the emperor was dead. The real traitors are only Zhu Changxun, Zhu Yousong, Hong Chengchou, and the backbone elements under them, who have nothing to do with ordinary soldiers.

Second, even if these officers and soldiers are indeed guilty, but now the rebellion has not been settled, Zhu Changxun and other main culprits are all on the run, and there are still a large number of rebels on the main battlefield in Henan, a considerable part of which are the original guards and soldiers. If the Ruzhou guards were to be slaughtered, an extremely bad example would be set up, and the other guards would not return to the imperial court.

Third, the imperial court's troops are now overstretched, because it is impossible to send more troops from Shanhaiguan, Jizhen, Xuanda and Jingshi to reinforce the Central Plains battlefield in order to prevent the Manchu Eight Banners from entering the customs and retaliating. As the rebels retreated southward, the imperial camp continued to pursue, and the rear of the officers and troops was bound to be empty. Only by using these armies, which were originally official armies, to hold Luoyang and other places, can the imperial camp continue to march into the army, otherwise there is a danger of being surrounded and annihilated by the thirteen families such as Hong Chengchou, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and the three-way army of Gao Yingxiang, the "King of Chuang".

Fourth, I have the virtue of a good life, and the rebels are also the people of the Ming Dynasty, and I don't want to kill too much and shake the vitality of the country. The first evil must be done, the threat is never asked, those who can be appeased try to appease as much as possible, and the people's livelihood can be quickly restored after the rebellion is quelled, otherwise the land is thousands of miles away, and the counterinsurgency will also be a big defeat.

Of course, these four reasons are also very high-sounding, but in fact, they have their own pros and cons to the cabinet vote. But the emperor was full of his words, and the courtiers were far away in Beijing, taking advantage of the time when he was back and forth, Zhu Youzhen had already done what he wanted to do.

First of all, he decreed the abolition of the Henan Metropolitan Division and all its subordinate health centers. This is a proper righteousness, because now the rebels are still fighting against the official army under the banner of the Henan Metropolitan Division and the various guards, and their establishment will be abolished, and the rebels will no longer be justified and will become rebels completely.

Second, let Yang Sichang, the prefect of Xi'an, go to the imperial court and officially put forward the military strategy of "four positive and six corners, ten sides of the net" to exterminate the thieves. And without waiting for the courtiers to react, he directly issued an edict affirming Yang Sichang's strategic concept, and pointed out that now the rebels and thieves are merging and should be treated as one.

Third, take advantage of the situation to order the formation of a new army. Because in order to realize Yang Sichang's strategic concept, the key is to have one or two important ministers supervise the division and form a strong force to chase the thieves, which conflicts with the defense system of each department and not under each other. At this time, it was more natural for Zhu Youzhen to break the guard system and form a new army.

In order to reduce the resistance from the clique of officials, Zhu Youzhen also made it clear that this measure was an "expedient method" and that after the rebellion and thieves were completely put down, the old system of guards should be restored.

This move is a move that Zhu Youzhen has been planning for a long time. If it weren't for Zhu Changxun's rebellion, Zhu Youzhen wouldn't have dared to bring it up so early, but the current situation gave him a great opportunity to break the situation in advance.

Sure enough, Yang Sichang's performance soon aroused a warm response among the courtiers. The official group headed by the Donglin Party has always disagreed with Zhu Youzhen, the emperor, but Yang Sichang is a rising star in the official group, with a family background, a literary name all over the world, and a very harmonious relationship with the Donglin Party. The Donglin Party itself could not put forward any good military opinions, and when they saw Yang Sichang's memorabilia, they suddenly felt like a treasure, thinking that if Yang Sichang could be pulled over and further consolidated the power of the Donglin Party through Yang Sichang's reuse, it could effectively restrain the young and willful emperor.

Therefore, this time, the cabinet and ministers of the ministry uncharacteristically pursued Yang Sichang's performance, and recommended to Zhu Youjian one after another, asking the emperor to promote and reuse Yang Sichang. Zhu Youzhen was in the middle of the matter, and immediately issued an edict appointing Yang Sichang as the squire of the Zhengsanpin Military Department, because Shaanxi was tight, he still temporarily led the Xi'an prefect, and fought with Gao Yingxiang with Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi.

With this foreshadowing, the formation of the new army is also logical. According to Zhu Youzhen's public statement, this army will be based on the officers and soldiers of the former Henan Guard Posts, and will be at the same level as the commander of the capital in terms of structure, and will be directly subordinate to the Governor's Office of the Five Armies. In fact, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies is just an ornament, and the power to transfer troops is really the Ministry of War, and this army will be handed over to Lu Xiangsheng, the military secretary of the leading army and the prime minister of the five provinces and four governments.

Zhu Youzhen gave the group of officials another face, and asked the ministers to name the newly formed army. There are various names taken by the ministers, but only Yang Sichang's proposal is the most suitable for Zhu Youzhen's mind: the Ming Army!