Back at Kunning Palace, it was only about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and the two brothers packed up their moods, and they couldn't put on an ugly face to their relatives because of these things.

After dinner, the father and son began to talk, and Hongji looked at the faces of the two sons with some resentment and asked, "How is the Shenji Camp today?" Zhu Houzhao said hatefully, "Daddy, you don't know, it's very annoying to see today, the camp is dirty and messy, the sergeants are powerless, and the number of people is not satisfied, when I came back, let the Jinyi guard check, the Shenji battalion sent out less than 1,000 people, plus the 3,000 people in the battalion are only 4,000 people, and the more angry sergeants have not practiced for a long time, the live ammunition training is basically once a month, and the weapon has not hurt others before hurting themselves, let them train with live ammunition today, and as a result, 7 people were injured because of the fire gun. This has only been more than 50 years since the defense of the Beijing Division, and I didn't expect that the Shenji Battalion, which had made great contributions back then, was already so unbearable. ”

Hongzhi also frowned when he heard this, the military household guard is unbearable, this is something that the whole country basically knows, otherwise it will not be able to resist the invasion of the Japanese invaders, but the Shenji Battalion is different, he is the army with relatively strong combat effectiveness in the Ming Dynasty, and he still expects the Shenji Battalion to make a big effort to resist the attack from the north.

Zhu Houwei stared at Hongzhi with eagerness in his eyes at this time, "Daddy, the Shenji Battalion is no longer useful, why don't you start another and train a new army again?" When Zhu Houzhao heard this, he immediately nodded and said, "This is good, since the Shenji Battalion is not good, then retrain the first army, and I and the second brother will train the army." Hongji looked at the two brothers and didn't speak, and then continued to think about it. Zhu Houzhao was a little anxious, and applied a color to Zhu Houwei, and turned his avatar Hongzhi a few times. Zhu Houwei rolled his eyes at him and ignored him. The military is a relatively sensitive thing in any era, and at this time, we must not be in a hurry, so we can only let Hongji think carefully and decide whether to agree or not.

Hongji thought for a long time before he slowly spoke, "In what name?" Zhu Houzhao spoke first: "How is the prince's personal guard?" Zhu Houwei shook his head: "It's not appropriate." ”

Since the Ming Dynasty became the ancestor Zhu Di, the crown prince's succession to the throne has basically been smooth, and there are no examples of the prince's rebellion and usurpation, this is because the power in the prince's hands is not large, and there is no military support. As for the vassal king, not to mention, they are all raised like pigs, and they can't leave when they get to the fiefdom, and they have to report every time they go out, since Chengzu cut the domain, the army in the hands of the vassal king is just some royal guards, and there are no more than 3,000 people. In order to avoid too close contact between the vassal king and the minister, it basically takes three years to return to Beijing once. So whether it is the prince or the vassal king, there is basically no possibility of success, now if Zhu Houzhao starts a head and wants to train the prince's personal guards, this number will definitely not be less when the army is formed, even if Zhu Houzhao himself has no intention of usurping the throne and seizing power, it will set a bad example for the prince later.

Zhu Houwei thought for a while and asked, "How is Tianjin Wei?" Hongzhi immediately shook his head when he heard it, "No, the movement is too big." ”

Hongzhi said very reasonably, Tianjin began to set up guards from Chengzu, and now there are Tianjin Wei, Tianjin Left Guard, Tianjin Right μ, and the left and right are subordinate to Tianjin Wei, with a total of more than 10,000 soldiers, and a total population of between 40,000 and 60,000. Zhu Di Xing in the north, for coastal defense has always attached great importance to Tianjin, and Tianjin's geographical location is quite important, east of the sea, west of the river, south to Caosu, north near Shangdu. The imperial court set up many yamen in the Tianjin Acropolis, and the household department also set up a branch there, once the Tianjin Wei was changed, too many people would stare at every move, and he, the emperor, might not be able to withstand the pressure and let the two brothers continue to train the army.

Zhu Houwei thought about it, and suddenly said excitedly, "Daddy, it's better to be like this, Tianjin is bordered by the Bohai Sea in the east, and it may also be harassed by the Japanese invaders, so why don't you set up a sea waterproof land camp?" ”

"Sea and water camp?" Hongji thought for a moment, and then said, "That's barely reasonable?" Zhu Houzhao said excitedly on the side: "Where is the camp?" Is it near Beijing or Tianjin? Zhu Houwei quickly replied, "It must be in Tianjin, just find a vacant land on the coast, and then build a camp by yourself." Hongji nodded, "There should be open space by the sea, after all, most of it is saline-alkali land, which is not suitable for farming." Okay, the two of you go to the military department to look at the map, and then choose a site, but since it is a water and land camp, you can also build a road camp near the capital, and then build a water camp by the sea, otherwise you can't rush back at night when you go to Tianjin, and your mother will come to me and say."

The brothers both smiled, Tianjin is about 150 kilometers away from Beijing, almost 300 miles, even if you take a carriage, it is estimated that it will take more than 6 hours, if you really go there, you may not be able to rush back to the capital overnight.

Zhu Houwei looked at Hongzhi and said with some embarrassment, "Daddy, this new army basically uses firearms, and the craftsmen of this Ministry of Industry are also unusable, why don't I go to the Ministry of Industry to pick a few households?" Hongji shook his head slightly and smiled, "Are you still picking less?" Zhu Houwei could only smirk.

There are many craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry who have been transferred to Zhufu or Huangzhuang, glazers, printers, masons, and blacksmiths, so to speak, Zhu Houwei has gone further and further on the road of digging the corners of feudalism. In the past, craftsmen were selected because of the good craftsmanship of the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry, even if the products spent by the Ministry of Industry were not satisfactory, it was also because of the system, and now the firearms craftsmen are different, most of the craftsmen who will manufacture gunpowder weapons in the Ming Dynasty are in the Ordnance Department of the Ministry of Industry, and these people will also make such substandard products because of the system, but their craftsmanship is guaranteed.

After class the next day, the two brothers arrived at Zhu's mansion, where Liu Jin was already waiting. Zhu Houzhao jumped out of the carriage and asked, "What about people?" Liu Jin replied with a smile: "There are a total of 20 households, 88 people, and all kinds of firearms are manufactured." Zhu Houwei had already taken his sister out of the carriage and came to the side at this time, and said, "Then take us to meet." ”

Soon, I came to the house north of Zhufu, since the students of Zhufu moved to Chaoyang Courtyard, Zhufu suddenly vacated many rooms, this collision was a dormitory building, and now it is just right to house these firearms craftsmen. From afar, I saw a group of people carrying their luggage into the house, and the Zhu Houzhao brothers observed that this group of craftsmen who lived in poverty all the year round, even if they were relatively rare firearms craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty, their living standards had not improved much.

Whether it is a man or a woman, young or old, the clothes are very shabby, dirty, and patches are indispensable. These adults all know Liu Jin, and today he went to the Ministry of Industry to pick people, and when they saw him coming, everyone hurriedly saluted. Liu Jin stood aside, let the three brothers and sisters out, and said, "These three are the eldest young master, the second young master and the young lady of the Zhu Mansion. Come forward and salute, all of you. ”

Everyone hurriedly knelt down and saluted the three young masters of the Zhu Mansion, Zhu Hou took care of them like this, and didn't say anything, just comforted a few words and left. These people have just arrived in Zhufu, and they must first raise them for a period of time, and also check for any infectious diseases. As for the wages, they were all five taels of silver per person, and they were counted from the time they entered the house. As for how to stabilize people's hearts, there is no need for the two brothers to bother at all, as long as they communicate with other craftsmen in the mansion, there will be no problem.

The craftsmen of Zhufu are now very comfortable, after several years of work, the minimum salary is 7 taels of silver, which is not counting the year-end bonus and the benefits of the New Year's holiday. The children are all in school, basically all of them are third-term students of the Zhu Mansion, and now they live in Chaoyang Courtyard, and a few of them have begun to help the prince do things, and even the salary is higher than that of the elders in their own family. Food and clothing are not worried, the house has savings, and the current life craftsmen are very satisfied.

Weapons can be slowly researched and manufactured, but talent is the key. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army has declined so quickly, for various reasons, but the most obvious manifestation is that the soldiers are not like soldiers, and they do not have the spirit that a soldier should have. The army of the Ming Dynasty still maintains a good combat effectiveness except for the army on the border, and the other armies are basically the same. Seventy to eighty percent of the military households in the garrison were engaged in cultivating the fields, paying taxes and grain, and the rest were engaged in such conscription work as building bridges and paving roads, opening mountains and mining, and there were not many people who could really go to the battlefield.

This time, the personnel of the new army trained by the brothers and the two brothers are going to select dozens of students from the third phase of Zhufu to participate in the training, and then expand the army as the backbone and low-level officers. Most of these students were orphaned because of the burning and looting of the northern Tatars, and then they were transferred to the Zhu Mansion, and they all had a deep blood feud with the Tatars. This morning, the boys in the third phase of the students asked, and the results were very enthusiastic, and they all wanted to join the prince's newly formed army, there were about 200 people near the capital, and more than 150 people wanted to be soldiers to avenge their families, and the farther ones did not ask in Chaoyang Courtyard, the number was enough. Finally, this afternoon, the Zhu Houzhao brothers selected 50 people to prepare for training and lay the first foundation for the sea and water resistance and land camp.