Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 140: The Guards Are Useless
In the Ming Dynasty of this era, it was extremely difficult to establish a brand new army. Anyone who dared to speak to the Ministry of Public Administration would be criticized by the civil officials.
So Zhu Youdong's first thought was how to make use of the existing garrison soldiers.
He first ordered Liu Maoxun, a meritorious official who served as the garrison commander of Nanjing: I heard that there were many deserters in several garrisons in Nanjing and around Yingtian, so there were a large number of vacancies in the garrisons. Moreover, the situations of several garrisons around Nanjing were quite special, such as the Xiaoling Guards that guarded the body of Emperor Taizu. Not only did they not pay taxes and grain to the state, but they also needed state funding every year. Therefore, there were many people who ate empty salaries. I thought that this matter should be sorted out to see how many vacancies there were.
The civil officials could find no fault with this order. Not only that, they supported it very much: they had long been annoyed by the useless generals who were eating up the salary without doing anything. Only we civil officials can do corruption. When did you become qualified? The most important thing is, why don't you useless generals drag us into corruption?
Therefore, most of the civil officials in Nanjing said to His Royal Highness the Grand Prince: "Your Highness has done a good job! This should have been done long ago."
Zhu Youdong threatened Liu Maoxun in a stern voice at last year's meeting. In fact, he was not putting pressure on him, but helping him to get out of trouble, so that he could explain to the generals below: Brothers, there is no other way. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has said that if this matter is not done well, my family's title will be ruined. Therefore, the elder brother can only handle the matter impartially.
And don't worry too much, His Highness said that bygone days will be forgiven, and all the bad debts in the past will be written off. As for the fact that he used to support his family by eating empty salaries, what should he do if he can't afford it later? As His Highness's brother, I don't want to experience the power of the tiger, so why don't you try again?
Of course, Liu Maoxun himself was a big head of empty salary, so it was difficult to do this investigation. Therefore, after Zhu Youdong went north, he kept Yuan Keli: Mr. Yuan's stories of judging cases were made into movies and TV series in later generations. Isn't it easy to do this kind of head counting?
After receiving this task, Yuan Keli first asked Cao Sanxi for 50,000 taels of silver, and then transferred a group of students from Fangshan School. As soon as Zhu Youdong left, he forced Liu Maoxun to deliver gifts door to door in the name of "New Year condolences to the needy military households".
The Spring Festival is the most important festival for Chinese people. Unless it is a big event, they usually go home during this time. Marquis Anyuan came to visit the family in person. Although the gifts he gave were not generous, they were worth a few coins, right? Therefore, most of the military households stayed at home at this time, allowing Yuan Keli to easily obtain the most authentic data.
After Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty and established the Wei Suo system, by the 26th year of Hongwu, there were a total of 329 Weisuo.
Among them, the Twelve Guards (Yulin, Jinwu, Huben, Jinyiwei, Zhangqiwei, etc.) were responsible for guarding the imperial city and were the royal family's personal army.
Of the remaining 317 guards, 30 were stationed around Nanjing to protect the Ming capital.
In the first year of Jianwen, Xiaoling Guard was added. Therefore, during the Jianwen period, there were a total of 43 guards in and around Nanjing.
In the 18th year of Yongle, the Ming Empire officially moved its capital to Beijing. All the 12 guards were relocated to Beijing (some members of the Jinyiwei were left behind). Of the 30 guards except the Xiaoling Guard, 18 were either transferred to Beijing or abolished. Therefore, only 12 guards were left in Nanjing (excluding the Xiaoling Guard).
According to the rules of the guard system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, a guard should be able to provide 5,600 soldiers in wartime. So, the twelve guards in Nanjing and its surrounding areas should have 67,200 soldiers.
"Your Highness, this is the statistical book of the actual military households in the twelve guards around Nanjing that I spent more than three months to complete. In short, there are now a total of 7,328 military households in the twelve guards around Nanjing. According to the regulations of our Ming Dynasty guard system that each household provides one combat soldier, the twelve guards around Nanjing can provide 7,328 combat soldiers."
"Confirmed?"
"Some errors are unavoidable, but the maximum number of errors will not exceed two or three households."
Although he had been mentally prepared, the fact that the actual number was only a little more than one-tenth of the theoretical number still made Zhu Youdong feel uncomfortable.
"I remember that among the twelve guards of Nanjing, the three guards of the Navy Right Guard, the Navy Left Guard, and the Henghai Guard are all navy, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness. Most of the soldiers of the left and right guards of the navy are now in the hands of Admiral Caojiang. Because they rely on the Yangtze River for their livelihood, their full-staff rate is the highest. As for the Henghai Guard, except for a few people in Jingjiang, they are basically all empty."
"After removing the three navy guards, how many soldiers are left in the remaining nine guards?"
"Four thousand eight hundred and fifty-one people. And, Your Highness, calling them combat soldiers is really flattering them. I think that the child soldiers of our Fangshan School may not be able to guarantee a complete victory in a one-on-one battle, but as long as the scale of the battle exceeds ten people, Fangshan will definitely win every battle."
"Mr. Yuan, you really don't give face to Marquis Anyuan." After a slight smile, Zhu Youdong said, "Marquis Anyuan, what do you think about this matter?"
"Your Highness, I am guilty. I am not going to make any further excuses on this matter. It's just that the Nanjing guards have been far from fully staffed since the Jingnan Campaign . After Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, the status of the Nanjing guards plummeted, so..."
During the Jingnan Campaign, Zhu Yunwen played a good hand badly, and gave countless lives to the Northern Army, so the losses of the guards around Nanjing must have been the greatest. And after Zhu Laosi came to power, he instinctively disliked the guards in Nanjing, so what Liu Maoxun said made sense. However, in any case, there shouldn't be only this few people.
Of course, Zhu Youdong was not going to care about these things: if they were to be investigated, all the generals in Nanjing would probably go to jail. And the generals across the country would feel the same way. If this really happened, there was no doubt that even if Wanli supported him, his position as the crown prince would be over.
"I have already said that I will not pursue the past events, so Marquis Anyuan does not need to worry about anything. Now, Marquis Anyuan."
"I am here."
"Pass the order and have these 4,800 people gather together. I will review them in three days."
"Uh... yes, I obey your command."
…
Three days later, Zhu Youdong returned to Nanhua Palace from the parade ground with a look of regret on his face, and immediately dismissed everyone, leaving only Yuan Keli and Wang Chengen.
"Mr. Yuan, what do you think of today's review?"
"Haha." After a very carefree smile, Yuan Keli said, "I was wondering, Your Highness, do you feel that all your previous plans should be overturned and started over again?"
"Ha, Mr. Yuan is really a wonderful person. To be honest, I do have this intention."
According to Zhu Youdong's original idea, Nanjing was the capital after all, and the surrounding garrison troops should have some foundation no matter how bad they were. Therefore, if he was not forced to do so, he did not want to completely start from scratch to build a new army: doing so would cause too much noise, and the resistance of civil officials and the dissatisfaction of military generals would make him feel overwhelmed.
So at the beginning, he wanted to use the Nanjing garrison soldiers as a base, put the students of Fangshan School in like sand, and then improve the combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers around Nanjing.
However, this time's inventory of military households and temporary inspection made him realize that there was really no other way except to start his own business.
A large number of military households have fled, resulting in only one-tenth of the full number of soldiers. The key is that the remaining people are old and young, fat as pigs or skinny, and it is difficult to see those of moderate age and well-proportioned body! How to train such soldiers ?
"Your Highness, since the Yongle Dynasty, the border defense pressure in Jiangnan has been very small. In the past two hundred years, the Japanese pirates only caused trouble during the Jiajing Dynasty. And the provinces affected by the Japanese pirates at that time were mainly Zhejiang and Fujian. Therefore, among the armies in the southeast, only Funing Town still has some combat power. The others have long been vulnerable."
I was really confused. In the historical perspective, after Chongzhen, the Southern Ming army was vulnerable to the Qing army from the north and the original Ming northern border army. What was wrong with me? I actually had hope for these guys?
"Ah, I have thought of this a long time ago, but I have never seen such an unbearable scene, so I still have some illusions. I thought it was too simple, and it also caused Mr. Yuan to work hard for the past few months in vain. I am deeply sorry."
"Haha, Your Highness, you are too polite. In fact, in my opinion, Your Highness's investigation of military households may not be completely useless. If you take advantage of the situation, I am afraid that the gains will exceed Your Highness' original plan."
"Oh? Mr. Yuan has an idea?"
"Well, I gained a little."
