Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 144: Henghaiwei's Salary
"Everyone, please sit down. Don't be so polite. Just be casual. Look at those small generals. They are sitting much more relaxed than your commanders and captains."
After the senior officials from Nanjing left, Zhu Youdong began to speak to the eighty people.
"Today, the Henghai Guard has been declared rebuilt. However, how well it is rebuilt and whether it can become a garrison that the Ming Dynasty can rely on, this still requires the hard work of everyone present."
"We are willing to serve your Highness with all our strength."
"Haha, then I would like to thank you all here." Clearing his throat, Zhu Youdong called the commander's name: "Madusi, you have been at the Datong border for a long time. Tell me, if the guards of the southern Ming Dynasty went to the north and encountered the Mongols, what would happen?"
Ma Chengzhao, the new commander of Henghai Guard, who was short and stocky with a long scar on his forehead, which made him look very fierce, stood up and said, "Your Highness, I never say empty words. During the Longqing period, Duke Gao Wenxiang organized the southern and northern armies to conduct joint drills. Among the southern army, only the Sichuan and Guangxi soldiers were considered decent. The others were no match for our Datong soldiers."
"Very good. I like your straightforward personality. Everyone present here, listen carefully. From now on, if you have anything to say, just say it directly. In the military, the most annoying thing is those who beat around the bush."
"I will take your orders."
"Yes." Zhu Youdong nodded slightly and continued, "I drafted the memorial to rebuild Henghaiwei. Since the emperor approved the memorial and handed the matter over to the Nanjing Military Department, it actually means I am in charge! And my goal is to build Henghaiwei into the strongest army of our Ming Dynasty! Do you have confidence?"
"Yes!" In the huge conference hall, only twenty-four seventeen-year-old teenagers stood up in unison and responded loudly, while the other fifty-six people had different expressions.
"Haha." With his left hand, Zhu Youdong gently pressed down, asking the young men of Fangshan to sit down. He said, "It seems that you all don't have much confidence now. That's okay. When you really start to do things later, you will know that what I said is true. Next, before you officially take office, I will set a few rules for you."
"Your Highness, please give your instructions."
"First, regarding the military pay of Henghai Guard. According to the Ministry of War, the military pay of Henghai Guard will be paid by the Imperial Grandfather's inner treasury for the first two years. Well, in fact, I am responsible for this. I will set the rules here. The commander will receive an annual salary of three thousand taels."
"Hiss~~" As soon as these words came out, fifty-six of the eighty people below inhaled at the same time, forming a small air vortex.
The Weisuo system was implemented in the early Ming Dynasty. The state allocated land to the army and let the soldiers cultivate the land. The state took a part of the output, and the rest belonged to the army. The standard was that each military household had 50 mu of land and paid 18 shi to the state every year. Later, it was found that there was not so much land to be distributed to the soldiers, so from 1425 (the first year of Hongxi of Ming Renzong), it was stipulated that each military household had 20 mu of land and paid 6 shi to the state every year. This regulation lasted until the end of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, the soldiers in the Weisuo did not receive military pay.
However, there were major problems with the Ming Dynasty’s Wei Suo system, the first of which was the low social status of soldiers.
For example, although the Fubing of the Tang Dynasty were also garrison soldiers, the entire society of the Tang Dynasty valued martial arts, and being a soldier was an extremely glorious thing, and you couldn't just be one if you wanted to. Among the nine levels of society divided by family wealth, only the rich in the first six levels were eligible to be soldiers. And even if you were eligible to be a soldier, the army would consider whether your family background was clean, as well as your age, stature, and martial arts before considering whether to take you. After becoming a soldier, the Fubing of the Tang Dynasty could directly inherit the land allocated to your parents by the state and did not need to pay taxes. Only one person in each generation could serve as a soldier. Even if you committed a crime in the local area, the local government could not control you - the affairs of the Fubing belonged to the Ministry of War, and the military of all dynasties had protected their children, which was a tradition! All these made the Fubing of the Tang Dynasty have a high social status, good economic benefits, and a strong sense of honor. This combat effectiveness was naturally guaranteed.
(The Tang Dynasty's Fubing system was destroyed by the greed of the Tang Dynasty's royal kings, eunuchs, and senior bureaucrats. They swallowed up the land of the people and also swallowed up the land of the Fubing.)
What about the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty? They had to fight and pay taxes to the country. The Ming Dynasty also advocated the use of culture to suppress military power. Officials at all levels could treat the soldiers of the garrison as servants from the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Local governments at all levels not only had the right to arrest the soldiers of the garrison directly, but also punished the scum in society by "conscription". How could such a force with no social status, no economic support, and no sense of honor have any fighting power? If there was a little connection, who would not want to escape from the identity of a garrison soldier?
Since the Hongwu Dynasty, there have been signs of military households fleeing. By the Xuande period, this had become a social phenomenon. Zhu Youdong checked the military households in Nanjing last year and found that the actual number of military households was only a little over 10% of the theoretical number, which was considered good. The most typical example was the Zuowei in Nanchang, Jiangxi. The full quota was 4,735 combat soldiers, but in 1502 (the 15th year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty , the year when the Portuguese first arrived in South America), there were only 141 people when they went out for drill. In other words, only 3% was left.
The morale of the garrison soldiers was low, their combat effectiveness was low, and their desertion rate was so high that they could not be relied upon if they were invaded by foreign enemies. Therefore, since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the government had to adopt the recruitment system to deal with the problem of the decline in national defense caused by the erosion of the garrison system. And to recruit soldiers, the state needs to pay them.
Take Qi Jiguang as an example. This god of war fought against Japanese pirates during the Jiajing period. At the beginning, he led the soldiers of the garrison to the battlefield and was almost killed by these guys. So he recruited soldiers in Zhejiang with the support of Hu Zongxian and others. At that time, Zhejiang was severely harmed by Japanese pirates, and the people of Zhejiang had a strong desire to join the army to fight against Japanese pirates. So when recruiting soldiers at that time, Qi Jiguang did not need to pay for resettlement. After the soldiers entered the camp, they received a monthly salary of 9 coins of silver.
When Qi Jiguang later became the general of Jizhen and moved the Zhejiang soldiers to Hebei, the military salary increased to one tael and five cents per month (enough to buy at least three stone of rice a month, or thirty-six stone a year. This income was much better than that of an ordinary tenant farmer, which is why some people were willing to enlist in the army).
Moreover, if you want to send soldiers from Zhejiang to such a faraway place, you have to pay them a high salary and a resettlement fee. After all, it is a long journey and this trip may be a farewell forever. Therefore, starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, soldiers had to be paid a resettlement fee. The standard was that if the place of recruitment was close to the place of service, the resettlement fee was three taels, and if it was far away, it was five taels.
The combat effectiveness of the recruited soldiers is undoubtedly far superior to that of the garrison soldiers, so the problem of weak national defense has been alleviated. But this brings a new problem: the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was set by Zhu Yuanzhang, and there was no military pay in the plan at that time! On the contrary, the court had to take things from the military households! Now the court not only can't take things from the recruited soldiers, but also has to pay every year!
As a result, coupled with the fact that the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was a mess (more than a dozen departments collected taxes on their own, and the money collected was not under the jurisdiction of each other), there was no ability to reform itself as the times changed. Therefore, the higher the proportion of the conscription system, the greater the pressure on the national finances. In the end, wage arrears became a new social phenomenon.
According to Zhang Shouzhi, the Minister of Finance during the Longqing period, the country's annual income was 2.3 million taels of silver, and the annual military pay for the nine important border towns was 2.8 million taels.
What should we do if we are owed wages? Soldiers are all fighters, and they are very angry. If the country does not pay the military wages, do you believe that the soldiers will mutiny? Kill the officers first?
The officers were also in a dilemma: externally, the state did not pay them, and the soldiers were unwilling to fight. What should they do if foreign enemies invaded? Internally, what should they do if the soldiers rebelled?
Thus the household servant system came into being.
The money the country pays out every year is not enough, right? The land of the garrison was annexed by the local government, and the output is insufficient, right? It doesn't matter, there will always be some, right? I will use this limited money to equip dozens or hundreds of the most capable people in the army and make them my servants. In times of war, these servants are the backbone. In peacetime, they are the reliance for suppressing ordinary soldiers and military households! These servants are so useful that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when the generals were transferred to new garrisons, these servants also had to change their military status and follow the generals to take up new posts!
The income of a servant is usually three to five taels per month, and the clothes, weapons and other equipment are also selected by the commander. When there is a reward, they take it first. If they are injured, someone will be sent to take care of them. If they die, pensions will be given in time . In this way, the soldiers in various border towns are really proud to be the servants of the generals!
Soldiers serving as generals is a sign of warlords. Ming officials who are familiar with history books can certainly see this. But what can we do? If you have the ability, you masters should pay the soldiers enough!
During the Wanli period, the emperor was shameless and made money in various ways to enrich the inner treasury. Then, the military pay of the military towns, which mainly relied on the recruitment system, was very poor, so the inner treasury paid money to subsidize them. In this way, the number of servants of each military commander did not expand too much. When it came to the Chongzhen period of the historical plane, Zhu Youjian listened to the advice of the Donglin gentlemen and no longer tried to make money from commercial taxes and mining taxes, but relied entirely on land taxes to maintain the operation of the country... Well, the order of this matter is: First, in the first few years of the Chongzhen period, the court had no money to give to the border troops, and the number of servants of the border army generals began to expand slowly. Second, after Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong without an order, Emperor Chongzhen did not deal with Yuan Chonghuan, which made the military commanders completely alienated from the royal family and slowly turned into warlords. Thirdly, the warlords began to unscrupulously demand huge amounts of money from Emperor Chongzhen. If he did not receive money, they would refuse to do anything or even surrender to the enemy. This forced Emperor Chongzhen to continuously impose additional taxes on the common people. The warlords then used the people's money to expand their own ranks of retainers to several thousand or even tens of thousands!
During the Tianqi period of the historical plane, the court's annual income was about 3.3 million taels of silver, and its expenditure ranged from 4 to 5 million taels. The royal family subsidized about 1 to 2 million taels from the inner treasury every year, and the funds accumulated by Wanli for decades slowly began to bottom out. In the fifth year of Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian killed the Donglin Party and raided the homes of officials at all levels. His dirty money was not sent to the Ministry of Justice but directly to the Ministry of Revenue. As a result, the national income soared to nearly 8 million taels that year, and then the royal family subsidized another 2 million taels. The annual military expenditure alone was nearly 10 million taels. Only then did they make up for the arrears of wages for the military towns over the years.
By the 15th year of Chongzhen, the state collected 23 million taels of various taxes, of which the land tax was about 20 million taels. Expenditure was also 23 million taels... If the land tax was 20 million taels, it would be unreasonable for the people not to rebel...
In short, the monthly salary of recruited soldiers in this era was about 1.5 taels of silver, but it was not paid on time for a long time. The salary of officers varied according to their ranks. At the level of Dusi, the military garrison soldiers could get a few dozen taels of silver every year, and at most no more than 100 taels of silver. And the garrison soldiers? They never had any military salary, right?
Therefore, when Zhu Youdong said that the commander of Henghaiwei had an annual salary of three thousand taels, everyone was surprised.
