Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 483 Military Reform in the Ming Dynasty
"Your Majesty, what does this general mean? Oh, on my way back, I heard that the court was planning to carry out some military reform and implement a military rank system, but I never had the time to learn more about it."
"Haha, General Man, uh, no, you can't call him General Man for now. General Man, let me explain it to you."
"Please enlighten me, Grand Sima."
"In the past two years, when the generals were on expeditions to the Western Regions, the court began to conduct an inventory of military households. The data we have obtained so far is that our Ming Dynasty now has 17 provinces (not including Xinjiang for the time being) and five overseas states, with a total of 10 new military towns, with a theoretical full complement of 150,000. The original military towns and garrisons had 430,000 soldiers."
"Four hundred and thirty thousand? Didn't we claim that the Ming Dynasty had eight hundred thousand soldiers? Ah, hahaha, I understand. This is called drawing a salary without doing anything. Well, Grand Marshal, please forgive I am a rough man and I don't know the rules so I interrupted you."
Hey, what's wrong with you? He's really good at making jokes. Wang Xiangqian waved his hand, indicating that he didn't care: "Except for the 430,000 who passed the most basic test of the Ministry of War and were counted as combat soldiers. After this inventory, my Ming Dynasty now has more than 4.93 million military households. The most important point of this military reform is to select 180,000 from the 430,000 combat soldiers and combine them with the original ten towns of the new army. In addition to filling the vacancies of the previous ten towns of the new army due to deaths and injuries, ten new towns will be formed. In the future, these 20 towns and 300,000 combat soldiers will be the standing army of my Ming Dynasty."
"Hiss~" Man Gui thought carefully for a while: "Grand Sima, what about the remaining 250,000 soldiers? What about their families, that is, the millions of military households?"
"Diversion." Zhu Youdong also stood up. "I mean, there are five directions for these people to be diverted. First, the coastal garrisons can be selected to join the navy, but the three major fleets of the navy have basically taken shape now, and they can't absorb many people. Ten thousand people at most. Second, set up a garrison corps. The best of the 250,000 soldiers should be selected to form 18 garrison battalions. The equipment of this garrison battalion, except for the lack of heavy equipment such as cannons and machine guns, is the same as that of the standing army. Third, I plan to exempt all government offices from all corvée labor. In the future, farmers will no longer have to perform corvée labor except for farming and paying taxes. In the future, all daily duties of government offices will be filled by the soldiers who have been laid off. Fourth, set up a construction company. In the future, large-scale construction projects of the court or local governments will no longer temporarily recruit civilians for service, but will be carried out by construction companies. Fifth, go overseas. Taiwan Governor Sun Chuanting has already taken the lead in this matter. Humph, since the canal workers are reluctant to go overseas, I will give priority to military households."
"The Ministry of War has made a detailed calculation based on the four suggestions of the Emperor. Basically, in addition to the navy, which can provide for more than 10,000 people, the garrison troops can provide for 50,000 to 60,000 people, the corvée troops across the country can provide for 100,000 to 120,000 people, and the construction brigade can provide for more than 100,000 people. To be honest, these 250,000 soldiers are not enough. According to the current situation in the Ming Dynasty where one man works to support four or five families, the three categories of garrison, corvée troops, and construction troops alone can provide for the livelihood of more than 1.2 million military households. As for the remaining more than 1 million, the Ministry of War plans to relocate them overseas in three to five years."
"Oh, so that's how it is. That's great." Man Gui bowed to Zhu Youdong again, "Your Majesty, I heard that in recent years, the Empress and the Imperial Concubine have visited ordinary military households to express their condolences, and the Imperial Concubine herself is from a military household. I think Your Majesty knows what kind of life ordinary military households in our Ming Dynasty live. After the military reform, no matter which path these military households take, as long as they are willing to work hard, they can live a much better life than before. As a general who fought his way out of the military households, I am extremely grateful for Your Majesty's arrangement!"
Although the Ming Dynasty before Zhu Youdong had already shown signs of industrial and commercial capitalism, it was still a purely agricultural society overall.
One of the biggest problems in an agricultural society is that the population has to keep growing, but there is only so much land, and the land fertility is ultimately limited, and it has to suffer natural disasters from time to time... Even if it continues to develop normally, the per capita land area will become smaller and smaller, and eventually everyone will not be able to survive. Not to mention that in the Ming Dynasty, land annexation is a chronic disease that cannot be solved no matter what.
Therefore, starting from the Xuande period, after decades of peace in the Ming Dynasty, the land of military households was occupied by officers and local governments, and the lives of military households became increasingly poor, and finally they had to flee in large numbers. During the Zhengtong and Jingtai periods, Yu Qian wrote off one million military households from the accounts of the Ministry of War with a stroke of his pen - these actually no longer existed.
Time flies. After the Ming Dynasty fought a battle to defend Beijing in the early years of the Jingtai reign, it enjoyed a long period of peace. The population grew rapidly, and land annexation became more and more serious. Not only did the military households flee in large numbers, but civilian households also began to flee - the land became increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people.
In a traditional agricultural society, the number of jobs available was extremely limited. The military and civilian households that lost their land could not find new sources of income, so they could only sell themselves as slaves or become refugees. Otherwise, why would the palace recruit eunuchs every year, with so many people coming and going, and all kinds of invitations and notes flying everywhere? People without connections who wanted to be eunuchs often cut themselves three inches first, and then apply for the job after the wound healed: in this way, they could start working immediately after being recruited by the palace, without having to recover from the wound, which was slightly better than applying for a job with ordinary people.
But the risk of doing so is too great, because even if you cut three inches, you may not be able to get in. So why do people still do this? Isn't it because there are too many people who can't find a decent job!
There are two ways to solve this problem. First, expand outward and use the land of other ethnic groups to settle the people of the same ethnic group. Second, improve productivity, especially carry out industrialization. In this way, the secondary industry and the tertiary industry that develops rapidly due to the increase in social wealth will provide more jobs to accommodate those who are driven out of the primary industry.
So, why did Zhu Youdong start to rectify the military households after traveling through time for more than 20 years? The reason is here: the inclusion of Southeast Asia and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution of the Ming Dynasty made the first two conditions satisfied. If neither of these two conditions were satisfied, and layoffs were made just to reduce expenses, then either he would be like the Jiu Qiansui in the original historical plane and lay off a Zheng Zhilong, or he would be like the Chongzhen Emperor and lay off a Li Zicheng...
In short, as a company boss, you can't just lay off employees casually. As a ruler of a country, you can't just lay off employees casually: you have to find a way out for them in advance.
According to Zhu Youdong's idea, the country's salt tax and commercial tax are on track, and the mining tax will be added soon. At the same time, there is still some time before the expected decisive battle with Europe. The country can support 300,000 standing troops. The remaining military households can be used as armed police (garrison troops), police (criminals), and workers. If you really can't give up your land, then go overseas. The land there can only be harvested two or three times a year. Isn't it better than the current northern Ming Dynasty, which is drought-stricken for nine out of ten years and has poor harvests all day long because of the Little Ice Age?
Find a way out for the millions of extremely poor military households, thereby reducing the burden on the court (the court should support troops that can fight, not military households that cannot fight), and use limited financial resources to train elite soldiers and further enhance the country's military strength. This is the most fundamental purpose of this military reform. As for military ranks, they are just incidental and purely a personal preference of the time traveler.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, there was a Grand Military Governor's Office. Under the Grand Military Governor were the thousand households, hundred households, general flags, and small flags of each garrison. However, the power of the Grand Military Governor's Office was too great. The power of military equipment, training, daily production of military households, and selection of military generals all belonged to the Grand Military Governor. In this situation, not to mention the founding emperor like Zhu Yuanzhang who had a strong desire for control, even ordinary emperors would be unable to sleep. So after Xu Da, the Grand Military Governor's Office was quickly closed.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the military garrison system began to emerge. The military commanders of the Ming Dynasty were ranked from the highest to the lowest, including the commander-in-chief (commander of the provincial military region), deputy general, lieutenant general, guerrilla, garrison, and captain. Above the commander-in-chief, such as the commander-in-chief of the Five Military Commands, were basically empty titles.
"Man Gui."
"I am here."
"I have arranged the military ranks in this military reform. The highest rank is the Grand Marshal, which is limited to one person and is currently vacant. Below that are the Army (Navy) Marshals and several Army (Navy) Generals, which are currently vacant. Then there are the Admirals. You, Cao Wenzhao, and Liu Zhaosun are all Admirals. Ma Gui, Yu Zigao, Liu Jing, Li Rubai, Ma Chengzhao, etc. are also Admirals. Of course, Yu Zigao is a Navy Admiral. And you know in your heart that except for you, Wenzhao, and Zhaosun, the other Admirals are basically honorary ranks and will no longer lead troops to fight. Moreover, among this batch of powerful Admirals, they are all Army. Even Li Guozhu and Yan Siqi are only Navy Lieutenant Generals. Man Gui, you must do a good job in the future."
"Your Majesty, I thank you for your kindness!"
"Hahaha, don't be in a hurry to thank me. Well, below the general, in order, there are lieutenant generals, major generals, colonels... second lieutenants, trainee second lieutenants, etc. In this military reform, basically, the commanders-in-chief of the original ten towns of the new army are basically lieutenant generals or major generals."
"Your Majesty, I don't quite understand. Aren't military rank and military position the same thing?"
"Of course they are not the same thing. Military rank refers to a soldier's military level, while military position refers to his actual position. I have decided that from now on, a town will be changed to a division, a brigade will be changed to a brigade, and a regiment will be added between the brigade and the battalion... A division commander with military merit or seniority will be a lieutenant general. The new young division commander will be a major general..."
"I understand. In other words, if I want to be a general, a marshal, or even the only grand marshal in the future, I must have more military merits!"
"That's it!"
