Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1153
June and July in the 11th year of Wanli was quite uneasy.

First, the cabinet meeting was arguing over the construction of the Fortress of the Imperial Guard, and finally it was handed over to the emperor Chen for decision. After two days in a row, this memorial has never been approved by the emperor.If it is said to be retained, it doesn't look like it, it seems that it was simply put on hold temporarily, and I don't know what the emperor is weighing.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Yongshangshu, governor of Ji and Liao, believed that Nurhachi in Jianzhou had been very active recently, which had caused certain pressure on the frontier defense of Liaodong.

The Ministry of War reviewed the memorial, expressed its appreciation for the border minister's proposal to strengthen the Liaodong frontier defense, and further proposed that Qi Jin could be transferred to Shenyang Guerrilla.

Zhu’s approval of this essay and the ministry’s reply was very fast, and the emperor agreed the next day, and because Qi Jin’s transfer would cause a chain change in the key positions of the eastern Liaodong border defense, he asked the Ministry of War to transfer the entire eastern Liaodong. Make a summary report.

This kind of behavior is not very common, but it is enough to show that the emperor is very concerned about the military affairs of Liaodong. Everyone understands the reason. This is preparing for the final "Eastern System" of the Western Huaidong System.

The Ministry of War was ordered to immediately convene a meeting of the official department in the hall—that is, a meeting between Shang Shu and the four servants.

There is no need to elaborate on the process of the meeting. In short, the final ministerial meeting submitted to Mr. Wu Ge for review is arranged as follows:

The position of Cao Yu, the deputy general of Liaodong, remains unchanged; Ma Dong, the right general in charge of guarding Haigai; Ma Chengen, a general in charge of Kaiyuan; Qi Jin, a guerrilla in Shenyang; Zhang Wanbang appointed him.

So far, the only important position that Li Chengliang still holds in the eastern part of Liaodong is the general of Kuandian.But it's not a big deal, after all, he is still the commander-in-chief, and Li Chengliang's main force has already been concentrated in the western Liaoning area.

Wu Dui did not make any changes to this ministry's proposal, and directly showed it to Shen Shihang for review. Shen Shihang thought about it for a while, and submitted it directly without making any changes.

The reason why Shen Shixing did not express any objection was because he felt that as long as Li Chengliang was in Li Chengliang's hands, there would be no problem. After all, once a war against Tumen Khan was launched, troops would definitely be sent from Liaoxi, not Liaodong.

At most, Liaodong is just a strike. It doesn't matter. You can't eat the meat yourself, and don't leave any soup for others. Without them, everyone might not be able to eat.

The emperor received the memorial from the Ministry of War and quickly approved it.Immediately afterwards, there was an accident that was neither big nor small: on Xin Chou's day, Taibai Xing was visible in the daytime.

Gao Yushi, as an atheist, has always been famous for not agreeing with the theory of interaction between heaven and man even in today's Ming Dynasty political arena. Of course, he never takes this phenomenon seriously.But he doesn't care, there are always many people who care, for example, Shen Shixing expressed his opinion on this.

It doesn't matter how you say it. Anyway, the final result is that the emperor sent him to review the birthday palace chosen by Tianshou Mountain with Xu Wenbi, Dingguogong, and Bingbi eunuch Zhang Cheng. It's such a rule, no matter how young you are, you have to survey your future longevity palace in the underworld in advance.Zhu Yijun's longevity palace has been surveyed a few years ago, but the repair has not yet started.

As a result, Shen Shixing, the chief assistant, left Beijing temporarily.

Tianshou Mountain is not far away. Generally speaking, checking the Shou Palace like this time is not an important matter. As long as there are no major accidents, you will basically say that everything is fine when you come back. It will take five days at most. .If shishixing is in a hurry, it can even run back and forth in three days.

But no matter if it is three days or five days, this time is enough - just as Shen Shixing left Beijing, the next day the emperor declared Gao Pragmatic to enter the palace to "call on the platform".

The so-called platform calling is basically equivalent to the national consultation, that is, the emperor consults the ministers on certain government affairs. Generally speaking, he mainly asks the local feudal officials, calling for government affairs, and sometimes he also consults important officials in the court.

The so-called "platform" here is of course specific.The Jianji Hall is located in the center and backwards, on top of the white jade balustrades, and opposite to the Qianqing Gate, the Yuntai Gate, with both sides facing the latter. Also known as "platform".

Where officials such as cabinet ministers are called, or on the platform, that is, the rear left door.The rule at that time was that the officials (or a certain official) stood upright, the emperor sat there, and when he encountered a problem, he called the official's name, and the official stepped forward and knelt there to answer. Call for the platform.

In the past, when the emperor asked Gao Wushi to talk about things, usually he would go directly to the Wenhua Palace. This kind of summoning was relatively common and kind, and of course it could be said to be not so formal.

The platform call is much more formal than this kind of call from the Wenhua Palace. Generally speaking, it only happens when there are important state affairs that require serious inquiries.

This is strange, building a large military camp is considered a major state affairs?Even if this military camp is fortified and the investment scale is relatively large, this "big" is only a relative concept-for Daming's financial level, building such a super-large fortress plus various housing, warehouses and other comprehensive military camps , the pressure is not small.

However, in fact, according to a high-level pragmatic preliminary calculation, the absolute value of the construction project cost, that is, the "total construction cost" is actually not large: about 8 to [-] taels.

This... is not as good as the cost of building a big ship, how can it be enough for a major state affairs?
Gao Wushi entered the palace with doubts, and he didn't know that what Zhu Yijun wanted to ask was not just about the construction of the Beijing North Camp until he met the emperor.

What Zhu Yijun asked was, the Taizu "raised millions of soldiers and did not waste a grain of rice for the common people". Why now, nearly [-]% of the world's expenditure is spent on the army?

He also asked at the same time, if it is said that the army is extremely strong after spending so much money, that’s fine, but there are very few truly good fighters. If the generals of each army do not bring their own servants, almost most of the army has no fighting power. Why?

Highly pragmatic and confident, he can answer this question, but he wonders why Zhu Yijun suddenly has this doubt.

More importantly, does this matter have anything to do with the last time Shen Shihang expressed its opposition to the construction of the Imperial Guard Fort in the Beijing North Camp?Did Shen Shixing say something to the emperor, so that the emperor put the proposal in the memorial on hold?
Of course, doubts are doubts, and the emperor's question must be answered first. After all, is it a "platform calling for the right"?

This problem actually has historical roots, and in retrospect, it doesn't just start with Zhu Yuanzhang.

After the late Tang Dynasty, especially in the late Southern Song Dynasty, the status of the regular army has continued to decline, while the auxiliary army has achieved remarkable development.The so-called auxiliary soldiers refer to the armed forces that are inferior to the regular army or the main combat soldiers in terms of military organization or status, occupying a secondary position, or dissociated from the regular army, but have a certain official and legal color—such as the Yue Family Army, Another example is the current armed servants.

The reason is that since the Northern Song Dynasty, the society has emphasized civility over military affairs, and the central government suppressed the army, resulting in a decline in the status of soldiers.Correspondingly, the treatment of soldiers has also continued to decline, because military households are not allowed to engage in sideline jobs, and officers use the empty quota as a source of income, which undoubtedly greatly reduces the combat effectiveness of the regular army.

Soldiers who used to have a high status in the Sui and Tang Dynasties have not only become a class below the peasants, but have even become a negative image of not doing their jobs properly.The continuous decline in the status of soldiers has led to a decline in the morale of the regular army, and the composition of the army has become increasingly complex and useless.

When the Weisuo military system in the Ming Dynasty was first established, it solved the problem of logistical supplies and reduced the financial burden.Garrisoning fields became one of the important responsibilities of military commanders at all levels. According to the regulations at the time, the proportion of guarding the border guards was three points for the city and seven points for the field. This saved a lot of military expenses.

Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang once proudly declared: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost the country a penny."However, in fact, the combat effectiveness and training level of the army have been weakened day by day due to a large number of reclamation tasks.

The reason why the army in Zhu Yuanzhang's period and even Zhu Di's period still maintained a strong combat effectiveness was mainly because the military meritorious group at that time was still relatively strong, and the surrounding areas of the country were not peaceful, and there were opportunities for "actual combat training" from time to time, so the army at that time Relying on this inertia, the army still maintains a certain combat effectiveness.

In fact, it can be seen from the Battle of Jingnan that the combat effectiveness of the troops around Nanjing at that time had declined.With roughly the same unit strength, Nanjing's army was obviously unable to defeat Zhu Di's army. The reason was that the south had been at peace for some years, and Zhu Di's side would fight with Beiyuan every now and then.

In addition, the strict separation of military and civilian registration is also a big problem.People with military status are divided into two types: officers and soldiers, both of which have military fields and are hereditary.Officers became hereditary nobles, and soldiers hereditary became serfs, which is very fucked up.

And soldiers are hereditary, and one person who joins the army will be a military household forever, and will never mix with civilian households.Although the advantage is that the source of soldiers is guaranteed and the lives of soldiers are relatively stable, but as hereditary nobles, because their lives are too secure, and generations of laziness continue, they will eventually become worse and worse as time goes by.

The soldiers who were hereditary serfs were driven by others for life, with no hope for the future, and those who were a little bit motivated would flee spontaneously.And the constant fleeing has weakened the combat effectiveness of the soldiers of the guard to a large extent-after all, the rest are scum.

Another thing is that the style of emphasizing literature over martial arts in the Ming Dynasty was more prosperous than in the past, and the prosperity of the imperial examinations also surpassed that of the previous dynasties.Imperial examinations became the smoothest way for all classes to yearn for. Martial arts became cheaper, the morale and status of the guards became lower and lower, and their combat effectiveness became more uneven.

As the saying goes, "the son of heaven values ​​heroes, and articles teach you. Everything is inferior, but reading is high."Why is Gao Pragmatism so unique?In addition to his background and his resume as a prince, the root cause is that his status as the "six-scholar champion" is too mythical in this era.

Under such a social atmosphere, the social status of military households who were excluded from the imperial examination career seemed low, and in the Ming Dynasty there was a so-called "benevolent army" system for convicting criminals, which invisibly made the social image of military households even more unbearable. .Commerce began to flourish in the Ming Dynasty. Although merchants were not among the upper class, they were treated differently because of their affluence.

Only the military households were strictly confined to the land, and were not allowed to do business. This made the morale and living conditions of the military households always low, and they lived like dogs. Of course, they had little enthusiasm for normal training and war. .

Of course, there are also military households who take the imperial examination. For example, Zhang Juzheng was born in the military.But you have to know that Zhang Juzheng's military status is not that of a soldier, he is a military officer, that's why he can be admitted to Jinshi, and people with a soldier's military status don't think about such a good thing.

Another point is that the military system of the Ming Dynasty stipulated that during wartime, the imperial court temporarily dispatched generals to grant seals to form wartime military leadership organs, and then transferred troops from the guards to belong to their command. , Regroup them and assign them to the generals.This will cause inconvenience in command coordination, management and other aspects.

In fact, Gao Yushi secretly bypassed this point when he was engaged in the Imperial Guard, but he didn't say it clearly.

In addition, there is still a terminal illness in Ming Dynasty politics, that is, eunuchs can get involved in almost everything.In addition to using civil servants as commanders during the war in the Ming Dynasty, there was another system of eunuchs to supervise the army, the so-called "eunuchs who supervise the army". One can imagine.Even if there are a few good ones occasionally, but if it is calculated on a proportional basis...a drop in the bucket, it will not change the overall situation.

And Gao Yushi told the emperor before that the supervisors of the imperial guards must strictly define the scope of their duties, and it was from this aspect that they considered it. Sooner or later, the guards will be killed and disabled by him.

Gao Yushi talked eloquently, and after analyzing these situations one by one, Zhu Yijun's expression became more and more serious.

Just like what he himself said, in this day and age, he is very pragmatic and dares to speak the truth in front of him, even if the truth sounds downright embarrassing.

What Zhu Yijun was particularly shocked and even admired was that Gao Yushi actually thought that it was wrong for the superiority of the civilized and the inferiority of the martial arts—of course Gao Wushi said that it was wrong to say that the superiority of the gentlemen and the inferiority of the military have reached this level, but that was enough to shock Zhu Yijun.

However, Gao Yushi really spoke from his heart, he was indeed dissatisfied with the current social trend of Daming, and the status of military officials was really too low.

From a high-practical point of view, it is not surprising that literature is more valuable than military affairs. In any normal country in later generations, literature is more important than military affairs at the national policy level. Social stability and development.

But this disparity between civil and military should not be too great. It should never be in a situation like Daming—you don’t give warriors reasonable social status and economic treatment, but ask them to fight to the death when they are about to fight. How is it possible?

After a long while, Zhu Yijun gradually came back to his senses, looked at Gao Yushi with complicated eyes, opened his mouth but sighed again.

"To be honest, do you know what Mr. Shen said in the proposal when the Ministry of War's memorandum came up a few days ago?"
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(End of this chapter)