Rule over Ming Dynasty

Chapter 113 Will You Get Stronger After You Die?

At the beginning of the first year of Hongzhi, the military and political reform quietly kicked off.

The biggest reason for the decline of the Ming army is the loss of money and talents. Money is actually relatively easy to solve, but talents need to break out of stereotypes.

In this era of emphasizing civility over martial arts, it is obvious that they are doing things that lose their heads at any time, but the treatment is far less than that of a sour scholar, and anyone feels uncomfortable.

Even the highest-ranking general in the army needs to obey the orders of civilian officials. When you meet local magistrates and magistrates, they can blow your nose and stare at you.

It is because of this mismatch between risk and status that people all over the world are scrambling to obtain fame and become the number one scholar, but now I have not heard of anyone whose ideal is to become a general.

When everyone wanted to be a civil servant, even the best adventurers would choose to drink tea and read newspapers in an office.

In addition, the military household system of the Ming Dynasty restricted the mining of talents.

Almost all generals are limited to digging in military households. For example, Mao Wenlong, a famous anti-golden general, was a salt merchant and his father was a Chinese Zijian supervisor, so he was not qualified to be a soldier at all.

Although there was already a recruitment system during the Jingtai period, the soldiers recruited were still civilians, and in fact they were "temporary workers" outside the establishment.

Killing the enemy is the first, but getting the least money is the least. There is even no head bounty at all, and even more so, people with official positions will ride on their necks.

As for promotion, where in the world are temporary workers promoted?
Before Zhu Youtang had formulated a promotion mechanism, he was not in a hurry to throw out the recruitment system.

In fact, the recruitment system may not be a good solution. After all, there are generals such as Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou in the military. The most important thing is actually how to find and cultivate talents.

"Specify the magistrates to recommend those who can carry [-] catties of swords, and they will be sent to the capital after verification by all localities. Once they pass the test, the magistrates will give them a first-class evaluation!"

In addition to breaking the restrictions on military status, Zhu Youtang's real intention is to find good seeds from various counties so that he can get some real good soldiers or generals.

It is said that the masters are among the people, and Daming has a population of tens of millions. Even if Mao Wenlong cannot be found, it is actually profitable to select a group of strong men.

The second measure is: "During the orthodox period, Jingwei martial arts, each of the five prefectures guarded from [-] households should enroll their children. After three years of schooling, they will have art, exempted from the township, pass the examination, and stay in the court for reuse. Those who fail to pass the test will be sent to their place of origin for listening!"

Huaxia has never been short of good seedlings, mainly due to the uneven distribution of teaching resources.

Even if Messi was born in China, he could only do his primary school homework every day until late at night. As for finding enough people to play football, it is almost a fantasy.

Now if you want to bring back some fierce generals from the Four Books and Five Classics, or from eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, then you have to create a corresponding teaching environment for them.

Although Jingwei Wuxue, which was established in Wuxue Hutong during the Zhengtong period, ended in failure, the main sticking point was the recruiting of a bunch of officers from rich families and Wuxun's children.

These well-born children refused to study hard and practice martial arts at all, and only wanted to travel around the capital every day. Moreover, Jingwei martial arts did not formulate systematic teaching, and was finally forced to cancel it in the third year of Jingtai.

Zhu Youtang's resumption of Jingwei Martial Arts is naturally to learn the lessons of failure. In addition to paying more attention to the source of students and secondary screening, he will also formulate a corresponding system of training courses for general talents.

Only by providing a good teaching environment for these good seedlings, will they have the opportunity to become talents, instead of allowing these good seedlings to slowly disappear.

The third measure is: "Xining and Hezhou each have 40 catties, and Taozhou has 30 catties. It is easy to get a horse with 100 catties of tea. If a merchant dares to exchange horses with private tea, he will be punished by the canon!"

Because the nomads live by water and grass, most of their daily diet sources are beef, mutton and milk of cows and sheep.Although their bodies seem to be strong, most people have problems with cholesterol and fat accumulation in their bodies, which can easily induce various diseases.

Tea can just delay the formation of cholesterol and fat, and promote circulation in the body, which makes tea a strategic necessity for the nomadic peoples in Northwest China.

During the Song Dynasty, due to the lack of high-quality war horses in the Central Plains to deal with the threat of cavalry from the northern minorities, the Song court first created the Tea Horse Department, trying to explain the problem of horses with tea and horses.

The early Ming Dynasty also fell into the plight of lack of horses in the Central Plains, so Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang followed the Song Dynasty's tea horse department, and traded horses with the nomadic peoples in the northwest by trading tea for horses.

Zhu Youtang knew that in order to deal with the threat and humiliation of the upcoming unification of Mongolia, it was not enough to just train military personnel, and at the same time, a large amount of military supplies needed to be invested.

Because of this, he decided to increase the trade volume of tea, so as to obtain more good horses from the ethnic minorities in the west.

War horses are undoubtedly the most important thing. Whether it is the needs of the Aegis Battalion that he has formed, or the supplement of war horses for the rear army, he needs to exchange more high-quality war horses from the northwest minority.

It is worth mentioning that in the current salt law "opening the law", in fact, not only is it easy to attract millet, but also easy to attract with horses, which also has the potential to stimulate folk supporters.

Zhu Youtang was very fortunate that his ancestors had already set up a platform for him. He only needed to clear away the resistance of the court to complete the storage of war horses.

The fourth measure is: "Where there are local people willing to mine iron mines in various provinces, the governor will appoint officials to supervise and take them. The officials will get five points and the people will get five points."

In the supply of military supplies for the Shield Battalion this time, although there were reasons for the deliberate delay by the Ministry of Industry, there was also the dilemma that a clever woman can't live without rice.

In order to prevent rebellion, Daming imposed strict restrictions on private mining of iron ore. Each mine could only employ 50 workers, and refugees were not allowed to be recruited.

Even in the original history, Xu Jie, the chief assistant during the Longqing period, believed that the iron production of the Ming Dynasty was sufficient, and directly issued a ban on iron, which resulted in the iron production in the later period being flat every year, which invisibly aggravated the crisis of the Ming Dynasty. perish.

Zhu Youtang knew that he might not be short of refined iron for these [-] sets of armor, but for future military supplies, and even future heavy artillery and long guns, he needed to solve the problem of iron ore production in advance.

Now private capital is allowed to intervene in the mining of iron ore. The capital of Shanxi, which is especially rich in iron ore, has completed the original capital accumulation through salt profit. This will undoubtedly stimulate the rapid growth of iron production in Daming.

Of course, the best way is to send a fleet to the south to find the best iron ore in the world, to forge the sharpest knives and gallop across the northern prairie to harvest the screaming lives.

The fifth measure is: "Liaodong Commander, Xuanfu Commander, Yansui Commander, Jizhou Commander, Datong Deputy Commander, Gansu Governor Tang Yu, Ningxia Governor Cui Rang, Liaodong Governor Liu Chan, etc. return to Beijing Listen to it."

Zhu Youtang found out that there was a strange disease in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty. The civil official group would not care about seniority. The chief soldier of this military general group also liked to let an old man who was five or sixty years old be the chief soldier.

If these five or 60-year-old generals have illustrious military exploits, then let it go, but the result is like the British Duke Zhang Mao, who may be able to talk to you about the art of war, but he is definitely the first to pee first when he goes into battle.

In fact, Zhu Youtang did not object to Darwin's theory, but people who have not made meritorious service for most of their lives, really want to occupy the position of chief soldier with an old face, and he will never allow it.

As for the three civil officials, Tang Yu, governor of Gansu, Cui Rang, governor of Ningxia, and Liu Chan, governor of Liaodong, all of them were 60-year-old governors, and they also had no military exploits to speak of.

Although it may not be good to replace the new officials and soldiers, at least it can put a little pressure on the successor, instead of licking the old face and occupying important positions related to the country's security.

There are five major military and political measures, but this is actually just the first step.

Zhu Youtang actually wanted to do a lot of things, but he found out what clearing up the farmland, what opening up the sea trade, and what the stalls paid for the mu, these were all secondary.

If you don't have a gun in your hand, even if you have opened up a route through the Western Ocean, some people dare to burn it, and they themselves make huge profits in ocean trade.

This is exactly the case, if you want to govern this country well, you need not only good measures to benefit the people, but also a strong deterrent force, otherwise, no matter how good the measures are, they will be misrepresented by those who are trying their best to make profits.

The failure of Wang Anshi's reform was not accidental, but inevitable.

After Zhu Youtang realized this, he postponed other reforms a little. Instead, he wanted to control the army and build an invincible iron cavalry.

While all the officials and military officers in the capital were enjoying the Chinese New Year, their emperor was silently preparing to perform a minor operation on this decadent dynasty, and the name was: Thousands of Gold and Hundreds of Silver Quenching the Military Body.

The sixth day of the Lunar New Year, the first day after the Zhengyuan Festival holiday.

Since there is no prior copy of the memorial, the morning court on this day usually defaults to the termination of the court.

Zhu Youtang never thought that the morning court with more than 1000 officials was a good place to discuss matters, so now he likes to call ministers to the front hall of Qianqing Palace to discuss matters together.

Wan An and other important ministers are actually willing to come here. After all, the floor heating here is the best in the world, and it is an honor for the ministers to be able to face the saint.

Due to the continuous turmoil at the top of the Ming Dynasty, there are not many important ministers who are lucky enough to participate in the discussion.

In addition to the two unshakable elders, Li Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Du Ming, Minister of the Ministry of Punishment, Jia Jun, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Li Si, Minister of the Ministry of Households, Xu Qiong, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, and He Cong, the left servant of the Ministry of War, represented the six ministries.

As for the Zuodu Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Ma Wensheng has already submitted his resignation, and now the Zuodu Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate is vacant, and the most vocal one is the retired Wang Shu.

Wan An, who was already old, was given a seat, and the other seven people stood, looking at the five military policies that were copied.

Seeing that the five of them were still thinking, Zhu Youtang said indifferently: "I am not a warlike king! It's just that Qing and others still see that the little prince sent an envoy to call him Great Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. , It must be a comeback and invade the Central Plains of China. The former emperor taught in the past that those who do not plan for the world will not plan for a moment. Those who do not plan for the overall situation will not plan for a region! These five military policies are designed to strengthen the national defense of the Ming Dynasty!"

what?
Xu Qiong, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, immediately showed an incredulous expression when he heard these words.

Zhu Youtang noticed Xu Qiong's strong reaction, and suddenly felt puzzled: "Chen Qing, do you think my words are inappropriate? Or do you think these five strategies are not acceptable?"

"Your Majesty, those who don't plan for the future are not enough to plan for a moment. Those who don't plan for the overall situation are not enough to plan for a region! Such wise words come from your majesty's mouth, Ming Dynasty should be prosperous!" Chen Qiong swallowed and spit, and then her eyes were full With tears in his eyes.

Wan An turned to look at Chen Qiong, and found that Xu Qiong had a bit of his own demeanor back then.

Zhu Youtang knew that this guy likes to flatter, so he emphasized: "I just said, this is the words of the late emperor!"

"The first emperor preached, and your majesty practiced it. Isn't this exactly the policy of Emperor Han Jing and Emperor Han Wen? The Ming Dynasty will be a prosperous and prosperous age!" Xu Qiong's mind turned quickly, and she shouted excitedly.

Huh?
When Wan An and the others heard this statement, they found that what this sycophant said was quite reasonable.

When Zhu Youtang heard about Cheng Hong's prosperous age, he was also secretly delighted and said: "I really intend to create Cheng Hong Zhongxing! But although I have been carefully taught by the late emperor, I also need the assistance of all the ministers. If there is nothing wrong with the five military policies, then I will do it. I hope you will put your heart into it!"

"Your Majesty, it's been a long time since I've been dismissed from office today, and there are many people with vegetarian meals in the magistrates and counties! The first policy is to order the local police to conduct strict inspections. If the magistrates are found to be perfunctory or dereliction of duty, they can be dismissed and investigated!" Come up, Dang even added.

In fact, Zhu Youtang was uncertain about the reaction of the local magistrate, now with Li Si's reminder, he nodded lightly and said: "Good!".

"Your Majesty, in recent years, there has also been collusion between officials and businessmen in the tea and horse department. Private tea has become more and more rampant, making tea cheap and expensive, while foreign countries are easy to buy. I thought that I could send imperial envoys to manage private tea, so that the price of tea can be guaranteed. It's easy to get more top horses!" Li Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, also added.

Zhu Youtang knew that moths would inevitably be born in places with benefits, so he nodded lightly and said, "Good!".

"Your Majesty's five military and political policies are in perfect harmony. The veteran has nothing to add for a while! It will be promulgated today. If there is anything wrong in the future, we will correct it at that time. According to the veteran, this is a good strategy for strengthening the army. Daming Be now a prosperous and prosperous age!" Wan An has slowly expressed his allegiance to the young emperor in front of him as Emperor Chenghua, and expressed his stance sincerely.

Although Liu Ji and the others knew that this would cost a lot of military expenditures, Zhu Youtang's words, "Those who don't plan for the world, can't plan for a while; those who don't plan for the overall situation, can't plan for a region" made them speechless. What to say.

But sometimes, he also had to wonder why the late emperor suddenly became extremely wise after his death. Did such words really come from the stammering mouth of the late emperor?

Could it be that if you die, you will become stronger, so should I try?

Zhu Youtang saw that the five policies of the military and government had been passed, and continued to discuss the matter: "The early court led many Miwen, and I was very sleepy when I sat in the court, and the ministers were also lacking in the court or tired, so I will reform it. From now on, we will pay more attention to the palace ceremony. The door is light, important matters are discussed here, Shuowang court is as usual, every month there are eight regular courts, and the rest is fine! Do you think it is appropriate?"

(End of this chapter)