Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 939: Path of Exploration (2)

"Do you all think that the Ming army has become better because the Ming Dynasty has achieved brilliant results in Liaodong, Sichuan, Guizhou, Korea, and Dongfan in the past few years?"

Zhu Youxiao turned his back to Zhu Youjian and his party, his deep eyes fixed on the map in front of him, and spoke in a low voice. Zhu Youxiao's words made them look complicated.

They really thought so before.

After all, they were well aware of how dangerous the situation the court faced before the Tianqi Dynasty. However, after a few years, the external threats to the Ming Dynasty were not only greatly alleviated, but even began to dominate.

Of course, there are still some risks under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty is no longer afraid of even the brutal Jianlu and the rampant Mongols, so what are some internal traitors?
It is only a matter of time before the southeastern provinces are pacified.

"I have always repeatedly emphasized to you that you should not be too short-sighted in your life and work, but should have a long-term vision. Only in this way can you break free from the fixed shackles and look at the overall situation from a detached position."

Zhu Youxiao continued, "I will tell you why I am so anxious about the military reform. The war in the southeast is still going on, the armies in the capital and the surrounding areas are undergoing military reforms, Liaodong and Korea are still in the vortex of war, and some places are also promoting the abolition of garrisons and planning to build a garrison system. So many things are going on at the same time, and I have to do more."

"The root cause is simple. The contradictions and problems involving the military have not been truly resolved from the root, but have only been temporarily alleviated and diverted because of the war and the imperial rewards."

"The generals still have power, the local soldiers are still very large, the garrisons are still eating away at the foundation of the rule, and there are major flaws in the border garrisons. All of these things point to one thing: many of the people who occupy the Ming army are not loyal to the Ming Dynasty, let alone the Ming emperor."

"What I really want to break is that in the future, the Ming army will not have any private military forces. All armies that receive food and wages from the national treasury can only unconditionally obey one order, which comes from the Central Military Command headed by me."

"The establishment of rules is bound to be accompanied by bloodshed, so that it can have a deterrent effect. In the past, the Ming Dynasty's rules were obeyed unconditionally by the entire army, but as time passed, many systems and institutions from the central government to the local governments were destroyed and tampered with, causing the rules to change."

When Zhu Youxiao said this, his eyes were fixed on the map. The color red, which represents the influence of the central government, was only marked in Northern Zhili, Liaodong, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Southern Zhili, Zhejiang and other places. The key point is that in most of the above places, there are also other colors mixed in.

For example, the local soldiers in Sichuan and Guizhou are marked in black, and the areas covered in black include Yunnan, Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Is the policy of reforming chieftains into officials really as simple as putting the central government under actual control of places where chieftains exist?

No.

There is also the need to reform the customs, rules, and military that have been passed down for thousands of years. Once this is done, it will inevitably confront the chieftain groups who enjoy various rights. This also includes the native people enslaved by the chieftains. Because there is no education to eliminate ignorance, their thinking is very stubborn.

In addition to local soldiers, there are also domestic slaves in the southeastern provinces. The reason why Zhu Youxiao made special notes is because slave rebellion has occurred in the southeastern region. This matter is rarely spread, but it does exist. It is in conflict with the habits passed down by the Han nationality for thousands of years.

There are also many forces outside the red marked area, and even within the area, which occupy the positions of the Ming army, but are actually private military forces, such as the garrisons, the navy, and the princes... In Zhu Youxiao's view, this is absolutely intolerable.

This is not even mentioning the nine frontiers. The various problems and contradictions that have arisen along the long northern border are enough to make Zhu Youxiao feel overwhelmed at the thought of them.

"Your Majesty, I understand your thoughts."

In this situation, Zhu Changxun suddenly spoke up, "Everything we did before was to stir up the stagnant water of Shejun, or even inject new water to make it no longer stink." "And the idea you proposed today is to take advantage of this trend to dig out the silt, rotten fish and stinky shrimp in it in the shortest time possible through step-by-step preparations, and even expand the capacity of this pool of water."

Zhu Youxiao showed a pleased smile.

That's exactly what he thought.

"It's more than that."

Zhu Youjian followed closely and said, "There were too many comments on this pool of water before, which is obviously wrong. After all, the owner of this pool of water has always been the same person. However, due to some reasons, the slaves began to bully their master, and it even gradually became a reasonable situation. This is clearly wrong."

Zhu Youxiao smiled and said, "Move the Five Military Commandery out of the central government, clarify the concept of direct control, and reform the military governorships. All of this revolves around who is in charge."

"At the same time, the military-related personnel at the central level must be further clarified. Civil officials are in charge of civil affairs, and military officials are in charge of military affairs. No one is superior to the other. Their responsibilities are different. There is no distinction between civil officials and military officials. They are all ministers of the Ming Dynasty!!"

What Zhu Youxiao wanted to do was very simple, which was to clarify things from top to bottom, and make sure things were what they should be, without giving anyone the opportunity to find loopholes.

The size of the Ming army must be clearly defined in a real sense, and once it is defined, it must be under absolute control of the central government. Only in this way can the army maintain a certain level of combat effectiveness and not deteriorate too quickly.

The most important point is to maintain the cohesion of the army and keep them on their toes at all times. They must either go to war or prepare for war. There is nothing else to do.

If the army doesn’t do these two things, can it still be called an army?

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"For any reform that involves the root cause, there is no way that a few measures or rectifications can perfectly solve the problem."

Zhu Youxiao turned around, looked at the line in front of him and said: "Even if the old problems are solved, new problems will arise. Therefore, the real reform is to keep the source of power, make different adjustments for different periods, and strive to keep moving the Ming Dynasty in the right direction."

"However, this is a road that the Ming Dynasty has never taken before, which means that there is not much experience to draw on, and everything must be done by feeling the way forward."

"With this premise, do you still think I am in a hurry? I don't even have a clue or an idea about a matter, but I just make a decision without thinking. What else can I do but fail?"

Zhu Changxun and the others nodded heavily. Only now did they understand why the emperor was in such a state regarding the military reforms.

It's true, the string is so tight that I dare not stop at all.

Once you stop and wait until the things you promoted previously are done, but the subsequent things you need to do are not prepared in advance, you will stagnate in this regard.

What does stagnation mean?
At the level of the country, that means retreat!!
If this situation really happens, it will only bring one result to the Ming army. The changes that have been made with great difficulty will collapse rapidly in the shortest possible time, and may even tilt towards a more extreme situation. After all, in this process, there will inevitably be many people who are dissatisfied...

(End of this chapter)