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Chapter 655 A bold move
Don't ask. The emperor played a trick again. He took control of the army's mobilization and command. The 11 military secretaries of the General Staff were relatively evenly matched, and the emperor could not have the final say on the army's internal operations.

If three more are added, the number of military secretaries of the General Staff will become 14, more than half of whom are royalist officials, and the power has been diluted visibly. Too cunning and too insidious, it's really a different trick every day!
It’s a pity that all the court officials underestimated the ambition of Emperor Jingyang. It took him more than 30 years to gain power. How could he be satisfied with just moving the six ministries?

A few days later, at the first imperial court meeting of the new cabinet, the emperor once again raised his machete and chopped it hard on the Ministry of War and the Five Military Commanders' Office.

First, the Governor of the Navy and the Governor of Shipping, Yuan Keli, was stripped of his military power. Before some people could wonder whether the emperor was going to destroy the bridge after crossing it or fear that he would gain power by holding on to his troops, Yuan Keli was granted the title of Chief of the General Staff and Chief of the General Staff.

Since its establishment, the General Staff has only served as a service agency for the General Staff and the Emperor's military secretariat. It has no real power and has not appointed any specific positions. There is only a group of young staff officers who are busy all day long and no one knows what they are doing.

But after Yuan Keli was appointed as the Chief of the General Staff, the emperor immediately granted him real power. From now on, all decisions of the Ministry of War and the Five Military Commands must be reviewed by the General Staff first, and can only be implemented after the signature and seal of the Chief of the General Staff.

At this time, the group of young staff officers no longer hid their intentions. They formed groups of several and took the ready-made case files to the Ministry of War and the Five Military Governor's Office to coordinate specific work.

Considering that they have been very busy in the past few years, they have figured out most of the work in the Ministry of War and the Five Military Governor's Office. Now they have no chance to play tricks to delay.

It would be easier to deal with a purely civilian institution like the Ministry of War, but the Five Military Commissioners' Headquarters is in charge of hundreds of thousands of border troops and garrison troops. Can the handover be completed in a short time?
The answer is that it is not difficult. Since the defense of the capital, the front and rear military governorates were abolished along with the Beijing Camp. The remaining left and right central military governorates have now handed over the roster of the border troops, and the rest of the work has not changed at all.

As for the garrison troops, the emperor issued an imperial decree to allocate 100,000 garrison troops under the jurisdiction of the Left and Right Central Military Governor's Office to the Ministry of Construction, removed their military status and turned them into special engineering teams.

Can the Ministry of Construction absorb so many people at once? It certainly couldn't be done before, but it must be done now. As the new policy was rolled out in the four provinces, the demand for building factories, roads, docks, and dams in various places increased exponentially, and most of the work was allocated to the Ministry of Construction.

However, the emperor prohibited the arbitrary conscription of labor, and the Ministry of Works itself had no construction team, so it could only conscript as many laborers as the emperor approved. Now that this work was in the charge of the Ministry of Construction, there were suddenly 100,000 laborers available, and there was finally no shortage of manpower.

However, there is still a problem. These 100,000 garrison troops are definitely not forced labor, so they must be paid. Should this money come from the Ministry of War or the Five Military Commanders' Office?
The emperor said no one had to pay, the Ministry of Construction would pay for it. Since it was not forced labor, no matter what the project was, money had to be collected. If the Ministry of Construction had no money, it could ask the factory for reasonable compensation. After collecting wages, it would naturally be responsible for paying wages. The more work you do, the more you get, which is reasonable.

Moreover, the number of the army is said to be 100,000, but after verification by the General Staff, it is considered good to have 50,000 people. This also includes the old, weak, sick and disabled. The young and strong who can really do heavy work may not even be enough for 10,000.

The corruption of the Ming Dynasty's military was outrageous. A full-strength military station had more than 5,000 people. After the officers and soldiers were all on the payroll, and some of them fled and became refugees, it was considered a good thing that 40% of them were left. This time, those who were expelled from the military would be paid half of their salary if they were able to do light work, and there was nothing they could do for those who really couldn't work. The court could only pay money to help the Ministry of Construction to support the elderly, the weak, and the disabled.

In fact, it doesn't matter whether they support the family or not. If one of the soldiers in the garrison can get a full salary from the Ministry of Construction, they can almost support the whole family. It's nothing more than eating less dry food and drinking more liquid food than others, just don't starve to death. They have been living this kind of life, or even worse, so there is nothing to complain about.

But the emperor said that the court must pay for the sins it has committed, and the pain cannot be borne entirely by the lower-class people. This is the pain and sacrifice of reform, and those in power must pay first. If anyone cannot even afford this price, then there is no point in talking about reform, because that is just using the people as an experiment.

If they fail, they spread their hands to say they will try again next time. If they succeed, they immediately boast that all the credit is theirs. And then, regardless of success or failure, the people have to bear all the costs themselves. It's really deceptive.

What if such a big move caused a mutiny in the garrisons? All the 14 new military officials of the General Staff had this concern, but they were mostly dispelled by a word from the new Chief of the General Staff.

Yuan Keli said: Your Majesty has abolished the garrisons, and all the garrisons from Shanhaiguan to Guangdong are on the coast. If someone has ulterior motives, the navy can reach them in three days at most, and Songjiang Prefecture can be used as a precedent!
Obviously, the emperor came prepared, fully anticipated possible changes, and made very prudent arrangements. Yes, even if these coastal garrisons mutinied, it would be difficult for them to escape the navy's suppression.

The navy's combat effectiveness is probably even higher than that of the army. It could even capture Luzon, which had been controlled by the Spanish for decades, in one battle. It must be more than enough to deal with the garrison soldiers who had poor training and poor equipment.

However, the problem was not completely solved. The navy could quickly quell the rebellion in the coastal areas, but if a mutiny occurred in the inland garrisons, it would seem that it would not be easy for the navy to arrive quickly.

At this time, the Army Governor Li Ruzhang spoke again: The Army's Central Guard has landed in Songjiang Prefecture and will soon go upstream to Nanjing! If anyone thinks they are better at fighting than the Jurchen elite, come on, the Army will not let anyone go.

Look, the current emperor is no longer tolerant. The navy and the army are more ferocious than the other, and both have remarkable achievements. If anyone wants to play the same trick of inciting civil unrest again, he must first think about whether he is strong enough to be killed by these two armies.

Then the emperor added: If anyone goes against the tide, I don't mind killing them until everyone bleeds. Not only will the three clans of the participants be executed, but all local officials will also be punished in the same way. Spread my words to all places, so that those who are interested can try and see whether their bones are harder or my lead bullets are harder!

The emperor at this time was no longer the benevolent monarch and father who always said that the people should not suffer the pain of reform. In a blink of an eye, he turned into a tyrant who would rather betray the world than let the world betray him for the sake of power.

(End of this chapter)