Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 319 Preparing for the War

Why was the plan put forward by Prince Zhu Zhanyu not to send troops to Oara?
That's because in the ten years since the 16th year of Yongle, there has been no war in the Ming Dynasty with the outside world, and the people inside the Ming Dynasty live and work in peace and contentment. Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, the father and son, have taken the route of recuperating, developing internal affairs, and building infrastructure.

Zhu Zhanyu naturally longed to use troops in the desert.

But he did not dare to propose a strategy that ran counter to the policies of Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu in the past ten years, so he suggested that the imperial court canonize Taiping's son as king to suppress Tuohuan.

Therefore, when he heard that Zhu Gaoxu had decided to use troops against Oara, he immediately expressed his approval.

This is not because Zhu Zhanyu is double-dealing or a wallflower, but as the crown prince, he must understand the emperor's intentions as much as possible. Only by working together can father and son do things better.

When Zhu Gaoxu came to the throne, he began to rectify the Beijing camp. Now he has ordered a comprehensive reform of the military system and actively implemented the Qianxi New Deal. It is inevitable to use troops externally to prove the combat effectiveness of the new army organized according to the new military system.

Qi Tai was a long-time veteran, so he naturally saw through Zhu Gaoxu's intentions. However, he was not Yang Xiu, let alone Jie Jin, and he neither dared nor was willing to show off in front of Zhu Gaoxu.

After all, he came from a humble background and it was not easy for him to get to where he is today.

In other words, if Zhu Gaoxu didn't ask, Qi Tai wouldn't tell.

But since Zhu Gaoxu asked, as a minister, Qi Tai must answer seriously.

Since November of the 17th year of Yongle, with the demarcation of the pastoral areas of various tribes on the Mongolian grasslands, the establishment of six capital divisions, and the completion of the construction of thirteen fortresses, the tribes in the desert have sent envoys to pay tribute every year, and the imperial court has opened mutual markets at the frontier fortresses. Towns, the two sides have been at peace for more than ten years.

Moreover, since the tribes in the desert accepted the canonization of the imperial court, they were strictly vassals of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty could not send troops to attack the vassals without legitimate reasons.

What's more, the imperial court has not used troops externally in the past ten years. If there is not enough reason to attack Tuohuan, I am afraid that many ministers will object to sending troops to the desert.

What Qi Tai said was exactly a reason for the Ming Dynasty to send troops to Oua, and to occupy the title of righteousness.

However, sending troops to conquer Tuohuan is not a simple matter.

After Zhu Gaoxu made his decision, he immediately summoned the six ministries and nine ministers and the governors of the Metropolitan Governor's Office to hold an emergency meeting in Wuying Hall.

Because the reasons for sending troops to Oara were very good, and most of the six ministers and nine ministers were Zhu Gaoxu's confidants, they would naturally not object.

Of course the governors of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion will not object.

Therefore, what everyone is talking about is how to ensure the supply of military supplies.

In the era of cold weapons, whenever two armies fight, in addition to having a certain degree of military strength, both sides must also have strong logistical strength.

In a series of battles such as the Battle of Julu, the Battle of Chibi, and the Battle of Poyang Lake, which seemed to have huge disparities in strength, what often played a key role was not the number of people, but the continuity and coordination of logistics supply.

As the saying goes, "the troops and horses must go before the soldiers and the food and grass are deployed." Without solid logistical support such as money, food and materials, no matter how powerful the army is, it will be difficult to achieve final victory.

In the same way, it is impossible to build a powerful army without strong enough logistical force.

Faced with this cruel and severe reality, since the Qin Dynasty, all dynasties have continued to improve the system of raising military expenditures and military rations.

For example, during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty established military camps in the northwest frontier, as well as the Tang Dynasty's "union of farmers and soldiers" Fubing system, and the Guard system that was very similar to the Fubing system. These were actually self-sufficient. mode.

This model turns "armed groups" into "production groups."

During peacetime, soldiers don't have to worry about going hungry, but once there is a war, the output of the military camp will be affected.

If the battle lasts too long, the military production at the entire national level will face collapse.

The Fubing system in the Tang Dynasty was based on the land equalization system. Once the land equalization system was destroyed, the Fubing system would lose its meaning of existence.Because of this, after the land equalization system was destroyed in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the military force system gradually faded out of the stage of history.

In the original history, the collapse of the Ming Dynasty's guard system was also due to this reason.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial court relied on soldiers to fight everywhere. Military households were considered a relatively good household registration. Basically, every military household relied on military fields to have enough food.

However, as time went by, many greedy and corrupt people appeared among the descendants of hereditary senior generals.

These people colluded with local powerful people, and after planning and operations, they gradually seized the farmland of military households and made it their own private land.

After the annexation of military fields reached a certain level, ordinary military households gradually became "slaves" of those high-ranking households in order to maintain their livelihood.

Once the military fields begin to decrease, the guard system relying on the military fields will naturally begin to collapse.

During the Hongwu period, the tax and grain revenue from the Wei Institute's farming operations was more than 200 million shi. During the Xuande period, the tax and grain revenue from the farming areas was less than 5.00% of that during the Hongwu period. At this time, signs of the collapse of the Wei Institute system had already appeared.

After history was changed, in the mid-Yongle period, the imperial court gradually built thirteen fortresses in northern Xinjiang. Each fortress stocked a large amount of grain and grass to prepare for war.

At the same time, the quartermaster system has become more and more perfect.

Now Zhu Gaoxu has reformed the military system and replaced the guard system in the mainland with a recruitment system. The best soldiers from the original guard are recruited as recruits, and those who fail to be selected will be converted into militiamen with civilian citizenship.

Even under the new soldier system, the generals who trained often led the grassroots soldiers to fight, and the two sides had a deep friendship, but the quartermaster would distribute food and salary to each soldier on behalf of the court.

The officers and soldiers under the new soldier system were equivalent to professional sergeants recruited by the court with money.

Moreover, in addition to receiving military pay, New Army soldiers will also receive rewards for their meritorious service.

After discussing with the ministers for more than an hour, Zhu Gaoxu decided on a general strategy.

In this crusade against Wala Tuohuan, he personally led the Northern Army as the chief general. Wei Guogong Xu Huizu was appointed as the left deputy general, Cao Guogong Li Jinglong was appointed as the right deputy general, and seven people including Ningyang Marquis Chen Mao and Chenghou Zhu Neng served as generals. Lead a battalion of troops.

Prince Zhu Zhanyu served as the general quartermaster and was based in Datong, responsible for the logistics and dispatching of the northern army.

The reason why I chose Datong was because of its geographical location.

Datong City is located in the Datong Basin of Shanxi Province, north of Taihang and west of Yanshan Mountain.

It is bordered by the Great Wall to the north, Hengshan Mountain to the south, Xiong'er Mountain to the east, and Hongtao Mountain to the west, with the Sanggan River flowing quietly in between.

After Zhu Yuanzhang restored the Han Dynasty, he fully understood the reasons for the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty.

He believed that the loss of Youyun caused the Northern Song Dynasty court to support millions of troops and still cannot defend it.

Even when Nanjing was the capital, he paid special attention to Youyun in the far north, especially Datong, which was more vulnerable to attacks by nomads.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered Xu Da to personally garrison Datong and be responsible for the construction of Datong New City.

Datong New City is a square with a side length of about 2000 meters. The city wall is 14 meters high and the widest part is 16 meters, which is wider than the city wall in Nanjing.

This also fully demonstrates that Zhu Yuanzhang and Xu Da attach great importance to Datong defense.

(End of this chapter)