Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 355 Ming Army Order

The military medals formulated by Zhu Gaoxu are divided into three types: Ding Yi, Ax and Yue, and Sword and Halberd medals, which are uniformly produced by the Military and Government Department of the Metropolitan Governor's Office.

The first type, the Ding Yi Medal, represents the highest military honor and can only be obtained by those who have made great contributions to China. A giant alloy copper tripod will be given to the house during life, and a temple will be built after death to be worshiped by future generations.

The second type, the Ax Medal, is divided into three levels and is awarded to senior generals with meritorious service.

Any general who leads a major national battle, that is, the battle of national destiny, and wins will be awarded the First Class Ax Medal.

Generals who lead and win highly targeted regional battles, such as large-scale development or defense wars, will be awarded the Second Class Ax Medal.

Generals who lead emergencies or emergencies, such as fighting earthquakes and floods, suppressing riots, and winning wars of great political or military significance, will be awarded the third-class Ax Medal.

The third type, the Medal of Swords and Halberds, is divided into three classes and is awarded to individuals and groups of mid-level and junior officers and ordinary soldiers who have meritorious service.

Anyone who has played a vital role in the battle for national destiny, or whose deeds of individuals or groups can serve as heroic models, will be awarded the first-class Sword and Halberd Medal.

Those who fought bravely and performed particularly outstandingly in highly targeted regional battles, or whose deeds of individuals or groups can play a positive role in demonstrating, will be awarded the Second Class Medal of Swords and Halberds.

The third-class Medal of Swords and Halberds will be awarded to individuals or groups who play a decisive role in determining the outcome or turning the tide of the war in emergency or unexpected battles, or to mid- and junior-level officers who fight bravely in major national battles and follow their generals to achieve final victory.

In order to highlight the value of military merit medals and prevent the proliferation of medals, the "Military Merit Order of the Ming Dynasty" promulgated by Zhu Gaoxu is extremely detailed and strict in the assessment of military merit. The number of medals is very tightly controlled and medals are not awarded easily.

This time Zhu Gaoxu's northern expedition, Zhu Neng's battle with Arutai outside Helin City, was a highly targeted regional battle, and it was a foreign war.

Due to Zhu Neng's proper command, he destroyed all the cavalry led by Arutai in the first battle and made great achievements. The awarding of the Second Class Ax Medal was completely in line with the regulations.

Chen Mao's meritorious service is almost the same as Zhu Neng's.

As for the general Xue Lu and deputy general Zhang Fu of the Eastern Route Army of the Northern Expedition, they went directly to the Tatar Khan Court and captured Adai Khan.

If the main Tatar force had not been taken away by Alutai, the Eastern Route Army would not have been able to penetrate the Tatar Khan Court so easily.

But the capture of Adai Khan was, after all, a major event that would go down in history, so Zhu Gaoxu believed that Xue Lu and Zhang Fu had performed extraordinary feats, and awarded Xue and Zhang the Second Class Ax Medal to highlight their military merit.

Although Yang Hong, the vanguard officer of the forward army, was not the first person to climb onto Helin City, he led the forward army to use the power of the new rifled artillery to attack Helin City together, which was slightly inferior to the one who climbed the city first.

Zhu Gaoxu recognized Yang Hong as a quasi-miraculous meritorious service, and awarded him the second-class Ax Medal, which was completely in line with the regulations.

General Wang Tong and deputy general Xue Gui of the Northern Expedition Middle Route Army led their Ming troops, pushing all the way to Yanran Mountain to join forces with the West Route Army led by Zhu Gaoxu. The victory of the Route Army was of great military significance, so it was recognized by Zhu Gaoxu as a third-class Medal of Axe.

Zhu Gaoxu's northern expedition destroyed the Oara and Tatars in one battle, which was of extremely great historical significance.

From now on, Ming Dynasty will directly manage the grassland.

It can be said that the victory of this Northern Expedition prompted the Ming Dynasty to enter a new era.

Therefore, the four battalion commanders and eighteen song commanders of the Shaanxi-Pu Dudufu of the West Route Army who participated in the Northern Expedition, as well as the battalion commanders and song commanders of the East Route Army and the Middle Route Army were all recognized by Zhu Gaoxu. Secondary work.

Then, it is reasonable to give each of these generals a third-class sword and halberd medal.

As for all the middle and low-level officers and grassroots soldiers who participated in the Northern Expedition, they were recognized as diligent and promoted one level in official or military rank. Each person was also rewarded with 20 taels of silver yuan, a piece of high-quality cloth, and a piece of Nanyang rock candy. catty.

Zhu Gaoxu also decided that during the Spring Festival next year, each of the mid-level and high-level generals in the Northern Expedition will be given a commemorative gold coin commemorating the Ming Dynasty's Unified Grassland, and each of the grassroots officers and soldiers will be rewarded with a commemorative silver coin commemorating the Ming Dynasty's Unified Grassland.

In addition to awarding medals to meritorious officers, the imperial court would also reward them with farmland or money, and they would be given priority to serve in official positions in various prefectures and counties after they retired.

In order to enhance the sense of honor of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Army, the children of those who have made meritorious deeds can be exempted from the assessment and directly apply to enter the juvenile military camp and be given military status. Those with outstanding performance will be selected into the East Palace Youth Army and rise to the top in one step.

Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that there was no absolute fairness in this world. As long as the Ming Dynasty could hold the generals' hearts firmly in its hands, it would not hurt to grant a few privileges to a small number of soldiers.

Moreover, giving preferential treatment to a few soldiers will only stimulate more people to pursue military medals, but will not suppress the growth of talented people. It will be easier for powerful people to stand out.

Zhu Gaoxu believes that the famous historical generals such as Qi Jiguang and Hu Zongxian will definitely create more glorious military achievements than those in the original history.

In the 12th year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the standards for military merit such as extraordinary merit and first merit, and specifically judged merit based on combat performance.

However, it is particularly difficult to obtain miraculous merits. The meritorious service must be performed in a way that determines the outcome of the battle, such as killing generals and capturing flags, besieging a city for the first time, breaking enemy formations, etc.

Precisely because miraculous merits are too difficult to obtain, after Zhu Di succeeded to the throne, in order to not chill the hearts of the Ming soldiers and encourage the Ming army officers and soldiers to fight the enemy bravely, he specially set up the first merit under the miraculous merits with "taking the lead" as the main assessment criterion.

"Leader" refers to those who are not afraid of death in battle and dare to charge into battle.

In Zhu Di's view, anyone who is not afraid of death and dares to fight hard in battle is a meritorious person worthy of commendation. However, these soldiers who perform well but have no chance to "take the lead" should be regarded as secondary meritorious service.

Theoretically speaking, Zhu Di's initial third-class military merit was reasonable, but the merit recording system had serious loopholes!
Because people do not have a God's perspective, no one can truthfully record the performance of the Ming army soldiers.

Just like rushing to charge first, whether the general really charges is actually just a matter of a word from the chief officer responsible for reporting the merits.

The inability to supervise will naturally breed corruption. Therefore, when Zhu Gaoxu implemented the new soldier system, each military-level combat unit established not only the Military Justice Department but also the Fu Xuan Department.

Every team-level combat unit has two military judges, who are responsible for maintaining military law and discipline in peacetime, and are responsible for statistics of military exploits, supervising battles, and recording casualties of soldiers in the team during wartime.

In addition, one of the duties of the deputy captain also includes recording the casualties and meritorious services of the soldiers in the unit.

The Fu Xuan Department is responsible for the daily life and ideological style of each sergeant, as well as the evaluation, selection and award of military attaches at and below the level of military combat units in the jurisdiction, as well as the military accounts and deployment orders.

The combat units at the camp level have been equipped with fuxuan officers since the beginning, and one of their responsibilities is to supervise and randomly check whether the military judges of each team have performed their specific duties.

If a deputy captain is greedy for merit, the soldier can file a complaint with the military judge.

The military judge is a self-contained system. It is on the same level as the captain and one level higher than the deputy captain. There is no superior-subordinate relationship between the two parties.

Dealing with officers and soldiers who violate laws and disciplines is a form of demonstrating the ability of military judges.

Therefore, there are almost no cases of military judges colluding with junior officers to embezzle soldiers' military merits under the recruit system.

Even if there is, soldiers can still report anonymously or with their real names to the Military Justice Department of the Military Ministry.

There are people in the Military Justice Department who are responsible for handling reports reported by soldiers. Once verified, they will be severely punished.

In this way, with the triple guarantee of military judges, deputy captains, and fuxuan officials, the Ming army's statistics on combat achievements became more reasonable and in line with the actual situation.

Closer to home.

According to the "Military Merit Order of the Ming Dynasty" promulgated by Zhu Gaoxu, the military merit system under the recruit system is divided into five levels, with extraordinary merit being the highest, quasi-extraordinary merit second, first merit third, and finally secondary merit and diligent merit.

The so-called quasi-miraculous merit, as the name suggests, means that the combat merit is close to the miraculous merit, but still a little short of it.Extraordinary merit, quasi-extraordinary merit, first merit, and second merit are mainly used to evaluate the military merits of leading generals.

Those who have accomplished extraordinary feats will be promoted to three consecutive ranks if they have a title, and those who have no titles will be promoted to three ranks in a row.

Those who have achieved quasi-miraculous achievements will be promoted to two ranks in a row with nobility, and those without a title will be promoted to three ranks in a row.

Those who have made the most outstanding achievements will be promoted to one rank if they have a title, and those who are not titled will be promoted to two ranks.

Those who have achieved minor meritorious service will not be promoted to the title of nobility, while those without nobility will be given the title of viscount and the military rank will be promoted to one level.

As for diligence, it is mainly designed for middle and low-level officers and grassroots soldiers. They follow orders and go to fight to kill the enemy, but they do not gain much, but they follow the general and win the battle, which shows the merit of hard work.

Even if some officers or soldiers did not kill the enemy's head, as long as they fought a great victory with the general, they could be promoted to one rank or rank. For ordinary victories, each person would be rewarded with ten taels of silver yuan.

According to the provisions of the "Military Merit Order of the Ming Dynasty", in addition to military merits, military merits are also calculated based on the first level of merit. Specifically, the number of two ears cut off after killing the enemy is the statistical standard for the first level.

According to the area where the enemy is killed, the first achievement is divided into four levels. The first level is for capturing the head of a Northern prisoner and one can be promoted to one level. The second level is for capturing the head of a Liaodong female straight man and two can be promoted to one level. The third level is for capturing the head of a Liaodong woman. Three levels of Banmiao barbarian bandit heads can lead to one level promotion. Level four is for capturing the heads of rebel and mountain bandits from the mainland. Six levels can lead to one level promotion.

The upper limit of these four levels of first merit is three heads. Those who exceed the upper limit will only be given material rewards and will not be promoted.

The so-called material rewards are mainly silver coins. For example, after more than three northern captives have been beheaded, anyone who captures a northern captive alive will be rewarded with ten taels of silver, and whoever beheads a northern captive will be rewarded with eight taels of silver. There is no upper limit.

Other parts where more than three heads of Liaodong women, Miao people and rebels were captured can be deduced in the same way.

In addition to the Northern Barbarians, among the three first meritorious deeds of Miao Man, Nvzhi, and rebel bandits, the heads of women and young boys are not used as the basis for promotion, but only as the basis for material rewards.

As for the heads of able-bodied men, young men, and women in the North, they are all used as the basis for promotion. The difference is that if the head belongs to a strong man, the promotion is actually granted; if the head belongs to a young man or a woman, only the acting official position is granted.

At the same time, officers' rewards were tied to the number of beheadings of their subordinates.

A team-level officer can be promoted by one level for every five heads killed by his subordinates.

A sentinel-level officer can be promoted by one level for every ten heads killed by his subordinates.

For every twenty officers killed by his subordinates, he can be promoted to a higher rank.

The upper limit for promotion is still three levels, and material rewards will still be given for those who exceed it.

Those with song grade and above can be promoted to one rank or two military ranks at most.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the Oara and Tatars in the north have been the biggest threats, while the threat from Liaodong women is relatively small. As for the southwest border, which is guarded by Mu Sheng, the Duke of Guizhou, it is relatively stable, and unrest in the interior is uncommon.

Therefore, the first-gong system formulated by Zhu Gaoxu is closely related to the border situation of the Ming Dynasty.

As a supplement to the military merit system based on contribution, the first merit system is more quantifiable in terms of military merit. Using the first rank as the reward standard is far more intuitive than contribution.

It is precisely because of this system that during Zhu Gaoxu's northern expedition, the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty broke out with stronger combat effectiveness in the war, and at the same time, it also greatly consumed the effective strength of the northern captives.

Historically, the relatively complete military merit system of the Ming Dynasty appeared during the Chenghua period. Emperor Chenghua abolished the battle merit system based on combat contributions and retained only the first meritorious service system.

Although the Ming Dynasty soldiers' combat effectiveness was improved under the stimulation of the first gong system, the simple first gong system also had four disadvantages that should not be underestimated.

The biggest drawback is indiscriminate killing to claim credit, because at this time the enemy's head is the only basis for promotion and rewards of the Ming army's officers and soldiers.

As a result, the soldiers generally fell into the bad habit of killing indiscriminately.

War does not always exist. Even in wartime, it is very likely that there will be no heads. Soldiers with increased greed often kill indiscriminately to make up for their numbers, killing civilians, surrenders, and young children.

The second disadvantage is that there will be soldiers who buy and sell their merits, because the inspectors only look at the heads and not the people. Some people value property while others value official positions. Naturally, there will be a phenomenon of trading heads.

The third disadvantage is that it deepens the conflict between the enemy and ourselves. After all, killing to stop killing is not a panacea, and as long as the enemy is not completely eradicated, the hatred between the two sides will become deeper and deeper.

The fourth disadvantage is that beheading in battle may lead to internal fighting or enemy counterattack.

Internal fighting is as the name suggests, with Ming soldiers fighting each other for their heads.

The enemy knew the Ming army's desire for heads, so it was completely logical to use the corpses of their comrades to lure the Ming army to fight for their heads, and then take the opportunity to counterattack or escape.

The military merit system implemented by Zhu Gaoxu is composed of the first merit system and the battle merit system. It is not the simple first merit system that has four major drawbacks in history.

As mentioned before, the military judge and deputy captain will record the soldiers' meritorious service, and the fuxuan officer will verify it.

When Fuxuan officials verify military merit, they not only look for the soldiers who have made meritorious deeds to verify, but also ask soldiers and others who are specifically responsible for logistics. After all, there are cases where meritorious service members die in battle.

Under the new soldier system, each battalion headquarters has an independent logistics unit. This logistics unit is composed of three tuns, one of which is responsible for burying pots and making rice, and the other two tuns serve as auxiliary troops for the soldiers during war. , responsible for harvesting the ears of enemies killed by soldiers of the battalion, collecting trophies, and keeping statistics.

In this way, the second and fourth disadvantages of the first merit system will no longer exist, because there are dedicated people to do the ear cutting, and dedicated people to count the war achievements.

One of the duties of the military judge is to prohibit soldiers from killing indiscriminately. The fuxuanguan will tell the soldiers why they should not kill indiscriminately by preaching military discipline and policies.

At the same time, with the existence of the battle merit system, enemy heads are not the only channel for soldiers to be promoted and rewarded.

What's more, during non-war periods, soldiers of the Ming Dynasty could also obtain military honors and be promoted by fighting fires and disaster relief, fighting floods, and winning championships in military exercises.

In this way, the biggest drawback of the first gong system, indiscriminate killing, will be controlled within a certain range.

It seems that only the third drawback of the first gong system cannot be solved.

But Zhu Gaoxu has no intention of solving this shortcoming, because as long as there are enemies, the fewer the better.

The so-called cutting grass does not remove its roots, but the spring breeze blows and regenerates.

Zhu Gaoxu believed that if he traveled through time and became Emperor Chenghua, he would not only clear out the Nuzhi who had rebelled many times, but also exterminate her race. Later, he would move millions of soldiers and civilians there and completely turn the place into Han territory.

Of course, if the enemy surrenders and chooses to submit to the Ming Dynasty, then the Ming Dynasty will not mind treating the surrendered enemy in the same way as a vassal country.

However, if the enemy jumps repeatedly, he will become ambitious and use superficial surrender to gain time for development and growth.

In this regard, Zhu Gaoxu will never be merciful and raise tigers to cause trouble.

As the leader of the Ming Dynasty, he must use thunderous methods and heavy blows on his enemies!

Either eradicate the weeds, or exterminate them like the Oara and Tatars, and bring the land and its people under the direct control of the imperial court!

(End of this chapter)