The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 162 Haitan Water Village
  Shen Yourong and Wang Wenlong took a boat to the island together. Wang Wenlong pointed to the burdens put down by a dozen porters behind him and said: "These are for the labor troops of Fantai. Please ask the general to call the island defenders to distribute them."

Shen Yourong smiled and said, "Thank you, Master Fantai, for your kindness."

There is also something special about giving things to the army. If Xu Xueju personally distributes the gifts, most of the sergeants who receive the gifts will remember Xu Xueju's feelings, and Xu Xueju must come to the army himself to deliver the things.

But now Xu Xueju wanted to make friends with Shen Yourong, so naturally he just gave all the gifts to Shen Yourong. As for how much Shen Yourong would give and whether he would withhold money, Wang Wenlong would naturally turn a blind eye.

Only in this way can Shen Yourong truly express his gratitude.

Shen Yourong opened the gift sheet and looked at it, smiling even brighter.

Wang Wenlong didn't take it seriously. The times were different and the requirements were also different. There were not many generals in this era who were not greedy for money. Being greedy for money didn't matter. If you didn't shrink your eggs when fighting, you would be a good general.

And Shen Yourong can obviously meet this standard.

Shen Yourong's famous battle was when he encountered Duoyan Chang'ang and attacked Liujiakou with [-] horsemen in Ji Town. Shen Yourong was so anxious that he led [-] knights to attack him in the middle of the night. He was hit by two arrows and was beheaded six times, finishing the whole battle. Only then did they retreat, and they were already half dead when they retreated. Their bravery was recorded in the "History of the Ming Dynasty".

Wang Wenlong came to inspect on behalf of Xu Xueju this time, so when he came to the island, Shen Yourong summoned the army to perform martial arts.

In the early Ming Dynasty, there were only five water forts in Fujian. During the Longqing and Wanli years, due to the opening of Yuegang to the sea, the importance of preventing and controlling pirates in Fujian increased. Therefore, after Longqing, five more water forts were added in Fujian, forming the current Minhai Sea. The pattern of the ten major water villages.

The Haitan Water Village and the Zhangzhou Tongshan Water Village, which were in charge of Shen Yourong, were the horns of each other. Together, they guarded the forefront of Fujian's coastal defense. They were the most powerful among the ten water villages.

Today was originally a training day, and Shen Yourong had specially allocated medicine and equipment to entertain Wang Wenlong.

So Wang Wenlong and Shen Yourong sat high on the general platform and watched the soldiers perform martial arts.

Lined up on the shore of the water village are LEF machines, which are a type of cannon with a slender body and a large square opening at the rear.

Wang Wenlong saw a soldier holding a sub-cannon the size of a beer mug. After loading a cup of gunpowder, he stuffed wooden supports and projectiles into the muzzle of the sub-cannon. Then he neatly put the sub-cannon into the large mouth of the mother cannon's tail, and used wood to Wedge the sub-cannon and insert the lead wire.

"Let go!" As the flag officer waved the flag in his hand, the eight French cannons fired together, firing projectiles at a distance of more than [-] steps.

After the firing was completed, the sub-cannon barrel that had finished firing was removed, and the soldier immediately loaded another sub-cannon barrel into it and fired it again.

The so-called flange machine is a small cannon with a main-and-sub-cannon structure. Because several sub-cannons can be loaded in advance, there is no need to load ammunition during actual combat. Just change the barrel, which can greatly increase the firing speed.

At this time, the time interval between the two cannonballs fired by the Haitan Water Village battalion was less than one minute. They were extremely fast in this era and were definitely well-trained elites.

The roar of cannons made not only Wang Wenlong watch with great interest, but also Wang Pingbao and the officials who followed Wang Wenlong had expressions of surprise on their faces.

Haitan Water Village was built under the personal care of Jin Xuezeng. The training quality of its soldiers is much better than that of the soldiers in Fuzhou City. Not to mention Wang Wenlong, even these old officials in Fuzhou City have never seen such a powerful one. army.

Except for Jin Xuezeng's Futai soldiers, the soldiers in Fuzhou City are all guards. What do these people say? Wang Wenlong has never practiced martial arts, but if he is asked to fight with Fuzhou Guardsmen with a stick, one vs. three is not a problem.

At this time, the military system of the Ming Dynasty was quite strange. In fact, it had caused a lot of problems. Gu Yanwu, a later generation, bluntly said in his book: "Those who judge soldiers and farmers are incompatible with each other, and those who judge soldiers and farmers are incompatible with each other. That is, since the beginning of the country’s dynasty.”

Theoretically, the garrison troops called "armies" are responsible for garrisoning, and the battalion soldiers called "bings" are responsible for offensive operations. Each performs their own duties, but in reality, the garrison troops are almost completely useless. The main reason why the Ming Dynasty did not carry out military reform was because the guard army was cheap.

Guard soldiers were born into the military and were assigned military land for farming. They had to lead their own troops and horses during wars, and their monthly salary was relatively cheap. The average monthly salary was one stone of grain, which was only five cents and four cents in silver taels, and the annual salary was six taels.

But this is only in theory, and sometimes it is not enough.

At this time, the average annual salary of a strong labor force in Fujian was ten taels. Even if it was enough, the efforts and gains of the guardsmen were still disproportionate.

In contrast, the treatment of the recruited soldiers was much better. They were completely provided by the court with horses and weapons, and their monthly salary was one to three taels.

In this case, who would be willing to be a military household?
  I get six taels of silver a year, while others get at least a dozen taels a year, but they still have to fight on the battlefield. Even if a military household wants to be a soldier, it is better to flee the military and then become a camp soldier, which will directly double the income.

But for the imperial court, the Guards Army was a real cheap soldier.

A good brother who fills the line with six taels of silver, of course he will not give up until he is tricked to death.

The result was that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, large-scale desertions began among the troops at the rear.

During the Zhengtong period, it was estimated that [-] million people from the Imperial Guards had fled, equivalent to half of the country's total number of troops. By the Zhengde period, the Ministry of War calculated that the number of desertions had accounted for eight-tenths of the number of personnel.

Except for the presence of guards in the bitter cold areas of the frontier, the guard armies in other parts of the Ming Dynasty have gradually become incompetent. The reason why the border guards did not desert was because the place was too poor, and six taels of silver a year was considered a good salary. As long as the economy was better, they would definitely have to flee.

Take the Haitan Water Village at this time as an example: the army here is rated at [-] people, but Wang Wenlong took a quick look and saw that it would be good to have [-] people. In addition to the generals having to pay their salaries, the larger ones The reason is that the guardhouse that supplies Haitan Water Village may not be able to recruit more than a thousand people - all the people with nimble hands and feet have left.

The difference between camp soldiers and guard troops can also be seen at a glance.

During the martial arts practice in the water village, the more than a thousand soldiers in front looked quite capable, and many of them were young and strong. Their speed in firing firecrackers was much faster than those in the back. They were obviously paid soldiers.

The small group of old, weak, sick and disabled people following them were much weaker. A group of gray-headed old men were pretending to be there with some broken weapons. They were undoubtedly the guards.

Wang Wenlong looked carefully at the group of guardsmen and saw that the youngest among them was probably in his forties. Although the older ones had shaved their beards, looking at their trembling looks, they were probably in their sixties or seventies.

This group of guard troops will not be disbanded voluntarily, because military households have military fields. After the young and strong military households escape, the average number of acres of land left by the military households is quite large. Of course, the output of these military fields cannot be attributed to the military households themselves. All, most of them have to be turned over to the "army support", but in fact there are not that many troops, so they are naturally divided up by superior officers.

After a set of chains came down, in fact, the military households at this time had become tenant farmers under the superior officers, and their main task changed from fighting in the fields to making extra money for the officers.

However, no matter how strange the military system at this time was, there were still famous generals. For example, Shen Yourong was transferred back from Liaodong by Jin Xuezeng, but he was still capable.

The entire drill in Haitan Water Village lasted a day. The quality of the soldiers was good. There were even night operations. The soldiers practiced small raid formations at night. The wolf mill opened the way, the regiment card followed up, and the small artillery and musketeers behind the cover rushed forward together. .

The Qi Family Army happened forty years ago. At that time, the Yuanyang Formation only had copper and fire blunderbuss. In today's era, the elites of the Ming Dynasty have long been greeted by matchlocks and flanges.

The gunfire continued and the cannons roared, which was quite frightening.

(End of this chapter)