Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

In addition to mobilizing reinforcements, Zhu Xieyuan’s second suggestion was to fortify the city and clear the fields.

This would cause great harm to people's livelihood and would also make people all over the world uneasy. Zhu Youjian did not fully implement it, but instead issued an order:

"Send soldiers to guard the granaries in Tongzhou and other places, and try to transport as much grain as possible to the city."

"As for the granaries in the capital, have the Censorate and the Imperial Household Department check them together."

"Make up for what needs to be done, and bring in the food from outside the city as soon as possible."

“The grain harvested from all over the country should also be transported into the city and not piled up in the wild.”

He was also worried that the cities in various places could not be defended and would be easily captured by the Jianlu after they broke through the pass, so Zhu Youjian issued another order:

"Order all military preparation roads and garrison areas to enter a state of combat readiness."

"The garrisons and county lieutenants of each prefecture and county should organize reserve force training after the busy farming season."

"The Privy Council and the Censorate sent people to inspect the city walls and their defenses."

"Prefectures and counties with spare capacity are allowed to build sharp-angled gun platforms based on bastions."

"In densely populated areas, it is also allowed to build walled cities for self-defense."

This was suggested by Xu Guangqi and others. After Dalinghhe Fort demonstrated its strong defensive capabilities, no one doubted the effectiveness of the bastion.

Some officials even proposed to build all the cities in the Ming Dynasty into bastions.

However, the current Ming Dynasty court obviously could not afford this amount of work.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian only allowed some wealthy prefectures and counties to rebuild on their own by adding sharp-angled gun platforms on the originally square city walls.

The bastions were equipped with firearms. Zhu Youjian asked Bi Maokang:

"How many firearms are produced and stored in the capital?"

“Can it be distributed to various places?”

Bi Maokang shook his head upon hearing this and said:
"After His Majesty proposed the use of firearms, armies from all over the country have been asking for firearms, and the Equipment Department is also working hard to produce them."

"However, the new firearms were mainly supplied to the new troops of the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp. The surplus was also taken by the Beijing Camp and the Dalinghe Fort on the front line, and some were transferred to Korea."

"Most of the obsolete firearms were supplied to Liaodong and Jizhen by the Logistics Department, and were unable to support local areas."

"But there should be some weapons in stockpiles in various places that can be pulled out and counted."

Zhu Youjian had no hope for the local weapons storage situation, but at this time, every bit of strength he could gain counted, so he said to Min Mengde:
"The procurement and maintenance of military equipment is the responsibility of the Ordnance Department of the Logistics Department."

"The Logistics Department and the Military Supervision Bureau should send people to the local area to count the weapons, appoint a special person to be in charge of the arsenal, and check the status regularly."

"Previously, as long as the situation was not excessive, we could ignore it. But after the logistics department sends someone to take over, we must make everything clear."

"Otherwise, if something goes wrong, the logistics department will be held responsible first, and then the local officials will be held accountable."

This made Min Mengde complain, knowing that he had been given a tough job.

However, the Logistics Department is so profitable that it is understandable that the emperor keeps a closer eye on it.

Under the pretext of reorganizing the army and preparing for war, Zhu Youjian ordered various departments of the Privy Council to investigate the military situation in northern Zhili.
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After all these arrangements were made, Yang Sichang, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said:
"I think that it is important to prepare for war in Northern Zhili, but the Battle of Dalinghe is more important."

"You can order the Liaodong cavalry to go out and make a feint at Daling River to tie down the Jianlu troops."

"We even used the signal tower to arrange a time with the Dalinghe defenders, so that they could go out and attack from both inside and outside together with the Liaodong cavalry."

This was his suggestion in response to the battle situation on the front line, and most of the officials in the Privy Council agreed with it.

The mobilization of troops from the entire northern Zhili would cause too much noise. It would be better to mobilize troops from Liaodong to attract the Jianlu there.

Even if Liaodong loses some soldiers, it is better than the capital being in danger.

When Zhu Youjian first heard this, he thought it made some sense and believed that as long as he could delay it for another year, his power would become even stronger.

But after seeing the officials of the Privy Council agreeing with him and making various suggestions for the Battle of Daling River, even arranging the position of the artillery, he suddenly became alert:
Don't interfere in the war on the front line!

This made him frown, staring at Yang Sichang and asking:

"Directly interfere in the war on the front line."

"Do you want to learn from the Privy Council of the Song Dynasty?"

"Can the General Staff's strategy guarantee victory?"

Yang Sichang's face turned pale and he instantly understood why the emperor was unhappy.

Directly interfering in front-line fighting has always been a taboo in war.

As a man well-versed in military books and strategies, he was not unaware of this and knew the consequence of doing so, which was usually failure.

The Song Dynasty is a typical example. Whenever there was a war, the emperor or the Privy Council would draw up a battle formation and then require the generals to deploy their troops according to the formation formation.

The result is naturally predictable, and they often suffer failure in wars.

Now that the Privy Council has just been established, he has begun to make the same mistakes as the Privy Council of the Song Dynasty.

This made Yang Sichang realize that he had committed a serious crime. He knelt down and apologized, saying:
"I was confused for a moment, please forgive me, Your Majesty."

"But I think that since the court can communicate with the front line, it is only natural for it to propose strategies."

"After all, the generals on the front line only see a small part, while the court sees the whole picture."

I still believe that the General Staff's strategy should be sent to the Liaodong front.

Most of the officials of the Privy Council also agreed with Yang Sichang, believing that under such convenient communication conditions, command over the front line should be strengthened.

Some people even thought of the square formations and other formations proposed by the emperor, and felt that although the current emperor opposed it on the surface, he actually wanted to learn from the former Song emperor.

Zhu Youjian shook his head and sighed, because he knew that even if there were telegraphs and telephones in the future, the rear could not treat the front-line generals as puppets.

After all, the war situation on the front line changes rapidly, and the rear cannot react in time. It is necessary to give the front-line generals the power to command operations and let them exert their abilities.

Now, because of the armboard communication, these people in the Privy Council of the Ming Dynasty are rushing to expand their command power. In his opinion, it is really nonsense.

This made him think carefully, and he said clearly to his ministers:
"The Privy Council of the Ming Dynasty is not the Privy Council of the former Song Dynasty. We don't need people who can only talk about military operations on paper."

"The training of square formations, circular formations, chariot formations and other formations are all part of daily training and are also conventional tactics."

"But they cannot cover all situations. Commanding operations should be done as Yue Wumu said:"

"To form a formation before fighting is the common principle of military tactics. The key to its application lies in one's heart."

"This is the experience of the generals after the Northern Song Dynasty became the Southern Song Dynasty. You must learn from it!"

Taking Yue Fei's words and the transition from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty as examples, Zhu Youjian severely reprimanded the officials of the Privy Council and drew a line for them:

"The court is responsible for strategic planning, and the front line is responsible for tactical command."

"The court can propose mission objectives to the generals on the front line, but how to fight is up to the generals on the front line to decide for themselves."

"If the Privy Council feels that he has done a poor job, they can send a letter of reprimand, ask for an explanation, or even dismiss him on the spot and replace him with someone else."

"But it is the power of the generals on the front line to decide which troops to dispatch and what combat plans to implement."

"Unless there is an emergency, you may not give orders beyond your level."

"Especially for some people, skipping one level is not enough, they want to skip two or three levels."

This made Yang Sichang's face even paler, as he knew that the emperor was talking about him.

The strategy he just proposed directly bypassed the Liaodong Front Army and the Jinzhou General and directly commanded the Dalinghhe battle.

This is a great destruction to the authority of the generals in the army. In the long run, the subordinates will develop the habit of waiting and waiting, and will still wait for the court's order after the superiors give the order.

Thinking of this consequence, Yuan Keli had to say:
"In the military, it is indeed not appropriate to give orders beyond one's level. The Privy Council's command authority should be limited to the division level."

"And when there is an army above the division, it must be reported to the front first."

Zhu Youjian nodded in agreement and said to Yang Sichang:
"Remember, the General Staff is not the Military Command. It only has the power to make suggestions."

"The Privy Council is in charge of military orders. The proposal of the General Staff must be approved by the Privy Council before it can be turned into a military order."

"Before converting it into a military order, if the General Staff finds any key points from the overall situation, they can send a reminder to the front line."

“If the frontline ignores it, they will be held responsible if something goes wrong.”

"The same is true for specific combat plans. Whether to adopt them is decided by the generals on the front line."

"Unless approved by the Privy Council, the General Staff may not issue military orders privately."

Zhu Youjian made clear restrictions on the power of the General Staff and punished Yang Sichang in order to alert the staff:
"Yang Sichang violated military rules and his rank was demoted by one level."

"You all should take this as a warning and not cross the line at will."

Use Yang Sichang as an example to scare others and curb the General Staff's impulse to command the battle on the front line.

Let the officials of the Privy Council also take this as a warning.

In order to prevent the Privy Council and the General Staff from influencing the war on the front line in other ways, Zhu Youjian also imposed restrictions on personnel transfers, rewards and punishments during the war, stipulating that the Privy Council should not issue orders at will during the war unless a request was made from the front line.

We cannot give orders during battle and make the soldiers on the front line at a loss just because we have arm board communications.

Armboard communications can play other roles, such as informing the front line of enemy movements, the deployment of one's own troops, major events occurring in the court, and even delivering family letters to soldiers... all of which are more meaningful than giving random commands.

Military documents also have strict regulations to distinguish between formal military orders and staff advice.

In order to strengthen the professionalism of the General Staff, Zhu Youjian ordered the establishment of the Border Defense Army General Staff Department and the Navy General Staff Department, and appointed chiefs of staff in the two armies. He joined the General Staff Department as deputy chief of staff. When the General Staff Department issued official documents to the Border Defense Army and the Navy, they were required to countersign.

Each of the various armies should also set up a staff department like the Imperial Guards in Beijing, and a staff office at the division level, with the chief of staff as the chief officer, responsible for receiving and studying the suggestions of the staff department, and taking over the command of the generals when necessary.

The order of command on the front line was also repeatedly emphasized to determine the first commander and person in charge in the war.

For Dalinghe Fort, it confirmed He Kegang's command over the Battle of Dalinghe. Before the war expanded into the Battle of Jinzhou and the Battle of Liaodong, even the Jinzhou General and the Liaodong Admiral had no right to interfere with He Kegang's command.

He and the Guard Commandant Huo Weihua were the first and second persons in charge of the Battle of Daling River. (End of this chapter)