Ming politicians

The purpose of beheading officers is to improve the combat effectiveness of the frontier army. Killing people is definitely not the purpose. Officers are irreplaceable to the importance of the army. One general is incompetent and exhausts the entire army. Su Tiancheng, who is about to leave Liaodong, is the key point His eyes were still aimed at the frontier officer.

The stability of Liaodong is an unshakable premise, and all adjustments and deployments must be carried out around this goal, but the actual situation Su Tiancheng is facing is also somewhat difficult.

Although a large number of frontier troops have been abolished, and most of the military households have left the army directly, there are still many officers in the frontier army. It is not a good thing to have too many officers, not to mention wasting military pay. It will also affect the combat effectiveness of the frontier army, especially the frontier army stationed at Shanhaiguan before. It is estimated that Wu Sangui has enough officers to win over the army, and there is basically no vacancy. This is a very rare situation among the Ming army. It was the Jiangning battalion, and it didn't arrange so many officers according to the requirements of the Ming army's officer allocation. The Jiangning battalion paid attention to the allocation of grassroots officers. On the contrary, it is not required to be fully equipped with senior officers of this type. A guard command and envoy has a lot of officers who are commanders, commanders, etc. The allocation of these officers pursues the principle of competence and efficiency, and the higher the status The higher the military salary, the more money will be consumed.

After the abolishment of the frontier army, a large number of officers remained. They had nothing to do, and there were almost no soldiers under them. Zu Dashou, Wu Sangui, Zu Dabi, Zu Dale and others were also helpless in such a situation. They could not do it themselves To abolish the officers, it can only be left like this, and the Governor's Office has not made a request.Only in the twelfth lunar month, the Governor's Mansion beheaded more than [-] officers, which caused a huge shock to these officers.

Before leaving Liaodong, Su Tiancheng had to solve this problem, but he thought about it for a long time.No good solution has been found. 10,000+ frontier troops have been abolished, and thousands of officers have been involved. This is a huge team, and many of the officers are from a family of officers.

This task fell to Qu Qingze.

After a while, Qu Qingze's anxious hair turned gray.I can't think of a good way either.

When entering the wing room, Qu Qingze shook his head.

"My lord, I really can't think of a good way to deal with the border army officers. There are more than 8000 people in total. I don't know how to arrange them. I have investigated them. Among these officers, there are only a small number of them. Some of them do not have much combat effectiveness, and there is no possibility of arranging them, and those officers who are capable of recruiting and fighting are counted by the lower officials."

"How many of these people are there?"

"There are about 100 people, and there are [-] officers left. Such a huge number is really difficult to arrange."

"These 100 people, I will stay in Dengzhou, and the rest of the officers, according to your original idea. How are you going to deal with it?"

"The original idea of ​​the lower official was to disarm and return to the fields, just like the disbanded frontier army. Unfortunately, I don't know if this method is feasible, and I don't know how much impact it will have. If I don't have enough confidence, I dare not do it. .”

Su Tiancheng nodded, time was running out and he had to make a choice.

His original idea was also to let these officers be disarmed and returned to the fields. These officers are not highly educated, and it is even more impossible to enter the government, but it is definitely not possible to always leave them like this. It is the best way to disarm and return to the fields, but such an approach cannot be done directly in Liaodong. If there are so many officers, if there is any commotion, something will happen, and it will be difficult to deal with.

"Old Qu, what do you think, let these officers become a separate army and stationed in Datong, how about it?"

Qu Qingze shook his head repeatedly.

"My lord, let me tell you the truth, these officers are not capable, but they are not small, and they think highly of themselves. Such people are troublesome wherever they go. If they are sent to Datong, Lord Zhang Fengyi must be It's going to be a headache, if I change to the lower officials, I want to let them disarm and return to the fields."

"I have also thought about this method, but there are still some problems. The dismissal of so many officers rashly may cause a sensation. We still need to be cautious. The Governor's Mansion has dismissed so many sergeants. There are already many in the court. After discussing, I am afraid that this year's military pay will be cut down. At that time, I also thought that these officers would be abolished, but unfortunately this step was not done. It is much more difficult to deal with it now."

"My lord, I think that there is no big problem. It is not a big problem to ask them to directly disarm and return to the fields. Besides, the killing of a group of evil officers years ago caused a great shock. Taking this opportunity , Dismissing officers, they dare not say more."

Su Tiancheng shook his head.

"Old Qu, you can't only see the positive side, but also the negative side. We have abolished so many frontier troops, which caused a lot of shock. This time beheading the officer who did many evils is also a kind of deterrence. Doing things requires a degree of relaxation, and blindly adopting high-pressure policies will definitely cause some resentment. This kind of resentment is very fatal. If it is not done well, it will form anger and play a very destructive role. "

"These officers still have some influence in Liaodong. In any case, they have been stationed in Liaodong for a long time. In the past, they still had some sergeants. This kind of influence cannot be eliminated in a short time. If we cannot smooth it out and take tough measures Is it a measure, it's not appropriate."

Qu Qingze stopped talking. He also knew something about the situation in the court. If there was a large-scale fluctuation in Liaodong, it would just give the court an excuse. Maybe the court would respond quickly. It would be helpful to send people to Liaodong. possible.

There was some silence in the room.

After a while, Su Tiancheng finally spoke.

"I think that according to my idea, all these officers should be sent to Yulin to join the Yulin Camp, and let Mr. Lu Xiangsheng train these officers. If they can pass the rigorous training, they will gradually be added to the ranks of officers in the future. If you can't pass the rigorous training, you will have to be eliminated."

"Okay, my lord has made a decision. I will handle it right away. These officers are also in a state of panic and don't know what to do next. I will contact Lord Lu Xiangsheng immediately."

"I'll handle the matter of contacting directly. I wrote a letter to Mr. Lu Xiangsheng to explain the situation and ask him to train these officers strictly. One thing you have to remember is that these officers cannot stay in Liaodong, they must all leave Liaodong. None of them can stay, all go to Yulin."

"Where are the officers that your lord needs to stay temporarily?"

"All enter the Jiangning camp barracks."

After Qu Qingze left, Su Tiancheng fell into deep thought.

The matter of the officers is settled, and the rest is the problems of Zu Dashou, Zu Dabi, Zu Dale and Wu Sangui. These few people are the key. After a period of contact, Su Tiancheng feels that many problems among the officers still arise. Among these few people, Zu Dashou's understanding was a bit rough, and he didn't pay much attention to some details among the officers, which caused the problem that military discipline was not very good, and in Zu Dashou's heart, for these If there is no clear understanding of the matter, there will definitely be a big obstacle to enhancing the combat effectiveness of the frontier army in the end. As for Zu Dabi, he has a calm personality, but he is not the chief officer in the army. Under the leadership of Zu Dashou, He seldom pays attention to these aspects. Zu Dale has a straightforward personality and generally does not pay attention to the construction of officers.

The biggest problem is Wu Sangui. Wu Sangui has a deep mind, and he does things in an orderly manner. He has always been committed to the construction of the army. The focus is on cultivating his own power, and he has many confidants in the army. This is something that cannot be ignored. In Liaodong, rectifying the frontier army actually weakened Wu Sangui's strength to the greatest extent.

Su Tiancheng needs to think about how to deal with the affairs of these few people. It is absolutely impossible to keep all of them in Liaodong, especially Wu Sangui, but if he wants to bring Wu Sangui to Dengzhou and Laizhou, it will also require great courage. , Relying on historical knowledge, Su Tiancheng knew that Wu Sangui was a capricious villain. If such a person was kept by his side, if he did not have strong control ability, it would be like putting a time bomb by his side.

But Su Tiancheng had to think about it. Putting Wu Sangui in Liaodong might have a bigger problem. With so many frontier troops abolished, Wu Sangui didn't reveal any attitude or dissatisfaction on the surface, unlike Zu Dashou who also expressed his inner feelings Wu Sangui's dissatisfaction and worry, and Wu Sangui's thoughts are all in his heart, and I am afraid that when the opportunity is ripe, it will be revealed.

Liaodong is determined not to have fluctuations. Under such circumstances, Su Tiancheng must find a way to let Wu Sangui leave Liaodong, or go to Datong, or to Yulin, or to Dengzhou. In comparison, letting Wu Sangui go to Dengzhou is the best way. Good choice.

Under such circumstances, the connection between Wu Sangui and the frontier army was basically severed.

Su Tiancheng is the governor of Ji Liao, and he has the power to dispatch the commander-in-chief. Once a decision is made, he only needs to report it to the imperial court.

It should be said that Su Tiancheng has been thinking about this matter for a while, because of the problem of the border army officers, Su Tiancheng had to make a quick decision to take Wu Sangui out of Liaodong, go directly to Dengzhou, and let Wu Sangui directly enter the Navy , who also served as the commander-in-chief, no matter how powerful Wu Sangui was, he couldn't make many small moves in front of him. (To be continued..)