If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 52 Recruitment
"I have met His Highness the Second Emperor's Grandson!" In Zhu Zhanchun's study, Yang Pu was bowing and saluting Zhu Zhanchun.

Although in the Xuande Dynasty, Yang Puhui entered the cabinet as "Nanyang", one of the three Yangs, and took over the position of chief minister after Yang Shiqi's death, today he is just a small prince Xima in the East Palace, far away from the future imperial court The important minister still has a long way to go.

The prince's horse washing should actually be called Xianma, which means galloping in front of the horse, and he is the attendant of the prince.

This official position already existed in the pre-Qin period. Its original intention was to hold the reins for the prince, or to guide the prince when he traveled, but I don't know when the horse became a wash horse.

So in the Ming Dynasty, people often jokingly asked the official who was responsible for the prince's horse washing how many horses were washed every day.

But all joking aside, Prince Xima was a noble official in the Ming Dynasty, and even a highly sought-after official position for scholars.

On the one hand, this is a close minister of the Crown Prince. Once the Crown Prince ascends the throne in the future, he will become a hero of Conglong Qiandi. The new monarch will definitely be very useful in his administration.

This will indeed be the case for Yang Pu in the future. Although he was imprisoned for more than ten years due to Zhu Gaoxu's false accusation during the Yongle Dynasty, he was immediately reused after Zhu Gaochi succeeded to the throne, especially because Zhu Gaoxu felt that Yang Pu was He was imprisoned for ten years because of his own involvement, and he was particularly gracious to him.

Of course, these are all things for later. For Yang Pu now, he is still just a small official who has been in the officialdom for ten years. At this moment, he wants to do something because of the prince's order.

Zhu Zhanjun naturally saw Yang Pu's thoughts. After being polite to him, he asked Yang Pu to sit down and then said to him: "I must have told Mr. Yang that my father has told me this time. The imperial edict requires me to train a guard and horse, but I have never trained a soldier before, and I am so confused that I don’t know where to start.
I heard that Mr. Yang was talented and just the help I needed, so I shamelessly asked Mr. Yang from my father and asked him to help me. "

"His Royal Highness the Second Emperor is so polite. It is Yang Pu's honor to be favored by His Highness. I will do my best to assist His Highness in training a strong army." Yang Pu didn't say much, and he also showed it to Zhu Zhanquan. He was very polite, but he was not in a hurry to show off his talent.

After all, Zhu Zhanyun was the chief officer of this military training, and Yang Pu was only serving as an assistant. He also knew his position very clearly, that is, to assist Zhu Zhanyun.

As an official of the East Palace, Yang Pu did not have any resistance to this errand, or felt that he was a scholar and should not engage in martial arts.

After all, this was still the early Ming Dynasty. Although there were many bad things about the literati, the overall atmosphere at this time was still relatively pragmatic. Moreover, as a famous minister who could leave his name in history, Yang Pu was naturally not the kind of person who would just sit back and talk about his character in times of crisis. Death is the so-called clear flow of retribution to the king.

Zhu Zhanqi was also very satisfied with Yang Pu's attitude, so he talked to him about the specific matters of military training: "My grandfather attached great importance to this military training. Not only did he give me a gold medal to do things cheaply, he also asked the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War to fully cooperate, so We don’t have to worry about food and supplies for this training.”

"But this is also pressure on His Highness. The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War have fully cooperated. If His Highness makes a mistake, he will inevitably attract criticism and criticism." Yang Pu did not say anything nice, but pointed out what Zhu Zhanchen faced. The problem.

As an official of the East Palace, Yang Pu could see that this military training was a good opportunity for the East Palace to intervene in the military power, but this was an opportunity and also a crisis.

Because if you don't do it well, you will not only lose points with the emperor, but also give the King of Han, who has been coveting the throne, an opportunity to criticize.

Not to mention anything else, just look at how dangerous the struggle between the prince and the king of Han is today when the great scholar Xie Jin was falsely accused by the king of Han and sent to prison because he went to the capital to meet with the prince to make an announcement. .At this time, the East Palace cannot make any negligence to let the King of Han seize the opportunity.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Gaochi sent Yang Pu to help Zhu Zhanquan train his troops. In the eyes of Yang Pu and a group of princelings, this was helping the East Palace fight for the heir apparent.

So after pointing out the negative side of this matter, Yang Pu asked Zhu Zhankun: "I don't know if your highness will use a ready-made guard station for this military training, or can you recruit a new guard horse? If so, There are ready-made guard stations. Most of the troops and horses in the guard stations in the south of the Yangtze River cannot be driven. Your Highness can ask Jin Shangshu to help you transfer a guard station from the north or Lianghu, Anhui and other places."

The Weisuo system was Zhu Yuanzhang's most proud initiative. He once proudly said, "I raise millions of soldiers without costing the people a grain of rice." This shows that Zhu Yuanzhang was proud of the Weisuo system.

However, the guard system itself had many shortcomings, so much so that during the Hongwu period, some military households fled, and they would rather be deserters than continue to be military households.

In the 14th year of Zhengde's reign, Wang Qiong, the official secretary of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, wrote: "Every year, the imperial guards of the world go to seize the banners of military officers. There are no more than [-] or [-] troops. According to calculations, not one or two of the troops seduced arrive at the guard. There have been missions since the Hongwu and Yongle years. , for more than thirty years now, he has married a wife and had children, lived in a family and owned a family, and has been in the same military household, and he has been hiding in hiding."

It can be seen that the problem of deserters in the garrison is serious.

Due to the influence of the military household system, the regular army driven by the imperial court was still acceptable. After all, it was an army that was used all year round. The overall quality and soldiers were not bad.

But the local garrisons were not good enough. During the Hongwu period, the guard posts in the prosperous places in the south of the Yangtze River were basically in decay.

Otherwise, Qi Jiguang and his thousands of guardsmen would not have been beaten to collapse by dozens of Japanese pirates, so that he, the commander-in-chief, was almost captured.

After Yang Pu knew that he wanted to help Zhu Zhanquan train troops, he went to investigate the relevant information and materials. In addition, he himself was a southerner, so he knew exactly what the Jiangnan Guards Station looked like.

Zhu Zhanyu was not surprised when he heard what Yang Pu said. He nodded and said: "I am also aware of the shortcomings of the guard station, so I plan to recruit troops for this training."

"Recruiting soldiers? This..." Yang Pu was not surprised when he heard that Zhu Zhanqun planned to recruit soldiers. He just pondered for a moment and then asked: "Since the money and food are provided by the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War, it is enough, but His Highness plans to Where can we recruit troops? Does the court allow this?"

Because of the system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming army maintained the garrison system in the early Ming Dynasty. It was not until after the Tumubao Incident that the main force of the Ming army, the Beijing camp, was completely lost and the court had no troops to use, so it gradually began to recruit troops.

Therefore, if Zhu Zhanyu wants to recruit troops at this time, there will definitely be resistance and opinions in the court.

"My new army is different from the old army. It uses the Xian family's military training method that I learned from Penglai Immortal Island. Soldiers need to be carefully selected, so I can only recruit soldiers." Zhu Zhanquan gave a reasonable explanation Reason: "If someone criticizes you for this, respond with this statement."

(End of this chapter)