Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

The matter of smallpox was only briefly mentioned, and Zhu Youjian planned to let the Jinyiwei give it a try.

As long as it can delay the time of Jianlu a little, it is a good method worth trying.

After discussing his experience as an officer with Zhang Yongan and Gu Yanwu, Zhu Youjian asked them to sum up their experience and explore ways to train grassroots officers.

Zhang Yongan was deeply touched:

"It was only after I became the squadron leader that I understood why the army was based on a hundred men."

"Whether it's the centurions of the guards or the centurion commanders of the previous dynasty, officers who command about a hundred soldiers are all the foundation of the army."

Zhu Youjian clapped his hands and exclaimed:
"What Zhang Qing said is absolutely right!"

"The reason why I let you hereditary officials be the squadron leaders is to test who has the talent to lead the troops."

"Around a hundred people is the upper limit of the number of people that one person can interact with. About twenty people who are deeply involved can just control a squadron."

"If a person cannot even lead a hundred people, it means that his ability is not as good as average, or he is not serious."

"Such people need to be transferred to other positions so as not to affect combat operations."

This is a famous theory in later generations, known as the 150 rule, also known as Dunbar's number -

Human intelligence allows humans to have a stable social network of about 150 people.

Zhu Youjian had a deep understanding of this number.

Because after his previous massive power grab, he soon realized that apart from court ministers and local governors, he had no time to care about the provincial governors and provincial judges.

He even often ignored the ministers and junior ministers whom he often saw in the court.

Human energy is limited, and there is only so much that one can remember.

If you want to manage more people, you need an organizational system.

Therefore, he has gradually delegated power and even planned to hand over the selection of officials other than court ministers and local governors to the court without his participation.

Otherwise, officials would have been selected during court meetings, and he would not even know most of them.

It would be better not to participate at all and hold those responsible accountable if something goes wrong.

Thinking about these insights, Zhu Youjian said to the two of them:
"There are about a hundred people, and they can still maintain it through hard work and personal affection."

“But no matter how many people there are, we must use systems to restrain them.”

"From a general of 100 men to a general of 1,000 men, this is another threshold."

"I hope you two will continue to work hard in the future."

After discussing his own experiences, Zhu Youjian asked the two to investigate how many friends and close friends each person has on average.

From this, we can calculate an average number as the upper limit of the squadron size.

This is to prevent the squadron from having too many people and many junior officers being unable to manage it.

Zhang Yongan and Gu Yanwu listened to the emperor's arrangements and gained a deeper understanding of the current emperor's style.

As expected of an emperor who attaches great importance to mathematics, the current emperor pays much more attention to numbers than ordinary people.

If they want to gain the emperor's attention, they must work hard on this aspect.

The two men communicated with the emperor for a long time, and were not sent out of Tsinghua Garden until late at night.

Gu Yanwu touched the telescope given by the emperor and could not help but sigh to Zhang Yongan:

"Your Majesty, you truly have the heart of an ancient benevolent monarch."

"I am just a student, yet Your Majesty treats me with such courtesy."

"No wonder everyone in the court and the public praises Your Majesty so much."

There is actually more to his words.

After the Ji Si Jingchao, the emperor preferred to send young officials to act in the positions rather than appointing a large number of Donglin Party members to official positions.

This made all officials realize that the emperor was wary of the Donglin Party.

However, the officials of the Donglin Party could not say anything.

Because except for not giving them real positions, the emperor gave them many other rewards and courtesies.

Even if they want to complain, they will only be seen as greedy.

Even after public opinion was controlled by the newspapers, they could not utter a word of complaint.

Zhang Yongan did not have a good impression of the Donglin Party and did not want to get involved in the affairs between civil servants.

He has now recognized his own identity, that is, the emperor's trusted Jinyiwei hereditary official, and the current emperor's private minister.

So he thought more about the task assigned by the emperor, which was to write a good "Outline of Army Grassroots Construction" and rely on this article to obtain the status of Yuanshi.

Gu Yanwu wanted to say more, but suddenly a eunuch came over, holding two boxes and said:

"Captain Zhang, Gu Yuanshi, take care. His Majesty has given us something."

Show the contents of the box to both people and have them sign for it.

Gu Yanwu and Zhang Yongan looked and found a short gun each in the box.

This short gun looks quite strange, it uses a spring wheel lighter. In front of the lighter is a cylinder, and in front of that is the barrel.

Gu Yanwu and Zhang Yongan didn't know why it was made like this, until the young eunuch explained it to them, and then they understood:
"Put the bullets in the cylinder in advance, fire one, turn the cylinder by hand, and wind up the spring-wheel lighter at the same time."

"Then you can pull the trigger and fire the next bullet."

"This musket must have a very fast firing rate. It's a really good musket!"

Gu Yanwu spoke with great interest, and was extremely fond of this musket with a very fast firing rate.

The same is true for Zhang Yongan. After trying it, he sighed:

"It would be better if it was longer so that the soldiers could use it."

The eunuch who delivered the musket smiled and said:
"There are also long revolving muskets, but they leak air at the back, so the range is not much improved."

"So the emperor ordered the production of more short guns for use as self-defense weapons."

As he spoke, he also reminded the two:

"This short gun, the emperor calls it a hand gun."

"Don't treat it the same way as the old hand cannon."

The name "hand cannon" has existed as early as the Ming Dynasty, and refers to a tubular firearm that can be held in the hand.

This type of firearm was used more frequently in the early days of the country, but has long been phased out.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian imitated the pistols of later generations and called the short hand-held gun a hand gun.

This revolver musket was developed by Lu Xiang and others after he failed to develop the revolver thunder gun.

This research went smoothly and a practical musket was produced.

Moreover, the form of the sub-gun also changed, taking on the appearance of later bullets.

The muskets in front of Gu Yanwu and Zhang Yongan used copper-shell rimmed bullets. Although there was a raised hole at the bottom to ignite the gunpowder, it was much more like a bullet than the previous muskets.

So Zhu Youjian called it a bullet, and the revolver that loaded the bullets was also called a cartridge case. He also developed a loader for quick loading and recovery of bullets.

The shells of these bullets need to be recovered and reloaded, and users are even required to master the skills of reloading bullets.

The revolver musket's firing rate far outstripped the three-barreled musket, and its range could be comparable after the barrel was lengthened. Therefore, Zhu Youjian also ordered the manufacture of a cavalry musket with a longer barrel, similar in status to the carbine of later generations, to replace the three-barreled musket.

This is also the biggest use of the revolver musket. If the barrel is lengthened, its range and power will not be as good as the musket with a leak-proof tail, so it cannot be used as a main weapon.

Gu Yanwu and Zhang Yongan soon realized this. After playing with it for a while, they knew that this short gun was suitable for self-defense. As for its use on the battlefield, they could not expect too much.

After all, its barrel is too short and there is air leakage at the back, so its range and power are certainly not as good as those of a muzzle-loading musket, and its power on a large-scale battlefield is very limited.

However, for Gu Yanwu, who was blind in his right eye, this hand cannon was very suitable because his vision defect was not obvious at close range.

This made him feel even more grateful to the emperor. Zhang Yongan also smiled and said to him:
"Brother Gu, I am taking advantage of you this time."

"Otherwise, I won't be able to get such a new type of firearm."

Obviously, he also guessed that this was given by the emperor to Gu Yanwu for self-defense. As for him, it was just a by-product.

Gu Yanwu gently wiped the corners of his eyes and said towards the direction of Tsinghua University:
"God's grace is so great, I can only serve my country loyally!"

"Let's go back and write down our conversation with His Majesty as soon as possible."

"Because I forget something, I won't be able to write a good article."

I worked with Zhang Yongan until late at night and made a rough note of today's conversation.

If there weren't an exercise tomorrow, the two of them would probably work all night long.
-
The next day, the second phase of the review began, with the Imperial Camp, Beijing Camp, Patrol Camp and meritorious soldiers from the southwest each sending out a thousand men to compete.

The first to face off were the Beijing camp and the meritorious soldiers from the southwest. Qin Liangyu led a thousand white-pole soldiers and was the first to request to go into battle.

The White Spear Soldiers were very famous and gained a great reputation in the Battle of Bozhou and the Battle of Hunhe.

Although Qin Liangyu's contribution to the suppression of the rebellion in the southwest was not so obvious, she was always the main force in suppressing the rebellion.

When Zhu Youjian requested to transfer meritorious soldiers from the southwest to Beijing, he specifically asked Qin Liangyu to bring the White Spear Soldiers with him.

So this first battle was between the Beijing troops and the meritorious soldiers from the southwest.

The soldiers of the Beijing camp had not been on the battlefield for a long time, but the soldiers who were selected to participate in the grand review were obviously elite.

Some of them were transferred from Liaodong, such as the general Yang Guozhu who led the team.

However, even though he was brave in battle and skilled in riding and shooting, he could not change the overall situation alone on the battlefield.

These white-pole soldiers, who had fought on the battlefield for many years, quickly suppressed the Beijing camp soldiers with their skilled tactics, and used their white-pole spears to prevent Yang Guozhu from displaying his martial arts.

Yang Guozhu tried to break out of the encirclement, but failed. He could only lament that he was not leading cavalry, otherwise he would not have been defeated so badly.

But no matter what, the Beijing Camp had failed. What made him even more angry was that some of the Beijing Camp soldiers seemed to be watching a show and did not bravely move forward at all.

These people dare to do this in front of the emperor. Won't they desert the battlefield in the future?
Yang Guozhu made up his mind to train these people well in the future.

However, he did not have this opportunity. Zhu Youjian, who was watching the exercise on the stage, also saw this. He said coldly to Li Banghua, the military commander of the Beijing Camp:

"Is this what the elite troops of the Beijing Camp's Class A Battalion look like?"

"Eliminate half of these people and recruit elite troops from the B-class battalion."

"The best soldiers should be gathered together to serve as the benchmark for the army."

He was obviously very dissatisfied with the results of Li Banghua's military reorganization.

He gave Li Banghua so much power so that he could build a combat-capable army.

Unexpectedly, although Li Banghua had the power, the soldiers he led were still useless.

If the elite troops selected are like this, how can we expect the other soldiers to perform?

So he was already thinking in his heart whether he should change a general and continue to advance the army——

After all, military affairs are different from other things, the results must be immediate.

Li Banghua was also secretly resentful in his heart because he was the one who carefully selected the candidates for the Beijing Camp to participate in the grand review.

Unexpectedly, these people performed well in archery, but when it came to the battlefield, they had no desire to fight at all.

This made him lose face in front of the emperor, and the results of his military reorganization were also questioned by many.

Fortunately, the emperor did not continue to criticize them in front of all the ministers. Instead, he praised the white-pole soldiers and believed that they were worthy of being the elite in the army.

He also wrote a poem to praise Qin Liangyu, the commander of the army:

"The five-foot spear is a heroic figure, and the dawn shines on the parade ground."

"The Chinese people have many ambitions, they prefer weapons rather than red clothes."

"General Qin can be regarded as the modern Mulan. She will definitely be a female general who will go down in history in the future."

The ministers heard the emperor's praise and also praised him in return.

Although the Shiqu Ma family was a chieftain, the series of actions of Ma Qiancheng and Qin Liangyu undoubtedly made them recognized by the scholars.

Even Zhang Fengyi, the sister of Zhang Daojun, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, became Qin Liangyu's daughter-in-law, and the two families became related by marriage.

Zhang Fengyi's family background was not low. Her father, Zhang Quan, was one of the loyal ministers who died in Liaodong. Her grandfather, Zhang Wudian, retired as the Minister of War. The Zhang family had two generations of successful candidates in the imperial examinations.

Such families were willing to marry into the Ma family, which shows the recognition of the Shiqu Ma family and Qin Liangyu. Many people regarded her as a minister of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian knew Qin Liangyu's loyalty and knew that she was posthumously named Marquis of Loyalty by the Southern Ming Dynasty in history. So he praised her generously and even borrowed a poem from later generations.

Zhu Youjian thought this poem was nothing special, but Qin Liangyu was extremely happy when she heard it.

What she liked most were the four words "sons and daughters of China" in the poem, which meant that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not treat her as an outsider.

After paying her respects, Qin Liangyu said:
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the poem!"

“Although the Shiqu Ma family is a chieftain, they are also Chinese.”

Zhu Youjian had not noticed this before, but when he heard Qin Liangyu specifically mention it, he realized that there was no Chinese nation at this time, and he changed his mind and said loudly:

"All people of Huaxia and Miao descent are the children of China."

"The Ma family may be chieftains, but they are still Chinese people."

"If the Ma family wants to establish a fiefdom, I can also change the hereditary chieftain position into a title of nobility."

"I treat those who serve the country the same."

The concept of "sons of the Chinese nation" was formally established and linked to "Huaxia" and "Zhu Xia".

Qin Liangyu was even more delighted when she heard this, and almost requested on the spot that her hereditary chieftain position be converted into a title of nobility.

Fortunately, she knew that this was a serious matter and now was not the time to discuss it, so Xie En stepped down.

After the competition between the Beijing Camp and the meritorious soldiers in the Southwest, the competition between the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp began.

These two armies were new troops, organized by Zhu Youjian according to battalions, squadrons, squads, and ten-fives. In this battle of a thousand men, each side sent out a battalion.

Although they were all large groups, their numbers varied. The Imperial Camp had fewer people, only about 500, while the Patrol Camp had more people, as many as 700.

Which side is more powerful depends on their actual performance.

Different from the previous close combat, the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp were armies equipped with firearms.

So their competition started from a distance, where they fired their guns from a distance to see which side could fire faster.

The use of muskets was also based entirely on actual combat requirements. Except for the fact that the warheads were fragile sawdust pellets, everything else was based on actual combat requirements.

Because the tactics were the same, it was easy to tell who was better. The soldiers of the Imperial Camp, who were better soldiers and had experienced actual combat, were clearly better than those of the Patrol Camp. They fired four volleys in the same amount of time, beating the Patrol Camp's three.

Moreover, the gunshots were obviously more orderly, not as scattered as those in the patrol camp.

In the subsequent changes in the formation, the Imperial Camp was also superior, taking less time and faster than the Patrol Camp.

The contest between the two sides almost always unfolded like this, without the bloody close combat just now.

Except for the Imperial Camp and the Patrol Camp themselves, most other people didn't understand what was going on.

However, the following competition between the Imperial Camp and the meritorious soldiers from the southwest will let them know the power of this tactic. (End of this chapter)