Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After the establishment of the Privy Council, how to arrange the Five Military Commanderies has always been a major headache for Zhu Youjian.

Although this institution is corrupt and its power has long been seized by civil servants, its existence itself is a check and balance on the civil servants.

Not to mention the nobles in the capital, most of whom work there.

In order to prevent the nobles from becoming alienated, Zhu Youjian had to treat the matter with caution.

When the Privy Council was established before, Zhang Weixian and others made various efforts to try to keep the Five Military Governor's Office.

Zhu Youjian retained this institution for the purpose of placing meritorious generals, so that it would be easier to transfer border army generals such as Man Gui who had made great contributions to serve in the court.

At the same time, because there were many nobles in the Five Military Commandery, the voice was relatively loud. He planned to make the Five Military Commandery a club for hereditary officials and military officers, and to speak for the generals.

It can be said that this task has been accomplished quite well. The Guardian, founded by some scholars from the garrisons, now has the support of the Five Military Commanderies.

This newspaper is the best among the military newspapers of the Ming Dynasty. It is also the fifth largest newspaper after the four major newspapers.

Of course, there are several so-called "fifth largest newspapers", so there is no need to elaborate.

Today, with the support of nobles and military attachés, The Guardian is ambitious to become one of the four major newspapers.

They plan to follow the example of Ming Pao and raise funds through listing.

Zhu Youjian was happy to see this phenomenon, so he planned to strengthen the Five Military Commanderies and give them some real power.

However, the civil servants do not want to see this.

Because the emperor not only wanted the Five Military Commanderies to lead the troops, but also revealed his intention to let them take charge of the Dusi Guards.

Otherwise, where would the soldiers of the five military camps come from? Who from the various garrisons would be willing to transfer elite troops here?
Qin Shiwen, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, said:
"Your Majesty, military mobilization matters fall under the jurisdiction of the Military Service Department of the Ministry of War."

"The Ministry of War should be responsible for recruiting soldiers from the local areas."

Right Assistant Minister Xiong Mingyu also said:
"The military mobilization affairs of various places in Shuntian Prefecture outside the city have been assigned to the responsibility of the military preparation department and the guards of the garrison area."

"Guardians are also being set up in coastal defense areas throughout the country."

"Your Majesty has asked the Five Military Commandery to recruit soldiers from all over the country to come to the capital. Are you going to abolish this system and return to the old system to let the Five Military Commandery take charge of the military garrisons?"

The nobles of the Five Military Commandery had thought so, but having been oppressed by the civil officials for hundreds of years, they did not have the courage to say so.

Otherwise, they would have objected when the military and political affairs of the garrison were divided among the guards.

Now that the matter is done, they can’t get it back.

Zhu Youjian took a glance at these nobles and knew that it was impossible to support them.

The most important thing for him at the moment is to implement military reforms, rather than helping the nobles and generals fight for power.

So he made it clear:
"Military and political affairs are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of War. This has been decided before and will not change in the future."

"Minister Qin and Minister Xiong adhere to the principles I set, and they should be rewarded and encouraged."

After praising the two verbally, Zhu Youjian said:
"But apart from military and political affairs, other matters of the garrison still need the involvement of the Five Military Governors' Office."

"For example, matters such as the replacement, preferential treatment, and trial of hereditary officers and hereditary soldiers should all be handled by the Five Military Governors' Office to prevent them from being treated unfairly."

"It can be said that it is customary for the generals of the three camps to come from the Five Military Commandery."

"The Ministry of War is required to recruit soldiers for the five military camps. The Privy Council has issued a transfer order to transfer them over."

After this process was finalized, the nobles of the Five Military Governorates sighed in their hearts, knowing that the power held by the five governorates was still the same as before.

The Privy Council and the Ministry of War were satisfied because the power they fought for was once again determined by the emperor in terms of procedures.

As for the generals of the Five Military Commandery being in charge of the five military camps, after considering it, they did not say much.

Because as the emperor said, it is customary for the generals of the three camps to come from the Five Military Commanderies.

What's more, using generals from the Five Military Commanderies does not mean that they must be nobles. For example, Yang Jiamo, who was transferred from Gansu by the emperor, served as the commander-in-chief of the Shenjiying Camp in the capacity of deputy commander-in-chief.

However, even so, Li Banghua, the Imperial Guard of the Beijing Camp, still argued:
"The five camps divided into five divisions will also be assigned a guard commander to take charge of military affairs."

"The commanders and soldiers of each battalion also need to be rotated regularly."

"To prevent the current class troops from coming to the capital for training but actually serving as labor soldiers."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, not worried that too many rotations would lead to a situation where "the generals don't know their soldiers, and the soldiers don't know their generals."

Because in his setting, the Five Military Camps were used to make up the numbers just like the Shenshu Camp, and were mainly used to boost morale.

In the future they will mainly be infantry and engineers, and will be trained using a unified drill manual.

Only elite warriors who dare to fight will be recruited into the Shenji Camp and serve as elite cavalry and artillery as sergeants.

So he acknowledged:
"Military officers serve for five years, and generals should not hold the same position for more than five years."

"What do you think about the length of time that soldiers transferred from the local areas will serve in the Five Army Camps?"

Xue Fengxiang, the Minister of War, had to show off his two assistant ministers because they were commended:

"The troops coming to Beijing for drills were previously divided into two shifts: the spring shift and the autumn shift."

"If you want to stay for a long time, I think you can imitate the border drills and guard the border for five years at a time."

Zhu Youjian frowned upon hearing this and said to the ministers:

"Does it take so long for soldiers from various garrisons to serve in the frontiers?"

"What is the difference between those who stay and serve in the local area and those who serve in the distant border areas?"

Min Mengde, Minister of Logistics, said:

"When troops are sent to garrison at remote borders, the imperial court must allocate food supplies for them."

"However, because going on duty was hard, many soldiers were not happy to do it, and they bought time off to avoid it. When the soldiers were late for duty or the number of soldiers was insufficient, some leading officers would recruit soldiers privately to make up for the shortfall in order to avoid being punished."

"Now in some places, soldiers are allowed to pay silver privately instead of serving in the army."

This made Zhu Youjian shake his head and sigh, and he realized more that the five-year class schedule needed to be changed.

Otherwise, not to mention that the soldiers would find it hard, even they would shudder at the thought of having to go to the border for five years.

After thinking about it, Zhu Youjian said:
"After the various garrisons were assigned to the garrison area, hereditary officers, sergeants, and military households were required to continue to send people to serve."

"In principle, after reaching the age of 16 and completing martial arts training, a soldier will start to join the army at the age of 20. Each term is five years, and he will be transferred once at the end of his term until he retires at the age of 40 or 50, and his sons and heirs will take his place."

"Those who stay in the local area strictly follow this system, but those who go to the border will have their term reduced to three years, and they can be transferred after the term expires. If they have made contributions over the years, they can be promoted even faster."

"Each time you serve, you can choose whether to return home to serve, and you can have two years of recuperation before continuing to serve."

"In principle, half of the hereditary officers, sergeants, and military households of each garrison must go to guard the border, and the other half and the soldiers from military and civilian households must stay in the local area to cultivate the land and guard. Based on a 20-year service period, at least two terms must be served at the border."

"Based on this calculation, are there enough border troops? How many soldiers from the garrisons can serve as border troops?"

The officials immediately began to calculate. Yuan Keli used the example of the three guards of Zhuolu as an example:
"After the reform of the three guards in Zhuolu, each guard had an average of 100 hereditary officers, 2,000 hereditary soldiers, 3,500 military households, and a number of military and civilian households converted from the surplus men in the guards."

"If we recruit soldiers according to your majesty's suggestion, we can recruit at least 5,600 soldiers, 2,800 of them locally and 2,800 of them to go to the border."

"Because the period of service at the border was reduced from five years to three years, the number of 2,800 people going to the border had to be reduced by 40%, to 1,680 in fact."

"The Ming Dynasty has 493 guards. Minus the guards in the two capitals and Zhongdu that don't need to go to the border, there are about 370 guards that need to send people to the border, which can form a force of 620,000."

"This is not enough for the Nine Borders. If the coastal garrisons do not go to the borders, the southern garrisons will go to the coast and the southern borders to guard. There will be even fewer soldiers going to the Nine Borders, which is not enough to guard the borders."

Border Defense Minister Lau Tsun-Hsien said:

"If we still follow a five-year period, we can have a million soldiers deployed to the border." "Even if the garrisons in the south and along the coast do not go, we can use the garrison battalions of the local garrisons to supplement them."

"Only a million troops like this can defend the nine borders."

When Zhu Youjian heard about the million-strong army, he felt overwhelmed.

However, considering the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, a million troops in nine borders is not really a lot.

When the military force was at its peak in the 48th year of the Wanli reign, the total number of troops in the nine border towns reached 880,000.

Taking into account the problems of troop shortages and missed deadlines, it is only natural to prepare a million troops.

Where these troops come from is really a problem.

Because the navy needed manpower, it was too difficult for the southern garrisons to transfer troops from a long distance to the north. Zhu Youjian thought about it and said:
"The coastal garrisons will still be allocated to the navy."

"The same is true for the Southern Guards. Priority will be given to serving in the navy and the southern border."

"Only counting Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other places, how many garrisons can send troops to the Nine Borders?"

Yuan Keli made a rough estimate and said:

"There are about 200 guard posts, and about 330,000 troops are deployed to the border at the same time."

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly, feeling that if this number of troops could all use the new firearms, they would most likely be able to accomplish the task of guarding the border.

However, auxiliary troops to do odd jobs are indispensable, so he asked again:
"After the Nine Border Guards are changed to Military and Civilian Guards, all military and civilian households will have to serve in the Border Guards after they reach adulthood. How many more people can be added in this way?"

He also specifically said:
"Shaanxi is now under military control, and all prefectures and counties have been transformed into military and civilian prefectures and military and civilian guards."

"Can the troops recruited from these places make up for the shortfall?"

Yuan Keli was a little surprised and said:

"Your Majesty, do you mean to use soldiers from Shaanxi to fill the vacancies?"

"With the number of people in Shaanxi, we should be able to make up the number easily."

The number of disaster victims continued to increase, with hundreds of thousands of people being relocated, and the ministers in the court felt a little overwhelmed. They thought that recruiting soldiers from Shaanxi could fill the gap.

Zhu Youjian had the same idea, because the performance of the Dongning soldiers made him realize that the Qin soldiers were an excellent source of soldiers. With a little training, they would have this combat power, and it would be more than enough to guard the nine borders.

At the same time, recruiting soldiers from Shaanxi can also reduce the possibility of them rebelling when they are desperate. Learn from the wisdom of the Song Dynasty and recruit able-bodied men when encountering disasters.

After some discussion, the source of future soldiers for the Nine Frontiers after the reform of the garrisons was finally decided.

If there are still deficiencies in reality, we can set up more military and civilian offices and guards on the border, as is done in Shaanxi now, and recruit soldiers from military and civilian households to guard the border.

Even if each of them only needs to serve for three years, their large base will make them qualified reserve forces to deter enemies outside the Great Wall.

The system of sending soldiers to the border or to Beijing for three-year service was established.

The 50,000 troops in the capital must be selected from all over the country. Because the conditions in the capital are better than those in the border areas, I think many elite troops will be willing to come.

The source of soldiers for the five military camps was resolved. Xue Fengxiang, the Minister of War, thought of the Shenshu Camp that they had just discussed and offered an idea:

"I believe that since the people of the capital are in the city, they have the responsibility to defend the city just like the people of the nine borders."

"Your Majesty, you don't need to limit the source of soldiers to those whose ancestors were military and civilian households, but treat all the people as military and civilian households."

"This way, the Shenshu Camp will be able to recruit more soldiers, and we won't have to worry about them not being able to find enough soldiers after they run out of military households."

As soon as this suggestion was made, officials in the court who were not from the Wei clan all glared at him.

They had no obligation to serve in the army, but Xue Fengxiang wanted to drag them into it.

Li Banghua, the Imperial Guardsman of the Beijing Camp, said:
"Your Majesty, the capital is the best place, and the defense pressure is not as great as that of the border."

“How can we turn it into a big military camp like the border, and make everyone do military service?”

Li Banghua felt terrified when he thought about that scenario. Xiong Mingyu, Bi Maokang and others also opposed it.

Although Zhu Youjian wanted everyone to serve in the military, he also knew that Xue Fengxiang's proposal was an absolutely bad idea.

The capital is the political, economic and cultural center of the Ming Dynasty. How could it be like the border areas, where only military aspects are considered?

Therefore, he rejected Xue Fengxiang's proposal amid the opposition of his ministers, and cited the example of Zhuolu District:

"Although Mr. Xue's proposal is not feasible, it does make sense."

"In Zhuolu District, it is stipulated that everyone has the responsibility to serve in the event of war."

"These people do not need to be forced to join the army, but some of their annual corvée time must be set aside for militia training."

"So that they can serve as civilians or even reserve forces in the event of war."

"I think the capital should also have militia, and one man should be recruited from every ten households."

“The amount of time for training each year is determined by each district council.”

"Those who cannot participate in militia training or obtain training certificates can pay exemption money instead."

After some roundabout ways, they proposed to provide exemption money for civilian households.

Although the exemption money is less than that of the military and civilian households who need to serve for three years, it is still a considerable amount when accumulated year by year. It can increase income to some extent and be used to supplement military expenses.

It also allows everyone to realize that they have a responsibility to serve.

Use the method of boiling a frog in warm water to gradually advance the compulsory military service system.

The ultimate goal is to completely eliminate the differences between military and civilian households, and everyone will be obliged to serve in the military for three years.

Naturally, the ministers did not think as far as Zhu Youjian did, but they felt that there was nothing unreasonable about serving only a few days each year and having it counted as corvée labor.

Moreover, the emperor said that people could pay exemption money instead of serving in the army, just like corvée labor was converted into silver. They passed this proposal smoothly and decided to let the parliament set the dates for corvée labor and military service in the future.

Xue Fengxiang, whose proposal was rejected by the emperor, was eager to make a contribution and pointed out a problem with the emperor's policy:
"Your Majesty, if you collect one man out of every ten households, it will be too unfair to the common people."

"They only have five or six people in each household, but they have to bear one-tenth of the military service like a large household with dozens of people."

"I think we can force the big families to split up, or change the system from one man out of ten households to one out of ten men."

"This way we can recruit more soldiers. When the militia is trained, we will also recruit them according to the number of men."

This method is somewhat feasible, and it caught Zhu Youjian's attention, who decided to continue splitting up the big households.

Previously, he had formulated property taxes based on households, with the intention of encouraging the separation of households. If large households were allowed to gain an advantage in military service, it would go against this policy.

So he said approvingly:

"Mr. Xue, what you said is very true. This is indeed my mistake."

"The system should change from one man per ten households to one man per ten men, and let each garrison do a good job of household statistics."

"In principle, military service begins when one reaches the age of sixteen, but one can defer four years until one reaches the age of twenty and becomes an able-bodied man."

"Those who are physically weak, have illnesses, or are students who are studying can postpone their military service when there are enough soldiers, or even pay a fee to be exempted from military service."

"But if there are not enough soldiers, they will have to serve."

"Those with meritorious service will be assigned to civil service positions, and some can also serve as guards."

“After serving their military service, they will all have the opportunity to run for parliament.”

The military service system in the capital was optimized, and Xue Fengxiang was also commended, along with the commendation orders for the two assistant ministers. (End of this chapter)