Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"How many guard posts are to be placed in the city depends on how many soldiers can be recruited."

"Assuming that one out of ten men is drawn, how many soldiers can the capital recruit?"

After changing the conscription based on household to conscription based on the number of adult men, Zhu Youjian asked them.

Yuan Keli, who presided over the restructuring of the three district offices and served as the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, said:
"According to statistics from the first year of the Tianqi reign, there were 150,000 households and approximately 700,000 people in the five cities of the capital."

"Assuming that each household has two males, there are 300,000 people who can serve in the army. If one out of ten males is selected, 30,000 can be recruited."

"But not all the people in the capital have military ancestors. According to my estimation, about 30% of them can be classified as military and civilian households. If one out of ten men can be recruited as a soldier, the number of soldiers that can be recruited should be around 9,000."

This number is obviously unexpectedly low.

Because this means that the number of soldiers that can be recruited in the entire capital is only equivalent to one or two guards.

After hearing this, the ministers whispered to each other, and many of them thought that it was obviously not worth it to spend so much effort just to recruit so many soldiers.

Xiong Mingyu, the Right Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, said:
"Nowadays, many of the hereditary officials in the guards are overstaffed. The original 40 to 50 hereditary officials in each guard generally have more than 150."

"If each district is equipped with a guard, then each district in the capital will have to support more than 150 hereditary officials."

"I think it would be better to organize these hereditary officials into a guard. Their total number would be more than 5,000."

Zhu Youjian almost couldn't hold back his anger because he had never thought of this before. The officials sent out to recruit soldiers could only recruit slightly more soldiers than they had.

Therefore, it is absolutely not feasible to have one guard per ward, and even drawing one out of ten is a bit low.

However, compared with the previous one in ten households, the rate of one in ten males being selected has been doubled, which is equivalent to one in five households or even one in four households. Especially for large households with many people, it is almost equivalent to one in every household being selected.

If the price is raised further, the burden will be too heavy. The military and civilian households in the capital will probably vote with their feet and flee the city.

This made Zhu Youjian a little troubled. He wished he could do as Xue Fengxiang said and treat all the people in the capital as military and civilian households.

In that way, if one out of ten men is selected, at least 20,000 soldiers can be recruited.

Perhaps Xue Fengxiang had already anticipated this, and he also understood the current emperor's dilemma, so he offered another suggestion:
"When your majesty established the Military and Civilian Guard, all male adults were required to serve in the military for three years."

"I think we should not stick to the rule of selecting one out of ten men. As long as the male men in military and civilian households are of age, they should be allowed to serve in the military for three years."

"The population of the capital is over 700,000, and there are about 7,000 adult males every year."

"30 to 50 percent are military and civilian households, which means 2,000 to 3,500 people."

"Each person serves for three years, and the number of people in the camp all year round is about 6,000 to 11,500."

This is an increase of about one thousand compared to the previous range of five thousand to ten thousand.

But it was still a drop in the bucket and could not change the fact that not many people could be recruited in the city.

However, even a few mosquitoes still mean meat, and Xue Fengxiang was so dedicated that Zhu Youjian could not ignore his advice.

So he nodded and said:
"Then follow the conscription method for the military and civilian guards, and conscript all males from military and civilian households into service after they reach adulthood."

"But the age limit should be relaxed a bit, raised to 20 years old, when the number of men who have been crowned is insufficient to meet the conscription quota for the year, then younger soldiers can be recruited, but they cannot be younger than 16 years old."

"If the number is sufficient, some people who are not convenient to join the army can be allowed to postpone their service. For example, students in the academy can postpone their service."

"Students, only children, and people with illnesses should be given preferential treatment and corresponding measures should be formulated."

After briefly explaining the principles of conscription, Zhu Youjian added:
"The principle of drawing one out of ten should continue to be maintained. The ratio cannot be higher than this."

"Otherwise, the burden on the military and civilian households in the capital will be too heavy, which will be detrimental to their lives and production."

"How many soldiers do you think the capital should recruit each year?"

"Is there any way to ensure that the city's guards can recruit at least 5,000 people every year?"

"It's impossible that the city of Beijing can't conquer a single guard in a year, right?"

Zhu Youjian took great pains to adjust the military system, so he certainly couldn't let it become a joke.

Otherwise, if people from other places knew about this, they would think, as Yuan Keli said, that the capital is empty.

However, the number of soldiers is not something that can be changed easily. Yuan Keli, the Privy Councilor, said:

"The military and civilian guards in Dongning, Nanyang and other places have estimated that if all the households under their jurisdiction are military and civilian, they will need at least 20,000 households to recruit soldiers equivalent to one guard, which is roughly equivalent to one man from four households."

"Your Majesty intends to recruit a guard in the capital every year, which will require 60,000 military and civilian households in the capital."

"Given the current situation in the capital, it is obviously impossible to reach this number."

Speaking of his own views, Yuan Keli proposed a solution:

"I think that even if the garrisons in the city do not retain military households, they should retain one to two thousand hereditary soldiers, so that the families of these soldiers can continue to send men to serve in the army."

"This way, each guard will always have one to two thousand soldiers. By placing three to five guards in the city, we can easily recruit five thousand people."

"They can also assist the hereditary officials of the garrisons and recruit soldiers from larger jurisdictions."

To develop and promote the hereditary military system established by the emperor as a supplement to the hereditary officials of the garrisons.

But some people disagreed. Xiong Mingyu said:
"Instead of doing this, I think it would be better to move all the guards outside the city."

"Every year, one or two guards are transferred to the city to lead the soldiers to serve in the Shenshu Camp."

"The people of the capital only need to pay taxes and do not have to serve in the military."

The military and civilian households in the capital were completely abandoned and converted into civilian households, and they were no longer required to perform military service.

Zhu Youjian rejected this immediately, saying:
"Letting the people in the city serve is more than just providing soldiers for the Divine Camp."

"And also to train them so that when the capital is in danger, the reserve forces can be called up for battle."

"Otherwise, if the enemy suddenly arrives and the soldiers from the garrisons outside the city are not transferred to the city, who will defend the capital? Should we recruit those who have never served in the army to fight?"

This made the ministers understand why the emperor insisted on recruiting soldiers in the city.

His original intention was to integrate the soldiers into the civilian population, so that when the capital was in danger, he could easily raise an army of 100,000.

Even if the able-bodied men who had undergone three years of military service and training were not good enough for field battles, they should still know the basics of defending a city. As long as they defended diligently and the capital prepared enough food and weapons, the enemy would not be able to break in no matter how many troops they had, and they would have enough time to wait for reinforcements.

There are also those militiamen who serve a few days in the military every year, who can also serve as civilian laborers or even auxiliary soldiers. The war potential of the entire capital will be far greater than it is now. When the officials thought of this, they all praised the emperor for his thoughtfulness and believed that conscription in the city was inevitable.

However, what they didn't know was that Zhu Youjian sent the guards to various districts for another hidden purpose:
That is, when martial law is imposed in the future, these people will be allowed to carry out the work.

The wealth and status of these hereditary officials of the garrisons came from the emperor, so when faced with the emperor's orders, they would most likely choose to carry them out.

In that way, Zhu Youjian's control over the capital will be further enhanced. In addition to the police stations sent to various districts by the Jinyiwei Weiwei Temple, another system for controlling the capital will be established.

Even if he loses control of the Weiwei Temple in the future, he will have enough manpower to impose martial law.

Although the ministers were unaware of this hidden thought, as they were civil servants, they were still instinctively wary of the emperor's decision to decentralize the guards to the prefectures.

Their plan to move the garrison in the city out of the city was a manifestation of this mentality.

However, after the emperor insisted on retaining several garrisons in the capital for the purpose of defending the capital, their idea was completely shattered.

Qin Shiwen, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, came out to smooth things over:

"It is not feasible to have one guard for each ward. Even if the city recruits 5,000 soldiers every year, it does not need to support hereditary officials for 36 guards."

"It's not possible to keep only one or two garrisons. The capital is so big, and with hundreds of garrison officials, they simply can't recruit all the soldiers of military age."

"I think we can follow the jurisdiction of the previous Five City Military Command and arrange a guard to each place in the east, west, south, north and center."

"The duties of the Five City Military Command can also be completely transferred and completely changed to the Three City Command."

These words mentioned another legacy issue, which is that after the establishment of the Three City Districts based on the Five City Bingmasi, the political responsibilities of the Bingmasi were handed over, but the military responsibilities have not yet been arranged.

Previously, Zhu Youjian had always been worried that the Jianlu would attack the capital via the grassland. In order to avoid chaos in the defense of the capital, he retained the military duties of the Five Cities Bingmasi and let them still be responsible for guarding the city gates.

The commanders of the three military divisions in the east, west and south are also the highest officials in the three urban districts, nominally in charge of the three offices.

This situation obviously made people feel very awkward. Li Banghua and others suggested setting up a garrison in the three city districts, with the intention of completely abolishing the Wucheng Bingmasi.

Qin Shiwen believed that the city gate guarding work of the Wucheng Bingmasi should not be easily changed. Now it could be integrated into the garrison and be responsible for recruiting soldiers in that area, as well as calling up reservists to guard the city gates in case of war.

Zhu Youjian considered these words and felt that they were somewhat feasible. However, five guards were obviously too few and would not be strong enough to enforce martial law in the future.

Thinking about the gates of the capital, he said after thinking:
"One soldier is too busy to guard two or three gates."

"I think we should arrange a guard near a city gate, under the command of the Five Cities Military Command."

"The Wucheng Bingma Division will also be directly under the Five Military Governor's Office in the future. It will be divided into five prefectures according to their location, and the five prefecture governors will concurrently serve as the commander of the Bingma Division."

Such an adjustment finally made the nobles excited again, because the Five Military Commandery had more powers.

In particular, the Five Cities Military Department had important responsibilities, and the emperor let them take charge, which clearly showed that he trusted them more.

Zhang Weixian, the leader of the nobles, finally stood up and said:
"When I was in the Five Provinces, I was always ashamed that I could not lead troops into battle."

"Now that your majesty has asked the five ministries to take charge of the five military camps and the five city military divisions, how dare we not do our best?"

With a group of nobles, he supported the emperor in transferring the Wucheng Bingmasi to the Wujun Dudu Fu.

Civilian military officers such as Yuan Keli were troubled by this.

On the one hand, they were dissatisfied with the fact that the commander of the Five Cities Military Command also served as the highest official of the three urban districts, and wanted to set up a district chief like Zhuolu District and completely seize the governance power of the capital.

On the other hand, they did not want to give up the military power of the capital and let the nobles take control of the military power and city gate guards through the Five Military Commanderies.

It was not until this time that Yuan Keli vaguely understood why the emperor changed the five urban districts into three urban districts when he established the three urban district offices.

Because in this way, the jurisdiction of the Wucheng Bingmasi and Sancheng Districts will not completely overlap. It will be very difficult for officials from Sancheng Districts to interfere in the military affairs of the Wucheng Bingmasi.

The officials such as the City Patrolling Censors who used to control the Five Cities Military Division will lose their deterrent power over them.

Especially after the Five Cities Bingmasi and the Five Military Camps were transferred to the Five Military Governor's Office, the Five Military Governor's Office, an institution that was almost hollowed out before, will have great influence in the capital, the most important place.

The influence of the capital can easily be transformed into influence in the court, which means that the nobles will gain power and at least have a basic base.

The Staff Department of the General Staff Department was responsible for determining the establishment. Yang Sichang then asked:
"Your Majesty, the Wucheng Bingma Division will be in charge of the garrisons in the future. What rank should it be?"

Zhu Youjian clearly stated:

"The Guard is a third-rank military post, and the Five Cities Military Post is higher than that. There are many relatives of the emperor serving in it, so it will be promoted to a second-rank military post."

"It is equivalent to the local Dusi, which makes it convenient for officials serving in local Dusi to move to the capital for transfer."

"Also, the officials of the Five Cities Military Command will mainly be concurrently held by the officials of the Five Military Commands Office. There is no need to worry about redundant officials. It only commands a few guards at the gates."

Yang Sichang then said:
"In that case, I have no objection."

"But all the local military governors will have to establish military guard offices in the future."

"I think that since the Wucheng Bingmasi is to be on the same level as the Dusi, it should also establish a military guard office, and the people in the military guard office should work part-time in the five offices."

This proposal enlightened all the civil servants and they knew how to restrain the Five Military Governor's Office.

Since the emperor wants the Five Military Commanderies to govern the Five Cities Bingmasi and the Five Military Camps, he should also set up a guard to be responsible for dealing with local officials and supervising and protecting them.

In this way, the power of the civilian officers will penetrate deep into the Five Military Governors Office. Even if the Five Military Governors Office wants to exert its power, it can be suppressed by them.

The nobles were so angry about this that they never expected that the emperor would just give them five city military divisions and five military camps, and the civil officials would be eager to suppress them.

Zhang Weixian argued a few words, but Zhu Chunchen, Zhu Guobi and others did not have the courage to argue like him.

Especially after Li Banghua accused several nobles serving in the Beijing Camp, they were quickly defeated.

These people have so much shit on their butts that they don't have the confidence to argue with the civil servants.

Zhu Youjian could only secretly shake his head at this scene and personally stepped in to stop this farce:
"The Five Military Commandery does not need to have guards. The Ministry of War, which is in charge of military affairs, is equivalent to the guards of the Five Military Commandery."

"But the guards of the Five Military Camps and the Five City Military Command must still be set up."

"The Guard Commander of the Five Military Camps is a subordinate of the Guard Commander of the Capital Camp. He is the Guard Commander of the Five City Military Command, and his rank is tentatively set at the fourth rank. He can be appointed by the Guard Commander, or he can be transferred from the Guard Commander."

"They are responsible for communication with the three city districts and other places, and for supervising and protecting the soldiers." (End of this chapter)