Ming politicians

Lu Xiangsheng presided over the abolition of the Liaodong Frontier Army. It was not that simple. It involved 10,000+ Liaodong Frontier Army. Although Yan Yingyuan assisted and had the full support of Zu Dashou and Zu Dale, such a disbandment was, after all, The vital interests of the sergeants are involved, so it takes a lot of effort to stabilize.

At the beginning, the recruitment and expansion of the Liaodong Frontier Army were mainly military households drawn from the vicinity of Gyeonggi. These military households are different from ordinary people. The family members basically rely on the military households’ military salary to live, and they often go to the army alone. , the whole family moved accordingly, and came to the place where the army is located. Although Su Tiancheng had made up his mind to abolish the military household system when he was an official in the Ming court, the Gyeonggi area was firmly controlled by the imperial court. Don't even think about the system, the imperial court is absolutely against it, so the military households here will not be able to change their ideological understanding for a while.

Although it is said that the Jin Dynasty has completely abolished the military household system, it also requires a lot of energy, mainly to stabilize these military households so that they have food and a place to live. In the southern region, Zhu Shenxuan and others People have expended too much energy and tried their best to accommodate these military households, especially those military households who have been officials for generations. After so many years, they have long since degenerated, and the heroic spirit of their ancestors has disappeared without a trace. , What is left is how to eat empty pay, how to search for the people's fat and anointment, such officers are determined to be abolished, and staying is only a scourge.

The Liaodong Frontier Army was also involved in such issues.

When expanding the army at the beginning, what was thought of was the increase in the number of people, and it also depended on the imperial court being able to provide a certain amount of military pay for the time being. Most of the Liao pay was allocated to the Liaodong frontier army, so it could still be maintained until the later Ming Dynasty.In fact, the Liaodong Frontier Army was on the verge of collapse, and it was almost impossible to maintain it. Fortunately, the autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves in the Jiangning Camp, and soon overthrew the Ming Dynasty, and began to carry out necessary rectification of the Liaodong Frontier Army.

After discussing with Zu Dashou, Zu Dale and others, Lu Xiangsheng made a careful plan with Yan Yingyuan.The general opinion is to let these military households go back to their original place of origin. The government has taken back the farmland. Not too much of an issue either.

But the timing wasn't great.The spring plowing season has passed, and the court needs to spend a large sum of money to allow the military households to return to their place of origin. At least they need to give these military households a certain amount of housing expenses. People will not starve to death, and people will not rebel.

After weighing.Lu Xiangsheng put forward a budget, which is equivalent to nearly 200 million taels of silver.Even Lu Xiangsheng himself was stunned by this number, feeling that it was too difficult to report to the court.

But the abolition of sergeants cannot be delayed, let alone the current Liaodong frontier army.The imperial court took out the food and raised it directly, including the families of these sergeants. If the delay was longer, the imperial court would suffer even greater losses.

Of course, when Lu Xiangsheng was about to abolish the Liaodong Frontier Army.The establishment of the bank and the unified issuance of banknotes are still in planning and have not been formally implemented. Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng considered that the pressure on the court was too great. After all, the court had already consumed an astronomical amount of money in the defense of the Black Death.

While Lu Xiangsheng and others were still stepping up the planning process, some abnormal situations appeared in Liaodong, and many rumors appeared, why the court would not care about the Liaodong frontier army. The Liaodong frontier army was originally the army of the Ming Dynasty. I don't believe it, maybe the imperial court will send troops to suppress the Liaodong frontier army, etc. Although these rumors have not been widely spread, they have already attracted the attention of Lu Xiangsheng and others.

The situation in Liaodong was already very complicated, especially when the Ming court occupied Guangning at the beginning. After the mutual market was launched in Guangning, a large number of Manchus, merchants from Liaodong and Han people from Liaodong entered Guangning, and then entered Jinzhou and Ningyuan through Guangning. In cities and other places, some of them stayed directly to do business, and the Ming court did not express any objection to this situation.

After the Liaodong frontier army as a whole surrendered to the Jin court, from the perspective of stability, there was no requirement to integrate the public security situation in Liaodong, and the court was also clear, because the Houjin Tartars once again occupied Guangning, Xipingbao, Yizhou and other places. The mutual market in Guangning died naturally, and the business exchanges were all dependent on the merchants who were still in Liaodong.

This also indicates that there must be a large number of spies from the Houjin Tazi in Liaodong, who took the opportunity to collect intelligence.

Lu Xiangsheng was very clear about Tang Haitai's lesson back then.

Just when Lu Xiangsheng was suspicious, information from the imperial court also came. The information clearly stated that the Later Jin Tartars deliberately disturbed the situation in Liaodong and wanted to take advantage of it. This information was based on the situation in Liaodong. In fact, Lu Xiangsheng also has such an analysis.

However, there are also requirements in the intelligence. Liaodong must remain stable. It cannot be chaotic, nor can it carry out large-scale cleaning activities, so as not to panic. Once there is a large-scale relocation in Liaodong, it will be the mainland that will increase the pressure.

This made Lu Xiangsheng very embarrassed, and he didn't know what to do.

Soon, Lu Xiangsheng's memorial was approved. What he didn't expect was that he asked for a resettlement fee of 200 million taels, and the imperial court actually allocated 250 million taels of resettlement fees.

It has been a rule since ancient times that money is easy to do.

With this money, Lu Xiangsheng is not worried at all.

The resettlement plan presented by the Liaodong Governor’s Yamen is very clear. Ordinary sergeants receive a resettlement fee of ten taels of silver per person. With this resettlement fee, they return to their place of origin and go directly to the government with the certificate issued by the Liaodong Governor. , At that time, the government will arrange all the matters. The resettlement fee will be different for officers of different sizes. The highest participating general can get a resettlement fee of 500 taels of silver, which is also a huge sum of money.

The resettlement expenses of the Liaodong Frontier Army were also allocated in paper money.

At the same time, Lu Xiangsheng also received the task, that is, Liaodong must set up a bank, and also use banknotes, gold, silver and copper coins uniformly in accordance with the requirements of the court, and in principle they will not be used in circulation.

The best way to combat rumors is to implement many resettlement tasks as soon as possible.

The governor's yamen has begun to act with great fanfare.

The highest commanding organization in Liaodong is the Liaodong governor's yamen. As for the original position of Ji Liao governor, because the emperor held this position, it was revoked. Even if it was established, no one would dare to take this position. Let alone , the main task of Liaodong is to deal with the Houjin Tartars. The imperial court is very strong. The Golden Tatars are passive, so there is no need to mobilize various forces to deal with Liaodong. It is enough for the Liaodong governor's yamen to assume this responsibility.

The scope of the governor of Liaodong has also undergone clear changes. Except for the south of the Liaohe River, Shenyang, Sarhu and other places north of the Liaohe River have all been included in the scope of jurisdiction. The Golden Tartars must unify the entire Liaodong.

According to the dismissed sergeants, the difficulty lies in those officers. Ordinary sergeants don’t have much opinion. With ten taels of silver, a few months’ life is enough. After returning to their hometown, as long as they have arable land and grow their own food, There must be no big problems in life. Let’s talk about some frontier soldiers in Liaodong. They received letters from relatives and friends in their hometowns, saying that their hometowns have changed. At least there is food to eat and they won’t be hungry. Successfully accepted placement.

In view of this situation, Yan Yingyuan put forward a suggestion that all dismissed officers, no matter where they were from, should stay in Liaodong. If these people are stabilized, I believe the problem will not be too big.

Lu Xiangsheng accepted this suggestion and began a large-scale dismantling of the Liaodong Frontier Army in two steps.

For a while, Liaodong became lively. Every day, a large number of soldiers left Liaodong with their families, entered the customs from the direction of Shanhaiguan, and walked towards their hometown. This situation lasted for more than a month.

The first time the sergeant got the banknotes, he couldn’t believe it at first, thinking that the court was fooling them, why they couldn’t get the silver, but along the way, these banknotes were very convenient to use, the value was exactly the same as the silver, and they were easy to carry. The sergeants completely accepted it, and the sergeants who were dismissed in Liaodong later agreed that paper money is more convenient than gold and silver, and they don't worry about losing it, and they won't attract the attention of others.

Of course, there are also many Han Chinese in Liaodong. These people stayed in Liaodong, and the government was responsible for giving them the land they cultivated. As for the cultivated land planted by the Liaodong frontier army, it was not yet the harvest season, so all of them were converted into Silver, according to the number of heads, was cashed out equally to the dismissed sergeants.

All the dismissed officers stayed in Liaodong, and were arranged in the two cities of Jinzhou and Ningyuan. These officers used to vent their dissatisfaction because they had an army in their hands, but now that the army has been dismissed, the sergeants happily received them as required. They paid resettlement expenses, or left Liaodong, or went back to their hometown to farm, so the officers had no place to vent their anger, and they did not dare to lose their temper at will.

The situation stabilized like this, and those rumors disappeared.

Lu Xiangsheng was very satisfied. A matter that seemed extremely difficult was completely arranged in just two months, and the deployment of sergeants was also in place. There were 1 troops, 3 of whom were stationed in Montenegro. 1 people were stationed in Dalinghe City, 1 people were stationed in Jinzhou, 4 people were stationed in Ningyuan, and the remaining [-] people were all stationed in Shanhaiguan.

Liaodong has stabilized, and the next step is to establish a bank and when to attack the Houjin Tartars. (to be continued..)