Ming politicians

The role of the army does not need to be emphasized. No matter what ideas Su Tiancheng has, he must have an armed force that he can control. This is the source of his strength.

Nowadays, it is mainly in the era of cold weapons. The role of cavalry is self-evident, and it is also the most precious unit in the army.

The role of the cavalry lies in the impact, momentum, disrupting the opponent's formation, and hitting the opponent's self-confidence to the maximum extent. The Manchu Qing was able to rely on the Eight Banners soldiers to defeat Ming Dynasty. The role of the cavalry cannot be ignored.

Cavalry is also an expensive unit, which consumes a lot of money. War horses need to be carefully cared for, and horses are expensive. Cavalry and war horses need to develop a relationship.

Through the conversation with Xiong Zijian, Su Tiancheng gradually realized that the role of cavalry on the battlefield depends on the strength of the whole, and it must not be used in a scattered manner. If it is scattered, riding alone on a single horse will fall into the heavy siege of infantry , the ending is also miserable.

The weapons used by the cavalry are what he cares most about. After traveling hundreds of years later, his understanding is of course different. Although the cavalry was gradually eliminated after entering the era of hot weapons, many combat skills about the arms , he still knows something.

Su Tiancheng believes that the best weapon for cavalry is the scimitar. Don't look at Guan Yu in the Three Kingdoms period. With a Qinglong Yanyue knife, he killed the enemy ghosts and wolves, but Guan Yu has extraordinary abilities. How can ordinary people have such abilities, including Lu Bu's Fang Tian painted halberds, these weapons look majestic, but they are not practical.

What cavalry cares about is speed and impact. The carrying capacity of a horse is also limited. The less force it carries, the faster the speed and the greater the impact. If it is carrying heavy weapons and wearing thick armor, the horse will be tired. Not to mention, people can't bear it. Before rushing to the front of the enemy's formation, I was exhausted, and I was fighting a fart.

The biggest advantage of the scimitar is that it is light and sharp. It has a huge lethality. It can even cut off the head directly. Of course, there is a saying about weapons, that is, one inch long and one inch strong. A scimitar is obviously not enough. You also need to be equipped with a long spear and a strong bow. Such a combination of length and short is considered the best equipment.

Spears and scimitars, including strong bows, are light in weight, not tiring for humans or horses, and are easy to maneuver.

Of course, the shortcomings of the cavalry are also obvious. When attacking the city and pulling out the stronghold, it does not have much effect, and it is also very fearful to face the spear formation formed by the infantry.

The Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty was always weak when attacking the city, which also reflected the weakness of the cavalry.

However, Su Tiancheng needed cavalry. His requirement was that the army must take the initiative to attack. Just guarding the city would not be able to play much of a role. The focus was on the field battle, which was to kill the enemy as much as possible and wipe out the opponent's vital forces.

The role of cavalry in the field is absolutely super.

The Ming Dynasty strictly controlled weapons, and it was even more difficult to raise war horses. But in these days, money is easy to do. As long as you can get enough money, I don’t know how many imperial troops are waiting to sell their weapons and equipment. , as long as you need, you can even buy armor and war horses.

These days, people can't get enough to eat, who still cares about those things.

Su Pingyang accepted the task arranged by the young master. Of course, doing these things needs to be done secretly.

Fortunately, the young master passed the Juren examination, even though there are thousands of guards in the family, the relationship is not very big.

For the nursing home of a big family, the government also turned a blind eye, especially in the past few years, when bandits harassed everywhere, many gentry and wealthy households were panicked, fearing that they would be robbed, and constantly strengthened the strength of the nursing home. Some big families have thousands of guards at home. This is a disguised form to reduce the pressure on the government.

The young master gave two tasks. One is to buy war horses and weapons and equipment. This is easy to understand. Su Pingyang also knows that this is what the nursing home needs, but the amount of purchase is a bit large.

Another point is difficult for Su Pingyang to understand. On the edge of the newly purchased cultivated land, a piece of land is enclosed and a circle of courtyard walls is built. The area of ​​this land has reached more than [-] hectares, and this matter needs to be completed immediately. .

Cultivate the land well, what do you do by enclosing it, but you have to do it if you understand it, and you have to do it if you don’t understand it.

Fortunately, it is the slack season and there is enough labor.

The city wall, which is eight feet high and nine inches wide, is now two meters high and thirty centimeters thick.

The wages are cheap, and there are quite a few artisans in Pingyang Fucheng. These artisans have a difficult life and can hardly eat enough. They heard that the Su Mansion wanted to recruit artisans to make courtyard walls, and they all came here enthusiastically.

Another thing Su Jun did was to buy all the surplus grain stored by the tenants of the Su family into the mansion with silver, including wheat, corn and sweet potatoes.

Although the tenants didn't know what the young master meant, they unconditionally implemented it. They voluntarily sent corn and sweet potatoes, including wheat, to Su's residence.

All the tenants pooled up part of the money and sent it to the Su Mansion. The young master was promoted in high school, and they also wanted to celebrate.Now their lives are better, and the houses are basically completed. Looking at a series of houses built together, it is indeed a bit imposing, and it is very convenient for everyone to get together if there is something to do.

Su Tiancheng had his own plans, and these arrangements were aimed at the possible rogues and the three thousand soldiers.

There is no big problem for the Su Mansion to recruit nursing homes, but Su Tiancheng's vision is different. The duties of these nursing homes are definitely not just to guard the Su Mansion. They need to gallop on the battlefield and be able to Those who kill the enemy, they are professional sergeants.

The Ming Dynasty's military system has almost reached a dead end.

The military system of the Ming Dynasty was set at six levels, namely the capital, the guard, the thousand households, the hundred households, the general banner, and the small banner.

The Protectorate's Mansion is the highest commanding authority. The Protectorate's Mansion of the Five Armies in the capital is equivalent to the third headquarters of the People's Liberation Army today, and the Ministry of War is equivalent to the Ministry of National Defense. Strictly speaking, this cannot be regarded as the organizational system of the army.

Starting from the self-defense station, it can be regarded as a real military establishment.

One guard governs five thousand-household offices with 5600 soldiers, one thousand-household office has ten hundred-household offices with 1120 soldiers, one hundred-household office has two general banners with 112 soldiers, and one general banner has five small Banner, 56 soldiers, the small flag is the most basic combat unit, each small flag has 10 sergeants.

This is a system established in the early Ming Dynasty. There is no problem with this system itself. The key is the treatment of sergeants, and there is a big trouble.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a professional military service system, which is the so-called military service for one day and a lifetime of service. After the father died, the son continued to serve. The family of a soldier was called a military household, and the household registration was managed by the Ministry of War. One son joins the army, one substitute son, and one son runs the house. If there are two sons, one son joins the army and the other son runs the house. If there is only one son, he does not join the army and changes to civilian citizenship.

This is all justified, the terrible thing is that the hereditary system has also been implemented for military officers, that is to say, the son of an officer, the hereditary officer position, for example, the eldest son of a hundred households, after the death of the old man, is also a hundred households, no matter the son is The rice bucket is still a straw bag.At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, those generals were experienced in many battles. Lao Tzu was a hero, a hero, and a hereditary officer. They all made sense in the past, but the further they developed, the more useless they became.

Such a system, developed to the present, has seriously affected the enthusiasm of sergeants. If you have a good background, you can become an officer, but if you have a bad background, you will be forced to work as cannon fodder.

Let's talk about the treatment in the military.

The army of the Ming Dynasty was divided into four types, the garrison army, the garrison army, the squad army and the transport army.The garrison army is mainly used for guarding the city, patrolling and coastal defense. The garrison army is mainly engaged in the farming of the army station. The transport army is mainly responsible for transportation and communication.

The Ming Dynasty has been extremely stingy since Zhu Yuanzhang. The salaries of officials are so pitiful that they can hardly support their families, let alone care about the treatment of sergeants. The emperor asked the army to support themselves and allocated a large amount of official land. Farming sustains most of the expenses.

For the army of the guard, three points are guarded at the border and seven points are cultivated; two points are guarded in the interior and eight points are cultivated. The taxation of official land is much higher than that of civilian land.

As a result, military households fled in large numbers because they could not live on.

In some guards, the military establishment is 5600, but there are only 300 to [-] people. The guards cannot afford to support so many sergeants, and it is not uncommon for them to be empty-handed.

It has become a common thing for officers to deduct military pay. The pitiful money was deducted layer by layer and fell into the hands of sergeants. There was not much left, and the court turned a blind eye.A large number of fleeing, the combat effectiveness has dropped to the extreme.

The imperial army in the last years of the Ming Dynasty had corrupt military discipline, burned, killed, and looted more than the army of rogues. In order to lie about their military achievements, they killed ordinary people and handed over their heads, defrauding the imperial court of money, and it was not uncommon for them to fall into individual pockets.

Up to now, the imperial court has no money, and the sergeants can't get their pay. Mutiny happens one after another, and the mutiny sergeant has become the main force of the peasant uprising army.

How could Su Tiancheng allow his own army to have such a situation? What he demanded was also a professional military system, but it was quite different from the imperial court's.

This is different. The main manifestation is that the supply of salaries must be sufficient, and the treatment of sergeants must be fully guaranteed, not only for individual sergeants, but also for their families.

This is the most basic, and only in this way can it be possible to talk about other things.

As for farming, that's nonsense. Soldiers are soldiers. What do you do with farming? That's what farmers do.