Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 270: The Quiet Changes in the Ming Dynasty’s Military and Political Affairs

The emperor went to Zunhua and Tianjin and began to prepare for the pilgrimage from foreign vassals at the end of July and the major plan for the north.

In just a few days, the imperial edict sent by the emperor in Zunhua first arrived in Shandong, then arrived at the naval camp for protecting the grain transport in Huai'an, and would soon reach Nanjing.

The current maritime force of the Ming Dynasty consists only of the coastal defense departments under the Judicial and Surveillance Commissioners in the coastal provinces.

Qi Zuoguo, the corresponding official of Shandong Coast Defense Department who assisted Xinjian Earl Wang Chengxun in commanding the grain transport navy, soon found Cui Sheng, the lieutenant general of the grain transport army, who served as his deputy commander.

"How many grain ships have not yet returned from the capital?"

"My Lord, the court now allows all the generals to transport grain to the capital and then transport commercial goods to the south. The only ones who have already returned are the northern generals and the two Nanjing generals who have long cooperated with Changming and Zongming. The rest of the grain ships will probably not come back until May or June."

"May or June..." Qi Zuoguo looked at Cui Sheng, and after a moment's silence, he said, "Old Cui, His Majesty sent an order from Zunhua. I would like to ask you to go with me. You must arrange a capable person to take care of the rest of the inspection on the Caohe River!"

"I will go with you? Lord, this is inappropriate, right? If you and I go together..."

Qi Zuoguo shook his head: "I know your character and ability. Wang Zongcao wants to take charge of the overall situation, but he knows that the navy guarding the canal is the future canal army. He is willing to let you come, which means he values ​​you equally. This trip must be a big event. I don't want to miss the opportunity, nor do I want you to fail to realize your ambitions."

"...I understand your kindness, Your Majesty. Then Your Majesty, please make the request first, and I will go and make the arrangements first."

After saying this, he bowed neatly and left.

The more than 100,000-strong canal army is now slowly split into two major systems.

One is the navy to protect the canal, with a total of about 7,000 people. In addition to the standard soldiers in the Huai'an camp, there are three routes to the north of Linqing, from Linqing to Yangzhou, and to the south of the Yangtze River, each with some small inland warships and officers and soldiers, totaling 6,000 people.

Apart from that, it is still the original transport army.

Although they were still called transport troops, in reality, after the elite young men of each division were incorporated into the canal protection navy, the rest were just like shipping companies. The transport troops' salary was like a big order from the court, guaranteeing their basic income; Longjiang Shipyard and other facilities guaranteed their replacement and maintenance of ships, and the court loosened their restrictions and allowed them to return south with cargo.

The only difference is that the customs will no longer be as lenient in allowing grain ships to pass through when they return south as they did in the past.

No matter whether it is their own business or they are just undertaking transportation, taxes must always be paid.

The transport troops are responsible for transportation, and there will be someone responsible for water and land defense.

The canal protection navy is only responsible for the canal defense on the water along the canal. As for the shore part, it is an important task of the Left Army Governor's Office in recent years besides Liaodong.

After the Five Military Governorates readjusted their jurisdiction areas, the Left Military Governorate now had jurisdiction over the Yongping and Hejian prefectures in northern Zhili and the Liangcheng prefecture in Shuntian Prefecture. Then, going south along the canal, it also had jurisdiction over the Huai'an and Yangzhou prefectures as well as Zhenjiang, Suzhou, Changzhou, and Songjiang. Together with the original Zhejiang, it had almost the entire canal coast under its jurisdiction, leaving only a small section from Tongzhou to Beijing.

When Xing Jie was the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army, he had specially selected and organized four canal defense battalions in Tianjin, Yanzhou, Yangzhou and Suzhou, each with two parts to patrol both sides of the Caohe River.

The four Cao defense camps had a total of 10,000 soldiers, which was similar to the "Beijing Camp" directly supervised by the Zuojun Dudufu. It is now called the Cao Camp. It runs directly through the north and south of the Cao River and is directly responsible to the Zuojun Dudufu.

Shandong Coast Defense Commissioner and other coastal defense officials were transferred to meet the emperor. The left army naval camp that many people have speculated about in recent years may be put on the agenda.

After all, with the huge increase in the court's annual revenue, the Zhayanghang Shipyard in the north, the Longjiang Shipyard in the south, and the Haimaohang Shipyard in Guangdong have all been quite active in recent years.

Three days later, the imperial edict crossed the Yangtze River and reached the hands of the scripture interpreter mentioned by Zhu Changluo.

He was a Jinshi in the first year of Taichang. He was one of the people who went south to serve as officials together with Gong Nai, Cheng Qinan, Meng Xikong and others. He was appointed as the head of the Nanjing Ministry of War.

When he resigned from the throne, he said in front of the emperor, "If the people in the south of the Yangtze River are arrogant and proud, they will be mediocre and shallow," which won the emperor's praise as "well said."

The Bible interpreter is ambitious and has expertise.

Pingyi Bo Chen Lin was the commander-in-chief of the Yangtze River Navy. After arriving in Nanjing and solving the case of the Cheng family in Jiangyou pretending to be Japanese pirates, he focused his energy on the emperor's proposal to reorganize the navy and train naval talents.

The reorganization of the navy involves the construction and maintenance of warships, which involves the Longjiang Shipyard, and there are also areas where the Nanjing Ministry of War can help.

When it comes to training naval talents, we have to mention the two official military academies of the Ming Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, Baoding Prefecture had a special military school, generally known as Wuxue, which specialized in training army officers at all levels below the rank of Qianzong, and was also the "Imperial Academy" in the military examination. These military tribute students were a major force in the military examination since the Taichang Dynasty.

Nanjing also had a special military school, called Zhouxue, which was dedicated to training naval officers.

Before the establishment of the Privy Council, these two major martial arts schools, one in the south and one in the north, had been abandoned for a long time.

But since the emperor had set up the Privy Council, Tian Le knew the emperor's ambitions, and the military examinations also had a special palace examination, how could these two military schools not be reorganized?

Apart from anything else, the Baoding martial arts school was directly moved to Miyun County, which was closer to Beijing. After the Ministry of War was transferred to the Privy Council, the Nanjing Naval School was managed by a doctor specially appointed by the Nanjing Ministry of War.

The doctor of Nanjing Zhouxue now is the interpreter of classics.

He is a mature teacher, especially a good teacher for martial arts students.

Because before he passed the imperial examination, he was interested in military strategy, was well versed in military tactics, and had actually worked as a teacher.

At this moment, Jie Jingfu was not only the official in charge of the school administration of Nanjing Zhouxue, but also the supervisor and coach.

He also requested that the site of the boat school be moved to Wuxi County, with the main purpose of practicing boats in Taihu Lake to familiarize themselves with water characteristics and naval warfare tactics. It would also be convenient for the "senior students" to go directly to the nearby Taicang Port and try to go to the near sea from the Yangtze River.

The reason why Zhu Changluo knew him again was because he submitted the proposal "Please train the navy and soldiers again".

Now, after hearing the emperor's order, the 39-year-old Sutra Explanator felt a little strange, but also a little excited.

After serving as an official for more than six years, he went to the south and learned about the weakness of the grain transport army and the slackness of the navy. He felt uneasy every time he looked at the prosperous south of the Yangtze River.

Qi Jiguang, Marquis of Zhenyi, submitted a proposal to train naval forces, but the court did not agree with it.

At that time, the Chinese army was already fighting against the Japanese invaders, but Qi Jiguang's request to mobilize troops and train them for the fight was unsuccessful, which led to the establishment of the Qi Family Army.

However, the Qi family army did not have a navy, and Qi Jiguang mentioned in his memorial that a navy should also be trained.

Not to mention that Jiangnan seems to have forgotten the suffering caused by Japanese pirates in the past. Could it be that the numerous Japanese pirate warships when Ming Dynasty aided Korea in fighting against Japanese pirates ten years ago should have alerted the emperor and his ministers?

Pingyi Bo Chen Lin is already old. The Sutra Explanation Master saw him only last month. He is getting increasingly ill and frail, and I'm afraid he won't survive this year.

But right now, we can’t choose an admiral of the Yangtze River Navy who is as skilled in naval warfare as he is!
The interpreter only thought that the emperor was worried about the lack of successors to the Yangtze River Navy and the senior generals of the Ming Dynasty's naval warfare. He felt that the emperor was right to be worried.

At this time, the appointment of the Minister of Personnel, which was determined at the end of March, had not yet reached Yunnan.

Zhu Changluo still stayed in Zunhua, still watching over the military industrial park.

Because he discovered that with the cooperation of He Shengrui, the management master, and Zhao Shizhen, the firearms fanatic engineer, the foundation of the military industrial park... seemed to have become quite solid!
(End of this chapter)