Ming Dynasty: A mere unruly commoner is rebelling against the heaven?

Chapter 69: The Ministry of War will never be allowed to interfere!

Zhu Youtang's eyes turned cold, and he was not willing to explain any more to Liu Daxia.

"Just follow my instructions. I will consider it."

"Get out!"

Seeing this, Liu Daxia didn't dare to persuade him anymore.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Liu Daxia bowed and backed out of Hongde Hall, and went to take charge of the dispatch of food and fodder.

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

When Zhu Youtang sent 100,000 troops to Tumubao to kill the little Tatar prince, he did not dispatch any food or fodder.

That’s because Tumubao is too close, less than two hundred miles away.

If the entire army advances at full speed, it will be able to reach Tumubao from Changtong in less than half a day.

Each soldier prepared three days' worth of food and was ready to set off immediately.

And now the army is going to expedition to Hami, Turpan and Tashigan City.

The journey is about five or six thousand miles, and it will take a long time just to prepare food and grass in the early stages.

As for why they didn't recruit soldiers from the three garrisons in Suzhou Prefecture, Yongchang Wei and Liangzhou Wei to provide nearby support, there was a reason for that.

The Weisuo system was the most important military system of the Ming Dynasty and was founded by Emperor Taizu.

After Emperor Taizu Gao founded the country, he established the Fish Scale Book, and on this basis, he implemented the Lijia system.

The national population was divided into three categories according to their occupations: civilians, military personnel, and craftsmen, and were registered.

Various household registrations are fixed and hereditary, and it is strictly forbidden to escape or change household registration privately. Once discovered, severe punishment will be imposed.

The garrison soldiers were a group of semi-professional soldiers organized by civilians with military status who had not yet fully retired from military service.

If there was an emergency, they would be mobilized to join the battle; if there was no emergency, they would return to the garrison and farm.

Every military civilian has a house and land in the garrison, as well as a fixed monthly ration.

Soldiers in the camp were divided into two parts: garrison and farming. The ratio was not fixed and they took turns on schedule. The farming people had to hand over grain on a regular basis to supply the garrison troops and officials.

This system greatly reduced the pressure on Ming Dynasty's military spending.

Normally, these garrison soldiers were just like farmers, growing crops in their own garrisons and did not need additional grain allocations from the imperial court.

However, this system had already caused very serious problems during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong.

The first problem was that the military officers of the garrisons occupied the military farmland and used the soldiers as private labor to cultivate the land.

Under the oppression of the officers in the garrison, the fields of the military households became the private fields of the officers in the garrison, and the military households also became their domestic slaves.

From then on, he stopped military training and focused on farming and paying taxes to the officers of the garrison.

The second problem is the serious problem of military households deserting.

By the third year of Zhengtong, the number of military households fleeing had exceeded 1.6 million.

Emperor Yingzong had to start the conscription system and recruit free soldiers again.

As a result, the combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers was extremely low, and many garrisons had the problem of a large number of soldiers drawing salaries without working.

Moreover, those military households became farmers who only knew how to farm and had no combat capability at all.

Moreover, the guards were under the jurisdiction of the Five Military Commanderies and the Ministry of War, and Zhu Youtang did not trust them.

If we dispatch garrison troops to provide support, we don’t need to worry about whether we can win or when we can win.

Just getting these garrison soldiers moving would cause food and wages to flow out in droves.

As to whether these money and grain flowed into the Ministry of War or into the hands of the officers of the garrison, it was not clear.

What is certain is that the military chief himself will never get the full salary.

As long as the Wei Suo system is not resolved, Zhu Youtang will never use the Wei Suo soldiers to fight.

As for the defense of the capital, the three camps that originally protected the capital had less than 200,000 soldiers.

Now Zhu Youtang has placed 100,000 soldiers in the Xianzhen Camp in the capital, and is now dispatching 130,000 troops to go on the expedition.

After all these efforts, the number of soldiers stationed around the capital was about the same as before, with an additional 70,000 well-equipped trap camps. The defense force of the capital was even higher than before.

After Liu Daxia left, Zhu Youtang looked at Gao Shun again.

"Gao Shun, do you have a candidate in mind for the general in charge of this expedition?"

Gao Shun had already made up his mind: "Your Majesty, I have a candidate in mind. My personal guard captain Xu Chang can take on this important task."

Xu Chang was the junior officer who had informed Zhu Youtang of the news before, and Zhu Youtang was so delighted that he gave him a copy of his calligraphy.

Zhu Youtang nodded and said, "Okay, then I will first appoint him as a general of Wujie, and make him the governor of the northwest, controlling the troops of the northwest and fully presiding over the affairs of this expedition."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"You go back first, and select the soldiers as quickly as possible. Once the soldiers are ready, we can go to war immediately!"

"Yes, I will retire at the end."

After Gao Shun left, Zhu Youtang summoned Wang Zhi, the director of the Western Factory.

Wang Zhi came to Hongde Hall and after paying his respects, Zhu Youtang immediately issued an order.

"Wang Zhi, there are two things in total."

"The first thing to do is to send some Western Factory soldiers to supervise the Ministry of Revenue's work on measuring the land in the country, and the Ministry of War's work on dispatching grain and fodder to the expedition to Hami."

"The second thing is that the Western Factory also sent some people to supervise the expedition to Hamiwei."

"Remember, the Xianzhen Camp and the Western Depot are fully responsible for the expedition. The Ministry of War and the border generals must not interfere!"

Wang Zhi's face was serious, and he accepted the order respectfully: "Yes, Your Majesty."

Zhu Youtang held his forehead and waved his hand: "Go."

"Wei Chen retire."

After Wang Zhi left, Zhu Youtang rubbed his temples and felt extremely tired.

The Ming Dynasty was plagued by internal and external troubles.

It has been less than a year since he ascended the throne and various problems have emerged one after another.

There are still many things he has not had time to do, and many people he has not had time to kill.

Currency reform, tax reform, and Weisuo system reform all need to be done step by step.

The north had just been pacified when the enemy invaded again in the northwest.

Annan in the south was also restless.

Chenghua Li Ting was not able to completely wipe out the three Jurchen tribes.

According to historical records, the previous emperor appointed General Zhao Fu to lead an army of 50,000, divided into three routes to suppress the Jianzhou Jurchens.

After a month of encirclement and suppression, the Ming army beheaded more than 630 people and captured more than 240 people.

Killing just this small number of people made Zhu Youtang want to laugh.

Fifty thousand men went on the expedition for a month, but only killed more than six hundred people.

This is just like when Zhu Qizhen led an army of hundreds of thousands to go on an expedition, but was abducted by the Oirat troops who suddenly appeared in Tumu Fortress without any prior notice, right at his doorstep.

It's extremely ridiculous!

I don’t know how those civil servants had the nerve to record these things in the history books.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Kitchen Supervisor has brought some cakes and hot tea. Would you like to take a break and eat something?"

The eunuch who was serving beside him handed over a tray filled with cakes and hot tea at the right time.

"Leave it here."

Zhu Youtang pointed to the dragon table in front of him, and the young eunuch immediately placed cakes and hot tea on it with nimble hands and feet.

Zhu Youtang picked up the tea, took a sip, and suddenly asked, "What has Huai En been doing these days? Why haven't I seen him much recently?"

The eunuch in attendance replied respectfully, "Your Majesty, Eunuch Huai has been staying in the East Factory recently and has been very busy. He has not been seen for several days."

Zhu Youtang nodded thoughtfully.

(End of this chapter)