The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 220: The Overall Situation (I)

"Go call Chief Xie and the commander of the cavalry battalion, as well as the commander of the artillery battalion and the workshop's head craftsman Lei and the others. Clear the table of things and replace the water with tea."

Since we were establishing new rules, everyone had to participate. Besides the military and bureaucrats present, civil affairs and workshops were also required.

Unfortunately, Wu Aheng is still in Korea, so the navy cannot come.

Liu Zhaosun was actually willing to have a good talk about the Kaiyuan Ocean strategy with these short-sighted subordinates.

In the past two years, Kaiyuan's power has expanded rapidly, from the initial one city to most of Liaodong, and even began to infiltrate Shandong and the southwest. As the territory and interests continued to expand, the original group of subordinates also began to have their own team.

When a team doesn't have an effective organizational structure, people will structure it in a way that they think is reasonable.

In simple terms, it means nepotism.

When a chief officer has his own team, a new interest group will be formed with him as the center. This small interest group is exclusive and selfish.

When Kaiyuan's business is going smoothly, everyone can still work together. However, once there is a disturbance, as happened in Hetuala not long ago, small interest groups may have conflicts of interest with the team, and the entire team may face the risk of falling apart.

As representatives of small interest groups, even if the chief officials do not fight for power and profit, those under them will encourage them to do so.

Just like Kang Yingqian could instigate Liu Zhaosun to enter the Pass and proclaim himself emperor, Kang Yingqian's adjutant could also instigate Kang Yingqian to squeeze out Sun Chuanting and become the only dominant power in Kaiyuan.

The exquisite dishes on the table before us represent all the benefits of the Kaiyuan system, but some people have too big an appetite and are no longer satisfied, so they want to redistribute the cake.

"Am I being too lenient with them?"

The time traveler supported his cheek with his hand, feeling dizzy, and the scene of Emperor Taizu of Ming killing his meritorious officials emerged in his mind.

Subconsciously, he is still the honest man who is kind to others in the company in his previous life.

Now think about it, the group of people he faced were all the smartest of the smart. Except for the newly-minted Jinshi like Yuan Chonghuan and Sun Chuanting, the other civil servants had been in the officialdom for more than a decade and killed people without anyone noticing.

I was too naive. I had been so open with these old hands from the beginning, but now I was in a passive position.

Since the previous relationship between the ruler and the subjects could no longer be maintained, a new organizational structure was needed.

Since the past tolerance and self-discipline cannot solve the evil of human nature, the only option is to replace it with iron, blood and terror.

In a pre-industrial era when the literacy rate was no more than one percent and the sense of national identity among the lower classes of society was zero, it was undoubtedly a pipe dream to hope that one could awaken national consciousness in just a few years by relying on a few slogans and some empty promises about economic reforms, and rush into constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy or some kind of nationalism.

Liu Zhaosun thought for a while, took out a charcoal notebook from his pocket, opened a blank page, and wrote carefully on the notebook:
“Everything starts from reality.”

Supervisory agencies like the Jinyiwei East Factory are very necessary, and we cannot be as tolerant of these subordinates as before.

At this moment, he missed Shen Lian very much. He didn't know whether his brother was dead or alive, or how he was doing.

Zhang Chao hurried out and looked at Ping Liaohou with concern before leaving.

The guards from the central army came up, cleared the dishes from the table, and served tea to the superiors.

The tea was steaming hot, and eight guards, holding goose-feather knives, stood around the table.

Liu Zhaosun put away the notebook and looked up at everyone. His subordinates had different expressions.

Qiao Yiqi shook his head and sighed, looking at Kang Yingqian with reproach. Old Kang turned his head away with a dead pig-like look.

Yuan Chonghuan looked blankly at the tea in his hand, his fingers constantly opening and closing the lid of the teacup, his expression looking a little dazed.

Deng Changxiong looked dazed, secretly glancing at Ping Liaohou from the corner of his eye. Although the Hetuala massacre was ordered by Sun Chuanting, it was Deng Changxiong and his Second Thousandth Headquarters who ultimately carried it out.

Afterwards, Kang Yingqian and Sun Chuanting's adjutant both came to see Deng Changxiong and said some ambiguous words to him, which meant that General Deng should not worry, and that if Ping Liaohou held them accountable, they would take the responsibility.

At this point, even Deng Changxiong, no matter how dull he was, knew that the civil officials were forming cliques and trying to win him over. After the Battle of Hetuala, Ping Liaohou never mentioned the matter, which made Deng Changxiong feel even more anxious.

This brave general, who came from a family of servants, just wanted to fight peacefully under the command of Marquis Ping Liao, but he was inexplicably involved in the power struggle among civil servants.

Sen Ti and Wang Erhu, who were sitting next to them, had angry eyes. If Liu Zhaosun had not been present, they would have jumped up and hit someone.

Song Yingxing and Ma Shiying rubbed their hands from time to time. Without them saying anything, one could feel their uncontrollable excitement.

Mao Yuanyi and Xu Xiake looked as if they had nothing to do with the matter, especially Xu Xiake. He had just returned from the Korean mine a few days ago and was not affected by the people around him at all. He dipped his fingers in boiling hot tea and wrote and drew on the table, but no one knew what he was drawing.

Finally, Liu Zhaosun's eyes fell on Sun Chuanting in the corner.

When Sun Chuanting saw Ping Liaohou looking at him, he quickly avoided his gaze and looked a little uneasy. It was obvious that he was still brooding over the massacre in Hetuala.

This guy has always been willful and angry throughout history.

In the 1th year of the Chongzhen reign, Sun Chuanting, dissatisfied with Zhu Youjian, submitted a memorial stating that he was deaf and refused to resign from the post of governor. He thanked the emperor for demoting him to a lower level and allowing him to make meritorious contributions while serving his sentence. (Note )

Liu Zhaosun had some understanding of this important official of the late Ming Dynasty. Having heard of Sun Chuanting's stubborn temper, he thought to himself:
"After some hard work, perhaps you can become a great talent."

At this time, several civil officials and workshop heads arrived one after another. As soon as they entered the room, the chief officers noticed the tense atmosphere in the room and sat in a corner.

Liu Zhaosun saw everyone sitting down, looked around, stood up, tapped the table lightly with his fingers, and said:

"Alright, everyone's here. I'm going to cut to the chase. I've invited you all here today to share my vision for Kaiyuan's future and, of course, the new rules it's implementing. Before that, please have General Deng and Director Xie brief you on Kaiyuan's current military and civil affairs."

There was a sound of clicking of the tongue in the room, and everyone looked up and turned to look at Deng Changxiong with an expression of disbelief on their faces.

Deng Changxiong stood up quickly, but his face was bewildered. He was not prepared at all and stood there awkwardly.

Liu Zhaosun's eyes softened as he encouraged:
"Captain Deng, please tell me about Kaiyuan's current military strength, the area we occupy, and the strength of the imperial court and Liaozhen. I see that you are familiar with military affairs, so you should have paid attention to this for a long time."

"what?"

Deng Changxiong came to his senses at this time, stammered, and looked at Ping Liaohou with an embarrassed expression.

"Why are you so nervous? You're not afraid of fighting, but you're afraid of speaking?" Liu Zhaosun said, then turned around and pointed at everyone, saying meaningfully to Deng Changxiong:
"Captain Deng, you gentlemen usually only see a small part of the situation and rarely grasp the overall situation. Today, we are all together for a rare occasion. Please explain the overall situation of Kaiyuan's military affairs to them. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. I won't blame you."

Deng Changxiong broke out in a cold sweat, this remark clearly indicated bad luck.

He looked up suddenly and found that everyone in the room was staring at him, and Kang Yingqian seemed to be winking at him.

Deng Changxiong ignored the man and said stubbornly:
"Since you are the Marquis of Ping Liao, my colleagues, I will present my humble opinion. If there is anything inappropriate, please..."

Liu Zhaosun interrupted with a wave of his hand:

"You are the most powerful general under my command. Don't be so fussy. The soldiers of Kaiyuan are brave and will move forward. Don't talk nonsense!"

Deng Changxiong took a breath of cold air and said quickly:
"Yes!"

"After wiping out the Jiannu, Kaiyuan now has six thousand-man headquarters and one naval battalion. Including the wounded soldiers from the joint battalion, the total strength is 28,000 men. Of these, 14,000 are musketeers, 5,000 are spearmen, and the remainder are sword and shield soldiers and halberd and mace bearers. In addition, there are 600 artillery battalions and 1,000 Pidao naval soldiers, for a total of 1,600 men."

Liu Zhaosun added:

"Just talking about the details of the Korean navy at home, I'll have Mr. Xu report later."

Notes:

(1) "On the rd of the previous month, I suddenly developed an ear disease and subsequently became deaf... I am a weak and useless official. How can I discipline the officers and officials and give orders to the army and the people?" - "Resigning from the post of Governor and acknowledging my demotion" by Sun Chuanting
(End of this chapter)