The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 11: Warmongering
Qi Jiguang was really granted the title of marquis.

Moreover, he was transferred to the general of the Beijing camp and became a close confidant of the emperor.

This world-famous general will finally not be buried in obscurity, and now he has a bright future.

The next day seemed to be another sunny day. Early in the morning at about noon, the morning sun rose vigorously, and the entire palace seemed to be full of prosperity.

Liang Menglong and Qi Jiguang came together with joy on their faces and entered the imperial study.

Qi Jiguang was granted the title of marquis and was appointed commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp. The situation was very good.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, Liang Menglong couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, what should Yuan Jing and I do next?"

Don't be happy too soon.

Wanli said solemnly: "Qianji, Yuanjing, you must be mentally prepared, the Beijing camp may be rotten.

After the Gengxu Incident, the Beijing Camp no longer had a general, and the entire Beijing Camp was completely under the control of the Minister of War.

Yang Bo served as the Minister of War for thirteen years. Wang Chonggu also served as the Minister of War. The former Minister of War Fang Fengshi was also Wang Chonggu's confidant. Wu Dui was also Gao Gong's disciple.

Whether they are doing it for their own business or to win over those powerful people who use the Beijing camp to make profits, they will add fuel to the fire and allow those powerful people to be greedy to death.

After decades of rampant corruption by those powerful people, what is left of the Beijing camp?

I don't have any expectations for the current Beijing Camp. What I need is the structure of the Beijing Camp and the quota of the 72 guards of the Beijing Camp.

What you need to do is to quickly set up the structure of the Beijing Camp.

Now the structure of the Beijing Camp is in a mess. Originally, the Beijing Camp was composed of the Five Army Camp, the Shenji Camp and the Three Thousand Camp. It was changed many times during the Zhengtong, Jingtai, Tianshun, Chenghua and Jiajing dynasties and there is no consensus.

We will choose twelve regiments, which are easier to set up. The Beijing camp will be divided into four camps: Shenji, front, back, left, and right. They are mainly firearms; Shenshu, front, back, left, and right. They are mainly chariots; Shenwu, front, back, left, and right. They are mainly cavalry. Each regiment is equipped with exactly six guard posts.

Yuan Jing, you only have eight generals under your command, right? Then, first set up the eight regiments and battalions. Build up the Four Divine Machine Battalions and the Four Divine Shuttle Battalions first, and we can deal with the remaining Four Divine Martial Battalions later."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang quickly bowed and said, "I understand."

Wanli then said solemnly, "Qianji, please write a memorial to promote eight of Yuan Jing's generals directly to deputy generals of the Beijing camp. You and Yuan Jing will discuss the other lieutenant generals, guerrilla generals, auxiliary generals, captains, and captains. Submit the memorial directly to me and I will approve it."

This!
Liang Menglong said cautiously, "Your Majesty, if the memorial doesn't go through the cabinet, the cabinet won't execute it."

Humph, Zhang Siwei just wants to undermine my imperial power. Even if the memorial is sent to the cabinet, this guy will not approve it.

Wanli snorted coldly, "The cabinet was originally responsible for helping the emperor deal with memorials, but now they are the ones making the decisions. This is outrageous.

You are taking my approved memorials and going to take over the Beijing camp. If you don't take my approved memorials seriously, you are deceiving the emperor. Just kill them directly. There is no need to report to the emperor. Just kill a few and they will behave themselves."

Isn’t this nonsense?
Liang Menglong was stunned when he heard this.

Qi Jiguang bowed without hesitation and said, "I understand."

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved his hand and said, "Go."

Upon hearing this, Liang Menglong and Qi Jiguang hurriedly bowed and took their leave.

Wanli stared at the table full of memorials in a daze. Reviewing memorials was part of the imperial power, and he had to review them.

If this power is decentralized, then he will really have no power at all.

The problem is, this is only part of it. There are thousands of memorials piled up in the past few days. How can he review them all?
He thought about it carefully, then said decisively: "My dear companion, pass on the message to Yu Youcai, Zhang Hong, Chen Ju, Sun Xian, and Zhang Jing."

what?
Feng Bao was stunned when he heard this.

Yu Youcai, Chen Ju and Sun Xian are fine, but why did you invite my mortal enemies Zhang Hong and Zhang Jing?

However, after being stunned for a moment, he quickly arranged for his eunuch to go and summon him.

There was no other way. Now he could only rely on the support of the little emperor to save his life. If he angered the little emperor, he would definitely die a miserable death.

Seeing Feng Bao had finished his arrangements, Wanli pondered and said, "Order five more small tables, and place them with the same items as on your table."

What is he going to do?

Soon, Yu Youcai, Zhang Hong, Chen Ju, Sun Xian and Zhang Jing arrived one after another.

Yu Youcai looked like an honest old farmer, and he was extremely respectful when he saluted.

Zhang Hong, Chen Ju, Sun Xian and Zhang Jing were the other four eunuchs in charge of the Imperial Household Department. They should have had the authority to approve documents, but Zhang Juzheng simply did not allow them to do so.

When Wanli saw that everyone had arrived, he immediately ordered, "Big Companion, have everyone bring all the memorials that have been piling up over the past few days. I will sort them for you, my dear minister, first. The important ones will be passed directly to me for approval. The unimportant ones will be reviewed by the five of you."

what?
Upon hearing this, Yu Youcai cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, I'd like to ask you what is important and what is unimportant?" Wanli explained carefully, "Important matters include the appointment and removal of officials of the fifth rank and above, the allocation of money and grain worth more than ten thousand taels, and the transfer of troops. Based on this standard, you can make the distinction as you see fit."

Upon hearing this, Yu Youcai nodded thoughtfully.

He is indeed talented, but he is too timid.

Wanli then warned several eunuchs who held pens, "You must review your work according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty. I will conduct random inspections. If I find that you have abused your power for personal gain or violated the law, I will review your work arbitrarily, dismiss you from your posts, investigate you, confiscate your property, and exile you.

If there is a problem with the memorials you approved and someone reports it, you will be dismissed from your post, investigated, and have your property confiscated and exiled."

Zhang Hong, Chen Ju, Sun Xian and Zhang Jing's expressions changed slightly when they heard this.

They originally thought that it was a good thing that the young emperor asked them to review memorials. The power of reviewing memorials means deciding what can and cannot be done, which is a great power.

Who knew the little emperor had such strict requirements?

Now, what was once a popular commodity has turned into a bad thing.

As a result of Wanli's actions, the speed of reviewing memorials increased by four or five times, and reviewing more than 2,000 memorials a day was no problem.

The backlog of memorials in the past few days was reviewed in just two or three days.

Qi Jiguang took control of the Beijing Camp very quickly. Anyone who dared to disobey the imperial edict and not let them take over the Beijing Camp would be killed.

He and his officers were all veterans of battles. Their opponents were the vicious northern barbarians and southern Japanese. They had crawled out of a sea of ​​blood and corpses. Killing a few people was a common occurrence for them, and they wouldn't even frown even if they killed hundreds of people.

Most of these officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp were officials who embezzled food and wages, collected salaries without working, and merged military farms. They had never even killed a chicken, so how could they be a match for the officers and soldiers of the Qi family army?

They were so frightened when they saw the officers and soldiers of the Qi family army, who were full of murderous aura. As soon as the knife was pulled out, they collapsed to the ground and urinated and shit all over the place. There was no need to fight at all.

It took Qi Jiguang only two or three days to take control of the Beijing camp.

However, the situation of the Beijing Army was even worse than they had imagined. The embezzlement of food and wages, the collection of empty salaries, and the annexation of military farms were not the biggest problems.

The garrison troops in the capital were in a miserable state. Without their farmland and food and wages, how could they survive?
They had no choice but to become tenant farmers, coolies, and slaves to the powerful, trying every way they could to make money so that they could support themselves and their families.

They were just surviving, their faces were pale, and some were so thin that they were just skin and bones.

The shortage of troops in the Beijing Camp was even more frightening. There were only more than 40,000 people left in the 72 guards and 12 regiments of the Beijing Camp.

Moreover, there are tens of thousands of officers at all levels, but there are only more than 30,000 actual garrison guards!
Why are there so many officers in the Beijing Camp?
In fact, this is the organization of the Beijing Camp, except that all the officers are there but only one in ten garrison guards remains, so it looks a bit weird.

Originally, the Beijing Camp only had the Five Army Camp, the Shenji Camp, and the Three Thousand Camp. There were only three deputy generals, six lieutenant generals, twelve guerrilla generals, and about a hundred captains. By analogy, there were only a few hundred full-time officers.

Later, the Beijing Camp was changed into the Twelve Regiments Camp, with twelve deputy generals, twenty-four lieutenant generals, forty-eight guerrilla generals, and so on. There were thousands of full-time officers and soldiers.

This is not a big deal.

The garrison officers were really scary. Each garrison had a commander, a deputy governor, two deputy commanders, five thousand-householders, fifty hundred-householders, and one hundred general flags.

The 72 guards of the Beijing Army have 72 commanders, 72 associate governors, 144 deputy commanders, 360 thousand-householders, 3,600 centurions, and 7,200 general flags!

These guys are almost all termites!
When Wanli heard Qi Jiguang's detailed report, he was not too surprised.

He had long anticipated that the Beijing Army was rotten. The Beijing Army in the Yongle Dynasty was invincible. It launched six campaigns against the Northern Yuan Dynasty, conquered Annan, and conquered Luchuan. The Beijing Army was invincible in the world. However, after the Battle of Tumu, the Beijing Army became a piece of cake.

In history, the Beijing garrison was a mess during the Wanli, Taichang, Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties. Not to mention the conquests in the east and west, the Beijing garrison could not even defend the most powerful cities in the world. Li Zicheng easily captured the capital.

There is nothing surprising about this. The key is to find a way to rebuild the Beijing Camp.

He immediately issued an order to gather soldiers from all over the country's garrisons in the capital for training and selection of elite soldiers to fill the vacancies in the Beijing camp, starting with filling the eight regimental camps and forty-eight garrisons.

This imperial edict seems like a joke.

Eight regimental battalions and forty-eight garrisons, that's two to three hundred thousand troops!

He seems to be an ignorant and rebellious teenager who does whatever he wants without caring about anything.

Don’t so many people need food and wages?
Zhang Siwei directly sent back his imperial edict with a draft attached.

The draft document read: Your Majesty, please forgive me. With such excessive military spending, the court's taxes are simply unable to support the food and salary consumption of the Beijing army.

You dare to accuse me of warmongering?

Wanli immediately ordered Feng Bao to convey his oral instructions and hold a court meeting early tomorrow morning!

(End of this chapter)