The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 154 Unprecedented Reward

Qi Jiguang never expected that the title of God of War would fall on him.

He never expected that Wanli would promote him to the rank of Duke.

It all felt like a dream.

At night, he did have a good dream.

The next morning at about 11:00 AM, he was led into the palace by the eunuch who was waiting outside.

At this time, a ray of dawn appeared in the sky. It was still a little dark, but he felt that there was light ahead.

It is still winter and freezing outside, but he feels warm inside.

Sometimes people feel different depending on their mood.

If you are in a good mood, you won’t feel how cold it is even if it is freezing cold. If you are in a bad mood, you will feel that the melting ice and snow are still freezing cold even if it is spring.

At this moment, Qi Jiguang even felt that he had become much younger and was full of energy.

He even felt that his steps were lighter and he walked with great vigor.

Soon, he followed the young eunuch into a side hall covered with maps.

At this time, Wanli was already standing in front of the huge table, bending over and staring at the map.

Qi Jiguang quickly bowed and saluted.

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved and said, "Yuan Jing, come here. I still have many things to ask you."

Qi Jiguang hurried forward and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, I truly do not deserve your guidance. I can only offer a few humble suggestions."

Very good, not being arrogant because of the favor.

Wanli asked solemnly, "Who do you think is most suitable to be the commander-in-chief of Ningxia?"

Uh, this.

Now he is a part-time general of Ningxia Town.

This is mainly to facilitate communication with Haibai.

Qi Jiguang thought about it carefully, then asked cautiously: "Your Majesty, what do you think of the martial arts champion Xiao Ruxun?"

The top military scholar Xiao Ruxun was indeed a good person, a man of both civil and military talents, and he came from a good family. His close ties to Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi and Minister of Personnel Yang Zhaona were also members of the imperial party.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Well, then let's do it, Ruxun. After we finish discussing this, you have to go and tell Er Zhang that he is writing biographies for the Nine Frontier Generals and the Twelve Generals of the Beijing Camp.

By the way, Ruxun has gone to serve as the general of Ningxia Town. Who is the right person to lead the Shenwu Front Camp?"

Do you let me decide all this?

Qi Jiguang pondered this for a while before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, we should appoint the most capable person regardless of personal connection. I feel that Bangping has mastered the art of war, and his skills are even better than mine. What do you think of letting him lead the Shenwu Front Camp?"

Qin Bangping?
That guy is not your relative.

He is my relative.

Are you recommending talented people for me regardless of your relationship with them?

Wanli said solemnly: "Yuan Jing, he seems to have just turned seventeen. Can he command thousands of troops?"

Qi Jiguang also said solemnly: "Your Majesty, in the past there was a champion marquis Huo Qubing, who at the age of seventeen defeated the Xiongnu and was the bravest among the three armies. I believe that Bang Ping is the champion marquis of our Ming Dynasty, and he can also be the bravest among the three armies."

Is it so powerful?

Upon hearing this, Wanli nodded slowly and said, "Alright, let him try. By the way, how is Haibai now?"

Qi Jiguang pointed to the map and explained in detail: "Your Majesty, I feel that he is still a little alone compared to the Tumed tribe.

Moreover, we have no plans to send troops outside the Great Wall during this period. If he attacks rashly, he will most likely be surrounded and annihilated by the Tumed tribe.

Therefore, I will ask him to be more cautious, protect himself first, and then plot against the Tumed tribe.

In the past two months, I have selected three places for him to stay. One of them is a valley near the northern entrance of Helan Mountain. I asked him to leave the families of the soldiers there so that it would be easier for us to protect them.

There are two other valleys, one in the middle of Wolf Mountain and the other in the northeast of Wolf Mountain. We don't have any troops stationed there yet, so it's a good time for him to help watch over them.

We will definitely deploy defenses there in the future. That way, if he fails to win, he can escape back and use our defenses to preserve his strength.

After he had almost finished arranging the three bases, he went to the north side of Yinshan Mountain to attack a small tribe as a test, killing hundreds of young and strong men and stealing tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses.

I've exchanged the heads of the young and strong northern barbarians, as well as their cattle, sheep, and horses, for food and winter supplies. He's also led his army back to the northern entrance of the Helan Mountains. They should be able to survive well this winter."

Very good, a cunning rabbit has three burrows.

I was afraid that he would rush forward rashly and be surrounded and annihilated by the Tumed tribe.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How much grassland is available for grazing in Hetao? Have you surveyed it?"

This one.

Qi Jiguang said rather embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, the Hetao region is vast, and the grasslands there are incredibly abundant. We've only roughly surveyed them in such a short time. The Qiantao Plain has approximately 10 million mu of grassland, the Houtao Plain has approximately 15 million mu, the Xitao Plain has approximately 17 million mu, and the Inner Tao has over 50 million mu."

Very good, so much grassland is enough to raise horses and also enough for rewards.

Wanli continued to ask: "What about the number of cattle, sheep, horses and prisoners? Have you counted them?"

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "I have indeed ordered an inventory. If we count the prisoners captured from Jizhou, Xuanfu, and Datong, we have captured over 500,000 old and young women and children, and over 4 million cattle, sheep, and horses.

There is no fixed number of cattle, sheep, and horses, because some are constantly dying of old age, some are born, and some are slaughtered. I can only estimate the approximate number.

There are probably more than 400,000 horses, but most of the war horses were ridden away by the northern barbarians. We only captured more than 60,000 war horses. Excluding those sent to Haibai, there are only more than 50,000 horses left.

We didn't capture many cattle, only about 300,000 in total. The remaining 3 million or so were all sheep, including over 2 million sheep. We slaughtered many goats, leaving only about 1.5 million, but most of them were lambs and ewes."

There are enough sheep, but there are too few cattle and war horses.

Wanli sighed slightly and said, "I wanted to allocate more cattle to the garrison to plow the land, but there are too few cattle now.

And there are war horses. Next year, just to expand the 120,000 soldiers in the Beijing garrison, we'll need 50,000 to 60,000 war horses. We also have to equip each border town with at least 10,000 cavalrymen, otherwise, they won't be able to cross the border."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang said cautiously, "Your Majesty, there's nothing we can do about this. Cattle and horses are too difficult to breed, and the northern barbarians basically don't cultivate land, so there are even fewer cattle than horses.

However, war horses are not a big problem, because among the more than 400,000 horses, there are only tens of thousands of old horses. Excluding the more than 50,000 war horses, there are still more than 300,000 mares and foals, of which 50,000 to 60,000 are foals over two years old.

These ponies can be trained after the winter, and can become war horses after two or three years of training. Moreover, we have more than 100,000 mares. As long as we breed them well, it should not be a problem to produce 100,000 ponies a year.

That is to say, in two or three years, we will be able to produce about 50,000 to 60,000 war horses every year. In five or six years, when there are more mares, we will have no problem producing 100,000 war horses a year."

Does this mean that a large-scale expedition against the Northern Tartars will have to wait for roughly two or three years?

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slightly and said, "Okay, let's give out rewards first. After that, we can expand our forces for a year or two before considering the issue of conquering the Northern Tartars."

It is indeed impossible to expand the troops in a hurry. The recruits must be trained before they can go to the battlefield.

Qi Jiguang nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

Wanli asked again: "How do you calculate your military achievements? How many soldiers are qualified to be promoted to the title of nobility?"

This is a bit too much.

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang quickly took out a folded list from his arms.

Wanli took it and unfolded it for a closer look, then shook his head repeatedly, saying, "No, that's too few. How come there's only one marquis, Du Song? There are only a few earls, and only a few dozen viscounts and barons. And why haven't Xiao Rulan and Du Tong been given titles? Are you not counting their past military achievements?"

Is this still not enough?

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang was surprised and asked, "Your Majesty, do all my previous military achievements count?"

Wanli nodded without hesitation and said, "Everyone counts, as long as they are still alive. These officers under your command have killed many enemies in the past, so they will all be counted. So, I will ask Qianji to bring the military merit book and we will count them together."

Not long after, Liang Menglong came with the military merit book of more than 30 years.

After Wanli carefully calculated with them, he found that the title they were given was quite terrifying.

The eight generals under Qi Jiguang were all marquises, and Dong Yikui, Ma Gui, Du Tong, Li Chengliang, Liu Jing, Deng Zilong and others were also marquises. There were dozens of earls, and hundreds of viscounts and barons.

This is not all. He also gave them fiefs, personal guards, cattle, sheep, horses, and captured slaves.

Qi Jiguang was promoted to Duke of Peng, and was granted 500,000 acres of land, 5,000 personal soldiers, 50,000 cattle, sheep and horses, and 10,000 captured slaves.

There were more than ten marquises, each of whom had a fief of 200,000 mu, 2,000 personal soldiers, 20,000 cattle, sheep and horses, and 2,000 captured slaves.

This means more than two million acres of grassland, more than 20,000 personal soldiers, more than 200,000 cattle, sheep and horses, and more than 20,000 slaves.

There were also dozens of earls, each of whom had a fiefdom of 100,000 acres, a thousand personal troops, 10,000 cattle, sheep and horses, and 1,000 captured slaves.

This means millions of acres of grassland, tens of thousands of personal troops, hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses, and tens of thousands of slaves.

There were also hundreds of viscounts, each of whom had a fief of 50,000 acres, 500 personal soldiers, 5,000 cattle, sheep and horses, and 500 captured slaves.

This means more than five million acres of grassland, tens of thousands of personal troops, hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses, and tens of thousands of slaves.

There were also hundreds of barons, each of whom had a fief of 10,000 acres, a hundred personal soldiers, a thousand cattle, sheep and horses, and a hundred captured slaves.

This means millions of acres of grassland, tens of thousands of personal troops, hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep, horses and tens of thousands of slaves.

To be honest, such a reward is already terrifying enough.

However, there are still plenty of grasslands, cattle, sheep, horses and captured slaves. The grasslands outside their territory have not been rewarded yet. The excess cattle, sheep, horses and captives can be taken inland and guarded by the border troops. As long as the soldiers make achievements in the future, they will be rewarded.

The only problem is that the personal army has been consumed too much. Those who are granted titles are either soldiers from the Beijing Camp or soldiers from the border troops, and the personal guards they choose must also be soldiers from the Beijing Camp and soldiers from the border troops.

By this calculation, the Beijing Army and the border troops would need to add more than 100,000 troops to fill this hole.

Of course, this hole is easy to fill.

Once this unprecedented reward is announced, those inland garrisons who have no chance to go to the battlefield will definitely scramble to go.

(End of this chapter)