The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 157: Terrifying Food and Salary
Nanyuan Military Academy.

That is the former headquarters of the Beijing Camp General.

At that time, the intention was to paralyze the three major powerful families in Puzhou, so the Beijing camp was pretended to be set up in Nanyuan, and the general's office was also set up in Nanyuan.

In fact, at that time the Beijing camp was not in Nanyuan, but in the Mountain Resort.

Qi Jiguang, the general of the Beijing camp, rarely lived in the general's mansion.

This general's mansion is nothing more than a deceptive cover.

There is no need to paralyze the three major families in Puzhou now, and the pretext of the General's Mansion is no longer needed. It is just right to change it into the Nanyuan Military Academy.

Wanli was also very concerned about the Military Academy. After sending Ma Gui, Du Tong and Du Song away, he prepared to come to Nanyuan to take a good look.

Early in the morning at about noon, just as the sun was rising, Chengtian Gate, the south gate of the imperial city, suddenly opened again.

Immediately afterwards, there was the sound of thunderous hooves, and tens of thousands of cavalry from the Beijing Camp and the Embroidered Uniform Guard swarmed out, passing through the Daming Gate, Zhengyang Gate, and Yongding Gate, and soon formed a long line.

When Wanli left the palace at this time, he didn't need to say hello to anyone. He didn't make any pomp and circus, there was no dragon chariot, canopy, plaque, banner, etc., just a group of light cavalry.

He even wore the robes of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and hid among tens of thousands of light cavalry with Li Xuancheng, Shan Sinan, Li Tingji and others. No one knew whether he had left the palace or not.

At this time, the ice and snow outside the city had not melted yet. Looking around, it was all white, so white that it was dazzling under the sunlight.

The temperature was still below zero, and if you didn't wrap yourself tightly in a cloak, you would shiver with cold.

Fortunately, there were already quite a few people traveling on the official road leading to Nanyuan, and Qi Jiguang had already rushed there with his personal soldiers. There was no snow or ice on the road, so there was no problem riding a horse at full speed.

Moreover, Nanyuan is not very far away and it takes less than half an hour to get there by horse.

At this moment, most of the snow in Nanyuan has been cleared away, especially on the flat ground, where there is no snow at all.

The large parade ground was even more overcrowded, with no room left inside, and a large circle of tents had been set up outside.

The garrison troops and their remaining men from several prefectures in the south of Northern Zhili had already arrived. The Henan Dusi, Shandong Dusi, and even the Shanxi Dusi that were nearby had also arrived, and the training and selection had already begun.

The large number of troops from the Beijing camp could not be transferred back at the moment, so Qi Jiguang could only transfer back all the officers who could be transferred back.

Fortunately, many officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp were granted titles and noble titles, and they had many personal soldiers under their command, which was enough for training and selecting garrison guards.

The Nanyuan Parade Ground was bustling with calls of orders and roars.

The thundering sound of the hooves of tens of thousands of light cavalry could not drown out the orderly roars, which showed how hard these garrison guards and their remaining soldiers trained.

When Wanli heard the earth-shaking roar, he felt full of energy and the weather didn't seem so cold anymore.

When Qi Jiguang heard that Emperor Wanli was coming, he and Yongnian Earl Wang Wei and others were already waiting outside the gate of the Military Academy.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli could not help but ask, "Yuan Jing, how is it going? How many garrison guards and their remaining men have arrived?"

Qi Jiguang glanced at the parade ground and estimated, "There were more than 50,000 soldiers yesterday morning, and it's probably 60,000 by now."

so much!
No wonder there is no room in the parade ground.

Wanli was quite surprised and said, "Do the several prefectures in the south of Northern Zhili have so many garrison troops and garrison surplus soldiers? It seems not. I remember that there were only a few garrisons in the south, and at most there were only 20,000 to 30,000 garrison troops."

The regular soldiers stationed in the south were indeed only about 20,000 to 30,000.

Qi Jiguang explained in detail: "Your Majesty, the remaining soldiers of the garrison who came this time are more than the regular soldiers of the garrison.

There were always many surplus soldiers in the garrison. After all, it was common for a family to have three or four brothers. However, no matter how many brothers there were in a garrison household, only one could inherit the position of regular soldier, and the rest were surplus soldiers.

In this way, there may be two or three extra men in just one generation. In addition, the extra men will marry and have children, and the reproduction rate will be terrifying. It is common for a garrison household to give birth to more than ten or even dozens of military households. There are cases where a garrison household with many children gives birth to hundreds of military households.

Your Majesty, as long as they are military households born from the garrison, they are all registered as garrison soldiers. They can all come and try."

This time he really relaxed the restrictions, as long as they were members of the Tuanwei Army, they could come and try. Unexpectedly, there would be so many Tuanwei Army households.

Wanli was quite puzzled and asked, "Aren't the garrisons very poor? How do they support so many families?"

Qi Jiguang was quite familiar with this because he also came from a military household.

He explained in detail: "Your Majesty, the garrisons were not actually poor in the beginning. After all, during the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties, each garrison household was allocated at least 50 mu of land, so it was definitely no problem to produce hundreds of dan of grain a year.

Ordinary people actually can't eat much when they are not training or fighting, especially the elderly, children, women and children. A hundred stones of grain are enough to feed more than ten or twenty people.

Therefore, it is not a problem for one garrison to multiply into four or five households. In addition, the remaining men in the garrison do not need to train or go to the battlefield. They can also open up wasteland and even find other jobs to supplement their family income. Therefore, it is not surprising that fifty acres of land can support more than ten families.

This does make sense.

Wanli nodded slightly, but couldn't help but ask curiously, "If you put it that way, it's not surprising that one garrison household gave rise to more than ten households, but how did the hundreds of households come about?"

Uh, this.

Qi Jiguang hesitated for a moment, then spoke frankly, "Your Majesty, what I just mentioned were only the ordinary garrison troops. The hereditary centurions, thousand-household commanders, deputy commanders, deputy commanders, commanders-in-chief, and so on, all received much more land.

Moreover, they could continue to merge military farms. Once they became full-time centurions or thousand-household officials, it was rare for them not to merge military farms.

Now, there are basically only 60% to 70% of the military households left in all the military garrisons. In fact, those military farms have not disappeared. Most of them have been swallowed up by those families with hereditary military positions.

After these families swallowed up a large amount of military farmland, there was naturally no problem for them to reproduce hundreds of military households.

I have seen families with hundreds of descendants. The number of uncles and nephews is simply terrifying. The head of the family can summon two or three hundred strong men with just a shout."

Oh, these guys.

Upon hearing this, Wanli couldn't help but sigh slightly and said, "These garrison officers are still a big problem. I don't know how to punish them, but not punishing them seems to be an option."

It is better not to punish these people.

Qi Jiguang thought for a moment, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, I am also a hereditary garrison officer, so I am quite familiar with these people.

In fact, most of them are not bad people. The reason why they merged and cultivated land is because there are too many people in their family. If they don't merge, others will do it.

After all, who doesn't want a large family? Everyone thinks so, and as a result, this bad habit has been formed.

Originally, these hereditary garrison officers would not leave the area unless they took the military examination.

Because they are deeply rooted in the local area and have considerable influence, they can easily find ways to make money to support their families.

However, with His Majesty offering such a generous reward this time, many of those who were hereditary garrison officers came over.

To be honest, these people are still a bit better than the ordinary garrison guards and the remaining garrison guards. Most of them have read a little bit, and some of them have inherited the battlefield skills from their families, so their martial arts skills are also quite good. "

You mean, don't punish these people, right?
Okay, anyway, after replenishing the Beijing camp and the border garrisons, the inland garrisons that originally had only 60% to 70% of the troops left will probably only be 30% to 40%. With such a small number of people, military farming is definitely enough.

Sometimes it's better to turn a blind eye.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "Then how long do you estimate it will take to train and select 120,000 soldiers for the Beijing Camp?"

Qi Jiguang estimated, "This time, the troops seem to be more powerful than the last few. After all, Yu Ding, who doesn't have any skills, won't come here to waste time. I think that if we continue like this, we should be able to recruit nearly the full 120,000 soldiers of the Beijing Camp by next month."

So fast!
Then we have to find a way to make money quickly.

This time he not only expanded the Beijing garrison to 240,000, but also expanded the border garrisons.

This year he plans to expand the troops in all border towns to 50,000. Although, except for Datong Town, other border towns are given half of the food and wages for rotation training, the total amount is still food and wages for 200,000 troops.

This amount of food and salary is quite terrifying. The Beijing garrison has 240,000 troops, the border troops have 250,000, plus 10,000 naval officers, that's 500,000 troops. If you add in officers at all levels and rations, it's estimated that more than one million taels a month is not enough, and more than ten million taels a year is probably not enough!
The Ming Dynasty court’s current tax revenue is not even enough to cover half of it.

(End of this chapter)