The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 84 Chongwu starts from the military examination

Wanli left the palace again.

Early in the morning at around noon, as the sun rose, the Chengtian Gate, which was rarely opened, suddenly opened again.

Immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of Jinyiwei light cavalry swarmed out. This was not the end yet, as there were tens of thousands of imperial guards light cavalry following behind.

Twenty thousand light cavalry came out together, and the whole capital was suddenly filled with the sound of thunder.

The mighty team rushed all the way from Chengtian Gate to Daming Gate, and from Daming Gate to Zhengyang Gate. After leaving Zhengyang Gate, they rushed towards Yongding Gate. No one knew what they were going to do.

At this moment, no one dared to care or ask Wanli if he left the palace or even the capital, and he didn't need to tell anyone what he wanted to do.

He wore a Feiyu suit and mingled with the Jinyiwei team, and others didn't even know whether he had left the palace.

This time, he was accompanied by Li Xuancheng, Shan Sinan, Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen, Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong and others who often traveled with him.

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi, Marquis of Penglai Qi Jiguang, Marquis Huaiyuan Chang Yinxu, Marquis Ningyang Chen Yingzhao and Minister of War Liang Menglong were also wearing flying fish uniforms and following him.

What was he doing with this group of people going south?

The 20,000 light cavalry did not stop after pouring out of Yongding Gate in the south of the outer city. The mighty team galloped south for more than 20 miles until they came to a circle of walls that stretched as far as the eye could see. Then they slowly slowed down and poured in.

This is Nanyuan, also known as Nanhaizi. Nominally, it was a place for the emperor to hunt and have fun. It is quite large. The wall built during the Yongle Dynasty was more than 120 miles long.

If converted, it would be a wall of more than 60 kilometers in length, with an average of about 15 kilometers on each side, and an area of ​​roughly more than 200 square kilometers. Later generations measured it and found that the area of ​​Nanyuan was roughly 210 square kilometers, which, converted into mu, would be more than 300,000 mu.

There are mountains, forests and lakes everywhere, palaces and houses everywhere, herds of chickens, ducks, cattle and sheep, and musk deer and elk. It is like a paradise on earth, and the scenery is extremely beautiful.

However, since the Zhengde period, it seems that no emperor of the Ming Dynasty had ever visited Nanyuan, not even Jiajing.

Historically, during the Ji Si Incident in the second year of Chongzhen's reign, Huang Taiji led his troops to rest here. He thought this place was very good, so successive emperors of the Qing Dynasty often came here for hunting.

The scenery here is indeed extraordinary.

However, most of the people here were pale and thin, wearing tattered clothes and looking as skinny as if they were fleeing from a disaster.

There are about four hundred sea households in Nanyuan, who specialize in domesticating various animals, including chickens, ducks, fish, etc.

There is also a special army, the Jing Army.

The Jingjun was an army composed of eunuchs. This army was not used to guard the capital. Like the Tunwei, they specialized in farming and even growing vegetables, and their daily labor was very heavy.

There are more than 300,000 acres of land here. Even if only 10% of it is farmland and vegetable fields, that is more than 30,000 acres. The number of clean troops here generally does not exceed 1,000.

In other words, on average, each Jingjun had to take care of at least 30 acres of farmland and vegetable gardens. One can imagine how heavy the daily work was.

To put it nicely, the Jingjun were specifically responsible for growing grain and vegetables for the imperial palace. To put it bluntly, they were exiled to do hard labor.

Eunuchs who committed crimes or lost power in the palace were usually sent to serve as Nanhaizi Jingjun.

The work here is extremely tiring. I don’t know how many Jing soldiers have died from exhaustion.

Wanli looked at the Jingjun soldiers who were hunched over with exhaustion in the fields and couldn't help but sigh.

However, he did not come to see the clean army, he came to see the venue.

The military examination was about to begin. He wanted to suppress the civil officials and advocate the use of force, so naturally he had to make the military examination more grand than the civil examination.

The imperial examinations in the Ming Dynasty were dominated by civil officials. No one paid much attention to the military examinations in the past. There wasn't even a dedicated venue for the military examinations. The art of war and theories of formations were tested in the Imperial Academy of the civil examinations. Horseback riding, archery, martial arts competitions, etc. were all held in the training grounds of the Beijing Camp.

After the Jiajing Dynasty, the military examination became even more perfunctory. People would just pretend to take the test and consider passing it as passing. Anyway, the military examination title was bought, so there was no need to really take the test.

The palace examination for military examinations was even more dispensable. After the Jiajing Dynasty, the ranking of military scholars was determined by the Minister of War, and the emperor only had to take a look at it.

This in itself is problematic.

If the military examination is conducted in this way, will the generals selected be loyal to the emperor?

They will naturally follow whoever decides their future!

If this continues, military generals will only become vassals of civil officials. Anyone who is unwilling to be a vassal of the civil officials will have no future and may even be killed by the civil officials.

Historically, famous generals like Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang were dismissed from their posts and investigated, and died in depression. Liu Jing, the most powerful general in the late Ming Dynasty, was even killed by civil officials.

If this continues, the Ming Dynasty's military power will only become weaker and weaker, so weak that everyone will want to bully it.

If we want to change this situation, we must start with the military examination.

As an emperor, he had to skip the middle link of civil servants and personally select and train military generals, so that he could obtain batch after batch of loyal generals.

Only in this way can military generals break free from the constraints of civil officials, thereby improving their status and suppressing civil officials in turn.

In this military examination, he will completely change the situation where literature is valued over martial arts.

He decided to build a new military examination hall in Nanyuan, where all the subjects would be carefully tested and tested, so that truly formidable generals could be selected, trained, and entrusted with important tasks. Nanyuan was indeed very large, with plenty of flat land. He brought Duke Chengguo Zhu Yingzhen and Minister of War Liang Menglong to the large grassland near the palace in the middle to take a closer look. He then raised his hand and said, "Qianji, this is a good spot, isn't it?"

The military examination was organized by the Ministry of War, so he asked this question.

Upon hearing this, Liang Menglong, the Minister of War, was a little embarrassed and said, "Your Majesty, I am a humble servant. May I ask what you would like the military examination hall to look like?"

I had naturally thought of this a long time ago.

Wanli pointed to the middle of the vast grassland and said, "In the middle, we will build a platform about ten feet high for selecting generals. Around the platform, we will build a thousand arenas for fighting. Both the platform and the arenas will be covered with shelters to protect them from wind and rain. The written examination, stone lock lifting, and fighting competitions will all be held on the arenas.

Targets will be placed around the arena, and tests like horse riding and archery will be conducted there."

Is it too late?

Upon hearing this, Minister of War Liang Menglong said cautiously, "Your Majesty, the martial arts examination will begin in about a month. I'm afraid it's too late to build a thousand fighting arenas."

This is definitely in time.

Wanli said without hesitation, "Master Wang Guo has tens of thousands of artisans under his command. Just tell him how many people you need, and we'll have the grain carts from the Beijing camp bring them here tomorrow. Also, prepare a thousand five-person tents for the military examination candidates to stay in during the examination."

As they were discussing, a group of eunuchs in fancy clothes suddenly came riding on horses from the direction of the palace.

One of the eunuchs shouted from a distance: "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Do I need to tell you why I came here?
Who are you going to give us back? Are you blind?

Can't you see we're wearing flying fish costumes?

These eunuchs are a bit weird. They actually dare to shout at tens of thousands of Jinyiwei.

Wanli raised his hand to signal the guards to bring the eunuchs closer, and then asked, "Who are you?"

The greasy-faced eunuch said arrogantly, "I am Zhang Chao, the commander of the Nanhaizi Jing Army. You don't even know who I am, and yet you dare to come to my territory?"

Your last name is Zhang?
Wanli pretended to be curious and asked, "Who is your relation to Zhang Hong, the Chief Seal of the Imperial Household Department?"

Zhang Chao said more arrogantly, "Since you know who my adoptive father is, get out of here with your men. This is not a place for you Jinyiwei."

Oh, it seems you made a lot of money here, otherwise you wouldn't be so eager to get people out.

I haven't seen you hand over any money to the palace for these more than 300,000 acres of mountains, forests, lakes and fields. It seems that the food eaten in the palace is usually bought with money, and I haven't seen you supply any.

You live in my royal garden and have embezzled so much money from me. Yet you dare to be so arrogant in front of me. Are you seeking death?
Upon hearing this, Wanli waved his hand and said decisively, "Take them all down."

Upon hearing this, Shan Sinan flew up without hesitation with his guards and started kicking more than ten eunuchs to the ground and tied them up.

Zhang Chao was kicked so hard that he howled, "Aiyo, you guys are trying to rebel! Don't think you can do whatever you want just because you have so many people. If my adoptive father knew about this, he would definitely skin you alive."

Want to rebel?

That's well said.

I was just looking for a reason to chop you off.

Upon hearing this, Wanli said coldly, "You want to rebel? General Shan, drag all of you away and chop them off!"

what?
Upon hearing this, Shan Sinan waved his hand without hesitation and ordered his men to drag Zhang Chao and others to the edge of the grassland.

Zhang Chao saw this and screamed in horror, "Who are you? How dare you be so lawless?"

The martial arts examination is a long-term plan. What the hell are you, a dead eunuch?
Wanli didn't even bother to pay attention to this guy. He directly said to Qi Jiguang: "Yuan Jing, from now on, Nanyuan will be under the management of the Beijing Camp. It's just right that the things in the Summer Palace can't be seen by too many irrelevant people. From now on, you can train and select soldiers for the Beijing Camp here, and then send them to the Summer Palace after they are selected."

Qi Jiguang bowed without hesitation and said, "I will obey your order."

They unexpectedly chopped off all the eunuchs who were in charge of the command and management here for no apparent reason. The noise of more than ten people howling desperately was extremely loud.

At this moment, two skinny eunuchs from the Jing Army suddenly crawled over quickly, lying not far away and crying, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, do you still remember this servant?"

Sun Hai!

For guest use!

How could I not remember!
These two are his close confidants who have been playing with him since childhood!

Upon seeing this, Wanli immediately dismounted and ran over, saying in a trembling voice, "Xiao Hai, Xiao Yong, hurry up! It's my fault for forgetting to come find you. Hurry up and follow me back to the palace."

He was in need of trusted confidants, and these two were just the right people to take back and take charge of important offices in the palace.

Not to mention anything else, the imperial kitchen and the imperial pharmacy must be managed by his own people, otherwise he would not feel at ease when eating, and he would have to be even more careful when taking medicine.

(End of this chapter)