There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 74 Thousand Miles of Ears

If a general privately mobilized troops, at the very least, it could be an emergency, a mistake, but not a principled one. But at the most serious level, privately mobilizing troops could be considered a crime tantamount to treason.

Speaking of which, it seems that Nie Yu and his men were rebelling in the first place, so it would definitely be inappropriate to use the crime of treason to deal with the generals below.

Nie Yu thought for a moment and then said, "During this expedition, our Han army has successively recovered the four counties of Gong'an, Shishou, Jianli, and Huarong. This is a military achievement and must be rewarded."

These words defined the reason why Shunan secretly transferred troops to the south. He would not be held accountable for his actions, and he would be rewarded for his merits to reassure the morale of the troops below.

However, not pursuing the matter in a broader sense does not mean that we will not pursue it at all.

Nie Yu had been the general for half a year, and he had almost learned to reserve half of his official words so that the officials below would have room to speculate.

Recovering four counties is a military achievement and must be rewarded, but the problem cannot be ignored either. Not dealing with it is a real big problem!
Feng Xiuyong naturally understood what he meant and immediately said, "General, Commander He's seizing the opportunity to send troops south to Huarong County may seem like a problem solely caused by Commander He, but in the final analysis, it's still a flaw in our Han army's military system."

What are the drawbacks?
The only difference is that once a general goes to war, he completely loses the supervision of power, which is equivalent to free play. It is best if he can obey military orders, but if he does not, no one can check and balance the general leading the army outside.

Historically, this was not a rare problem, and was even a normal trend in the military, leading to the saying "When a general is away from home, he may not obey the orders of the emperor."
The ruling classes of successive dynasties also came up with many ways to resolve hidden dangers in the army, which can be summarized into three core points: do not serve for long periods of time, do not lead remotely, and do not hold multiple positions.

To put it simply, it means rotating the troops regularly, not giving the generals political power, and not allowing them to be in charge of multiple military districts, so that they can become purely professional generals, instead of having military power at every turn, ranking among the top three in the court, and commanding hundreds of thousands of troops at the same time.

In fact, there are generals who can meet all three conditions simultaneously. They are quite famous and are the kind that must be tested in history exams.

Who? An Lushan!
He was the governor of three towns, held great power, and had connections in the court. The armies of the three towns all became An Lushan's private soldiers, and he almost destroyed the Tang Dynasty.

Later, the Tang Dynasty learned from its mistakes and began a major military reform, allowing eunuchs to control military power and no longer trusting military officers and generals.

Hearing this, Nie Yu couldn't help but interrupt, "You want this general to use eunuchs too?"

"General, that's not what I meant."

Feng Xiuyong was stunned and explained, "What I meant is that the Grand General can serve for a short time, not command remotely, and not command concurrently as the core of military management. We can also follow the practice of previous dynasties and establish the position of military supervisor. This supervisor does not have to be a eunuch, and a civilian official can also be used to achieve the purpose of checking and balancing the military generals."

"..."

When Nie Yu heard that civil servants would be used as military supervisors, he finally understood, although he didn't quite understand at first.

A dispute between civil and military officials!
There was no way. Although Nie Yu's territory was small, it was well-equipped. The Han army was no exception to the problems that a dynasty had, but they were not as obvious and serious.

Even if there are signs of a dispute between civil and military officials, it will not cause any problems in the early stages. At most, factions will appear, and there will be a trend of internal competition and cooperation coexisting.

Feng Xiuyong's proposal to have civilians supervise the army cannot be said to be a long-planned one. At most, it is just a test, and he is really considering the Han army and General Nie Yu.

The military supervision system has a bad reputation because some people mess with it, but at the same time, the army under the military supervision system is also firmly bound by the imperial power and is difficult to cause chaos.

However, even so, this is not a good sign!

Nie Yu was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "Mr. Feng's suggestion is good, but it's not very practical right now. It's already February, and the Qing army's attack is only a month or two away. Furthermore, Commander He's troops have just captured Huarong County. If the Qing government gets the news, they'll probably send troops even faster. So, we can't do this rotation of defense and generals, at least not now."

This is a sound statement, well-founded and well-founded. Feng Xiuyong saluted and said, "General, you are right. I was not thoughtful enough. For now, the priority is to fight against the Qing army."

Nie Yu added, "However, regarding how to reform the military, this general happens to have a good item that may be of great use."

As soon as he finished speaking, Nie Yu raised his hand and picked up the large wooden box on the table.

This large wooden box had been placed here since the beginning of the meeting. Since General Nie Yu never mentioned it, no secretary who came to the meeting dared to ask about it. They just thought it was a personal item that the general brought with him.

Now, the general said it was a good thing. What kind of good thing could be packed in a wooden box, and it could also be helpful in reforming the army? Could it be some military archives, or a military book left over from the previous dynasty?

But no matter how powerful a military book is, it is still dead. Can it be more useful than a living military supervisor?
Nie Yu didn't let the secretaries wonder for too long and quickly took out the goodies from the box.

Everyone looked closely and asked, what is this?
It has a pitch-black appearance and a bunch of strange patterns and decorations. The key is its structure and material. Not only is it strange, but it is also made of iron. Is this a handicraft made by a famous blacksmith?

Crafts? You must be kidding!
If a modern person came and took a look at it... he might not be able to tell what it was. At least he would have to check some information to know that it was a retro-style civilian radio.

Well, the price of a purely civilian model radio is roughly equal to two "Imperial Seals".

It’s not that Nie Yu doesn’t want to use a walkie-talkie, but the walkie-talkie is too close, at most a few kilometers away, and it may be interfered with by the weather, environment, and other walkie-talkies, causing disorder in the communication channel.

Radio is different. It is a bit expensive, but it is relatively stable and can be used directly to set up a radio base station.

If this happens in modern society, the base stations set up by civilian radio stations will definitely be useless, because there are too many large base stations, and the interference of various electromagnetic wave signals will seriously undermine the stability of the civilian radio base stations.

But this was ancient times, the Qing Dynasty more than two hundred years ago. There was nothing you could want, and the signal environment in the ionosphere was surprisingly good.

There is absolutely no problem in establishing long-distance communications using civilian radio stations, and the communication effect will only be stronger than later radio stations.

Nie Yu stroked the civilian radio station he had spent a huge amount of money on and said slowly, "This is a telescope. Like a telescope, it is a good thing that I obtained from the Nanyang barbarians through special channels. It can transmit information thousands of miles away in an instant."

"Can it really be transmitted thousands of miles away?" Feng Xiuyong was shocked.

Not to mention him, the other secretaries were also greatly shocked. Although the telescope in front of them was surprising, it was not difficult to understand.

Because the Ming and Qing dynasties were already well-versed in lens technology such as glasses, Feng Xiuyong once followed Hui Ling and saw the telescopes used by the Nanyang barbarians, which could indeed be used to see objects at a distance.

The "telescope" that Nie Yu took out was different. In Feng Xiuyong's eyes, it was nothing more than a different customization, or the craftsmanship of the Nanyang barbarians had improved a lot.

But this kind of thousand-mile hearing is different. Traveling a thousand miles a day is not uncommon, but traveling a thousand miles in an instant is outrageous.

This meant that any military order from the General's Office could be issued to the Han army in Huarong County from Jingzhou Prefecture. The Han army in Huarong County could also hear the situation from afar and report the military situation in Huarong County to Jingzhou Prefecture, allowing the General's Office to make the decision.

These secretaries were not stupid and soon realized what the ability to hear thousands of miles away really meant.

Everyone's eyes were burning with excitement, but within the excitement was a complex feeling. With such a good thing, what was the need for civilian supervisors?
　I couldn't help it, I still cheated
　　
　
(End of this chapter)