Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Throughout the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army, the number of female soldiers was consistently large, exceeding one hundred thousand.

Although these female soldiers played a significant role in the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

However, it also resulted in enormous losses and casualties.

Hong Tian didn't want these female soldiers to fight on the battlefield anymore. It was too unfair to them.

After all, due to physiological reasons, female soldiers are already at a disadvantage when facing male soldiers.

However, female soldiers are perfectly capable of undertaking some auxiliary tasks.

Next, Hong Tian also planned to promote this change throughout the entire Taiping Heavenly Kingdom army.

Su Sanniang, who was appointed Minister of Education by Hong Tian, ​​did not attend this meeting today. Or rather, she has not yet returned to Tianjing.

Hong Tian has already given the order to summon Su San Niang back to the capital.

Only then will Su San Niang be officially appointed as the Minister of Education.

In addition to changes needed to be made to the high-ranking civil officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the local civil service system also needed to be changed.

At that time, the local officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were also in a state of chaos. They almost entirely adopted the military system, and were called local officials.

The local officials were further divided into prefectural governors and county military supervisors. Below the county level, township officials were established in accordance with the military system, such as military commanders and division commanders.

However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used a system of provinces, prefectures, counties, and townships for its local administrative divisions, unlike the Manchus who used a system of provinces, circuits, prefectures, counties, and townships.

Hong Tian announced that the local administrative divisions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would be simplified, adopting a five-level system of provinces, prefectures, counties, townships, and villages.

Each province was governed by one governor and four deputy governors. Each prefecture was governed by one prefect and four deputy prefects. Each county was governed by one magistrate and four deputy magistrates. Each township or town was governed by one township head or town head and two deputy township heads or town heads. Each village was governed by one village head and two deputy village heads.

At the same time, the ranks of officials at all levels were also defined.

The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are of the first rank (正一品). Ministers of various ministries are of the second rank (从一品). Governors are of the second rank (正二品), and Deputy Governors are of the second rank (从二品). Prefects are of the third rank (正三品), and Deputy Prefects are of the third rank (从三品). County Magistrates are of the fourth rank (正四品), and Deputy County Magistrates are of the fourth rank (从四品). Township Heads are of the fifth rank (正五品), and Deputy Township Heads are of the fifth rank (从五品). As for village heads and deputy village heads, they correspond to clerks and staff members without official ranks.

This classification would make the official ranks of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom more concise and clear.

In addition, it was stipulated that the kings already appointed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, such as Wing King Shi Dakai and Yan King Qin Rigang, would be ranked as first-rank officials.

Furthermore, Hong Tian explicitly stated that in the future Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, no one would be granted the title of king without making significant contributions. This made it clear to everyone that being granted the title of king again would be extremely difficult, requiring even greater merit to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

This not only greatly pleased Shi Dakai and Qin Rigang, but also fueled the desire of other high-ranking officials to be granted the title of king. They all hoped to be named kings and become true leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's high-ranking officials did not oppose Hong Tian's proposed reforms to the official system and readily accepted them.

They could also see that after this reform, the ranks of officials at all levels in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom would be very clear, which would facilitate subsequent management and the appointment of officials at all levels, and would no longer be as chaotic as before.

"Gentlemen, in addition to reforming the official system, I also intend to reform the current military system," Hong Tian said.

Both Prince Yi Shi Dakai and Prince Yan Qin Rigang became serious.

Although they had all anticipated this and were not surprised, it was ultimately a matter of their own interests.

"Wing King, how many soldiers does the Heavenly Kingdom have in total right now?" Hong Tian asked.

"Your Majesty, the total number of soldiers in the Heavenly Kingdom should have reached 800,000!" Shi Dakai replied.

"How about deducting the shortfall and keeping all units at full strength?" Hong Tian asked again.

There are significant vacancies in military units at all levels, and the phenomenon of drawing salaries without working still exists.

Although the soldiers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not receive high pay.

By today's standards, it was paid every seven days and was called "weekly pay." Officers received one hundred coins, and soldiers received fifty coins.

In comparison, the military pay on the Tartar side was undoubtedly much higher.

Especially the Xiang Army, a formidable enemy of the Taiping Army, where even ordinary soldiers could earn 4.5 taels of silver per month. Officers' salaries were naturally even higher.

As the saying goes, a generous reward will surely bring forth brave men. This is also why the Xiang Army had a high combat effectiveness.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's territory was unstable, making taxation virtually impossible. Their income primarily came from looting after conquering cities, a system that couldn't be sustained indefinitely.

Every time the Taiping army captured a city, they would empty the government treasury and plunder the property of wealthy merchants. At the same time, they also demanded that ordinary people pay "life-for-life money," or else their homes would be confiscated.

At the same time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's unique Sacred Treasury system called on the people to donate money and goods, advocating equality in the name of the Heavenly Father.

This didn't cause any problems initially, but over time, it naturally aroused public dissatisfaction.

Who doesn't want a better life?

Therefore, as the number of Taiping soldiers continued to expand, the original system of military pay and other related measures was actually becoming unsustainable.

"Your Majesty, if we deduct the vacancies, the Taiping Army is roughly around 600,000 strong!" Shi Dakai replied.

"And what about the female soldiers and their families?" Hong Tian then asked.

Shi Dakai frowned before giving a rough estimate: "Your Majesty, in that case, there are probably still 300,000 people left."

Hong Tian nodded; this was roughly what he had estimated.

At that time, the Taiping Army's most elite field troops actually numbered less than 200,000.

The other units consisted of second-line garrison troops, as well as soldiers' families and so on.

These troops actually had little combat capability.

The early Taiping army's elite troops were formidable fighters. Even against the Xiang Army, they often achieved a one-to-four exchange ratio on the battlefield, let alone against other armies.

However, following the Tianjing Incident, the strength of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to decline.

The Taiping army's fighting capacity also declined.

Ultimately, the casualty ratio between the Taiping Army and the Xiang Army had reversed to four to one.

This shows how quickly the Taiping Army's fighting capacity deteriorated.

The Taiping Army was the cornerstone of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Once the army was no longer able to fight, the consequences were predictable.

Hong Tian also did not want this situation to occur.

"My plan is to reorganize the Taiping Army, retaining its elite field forces. The Western Expeditionary Army will be reorganized into the Western Expeditionary Army Corps, comprising eight armies, with the Wing Prince as commander. The troops north of the Yangtze River will be reorganized into the Northern Expeditionary Army Corps, comprising three armies, with the Yan Prince as commander. The troops in southern Jiangsu will be reorganized into the Eastern Expeditionary Army Corps, comprising two armies, with General Li Xiucheng as commander. The troops in northern Jiangxi Province will be reorganized into the Southern Expeditionary Army Corps, comprising two armies, with General Lin Qirong as commander."

Hong Tian announced.

The Taiping Army's elite field forces were reorganized into 15 armies.

Among them, the Western Expeditionary Army Corps, commanded by Shi Dakai, comprised eight armies.

According to the organization of the Taiping Army, a full-strength army has more than 13,000 soldiers.

It can be said that the troops controlled by Shi Dakai accounted for more than half of the Taiping Army's elite forces.

This was mainly because the area under the jurisdiction of the Western Expeditionary Army was very large, and it was also the main force in dealing with the Xiang Army and other Tartar armies.

Originally, Hong Tian planned to further reorganize the Taiping Army into the division, regiment, battalion, company, platoon and squad structure of the Imperial Guard.

However, considering that they are surrounded by powerful enemies and that all units are currently fighting against the Qing army.

A hasty large-scale reorganization and restructuring of the Taiping Army might cause chaos.

If the frontline battlefield collapses, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Therefore, the main forces of the Taiping Army temporarily maintained the previous military system, namely the organization of army, division, brigade, platoon and platoon.

However, a legion was established above the army to better manage these troops.

After the crisis is further resolved, the main forces of the Taiping Army will be gradually reorganized in batches.