Ming Dynasty: Moral blackmail? I, Emperor Chongzhen, have no morals!

Prosecutor Zhu waved his hand: "Gentlemen, take good care of yourselves!"

Having said that, he changed the subject: "Regarding the matter of the army that Mr. Sun just mentioned, I intend to issue an edict to General Sun Yingyuan of Shanxi to move to Taiyuan! Expand his troops to 20,000! Recruit locally!"

"General Wang Tingchen of Xuanfu Garrison has also expanded his troops to 20,000! They are stationed at Xuanfu, the northern gateway to the capital!"

"The troops in the capital area remain stationary!"

The army in the capital is there to deal with emergencies! As long as the capital doesn't fall, the Ming Dynasty won't perish! He doesn't want to end up like the Tang Dynasty, where Chang'an fell six times and the emperor fled nine times!

But the Tang Dynasty was incredibly resilient; it managed to retake the capital six times it fell, a feat unprecedented in the history of Chinese dynasties...

"Yes!" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng replied, bowing.

"Although we won't divide our forces, we still need to build another elite unit!"

Before he finished speaking, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng looked up at Zhu Jian with a puzzled expression. The 200,000 troops in the capital and the troops besieging Li Zicheng in Shaanxi can be considered elite, with equipment and pay comparable to the previous Nine Border Army. Why should another elite force be built on this basis?

"Their name will be the Divine Martial Guard! I will personally lead them! Zhou Yuji will be the general!"

"Are they selected from the elite troops currently in the military?" Sun Chuanting asked.

"Not limited to the military! The condition is that anyone who kills three Jurchen leaders will receive double pay! Anyone who kills five will become a squad leader and receive triple pay! Those who meet the requirements will have their families relocated to the capital! Each soldier will also receive fifty mu of tax-free land!"

Nowadays, those who can receive double pay are usually the private soldiers and servants of Liaodong. They falsely register their quotas and receive pay without actually working, in order to pay their core forces. Now Zhu Jian is also preparing to do the same, to select the most elite army of the Ming Dynasty!

At this time, anyone who could kill three Jurchens was definitely a king of soldiers. There's no reason to let such a person be lost in the torrent of history.

"This!" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng exchanged a glance, both of them seeing shock in each other's eyes!

"Your Majesty! If this is the case, military expenses will skyrocket!" Lu Xiang-sheng has been in charge of distributing military salaries for some time and is very clear about the current amount of military salaries. If double salaries are added and some soldiers receive triple salaries, the financial pressure will be enormous.

The existing military pay already requires money and grain, and the people of the world have already been exempted from all taxes and corvée labor for three years. If the finances are insufficient and taxes are reinstated, war will definitely break out again in various parts of the Ming Dynasty!

"Based on the calculation of five heads and three taxes, how many Jurchens are there?" Zhu Jian asked.

Lu Xiang-sheng blurted out, "About two or three million!"

"I would love to have an army of 600,000 men who are paid three salaries each!"

Zhu Jian calculated that if each person was beheaded five times, an army of 600,000 could wipe out the entire Jurchen population! This would include the Han Chinese under their rule and the Khorchin region! But in reality, there simply couldn't have been that many.

With an army of 100,000 men receiving three paychecks each, the Jurchens would essentially be rendered incapable of any military action...

"Your Majesty! Please think it over! There's no doubt that some people might try to cheat us!" Lu Xiang-sheng said worriedly.

He feared that those selected would be fraudulent, which would not only result in a lack of combat effectiveness but also lead to enormous military expenditures...

"Don't worry! The Jurchens all like to have a pig's tail on their heads! Anyone with a head bearing three pig's tails will be automatically enlisted in the Divine Martial Guard in the capital, receiving double pay!"

Zhu Jian believed that this incentive would surely leave Liaodong and other areas filled with headless corpses, not only boosting morale but also damaging the Jurchens' psychological defenses! Didn't the Jurchens like to keep pig tails? Anyone who did would have their head chopped off!

Upon hearing Zhu Jian mention the pig's tail, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan nodded slightly. This was indeed a very good plan. The people of the Ming Dynasty would definitely not be spared; only the Jurchens would be spared! This would also avoid killing innocent people to claim credit!

"During last year's Battle of Shuntian, some soldiers killed three Jurchens, but did not retain their heads. Should these be counted in the formation of the Shenwu Guard?"

During the Shuntian War, rewards and compensation were distributed by Lu Xiang-sheng. Some people had killed three Jurchens, and each person received a reward of fifty taels of silver, which was distributed according to the system!

This is based on the military system during the Wanli period. Due to the financial shortage of the court during the early years of the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns, it had almost fallen into disuse. Now that Zhu Jian is demanding strict military regulations, this decree has been revived!

However, this reward does not apply to peasant armies! Since most peasant armies are ordinary citizens of the Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to distinguish them from ordinary citizens, and it is easy for them to kill innocent people and claim credit for others, but each person will still receive five taels of silver! However, each person who reports the killing of innocent people and claiming credit for others will receive a reward of one hundred taels of silver!

Therefore, some people felt that killing innocent people to claim credit was less desirable than reporting others, so the army in Shaanxi was basically watching others closely! Although large-scale killings of innocent people had stopped, the situation was unpredictable for those who had become involved with the peasant army. As a result, anyone who surrounded the peasant army in the open was basically killed...

Zhu Jian didn't require selection, as that would be irresponsible to his soldiers. He wouldn't gamble his soldiers' lives on the kindness of others; he only needed to protect the towns from being massacred by the Ming army themselves...

"Okay! The three-headed and five-headed system! Implement it directly! Zhou Yuji will be appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Divine Martial Guard! The Divine Martial Guard will be established! The soldiers of the original Yongwei Battalion will be dispatched to Sun Yingyuan's command in Taiyuan! They will form a separate battalion! Those with fewer than three or five heads will be recorded starting from the Battle of Shuntian!"

"Those who did not participate in the Shuntian War may bring three pig-tailed Jurchen heads and their families to the capital! The encampment will be set up on the open ground next to the Temple of Heaven in the outer city!"

Zhu Jian didn't know how strong an army that had drunk the blood of the Jurchens would be, but it would certainly be the strongest army in the Ming Dynasty at present, without exception!

"Is the equipment the same as the existing army?" Sun Chuanting was in charge of the Ordnance Department, so he was determined to get to the bottom of it...

"The army doesn't have many horses, so one horse per person for now. Firearms will be the latest self-propelled muskets! Also, a three-barreled musket! Sabers, strong bows, and lances will all be provided! Armor will be the existing cloth armor, plus five pounds of iron and cotton!"

Zhu Jian felt that since the number of people was already small, there was no need to be stingy. He suggested equipping everyone with what they could; if they were short of manpower, they could use flanking maneuvers, and if they were rich, they could provide fire support! If it weren't for the fact that the Ming Dynasty's industrial capabilities were up to par, he would have liked to equip each person with a rocket launcher...

Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan were taken aback; this was truly armed to the teeth...

"Yes! I will go to the Ordnance Department immediately to oversee this matter! First, produce five thousand sets of equipment!"

"If the Ordnance Department is short-staffed, we'll continue recruiting! If there's not enough space, there's still room in the outer city! The outer city walls can also be repaired through work-for-relief programs! And there's Tongzhou and Daxing too!"

"Disaster relief funds in each province can be used for work-for-relief programs, such as repairing river channels and city defenses, to prevent large-scale problems caused by the gathering of these people!"

"In a few more days, most of the officials involved in the households of the two dukes and four marquises will be taken down! By then, the various regions will have some money and provisions!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangshan replied without hesitation. This plan was currently the safest option to deal with the disaster and military pressure...

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