Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 173: Set up an inspection department and remove military households!
Assist military generals in making decisions.

This sentence exposes the fact that the staff system divides the power of military generals.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin seemed to be thinking deeply. This way of limiting the power of military generals seemed to be more acceptable.

At least the cabinet thought it was okay, but when it came to the "staff" who were abolished by the emperor's words, Zhang Juzheng and the other three did not dare to make a rash decision. They copied out the initial proposal on the national policy of separating the military and politics and presented it to the Yuxi Palace for the emperor to decide.

After Liu Tai left.

Hu Zongxian continued to describe the contents of the initial proposal, saying: “Second, establish an inspection department.

Most of the military generals came from humble backgrounds. They were not illiterate, but they were almost illiterate. They might be good at charging into battle, but they were much worse at other things.

When I was the governor-general of Zhejiang and commanded the army in the southeast, I found that soldiers often did not join the army voluntarily.

The Ming army that emerged under Emperor Taizu Gao's military household system was a source of shock, fear, and terror to the officers and soldiers. "

When Hu Zongxian pointed out the drawbacks of the lock-up system, Zhang, Gao, Li and Chen could not help but change color.

The misery of military households.

The Cabinet is very clear.

The status of a military household is hereditary, and all descendants must inherit their father's career and become soldiers.

Children of military households, or children of people from other industries, do not have the freedom to choose their industry. Even if they have talents in other skills or interests, they must give them up because this is their "destiny."

But some people are born weak and sickly. When they join the army and go to the battlefield, they not only send them to death, but also lower the combat effectiveness of the army.

Perhaps some people think that people who are born weak and sickly have no impact on other military households.

This is not the case. Military households not only have to provide their own uniforms, travel expenses and other expenses, but also have to bear the tax burden of cultivating the land.

If multiple male members of a military household were conscripted into the army, the family might be in trouble because it could not afford the huge taxes.

Under the threat of death and living in poverty, military households inevitably had a low status throughout the Ming Dynasty and were often looked down upon by people from other households.

People who do not have other household registrations will face numerous obstacles in the future before their children and grandchildren are even born. Therefore, many civilian families are unwilling to intermarry with military households, fearing that it will affect the family's status and make them poorer and poorer.

The families of military households are suffering so much, so the soldiers should be better off, right?

After all, they were comrades in arms, but the truth was chilling. Officials and generals at all levels exploited and withheld money from the military households, resulting in their salaries and food allowances being far lower than they deserved.

Therefore, many military households could not bear the heavy burden and low status and chose to flee.

From the Hongwu period to the Jiajing period, the eleven emperors and eleven generations of the Ming Dynasty tried to reduce the number of escapes through various means, but the effect was limited, and more and more military households were fleeing.

This was the "brilliant" method used by Emperor Taizu Gao to "maintain a million soldiers without spending a single grain of rice from the people."

Perhaps, the military household and military settlement system was feasible during the Hongwu period, but by the Jiajing period, it has become a big pit.

The soldiers in the army were full of resentment, the army's combat effectiveness was getting lower and lower, and was about to lead the Ming Dynasty into an abyss.

But this was the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao, and successive emperors did not dare to change it.

Even after Zhang Juzheng became the second assistant minister and even the first assistant minister of the Ming Dynasty, he just kept pouring money and food into the army. With the incentive of sufficient military pay and food, there was an effect, and the combat effectiveness of the nine frontiers and nine towns was significantly improved, but Zhang Juzheng understood that this was a means of stopping drinking after drinking poison.

The Ming Dynasty had money, so it could spend silver and food like this to maintain its combat effectiveness, but the Ming Dynasty had no money, which was the real scene of the court from the first year of Hongwu to the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing.

However, even Zhang Juzheng was frightened when faced with the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao, and did not dare to submit a petition to resign.

At this time, when Hu Zongxian brought it up, Zhang Juzheng's old face turned red, Gao Gong also felt a little ashamed, and Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin looked at each other.

Before Hu Zongxian fully explained his second method of restricting the power of military generals, he had already directed his spearhead at the system that Emperor Taizu Gao was most proud of.

Submit a petition! Submit a petition!
The cabinet had no say in whether to lock up or release someone from slavery. It could only send cabinet members to present the matter to the Yuxi Palace for His Majesty's final decision.

After the cabinet members left.

Hu Zongxian calmed down and explained, "The discontent of the soldiers can be easily exploited by interested generals. In fact, most of the mutinies and camp protests in the past dynasties were like this.

If we can dispel the resentment of the soldiers in the Ming Dynasty army, let them understand that they are fighting for the Ming Dynasty and for the emperor, and implant loyalty and patriotism in their hearts, then the army of the Ming Dynasty will be invincible and unstoppable! "

Zhang, Gao, Li and Chen's hearts couldn't help but warm up for a moment, but they cooled down again in the blink of an eye.

How could there be such an army?

Hu Zongxian glanced at his colleagues and returned to the topic, saying: "I envisioned the establishment of the Inspection Department to dispel the negative emotions in the hearts of the soldiers and teach them to fight for the country and the king.

But the role of the Inspectorate is not limited to this. Military generals are not only not good at appeasing soldiers, they are also not good at organizing work such as promotion, demotion, assessment, and teaching of soldiers.

However, this part of civilian work cannot be completed by military generals, so this part of their power must be handed over to clerks.

Inspectorates will be established in border towns and above.”

Or divide the power of military generals.

The power of promotion, demotion, and assessment was vested in two agencies in the imperial court: the Ministry of Personnel and the Censorate.

Well, not long ago, there was also the Jinyiwei test results.

Hu Zongxian apparently combined the Ministry of Personnel, the Censorate, and the Performance Evaluation System of the imperial court together to create a "monster" in the army. The generals were reduced to "lonely men". The military commanders were only responsible for leading the troops in battle, and everything else was taken care of by special people.

Hu Zongxian was worthy of being a man who came from the military. When he designed strategies to restrain the military generals, every move he made hit the generals' weak points.

If the Inspectorate can be implemented smoothly, the chief officer of the Inspectorate will be equivalent to another general in an army.

Zhang Juzheng walked out from behind the desk and came to the desks of Gao Gong, Li Chunfang and Chen Yiqin in turn, asking the three if they felt there was anything inappropriate. The three elders, who had never had contact with the military, certainly could not say anything against it.

Zhang Juzheng returned to his desk and said directly, "Then let's draft a bill to establish the Supervisory Department."

After the proposal was made, Zhang Juzheng cast his vote first, Hu Zongxian, the proposer, also cast his vote, and Gao Gong, Li Chunfang, and Chen Yiqin all voted in favor in no particular order.

It was passed unanimously, and the establishment of an inspection department in the military during the separation of military and political affairs became the first proposal approved by the cabinet unanimously.

(End of this chapter)