Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

When Emperor Taizu founded the country, he changed the military system of the whole country into the garrison system. At that time, there were more than 1.8 million troops in the country.

During the Yongle period, Zhuge Liang was also a horse-riding emperor who had led five expeditions to Mongolia. The number of troops reached the peak of the Ming Dynasty, with more than 2.8 million people.

Afterwards, as the Wei Suo system was constantly undermined by the upper class, the number and quality of Wei Suo soldiers continued to decline.

In the present Ming Dynasty, although the registered number of soldiers in the garrisons is still 880,000, the actual strength is less than 300,000, and this is even including all the old and weak.

When Xu Hongji rebelled, he gathered all the garrison troops south of the Yangtze River, but there were only about 180,000 of them.

Nearly half of the 180,000 people were killed, and Zhang Shikang released the remaining half because those soldiers had no fighting capacity at all.

He is a good farmer, but he has picked up many bad habits as a soldier. It would be simpler to recruit new soldiers and train them again.

He also counted the actual military strength of the garrisons in several northern provinces this year, and it was approximately 120,000 people.

Due to the constant rebellions in the north and the harsher conditions in the south, only about 40,000 to 50,000 barely qualified soldiers can be selected from these 120,000 people.

But this is far from enough.

“Now that internal and external troubles have not been resolved, always mobilizing border troops to the interior will not only waste food and fodder, but also make it easy for foreign enemies to take advantage of the situation.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty still needs a large army in the interior to deter those with ulterior motives.

Your Majesty, I suggest that we reorganize an army specifically for dealing with inland security and rebellion, with a force of 600,000 men." Zhang Shikang said seriously.

The garrisons were abolished, military farms were cancelled, and all were replaced by a recruitment system.

This is what it means to take drastic measures.

Everyone present knew that Emperor Chongzhen had handed over all military power to Zhang Shikang, and in terms of their authority, they had no right to interfere.

On the other hand, if we take this opportunity to abolish the garrisons, it would be like cutting off a cancer.

Zhang Shikang killed people all over the country for a year, and except for Sichuan, the rest of the country was relatively peaceful.

But being safe now does not mean that there will be peace in the future. Without the garrison soldiers, the Ming Dynasty still needs a large military force to maintain peace in the vast territory within the Great Wall.

Six hundred thousand people may seem like a lot, but it is actually not that many.

"Since I have appointed you as the commander-in-chief, military affairs are of course decided by you. But Shikang, didn't you say that we should be more frugal with money?"

Recruiting so many soldiers would cost a huge amount of money in terms of weapons, food, and pay.

"Your Majesty, we will save where necessary and spend where necessary. A strong enough military force will provide support for many foreign operations in the future." Zhang Shikang replied.

In the future, whether it is maritime trade or foreign wars, national defense will be the backing of everything. This is something Zhang Shikang firmly believes.

"Well, it's enough that you know it in your mind. But if the garrisons are abolished, what will happen to the Five Military Commanderies?" Emperor Chongzhen asked again.

Now that the garrisons are gone, the position of the Five Military Commanderies has become somewhat awkward.

"Your Majesty, this is what I think.

The Five Military Commission was still retained, but it needed to be streamlined. The Five Military Commission was changed into the Commissioner's Office, and the officials were no longer just the court's nobles and relatives, and the position was not allowed to be inherited.

Also, I want to reform the issue of military power deployment." Zhang Shikang hesitated and said.

The military and political system of the Ming Dynasty was improved by Zhu Yuanzhang on the basis of the previous dynasty. In short, all the troops in the world were under the command of the Five Military Commission, but the Five Military Commission only had the power to command troops but not the power to mobilize them.

Similarly, the Ministry of War only had the power to mobilize troops but not the power to command them. Once a war broke out, the emperor would appoint a general as the commander-in-chief, and the Ministry of War would mobilize troops for the general to rush to the battlefield to fight.

Separating the power to command troops from the power to mobilize troops will help avoid the formation of warlords.

But the disadvantages are also significant. Temporarily appointed generals can easily lead to problems where soldiers do not know their generals and generals do not know their soldiers, which in turn affects combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the facts have proved that warlords were formed in the Ming Dynasty, such as Li Rusong decades ago, Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui in the Nine Frontiers, and Zuo Liangyu, Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and others later.

Zhang Shikang believed that whether it was the Jiedushi warlords in the late Tang Dynasty or the warlords in the late Ming Dynasty, the fundamental reason was the lack of national strength, which made it impossible for the central government to intimidate the local governments.

I have never seen anyone dare to disobey orders when the dynasty is prosperous.

From this perspective, it is not cost-effective to proactively reduce the efficiency of military deployment and combat effectiveness due to some unavoidable problems.

He always firmly believed that when choosing generals, one should trust the people and not employ the people if he is not trusted. As long as the central government is strong enough, those problems will not be a problem.

Zhang Shikang wanted to change the military system, but this matter involved too many things. Even if Emperor Chongzhen gave him the military power, he would not be able to act on his own, so he hesitated.

Minister of War Li Banghua had a serious look on his face. He roughly guessed what Zhang Shikang wanted to do, but war was a matter of great importance to a country and should not be taken lightly.

Emperor Chongzhen frowned and said:

"Tell me in detail how you plan to change it."

“I would like to divide the national army into three types according to their duties.

For example, the court is going to form an army of 600,000 soldiers.

The 600,000 troops will be dispersed in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. I intend that the troops in each province will still be commanded and dispatched by the Metropolitan Commandery.

This force will be under the command of the Ministry of War, including the provincial commanders-in-chief, who will all obey the orders of the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War will be directly responsible to Your Majesty.

Their main duties are to maintain the security of the provinces within the Great Wall and suppress small rebellions, so their salaries and equipment are different from the other two troops I have planned, and their treatment is slightly lower in comparison. "

To put it simply, it is the armed police that exist in every province in the country in later generations.

Although Zhang Shikang was not very satisfied with the current military system, he still highly respected the provincial-level administrative units in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs was in charge of government affairs, the Ministry of Justice was in charge of supervision, and the Ministry of Military Affairs was in charge of the armed forces in the province.

The highest officials of administrative power, supervisory power, and military power have the same rank, and the three powers are separated, and each is responsible to the central government.

Li Banghua's eyebrows twitched when he heard this. Zhang Shikang meant to hand over the command of this army of 600,000 people to the Ministry of War.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty's civil officials struggled for hundreds of years before they finally gradually regained military power from the Five Military Commanderies.

But it only took Emperor Chongzhen and the boy in front of him one year to regain the military power.

But what was even more outrageous was that this kid was actually willing to give it up on his own initiative. This was really beyond his imagination.

"Shikang, why are you..." Emperor Chongzhen also understood, so he was a little anxious.

"Alas, Your Majesty, I am still the Marshal of the Army. In theory, all the troops in the world must obey me.

What I mean is that this is for future considerations. If I step down as the Marshal of the Army, this security force will be completely handed over to the Ministry of War.

But it's a transitional period, if we feel something is inappropriate, we can slowly change it. "Zhang Shikang didn't say anything final.

He actually felt that doing so was in line with the national conditions. After all, the rebellion that had just occurred in the country was very weak and the armed forces in the mainland could easily handle it.

But we cannot rely on them when fighting foreign wars.

Seeing that Zhang Shikang was confident, Emperor Chongzhen thought about it and decided to agree with Zhang Shikang.

Naturally, the other cabinet ministers had no objection to handing over such a large army to the Ministry of War.

Zhang Shikang then said:

"I have already thought of a name for this army, it will be called the Yongning Army.

It means that we hope that the Ming Dynasty will always be peaceful. "

……