prosperous age

"Your Highness, judging from Mr. Li's memorandum, Governor Zhang actually predicted that the Japanese pirates might attack Xinghua, but..."

Wei Guangde didn't know what to say anymore, he had already guessed the movements of the Japanese pirates, and the result was like this.

At this moment, footsteps sounded outside, and a small servant stood outside the door and whispered into the room: "Your Highness, there is a policeman coming in from outside."

Hearing the voice outside the house, everyone looked at the door in unison.

Li Fang, the eunuch next to King Yu, had already walked over quickly, did not go out, and directly took the note from the man at the door, turned around and returned to King Yu, and then respectfully handed the note to King Yu.

Everyone's eyes followed Li Fang and finally fell on King Yu, staring at the expression on his face, wanting to know what was written on the note.

I don't know whether it's Yu Wang who is naturally dull or the city is extremely deep, at least Wei Guangde didn't see anything from Yu Wang's face.

After King Yu read the contents of the note, he handed it to Yin Shizhen, and then circulated it one by one.

"Father dismissed You Zhende, appointed Tan Lun to replace him, and sent Qi Jiguang to lead his troops into Fujian to suppress the Japanese again."

Seeing that the note finally fell into Zhang Juzheng's hands, several people and everyone had read it, and then King Yu said: "I remember, this Qi Jiguang is very good at fighting, the first to defeat Zhang Lian's rebels was his subordinates, Later, he also suppressed the Japanese in Fujian, so it’s not long since he started his class.”

"It's November. In previous years, the Japanese pirates have retreated at this time, so he was asked to lead his troops back to Zhejiang. It seems that the soldiers he recruited are all from Zhejiang. After all, they have to go home for the New Year."

Zhang Juzheng spoke up.

"Uncle is very familiar with this Qi Jiguang."

Wei Guangde laughed.

In Wei Guangde's impression, later generations seem to have arranged that Qi Jiguang bribed Zhang Juzheng and gave him a sea dog or something, which is said to be a great tonic for yang.

Now hearing that he knew about Qi Jiguang's recruitment in Zhejiang, Wei Guangde couldn't help joking.

"Hehe, I just read the military newspaper, and I seem to see his name often, so I asked the adults in the military department when I was chatting with him, so I don't think he is familiar with him."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and answered.

"When a country is in trouble, think of a good general; when a sick man thinks of a good doctor."

King Yu said with a smile: "The Japanese infestation in the south of the Yangtze River urgently needs a general who can turn the tide. I hope this Qi Jiguang can live up to my father's expectations."

"I remember when I went to Zhejiang a few years ago, I saw the new army trained by Qi Jiguang outside the Hangzhou mansion. It seemed that they were miners recruited from Yiwu. After that, I also paid attention to this team. It seems that the record is not bad."

Wei Guangde recalled.

When he went to Zhejiang to supervise and kill Wang Zhi, Qi Jiguang led troops to garrison in Hangzhou, but at that time, the Qi family army hadn't trained well, so they didn't fight much, mainly relying on Yu Dayou to stand in front.

However, Qi Jiguang's later generations are famous, so Wei Guangde also took a second look at that time.

"New Army?"

King Yu was surprised and said, "He is leading a battalion?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Qi Jiguang felt that the soldiers in the guards were not good enough to be in command, so he asked for an order from Governor Hu. He recruited a team independently. I heard that because he felt that the miners had a lot of strength, they only needed to practice fighting well. You can go to the battlefield with a team, specially selected people."

Wei Guangde replied, "However, these battalions are slightly different from the Nine Sides battalions, that is, the soldiers are paid less, but the rewards are much higher, and the battalions are stimulated with gold and silver."

"It seems that most of the soldiers who can fight on the nine sides are also battalion soldiers."

However, King Yu thought of the battalion soldiers in the border town, and asked curiously: "Shan Loan, are the battalion soldiers really stronger than the guard soldiers?"

"It's really hard to say."

Thinking about it, Wei Guangde didn't know how to answer.

Do you say that guard soldiers are not as good as battalion soldiers?

This seems to be a bit of a slap in the face. The so-called military status is the soldiers of the guards. If you want to say that the soldiers of the guards are not as good as the soldiers of the battalion, it is really hard to say.

The Weisuobing was set up after the comprehensive rectification of the army establishment after proclaiming the emperor in the early Ming Dynasty. First, there were seventeen guards' commanding divisions, including Wude, Baotao, Feixiong, and Weiwu, with "wei" as the unit Plan the pro-army, and then set up thousands of households in the local area to guard the place, and there is a "station" establishment.

During this process, he verified the number of troops under his command. Those who commanded 5000 troops were called commanders, those with 1000 troops were called thousands of households, 100 were called hundreds of households, 50 were called general banners, and 10 were called small banners.

On the one hand, the status of officers is mainly determined by the number of troops they own; This is the so-called "Ministry Law" and it is also the basic content of the Daming Guard system.

After reorganizing the soldiers and horses across the country, a complete Ming Dynasty guard system was finally formed in the seventh year of Hongwu, with roughly 5600 people as a guard, 1120 people as a thousand households, 112 people as a hundred households, and 50 people as a general banner , 10 people are a small flag.

One guard governs five thousand-household offices, one thousand-household office governs 10 hundred-household offices, one hundred-household office governs two general banners, and each general banner has five small banners.

The national army is organized into the guards according to this organization, and is led step by step by the small banner, the general banner, the hundred households, the thousand households, and the commander of the guard.

So far, the guard system has become the basic establishment of the Ming army, and it has been customized. Whether it is the Beijing and provincial garrisons, or the emperor's and vassal's pro-army and guards, they are all organized according to the guard.

The earliest battalions, in fact, also appeared in the early Ming Dynasty, that is, the most elite soldiers were drawn from various guards and temporarily assembled into a wartime formation.

However, the temporary military system in the early Ming Dynasty was soon changed due to the increasing border troubles, especially in the border areas of the Ming Dynasty. appear as needed.

Of course, the battalion soldiers in this period were actually the elite soldiers of the guards who were transferred, and they were still military households who joined the army.

In the Ming Dynasty, except for the frontier army and the Beijing camp, the guards in other places were quickly abolished.

Because of the frequent battles, the frontier army can still barely retain a certain amount of combat power, and therefore it is not completely guarded, and is closer to the town garrison, because they can only spend a small amount of energy on farming, and more on fighting.

The Jingying was backed by the strong finances of the Ming Dynasty, so although the rate of decline in combat power was faster than that of the frontier army, it was barely enough compared to other guards.

But after Tumubao, Jingying also completely degenerated.

The reason for the collapse of the guard system is due to social stability and relative peace. Guard officers began to occupy military fields and exploit soldiers. The living standards and social status of soldiers gradually declined. As a result, deserters in guards in various places gradually increased, and armaments were gradually abolished. Chi.

Looking at it this way, naturally the battalion soldiers are naturally much more powerful than the guard soldiers.

However, it is also because the elites of the various guards are selected, and they participate in the most dangerous places in the battle formation, so the military pay is also higher.

Therefore, at the beginning, battalions appeared only as a temporary combat response, which was not common.

The soldiers of the guards were unusable, so the Ming government had to start recruiting soldiers from the people. Unlike the soldiers of the guards, recruiting soldiers were not hereditary.

The soldiers of the guards were mainly garrisoned. In order to solve the problem of military supplies, they farmed and guarded. The sergeants of the guards lived in one place for generations.

The establishment of the battalion is to make up for the lack of mobility and combat effectiveness of the guard soldiers. With a higher salary than the guard soldiers, they will naturally participate in the most dangerous wars. If they are stronger than the guard soldiers, of course they are not considered wrong.

However, thinking that the two are completely different, Wei Guangde simply said: "Guard soldiers have to farm and defend. It is naturally rare to have the best of both worlds. As the saying goes, you can't have both, and the battalion is specialized The pay for the battle formation is also much higher than that of the guards, if the combat power is not as good, it is better not to recruit."

King Yu nodded, also agreeing with Wei Guangde's words.

However, Wei Guangde did not stop there, but continued: "Actually, there is an old saying that goes, 'A raging soldier, a raging nest', whether it is a guard soldier or a battalion soldier, to exert combat power, the main thing is to look The general who leads the army.

Just like the Datong Army, when Yu Dayou was in Datong, the Datong Army could travel hundreds of miles into the desert to capture Bansheng City, and on the way back they could defeat the pursuers sent by the Alda Khan.

But after Yu Dayou was transferred from Datong, Liu Han, the commander-in-chief of Datong, suffered consecutive defeats, and has now been dismissed from the post of commander-in-chief. "

"It makes sense. Qi Jiguang's department only played a huge role in the southeast coastal anti-Japanese war in the past two years. Before that, it was Yu Dayou who led the Ming army to fight, and now the power of the Japanese pirates is not as good as before."

Yin Shizhen is also more optimistic about Yu Dayou, because the record between the two is completely unequal.

Yin Shixuan smelled a little sign at this moment, it seemed that Zhang Juzheng valued Qi Jiguang, and Wei Guangde must value Yu Dayou.

It's not that the two of them don't show their heads in front of Yu Wang, but they are indeed saying that the general they are optimistic about is better.

As for what he said about Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang's unequal record, it mainly depends on the number of troops commanded.

Yu Dayou has the experience of commanding hundreds of people in battle, and he also has the experience of commanding tens of thousands of people in battles, and most of them have won the battle. Looking at Qi Jiguang, his commanding troops are more in the thousands, and it seems that there are not tens of thousands of people. It has been demonstrated on a large-scale battlefield.

What's more, when Yu Dayou commanded the anti-Japanese war, among the main forces among the Japanese pirates, which one had tens of thousands of soldiers, and these Japanese pirate gangs had disappeared, leaving only countless small and medium-sized forces, and gangs with thousands of people They are considered to be the most powerful team among Japanese pirates.

"Dayou saves money in war."

I don't know why, but King Yu said such a sentence when he opened his mouth.

Perhaps it was King Yu who counted the military resources between the guards and the battalion, so he felt this way, but Wei Guangde did not dare to tell the truth.

In Datong, most of the spoils that the army went out to snatch were directly divided by the officers and soldiers participating in the battle. It was a desperate battle.

If you win the battle, you will gain both people and wealth, and if you lose, you will lose both people and wealth.

And this time when he went to Fujian to suppress thieves, after confirming Yu Dayou's transfer, Wei Guangde wrote more than a dozen letters to Jiangxi to find someone to trust him.

He knew too well the urgency of those civil servants, even if the rebel soldiers came to the city, they would have to scrape a layer of masters from them if they wanted to transfer money and food from the treasury.

There is a saying that before the soldiers and horses are moved, the food and grass go first. Wei Guangde, who has been influenced by the war experience of later generations, naturally understands the importance of logistics.

To say that Yu Dayou saves money in wars compared to Qi Jiguang, Wei Guangde really dare not agree with it brazenly.

"By the way, are you familiar with this Tan Lun?"

Having said so much, King Yu finally remembered the most important content of the emperor's decree this time, which was to replace the governor of Fujian.

Wei Guangde shook his head, "When I went to Zhejiang, Mr. Tan should be the prefect in which prefecture."

Wei Guangde didn't have a deep impression of Tan Lun, so naturally he didn't pay much attention to him, let alone someone he had never seen before.

Looking at Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng, they both shook their heads like him.

However, Zhang Juzheng seemed to think of something immediately, and said: "This Tan Lun, I seem to have read the Zhejiang Zoubao. When he was the prefect of Taizhou, he used to organize Xiangyong to fight against Japanese pirates under his rule. The combat power is also good. This team Xiang Yong was later incorporated into Qi Jiguang's subordinates."

"Then he is still quite a strategic person, no wonder he was sent to Fujian at this time."

Zhang Juzheng's words gave everyone a preliminary impression of Tan Lun, that is, he was a military civil servant, and the highest official position in the future could be a governor or Minister of the Ministry of War.

"The governor of Fujian, it's a pity that he had a low official position before, and this time he will be transferred to a lower level than Zhao Bingran."

Yin Shizheng said.

"He is not from the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He is the governor of Fujian. Maybe he will be promoted to the title of Qiandu Yushi in the final imperial decree. If he is the Qiandu Yushi, he will be transferred to Fujian this time, and he will be added the title of Deputy Capital Yushi. .”

Zhang Juzheng said regretfully.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were no fixed grades for governors and governors. It depended on what titles were added to obtain the corresponding grades, and the most important title was naturally the title of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

For example, Tan Lun was directly employed by Emperor Jiajing, and the highest official position he could get after entering the Metropolitan Procuratorate was the Qiandu Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the fourth-rank governor.

Also because he is a governor, he doesn't need to be a minister of the Ministry of War, so his grade as a governor is only fourth rank.

"I don't know how long it will take him to recover the Fuxing Mansion?"

King Yu didn't care about the official position that Tan Lun might be awarded. Perhaps this was the reason why he was the emperor's son. They only valued the ability of the ministers to handle affairs. As for the rank, it was actually secondary to real power.

Regardless of whether you are a governor with the title of Shangshu or a governor with the title of Yushi, there is actually no essential difference between the second rank and the fourth rank, and they both exercise the same power.

However, it has to be said that Emperor Jiajing's order to dismiss You Zhende this time was decisive. Before the imperial decree came out, there were already countless censors who were preparing for the impeachment, and the target was not only You Zhende, but Even the newly appointed governor of Fujian and Guangdong is within the scope of their impeachment.

However, after Emperor Jiajing directly issued the decree, the direction of these impeachment memorials was unanimously aimed at You Zhende. Perhaps because it was near the end of the year, many censors who did not meet the impeachment targets were motivated to impeach him for his incompetence.

It was also because of this decree of dismissal that the storm of impeachment that might have formed in the capital disappeared invisible.

All the Beijing officials focused their attention on Fujian Xinghua Mansion, waiting for Tan Lun to take over the Xinghua Mansion. If there was a slight setback, he might become the second You Zhende.