Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 117 Preparations for the Parade
"At the beginning of human beings, nature is good, nature is similar, habits are far away..."

On the sixteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, when heavy snow covered the Yanshan Mountains, the sound of teenagers and children reading aloud spread throughout a rammed-earth courtyard.

They all cherish the opportunity to study, even though Ming Dynasty has promoted government studies and social studies for many years, for these orphans of frontier soldiers, reading is still a rare opportunity.

Outside the rammed earth wall, a young man about five feet tall was walking in the snow under the guards of several brocade-clothed guards and a young man in Taoist robes.

In front of him, there are more than a hundred courtyards with rammed earth walls.

At this time, the young man next to him said:

"Your Highness, there are a total of [-] social studies institutes in the Yanshan Institute, each with ten dormitories, each with [-] students, and each can accommodate [-] students."

"In addition, in the southwestern corner of the center and Yanshan Daying, there is a big kitchen, which is divided into [-] offices, which can accommodate more than [-] people to eat at the same time."

"The northwest corner is the military equipment field, where students can practice archery, martial arts, and corner fighting."

"The southeast corner is the dormitory. According to your Highness's layout, there are five hundred floors in total. Each floor has two floors. Each floor has five dormitories. Each dormitory has four people. It can accommodate [-] people."

"In addition, there is a horse farm outside Yanshan Institute, with [-] mu of grassland, and [-] rough horses in captivity."

"In the afternoon of each school, there is a half-hour horse riding class. The students need to harvest horse grass first, and then feed the horses before riding and training their riding skills."

"As for the courses of the students, the imperial horse class is temporarily held once every six days, and each school rotates every day. The class never reaches You hour, but three hours."

"As for the morning, it's reading and literacy, and in the afternoon except for the horse riding class, I mainly go to the military training ground to train one hour of archery, one hour of martial arts, and one hour of corner fighting."

In the young man's mouth, everything Yan Shan said was slowly and in great detail.

But in the face of such details, Zhu Youjian asked: "What is the menu of the chef?"

"Return to Your Highness..." The young man replied:

"Chef Da Pao changes his menu every three days. On the first day, breakfast is pasta with an egg, a cup of soy milk, lunch is one tael of chicken, two vegetarian dishes and rice, and dinner is one tael of pork, two vegetarian dishes and rice."

"The second day is corn buns with eggs and soy milk, lunch is fish and shrimp bought from Tongzhou, plus vegetables and rice, and dinner is a tael of mutton plus vegetables and rice."

"On the third day, meat buns with eggs and soy milk, lunch one tael of mutton, vegetables and rice, and dinner one tael of pork with vegetables and rice."

"How much does it cost?" Zhu Youjian asked as he walked away, and the young man replied without panic:

"Currently there are 12450 students in the Yanshan Institute, and the food intake of children and teenagers varies, which is relatively small. However, if there are [-] people, the average monthly consumption will be [-] shi of rice and [-] water chickens. [-] catties of fish and shrimp, [-] catties of pork, [-] catties of mutton, and [-] catties of vegetables."

"In addition, I eat a lot of oil. I consume [-] jin of salt, [-] jin of salt, [-] shi of beans, and more than [-] eggs."

"Calculated, based on the current scale, the monthly expenditure is about [-] taels of silver, an average of [-] taels per day."

When saying this number, the young man took a special look at Zhu Youjian, and then he was afraid that Zhu Youjian would think too much, so he explained:
"However, the students have opened up [-] acres of wasteland in the valley to the north. If they are used to grow vegetables or grain, they can earn more than [-] shi of grain every year, which can..."

"You don't need to worry about the cost." Zhu Youjian interrupted him:

"You just need to teach them how to read and write. I will transfer the training from the military training ground and the racecourse to the camp in Yanshan."

"In the future, if there are still students coming and the money is not enough, I will ask Cheng En to ask someone to help buy it."

"Yes..." The young man sighed, while Zhu Youjian glanced around the schoolhouses.

There are more than [-] students, and they will be of great use to Zhu Youjian in five years' time.

Whether it is to abolish the Tianxia Guard, or to send them all to the Metropolitan Procuratorate, or to use them to replace corrupt officials whose homes were ransacked, it is an important step for Zhu Youjian in the future.

To suffer them is to suffer from Zhu Youjian himself in the future.

Therefore, he is very willing to spend the capital, and the current Yumajian can also support them.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian stopped in his tracks, and said to the young man next to him: "Professor Zhou, after a year, I will reissue the textbooks for your education, and it will be enough to follow the books."

"Yes... yes..." Hearing this, Zhou Jiaoxi hurriedly bowed in response.

He used to be just a commoner student with no background in the Imperial College, and he could only earn some money to support himself by copying for others every day.

Right now, he has become the chief instructor of Yanshan Institute, and he has a monthly salary of five taels of silver, which makes him a little bit smug.

But it was this improvement that made him understand better that he had to curry favor with Zhu Youjian.

If he missed this opportunity, it would be difficult for him to have such a chance to stand up in his life.

"Let's go..." Zhu Youjian glanced at Zhou Jiaoxi, then signaled to the Jinyi guards, and prepared to walk out of Yanshan Institute.

"Your Highness, go slowly!" Zhou Jiaoxi hurriedly bowed to see him off, while Zhu Youjian and Jin Yiwei were about to leave Yanshan Institute without looking back.

Due to the cold winter, it was difficult to break ground, so neither the Yanshan Daying nor the Yanshan Institute built a rammed earth wall, but surrounded the camp with a ten-foot-high wooden fence.

Zhu Youjian and the others walked out of the west gate of Yanshan Institute, and the general banner stationed at the four gates of Yanshan Institute opened the door for them and then closed the gate again.

With the help of Jin Yiwei, Zhu Youjian got on his horse, and then led his people towards the Yanshan Camp.

The speed along the way was not fast as the snow was already deep.

Two quarters of an hour later, when he returned to the east gate of Yanshan Daying, he immediately saw Wang Chengen standing at the gate of the camp looking into the distance.

He was wearing a big fur and standing at the door, looking very anxious, as if something important happened.

"drive!"

Seeing Wang Chengen's appearance, Zhu Youjian also rode his horse and led the people forward, and when they entered the road without snow, the speed of the crowd suddenly increased.

Hearing the sound of horseshoes, Wang Chengen quickly stood in place, ready to lead the horse for Zhu Youjian.

"What happened in the capital?"

Bringing people to the east gate, Zhu Youjian frowned and asked Wang Chengen who was standing on the rammed earth, and Wang Chengen nodded, and handed out a letter with the pattern in the palace:
"Long live's handwritten letter was delivered by the factory guard. Long live said that except for you, anyone who dares to read it will be exiled."

"Hmm..." Hearing that it was so serious, Zhu Youjian also handed the reins to Wang Chengen, and while he was leading the horse, Zhu Youjian opened the letter and read the letter at a glance.

In the letter, Brother Haohuang's handwriting was immediately recognized by him, it was not a ghostwriter.

This also means that even Wang An and Wei Zhongxian don't know the content of this handwriting.

Zhu Youjian's mood sank, especially after seeing the contents of Brother Haohuang's letter.

Apart from the reminiscence and concern at the beginning, the main purpose of the good emperor is to wish Zhu Youjian's eleventh birthday in advance, and tell him to remember to ask the accompanying chef to make birthday noodles.

When he saw this, Zhu Youjian had a smile on his face, but the content of the handwriting afterwards was a bit serious.

The following content mainly talks about the attitude of the nobles, and how the good emperor brother wants to use the seven guards and one battalion to frighten the nobles and officials when Qingling is completed.

After the deterrence, it is imminent to abolish Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion, as well as Jizhen Guard Post and battalion.

Of course, at the end of the letter, good emperor brother also called Zhu Youjian, don't worry too much, when the soldiers and horses are trained, just finish the Qingling.

This means that the construction of various buildings on the surface of Qingling will be slowed down in exchange for training time.

However, the good emperor still underestimated Zhu Youjian.

He put the letter in his arms, and various thoughts kept flashing through his mind.

Using the Seven Guards and One Battalion to frighten nobles and hundreds of officials is a good political method, but it is easy to usher in a counterattack.

If you don't want to counterattack, you must put on a very elite battle to bluff these guys.

And this kind of battle couldn't be easier for Zhu Youjian who had trained soldiers in his previous life!

"Military training!"

These two words flashed in his mind, and even flashed a picture of how to train the Seven Guards and the First Battalion so that they could use their arms and fingers.

In this era where formations and changes in battle formations are the main focus, the ceremonial military exercise after military training can definitely deter the group of nobles and civil servants who don't know soldiers at the beginning.

As long as the military exercise is shocking, then there will be a large-scale demonstration of infantry and cavalry artillery assisting in combat.

Thinking that he was going to stage a military exercise in this era, Zhu Youjian couldn't help but feel a little itchy.

"How long will it take for Chengen and Qingling to finish and deal with the aftermath?" Zhu Youjian couldn't help asking, but Wang Chengen was taken aback when he heard the words, and quickly responded after recovering:
"It will take about sixty-three days, which is two months and three days."

"Two months? It's almost..." Hearing that there are still more than two months for him to flex his muscles, Zhu Youjian nodded secretly.

Naturally, he can't train tens of thousands of people to the level of the later National Day, but as long as the opening can be uniform, it is enough to bring visual impact and shock.

After that, it is enough to cooperate with infantry, cavalry and artillery in battle.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Wang Chengen:
"Tell Sun Yingyuan and Man Gui to go to the main hall in the backyard for half an hour to discuss matters."

"Your servant takes orders." Wang Chengen knew that Zhu Youjian must have said something related to soldiers and horses, so he hurriedly asked someone to inform him.

At this time, they also arrived at the gate of the backyard of the Yumajian command post.

Zhu Youjian got off his horse, walked directly into the study, and began to grind and write his own ideas in handwriting.

He wrote down all the things that can be applied to discipline and behavior in military training, such as going forward, stepping in unison, turning left and right, etc., and he even drew simple paintings.

At this time, he was a little thankful that the memory Chongzhen left him included the memory of learning painting and calligraphy. Otherwise, with his handwriting on chicken feet in his previous life, he would probably be ridiculed for a long time in this era.

In half an hour, Zhu Youjian wrote forty-five pages with thousands of words in one breath, and also drew some key pictures.

When he had just finished painting, he heard Wang Chengen's footsteps entering the study:
"His Royal Highness, Commander Sun and Man Shen are coming."

"Tell them to enter the main hall..." Zhu Youjian dried up the last ink stains, then picked up the booklet and walked out of the study, while Sun Yingyuan and Man Gui also walked into the main hall under Wang Chengen's greeting.

"Man Gui (Sun Yingyuan), see Your Highness..."

As soon as the two entered the hall, they saluted and bowed, and Zhu Youjian also signaled them to take their seats, and then handed the document in his hand to Wang Chengen, signaling him to hand it over to the two of them.

"Look at this thing first."

When he spoke, Wang Chengen handed the document to the two of them, and the two of them got together and flipped through the document.

They nodded in approval from time to time, and frowned from time to time, which made Zhu Youjian very disturbed.

"How?" He asked nervously, and Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan looked at each other when they heard the words, and after hesitating again and again, it was Man Gui who spoke first:

"Your Highness, this document, how does the general feel that he is training Yiluanwei..."

Yiluan Guard, this was the first guard of honor in the Hongwu period, and was later merged by Zhu Yuanzhang and the pro-military Duwei Mansion into Jinyiwei.

Man Gui secretly said that these things are not very practical in this era, but Zhu Youjian also knew that he was not angry, but smiled and said:
"Two months later, Long Live needs to use the Seven Guards and One Battalion to frighten nobles and hundreds of officials, and this training method is actually cultivating a memory of the soldiers."

"Do you think it is impossible to apply this process to firecrackers and artillery?"

Hearing this, Sun Yingyuan and Man Gui's eyes lit up.

They said, His Royal Highness has learned the art of war for so long, and even trained soldiers in his spare time, how could he write such a military book?It turned out to be for this kind of thing.

"Tens of thousands of people are in uniform, whether it is in the artillery, or on the battlefield, it is an act that can deter the enemy."

Zhu Youjian talked eloquently: "Right now, what I need you to do is to follow the above-mentioned instructions. The army gathers first to run exercises, and then conducts an hour of military training."

"After the military training, as in the past, I still practice the cooperation of various departments, especially the cooperation between the Warriors Battalion and Tengxiang's left and right backs."

"The artillery broke through the enemy's formation, and when they disturbed the enemy's formation, they suppressed the enemy's crossbowmen. The cavalry rushed forward immediately, using firearms to charge repeatedly."

What Zhu Youjian said was the best trick of the cavalry of the Ming army.

Unlike the Tang and Song Dynasties when the fully equipped cavalry was broken in the enemy's battle formation, and the whole army charged and tore apart the openings, the Ming cavalry's impact on the infantry array was not a straight charge like in the movie, but traces could be found in chess.

The horse is leaning...

Nomads have a well-known tactic called roundabout cavalry shooting, but no matter whether it is a game or a movie, nomadic cavalry archers who are lightly armed usually keep a certain distance and shoot long shots.

However, the cavalry who maintained training under the financial support of the Central Plains Dynasty actually had a distance of five steps from the enemy's engagement projection, that is, about eight meters.

For the long-range cavalry attack under the tactics of the Ming army, the distance of five steps was chosen, which was actually aimed at the length of the pole weapon in the era of cold weapons and the era of mixed hot and cold weapons.

Regardless of cavalry or infantry, the maximum attack distance of the pole weapon that can be operated is 1 to 2 feet, two steps is one foot, and two feet is actually four steps, which is 1 to 3 steps away from the attack distance of the cavalry.

These two steps are practically a natural moat. Cavalry assaults, such as using a column team to concentrate on a certain point on the front line for long-range attacks, are equivalent to punching holes in a wall.

In the absence of effective countermeasures, short-term high-intensity point-to-point firepower projection, without effective countermeasures, can easily open a gap in the front, causing the front to collapse.

Regardless of advancing or retreating, the attacked point is likely to form a protrusion (unable to move forward) or a depression (retreat or a large number of casualties).

When the cavalry dug the gap in the infantry array to a certain extent, the cavalry under the column could easily dig out the flanks from the gap, open the passage, and then break into the rear of the battle line, causing the entire infantry array to collapse.

Generally speaking, the cavalry is in a small group mode, which can suppress the attack surface of the large cavalry to a very small range, and it is convenient to turn at any time to deal with the changes of the infantry array under the attack.

Under such an operation, even if the enemy ambushes or the situation changes, the loss of the cavalry is no more than one team at most.

This ensures that the flexibility of operation, the continuity of fire suppression of the Ming army and the safety of the cavalry itself are fully guaranteed.

The reason why the cavalry of the Ming army did not choose long-range projection, but chose close-range shooting, was because horses were not stable as a shooting platform, and the choice of projective weapons, whether crossbows or muskets, was not as good as that of infantry.

Moreover, the firepower density and firepower intensity of firearms used on horseback have limits.

Therefore, the cavalry of the Ming army gave up the matchlock gun as the cavalry's projectile weapon under the tactical choice, and chose the three-eyed gun with a firepower density per unit time.

This choice is also related to the fact that the enemies that the Ming army had to face did not have large-scale heavy armored troops.

The firepower of the three-eyed blunderbuss, the shooting power within ten meters has met the requirements of the time, and it can be fired multiple times, reloaded quickly, and used as a hand-to-hand weapon.

Therefore, after a small amount of experiments with matchlock cavalry, the Ming army still chose the three-eyed blunderbuss, a seemingly outdated burst fire gun, and still retained large-scale cavalry archers.

The favorite thing for the cavalry of the Ming army is to charge forward with multi-barreled firearms, and then shoot the enemy cavalry in front of the enemy's formation, or at close range.

In the Battle of Bichiguan, Li Rusong's troops used this tactic to suppress the Japanese army with several times its strength in a short time and retreated with a complete organizational system under the disadvantage.

The Japanese army had a single type of arms, lacked effective counterattack methods, and had no combat experience in such tactics. However, the Ming army replaced the three-eyed blunderbuss with bows and arrows, which was also a normal usage of cavalry and archery.

In order to fight against this kind of tactics, the infantry can only make the enemy as close as possible.

Because whether it is a bow and arrow, a three-eye or a long-rod matchlock gun, the accuracy of shooting on the horse platform is directly proportional to the distance.

The closer the distance, the higher the accuracy and the greater the power, the farther the distance, the lower the accuracy and the lower the power, and the armor equipped with soldiers can resist medium and long-distance riding firepower.

The bumpy shooting platform under the crotch, even if multi-barreled firearms are used, once the distance is extended, the power and accuracy are difficult to guarantee.

However, tactics such as cavalry shooting at close range with firearms were not unique to the Ming Dynasty. European semi-circular tactics were also similar to cavalry weapons, but the details were different from the tactical tradition and combat objectives.

This mode of operation of the cavalry of the Ming army is not equivalent to a semi-circle, but is born out of the traditional riding and shooting.

According to the "Wuyi Tupu Tongzhi", the Ming army cavalry training process is usually as follows:
"The handle is fifteen feet long, and the method is to start the horse. The right hand holds the bridle. The left armpit holds the gun. Make a new moon in the sky. The right hand holds the front. The left hand holds the back. Raise the forehead. Change the left and right hands. Make a stab in the left front. Change the handle. Left and right hands. Make a front right stab...if so, there is no fixed number."

This kind of training allowed the cavalry of the Ming army to adapt to almost any combat method...

Equipped assault, infantry combat with long and short soldiers, cavalry shooting, infantry shooting, firearms combat...

These are the specialties of the Ming army's semi-armored cavalry, and in the [-]th year of Wanli, Jinglue Xing Jie mentioned that the Japanese prisoners said that the Ming army "feared" the Ming army cavalry.

The Liaodong cavalry under Li Rusong defeated the Japanese army several times with various tactics such as cavalry charge, chasing and annihilating. The versatility of the Ming cavalry was fully demonstrated.

Let the Japanese army fear the cavalry of the Ming army for a long time.

Not only the Japanese army during the Imjin Japanese Invasion, but even the Houjin Eight Banners were quite afraid of the strength of the Ming cavalry. There was no scene like "History of the Ming Dynasty" where the Houjin cavalry was invincible against the Ming cavalry.

Just like the current Liaodong battlefield, when the cavalry of the Ming army faced the Houjin army, which was good at heavy infantry combat, the small army that mainly focused on raids performed very well in combat.

Historically, during the Battle of Ningjin, when Manchurian Guizhou aided Ningyuan and fought the Eight Banners on the way, the Eight Banners infantry did not form an array, and the Ming army fought against the Eight Banners.

This is because the heavy cavalry of the Ming army used half-covered horse armor to take into account the versatility and light load. They can often avoid the enemy's entanglement after small-scale battles and quickly leave the battlefield.

During the Battle of Dalinghe, a Ming army also knocked down the owner of the Xiangbai Banner, Duoduo, and was fortunately rescued by his subordinates.

In the Battle of Tieling, the Jin army succeeded after He Shixian's army attacked.

In the Battle of Rufeng Mountain in the Battle of Songjin, the Ming army took the initiative to attack and once forced the Qing army to shift positions.

These are the most basic usages of Ming army cavalry, and the effect is so strong that they were even secretly learned by Dorgon, Huang Taiji, Nurhachi and others to oppose Fu Ming army cavalry.

It's just that training such cavalry is too expensive, and without a complete financial system, it is difficult to support such an organized half-mounted cavalry unit.

However, all this is not difficult for Zhu Youjian.

Right now, the Yumajian has not only the north field, but also the south field, honeycomb coal kiln, and Lu Jianxing is helping to earn money.

All of this is enough for Zhu Youjian to create a half-armored cavalry unit, and his first thing to do is to train the Warrior Battalion into such a unit, so he asked Man Gui:

"I have already told the Ordnance Institute to let those who study self-generated Lumi guns study self-generated riding guns."

"As long as the self-generated riding gun is successfully developed, you will go to see it immediately." Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian said to Wang Chengen:
"Tell the people in the Ordnance Institute that when the self-generating firecracker is researched, they must notify Man Gui and me at the same time."

"The maidservant takes orders..." Wang Chengen responded with a slight salute, and Zhu Youjian also nodded when he saw this, and then explained to them:

"Use this method to train your troops first, and I will go to the school grounds to inspect in half a month."

"The last general takes orders!" Hearing this, Sun Yingyuan and Man Gui saluted in return. Seeing that Zhu Youjian had nothing to say, they retreated after saluting.

As for Zhu Youjian, he squinted his eyes looking at the backs of the two of them, and couldn't help but think of other things.

Showing the military power of the Yumajian will undoubtedly put him on the face, and once the year is over, he will be eleven years old.

The older he gets, the more restricted he will be, unless the good emperor brother is willing to let him go to the northern Zhili, or Shanxi and other frontier fortresses...

(End of this chapter)