Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 31 Millions of soldiers and horses but no army available

"Chendi inquired about Jingying and the twenty-six guards of Shangzhi. It is said that most of them are in the same situation."

"In this way, it seems that there are more than [-] troops in Beizhili, but in fact there may be less than [-] who can defend the city, and perhaps not even [-] who can be drawn out to fight."

Zhu Youjian directly exposed the hypocrisy of the Ming Dynasty's Beijing camp, because he had the courage to get along with Zhu Youxiao day and night.

He knew that with Zhu Youxiao's feelings for him, even if he rebelled, Zhu Youxiao would at most imprison him.

The confinement will not kill him, and with Zhu Youxiao's temper, it is estimated that no eunuch would dare to show his face to him.

Anyway, according to the historical trajectory, if he does not change, he will be hanged by the neck tree. The result of confinement is not known to be much better than hanging.

Therefore, he also let go, and instead of burying the matter in his heart, he had a good heart-to-heart with Zhu Youxiao.

"For the matter of the Beijing camp, some people also reported on the memorial today, but it is not as exaggerated as what my brother said."

After listening to Zhu Youjian's words, Zhu Youxiao found a memorial in a pile of memorials on the desk next to him, and handed it to Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian took the memorial, and immediately saw the name of the owner of the memorial after opening it.

"Chen, Zheng Zongzhou, the censor of Shandong Province, heard that the first emperor had passed away. He couldn't sleep all night. He kowtowed and kowtowed again in Dengzhou."

"Your Majesty is the first to ascend the Great Treasure, please correct Li Kezhuo and Cui Wensheng for their crimes of throwing drama medicine indiscriminately."

"In addition, before leaving Shandong, I inspected the north of Zhili. There were [-] soldiers in the Beijing camp at the beginning of the country, and more than [-] at the beginning of Jiajing. Why are there only [-] now? And not all of the [-] were thrown stones over the distance. It can be used for battle defense..."

"It's like this in Jingying, but you can know it in Bianzhen."

"The original amount of Liao soldiers was [-], but now it is only [-] soldiers. How can the Liao pay be reduced every day? Since the first year of Longqing, the original amount was [-], and now it has increased to [-]." How can it increase day by day if there is a special salary?"

"One town has nine borders. As for the daily increase, it is amazing that the military pay was [-] million ten years ago in Jiajing, and it increased to more than [-] million after [-] years in Wanli."

Hundreds of words were eloquent, but Zhu Youjian didn't read all of them, just because in the future there were all methods of strengthening soldiers to make money. Although it looked very effective, Zhu Youjian knew that it would not work.

All in all, this Shandong censor named Zheng Zongzhou is very concerned about state affairs, and his research on military affairs is also good, but some of his ideas are unrealistic.

However, as far as military affairs are concerned, he has told some truths.

The actual number of the Beijing camp should be [-], but Zheng Zongzhou said that there were only [-] people in the Beijing camp, and the [-] people could barely defend and could not do a field battle.

As for Bianzhen, after being rectified by Xiong Tingbi, there are less than [-] Liao troops, but the number of troops belonging to Liaozhen is indeed only [-], and the rest are guest troops.

But he did say less about the military salary of Liao Town. The military salary of the [-] people in Liao Town was not [-], but increased to a million.

As for the military pay of the Nine Frontiers, ninety years have passed since the tenth year of Jiajing, and it is normal for the military salary to rise from [-] million taels, not the more than [-] million taels he said.

At present, the military salary of Nine Frontiers is more than nine million taels per year, and there are hundreds of thousands of horses on Nine Frontiers. Every year, they eat tens of millions of stones of grain and tens of millions of sheaves of hay.

All in all, the military expenditure of the Nine Borders alone accounted for 60% of the fiscal expenditure of the Ming Dynasty.

This is already a very terrifying ratio. You must know that when Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed Beiyuan in the early Ming Dynasty, the fiscal expenditure was only about 30%.

Of course, at that time, it was because of the army station of the National Guard, which could hand over more than [-] million shi of grain to the imperial court every year.

However, starting from the Jiajing period, the guards not only could not hand over food to the court, but also needed court subsidies.

The collapse of the Weisuo system further dried up the Ming Dynasty's finances.

What Zheng Zongzhou said cannot be changed overnight. Zhu Youjian can only change from the Yumajian first.

So he closed the memorial and said to Zhu Youjian:

"Chendi intends to set up a guard outside Xizhimen to accommodate the orphans of Xuanfu, Jiliao, and Liaodong."

"I want some students from Guozijian to teach them how to read and write. As for their relatives, Yumajian and Huangzhuang arrange to distribute cattle and land."

"Your brother has done the math. Right now, the Yumajian has [-] million acres of land and [-] acres of grassland. We will allocate some land to them and collect land taxes according to June Fourth. Life is better than that in Bianzhen."

"If the soldiers in the border town knew about it, they would do their best to fight against the northern captives and Jian captives."

"These orphans and widows, the emperor can visit them more, and they can be used by the emperor in the future."

"As for the matter of Yumajian and Habayashi Sanwei, the ministers will use rent reduction to let some men join the army among the tenants under the banner of Huangzhuang."

"Four guards and one battalion, more than [-] people, with the financial resources of the Royal Horse Supervisor, they can fully afford it."

"At present, the Yumajian can receive [-] million shi every year as a field tax. If you think of a way, you can still get [-] taels of military pay."

"As long as the army is properly trained, within a year or two, the Four Guards and One Battalion will be able to replace the frontier troops in the Jiliao area or in Liaodong."

"After the frontier army is replaced and abolished, it can completely save the imperial court millions of taels of expenditure every year."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youjian looked at Zhu Youxiao with a guilty conscience, for fear that his brother, the emperor, would be unhappy if he thought that he wanted to get involved in military power and conspiracy.

For this reason, he deliberately put the orphans in the border town in the capital, and handed over the benefits of cultivating them to Zhu Youxiao.

It's just that he underestimated his position in Zhu Youxiao's heart after all, as well as his performance in the past few days.

Zhu Youxiao suddenly held Zhu Youjian's hand with both hands, and comforted him in a gentle voice:

"Those widows are arranged to be inconvenient for my younger brother to use in the capital. Tomorrow I will ask someone to grant some wasteland at the foot of Yanshan Mountain in Changping to the Imperial Horse Supervisor."

"When the time comes, you will place those widows there. Ask Lu Wenzhao and Cheng En to help you find a way to recruit the army. When the Zhejiang soldiers arrive in the capital, I will transfer them to Changping to help my brother train for a month."

"When the chieftain soldiers arrive in the capital and my younger brother brings the Zhejiang soldiers back, I will allocate [-] taels of silver from my internal funds, and you will reward them for me."

"But I hope that after they go to Liaodong, they can guard the frontier for the court."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youxiao comforted: "These officials impeach you these days, you don't have to take it to heart."

"I know that you train the Four Guards and One Battalion, hoping that someone can protect you and my brother."

"Now that my brother is the emperor, others must not bully you. If you want to do something, tell your brother. If your brother is the emperor, no one will bully you..."

(End of this chapter)