A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 146 Tear Down and Rebuild

After the boring banquet was over, Wang Dou left and came out, and Li Zhenyu, the magistrate, personally sent it out.

Seeing Wang Dou's leaving figure, Li Zhenyu frowned and muttered to himself: "This person is hard to fathom."

On October [-]th, the ninth year of Chongzhen, Wang Dou summoned a group of military officers and generals in the city to discuss government affairs. Before that, Wang Dou had asked his official Zhang Xuejiao to fetch relevant documents for him to watch.

According to the statistics of the document, there are more than 880 military households in Baoanzhou City, with a population of more than 360 people.According to the document, there are 610 ​​hectares, 510 mu, 100 cents and [-] centimeters of farmland, [-] six stones, three liters and two combinations of natural wheat for summer grain, and [-] nine stones, four buckets, seven liters and four combinations of natural color rice beans for autumn grain. Tax autumn grain more than [-] shi.

In addition, there are more than 400 bunches of horse grass and more than [-] catties of old poplar wood for firewood.

In Zengzhou Weitong City of Baoan Prefecture, in addition to these military households, there are more than 730 civilian households in the city, which are under the jurisdiction of Zhizhou.Baoanzhou City is divided into two corners and six squares. In Chengenfang, Yonghefang, and Yingenfang in Xunyu City, most of the residents are military households.In Shishanfang, Guangxiaofang and Yongfengfang in Chenggenyu, most of the residents are private households.

In terms of the army, there are 350 officers and soldiers and 360 eight horses and mules.In terms of military weapons, in addition to swords, guns and shields, Baoanzhou City currently has five Shenwei Invincible General iron cannons, forty pairs of copper and iron Francophones, 85 small copper cannons and small iron cannons, and a large number of tiger squats. Cannons, cannons, etc.

This is the case of Danzhou City alone. In addition, there are registrations of Wubao, Shunxiangbao, Zhangjiabao and other big castles.

On the bright side, the situation in each castle is still optimistic, but who knows what the actual situation is, the officials of the Ming Dynasty have always been very serious in making false accounts.For Shun Xiangbao alone, the situation I saw when I took office was completely different from the registration in the document.

Compared with the Qianhu government hall in Shunxiang Fort, the lobby of the government office of integrity in Zhoucheng is much more spacious and luxurious. In the lobby, all the military officers and generals of Baoan Prefecture gathered together, and the new integrity adults were discussing matters. Everyone cheered up and tried their best to express themselves .

Zhang Gui, the governor of the prefectural city, reported to Wang Dou with the garrison papers: "My lord, the autumn sowing in the prefectural city was finished two months ago, and there are more than [-] hectares of garrisoned fields, all of which will be planted with wheat. Grain storage can be collected.”

Wang Dou nodded. He knew that the number of farmland and military households in Zhoucheng must be inaccurate, but he just kept his face.

Tian Changguo, the general manager of Guanzhou city camp affairs, seemed to be awake when he encountered a serious matter. He yawned and tried his best to cheer up. , of which there are 350 officers and soldiers, and the rest are miscellaneous officers and soldiers, here is the military register, do you want to see it, my lord?"

Wang Dou took over the military book, he was noncommittal, but said: "Soldiers' drills are related to the safety and defense of our state city. Mr. Tian Qian, Mr. Chi, Mr. Huang, you recruit soldiers, and I will personally inspect the drills. Parade horse."

He then said to Zheng Yu, the governor of the town, "Zheng Zhenfu, you are in charge of supervising and maintaining military discipline. After half an hour, I will see all the officers and soldiers of Zhoucheng on the teaching ground."

Tian Changguo was still sleepy and drunk, and the general manager Chi Dengshan, Huang Xian'en, and the town governor Zheng Yu exchanged glances, thinking that Wang Dou's new official took office three times, and now he started to light the first one. Fortunately, these days They have made corresponding preparations, and if they are sloppy, they should be able to deal with it.

……

Hundreds of officers and soldiers gathered chaotically on the teaching ground. Seeing that they moved slowly, they did not form a formation for a long time.From these people, Wang Dou sees that their looks and treatment are better than those in Shun Township Castle before. There are weapons, especially the servants under the name of each general, and most of them have leather armor, cotton armor or iron armor.

Although they were negligent in practice, they finally formed a sparse array, standing listlessly all over the ground.It is estimated that there are three total troops in front of him. Chief Qian Tian Changguo restrained the chief Chi Dengshan and Huang Xian'en, and personally led a large total of troops, including hundreds of servants.There are also general Chi Dengshan and Huang Xianen, and it is estimated that there is also a team of 50 servants.Zheng Yu, the governor of Lianzhen, also raised a team of servants.

Wang Dou saw the problem with these servants. Although most of them were young and strong veterans, most of them were foolish and carefree people. Wang Dou saw this kind of people a lot.The rest are ordinary sergeants, either looking left and right, or yawning incessantly, without the appearance of a soldier.

Sullen, can such a soldier fight?Han Chao behind Wang Dou sneered, such a sergeant is not even as good as an auxiliary soldier in Shunxiang Fort.

Wang Dou looked at it for a long time. Tian Changguo said that there were 350 and 1000 officers and soldiers in Zhoucheng, and there were probably less than [-] people here. He said lightly: "Zheng Zhenfu, you Let's call names according to the military register."

Zheng Yu, the governor of the town, had been standing coldly behind Wang Dou. At this time, he responded, and named them one by one according to the military register. Chi Dengshan and Huang Xianen looked at each other with uneasy expressions on their faces. I thought Wang Dou was just going through the motions, but I didn't expect to be so serious.

Only Qianzong Tian Changguo, rubbing his two big eyes, still looks like he wants to sleep.

In the final result, including the guards, there were 950 officers and soldiers on the teaching field, and the shortage was as high as more than 400 people. Moreover, Wang Dou felt that many of them were not the officers and soldiers of the state city, but were temporarily drawn from the military households. Filled up.

Wang Dou was silent, Chi Dengshan and Huang Xian'en became uneasy, Qianzong Tian Changguo felt the atmosphere in the field, and did not dare to yawn loudly.

After a while, Wang Dou said, "Why is there such a huge shortage of officers and soldiers in the city?"

Chief Huang Xian'en bowed his head and said: "My lord, there is a lack of pay in the army, the sergeants are constantly fleeing, and the subordinates and others have nothing to do."

Wang Dou said: "Why don't you make up for the shortage in the army from the military households?"

Chi Dengshan kept looking at Wang Dou, and at this moment he said: "My lord, Mingjian, since the year of Xuande, the military households of Bao'an State Guard have been fleeing year after year. If Yu Ding is recruited from the military households, I'm afraid it will be Mr. Zhang's farm There is a shortage of manpower.”

Wang Dou remained silent, looking at those veteran soldiers on the teaching ground, for a long time, he said: "There is no need to read, let the sergeants go back to camp."

Chi Dengshan, Huang Xian'en and the others were surprised when they did not expect to pass the level so easily. They glanced at Zheng Yu, the governor of the town, and a smile appeared on Zheng Yu's gloomy face.Afterwards, although the few people showed great respect to Wang Dou, they unconsciously revealed contemptuous expressions.

Only Qianzong Tian Changguo returned to the look of wanting to doze off.

……

"The government affairs of the prefecture city are so corrupt that none of the thousands of officers and soldiers can be used."

With a lamp like a bean, Wang Dou heaved a long sigh in the official mansion.

During the day, he inspected the various parts of the state city. The defenses in the city were extremely lax, the barracks and barracks system was almost absent, and the military weapons, not to mention the fact that the number of stocks did not match the numbers in the documents, even the quality was very impressive. concern.

The weapons used by the officers and soldiers of the guards of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the advanced firecrackers and artillery, some were allocated by the Ministry of Industry, and some were made by the guards themselves.Wang Dou has seen the craftsman camp in the city, and it has the same disadvantages as before Shun Xiangbao.

There are a total of 160 and five military craftsmen in the records of Baoanzhou City. It is estimated that there are less than 120 existing households.Their treatment was low, and the officials in charge of the manufacture of military weapons withheld raw materials and embezzled the price of materials. Those insufficient raw materials had to be made up by the craftsmen themselves.

The craftsmen complained a lot. They didn't have the slightest enthusiasm when making them, and the quality of the weapons they made was extremely low. Wang Dou took a look and knew that the knives, guns, armor, bows and arrows, three-eyed blunderbuss, and bird blunderbuss made by those craftsmen etc. Most of them are unusable.

Only the artillery situation in the state city will be better.Those cannons were all weapons from the Daming Weapons Bureau or the Military Bureau.When Ming Dynasty manufactured all kinds of cannons, there were special design drawings, the length of the cannons, the thickness of the tubes, and strict standard dimensions. Therefore, it was quite difficult for craftsmen and supervisors to substitute inferior ones for good ones, unlike firecrackers, knives and guns. Wait until there is a gap to wear, so the quality of these artillery can be guaranteed.

It's just that the maintenance is not satisfactory. Many good artillery have been ruined due to improper maintenance.

There should have been more than 260 artillerymen in the city, but Wang Dou estimated that half of them were missing.

Seeing Wang Dou sighing, Zhang Guilow stepped forward and said, "My lord, forgive me for saying something that I shouldn't have said. Your lord may not be able to imagine the destruction of the city. Today, my lord is parading horses and horses. There are many vacancies in the army. The result of enslavement and indulgence by generals."

According to what Zhang Gui said, several generals in Zhoucheng showed signs of deliberately indulging soldiers to flee, just to falsely collect and embezzle military salaries. The burden was shifted to ordinary garrison troops.

From Qianzongtian Changguo in Zhoucheng to Bazongchi Dengshan and others, each of them occupied more than 2000 mu of fertile land. Not only that, they also privately employed soldiers and military households to cultivate the fields for them, build houses on weekdays, transport Among the private goods, a large number of soldiers were also used.

The practice of accepting bribes is even more common in the state army. Officers also have a regular bribe income "buying leisure". Do other jobs.Even horses can be bought for leisure, and after paying hundreds of dollars a month, they can be lured to engage in other livelihoods.

Today's vacant sergeants in the teaching field, except for some fugitives, most of them are idlers. Many of them haven't seen each other for several months, and I don't know where they went.Due to the large number, although Chi Dengshan and others temporarily pulled a large number of garrison men to make up the number, it was still far from enough to fill the gap.

From Zhang Gui's mouth, Wang Dou felt his full of complaints. Zhang Gui, as the governor of the state city, because the generals invaded and occupied Dingkou of Tuntian in large numbers, the amount of food he paid each year could not meet the requirements of the superiors, and he did not increase the reward. Zhang Gui is full of resentment towards his colleagues in the city.

But in the past, he was weak in Zhoucheng, now he has an old acquaintance like Wang Dou, so he took the opportunity to come to seek refuge.His special visit tonight is the result of careful consideration.When he said such words to Wang Dou, he was determined to stand on Wang Dou's side.If any of his words leaked out, unless Wang Dou took care of him, he would have no place in the city.

Wang Dou looked at him: "Old Zhang, you are familiar with Zhoucheng, and I will rely on you in the future."

Zhang Gui was overjoyed, Wang Dou said such words, he already regarded him as a confidant, he knelt down and kowtowed: "I am willing to die for my lord, and I will go through fire and water, and I will not refuse."

Wang Dou helped him up. After Zhang Gui sat down happily, Wang Dou pondered for a while, and said, "The state city is so corrupted that there is no way to recover from it. The only thing I can do is tear it down and rebuild it! But first, I want to fully understand the situation inside and outside the city. Situation. Old Zhang, these days, you take me for a walk outside the city, and make a decision after a detailed discussion."

※※※

There is a power outage during the day today, so I can only write one chapter.

I ate hot pot all afternoon until I called back after seven o'clock.

(End of this chapter)