Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 15 Army and Soldiers

Huang Laifu took Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu to look around in Wuzhai Fort, and finally climbed up the wall of Wuzhai Fort with mixed feelings. Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu naturally followed closely Beside Huang Laifu.

The fort wall of Wuzhai Fort is covered with bricks and stones. Because Wuzhai Fort is located on a flat terrain, there are four fort gates on the fort wall.

There is also an urn city inside the gate of the fort, plus horse faces, crenels, shooting ports, and nests on the city wall.The inside of the fort wall is surrounded by horse trails, turrets and other facilities, which together build a series of castle defense systems.

At this time, some sergeants on the fort wall were shyly leaning on the fort wall and chatting, their expressions were relaxed. When they saw Huang Laifu and the other three coming, they hurriedly stopped and said in awe: "Master Huang!" He is a householder and does not have a military position now, but no sergeant dares to neglect Huang Laifu, and he is also worried that Huang Laifu will reprimand them for their slack.

Huang Laifu didn't bother to pay attention to them. He nodded and waved his hand to signal for them to continue patrolling. He took Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu to walk slowly on the castle, inspecting every place carefully. The memory in the brain matches one by one.

In the end, Huang Laifu climbed to the turret and unconsciously looked in the direction of Huoludun ahead.

Standing on the turret, you can see that it is several miles away. The surrounding terrain of Wuzhai Fort is high in the southeast and low in the northwest. As far as the eye can see, the three directions of the fort, northwest and south, are as large as flat within ten miles, either flat or hilly. Not far to the east is a high mountain, which the locals call Kelan Mountain.

To the north of Another Fort is a river, which is also called Qinglian River by the locals. It can be seen that there are some fields on both sides of the river, which were originally the fields of military households in Wuzhai Fort, but most of them are now occupied by the Huang family.

After looking at it for a long time, naturally, Huodun in the distance has been quiet all the time, and there will be no movement because of Huang Laifu's arrival. In fact, since the Longqing peace talks, the large-scale invasion of the Mongols has basically stopped, except for some people in the border areas. Small Mongolian tribes have occasionally invaded the towns after disasters, and Nine Sides has remained largely calm.However, Huang Laifu knew that two years later, during the three major Wanli marches, the flames of war would be ignited here again, and what would he do?
Huang Laifu was thinking, feeling like an iron horse and glaciers in his heart, but Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu were peeking at Huang Laifu, both of them thought: "Master was not so quiet before, he was violent then, maybe it was a few days ago The impact of what happened on him."

Yang Xiaolu saw that Huang Laifu had been staring at him in a daze, so he came over and said softly, "Master, it's windy up the turret, let's go down!" Jiang Dazhong also hurriedly agreed.

Huang Laifu nodded, and led Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu down the turret. He was about to go down the fort wall, but he heard several soldiers guarding the city gathered nearby, discussing something with great interest.Huang Laifu's heart skipped a beat and he stopped to listen.Discussion came.

"...Do you know those battalion soldiers in Shanxi Town and Town? Oh dear, that Shu Tan, in addition to monthly rations, also has a monthly salary of one tael. This is the treatment that the former guard brothers received after they transferred the battalions!"

"Ask me how I know? Do you know Da Niu? We used to be from Wuzhaibao, who was good at wielding a long spear. Last year, he was selected to serve as an army soldier in the town. A few days ago, he came back with a message!"

"Daniu is really enviable. There is food and wages every month, which is much better than us having a little monthly food. Alas, my mother-in-law has never had a full meal since she followed me."

"Daniu is enviable, but he was drawn by the Guards, and he is a military member from generation to generation. The most enviable thing is that he was recruited from the battalion. The treatment is generous, and he is not hereditary. He is free to come and go. Listen It is said that after these people are recruited, they will give five taels of silver to the An family in one case, one tael and five taels of monthly salary for southern soldiers, and one tael for northern soldiers."

"It's not a big deal. The most enviable place is Liaodong Town. I heard that the recruits from the battalion over there will first give five taels of silver to An Jia with white hair, and three taels of silver for armor and equipment, plus 15 taels of pommel horse fees. , and pay every month, tsk tsk, these days..."

"Those recruited soldiers are from civilian households, and they are also civilian households when they become soldiers. We are just some poor military households. How can we compare?"

Huang Laifu listened quietly. Next year, he will replace Qianhu in Wuzhai Fort. Naturally, he wants to know the thoughts of his soldiers. After all, they will be the foundation of his Wuzhai Fort in the future. It's terrible, and people's hearts are floating.This Wuzhai Fort really has a lot of problems.

Yang Xiaolu looked at Huang Laifu's face. He naturally heard what the soldiers said just now. He rushed forward and shouted: "You guys want to die, just say something to shake the morale of the soldiers here. Do you want to be subjected to military law?"

The sergeants realized that Huang Laifu and the other three were standing beside them. They were all shocked and knelt down and said, "I know my mistake, please forgive me!"

Although Huang Laifu has not been replaced yet, theoretically he has no power to dispose of them, but the sergeants all know that Huang Laifu's words actually represent the words of Qianhu adults. After all, Huang Sihao's doting on Huang Laifu is known to the whole Wuzhai Fort.

People go to high places, and the treatment of the battalion soldiers is better than that of the guards, so it is normal for these people to talk about envy. Forcibly suppressing it is not a good way. Manage the Wuzhai Fort well so that the soldiers will have no worries about food and clothing.

Huang Laifu said lightly: "Get up, I don't blame you, but I will not be an example." Although he is only 17 years old in this body, but in Wuzhai Fort, no one dares not to care about his words.

The sergeants rose with gratitude.

Huang Laifu led Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu down the fort wall, and the soldiers sent them off respectfully.

Discussions were heard from a distance: "My dear, I was frightened just now, do you all feel that the gloomy and silent appearance of this yellow tiger is more terrifying than when it was fierce before?"

"Yeah, yeah, I feel the same way..."

※※※

When Huang Laifu walked down the fort wall, he was still thinking about what the soldiers said just now.

In fact, the Weisuo army and battalion soldiers mentioned by the sergeants just now are a unique military system of the Ming Dynasty.

The military guards are organized into small banners, general banners, hundreds of households, thousand households, guard commanders, and capital commanders.The barracks belong to the battalion, and are composed of Shichang, captain, sentry officer, general, garrison, guerrilla, general, and general.The two are contradictory and coexist for nearly a hundred years.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the system of guards was implemented throughout the country, which was the Guards Army.After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the guards were destroyed and the guards were unusable, so the Ming government had to call in a large number of recruits.

The biggest difference between recruiting soldiers and the Guards Army is that most of the recruiting soldiers come from civilians. After joining the army, they do not change their status as civilians, are not hereditary, and do not serve for life.The government expressly stipulates that after the work is completed, it will be returned to the peasants.In this way, the guards were called sergeants, and the recruits were called militias. The recruits were the main force relied on in the late Ming Dynasty.

But neither guards nor recruits are combat establishments.When fighting, a battalion system must be composed of guards or recruits, called battalions.The source of the battalion soldiers is the recruitment and the guard army.The main force of the battalion is recruitment, and some are drawn from the guard army.

Soldiers are not hereditary, and their food and pay are more generous than those of the army. Slowly, soldiers replaced the role of the army.The soldiers are in charge of the battle, and the army is in charge of defending and garrisoning.

However, the soldiers did not completely replace the army. The battalion system was a military organization established for war. It was highly mobile and dispatched with the war. There was no fixed station. guard.The Weisuo system existed until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Speaking of it, the implementation of the battalion recruitment system has brought obvious changes to the normal operation of the guards.A considerable part of the battalion soldiers came from the rest of the army, and they were likely to be substitutes for the main army of the guard, or an important force for local defense.The recruitment of a large number of surplus troops will inevitably affect the clearing and replacement of the guards.

The situation of the sergeants that Huang Laifu saw just now can understand this point. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the guard system had been ruined, a large number of young and strong fled, and the guard was seriously understaffed. In addition, the guard became a de facto reserve team , Continuously transporting the best of them for the battalion, it is not surprising that the more blood the guard loses, the weaker the weaker.

What should I do to change this situation?Without young and strong people, Wuzhai Fort would not want to develop.

With such thoughts in mind, Huang Laifu came in front of his horse, Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu came up together, Jiang Dazhong said honestly, "Master, where are you going now?"

Huang Laifu suddenly had a flash in his mind, he always felt strange that he came to this world, why did he come, and what happened when he came?He fainted when he was possessed by time travel that day, today he wanted to walk around the place where his accident happened to see what he would find.

Huang Laifu said: "Let's go out of the city!"

(End of this chapter)