Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

In the military establishment table for the past year, the main force of the Yan army was allocated to the establishment of the governor's office of the left-behind army in northern Zhili, but it actually stayed in the south for a long time.

A total of 61 guards, totaling 345,418 people, were under the command of the Governor's Mansion of the Left-behind Army, and those in Beizhili, except for some soldiers and horses who were left behind in their old nests, were basically veterans. The real essence of the weak, sick and disabled is the main force of the 230,000 Yan army in the south.

According to the meaning of this list of the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp, it is to continue to select the best among the best, with the main force of the Yan Army as the main body, and organize it into a field mobile corps of 200,000 people.

"The Beijing camp is mainly responsible for the three major responsibilities of garrison, training and field operations."

"The garrison, that is, the Northern Zhili garrison, is responsible for the border defense from Xuanfu in the west to Shanhaiguan in the east and the city defense of Shuntianfu."

"Concentration training is to transfer soldiers from the entire northern defense line to the Beijing camp in turns through drills, shifts, field assignments, selection and replacement, etc. for training and combat preparations, exercises, and expeditions. After they have been sharpened, they will move on to the next round of shifts. , improve the overall ability to cooperate in combat, and at the same time transport qualified soldiers to the northern defense line, all of which are allocated from the military budget of the Beijing Camp, so as to avoid the lack of equipment and low combat effectiveness caused by the lack of firearms and consumable equipment in the local area."

"Field combat is to serve as the main field combat group and core force on the northern nine sides to frighten and destroy the enemy."

"Ahem. Now Duke Qi will answer your questions."

This arrangement is obviously very clever. The person presiding over the meeting is Zhu Neng, who is now the de facto number one in the army.

After Zhu Neng introduced the military reform plan, it was the experienced veteran Qiu Fu who was responsible for answering questions.

Qiu Fu, who is over sixty years old this year, started out as a soldier in his early years and followed Zhu Di on several northern expeditions. Because of his bravery in battle and never competing with others for credit, Zhu Di used his years of hard work to be awarded the title of guarding thousands of households in Yanshan. In the first year of Jianwen, when Zhu Di raised his army, he captured the nine gates of Beiping with Zhu Neng and Zhang Yu, and fought against Geng Bingwen's army at Zhending. In the second year of Jianwen, he fought with Li Jinglong at the Baigou River, and led his troops to attack the rear of the Chinese army. The battles such as Jiahe and Lingbi were fought continuously and the whole Jingnan was fought.

"A man who refuses to accept his old age is better than the old Huang Zhong", he is talking about Qiu Fu.

This kind of senior general ranks first among all military generals when evaluating his contribution to the Jingnan War, and is the nominal first military official.

It's just that Qiu Fu has taken charge of the military academy in the past two years, relieved many military errands, handed over the work of hosting the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion to Zhu Neng, and no longer shows up too much, but none of this affects Qiu Fu at all. Prestige in the military.

As the staunchest and most important supporter of Zhu Gaoxu, Qiu Fu has always been supportive of the reform under the influence of Zhu Gaoxu. Since the reform in the military is in the interests of himself and the Weizhou faction that is attached to him, it is natural that it is also There is no reason to oppose it. At this time, we must come out to support the military reform.

Qiu Fu glanced at the silent Zhu Di and said to the marquis.

"Ask whatever you want to ask."

Since the Marquises were given a chance to speak, they must ask at this time.

Li Yuan, the Marquis of Anping of the Weizhou Clan, picked up a less important topic and asked: "I just heard Duke Cheng mention a word, nine sides in the north. What does 'nine sides' mean?"

A term that many modern people are familiar with is called "passing the head to nine sides", which means that if an official such as a governor or general soldier committed a crime in the middle and late dynasty, his head should be cut off and then allowed to tour the nine sides.

But in the early Ming Dynasty, because there were eight great fortress kings guarding the northern border, there was no such concept.

In fact, Jiubian, also known as Nine Towns, are nine military towns that were successively established along the Great Wall defense line in the north. This concept did not appear until the Hongzhi period. It can appear now because of Jiang Xinghuo's institutional design.

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo was observing the reactions of the military ministers with great interest, emphasizing his hidden merit and fame.

Qiu Fu slowly explained: "From east to west, the nine sides are Liaodong Town, Beijing Town, Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Shanxi Town, Yulin Town, Ningxia Town, Shaanxi Town, and Gansu Town."

Many people immediately realized that this was an interesting idea.

According to the current actual situation, it is obvious that the three marquises of Liaodong Town, Ningxia Town, and Gansu Town, as the chief military officers of a town, have not left.

The rest is worth exploring.

Beijing Town and Xuanfu Town are both under the jurisdiction of the Northern Zhili Province and are two key areas for Beijing camp garrison. Needless to say, Beijing, Xuanfu is an important advance base for the expedition to Mobei. The civil fortress is here in Xuanfu. There is no problem in setting up a town.

Yulin Town is actually the Hetao plus northern Shaanxi. This area is very vast. In the past six towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was the area where military towns such as Woye, Huaishuo, and Wuchuan were garrisoned. Gao Huan, Yuwentai, He Bayue, and Li Hu , Yang Zhong, Zhao Gui, Hou Mo and Chen Chong. All the heroes who influenced the Eastern and Western Wei and even the later Northern Zhou, Northern Qi and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties came from this land.

Therefore, it is very necessary to establish Yulin Town in this vast and sparsely populated land to maintain the entire northern defense line.

Not to mention Datong Town. Daibei, from the Qin Dynasty to the present, has been the outpost against the northern grasslands. Once Daibei is occupied by the nomads on the grasslands, Hedong (Shanxi) has no danger to defend, and it is easy to It will fall, and Hedong, a closed terrain that can be the basis of kings and hegemons, and even the territory designated by the emperor during the Five Dynasties, is occupied by nomadic people. From a condescending position, you can go out of Taihang to the east and occupy the two rivers (Hebei + Hedong), and cross the Yellow River to the west. In the main level, this is basically how Wu Huan Hua came about.

So the most interesting ones are actually Shanxi Town and Shaanxi Town, which are in the second tier.

To the north of Shanxi Town is Datong Town, and to the north of Shaanxi Town are Yulin Town and Ningxia Town. Why are these two military towns established?

Translation Translation, what are Shanxi Town and Shaanxi Town?

——It’s clear that we want to cut down the feudal clan!

Moreover, the two vassals of Qin and Jin were to be cut off. All their actual control areas and elite armies were to be cut off, and they were turned into military towns directly under the imperial court, and became the second-line reserve force within the entire nine-sided system.

Everyone guessed that if nothing unexpected happened, something would happen to King Qin and King Jin in a few months.

The representative of the Daning Department, Sienhou Fangkuan asked again: "What about the shifts in the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp? How many guards are there in the thirty-six guards? If there are shifts, it will be a whole guard shift. To Beizhili, or some other system?”

Qiu Fu explained: "Of the thirty-six guards, the pure cavalry 3,000 battalion has four guards, and the pure firearms Shenji battalion has two guards. In both battalions, only one guard is on duty. Instead of arranging sanitation shifts from other places, elite cavalry and firearms hands are selected for shifts. The main purpose is training because local sanitation stations often have poor training results due to the small number and poor quality of horses and firearms, and they are afraid of damage. , which also resulted in less training, making it difficult to train soldiers. The Beijing camp provided unified equipment, which can effectively improve the level of these cavalry and firearms operators. When they finish their shifts and return to their original guard posts, these experienced soldiers can As a master, I help my apprentices to improve their overall combat capabilities."

"As for the fifth military camp with a staff of 30 guards, one guard will be drawn from each of the remaining seven towns in Jiubianli (except Beijing Town and Xuanfu Town), and one guard will be drawn from each of the three capitals of Henan, Shandong, and Daning. A total of ten guards are on duty in shifts.”

Fang Kuan nodded and said: "In other words, both the Three Thousand Battalion and the Shenji Battalion only have one guard shift and are not transferred according to the guard. The Fifth Military Camp has ten guards in shifts, who are drawn from different towns and capitals."

"exactly."

Fang Kuan said again: "There is another question."

Qiu Fu nodded and said, "Let's talk."

"If a Jiubian Military Town is established, what will happen to the original Dusi?"

This is obviously a problem. Ningxia, Gansu, and Liaodong are basically military households and have only one military town. It doesn’t matter. Dusi and military towns have one team and two brands. But for example, Shaanxi Town and Shanxi Town , all have serious Dusi, and once the Jiubian Military Town is established, then the Shaanxi Dusi will have jurisdiction over Yulin Town and Shaanxi Town, and the Shanxi Dusi will have jurisdiction over Shanxi Town and Datong Town. Basically, the Dusi will have nothing to manage. It is equivalent to being directly abolished.

Qiu Fu simply said: "The Xingdu Division of each region is always the superior of the military town. The chief military officer of Shanxi Town is appointed by the Shanxi Dusi Chief, who has jurisdiction over all the original affairs except Datong Town. The same is true for Shaanxi Town. The other military towns are not involved. .”

In the organizational structure of the early Ming Dynasty, the Dusi, also known as the Dusi Commandery Division, was responsible for managing the internal defense stations within its jurisdiction and various military-related affairs. It was the highest local military leadership agency in peacetime. Each Dusi was affiliated to the five central armies. Governor's Mansion, and in theory obeys the orders of the Ministry of War.

Well, in theory, it means obeying orders. In fact, the Ministry of War is just a rubber stamp. It’s just that important orders need to be followed by the Ministry of War.

In terms of specific divisions and affiliations, there are three types of Dusi, including military and political Dusi, normal Dusi, and Xingdusi.

There are three military and political capitals: Liaodong Dusi, Liaozhongwei, Daningdusi, Daningwei, and Wandusi, Xuanfuwei. Among them, Liaodong Dusi and Daning Dusi remain unchanged, and Wandusi directly becomes Xuanfuwei. Fuzhen.

The Xingdu Division was established in the five administrative offices of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Huguang, Fujian, and Sichuan to strengthen control.

Apart from these two, the rest are all normal.

In the Ming Dynasty, there were a total of 21 Dusi and Xingdusi, which were placed under the jurisdiction of five Dudufus.

The Zuojun Dusi Mansion governs the Zhejiang Dusi, Liaodong Dusi, and Shandong Dusi; the Right Army Dudufu governs the Shaanxi Dusi, Shaanxi Xingdusi, Sichuan Dusi, Sichuan Xingdusi, Guangxi Dusi, Yunnan Dusi, and Guizhou Dusi; the former Army Dudufu governs the Huguang Dusi, Huguang Xingdusi, Fujian Dusi, Fujian Xingdusi, Jiangxi Dusi, and Guangdong Dusi; the Houjun Dusi governs Daningdusi, Wandusi, Shanxi Dusi, and Shanxi Xingdusi; while the Chinese Army Dudufu governs only Henan Dusi.

In the first year of Yongle, some adjustments were made, and the governor's office of the left-behind rear army in Beijing was added, and Wandusi (Xuanfu), which was originally under the jurisdiction of the rear army governor's office, was included in it, and then the entire Beizhili was included below, and the Beijing camp was established , as well as the entire Beijing town, must also be under its control.

"After the military reform, nine sides were established in the local areas and the capital camp was established in the capital. In principle, the original command system will not undergo major changes, only partial adjustments will be made."

Qiu Fu finally elaborated: "In other words, there are six governor's offices in total, including the five army governor's office and the remaining army governor's office, which are responsible for managing all 21 governors and Xingdu divisions in the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the nine The relevant military towns involved in the border, small ones such as Xuanfu Town, have the signs of the Wandu Division at the same time, large ones such as Liaodong Town, Ningxia Town, and Gansu Town have the corresponding Dusi signs at the same time, while Shanxi Town, Shaanxi Town , it will still be managed by Shanxi Dusi and Shaanxi Dusi."

By saying this, we basically understand that the Nine Borders actually separated some of the Dusi and prepared a continuous northern defense line. The original command structure of "Dudufu-Dusi/Xingdusi" remains unchanged. of.

Of course, if we look at the system design alone, the creation of nine separate military towns will definitely damage the original capital system. Therefore, the transfer of guards from nine sides to the Beijing camp in shifts is equivalent to a patch to avoid Local military towns were out of control and had the effect of strengthening the cadres but not weakening the branches. In fact, it was an improved version of the Song Dynasty's forbidden army system.

Compared with the old Hongwu Dynasty system of "camping out in wartime and dispersing in peacetime", the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp are standing armies and can also play a role in centralized training. The advantages of this new system are definitely much greater than the disadvantages. .

Seeing that the generals had no new questions, Zhu Neng took over and said, "Is there any problem? If there is no problem, let me finally explain and discuss the responsibilities and organizational structure of the three major battalions of the Beijing Camp."

"The Beijing camp is under the direct command of His Majesty. Each of the three major battalions has a chief seal officer. The rank is the same as the chief seal officer of each town in Jiubian. On weekdays, it is under the jurisdiction of the military governor's office."

"The Three Thousand Battalion is a pure cavalry unit, with elites selected. It is a collection of the original 'Three Thousand Small Tatar Battalions' and the 'Sentry Horse Battalion'. One guard is an elite light cavalry unit responsible for reconnaissance and scouting, and one guard is an elite heavy cavalry unit responsible for charging into the formation. Destroy the front, and the other two guards will be in charge of guarding as His Majesty's direct troops."

"The Shenji Battalion is a firearms unit. The two guards are a firecrackers battalion and an artillery battalion. They are responsible for providing fire support on the battlefield. The artillery battalion is directly commanded and used by His Majesty on the battlefield. The firecrackers battalion will be dispersed to assist the five troops depending on the situation. Fight in a military camp or as a single battalion."

"The fifth military camp is an infantry unit, and is also equipped with some cavalry. The twenty guards are a quota unit, and the ten guards are a shift unit. In the quota unit, the additional vanguard of the government army is under the control of the young army."

Hearing the words "Fu Jun Vanguard", Jiangyin Marquis Wu Gao shuddered and glanced at Fengxiang Marquis Li Jie beside him, with the same expression of lingering fear.

The Hongwu Dynasty had the Twelve Guards, which were the direct bodyguards of the emperor. They evolved from the Gongwei Division set up by Lao Zhu during the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In the second year of Hongwu, the Gongwei Division was designated as the Qinjun Duwei Mansion, commanding five guards. Later, It was expanded to twelve guards, namely Jinyi Guard, Banner Guard, Kingo Vanguard, Kingo Guard, Habayashi Left Guard, Habayashi Right Guard, Fujun Guard, Fujun Left Guard, Fujun Right Guard, Fujun Vanguard, Fujun Guard , Huben left guard.

The avant-garde of the government army is one of the twelve guards. The reason why the avant-garde of the government army is so fearful to these second-generation marquises, the founders of Hongwu, is because the soldiers of the avant-garde army of the government army have a long-standing relationship with Lan Yu and are direct descendants of Lan Yu. Therefore, the army was massacred in the Blue Party case, and was completely killed by Lao Zhu, and has been abandoned since then.

Of course Zhu Di saw the expressions of these people. The Blue Jade Case was extremely frightening to all the noble military officials. This was exactly the effect Zhu Di wanted.

So Zhu Di, who had been silent the whole time, said at this time: "The young army is what I have always wanted to do. Good soldiers must be cultivated from an early age, so I took this opportunity to re-establish the avant-garde of the Fu army, with a young officer in the guard." There are two battalions, Sheren Camp and Yin Zhong Xiaoyi Camp. The soldiers are selected from young people who join the military, with priority given to the children of military officials with military exploits. They are not attached to the original guard but to the front guard of the government army."

This is what it means to train the next generation of Imperial Guards, and it also means something like a "proton camp". Needless to say, the children of the chief military officers in Jiubian Army Town must be included in it, otherwise the emperor Don't worry, right?

Seeing all the generals looking at him eagerly, Zhu Di certainly knew what this meant.

In fact, the most important thing is not how the system changes, but who is sitting in these positions.

So Zhu Di simply asked Zhu Neng to announce the list.

"Among the three major camps in Beijing, the commander-in-chief of the Shenji Camp is Anyuan Bo Liu Sheng (who was just knighted for his military exploits in Annan), the commander-in-chief of the Three Thousand Battalion is Tong'an Hou Huoli Huozhen, and the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Military Camp is Chengyang Hou Zhangwu."

These three appointments are not very controversial. Only Liu Sheng in the firearms unit has actual combat command experience, while Tong'an Hou Huolihuozhen is a Tartar official. During the Hongwu period, he led the tribe to submit to the Ming Dynasty. He was appointed by Zhu Di to guard Qianhu in Yanshan, and Qiu Fu At the same level, he followed Zhu Di in the battle of Jingnan. He was brave and fearless on the battlefield and made a lot of achievements. When he attacked Zhending, he led the Tartar cavalry to break into Geng Bingwen's camp and won a great victory. He also participated in the battles such as the attack on Daning and the battle on Zhengcunba.

As for Chengyang Hou Zhangwu, he was Zhu Di's personal guard. He was extremely powerful and didn't like studying. During the Jingnan period, he led the dead soldiers on several fatal missions. He was a captain of the death squad who was full of luck and courage. After Zhu Di came to the throne, he discussed his merits. He was granted the title of Marquis of Chengyang, with a salary of one thousand and five hundred shi. He was ranked below Zhu Neng and ranked first among the marquises. The five military camps had too many troops. Zhu Di must have commanded and deployed them on the battlefield. He had enough military positions and was able to serve at the same time. Zhong, he couldn’t be a better candidate.

"In the Nine Borders, the chief military officer of Ningxia Town is Ningyuan Hou Hefu, the chief military officer of Gansu Town is Xininghou Song Sheng, and the chief military officer of Liaodong Town is Baoding Hou Mengshan."

These three are to remain in office and there is no controversy.

"Beijing Town Chief Military Officer Taining Hou Chen Gui, Xuanfu Town Chief Military Officer Cheng'an Hou Guoliang, Datong Town Chief Military Officer Licheng Hou Shengyong, Yulin Town Chief Military Officer Wu'anhou Zhengheng, Shanxi Town Chief Military Officer Jing'an Hou Wang Zhong, Shaanxi Town Chief Military Officer Military officer Yongkang Hou Xuzhong."

From this point of view, the Marquis of Qing Yishui, the commander-in-chief of Jiubian, basically inherited the high matching standards of the Eight Great Sai Kings system.

But as a result, the counts who were standing outside and listening looked happy.

There is no other reason. When the marquis go out to control the nine sides and control the military power, it means that there will definitely be some vacancies in the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, which gives them room for promotion.

"The rest of the guards are ordered to stay still."

"Are there still problems? If there are, let's discuss it again. After the discussion, the restructuring will be officially carried out."

Since Zhu Di had spoken, there were naturally not many problems. Someone boldly mentioned something more. After a few modifications, the entire military reform plan was passed at the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.