Rise From the Humble

Zhang Jing once again rejected Zhu Pingan's request on the grounds that the yamen had a deficit and no money left to withdraw.

The Yingtian Military Department has a serious deficit and no treasury money? !

no!

After Zhang Jing was appointed Minister of the Ministry of War in Yingtian, he paid great attention to the Japanese invasion and actively raised grain, grass and silver, recruited brave men, and prepared to resist and exterminate the Japanese pirates. Before Zhu Ping'an came here, he specifically learned that the Yamen of the Ministry of War had 27,000 taels of silver in the treasury. After Zhang Jing took office, he loaned 20,000 taels of silver from the grassland of the Ministry of War, 10,000 taels of grain and grass silver from Yingtian Hubu, and borrowed 50,000 taels of silver from Lianghuai salt. 2. Suzhou Prefecture fined more than 50,000 taels of silver for shipping materials and Houhu stolen goods. Adding up all these, the treasury of the Ministry of War Yamen had about 200,000 taels of silver. He only withdraws five thousand taels of silver, how could he not have it!

If you do, but you don’t pay for yourself, then there is a problem.

Zhu Ping'an squinted his eyes slightly and carefully observed Zhang Jing without any trace, but found nothing. Also, Zhang Jing is not a person to be taken lightly. He is both talented in literature, Tao and military, so how can he be able to detect clues by himself?

"Sir Zhang, the Japanese invasion is getting more and more serious now, and the people are suffering from it. Ping An urgently needs this payment of money to organize the army, lead the militia, and do its part to resist the Japanese pirates." Zhu Pingan handed over his hand again, speaking sincerely. said.

"I don't know that the Japanese invasion is serious." Zhang Jing replied, "It is precisely because the Japanese invasion is serious that our department spends a lot of money on dispatching troops and recruiting brave men. Therefore, our department has a serious deficit and has no money left to pay Master Zhu." ”

Hearing this, Zhu Ping'an finally understood that it was not that the Ministry of War had no money in the treasury. Zhang Jing wanted to use the money to mobilize troops and generals and recruit brave men. Thinking back to the questions Zhang Jing just asked himself, he probably felt that he was still young and had no experience in commanding troops. The people he planned to command were the militia. How could the militia compare to the officers and soldiers of the guard station and the brave new army? Therefore, he felt that he was like this. The border is unreliable and not worth the five thousand dollars; in his opinion, the role he can play by dispatching troops and recruiting brave men is far more effective than leading the militia himself. In this period of increasingly serious Japanese invasion, many.

Balance between the two phases.

Zhang Jing made the choice without hesitation, withholding his salary and using it instead to deploy troops and generals and recruit brave men.

"Sir Zhang, today's guards officers and soldiers are no longer what they used to be. The guard fields have been repeatedly occupied. According to the official's investigation and statistics, the actual control of each guard field is less than 30% of the original. The economic capacity has been greatly reduced, resulting in the worse configuration of the guards. Deductions of food and salary arrears have become the norm; the soldiers in the guards have become slaves of the powerful nobles and cannot bear the abuse, and there are countless deserters. The official has made statistics on the situation of the guards in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The average number of officers and soldiers in each guard has dropped from the original 5,000 to 1,000. Seven hundred people, this number is still watery, and a large proportion of the guardsmen left behind are old, weak, sick and disabled, and have little combat effectiveness. Such guardsmen can be mobilized and dispatched. How big of a role does it play?!”

Zhu Pingan said with his hands raised.

Zhang Jing did not answer, nor did he stop Zhu Pingan from speaking. He just looked at Zhu Pingan with burning eyes.

Seeing this, Zhu Ping'an continued, "As for the brave new army, it is indeed more effective than the officers and soldiers of the guard station. However, the new army is a regular soldier formation, and its cost is far more than that of the militia. Calculated based on the eighteen taels of military pay for each soldier, five thousand taels The silver for the brave new army is only enough to pay the military salary of 277 people for a year, but these five thousand taels of silver are enough for Jiangsu and Zhejiang to have an additional force to resist Japanese aggression - the militia in addition to the garrison and the new army."

"If the guard post cannot be used, the militia can only be used?! Spending five thousand taels of silver and adding an unusable militia will do the people of the country what good?" Zhang Jing looked at Zhu Ping'an with burning eyes and said slowly.

"Sir, the militia is the new army. The militia is useless. The key is to temper it." Zhu Pingan replied.

"Master Zhu also said that the key to the militia is to temper it. Master Zhu is still young and has no experience in commanding troops. How can he temper a militia that is usable?!" Zhang Jing looked at Zhu Ping'an with a burning gaze and said unceremoniously.

"Sir Zhang, although I am not a weak official and I have no experience in commanding troops, I have experience in leading the people. Three months ago, I was appointed magistrate of Jingnan County. The leader of the Japanese pirates, Honda Heihachi, led more than 3,000 Japanese pirates to besiege Jingnan County. At that time, there were less than 100 soldiers in the county seat. Xiaguan organized two thousand young men to help defend the city. They fought fiercely with the Japanese pirates for a day and night, and defended the county seat. They captured 795 Japanese pirate heads. The next day, Xiaguan organized a civilian pursuit. The Japanese pirates who fled Taiping County killed thirty-one Japanese pirates and restored the Taiping County town that had been captured by the Japanese pirates. At the beginning of the month, more than 6,000 Japanese pirates from the Ye Zongman tribe under Wang Zhi sent to attack Jingnan at night. The traces of the Japanese pirates were discovered in advance at the coastal outposts, and Xia Guan The people were organized to prepare for the attack, but the Japanese pirates were afraid and changed their routes."

Zhu Ping'an looked at Zhang Jing with his eyes, and spoke about his experience in organizing Minzhuang in Jingnan.

"I have also heard people talk about your experience. Whether it is watertight or not, I will not talk about it for now. Defending a city is completely different from training and commanding troops."

Zhang Jing shook his head slightly, but did not change his decision because Zhu Pingan cited the achievements he had made under his command of Minzhuang.

In Zhang Jing's view, Zhu Ping'an's achievements at that time were definitely there, but there was also some moisture. Moreover, training and commanding troops is completely different from defending a city. There is a big difference between the two. Defending a city may not necessarily lead to training and commanding troops well.

"Sir." Zhu Pingan spoke again.

Zhang Jing interrupted Zhu Ping'an, "What does Mr. Zhu think is the key to training usable soldiers?"

"The lower official believes that the key to military command and training lies in strict military discipline, clear rewards and punishments, strict training, and ideological education."

Zhu Ping'an cupped his hands and replied.

"Strict military discipline, clear rewards and punishments, strict training, and ideological education." Zhang Jing couldn't help but repeat it in a low voice when he heard the words. His eyes lit up and he looked at Zhu Pingan again, but his eyes were different from the first time.

Zhang Wentao is well-equipped with military skills and Zhu Pingan's answer depends on his own judgment. When I asked this question, I didn't expect to find that Zhu Ping'an was actually a good soldier.

"The military has strict discipline, clear rewards and punishments, and strict training. I know these three points. What is the ideological education you are talking about?!"

Zhang Jing asked with great interest, and his tone became a little more kind than the initial "don't disturb strangers" and "keep people away" thousands of miles away.

"Back to your lord. This is the experience Xiaguan gained from organizing Minzhuang to defend the city. At the beginning, Minzhuang was afraid of the Japanese pirates outside the city and wanted to flee. Xianguan thought, 'Behind us are our parents, wives and children, and we have nothing left to do.' With mobilization and encouragement such as "Lu Ke retreats", "Down with the Japanese pirates and protect parents, wives and children", the people's spirits were suddenly high. They were no longer afraid of the Japanese pirates, no longer afraid of bloodshed and sacrifice, and had the courage to defend the city. So, the official understood. , to make the people fearless, we must let the people have faith! Let the people know who they are fighting for! Why they are fighting! The lower officials think that the same goes for training and commanding troops. We must let the soldiers have faith and let them know who they are fighting for. , Why fight, to improve the ideological consciousness and spirit of the officers and soldiers, a soldier with faith and discipline will not become a ragtag group of soldiers!"