"Let's all sit down. No need to be formal. Just be casual. Look at those little commanders. Their sitting postures are much more relaxed than those of you commanders and adults from thousands of families."

After the senior Nanjing officials left, Zhu Youdong began to speak to the eighty people.

"Today, the Henghai Guard has been declared restored. However, how well it will be restored, and whether it can become a guard soldier worth relying on for our Ming Dynasty, all of you still have to work hard."

"We are willing to serve your Highness to the death."

"Hahaha, I would like to thank you all for being here." After clearing his throat, Zhu Youdong called the commander's name: "Madusi, you have been at the border of Datong for a long time. Please tell me, if my guards in the south of the Ming Dynasty go to

When we go north and encounter the Mongols, what will happen?"

Ma Chengzhao, the new commander of the Henghai Guard, who was short and stocky and had a long scar on his forehead, which made him look very fierce, stood up: "Your Highness, I will never say that I am vain.

Nonsense. During the Longqing period, Duke Gao Wenxiang organized a military exercise for the Northern and Southern armies. Among the Southern armies, there were only Sichuan soldiers, and the Guangxi soldiers could be considered decent. The rest were vulnerable to our Datong soldiers.

"

"Very good. I really like your straightforward character. Everyone here should listen carefully. From now on, if you have anything to say, just say it directly. The most annoying thing in the army is those who are twisting and turning."

"I'll wait for the order."

"Yes." Zhu Youdong nodded slightly and said again: "The memorial for the restoration of Henghaiwei was drafted alone. Since the emperor approved this memorial and handed over the matter to the Nanjing Ministry of War, he actually handed it over to the Ministry of War.

Gu will do it! And Gu’s goal is to build Henghaiwei into the most powerful army of our Ming Dynasty! Do you have confidence?"

"Yes!" In the huge venue, only twenty-four seventeen-year-old boys stood up and responded loudly, while the other fifty-six people had different expressions.

"Haha." He pressed down gently with his left hand and asked all the young people in Fangshan to sit down. Zhu Youdong said: "It seems that you don't have much confidence now. It doesn't matter. When you really start doing things later, you will know that what you say is not true."

It’s empty. Next, before you officially take office, I will set a few rules for you."

"Your Highness, please give me your instructions."

"First, regarding the salary of Henghaiwei. According to the Ministry of War, in the first two years, Grandpa Huang's inner treasury will be responsible for the salary of Henghaiwei. Well, actually Gu Lai is responsible for this. Gu has set the rules here,

The commander has an annual salary of three thousand taels."

"Hiss~~" As soon as these words came out, fifty-six of the eighty people below took in their breaths, forming a small air vortex.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the guard system was implemented. The state allocated land to the army and allowed army soldiers to farm. The state took part of the output and the rest belonged to the army. The standard was initially 5 acres of land for each military household.

18 shi were handed over to the state every year. Later, it was discovered that there was not so much land to allocate to soldiers, so starting from 1425 (the first year of Hongxi, Renzong of the Ming Dynasty), it was stipulated that each military household had 20 acres of land and 6 shi was handed over to the state every year. This regulation

It lasted until the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Naturally, the guardsmen did not receive military pay.

However, there were big problems with the guard system in the Ming Dynasty. The first was the low social status of soldiers.

For example, although the government soldiers in the Tang Dynasty were also field soldiers, the entire society in the Tang Dynasty favored martial arts. Being a soldier was a very honorable thing, and it was not something you could just do if you wanted to. Among the nine levels of society divided according to family wealth,

Only the top six rich people are eligible to serve as soldiers. And even if you are qualified to serve as soldiers, the army will still consider whether you have a clean family background, age, body shape and martial arts skills before considering whether to recruit you. After becoming a soldier, the Tang Dynasty

The government soldiers can directly inherit the land assigned by the country to your parents and do not need to pay taxes. Only one person from each generation can serve as a soldier. Even if you commit a crime in the local area, the local government cannot control you - the affairs of the government soldiers.

It is under the control of the Ministry of War, and it is a tradition for the army to protect calves in all dynasties! All these factors gave the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty a high social status, good economic interests, and a strong sense of honor. Naturally, they had such combat effectiveness.

Assure.

(The Tang Dynasty's military system was destroyed because the royal kings, eunuchs, and senior bureaucrats of the Tang Dynasty were greedy. After swallowing the land of the people, they also wanted to swallow the land of the military)

What about the guardsmen in the Ming Dynasty? They had to fight and pay taxes to the country, and the Ming Dynasty also advocated the use of civility to suppress military force. Officials at all levels could call the guardsmen around as servants from the middle of the Ming Dynasty onwards.

The local government at the local level not only has the right to directly arrest the guardsmen, but also punishes the bastards in the society by "expelling them into the army". How can this army have no social status, no economic favor, and no sense of honor at all?

Combat strength? If he has some connections, who wouldn't want to escape from his identity as a guard soldier?

Starting from the Hongwu Dynasty, there were signs of military households fleeing. By the Xuande period, this was already a social phenomenon. Zhu Youdong inspected military households in Nanjing last year and found that the actual military households were only a little more than 10% of the theoretical number.

Okay. The most typical example is the Nanchang Left Guard in Jiangxi Province, which had a full quota of 4,735 soldiers. In 1502 (the 15th year of Emperor Xiaozong's reign in the Ming Dynasty, the year the Portuguese first arrived in South America), there were only 141 soldiers. That is to say, only 141 soldiers were deployed.

Three percent remains.

The morale of the guardsmen was low, and their desertion rate was so high. It was basically impossible to count on an invasion from a foreign enemy. Therefore, starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the government had to adopt a recruitment system to deal with the guardhouse system.

The problem of declining national defense strength caused by corruption. As for recruiting soldiers, the state needs to pay military salaries.

Take Qi Jiguang as an example. This god of war resisted Japanese pirates during the Jiajing period. At the beginning, he led the guardsmen to the battlefield and was almost killed by these guys. So he recruited troops in Zhejiang with the support of Hu Zongxian and others. At that time, Zhejiang was greatly harmed by Japanese pirates.

Unfortunately, the people in Zhejiang had a strong desire to join the army to fight against Japanese pirates. Therefore, when recruiting soldiers at that time, Qi Jiguang did not need to pay settlement fees. After the soldiers entered the camp, their monthly salary was 9 coins.

When Qi Jiguang later became the commander-in-chief of Jizhen and brought the Zhejiang soldiers to Hebei, the military salary increased to one or two and five yuan per month (at least three shi of rice a month could be bought, and thirty-six shi a year. This income was higher than ordinary

Sharecroppers were much better off, which is why some people were willing to enlist as soldiers).

And if you want to drag the Zhejiang soldiers to such a far place at this time, in addition to high salaries, you also have to pay resettlement allowances - after all, this journey may be a farewell to thousands of mountains and rivers. So starting from the middle of the Ming Dynasty,

Recruiting soldiers requires a settling-in fee. The standard is basically that if the recruiting place is close to the place of service, the settling-in fee is three taels, and if it is far away, the settling-in fee is five taels.

There is no doubt that the combat effectiveness of the recruited soldiers is far better than that of the guards, so the problem of weak national defense has been alleviated. But this brings a new problem: the financial system of the Ming Dynasty was set by Lao Zhu, and there was no plan at that time.

There is no military salary expenditure! On the contrary, the court has to take things from the military households! And now, not only can the court not take things from the recruited soldiers, it has to repay them every year!

In this way, coupled with the fact that the fiscal system of the Ming Dynasty was a piece of shit (more than a dozen departments collected taxes independently, and the collected money was not owned by each other), there was no ability to reform itself with the development of the times. Therefore, the military recruitment system

The higher the proportion, the greater the pressure on national finances. In the end, payment arrears became a new social phenomenon.

According to Zhang Shouzhi, the Minister of Household Affairs during the Longqing period: the country's annual income is 2.3 million taels of silver, and the military pay for the important Jiubian town is 2.8 million taels a year. In debt? That is necessary.

What should I do if I owe the pay? The Qiu Ba people are all fighting against the Han people, and they are very angry. The country does not pay the military pay. Do you believe that I will stage a mutiny? Kill the officers first and then talk about it?

The officers are also in a dilemma: Externally, the country does not pay military personnel, and the soldiers are unwilling to fight hard. What should we do if foreign enemies invade? Internally, what should we do if the soldiers rebel?

So the servant system came into being.

The money distributed by the country every year is not enough, right? The land of the guard station has been annexed by the local government, and the output is insufficient, right? It doesn't matter, there is always a little bit of it, right? I will use this limited fund to fight with the most capable people in the army.

Equip dozens or hundreds of people and make them my servants. During the war, these servants are the backbone. In peacetime, they are the ones who suppress ordinary soldiers and military households! This servant is so easy to use, so in the Ming Dynasty,

In the middle and late period of the dynasty, when the generals changed their posts, these servants also had to change their military status and follow the generals to take up their posts in new places!

The income of servants is usually three taels to five taels per month, and the clothes, weapons and other equipment are also chosen by the general. When there are rewards, take them first. If you are injured, you have to send someone to take care of them. If you die, you will be given compensation in a timely manner.

As a result, the soldiers in various border towns are really proud to be the general's servants!

The formation of generals is the first sign of the emergence of warlords. The civil servants of the Ming Dynasty who are familiar with history books can certainly see this. But what can be done? If you have the ability, you gentlemen can pay enough for the army!

During the Wanli period, the emperor was shameless and worked hard to make money in various ways to replenish the internal treasury. Then, the salary of the military commanders who mainly relied on the recruitment system was so bad that the internal treasury provided money to subsidize it. In this way, the ranks of the generals' servants could not be expanded enough.

It's so awesome. When the Chongzhen Dynasty in the historical plane, Zhu Youjian listened to the suggestions of the gentlemen of Xindonglin, he no longer thought of ways to make money from commercial taxes and mining taxes, and relied entirely on land taxes to maintain the operation of the country...

...Okay, the order of things is: First, in the first few years of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the court had no money to give to the border army, and the family members of the border army generals began to slowly expand. Second, after Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong without any intention, Emperor Chongzhen actually did not deal with it.

Yuan Chonghuan, as a result, made the military generals completely alienated from the royal family and slowly transformed into warlords. Thirdly, the warlords began to unscrupulously ask for money from the Chongzhen Lion, and would not do anything without money or even surrender to the enemy, forcing Emperor Chongzhen to continue

Additional taxes were imposed on the common people, and the warlords used these people's sacrifices to expand their own servants to thousands or even tens of thousands!

During the Tianqi period in the historical plane, the imperial court's annual income was about 3.3 million taels of silver, and its expenditures ranged from four to five million taels. The royal family subsidized about one to two million taels from the internal treasury every year, and it took Wanli decades to accumulate it.

The funds gradually began to bottom out. In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Wei Zhongxian suppressed the Donglin Party and ransacked the homes of officials at all levels. Their dirty punishments were not transferred to the Ministry of Punishment but directly to the Ministry of Household Affairs. As a result, the national income skyrocketed in that year.

to nearly 8 million taels, and then the royal family subsidized another 2 million taels, bringing the total military expenditure for the whole year to nearly 10 million taels. Only then did all the military towns’ annual pay arrears be filled in one go.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the state collected various taxes of 23 million taels, including about 20 million taels of land tax. The expenditure was also 23 million taels... The land tax dared to collect 20 million taels. It is really unreasonable for the people not to rebel...

In short, the monthly salary for recruiting soldiers in this era is about 1.5 taels, but it has been unable to be paid on time for a long time. Officers' salaries vary according to their levels. At the level of the military and town commander, you can get only a few dozen taels per year.

That's almost it. The number will not exceed one hundred taels per day. As for the guardsmen? They have never had military pay, okay?
Chapter completed!