"Your Majesty, my Emperor Ming Dynasty has a total of twenty-six guards. During the Hongwu period, there were 12 guards, 10 guards were added during the Yongle period, and 4 guards were added during the Xuande period." Li Jinzhong calculated the emperor in detail that Zhu Youxiao asked him to investigate the situation of the military, but he still made sufficient preparations.

"So many garrisons?" Zhu Youxiao was a little shocked and then asked, "How many people can fight?"

"Your Majesty, there are probably only the four guards of Tengxiang who can fight." Li Jinzhong replied, and Zhu Youxiao asked again: "How many people are there?"

"There are a total of 6,000 people, and they are governed by the Imperial Horse Supervisor." Li Jinzhong replied.

"Then I'll go to inspect the four guards of Tengxiang today." Zhu Youxiao decided, and Li Jinzhong said: "I'll let me inform you first."

"Yes!" Zhu Youxiao nodded.

The Supervisor immediately went to the Imperial Horse Supervisor to report that the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Horse Supervisor was Zhang Yan, a young eunuch who had just been promoted by Zhu Youxiao, who was only sixteen years old.

When Zhang Yan learned that the emperor was going to inspect the four guards of Tengxiang, he immediately went to summon the four guards and waited for the emperor to review in the schoolyard in the imperial city. The flag bearer guard also dispatched some bulls and drums to arrange the bulls and drums on the spot.

At 9:00 am in the morning, the emperor left the Forbidden City and headed towards the inner teaching ground behind the Jiale Hall at the northwest corner of the imperial city. When he arrived at the inner teaching ground, the drums suddenly sounded and the flags flew, welcoming the emperor's arrival.

Dongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdong...

The sound of drums came into his ears, making Zhu Youxiao feel excited. After the imperial carriage stopped, the sound of drums also stopped.

"Slave Zhang Yan, welcome the emperor. Long live the emperor, long live, long live, long live." Zhang Yan, the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse, knelt down and shouted. The soldiers also knelt on the ground, and then shouted: "Long live, long live, long live, long live, long live."

"The soldiers are flat." Zhu Youxiao had no feeling about this kind of bowing etiquette, and this was a formality. The Donglin Party members were also like this when they were in the morning court.

If you kneel down, they may not be really loyal to the court and the emperor. If you want to gather people's hearts, you should not simply let others kneel down and worship.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Everyone was flat, and Zhu Youxiao immediately reviewed the four guards on Tengxiang and Wuxiang. With the sound of drums and flags, the imperial guards of Tengxiang's four guards were wearing mighty armor and walked past Zhu Youxiao. Then they began to practice the formation and changed the formation several times.

Zhu Youxiao looked carefully on the stage and found that the four guards of Tengxiang looked good, with distinctive armor and flags, and the soldiers were relatively burly and strong. However, the queue was not so neat, and they were dragging on when changing the formation.

Although Zhu Youxiao was not very familiar with the ancient cold weapon war, he was still disappointed when he saw this performance. Obviously, the four guards of Tengxiang were not considered elite soldiers.

Seeing the emperor's face of disappointment, Zhang Yan said, "Emperor, the soldiers of the Tengxiang Guards have good armor, but they are a little neglected to practice over the years."

"Yes!" Zhu Youxiao nodded. This may be the only good news. As the imperial guards, the soldiers' quality and equipment are not bad.

After the inspection, Zhu Youxiao announced that he would give each soldier a reward of one or two taels of silver, and then returned to the palace. Zhu Youxiao wanted to rectify the four guards of Tengxiang, but he didn't know how to start.

As a modern person, there are still military experiences. However, although Zhu Youxiao's military knowledge is advanced, the army is a complex system. Zhu Youxiao does not know much about the aspects of logistics to combat, etc. At this time, he did not know how to train them so that these imperial guards can become invincible elite soldiers.

After returning to the palace, Zhu Youxiao immediately summoned Sun Chengzong to the palace.

"Teacher, I want to rectify the imperial guards myself, but I don't know how to start, so I want to learn military affairs." Zhu Youchao said to Sun Chengzong, and Sun Chengzong said: "Your Majesty, as the emperor, you must know some military affairs. If you are willing to learn, I will tell you."

"Okay." Zhu Youxiao looked excited, and Sun Chengzong immediately began to tell the emperor about military common sense. Although Sun Chengzong was a civil servant, he was familiar with military strategy, especially Qi Jiguang's military works. In addition, when he was studying in his early years, he often went to border areas and liked to talk to veterans, which combined theory and practice, and was not a person who talked about military affairs on paper.

Sun Chengzong taught Zhu Youxiao for nearly a day in the palace that day. Zhu Youxiao left him in the palace for dinner, and then Sun Chengzong left the palace.

As night fell, Zhu Youxiao recalled the military common sense that Sun Chengzong told him, and had a clearer understanding of the war model of this era.

At this time, the Ming army used a large number of firearms. The usual tactics for dealing with nomadic peoples were to bombard the enemy with artillery first, thereby disrupting the enemy formation, and then use cavalry to charge. This tactic was used when Zhu Di, the Ming Dynasty, attacked Mongolia in the north.

Mine rope guns were also widely used in the Ming Dynasty and were called bird guns. However, because craftsmen have a difficult life, they often cut corners. Official firearms often exploded, and their quality was not as good as those of privately made by the people.

In this era, firearms may not be more reliable than bows and arrows. The effective range of a cowlinter gun is about 200 meters, and the lethality within 50 meters is extremely terrifying. Archers can also achieve such killing and can also shoot. However, the advantage of a cowlinter gun is that soldiers are relatively simple in training and do not require high physical fitness. Archers have relatively high requirements for physical fitness, and the training time is relatively long, and their physical strength is consumed during combat. Moreover, high-quality bows and arrows may not be much higher than those of a cowlinter gun, but there is a clear difference in the cost of arrows and bullets. The cost of arrows is much higher than that of lead bullets, and lead bullets are extremely simple to manufacture. As long as there is a furnace, lead water will drop by lead bullets.

And as long as there is enough gunpowder, the number of times the convex gun is fired is not limited by physical force.

The mezzanine is very suitable for the national conditions like the Ming Dynasty, which has a large population and lacks military training. It can rely on a huge population to quickly form troops to enter the battlefield. Even if the casualties are several times that of ethnic minorities, it can still use its huge population to kill the nomadic people.

The biggest threat to the Ming Dynasty in this era was not the nomadic people, but the wild boar skin in the northeast, which belonged to the hunting nation. The wild boar skin was known as the descendant of the Jurchens, but in fact they were Tungus people. Only the Tungus people in later generations would have braids. These Tungus people could not defeat other barbarians in Tungus, so they ran eastward. After coming to the Northeast, they absorbed some of the Ming culture and productivity, plus their original barbaric characteristics, and their troops were mainly cavalry and were very mobile, so they were very difficult to deal with.

The reason why these Tungus wild boar skins are known as the Jurchen tribe is mainly because they have too few populations, so they need to absorb the Jurchen tribes in the Northeast to form a gang of robbers with a larger population.

For the time being, Zhu Youxiao does not have an arsenal that can meet the quality standards in mass production, so the plan to form a musketman is not very reliable.

The purpose of rectifying the imperial guards was to protect their own safety and prevent the Donglin Party from launching a mutiny. Therefore, Zhu Youxiao thought about it over and over again and decided to transform the four guards of Tengxiang into cavalry units.

The elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were basically border troops. The border troops were unlikely to participate in mutiny. After all, they were too far away from the capital and were suppressed before they even arrived in the capital. The Ming Dynasty's system also destined that the border troops could not participate in the central mutiny.

In other words, even if the Donglin Party members launched a mutiny, most of them were the troops in the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. The peace of these military managers had been severely deteriorated for more than two hundred years, and they were completely fighting against the Five Slags. Once these warlords had mutiny, as long as Zhu Youxiao had an elite cavalry in his hands, they could quickly suppress the mutiny.

And first control the four guards of Tengxiang and then find a way to control the Beijing camp, and the imperial power will be stabilized.>
Chapter completed!