Chapter 2011: Recruiting Soldiers Again
“You guys go and have a rest. I will spend the night in the study today. Don’t worry, I won’t stay up too long.”
Zhu Ping’an coaxed Li Shu and others. Go back to rest, stay alone in the study, and read the reports from various places over and over again.
"Alas" Seeing so many civilian casualties, Zhu Pingan sighed deeply with guilt and self-blame.
As the governor of Zhejiang, tens of thousands of people in the territory were massacred by Japanese pirates. As a governor, I cannot absolve myself of the blame.
Even though he had just taken office less than a week ago.
Japanese pirates!
How to solve this biggest disaster in Zhejiang and even Jiangnan? !
The guard station is useless. Although Xiangyong is stronger than the guard station, it is not a regular army after all. It cannot guarantee food, wages, weapons and training. Facing the Japanese pirates, it is far from an opponent. It just struggles a few more times than the guard station. That’s all.
In fact, the imperial court also knew that the guard post was unavailable, otherwise why would it allow Zhang Jing to mobilize wolf soldiers from Guangxi all the way?
In Zhu Pingan's view, wolf soldiers are not a good strategy to wipe out Japanese pirates. In history, Japanese pirates were not wiped out by wolf soldiers.
To wipe out the Japanese pirates, we can only recruit troops and train a new army.
As for recruiting soldiers, food and salary are the first issues that need to be solved.
The guard system created by Emperor Hongwu did not cost much money from the court. The guards stationed their own fields and used them as military rations and wages. Most people farm, and a small number of people farm, which basically covers their food and salary. Pick up the hoe to grow food, put down the hoe to fight.
This is also what Emperor Hongwu is most proud of. I raise millions of soldiers without costing the people a grain of rice.
However, now the guardhouse has rotted away. Although you do not consume much money from the court, you are of little use.
Recruiting soldiers requires food and salary, and the food and salary must be allocated by the court.
However, the court is too poor now. The food and salary in Beizhen has made the court tighten its belt again and again. The food and salary needed to recruit soldiers here in Jiangnan will never be less than that in Beizhen. How can the court afford it? Can you afford it? !
If the imperial court bears the burden, it can only transfer the responsibility to the common people. How to transfer it? ! How simple, just increase taxes on the people.
Whatever the shortage is, we will increase taxes on the people. This year, we will add 3.5 cents per acre of land, and next year we will add 3.5 cents.
The more soldiers are recruited, the heavier the taxes on the people will be.
Finally, the people are taxed too heavily and cannot survive, so they can only make food.
This has become a paradox of the Ming Dynasty: there is a war, the defense is incompetent, soldiers are recruited, the people raise taxes, the people cannot survive, the people revolt, a war is needed again, and soldiers have to be recruited. , we have to increase taxes on the people, and the people can no longer survive, and the people are about to revolt again. It has become an endless cycle with no solution.
Once the Ming Dynasty enters this endless cycle, the Ming Dynasty will inevitably enter a nightmare of peasant uprising.
Then the Ming Dynasty is not far away from destruction.
Even, from a certain perspective, it can be said that the recruitment system was the first straw that broke the Ming Dynasty.
Historically, during the three major campaigns of Wanli, recruiting soldiers was already the main force of the Ming army, and food and salary expenditures accounted for half of the total annual taxes of the Ming Dynasty at that time.
With such a huge expenditure on food and salary, how much money does the imperial court have left to build weapons, pay salaries to officials, build rivers, provide relief to the people, and develop the economy? !
The peasant uprising alone has seriously injured the Ming Dynasty. When the powerful enemies in the black mountains and white waters charge towards the empire, the empire's demise becomes inevitable.
From this point of view, it is not without reason and basis to say that the recruitment system was the first straw that broke the Ming Dynasty.
However, the Japanese invasion in Jiangnan is so serious now that it is impossible not to recruit troops.
What should I do?
How to recruit soldiers without increasing the burden of food and salary on the court.
Zhu Pingan frowned and pondered for a long time, but he could not think of an answer that would best both worlds.
"What should we do?" Zhu Ping'an said to himself, and wrote the three words "guard station", "recruitment" and "food and salary" on the rice paper, looking at these words over and over again. Three words, I pondered.
Over and over
Over and over
Suddenly, a flash of light flashed through Zhu Pingan's mind. Zhu Pingan quickly took a pen and wrote it down on rice paper. "A line is drawn across the two words, connecting them.
Since the garrison is unfit and must recruit troops, why not reduce the number of military households in the garrison accordingly according to the number of soldiers recruited? Anyway, the garrison is now unusable and convert them from military households into ordinary people. , convert part of the farmland into ordinary farmland, let these military households be converted into civilian households to cultivate the land, and the taxes paid will make up for the food and salary for recruiting soldiers.
Although, under the current guard system, military households also have to pay food, and the proportion is even as much as half, but due to the corruption of the guard, most of the food paid by military households goes into the pockets of officers, and military households also Became the slave of the guard officer.
It would be better for the imperial court to issue an order to directly convert the corresponding military households into civilian households, otherwise they would be exploited by the guards officers.
As for how many soldiers can be converted into civilians by recruiting soldiers?
Of course, the smaller the ratio between the two, the lighter the burden on the common people; according to ancient productivity estimates, it takes about twenty common people to support one soldier. With this ratio, the common people will not rise up.
In other words, if you recruit one soldier, the guard station can convert twenty military households into ordinary civilian households, and convert the corresponding military villages into civilian fields, and use their taxes and miscellaneous services to support the recruited soldiers, so as to reduce the burden on the court. financial pressure, and at the same time reduce the tax pressure on ordinary people.
It is not to abolish the guard station system, but to combine the guard station and recruiting soldiers, and adjust the proportion and structure of the two.
The more Zhu Pingan thought about it, the more he realized that this idea was worthy of research.
However, the Ming Dynasty's guard system stipulated that if a military household wanted to be converted into a civilian household, it must receive a special gift from the emperor.
How to obtain the emperor’s special gift?
During the Xuande period, the Ming Dynasty promulgated the "Military Administration Regulations", which stipulated that "there should be only one person under the military household to serve as a raw member, and the Ministry of War should be dismissed, and the Hanlin Academy should be examined. If there are any results, it will be carried out as usual. If it doesn't work, it will be sent to the army. "
Zhu Ping'an does not have the power to convert military households into civilian households.
So Zhu Pingan laid out a new piece of rice paper and wrote his thoughts on the rice paper in detail.
"I am scared, and I ask the Holy Spirit to forgive me for my immature views on recruiting troops."
Finally, Zhu Pingan added a sentence at the end, asking for the recruitment of eight thousand troops to annihilate Zhejiang. Japanese pirates in the territory.
After checking it was correct, Zhu Pingan copied it on the secret folder, sealed it, and gave it to Liu Daqiang, asking him to take someone to deliver it to Xiyuan.
Counting the time, Liu Mu and others are also on their way back.
The next day, just as Liu Daqiang and the others set out, Zhu Ping'an issued an official document in the name of the governor of Zhejiang, ordering Liu Daqiang to go to Yiwu again to recruit 8,000 troops, no, to recruit young men, and ordered the Jinhua Mansion to cooperate.
Not all of these eight thousand people were recruited in Yiwu. Dongyang County, Yongkang County, and Wuyi County adjacent to Yiwu County were all recruiting areas. If all the troops are recruited in Yiwu, recruiting so many people will have a great impact on the people's livelihood in Yiwu.
Of course, this is not Zhu Pingan’s decision to kill first and then play later.
Zhu Ping'an's plan this time was not to recruit soldiers in name, but to recruit young men and women, and then turn them into soldiers after the decree came down.
It’s just about doing the work in advance. Emperor Jiajing may not necessarily agree with the suggestion of combining military recruitment with guard posts, adjusting the ratio, and converting military households into civilian households, but he will definitely agree with the recruitment of troops.