There are also reasons why Gao Shishi thinks that after he has been making a fuss in the military department, the reform of Jingshi Shixue has entered a new stage, and the most important reason is that with the Beijing camp being divided into the Praetorian Guard Army and the Production and Construction Corps, the nature of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies has changed, and to some extent, it can even be said that even the "military status" system set by Zhu Yuanzhang has been quietly shaken by him.

As we all know, the Ming military and civilians are separated. The so-called separation of military and civilian nationality means that the common people are divided into two types. One is the "army": every family must have a person from generation to generation to serve as a soldier or officer. The other is "civil": for generations, they are exempt from military service, unless they voluntarily join the army.

Therefore, there are two sets of household registrations in the imperial court, one is a military household and the other is a civilian household.

This is a peculiar system created by Lai Yuanzhang, which in general integrates the Tuntian of the Han Dynasty, the government soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, and the ruler of the Song Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang himself is very proud of this kind of separation of military and civilian nationality. He said: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost the state a penny. ”

As early as when Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Hezhou, he began to experiment with sergeant Tuntian: after taking Nanjing and its periphery, he paid great attention to this. His army was never short of food, so that it was able to do nothing wrong with the people and be welcomed everywhere.

In the first year of Hongwu, the world was decided, and he began to think about how to settle a large number of officers and soldiers after the victory.

Retrenchment, redeployment, and demobilization are not good solutions.

Whom to cut? Who not to lay? Who's the editor? Send whom? Demobilization, where to return? When you return to the countryside, the countryside can't bear it; "Veterans" have no land, no cattle, no farming tools, no seeds, and they can't go back to the countryside! If you really want to go, it's all local instability.

So, Zhu Yuanzhang came up with this method of separating the military and the people, not only settling the soldiers and rewarding the officers, but also preserving a huge military force for himself and his descendants, that is, the national defense force that maintained long-term peace and stability for the Ming Empire.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang's method was roughly like this: soldiers, each of them will be rewarded with 50 acres of official land. The condition is to be a soldier until old age (sixty years old); When they grow old or die, they are inherited from generation to generation by their sons and grandchildren. Only one eldest son needs to serve in each generation, and the second son and below serve as "Yu Ding", that is, soldiers to fill vacancies. However, these 50 acres of land are also taxed (called grain), two buckets and four liters per mu, but they are not transported to the central court or local government offices, but are stored in a centralized manner and reserved for military rations and salaries in the event of a possible war.

Officers, each of whom is given the title of "world official": the highest is the commander, who is in charge of a guard, followed by "a thousand households" and "a hundred households", who are in charge of a thousand households and a hundred households, and the smallest is a suppression, who is qualified to be in charge of a general flag or a small flag. Thousands of households have positive and vice-presidents, and there are so-called "trial hundreds" under 100 households. Between the commander and the thousands of households, there is the so-called commander of the same knowledge, command of affairs, and guard and calm.

All in all, it is divided into nine grades.

As for the big officers who have great merit, it is not enough to be named a commander, so they will be crowned as the prince of the country, the marquis, the uncle, the son, and the man. These fifth-class knights do not belong to the "Weisu system" (later they were not sealed at the sub-level and male levels).

The officers and soldiers of the guard reside in designated areas and are all over the country. In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, there were 493 guards in the country, and there were several thousand and 100 households under each guard. There are 359 independent dry households.

In addition, there are more than 400 border guards that are of a fetter nature. The total number of "world officials" in the 23rd year of Hongwu was about 16,500. The total number of "world soldiers" is about 1.2 million.

At that time, the total population of the whole country of the Ming Dynasty, according to the statistics of the 26th year of Hongwu, was 6,005,545,812 people (Note: It is not certain whether the "population" in this data only refers to Dingkou).

The military registration is listed separately from the civilian registration (in fact, there is also the craftsman registration, which is under the management of the Ministry of Industry), which has laid a solid foundation for the strong early stage of the "Metropolitan Governor's Mansion - Five Military Governor's Mansions".

The past of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is limited to space, so I won't talk about it here, just talk about the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies. The establishment of the five provinces began in the thirteenth year of Hongwu. Zhu Yuanzhang used the power of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to be too heavy, and divided the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion into five. "In the thirteenth year, the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was changed to the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies in the Central, Left, and Rear Fronts, and was divided into the guards in Beijing and the guards in the outer capitals."

Although the purpose of the establishment of the five prefectures is to divide the military power, this is only an internal adjustment of the military system, and the five mansions of the imperial court are still in charge of a strong and good fighting army, and its power base has not changed from the period of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, so the five mansions still inherited some of the powers of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, but when it comes to the power at hand of the senior generals, it has been divided accordingly.

However, the separation of powers in the five governments did not completely dispel Zhu Yuanzhang's concerns about excessive military power. In addition to the mutual control of military ministers and military officials, the most important method used to divide the military power is to use the military department in the civilian system to check and balance the five governments.

In fact, as early as the time when the Zhongshu Province and the Metropolitan Governor's Office had not yet been abolished, this kind of law of the corresponding system had already been implemented. At that time, the Ministry of War of the Ministry of War of the Ministry of Destiny set the system of edicts to the military attachés. In terms of procedures, it is not only necessary for the Metropolitan Governor's Office to transfer the military attaché information to the Ministry of War, but also to examine the qualifications of the military superintendent, and then hand it over to the Hanlin Academy to write the document, the secretary of the department to supervise the proofreading, and the Zhongshu Sheren to write, and then hand it over to the Cheng Yuan, the second supervisor of the examination of merit, etc., a series of complicated procedures before the military department can give promotion. During the whole process, neither the military department nor the Metropolitan Governor's Office could specialize in the selection of military attachés.

The most important thing is that after the establishment of the Ministry of War, it has the right to transfer troops by order but not the right to command troops, and the five governments have the right to command troops but not the right to transfer troops. In the event of a war, the emperor ordered the general to be the commander, and the military department was ordered to transfer troops, and the soldiers of the guards under the jurisdiction of the five prefectures were transferred to the battle. The army was returned to the court, and the soldiers returned to the guard.

Under such a model, the possibility of the dictatorship of military generals was avoided by the imperial court to the greatest extent, and the principle of civil and military control was determined at the level of the state system and the imperial court.

Generally speaking, the five provinces still have a certain power and status in the Hongwu period, because the officials of the five mansions are all elected by the princes, and the main officials who control the operation of the five government institutions are all military ministers, so to a certain extent, the five provinces are the representatives of the military forces in the center.

The five mansions represent the position of the military ministers in the country, their rank is higher than the six ministries, and they have the participation in the political power, which can dominate the main military forces of the Ming Dynasty at that time, which is also recognized by Zhu Yuanzhang and set as a system.

However, after the well-known mass killing of heroes, the power of the Five Provinces was greatly weakened. For example, Tang Shengzong, Marquis of Yan'an, Fei Ju, Marquis of Pingliang, and Lu Zhongheng, Marquis of Ji'an, who were killed in Hu Weiyong's prison, served as the governor and servant of the Dadu Governor's Office. and Lan Yu himself, who was killed in the Lan Yu Party case, as well as Zhang Yi, Marquis of Heshou, Zhu Shou, Marquis of Bolu, and Wang Bi, Marquis of Dingyuan, all served as senior governors of the Dadu Governor's Mansion (Tongzhi, 佥事).

Therefore, it can also be said that one of the reasons behind Zhu Yuanzhang's large-scale killing of military ministers is the control of the military power of the five governments.

Then, when it came to the civil engineering change of Yingzong, with the death of Zhang Fu, the power of the five provinces was almost swept away in the center of the imperial court. At the same time, the military department controlled by civilian officials in the center began to leap in importance from the time Yu Qian set up the regimental battalions, which made the status of the five prefectures even more sluggish. These two points have been discussed in this book earlier, so I won't say much about them.

However, the decline of the five governments is not only due to the suppression or death of its leaders, but also a more profound internal factor, and this internal factor is the focus of Gao Pragmatic attention at present.

What are the intrinsic factors? It is the decline of the guards, the flight of military households, and the unbearable war.

According to a highly pragmatic understanding, although the Ming Dynasty's policy of using literature to control military force limited and weakened the status and power of the five prefectures to a large extent, it could only be regarded as a relative external role for the military system represented by the five prefectures, and its internal factors also had a profound impact.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the military system established by the "Five Mansions-Dusi-Weisho" assumed the most important military function in the Hongwu to Orthodox period, and from the beginning of Zhu Yuanzhang's unification war to the repeated military operations in the orthodox years, all of which were carried out by the Weisho army as the main force.

Until the fourteenth year of orthodoxy, Wang Zhen coerced Yingzong to go to the 500,000 Beijing army commanded by Wara, which was still based on the military system of the guard. Therefore, under such circumstances, as the main leading body of the Weisho army, the power of the five governments is bound to not be underestimated.

However, after the Civil Revolution, the central decision-making core was completely concentrated on the cabinet dominated by civil officials and the chief celebrant of internal ministers, and the intervention of military ministers in national policy ceremonies ceremonial officials ceased to exist.

In addition to the emperor's policy of using civil power to control military force, one of the main internal motivations for this phenomenon was the continuous collapse of the guard system. The official army of the guard station was gradually unable to serve as the main force of the country's warfare, and was replaced by the conscription system, resulting in the loss of the power base of the five governments in the process.

Why did Daming never stop the restructuring of Beijing, but it never had an effect? That's why.

The guards directly under the control of your five prefectures are already rotten, how can you expect the Beijing battalion selected from these guards to have combat effectiveness?

Moreover, the imperial court has long used the military households and craftsmen of the commanders of the five prefectures to do things at will, especially for any projects near Gyeonggi, almost all of them will use military households. This makes the combat attributes of the Gyeonggi Guard more and more inconspicuous, and it looks more and more like a team of making up slaves.

But now it's different.

The first difference is that the Praetorian Guards do not want military households at all, but directly recruit soldiers from the people, and their practice is no different from that of local border generals recruiting armed men - the only difference is that the soldiers and horses raised by the Praetorian Guards do not belong to the generals themselves.

The second difference is that the "old Beijing battalion," which has the status of a military household, has since been indifferent to the war and has devoted itself to the work of reclamation, and has actually become a "logistics department."

The Governor's Office of the Five Armies has become a simple "logistics department", isn't this essentially shaking the system set by Zhu Yuanzhang?

However, Gao Shishi knows very well that he has only just made preliminary changes to the military system, and this is not the end.

In fact, he did not have a great bad feeling for these nobles in Beijing, and his main impression was that he was "angry and indisputable", accompanied by a certain amount of "mourning his misfortune".

Angry and indisputable, this does not need to be explained; laments its misfortune because it is indeed the trend of the times to use literature and imperial martial arts, even in the era before the high pragmatic crossing.

But this does not mean that the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies deserves to be an ornament, it is still necessary to play some role - engaging in logistics is also playing a role, it is better than nothing, right?

What's more, with the advent of the era of hot weapons, the role of logistics will only increase day by day, even if the Governor's Office of the Five Armies can only provide one Praetorian Guard after the "waste utilization", its role will be obvious.

Gao Pragmatic has always believed that the Ming Dynasty suppressed the military ministers too harshly, but his empty words alone cannot improve the status of the military ministers, and only by gradually restoring the role of the military ministers will their status be improved accordingly.

Just imagine, when a Praetorian Guard army that can fight well is supported by the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, can the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies still be regarded as a pure ornament?

Of course, the reform of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies is only at this stage, and there will be corresponding changes in the border army in the future, but that is all in the future, and Gao Shishi's current authority is only limited to the Beijing camp, of course, he will do a good job of the work at hand first.

The Jingying Production and Construction Corps began to cooperate with Jinghua to mine all kinds of minerals, and the silver money earned began to be supplied to the Praetorian Guards in accordance with the proportion agreed upon earlier by Gao Shishi and Zhu Yingzhen and others, and the Praetorian Guards gradually stabilized, and began recruit training under the auspices of Qi Jiguang.

Two months later, at the end of the year, Qi Jiguang said in his report to Gao Pragmatic that the current Praetorian Guard looks like an army at all.

The implication is not that the Praetorian Guard is "worthy of a war", but probably means "can be seen".

This news made Gao pragmatic somewhat relieved, it took so much effort to carry out these reforms like stepping on a tightrope, and now it has finally had some effect. He discussed with Qi Jiguang that since the problems of queue and discipline were basically settled, he should enter combat training as soon as possible, and strive to reach out to meet the battle when the final blow was launched against Tumen in the future.

Qi Jiguang asked Gao Pragmatic, when does the imperial court plan to send troops to Tumen? He needed a clear time to make targeted adjustments to the Praetorian Guard's training plan.

But this question is highly pragmatic and cannot be answered.

Gao Shishi smiled bitterly: "Nantang Gong, I can't hide it, as for when I will be able to go to Chahar, the real trouble at present is not in the strength and combat power, but in when the household department will be able to make up the money." ”

Qi Jiguang frowned and asked, "I heard that Taicang is about to bottom, if you expect the household department to save enough money before starting the war...... It seems to be a bit of a hindrance. ”

Gao Pragmatic sighed and nodded: "Who said it wasn't, but there was no way to do it." ”

Qi Jiguang was a little surprised, and asked: "Shao Sima turned stones into gold, but he actually said that there was no way?" ”

"I'm ......" Gao pragmatic opened his mouth, shook his head again, and sighed: "After all, I am the official of the military department, not the household department." Let's talk about the biggest problem at the moment, first, the imperial court began to pay attention to the relief of civil disasters, not only exempting and reducing taxes, but also allocating silver at every turn, so that the household department is under great pressure; The second is the ...... on King Lu's side"

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