Since the establishment of the military system of the guard, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, once proudly boasted: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it costs not a grain of rice for the people." ”

There is no doubt that the system did play a great role in the early Ming Dynasty, saving a lot of money for the imperial treasury and obtaining a stable supply of troops, but as time went on, its disadvantages became increasingly apparent.

In the early Ming Dynasty, due to the needs of the war, the social status of the soldiers was relatively high, and the soldiers of the guard could be allocated land, and their lives were generally maintained, and they were even quite comfortable. However, with the peace of the world and the release of Nanshan, the social status of the soldiers gradually declined, and there were a large number of criminals in the army who were assigned to serve in the army, which further lowered the social status and image of the soldiers.

Of course, the decline in the social status of military personnel is secondary, and the fatal flaw of the guard system is the hereditary military position.

As we all know, in the army of the Ming Dynasty, all military positions below the command envoy are hereditary, the father dies and the son succeeds, and the brother dies and the brother dies. Although this method can provide the army with a long-term stable supply of soldiers, it is important not to forget that the son of a good soldier is not necessarily a good soldier. As the saying goes, if the soldiers are bearish, they will be in a nest, if it is just an ordinary soldier, it is better, once the officer level is a waste, then the combat effectiveness of this army can be imagined.

In addition, the son of the commander is destined to be a commander from birth, and the son of a thousand households is destined to be a thousand households, which is obviously extremely unfair to the officers and soldiers at the bottom, and their room for rise is equivalent to being blocked, and in the era of peace when there is no military merit to stand, they can only be a land-planter who does nothing for the rest of their lives, and even their children and grandchildren must continue to be land-planters, and there is no hope of getting ahead.

Absolute power inevitably breeds absolute corruption, and the officers will naturally become more and more corrupt from generation to generation, and the upper officers will wantonly encroach on the fields of the lower military households, and then enslave them like tenants, and squeeze them to death.

You must know that the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty was very strict, and military households could only be military households for generations, and they were not allowed to participate in the imperial examination, engage in business, or engage in other occupations.

As early as the Zhengde period, Wang Qiong, the secretary of the military department at that time, counted that the lack of guards in the country has been more than half, and according to historical records, the shortage of guards in some places during the Jiajing period was as high as seventy percent, and in the Wanli period, there was even a shortage of eighty percent of the guards in the army, and the military system of the guards had existed in name only at this time.

It is no wonder that Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang, the famous anti-Japanese generals in history, are all privately recruited soldiers, but the shortage of guards is too great, and the combat effectiveness is extremely low, and they can't beat the murderous Japanese invaders at all, so Yu and Qi can only recruit and practice by themselves, and finally train the "Yu Family Army" and "Qi Family Army" that make the Japanese frightened.

This time, Yangzhou Wei's firearms theft and sale case was actually not complicated, Xu Jin just mentioned a few ordinary soldiers who cried the loudest before the case, and basically figured out the ins and outs of the matter.

It turned out that the low-level military households of Yangzhou Wei had been oppressed by the high-level officers headed by the commander Gu Kangming for a long time, and even all the fields under the names of some military households were encroached upon, and they could only make a living by renting the fields of the officers.

Because Yu Dayou was newly transferred, his brothers were the most squeezed, and the grain grown by many people became a problem even for the whole family to eat after paying the official grain and field rent. So Su Qing and Feng Laoliu, who were under Yu Dayou, came up with a bad idea to steal the discarded firearms in the armory of the guard and sell them for money to solve their urgent needs.

After Xu Jin figured out the cause and effect, he immediately promised to severely punish the officers led by the commander Gu Kangming, and would re-measure the tuntian belonging to Yangzhou Wei, and then re-divide it to the military households for cultivation.

In an instant, the originally passionate scene was stirred, and the military households were so excited that they burst into tears, and they knelt on the ground to express their inner gratitude.

Xu Jin sat behind the desk, looking at the thousands of soldiers kneeling on the ground in ecstasy, but there was no joy on his face. As the so-called glimpse can know the whole leopard, the Ming Dynasty has been established for one hundred and fifty years, and all aspects have rotted to the bones, and if you want to ZTE, you really have to reform drastically. However, it is so difficult to put a huge empire that is in decline at an accelerated pace back into the ascending path of strength!

For the time being, perhaps the conscription system is a good way to solve the drawbacks of the guard system, but it is easy to create a situation where the main general is dominant and not controlled by the imperial court. For example, in the famous Qi family army in history, the officers and soldiers only listened to Qi Jiguang's orders, and it was estimated that it would not work if the emperor came. In this case, if the lord will be loyal to the court, it is fine, but once the lord will have different intentions, it will undoubtedly be quite dangerous, and if it is not done well, it will become a warlord separatism.

Xu Jin sighed secretly, okay, do your best, obey the destiny of heaven, and do what you can in front of you, as for the rest, let's talk about it, maybe I can build a version of the Huangpu Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty at that time?

Qi Jingtong looked at the thousands of happy Yangzhou guards in front of him, his mood was a little complicated, his father Qi Xuan was the commander of Shandong Dengzhou Wei, and he was also a senior officer in the guard, if one day his father was knocked down, would the military households below be as ecstatic as these Yangzhou Wei military households?

Qi Jingtong swallowed his saliva bitterly and asked, "My lord, how to deal with Yu Dayou and the others now?" ”

Xu Jin was naturally reluctant to cut Yu Dayou, this is a tiger general, but Yu Dayou didn't report it, and it was indeed a fact that he shielded his subordinates, Su Qing and Feng Laoliu stole and sold firearms, and even dozens of soldiers under Yu Dayou were also accomplices, and they must all be punished, otherwise what is the use of national law?

In the end, Xu Jin made the decision to detain Yu Dayou and others, and then make a final judgment after reporting to the Ministry of War and the Criminal Department.

On March 13 of the second year of Jiajing, because the case of stealing and selling firearms led to the problem of high-ranking officers and soldiers in Yangzhou to squeeze lower-level officers and soldiers, Xia Yanqing had one more target for the land, that is, the military cantonments of various guards.

For a time, whether it was Mintian, Guantian, Huangzhuang, or Weisuo Juntun, all had to accept the Qingzhang, but anyone who found illegal occupation of land, regardless of whether you were a civilian official or a military general, all had to return the land to its owner, and accept a certain punishment, and if the circumstances were particularly serious, they had to be sentenced to prison.

As a result, the people and the low-level military households all applauded, but there was another group of people who gritted their teeth at Xu Jin and Xia Yan, that is, the high-level officers of the local health center.

Xu Jin didn't care about this, Mencius has a cloud: those who have constant production have perseverance, those who have no permanent production have perseverance, they have no perseverance, they have no perseverance, and they have nothing to do. Throughout the dynasties, all those who succeeded in rebellion were poor and white, and most of those who were rich had thieves and no thieves, and they would only choose to endure if they were cut off.

So being hated by these "constant" people, Xu Jin is not too worried, unless one day he loses power, these guys have the courage to stretch out their legs and step on it, otherwise they have to obey in front of themselves. (https:)

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