For the demobilization system proposed by Chongzhen earlier, the separation system of military and political and military orders, Sun Chengzong and several others can still accept it, after all, these systems are still conducive to the way the imperial court controls the army.

However, the establishment of a special organization to conduct ideological and cultural education in the armed forces, and the slogan of serving the country with loyalty to the monarch and the country into defending the homeland and the country, made them subconsciously raise objections.

Mao Yuanyi was the first to ask: "Your Majesty, you just said before that the army does not need to judge, and it is Your Majesty, the cabinet and the soldiers who need to make judgments. But now you say that it is too contradictory to educate the sergeants ideologically and culturally so that they can have sufficient judgment ability? ”

Zhu Youzhen leaned forward, his elbows rested on the table, and his hands were held in front of his chin. He racked his brain to think that it was not good to talk to these civil officials, who always liked to get to the bottom of things, rather than carry out their orders without complaint.

"Let's put it this way, the commanders of the General Staff and the army do not need to make strategic judgments, because they are in a position that has enough power to carry out their own judgments, which is obviously not in line with the regulations of the Ministry of War and the command of the army.

Therefore, I asked the commanders in chief of the General Staff and the army that there was no need to judge strategy. All they need to do is list the possibilities and the consequences of their conjectures for the choice they can make.

And I need the ordinary sergeants and junior military attaches in the army to have a basic understanding that everything they do is to defend the country and their families.

With such a understanding, they naturally would not betray the Ming Dynasty on the battlefield or flee, or be manipulated by some careerists to resist the orders of the imperial court.

In other words, the military must have its own basic judgment and cannot have its own judgment, which is a contradictory but unified proposition. I hope you don't have to be fooled by this proposition. ”

Except for You Shiwei and Wu Huai, everyone else understood what Chongzhen meant. For these civil officials, Chongzhen's statement is very winding, but it is not difficult to understand.

Chongzhen said a lot, and there was only one central meaning, the emperor needed an army that was completely loyal to him, but in the name of defending the country, wouldn't it be Chongzhen himself who could represent the country?

After understanding this, several officials were relieved. Chongzhen wants to control the new army through the General Staff, and they only need to master the organization of the General Staff.

Yuan Chonghuan was obviously aware of the huge opportunity contained in the establishment of the General Staff, and he took the initiative to ask Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the minister is very willing to participate in the work of forming the General Staff of the New Army. ”

"No, you can't." Zhu Youzhen almost subconsciously objected.

Not only Yuan Chonghuan, but also Mao Yuanyi, Sun Yuanhua and others were surprised by Chongzhen's big reaction.

Sun Chengzong felt that he should stand up and say a few good words for his disciple, and he said to Chongzhen sincerely: "Yuan Ziru has been in the army for a long time, and he is more proficient in the affairs of the military formation. ”

Unable to exclude Sun Chengzong and other civilian officials from the General Staff, Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to accept this reality. But he was reluctant to hand over the Forces nouvelles to a historical figure he could not understand.

Just as Yuan Chonghuan and others thought in their hearts, the staff system will completely replace the previous Ming army commander system. The establishment of the new army from scratch will be the first attempt of the staff officer system.

In this way, those who form the staff of the Forces nouvelles for the first time will have tremendous influence on the nouvelles.

Regarding Yuan Chonghuan's character, Zhu Youzhen has not yet understood it, so he is naturally unwilling and afraid to hand over this army related to the future of the Ming Dynasty to him.

Zhu Youzhen hesitated, and then said: "I plan to start learning military affairs from the formation of the new army, so I will personally form the staff of the new army, and the general staff can assist me from the side." ”

Sun Chengzong was a little dizzy, although from Chongzhen's conversation, he could feel that Chongzhen did not know anything about military affairs as he himself said.

But as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, it is not a good phenomenon to be obsessed with military affairs. He tried to persuade Chongzhen, "Your Majesty, now that you have to learn the way of governing the country and deal with important political affairs of the country, how can you be distracted and care about the affairs of the preparation of the new army?"

The minister thinks that this kind of specific affairs is still handed over to the minister, and you just need to check the progress on time. If you have to ask about the specifics, what else can the courtiers do? ”

Zhu Youzhen said with a straight face: "The major affairs of the country are in worship and Rong. The formation of a new army is a major military matter, and as for other matters, I think the cabinet ministers will handle them well, so there is no need for me to worry..."

Under Chongzhen's insistence, Sun Chengzong and the others still succumbed. Sun Yuanhua was responsible for taking the lead in compiling the regulations for supervising the production of ordnance, Mao Yuanyi and Wu Huai were responsible for compiling the entire new army and various regulations, and Lu Shanji and Yuan Chonghuan assisted the emperor in preparing for the establishment of the new army.

At the same time, the meeting also officially announced the establishment of the General Staff of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, Sun Chengzong became the first chief of staff, and the remaining seven became staff officers of the General Staff.

Towards the end of the meeting, Zhu Youzhen explained the first task to the General Staff Headquarters in a casual tone. Formulate a plan to rectify the garrisons of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, reformulate the system of rewards and punishments for military merits, and abolish first-class merits.

The meeting of the Wuying Hall was very long, and it was already past noon when it ended. When Sun Chengzong walked out of the Wuying Palace, his steps were a little heavy.

After leaving the palace and breaking up with Sun Yuanhua, Mao Yuanyi quickly stepped forward and walked behind Sun Chengzong and said, "Lord Bachelor, why can't we persuade Your Majesty, how can we work with those military ministers, this is completely out of line." ”

Sun Chengzong didn't speak, and Lu Shanji, who was closely following him, replied for him: "Since this majesty ascended the throne, when have you respected the rules?" The problem now is that if we follow the rules, it is simply impossible for us to build an army according to our own ideas.

After the defeat of Liuhe, haven't you woken up? If there is no army that can follow orders, no matter how good the plan is, it will be in vain.

If we refuse to work with these ministers, we will obviously lose the opportunity to form a new army. If that happens, it will be pointless for us to go back to the capital.

Do you still want the Governor to stay in the capital for a while, and then be sent outside the customs and fooled by those warriors? ”

Yuan Chonghuan's eyes lit up, and he said excitedly: "Brother Qianyue is right, this is a rare opportunity for us, as long as we can participate in the formation of the entire new army, the restoration of Liaodong will no longer worry about having no army in our hands." ”

Mao Yuanyi seemed to be persuaded by the two, and after being silent for a while, he said, "But hasn't Your Majesty already negotiated peace with Jiannu?" I don't think Your Majesty will necessarily agree to provoke another war against Jiannu. ”

Yuan Chonghuan suddenly smiled and said: "The war may not be provoked by the Ming Dynasty, what if Jiannu takes the initiative to attack the Ming Dynasty?" ”

Mao Yuanyi said in disbelief: "How is this possible, starting from Nurhachi, Jiannu wants to negotiate peace with Daming. The population of Jiannu is less than one million, and they are not satisfied with Liaodong alone.

Now that His Majesty has taken the initiative to negotiate peace with Jiannu, it is too late for them to be elated, how could they take the initiative to tear up the peace treaty and provoke a war with the Ming Dynasty again. What can they get out of the war? Could it be that they still arrogantly want to enter the Central Plains? ”

Yuan Chonghuan simply replied, "Jiannu's actions, we can wait and see." "Others may not know, but Yuan Chonghuan understands very well that after cutting off the material transportation channel in the Guannai, it is impossible to feed the products of Liaodong alone, and the Houjin and Mongolian vassal tribes will not be able to feed.

Houjin's dominant commodities are fur and ginseng, but these two must be transported to the customs to be valuable, and they cannot be sold at a price in Liaodong.

Liaodong's grain production was barely enough to feed the Jurchens themselves, not to mention the Mongol tribes who had taken refuge in the Jurchens because of lack of food.

Moreover, there is a lack of salt farms in Liaodong, let alone cotton planting, and the Jianzhou Jurchens and Mongols can survive with less salt, but they obviously can't survive without cloth clothes to keep out the cold.

At present, Jiannu's largest material trading business is in Ningjin through a third-party transaction of the Mongolian tribe.

Now that Chongzhen is rectifying the army outside the Guan, this trade route is obviously going to be interrupted, and Huang Taiji will definitely not tolerate Daming blocking this trade route, so it is a matter of course to tear up the agreement and provoke a war.

After Sun Chengzong and the others left, Zhu Youzhen simply had lunch and then went to watch the singing and dancing prepared for the New Year's Day banquet.

In fact, the Ming Huidian has clear regulations on giving feasts and food, and the Zhengdan banquet is a big banquet that is juxtaposed with the suburbs to celebrate the feast, the winter solstice, and the longevity festival, which is the so-called banquet of the nine lords. Because of the huge cost of the big banquet, by the time of Chongzhen, there were only two banquets a year, the celebration banquet and the winter solstice banquet.

The winter solstice banquet in the seventh year of the Apocalypse was canceled according to the etiquette system because it was still in the national mourning period. Zhu Youzhen thinks that no matter what, the courtiers have worked hard for a year, and they must always give some comfort, and by the way, they will contact their feelings, just like the annual meeting held by the company in later generations.

Therefore, at his suggestion, on the first day of Chongzhen's first year, it was decided to hold a big banquet. Having learned some previous lessons, Chongzhen decided to rehearse once before holding the New Year's Day banquet, so as not to make a fool of himself.

Under the guidance of Wang Tiqian, Zhu Youzhen completed the gift of the Nine Jues, and every time he entered a jue of wine, a song would be played.

From the first song of Yan Jing to the last song of music peace, it is the so-called positive music. Although it is very magnificent, it lacks the power to move people.

"Can't I just change to a tune?" Zhu Youzhen said with some dissatisfaction.

Wang Chengen couldn't help but reply cautiously: "These tunes are all repertoire formulated by Taizu and Chengzu when they were ancestors, and I am afraid they cannot be changed." ”

Looking at Zhu Youzhen's expression, Wang Tiqian, who was standing on the side, suddenly interjected and said: "Emperor Sejong changed a song at the beginning, and my emperor can follow the old practice and change it to a song." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Tiqian and nodded, and said: "That's good, change the last piece of music to "My Motherland" composed by Concubine Tian, and let the Teaching Department rehearse quickly..."