When the emperor finished talking about the idea of setting up a medal system, the room was quiet for a while, and Mao Yuanyi finally couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, if such a medal system is established, in addition to paying a considerable additional expenditure, some high-ranking generals in the army may not accept that ordinary soldiers have more priority than them in the opportunity to receive meritorious rewards. ”

As Mao Yuanyi expressed his opinion, several members of the staff also nodded in agreement with him, Zhu Youzhen glanced at several staff officers who met Mao Yuanyi, and waited until these echoes gradually subsided, and then he spoke: "Some expenses are necessary, and the medal system focuses on spiritual encouragement rather than material rewards, so this expenditure will not be very high."

As for whether the senior generals in the army accept it or not, it is a question of how the General Staff will educate them. All in all, generals in the army must accept if they understand, and accept if they do not understand.

The new regulations on rewards and punishments for meritorious service should also be implemented from this campaign. Whoever has made a contribution will be rewarded, and this is the standard for the military to set up a reward and punishment system.

If a soldier goes to the battlefield but cannot be affirmed, then the army will have the mood of avoiding and fearing war. At that time, even if several major generals fight together, they will not get any good results.

Although Nurhachi is our greatest enemy of the Ming Dynasty in recent decades, I hope that you will still study how this Northland Nu chieftain established the Jurchen Eight Banners system and distributed the rewards for military exploits.

The establishment of the General Staff is not only to rebuild the military system of the Ming Dynasty, but also to study the enemies of the Ming Dynasty, learn from the enemy's strengths, and face up to their own shortcomings, which is the meaning of the existence of the General Staff. ”

In the nearly one year since the establishment of the General Staff, all the members who have been able to join the General Staff are the most open-minded part of the Da Ming Shi people. After nearly a year of re-understanding and rectifying the Ming military system, they have gradually become accustomed to the new ideas put forward by Chongzhen from time to time in the meeting.

If Chongzhen said such things in the court, he would definitely be sprayed to death by those conservative bureaucrats, but in front of these members of the General Staff, it just made them feel a little uncomfortable in their hearts.

Sun Chengzong looked at the expressions of the people around him, and felt that Chongzhen could not continue to talk about this issue, if the emperor's words were spread today, I am afraid that the members present who did not advise the emperor would be regarded as fortunate people who were presented by sycophants, which was not a good thing for the General Staff.

"What Your Majesty said should be a reference, study the enemies of the Ming Dynasty, and figure out their internal organizational systems and operational ideas and methods, so that we will not relapse and continue to fall into the trap set by Jiannu on the battlefield.

The minister thinks that His Majesty's idea of asking for the establishment of a medal system is very good, and the minister will urge Mao Shimin to redraw the list of meritorious service recipients, as well as the medal system proposed by His Majesty..."

Zhu Youzhen glanced at Sun Chengzong, did not refute the modifications he made for his words, nodded and said, "Then move on to the next topic, does Staff Officer Mao have anything else to add?" ”

Mao Yuanyi got up again and saluted the emperor and said: "Next, what the minister wants to report is about the organization of the guards in Xuanfu and Datong, as well as the reconstruction of the armies in the two places after the war..."

The Xuanfu town army was rated at 126,395 members, and there were less than 60,000 soldiers. Datong Town has a rated 135,778 Mabu officers and soldiers, and there are more than 70,000 soldiers.

The two towns combined, the rated number of sergeants exceeded 260,000, but the actual army was only about 130,000, that is, half of the number of soldiers was vacant. In the two towns of Xuanfu and Datong, the annual military expenditure allocation is set at 1 million taels, and the actual allocation is only half.

However, there are more than 130,000 soldiers in the two towns, and in the end, there are about 15,000 soldiers who can be selected to go to the battlefield, which means that only 1 out of 10 people can be selected. The rest are old, weak, sick and disabled, or slippery people in the barracks, who are not able to fight at all, and it is already good to be able to use them to maintain local law and order.

According to the ideas of Yuan Chonghuan, Mao Yuanyi, and others, they suggested that the armies of the two towns should be rectified in accordance with Chongzhen's rectification of the Beijing camp. Eliminate the old and weak and treacherous people, and reorganize a few units with combat effectiveness to defend the two most important towns of Datong and Xuanfu in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

Mao Yuanyi finally looked at Chongzhen and concluded: "... According to the research of Yuan Ziru, the minister, if he wanted to cover the long border line of Datong and Xuanfu, and assist the right-wing Mongolian departments to guard the areas south and east of Yinshan, at least three divisions and six brigades were required.

The grasslands outside the pass are the most conducive to cavalry assaults, so in order to prevent the southern invasion of the Chahar tribes, we must build a strong cavalry force. The right-wing Mongol tribes led by King Shunyi had many warriors who were skilled in riding and could raise horses. If the imperial court had encircled them with kindness, it would have been able to recruit outstanding knights from these Mongol tribes.

The minister thought that following the establishment of the first wing, with two wings and a cavalry division, and three divisions of 9,000 cavalry equipped with Ming ordnance, it was enough to control the grasslands outside Datong and Xuanhua Pass, so that the Chahar people did not dare to go south again.

As for the border defenses of Datong and Xuanhua in the Guannei, two battalions and one brigade of infantry brigades were formed for defense, and the 36,000 men of the six brigades were enough to defend the two towns of Datong and Xuanhua. As for the other old and weak sergeants who have been eliminated, they can set up an engineering battalion in imitation of the Beijing camp for repairing roads and city walls.

If this plan can be completed, the northern grasslands of the Ming Dynasty can be stable for at least another 30 years, and the imperial court will be able to concentrate on dealing with the Jiannu in Liaodong. ”

Zhu Youzhen first looked at Sun Chengzong's face before he spoke: "What Staff Officer Mao said today is more detailed than the report submitted by the wartime base camp before.

However, since receiving your report, I have ordered the staff officers in Beijing to review the report, and have prepared a more comprehensive plan for the reform of the Ming military system. ”

In the confusion of Sun Chengzong and Mao Yuanyi, sitting in the lowest position on Chongzhen's left side, a thin man with Western eyes stood up.

After saluting the emperor and the officials present with a somewhat restrained expression, he left his seat at the signal of Chongzhen, walked to the map hanging on the wooden wall behind him, picked up a wooden stick and pointed at the map, and stammered.

“… Since His Majesty divided Shaanxi into four provinces, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and northern Shaanxi, and now plans to set up the areas outside the Datong and Xuanhua passes, east of Yinshan, and south of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the territory of our Ming Dynasty has expanded from two capitals and 13 provinces to two capitals, 16 provinces, and one autonomous region.

Since last year, the Gyeonggi Governor's Office in the Gyeonggi region and the Southwest Governor's Office in Sichuan and Guizhou have been operating well since their establishment, and the regional governor's office has been unified, which has also reduced a lot of repetitive and unproductive work of the various ministries of the imperial court.

In addition, the military rectification and reform of the two towns of Jizhou and Liaodong led by the Ministry of War, as well as the rectification and reform of the Datong and Xuanfu armies led by the General Staff, were indeed fruitful, not only eliminating many old and weak people who could not be used, strengthening the combat effectiveness of the army, but also greatly strengthening the control of the imperial court over the border towns.

The remaining Shanxi Town, Yansui Town, Ningxia Town, Guyuan Town, and Gansu Town on the nine sides, plus the Weisuo Army in Henan. In the past year, through the adjustment of some military commanders, the centripetal force for the imperial court has also been greatly strengthened.

General Sun led the rectified Jizhou town army plus a part of the Beijing camp army, with the assistance of Datong and Xuanfu towns, in one fell swoop to break the fierce Mongolian Chahar Department under the command of Lin Dan Khan, which not only greatly deterred the Mongols on the grassland, but also reshaped the morale of our Ming army.

Therefore, after His Majesty received the report submitted by the wartime base camp on the post-war reorganization of troops in the two towns of Datong and Xuanfu. After discussions, the personnel of the General Staff Headquarters who stayed in Beijing believed that the present time would be more conducive to rebuilding the entire military system of the Ming Dynasty, and thoroughly changing the current military system of the Ming Dynasty's garrison and border towns into a three-level armed force system of local public security forces, local garrison troops, and Daming field troops..."

Mao Yuanyi couldn't help frowning slightly when he heard this, as if he felt that his things had been snatched away by someone, he quietly turned to the side and asked his colleagues beside him, "Who is this person?" When did he enter the General Staff? ”

This colleague looked carefully left and right, and then whispered to Mao Yuanyi: "His name is Zhou Wei, and he was originally the son of a small official in charge of the grain depot in Jizhou Town. Because of his excellent arithmetic, he was specially hired by the logistics department of the Army Military Academy at the beginning of the year.

After entering the school, although he was terrible in physical classes, he excelled in cultural classes, so he was recommended by the school as an intern in the General Staff.

After you and General Chief Sun went to the front line with most of the staff personnel, His Majesty personally summoned all the intern staff officers for a conversation, and finally promoted and appointed four of them to transfer to the main post ahead of schedule, and this one was one of the four. ”

Mao Yuanyi was silent after hearing this, he didn't think that the son of a small official could pose any threat to him, but he was relieved and continued to listen.

“… Liaoxi and Shanhaiguan are the governors of Liaodong, Beizhili, Shandong, Dongjiang Town and Jeju are the governors of Gyeonggi, Datong, Xuanfu, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi are the governors of Shanxi, and Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and northern Shaanxi are the governors of Shaanxi.

Sichuan and Guizhou are the Southwest Governors, Yunnan, Liangguang and Hainan Island are the Governors of Guangnan, Huguang and Jiangxi are the Governors of the Two Lakes, and Zhejiang, Fujian and Taiwan are the Governors of South China.

The South Zhili and Huainan regions are the Nanjing Governor's Mansion, and the Henan and Huaibei regions are the Central Plains Governor's Mansion.

The whole territory of the Ming Dynasty is divided into 10 prefectures, which are responsible for formulating plans for the construction of troops stationed in the region, organizing and commanding joint operations of all armies in the region, and implementing tasks such as logistics support.

Each Governor's Office has a headquarters, a general staff, a logistics department, and an equipment department, which respectively lead the military, political, logistical, and equipment work of the subordinate units.

It is mainly responsible for the command of the coordinated operations of the various armed forces and units in the jurisdiction and the military training, political work, administrative management, and logistics support of the subordinate units, and leads the three-level armed forces system, military service, mobilization work, and battlefield construction in the jurisdiction.

All local governors must be under the leadership of the General Staff, the Ministry of War, and the local governors, but the local governors no longer enjoy the power to appoint and dismiss personnel from the local governors. The appointment and dismissal of principal officials of all local governors must be under the management of the General Staff and reviewed by the War Department..."