On the tower of Shanhaiguan, the king of the military department Shangshu looked silently in the direction of the north pass. He's been here for almost half a month. When I came, the year name was still the apocalypse, but now it is the first year of Chongzhen, and it is only five days before the first Lantern Festival of the year of Chongzhen.

The Xiongguan under his feet is composed of Guancheng, Luocheng, Yicheng, and Sentinel City, which form a seven-city chain. These cities form the main body of the two wings, the left auxiliary and the right, the two cities are the sentinels, the pattern of a line of winding, and there are ten passes along the line.

This is the famous general Qi Jiguang in the Wanli period suggested to supervise the repair of Xiongguan, if the old general had not rebuilt the Great Wall, Wang Zaijin thought about the Ming Dynasty would really consider moving the capital.

Half a month ago, he accompanied Yang Hao to Shanhaiguan. The next day, Qin sent Yang Hao, the general soldier Man Gui, Sun Yunhe, and Zhang Tiqian with the convoy and continued towards Ningyuan City.

Wang Zaijin stayed in Shanhaiguan to preside over the reorganization of Jizhou Town and Shanhaiguan Army. Zhu Guoyan, the chief military officer of Jizhen, Zhao Shujiao, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, and Ji Yong, the eunuch of Shanhaiguan, expressed their obedience to the emperor's will brought by Wang Zaijin.

There are more than 100,000 soldiers in Jizhou Town, guarding Yongping, Jizhou, Miyun and Changping, and governing Masong, Dashi and Caoqiang 12 roads. The Great Wall under its jurisdiction starts from Shanhaiguan in the east, reaches the gray ridge mouth of Juyong Pass in the west, is more than 1,200 miles long, and the general military office is set up in the Santun camp in the east of Zunhua, Hebei.

To defend such a vast area, after 100,000 horses were scattered everywhere, it became very thin.

Wang Zaijin took Hongshankou Pass in Pinggu County as the dividing line, east to Shanhaiguan, and guarded Yongping and Jizhou Zhongxie No. 3 Road and Dongxie No. 4 Road, a total of seven roads were divided into a general military area.

To the west of Hongshankou Pass, the town guards Miyun, Changping, Pinggu, Shunyi and other places are divided into a general military area, and the general military office is set up in Shunyi City.

Zhu Guoyan, the chief military officer of Jizhen, was moved to Shunyi, and Zhao Shujiao, the former chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, took over the general military office of the Santun battalion.

Zhu Guoyan took away 40,000 soldiers, while Zhao Shujiao got the remaining 60,000 soldiers.

Shanhaiguan has 15,000 defenders in name and more than 8,000 in fact, but the army that can really fight will not exceed 4,000.

The situation of the Jizhen soldiers is similar, claiming to have 100,000, but the actual amount is about 60,000, and the soldiers who can really fight will not exceed 20,000.

Zhu Guoyan is the kind of traditional hereditary military attaché, and he knows nothing about how to gather the morale of the military and train the army. As for deducting military salaries or something, it was also in accordance with the old rules in the army at this time, and neither more nor less.

As for the money and food that was deducted, he did not use it to support his family, but to buy antique calligraphy and paintings for enjoyment. It is precisely because of his taste that the civil officials in Zunhua City, who are close at hand, have a good impression of him.

In a word, he is a philistine man who has no talent for governing the army, but he also has no ambition. When Wang Zaijin arrived at Shanhaiguan, he summoned him and Zhao Shujiao and asked him to hand over his military power, and he obediently handed it over.

asked him to move to Shunyi City, and he did not hesitate to leave with nearly 1,500 strong soldiers in the Santun camp.

Zhu Guoyan went resolutely without looking back, to be honest, he was really eager to let him move from Santun camp to Shunyi. On the one hand, you can escape the bad fate of being transferred to Guanwai, and on the other hand, you can be closer to the capital, and Shunyi is naturally much more prosperous than Santunying.

And the next reorganization of the Jizhou soldiers and Shanhaiguan soldiers made Wang Zaijin and Zhao Shujiao a little nerve-wracking.

The Jizhou Central Association, the Oriental Association plus the Shanhaiguan people, a total of 75,000 people, but less than 20,000 qualified soldiers can be ordered.

It stands to reason that if you want to defend such a large area and Shanhaiguan, you should make up the number of 75,000 troops.

But in that case, the military expenses of the imperial court will not be able to afford it again. And if you really do it completely according to Chongzhen's intentions, and reduce the army to the number of people who actually fight, then you can only send a few dozen people to each defensive point.

If the already small number of troops in his hands is so scattered, it will definitely be difficult to defend everywhere in the end, which is a taboo for soldiers.

In the end, Yan Chengze, who came to Shanhaiguan with him to establish Jizhou Town and Shanhaiguan Logistics Force, came up with an idea.

He suggested that the soldiers should be discharged but not leave, but that the land near the flood land be distributed to these retired soldiers. In peacetime, there was no need to accept other conscriptions, but in wartime they had to be called up to defend the flood land.

Yan Chengze's suggestion solved the problem of insufficient manpower for the defense of flood land after Wang Zaijin and Zhao Shujiao were reorganized.

But then they encountered even greater trouble, in addition to these soldiers who were placed near the flood land, the other soldiers who had been arranged to retire strongly demanded that the Seven Guards under the rule of Yongping Mansion should be restructured according to the three guards of Yingzhou.

This requirement is a difficult problem for Wang Zaijin and Zhao Shujiao, and there are seven guards in Yongping Mansion, including Shanhaiwei, Funingwei, Yongpingwei, Lu Longwei, Dongsheng Zuowei, Xingzhou Youtunwei, and Kaiping Zhongtunwei.

It can be said that more than half of the land in Yongping Mansion is in the hands of the guards, and like the guards in other areas of this era, the guards in Yongping Mansion can not afford the food and salary of the soldiers in the guards, and they still need the imperial court to transport grain from the south for subsidies.

Unlike the nearby counties and cities of Gyeonggi such as Sunyi, most of the land of the Yeongpyeong Prefecture Guard was swallowed up by the officers of the Guard.

Moreover, Yongping Mansion is located on the passage from Tongzhou to Guanwai, and the people here have to bear a heavier burden of military transportation than other places, which also makes many people in Yongping Mansion abandon their land and flee.

The officers of the guards, who did not have to bear the burden of conscription, wantonly swallowed up the fertile land of these civilians. Therefore, Yongping Mansion is the opposite of the situation in Shunyi, where it is not the land of the guards that is encroached upon, but the land of the commoners that is encroached upon by the guards.

The guard of Yongping Mansion was not only the reserve of the Ming army outside Guanwai, but he also had to bear the task of defending the Great Wall in Jizhou Town.

Therefore, the officers of the Yongping Mansion Guard are basically also the officers of the Jizhou Army and the Shanhaiguan Garrison.

If Wang Zaijin and Zhao Shujiao agreed to the request of these soldiers to carry out the tuntian reform after the three tunwei of Yingzhou, then they would have to worry about whether the officers in these armies would rise up against them.

Yan Chengze, who was worried about Wang Zaijin and Zhao Shujiao, naturally would not take this kind of trouble on himself.

Li Zhongqi, who was in charge of setting up the gendarmerie system in Jizhou Town and Shanhaiguan Guard, was completely indifferent to other matters except for talking with the low-level soldiers guarding Shanhaiguan every day.

Wang Zaijin had no choice but to hand over this problem to Chongzhen again, anyway, he also has time now, Chongzhen's reward before the festival, plus a part of the reissued military salary, made these sergeants very happy, so they had no time to ask about the reform of the Wei Institute.

What he is more worried about now is whether Yang Hao, Man Gui and others, who went to Quang Ninh, will be able to complete the task of reorganizing the army outside the Guanwai.

In fact, Wang Zaijin was worried in vain, and Yang Hao and Man Gui's army was much easier than he thought.

At this time, the garrison outside the customs was roughly divided into five parts: center, left, right, front, and rear, and the most important ones were Ningyuan and Jinzhou.

The general soldier Zu Dashou led 30,000 horse infantry to Jinzhou, and the general soldier Zhu Mei and the governor Wang Zhichen led 20,000 troops to defend Ningyuan.

In addition to these two generals with heavy troops, there are also generals such as You Shilu and Wang Shiqin who are guarding everywhere.

After Chongzhen ascended the throne, he cut off the trade route from Changlu Salt Field to Guanwai, and had the intention of rectifying the army outside Guanwai.

This made the Liaoxi generals led by Zu Dashou feel dissatisfied, but at this time, it was not the time for Zu Dashou to be in charge of the military alone.

In the Liaodong Army, Man Gui, You Shilu, and Zhu Mei also have an army in their hands that is fighting against him, and Man Gui has won the trust of the king's ministers, and his status is far above the two general soldiers of Zu Dashou and You Shilu.

Since the emperor personally took action, Zu Dashou originally thought that he could only suffer this dumb loss, and planned to acquiesce.

However, Yuan Chonghuan, the nobleman and old boss in the capital, advised him to fight hard and abolish the emperor's new policy.

Zu Dashou was reluctant to cut off the financial route of smuggling salt goods with Houjin, and in addition, he once followed Yuan Chonghuan to wipe out the deficit of hundreds of thousands of stone military rations.

Therefore, he thinks that since the old boss has made a move, he must be able to deal with a young man who has just ascended the throne.

In order not to miss the opportunity to ask the emperor for credit, he personally led the cavalry to the vicinity of Shanhaiguan. He originally planned to abolish the new policy, and the emperor's trust should also be won by taking the opportunity, so that he could squeeze out other generals outside the gate and become the only general army outside the gate.

The only thing he didn't expect was that Yuan Chonghuan, the old boss, actually missed, and after getting the news, he immediately returned to Jinzhou, lest people know that he had secretly gone to Shanhaiguan.

What makes him even more uneasy now is whether the emperor will confess to him after he captures those nobles, then he will really have no way out.

The ancestral family is the Liaoxi Wang clan, and in his generation, it is prosperous. The brothers have Zu Dale, Zu Dacheng, Zu Dabi, and the sons and nephews are Zu Zeyuan, Zu Zepei, Zu Zesheng, Zu Zefa, Zu Zerun, Zu Kefa, etc., all of whom are officers at all levels from the general army, down to the deputy generals, staff generals, and guerrillas, and are stationed in Ningyuan, Dalinghe (now Linghai City, Liaoning), and Zhucheng of Jinzhou.

It can be said that although the Liaodong Army has not yet become the ancestral army, the pattern of the Liaoxi generals headed by the Zu family has faintly appeared.

When Yang Hao and Man Gui arrived in Ningyuan with a reward, and convened the generals to discuss the reorganization of the army. Out of fear that this was a ploy by Qin Cha, the purpose was to deceive him into Ningyuan and arrest him.

Therefore, Zu Dashou lost no time in getting sick, and he sent Zu Dabi, who had a good relationship with the generals of Ningyuan, to see Lord Qincha on his behalf.

Yang Hao is different from Wang Zhichen, a civil official who was transferred to Liaodong halfway, and he has been in Liaodong since the Wanli aid period.

Moreover, he has always had a good relationship with Li Chengliang's father and son, so he knows many people in the Liaodong Army.

Even Man Gui, who is now the head of the military generals outside the Guanwai, was just a partial general under his command back then.

Therefore, when he arrived in Ningyuan and began to preside over the meeting of the whole army, basically no military attache dared to raise objections in person.