After hearing Chongzhen's rhetorical question, Mao Yuanyi's heart settled down. In fact, after Yuan Chonghuan proposed the plan for the reorganization of the three divisions and six brigades, he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

Now after hearing the emperor's refutation, some thoughts in his heart became clear, so when the emperor stopped talking, he quickly said: "Your Majesty is right, we have created a Nurhachi because of a moment of negligence. Because of this slave chief, the Ming Dynasty not only lost most of Liaodong, but also lost millions of Liaodong soldiers and civilians.

In the past, Tang Xuanzong took the alien An Lushan as the general of the border town, which made the prosperous era of Kaiyuan end by the Anshi Rebellion, and he was also placed under house arrest in the Ganlu Palace, and ended up depressed.

It can be seen that the ancients said: If you are not of my race, your heart will be different. There is indeed no mistake in this statement. In the opinion of the ministers, in order to avoid using the Mongols to form cavalry divisions, which will be detrimental to our Ming Dynasty in the future, it is better to limit the proportion of Mongolian knights in our Ming army, and the number of officers. ”

Chongzhen looked at the circle of officials sitting around the table, and found that not everyone agreed with Mao Yuanyi's statement, especially Wednesday Wei shook his head again and again, but he didn't dare to refute Mao Yuanyi.

Zhu Youzhen suddenly pointed at Wednesday's name and said: "Staff Officer Zhou, you can also talk about it, what do you think about the issue of recruiting foreign soldiers into the Ming army, if we want to discuss the problem today, we should brainstorm and not speak." ”

Zhou Wei, who was looking down and thinking about things, was a little caught off guard after being directly named by Chongzhen, but he quickly gritted his teeth and said: "The junior minister does not agree with what Staff Officer Mao said, what Your Majesty just said is that it is forbidden to form a Ming army with the armed forces of various Mongolian departments, not to limit the number of aliens in the army.

Today, outside the pass, there are two major forces of Houjin and Mongolia, both of which are good at cavalry, and our Ming armed forces have always been dominated by infantry stationed in fortresses. From the north of Yanshan Mountain to the southeast of Yinshan Mountain, the areas outside the Great Wall are dominated by grasslands. Without a strong cavalry, we would not be able to cover the Great Wall line.

If we can't control the grasslands outside the Guan, then the Great Wall from Shanhaiguan to the Hetao region is thousands of miles, and the Mongols and Houjin can find a random place to attack in these thousands of miles if they want.

Although there are hundreds of thousands of our Ming border army, they are distributed on such a long line of defense, and they have become a sieve that does not dominate everywhere. As long as the Later Jin and Mongolia controlled the steppe, then they would attack if they wanted to, and retreat if they wanted to. And I, Daming, am either exhausted in these thousands of miles of defense line, or I can only make up for the dead.

The minister thought that the best way to reduce the number of border troops and thus reduce the investment in border defense was to form a strong cavalry. As long as we control the grasslands adjacent to the Guanwai, we can set up a buffer zone between Mongolia, the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty, then the Great Wall defense line from Shanhaiguan to Gansu does not have to be strictly guarded everywhere, but can choose a few key areas to guard.

In this way, the military spending of the nine sides can be reduced a lot. And if you want to build a strong cavalry, it is definitely not enough to recruit the border people of the Northland.

Moreover, although the northerners who lived with the Mongols were good at riding and shooting, they were always inferior to the Mongols who grew up on horseback. As for the Houjin Jurchens, they made a living from fishing and hunting, and even the women surpassed some of our Ming troops in horsemanship, and they had to rely on recruiting Han people to train cavalry, which was obviously a large investment and low return.

Therefore, it was imperative to recruit the Mongols to build an army loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Xiao Chen thought that what the General Staff should solve now should be how to disrupt and recruit the knights of the Mongol tribes into the Ming army, and the connection between them and their respective tribes. How to make these Mongols turn their hearts to my Daming, instead of creating small groups in the army to resist the military orders of the imperial court.

What's more, the Mongols are no better than the Han Chinese, they live nomadically on the steppe, and lack medicine, so the population growth has always remained low.

This means that for every Mongol we recruit, there is one less potential soldier for the Mongol tribes and the Houjin who are hostile to the Ming Dynasty. The cost of recruiting these Mongols was always less than the cost of building a fortress to defend them. ”

With Mao Yuanyi and Wednesday fearing this, other members of the staff also began to express their opinions one after another, wary of the Mongols' opinions and the idea of asking to use the Mongols, which just accounted for a fifty-fifty share.

After Zhu Youzhen and Sun Chengzong exchanged glances, Sun Chengzong came forward to end the discussion. He believes that now that Yuan Chonghuan is still negotiating with the Chahar people with the Mongolian right-wing ministries, how the Ming Dynasty treats those Mongolian tribes who are willing to rely on him, we must first look at the results of this negotiation, rather than blindly formulating a policy now.

If these right-wing Mongol tribes are willing to accept the advice of the Ming Dynasty, choose a place to settle in the grasslands near Guanwai, and accept the ruling power of the Ming Dynasty, then they will naturally be treated more favorably.

And the tribes that are unwilling to settle in the border areas close to the Ming Dynasty, and do not want to accept the direct rule of the Ming Dynasty, and only obey the Ming Dynasty in name in exchange for the reward of the Ming City, naturally have to be guarded against.

He also suggested that a detailed plan for how to use the Mongol knights to build a cavalry division should be drawn up first, as Wednesday had suggested, and then a thorough discussion would be held. Zhu Youzhen nodded and accepted Sun Chengzong's suggestion, and then ended the meeting.

As the meeting ended, the officials who participated in the meeting withdrew from the room one after another, but Sun Chengzong sat there without moving, and Chongzhen did not get up when he saw this, he felt that this Mr. Sun still had something to say to him.

Sure enough, when only the two of them and Lu Qi were left in the room, Sun Chengzong turned his body to Chongzhen and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the old minister still has a few words that he wants to talk to His Majesty in private." ”

Zhu Youzhen put his hands on the table and responded with a smile at Sun Chengzong: "If Mr. Sun has something to say, please speak directly, I am willing to listen to Mr. Sun's teachings at any time." ”

Sun Chengzong said worriedly: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that this military reform is still very problematic, has Your Majesty really thought it through?" ”

The smile on Zhu Youzhen's face froze slightly, then returned to normal, and said calmly: "Please also sir, what is wrong with this military reform?" ”

"If this military reform is successful, the power of the General Staff will be too great, and if a person with a bad mind takes the position of the commander-in-chief, I am afraid it will not be a blessing for the society.

And if this military reform fails, these 10 prefectures will undoubtedly be equivalent to 10 feudal towns, and it will be difficult to recover the power that His Majesty has released at that time. The disaster of the feudal town at the end of the Tang Dynasty is vividly remembered in the history books.

Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that the implementation of this military system reform will lead to many hidden dangers if it succeeds, and it will cause disaster to the world if it fails. ”

Sun Chengzong's attitude of completely rejecting the reform of the military system made Zhu Youzhen quite dissatisfied. When he was about to refute, he looked up and saw the snow-white temples exposed under Sun Chengzong's official hat, and none of them were black, which made him swallow the words that came to his mouth again.

Zhu Youzhen sighed and said frankly to Sun Chengzong: "The worries that Mr. just said are indeed true, and I have nothing to defend.

However, Mr. is thinking about the world of my Zhu family, and what I am thinking about is the world of the Ming Dynasty. If I want a world with one surname, the weaker the world, the safer it is.

I remember a book that said that if a monarch wants to maintain his rule, then the world is the most stable in a state of half-starvation and half-hunger for his subjects. Because they are not yet starving to death, they will not rise up and rebel; And they had to work hard to fill their stomachs, so they had no time to criticize the king's deeds.

Therefore, when the subjects of the world are in such a state, the king can easily rule without worrying about anyone who will worry about his country. Does Mr. Sun want me to be such a king? ”

Sun Chengzong subconsciously denied: "No, of course not, this is simply raising the people as pigs and sheep." How can this crooked and evil way be used as His Majesty's way of governing the country? ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "Yes, I agree with Mr. As a great tomorrow, I must do something for the people of the Ming Dynasty to be worthy of the worship of the subjects of the world.

What the people of the Ming Dynasty want, I thought it was very simple, but it was just four words to live and work in peace and contentment. How to live and work in peace and contentment, we must first let the world enjoy peace.

Now I have a strong enemy outside the Ming Dynasty, a rebel army inside, and bandits and bandits everywhere. Today's affairs, if the Ming military is not strong, then the people will not be able to live in peace, and the people will not be able to live in peace, how can they be happy?

Dividing the Ming Dynasty into 10 prefectures, and having the local governors clean up the bandits and bandits in the territory and maintain social order is better than the blind command of the imperial court who is not familiar with the place, right?

The establishment of field troops directly under the orders of the imperial court in each prefecture has also eliminated the danger of secession of local feudal towns to the greatest extent.

Therefore, the most dangerous thing about the reform of the military system is that the tribe of the General Staff is in the hands of careerists, thus endangering the Jiangshan and social affairs of our Zhu family.

Mr. Sun, when I was paying tribute to the fallen soldiers in Daxiaochang before, I once said: My Taizu Gao Emperor Ben Huai Youbu Yi, because he was ordered by the people, expelled Hu Lu, and relieved the people from hanging upside down, so he inherited the mandate of heaven.

If the destiny is no longer in my Zhu family, no matter how bad it is, it will just go back to be a cloth cloth. But if I don't carry out the reform of the military system, weaken the people of the world, and let foreign enemies invade the Central Plains, how will I face Emperor Taizu Gao underground in the future? ”

Zhu Youzhen acted as righteous and straightforward, and suddenly Sun Chengzong had nothing to say for a while, he hesitated for a long time, and finally said weakly: "Your Majesty still doesn't want to put Emperor Taizu Gao's "Edict on the Central Plains" on your lips from time to time, this word will inevitably be disrespectful to Emperor Taizu Gao, I am afraid it will cause criticism." ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't think there was anything wrong, he always felt that Zhu Yuanzhang's statement that he was Huaiyou Buyi was more domineering than my father was Li Gang, I don't know how many times.

That's why he didn't care, those clan vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty, when they heard that he hung Huaiyou's cloth clothes on his lips every day, how big a shadow his heart was.