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In every generation of emperors, there is no one who does not strictly control the construction of the army.

Zhu Yuanzhang is no exception.

He went from a small soldier to a marshal step by step, and finally ascended to the throne.

And from battle after battle, he has summed up his own army philosophy.

This concept continued to grow in the process of development, and finally grew in his heart like a towering tree.

After Zhu Yuanzhang carried out political and institutional reforms, and after he cleaned up different forces in the court, the next thing to do was to reform the military.

So, what kind of army is the most suitable for the reality of the Ming Dynasty?

This starts with the most basic point.

Zhu Yuanzhang made his fortune in the Red Scarf Army, so he naturally attached great importance to strengthening the control of the army after he became emperor.

It was the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion that originally commanded the national army, and Zhu Yuanzhang appointed his own nephew Zhu Wenzheng as the Metropolitan Governor, the highest military officer in the country.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion had too much power, so in the 13th year of Hongwu, when the Zhongshu Province was abolished, the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was also divided into five parts.

The governor's offices of the left, right, middle, front, and rear armies were established to command the capital and guard troops under their jurisdiction.

Each capital governor's office is only in charge of military status and military administration, and has no power to command and command the army.

The Ministry of War has issued military orders, but it cannot directly and command the army.

When a war broke out, the emperor personally appointed the military commander, and the Ministry of War issued an order to deploy troops.

After the reform, the disadvantages of domineering generals and arrogant soldiers mutiny were avoided, and more importantly, the military power was concentrated in the hands of the emperor.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was still worried about the generals.

Later, he adopted the system of enfeoffing vassal kings, entrusting his sons to various important towns to be princes, so as to monitor and control military generals in various places.

These feudal vassals are equipped with guards according to regulations, ranging from 3000 to 19000.

They also have the power to command the local guards to guard the town soldiers.

In case of emergencies, the guards in the fiefdom will receive the documents stamped with the emperor's imperial treasure, and the generals must also have the decree of the vassal king before they can be mobilized.

This increased the prince's power to supervise the army. Although it played the role of screening the royal family and guarding the imperial court, it also caused chaos for the later princes and planted the seeds of crisis.

In this regard, Ye Boju, the instructor of Pingyao at that time, saw the troubles covered up, so he wrote tens of thousands of words to Zhu Yuanzhang, advising him to cut off his temporary favor, save his capital to the kings, and reduce his military guards, so as to prevent the future.

But after reading the memorial, Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, saying that Ye Boju had alienated his own flesh and blood, and arrested him and sent him to prison.

After Zhu Yuanzhang consolidated and strengthened his absolute authority in the army, he made up his mind to reform the organization and training of the army.

He believes that the conscription system and recruitment system implemented in the past dynasties have many disadvantages, and facing the new struggle situation, it is urgent to establish a new military system.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Ji conducted serious research on the military system of the past dynasties, and established the unique Weisuo military system in the Ming Dynasty.

Its characteristic is that the military status is inherited from generation to generation, and the combination of farming and warfare is implemented, and it is not only farming but also training in peacetime.

It is an army that combines armed forces and productive forces. According to this new guard system, guards or posts are set up in important military locations across the country, and all sergeants are organized in the guard posts.

Every 112 people is compiled into a hundred households.Every 10 hundred households is organized into a thousand households, and every 5 thousand households is compiled into a guard.The heads of the Weihe Institute are Baihu, Qianhu and Wei Commander respectively.

The main banner of Baihu is about 50 people, and the small banner is about 10 people.

In the 26th year of Hongwu, there were 17 commanding and envoys in the country, 329 guards under their jurisdiction, and 65 independent guarding thousands of households, with a total of about 120 million troops.

It has become the pillar of defending against the invasion of foreign invaders, suppressing the people's resistance and maintaining the rule of the Zhu family dynasty.

With the establishment and consolidation of the Zhu family dynasty, the generals who used to stand together with Zhu Yuanzhang in the rain of guns and bullets have now become the new dignitaries of the new dynasty.

They succeeded in the struggle, and they were granted titles of dukes and nobles. Over time, the contradictions and struggles between the new regime and the new aristocrats gradually became prominent.

The founding general Lan Yu was the main general in the later period of Hongwu.

There are more than a dozen brave generals under his command, all of whom have high prestige.

Sapphire was very brave in battle, made great achievements in battle, and was named Duke of Liang.

There are thousands of slaves and fake sons in his family.He occupied Dongchang people's fields, and the people complained to the censor.The censor brought him up for interrogation according to law, but Lan Yu beat him away with a stick.

The government banned salt smuggling, but he ordered his family to buy more than [-] yuan of Yunnan salt for smuggling.

When he came back from the Northern Expedition, the guards did not switch on and off to greet him in time, so he broke the pass and entered.

The corruption of these honorable ministers and veterans seriously hindered the improvement of Zhu Yuanzhang's ruling effectiveness, and the high meritorious deeds threatened the concentration of imperial power.For the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang began to ruthlessly suppress Lan Yu and other heroes.

Zhu Yuanzhang originally planned to make him Liang Guogong, but later changed his title to "Liang Guogong" in order to clear his mind; on the "voucher" given to him, he also engraved his faults on it to remind him.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang asked him to retire and return to his hometown to enjoy the blessings, but Lan Yu didn't know the fun and refused to retreat bravely.

Soon, Lan Yu captured Yuefan Timur, the rebel commander of Jianchang Wei alive, and his power became more and more powerful, and he wanted to be promoted to noble.

But Zhu Yuanzhang treated him coldly and ignored all this.

After the emperor's grandson was established, Zhu Yuanzhang summoned Feng Sheng and Fu Youde to return to the court, and ordered them to serve as the prince's tutor, but he still ordered Lan Yu to also serve as the prince's tutor.

Lan Yu shouted angrily: "Can I not be a Grand Master?"

, Jin Yiwei reported Lan Yu's treason, saying that he and Cao Zhen planned to take the opportunity to hijack Zhu Yuanzhang while he was out hunting.

When Zhu Yuanzhang got this letter, he ordered Jin Yiwei to send troops to arrest him.

Zhu Yuanzhang interrogated himself, and then handed over to the Ministry of Punishment to train him into prison.Sapphire was beheaded and beheaded three clans.

All the courtiers who had contact with Lanyu, the princes of the ranks, were exterminated by the party.The Sapphire case killed more than 15000 people successively, and almost wiped out all the veteran generals with high meritorious service in the army.

Except for the two cases of Hu Weiyong and Lan Yu, the few remaining heroes were sentenced to death, whipped to death or beheaded for various crimes.

Xu Da was listed as the number one founding hero by Zhu Yuanzhang. He suffered from back gangrene, and this disease is the most taboo to eat steamed goose.

Zhu Yuanzhang gave him steamed goose when he was seriously ill.

Knowing that the emperor wanted his own life, Xu Da had no choice but to eat the steamed goose in front of the envoy with tears in his eyes.

Within a few days, Xu Da passed away bitterly.

Heroes Feng Sheng, Fu Youde, Liao Yongzhong, Zhu Liangzu, etc. were also punished successively.

In this way, it is rare for the veteran hero to die well.

Only Tang He, the cowherd boy who grew up in the same village as Zhu Yuanzhang, knows that his old partner is now worried about the old minister and general.

He voluntarily surrendered his military power, told his old age to return to his hometown, and never talked about state affairs, so he saved his life.

Li Jinglong and Guo Ying were saved from murder because they returned their tenants and farms early.

Zhu Yuanzhang punished and murdered the heroes wantonly, making everyone in the court and the field feel insecure.

At that time, Beijing officials had to bid farewell to their families every morning before entering the court and explain the funeral.

The whole family was lucky to be able to return safely in the evening, and lived another day.

The courtiers also gradually understood Zhu Yuanzhang's temper. If he pressed the jade belt under his belly that day, he would definitely kill a group of officials.

If Zhu Yuanzhang hung the jade belt high in front of his chest this day, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief and secretly rejoice.

Later, after Zhu Yuanzhang was killed, there were no civil servants and generals who could work for him.

He came up with a trick to let the "criminals" wear crimes to work.

In this way, in the early Ming Dynasty, there were censors who sat in court with shackles to try cases, and courtiers who returned to the original yamen after eighty slaps.This is unique in Chinese history.

Prince Zhu Biao was very sad after seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's practice of killing heroes indiscriminately.

He advocated benevolence and justice, less murder, and harmonious coexistence between monarchs and ministers.

He said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "Father killed too many people, I'm afraid it will hurt peace."

After Zhu Yuanzhang listened, he didn't make a sound at that time.

The next day, in order to satirize the prince and show his concealment, he deliberately put a stick full of thorns on the ground and asked the prince to pick it up.

On the third day, Zhu Yuanzhang saw Prince Zhu Biao's embarrassment, and said, "You are afraid of thorns and dare not take them. Wouldn't it be better for me to pull out these thorns for you and give them to you."

Zhu Biao replied, what kind of emperor there is, and what kind of subjects there are.

Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he heard the words, raised his chair and beat the prince, who had to run away in a hurry.

Zhu Yuanzhang used the strategy of governing the country fiercely. Although he had not publicly repented, when he was about to die, he ordered future generations not to learn from his practice.

He said that this set of measures is only a stopgap measure, and the future new emperor must not copy it, but act according to the law.

He hoped that after him, the Ming Dynasty could enter the track of feudal legal system as soon as possible, and a prosperous situation would appear as soon as possible.