eldest son of Ming dynasty

Seeing that the emperor was in some hesitation, Zhou Shangwen continued: "Your Majesty, I have something I don't know whether to say or not."

"Just say it."

"Yes. We heard what your majesty said about zoning and stratification. Its original intention is to defend the enemy from the outside, that is, to deploy the most elite troops in the border areas where the situation is the most unstable. This is naturally the best, but it is not most suitable."

Zhu Houzhao frowned and said, "Please speak more clearly."

"To strengthen its body, it is necessary to weaken its branches. Your Majesty should also know that Guanzhong and Hedong can never be held in the hands of one general."

People who fight are not very expressive, but Zhu Houzhao understood his metaphor.

It's just like setting the boundaries of provinces.

The boundaries of the provinces in the Central Plains region were formed in this way over thousands of years. Unlike the state boundaries in Africa and the United States in later generations, they were drawn down in a straight line and counted wherever they were drawn.

In our case, there are military considerations behind it.

To put it simply, it means to pinpoint the weak point of the place.

Give you a defensive area, and at the same time put the area where you feel most uncomfortable into the hands of others to contain it.

The Guanzhong and Hedong areas cannot be connected together because they are small plains between mountains. If they become a whole, it will be too difficult for outsiders to insert their hands.

"So, what you are saying is that hierarchical partitioning should be combined with military factors to restrain each other and prevent any party from becoming bigger."

Zhou Shangwen's heart became clear, "Your Majesty is wise and decisive, and this is exactly what I mean."

"In this way, the strongest troops cannot be placed in the border areas far away from the Central Plains. The distance is too far and it is inconvenient to control. Not only that, the troops in various defensive areas in the mainland are not strong. To put it bluntly, if someone wants to attack When the wind is in chaos, it is very easy to drive forward."

After saying these words, Zhu Houzhao felt his heart tighten.

Military is also political.

This sentence is really true. Military arrangements that do not consider politics will eventually lead to disaster.

"Mr. Yue Guo, this reminder of yours is indeed an attempt to protect the country."

"Your Majesty has given you too much praise, how can a humble minister dare to take the credit?"

Zhu Houzhao pondered, "In this way, under this division and layering, exactly where to place what kind of troops is still a very learned matter, and it needs to be carefully considered and decided with prudence."

"That's right. Besides, I don't think it's necessary to put the best army on the border. Your Majesty's original intention is to expand the territory, but wars don't happen all year round. You can raise troops for a thousand days and use them for a while. When needed, you can even send troops from the capital. Setting off will only delay time."

Well, it’s not a big price to pay.

If something happens, the price will be high.

"The capital is always the most important." Zhu Houzhao said without thinking.

"Yes, the main purpose of the Ming Dynasty's army is to defend the capital. If there is a police attack on the border, the beacon will be passed, and then His Majesty will issue an order to go out. You must not have a large-scale and extremely powerful tiger and wolf army in the local area. . In addition, the passes leading to the capital in all directions should be elite divisions. The only difference is in the number. And it is not necessary that every pass is the most elite. Under the layering, the troops of different levels themselves should also be Allow for integration.”

Zhou Shangwen is indeed a famous general who has been in the army for decades, and what he considers is indeed very reasonable.

Zhu Houzhao accepted the lesson humbly, "According to what you said, not only did you not lose the essence of hierarchical partitioning, but you also took precautions. It's excellent, excellent. By the way, I just said layering, not partitioning. My It means that after the separation of military and government, local provinces cannot interfere in military affairs, and the army has set up governor's offices in each province. The governor of the governor's office directly takes orders from the military aircraft department. The Ministry of War cannot interfere. "

He did not introduce the concept of later military regions here. At that time, the defense area of ​​a military region was often several provinces.

This did not apply in ancient times.

Most of the time, it was only towards the end of the dynasty that the phenomenon of one organization taking charge of the military affairs of several provinces became more and more common.

For example, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were governors of five provinces. Why? Because of the chaos, someone has to be in charge of the overall situation.

Another example is the previous trilateral governor. Its birth background was Yulin, Gansu, and Ningxia. The mobilization of troops and horses between the three places could not be coordinated.

As for saying that there are too many officials, there are two aspects to this matter. With fewer officials, it can indeed be streamlined.

But with more officials, the power in each person's hands will be smaller.

Why did the work of the prime minister be divided among three people in the Tang Dynasty? Logically speaking, this is the most obvious redundancy of officials.

There is no absolute more or less, only the benefits are important.

If the Northwest Military Region is simply and crudely established, the majority of the Northwest Military Region will supervise the troops in Gansu, Xinjiang, and Shaanxi provinces.

Then how can he be called the Governor of the Northwest? Isn’t he the King of the Northwest?

Therefore, it is best to combine one province with another. It's just that these soldiers and horses used to be under the jurisdiction of local civil servants, but now they take orders from the imperial court at all levels.

Zhou Shangwen asked: "I wonder how your Majesty will arrange the personnel of the Military Aircraft Department?"

Zhu Houzhao did not hide it, "The personnel in the Military Aircraft Department are naturally set up as needed, and there are no fixed rules."

In fact, it was the emperor who had the final say.

"Wei Chen is just afraid that there will be criticism."

"What I do is always accompanied by criticism, so what?"

No one in the court can stop him now.

However, the reform of the military system is too important, and it cannot be decided by just a few words between Zhu Houzhao and Zhou Shangwen here today.

What can be determined today is a direction.

The next step is to start step by step.

"The Duke of Yue."

"Wei Chen is here."

"I think this is the case. Let's first determine the number of people in the guard station. Five thousand six hundred people is not appropriate. After it is determined, we will proceed step by step.

The first is the reorganization of the Beijing camp, and Beizhili becomes a separate military region. Afterwards, the border troops in various places were reorganized. During the reorganization process, the effectiveness of the Military Aircraft Department was actually brought into play. "

In other words, the emperor would issue orders directly from military aircraft and ask various places to improve.

This is a change at the command level and has nothing to do with the elimination of military households.

Military households have canceled the construction of 'spiritual civilization' that should be attributed to the military.

"Yes. I accept the order, but I don't know how many troops your Majesty will set up in Beizhili?"

"Two hundred thousand is a bit too much, maybe 120,000 to 150,000." He didn't say a definite number, but now he was just making decisions based on his head, so he gave a range and it depends on the final result of the operation.

Zhou Shangwen probably knew what he was doing, so he decided to start with the Beijing camp first.

To be honest, these Shangzhi personal guards and the three major battalions themselves are a bit confusing. If there is a real war, they will not be able to distinguish between them.

When he was about to resign, Zhu Houzhao suddenly called him out again, "Wait a minute."

Zhou Shangwen had no choice but to turn around.

"Duke Yue, I also want to set up another civilian official in each military camp."

"Civil official?" Although the old general didn't show anything on the surface, his heart was already sinking.

Zhu Houzhao explained: "This civilian official is not higher in rank than the general who leads the troops. Training, fighting and other matters are still under the control of the general. But in terms of politics, it is under the control of civilian officials. There is no superiority in rank, but the division of labor is different. .You can also understand it as...supervising the army, but you can't supervise battles, only training."

And he thought about sending the newcomers who took the imperial examination every year. Wouldn't that be a bunch of people lining up waiting to be conferred an official position?

These people have no official experience yet, are timid when they first become officials, and have just been awarded Jinshi. A bright future is waiting there, so they are not likely to take risks.

In short, in terms of loyalty and threat to the central government, civilian officials are indeed more reassuring than military attachés.

Regarding this, Zhou Shangwen had no position to express opposition, but only responded, "Everything depends on His Majesty's orders."

"Well, you go ahead. In two days, I'll hand you a note. This matter still needs to be brewed and won't be done overnight."

Looking at Zhou Shangwen’s leaving figure,

Zhu Houzhao suddenly felt that there was a long way to go, but it was always a good thing to have a goal.

In the afternoon, You Zhi came to report that Zai Yan was back.

His journey was also dusty, and July was the hottest season in the north. As soon as they met, Zhu Houzhao blurted out, "It's dark."

There was a hint of distress in his tone.

Zai Yan also hadn't seen the emperor for many days. After kneeling down, she said loudly: "My son, please see your father!"