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On the third day, Chen Yu was finally facing more than just Zhu Youxiao.

Beside Zhu Youxiao, there was a young man of about seventeen or eighteen years old. I think it was the original Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian.

Look at the other person's pale face and the fear in his eyes.

Chen Yu knew that before he came, Zhu Youjian must have been severely punished by his brother. And judging from the other party's appearance, Zhu Youxiao did not hide the so-called shipwreck from him.

However, these have nothing to do with him. This is a matter between brothers. The reason why Zhu Youxiao brought Zhu Youjian with him was just to give Zhu Youxiao an extra helper.

If the Tang King's fiefdom was not far away, there might be one more.

Chen Yu was in a very good mood now, because last night, after integrating the third strand of magic power into his body, his Spirit General Body Building Technique finally entered its first stage.

Physical strength has increased by at least 50%!

In the past two days, since only Zhu Youxiao was present, Chen Yu talked about history and political system that were only suitable for the emperor to hear. Today, there is no need to be so cautious.

So, consider the addition of Zhu Youjian.

Chen Yu decided to talk about armaments!

Chen Yu's first sentence touched the hearts of the two.

"Your Majesty and Prince Xin, do you know that a few hundred years later, there will be a joke that is no longer a joke."

"That's right, the Ming army is invincible!"

"There are more people who believe this than the Jurchens!"

Before Zhu Youxiao could react, Zhu Youjian, who was attending the class for the first time, said in surprise: "Nonsense, how is this possible?"

"If that's the case, how could the Battle of Sarhu have ended like that?"

Zhu Youxiao quickly reprimanded him, "Prince Xin, how dare you be so rude to the teacher? Why don't you apologize to the teacher?"

Chen Yu calmly stopped him and said, "Your Majesty, don't be anxious. If you force Prince Xin to apologize, he will be unwilling to do so!"

"Prince Xin asked a very good question. Now I will tell you the real reason!"

"The first is the military pay. Do you know how much of the military pay set by our dynasty will be left when it reaches the border soldiers?"

"If you can get 30%, then the generals in charge can be considered to have a conscience."

"Before it reaches the Ministry of War, 30% will be deducted. This is the rule of the Ministry of Revenue. Even the military pay allocated by the court will be swallowed up by 30% in the Ministry of Revenue. It's not just the military pay, almost all the funds allocated are like this, including the food and fodder for disaster relief."

Seeing Zhu Youxiao narrow his eyes slightly, Zhu Youjian opened his mouth to speak.

Chen Yu ignored him.

He continued, "The Ministry of War embezzled a lot of money, I don't know. Then the military pay was embezzled by the military governors, generals, guerrillas, etc. By the time the soldiers got 30%, it was already very good."

"That's why I say that the general who commands the troops has a conscience."

"Only 30%, or even less than 30%, of the salary. Soldiers can't even support their families. If they can't even support their families, how can we expect soldiers to fight for the Ming Dynasty?"

"How can the combat effectiveness be high?"

Without waiting for the two to speak.

Chen Yu continued, "Not only that, the reduction in food and wages has also caused another more serious consequence."

"That's right. Due to the lack of pay, most of the troops, including the border troops, have the bad habit of eating without paying."

"Since the general supply of food and wages is only 30%, the number of soldiers in most armies is basically only about 30% of the registered soldiers."

"However, border soldiers need a certain level of combat effectiveness."

"This led to another anomaly in the army, which is the existence of retainers."

"In order to ensure the fighting capacity of these servants, the generals had to embezzle the wages of other soldiers again."

"So, the result is that the actual number of soldiers in a registered army of 5000 will not exceed 2000. And among them, the number of servants who are truly capable of fighting will not exceed 300. The rest are just there to make up the numbers."

“This is also a record that seems incredible to many emperors.”

"Take the Battle of Sarhu as an example!"

“Not counting North Korea’s military.”

"The Ming Dynasty claims to have 20 elite troops. The Eastern Tartars have 6."

"The Ming army is divided into three groups. Each group nominally has 6 soldiers. According to my previous example."

"The actual number of these 6 people is around . The number of elite soldiers with real combat effectiveness will not exceed !"

"There are 6 Eastern Tartars. Excluding the old and weak, there are more than elite soldiers."

"Twenty thousand against six thousand, how can you not lose?"

Looking at Zhu Youxiao with a gloomy expression and Zhu Youjian with murderous eyes.

Chen Yu said coldly: "What's more, the Ming army's disadvantages are more than that!"

"First of all, the weapons and equipment! Whether it's firearms for long-range attacks, weapons for close-range attacks, or even armor for defense, the Ming army is no better than the Eastern Tartars. They are even at a disadvantage!"

This time, Zhu Youjian couldn't hold back again.

He shouted, "That's impossible. The Ministry of Crafts, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works all have specialized departments for making weapons. The court allocates a large sum of money every year."

"How is it possible that the weapons of our Ming soldiers are worse than those of the Eastern Tartars?"

Chen Yu was not angry at all.

He said calmly, "If Prince Xin doesn't believe me, you can go to the armories of the above yamen when you have time, and you will know if I am talking nonsense."

Then he explained to Zhu Youxiao: "Due to the deductions made by the upper echelons, there is a huge gap in both the wages of the craftsmen who made weapons and the materials used to make weapons. In order to make the number sufficient, everyone explained. Almost all weapons and armors are greatly short of weight."

"Firearms kept exploding, so the soldiers were afraid to use them. Armor provided more than 60% less protection than required, and weapons were rusted and underweight."

"How can the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty win the battle?"

"Fortunately, the servants basically don't use the official weapons. They either buy them privately from skilled craftsmen or remake them from scratch. Otherwise, the Ming army's combat effectiveness would be even lower."

"On the other hand, whether it's Shanxi merchants or merchants in the southeast, almost all of them are colluding with the Eastern Tartars, especially Shanxi merchants. The ironware they smuggled to the Eastern Tartars alone can at least allow 10,000 of the Eastern Tartars' elite to be equipped with sophisticated equipment."

"The equipment alone has created a huge gap between the two. The only advantage of the Ming Dynasty may be its cannons!"

"Then there is the intelligence gap. Long before the war, the Eastern Tartars had learned all about the Ming Dynasty through Shanxi merchants, Mongolians and other spies."

"As for the Ming side, even if the Jinyiwei may have found out the news, how much effect would it have had? How could they not be defeated?"

"Finally, it's about the commanders of the two sides. No matter how much I dislike you, I still have to admit that the other side is a veteran with a very keen nose for the battlefield. And what about our dynasty? They actually sent Yang Hao, who knows almost nothing about military affairs, to command? The gap between the two is too big!"