Chapter 504 503 Tan Lun

"Your Highness, judging from Mr. Li's memorial, Governor Zhang actually predicted that the Japanese pirates might attack Xinghua, but..."

Wei Guangde didn't know what to say. He guessed the movements of the Japanese pirates and the result was like this.

At this time, footsteps sounded outside, and a servant stood outside the door and whispered into the room: "Your Highness, there is a note coming in from outside."

Hearing the words outside the house, everyone looked towards the door.

Li Fang, the eunuch beside King Yu, had already walked over quickly without going out. He took the note from the man directly at the door, turned around and returned to King Yu's side, and then handed the note to King Yu respectfully.

Everyone's eyes followed Li Fang and finally fell on King Yu, staring at the expression on his face, wanting to know what was written on the note.

I don't know whether it was because King Yu was naturally dull or because the city was so deep. At least Wei Guangde didn't see anything from King Yu's face.

After King Yu read the contents of the note, he handed it to Yin Shizhen and then circulated it one by one.

"My father dismissed You Zhende, appointed Tan Lun as his replacement, and sent Qi Jiguang to lead his troops to invade Fujian again to suppress the Japanese."

Seeing that the note finally fell into Zhang Juzheng's hands and everyone had read it, King Yu said: "I remember, this Qi Jiguang is very good at fighting. The first one to defeat Zhang Lian's rebels was his subordinates. Later, he also fought against Japanese invaders in Fujian, and he must have just joined the army not long ago. "

"It's November. In previous years, the Japanese pirates have retreated at this time, so he was asked to lead his troops back to Zhejiang. It seems that the soldiers he recruited are all from Zhejiang. After all, they have to go home to celebrate the New Year."

Zhang Juzheng answered.

"Uncle is very familiar with this Qi Jiguang."

Wei Guangde chuckled.

In Wei Guangde's impression, later generations seemed to have arranged that Qi Jiguang bribed Zhang Juzheng and gave him a seal dog or something, which was said to be an aphrodisiac.

Now that he heard that he knew about Qi Jiguang's recruitment of troops in Zhejiang, Wei Guangde couldn't help but joke.

"Haha, just reading the military newspaper, I seem to see his name often, so I asked about him when chatting with the adults in the Ministry of War, so I don't think I am familiar with him."

Zhang Juzheng stroked his beard and replied.

"When the country is in trouble, we miss good generals; when we are sick, we miss good doctors."

King Yu smiled and said: "The current Japanese invasion in Jiangnan is in urgent need of a general who can turn the tide. I hope this Qi Jiguang can live up to his father's expectations."

"I remember when I went to Zhejiang a few years ago, I saw Qi Jiguang's new army training outside Hangzhou. They seemed to be miners recruited from Yiwu. I also paid attention to this team later, and it seemed that the record was not bad."

Wei Guangde recalled.

When he went to Zhejiang to supervise and kill Wang Zhi, Qi Jiguang led troops to garrison in Hangzhou. However, at that time, the Qi family's army had not yet been fully trained, so they did not fight much. They mainly relied on Yu Dayou to support him from the front.

However, Qi Jiguang was famous in later generations, so Wei Guangde also took a second look at him at that time.

"New army?"

King Yu was surprised and said: "He is leading the camp troops?"

"Yes, Your Highness, Qi Jiguang felt that the guardsmen were mixed and not easy to command, so he asked Governor Hu for an order to independently recruit a team of troops. I heard that because he felt that the miners had a lot of strength, they only needed to practice fighting well. You can go to the battlefield as soon as possible, specially selected people.”

Wei Guangde replied, "However, these battalions are slightly different from those of the Jiubian Battalion. That is, the soldiers' pay is smaller, but the rewards are much higher. Gold, silver, and silk are used to stimulate the combat effectiveness of the battalions."

"It seems that most of the soldiers who can fight on the nine sides are also camp soldiers."

However, King Yu thought of the camp soldiers in the border town and asked curiously: "Shandai, are the camp soldiers really more powerful than the guardsmen?"

"It's really hard to say."

Wei Guangde didn't know how to answer after thinking about it.

Do you mean that guardsmen are not as good as camp soldiers?

This seems to be a bit of a slap in the face. The so-called military status is a guard soldier. If you want to say that a guard soldier is not as good as a camp soldier, this is really unreasonable.

The Guard Corps was established in the early Ming Dynasty after the emperor proclaimed himself the emperor and began to comprehensively reorganize the army. First, the 17 Guards Command Divisions including Wude, Baotao, Feixiong, and Weiwu were established, with "guard" as the unit. The pro-army was planned, and then thousands of households were set up to guard the local areas, and the establishment of "stations" was established.

During this process, he verified the number of soldiers under his generals' command. The one who commanded 5,000 troops was called the commander, the one who commanded 1,000 troops was called a thousand households, the one who commanded 100 troops was called a hundred households, the one who commanded 50 troops was called the general banner, and the one who commanded 10 troops was called the small banner.

On the one hand, the status of an officer is mainly based on the number of troops he has; on the other hand, the basic establishment of the army is based on the guards and posts, and the official titles of the officers at all levels are command, thousand households, and hundreds of households. The establishment is uniform and the names are The reality is consistent and the troops are in order. This is the so-called "Ministry Law" and is also the basic content of the Ming Dynasty Guard System.

After reorganizing the country's military forces, a complete Ming Dynasty guard system was finally formed in the seventh year of Hongwu. There were roughly 5,600 people for one guard, 1,120 people for one thousand households, 112 people for one hundred households, and 50 people for one general banner. , 10 people are a small flag.

One guard has jurisdiction over five thousand-household offices, one thousand-household office has jurisdiction over 10 hundred-household offices, and one hundred-household office has jurisdiction over two general banners, each with five small banners.

All armies across the country are organized into guard posts according to this organization, and are led step by step by commanders of small banners, general banners, hundreds of households, thousands of households, and guards.

At this point, the garrison system became the basic organization of the Ming army and was customized. Whether it was the garrison in Beijing or the province, or the personal troops and guards of the emperor and vassal princes, they were all organized according to the garrison system.

The earliest battalions actually appeared in the early Ming Dynasty. They were the strongest soldiers drawn from various guards and temporarily assembled into wartime establishments.

However, this temporary military system in the early Ming Dynasty soon changed due to the increasing border troubles, especially in the border areas of the Ming Dynasty. The temporary deployment of troops gradually became a regular system, and the camp system emerged due to the needs of the situation.

Of course, the camp soldiers during this period were actually the elite soldiers from the garrison soldiers, and they were still military households.

In the Ming Dynasty, except for the border troops and the Beijing camp, the garrison soldiers in other places soon became slack.

Because of the frequent wars, the border troops could barely retain a certain combat power, and therefore they were not completely garrisoned, but closer to the garrison soldiers, because they could only use a small amount of energy for farming, and more for fighting.

The Beijing camp was supported by the strong financial support of the Ming Dynasty, so although the speed of its combat power decline was faster than that of the border troops, it was still barely good enough compared to other garrison troops.

However, after Tumu Fort, the Beijing camp also completely degenerated.

The reason for the collapse of the garrison system was that the society was stable and relatively peaceful. Garrison officers began to occupy military land and exploit soldiers. The living standards and social status of soldiers gradually declined. As a result, deserters in garrisons in various places gradually increased, and military equipment gradually became obsolete.

From this point of view, naturally, the battalion soldiers are much more powerful than the garrison soldiers.

However, because they are the elite of each garrison and participate in the most dangerous places in the battle, the military pay is also higher.

Therefore, at the beginning, the battalion soldiers only appeared as a temporary combat response method and were not common.

The garrison soldiers were unusable, so the Ming government had to start recruiting soldiers from the people. Unlike the garrison troops, the recruited soldiers were not hereditary. Although they were soldiers, they were affiliated with the civilian population, or they entered the garrison soldiers but their household registration remained unchanged.

The garrison soldiers were mainly stationed. In order to solve the problem of military food, they cultivated and guarded. The garrison soldiers lived in one place for generations, but because the garrison was engaged in farming, their mobility and combat effectiveness naturally declined.

The establishment of the battalion soldiers is to make up for the lack of mobility and combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers. With higher military pay than the garrison soldiers, they will naturally participate in the most dangerous wars. It is not wrong to say that their combat effectiveness is stronger than that of the garrison soldiers.

However, thinking that the two are completely different, Wei Guangde simply said: "The garrison soldiers have to farm and fight and defend. It is naturally difficult to have the best of both worlds. As the saying goes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. The battalion soldiers are dedicated to battle formations and receive much higher pay than the garrison soldiers. If their combat effectiveness is not as good, it is better not to recruit them."

Prince Yu nodded, also agreeing with Wei Guangde's words.

However, Wei Guangde did not stop there, but continued: "In fact, there is an old saying, called 'one soldier is a bad general, and the whole army is a bad one'. Whether it is a garrison soldier or a battalion soldier, to exert combat effectiveness, it mainly depends on the general who leads the army.

For example, the Datong Army, when Yu Dayou was in Datong, the Datong Army could travel hundreds of miles deep into the desert to capture Bansheng City, and on the way back, it could also defeat the pursuers sent by Altan Khan's tribe.

But after Yu Dayou was transferred from Datong, Datong General Liu Han was defeated in battle after battle, and now he has been relieved of his post as General Officer."

"That makes sense. Qi Jiguang's troops played a huge role in the anti-Japanese war in the southeast coast in the past two years. Before that, it was Yu Dayou who led the Ming army to fight, and now the power of the Japanese pirates is no longer as strong as before."

Yin Shizhe is also more optimistic about Yu Dayou, because the battle records between the two are completely unequal.

Yin Shizhen sensed something at this moment. It seemed that Zhang Juzheng valued Qi Jiguang, while Wei Guangde definitely valued Yu Dayou.

It was not that the two of them should not show up in front of Prince Yu, but they were indeed saying that the general they favored was better.

As for what he said about the unequal performance of Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang, it was mainly from the perspective of the number of troops they commanded.

Yu Dayou had experience in commanding hundreds of people in battle, and also had experience in commanding tens of thousands of people in battles, and most of them won battles. Looking at Qi Jiguang, his command troops were more in the thousands, and it seemed that he had never performed on a large-scale battlefield with tens of thousands of people.

In addition, when Yu Dayou commanded the anti-Japanese war, the main forces among the Japanese pirates had tens of thousands of soldiers, and these Japanese pirate gangs had disappeared, leaving only countless medium and small forces, and gangs with thousands of people were considered to be very powerful teams among the Japanese pirates.

"Dayou saves more money in fighting."

For some reason, Prince Yu opened his mouth and said this.

Perhaps Prince Yu calculated the military supplies between the guards and the camp soldiers, so he had such feelings, but Wei Guangde did not dare to tell the truth.

In the Datong battle, most of the spoils that the army robbed were directly divided by the officers and soldiers who participated in the battle. It was a life-and-death battle.

If you win, you gain both money and men, but if you lose, you lose both money and men.

And this time when he went to Fujian to suppress the bandits, Wei Guangde wrote more than a dozen letters to Jiangxi to ask for help after confirming that Yu Dayou was transferred, because he was worried that the Jiangxi Provincial Administration and the Dusi would hold Yu Dayou's neck on the issue of money and grain.

He knew the nature of those civil servants too well. Even if the rebels were at the gates of the city, they would take a layer of money and grain from the treasury.

There is a saying that food and grass must go before the troops move. Wei Guangde, who was influenced by the war experience of later generations, naturally understood the importance of logistics.

If it is said that Yu Dayou saves money than Qi Jiguang in fighting, Wei Guangde really dare not shamelessly agree.

"By the way, are you familiar with this Tan Lun?"

After saying so much, Prince Yu finally remembered the most important content of the emperor's decree this time, which was to replace the governor of Fujian.

Wei Guangde shook his head, "When I went to Zhejiang, Mr. Tan should have been the prefect of some prefecture."

Wei Guangde didn't have a deep impression of Tan Lun, so he naturally didn't pay much attention to him, let alone someone he had never seen before.

Looking at Yin Shizhen and Zhang Juzheng, he found that they both shook their heads like him.

However, Zhang Juzheng seemed to remember something immediately and said: "This Tan Lun, I seem to have read the Zhejiang report. When he was the prefect of Taizhou, he once organized and trained rural warriors to fight against Japanese pirates under his rule. Their combat effectiveness was also good. This team Xiang Yong later joined Qi Jiguang's subordinates."

"Then he is quite a strategic person. No wonder he was sent to Fujian at this time."

Zhang Juzheng's words gave everyone an initial impression of Tan Lun, that is, he was a military civilian official, and in the future the highest official position could be a governor or minister of the Ministry of War.

"Governor of Fujian, it's a pity that his previous official position was low, so this transfer will be lower than that of Zhao Bingran."

Yin Shizhen said.

"He is not from the Metropolitan Procuratorate. He is the governor of Fujian. Maybe he will be promoted to the title of Qiandu Censor in the final imperial edict. If he is the Qiandu Censor, how can he be given the title of Deputy Capital Censor when he is transferred to Fujian this time? ”

Zhang Juzheng said regretfully.

In the Ming Dynasty, governors and governors did not have fixed grades. It depended on what title was added to obtain the corresponding grade, and the most important title was naturally the title of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

For example, Tan Lun was directly appointed by Emperor Jiajing. The highest official position he could get after directly entering the Metropolitan Procuratorate was that of the Imperial Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the fourth rank of governor.

Because he is the governor, he does not need to hold the title of Minister of War, so his rank as governor is only the fourth grade.

"I don't know how long it will take him to take over Fuxinghua Mansion?"

King Yu did not care about the official position that Tan Lun might be awarded. Perhaps this was because he was the emperor's son. They only valued the minister's ability to do things. As for the rank, it was actually secondary to the actual power.

Regardless of whether you are a governor with the title of Shangshu or a governor with the title of Yushi, there is actually no essential difference between the second and fourth grades, they both exercise the same power.

However, it has to be said that Emperor Jiajing's order to dismiss You Zhende was decisive. Before the imperial edict was issued, countless censors were already preparing to impeach him, and the target was not only You Zhende, but also You Zhende. Even the newly appointed governor of Fujian and Guangdong was included in their impeachment.

However, after Emperor Jiajing issued the direct decree, the direction of these impeachment memorials was unanimously aimed at You Zhende. Perhaps because it was near the end of the year, many censors who had not completed the impeachment targets were trying their best to impeach him for his incompetence.

It was also because of this edict of dismissal that a possible impeachment storm in the capital was eliminated.

All the officials in the capital have their eyes fixed on Xinghua Prefecture in Fujian Province, waiting for Tan Lun to take over Fuxinghua Prefecture. If there is a slight setback, he is afraid that he will become the second You Zhende.