Zhu Youjian nodded approvingly at Sun Zushou and said: "Counsel Sun is right. If the large array presented by Mr. Yang is to be truly powerful, it must be coordinated by iron cavalry! If there is no iron cavalry, even the infantry and artillery phalanx can repel it." There was no way for the Donglu Horse Team to pursue them! In the end, they could only be defeated, not annihilated.
Moreover, there is no cavalry for protection and no light cavalry for reconnaissance. When we face Donglu, we are in the open and the enemy is in the dark. Whether we fight or not depends on whether the enemy is on us or not! "
The cavalry is the master of the battlefield in this era!
Whether the cavalry can overwhelm the infantry formation is one thing, but whether it can dominate the battlefield is another matter entirely.
Being able to dominate the battlefield means having the initiative. Have the right to choose whether to fight or not, where to fight, and when to fight!
Therefore, the real main force of the Ming army in this era, the servants of the Jiubian generals, were all cavalry!
Of course, these cavalry are all so-called traditional cavalry, or knights and mounted warriors. They need to master a variety of combat skills on horseback and dismount, so it is difficult to train them, and the price of owning them is quite high.
However, the Jiubian generals are still willing to spend their hard-earned and embezzled money to support a few servants, which also shows that these mounted warriors are worth the money.
If they do not raise servants, but instead raise battalions like Sun Zushou, there will be a shortage of elite cavalry. They rely on the food and salary provided by the Ming court to the soldiers and cavalry. Even if they get enough, they will not be able to raise elite cavalry. Cavalry. Moreover, the bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty could not provide enough high-quality war horses for the camp soldiers and horse troops. Even if the Ming government obtained war horses, the horse soldiers of the camp troops would not necessarily cherish them.
So in this era, the truly elite cavalry can only come from servants.
Even if Zhu Youjian is the emperor, he can only follow the path of the emperor's servant!
Zhu Youjian paused and said: "So we have to recruit all the knights in Wanhu account as soon as possible... Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and Huang Degong reported a few days ago that they should be able to choose among the three battalions of Yumajian There are three or four thousand knights in front of the account. These are warriors who are skilled in bows and horses and dare to fight! If we use four thousand households, there are still six thousand households that are not settled, so we have to recruit elsewhere."
The 6,500 battalions of the Royal Horse Supervisor are all cavalry, but there are still good and bad. It is not appropriate to recruit all of the 10,000 cavalry households in the account. Selecting 4,000 households from them should be the limit. Moreover, the Yamen of Yumajian will not be abolished, but will continue to be retained. Because the imperial eunuch is also responsible for dispatching guard eunuchs (supervising the army eunuchs) to various places, these dispatched eunuchs also need to bring a few strong men to show their appearance.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian will also leave 2,000 troops for the Royal Horse Supervisor - it is a troop quota, not a real number. Because the Third Battalion of Yumajian was somewhat short of vacancies, more than 4,600 people were recruited from it (when Zhu Youjian killed Wei Zhongxian, he recruited more than 500 people from the Third Battalion of Yumajian to be his bodyguards, and later collected 600 more people. After a round number), there were only a thousand or a few hundred people left, and the remaining few hundred vacancies had to be collected by the father-in-law of the Royal Horse Prison.
Yang Gao, who was trying to remember when he presented this set of formation diagrams, heard that Zhu Youjian was recruiting servants. He quickly recovered his mind, stood up and made suggestions: "Your Majesty, the Liao army has been at the forefront for many years and has fought bloody battles with the Donglu. There are many strong men in the army. If they hear that His Majesty is recruiting servants, they will definitely apply enthusiastically, and it will be no problem to recruit 6,000 strong men."
Of course Zhu Youjian would not listen to Yang Hao. He shook his head and said: "The heroes of the Liao army are all on the front line of the resistance against the prisoners. If I recruit them into the front army, wouldn't it weaken the strength of Liao Town to fight against the prisoners? So I I want to go to the northwest to recruit servants... There are four major border towns in the northwest, including Gansu, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Yulin. They have always been a place for martial arts. There must be many strong men who are skilled in bows and horses. Moreover, the land in the northwest is barren, and the harvests have been poor in recent years. , disasters have occurred year after year. In July this year, hungry people rebelled in the Guanzhong and Weibei areas. They have not been extinguished yet!
I am afraid that some warriors from the northwest will also have no food and clothing and will rebel, which will be troublesome! Therefore, I want to recruit some strong men who are good at bows and horses from the four northwest towns and the Yansui border area to serve as servants. They can be recruited from the camp soldiers and post soldiers in the four towns, as well as the folk warriors in the Yansui area. "
Zhu Youjian almost got the name of Yinchuan Guard Postmaster Li Hongji (Li Zicheng)!
In addition to Li Zicheng, Zhu Youjian also wanted to recruit as many strong men as possible who had no whereabouts in the northwest border area but could ride horses and archery into the army in front of the tent.
This is a very good deal!
Recruiting one more warrior from the northwest who has no future will give Zhu Youjian himself more strength, while the intruder on the other side (the intruder may not be Li Zicheng, Gao Yingxiang is also called the King of Intrusion) will have less strength. .
"Mr. Sun," Zhu Youjian turned to look at Sun Chuanting, "You have a military background and grew up in Datong. You are familiar with the situation of the border army. Why don't you lead the team to the northwest to recruit servants for me... I I will give you the name of an Imperial Envoy and Recruiting Minister, and then select a group of helpers from the army in front of the tent and the Royal Horse Prison. You can go to Datong to recruit some people.
By the way, I will allocate another 300,000 taels of silver for your recruitment fee... I don’t care how you spend it, I just want you to recruit 6,000 warriors who are skilled in archers and horses and dare to fight within one year! Can it be done? "
Zhu Youjian's style was also raised by his treacherous son... Just to recruit 6,000 skilled warriors with bows and horses, 300,000 taels were given, which equaled 50 taels of silver per capita. This silver was not taken from the warehouse, but Zhu Youjian personally watched and gave it to him.
Moreover, the person who paid for the job was the very reliable Sun Chuanting. There was no way this job would go wrong!
"I must be working hard to live up to the high expectations of the Holy One!" Sun Chuanting was also unambiguous and immediately patted his chest in the envious eyes of everyone.
Zhu Youjian also nodded in approval - this is the spirit of courage to do things! This arrest, no, the task of recruiting the intruder king Li Zicheng is left to you!
After deciding on the candidate for "looking for Li Zicheng", Zhu Youjian wanted to say something else. Xu Yingyuan, the eunuch of the Li Supervisor, had already arrived.
He came to inform Zhu Youjian that the meal was ready - after lunch, it was time for the cabinet ministers, Kedao Yanguan, the general of the Beijing camp, and the Jin Yiwei commanders to come and report.
Because the time for the memorial was set long ago and could not be changed, Zhu Youjian could not "stay in court".
He looked at his lecturers and said with a smile: "Gentlemen, that's all for today's class... Let's stay and have a meal together before leaving! By the way, Mr. Sun, tomorrow Let’s talk about the specific regulations again! It’s my first time to recruit servants, so I don’t really understand it. If you have any suggestions, you can put them forward tomorrow, and we’ll put them together.”
...
When Zhu Youjian, several of his gentlemen, Yang Hao, Sun Zushou and others were eating together, the ministers attending the Wenhua Hall court meeting had already finished their lunch in their respective yamen and were heading towards Donghua Gate in twos and threes. go.
The chief assistant, Huang Liji, and the Minister of War, Wang Zaijin, got together. Both of their brows were furrowed... It was clear at a glance that something was up.
It turned out that the Liaodong Governor and Governor Wang Zhichen had just reported that the Mongolian Chahar tribe occupying the Liaohe Hetao grassland had begun to move westward!
This shows that Lin Danhan of the Chahar tribe was afraid of being beaten by the Donglu and did not dare to establish a foothold in the Liaohe Hetao pasture with rich water and grass. Instead, he wanted to go west to eat the territory of the right-wing Mongolia.
Once the Chahar tribe leaves, the Donglu's power on the Mongolian grasslands will further expand! The various tribes on the eastern Mongolian route and the Khalkha tribes in the north will sooner or later be subdued by the Donglu and become their accomplices and lackeys.
Moreover, there was no one to hold back the Donglu when they attacked western and southern Liaoning.
Originally, in the northeast, the Ming Dynasty, the Donglu tribe, and the Mongolian Chahar tribe were playing a three-legged game. Although the Ming Dynasty was at a disadvantage, they could maintain the situation by joining forces with the Chahar tribe.
If the Chahar tribe wants to withdraw from the Liao River Basin and go to the west to play with the Tumote tribe, the Ming Dynasty will have to practice one-on-one with the Donglu. Thinking about this makes me worried! Originally, when Chahar was still there, the Ming Dynasty was at a disadvantage. Now that Chahar is gone...what should we do?
