While Li Youzi, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, was actively responsible for the design and construction of the official residence, Fang Fang, the minister of the Privy Council and the governor of the Fifth Army, had also completed the establishment of the Privy Council and initially established the military division of labor between the Privy Council and the Ministry of War. A preliminary operational system for the Privy Council's corresponding government affairs has been established.
Jiang Yilin, the former governor of Guizhou, Jin Xuezeng, the governor of Yunnan, and Ye Mengxiong, the prefect of Anqing, who were originally studying in the Military Administration Institute under the Ministry of War, were directly invited by Fang Fengshi to obtain the emperor's consent and graduate early and directly serve in the Privy Council;
Moreover, Yu Dayou, who was originally responsible for training the military chariot camp in Ren Qianshu of the Hou Army Governor's Palace and in charge of training generals at the Jingwei Martial Arts School, was also asked by Fang Fengshi to obtain the emperor's consent to serve in the Privy Council as a deputy envoy to the Privy Council;
In addition, Fang Fengshi also transferred some people from the Ministry of War to form the basic framework of the Privy Council.
Because the Privy Council is under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army and controls military aircraft, Fang used this as an excuse to recruit military general Yu Dayou into the Privy Council system and participate in the military affairs.
Fang Fengshi let Yu Dayou enter the Privy Council, not only because he valued military generals as much as Zhang Juzheng, but also because he knew that Yu Dayou had fought in Zhejiang and served as the chief military officer of Zhejiang, and he intended to use Yu Dayou's understanding of Zhejiang's military minister system to achieve the goal of establishing a military official in Zhejiang as soon as possible. After capturing a large number of military ministers who were slaves of the Jiangnan gentry, the purpose was to quickly recruit a group of generals to fill the entire military minister system in Zhejiang.
Unlike Qi Jiguang, Yu Dayou was not good at dealing with civil servants, which led to his repeated setbacks in his official career. This also caused many of his old subordinates to be dismissed due to his poor situation.
Now Fang Fengshi intends to give Yu Dayou the opportunity to recommend his old department to be re-employed.
In Fang Fengshi's view, Yu Dayou was honest, honest and upright, so his former subordinates should not be much different.
Yu Dayou was naturally willing to lend a hand to his old subordinates, so he followed Fang Fengshi's instructions and recommended many of his reliable old subordinates to serve as vacant military ministers in Zhejiang, and even some vacant military minister positions in the southwest.
As a result, because the Jiangnan gentry wooed some corrupt officials within the Zhang Party, many military ministers in Zhejiang and southwest regions were replaced with many of their people, and were cleared by the court, resulting in the problem of many military ministers in the region being vacant. , was quickly resolved.
It can be said that all the military ministers installed by the Jiangnan gentry in Zhejiang and Southwest China were replaced in a short period of time.
The Jiangnan gentry who secretly attempted to sabotage the New Deal were trying to achieve nothing.
This even gave the New Deal an opportunity to develop further.
For example, the establishment of the official residence system, the military attache's quanxu, and the return of military aircraft to the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.
Fang Fengshi is now because all kinds of military affairs that were originally solely undertaken by the Ministry of War have been changed to be undertaken by the Privy Council and the Ministry of War respectively. He no longer has to be responsible for the overall command of the national military strategy, the appointment of military ministers, and even the management of statistics on the amount of money and food for soldiers and horses. Beijing camp military administration management and many other matters, greatly reducing the workload.
Although this also caused the power of the official position of Minister of War to shrink a lot, it also allowed him, a high-ranking official with a background of border ministers, to step down from his post in the Ministry of War after the new Minister of War Liang Menglong took office and concentrate on being responsible for the country. Military strategic command and military attache Quan have discussed matters above, and they can have enough energy to do things they want to do but have never had time to do.
For example, formulating a military strategy for the long term in the future.
As a frontier minister who quelled peasant uprisings in Guangdong and Jiangxi, served as governor in Datong and Liaodong, and served as governor-general in Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi Mountain.
Fang Fengshi had always had his own ideas about the future military layout of the Ming Dynasty, and he mentioned it more than once in private messages with Zhang Juzheng. It was precisely because of this that Zhang Juzheng recommended him as a soldier after Tan Lun left.
"The Privy Council has just been established, and the military affairs are basically completed. Now there is only one thing left to do, which is to lay out the military and political strategy for the entire country in the future!"
"Should the northwest regain the Hetao? If a major war is triggered by the reform of the southwest, which chieftains will be the cause, and how should the court prepare for a rainy day? Will the Jurchen troubles in Liaodong resurface, and how should we eliminate the Jurchen troubles in Liaodong?"
Fang Fengshi said and looked at Yu Dayou, Jiang Yilin, Jin Xuezeng and others:
"Everyone, let's discuss it. When we come up with a result, we will submit a copy of the inscription to Your Majesty in the name of the Privy Council, informing Your Majesty of the Privy Council's suggestions on the strategic layout of the country's military affairs in the future, and ask for the Holy Judgment."
"Forewarned is forearmed, without prejudging the waste."
"Since the Ministry of War took over the power of military affairs in the Governor's Office of the Five Armed Forces, the Ministry of War had no time to discuss military strategies due to the complicated affairs and was too tired to deal with all kinds of money and food shortages. As a result, many military incidents suddenly occurred without preparation. For example, when the Gengxu Incident and the Japanese Rebellion occurred, the Ministry of War was at a loss from the beginning! It was an unprepared strategy!"
"Now that the Privy Council has been established, it must make up for this shortcoming and put forward strategies for the world's military affairs as a guideline for the governor to handle border affairs."
Fang Fengshi then added.
Since Xia Yan and Zeng Xian were executed for bringing up the idea of recovering the Hetao, no ministers dared to mention the idea of recovering the Hetao again.
Although the recapture of the Loop is indeed of great significance.
But now, Fang dares to bring it up at the right time, and this is when the Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area have stopped attacking the border towns because of Anda and Gong, which is enough to show that he is indeed courageous in his military strategic layout, and even does not hesitate to Let’s talk about recovering the Loop again.
You must know that in the history of the Ming Dynasty, it was because the Ming Dynasty failed to solve the Hetao issue all the time, and even in the early Wanli period when the country was strong, it did not confiscate the Hetao area. As a result, in the middle Wanli period, another war broke out in the Hetao area.
Fang Fengshi brought it up at this time, which can be regarded as a long-term perspective.
"Let me speak first."
Fang Fengshi said: "First of all, in our opinion, it is not appropriate to talk about the restoration of Hetao now. The main reason is that the peace with Gong has not been around for a long time, and there has not yet been chaos in the northwest. There is no opportunity to find an opportunity. We can only take advantage of the opportunity to peace with Gong now. Educate him slowly, and arrange the royal guards to work carefully to prepare for the future."
"But now that Mongolia is submissive, it is because our troops are getting stronger. But if peace lasts for a long time and our officers and soldiers become lazy, Mongolia will continue to plunder and refuse to profit from trade."
"Hu Yi have always been afraid of power but not moral, so there will still be a big battle in the future, and they will inevitably have to regain the Hetao and cut off the enemy's foundation."
After Fang Fengshi said that, Jiang Yilin said: "If the southwest changes its land and returns to its original state, the three chieftains who should be most wary are the Yang family, the An family, and the She family."
"But the Southwest Mountains are dangerous and full of people, so if you want to successfully deal with the war in the future, you should use barbarians to fight barbarians!"
"At this time, we should first educate a large number of local barbarians so that more familiar barbarians can be Chineseized. In this way, we can recruit familiar barbarians into the official army, and we will definitely get twice the result with half the effort against the chieftain soldiers!"
Fang Feng nodded: "Yin Shaobao thinks so too."
Then, Ye Mengxiong, who once served as the patrol commissioner of Liaodong, said: "The Jurchens in Liaodong who should be most guarded against are the Jurchens in Jianzhou! However, Wang Gao is dead and Jianzhou is weak, so it doesn't matter now."
"It's just that it is inevitable that the Jurchens will have their own tenant farmers in the future just like the Mongolian Anda has its warehouses. Then they can no longer just plunder, but can also form heavy troops and expand their territory to recruit troops."
"Therefore, it is best for the imperial court to exterminate all their clansmen, or to civilize their clans. Just like in the southwest, they should change their origins and return to their homeland. Otherwise, it will inevitably become a huge problem in the future."
Yu Dayou said at this time: "In this way, it is not just the southwest that needs to change its status quo, but also the northwest Mongolia and the Northeastern Jurchens."
"In that case, does the imperial court have so much money to change the situation?"
“The most difficult thing about converting native people to return to local rule is not the fear of rebellion by the chiefs, but the most difficult thing is having to spend money and food to appease the people who are ruled by the chiefs, and also spend money and food to educate them;”
"Although it is against humanity to kill them all, it would be very expensive to kill them all, rather than just quelling the chaos."
"In short, whether it is possible to change the land and return it to the locals depends on whether the imperial court has enough national funds to do it!"
Fang Fengshi nodded after hearing this: "What Old General Yu said is a mature way to plan for the country. He understands it better than me and other civil servants. Now we have to think about where it is better to change the country first."
"Why don't you cross the sea first to quell the Japanese to increase your financial resources?"
Jin Xuezeng suddenly asked at this time.
