In the Ming Dynasty Political Affairs Hall with its carved red curtains, after Zhu Yijun asked this question, Privy Councilor Fang Fengshi stood up on the right side of Zhu Yi at this moment, and then came to Zhu Yijun.
Then, Fang Fengshi reported: "Your Majesty, the Privy Council, based on the current number of Nan soldiers in the third battalion of Ji Liao, and after considering the need to continue to assist Jizhou and conquer the Japanese, it is believed that five thousand Nan troops can be adjusted. The troops will be sent to the pro-military guard, and the number of additional troops for the pro-military guard can be set at 50,000.”
Zhu Yijun nodded after hearing this, and then asked Zhang Xueyan: "How much is the silver discount now?"
"Your Majesty, I now have 3,050,000 taels of silver."
Zhang Xueyan also stood up again and replied.
Then, Zhang Juzheng stood up on the left side below Zhu Yijun, came to Zhu Yijun, and said: "Your Majesty, this time the increase in troops, if the pro-military guard is 50,000 as decided by the Privy Council, plus 30,000 from Liaodong, and the Xuanfu one If we say ten thousand in Datong, ten thousand in Datong, and five thousand in Shanxi, the total number of people will be one hundred and five thousand. In this way, the annual increase in military supplies will be enough for the number of people left in the year. However, in this case, the number of people left in the year will be less than one million. Two, if there is a major flood or drought in any year or a major event such as the prince's resignation, it will be difficult to make ends meet again that year."
Zhu Yijun nodded.
He had to admit that Zhang Xueyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, obviously sincerely supported the government and gentry working together to pay for their duties, otherwise he would not have made the financial figures so coincidentally.
That is to say, the remaining national funds are just enough to cover the additional expenses after increasing the number of troops by 100,000, with a slight surplus.
But it was not that there was much surplus, which gave the emperor the idea of building large-scale construction projects or even over-building troops.
And this means nothing more than supporting the emperor's military training and strengthening the strength of his own military guards, and also supporting the emperor's bribery of border town generals in the name of increasing the number of troops in border towns.
In short, the root cause of all this is that he, Zhang Xueyan, supports the New Deal where officials and gentry all pay for their work together.
That is to say, the emperor saw that if he wanted to increase the savings significantly after increasing the number of troops, the officials and gentry would have to pay for the food and serve as errands, so that they could do bigger things in the future.
Because doing big things requires spending money and increasing expenses.
How dare you do big things without increasing your income first?
If it were replaced by a minister of household affairs who did not want to continue to pay for the work of officials and gentry, nor did he want the emperor to train troops.
When making statistics, the financial accounts can be calculated as the increase in expenditures after the surplus is not enough to increase the number of troops. It can even happen, as in history, some ministers would let the emperor only see that although the annual income is large, the annual expenditures are also very large. As the deficit still existed, the emperor still needed to be frugal.
In this case, the emperor should not only train and increase troops, he should also reduce the number of troops and eliminate factory guards. At the same time, he should also increase pay. It seems that if the pay is not increased, the national finance will collapse.
Therefore, the information expressed by the Minister of Household Affairs who stewarded the emperor's household, or the entire civil government system, often determined what the emperor could do.
After all, the emperor lived in a deep palace and only had one pair of eyes. What was the real finance of the empire like? Didn't the civil servants who took care of his affairs have the final say?
It is obvious that Zhang Xueyan really supports Zhang Juzheng's implementation of the reform of officials and gentry paying grain and serving as errands. According to Zhang Juzheng's will, the accounts were kept just enough to meet the emperor's need for more recruits. However, he had to continue to increase revenue after the increase of recruits, that is, to implement the official system. The gentry is now in charge of the New Deal.
"We need to increase our troops, otherwise there will be problems with both the border defense and the capital defense. I don't want another Gengxu Incident to happen in this dynasty!"
"However, the situation that Mr. Xiang mentioned that there will be a serious shortage of Suiyu due to this cannot be ignored."
Because Zhu Yijun knew that civil servants such as Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Xueyan were reformists who supported the New Deal and were willing to allow himself, the emperor, to have his own troops and loyal ministers, he spoke cooperatively and continued to ask:
"So, do you have any good solutions for the problem?"
Zhang Xueyan, Wang Guoguang, Shen Shixing and other ministers who came to the political hall, that is, the ruling ministers, all looked at Zhang Juzheng.
At this moment, Zhang Juzheng stood up again, stood in front of Zhu Yijun, bowed his hands and said:
"Your Majesty, in my opinion, the only way is to cancel the exemption!"
"This can not only greatly increase the current national wealth, but also prevent the government from being unable to function due to the increasing number of gentry and mergers in the future!"
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun nodded and said: "I remember that Zhao Qing's family mentioned this matter back then, and now Mr. Jiuji also proposes this matter, I'm sure!"
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
Zhang Juzheng and other officials in power also hurriedly flattered him.
As a result, the new policy of increasing the number of troops and strengthening the army, as well as the officials and gentry working together to provide food and errands, was decided.
Next, the Privy Council petitioned for the decree and recruited brave men from the capital and the border troops with clear backgrounds to form a new pro-military guard, setting the number of troops at 50,000. Soldiers and horses.
At the same time, 30,000 troops were added to Liaodong, and the Andong Protectorate was confirmed to be established in Nuergan, and a certain number of troops were also added to Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi.
In total, the Ming Dynasty will increase food and salary expenditures for hundreds of thousands of troops.
However, the difference here is that the pro-military guards do not need to be paid for free, but will actually train 50,000 troops.
After all, the soldiers and horses under the direct command of Emperor Zhu Yijun did not need to rely on empty pay to make a fortune.
At the same time, Zhu Yijun would not use free money to win over the officers who were pro-military guards, but would directly use the gold and silver fixed to the emperor every year as rewards for pro-military guards.
It is worth mentioning that in history, there were emperors who were so stingy that they would not even pay their own military guards, but would sit back and watch them become slaves of wealthy families. This was tantamount to taking the initiative to delegate power, and as a result, nothing could be done.
Zhu Yijun would naturally not do this. He would not take the initiative to let the knife in his hand turn into a rusty knife.
In the end, the Privy Council submitted the title book for comment, and Zhu Yijun approved it, and issued an edict to reorganize the Huben, Yulin, and Jinwu armies, and each army was divided into two left and right guards, which was equivalent to setting up the emperor's six guards, which were directly commanded by the emperor, plus the existing Jin Yiwei, in fact, in this way, the soldiers and horses directly commanded by the emperor are seven guards.
Originally, by the time of the Ming Dynasty, most of the pro-military guards had ceased to exist in name only, and most of them should have been managed by the Ministry of War. They were now managed by the Privy Council. However, there were no Jin Yiwei, Teng Xiang left guard, Teng Xiang right guard, and Wu Xiang left guard who were under the control of the Ministry of War. Among the four camps of Wei and Wuxiang Right Guards, except for the Jinyiwei, the other four camps were all under the control of the Royal Horse Supervisor. Therefore, the emperor could only directly command the Jinyiwei before this.
But now, the change of the seven guards to the direct command of the emperor has undoubtedly strengthened the emperor's military power!
Since the emperor is required to directly command, the commander-in-chief of the Seven Guards must be directly appointed by the emperor, and the commander-in-chief will be directly responsible to the emperor, and can no longer be controlled by civilian officials.
Therefore, the chief generals of the personal military guards can be appointed or dismissed by the emperor directly.
A handwritten edict can be used to decide the matter without having to go through the civil servants of other dynasties.
The generals who are pro-military guards will also be granted the privilege of directly reporting to the emperor secretly and accepting imperial edicts without going through the General Affairs Department and the Sixth Section, nor are they subject to orders from the Privy Council.
In this way, the status of the military minister can be regarded as improved.
This has changed the reality that the Ming Dynasty has become more and more noble and military-minded since the Ming Dynasty.
And there began to be opportunities for military ministers to contact the emperor directly without passing through civil servants.
But when the edict reached the Sixth Section, it was refuted by Xie Jie from the Military Section Zuoji!
Xie Jie's reasons for rejecting the seal were that there was nothing wrong in the world, so there should be no unnecessary increase, waste of national funds, and the transfer of border troops to pro-military guards for fear of accidents.
The implication is that there is no big war now and there is no need to strengthen the army.
And by transferring the 5,000-strong southern army to the pro-military guard, wouldn't His Majesty be worried about Qi Jiguang plotting rebellion?
The reason is still sufficient.
But the essential purpose was clear to Zhu Yijun after he learned that Liu Ke had refuted his edict.
He knew that this was because many civil servants still did not want the soldiers and horses commanded by the emperor himself to become stronger.
The emperor can only exist as a puppet who is the most respected in terms of etiquette and law, and he can only exercise power through the civilian government.
You know, they even want to abolish the Jin Yiwei, the only one still under the direct command of the emperor, and don't want it to continue to exist. What's more, this time they are reorganizing the seven guards to be directly commanded by the emperor?
This allowed the military ministers of the Seven Guards to take orders directly from the emperor, bypassing the civilian government and becoming close ministers of the emperor.
This really touched the bottom line of most scholar-bureaucrats in the civil government.
(End of chapter)
