"Your Majesty, the art of war says: if you defend for a long time, you will lose; if you attack for a long time, you will break."
Such a slap from Chongzhen did not frighten Lu Xiangsheng, but instead made his body straighter.
"The Jinning defense line is more than two hundred miles long, with tens of thousands of troops stationed, and countless money and food consumed every day. Once the logistics cannot keep up, the entire line will collapse. Can my Ming Dynasty with such financial resources be able to keep up?"
"Besides, the front end of Jinning's defense line relies on Hongyi artillery. I heard that every time Jiannu charged, he used cowhide-wrapped escape vehicles, dead soldiers, etc. as front consumption shells. The real damage to their cavalry was not not much."
"The Ming Dynasty had firearms, but can we guarantee that the Ming Dynasty's firearms will not be used by Jian Nu? Since the firearms are so powerful, won't Jian Nu study them?
If they also study it and attack the city with artillery, our advantage will be gone. Will we still be able to defend it then? "
Listening to Lu Xiangsheng's words, Chongzhen also lamented Lu Xiangsheng's strategic vision and overall view.
Let’s not talk about other things. The aspect of firearms was really taken over by Hou Jin.
Historical records show that during the Battle of Daling River in the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde led his troops to surrender and build slaves. He also brought with him the artillery, gunners and foreign experts who forged artillery accumulated by Sun Yuanhua.
Since then, Jiannu's firearms have advanced by leaps and bounds, and their combat power has greatly increased, causing great damage and pressure to the Ming Dynasty.
"Lu Xiangsheng, since you want to join the army, I will give you a chance."
After several trials, Chongzhen was very satisfied with Lu Xiangsheng's performance.
"There are three options now. One is to join the Fourth Division of the Ministry of War and become a doctor. The second is to join the Fourth Guards of Tengxiang and become a commander. The third is that I will give you the authority to form an army yourself. You can choose it yourself!"
"Oh, by the way, Tengxiang's four guards are currently being reorganized. After the reorganization is completed, they will be expanded. From now on, they will no longer be guarding me. They may go to the front lines to take turns fighting."
Lu Xiangsheng trembled all over, his eyes filled with disbelief.
I thought about countless possibilities along the way, but I never thought that he would join the army, and there were three options.
Only now did he realize why His Majesty made such a fuss about General Wu Wei as soon as he entered the house. It turned out that he was considering letting him join the army.
After the surprise, Lu Xiangsheng calmed down and began to think about the pros and cons of the three options.
The Ministry of War has four administrative divisions: military selection, staff, chariot driving, and arsenal. The boss of each division is Langzhong, who is of the fifth rank. Regardless of the low rank, if you do well, the upper limit in the future will be the Minister of the Ministry of War. The worst is also a rank. Minister.
Although in the Ministry of War, you can also come into contact with military matters, but they are all indirect matters, which is not as exciting as fighting on the battlefield.
The second Tengxiang Four Guards, the emperor's personal army, are already reorganizing. Although they are on the front line, many things have been finalized by the previous commanders.
Moreover, it is the Forbidden Army within the Forbidden Army. The soldiers are arrogant and nepotistic. It is difficult to change this.
But the good thing is that with the support of the Royal Horse Superintendent and the Emperor, at least military pay and promotion are more guaranteed.
The third one is to build a new army from scratch. There are too many things to do. Recruiting and training are all big things. These are easy compared to the combat power.
But the advantage is that everything is organized by oneself, the spirit and morale of the army can be shaped by oneself, and the command can be done with ease.
"Your Majesty, I choose to form my own army!"
After thinking about it, Lu Xiangsheng responded.
Listening to Lu Xiangsheng's response, Chongzhen secretly shouted in his heart. Sure enough, it was the King of Hell in later generations who had his own ideas.
"Okay, since you have chosen to organize it yourself, I will give you the independent power to decide on recruitment, appointment and dismissal of generals, military salaries, military camp settings, etc. You will receive 200,000 taels of silver from the internal funds as initial military pay. "
"I don't care about the process, I only care about the results. What I want is an army that dares to fight, dares to fight, and is loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Can you do it?"
"Your Majesty, I can't help but raise my head to see you!"
Lu Xiangsheng's mentality changed quickly, and he was already accustomed to being a military commander at this time. He then said: "Your Majesty, is there a limit on the number of people in this army?"
"No, you decide for yourself. The establishment is not limited to the Wei Institute. You can do whatever you want."
Chongzhen felt that the Ming Dynasty's guard system was not very good. He could understand what Zhu Yuanzhang meant. The troops stationed in various places could quickly respond to emergencies and would not waste a lot of national financial resources.
But there are only 5,600 people in a guard post. Dozens of guard posts can be assembled in a war. Each guard post has a commander, and each guard post has its own way and habits of training troops.
It is impossible to coordinate well when issuing a charge order, and the guard system is to integrate soldiers and farmers, and soldiers and farmers are integrated. How can the soldiers be fully trained?
But an era has its limitations. In the early Ming Dynasty, the economy was not enough, so this may be the best choice.
Not giving Lu Xiang the number of new troops now can be regarded as a test and exploration of future military reform.
"I understand!"
Lu Xiangshen suppressed the excitement in his heart and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, please give me a military name!"
Chongzhen pondered for a moment: "How about Tianxiong?"
"Tianxiong?"
Lu Xiangsheng repeated it subconsciously, and suddenly said with surprise: "Thank you for giving me the military name. Tianxiong is the white tiger. When a tiger comes out of the mountain, it is unstoppable and will see blood. I will definitely do what your Majesty expects."
This time it was Chongzhen's turn. He really didn't know what Tianxiong meant.
It's just that history records that Lu Xiangsheng's army was called Tianxiong Army. He didn't know why exactly, and he didn't expect it to mean this.
"Since you have given me a military title, I will reward you all at once. I heard that you like famous horses, so I will reward you with one."
After Chongzhen finished speaking, he looked at Wang Chengen and said, "Big companion, you will go and see the horse supervisor later and give my Wuming Ji to Lu Xiangsheng."
"This slave accepts the order!"
Chongzhen picked up a prepared imperial edict from the table and handed it to Lu Xiangsheng. Without this imperial edict, recruiting troops privately would be rebellion.
"Okay, Lu Xiangsheng, you go ahead. The 26th Guards and the Beijing Camp will perform martial arts in half a year. I hope your Tianxiong Army can shine."
"I have lived up to your Majesty's trust!"
After Lu Xiangsheng knelt down to thank him, he stood up and slowly retreated outside Dongnuan Pavilion. Wang Chengen also followed.
Looking at Lu Xiangsheng leaving, Chongzhen sighed in his heart. Others seemed to have given them too much power and were easily arrogant, but Lu Xiangsheng was not.
The world only knows that Lu Xiangsheng was a famous general in the late Ming Dynasty and the founder of the Tianxiong Army, but a few people knew that his family was loyal.
Three of his uncles, one younger brother, and two cousins all died in the battle, and more than a hundred members of the Lu family also died in resistance to the establishment of slaves.
His loyalty is comparable to that of Qin Liangyu. Chongzhen believed in him. If the Ming Dynasty needed it, he would give him a stage to show it.
that's enough.
"Master Lu, congratulations!"
Wang Chengen, who was walking side by side with Lu Xiangsheng, congratulated him and said, "Master Lu, this is the first time for your majesty to reward you with a royal horse. Not even the loyal lord Qin Liangyu has received this kind of treatment. This shows your majesty's expectations for you."
Lu Xiangsheng nodded and asked in a low voice: "Wang Zhongguan, where do these five bright faces come from? When I saw your majesty talking about it just now, you seemed to be surprised?"
"You don't have to worry about where it comes from, but the people from Taipu Temple gave this horse an evaluation: Purple body and black mane, its strength is thousands of miles, a lonely moon hangs on its shoulders, and there is no toe in the frost, you will know the difference of this horse It’s unusual.”
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
After hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng turned around and saluted towards Dongnuan Pavilion again.
The two of them quickly headed towards the Royal Horse Prison. After the explanation, Wang Chengen said to Lu Xiangsheng with a serious face: "Master Lu, your Majesty has high expectations for you. We have two things to remind you."
