"Going north from Shanxi Port and detouring to Zhangjiakou via Mongolia, you must pass through Taiyuan Military Town (Shanxi Town) and Datong Military Town Defense Zone. Zhangjiakou is under the jurisdiction of Xuanfu Border Town.
In other words, the top generals of these three border towns may have problems? If you want to deal with the eight major Shanxi merchants, you must replace or transfer the general soldiers of the three border towns? "
At this moment, Chongzhen felt the seriousness of the problem. The General Soldier was the highest military commander in a place. If there was a problem with the General Soldier, the Ming Dynasty would be in real danger.
"Well, that's not right. The eight major Shanxi merchants are sending supplies to the border towns. Taiyuan and Datong will not check. So only Xuanfu is the problem. The supplies are finally sent out here. In this way, as long as Xuanfu is Is it enough to transfer the commander-in-chief?"
"The governor of Xuanfu, Zhangjiakou garrison and Hushi Yalang may also have problems."
After pondering for a while, Chongzhen said softly: "My dear companion, please send word that Li Banghua comes to see me!"
Half an hour later, Li Banghua entered Dongnuan Pavilion.
Looking at Li Banghua's appearance, Chongzhen was a little surprised, because at this moment Li Banghua was sweating profusely, his official uniform was covered with dust, and he looked like the left minister of the Ministry of War.
It's winter now, and it's still the Little Ice Age. What did this old man do to make him sweat like this?
"What's wrong with Li Aiqing?"
"Your Majesty, I am in the process of reorganizing the 21st Guards. I looked around at their respective stations. I am a little disobedient. Please forgive me!"
"It just so happens that I am looking for you just to deal with the 21st Guards. How is the rectification going? Please tell me in detail!"
"Your Majesty, can you give me a cup of herbal tea? I have been lecturing them for a long time, and my throat is starting to smoke."
Chongzhen was a little dumbfounded. Apart from this upright old man, no one dared to ask for tea from him in Dongnuang Pavilion.
After drinking two cups of tea, Li Banghua calmed down.
"Your Majesty, the total number of twenty guardsmen, excluding the vanguard of the government army, is 112,000. After a thorough investigation, I found that the actual number is only 98,568, and nearly 20% of them are pretending to be free of charge.
Among them, Jiyang Guard, Jeju Guard, and Tongzhou Guard were the heaviest, accounting for 30% of the total.
The avant-garde of the government army has a strength of 28,000, but the actual number is only 16,000, and among them are descendants of noble gentry families from all over Kyoto. "
When Li Banghua said this, he glanced at Chongzhen's face and found that the emperor's face was expressionless, as if he had not heard what he had just reported.
To be honest, he knew that there was a problem with the 21st Guards before conducting a thorough investigation, but he did not expect that there would be such a big problem.
Although Chongzhen's face was expressionless, he was lamenting the corruption of the Ming Dynasty in his heart. The emperor's personal army could be corrupted to this level, not to mention the local guards, whose combat effectiveness was estimated to be even worse.
Among the emperor's twenty-six guards, everyone is familiar with the Jinyi Guards, but they don't know that the Jinyi Guards are much worse in organization than the imperial army's vanguard.
Jinyiwei has 14 stations under its jurisdiction, while the Fujun Vanguard has 25 stations, which is almost twice as many in number.
What do the avant-garde of the government army do? The sword-carrying guards around the emperor were selected from here, and they were responsible for guarding against the other twenty-five guards, so their number far exceeded the other guards.
"Keep talking!"
"yes!"
Li Banghua cupped his hands and continued: "After I cleaned up the old, weak, sick and disabled, there are now more than 82,000 people in the Twenty Guards. This is just a preliminary cleanup of superficial problems, but it is still far from restoring peak combat strength, so I want to Restore the examination method in the 26th Guards!"
Chongzhen's mouth twitched when he heard the test method.
What is the examination method? This was proposed by Zhang Juzheng in the first year of Wanli. The Six Ministries and the Supervisory Yuan registered the tasks that officials should do. Each of the Six Ministries, Six Sections, and the Cabinet had one copy.
The core content is: setting limits to examine things and taking responsibility for people.
To understand it simply, it is the KPI assessment of later generations of companies, except that the KPI assessment of later generations deducts wages, and this assessment ranges from fines to dismissal, and even more important ones are directly cut off.
This method was simply a sharp knife hanging over the heads of the lazy ministers, so it was abolished in the twelfth year of Wanli after being implemented for twelve years.
"Tell me more specifically!"
"Among the twenty-one guards, from the general banner to the commander, there are only a few who are clean. However, it is unrealistic to remove them. We cannot replenish them for a while.
It would be better to remove all the generals above the general banner, but temporarily replace them with their respective posts.
The minister envisages setting up an institution similar to the Supervisory Council in each of the 21st Guards, and then setting up a merit book to record what the generals above the general banner do every month, such as sergeants' physical fitness, running, military regulations, etc., on a monthly basis. Assessment, determine priorities, and reinstate the original position if the standards are met.
If you fail to meet the assessment three times, you will be dismissed. If you meet it three times in a row, you will be promoted to one level. Level three is the upper limit.
In this way, in order to protect themselves from being dismissed, generals will practice desperately.
If we also conduct a thorough investigation into what we have done in the past after being dismissed, the effect will be even better! "
After hearing this, Chongzhen suddenly realized that this method is good, but there are some problems.
"Li Aiqing, the method is a good method, but what if the generals put all the pressure on the soldiers in order to keep their official positions? Will they lose their training or cause the soldiers to mutiny?"
After hearing Chongzhen's question, Li Banghua smiled faintly and said confidently: "Your Majesty, please issue an imperial edict. If there is a mutiny, then directly cut down the general flag of the mutinous soldiers and the hundreds and thousands of households.
In this way, if the soldiers do not want to mutiny, the general must appease the subordinates step by step, such as giving money or better treatment, eating meat every meal, etc.
They have been greedy for a lot, and it is difficult for us to recover it. It is better to let them spit it out and use it on soldiers to increase their combat power, which can be regarded as making the best use of it.
Secondly, give some rewards, and the top 100 people in the final assessment will be promoted to one level.
With the combination of shocks and rewards, the soldiers can only train hard. I guarantee that they will definitely regain their combat strength in three months. "
"Hahaha……"
At this moment, Chongzhen laughed.
He was really happy, and the surprise Li Banghua brought him was simply too great.
He summoned Li Banghua mainly to ask how far the 21st Guards had been reorganized, and to measure how many troops he controlled and their combat strength.
In order to determine when to take action against the eight major Shanxi merchants, I didn't expect such a big surprise.
"Li Aiqing, go back and sort out the situation of the 21st Guards, write down the proposed method, and discuss it with the ministers at the court meeting tomorrow. What do you think?"
Li Banghua was a little confused. The 21st Guards were the emperor's personal soldiers. No matter what the 21st Guards wanted to do, it was just the emperor's word. What did it have to do with the Sixth Department of the Cabinet?
Doubts remain doubts, but the emperor's words still have to be listened to.
Facing Li Banghua's doubts, Chongzhen smiled, with a mysterious smile on his lips. He had his own reasons for doing so.
"Your Majesty, what should we do with the advance guard of the government army?
