Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 886 Martial Arts
In addition to the confusion of these military positions, there are also casual officials and honorary ranks in the army. If all of them were counted, it would be even more chaotic.

Zhu Shenzhui planned to reorganize the military positions and unify the military positions and ranks to distinguish them and make command easier.

This would effectively change the chaotic situation of military positions and ranks in the Ming army, and reorganize various units in a targeted manner, thus keeping the army firmly under control.

Zhu Shenzhui could not rely solely on his new army. No matter how good the new army was, it was just a troop. The Ming army, from border troops to garrisons, numbered more than one million. It was necessary to reorganize these troops one by one and re-establish new military positions and ranks.

In Zhu Shenzui's opinion, directly creating military positions and ranks from later generations is not a good choice. After all, this approach requires completely overthrowing the existing military positions and starting from scratch, which is difficult to accept. However, it is possible to reorganize and re-plan the existing military positions and ranks in the current Ming army, which is what he plans to do now.

In the future, the local military garrisons of the Ming Dynasty will be divided into three parts. One part will exist as the police. As early as when Zhu Shenzhui entered Beijing and adjusted the Beijing Camp, the capital area had already changed the original Beijing Camp into a police agency, and set up a police department. This agency is currently under the management of the Jinyiwei, but will become independent in the future and become a new independent department.

In addition to the police agencies separated from the garrisons, there was also a part of the local forces, namely the second-line forces. These second-line forces were equivalent to the local security forces and were at the same level as the police. In other words, they were equivalent to the existence of the armed police forces in later generations, and continued to be under the jurisdiction of the commander-in-chief and the capital commander-in-chief in the name of the garrisons.

As for the last part, they will be directly dismissed and become civilians. Of course, the previous hereditary system of the garrisons will be gradually broken during the adjustment, so that the garrisons can be directly split up and a large part of the original drawbacks of the garrisons can be solved. Moreover, with the existence of police agencies and second-line troops, a large part of the original officers and soldiers of the garrisons can also be resettled. The pressure will be much smaller than that of directly abolishing the garrisons.

Border troops and field troops are better, after all, these troops are not the same as garrisons, but corresponding adjustments are also necessary.

Zhu Shenzhui has begun to establish a martial arts school in the capital. This martial arts school will be divided into several functions in the future. The first function is advanced training and further study, that is, the training class for generals, which is mainly aimed at generals at all levels in the Ming Dynasty, at least senior officers at the commander and garrison level.

These officers will enter advanced martial arts training in batches. The so-called training is not only to provide unified education and training for these soldiers, but also to strengthen their loyalty to the court and the emperor and improve their military capabilities. At the same time, their positions will be reallocated after the training, and the hidden dangers in the original troops will be resolved by replacing them, thus eliminating the emergence of factions in the army.

Moreover, whether it is further study or training, the key is to directly control these troops through this method. In addition, combined with the awarding of titles and arrangements during redistribution, the problem of military positions and ranks in the Ming Dynasty can be solved, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

In addition to advanced training and further studies, there are also two other levels: intermediate and elementary. The intermediate level is aimed at mid-level officers in the army, that is, from the level of commanding officer to the level of captain, which is equivalent to the school-level officer training in later generations.

As for the elementary level, in other words, it is low-level grassroots officers, which will include the general flag and those under the general flag, which is equivalent to the training of lieutenants and non-commissioned officers.

The training of intermediate and elementary martial arts was also completed by the court and the titles were arranged. Zhu Shenzui planned to use these methods to gradually adjust the Ming army, generals and officers over a few years, so as to completely control all the armies of the Ming Dynasty.

Martial arts is not just about training existing officers, it also recruits new recruits to study and pass assessments. Its nature is similar to the Imperial Academy, which trains civil servants, that is, a real military academy model. In the future, Ming nobles, generals' children, children of good families and even royal family members must all enter martial arts schools like the imperial examinations, and then complete several years of studies in martial arts schools before they can be awarded titles. If they don't go through this step, they will never be able to join the army or even lead an army.

In this way, the previous pattern of passing on martial arts from father to son and from general to general in the Ming army can be completely broken. Moreover, the establishment of martial arts can also change the previous situation in which civil officials are respected and military officials are despised in the Ming Dynasty. Like the imperial examination, martial arts in the future will be an imperial examination for military men, but it will not be equivalent to the previous ordinary martial arts examination model.

Western countries have done a good job in this regard. Most Western countries have similar professional military schools, and royal families, nobles and even civilians can enter such schools to study, and then enter the military to serve after completing their studies.

For example, Britain, France, and Germany are all like this, and the same is true for Tsarist Russia after Peter the Great. This also led to the fact that Western countries later had abundant military virtues and many famous generals. China had to reach this point in the late 1912th century. Because of the Westernization Movement, similar martial arts were produced, but the Baoding Army Officer School, which was truly called a modern military school, was born in . Now Zhu Shenzhu is preparing to set up a military school similar to that of later generations in the Ming Dynasty nearly three hundred years in advance, which is of great significance. In the eyes of the civil service group, this is nothing more than the emperor's way of gaining military power through military examinations. After all, Emperor Zhengde had such an intention when he opened the military examinations, and Emperor Tianqi also tried it. Even Emperor Chongzhen turned against the Donglin Party and tried to reopen the military examinations to strengthen military strength for the sake of internal and external wars. Now Zhu Shenzhu is doing the same.

But they would not have thought that what Zhu Shencui was going to do was completely different from the traditional military examination, because the traditional military examination was different from the civil service examination. The military examination was very different from the ordinary imperial examination from the very beginning. You must know that the ordinary imperial examination was almost invested with national power and implemented from top to bottom.

The imperial court had the Ministry of Rites in charge of the imperial examinations. In addition to the Ministry of Rites, there were other departments to assist. In addition, the Imperial College, the Imperial Academy, etc. were established. As for the local areas, from provinces to counties, there were official officials in charge of the imperial examinations. There were educational officials in the provinces, professors in prefecture schools, instructors in prefecture schools, instructors in county schools, etc. In addition, the local officials often also served as the chief examiners of the imperial examinations. In addition, there were various schools, community schools, academies and a large number of private schools in prefectures, states, and counties.

It is precisely because of such a foundation that the imperial examination system can become a way of selecting talents covering the entire country, and scholars can pass the imperial examination system step by step from being a student, a scholar, a juren to a jinshi, and finally become an official and embark on a career in officialdom.

But the military examination was different. It could not be compared with the ordinary imperial examination. It had no foundation among the common people. The military examination conducted by the imperial court before was nominally a military examination, but in fact it was just selecting people from the children of nobles and generals for examination. The content of the examination was also very simple. Apart from ordinary essays, it also tested archery, horse riding, and military books and strategies. The examination was not strict. Even if you passed the military examination, it was nothing more than a name and was not of much use at all.

If a class has no foundation, then this class will lose its future. Why did the civil officials always suppress the military officials in the Ming Dynasty? In addition to the fact that a large number of meritorious officials and backbones died in the Battle of Tumu, which caused the army to lose a strong pillar, the civil officials also had a steady supply of reserve forces and talents because of the imperial examination system.

Compared with civil officials, military generals do not have this advantage. In addition, as time goes by, the founding nobles are not as good as the previous generation, and the follow-up is weak. Of course, they cannot compare with the talented civil official group. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to build military academies and promote military examinations. Zhu Shenzhu does not want to wait for a hundred years before the Ming Dynasty continues to be reduced to its previous state. What is the meaning of this to him?

Zhu Shenzhui also wanted to change the situation of civil and military affairs in the Ming Dynasty and bring the Ming army under the control of the emperor. He also wanted to use this method to tie the nobles and military generals to the royal family and use them to consolidate the regime. In addition, training follow-up personnel is also a top priority. Otherwise, even if Zhu Shenzhui has done it now, there will still be a lack of successors when the older generation passes away. Martial arts or military schools are prepared for this.

More importantly, Zhu Shenzui also planned to send the royal family members, including the crown prince, to study in the military academy. In the future, the royal family members of the Ming Dynasty emperor must attend the military academy, study and graduate step by step, and then enter the army as junior officers to serve for a few years after graduation.

Western countries have done a very good job in this way, and the effect of royal family members joining the army is extremely good. As the heirs to the empire, even if they are princes, dukes, generals of the country, generals of the auxiliary country and other descendants of royal families, they will no longer be parasites in the future. The royal family of the Ming Dynasty will not keep parasites. This rule will start from Zhu Shenzhui. The royal family and nobles will not be eligible to inherit the title if they do not study martial arts and serve in the army, unless you voluntarily give up the title, in which case the heir will be replaced according to the regulations.

This is another rigid requirement of Zhu Shenzhu regarding the right of succession to the royal family and the right of succession to the noble titles. In the future, when the martial arts are formally established, it will be gradually implemented and eventually form a system. In this way, both the royal family of the Ming Dynasty and the noble class can get rid of the situation of continuous corruption and incompetence, and then control the army in this way, which is a long-term good thing for the Ming Empire.

After deciding that Sun Chengzong would serve as the chief instructor of the teaching hall, Zhu Shenzui announced the matter publicly at the court meeting the next day.

Everyone was surprised but could only agree with Zhu Shenzhui's decision to appoint Sun Chengzong, a great figure, to be responsible for the education of the crown prince and the princes. After all, Sun Chengzong was undoubtedly the best candidate in terms of identity, qualifications, status, and moral character. No one in the court could compare to him. As the chief teacher, no one could object to him.

Although this incident was somewhat unexpected and frustrated some people's plans, these people still did not give up. After Sun Chengzong became the chief teacher, they proposed other teachers to teach the crown prince and the princes. Zhu Shenzhui still did not let them do as they wished. He found an excuse that the teaching hall had just been opened and everything needed to be arranged after Sun Chengzong took office according to the academic performance of the crown prince and the princes. Although he was the emperor, since he had entrusted the matter to Sun Chengzong, all of this had to be dominated by the opinions of Sun Chengzong, the chief teacher, so there was no need to rush.

Soon after the court meeting, many people visited Sun Chengzong's residence in the capital. These people naturally had various plans, and their purpose was nothing more than to get the answers they wanted from Sun Chengzong. But who is Sun Chengzong? After he agreed to Zhu Shenzhui, he thought about these things. He closed the door in his residence and refused to see anyone. He even said to the outside world that he was old and that he was just a figurehead and didn't care about the actual things. If there was anything about the teaching hall, he didn't need to come to him. He pushed the responsibility away with one move.

(End of this chapter)