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

Chapter 940 Military Reform
The General Senate is the General Staff, just with a different name.

Zhu Shenzui started to take action against the army after bringing Sun Chengzong to the capital. Due to the previous internal and external wars, the Ming army had changed greatly from before, especially because of the bandits sweeping across several provinces at that time. The original Ming garrison system in these provinces was greatly damaged. In order to solve the problem of bandits, the then Emperor Chongzhen continuously transferred troops from the nine borders, using border troops to replace local troops to encircle and suppress the bandits, and even set up a special position such as the Governor of Five Provinces to solve the problem of bandits in various places.

After Zhu Shenzhui became the regent, he adjusted the military operations to suppress the bandits, and under his series of arrangements, various bandits were successively eliminated, the local area was appeased, and the internal troubles were finally quelled. However, due to the wars caused by the internal troubles for many years, not only did the local area become a mess, but also many factions appeared in the army.

Zhu Shenzhu took advantage of the situation and reorganized and absorbed various armies based on the new army. He also took the opportunity to change the local garrison system. But the problem was the placement of the generals who led the troops. Although they were rewarded for their merits and even given titles, the faction problem in the army still needed to be solved, especially for several generals who held heavy troops.

By transferring defense zones, appointing new positions, rectifying borders and other means, the situation of these military leaders being unable to get rid of their entanglements was gradually eliminated. Among them, Zhu Shenzhui's use of Sun Chengzong was a good move. After all, most of these people were former Liaodong generals, that is, Sun Chengzong's former subordinates, so Sun Chengzong was more suitable than anyone else to come forward, just like Wu Xiang, and let Sun Chengzong persuade them to hand over their military power and come to Beijing, so that the court and the new army generals would take over the troops one after another, or transfer them for resettlement.

Now this matter has been almost completed. At present, Zuo Liangyu, Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, Huang Degong and He Renlong have entered the capital before Wu Xiang, and are serving in the Five Military Commanders' Office respectively, and are also holding corresponding positions in the General Senate Office.

In name, they were promoted, but in reality, they were prevented from continuing to control the army and causing the military power in their hands to expand and escape the control of the court. Moreover, although these generals were capable of fighting, they were not promoted by Zhu Shencui after all. In addition, many of them were unruly, so Zhu Shencui was not at ease leaving them outside.

Bring them here to be supervised, put them in a new place to temper their tempers, and use their abilities and experience to build the General Senate. In addition, in terms of martial arts, these people are experienced generals, and letting them go to martial arts to teach their experience and skills in fighting is also a good use of their talents.

Of course, Zhu Shencui did not bring all the generals to the capital at once. For example, Gao Jie and others remained in their local areas. After all, this was a gradual job and could not be rushed. More importantly, these people were not brought to the capital to be idle, but to be of great use. They were all talents, and Zhu Shencui would not kill all of them at once. They would be needed to continue leading troops in the future.

After Wu Xiang arrived in Beijing, the General Council had been formally established. The General Council was nominally under the jurisdiction of the Five Military Commandery. Its official position and status were equivalent to the five armies of front, back, left, right and center. It was directly under the control of Zhu Shencui and was responsible to the emperor.

The General Senate Office has various positions such as the Left and Right General Senate, the Associate Senate, and the Assistant Senate. Internally, the five military councils corresponding to the Five Military Governor's Office are set up, and each department has left and right councilors. In addition, there are various departments and organizations under it, which are responsible for operations, intelligence, communications, military training, military affairs, mobilization, equipment, confidential matters, surveying and mapping, foreign affairs, and management.

It can be said that this General Council Office was set up by Zhu Shenzhu according to the framework of the modern General Staff, but it was adjusted accordingly according to the current actual situation. On the surface, it was just a department added by the emperor within the Five Military Governor's Office, but in fact it was an important department that would replace the Five Military Governor's Office in the future.

The Five Military Commission was established by Zhu Yuanzhang. It originated from the Privy Council before the Ming Dynasty and was the most important institution used by the emperor to control the army.

Unfortunately, after the Battle of Tumu, Yu Qian was ordered to take over the army in the name of the Minister of War in the capital. The original structure of the Ming Dynasty with the Five Military Governorates and the Ministry of War checking and controlling each other was completely broken. The Ministry of War controlled by civil officials replaced the Five Military Governorates, which was originally held by nobles and generals. As a result, the Five Military Governorates gradually lost its actual military power, and eventually the military was controlled by a group of civil officials.

Although in the late period of Emperor Yingzong and the efforts of successive emperors, they had always intended to reorganize the Five Military Commandery and take back the powers that originally belonged to the Five Military Commandery from the hands of the civil officials. Unfortunately, because the power of the civil officials was too strong, and it was impossible for them to hand over the powers that had already been in their hands easily, several emperors failed to achieve this goal. In addition, there were very few people among the nobles who could be used, and the emperors could not do it alone. They had no choice but to settle for the next best thing. In the end, the Five Military Commandery existed in name only, and except for barely controlling the Beijing camp together with the civil officials, it had no other power.

Because of this reason, the so-called left and right governors of the Five Military Governors' Office held by many military generals all became nominal positions, and the actual military power was in the hands of the civil service group. This situation did not begin to change until Zhu Shenzhui entered Beijing, because Zhu Shenzhui came to power by force, he controlled the army himself, and had a powerful new army at his disposal. The civil service group had no way to deal with Zhu Shenzhui, let alone interfere in the affairs of the new army. The first thing Zhu Shenzhui did after entering Beijing was to reorganize the Beijing Camp, dismantling the original Beijing Camp structure, leaving the empty shell of the Beijing Camp and starting a new one, with the assistance of the new army to reorganize. In the end, the current Beijing Camp is completely different from before. Although the name of the Beijing Camp is still there, it has become a complete retirement place.

The actual strength of the Beijing Camp has been transferred to the New Army. Soldiers selected from the Beijing Camp, including middle and lower-level officers, have been reorganized to form part of the New Army. This is how the military power of the Beijing Camp was completely taken back.

In addition, the establishment of the Police Department also has this purpose. Through the Police Department, not only can some military power issues be resolved, but the garrison system that has become unusable in the Ming Dynasty can also be changed. Moreover, the Police Department is nominally responsible for public security, but in fact it is also a military structure. It can be said that the Police Department in Zhu Shenzhu's hands is equivalent to a combination of the police and armed police in later generations, so that the Ministry of War cannot intervene.

Wu Xiang had the highest rank and the longest experience among these generals, so Zhu Shenzhu gave him the post of Right Chief of Staff of the General Council. This post was equivalent to Deputy Chief of Staff, responsible for the actual work of the General Council, and Zhu Shenzhu had already considered the candidate for Left Chief of Staff, and this person was none other than Zhou Anmin.

Now Zhou Anmin is no longer the commander-in-chief of the Jinyiwei. Ever since Zhu Shencui arranged for him to withdraw from the Jinyiwei, the position of commander-in-chief has been handed over to someone else. Moreover, the Jinyiwei is not a good place. Zhu Shencui does not want Zhou Anmin to stay in the Jinyiwei for his whole life. If he stays in such a place for a long time, no one can predict what the outcome will be in the future.

Therefore, Zhu Shencui had long considered arranging Zhou Anmin in the General Council and appointing him to the position of Left General Councilor. Zhou Anmin was one of Zhu Shencui's most trusted people. He was also the eldest princess's son-in-law and the emperor's brother-in-law. Moreover, Zhou Anmin had no ambition and was loyal to Zhu Shencui. By making him the Left General Councilor, coupled with his original experience in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he could naturally help Zhu Shencui control the General Council.

Wang Jinwu did not work in the General Senate. As the actual top person in the army, it would be inappropriate for him to continue working in the General Senate. The General Senate is the actual general staff. If Wang Jinwu were to work in the General Senate, his actual power would be too great.

Although Zhu Shenzhu trusted Wang Jinwu, he also had to avoid similar situations. It was not a good thing for a person to have too much power in his hands. Unless Zhu Shenzhu wanted to deal with Wang Jinwu, it would be a good thing to put him outside the General Senate.

As for Li You and others, it doesn't matter. They can be assigned positions in the General Senate to contain generals such as Wu Xiang and Zuo Liangyu, so that the various factions within it can reach a state of balance. In addition, generals at all levels will be assigned positions in martial arts. The real name of Ming martial arts, Zhu Shenzhu, has also been thought of. The martial arts society will be divided into several teaching structures according to the previous settings, respectively for the training of middle and senior officers and the teaching of ordinary students.

The official name of this martial arts school is "The Imperial Military Academy of the Ming Dynasty". After the establishment of the martial arts school, the situation of hereditary military positions in the Ming Dynasty turning into actual positions will gradually change. All officers serving in the army, no matter how high or low their rank is, must attend martial arts school (training) and complete their studies before they can be granted actual positions.

This approach completely changed the situation that most military positions were inherited, and broke the hereditary system of the Wei Suo system since the founding of the Ming Dynasty. It also greatly reduced the problem of countless people with insufficient abilities occupying military positions. At the same time, Zhu Shenzhu also started to sort out the military positions and ranks of the Ming Dynasty. In fact, he had already done this, but it had not been officially implemented. The success of the General Senate and the Military Academy was just right for the implementation of this new system.

As mentioned before, the actual military positions and ranks of the Ming Dynasty were very confusing, which was caused by the original Weisuo system and border army system of the Ming Dynasty. This situation made the military positions and ranks in the Ming Dynasty army mismatched, and even the same military positions or ranks could not be distinguished, but had to be distinguished by adding official titles and actual granting.

In order to change this situation and to rectify the army and the garrison system, Zhu Shenzui had begun preparing to re-establish military positions and ranks a year ago. The situation for junior officers was relatively better, but the chaos among middle and senior officers was extremely serious. It would be of great benefit to the army to sort these out, re-establish and define them.

(End of this chapter)