I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 209 New Army
"Organize a new army?" Zhu Houzhao frowned. "Hasn't the imperial court been training a new army? This Guanting is the new army I'm organizing?"

"No, what I mean by training a new army is completely different from what my brother said. What I mean by training a new army is to recruit soldiers from the people and train them from scratch. In the new army, we must learn lessons from the previous Ming army, establish new rules, and use new laws. Only in this way can the new army not have the various ills of the previous old army," Zhu Houxuan continued.

"Recruiting civilians? That would take a long time. Even though the Beijing camp has a lot of problems, there are still some brave warriors who are skilled in archery and horse riding. Even if you look down on the soldiers in the Beijing camp, you can recruit elite warriors from the border troops to form a new army. This way you can quickly form combat effectiveness." Zhu Houzhao said, shaking his head.

"Isn't this just a disguised regiment system? It just expands the scope of selecting the vanguard to the border troops. This will cause endless harm to the border troops. The combat effectiveness of many border troops is supported by those brave warriors. If my brother recruits them, the combat effectiveness of that unit will collapse by more than half. The border defense line is thousands of miles long, and everywhere will become a breakthrough point. At that time, the new army will only be exhausted and rushing around for rescue."

"Brother, don't you understand yet? What the Ming army lacks most now is the ability to continuously train elite troops. What we need is not one new army, but many new armies. What I mean by training a new army is an exploration and practice in this regard," Zhu Houxuan explained patiently.

Zhu Houzhao's thinking has not yet jumped out of the regiment system. There is no way. The regiment system is effective and saves money. The emperors of the Ming Dynasty have seen the disadvantages of the regiment system, but the Ming Dynasty's financial problems have made them choose to stick to the regiment system.
Moreover, since the Ming army was very large, with a national military strength of 270 million, the Ming court had basically no idea of ​​forming a new army. All it did was reorganize the existing army, because forming a new army would cost more money than reorganizing it.

It was not until decades later that Qi Jiguang recruited Yiwu miners and trained them into the Qi Family Army, which was considered a first.

Zhu Houzhao thought quickly, and soon understood what Zhu Houxuan said. His brows relaxed a little, and he said, "Go on."

"A newly formed army is like a blank piece of paper. We can paint on it and draw the patterns and colors we want." Zhu Houxuan smiled.

"For example, we can freely select soldiers and choose people with appropriate qualities as recruits, such as honest people from the countryside instead of slick people from the city."

"Yes! That makes sense. After such soldiers are trained, they will definitely be able to endure hardships and obey military orders!" Zhu Houzhao exclaimed.

Then he seemed to have thought of something and asked curiously, "How did you come up with these things?"

Zhu Houxuan's heart tightened, and then he said nonchalantly: "Didn't my brother say that I am proficient in the art of controlling people? I didn't know what the art of controlling people was at the beginning, but I learned it from running a factory. Running a factory requires hiring a lot of workers, and I know what kind of quality workers are good. There must be something in common between the two."

"That makes sense. Go on." Zhu Houzhao did not dwell on this issue any further.

"I think it would be best for new recruits to find miners. Mining requires cooperation among many people, which is similar to the art of warfare. Long-term mining will make them strong. Accidents are frequent in mines, so they must have seen life and death, and be alert and courageous," Zhu Houxuan said softly.

Zhu Houzhao nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Such soldiers were very much to his liking.

"These new troops must be trained in places far away from the bustling cities, so as not to be corrupted by the prosperity of the cities."

"The new army's salary must be high and sufficient, so that a soldier does not need to do other work to support his family. This way he can concentrate on training and just hone his killing skills."

Zhu Houzhao fell into deep thought as he listened. He thought a lot at once and said slowly: "Brother, you have indeed seen through the shortcomings of the Ming army. This is a good point!" What Zhu Houzhao mentioned was the professionalization of the army. At that time, there were very few full-time soldiers in the Ming army, and most of them were concentrated in the palace. Even the border troops had to farm after training, otherwise they would starve. This was very detrimental to the army's combat effectiveness, so the professionalization of the army must be promoted.

"We will also establish an officer school to train qualified mid- and low-level officers. The graduation qualifications will be stricter. My brother will be the principal of the school. Only graduates from this school will be qualified to serve as officers of the new army. This will ensure the quality of the officers of the new army and increase my brother's control over the new army."

"This is great!" Zhu Houzhao clapped his hands happily, "This is exactly what I want."

"This military academy is also to let the soldiers at the bottom of the new army see the channels for advancement. Only by seeing the channels for advancement will a person have motivation and passion. The channels for advancement for the bottom-level soldiers in the Ming Dynasty official army are too blocked." Zhu Houxuan shook his head and sighed.

"Brother, aren't you curious about why my place is always full of vitality? It's because everyone here knows what their own promotion channels are and how to move up," Zhu Houxuan couldn't help but add.

Zhu Houzhao showed a thoughtful expression, then nodded slowly and said, "Yes, it is very difficult for the lower-level soldiers of the Ming Dynasty to move up a level."

Zhu Houzhao had been enthusiastic about military affairs for many years and was not completely ignorant of the conditions of the soldiers at the grassroots level.

In fact, the Weisuo system in the Ming Dynasty’s military system was actually a good system. The Qing Dynasty also implemented the Weisuo system for a long time after the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Some modern systems also have the shadow of the Weisuo system.

One of the biggest reasons why the Weisuo system deteriorated so quickly was the hereditary system of military officers.

It was because of this system that the Ming army's combat effectiveness declined rapidly and also led to the decline of military officers.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang's imperial examination system of eight-part essay suppressed the thoughts of scholars, it also broadened the channels for poor children to rise. Because the policy essay examination like the Tang and Song dynasties required candidates to read a lot of books, and books in ancient times were very expensive, and there were only a few books of the Four Books and Five Classics, so the cost of taking the imperial examination was greatly reduced.

Zhu Yuanzhang's move suppressed the emergence of powerful families and also increased the mobility of scholars to a certain extent.

However, the hereditary system of military officers he implemented in military affairs directly stifled the vitality of the Ming army.

It is said that in the Ming Dynasty, civil officials were more valued than military officials. In fact, the biggest reason for this was that the talents trained by military officials could not catch up with those of civil officials.

The imperial examination was held every three years, and thousands of people competed to select the most talented scholars in the country.

What can the military officers bring out at this time? The children they have trained themselves.
(End of this chapter)