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

Chapter 412: The Sorrow of the New Khan
The problems of the Beijing Army were very shocking. There were more than 380,000 registered soldiers, but less than 140,000 were left, and only 20,000 of them were capable of fighting.

There were no less than 80,000 or 90,000 undocumented people who pretended to be citizens and registered themselves as such, paid monthly wages, and engaged in private labor. These people did not receive any severance pay and were directly dismissed.

The final result of the cleanup of the Beijing camp was the dismissal of 120,000 people, of which 30,000 were willing to go to Liaodong or Hetao to open up wasteland. The remaining 20,000 combat-capable Beijing camp soldiers were retained, after all, the defense of the capital still needed manpower.

Zhu Houzhao ordered 20,000 guards to become the garrison of the capital and take over the defense zone of the Beijing Camp. Together with the remaining 20,000 soldiers of the Beijing Camp, the garrison of the capital would only be 40,000. Many people were worried that there were too few garrisons in the important area of ​​the capital, but Zhu Houxuan and Zhu Houzhao both scoffed at this. It was foreseeable that the war would not spread to the vicinity of the capital for a long time. Zhu Houzhao even felt that it was a waste to put 20,000 guards in the capital.

With the 80,000 to 90,000 soldiers dismissed and the 120,000 soldiers laid off, the Beijing garrison suddenly had about 200,000 fewer soldiers, saving more than 4 million shi of food and wages each year.

The saved food and wages were more than enough to form a new army of 50,000 people, so the third batch of new troops had already begun to be formed, and this time the new army would be half cavalry and half infantry.

Zhu Houzhao wanted more cavalry, but was strongly stopped by Zhu Houxun. It was meaningless to have more cavalry. In fact, the 50,000 pistol cavalry had no opponents around the Ming Dynasty, and the extra cavalry could not be deployed to Mobei in the future. The logistical pressure was too great. Even with steam locomotives, the logistical pressure was still not small.

What Zhu Houxuan said made sense, and Zhu Houzhao had no choice but to accept it reluctantly.

The cleansing of the Beijing camp revealed so many problems that made people in the court panic, but Zhu Houxuan did not use this incident to carry out political attacks, so there was no political turmoil in the whole process. Duke Chengguo and Duke Dingguo of the Five Military Commandery both submitted petitions to apologize, and Zhu Houzhao just kept them in his pocket without sending them out.

The stick was raised high, but finally fell gently, which made people in the capital breathe a sigh of relief.
Zhu Houxun and Zhu Houzhao also felt that there was no point in attacking the civil servants and nobles. It seemed that there was no difference between sending one wave down and another wave coming up. Moreover, the Beijing camp had deep-rooted problems, and the root causes could be traced back to the Chenghua period. So it was best to let them go lightly and not involve too many people. At least, food and wages would be saved.

The most important thing is that the resistance to using most of the saved food and wages on the new army becomes very small.

Zhu Houxuan had started planning to solve the problem of the Beijing Camp a long time ago. His plan was actually a series of links. The beginning of the plan was to establish a special zone in the capital. Only by establishing a special zone in the capital could the silver dollar coupons be best promoted around the capital. The promotion of the silver dollar coupons temporarily relieved Zhu Houxuan of the financial pressure and laid the foundation for the disbanding of the Beijing Camp. The construction of the special zone in the capital also provided many job opportunities, which could absorb these dismissed Beijing Camp soldiers and prevent them from causing trouble.

After Zhu Houzhao left the Hetao area, 20,000 new army infantrymen and 20,000 civilian laborers had arrived in the area, freeing the Ming cavalry in the Hetao area. The Ming cavalry began to take the initiative to attack, fighting to support the war. The Mongolian tribes near the Hetao were forced to move away from the Hetao area with abundant water and grass.

This was a huge blow to the new Tatar Khan, Barsborot, who was Dayan Khan's third son and the oldest living son. He fled back to the grassland after the Battle of Yingzhou, while Dayan Khan's eldest grandson Buchi was captured. So although Dayan Khan left suddenly, the grassland did not start to become chaotic.
As Barsborot was the eldest living son of Dayan Khan, he had no strong competitors. The strength displayed by the Ming army this time shocked the Mongols who participated in the war. The psychological advantage they had built up over the Ming people over the past decades was gone. So they began to unite under the pressure of the Ming army. As a result, Barsborot became the new Khan of Mongolia without much effort.

However, the Yingzhou War caused too much damage to the Tatars. This damage was not only in terms of personnel losses, but also in terms of horses, weapons and equipment. Such a large loss has seriously damaged the vitality of the Tatars. Given the productivity of the Tatars, it will take a long time to recover.
Therefore, Barsborot had no plans to go south recently. First, he did not dare to, and second, he could not. He was busy uniting the various Mongolian tribes, and then he received the bad news that Hetao was attacked by the Ming army.
Because the Tumed and Ordos tribes in the Hetao area were his direct subordinate tribes.
After conquering Hetao, Dayan Khan gave this most fertile land to his third son, one to show his love for his third son, the other to firmly control the Hetao area.
Therefore, the tribes directly under Barsborot suffered the most damage in the Battle of Hetao. Most of the more than 50,000 Mongols captured were from the Tumed and Ordos tribes.
During the Battle of Hetao, the new Khan Barsborot was on his way to connect with the various Mongolian tribes and was not in the Hetao area. Before he could come to his senses, his home was robbed.
So the new Khan Barsborot became embarrassed. In the grassland where the strong prey on the weak, you can't suppress people with just a title, you also need strength. Barsborot became the new Khan not just because of his legitimacy, but also because he controlled the Hetao area and had two large tribes. He was a leader among all the Mongolian forces. That's why the leaders of other tribes accepted him as the new Khan.

But all this was wiped out with the Battle of Hetao. More than 50,000 of his tribesmen were captured by the Ming army, and the rest were dispersed by the Ming army. It is estimated that many of these dispersed tribesmen will be absorbed by other Mongolian tribes. It is unknown how many people can be gathered in the end.
His tribe is his source of strength. If he does not have the strength, no matter how legitimate he is, his voice will not be heard among all the Mongolian tribes.
His current strength suddenly became very low, and many things that were not problems before became problems.
In addition to his third son, Dayan Khan has seven other sons alive. Except for the youngest three, the other four sons control one or two large tribes. Before, their strength was not as good as Barsborot's, so they didn't jump out to say anything. But now with Barsborot's strength, who wouldn't envy the position of Khan?

(End of this chapter)