Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 293: Gradually abolishing the military household and guard system
After being questioned by Wang Shouren, Chen Rui immediately realized that he was in a desperate situation. Not to mention that he, the commander-in-chief, had been controlled by Wang Shouren. Even if his servants wanted to rescue him, they did not have sufficient logistical supplies. Without enough explosives and cannons, it would be impossible to break through the General's Mansion which was built with thick brick walls and heavily guarded.

What's more, because these people had colluded with Eunuch Wei to adulterate the gunpowder, even if there was still gunpowder in Xuanfu, most of it was mud and sand, and they could not attack the General's Mansion.

In addition, the Guards were lurking outside the city, and Chen Rui had to admit that he no longer had any ability to fight back.

Other officials who participated in the adulteration of gunpowder, such as the censor Song Bin, could not help but tremble all over at this time. He did not expect that the general governor Wang Shouren would suddenly change his mind and want to punish them, but now he also knew that he was already trapped in a jar, without any ability to fight back or room for quibbling.

The whole process was not thrilling at all. All the civil and military officials of Xuanda, from the general below, were captured by Wang Shouren and imprisoned in the General's Mansion.

After confirming that the iron cage was firmly locked, Wang Shouren led his personal soldiers to a high platform in the General Administration Office. Looking at the Xuanfu City outside, which had returned to its original calm, he simply smiled faintly and instructed his deputy general Ren Meng, whom he had brought from Jiangxi: "Pass on my order. After the military exercise, the Imperial Guards will enter the city immediately. At the same time, the Imperial Guards and generals above the rank of general flag of the border army will go to the General Administration Office to receive training and rewards!"

After receiving the order, Ren Meng led his men out of the General's Mansion.

The Xuanfu generals who were still in the dark did not understand why the military exercise ended suddenly, but no one suspected that there was a trick. After all, they also knew that the military exercise could not be a real war, and the two armies had to fight with real guns and live ammunition. Some Xuanfu generals even took a chance and thought that it was a good thing for the military exercise to end like this. After all, if a real fight broke out, their gunpowder mixed with sand would never be able to defeat the Guards, and it would even expose their own internal corruption.

Even some Xuanfu generals still despised Wang Shouren in their hearts, and believed that it was because General Wang Shouren was worried that the adulteration of Xuanfu gunpowder would be exposed that he ended the military exercise directly.

However, some Xuanfu generals felt that this matter was very strange. After all, they did not know the content of the military exercise at the beginning, nor did they know when the military exercise would end. Now that the military exercise ended suddenly, some Xuanfu generals naturally felt uneasy.

However, because the senior generals and officials were all in the General's Office, these middle and lower-level Xuanfu generals could not do anything even if they had doubts.

At this time, the Guards also entered the city, and all four divisions entered the city.

"I have already controlled all the important civil and military officials in Xuanfu. Now it is these low-level generals who are involved in this case. Once I gather these people, your people will immediately occupy the key points in Xuanfu Town. Try not to let any bloodshed occur because of this case!"

Wang Shouren discussed with Zhang Lun in secret as soon as he saw him. Zhang Lun nodded and said, "Don't worry, I have passed on the order!"

Wang Shouren nodded, straightened his clothes, sat on the armchair in the middle hall, and instructed Ren Meng: "After all the generals in Xuanfu are captured, take off their weapons and detain them all. These guys think they are generals with some servants, and they think the court's laws can't do anything to them! This time, we must use this incident to teach the commanders of the military garrisons a lesson. The Ming Dynasty still has its own laws. Anyone who does things that are not beneficial to the Ming Dynasty must be severely punished!"

Ren Meng nodded and went to the front hall with a team of personal soldiers.

"Why do we have to take off our weapons? When did you come up with this rule in the General Administration Office?"

At this time, Chen Rui's cousin Chen Chen suddenly felt dissatisfied with the soldiers of the General Administration Office who asked him to take off his weapons.

Ren Meng came over at this time and said, "There are no less than 100,000 soldiers stationed in Xuanfu City. What if someone tries to assassinate the General and takes the opportunity to cause chaos? If you are unwilling to remove your weapons, then you are not allowed to come in to claim the reward. In addition, I will report this matter to the General and the Chief of Army!"

The commander-in-chief Wang Shouren was in charge of the promotion of officers and soldiers on the border. The commander-in-chief was Chen Chen's cousin, so Chen Chen had no choice but to stop and take off his weapons.

Seeing this, the other officers and soldiers had no choice but to take off their weapons.

After all the civil and military officials entered the antechamber and filled the huge antechamber, Ren Meng led a team of officers and soldiers around the curved railing and came to the center. At this time, Wang Shouren also formally came out wearing the imperial dragon robe, stood on the pre-built high platform, and shouted: "Read one later, and one person will come up!"

then.

After Wang Shouren finished shouting this, a clerk called out the name: "Guerrilla Chen Chen!"

When Chen Chen heard his name being called, he thought he was the first general to receive the reward. He also forgot about the unpleasantness he felt when his weapons were taken away from him at first, and he walked up directly.

"Meet the General Manager!"

However, Chen Chen was somewhat confused at this time, wondering why his cousin, Pingjiang Earl Chen Rui, did not show up, as well as other prominent civil and military officials in Xuanfu. But he still saluted Wang Shouren.

Wang Shouren didn't wait for Chen Chen to ask Chen Rui and the others why they didn't see him, and ordered: "Capture him!"

When Chen Chen heard this, he was stunned for a moment!
"What! Take me down?! You want to take me down?!"

Chen Chen was shocked.

The other generals in Xuanfu below were also horrified.

These middle and lower-level generals in Xuanfu had already begun to feel a little confused when they saw that Chen Rui and others were not on the podium. Now that they saw Wang Shouren suddenly order the arrest of the general's cousin, they naturally had a bad premonition.

And this time.

Ren Meng also waved his hand, and the personal soldiers of the General's Mansion who had been lying in ambush outside appeared around the walls and the platform, holding their muskets.

Naturally, these middle and lower-level generals in Xuanfu felt that something was wrong at this time, and they all started to make a fuss, asking what was going on.

But at this moment, the middle and lower-level generals of Xuanfu Town also realized that they had no servants or weapons and naturally could not resist. Therefore, apart from making noise and questioning, no one dared to rush out of the General's Mansion or rush to the platform to attack Wang Shouren.

At this moment.

Two of Wang Shouren's personal soldiers walked behind Chen Chen, grabbed Chen Chen's arms, and then escorted him away.

Chen Chen had come to his senses and asked loudly, "General, what are you doing? Why are you arresting me?"

"After investigation, it was found that Xuanfu gunpowder was adulterated, with a large amount of mud and sand mixed in. This box of gunpowder is one of the clear evidences!"

Wang Shouren grabbed a handful and scattered it down. At the same time, he said, "You should know this better than me, but none of you reported it to me. Some of you even helped the tyrant and got some benefits from it, while others secretly grumbled and dared not report it. But no matter what, the civil and military officials of the entire Xuanfu teamed up with the inner court to cause the gunpowder to be adulterated. It is already proven that you are also responsible! Some people may not be punished, but they also need to be punished and warned!"

When Wang Shouren finished speaking, Chen Chen had already been escorted away and thrown into prison.

At this moment, all the middle and lower-level generals in Xuanfu present were dumbfounded. Some of them were loyal to Chen Rui and naturally guessed that Chen Rui was in trouble and wanted to avenge him. However, because they had no weapons and the officers and soldiers of the General Administration were guarding everywhere with live ammunition, they had to hold back their anger and did not vent.

Some people who were not close confidants like Chen Rui began to feel uneasy.

The generals of the Imperial Guards who were also summoned were also greatly shocked. They had not expected that they were sent to Xuanfu just to see how the general governor would punish the corrupt officials.

"Defend Mingbin!"

At this time, the clerk read out the name of a military general, and this general named Mingbin didn't know whether he should go up or not, and he couldn't help trembling.

Upon seeing this, Wang Shouren winked at Ren Meng, who understood and took his men to escort Ming Bin away from the crowd.

Next.

Every time the clerk read out a name, a general from Xuanfu Town was taken away.

After all the generals of Xuanfu Town were taken away, only the generals of the Guards were left in the entire front hall. The generals of the Guards were all confused and felt panicked because of the court's big move.

However, Wang Shouren did not do anything to the Imperial Guards. First, the Imperial Guards were not involved in this case. Second, the Imperial Guards and the Border Army were now two systems. As the Minister of War in charge of the three borders, he only had control over the Border Army.

Zhang Lun walked in at this time, took away the generals of the Guards directly, and immediately ordered the officers and soldiers of the Guards to occupy the key passes in Xuanfu.

The soldiers of various guards in Xuanfu also handed over the key passes to the Guards in a confused manner.

Even some of the military officers' servants didn't know what to do since their commander was away. They just watched in confusion as the guards occupied their commander's mansion.

At this time, Wang Shouren also announced the emperor's order. All the border soldiers in Xuanfu were organized into the new reserve army of the Imperial Guards, and gathered in Jizhou to prepare for training. After the training, they would be disbanded and reorganized into the Imperial Guards system.

Many of these border troops were veterans who had fought against the Tartars for many years, and they were recruited soldiers who received rice as stipends. Naturally, they could not become farmers and grow crops.

The soldiers of the Xuanfu garrison were all dismissed from military service and were waiting to be allocated land in the garrisons. These soldiers were the military households of many officers and soldiers, no different from serfs, and were no longer necessary as military forces. According to Zhu Houzhao's intention, he naturally wanted to take advantage of the Xuanfu rectification incident to completely turn these military households into farmers, give them land, and exempt them from taxes for three years.

Zhu Houzhao believed that after three or five generations, these would become the most solid popular foundation for the Ming Dynasty to rule over the border towns.

The border troops were naturally happy to become the Imperial Guards. After all, they all knew that the Imperial Guards would often be ordered to go out on expeditions, and they could basically get a lot of spoils of war and make a fortune, which was better than staying in border towns and just guarding the monthly salary. They even had to worry about having their salary withheld from time to time. However, the Imperial Guards did not have to worry about their salary being withheld because they had the Military Law Department and even each battalion had a soldiers' committee. They could raise issues concerning their lives with the battalion commander and directly file a petition to the emperor to sue their chief officer.

For the soldiers of the garrison, they were naturally very happy to be given land and their military status removed, so that they could completely get rid of the fate of being enslaved by the officers. This even made them feel good about the court for the first time.

Some soldiers even instinctively worried about the court, saying, "Let us have land to farm and stop being slaves to these officials. But if we do that, will the officials agree to it?"

The only ones who could not accept this change were the servants supported by the military officers at all levels. These servants were originally supported by the military officers with generous salaries, and they even had various connections and were relatively loyal to the military officers. Now that they saw that the land of their own commander's family was going to be divided, and the military households of their commander's family were going to be demobilized, they became worried and uneasy.

But these servants, who were in a state of disarray, could do nothing and could only wait for the court's decision.

Zhu Houzhao knew that these people were the minions of military officers at all levels, so they naturally could not be used. Although these people had strong combat effectiveness, a soldier who was accustomed to relying on his master to rob and loot would pose a hidden danger if he stayed in the army, but if he stayed among the people, he would only become a bandit.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao decided to disperse these servants and have them immigrate to various colonies of the Ming Dynasty.

When Wang Shouren announced Zhu Houzhao's decision, some servants naturally refused to accept it. They were unwilling to live in a foreign land, and some even wanted to rescue their master out of so-called loyalty. Naturally, they were shot to death by Wang Shouren's soldiers.

But most of the servants were not really loyal to their masters. After all, people tend to seek benefits and avoid harm. These servants did not really want to be loyal to their masters, and could only allow the court to arrange them to be ordinary people in various colonies.

The entire Xuanfu gunpowder adulteration issue was handled smoothly, with basically no major unrest, and neither the border troops nor the garrison soldiers had any complaints.

What followed was the handling of the civil and military officials involved in the corruption and adulteration of gunpowder.

In accordance with Zhu Houzhao's wishes, Wang Shouren established a special military court to specifically try the civil and military officials in the border towns who were part of the military system but not the guards system.

Dealing with these civil and military officials was also very simple. Those with serious offenses would be shot directly, while those with less serious offenses would be demoted or exiled overseas. As for those who knew about the crimes but did not report them, they would be warned and demoted to serve as military officers overseas or in remote areas.

Pingjiang Earl Chen Rui and his cousin were naturally shot.

But the real big shot involved in this case was not Chen Rui, but Wei Bin, who was responsible for the production and transportation of gunpowder.

Wei Bin's property was confiscated and he was sentenced to death, and his shares were also nationalized by Zhu Houzhao.

In general, after Wei Bin was executed, the movement to rectify the government launched by Zhu Houzhao in the 18th year of Zhengde came to an end.

This movement not only started the process of building the rule of law in the Ming Dynasty, but also started the process of abolishing the military system in the Ming Empire.

All the garrisons in Xuanfu were changed into prefectures, states and counties, ending the garrison system, but this did not mean that there would no longer be troops stationed in Xuanfu.

Zhu Houzhao still followed Wang Shouren's advice and stationed 100,000 guards in Xuanfu.

At the same time, Zhu Houzhao also ordered the Minister of War Gui E and Yang Yiqing to form a new guard army, and a troop would be drawn from the previous guard army to be changed into a border army responsible for the defense of border towns.

In this way, new recruits can be organized into the Guards and receive actual combat training in the Guards first, while older veterans can be reorganized into the Border Army and enhance their defense capabilities based on actual combat experience.

But because of this, the Imperial Guards and the Border Army had almost become one system, so Zhu Houzhao directly placed the management and command of the Border Army officials into the Imperial Guards system, and upgraded the Imperial Guards system to the Ming Military Commission.

The Ming Military Commission was established in accordance with the original command system of the Guards, including the General Staff, General Political Department, General Armaments Department, General Military Law Department, General Logistics Department and Military Court.

As a result, the power of the Ministry of War was further reduced, and it was only responsible for recruiting soldiers, training, managing military schools, weapons research and development, and the garrisons that had not yet been withdrawn.

However, the garrisons are now basically in name only. Most of the military households in the garrisons have escaped from military service and have become migrant populations in towns, while the garrison officers have become landlords without land ownership.

Zhu Houzhao planned to wait until the reform of the Xuanfu garrison system was completed before transferring more talented officials to reform other garrisons.

But all this can only be done step by step. The gradual abolition of the Wei Suo system and military registration requires human and financial support.

Because abolishing the Wei Suo system and military registration is not as simple as issuing an imperial decree. If you abolish the Wei Suo system, you have to send officials there to establish government management, and if you abolish the military registration, you also have to send officials to establish household registration.

Moreover, Zhu Houzhao's abolition of the Wei Suo system and military registration was not simply to change the Wei Suo system into a model of governance by officials from prefectures and counties. In order to prevent clerks from harming the countryside and avoid the drawbacks caused by the system of grain chiefs, Zhu Houzhao decided to reform the administrative system of the Ming Dynasty.

All this was mainly the responsibility of Zhang Cong, the new deputy minister of the cabinet.

Kang Hai, the chief minister of the cabinet, was an academic official who was inferior to Zhang Cong in administrative ability and experience. Zhang Cong himself was also keen on innovation, so he took the initiative in the process of administrative reform.

First, according to Zhu Houzhao's instructions, Zhang Cong extended the administrative official system of the Ming Dynasty to the township level, and merged the village head and the grain chief into a unified village head. The village head was the most basic manager of the Ming Dynasty, but not an official, only a clerk, who was appointed by the clean and respected people in each village or neighborhood.

All levels above the township level were incorporated into the official system, and the former clerks were naturally also included in the official system and given ranks and promotion opportunities.

Because of the expansion of the Ming Dynasty's territory, it was basically guaranteed that a large number of experienced grassroots clerks could be transferred to serve as county magistrates and other officials.

The most noteworthy thing is that the village head and the grain head were merged. The grain head system was first created by Zhu Yuanzhang, but with the development of the empire, it became outdated and even led to many families going bankrupt because of serving as grain heads or being exploited by grain heads. Now, merging the village head and the grain head is equivalent to having the entire tax collection by the government to avoid the people losing economic benefits due to being assigned public service tasks.

Of course, this change was possible because after a large amount of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty, the foundation for reforming the tax collection system was laid. Zhu Houzhao issued an edict that each province could change from levying taxes in kind to levying taxes in silver dollars according to their actual conditions.

Zhu Houzhao did not directly implement the "One Whip" system across the country like Zhang Juzheng did in history.

Because the Ming Empire was a complex country with differences between the north and the south, in the southern region with a developed commodity economy, the silver dollar had become the mainstream currency, and economic life was entirely based on the exchange of silver dollars. Ordinary people more or less had silver dollars but no food, so collecting silver dollars in the south was most beneficial to the people.

However, in the north, the commodity economy is not yet developed enough, most people are still farmers, and many commercial activities in poor areas are still carried out in kind in exchange for goods.

Therefore, if taxes are rashly levied in the north mainly in the form of silver dollars, it will instead impose a burden on the people, because in order to pay taxes, the people will have to take their grain to merchants to exchange for silver dollars, or even directly borrow usury. After all, it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty's banking institutions to be spread across every town and village. Even if they can exchange grain at a bank, once the merchants manipulate the price of grain, the people will lose money by exchanging for silver dollars.

This is also why Zhang Juzheng’s reforms in history caused some people to oppose and some to support.

The same was true for Wang Anshi. His exemption law, which required the people to pay different amounts of money to the government according to their wealth, to be exempted from corvee labor. The government would then recruit personnel to carry out public construction to prevent the people from wasting farming time due to performing corvee labor, was not supported by the northerners, but was supported by the southerners.

Because the commodity economy in the south is developed but the population is dense, the people in the south have money but no land, while the people in the north have land but no money. The exemption law allows the people in the south to pay money to avoid labor service and avoid delaying the farming season, while the people in the north have to find merchants and loan sharks because they have to pay labor service money.

Now that Zhu Houzhao wanted to reform the Ming Dynasty, he had to take the differences between the north and the south into consideration and let local officials in each province make arrangements based on actual conditions, paying money if they could and paying grain if they could.

This resulted in the Ming Dynasty's national income still being divided into two parts. One part was grain, and it still accounted for the majority. After all, agriculture still accounted for a relatively large proportion of the Ming Dynasty. The other part was silver dollars, and the proportion was tending to increase.

However, the Ming Dynasty's national expenditure was mainly in silver dollars. All expenditures such as supporting the army, officials and public construction were paid in silver dollars. This also led to the Ming Dynasty court having to exchange grain for silver dollars.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty had a state-owned grain company called the Grain Bureau, which could sell grain to officials, the military and other public servants while the court was distributing silver dollars to them, thereby making a profit without causing the court to suffer losses in this economic exchange.

Zhu Houzhao could imagine that if there was no Grain Bureau, a large number of people engaged in public services would have to exchange grain from merchants, and the profits would undoubtedly fall into the hands of merchants, resulting in strong private capital.

However, the grain in the hands of the Ming Dynasty court would gradually depreciate due to the shelf life of grain, causing damage to national interests.

"The Grain Bureau is an important institution for maintaining the stability of the empire. Otherwise, once a large-scale famine occurs, we will not be able to organize enough financial resources to solve the famine and maintain stability!"

Zhu Houzhao said this to the officials of the Grain Bureau.

Of course, the coexistence of two "currencies", grain and silver dollars, was also a test for the economic planning of the Ming Empire. As the manager of the empire, he had to consider these two variables at the same time to control prices, tax collection, and the amount of silver dollars issued.

(End of this chapter)