Fu Shanhe

Chapter 167 Recruitment Order

War is a money-eating beast. If we want to recover Guangxi, we must increase investment in Lianzhou.

Human, financial and material resources are all essential.

The Prime Minister obviously supported Lord Xu, and Emperor Yongning had no intention of opposing it, so the problem suddenly came to the Ministry of Revenue.

“Your Majesty, due to the war, last year all the tax revenues from Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, and Huguang were withheld by the local governments.

With the fall of Guangzhou, the war will continue to spread.

It is possible that tax revenues in Jiangxi and Fujian will not be collected this year.

According to Lord Xu's strategic plan, not only did the southeastern provinces have to contribute funds, but the court also had to allocate 8 million taels of silver to suppress the rebellion.

If Guangxi is successfully recovered, additional funds for post-war reconstruction will have to be added.

Ministry of Households..."

Before Wan Henian could finish his words, Emperor Yongning interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

“As for the money and food, you should find a way to raise them.

It is better to cut some expenses in other areas rather than affect the war on the front line.

The rebels have already captured Guangzhou, and it seems that the Guangdong and Guangxi regions will be lost.

If we don’t find a way to quell the rebellion, Dayu’s country will be in danger!
It can be said that this time the White Lotus Rebellion is a greater threat than the Northern Tartars. We must go all out!"

When it comes to the country and the people, every emperor will instinctively pay attention to it.

Emperor Yongning, who was determined to become a wise ruler, would naturally not be careless about this.

Even if deep down in my heart I doubt Xu Wenyue's abilities, I must now give my full support to him.

After all, he was the one who sent the person over.

If he changes the coach at the last minute, he will be slapping himself in the face first.

If Xu Wenyue can't clean up the mess, it will be a big trouble.

There are many civil servants who claim to be knowledgeable about military affairs, but few of them are truly capable.

Not to mention planning and winning battles from thousands of miles away.

As long as you don't cause trouble to the front line, you are considered excellent.

Although Xu Wenyue’s military ability was not good, at least his status and position were high enough to handle the situation.

When encountering problems, dare to make decisions.

As long as he does not interfere in military command, he is a qualified commander.

If someone else were to go there, the southeastern provinces might not necessarily buy it.

Just raising food and money is a huge problem.

“Your Majesty, the gentry are the pillars of the country.

The White Lotus rebels continued to grow in size and caused great harm to the local gentry.

Especially among the gentry in Guangdong and Guangxi, only one in ten survived.

In order to curb the further spread of the rebels, I propose that the court relax restrictions and allow local officials and gentry to raise their own military funds and organize militias. "

As soon as Yin Zhiming, the chief academician of the Imperial College, opened his mouth, the faces of all the officials changed drastically.

The militia was born in the late Tang Dynasty. In order to maintain imperial rule, the rulers allowed gentry to recruit private soldiers to suppress peasant uprisings.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, it developed into the baojia system and became the traditional civilian security force.

It played an important role in suppressing the rebellion, but the cost was the weakening of imperial power.

The gentry originally controlled the right to speak in the local areas, and if they gained control of military force, the court's control over the local areas would inevitably be reduced.

Especially some local big families, after taking control of the militia, they directly turned into local tyrants.

If the Song Dynasty had not been destroyed so quickly, these local armed forces, large and small, would have sooner or later transformed into warlords.

After the establishment of Dayu, it learned from the lessons of folk militia and developed the Weisuo system.

Similarly, the imperial court did not spend money to maintain the army, and the latter kept the command power firmly in its own hands.

"This is inappropriate!"

"Master Yin, you are so well-versed in history books.

Training militias can curb the spread of rebels in the short term, but the consequences can be disastrous.

Once these civilian armed forces fall into the hands of ambitious people, it will lead to separatist regimes.”

Jing Guoliang couldn't help but scolded.

With the decline of the Weisuo system, the power of the noble group declined greatly.

When civil officials controlled money and grain, and local gentry controlled the army, the nobles became complete decorations.

This is a naked plot to wipe out the entire family.

Deep down in his heart, Jing Guoliang had the urge to kill Yin Zhiming for the first time.

He can pretend not to see the infighting among the civil servants.

Any attempt to extend their tentacles into one's own base is absolutely intolerable.

It can be said that from the moment he put forward this suggestion, Yin Zhiming stood on the opposite side of the noble group.

"Duke Cheng, don't be anxious!

The emergence of military governors was due to the previous dynasty's neglect of controlling the militia.

We only need to limit the size of the militia and order it to disband immediately after the rebellion is suppressed.

All these hidden dangers no longer exist.

Could it be possible that a militia of only a thousand people could threaten the foundation of the empire?"

Yin Zhiming explained calmly.

He was able to enter the court thanks to the strong recommendation of Emperor Yongning.

After obtaining official positions, their situation did not improve.

The title of Chief Academician of the Imperial College sounds good, but this is not the early years of the founding of the country.

With the birth of a large number of juren and jinshi, the imperial court rarely selected talents from the Imperial College to serve as officials.

Even if one studied at the Imperial Academy, one still had to take the imperial examination to enter officialdom.

In particular, the admission of a large number of children with family backgrounds has lowered the quality of students.

As a result, even in this largest official educational institution, only a few people can pass the imperial examination and become Jinshi every year.

The probability of passing the imperial examination is not as high as in some academies.

Yin Zhiming felt very depressed working in such a low-paying government office.

Especially since there is a prime minister above him who is deliberately targeting him.

In normal times, people would not dare to make any noise, for fear of being caught by the other party.

“Master Yin, you make it sound so easy.

Once militias of all sizes have sprung up all over the empire, how can they be disbanded just like that?
Limiting the quantity is also nonsense.

The militia is not a regular military organization. It is a militia composed of a group of young and strong people from the public.

Some local big families can easily mobilize tens of thousands of people.

For someone as respected and virtuous as Lord Yin, it would be no problem for him to mobilize an army of 100,000 or 200,000 men."

Li Yuan openly put on eye drops.

Since the core interests of the noble group were touched upon, he, as the second-in-command, had to make his position clear.

Highly respected is a nice word, but if the person who controls the army is highly respected, it could cost lives.

From the changing expression on Emperor Yongning's face, it was clear that at this moment he was wary of Yin Zhiming who had made the suggestion.

A militia group may be insignificant, but if thousands of them come together and are led by a world-famous leader, they can overthrow an empire.

"My Lord, you are too serious!

Lord Yin's advice was entirely out of public interest.

The gentry of Dayu are not as powerful as the aristocratic families of the Jin Dynasty, so how could they have the ability to mobilize an army of tens of thousands?

What's more, the imperial court will strengthen supervision and only use it in areas close to the battlefield at most, and it will be disbanded immediately after the war ends.

We will never allow the militia to spread and threaten the rule of the empire!" Zuo Hongjiang explained with a stiff upper lip.

Deep down in his heart, he cursed his partner Yin Zhiming's ancestors.

I've never seen him come up with a serious strategy to solve the problem, but he comes up with one bad idea after another.

In order to overthrow the eunuch party, the White Lotus Rebellion broke out, affecting several provinces.

Now, in order to suppress the rebellion, they have proposed the strategy of establishing a militia, which will cause endless troubles.

He didn't know what the specific effect would be, but he knew that being tied to Yin Zhiming was the biggest mistake he had ever made.

Even if he tried his best to deny it, what Zhenyuan Hou said was true.

It is not difficult for the local gentry and wealthy families to put together a militia consisting of tens of thousands of young and strong people.

At least his Zuo family can do it, and with his influence, it is possible for him to gather an army of hundreds of thousands.

It seems that he is very powerful and can control the situation in the world.

It’s actually pure bullshit!

Having a large number of people does not mean strong fighting power. A thousand cavalrymen can chase down a mob of hundreds of thousands.

The imperial court could easily wipe them out by sending out a few thousand regular troops.

Revealing this wealth has no real significance other than causing the emperor to be wary.

When the emperor really wanted to take action against them, the local gentry who had originally supported him turned against him faster than anyone else.

In the face of imperial power, no matter how great the influence is, it is all empty.

The emperor only needed to issue an imperial edict and the local county magistrate could take them down.

The reason why the aristocratic families in the Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties were so powerful was that they had their own private armies.

Unlike these castrated aristocratic families, whose talents were all focused on studying and who had long since left the military.

During the Dayu Dynasty, the imperial court strongly supported Wu Zhuanwen.

If you want to switch from literature to martial arts, then the Nine Clans Elimination Game is the best.

"Okay, let's talk about the militia later. I'm tired now!"

Without waiting for the officials to open fire, Emperor Yongning decisively called a halt to the court meeting.

Experience told him that if he continued the debate, his newly promoted confidant would be driven out of the court.

No matter whether it is useful or not, he is his teacher after all and represents his face.

……

Lianzhou Prefecture.

Ever since we received the news that the rebels were preparing to send troops to Lianzhou, all the original plans to send troops to recover the lost territory have been scrapped.

The more lost territory we recover at this time, the more places we will need to defend, which will be difficult to concentrate our forces.

Compared to taking the initiative to attack a heavily guarded pass, the chances of winning are obviously much higher if you wait for the enemy to come out on their own.

"Commander Li, General Jing, the rebels have begun to gather. How is the training of the new recruits going?"

Jabo asked with concern.

Lord Xu gave a clear reply, and the way he addressed Li Mu and Jing Yifeng also changed accordingly.

As a client with connections, as long as we win this battle, the agency will definitely become actual authorization.

As for qualifications and such, those are constraints on ordinary people.

"It's barely usable, but the weapons and equipment are too poor.

The weapons and armor that Lord Xu promised have not yet been delivered, so we can only use the weapons captured from the rebels for the time being."

Li Mu replied calmly.

He was mainly responsible for training the new recruits, and General Jing Yifeng could only command the Huai'an Battalion.

Recruited soldiers are different from garrison soldiers, they need to be paid.

Lord Xu is still trying to raise money for military pay, and Jing Yifeng's family resources are limited, so he is unable to advance the military expenses.

The garrison soldiers under Li Mu's command mainly made empty promises.

Except for the soldiers of Lianzhou Wei who were allocated land, the soldiers of other Wei were just empty promises.

There was nothing new going on, it just restored the original treatment when the Wei Suo system was established.

Each soldier was given 50 mu of land, and was provided with seeds, farm tools, and houses, but the oxen were still owed.

Everything was done according to the rules, and the land distributed was the military land of the garrisons, so no one could find fault with it.

As for the fact that the number of military fields is slightly more than 100 million, those are minor problems.

The land that was not registered by the court fell into his hands, which was the military land of the guards.

The question is: The officers and soldiers of the garrison reclaimed wasteland.

This is a confusing account.

Even if the owner is still alive, he would not dare to come and claim it.

Hiding land is a felony.

Do it quietly and no one will investigate.

Once it is exposed, anyone who hides fifty acres will have his property confiscated and his head shot.

The gentry in Guangxi were already weak and were further afflicted by the rebels.

It is still unknown whether the lucky ones who managed to survive can keep their registered land.

There definitely won’t be many people who dare to jump out and cause trouble.

“Regarding the issue of armaments, the elder has already reported it to the court.

I think it won’t be long before the Ministry of War allocates the funds.

But the rebels are coming in full force, do they really not need reinforcements?"

Jabo asked with a lack of confidence.

Even after the military expansion, the number of government troops in Lianzhou area was no more than 30,000.

Compared with the 400,000 rebels claimed by the enemy, the number gap is more than ten times.

For Jabo, who had never experienced war, the comparison of numbers was too scary.

"Master Jia, the money and food allocated by the court is limited, and we can't afford to support too many troops.

Now the supplies for Lianzhou area all rely on transportation from the rear.

The grain transport fleet was provided by the Southern Zhili Governor's Office, and some of the ships were borrowed from merchants, who were urging them to be returned.

If more reinforcements are sent without enough money and food, logistics will be a big problem.

The enemy claims to have an army of 400,000, but the actual number is certainly much lower.

Even if the rebels really have 400,000 troops coming, there is no need to be afraid.

Due to geographical restrictions, they were unable to deploy their troops, and the number of troops that could be directly deployed into battle could not be too large.

We just need to fight them off, and the food and fodder supplies alone will be enough to wear down the enemy.

If it is convenient, please ask Lord Jia to ask the elder to come forward.

A group of craftsmen were drawn from shipyards across the country to expand the old site of Lianzhou Shipyard for the purpose of ship repair.

By the way, send an official document to Nanzhili to directly assign this temporarily borrowed fleet to my command. "

Li Mu said calmly.

As a person of credibility, one naturally cannot do things like borrowing money without returning it.

If the order for requisition was given by the imperial commissioner, it would have nothing to do with him.

By leaving this fleet behind, and adding the warships that are gradually entering service from the Yangzhou Navy, the water force under his command will be greatly enhanced.

“These are what should be done!”

Jabo replied calmly.

The reasons were so convincing that he couldn't find any reason to refuse.

……

(End of this chapter)