Bringing the Railway to Daming

It wasn't just Zhu Jing who had this idea; other younger princes and grandsons of the emperor also shared similar thoughts.

These people are more familiar with the military system of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty currently implements the garrison system, which is a semi-agricultural and semi-military system. When many soldiers are transferred to other places by imperial decree, they often bring their families with them. Even if they are single, they will most likely marry and have children in the local area and settle down.

Therefore, they truly did not understand why the Tang army, after operating in the Western Regions for over a century, had ultimately fallen into a state of isolation, lack of support, and a shortage of successors.

Zhu Biao glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang and Liu Kuan, and seeing that neither of them intended to explain, he smiled and said, "If you have read books such as the Tang Code and the Six Codes of the Tang Dynasty and understand the military regulations and laws of the Tang Dynasty, you will understand this matter."

"In the early Tang Dynasty, the military system of Fubing was the main system. The Fubing system is somewhat similar to our current garrison system, but there are also differences. I will not go into the details."

"However, by the time of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, due to severe land annexation, the Fubing system had deteriorated, so the recruitment system was the main one. During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, and even later when the Tang army was transferred to the Western Regions, it was basically a recruitment system."

According to the "Tang Liudian", the Tang Dynasty had very strict management of its soldiers, and they were not allowed to marry and have children in the local area at will, as it was believed that this would affect the soldiers' combat effectiveness.

"Of course, the most important thing is that at that time the Tang army still implemented the rotation system. Basically, Tang soldiers could be rotated and return to their hometowns after guarding a certain place for a few years."

"As shown in the video, the Anxi Army guarded the Western Regions for forty or fifty years, which is not an exception. If Hexi had not been occupied by the Tibetans, the Tang court would have rotated the troops after the An Lushan Rebellion was quelled."

"Unfortunately, due to the disruption of transportation, the Tang court initially believed that Anxi and Beiting had fallen; later, when contact was made, the long distance and internal chaos prevented the troop rotation."

"In addition, the Tang Dynasty's household registration management was almost as strict as it was in the early years of the Hongwu reign. Even if soldiers from Anxi wanted to settle down and get married and have children in the area, they had to go through the approval of the Tang court, and such approval was often difficult to obtain."

"Furthermore, there are cultural and customary barriers between the Han people and the Hu people. Therefore, although the Tang army controlled the Western Regions for over a hundred years, few people actually married and settled there. Instead, more Han merchants migrated there."

After Zhu Biao finished speaking, not only the younger princes and grandsons like Zhu Yunxuan and Zhu Jing seemed to be deep in thought, but even the young people like Zhu Yunwen were also thoughtful.

Zhu Yuanzhang then spoke up, saying, "I think the reason why the Tang Dynasty used the rotation system and did not allow soldiers to marry, have children and settle down in the local area was mostly because they were worried about creating warlords."

"Because during the Tang Dynasty, military positions such as governor-general, chief protector, and military governor basically controlled the personnel, law, and finances of the army. They had great power, but were also prone to rebellion."

“If the lower-ranking soldiers of the Tang army were not stationed on rotation, but instead settled in the local area like the garrison troops, then they would be united from top to bottom. After a while, they would inevitably establish their own independent regimes.”

"In fact, the reason why the Tang Dynasty later developed into a situation of regional separatism was that the rotation system of military governors was in name only, and the military governors in various places recruited soldiers and horses locally, so that the soldiers were used by the generals."

Upon hearing this, Prince Ning, Zhu Quan, asked, "Father, our Ming Dynasty's garrisons are now being established in such distant places as the Americas. Will they eventually rebel against the court?"

Zhu Yuanzhang pondered for a moment before saying, "Our Ming Dynasty uses the opposite method to the Tang Dynasty—the Tang court granted generals a great deal of power, but strictly controlled the middle and lower-ranking soldiers."

"Our Great Ming Dynasty allows low- and mid-ranking soldiers to settle down and take root in the local area, and regularly replaces high-ranking generals, and even some mid-ranking officers."

"In addition, the money and provisions of our Ming Dynasty's garrisons are not directly controlled by the generals, but are in the hands of the imperial court. The agencies in the military command that supervise military discipline and laws are also relatively independent. In addition, with the spies we have placed in the army, even if it is an overseas military command, it is not easy for them to rebel."

At this point, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to recall something and asked, "Liu Kuan, in the original history, were there any garrison officers who rebelled in our Ming Dynasty?"

Liu Kuan recalled, "Perhaps there were, but certainly very few, because I have not heard of any rebellion by the garrison commanders."

Upon hearing this answer, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but laugh and say, "It seems our method is quite effective."

In his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang even believed that since the garrison system he "created" was superior to the military ranks of the Tang Dynasty, wouldn't that mean that he was superior to Li Shimin in some aspect of military affairs?
Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was secretly pleased with himself, he heard Liu Kuan say: "Your Majesty, although there were no rebellions by garrison generals or separatist regimes in the history of the Ming Dynasty, the phenomenon of desertion among the lower-level garrison soldiers was very serious, and it appeared in the late Hongwu period."

"Although those who deserted the garrison would be severely punished after being caught, and the court later advised the garrison soldiers not to desert, it was a combination of soft and hard tactics, but it was still difficult to change the situation."

"As for the fact that the military farmland of the lower-level soldiers of the garrison was taken over by the generals and officers, and they eventually became tenants or even serfs of the garrison officers, thus completely losing their fighting ability, I have mentioned this to Your Majesty before."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's face darkened immediately. "We have made many changes to the garrison system to address these issues, and the garrison troops will never be as corrupt as they were in the original history!"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty is right."

He also wanted to say that, due to the influence of the military system, the Ming army soldiers were generally less effective than the Tang army when equipped with the same equipment—both the soldiers and the generals were inferior.

But he knew that Old Zhu would definitely not like to hear this, so naturally he wouldn't say it.

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have read Liu Kuan's mind and said, "Do you think that even with the current garrison system, the fighting power of our Ming army might still be inferior to that of the Tang army?"

"Your Majesty, I did not," Liu Kuan quickly denied.

Zhu Yuanzhang seemed not to hear him, snorted, and explained to himself, "We would rather sacrifice some of the army's fighting strength than let the army be firmly in the hands of the court—the Tang Dynasty's army was powerful, but what was the result? The rebellions of the regional military governors were endless, and the prosperous era collapsed!"

Liu Kuan nodded, which was considered as acknowledging Zhu Yuanzhang's idea.

The Song Dynasty suppressed military generals too harshly because of the chaos caused by the regional military governors during the Tang Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty also suppressed military generals, it was slightly better than the Song Dynasty. However, whether it was the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, or even the later Qing Dynasty, none of them were able to escape the various constraints on building an army, not even the Western countries like the United States in later generations.

When it comes to the excellence of military systems and army building, we still have to look to the later dynasties.

Perhaps to divert Zhu Yuanzhang's attention, Zhu Biao suddenly said, "I wonder if our Ming Dynasty ever had an army like the 'Anxi White-Haired Army'? If so, that would be truly..."

Zhu Biao couldn't quite put his finger on it—as a member of the Ming imperial family, he both hoped for an army that was utterly loyal to the Ming, and knew that the court was ashamed of such an army, and the imperial family was even more ashamed of such an army.

Liu Kuan said: "In the original history, the territory of the Ming Dynasty in the middle and late period was not large, and there was no major change like the An Lushan Rebellion, so there were no enclaves, and naturally there were no armies guarding enclaves."

"However, after the Manchus entered the pass and seized the world, the pirate Zheng family, who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and the Da Shun Army and Da Xi Army among the peasant armies insisted on raising the banner of the Ming Dynasty and resisting the Qing for a long time."

“The rule of Zheng Yanping, the Prince of Dongfan, lasted until 1683, almost 40 years after the fall of Beijing and the death of Emperor Chongzhen.”

"As for the Yongli court, which was actually controlled by Li Dingguo and others of the Great Western Army, it persisted in the southwest for more than 20 years. I have mentioned this before."

"The remaining forces of the Shun army, unable to get along with the Southern Ming court, eventually retreated to the mountains of eastern Sichuan to hold their ground. However, they always raised the banner of the Ming Dynasty and were known as the Thirteen Families of Kuidong and the Thirteen Families of Xishan."

"The Qing court tried to persuade them to surrender on several occasions, but several leaders of the Thirteen Families of Kuidong who came from the Shun Army, such as Yuan Zongdi, Hao Yaoqi, Liu Tichun, and the last leader Li Laiheng, all resolutely refused to surrender to the Qing."

"By 1664, the last part of this army was besieged by the Qing army at Maolu Mountain. With no ammunition or food left and no hope of breaking out, Li Laiheng burned his wife and children and hanged himself."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, the Zhu family fell silent again.

Especially those who had heard Liu Kuan recount parts of the history of the late Ming Dynasty, such as Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao, immediately recalled the saying: "Pirates guard the country's gates, and bandits die for the state!"
How laughable! How pathetic! How lamentable!

Liu Kuan then said, "In fact, since the Qin and Han dynasties, the unified dynasties established by our Han people, apart from the Wei and Jin dynasties, also included the Sui dynasty. The demise of the Han, Tang, Song and Ming dynasties all had things that made people feel particularly regretful and emotional."

"At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Bei wanted to revive the Han Dynasty for the third time. He worked hard for decades and gathered many outstanding civil and military officials such as Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu around him. Two or three generations of people worked hard, but in the end, he still failed."

"In the Tang Dynasty, there were examples such as the 'Anxi White-Haired Army' and the 'Guiyi Army'. Even in the Song Dynasty, there were stories of Yue Fei being unjustly killed during his Northern Expedition, Lu Xiufu embracing the last emperor of the Song Dynasty and jumping into the sea, and Wen Tianxiang vowing to die rather than surrender."

"It can be said that every collapse of the Han Dynasty was spectacular and filled with countless tragic songs."

There was another moment of silence.

After about a minute, Zhu Yuanzhang noticed that Empress Ma looked tired, so he said, "Sister, are you tired? Have someone take you to the back to rest. We can go to the side hall with the children to discuss matters."

Empress Ma was indeed tired, so she nodded and said, "Okay."

Several palace maids then came over and helped Empress Ma to the back.

Zhu Huilan and several princesses also went—although some of the remaining young princes and grandsons wanted Zhu Huilan to stay and play the previous songs, none of them dared to say it aloud.

Zhu Yuanzhang led Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan, and others to a side hall. After everyone was seated, he began to discuss state affairs.

"Since the third brother joined forces with the Western Sea Commander to destroy the Kingdom of Hafs in North Africa, and signed a series of treaties with Aragon and the Eastern Roman Empire, the Maritime Silk Road of our Great Ming Dynasty has been initially opened."

"Next, we will simply send warships and merchant ships to Western European countries such as France and England to directly dump our goods into these countries."

"Of course, if possible, it would be best to have these countries sign a series of treaties with our Great Ming Dynasty that are conducive to our dumping of goods and even the spread of Confucianism, just like Aragon did."

Do you have any suggestions regarding this matter?

Prince Zhu Gui of Dai couldn't wait to get up, clasped his hands in greeting, and said, "Father, I wish to go to Europe ahead of schedule to establish my own fiefdom!"

What?
Establishing a vassal state in Europe? And ahead of schedule?
Zhu Yuanzhang almost thought he had misheard. He paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "Thirteenth Prince, tell me, what is the plan for establishing a vassal state in Europe ahead of schedule?"

Zhu Gui thought Zhu Yuanzhang appreciated his suggestion, and grinned, "Father, aren't my current military achievements just a little short of the standard for establishing a fiefdom? Wouldn't it be enough if we led our troops to Europe and destroyed one or two countries?"

"When I read the telegram earlier, I learned that Third Brother had destroyed Hafs and given Aragorn a good beating before he agreed to sign those terms."

"If our Great Ming wants England, France, and other Western European countries to agree to sign the treaty, we must first give them a good beating."

"Your son will lead the troops of the newly established fiefdom through your third brother's territory to Europe. After defeating the small countries like England and France, we will make them sign treaties and cede territory. In this way, your son will have enough military merits and also have the land to establish the fiefdom. Wouldn't that be killing three birds with one stone?"

Zhu Gui's suggestion had initially been a sudden thought, but now the more he spoke, the more fluently he became, and the more pleased he felt—he thought he was incredibly clever! (End of Chapter)