Daming Yuanfu

"National military reform" is a shocking enough topic, but unexpectedly, Zhu Yijun did not show any surprise. Instead, he immediately nodded and said: "I know, this is what you talked about at the Beijing Camp that day. That thing, right?"

Gao pragmatic nodded equally and said: "Yes, Your Majesty."

Why are they both so calm? Of course it's a tacit understanding.

Most of the generals attending the meeting that day had not only been commanded by Gao Pragmatic, but also had long been under his sect. According to the Ming Dynasty's tradition, they generally would not leak secrets easily - of course there are preconditions here, for example, leaking secrets can bring extremely serious consequences. Huge benefits, and this benefit is even big enough to outweigh the punishment that Gao pragmatism may impose on them.

There is another way, that is, not leaking secrets may bring huge risks, such as launching a mutiny or something that is discussed in high pragmatism. In this case, no one can be sure who will inform. After all, although the specific risks are unknown, once the incident comes to light, the consequences will undoubtedly be extremely serious, and it can even be said to be unbearable.

However, there are two people who are not among them: Ningyuan Bo Li Chengliang and Dinghai Bo Qi Jiguang. The reason is that although the nobles of the Ming Dynasty were military ministers, they were by no means ordinary military ministers. Their "class attributes" have changed and they have become "alien with the country". They naturally stand with the emperor instead of ordinary military ministers.

When it comes to individuals, Qi Jiguang will most likely not leak the news. On the one hand, Qi Jiguang and Gao Jingshi had a very good personal relationship, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that Lian Po and Lin Xiangru were the same today; on the other hand, Gao Jingshi's military reform plan was obviously for the imperial court, and there was no selfish intention in it. Even if Qi Jiguang stood as the emperor, there was no need to react redundantly.

Since Gao Pragmatic, as the first assistant, is currently only discussing it on a small scale, it means that he believes that this matter is not suitable for publicity. Qi Jiguang is "happy to see the results", so of course he will not report it to the emperor in advance.

But Qi Jiguang is like this, but Li Chengliang is not. Even though the Li family in Tieling is now considered to be related to the Gao family in Xinzheng, and Gao pragmatically takes great care of Li Rusong and Li Rumei, two of the Li brothers, it is not easy to say how Li Chengliang views the relationship between the two families.

It was the first time that Gao Pragmatic dealt directly with Li Chengliang. To put it bluntly, he wanted to prevent the further expansion of the Li family's power in Liaodong. Although everyone knew in their hearts that this did not necessarily come from Gao Pragmatic's original intention, and was more likely to be the emperor's "holy decree", but what was done was done, and one could only "discuss the deeds but not the heart."

Gao Jingshi was very successful in "mixing sand" in Liaodong. On the one hand, a large number of generals from the Xuanda department entered Liaodong, and on the other hand, he attracted Cao Yu, the second-ranking figure within Liaodong, and finally succeeded in taking away more than half of it. The military power in Liaodong firmly checked and balanced the Li family in Tieling.

In addition, Gao Jingshi also focused on Jinghua's direct entry into the Liaodong economic system, supplemented by the reform of the Liaonan salt field that originally belonged to the military camp (Gao Jingshi split shares with the emperor), and the Tieling Li family's economic base in Liaodong was also Also suppressed. From then on, the Tieling Li family was surrounded by dragons and tigers, and was no longer in danger of dominating one side.

However, he is like honey and I am like arsenic, how can Li Chengliang tolerate this cowardice? Of course, I struggled a lot, and even messed with the Heart School for a while. Unfortunately, in the end it was Gao Pragmatic who played the better chess, forcing Li Chengliang to recognize the reality and accept Gao Pragmatic's "peace negotiation conditions" - marriage was just a manifestation of the success of the peace talks.

At that time, Li Chengliang had been forced to leave Liaodong and transferred to the center internally. He was retiring in Beijing as Zuo Governor and Ning Yuanbo of the Zuo Army Governor's Mansion. Although Gao Pragmatic did not treat his family badly, and soon he still appointed Li Rusong as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, but in any case, he drew a red line, or set a ceiling, for the Li family.

Li Chengliang was unable to resist this, but it did not mean that he had no resistance. When he met Li Rumei at the Beijing Camp that day, he was angry at his son from the beginning, and to some extent he was expressing his dissatisfaction with Gao Pragmatic - after all, Li Rumei was Gao Pragmatic's brother-in-law. Li Chengliang scolded his son for turning his elbows outward. Isn't this "wai" someone highly pragmatic?

Because of this relationship, it was not surprising that Zhu Yijun knew what happened that day. It would be strange if Li Chengliang didn't tell him. Gao Jingshi had this intention when he called Li Chengliang over in the first place - no one would think that Gao Jingshi would completely suppress such a major event from the emperor and then suddenly make big news, right?

This is a major matter involving military power. Gao Pragmatic has always had a "sense of boundaries" and will not play with fire on such matters. He has many ways to show his status to others - for example, when he was impeached this time, he just insisted on thanking guests behind closed doors and not going to the cabinet for more than ten days. The whole court almost came to a standstill, and no one dared to make random decisions on a lot of urgent, difficult and dangerous matters. .

What's this? This is to show your status, and you use the correct method of showing it - you really can't do it without me.

Now there is only one last question left. Li Chengliang reported to the emperor that Gao Pragmatic had a military reform plan, but to what extent did he report it?

Zhu Yijun pondered: "According to your idea of ​​reforming the military system, in the future, except for the imperial guards, most of the imperial cavalry will be concentrated in the 'Ten Main Forces', that is, the ten A-type 'First Army'. I will tell you Judging from my understanding, the cavalry in these armies must be the first batch to be equipped with new lances. How many people are there..." The emperor pondered.

This matter was still highly pragmatic and professional, and he immediately said: "Except for the detective horses, there are probably more than 11,000 cavalry in the five towns of the Imperial Guard, divided into ten horse tags, and they are all half light cavalry with muskets. In addition, there are about 3,000 heavy cavalry directly under the headquarters, but they are not equipped with muskets."

Heavy cavalry is used to rush into battle. According to the experience of France, Russia, Austria and other countries during the Napoleonic era, equipping heavy cavalry with muskets will not only fail to improve their combat effectiveness, but will instead cause them to be unable to specialize in their duties, resulting in a decrease in combat effectiveness and a decrease in their winning rate. It is rather complicated to explain this matter clearly, so I will not give examples and citations one by one. In short, in a highly pragmatic plan, heavy cavalry will not be equipped with muskets.

When Zhu Yijun heard what he said, he immediately knew how to draw inferences from one example and said: "The Imperial Guard is organized into five towns, with ten musketeers and cavalry, totaling 11,000 people. Then because the other Type A troops are organized into four towns, they should be Each army has eight musketry cavalry, which is about eight or nine thousand people?"

Gao pragmatic nodded and said: "Absolutely." "There are more than 11,000 Imperial Guards, and the other ten main forces total 890,000. In other words, the main cavalry force of the imperial court in the future will be these 100,000?" Zhu Yijun looked at it Gao pragmatically asked. Faintly, there was some confusion and dissatisfaction in the emperor's eyes, as if he thought the number was too small.

Gao pragmatically said: "One hundred thousand Han cavalry, which has been considered rare in the past dynasties."

"Really?" Zhu Yijun was very doubtful about this statement and frowned: "How do I remember that during the Northern Expedition in the fifth year of Hongwu, among the three armies mobilized by Taizu, there were as many as 150,000 cavalry? It is reasonable to speculate that the Ming Dynasty at that time There should be at least 200,000 cavalry."

Gao pragmatic replied: "Taizu's Northern Expedition was an all-encompassing force. Now the emperor and his ministers are discussing only the imperial guards and the cavalry among the ten main forces. We are not discussing the B-type army, C-type army. In other words, The 100,000 cavalry I mentioned here refers to the 100,000 true elites with fighting power to counterpress the Mongolian cavalry, not the total number of cavalry in the country."

Zhu Yijun wondered: "Is there a big difference between elites and non-elites?"

"Of course it's very big." Gao pragmatic replied immediately, but he was a little hesitant about how to explain this problem to the emperor who actually didn't know how to fight. After considering it for a while, he slowly said: "Although this comparison should not be made, the emperor can understand... A thousand fine cavalry can sometimes determine the final outcome of a 100,000-level battle, but five thousand , even ten thousand ordinary cavalry may not be able to do this."

"The gap is so big?" Zhu Yijun's eyes widened: "Wu... Rixin, don't exaggerate."

Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty knows about the Battle of Hulao Pass by Emperor Taizong Li Shimin, right? The final winner of that battle was Li Shimin's 3,500 mysterious cavalry, while Dou Jiande had an army of 100,000. , but he was forced to charge directly into the central army, and he himself became a prisoner.

Your Majesty, this is the power of the elite cavalry, and the cavalry I compiled for the Imperial Guard and the ten main forces are elites like the Xuan Jia Jingqi. Does the emperor still think that the scale of 100,000 is not enough to deter the barbarians? "

Maybe it was because Li Shimin's Black Armor Elite Cavalry was too famous. When Zhu Yijun heard it was "one hundred thousand Black Armor Elite Cavalry", he immediately became elated and said with great joy: "If they are all so elite, one hundred thousand will be enough, it is more than enough!"

After a pause, he immediately reacted and said, "Oh, that means these new lances require at least 100,000 shots?"

Gao Pragmatic's eyes widened: "How can it be possible for one hundred thousand?"

Zhu Yijun was stunned: "Why is it not enough?"

"Didn't the Emperor just watch me shoot the target?" Gao Pingshi pointed to the gun holsters hanging on the left and right sides of the horse and said: "The holster on the right originally contained five guns, and I just shot two rounds, so I also changed the holster once. Although it cannot be compared with Chen's target shooting when the army is fighting, even if one person is not equipped with five lances, three is definitely necessary.

In addition, the firearm itself cannot only be guaranteed to be usable, because it may be lost at any time on the battlefield, so a certain degree of redundancy must be ensured in inventory. From what I can see, the Imperial Guard and the ten main forces need to maintain at least 500,000 new lances in equipment and inventory. "

Zhu Yijun was taken aback, but Gao's pragmatic explanation was very clear, so he could only accept it, and then asked carefully: "So... what is the price of this lance?"

Gao pragmatically said: "It is still in the trial production stage, and the price is a bit expensive, about six or two or three yuan per rod."

Zhu Yijun was startled again, his eyes widened and he said: "This is too expensive! When I was a child watching politics, I didn't see the cost of firearms in various places. There are cheap muskets like those made in Zhejiang, which only cost nine coins. Even if you look at the world, , most of them are around two taels..."

"Yes, so those firearms exploded at every turn and were completely unusable." Gao Pragmatic shrugged slightly and said: "Your Majesty, the purchase price of the Wanli Type 2 rifle is thirty taels and eight cents, and the lance model is thirty taels. Six cents. Because the new lance uses new technology, it not only requires more processing steps, but also places higher requirements on the strength of the barrel, so the cost will naturally go up."

Zhu Yijun didn't accept this trick and said: "It shouldn't be nearly twice as expensive, right? This gun costs six taels of silver. Just equipping these 100,000 cavalry with guns will cost 600,000 taels?"

When he said this, he suddenly realized that he had made a mistake in his calculation, and his eyes widened: "Oh, no, one person needs three guns, that is 1.8 million taels! If we take into account the inventory you mentioned, I will count it as one person. Five strokes, that’s three million taels! Rixin, are you kidding?”
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