In the blink of an eye, Zhu Cunqu changed his name to Zhu Qu and settled down in the capital camp.
As for the capital, except for the officials of the six departments and the elders of the cabinet, the rest of the people only knew that the prince had gone to practice, but they did not know where he had gone.
But as long as you inquire carefully, you will know that the prince has gone to the capital camp.
Unfortunately, Beijing Camp is different from other places.
Among the military powers in the world, the Governor's Office of the Five Armies can only control the border troops and patrol battalions, while the Beijing Camp has a special Beijing Camp Yuqian Division to manage it, and it is difficult for even nobles to interfere.
As a captain, an officer with a formal military rank, he has an independent tent, but he does not have any personal soldiers to serve him.
As soon as Mao hour arrived, Zhu Qu was forced to get up, brush his teeth and wash his face, fold his quilt, and then eat and drill with the soldiers.
He originally thought it was some goose-stepping, chopping training, or shooting, but who knew it turned out to be an obstacle course.
Sand, stone, grass, ditches, mud, earth walls, seven or eight different conditions make up the two-mile-long cross-country training ground.
Even if you are an officer, you cannot avoid training.
After two or three trips, Zhu Qu felt like he was about to collapse.
"Brother, take a rest!" Ying Zheng, who was enjoying the shade, said with a smile: "You just came here and you are not used to it. You have to go at least five times before you can rest."
"What happens after the run?" Zhu Qu panted.
"Then it's time to practice, such as walking forward." Ying Zheng said softly, "Then we'll have lunch, and then we'll have joint training with each battalion in the afternoon."
"As for the big exercises, they are practiced every five days, and now there are still a few more days!"
At noon, although the spring scenery was bright, we still insisted on taking an hour's lunch break, which was very relaxed.
However, the food in Jingying was unbearable to Zhu Qu.
The large pieces of fat meat and the kelp soup were so greasy that he couldn't help but feel nauseous.
But the soldiers around him ate happily and munched on their rice.
Especially the rice, which looks like aged brown rice at first glance. It is not round and slender at all, and it feels stuck in the throat when chewing.
"Eat!" The camp commander on the side led a group of officers to open a small stove. In addition to meat, everyone also had an extra fried egg and some delicious pickles.
"Yes!" I tried to eat a few mouthfuls, but my body, which had been tired all morning, suddenly became very hungry and couldn't stop eating.
A full bowl of meat, two bowls of soup, and two bowls of rice were all eaten up.
With a full stomach, Zhu Qu felt very comfortable.
It was the first time in so many years that he had eaten so much food.
"I know that you come from a wealthy family and look down on brown rice and poor food, but my brothers are all from poor families and have meat to eat every now and then, so it's pretty good."
Ying Zheng smiled and said: "Besides, the training intensity is so intense, it's hard to have a belly full of gas."
"One meat for three days, what about the other two days?" Zhu Qu asked.
"Put oil in the vegetables." Ying Zheng said casually: "Those wild vegetables and greens must be put in soybean oil."
"Soybeans are great, soybean oil can be used for cooking, and bean dregs can be fed to horses and livestock. Even if they are made into tofu, it is also a very delicious dish."
"Of course, we people have to eat lard."
Zhu Qu was silent.
For several days, he slowly adapted to the intensity of military training.
It wasn't until the big exercise that he realized how powerful it was.
The entire regiment, three thousand people, was integrated and carried out drills in an orderly manner, either advancing or retreating, or the front army changing into the rear army.
After this trip, ordinary soldiers felt very tired, but the officers were the most tired.
Because they not only worked hard, but also had to work hard, always paying attention to the regimental guerrilla general's flag, and also listening to the drums.
Nothing can be messed up.
If anything goes wrong, the whole team will be in chaos.
Although the drill was tiring, the soldiers were active and enthusiastic.
Because meat will be added to three meals a day, from morning to night, what a blessing it is.
Zhu Qu felt exhausted, and even his legs were shaking.
This is no less than fighting a war.
Ordinary training does not require wearing armor, but during these five-day exercises, you wear armor all day long and are not allowed to take it off.
Dozens of kilograms of armor is too torturous.
These days, he knows a lot about Beijing Camp.
Needless to say, there are four major camps, east, west, south, and north, protecting the capital.
The soldiers in the Beijing camp were recruited from Shuntian Prefecture and Hebei Province, and suitable personnel were selected and trained for three months.
This is called the training camp.
The military training camps are all run by the Imperial Envoy of the Beijing Camp, and not even the Ministry of War has a hand in it.
Once the new recruits are familiar with the rules of the Beijing Camp and have almost recovered their health, they will be sent to each regiment.
In this way, we can effectively avoid the situation where soldiers become generals, and also prevent soldiers from grouping together.
In normal times, officers need to abide by the training plan formulated by the Imperial Envoy Si Yamen of the Beijing Camp. The generals have very little power in ruling and are only the executors.
At the same time, the rules in the Beijing camp are extremely strict, and any violation will be enforced by military judges in the army.
It was difficult for the generals to intervene, even if they asked for mercy.
What shocked the prince the most was the one-and-a-half-hour military academy from afternoon to evening.
Everyone, including officers below the battalion commander, must learn 1,500 Chinese characters, and random checks are usually conducted.
The soldiers who were sweating profusely during the drill were dumbfounded in the military academy, and the pen in their hands seemed to weigh a thousand kilograms.
Under certain rules and regulations, although the Beijing camp has lost many veterans, it still maintains a strong combat effectiveness.
The prince sighed: "My father is so strict in running the army, no wonder the Beijing camp is sweeping the world."
Half a month flies by in the blink of an eye.
At this time, the prince, whose pseudonym was Zhu Qu, took his military badge and the book called a passbook to Tianxia Bank to withdraw his salary.
This was his first time coming to a bank to withdraw money.
The soldiers lined up in a long line, but they were not in a hurry. They chatted and took out the money in the blink of an eye.
You have to take a day off in the evening, every ten days, so the afternoon is naturally a good time to pay wages.
When it was his turn, he handed over the iron military pin.
His age, household registration, and appearance description are written on the front, and his military position and unit name are written on the back.
As long as you get promoted, your military badge will naturally be replaced.
"Zhu Qu? Captain."
The military judge was responsible for distributing the pay. At this time, his face was no longer serious as before, with a slight smile. The soldiers relaxed a lot.
"That's right."
"Your military badge is still new. You must have just been promoted not long ago." The military judge chuckled:
"After you get the money, don't go to whoring or gambling. Going home and giving your mother-in-law a new pair of clothes is better than anything else."
After that, he stamped it, took out the cloth bag, and counted the money.
Zhu Qu also signed and put his fingerprints.
I saw a received stamp stamped on the passbook, with the date written on it, one space per line, which was simple and clear.
Only then did he realize that the words "February of Shaowu's 18th Year" were written on the front, and in the blank space behind, there was a seal:
Tongzhou Seventh Regiment, Military Judge Cheng Jie
And behind it are his fingerprints.
As for the military judge's account book on the desk, there is not only the seal and his fingerprints, but also his signature.
Even on the corner of the account book, there is the signature of the recorder, Guerrilla.
If someone really took advantage of the money and received it falsely, no one would be able to escape.
It is meticulous and rigorous, which shows that the court put a lot of effort into it.
You must know that in the Ming Dynasty, military pay was only given to generals, which was also the reason why they had to live on their own and support their families.
In addition to the selfishness of the generals, the biggest reason why raising a family became popular in the late Ming Dynasty was that the court had no money.
The military pay of 10,000 people was only enough to feed and drink 5,000 people.
Instead of all 5,000 people being poor, it is better to raise 1,000 elites and make the remaining 4,000 be beggars. This is a last resort.
Holding the passbook, he turned the corner and came to another open space.
There are mountains of food and grass here.
Likewise, the passbook needs to be stamped.
As a captain, his salary is equivalent to two soldiers, which is four silver coins and two stones of grain.
Money is easy to handle, but more than two hundred kilograms of grain is a headache.
The military judge smiled and said: "There is a small town outside the military camp. You can ask a few men to carry the grain to the town and sell it. Although you will suffer a bit of a loss, it is better than taking it home."
"Of course, you can live here, but you have to pay one bucket of food a month."
Boy, this is so expensive.
Prince Zhu couldn't tolerate him, so he asked a few people to carry it to the grain store in the town and sell it.
Tongzhou is the location of the granary. Although the price of grain is not restricted by the imperial court, it is cheap, with one stone of grain costing only six cents of silver.
Two Shi Chen Liang is just selling a silver dollar.
"Captain, it's good to take this food home and eat it. It's much better than the brown rice on the market."
Naturally, the rice issued by the army is one year old rice, but after all, it is also polished rice, so it naturally tastes better than brown rice.
"Yes, you just need to take a rest. Hire an ox cart and a few people can put it back together."
The military has a nine-day holiday, with a maximum of three days a month. Many people only have three days to spare.
The army also knows how to adjust, so some people take three days off in the first half of the month, some in the middle, and some in the last half of the month, so that most of the army is always full.
In this way, several people can hire a car and work together to transport food home during the holiday.
Where does Zhu Cunqu dare to hire a car?
After selling the grain, several guards followed him outside the military camp, then drove out a carriage and headed directly to the capital.
The two are fifty miles apart, and the spacious official road is flat. It takes an hour to reach the capital.
It was just getting dark at this time.
After changing his clothes, he hurried to see the emperor.
"Yes, I am much more capable and energetic."
When the emperor saw the slightly lean prince, he nodded with satisfaction.
Although the original prince was not a fat man, he could not hide his aristocratic temperament.
That's the sense of nobility and arrogance.
The vivid metaphor is that Xiang Yu and Yuan Shao in history can only continue to succeed, but they cannot withstand failure.
Now it seems that the prince has changed a lot.
Zhu Cunqu smiled bitterly in his heart, training every day, how can he not be energetic?
Only then did he truly understand that for the sake of the capital, some people criticized him for exercising too hard every five days.
It was such an intensity that the officers were very mentally exhausted, no less than fighting a battle.
"Father, for more than ten years, the Beijing camp has been adhering to the old habits and is extremely elite. However, I have noticed that nearly half of the soldiers in the Beijing camp are now recruited from the people of the capital..."
"What do you mean?" These words were very simple. Zhu Yixi understood immediately and frowned.
The reason why the recruitment of the Beijing camp was placed in the capital was because it was at the feet of the emperor and the most virtuous place in the world.
Ordinary magistrates are only of the fourth rank, but Shuntian Prefecture Yin was promoted by the emperor to the second rank, three ranks higher.
There was a severe drought at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and countless people died of starvation. However, the city of Beijing was safe, only to be attacked by the plague in the end.
After all, even if he is a biological son, there is still a difference between closeness and distance.
Just as the Qin Dynasty was based in Guanzhong, the closest thing to the Ming Dynasty was Hebei and Shuntian Prefecture.
"If things continue like this, I'm afraid that all the so-called Hebei Party members will be in the capital camp." The prince said cautiously:
"Moreover, the nobles all live in the capital, and there are many Zhuangzi outside the city, and their influence is not small..."
Zhu Yixi nodded and fell into thinking.
Obviously, if we recruit troops in Hebei for a long time, we are likely to alienate people from other places. The most important figures in the army are all from Hebei, which is dangerous.
"Tell me what you think."
"My minister thought that we could recruit troops in large camps in various provinces, then train in military training camps, and then go to the capital camp."
The prince looked at the emperor's face and said carefully: "As many people as the Beijing camp needs to recruit this year, we will recruit as many from the provinces..."
"Although this idea has many shortcomings, it is still a good idea." The emperor nodded.
The shortcomings of nationwide recruitment are obvious, such as different dialects and problems returning home, which creates many difficulties.
But it has the advantage of gathering elite soldiers from all over the world, which is enough.
Just like the veterans from the Beijing camp dispersed to various places to become village elders, how can the village elders in Hebei have the same county and friendly village elders in this prefecture?
The monthly salary for the Jingying camp was two silver coins and one stone of grain, which didn't seem high, much less than the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, but it was a pure profit, including food, shelter, and clothing.
Soldiers in the past dynasties, including the sons of good families in the Han Dynasty and the soldiers of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, had to prepare their own dry food and armor. In the Song Dynasty, clothes and food were deducted from the salary. On the surface, the salary seemed high, but in fact there was not much left.
Coupled with the package distribution, serving as a soldier in our new Ming Dynasty is a benefit to a certain extent.
How can this kind of benefit be exclusively enjoyed by the people of the capital?
Thinking about the privileges of the capital city in later generations, Zhu Yixi immediately took on the role of a commoner and gritted his teeth with hatred.
The father and son chatted for a while, and at the end, the emperor said casually: "I forgot to tell you that in May, the Beijing camp and the border army will rotate, and you will go to Liaodong."
"How long will your son be gone for?"
"The Crown Princess has to hurry up these few months, and take some of the concubines with her."
The emperor didn't say it directly, but the prince understood.
If he is allowed to take a woman there, he will not be able to come back in a year or a half.
As the spring blossoms bloomed, the emperor was quietly thinking about the situation of the army. He suddenly remembered that the logistics were heavy.
It’s actually not bad to go to Tongzhou.
In response, the prince was deeply moved: "Father, you really don't trust me..."
He drove a light chariot and arrived in Tongzhou quickly.
Many people know that Tongzhou is a granary, but they do not know that Tongzhou is also a place where military grain is reprocessed.
When marching and fighting, bulky military rations are naturally not advisable. Only military rations that are light, simple, and can quickly fill the stomach are preferred.