The bachelors no longer hold the post of minister of the six ministries and have been promoted to the first rank. Under normal circumstances, their power will be greatly enhanced, but the status of the chief minister and assistant will be reduced. However, under this special situation, the power of the cabinet is greatly restricted.
In this regard, Song Zhipu, the first assistant, never objected.
Zhu Yihai is also very satisfied with this new system. He always has huge power and does not have to worry about being restricted or even ignored by the court and cabinet.
"Your Highness, I think I will get a reward if I deserve it, and it is so rare that I should get a heavy reward. Especially the accompanying troops in the imperial camp should be rewarded heavily. After all, they have a large share of the credit for this."
Xu Shiqi and Shen Chenquan are both cabinet bachelors and members of the Imperial Council. They generally represent the cabinet, and general affairs are handled directly in the name of the cabinet. Sometimes important matters are handled through communication with the remaining cabinet.
"We propose to use three months' full salary as the reward standard. For example, for a superior soldier, the one-month full salary is four taels and five cents, so this time we will directly pay thirteen taels and five cents of silver."
Shen Chenquan suggested that the full salary for these three months should be used as a reward for the new emperor's accession to the throne. One month of it would be directly issued with dragon silver, and the other two months would be issued with exchange coupons from the bank.
"I believe that we should give out some more food and wine as rewards. The army has been relatively plentiful recently, so we can consider giving some more cloth to the soldiers."
Zhu Yihai nodded.
"Now around Nanjing, there are not only the imperial camp but also some navy and local camp soldiers, rural warriors, etc., adding up to the fighting and auxiliary troops, there are no less than 100,000 rural soldiers. This reward must be quick and fair, and no trouble will be caused. "
Three months' salary means hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, but Zhu Yihai still has some money on hand now.
"I think it's better to use half a year's salary as a reward. It's very hard for everyone in the Northern Expedition, and we usually only receive half a salary. Let's pay more this time. Not only the war auxiliaries of the imperial camp should be given, but also the provincial and town camp soldiers and local The country's brave men also need to be brave.
As for the standard, the armored, horse and mule soldiers in the provincial camp and the township army are all issued as first-class soldiers. One person is issued for half a year, which is twenty-seven taels of silver. The unarmored soldiers are issued as second-class soldiers, which is twenty-five taels of silver for half a year. The rest are as follows: The third-class soldier counts, twenty-three taels and four silvers."
"Your Highness, the provincial town soldiers and local township warriors are also paid according to the Beijing camp. Isn't that too much? Why don't the provincial battalions be paid as third-class soldiers, three or nine days a month, and the township warriors are paid as auxiliary soldiers, three taels a month? "
Shen Chenquan explained, "It's not that I'm reluctant to give up money, it's just that the military has always been strict in hierarchy. The imperial camp is the emperor's personal army, and it is also the elite of the Ming Dynasty. The provincial and town camp soldiers are completely different from the local warriors, especially He is a Xiangyong, and he usually gets no pay. He only gets some money and food when training and fighting. Now even if he is paid three taels a month, he will get eighteen taels for the six months, which is already very generous."
"If the local heroes receive the same reward as the imperial camp, then there will definitely be dissatisfaction among the soldiers in the imperial camp."
Zhu Yihai asked several generals in the imperial camp, and they said that what Mr. Shen Ge said made sense.
Although the difference may only be a few taels of silver, the rules should still be followed.
"That's fine." Zhu Yihai nodded.
At this time, Shen Wenzhong, the warden of the imperial camp, suggested that provincial and town camp soldiers and local village warriors were divided into elite and ordinary soldiers, so it would be best to divide them into four levels of combat auxiliaries. For example, provincial and town camp soldiers could be classified as armored combat soldiers. , unarmored soldiers, horse, mule soldiers, boats, sailors, auxiliary soldiers, etc. can be subdivided, which can also motivate the soldiers more.
Generally speaking, the imperial camp is one level higher than the provincial camp, and the provincial camp is one level higher than the township group.
Zhu Yihai said, "Please go back and discuss the specific reward standards. I have only one requirement. The reward must be timely, fast, and not delayed. Furthermore, it must be as fair as possible, and do not cause the soldiers to be dissatisfied when the time comes.
Good things that are rewarded can cause trouble.
To be honest, no matter whether it is the imperial camp or the local soldiers and horses, everyone is serving the country with their heads high, so the silver reward of half a year's salary is not much. Now that we have achieved a staged victory, we need to let the soldiers
Let us share the joy of victory with us."
The Tatars all know that it takes a lot of money to raise an army capable of fighting the Eight Banners. Does Zhu Yihai know that at this time, he has to rely on his soldiers to conquer the world?
If the money is gone, you can think of ways to get it, but if the soldiers have no fighting spirit, then the game will be over completely.
It is not enough to talk about loyalty, you must also provide benefits that should be given.
"There is another thing. We are now under the city of Nanjing. Next, we have to detach two legions to Susong and Anhui. We must take this opportunity to continue to develop local rebel regiments. At the same time, we must also seize the opportunity to provide support to the imperial soldiers in the two places.
When more brides come back, we must strive to ensure that everyone in our reward camp can get married and marry a wife. In the future, everyone will have their own land and house, wife and children."
"This is very important. Why are we risking our lives? We cannot let the blood of the soldiers be in vain, especially those young and single strong men. At the very least, we must let them have a place first."
In ancient conscription, it was known that those with multiple sons should be selected first, and those with only sons should not be selected.
"Jiangning City has sent 1.5 million taels of silver. Adding in the 2 million taels and 100,000 taels sent by Chen Hongfan and Qian Qianyi, we have squeezed out nearly 5 million taels from Jiangning.
They still owe us nine million taels worth of money, but they probably won’t be able to squeeze it out, right?"
Zhu Yihai laughed and said, "Don't worry, now our troops are approaching the city. Yan Wogong in Jiangning City is a good man who can make money and manage money. He will give away one million taels every seven days. He can do this. Jiangning is a million-dollar city.
How many wealthy people and businessmen are there?"
Navy Admiral Ruan Jin said with a smile, "Your Majesty's plan to encircle and not break through is really good. If we enter Nanjing now, we won't be able to squeeze money from those wealthy businessmen from aristocratic families."
Everyone present couldn't help laughing.
Yes, I think back when Emperor Chongzhen was in Beijing, he asked hundreds of officials to donate money to help pay, but every one of them complained about poverty, and even deliberately took the furniture to the streets to sell it, which was an insult to all gentlemen and the court's face.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But how much money did Li Zicheng plunder after entering Beijing?
There are various opinions, but there are certainly many.
The salary offered by Li Zicheng was clearly marked, that is, 100,000 for the central hall, 70,000 or 53,000 for the imperial robes of the ministry, 53,000 or 53,000 for the Taoist department, 32,100 for the Hanlin department, and 32,100 for the subordinates.
Each number is in the thousands.
Many ministers and nobles were forced to donate their salaries or looted hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, and there were so many relatives, senior officials, and famous families in Beijing.
As the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing's wealth is amazing. Although the Qing army entered the city six months ago and looted a lot, after all, Nanjing surrendered at that time, and the Qing army did not massacre or openly loot after entering Nanjing. The civilians
The wealth is basically still there.
"Don't worry about that for now. Let's distribute these rewards first, and then let the two armies go to Susong and Anhui."
Zhu Yihai's imperial camp has become quite strong and large in scale over the past six months or so. Now he plans to continue the fission and no longer place all the imperial camp on Wu Yue's side, but to expand the territory, such as dividing a part of it into
The Anhui area in the upper reaches will be used as a base for development in the future. This is also to truly bring Anhui and Jiangxi areas under his true rule.
At present, the place that Zhu Yihai really and completely controls is actually eastern Zhejiang. The other places are basically local armies, which is not stable.
He planned to do the same as the Tang Dynasty's Shence Army, letting them go out of Guanzhong, constantly establishing imperial camps, squeezing the space of those local soldiers, and reorganizing them step by step. This way, he could avoid the biggest problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Uncontrolled local warlords.
If this plan succeeds, then Zhu Yihai will be able to completely control eastern Zhejiang from now, and then to fission control over Anhui and Susong, integrate the local army, and truly be included in the imperial court.
Later, we can continue to expand outward to Jiangxi, Fujian and even Huguang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou and other places.
In fact, Zhu Yihai does not have high hopes for places outside the control of the imperial camp, such as Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren of Jiangxi and northern Jiangxi, He Zhen of Hanzhong, Wu Dading of Guanzhong, and the former Ming and chieftains of Chongqing and Sichuan.
The army can contain the Qing army, but it cannot be said to be reliable.
Just like the five loyalists in Huguang before, they claimed to have 500,000, but they fled thousands of miles after the first battle, and even sent troops to plunder the place. Now Zhu Dadian, Zhang Mingyang and others are still encircling and suppressing Ma Jinzhong and others. The Hengzhou area is fighting fiercely and the war is fierce.
They were all burned to places like Guilin in Guangxi and Pianqiao in Guizhou.
The Sichuan Ming Army, which had just joined forces to attack Chongqing, under the leadership of the admiral Zuo Liangyu, began to send troops to reinforce and suppress the rebels.
As for He Zhen in Hanzhong, Wu Dading in Guanzhong, Wang Guangtai, Gao Doushu and others in Yunyang went to attack Xi'an, Zhu Yihai was originally opposed to this matter, but the new regulars He Zhen and others ignored his will and insisted on attacking.
.
Zhu Yihai could only say that he was beyond his reach, and even the governor Gao Doushu could not restrain him. In the final analysis, it was still the same old problems, the warlordization of the local army.
Not to mention the Zheng family in Fujian. Zhu Yihai kept giving them rewards, and even asked them to attack Taiwan, promising that they would be granted eternal security. The Zheng family was quite happy and started making preparations.
However, Zhu Yihai ordered them to send some naval warships and soldiers northward to the Yangtze River and even cooperate with the imperial camp in the Susong coast. Zheng Zhilong began to make various excuses. Zheng Hongkui said that he had led a fleet of ten thousand people to go northward. As a result,
So far, this fleet has not sailed out of Fujian waters.
Even the Customs and Shipping Department established by Zhu Yihai in Fujian is basically still controlled by the Zheng family.
Governor Zhang Tang of Fujian was willing to go back and push for tax reform, etc., but he was blocked at every turn. Governor Zheng Zhilong had a very unhappy relationship with Governor Zhang Kentang, and Zheng Zhilong even pushed Kentang to Taiwan.
But in the face of this, Zhu Yihai could only endure it for the time being. He did not have the ability to turn around and use force against Zheng. He could only issue orders over and over again to appease or even give rewards, and then wrote down a message from Zheng in his little notebook.