As soon as a hint of fish belly white appeared on the horizon, Zhu Yihai woke up.
When he first woke up, he even felt dazed for a moment, thinking it was a dream. When he saw Zhang Mingyang, the deputy general of the flag-bearer battalion who had been guarding the whole night loyally in armor next to him, he lifted up the blanket and got up.
"Your Highness?"
"Thank you for your hard work, Zhang Qing." Zhu Yihai is now more and more satisfied with this boring gourd-like brother of Zhang Mingzhen. Although this man talks little, he works calmly. He is much better than Ma Jixiang who only knows how to pat his beard and walk around, and even more fierce than some fierce ones.
Wang Chuangzi found it more pleasing to the eye.
Zhang Mingyang called the servants and brought Zhu Yihai's crown, belt and robe. They had been ironed last night. However, Zhu Yihai looked at the Yishan crown and Chilong robe and waved his hand.
"Now alone in the military camp is Zhu Wu, the commander-in-chief of the Bannerman Battalion."
Zhang Mingyang was stunned, where could Jian Guozhi be playing again?
"Just bring me a military uniform."
"Your Highness, the weather is hot and wearing armor will cause a lot of inconvenience. Besides, there is no fighting in Yincheng today."
Zhu Yihai waved his hand, "The soldiers in the Flag Bearer Battalion can wear armor and march, so why can't I?"
He asked Zhang Mingyang to find a set of armor that he usually wears. The two of them were about the same height, so it suited them well. This was a set of cotton armor, with silk on the outside and silk on the inside. It was sandwiched with iron sheets and fixed with copper nails. Compared with Tang Dynasty,
The Song Dynasty's iron armor, this kind of cotton armor that looks like iron cloth, is actually more convenient to wear and even much lighter.
However, the defensive ability has not been weakened, and there is even a defensive bonus against firearms.
Wearing it on a hot day is not as uncomfortable as wearing armor directly. After all, this silk cotton can also absorb heat and sweat.
After walking out of the camp, Wang Chuangzi was standing guard outside.
"You are now the dignified commander-in-chief of Haimen. Why do you come to my flag-bearer camp to stand guard?"
"Your Highness is the seat of the country, and I have the responsibility to protect it."
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Not yet." Wang Chuangzi couldn't keep up with Jian Guo's thoughts.
"eat together."
The Flag Bearer Battalion is the first new army that Zhu Yihai plans to personally lead and train, a model army. It will even be more special than the Yongwei Battalion, both in terms of camp formation and other aspects.
In troubled times, even the emperor who is the supreme emperor is not really supreme. A bandit, a pirate, or a military leader can make this supreme leader.
The emperor's life could not be saved.
Almost all the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty were puppets, and Zhu Yihai did not want to follow in this footsteps.
In fact, he is not satisfied with the current Flag Bearer Battalion. Although they are all veterans transferred from each battalion, they are also deeply imprinted with the habits of the old army.
For example, the servants.
The Ming Dynasty's army was basically supported by servants. The servants were paid more and equipped with the best armor. However, many times, these elite soldiers only served as guards for the officers and did not take the first place in the war.
Wire.
Therefore, in Zhu Yihai's opinion, this servant system is distorted, consumes a lot of money, but is of little use.
If there is a chance in the future, he still hopes that the Banner Battalion can recruit a group of strong and honest recruits to bring in a new model army bit by bit, instead of another Yongwei Battalion or Guan Ning Army.
Early in the morning, the soldiers in the Flag Bearer Camp were busy. They made fires to cook, fed the horses to drink, and some started to unpack tents and pack supplies. It was all in an orderly manner.
The breakfast in the camp is very simple. Because we are in the south, we eat porridge. A lot of sweet potatoes are added to the porridge to make sweet potato porridge, which is served with small salted fish. It is simple.
While eating porridge, Zhu Yihai chatted with Wang Chuangzi, Zhang Mingyang, Wu Kai and others about the issue of flag bearer creation.
"Your Highness, let's have a date too."
Wang Zhiren and Zhang Mingzhen also came to the Banner Camp to have breakfast. Zhu Yihai warmly entertained them to sit down and personally made sweet potato porridge and salted fish for them.
"Why do you, Your Highness, just eat this?" Wang Zhiren frowned.
"Brothers all eat this, so naturally I will share the joys and sorrows. Besides, this sweet potato porridge is also good."
In Zhu Yihai's view, the Ming Dynasty's army has many problems up to now, such as false reputation of food, deprivation of soldiers' pay, heavy service, meager pay, accustomed to ease, and cowardice and retreat.
The problem of officers at all levels falsely reporting the number of soldiers and claiming empty pay has been around for a long time, and everyone has even become accustomed to receiving empty pay.
But the consequences of this are also very serious. When there is an incorrect number of soldiers, there are people on the military roll, but there are actually no soldiers. Furthermore, the soldiers are seriously deducted from their pay and have low fighting will.
"It seems that these are old problems. There are soldiers on the books but no soldiers in the ranks. There are pay on paper but no pay in the army. No one has been able to solve it so far!" Zhang Mingzhen and other generals are all soldiers.
For more than five years, no one has a clear understanding of these issues, and even they cannot avoid doing this.
Wang Zhiren even settled the account directly for Zhu Yihai. When he took up the post of General Soldier in Zhejiang, he found that the former General Soldier's Zhenbiao Battalion was divided into three battalions: left, middle and right. There were a total of 3,654 people on the roster, but the General Soldier directly killed him.
Four hundred and seventy free wages accounted for 13% of the town's pacesetter quota.
Then the first-level officers below the commander-in-chief, such as generals, guerrillas, garrison officers, commanders, and generals, also need to pay. The first-level officers eat more than 700 yuan, and all the officers have enough free pay.
More than 1,200 yuan, basically one-third of the free salary.
And this is an unspoken rule that almost everyone knows, everyone does it.
In addition to taking empty pay and pretending to receive famous rations, there has always been so-called public rations, which are funds used for public purposes in the camp, such as the repair of military uniforms, school grounds, government offices, etc., expenses for receiving pay and reimbursement, etc.
.
As a rule, this amount of public-funded food is deducted directly from the soldiers' pay. Wang Zhiren's former commander-in-chief deducted public-funded food from 150 soldiers, and directly deducted the pay of one hundred and fifty soldiers as public-funded food.
As a general military officer, in addition to salary money, you also have vegetable, candle, charcoal money (living allowance), heart red paper money (originally for office expenses), etc. However, in general, the official income on the official side is too low.
, even if you add these subsidies, etc., it’s not much.
When military generals have soldiers, they naturally become greedy. They not only eat empty pay, but also deduct public funds from allocated food. They even take advantage of the chaotic situation to lead troops to rob, allocate and requisition food, etc.
Anyway, if you have soldiers, you have power, and if you have power, you can get money.
The Ming Dynasty's army was terrible, so it can be said that pay was a big problem.
The Zhejiang troops and horses commanded by Wang Zhiren had 25,000 soldiers and horses in their account, but in fact they had less than one-third of them, and they could really fight even less, only a few battalions.
Among them, the servants are the most well-equipped and well-trained.
Before Chongzhen was hanged, the officers and soldiers in various places were seriously in pay arrears. After Hongguang came to the throne, things became even more chaotic. Anyway, now that Wang Zhiren had soldiers, he directly withheld part of the taxes and grain that should be paid.
Then they would directly allocate additional taxes in the defense area, or raise donations from the landlords, gentry, and merchants.
There is no legal and formal payment channel.
It's all the military's own ideas to make money, and since they have knives in their hands, the methods they can think of are very simple and crude.
As for how to get money and how much money to get, this is completely bad debt. Even if a lot of money is obtained, most of it goes into the pockets of officers at all levels, and the soldiers at the bottom still don't get much.
It's a vicious cycle, and eventually the army becomes a bandit.
Although Zhu Yihai is now on the throne to supervise the country, he is actually just a grassroots team and has no ability to systematically solve the problem of raising troops and military expenses.
However, he still hopes to get on the right track step by step.
While eating salted fish and sweet potato porridge, he directly raised the question about the servants.
"Flagbearer camp system, a battalion is divided into four sentries, front, rear, left and right. Each sentry is divided into four teams, front, rear, left and right. Each team is divided into four ounces, front, rear, left and right. Soldiers' pay is divided into three grades, the first-class soldier is three taels of silver per month, the second-class soldier is two taels of silver per month, and the third-class soldier is monthly
One tael of silver, and one stone of rice per month."
"The salary of officers at all levels is 500 taels per year for general officers, 400 taels per year for deputy generals, 300 taels per year for deputy generals, 200 taels per year for guerrillas, 150 taels per year for generals, 150 taels per year for garrison, and 500 taels per year for generals.
, a total of thirty taels."
Wang Zhiren heard this but didn't take it seriously.
It's easy to say it, but it's not easy to actually supply the army. For example, the president under his command has 25,000 troops. Even if there are an average of 2 taels per soldier, it will cost 50,000 taels of silver a month, and 600,000 taels a year.
, not counting officers and military supplies.
Zhu Yihai continued, "I also know that the Ming Dynasty's army has been rotten to the core in recent years. Various problems such as impersonation and food fraud have been serious. Therefore, from now on, no matter how many soldiers were on the military rolls before, they will all have actual troops in the future."
One battalion of soldiers is paid for each battalion, but if you want to take advantage of the empty pay, you can't do it.
But this is a way for officers to make money, so it cannot be too simple and one-size-fits-all. Therefore, Zhu Yihai first proposed to set a new annual salary for the officers. The total number of soldiers is 500 taels per year. It is not high, but at least it is higher than the previous salary.
Quantity is much stronger.
But if they are only allowed to take this little money, they probably won't be happy either.
Therefore, Zhu Yihai also proposed that the current new battalion structure of the Flagman Battalion is a four-four establishment. In addition to the four sentries in the battalion, the battalion general also has a team of servants directly under the battalion, with a quota of 60 people.
These sixty battalion officer servants are both a team directly under the battalion officer and a reserve team. At the same time, Zhu Yihai also proposed that the sixty servants should be paid as first-class soldiers, and an extra portion would be paid. This extra portion of pay would be directly
Issued to the battalion officer.
This is equivalent to legal free money, but it used to be free money, but now it is distributed according to quotas.
The sixty battalion officers and servants cannot be less, and their salaries are given. However, in addition, according to the rates of these sixty people, another battalion officer is given, which is equivalent to getting another amount of famous food money in addition to his own official annual salary.
"The number of servants I have initially chosen is one hundred governors, eighty admirals, sixty generals, thirty lieutenants, twenty staff generals, fifteen guerrillas, ten generals, eight garrison officers, five thousand generals, and four general generals.
.”
From now on, officers will stipulate the number of servants according to their respective ranks and enjoy corresponding famous food.
A governor can have one hundred servants, and can also legally receive one hundred servants' famous food subsidies. The total number of soldiers is only 60, and the lowest general can only have four servants and receive four famous food subsidies.
In addition to this name, you are not allowed to have additional servants, nor are you allowed to eat extra famous food, nor are you allowed to pay under false pretenses, nor are you allowed to find reasons to deduct the soldiers' pay.
"The amount of food provided by each betrothed is considered to be necessary for the officer to support his family and servants."
As soon as Zhu Yihai's plan came out, Wang Zhiren went from being disapproving at first to thinking seriously about it.
Forewarned is forearmed, without prejudging the waste.
Rules must be set first, and then there are standards to follow.
"There is public money in the camp, and there is a special fund allocated for special use. What do you generals think?"
Wang Mingqian is relatively young and has no scruples in speaking. He said bluntly, "In fact, the salary in the imperial court has always been too low."
This is the truth. After Lao Zhu conquered the world and took the throne, he set a very low salary standard for officials. He gave it directly to Lumi. A seventh-grade official only paid 90 shi per year. The key is what else does Lao Zhu like to do?
, such as the partial distribution of treasure notes, and the later emperor's distribution of spices to officials.
In short, very few actually got it. It is said that the salary that many officials actually got was only about 5% of the nominal salary. And when the Ming Dynasty was about to die, not only the soldiers were owed wages, but the officials were also in arrears.
So all this time, everyone has been trying to make money by themselves. If they really don't make money at all, then their daughter may starve to death just like Hai Rui.
"In Ningbo, the prefect's master's salary is 500 taels a year, and the Zhejiang governor's salary is at least 800 taels a year."
Zhu Yihai couldn't refute.
For a general military officer, five hundred taels of silver a year is indeed a bit low, but now it is impossible for him to set it too high.
Now add the famous grain of 60 soldiers, and the salary is greatly improved. If a servant earns three taels per month, the general soldier can get an additional 180 taels of grain and silver per month, which is two thousand taels a year.
Four times the basic salary.
"The soldiers are divided into three classes, and the pay is a bit high. I think that two taels of silver per month is enough for the first-class soldiers, one and a half for the second-class soldiers, and one tael for the third-class soldiers. As for the monthly rations, three dou of rice will be enough." Zhang Mingzhen
A more pertinent suggestion. "In the army, horse soldiers and literacy can be ranked as first class, fighting soldiers as second class, and garrison soldiers as third class."
Lao Zhu thought about it and agreed.
If you don't have money, it's useless to set a high salary.
"In the flag-bearer camp, there are four sentries in one battalion, four teams in one sentry, four Shi in one team, and ten soldiers in each Shi, so there are 640 regular soldiers in a battalion, plus 60 personal soldiers of the battalion officer, and five personal soldiers of the general sentry.
There are four general soldiers in the team, and there are a total of 144 personal soldiers, plus assistants, secretaries, calligraphers, etc., so the total number of one battalion is 800." Zhu Yihai thought for a while, "If we go to war, one battalion will be equipped with two more
Centenarian."
The flagbearer battalion is tentatively designated as the infantry of the Army Division, and the personal soldiers are also servants, equipped with horses.
"After dinner, we set off for Yincheng. I heard that Xie Sanbin's family was extremely wealthy, so I just asked him to borrow money to pay for his salary this time." Zhu Yihai smiled and said to everyone, "I have stolen the traitor Xie Sanbin's family, so I will give it to everyone according to the new salary system."
The first pay for the battalion officers and soldiers!"
From now on, we no longer care about the 25,000 Zhejiang soldiers or the 3,600 town mark. We must reorganize the men and horses of each battalion and use the battalion as a unit to have enough soldiers and then pay them.
As for where this salary comes from, local taxes are one of them, but the most important source must be borrowing money or ransacking homes.
To raise troops, Zhu Yihai had no choice but to resort to any means.
Anyway, Xie Sanbin, the richest man in Ningbo, is also unkind for the sake of wealth, and is even a traitor and traitor. If you don't attack him, who else will attack him?
It is not possible to attack the local tyrants to divide their land, but it is urgent to confiscate the homes of a few traitors and confiscate them to the army.
"Ming Yang, I will personally lead the flag-bearing camp, and I will recruit sixty servants and soldiers under my command."
"The final general is willing to select for His Highness."
