The one-armed Zhang Xian was a little uneasy, "Mr. Qian, we are just a bunch of cripples. How can we enter the imperial camp and become Qian's personal soldiers? How can we still get paid."
Zhou Xiucai also felt that something was not right. He suspected that Mr. Zhao Qian, who was very fierce just now, wanted to forcefully recruit a young man? Although it sounded like the other party was a member of the Royal Forest Army from eastern Zhejiang, and he was also a fifth-level guard, and his salary was one month.
Fifty taels of silver in the capital, plus 150 taels of public silver, this treatment is amazing.
We are deep in the imperial camp, and when we come to Shuzhong, are we still afraid that we will have no soldiers?
And these people, the disabled, the old and the weak, are not serious soldiers at all. His three sons are suitable, but they are too hungry and too thin.
Zhang Dapeng said with a smile, "Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to force a young man, but since we are going north to Hanzhong together, everything must be done according to the military system. Everyone takes up arms, and it is me for the time being.
The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are soldiers commanded by me, Zhang Dapeng. Since they are soldiers, they must be paid."
"From now on, you are temporarily recruited soldiers of the imperial camp. Of course, when you arrive in Hanzhong, you can resume your civilian status. However, you are temporarily soldiers of the imperial camp, so the salary is calculated on a daily basis, and your actions must be followed.
Military orders, but if someone is captured and captured, rewards will be given according to merit."
Everyone was dubious when they heard this, but Zhang Dapeng and the other four were able to take risks to get rid of them and annihilated fifty yellow thieves at once, which inevitably made everyone feel that he was trustworthy.
"Zhou Xiucai, you are temporarily acting as the secretary of the headquarters officer. You just wiped out the fifty yellow thieves. Please record the entire action process, as well as the credit of each killing and assisting in the killing, as well as the weapons, money and food seized.
All the spoils of war must be recorded in detail, and this will be reported to the camp when the time comes."
Zhou Xiucai nodded quickly. He was good at doing this. Now that he was a little panicked, being able to do something made him feel more at ease.
"If you serve as secretary concurrently, I will pay you one cent and two cents every day."
"No, no, no, I'm just doing what I can."
Zhang Dapeng waved his hand and said, "From now on you are a soldier in my camp, and obeying military orders is the first priority."
"By the way, everyone has worked hard just now. According to the imperial camp reward and punishment system, everyone will be rewarded according to their merits. Now we will reward you."
When the money actually came into their hands, everyone was still stunned.
But the real gold and silver in my hand, although not much, is still real silver. It is a reward for military merit.
For example, Zhang Xian, one-armed, had charged very hard just now. This old man, who was the only one left in the whole family, had just cut down several thieves with a she knife, and he also followed up with several more stabs.
Zhu Yihai attaches great importance to military merit. He not only pays great attention to raising the army, but also pays attention to rewards for military merit.
Rewards are divided into city rewards and head rewards.
Taking the city siege as an example, the first one to conquer the prefectural city will be rewarded 250 taels of silver, the prefecture city will be rewarded 200 taels, the county city will be rewarded 150 taels, and the second one to conquer the prefectural city will be rewarded 200 taels of silver.
One hundred and fifty taels for capturing the state city, and one hundred and fifty taels for capturing the county town.
By analogy, the first five people who invade Fuzhou County will be rewarded with silver for attacking the city, with the reward decreasing based on fifty taels.
This standard was actually directly quoted by Zhu Yihai from the Manchu Tatars. By adopting the same standard, since the enemy can afford it, we, the Ming Dynasty, must not be inferior, so that everyone can be braver.
There are also silver rewards for charging into battle, which can be divided into two categories: one is for those who are in front of a strong enemy, have a strong fortification, and can inspire victory; the other is for those who are evenly matched and charge forward in the base camp, both will be heavily rewarded.
Rewards ranging from fifty taels, forty taels, and thirty taels were given according to military merit.
In addition, the silver reward for water battles is divided into three classes according to the size of the ship. The first four people, three people, and two people who jump onto the enemy ship first are rewarded in sequence. For example, the first person to board the first-class ship is rewarded with one hundred taels of silver, and the first person to board the second-class ship is rewarded with one hundred taels of silver.
Eighty taels for a ship, sixty taels for a third-class ship, eighty taels for the second person to board a first-class ship, sixty taels for a second-class ship, forty taels for a third-class ship, with twenty taels as the standard and decreasing in order.
Not only are there rewards for silver, but there are also rewards for officers. Wherever the soldiers go, or where the enemy is separated by a strong wall, or there is a large formation to meet them, those who can stand up first, and those who charge against the enemy should be awarded the garrison according to the rank of their merits.
Officers with the rank of Chief of Thousand Guns. As for those who have made meritorious deeds by leaping over enemy ships first, they should be given the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Capital, Guards, and the rank of Chief of Thousand Guns according to the rank of the ship, and each should be given a reward of varying amounts of silver as a token of encouragement.
In addition to these, Zhu Yihai still emphasized the reward of first-level military merit.
The Ming Dynasty has always attached great importance to the first merit system. During the Hongwu period, there was Japanese rebellion along the coast. Zhu Yuanzhang's standard for military merit rewards was that if a general's flag sergeant and archer captured a person alive, he would be rewarded with 10 taels of silver. The first level of beheading would be 8 taels of silver. The civilians who captured a thief alive would be rewarded with 10 taels of silver.
Twelve taels, beheading level 11 taels.
Later, during Zhu Di's period, he went on successive expeditions to Mobei, paying more attention to the first achievement. The reward and punishment orders he drew up in the army clearly stipulated that if the sentry horse captured a thief alive, he would be rewarded with thirty taels of silver. If he captured a thief alive, he would be rewarded with twenty taels of silver. If he captured a thief alive, he would be rewarded with twenty taels of silver.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming Dynasty, the barbarians in the south were in rebellion. The imperial court encouraged the soldiers to suppress the thieves and issued a new policy. Behead three or more thieves, upgrade the military rank by one level, behead two or less, capture one or two people, kill the accomplices, and only give property.
Rewards, no promotion in military rank.
After the Tumubao Incident, military merit was recorded first, and it became the main incentive system for the Ming army.
During the reign of Emperor Xianzong of the Ming Dynasty, the reward system was more comprehensive.
First of all, different rewards are given according to the area where the enemy is killed. The first level is divided into four levels. The first level is the northern barbarians in Ningxia and Datong. If you get one head, you can get a promotion. The second level is the Liaodong Jurchens, who get the head.
Two can be promoted to one level. The third level is for the Banmiao barbarians from Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places. If you capture three heads, you can be promoted to one level. The fourth level is the mainland rebels. If you capture six heads, you can be promoted to one level.
, the fourth level of merit is capped at level three, and for the excess, only material rewards will be given, and no promotion will be given.
Secondly, rewards are differentiated according to the gender and age of the enemy killed. Except for the Northern Barbarians, the heads of Miao Man, Jurchen, and anti-thieves in the third-class meritorious service are not used as a basis for promotion, but only as a basis for material rewards. As for the Northern Barbarians,
, the heads of strong men, young boys, and women are all used as the basis for promotion. The difference is that if the head belongs to a strong man, the promotion is actual award; if the head belongs to a young boy, women are only granted agency positions, that is, acting official positions.
Moreover, the officer's reward is linked to the number of beheadings of his subordinates. For officers such as the general and commander, if he leads an army of 500, his subordinates will be promoted to a level for every five beheaded. If he leads a thousand troops, his subordinates will be promoted to a level for every ten beheaded.
By analogy, the upper limit for upgrades is still three levels, and those who are both commanders and above can have a maximum of two levels of official duties.
After more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, the first merit system became more and more important, and there were even situations where people with the same fate had different values.
The advantage of the first merit system is that it is relatively intuitive, based on the head, and is simple and direct. However, the disadvantage is that it is easy to indiscriminately kill for merit, or even kill good ones for merit, or even sell the first level of merit between soldiers.
Since the head is the only basis for promotion and reward of sergeants, soldiers generally develop the bad habit of killing indiscriminately; but war is not a normal event. Even if a war occurs, it is likely that no one will be killed. Soldiers who are extremely greedy often engage in indiscriminate killing. Killing to make up for the number, killing border barbarians, killing enemy generals, killing tribal young men and other phenomena were repeatedly prohibited. During the Wanli period, a civil servant revealed that the barbarians on the border of Yanzhen had basically surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, but the border guards wanted to In pursuit of military glory, they rushed into the settlements of the barbarians and massacred them. The cruelty and bloodshed were evident. What's more, they cut off the heads of their comrades on the battlefield and killed citizens captured by the enemy to seek credit.
Indiscriminate killing, killing good people without credit, and buying and selling credit were all serious problems in the Ming army, and there were even cases of fighting for leadership on the battlefield.
But for Zhu Yihai today, the Ming army cannot fight and is seriously threatened by Tartars, internal bandits and other forces. Not only does he have to establish a imperial guard camp directly belonging to him, he not only has to rely on generous salaries to support the army, but also There must be a more complete and generous reward system to motivate soldiers.
Therefore, although many ministers believed that there were problems with the court's original merit reward system, especially the first-level merit reward, Zhu Yihai still persisted and formally issued a decree to formulate a set of Shaotian Dynasty's military merit reward system, which not only included sieges but also Attack, charge, water warfare, etc., as well as reconnaissance, decapitation, seizure, etc. are also provided in detail.
In the past, the heads of Mongolians were the most valuable, followed by the Jurchens of Jianzhou, then the Miao Man, and finally the traitors. Zhu Yihai adjusted it, and now it is the Manchu Tatars who are the most valuable, that is, the Eight Banners Manzhou, including the Eight Banners Manzhou. There are Mongols, Koreans, Hans, etc., followed by the Eight Banners Mongolia, the Eight Banners Han Army, then the Qing Army Green Camp, then the Miao Man, then the inland rebels, and then the mountain bandits.
Zhu Yihai's newly proposed military merit system is relatively complex. It first emphasizes collective military merit, then individual military merit, and also focuses on first-level military merit.
For example, based on the comparison of the strength of the enemy and our own, the battle with fewer hits and more, breaking the city, and the formation will be the first battle, the two sides with equal strength will be the middle battle, and the one with more hits and fewer will be the lower battle, and then based on the enemy's kill rate, the battle will be divided into three battles. Those with more than 40% of kills are considered high achievers, those with 20% killed are considered medium captures, and those with less than 10% are considered low achievers.
In this way, soldiers will get the most merit when they go into battle, and they will get the least military merit when they are out of battle. They will be further divided into three levels of merit based on their performance.
The first rank obtained in the battle can be awarded five ranks of military merit. The first rank obtained in the middle battle is four ranks, while the first rank obtained in the lower battle is one rank regardless of rank.
In addition, the dancing skills, pioneering skills, etc. are also established.
Compared with the ordinary third-class skills, these two skills are equivalent to special skills. For example, the jumping skills are very strict. When facing the enemy in battle, the target has not been delivered. The vanguard advances and is trapped in a strong position. The thieves are defeated. Those who want to jump and swing must be those who charge and break the formation, and there is a strict limit on the number.
If the bandit formation is less than 10,000 people, no more than ten people can be killed by jumping and swinging. If there are more than 10,000 people, then one person should be added for every thousand people. The number of the first vanguard force can be no more than 20 people.
If there are more than 10,000 captives, the leader shall be punished by the Tiaodang Gong. If there are more than 1,000 prisoners, the first class shall be punished. If the number of thieves is less than 1,000, the leader shall be punished.