Chapter 447: Expanding troops by hundreds of thousands
Although they still think that the number of 500 ships is too much, Chu Yi finally agreed to cut it in half. If they continue to bargain, they will really have nothing to do if Chu Yi is not able to make a decision soon.
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Yang Yiqing and Jiao Fang looked at each other and heard Jiao Fang salute Chu Yi: "Please put the overall situation first. We do not disagree with the chief executive's move to build a navy, but there should be one
There is a limit, otherwise the national treasury may not be able to support it, so we will dissuade the general manager."
Hearing Jiao Fang's explanation, Chu Yi said with a smile: "You are all the pillars of the country, and I can understand your thoughts. However, the great development of the navy is the general trend of the future. Anyone who stands in the way will be scolded by future generations!"
Chu Yi can say this, and anyone who is not a fool can realize Chu Yi's determination to open up the sea and vigorously develop the navy.
The court dispersed early, but several ministers in the cabinet stayed. After all, building another five hundred ships involves many aspects and requires the full cooperation of all ministries. Otherwise, building another five hundred ships will not be enough.
It's just an empty talk. If you want to implement it, it will naturally require the cooperation of several officials.
Zhu Houzhao watched with a smile as Chu Yi argued with the cabinet ministers, but he stayed out of the matter and remained a bystander.
He is not good at these things anyway, so it would be better to wait until Chu Yi and several elders come to a conclusion after discussing it, and then he will make a decision.
Gu Dayong stood next to Zhu Houzhao and poured tea for Zhu Houzhao. He smiled softly and said: "The chief manager really knows astronomy from above and geography from below. He even touches on the art of hundreds of industries. If he really talks about erudition,
I am afraid that no one in the civil and military circles of the dynasty can surpass the Chief Supervisor!"
Zhu Houzhao nodded with deep approval. Others didn't know it, but he knew Chu Yi's talent and learning very well. Otherwise, he would not have appointed Chu Yi as the prince's tutor. It was precisely because of Chu Yi's talent and learning that the court
There are few among them.
Ordinary officials would be confused if they were faced with several pavilion elders. However, Chu Yi argued with several pavilion elders eloquently, and on the contrary, made the several pavilion elders speechless in their retorts.
Chu Yi could only be heard saying to Yang Yiqing: "Master Yang, I would like to recruit another 50,000 navy troops!"
Since we are going to build more sea-going ships, there must be people to manage these ships, so it is obviously inevitable to expand the navy.
However, Chu Yi had previously proposed to expand the navy and recruit 100,000 navy soldiers. If the navy soldiers recruited by Cheng Xiangwu were added, this would be as many as 120,000 to 30,000 soldiers.
Now if Chu Yi recruits another 50,000 people, the navy will be able to reach nearly 200,000 people. This is definitely an astonishing number.
Although the Ming Dynasty claims to have millions of soldiers, all fools know that the so-called millions actually refer to the garrison soldiers in various places who are no longer much different from ordinary farmers.
There are millions of garrison soldiers in the world. It would be good if the total number of combatable soldiers could reach 100,000.
What the Ming Dynasty can actually get is the hundreds of thousands of troops and horses in the Nine Borders and the nearly 200,000 troops in the Jingying Camp, Tengxiang Four Guards Camp, etc. The total of the two is only more than 300,000.
Compared with the Ming Dynasty's population of more than 100 million, according to the ratio of military and civilians in the feudal era, it is not a problem for the Ming Dynasty to support millions of troops. Of course, how long it can last is another matter. But if it is really a military force, it can easily be armed.
Get up two to three million troops and come.
At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the guard system indeed provided the Ming Dynasty with a steady stream of soldiers, numbering as many as two to three million. Especially these soldiers were self-sufficient, which made Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang very proud.
By the time of Zhengde, the guard system had already collapsed, and millions of guards were completely abandoned, as if they were in vain. Not only did they fail to protect the country, but they became a major hidden danger to the country.
In fact, the only real combatable troops in the entire Ming Dynasty are the troops in the border towns and the Jingying camp, which add up to more than 300,000 people. Now that Chu Yi is expanding his army, compared to the huge size of the Ming Dynasty, only 50,000 people are really available.
It's nothing.
What's particularly important is that Chu Yi made a suggestion to reorganize the health center not long ago. Although it has not been implemented yet, it is obvious to everyone present that they are the people who hold the real power of the Ming Dynasty.
Yang Yiqing, who is the Minister of the Ministry of War, also knows that once the guard station is reorganized, except for the soldiers who are worthy of fighting, all the old, weak, sick and disabled will be distributed with fields, except for the military households, so that they can
Returning to civilian households, the remaining soldiers of the Ming Dynasty at that time were only more than 300,000. Even if Chu Yi did not mention the expansion of the army, Yang Yiqing would still do so.
So now that Chu Yi asked the navy to expand the navy by another 50,000 troops, Yang Yiqing had no objection at all. Instead, he said in agreement: "General manager, how about expanding the navy by another 100,000 troops?"
Chu Yi couldn't help laughing when he heard this. Chu Yi was not surprised by Yang Yiqing's reaction. Chu Yi knew Yang Yiqing's concerns very well.
In the final analysis, even though Yang Yiqing has a good military strategy, his vision is still stuck in the past. He treats the navy as the same as the navy of the past, and does not separate the navy from the infantry at all.
In Yang Yiqing's view, naval soldiers are infantry, so Chu Yi's expansion of the so-called navy is to expand the number of infantry.
Chu Yi shook his head slightly and said to Yang Yiqing: "Master Yang, it is enough to expand the navy by 50,000."
Hearing this, Yang Yiqing couldn't help but show a bit of disappointment on his face. He thought that the opportunity to follow Chu Yi's proposal to expand the army would increase the number of troops under the imperial court's control, but he never thought that Chu Yi did not insist on massive military expansion.
Not only Yang Yiqing looked surprised, but even the emperor Zhu Houzhao looked at Chu Yi with some doubts. Everyone was prepared for Chu Yi to speak loudly, but Chu Yi's request was beyond their expectations.
However, Chu Yi straightened his expression and looked at Zhu Houzhao who was sitting there with a dignified look. He bowed his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I sincerely request your Majesty to issue an order to expand the army by another 200,000!"
puff!
After Chu Yi finished speaking, several important ministers sitting there couldn't help but spit out the tea they had just drank. They all opened their eyes wide and looked at Chu Yi with disbelief on their faces.
Just now, they were wondering why Chu Yi had changed his gender, but he didn't open his mouth as much as the lion. But the result was good. In the blink of an eye, Chu Yi actually asked Zhu Houzhao to expand his army by 200,000.
That was an army of 200,000 from scratch. From recruitment to formation, if the imperial court wanted to obtain a fighting force, it would be impossible to achieve it without three to five million taels of grain silver.
Several elders in the cabinet frowned one by one. Most of these people were civil servants, so they were naturally resistant and wary of the army.
The military force represented by Xungui has shown signs of turning around with the strength of Chu Yi. Now Chu Yi actually wants to expand the army by 200,000 people. How can this not be shocking?
Yang Yiqing opened his mouth, with a look of astonishment on his face. Even Yang Yiqing, all he wanted in his mind was to plead with the emperor for an additional 100,000 troops. However, Chu Yi was not lucky. He asked for 200,000, almost.
Yang Yiqing was stunned.
Zhu Hou looked at Chu Yi and said solemnly: "Daban, do you really want to expand the army by 200,000?"
Chu Yi nodded slowly and said: "When an army of 200,000 is formed, it will be time for me to reform the guard system!"
When Zhu Houzhao heard this, a bright light flashed in his eyes. Chu Yi had told him earlier that he would definitely reform the guard system in the future, but at that time Chu Yi never said when he would wait.
Now Chu Yi has given a rough timetable, which is the day when the 200,000-strong army will be formed. If nothing unexpected happens, it will take about one or two years.
The foundation of the Ming Dynasty's military system lies in the garrison system. Since the garrison system is to be reformed, there may be a counterattack by those with vested interests in the entire garrison system.
Chu Yi is indeed notorious all over the world, even King Pingning captured the Tatar Khan, but if Chu Yi really wants to take advantage of someone's interests, someone in custody will go crazy and deal with Chu Yi.
Just like those maritime merchants, don't they know what will happen if the matter is leaked, but there are still a steady stream of people coming out to deal with Chu Yi.
It's not that they are stupid, or that they are not afraid of death. In the final analysis, everything is driven by profit.
Not even Chu Yi can guarantee that once the reform of the health system is carried out, a group of vested interests will not come out to oppose it.
The health center is different from others. No matter how corrupt the health center is, it is still a violent institution. Once something goes wrong, the destructive power it will cause is not small at all.
Although Chu Yi has absolute confidence and certainty that he can quell all turmoil with the troops and horses currently at the imperial court's disposal, he will have to expand his army sooner or later, so it is better to prepare in advance so that he can be more relaxed when the army is in hand.
Yang Yiqing took a step forward, bowed to Zhu Houzhao and said: "I second the proposal!"
As for the few civil servants, they were silent. As civil servants, they were naturally resistant to the expansion of the power of the Xungui Group. The power of the Xungui Group was rooted in the military. The expansion of the army also meant that the power of the Xungui Group increased greatly.
However, now facing Chu Yi and Yang Yiqing, these cabinet ministers have no reason to stand up and oppose.
Chu Yi has made it clear that he wants to take action against the guard system, and the expansion of the army is to nip the problem in the bud. If they stand up to oppose it, they may be seen as having ulterior motives by the emperor.
Zhu Houzhao glanced at everyone and finally said: "If you have no other opinions, we will expand the army to a total of 250,000. That's it!"
Jiao Fang, Chen Ding and others looked at each other and smiled bitterly.
Yang Yiqing had a happy face. As the Minister of the Ministry of War, although with the rise of the power of nobles and nobles, the Governor's Office of the Fifth Army has gradually become tougher and has a tendency to keep pace with the Ministry of War, Yang Yiqing is equally happy about it.
Although he was born a civil servant, he was awarded the title of Duke of Jin due to his military achievements and was promoted to the ranks of nobles. Even if he did not admit it himself, in the eyes of civil and military officials, he was one of the nobles.
Within a few days, the imperial court issued a decree, allocating tens of millions of taels of silver from the Ministry of Household Affairs, building 500 more ships, and recruiting 250,000 soldiers.
The case of the Huating City Bosi fire was solved. A dozen families, including the Wang family, the Liu family, and the Zhou family, below the Huating County magistrate, colluded with Japanese pirates to murder imperial officials.
On the blue sea, seabirds skimmed the water from time to time and picked up fish one by one from the water. Gradually, several large ships could be seen appearing at the end of the line of sight.
These large ships were flying the Ming Dynasty dragon flag, and they were clearly part of a caravan funded by the royal family.
How amazing the benefits of sea trade are. It is more intuitive to say that nature is not directly involved in it. Chu Yi is naturally very clear about the astonishing benefits of sea trade. He specially arranged for the palace servants to form a caravan. This
A caravan is under the direct control of the eunuch who is the royal supervisor.
Originally, the imperial supervisor was just an ordinary department responsible for managing the jewelry, screens, beds and other utensils used in front of the emperor. It was far from being comparable to the ceremonial supervisor and the royal horse supervisor. However, since Chu Yi handed over the responsibilities and rights of running the royal caravan to the imperial supervisor.
After the prison, the status of the imperial prison soared among the twenty-four prisons of the Ming Dynasty. It was even only under the ceremonial prison and the imperial horse prison.
It was the first time that the caravan under the imperial eunuch went to sea, but Zheng Wen, the eunuch in charge of the imperial eunuch, was extremely cautious and sent a large number of people to accompany it.
These large ships are the merchant ships belonging to the imperial prison. The merchant ships naturally carry silk, porcelain, and tea, which are the most common and best-selling commodities in maritime trade.
The caravan was heading to Japan, and this time it was returning from Japan. More than a dozen merchant ships carried a large amount of goods. As soon as they arrived in Japan, they were robbed by local merchants.
These four large ships were the first to return fully loaded with gold and silver earned as well as purchased spices and other items.
Japan is only a few days away from the Ming Dynasty. If the winds and rivers are favorable, you can easily reach the seaport in Fujian.
The person responsible for leading these four large ships was Lu Kang, the chief foreign supervisor of the imperial prison. Lu Kang's face was full of joy. You must know that this time he asked for orders to go to sea. It can be said to be a risky move. If he is lucky, he can help
If the emperor earns a lot of gold and silver wealth, then the imperial eunuch will definitely come into the emperor's sight, be valued by the emperor, and he will definitely be promoted.
Obviously, the huge profits from sea trade were so amazing that they were simply beyond Lu Kang’s imagination. Lu Kang himself never thought that goods worth tens of thousands of taels of silver could actually earn more than five times as much in a single resale.
profit.
Lu Kang was so excited that he couldn't even wait for a dozen other large ships to load the rice purchased from Japan, and returned first with four large ships loaded with gold, silver, purchased spices and other valuable goods.
Facing the sea breeze, Lu Kang's face was filled with joy, and the faces of several young eunuchs behind him were also filled with joy.
However, Lu Kang did not know that since his dozen merchant ships arrived in Japan, they had been targeted by a group of Japanese pirates. This group of Japanese pirates had been secretly watching the actions of Lu Kang and his party.
At this moment, more than a dozen ships, large and small, were coming from all directions, threatening to surround Lu Kang's four large ships.
This group of Japanese pirates numbered hundreds of people, and they were backed by a big name from Japan. They had strong ships and strong men, and even several ships were equipped with several small cannons. Such a group of Japanese pirates could survive even among the numerous pirates and Japanese pirates.
They are all considered to be powerful.
On the merchant ship, a sailor was looking around with the help of a telescope in his hand. Suddenly, through the telescope, he spotted a ship several miles away that was rushing toward them with its sails full.
