Chapter 276: Divine Plan, Military Academy!

“Your Majesty, this…”

Seeing Emperor Shunde taking advantage of the situation, everyone felt a pang of fear in their hearts.

Generally, military merit is awarded when going to war, even if the battle is defeated.

As long as they died in battle on the spot, the imperial court would not investigate their faults and would just consider their merits and demerits as offsetting each other.

Now Emperor Shunde has completely stripped Duke Dingguo of his title, which is enough to show his anger.

There is also Prince Zhongshun.

It seems that he changed his title to Prince of Siam and ordered his descendants to stay in Siam forever, which means that the title will be hereditary.

But the problem is that Siam has not yet been pacified.

It is still unclear whether the defeated army can return safely, let alone stay in Siam forever.

If I come back, it would be a serious crime of disobeying the order.

It can be said that Prince Zhongshun was driven to a dead end.

……

“Report!”

“The beacon tower is raising the smoke!”

“The Oirat and Tatars have joined forces to invade the border with 400,000 men. Datong Town is in danger!”

As the saying goes, one wave has not yet subsided when another wave rises.

At this moment, a red-feathered messenger rushed to the cabinet.

“The Oirat Tatars are invading the border?”

Now everyone couldn’t sit still.

In the past six months, Daqian has focused all his energy on the south.

Large amounts of food, weapons, and various supplies were being mobilized to the south.

It had been anticipated that the North would be unstable.

But no one expected that the commotion would be so big that the Oirat and Tatar would actually put aside their conflicts.

Together they gathered an army of 400,000 and marched south to Datong.

“Your Majesty, Datong has more than 100,000 soldiers. Even if the enemy is strong, we can hold out for a while with strong defenses and clear fields.”

“Give us time to mobilize troops.”

“The most urgent task now is to find out how many experts there are in the Tatar and Wala coalition forces so that we can send people to deal with them.”

Lin Ruhai’s calm analysis calmed down everyone in the cabinet.

They all spoke up in response.

“Master Lin is absolutely right.”

“This is the advice of an experienced person to govern the country.”

“The commander of Datong is Chen Daoan, Marquis of Jingbian. He participated in the Northern Expedition during the reign of Emperor Taizong. It is not easy for the Tatars and Oirat to break through.”

But only Xia Shouzhong’s expression changed.

“Your Majesty, the Imperial City Department just sent us the information this morning.”

“Before Zhang Yuan’s southern expedition, he secretly transferred a number of military officers and martial arts masters from Datong…”

“Why didn’t you report such a big thing earlier?”

Emperor Shunde’s expression also changed suddenly.

“The slave deserves to die, the slave deserves to die!”

Xia Shouzhong did not dare to defend himself and quickly knelt down to apologize.

This actually made Emperor Shunde wake up from his anger.

To be honest, it’s not Xia Shouzhong’s fault in this matter.

The Imperial City Bureau is developing at a slower pace, and is focusing more on Shenjing City and the hinterland of Daqian.

Its power in the Nine Frontiers is weak.

The ones who actually monitor the Nine Frontiers are the eunuchs supervising the army and the Embroidered Uniform Guards in the important towns of the Nine Frontiers.

Chen Daoan, the defender of Datong Town, was from the Kaiyuan lineage.

Such a big thing could be kept secret until now. It goes without saying that it was because the retired Emperor Kaiyuan saw the declining Kaiyuan nobles he had supported and acquiesced to it out of old friendship.

Otherwise, even if Zhang Yuan had great courage, he would not dare to draw experts from the nine borders.

“boom!”

Emperor Shunde slammed his fist on the table.

“Zhang Yuan has ruined the country!”

“Xia Shouzhong, pass on my order and order the garrisons in all parts of Shanxi to reinforce Datong immediately. There must be no mistakes!”

“Zhang Tingjun, the commander of the Shenwu Camp, is leading his troops to reinforce us!”

“We must defend the Datong line!” The Shenwu Camp has only been established for half a year, but Emperor Shunde can no longer take care of much.

There were 20,000 elite soldiers when it was first built. During the past six months, food and wages were fully distributed, training was conducted every day, and meat was supplied once every half a month.

At least some combat power has been formed.

The troops from other important towns in the Nine Frontiers must not be mobilized.

In order to avoid falling into the trap of the Tatars and the Oirat.

“Dispatch the three guards of Baoding and Tianjin to Beijing. The Ministry of War is recruiting 50,000 good men from good families in the capital area to train them for war!”

After thinking for a while, Emperor Shunde spoke again.

At this time, the flaws in Daqian’s military system were completely exposed.

Apart from the nine important border towns and the Beijing garrison, which could be considered elite, the provincial camps could only be considered second-rate troops.

As for the garrisons in various places, they were not even second-rate, but only third-rate.

Corruption is rampant there, and I don’t know how many people are drawing salaries without doing anything.

However, the imperial court had to allocate a large amount of food and wages every year to support these people.

Military reform cannot be delayed any longer!

“Your Majesty, I believe that the shortcomings of our Daqian military system have reached a point where they can no longer be delayed.”

Emperor Shunde had just issued his decree when Lin Ruhai stepped out and spoke.

“Ru Hai, I also know that the military system has serious shortcomings, but this cannot be solved in a short time. The most urgent task is to resolve the crisis in Datong first.”

Emperor Shunde sighed.

Just from the way he addressed Lin Ruhai, it is not difficult to see the difference in his attitude from that of other ministers.

After all, this is Jia Cong’s father-in-law.

“I think the root of the problems in the military system is corruption. First, it is common for military officers in various places to eat empty salaries. Second, the military household system has been outdated for hundreds of years. The sons inherit the father’s business, and it is difficult for the local armies to recruit fresh blood.”

“All kinds of relationships are intertwined and complex, and one move can affect the entire body.”

“Oh? Do you have any advice for me, my dear?”

When Emperor Shunde heard this, he immediately became interested.

Especially the last sentence about the complicated relationships is exactly what Emperor Shunde is most concerned about military reform.

If things go wrong, someone with ulterior motives might instigate a large-scale mutiny.

“I have two plans!”

“First, the military examination system should be restarted, from military scholars to military candidates and then to military scholars. Anyone who passes the examination can be granted a military position.”

“Secondly, I believe that since ancient times, civil and military education have been coexisting, and every province has academies and education institutions to train students.”

“Why can’t we build a military academy to train military commanders?”

“You can select good families with clean family backgrounds to enroll and teach them martial arts and military tactics!”

“Both strategies will run in parallel. Within ten years, these students from the Military Academy will pass the military examination and join the army. With fresh blood replenished in the army, all the complicated relationships will disintegrate.”

“It can also greatly increase the number of martial arts masters in the army.”

“Great, a great martial arts examination, and a great military academy!”

“They are all good policies for governing the country!”

After Lin Ruhai finished speaking, Emperor Shunde praised him repeatedly.

The military examination first began in the Tang Dynasty, but after the Song Dynasty, emphasis was placed on literature over military affairs, and the military examination became a mere name.

Daqian also had a military examination, but it was only held nine times in the past hundred years, an average of only once every ten years.

Even if one passed the imperial examination, he would only be given an extra two or three stones of money and grain every year, or be appointed as a low-ranking officer in the army.

It is far inferior to the status of the imperial examination.

If these two strategies are implemented in parallel, they can gradually change the shortcomings of Daqian’s military system without drastic changes.

I couldn’t help but value Lin Ruhai more.

Little did he know that Lin Ruhai’s heart was also full of emotion at this moment.

The matters concerning the Military Academy and the Military Examination were also what Jia Cong told Lin Ruhai about before he left.

More than half a year ago, before leaving Beijing, I had already predicted today’s situation.

What a horrible mind this is?

It is no exaggeration to say that it is a brilliant plan.

The Xuanmen cultivation system relies on talent above all else and cannot be popularized on a large scale.

In addition, there are Confucianism and martial arts.

Since Dongli Academy was established, cultural education has been promoted.

How could Jia Cong miss the opportunity to cultivate the hidden martial arts talents among the people?

After all, the threshold for practicing martial arts is lower than that of Confucianism!
It was just the right time to take advantage of the pressure brought by the Tatar and Wala border invasions to force the imperial court to promote martial arts education!

(End of this chapter)