The so-called private army was actually the army adopted by the hereditary generals. They used the output of the land and the money they embezzled to raise a group of elite soldiers. If the court needed to fight, they would use these people to fight.

Since you have to choose anyone, you naturally have to choose your own people and your confidants, so they are private soldiers.

Over the course of several generations, the imperial court's orders sometimes didn't work, which is why the army in the late Ming Dynasty sometimes didn't obey orders, because they were all private soldiers of generals. When fighting foreign wars, generals didn't want to sacrifice their private soldiers and would be afraid to fight.

As for the remaining soldiers, their only recourse was to farm, but the food they produced was not theirs, and they were often left with little clothing or food, leading to a large number of desertions.

These deserters were refugees. The reason why the peasant uprising in Shaanxi was so powerful was because of the large number of deserters.

It can be said that this system has completely collapsed.

Zhu Youxiao knew in his heart that he had asked Chen Sihai to investigate because he wanted to get to the bottom of the matter. So no matter how bad the situation was, he could accept it.

"Apart from embezzling public land?" Zhu Youxiao asked Chen Sihai.

"Your Majesty, these people are embezzling food and wages. Almost every unit is engaging in fraudulent activities. The worst case is at a garrison in Shandong. It has a staff of 12,000, but only has a little over 4,000 men."

"It's shocking and insane. These people deserve to die."

"Where are the others?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked slowly.

You have to know that these positions were full, which means there should have been so many people. Now that these people are gone, where did they go?

"They all fled." Chen Sihai said somewhat embarrassedly: "I asked someone to investigate. Every year, tens of thousands of refugees pour into Jingxiang and other places. It even extends to Shaanxi. The mountains are full of refugees. These people are all escaped households."

"Most of them were civilians who had lost their land, and a large number were also military households. After these households fled, the local generals concealed the truth and simply collected salaries without reporting them. Everyone was enriching themselves to the fullest, which clearly shows the corruption."

Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai, nodded and said, "I have thought of it."

In fact, this situation has always existed.

Why couldn’t we defeat the Japanese pirates in the southeast back then?

Is it really because the Japanese pirates have high combat effectiveness?

No, the reason is here. On the one hand, if the generals' private soldiers don't fight, those military households have long become farmers who cultivate the land. What kind of war can they fight?

How can you live your life if you don’t have enough to eat, don’t have warm clothes and are hungry every day, and are bullied by your superiors?

It is unrealistic to ask them to risk their lives when they have elderly parents and young children to take care of.

Even Qi Jiguang had engaged in the practice of drawing a salary without working for him, let alone others?

It was just that Qi Jiguang was drawing empty salaries in order to support his troops. There was clearly a salary for 100,000 soldiers, but when it came to Qi Jiguang, there was not even enough money left for 50,000 soldiers.

So they simply asked for an army of 200,000 men and then gave them a salary of 100,000 men. In this way, they could embezzle the salary of 100,000 men, and all the officials at all levels were happy.

The Ming Dynasty was so corrupt and its army was so rotten, which is evident from this.

Listening to Chen Sihai's report item by item, he realized that he was appointing people based on personal connections, oppressing the people, and treating the military households as slaves. Every single thing made the emperor so angry that he vomited blood. It was obvious how rotten the Ming Dynasty's army had become.

This is also why the Ming army was unable to defeat the peasant army. Because in the process of fighting, the army became a peasant army, there is nothing to say.

As Chen Sihai spoke, he glanced at Zhu Youxiao with a hesitant expression on his face.

He had originally thought that His Majesty would be furious, but unexpectedly His Majesty seemed to have no reaction, and his expression remained calm. This made Chen Sihai a little unsure whether he should continue speaking.

"Is there nothing left?" Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and asked slowly.

After hearing what Zhu Youxiao said, Chen Sihai quickly said, "Your Majesty, there is also a serious situation. The local military households are colluding with the local gentry to divide up the public land. The situation is very serious."

"At the same time, the military households were asked to help the gentry cultivate the land, and the grain produced by the military households was divided between the generals and the gentry."

"The food provided to the hired soldiers for farming was even less than that provided to ordinary tenants. Even so, the food never reached the soldiers. It all went to the generals."

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao slowly sat up and said with a smile: "This really treats our Ming Dynasty military households as slaves. Well done!"

Although His Majesty was smiling and his tone was quite emotional, Chen Sihai still heard a chill in his voice, but this was exactly what Chen Sihai hoped for.

After seeing the report handed over by his subordinates, Chen Sihai was so angry that he was shaking!

These people are simply digging up the roots of the Ming Dynasty!

Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai and said with a smile, "Confucianism emphasizes moderation. We should not rush into anything, but should proceed slowly."

"Reforms should be handled in a way that doesn't require haste. Fine-tuning is necessary. As the saying goes, three years of new followed by three years of old, and three years of patching things up. But I wonder how many more years the Ming Dynasty can maintain this patchwork?"

After hearing what Zhu Youxiao said, Chen Sihai fell to his knees and said, "Your Majesty, we can't patch things up any more! There will come a day when patching things up won't work, and then it will be too late!"

"I beg Your Majesty to allow me to conduct a thorough investigation." As he said this, Chen Sihai touched the ground with his head.

"You'll lose your life." Zhu Youxiao looked at Chen Sihai with a scorching gaze and said, "Do you know how many people are involved in this? If things really get out of hand, I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it."

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!