In the following period of time.

Chongzhen told the cabinet members about his idea of establishing the Wei Suo system in the Mongolian territory.

The Weisuo system is similar to the league and banner system of the Qing Dynasty.

The territories were divided by leagues and banners, and the territories were also divided by garrisons.

Small tribes set up a hundred-household unit with one hundred households.

Ten hundred-household units were organized into one thousand-household unit, with one thousand households.

Above the Qianhu Suo is the Wei, where a Wei commander is appointed.

Take the Tumed tribe as an example.

According to the population of the opponent, they are divided into Tumed Left Guard, Tumed Center Guard and Tumed Right Guard.

Above the three guards, the Tumed Dusi was established, with one commander-in-chief and two deputy commanders.

The Tumed leader Ombu served as the commander-in-chief, in charge of military and political power.

The imperial court promoted two people from within the Tumed tribe to serve as deputy commanders.

Since the commander-in-chief was selected by the imperial court, it was difficult for him to be trusted by Ombu.

same.

The two commanders would not be very loyal to Ombu.

They will become suspicious of each other and engage in infighting.

What if there is no infighting?

Simple, change people!

After explaining the garrison system, Chongzhen continued: "After establishing the garrison, the most critical step is to divide the territory for the herdsmen in each garrison."

"Divide the territory to the herdsmen?" Fan Jingwen looked confused.

"Yes," Chongzhen smiled. "After the territories are divided, the soldiers and civilians of each guard are not allowed to graze across the border. Otherwise, the party whose border is crossed can confiscate the livestock of the herders who cross the border."

"The apparent purpose of dividing the territory is to prevent herders from competing for pastures, but the actual purpose is to prevent herders from running around. Only by stopping them can the threat be reduced."

"But..." Fan Jingwen frowned and asked, "The reason why the Mongolians are nomadic is that there is not enough grass for their livestock, so they have to be nomadic. Once the grazing area is limited, the shortage of grass will damage their interests, and resistance will follow!"

"No!" Chongzhen was confident. "First, the territories allocated to each of them should be large enough for grazing. Secondly, we should find a way to let them cultivate the land!"

"The food harvested from farming can not only meet our daily needs, but the straw produced can also be used to feed livestock, killing two birds with one stone!"

Fang Yuegong coughed lightly and said, "Your Majesty, there is drought in the northern part of the Great Wall, and the grain harvest will not be very high."

Fang Yuegong's words were very tactful, and the underlying meaning was that growing crops on the grassland would most likely result in a total failure.

Chongzhen thought for a while and said, "Drought is not a problem. We can grow sweet potatoes and yams (potatoes)."

Several cabinet ministers looked at each other in surprise.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Chongzhen asked with a frown.

Fan Jingwen reminded in a low voice: "Your Majesty, sweet potatoes and potatoes are drought-resistant and cold-resistant. If the Mongols learn how to grow them, they will be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty after they have enough food."

"Your Excellency is wrong!" Chongzhen sighed, "It is better to let them have enough food than to let them have too little food! The key to using both kindness and force is not kindness, but force! The size of the garrisons in the nine frontiers remains unchanged. The Mongols will be killed every time they rebel. I don't believe they will rebel just because they are full!"

"It seems to be the case..." Several cabinet ministers looked at each other and said no more.

Seeing that no one objected, Chongzhen continued to speak of his thoughts: "After the establishment of the guard post, I plan to allocate a large sum of money from the court to build temples on the grasslands to promote Tibetan Buddhism. For all those who become monks, the court will provide a certain amount of silver every month for daily expenses!"

Without waiting for the Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong to object, Fan Jingwen immediately said, "Your Majesty, is the purpose of this move to reduce the number of people?"

"Yes," Chongzhen nodded to Fan Jingwen in praise, "This is an open conspiracy! The Mongols can't defend against it, and they can't defend against it!"

"I have no objection!" Fan Jingwen immediately expressed his opinion.

There are not many ways to deal with the Mongols, and this method of boiling a frog in warm water is one of them.

Fang Yuegong thought for a moment and said, "It's not that I disagree, but I think we need to plan when spending money, otherwise the deficit in the national treasury will only get bigger!"

"Well, we do need a plan." When the word deficit was mentioned, Chongzhen couldn't help but frowned.

After Lu Daqi captured Guihua City, Chongzhen asked the Ministry of Revenue to do the math.

Although this expedition did not result in many casualties, the amount of silver consumed was as high as hundreds of thousands of taels!

It was the same when fighting the Mongols and it was the same when fighting the Jiannu.

If the battlefield were moved to Liaodong, the Ming army would definitely suffer casualties, and the amount of compensation required would increase exponentially.

In other words...

A large sum of silver must be prepared before recovering Liaodong.

"Your Majesty," Fan Jingwen's voice interrupted Chongzhen's thoughts.

"Please speak, Minister Fan!" Chongzhen shook his head and refocused his attention on the present.

"Your Majesty just said that in order to solve the Mongolian problem, we need to build a community of interests with the Mongolian top leaders, set up guards to divide and rule the middle-level leaders, and assimilate the lower-level people or even bind them to religion."

"I did say that." Chongzhen nodded.

"We already have a guardhouse system for the middle-level officials and an assimilation policy for the lower-level people, but we lack a way to build a community of interests with the Mongolian high-level officials. Your Majesty, do you have any good ideas?" Fan Jingwen pointed out the crux of the problem.

"Yes, what good ideas do you have?" Chongzhen did not answer, but asked back.

If he knows everything, what does he need these cabinet ministers for?

When it is time for them to perform, they must be allowed to perform.

Fan Jingwen frowned and thought for a while, but he had no clue and could only look at Fang Yuegong.

Fang Yuegong had no idea, so he looked at Qiu Yu.

Qiu Yu quickly turned his gaze to the ground and counted the number of gold bricks on the ground.

Facing the inquiring gazes of Fan Jingwen and Fang Yuegong, the Minister of War Wang Jiayan and the Minister of Rites Huang Jin immediately pretended to be very busy.

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