The distribution of spoils of war was used to motivate the soldiers' fighting spirit and fighting spirit. At the same time, it also set an example for the people of the Ming Dynasty, enabling them to develop a pioneering and adventurous spirit more quickly.
The emperor did not give this policy any thought and thought it was very good and had been proven effective in practice in history.
But for Wang Sanshan and others, they still had to think carefully in order to achieve the purpose of the war and implement the emperor's will.
Not to mention other dynasties, even in the Ming Dynasty, there were many cases of generals provoking border conflicts or deliberately provoking local chieftains to rebel in order to gain military merit and money.
Especially in this war against Burma, trying to persuade the Burmese chieftains to turn against the country or provide them with food and supplies was an effective way to speed up the progress of the war.
If the new policy on the distribution of spoils of war stimulates them to ignore the overall situation, whether it is the Ming army or the chieftain coalition forces participating in the war, forcing the chieftains affiliated with Myanmar to fight tenaciously, it is very likely that they will do so.
Therefore, Wang Sanshan wanted to control it, at least he was not going to issue this new policy to the army until he came up with a good way to restrain it.
This is the emperor's brilliance: he would come up with a solution but rarely announced it until it was proven in practice. Whether it was a trial or decentralization, it was left to the officials or generals to decide.
This wasn't an attempt to shirk responsibility; rather, it gave officials a sense of trust and made the emperor appear humane. After all, imaginary policies, due to differences in local conditions and actual circumstances, also required consideration of the drawbacks of mechanical execution.
Without mentioning how Wang Sanshan discussed and decided with the officers, Yunnan Province, Sichuan, Guizhou, and even Guangxi were all making preparations for this war against Burma.
Although the target of the attack was not made public for the sake of confidentiality, some middle and high-level generals and local chieftains were still able to guess roughly.
On the southwestern border, who else could be the enemy of the Ming Empire besides Myanmar?
Annam did not count, and was in the midst of the war between the Nguyen in the South and the Zheng in the North; Siam had always been on good terms with the Ming, and the empire's rules and customs were not to raise an army without justice.
Moreover, this was the case in ancient times. Due to the limitations of road transportation and communications, if a large-scale war was to be fought, it would not be an exaggeration to describe it as mobilizing a large army.
The transportation and storage of food and supplies, the mobilization and training of the army, etc., cannot be completed in a short period of time.
Therefore, it is unrealistic and impossible to maintain absolute confidentiality.
Although the border roads between Yunnan and Myanmar were closed and troops were stationed at the border fortresses, even the emperor and his officers could not guarantee that Myanmar would not receive any news and make any preparations.
"Sichuan will train 30,000 troops, Yunnan 20,000, and Guangxi 15,000..." Wang Sanshan temporarily paused the discussion on the distribution of the spoils and announced the court's plan to expand the army. "This is only the plan for this year. There will be more troops next year. Do you understand the emperor's intention?"
No one dared to answer rashly. Everyone had their own guesses in their minds, and was shocked by the emperor's courage. They waited quietly for Wang Sanshan to explain.
Wang Sanshan took a sip of tea, looked up at the generals, and said in a deep voice: "The population of our Ming Dynasty has exceeded 100 million. After a few decades of peace, 200 million will not be too many. Although the Ming Dynasty has a territory of thousands of miles, the population has increased while the land has not grown. When the land's output is insufficient to feed the population, the consequences will be clear in history..."
The contradiction between a small land area and a large population has been the main reason for the succession of most dynasties throughout history. Meanwhile, years of war and a sharp decline in population have been the root causes for the establishment and steady growth of new dynasties.
The emperor naturally hoped that the Ming dynasty would last long, and he certainly didn't want to resolve conflicts by resorting to a sharp decline in population. In this world, the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest were deeply felt by no one more deeply than he.
So, expansion is expansion, but it is very different from the times of Taizu and Chengzu.
At the same time, occupying vast lands, settling more Ming people, diluting the population of inland provinces, surviving major disasters, and maintaining per capita arable land at a certain level were the emperor's century-long plans.
The climate is getting colder, disasters are frequent, and the income from farming is not enough, so they recruit soldiers to expand and plunder wealth.
Wang Sanshan spoke very openly, and the generals understood him.
The invasion of Burma was not only a war of revenge, but also the beginning of the road to becoming a strong and prosperous country, and it was also a way for the Ming Empire to survive the disaster and stand firm.
The land must be conquered and more importantly, it must be defended so that the people of the Ming Dynasty can migrate and engage in land reclamation.
This increased the demands on the army. It was not like the previous Jisuozhou, where a small number of troops took turns to maintain the dignity of the Ming Dynasty.
The occupied territories were to become prefectures, counties, new borders, and new cities of the Ming Empire. The garrisons there were not only to provide solid defenses but also to become sharp spears for the next war of expansion.
It is conceivable that in order to maintain stability in the newly occupied areas, repression and killing are inevitable. Moreover, the initial stage will be very cruel in order to have a deterrent effect.
Wang Sanshan ended today's military meeting and asked the generals to go back and digest it and come up with ideas and suggestions tomorrow.
There were some things that Wang Sanshan did not explain in detail to the generals.
For example, Qin Liangyu of Sichuan was awarded the title of Earl for suppressing the She'an Rebellion, setting a precedent for women to be granted titles during the Ming Dynasty. During this Sichuan troop mobilization, Qin Liangyu once again volunteered to lead 5,000 Shizhu local soldiers to Yunnan to participate in the war.
There were also the chieftains of Guangxi. The four families jointly sent 10,000 troops, which was also approved by the court and was about to go to Yunnan.
The chieftains in Yunnan Province were even more active. The Na, Sha, Pu, Dao, etc. planned to dispatch more than 60,000 troops, waiting for the court's permission.
Not only mobilization, but also training. The Ming army's combat effectiveness is certainly credible, but they do not want to be dragged down by the chieftain coalition forces.
It was such a big commotion that Wang Sanshan and others made preparations to guard against an early attack by the Burmese and deployed strong and elite troops on the border.
The so-called elite troops are naturally the troops that have experienced the battle to suppress the She'an rebellion and are led by outstanding generals. Among them are the young generation who graduated from martial arts schools such as Xu Sanshao and were promoted to middle and senior military officers.
The telescope's field of view includes mountains, jungles, roads, and even the curling smoke from distant villages.
Young Master Xu pursed his lips and put down the telescope.
Accompanying him was the combat staff officer, who summarized the recent reconnaissance intelligence and continued to report: "The Burmese are equipped with a large number of muskets, but they are all old-fashioned matchlock guns, purchased from the Western barbarians..."
The Portuguese once occupied Thanlyin, Myanmar, and obtained permission from the then Burmese king, and therefore purchased a number of Western-style matchlock guns.
These matchlock guns were more powerful than the bird-guns previously equipped by the Ming army, but they were far inferior to the flintlock guns of the current Ming army.
Moreover, the Burmese and the Portuguese had become enemies, and they drove the Portuguese out of Thanlian, cutting off the subsequent supply of weapons and equipment.
In addition, the Burmese were good at using elephant soldiers in battle, which seemed fierce, but the Ming army specially equipped themselves with many heavy muskets for this purpose, so they should have no problem restraining the elephants.
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