"When a large army is fighting, military discipline must be strict!" Chongzhen suddenly said.
The chief minister of the cabinet, Fan Jingwen, the minister of war, Wang Jiayan, the seal holder of the Imperial Household Department, Gao Shiming, and Wang Chengen all showed puzzled expressions.
They didn't know why Chongzhen said this or the deeper meaning of it.
Fan Jingwen lowered his head and discussed with Wang Jiayan: "What do you think it means that military discipline should be strict?"
Wang Jiayan frowned and thought for a while: "The people are most afraid of war, because the soldiers of both sides will take the opportunity of war to rob the people. The people will lose everything at best, and their families will be destroyed at worst. The military discipline that Your Majesty mentioned should be related to this!"
"As long as the military maintains strict discipline and does not harass the people, they will gain the recognition of the people and thus win their hearts!"
"That makes sense!" Fan Jingwen nodded and saluted Chongzhen, saying, "Your Majesty, do you mean to find a way to win the hearts of the people of Liaodong? As long as they are loyal to the Ming Dynasty, they will not become traitors of the Jiannu?"
"Oh," Chongzhen laughed, "You are half right! You can influence the people, but you cannot influence the traitors. They are not only the running dogs of the Jiannu, but also the interests of the Jiannu. Secondly, the traitors will not engrave the words "I am a traitor" on their heads. If you want to find the traitors, it will not only take time, but also a lot of manpower! The court has neither the time nor the people to do this."
"So," Chongzhen paused, raised his lips and said, "My intention is to regain the hearts of the people while recovering Liaodong, mobilize the people, and rely on the people to catch the traitors!"
"Rely on the people?" Fan Jingwen and Wang Jiayan were still a little confused.
Chongzhen did not explain much, but asked Wang Chengen to pass the paper on the table to the two of them.
After reading the contents of the paper, the two were shocked and then admired: "Your Majesty is so talented that we cannot even compare to him."
"Stop flattering me and let's talk about the second trouble Wang Yongji encountered: the first merit." Chongzhen said.
Wang Yongji encountered many troubles, big and small.
As the Governor-General of Pingliao, many of his troubles were not a big deal in his eyes, except for one trouble!
Military merit!
Especially the system for assessing first merit, which Wang Yongji could not solve and was not qualified to solve.
This can only be changed from the top down.
Speaking of the first merit, Wang Jiayan took a half step forward and said, "The evaluation of the first merit had a watershed during the Xianzong period. Before that, the evaluation of the first merit was relatively loose. Most of the time, as long as the soldiers could bring back the heads, they could get the first merit!"
"Over time, the drawbacks began to emerge. At first, the border troops would use the heads of northern barbarian women and children to claim credit; later, they turned their attention to the border residents of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, many border residents of the Ming Dynasty were killed and their heads were cut off, which became the credit of the border troops."
"When Emperor Xianzong found out, he was furious and ordered a thorough investigation! In the end, a group of people were punished, and the standard for first merit evaluation was greatly raised, which still exists today."
What Wang Jiayan said was the truth.
Before Chenghua, history books recorded many battles in which the Ming army beheaded hundreds or even thousands of people!
After Chenghua, the number of beheadings by the Ming army recorded in history books dropped sharply.
The general situation at that time was that the number of first merits was one-tenth or even one-twentieth of the actual number of kills.
The higher the enemy's armor rate, the fewer the Ming army's first merits.
After all, armored soldiers only have one weakness - the face, and the simplest and most effective way to kill is to attack the face.
A dozen heads can be considered a victory, hundreds of heads can be considered a great victory, and battles with hundreds of heads killed will be reported to the entire army.
After Wang Jiayan finished speaking, Fan Jingwen asked, "Your Majesty, do you want to change the criteria for assessing first merit?"
"I do have this idea." Chongzhen put down the family letter from Prince Ding Zhu Cixiong while speaking.
He had already learned about Ma Yingkui's experience from Zhu Cixiong's letters home.
Ma Yingkui was a subordinate of Liu Zhaoji, and Liu Zhaoji's cavalry was strictly speaking Chongzhen's private army.
Out of more than 1,700 heads, only more than 120 were qualified as the first meritorious leader. Even Chongzhen himself could not bear it anymore.
Although officials from the Ministry of War's Examination and Reward Office were suspected of squeezing out Chongzhen's private army, the key to the problem lies not with those officials but with the system.
Chongzhen had considered military merit reform before, but never had the opportunity.
First, it involves too many people, and if you are not careful you will end up shooting yourself in the foot.
Existence is reasonable.
Although the old military merit system had its flaws, it also had irreplaceable advantages, otherwise it would not have been used for hundreds of years.
Second, there is no opportunity.
First we fought the bandits.
The heads of bandits were worthless, and it was impossible to tell whether they were bandits or civilians, so from ordinary soldiers to senior generals, no one cared about the first merit.
Later they fought against the Mongols.
The Mongols had the custom of taking the bodies of their companions with them when they escaped, so the Ming army did not get many bodies.
Now that they have recovered Liaodong, what awaits them are hundreds of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers, hundreds of thousands of Bannermen, and millions of Mongols who helped the Jiannu to do evil.
If the issue of military merit is not resolved, the enthusiasm of the soldiers will be greatly dampened.
"Your Majesty, the system of military merit, especially the first merit, cannot be changed..." Fan Jingwen began a long speech.
He first explained the pros and cons, and then explained from various dimensions that changing the military merit system would do more harm than good.
The weather in late July was very hot.
Fan Jingwen started to sweat after talking for a while.
"Give Elder Fan a seat!"
"Pour Mr. Fan a cup of herbal tea!"
"Take my imperial fan and fan Lord Fan!" Chongzhen listened with one ear and let it out with the other, while asking people to take good care of Fan Jingwen.
Nothing can happen to Fan Jingwen.
Almost all the generals of the third rank and above in the Ping Liao army had given gifts to Fan Jingwen.
There are people in the court who are easy to talk to.
They did this mainly for self-protection.
As long as Fan Jingwen stays in the position of Prime Minister, the generals of the army that pacifies Liao will feel at ease.
"Your Majesty, please think twice!" Fan Jingwen finally ended his long speech.
"What Mr. Fan said is very good," Chongzhen stood up and encouraged, "The first merit system cannot be changed, but I think the situation in Liaodong is special, so the first merit system can be temporarily adjusted."
"I wonder how Your Majesty would like to make adjustments?" Fan Jingwen asked.
"During the inspection, the loss of facial features will not affect the assessment of the first merit, everything else remains the same!" Chongzhen said.
"This..." Fan Jingwen frowned.
"You guys discuss it, I'll go out and wait." Chongzhen waved his hand to call over two eunuchs, who had trays in their hands with cakes and tea.
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