Prepare for the Northern Expedition.

At present, the military garrisons within the Ming Dynasty have begun to undergo frequent relocations.

Not only the drills, but also the arrangements of some personnel are more frequent and intensive.

This made many commanders of the garrisons complain bitterly.

Many commanders began to curse the Ministry of War's arrangements.

Because among them, the most mobilized were the thousand households.

Normally, there were five thousand households under a garrison, but in preparation for the Northern Expedition, some of the commanders' garrisons and even the third brother's thousand households were replaced.

They were replaced by new garrison soldiers.

Familiar faces were suddenly replaced by strangers, which made many commanders of the garrisons cry out that they couldn't stand it.

In the capital, the Five Military Commanderies were extremely busy.

Anyone who had a little bit of knowledge came to the Five Military Commanderies to complain and impeach the Ministry of War.

Three commanders of garrisons not far from the capital rushed to the Five Military Commandery overnight to seek an explanation.

"Duke Ying, please say something. We brothers came here specifically for this matter."

"What exactly does the Minister of War Ru Heng mean? Why did he act so recklessly all of a sudden? Your Majesty knows about this matter."

"Your Majesty, you definitely don't know which bastard came up with this rule. Isn't this harming people?"

"In my garrison, two thousand-household garrisons were replaced all at once. I can't even recognize all the people. If we go to the battlefield, it will be a mess."

A garrison commander had no fear of the Governor's Office at all, and his voice was so loud that the entire Governor's Office could hear it.

He was almost cursing.

Fu Youde also felt a bit of a headache and said, "I have already said that the transfer order from the Ministry of War has been approved by His Majesty."

"What can I do? Should I go to His Majesty and tell him that you don't follow the Ministry of War's arrangements and have objections?"

When they heard that it was related to His Majesty, several commanders suddenly lost their temper.

One of them laughed and said, "Duke Ying, what are you talking about? We brothers are just complaining, we dare not disturb your majesty."

"I just feel that there must be someone behind this, otherwise His Majesty would definitely not agree."

"Next year we will go to the grassland to fight. If this happens, you won't know me and I won't know you. How can I trust my back to someone I don't know?"

Another person also agreed: "Yes, this has messed up all the training we do every day."

"The military households are very dissatisfied with the current situation. Their husbands, wives and children are not around anymore, so they are worried about them more than usual."

"Those soldiers who came to my garrison were unwilling and listless every day."

"Please ask Duke Ying to submit a memorial to His Majesty and explain the situation here."

Weisuo was a characteristic of the Ming Dynasty’s military.

The soldiers in the garrisons were usually self-reliant. After the end of the Tang Dynasty's military system, the recruitment system formulated by Xuanzong and others continued until the later Yuan Dynasty. The recruitment system gave the army more autonomy, and the generals under him also had sufficient power.

However, the emperor was still somewhat wary of recruiting soldiers. After all, these military generals had too much power in the court. Recruiting soldiers had no effect in the Song Dynasty. Moreover, the financial burden of the Ministry of Revenue under the regime of recruiting soldiers was also very heavy.

The Song Dynasty maintained so many troops, so their annual military expenditure was very large, and the Ministry of Revenue’s finances were always tight.

When the Ming Dynasty was first established, the domestic situation was unstable and the country's financial resources were insufficient. If Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to stabilize his regime, he still needed a strong army.

But he also needed to ensure a smooth recovery of the domestic economy, which meant he could not spend a large amount of money to support the army. Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang drew on the previous fubing system and began to use the weisuo system.

The officers and soldiers of the garrison were called military households. Military households were inherited from generation to generation, which means that if their ancestors were soldiers, their generations would be officers and soldiers in the garrison.

Some military households were set up before the Yuan Dynasty, and these military households were also accepted by the Ming Dynasty. Later, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the use of the Yellow Book to formally determine the domestic military households.

The local military households have two main responsibilities, one is to cultivate land, the other is to guard the country. The soldiers in the garrisons need to be self-sufficient. There are garrisons in various places, and there are many garrisons across the country. These garrisons are responsible for defending various areas in the country.

These military households had their own land and a fixed monthly ration. The military households responsible for farming had to hand in the rations on time every month to the garrison troops and local officials.

Using this method, the Ming Dynasty maintained a strong military force in the local area and successfully reclaimed a lot of wasteland.

Now the Ministry of War suddenly ordered a switch.

It was to conduct a short-term mobile exercise among the soldiers in the adjacent garrisons, which made all the garrison commanders a little scared.

What they fear is not the loss of their power.

Instead, he was worried that his corruption would be spread.

In fact, the guard post already had a system of rotating shifts.

The meaning of shift rotation is a shift rotation system established by the Ming Dynasty to ensure the combat effectiveness of the garrisons.

It was stipulated that the troops of each garrison would take turns to go to the capital for training in order to defend the capital or prepare for an expedition. This was also known as "capital training" and became a custom thereafter.

However, this was a shift system whereby the troops were led by the commander-in-chief of the garrison and were stationed in the capital for training.

For commanders, leading their own troops is a controllable behavior.

Now, from an objective point of view, it is almost the same as changing shifts.

But the soldiers under his command had changed. At this time, his own captain had to obey the orders of other commanders, which was not acceptable.

It should be noted that there is not always peace among the commanders. There are countless grudges and grievances.

For example, one garrison looked down on another garrison, or there was resentment accumulated by some military officers when they were pacifying the world.

At present, there are few commanders of the garrisons who are not greedy.

As the saying goes, if the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams will be crooked.

Great generals like Lan Yu and the Duke of Liang had taken the lead in seizing people's land, and those below them followed suit.

The biggest contradiction here, in fact, comes down to interests.

Originally, the commander of the garrison took the lion's share, while the thousand-household and hundred-household officers under him took the smaller share.

This food is the military pay for the low-level soldiers and military households.

But now the thousand households have gone to other guards.

There is no place to start.

Most of the military households are the families of soldiers.

For the thousand households and hundred households who were already accustomed to it, the brothers under them would not have any objections.

But now that I am away from home, I have to worry about one thing: whether my family’s military households will be exploited by the newly arrived thousand or hundred households.

Wouldn't that mean someone else is taking away your job?

On my side, because of the unfamiliar environment, it is difficult to take action right away, and there is a commander above us.

Every garrison has its own rules.

Some garrisons are more ruthless, but some garrisons have less corruption, which will create an imbalance.

So, here comes the problem.

In the past few days, the Five Military Commandery has received letters of complaint from all the garrisons that have been transferred.

Fu Youde was also somewhat helpless.

He said: "I advise you to be quiet this time and not make a big deal out of it. It will not benefit anyone."

"Not to mention you, even the Beijing Guards are in the same situation."

"Watch your mouth. How could the Ministry of War come up with something like this? The Minister of War, Ru Heng, has never had the guts to do this."

"Our Five Military Commandery is not just for show. The Minister of War does not have the final say in the court."

"I am still a first-rank official, but I have to tell you that no one can stop this."

At this point, Fu Youde paused for a moment and whispered, "This is the idea of ​​His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. His Majesty agreed to it, so he asked the Ministry of War to do it."

Then he pointed at the commander who had just called him a bastard and cursed, "Just based on what you just said, if it gets out, not only will you lose your official uniform, but you won't even be able to keep your head."

Hearing this, the commander who had just spoken couldn't help but shrink his head.

Those who were able to hold the position of commander of the garrison must have made many contributions to the Ming Dynasty.

Basically, most of the garrison commanders in various parts of the Ming Dynasty had followed Zhu Yuanzhang to conquer the world before the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

That's why he speaks so firmly.

At present, Zhu Ying still has a very high reputation in the Ming army, especially among the commanders.

Because of the establishment of the Public Security Bureau, some soldiers from the garrisons could serve as patrolmen of the Public Security Bureau if they had certain merits, which was equivalent to having a certain degree of protection.

Although the Public Security Bureau has only been established in some areas now, it will definitely be spread all over the country in the future, and the soldiers in the garrisons will have a glimmer of hope.

Thousands and hundreds of households, of course, don’t care.

But the general flag and the small flags care.

To put it simply, the general went to the Public Security Bureau, which made him more or less an official in the city.

What benefits can the poor military households get? The Public Security Bureau has a lucrative job as they live in the city.

Any little bit of profit is much better than staying in the suburbs like the garrison.

Now that Fu Youde brought up the name of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, several commanders were suddenly at a loss for words.

"In that case, I will take my leave first."

A commander winked at his companions and was about to leave.

Although the others were somewhat reluctant, they had no choice but to leave.

After leaving the Five Military Commanders' Office, he asked, "We can't just let this go. Even if it's His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, you shouldn't block our path to wealth like this."

The leading commander said, "Why, do you still want to go against His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?"

"Our only option now is to talk to Duke Liang."

"Although Duke Liang is no longer in the Five Military Commandery, he is still a royal relative and has a close relationship with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

"Find him, there must be a way."

The Duke of Liang’s Mansion.

Since Lan Yu put down the rebellion, he has been in charge of the Public Security Department.

Although he is nominally the Grand Commander of the Public Security Bureau, he actually has nothing to do every day.

When Zhu Ying followed him, the power of the Beijing Security Bureau was to monitor all officials, which sounded good. However, as far as the capital was concerned, monitoring all officials was not as effective as the Jinyiwei.

The Public Security Department does not have any specialized personnel in this area, and on weekdays it only deals with some complicated and trivial matters.

In fact, the Public Security Bureau is still quite busy now, because the capital has a lot of cases due to its prosperity, but there are no major cases. Except for the death of a court official, in Lan Yu's view, none of them are a big deal.

How much power did Lan Yu have before?

To quote Lan Yu’s own drunken rant: The promotion of soldiers across the country is controlled by me alone.

As the Left General of the Central Military Governor's Office, the General, the Duke of Liang, and the leader of the Huaixi noble group, he was not bragging when he said this.

But the more arrogant he was before, the more lonely he is now.

After being stripped of his military power, the position of the leader of the Huaixi noble group has become somewhat unstable. Through a series of actions by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, even the reckless generals have realized that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is trying hard to interfere with military power.

Just this year, a large number of captains from the Xuanjia Guards have been continuously inserted into various guards in the capital.

On the surface, there was no change in the commanders, and except for Lan Yu, the military power of the generals did not seem to change much. But in fact, only the commanders of the garrisons knew that the military power was constantly gathering towards His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

In addition, at the current Ming Military Academy, when the first batch of students graduate, they will inevitably join the army.

As they are the emperor's disciples and the crown prince's confidants, they will naturally be extremely loyal to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Just when Lan Yu was about to meet some friends for a drink, the butler came to report: "Master, there are four commanders outside who want to see you."

Lan Yu asked curiously, "Who is coming?"

The butler replied, "The other three are unfamiliar. The leader is Wang Yue, who once followed the master."

Wang Yue was the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province.

In the 22nd year of Hongwu, because he had been guarding the border for many years and had been tired of attacks, he was summoned to the capital by His Majesty.

He is currently the commander of a garrison on the border of the capital, and concurrently serves as the deputy commander-in-chief of the left army.

After Lan Yu thought about it for a while, he roughly knew what he wanted.

"Let them in."

Soon after, four commanders led by Wang Yue came in.

As soon as he entered the hall, Lan Yu stood up and scolded, "You left your post without an imperial order and came to the capital, which is a serious crime. Now you dare to come before me, you are really bold."

When Wang Yue and the other three heard this, they were immediately shocked.

The leader, Wang Yue, knelt on one knee and begged, "General, the situation of the guards has changed, and we are helpless. Please help us."

Lan Yu sneered and said, "What kind of help do you want? It's just a training exercise for the thousand households. Do you think I don't know about your little business?"

"With your little matter, do you think His Royal Highness doesn't know about it?"

"This matter was originally the intention of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. You should go back earlier and make up for the previous losses. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will naturally not pursue it too much. You can stop doing those things in the future."

"Only by training the troops well can we ensure prosperity for generations. Corruption and abuse of power will eventually not escape the eyes of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

After the scolding, Wang Yue and the other three looked at each other and felt much more at ease.

What they feared most was that the matter would be exposed, but who would have thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had already known about it and still gave them the opportunity.

In this case, I can go back with peace of mind.