The following are the staff generals, the third rank, and the guerrillas, the third rank. Both of them can be called "generals". In many cases, the military system of the Ming Dynasty did not have strict distinctions. It depends on the personal abilities of the military leader, that is, the chief military officer:

It’s up to you how much food and salary you can get from the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War will conduct “inspections” from time to time, which means counting the heads. Only those who are recognized by the Ministry of War will be paid. If the court doesn’t recognize you, you can also raise your own troops, but the cost is your own—

- We will talk about this in detail later. Therefore, a general can lead several combat battalions, or he can lead only one. In theory, guerrillas can lead one battalion. If you have the ability to lead two battalions, no one will care.

The next level is garrison, which is the fourth rank, but it is not used much. Later, in the Qing Dynasty, this official position was gradually abolished. The situation below is even more chaotic: some troops have a thousand commanders, deputy chiefs, and generals (also called hundred commanders).

General, it should be the accent problem, it all falls into the written form), deputy general manager, just like this; there are also some thousand general managers, under the general commander are the chief flag officer, the small flag officer...

The root cause of this chaos lies with Zhu Yuanzhang. Zhu Yuanzhang was obsessed with money and hoped to raise troops without spending money, so he established a garrison system: When the country is at peace, you can all disarm and return to the fields to farm. Eat your own food, don't eat my food. What's more?

During the war, he would put down his hoe and pick up his knife to chop down the traitors and traitors. After he finished chopping, he would come back and continue farming... Therefore, the military system in the early Ming Dynasty was that the military leader at the provincial level was called the commander of the capital (the deputy was called the commander of the capital, Tongzhi, commander of the capital).

Qianshi), military units are called capital commanders; military leaders at the prefectural level (prefecture-level cities) are called commanders (deputies are called commanders and commanders according to their levels), and military units are called guards, such as Tianjin Wei and Weihai

Wei; the military leader at the state level (county directly under the jurisdiction of the province) is called Qianhu (the deputy position is called deputy Qianhu), and the military unit is called Qianhusuo; the military leader at the county level is called Bai Zong (the deputy position is deputy Bai Zong), and the military unit is called Bai Zong

There is a general flag under the 100-household office, and there is a small flag under the general banner...

The ideal is full, and the reality is more skinny. The beauty that Lao Zhu thought of soon changed: the military leaders gradually put the income from farming into their own pockets. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the so-called army had completely degenerated into a farmer.

Farmers - because they are considered hereditary "military households" and have personal dependencies, they are actually serfs. At this point, the so-called "soldiers" can no longer fight. This is also a very funny point: the theoretical "soldiers" of the Ming Dynasty

”, in fact became “people”, farmers.

The hostile forces are always determined to defeat us, and the war will still have to be fought. If the "soldiers" are no longer effective, then who will fight?

"People".

This is the recruitment system, recruiting soldiers from the people. Note that these recruited "soldiers" are not "military status", but civilian status! Therefore, in the court, they are all counted as "civilians". However, many people have become professional soldiers

, can no longer farm. This is a very speechless part of the Ming Dynasty's military system: "soldiers" are serfs who can't fight but can only farm, and "min" are "soldiers" who can only fight and can't farm.

"Soldiers" are serfs, "commanders" and other "generals" naturally become landlords who cannot fight. Who will lead the "people" who can fight? Professional officers. So, the general, the deputy general, the staff general...

Then another set of military systems came into being.

Originally, this system was temporary and would be disbanded after the work was done. But later, the contractors (military leaders) quit: We are not Durex, why should we throw it away after use? No, pay for it! No.

We also have trouble with money!

Then, the imperial court could only retain this military system...

This is just a rough introduction, we will analyze it in depth later.
Chapter completed!