"Your Majesty is willing to fight with Japan?" Zhang Juzheng was stunned when he heard the news.

"Yes, dad." Zhang Jianxiu said confidently, "Your Majesty's attitude is still very firm. Therefore, in addition to learning and trade, there is another task to train the navy and improve the army's maritime combat capabilities."

"Oh, I understand." Zhang Juzheng nodded, "The mission of training the navy did not explicitly state it in the memorial. It must be because His Majesty did not understand the true military strength of the Ming Dynasty, and was worried that it would arouse an anti-war sentiment, which would be detrimental to the stability of the court."

"Your Majesty asked my father to pretend to be like this in his heart, just to fight with the little Japanese." Zhang Jianxiu conveyed Zhu Yili's words to his father truthfully.

"I know it in my heart."

"You and General Deng also need to work harder." Then Zhang Juzheng added.

"The boy knows." Zhang Jianxiu suddenly asked, "Does that dad know how much military power the Ming Dynasty has? His Majesty seems to have a headache for this matter."

Zhang Juzheng shook his head and said with emotion: "Dad is not clear. The Ming Dynasty's military households and garrison systems are indeed backward. It is time to give up. Instead, it is time to replace it with an advanced recruitment system. The fragmented local supplies should have been centrally managed by the central government."

Speaking of this, Zhang Jianxiu felt confused because he really knew very little. However, he was surprised that his father, who had served as the chief minister for ten years, could not tell how many soldiers there were in the Ming Dynasty.

Deng Zilong listened with relish. He naturally knew that Zhang Juzheng had an indissoluble bond with the Ministry of War during the 16th year of the cabinet. He had achieved outstanding results in presiding over the reform of the Ministry of War. A large number of generals that he could not reach appeared in Zhang Juzheng's hands, such as Tan Lun, Qi Jiguang, Li Chengliang, Yin Zhengmao, Wang Chonggu, Liang Menglong, Fang Fengshi, Ling Yunyi, etc.

Zhang Juzheng said slowly: "According to the military system of this dynasty, the standing army is provided by two million military households, and each household has one man, and it remains unchanged from generation to generation."

"The purpose of establishing military households is to ensure the source of soldiers and to ensure that civilian households are not harassed by recruitment due to war mobilization."

"However, since the beginning of this system, the ills of the situation followed. Because the households were incorporated into the army, most of them were forced, and even if they were voluntary, they were often based on stopgap measures. Times changed, and the original promises could not be kept in hand."

"So when the garrisons stationed in each army were just established, incidents of soldiers' escape and change of households were common. After more than two hundred years, many of the lands of each army were mortgaged and sold out by military households."

"In addition, for many years, except for the north, most areas have been peaceful, so the actual soldiers of a garrison are often less than the prescribed staff."

"In places with severe degradation, the soldiers in the garrison were only two or three percent of the specified staffing, and those limited soldiers were often regarded as laborers for construction and transportation by officers. Otherwise, they would simply stay in their own homes as servants."

"You said, in this situation, I am not like His Majesty, and I can't figure out how much military power is available in the Ming Dynasty."

Oh, after this explanation, Zhang Jianxiu finally understood a little and murmured:

"No wonder His Majesty said that he didn't know how many soldiers there were available in the Ming Dynasty. In this way, I'm afraid no one in the world knows it?"

"However, the quantity is only one aspect." Zhang Juzheng continued, "the organization is also behind. The power of the Ministry of War and the Governor's Office of the Five Army has been mixed. In addition, the supply of the army depends on local institutions that do not belong to each other. There is no organization that can uniformly dispatch manpower and materials, so there is naturally no effective division of labor."

"And the low energy in the organization will inevitably lead to equipment backwardness. This dynasty did not completely lack skilled craftsmen in this area, but they were all concentrated in the imperial city to create exquisite armor for the Imperial Guards."

"Soldiers in the local area can only use cotton jackets lined with small iron sheets or paper armor made of paper tendons. As for the weapons used by soldiers, most of the weapons used by local prefectures and counties are manufactured and paid by the tax part. The quality is not good, and the specifications are not standard."

"There are also fatal weaknesses in the selection and appointment of military officers. Most of them inherit their father's business in the form of "Shiyin". The appointment procedures are quite complicated, and roughly how many levels of descendants of senior generals need to be demoted to inherit."

"From the middle of this dynasty, General Deng was a martial arts master. The purpose of promoting martial arts is to enable anyone who is determined to become an officer to advance as long as they pass the exam."

"But in fact, there is no exception for him to pass the exam and become an officer and be promoted to a senior general. General Deng was able to sit in the position of deputy general because he worked hard step by step on his strength. How much did he do with military and martial arts?"

"The military examination focuses on whether the swords, guns, bows and horses are proficient. The civil servants presided over the written examination. The requirements are just to understand the text but never dabbled in military affairs. "Martial Arts, few senior generals trained in this way have the strategy of strategizing."

Zhang Juzheng's unceremonious remarks made Deng Zilong's face turn red when he heard it.

Although he knew that Zhang Juzheng was not interested in targeting him, he talked about his pain points.

He was almost sixty years old, but he was still a deputy general. He had no hope of being promoted to the position of general, and it was even more impossible to be transferred to the central government like Wu Dui.

Sometimes he also wondered why? On the one hand, it was because of the reality that military officers were suppressed by civil servants, and those who were transferred to the central government were all Jinshi, which was the system;

But on the other hand, he also felt that he had some shortcomings in strategy planning, which was exactly the problem pointed out by Zhang Juzheng, and it would not be possible not to admit it.

Zhang Juzheng continued: "Of course, this may be the intended purpose of the civil servant group. Since most generals are brave men and lack strategy, it is necessary to appoint civil servants as governors and let them command military officers at all levels. This is actually a deformed development."

"Because of this military system, its focus is obviously not on dealing with the full invasion of other countries, nor on the full-scale attack of other countries. As early as the Battle of Tumu Fort, the orthodox emperor was captured by the Oirat, which exposed the fatal weakness of the military system."

"However, such shocking incidents do not seem to attract the attention and reform of the rulers. Military equipment continues to be abolished and military organizations continue to decline. As long as civilians remain calm during their term of office, all issues related to military system reform can be left behind."

"It was not until the invasion of the Japanese pirates along the southeast coast that not only repeatedly broke through the Southeast Sea defense, which was regarded as impregnable, but also rushed straight into the front and regarded the defenders as nothing. This made the civil servants wake up and discover that the incompetent military system would endanger the safety of the Ming Dynasty and the people of the Ming Dynasty."

"The unscrupulous activities of pirates and Japanese pirates forced the court to take tough countermeasures, but once the conflict and confrontation unfolded, the weakness of this dynasty in the military system was undoubtedly exposed."

"The senior commander cannot determine the actual amount of the sergeant under his command, nor can he figure out how many warships can be allocated and used. The subordinate officers must first blackmail the local wealthy households before the troops set off, otherwise they will not protect their interests."

"When a battle occurs, some troops simply flee, and some troops dare to respond, but because of their backward organization and equipment, it is usually difficult to resist their attacks, especially Japanese sergeants who are strictly disciplined and regulated."

"Your Majesty did not write his determination to fight Japan into the memorial. The reasons must be of many aspects, but one thing should be certain is that he does not have enough confidence in whether the army of this dynasty can easily defeat Japan, otherwise he would not have spent so much energy on military reform."

"But from His Majesty's attitude and actions, it is obvious that he is unwilling to be conservative and unwilling to defend only conservatively and will attack other countries at the appropriate time, but he is not sure about the real military power of this dynasty at present."

"In short, this road is a long way to go. This time, taking advantage of the opportunity to go to another country, Your Majesty allows you to consciously train the navy's maritime combat capabilities, which is only one of the links in the military system reform."

After listening to it, Zhang Jianxiu was silent for a while and felt that the things he needed to learn were vast.

Although Deng Zilong claims to have experienced many battles, he feels deeply that his vision and strategy are his shortcomings. After hearing this, he couldn't help but sigh:

"Listen to your words is better than reading for ten years. Today I am lucky to listen to Mr. Zhang's discussion on the army. It really makes me enlightened and benefited a lot!"

"General Deng is awarded!" Zhang Juzhen was also determined to teach them a lesson. Especially when he learned that Zhu Yili was determined to train the Navy to vow to fight against Japan, he felt the urgency of rectifying the military, and every link seemed particularly important, including the mission to other countries.

...
Chapter completed!