The next day, Zhu Cihong first took Zhou Yuji to review his imperial troops in the outer court palace.
I saw more than ten thousand big Han generals on the campus, all of them tall and tall, wearing armor and holding sharp points, standing upright.
Of these 10,000 people, excluding the original 3,000 Han generals, the remaining 7,000 were all carefully selected from hundreds of thousands of refugees over the past half month.
After seven or eight days of maintenance and simple training, and equipped with a brand new cotton-armored waist knife, it looks good now.
It's not that Zhu Cixiang doesn't want to attack more, it's just that he doesn't have that many weapons and armor.
Just to get these 7,000 sets, he almost wiped out all the blacksmiths in the city, concentrated them in the war bureau, and then worked overtime to build them.
What's more, he still knows the truth that more troops are better than better troops.
As his imperial guard, we must not blindly expand our ranks.
Not only are these seven thousand people tall and strong, they are also honest and honest in character.
The family members were also taken to the imperial city and resettled, and it was promised that after the rebel army was defeated, each family would be granted ten acres of land.
Therefore, although these people joined not long ago, they are the most loyal people to Zhu Cixiang.
"Zhou Aiqing, how are these imperial guards of mine?"
"Your Majesty, these imperial guardsmen have a solemn appearance and are full of energy. In time, after going through battles, they will surely become a powerful army."
Zhou Yuji cupped his hands and replied.
"Haha, that's right. These imperial guardsmen of mine still lack training and have no actual combat experience. They can only be regarded as mere showpieces of no use."
Seeing that he didn't just praise him, Zhu Cixiang not only didn't care, but actually appreciated him even more.
He knows the shortcomings of his own imperial army better than anyone else.
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
Just now, Zhou Yuji hesitated for a long time before choosing to tell the truth, but after speaking, he regretted it.
After all, although His Majesty is wise and has the appearance of a wise king, he is still young after all. Now that I see that he is not angry, but openly admits it directly, I finally let go of my worries.
At the same time, I was very excited in my heart. Ming Dynasty finally found a practical and wise king, and ZTE has hope.
Immediately, Zhu Cihong took him to the Jingying Campus in the southeast corner of the imperial city, where eight thousand people from Tangtong and the original 20,000 Jingying were stationed.
Finally, we went to review the 80,000 troops gathered by the nobles. These people will also be the main force defending the city.
These 80,000 people were stationed throughout the city, half of whom were servants and disciples of nobles.
The rest are also young and strong refugees recruited.
This makes the 80,000 people clearly distinguishable, and the difference can be seen at a glance.
The servants were all wearing tight-fitting shorts, holding a knife in one hand and a shield in the other, and they were quite energetic.
Those disciples wore long knives hanging from their waists and armor, and a few even wore high-end trimon armor, fish scale armor, and swords slung across their waists. Their attires were all kinds of different.
But those who are strong and strong are a bit shabby. Not to mention their armor, even their clothes are still the same as the previous homeless beggars, and each of them only has a spear.
However, judging from the looks on their faces, they should have eaten well these days. This shows that the nobles are still very concerned about it.
This is indeed the case. These days, nobles and nobles also come to the military camp every day to supervise the drills in person.
"Mr. Dingguo, it's okay if these soldiers don't have armor, but at least they need to wear uniforms, right?"
"The old minister was negligent for a moment and failed to think things through. I hope your majesty will forgive me and I will order someone to take care of it."
Duke Dingguo replied quickly.
In fact, in his opinion, it is already a great kindness to be able to provide food for these mud-legged people.
There is absolutely no need to waste money on buying military uniforms for them. Anyway, when the time comes, all they need to do is go to the city with their guns and kill the enemy. However, the little emperor has many things to do, so he has no choice but to obey.
"Let's do this. I will transfer some money from the internal treasury. The war is about to begin. I will give each person another two taels of silver as military pay. The excess will be used to purchase military uniforms."
Zhu Cixiang naturally understood that this old guy was not negligent, but stingy, so he thought about it and decided to allocate a sum of money.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
All the nobles were overjoyed, secretly saying that the little emperor was really generous, and they also knew that the little emperor now had a lot of money.
Zhu Cixi didn't say much.
Although he will not interfere with the 80,000-yuan capital camp for the time being, he will not let them have the opportunity to steal his money. When the time comes, he will definitely send eunuchs to personally distribute it.
It's not that he really doesn't want to intervene, it's just that he can't, and he can't intervene for the time being. After all, half of the 80,000 people are either servants or children of their families.
All officers, big and small, are all served by the sons of distinguished nobles. At this time, not to mention that he does not have so many trustworthy officers, even if he does, they cannot be placed casually.
Otherwise, it will be another pot of porridge with no combat effectiveness at all. Instead of doing this, it is better to completely delegate power, defend the capital first, and have enough time and means to rectify it later.
After the entire Beijing camp was reviewed, it was already dusk.
"Zhou Aiqing, how are you? Are you sure you can defend the capital?"
"Your Majesty, rest assured. Although most of the soldiers in the Beijing camp are new soldiers, they have sufficient strength. Defending the city is not as good as fighting in the field. As long as rewards and punishments are clear and well-organized, I will be fully confident.
There may be some panic in the first few days, but after a few days, you will be able to deal with it calmly, while the morale of the rebel army is declining day by day, and even if it persists for a year and a half, there will be no problem."
Zhou Yuji said firmly.
He knew now was not the time to be modest.
What's more, the current situation in Jingying was indeed beyond his expectation, much better than he expected.
"good!"
Sure enough, after listening to Zhou Yuji's words, Zhu Cihong made up his mind and completely gave up the idea of running away.
"It's just that Your Majesty, I'm still a little worried. When I entered the city, I found that there were many refugees in the outer city and the streets were congested. Once the rebel army came to the city, I was in panic and worried that these refugees would risk losing control."
Zhou Yuji thought about it and added another sentence.
This is also what worries him the most.
"Well, what Zhou Aiqing said makes sense. We must guard against this. Well, then I will move all the old and weak to the inner city, leaving the young and strong to be responsible for carrying the materials for the city defense and improving their food."
Zhu Cixiang thought for a moment and said, in fact, he also had a headache with these refugees, but he could never let them go and drive them away.
Otherwise, when the intruders arrive, they will definitely join them and then help the intruders to attack the city.
"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"
"This way, there will be no hidden dangers!"
Zhou Yuji bowed sincerely.
What he lamented was not that His Majesty had resettled these refugees, but that His Majesty actually thought of letting Jinyi Weidong Factory collect grain and hoarded a million shi of grain.
The next day, early in the morning, Zhu Cihong finally summoned all civil and military officials to discuss the matter in Huangji Hall again.
This is the first time Zhu Cihong has gone to court since he ascended the throne.
This made all the civil servants who had been marginalized in the past half month cheer up and roll up their sleeves.
Because of the unscrupulous behavior of Dongchang and Jinyiwei in the past half month, the civil servants have long been holding back their resentment.
However, Zhu Cihong did not go to court, did not read the question book, and did not summon him. This gave the civil servants a feeling that they had no power but nowhere to use it.
Not to mention how uncomfortable it is.
I have to say that these civil servants are really mean.
In the past, when Chongzhen was in power, he would consult with them every day to discuss countermeasures. Each one of them would have their tails raised to the sky and do things perfunctorily, with the air of saying that the Ming Dynasty would perish if it left the civil servants.
Now Zhu Cixiang left them alone and ignored them, but one by one he took the initiative to make suggestions, wrote letters every day, and competed for performance.