Ma Fang's incident gave Gao Pragmatic an idea in his mind: Since the commander-in-chief of the Xuan Mansion is Ma Fang, it can also explain why Cao Gan and his gang of thieves were able to operate unimpeded in the Xuan Mansion.
You must know that when the Nine-Border Ming Army fought against Mongolia, they almost always insisted on playing defense, or, as Qi Jiguang did, they used defensive counterattacks. Only Ma Fang insisted on "using cavalry to control cavalry" and tried his best to strengthen the strength of his cavalry.
The cavalry faced the Mongols, and the effect was actually quite good. Since such a person is in the position of the Xuanfu's general, the Xuanfu tried every means to buy horses, even indulging the Bailixia horse thieves, it makes perfect sense
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However, there is one problem that Gao Pragmatic has not yet figured out: Ma Fang actually has three thousand servants under his command, and they are all elite cavalry. How can he afford it? The so-called Guan Ning cavalry decades later seems to be dissatisfied as well.
Ten thousand, spending money is like running water. Is it possible that Ma Fang’s family is also very rich, or is he greedy and has become a rich man through massive corruption?
He asked tentatively. After hearing this, the little Loli looked at Gao Pragmatic with a caring look: "Ma Zongrong comes from a humble background. No matter how greedy he is, he can't afford three thousand fine riders. His three thousand
Among the thousands of servants, there are only about two to three hundred who are his own servants. He is required to pay part of the money, and the rest are paid by the court."
Gao Pragmatic was stunned for a moment: "The imperial court will provide money for the border generals to support their families?"
"Is it weird?" Little Loli looked impatient: "If the court doesn't provide money, how can Bianjiang afford to support so many people? I can't say what other people's families are like, so I just say that our Liu family is doing well. My father said
After so many years of fighting, my family has quite a lot of land, and the number of private servants it can afford is only more than 300, including less than 100 cavalry. However, when my father did not leave his post, the number of servants he could drag out to fight was
There are more than 2,000 people, where do you think these people came from? If my father were allowed to raise those 2,000 people by himself, our Liu family would be drinking from the northwest wind in three months!"
Gao Jingshi said a long "Oh" and asked again: "Now that your father has been dismissed from his post and is awaiting appointment, what will happen to the previous servants? Those people should be able to fight, and they won't take advantage of others, right?"
Little Loli said: "If we directly dismiss them from their posts, those people will either be taken away by the new commander-in-chief, or they will disperse on their own. Fortunately, my father is only waiting for inspection, so for the time being, he will still have the royal court's salary to maintain him." She paused.
After a pause, he frowned and said: "But of course this situation is very dangerous, so even though my father has no connections in the court, he still has to come to the capital for activities. He is just afraid that the group of people he finally brought out will break up, and everything in the court will be ruined in the future.
Once he is used again, no one will be able to use him. Who will he turn to if he is defeated?"
So that’s what happened! I said that Liu Xian should obviously be under the control of the Nanjing Ministry of War, but why did he come all the way to Beijing? It seems that he offended the Nanjing garrison ministers, and he thought that the matter could not be settled in Nanjing, so he had to
Come to Beijing and look for opportunities...what a great opportunity!
Gao pragmatic thought for a while and asked: "Where did your father's servants come from? Were they originally from military households who cultivated Liantian, or were they recruited by themselves?"
"The people following us north this time are all the military households in my family's farm, that is, private servants. Most of the rest were recruited from various groups who surrendered to the barbarians, including many of the original Japanese pirates." Little Lolita
He seemed to be very familiar with his military situation and answered without any hesitation.
Gao Pingshi was overjoyed: "You can recruit at will to surrender to the barbarians, even Japanese pirates?" What he didn't say was that he was thinking of Cao Gan's way out.
In fact, this is because Gao Pragmatic didn't know enough about it before he traveled, so he was so surprised. In fact, during the Longwan period, "the generals in each town recruited more barbarians to serve as their servants."
For example, Denglai guard Shen Yourong "recruited many surrendered bandits and gathered men who dared to die"; Mangui and You Shilu "each had his own Yi Han Ding who were very capable"; Liu Wei also had his own "Japanese and Yi Ding"; You Jixian, the governor of Jizhen, "adopted more than 800 surrendered barbarians and relied on them as elites." Li Chengliang even adopted many surrendered barbarians as servants, among whom Li Xing, Li Ning, Li Pinghu and others who later achieved the rank of deputy commander-in-chief, It turned out that they were all surrendered barbarians who "came from the captives", and among them was Nurhachi, the ancestor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
By the way, most of Ma Fang's three thousand servants and cavalry are Mongolians.
As for worrying about the loyalty of these people, it is really too much to worry about - nationalism and nationalism are not very fashionable these days. Whoever provides the food is the master. This is the last word.
The reason why in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, wars basically depended on servants. A big reason is that servants are the commander's personal soldiers, similar to the commander's servants. It is a completely mutual relationship where everyone will be prosperous and everyone will suffer losses.
Some of the servants are the coach's relatives and have a blood relationship with the coach. Many coaches also use these relatives to serve as the leaders and backbone of their servant troops. While other servants are not the coach's relatives, but the coach treats them like family. , "A person who wants to gain his vitality and be as close to him as a member of his family."
The servants also serve the coach as family members. Some servants have followed the coach for more than ten years or even decades. They "guard in large and small battles, and their life and death are not the same." "Sufficient". The long-term career of servants has formed a close relationship between these people and the coach as a "father, son and family". They and even the whole family depend on the coach for their food, clothing and life, so they have a strong attachment relationship with the coach. .
Let’s not talk about the distant ones. Isn’t Gao Mo a typical example? He was a servant recruited by Gao Jie, Gao Jie’s uncle, Gao Jie, who was supervising Cao Jiang. He followed Gao Jie for a long time. After Gao Jie resigned and became an official, he still followed Gao Jie to his hometown in Xinzheng. After Jie's death, he was willing to continue to stay in the Gao family as a servant of the Gao family. This was the reason.
"Miss Liu, since you are so familiar with the business here, can you tell me whether there will be any problems if I take the Bailixia thieves as my servants this time?" Gao Pragmatic suddenly became shameless and asked. .
The little Lolita was very satisfied with Gao's pragmatic attitude, and her eyes narrowed into crescent moons: "Because you are so polite, I will reluctantly give you some pointers: If you are the only one who can tell me, By the way, although you have a special status, there are some hidden dangers. But my father is involved here, so it will be a piece of cake for you to recruit them. Do you know why? "
Gao Pinggong said sincerely: It turns out that you, a little girl, likes to wear high hats, so that's easy to handle.
At that moment, he said politely: "I am stupid, please give me some advice."
The little Lolita became more and more satisfied and puffed up her small chest: "Because my father is one of the famous generals in the world. He said that the other party was afraid of his power and took the initiative to submit. The court was not happy enough and did not care about his selection among these people.
Some people who can fight have come out. As for why my father didn’t choose this time and left it all to you, it’s because after all, father borrowed your servants to overwhelm them... and with your family’s status in the court, there is no
Who would be so full that they would pursue such a trivial matter?"
That makes sense, little girl!
Gao Pingshi laughed, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for your advice, I'm very grateful." Then he changed the topic: "But we have been talking for a long time, and you still haven't told me why you came to me?"
The little Loli said "Yeah" and complained: "It's all your fault for interrupting!" But her eyes gleamed: "Did you write the training methods of your servants?"