When Yin Feng left Liaodong, he issued an order to Shopkeeper Jin and the spies stationed in Liaodong of the China Company's Commercial Information Department, asking them to mobilize as many people as possible to go to Taiwan, preferably those Liaodong cavalry who could not survive due to lack of pay.
Although Yin Feng always believed that infantry was the force that ultimately determined the outcome of the battlefield in the black powder era, cavalry was also an indispensable mobile force. In the battle on the north bank of the Pasig River, the armor of the heavy cavalry of the cavalry regiment could not block heavy musket bullets. Although The strong formation of the German mercenaries was broken, but the casualties were heavy. Instead, the light cavalry used "semi-rotation" tactics and used muskets to attack the enemy formation in turns, which showed a certain effect.
Yin Feng, who liked heavy cavalry charging into battle, had no choice but to put away his romantic impracticality and began to expand troops similar to dragoons. He also began to train cavalry to use "semi-rotation" tactics to deal with enemy phalanxes. The number of heavy cavalry was still 100. Yin Feng still retained this expensive cavalry; in fact, the Chinese army had gradually begun to regard the Ming army as an imaginary enemy during training. The Ming army's chaotic and backward firearms tactics could not stop the charge of heavy armored cavalry.
…
Right now, Yin Feng and others saw a group of troops from the third battalion of the capital training near Tongzhou.
At this time, the Ming army had no idea of secrecy. In general exercises and training, the ground would not be cleared for several miles in advance like the Chinese army did. Therefore, Western missionaries like Matteo Ricci also had the opportunity to observe the training of the Ming army. .
However, this kind of training is almost like child's play. It's just two teams walking towards each other, and then they hit each other with wooden sticks a few times like a opera; or the gunmen stand in a dense pile and "boom boom" After the shooting, there was nothing more. There was no formation change training, and there was no firearms tactics drill. No matter whether they were marching or fighting in formation, the soldiers did not have a neat formation. Most of the time, they were huddled together in a chaotic manner, completely going through the motions. , there were only a few hundred cavalrymen, wearing commoners to participate in the training. The horses were short and inferior, and seemed to have not received any equestrian training. Basically, apart from running forward and stopping, the cavalrymen had no tactical movements to speak of.
Moreover, among the thousands of people present, except for the firearms hand, the rest of the soldiers held wooden sticks as training weapons, and only a handful of officers held real weapons.
In fact, except when the Ming Dynasty government troops were actually fighting, most soldiers only carried fake weapons during training. The fake weapons were given to them so that they would not be completely without weapons, queues, flags, golden drums and other drill subjects during drills, all of which were simplified. A bunch of people at the lowest level were running around. There was no formation drill, no live ammunition shooting, and no confrontation exercises. None of the routines that Qi Jiguang used to train the Southern soldiers were maintained.
Outside the training ground of the Ming Army, a group of idle commoners gathered, and the Ming Army soldiers were too lazy to chase them away. Yin Feng and the others mingled among this group of idlers, but they were inconspicuous at all.
Yin Feng, Chen Zhongji, Luo Aquan and others looked at this and secretly shook their heads; this level of military training could not even reach the training level of the Luzon indigenous soldiers or the semi-off-the-job Zhuang Ding team. Compared with the Chinese army's confrontation training, it was really With scenes of real swords and guns, the training of the Ming army at most reached the level of military games played by boy scouts in military schools.
This is a concentrated expression of the shortcomings of traditional Chinese military science from the Ming Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty. When the gunpowder-based military revolution was launched in ancient China, it was when the convergence of military and Confucianism became more and more closely developed. Because Confucianism favored some metaphysics in terms of overall value tendencies. Similar to the distinction between Tao and weapons, those scribes who talk about war in their studies only focus on the construction of war concepts, often treat military issues with virtual idealism, emphasize abstract principles, seriously ignore the operability of theory, and ignore the specific military academic issues. Deepen and expand.
Affected by this, the war concept of soldiers acting righteously and the benevolent being invincible and the philosophical laws of military warfare are usually talked about by military scientists. However, regarding the organization of the army, the manufacture and use of weapons and equipment, soldier training procedures, and combat formation drills, Such things are often ignored by military experts. Qi Jiguang's "Records of Military Training" and other works that describe specific troop training details were not actually taken seriously during the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's military system was no longer able to reform itself. , unable to fully introduce Qi Jiguang’s theory of military revolution.
…
Yin Feng and others encountered this scene by chance on their way from Liaodong to the capital. They disguised themselves as candidates going to Beijing to take the exam, and they also had road guides issued by the capital of Liaodong. They then stuffed some money with Shanhaiguan to guard the customs. The soldiers successfully passed the first test in the world. After all, next year will be the year of the imperial examination. Some candidates went to Beijing in advance to prepare for the exam. This was also a common phenomenon at that time. The officials guarding the gate did not doubt the identity of Yin Feng and his party. .
They kept a low profile along the way, usually riding donkey carts or on foot. Along the way, they could still see the devastation of people's livelihoods. In recent years, North China has suffered successive disasters, and those farmers are the biggest victims.
For farmers, the officials in charge of taxation in the imperial government are relatively easy to deal with now: because Emperor Wanli has been passive and sabotaged for more than ten years at this time, many local officials are vacant, but Wanli just does not approve officials to take office, and in many places there is even a county There is a strange phenomenon that county officials need to take care of the affairs of neighboring counties, so tax collection officials are often vacant. However, most of the land near Ququ is controlled by the royal family, nobles, high-ranking officials and gentry, and they are ruthless in pursuing land rent.
Yin Feng and others passed through Jiliao, Tongzhou and other important places along the Beijing-Qujiang River, and there were actually vacancies of county officials. When they arrived in Beijing, they dispersed into the city from various city gates, and then came to the vicinity of the Beijing branch of the Huaxing joint branch. I stayed at an inn called "Hanhai", which is in an alley inside Xuanwumen, close to the newly built Jesuit Catholic Church (commonly known as the South Church) where Matteo Ricci is buried. The inn is nominally a Fujian province under the Ministry of Industry. Opened by a small official, it was actually a secret stronghold of the China Company in the capital. It was under the jurisdiction of the Military Intelligence Department of the Chinese Army and cooperated with the Huaxing joint number in the capital.
When they arrived at the capital, Yin Feng and everyone else were quite impressed. After all, the imperial capital had been the centerpiece of the Ming Dynasty for 200 years. Although it was no longer prosperous, its grand scale was still breathtaking.
However, the center of the Ming Empire was also in chaos; Emperor Wanli's inaction and "incurability" resulted in that by the 40th year of Wanli, only one of the six central ministers was Zhao Huan, the minister of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Husbandry, and the Ministry of Industry. There is no dedicated person in charge of the ministry, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate has been without regular officials for eight years. According to regulations, there must be 50 people in charge and 110 censors. There are only nine people in office, accounting for only one-seventeenth of the establishment. , due to the lack of officials, the border guards requested military pay, but no one issued it, and no military drills were conducted for many years. Bandits were encountered in the local area, and they concealed each other. People from various places sent money to Beijing, but no one accepted it. Foreign countries came to Beijing to pay tribute, but no one received it. The bureaucrats in the dynasty were still divided into various parties and fought endlessly over everything. However, those officials who handled military pay committed massive corruption and no one paid attention.
In the innermost guest room on the first floor of the Hanhai Inn, Yin Feng looked at the newspaper that had just been sent to him and said with a sneer: "For the Liaodong mutiny, these censors all blamed Yang Hao. In fact, Liaodong has happened many times now. The source of the mutiny is actually in the capital, right above the court and within the palace."
Xu Hongji and Zeng Shan were still a little uncomfortable with his direct criticism of the emperor.
Yin Feng pointed to this newspaper and said: "Look, although Mr. Ye Ge has retired and returned to his hometown, there are still people here who are using the sea ban as an issue, saying that he secretly instigated his family to go to sea and go abroad... and by the way, they accused the officials of Fujian and Guangdong of covering up. Smugglers who go to sea..."
Xu Hongji looked at it and sneered: "He Jun, the censor who sued Ye Xianggao, is from the Zhejiang Party. In fact, this is revenge. When Ye Gelao was in power, he demoted an official in the Zhejiang Party. …”
Yin Feng smiled and said: "I can guarantee that this censor must be related to the Xie family in Yuyao,"
There was a sound of footsteps at the door. Chen Zhongji, who had gone out to inquire about the situation, hurriedly opened the door and came in. He handed a piece of paper to Yin Feng and said: "This is the Guangdong General Soldiers' Pond newspaper copied out today by a doctor from the Ministry of War bribed by the Ministry of Military Intelligence."
Yin Feng took the note without reading it and asked calmly: "What's going on?"
"About two months ago, Yuan Jin and Li Zhong led more than 500 men and ten ships to surrender to the Guangdong Sea Patrol Road,"
Yin Feng's eyes lit up, and there was a burst of anger on his face: Yuan Jin, Li Zhong has been missing for more than a year since the Java Island Rebellion, but now he suddenly reappeared and surrendered to the court, " It's really haunting. This is the second time they have surrendered to the court. Could it be that the court just accepted it?"
Zeng Shan stood up and said: "From what I have seen, it may be related to the sea ban. In the recent newspaper, there were many memorials calling for strict application of the sea ban, and 80% of them were directed at our company."
Yin Feng said seriously to Xu Hongji: "I don't know if the company headquarters knows about this. Mr. Xu, please record this: I ordered Lin Xiaozeng to send people to Guangdong to check Yuan Jin's situation. In addition, send a second The fleet has one flying boat and ten gunboats heading to Macau, ready to blockade the Guangdong coast and hunt down Yuan Jin and Li Zhong."
Xu Hongji is now the secretary and quickly writes down the notes. Yin Feng thought for a while and said: "Let Miss Li check Yuan Jin and how Li Zhong fled from Nanyang to Guangdong. Also, after you finish recording, give it to Ji Zai , let him compile a code and send it to Taiwan by carrier pigeon,"
A guard dressed as a servant knocked on the door and said softly: "Sir, shipowner, a servant is coming to the door."
Chen Zhongji stood up and said, "I'm going to take a look..." and stepped out.
Not long after, he came back, waving his hands to indicate that nothing happened, there was a noise at the door, and it became quiet after a while. He whispered to Yin Feng: "It's just a few government servants who came to ask for money, it's nothing serious. The shopkeeper said that these people come here once a month, and they are mostly gangsters from nearby areas."
Zeng Shan suddenly said: "We still have to be careful. When I was rushing for the exam in the capital, I often heard that Jin Yiwei often hired this group of people to find out information everywhere."
Yin Feng frowned: "Jinyiwei has been famous for a long time. However, when we come to the capital this time, I am afraid that even the company's board of directors and Mr. Zeng don't know the specific details. Only Lin Xiao knows my approximate whereabouts. Besides, he There’s no way to know our specific itinerary, so there shouldn’t be any mistakes,”
Zeng Shan was a little worried: he had always been opposed to Yin Feng coming to the mainland for inspection, and finally he had no choice but to follow him.