Zhang Jing once again rejected Zhu Pingan’s request on the grounds that the yamen had a deficit and no surplus silver to draw on.
Is the Yingtian Ministry of War Yamen in serious deficit and without treasury silver?
No!
After Zhang Jing was reappointed as the Minister of Military Affairs in Yingtian, he was very concerned about the Japanese invasion and was actively raising money for food and provisions, and recruiting warriors to prepare for the defence and extermination of the Japanese invaders. Before Zhu Pingan came here, he had learnt that the Ministry of War had 27,000 taels of silver in its coffers, but after Zhang Jing took office, he also loaned 20,000 taels of silver to the Ministry of War, borrowed 10,000 taels of silver from the Ministry of Households, borrowed 50,000 taels of silver from the Lianghuai Salt, 50,000 taels of silver from the Suzhou Province’s Huqi Guan Shipyard, and 50,000 taels of silver from the lake’s boiled spoils. ……All in all, the Ministry of War Yamen treasury silver must have about 200,000 yuan. He was paid 5,000 taels of salary, how could he not have it!
There is, but not spending it to himself, then there is a problem.
Zhu Pingan narrowed his eyes slightly, carefully observing Zhang Jing without any trace, however, he found nothing. However, Zhang Jing was not an idle person, he was a great man in literature, tactics and martial arts, how could he be observed by himself.
“Lord Zhang, nowadays, the Japanese invasion is getting more and more serious, the people are suffering greatly, Ping An urgently needs this amount of pay, so that he can refurbish his army and lead the militia, and do his part to defend against the Japanese invaders.”Zhu Pingan once again arched his hand and said with earnest words.
“I am not aware of the seriousness of the Japanese invasion.”Zhang Jing replied, “It is precisely because of the seriousness of the Japanese invasion that my ministry has incurred a huge cost in deploying troops and recruiting prima donnas, and as a result, my ministry is in a serious deficit, and has no more silver to pay to Lord Zhu.”
Upon hearing this, Zhu Pingan finally understood that it was not that the Ministry of War did not have any silver left, but that Zhang Jing wanted to use the silver to deploy troops and recruit prima donnas. Thinking about the questions that Zhang Jing asked himself, he felt that he was not yet dry, had no experience in commanding troops, and planned to lead a militia group, which could not be compared to the guards and prima donnas, so he felt that his side was not reliable, and was not worthy of the five thousand dollars in pay; in his opinion, the role he could play in mobilising and recruiting prima donnas was much more useful than that he would be able to do if he were to lead a militia group during the time of the increasing Japanese invasion.In his opinion, the role he can play in dispatching generals and recruiting primus is far more useful than leading a militia in this period of increasing Japanese trouble.
On balance, Zhang Jing did not hesitate to make a decision.
Without hesitation, Zhang Jing made the choice to withhold his own salary and divert it to deploying troops and recruiting primus.
“Lord Zhang, today’s guards officers and soldiers have not been the same as in the past, the guards of the repeated encroachment of the cantonment, the next official survey statistics, the guards of the actual control of the cantonment has been less than 30% of the original, the economic capacity of the big drop, resulting in the guards of the configuration of the worse, the food and pay arrears deduction has become the norm; the guards of the soldiers into the powerful aristocratic slaves, unbearable abuse, desertion of countless soldiers. I counted the situation of the guards in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the average number of guards officers and soldiers from the original 5,000 people down to 1,700 people, the number of water, and stayed in the guards of the soldiers old, weak, sick and disabled accounted for a considerable proportion of a few not much combat effectiveness to speak of. Such guards officers and soldiers, transferring troops over, and how much of a role can they play?!”
Zhu Pingan said archly.
Zhang Jing did not answer, nor did he stop Zhu Pingan from speaking, but only looked at Zhu Pingan with a burning gaze.
Seeing this, Zhu Pingan continued, “As for the Snapdragon New Army, it is true that it has more combat power than the guards’ officers and soldiers. However, the new army is a regular soldier establishment, and its expenses far exceed that of a civilian regiment. According to the calculation of eighteen taels of pay per soldier, five thousand taels of silver for the Primus New Army is only enough for 277 people’s pay for a year, but this five thousand taels of silver is already enough for Jiangzhe to have one more imperial Japanese force – the militia regiment – outside of the Guards and the New Army.”
“If the Guards are unusable, are the militia regiments usable? What good does it do to the people of Jiangshan to spend 5,000 taels of silver on one more unwieldy militia group?!”Zhang Jing looked at Zhu Pingan with burning eyes and said slowly.
“My lord, a militia is a new army, and the key to making it unusable is in refining it.”Zhu Pingan said back.
“Lord Zhu also said that the key to the militia regiment is in the hammering, Lord Zhu is not yet crowned, and has no experience in commanding troops, how can he hammer out the militia regiment that can be used?!”Zhang Jing looked at Zhu Pingan with a burning gaze and said nonchalantly.
“Lord Zhang, although my humble servant is not yet a weak crown and has no experience in commanding troops, I do have experience in commanding a militia. Three months ago, when I was serving as the governor of Jingnan, the leader of the Japanese pirates, Honda Heihachi, led more than 3,000 Japanese pirates to besiege the county town of Jingnan, and at that time the county town had less than a hundred soldiers and magistracies, so I organised 2,000 young strongmen to assist in defending the city, and battled with the Japanese for a day and a night and defended the county town, and captured 795 Japanese pirate heads, and the next day I organised the minshu to chase down the escaping Japanese pirates from Taiping County, and killed 31 of the Japanese pirates, and restored the county town of Taiping which had been taken over by the Japanese pirates;At the beginning of the month, Wang Zhi sent his subordinate Ye Zongman’s Japanese invaders to attack Jingnan at night, and the coastal sentry forts detected the Japanese invaders’ traces in advance, so my officials organised the people to wait for them, and the Japanese invaders were afraid and diverted to other routes …….”
Zhu Pingan’s pair of eyes locked with Zhang Jing’s, arching his hand, he told his experience of organising the Minzhuang in Jingnan.
“I have also heard people talk about your experience, whether there is water in it or not is not to be talked about, defending a city is very different from practising and commanding troops.”
Zhang Jing shook his head slightly, not changing his decision just because Zhu Pingan cited the achievements he had made in commanding the Minzhuang.
In Zhang Jing’s opinion, Zhu Pingan’s achievements at that time were definitely there, but the water was definitely there as well. Moreover, practising and commanding troops was very different from defending a city, there was a big difference between the two, and defending a city did not necessarily mean that one could practise and command troops well.
“My lord ……”Zhu Pingan spoke again.
Zhang Jing interrupted Zhu Pingan’s words, “What does Lord Zhu think is the key to training a serviceable soldier?”
“My humble servant thinks that the key to uniting and training soldiers lies in strict military discipline, clear distinction between reward and punishment, strict training, and ideological education.”
Zhu Pingan arched his hand and returned.
“Strict military discipline, clear-cut rewards and punishments, strict training, and ideological education ……”When Zhang Jing heard this, he could not help but repeat it in a low voice, his eyes brightened up and he once again looked at Zhu Pingan, his gaze was not the same as it was at the beginning.
Zhang Jing Wen Tao military strategy are all complete, how Zhu Pingan answer, he himself is a judgement. This question, I did not expect to find out that Zhu Pingan is actually a knowledgable soldier.
“Military discipline is strict, reward and punishment is clear, strict training, these three points this official knows, you said ideological education why?!”
Zhang Jing asked with considerable interest, and his tone also changed from the beginning of the stranger, rejecting people, to more than one point of goodwill.
“Back to the lord. This is the experience that I have learnt from the initial organisation of the civil defence of the city, at the beginning, the civil defence was afraid of the Japanese invaders outside the city, and had the intention of running away, but I inspired them with the mobilisation of ‘Behind us are our parents, wives, and children, and there is no way to retreat’, and ‘Down with the Japanese invaders, and protect our parents, wives, and children’, and they suddenly became very energetic.The people and strong soldiers were all of a sudden highly energised, no longer fearing the Japanese, no longer fearing bloodshed and sacrifice, and bravely defending the city. Thus, I realised that in order to make the people fearless, we must let the people have faith! Let the people know for whom they are fighting! Why they are fighting! I thought that the same is true for the training of soldiers, to let the soldiers have faith, let them know for whom to fight, why to fight, to improve the ideological awareness and spirit of the officers and soldiers, a faith and discipline of the soldiers, will not become a scattered soldiers, the rabble!
