Chapter 803: Nine-Border Youth Army

A single Chiliarch gets six thousand taels of silver a year in subsidies!

Wu Sangui's breathing quickened — at last, in this lifetime, he had a chance to stop being a deadbeat!

He had three hundred and thirty Chiliarchs. If they all moved to Anxi, that would be 1.98 million taels of silver in subsidies a year, and over twenty years nearly 39.6 million taels. Even after the subsidies were halved once the twenty years were up, they would still collect 990,000 taels a year.

This migration-for-border-defense business could actually work!

Zhu Cilang watched Wu Sangui's excited expression and said with a smile, "Changbo, the finances of the Pacifying West Garrison are independent, so its garrison debts will not fall on the Anxi Garrison. The office of Grand Protector of Anxi shall be hereditary in your line from now on — generation after generation, holding Anxi in perpetuity!"

We're rich!

We're going to be rich — wealth and honor for generations to come!

Wu Sangui was on the verge of cheering aloud!

Zhu Cilang's meaning was clear: the Pacifying West Garrison was about to be abolished, and those millions in garrison debts could go be collected from Emperor Zhu!

And once the Wu family had dumped the Pacifying West Garrison's deficits, they would still land themselves an Anxi Garrison — a first-rate garrison, clean and without a single copper of debt!

If Wu Sangui could haul all 330 Chiliarchs of the Pacifying West Garrison to Anxi, that would be nearly two million taels of silver in subsidies every year.

On paper, those 330 Chiliarchs amounted to 330,000 households and nearly two million people. But they were not all military households — most were civilian households supporting the military households. The military households actually liable for military service numbered no more than 80,000, and those were the ones needing subsidies. Twenty taels per household would be more than enough; 80,000 households would cost at most 1.6 million taels, leaving 400,000 taels as profit.

Moreover, the Anxi Garrison's territory was vast — reaching Hami Guard in the east and the Tianshan Mountains in the north, with no boundary to the west or south. Though it was no wealthy region, it had been a corridor of the Silk Road in history. If one truly put effort into managing it, one could still dig out a fair amount of revenue.

If the Wu family really could hold Anxi in perpetuity, generation after generation, then they would become a wealthy, powerful house enduring as long as the dynasty itself.

Seeing Wu Sangui beaming with joy, Zhu Cilang was naturally pleased as well.

Now that he was Emperor, his thinking still ran in a fairly commercial vein — he placed special emphasis on "cash flow" and on economic returns.

It was not that a "money-losing venture" that could not produce positive cash flow must never be undertaken; rather, one had to live within one's means and keep the entire Ming Empire's cash flow positive — or at least keep it at a level that could be sustained through financing and borrowing.

Otherwise, the moment the capital chain snapped, he would become a second Chongzhen.

So after taking over the Ming dynasty, he had carried out a series of loss-cutting and retrenchment operations, and concentrated his main strength on developing the Four Rivers, Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong, which could easily generate large revenues. To suppress possible resistance, Emperor Zhu had also stationed large numbers of northern troops in various regions — which was why the previous two Northern Expeditions had not been given sufficient strength.

And now, the territories of the Four Rivers, Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong could already contribute over one hundred million taels (or shi) in taxes and rents to Emperor Zhu, and there was also a financial market capable of providing the Ming court with twenty million taels in loans every year.

So Zhu Cilang now had the financial resources to support the Northern Expedition and the westward advance!

Of course, having a bit of money did not mean it could be squandered — where careful calculation was needed, one still had to be meticulous.

Therefore he had chosen not to govern Anxi with rotating civil officials, but instead to establish a garrison command, and to let Wu Sangui take it on contract — using the two-million-tael-a-year subsidy as bait to get Wu Sangui to move all 330 Chiliarchs of the Pacifying West Garrison to Anxi himself. That was far cheaper than forced migration.

And while a two-million-tael annual subsidy looked like a great deal, the Ming court's actual outlay was not that large. Because after the Pacifying West Garrison relocated, most of the nearly twenty million mu of land they had enclosed in Shaanxi (they would certainly be allowed to keep a few million mu) would be handed over to the Military Farms Bureau and become military farmland. The rent on that land alone would come to over one million shi of flour a year — roughly over one million taels.

Moreover, once the Anxi and Beiting Garrisons developed, the fine horses, camels, jade, and other specialties of the Western Regions would flow into the Central Plains through Shaanxi. And Jiangnan's silk, porcelain, tea, and ironware would likewise be exported to the Western Regions through Shaanxi. With the Silk Road wide open, Shaanxi's commerce would flourish once again.

Wu Sangui was not as good at arithmetic as Emperor Zhu, but he knew well enough that he was certain to profit from this deal, so he lowered himself half a head and prepared to kowtow to Emperor Zhu in gratitude.

Zhu Cilang hastily steadied him with a hand and said with a smile, "Changbo, don't be in a rush to give thanks — We still have other conditions!"

So the silver was not so easily earned after all.

"Whatever conditions Your Majesty has, please speak. So long as Sangui can accomplish them, there will be absolutely no second word!"

Zhu Cilang laughed heartily. "Easy, easy. You have 330 Chiliarchs, 330,000 households, over two million people — no small number. And they multiply; every year quite a few boys must be born among them, no?"

"That is only natural. The people under this subject are prolific. As for the other Chiliarchs, this subject cannot say, but among the Chiliarchs directly under this subject, on average each Chiliarch produces three to four hundred births a year, of which around a hundred and eighty are boys. It is no problem now, but in the future it may be troublesome!"

Wu Sangui's Chiliarchs averaged over seven thousand people each; a birth rate of fifty per thousand meant around three hundred and fifty births. Of course, infant mortality was high in this age — of those three hundred and fifty, perhaps two hundred would survive to adulthood. But even with that survival rate, the population of the 330 Chiliarchs would still grow at a fairly rapid pace.

Moreover, apart from soldiering for the garrison, these military households had no channel for advancement. No matter how the northwest's economy developed, it would only ever be so much. Even if the Silk Road recovered somewhat, it could not compare with the Four Rivers, Two Lakes, Fujian, and Guangdong in the southeast.

As for the "Imperial Academy examinations," there was even less hope. It was not that the northwest military households lacked brains, but that primary and secondary education would soon become universal in the southeast — the southeastern gentry had money and were willing to invest in education; whatever the civil examinations tested, they simply studied. The northwest military households could not compete at all.

But Emperor Zhu had thought of a very special channel of advancement.

"Quite a few people!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "How about sending Us 1,500 ten-year-old boys every year?"

"1,500 ten-year-old boys?" Wu Sangui was taken aback. "Your Majesty, what do you want so many boys for? Surely not to make eunuchs of them?"

"Of course not." Zhu Cilang waved a hand. "There are only three hundred eunuchs in the entire palace now — what would We need so many candidates for?"

He paused. "We'll tell you plainly. We intend to recruit youths from the nine border military garrisons — Anxi, Beiting, Shuofang, Huaibei, Xuhai, Western Sichuan, Eastern Sichuan, Liaodong, and Nanyang. The Grand Marshal's Office will raise and educate them for several years. During that period, they may not contact their families. Once they turn eighteen, the strong and brave will be selected from among them to serve as soldiers.

Each of the nine border garrisons will send from several hundred to over a thousand per year, for a total of more than ten thousand. After several years of training, the greater half should be usable. In the future, the court will not lack elite troops. Once they earn military merit, they may also be selected for the military academy and promoted to office. If they cannot enter an official career, they may retire to civilian life at thirty-five, and We will give them property so they can marry, have children, and settle down in the southeast."

This was copying the Ottoman Empire's Janissary Corps — training child soldiers!

Because the Ming and the Ottoman Empire were now friendly states, Emperor Zhu had been able to study the Janissary Corps' system. After studying it, he found that this "child soldier" system did indeed have merits. Soldiers raised from poor youths and trained into fighting men had quite reliable combat strength, and they could also serve as a source of fresh blood for the ruling group.

A ruling group without fresh blood to replenish it will inevitably rot away by degrees! Even if Emperor Zhu established elite education and military education systems, he could only slow the pace of their decay.

And the elite among these nine-border youths could enter the military academy just like the sons of the nobility, serve as officers, and then transfer from military to civil service to enter politics. Because they had no deeply entrenched interest groups behind them, and because they were comparatively full of drive, they could perfectly well become the mainstay of the army and the bureaucracy.

Furthermore, for the middle and lower ranks of the nine-border garrisons outside the Ming core group, supplying child soldiers would also become a shortcut to advancement.

Even if only a few child soldiers could rise meteorically, for the nine-border military households it would still be something to hope for.

With that hope, it would no longer be easy for warlords to incite them against the central government.

And the fighting strength of the nine-border military households could never surpass the Ming version of the Janissary Corps.

(End of Chapter)