[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-12":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220629,1614,"Chapter 12: Section Eleven","stealing-ming-chapter-12",12,"\u003Cp>The Great Ming's theoretical organization: a Battalion Commander's unit should contain one thousand and twelve military households. This is sufficient to provide a Company Commander's force with three hundred to five hundred soldiers, along with full quotas of weapons and equipment, and also to cover those soldiers' pay and provisions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, the hereditary military households of Battalion Commanders and Company Commanders were exempt from productive labor; the task of their sons and younger brothers was to hone combat skills and study military doctrine. In this way, when the state faced an emergency, the hereditary military families could supply outstanding sons to serve as Company Commanders, Squad Commanders, and in other posts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But as time passed, the hereditary military households of Battalion Commanders, Company Commanders, and the like increasingly gravitated toward the landlord class. One after another they grew fat and indolent, thoroughly proficient in settling accounts, collecting rent, running taverns, and doing business, yet utterly incapable of leading troops in battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ordinary military households, on the other hand, could not shed their military registration, could not sit for the imperial examinations, and their land did not belong to them individually — its yield went to the guard battalion. In the Great Ming, soldiers were a group of slaves thoroughly bound to the land, their status roughly equivalent to Russian serfs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the late Ming, apart from intermarriage among military households, even prostitutes were unwilling to marry into a military household. At least the descendants of peasants still had something to hope for — through diligence and thrift they might rise to become rich peasants or landlords, and a clever peasant's son could become a minor clerk or even pass the Licentiate examination and thereby gain exemption from taxes and corvée.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over several centuries, a life of cruelty and utter hopelessness drove the sons of military households to flee in an endless stream. Young men tried every means to change their surnames and sell themselves as bondservants to generals in order to escape military registration. Although the state continuously replenished the military households with convicts, decades ago the number of military households in the guard battalions had already dwindled to the point where they could no longer supply soldiers or equipment at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, beginning with the famous general Qi Jiguang, recruited soldiers became the foundation of the Great Ming army's combat strength. Regrettably, after several decades the recruitment system too began to decay. Local officials and generals recruited soldiers from the military households, thereby simultaneously embezzling both the state recruitment funds and the guard battalions' produce. As far as Huang Shi knew, in the Guangning field army, which used the recruitment system, a Company Commander's force had roughly one hundred soldiers carrying a meager amount of weapons, while the Guangning local forces still used the guard battalion system, where a Company Commander's force averaged only fifty soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I shall first give you one thousand taels of silver as soldiers' resettlement fees. Henceforth, three hundred taels will be allocated to you each month. But do not publicize this widely, because an ordinary Company Commander's force receives only one hundred fifty to two hundred taels per month.\" At this juncture, Sun Degong clearly had no interest in petty gains, and since Sun Degong was directly subordinate to Wang Huazhen, he did not have many superiors to pay off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes. Our Guangning army's pay is one tael and eight mace per soldier per month. Your subordinate will recruit a full complement of two hundred soldiers.\" Huang Shi naturally had even less intention of skimming soldiers' pay at a time like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You could perfectly well recruit three hundred men. Give each soldier one tael a month and they'll be a thousand times grateful. There's no need to give the full amount at all,\" Sun Degong said disapprovingly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, your insight is profound. What your subordinate worries about is that the soldiers might harbor resentment — when an emergency comes, we will still need them to exert themselves.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Mm. If not for the fear of being too conspicuous, taking in a portion of them as retainers would be a relatively reliable approach.\" Sun Degong thought it over and then agreed with Huang Shi's point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Retainers? My lord, your subordinate is ignorant.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, that means having them change their surname to Huang. That way the court provides half pay, and you provide the rest. Generally speaking, retainers certainly receive more than ordinary soldiers, and from then on, no matter where you are transferred or what post you hold, your retainers follow you. They will serve you with absolute loyalty.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These words left Huang Shi utterly dumbfounded. \"My lord, is that even permissible? Turning the court's soldiers into household slaves?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why wouldn't it be?\" Faced with a military ignoramus like Huang Shi, Sun Degong could only curb his impatience and explain a little: \"Let me explain it to you in detail.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the purposes of saving expenditures and increasing troop numbers, the court encouraged generals leading troops to contribute their private household slaves, paying generals who provided household slaves as soldiers half the standard military pay per head. By Huang Shi's era, the categories of Ming soldiers had long since evolved from the original two broad types — cavalry and infantry — into three broad types: cavalry, infantry, and retainers. This classification had already been appearing in official court documents for several decades.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long after this policy was introduced, high-ranking generals began withholding military pay and then, through coercion and inducement, buying off large numbers of ordinary soldiers as retainers. Many ordinary soldiers, in order to receive their full pay, chose to become household slaves, turning into the private armed forces of the generals. Using state wealth to turn the state's army into household slaves — such a cheap bargain naturally had high-ranking generals scrambling over one another to pursue it, and equipment drawn from the armories was often used to outfit their retainers first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But you can't do it. A petty Company Commander who was still begging for food just a few years ago — how could you possibly have the money to buy household slaves? Forget it, just recruit two hundred soldiers.\" As a member of a prominent Liaodong family of several generations, Sun Degong already possessed considerable landed property, but for Huang Shi to start buying retainers right away would still be far too conspicuous. Moreover, his current post was still too low; officers below Mobile Corps Commander had no right to enjoy these rules of the game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, your subordinate understands.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At present, Huang Shi could be described as a half-baked military man. Because he had no subordinates, drill and training basically had nothing to do with him, and naturally he had even less need to consider matters of pay and provisions that a Company Commander had to deal with. After spending a few days familiarizing himself with his personal guards, he led them in setting out on the eager task of selecting soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several personal guards, emboldened by their master's authority, accompanied Huang Shi as he made a continuous inspection of a batch of guard battalion encampments. But Huang Shi was dismayed to discover that the physical condition of the guard battalion soldiers was worse than that of most of the beggars Huang Shi had ever seen. The military households drilled in the morning, were enslaved by their officers, and struggled for their own subsistence in the afternoon. A life of hardship had bent the backs of most of the soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many of the so-called able-bodied soldiers on the rosters, when Huang Shi summoned them for a look, turned out to be sallow, emaciated little old men with faces full of wrinkles. After running around for two days, Huang Shi had found fewer than twenty satisfactory soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Post notices. Recruit soldiers. Whether they are of military registration or not doesn't matter. The standard is the ability to draw a strong bow fully twenty times in succession, and to march five li carrying a full load within half a shichen.\" Losing patience, Huang Shi ordered his personal guards: \"Resettlement fee: ten taels. Monthly pay: one tael and eight mace. Go at once.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The personal guards exchanged glances. One of the bolder ones, named Yang Luhuo, said to Huang Shi: \"My lord, your subordinate believes that these soldiers from the military households would be satisfied with seven or eight mace a month. You don't even have to give a resettlement fee, though casually giving a few taels would be better. But those recruits will probably truly come for the ten-tael resettlement fee. Even if the monthly pay is reduced, you'll still have to give at least one tael. The soldiers already recruited will likely demand a corresponding raise as well. I beg my lord to consider this clearly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi listened to this speech with a smile. In any case, personal guards always stood on one's own side. \"This is very good. In the future, if you have opinions, you must raise them immediately.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord's words truly make your subordinate tremble with fear.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"However, I do not intend to withhold military pay. I want a batch of stout warriors who can truly fight. This is also the task that Lord Sun has assigned.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, my lord. Your subordinate will carry it out at once.\" Yang Luhuo said no more, bowed, and was about to stride away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yang Luhuo.\" Huang Shi felt this personal guard must have had his fortune told — severely lacking the fire element in his five phases, hence such a name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What other instructions does my lord have?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I need a personal guard captain. Those soldiers we find will also need an acting Squad Commander. Which would you prefer to be?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Entirely at my lord's command.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then personal guard captain.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I thank my lord for the promotion. For my lord, I would shatter my bones and grind myself to dust without hesitation!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Huang Shi began building his own core unit, news of the Zhenjiang campaign had already reached Guangning. Mao Wenlong had recovered several hundred li of territory and resettled tens of thousands of Liaodong civilians. The whole of Liaodong was shaken. Wang Huazhen ordered Huang Shi to seize the opportunity to go to Liaoyang, ostensibly to deliver a letter to Nurhaci, but secretly to carry a secret message to Li Yongfang, and incidentally to scout the popular sentiment and morale in the Later Jin territory to see if there was an opportunity to exploit.\u003C\u002Fp>",1750,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","a1ea3276fb204f1ba119d132dcaa99fb55f03a98a27aa0f519cffedf309b16bf","stealing-ming-chapter-13","stealing-ming-chapter-11",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]