Chapter 286: The Imperial Guard's Six Great Camps in Battle Array

Apart from a small number of hereditary nobles and former Capital Camp officers, most of the Imperial Guard were new men, and of the original Capital Camp officers who had stayed on, a good ten or so had gone to Governor-General Dong Qi's city defense forces, which meant this Imperial Guard was nearly all new faces from top to bottom.

The Chongzhen Emperor did not stay in camp — in fact, this was also to create space for the generals. After all, he was the Emperor, different in status from ordinary men. In later ages, a company employee meeting a superior would be nervous to death, his mind going blank and mistakes happening all the time — let alone when facing an emperor who ruled all under heaven.

Guguang Pass was right before them, so everyone no longer hurried their pace. Moreover, since Chongzhen and those aggressive Depot and Guard agents were not around, they could relax a little. During their discussions, Zhang Shize even deliberately cracked a joke at the expense of Regiment Commander Wu Qihua, saying that other people's rabbits didn't eat grass near their own nests, but he was just the opposite — he only ate the grass by his own nest.

The matter was rather amusing when told. Old Wu had originally been a Company Commander in the Ten Regiments. When the regiments were reestablished in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Old Wu picked up his old post, but there was rarely any work to do. Aside from drilling new soldiers, he just patrolled here and there. Since Li Zicheng never actually marched on Beijing, Old Wu naturally had nothing to do all day.

It was only after the reorganization of the Imperial Guard and city defense forces that this situation improved. Old Wu, thanks to his seniority, was recommended by everyone as a Camp Officer. Not long after, because of his outstanding performance in the army, Old Wu was noticed by Zhang Shize.

Zhang Shize privately reviewed Old Wu's service record and found that this fellow was a talent. What was even more commendable was that Wu Qihua had no background whatsoever — whether in his own generation or eighteen generations of ancestors, they were all genuine, honest farmers.

If he were promoted, he would naturally become a military officer loyal to the imperial house.

Most of the Imperial Guard officers trained, ate, and lived together all day long, having long since become as familiar as roommates in later ages. Everyone knew that Old Wu had recently been chatting warmly with a widow from Wine Fragrance Lane on Chess and Card Street in the capital.

As for how he had managed to strike up the connection, no one knew, and no one was idle enough to waste the effort inquiring.

How far things had developed between Old Wu and that widow — ordinary people didn't know, but the several familiar Camp Officers of the Imperial Guard knew it as clearly as a mirror, and whenever the matter came up they burst into roaring laughter.

Old Wu was of a dull disposition and spoke little on ordinary days. At this moment, though teased by everyone, his face flushed red, yet his words were still honest: "As for me and Cuier's business, if you don't want to come, then don't come — what's all this nonsense talk!"

Clearly, Old Wu was defending the widow.

Old Wu was flushed with anger and embarrassment, but those who knew his temperament well all knew the fellow was a good-natured soul who wouldn't truly get angry. Instead, they laughed even harder, and Camp Officer Li Xiaoyao shouted in his loud, clear voice:

"Come now, come now — who dares not attend Old Wu's wedding? If there's anyone so blind as not to come, I'll have words with him!"

Though the words were spoken in jest, they indirectly confirmed that Wu Qihua's honest nature made him well-liked. His prestige in the Imperial Guard was not low, and he was quite popular — this was also one of the reasons Zhang Shize valued him.

Jokes were jokes, but privately everyone was still very attentive and concerned about the marriage between Wu Qihua and Dong Xiaocui.

Take Li Xiaoyao, who had shouted the loudest just now — although this fellow always seemed to be at odds with Wu Qihua on the surface, he had privately observed Dong Xiaocui more than once, and only after concluding that this widow was decent enough and wouldn't cheat Old Wu did he let the matter rest.

Old Wu was past forty, and although he was an Imperial Guard Commander, he had no family. Meeting that lonely, pitiful widow, the two were like dry firewood meeting blazing flame — they had already reached the point of discussing marriage, which everyone understood.

As for the rumor that the woman was already pregnant with little Wu's child, although everyone was startled inwardly, no one was loose-tongued enough to spread idle gossip. The two were deeply in love, and Li Xiaoyao had also said the widow was not a bad woman, so there was nothing for them to interfere with.

Originally Old Wu had planned to marry the widow in grand style in a few days, but it happened that the Chongzhen Emperor was personally leading the campaign. Family matters naturally could not compare to affairs of state, and Old Wu was in a difficult spot.

Although Dong Xiaocui was a widow, she understood the ways of the world better than certain ministers and lords at court. She took the initiative to mention to Wu Qihua that they would marry after he returned with merit.

Old Wu was already past forty, after all, and a man like him was different from ordinary people. That he now ranked among the three Commanders of the Imperial Guard was entirely the Emperor's grace and blessing — he simply could not bear to idle away his days eating and doing nothing.

The more idle time passed, the more Wu Qihua wanted to earn merit and find something to do for himself, so as to repay the Emperor's kindness above and provide for his wife below. Since Dong Xiaocui was so understanding of righteousness, Wu Qihua felt all the more that he had found a treasure.

After all, in Wu Qihua's impression, the Imperial Guard had just been established — what its combat effectiveness truly was, everyone wanted to know. Only through bloody, flesh-and-blood combat could these new recruits be transformed.

Of course, he could also earn wealth and status for himself, thereby becoming more qualified to marry his future wife.

The Imperial Guard was currently divided into six camps under three Commanders. Unlike the former Capital Camps' Divine Engine Camp, Three Thousand Camp, and Five Army Camp, after the Chongzhen Emperor unified the original Capital Camps and the capital garrison forces into the Imperial Guard and city defense forces, he not only abolished the Ten Regiments but also completely discarded the old Three Great Camps system.

Of the Imperial Guard's current six camps, each had roughly four thousand men. From infantry, arquebusiers, and foot archers — every troop type — each camp was fully equipped and uniformly numbered.

If the former Capital Camps combined had been a fully-armed corps of all arms, then now each of the Imperial Guard's six camps was a formation that could be taken out for field operations — from close-combat soldiers to ranged archers, to artillery and baggage train units, everything was complete.

Combined, the six camps formed the entire Imperial Guard. The Chongzhen Emperor's vision was grand — if the Imperial Guard could continue to develop, then these six camps would gradually grow into six armies, and even six army corps.

Should any major or minor incident arise in the provinces, each corps would be fully organized and ready to march out for field operations and reinforcement at any time.

Of the Imperial Guard's six great camps, each had a Camp Officer commanding it — Li Xiaoyao was one of them. Under each Camp Officer were two Company Commanders assisting in camp affairs.

The Chongzhen Emperor felt that the original Capital Camps' Commissioner-in-Chief mechanism was too cumbersome, so during the reorganization he formally abolished the title of Imperial Guard Commissioner-in-Chief. According to the current scale of the Imperial Guard, every two camps had one Commander overseeing camp affairs.

In addition, based on the experience of later ages, the Chongzhen Emperor issued a forceful decree abolishing the malady of eunuchs and court officials supervising the Imperial Guard. The Imperial Guard's organization thus became simple and clear, with each office's authority distinctly separated.

To prevent the Imperial Guard from being stripped of power by the Ministry of War and others again, the Chongzhen Emperor also explicitly stipulated in the edict that in peacetime the Imperial Guard Commander-General only held training authority. In wartime, he had to await the Emperor's permission and receive the new Commander-General's seal before briefly holding mobilization and command authority.

Whether in wartime or peacetime, he himself and all future Ming emperors could freely mobilize any unit under the Imperial Guard and dismiss the Commander-General directly without needing any reason.

In this way, the reorganized Imperial Guard completely eliminated the overlapping authority that had existed among the many generals, commissioners, eunuchs, and court officials of the former Capital Camps, and was an entirely new army wholly loyal to the Chongzhen Emperor himself.

Now in wartime, above the six Company Commander officers like Li Xiaoyao were the three Commanders led by Wu Qihua and the others, and above the three great Commanders like Wu Qihua was Duke of Ying Zhang Shize, commanding uniformly as Commander-General of the Imperial Guard.