Chapter 74 74 Disobedience

"Uncle Zhang, do you know what my father and his men are doing?"

Wei Guangde was still thinking about the rescue plan of the Zhenjiang army. The most likely thing was to go by water and go directly to Songjiang Prefecture.

But what happens after arriving in Songjiang Prefecture?

If they continue to sail south, they will have to pass through the Zhoushan Islands, which is the nest where the Japanese pirates gathered this time.

Although there are tens of thousands of troops gathered this time, most of them are inland garrisons and are not used to water battles, let alone naval battles.

Going south by boat from Songjiang Prefecture to rescue Zhejiang is like a sheep entering a tiger's mouth.

The best way is to land in Songjiang Prefecture and rescue Zhejiang by land, which is more secure, but it is definitely too late to rescue.

According to the previous practice of the Japanese pirates, they would just grab a handful and run away, and would not fight at all.

But this time seems to be slightly different, that is, the rescue documents issued by Taizhou Prefecture and Wenzhou Prefecture.

When Wei Guangde saw that paragraph, he guessed in his heart that the Japanese pirates may no longer plunder the countryside, and may besiege prefectures and counties. After all, there are tens of thousands of Japanese pirates this time.

This is no longer the style of bandits, and it is not far from raising the flag of rebellion.

However, compared with the future thunder in the north, Wei Guangde still cares about the safety of his father, but he must not take a boat to rescue Zhejiang.

A group of soldiers and pirates fighting on the sea, dare not think about it.

"The order from above is to let some of them land directly in Ningbo, and the main force will continue to go south to rescue Taizhou and Wenzhou."

At this moment, Zhang Shigui picked up the teacup on the table, regardless of who drank it before, and took a sip directly, and then continued: "But the message brought back is that they will pass Jiaxing along the coastline, cross Hangzhou Bay and land directly in Shaoxing Prefecture.

Alas.

I just don't know when the situation has developed like this, Jiujiang Guard will be transferred back."

That's right, in fact, a group of people gathered tonight, except for the commander who stayed behind, all of them were Yingxi Sheren, that is, the sons of the current main military officers of Jiujiang Guard.

There are many hereditary military positions in the Ming Dynasty, from hereditary hundred households to thousand households, as well as assistants and commanders, but most of them can't get real vacancies at all, and can only receive a small amount of salary every now and then.

And the military generals who are already in office naturally hope that their own children can take over their positions.

Jiujiang Guard is one of the hundreds of guards in the Ming Dynasty, but Jiujiang Prefecture has a special location and has become the most strictly guarded one.

The so-called strictness, of course, does not refer to the defense of the guard, but to the control of the official positions here.

Wei Guangde is naturally very clear about this.

Just kidding, when Emperor Zhengde wanted to rectify the guards, wanted to take back the military farms, and restrict the nobles and civil officials from enslaving the military households. According to the instructions of the people above, Jiujiang Guard staged a mutiny farce.

Well, it was not a big deal and it didn't enter the official history, but Emperor Zhengde's military reform slowed down afterwards, and he also opened up the loopholes for private soldiers.

In short, the hereditary military officers of the Ming Dynasty dared to do anything for the military farms and military households in their hands.

Most people in later generations have the impression that the military households of the Ming Dynasty were very miserable. In fact, this should be viewed dialectically.

For the military households with hereditary military positions, their daily lives were still very comfortable, but the hard-working ones were actually the soldiers below.

And how much better could the civilian households be?

Civilian households without fame and wealth were still enslaved.

Look, during the Ming Dynasty, the country lasted for 276 years, and there were 24,613 Jinshi, of which 6,506 were military Jinshi, accounting for about 26.46% of the total number, second only to civilians.

During the Ming Dynasty, there were many people who passed the imperial examinations with military status and eventually rose to the top of the civil service group and entered the cabinet or even sat on the throne of the prime minister. A large number of cabinet ministers, such as Li Dongyang, Wan'an, Liu Ji, Xia Yan, Zhang Juzheng, Shen Li, Zhao Zhigao, Wang Jiaping, Ye Xianggao, Fang Congzhe, etc., were all military children.

These are also due to some misunderstandings of the military households in the Ming Dynasty in later generations.

Regardless of whether they are civilians or military, there are vested interests.

Many military Jinshi were unwilling to give up their military status even though they were the prime ministers. You can imagine the value of it.

At this time, Wei Guangde also noticed what was said in the message, which naturally meant that they would not act according to the order, but would land after crossing Hangzhou Bay. It was slow, but safer.

Although there were still dangers before landing, there was no way.

As for Taizhou Prefecture and Wenzhou Prefecture, where Japanese pirates were rampant, they could only pray for good luck and hope that the guards there could hold out for more time and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

The strategic plan has completely failed at this time. According to the size of the damage in Zhejiang, someone must be responsible. Dismissal and investigation are still the least serious.

Thinking that my father and his men are probably on a big ship going down the river, and they are probably out of the Yangtze River and heading towards Zhejiang along the coastline, Wei Guangde's heart tightened. If the Japanese pirates also learned the tactics of besieging and attacking reinforcements, the tens of thousands of guards would be in danger.

Wei Guangde cursed himself in his heart for worrying too much and thinking about unlucky things, but he couldn't help thinking in that direction.

In fact, everyone in the room had the same idea as Wei Guangde at this moment. Zhang Hongfu muttered on the side: "If I had known this, I should have transferred Anqing Camp and Nanhu Camp. They are all used to water battles."

"Forget Nanhu Camp. They have a hard time suppressing the pirates in Poyang Lake. How can we expect them to suppress the Japanese pirates on the sea."

Wu Dong replied, not looking down on them, but completely looking down on them.

The Poyang Lake bandits were previously said to be kept by Prince Ning.

Now the King of Ning is long gone, but the pirates still exist and have never been completely eliminated.

"Okay, don't think too much, good people will have good luck."

What Zhang Shigui should worry about was already worried when he was in charge of the yamen, but now he is the calmest one.

He naturally hopes that there will be no problems on this expedition, but the inheritors in the garrison have actually done their job of taking over. In fact, he has to go to the garrison every day to handle the official business after his father left, and he has taken on the job of the commander of Jiujiang Guard.

Jiujiang Guard has only three commanders in recent years, and there is still one missing. Why?

Is there no one in the court?

Of course not, there are more hereditary military positions than actual vacancies, and there are still a few groups of people competing in the court to occupy this position.

And those who have already occupied the position will naturally not be willing to let the real position fall.

No one in this room thinks about the people of Zhejiang who are in dire straits at this time. They are only concerned about their own affairs, including Wei Guangde.

It's really a low position, no one would pay attention to it even if I said it, at least that's the status before I pass the imperial examination.

Relatives are relatives, but if you don't have a position to inherit, you are just a commoner. Everyone in this room will be a fifth-rank official at the lowest in the future.

I hope everything is fine.