Nearly noon, a banquet was prepared in the backyard, and Du Zhongxiao invited three of them to take their seats. The three of them arrived at the backyard and went to visit Du Xun and his wife first, and then met Han Yueniang and the children, and talked about their love, before returning to the banquet.

Du Zhongxiao said: "In the blink of an eye, when I returned to the Central Plains, my parents were old and my children were old. I suddenly felt that I had lost something. In the past ten years of officialdom, I had been a small county magistrate to become a censor, but I always felt that I had lost a lot of things."

Shisanlang smiled and said, "The officials say this, it's because they are old. When we first arrived at the military academy, we often had nothing to do. Several people drank together when they were free. At first, they sighed that life was leisurely, but later, they began to sigh that the world changed and they knew that they were old."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "What I said is that. When I was on Hequ Road, I wouldn't think about this. When I returned to the capital and lived with my family, I suddenly became sentimental. Maybe, I was old too."

Several people laughed together and drank a glass of wine.

Seeing a large plate of cooked sea crabs on the table, Dou Shunqing said, "I heard that this crab comes from Dengzhou, and it is expensive on the market."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Yes, it's the season for eating crabs now. You can try it. I heard that this dish was very expensive in Beijing before, and one would cost a lot of money. Now that the railway is open, the price has dropped rapidly. I heard from those who buy crabs that one on the market needs to be 200 yuan, and it is even very fat."

Each of them took a crab, peeled it, and ate it beautifully. Yao Shouxin wiped his mouth and said, "Since the railways were connected in the world, all kinds of delicious foods can be entered into the capital. People in the capital are really good oral. Since the railways were connected to Dengzhou, there are no shortage of seafood on the market and the price is cheap. In winter, there are fruits and vegetables from the south, and they are no longer as deserted as before."

Shisanlang and Dou Shunqing said it was together. They now have high officials and high salaries, but their families are not burdened, so their lives are still very prosperous.

After drinking for a while, Du Zhongxiao said, "After returning from Lingnan, Taiwei Yang has been pursuing the Beijing Military Academy. How are he doing now? After I arrived in the Beijing, I have always wanted to visit him, but I have been dragging him down."

Dou Shunqing said: "It's much better than leading troops outside. Although he has many daily affairs, he has high official positions and great power. He has the right to be in the military academy that all generals in the world must enter.

Du Zhongxiao said: "The emperor is a little unsatisfied with what he teaches in the military academy now. The ministers in the court heard that some of them had learned in the past, but they didn't learn anything. A few days ago, the court concentrated the army and prepared to attack Dangxiang. The front line was not satisfactory, but the Privy Council supported them very much."

Shisanlang said: "It's fine if the people from the Privy Council are. Since the training three years ago, it has been said that the Privy Council is in charge of military orders and is directly in charge of the Foreign Commander's Office. In fact, three years have passed, except for a few more officials, there has been no major change. Their understanding of war is really loose."

Yao Shouxin said: "Shisanlang said it well. Until today, there are no people in the Privy Council who knows how to use artillery. The artillery in the army is all arranged according to the Hequ Road. Why are there so many artillery, what are the functions of various artillery, and why are they assigned to such a rank? No one can tell the reason. It is said that they are the commander of the world. How can they command the imperial guards in this way!"

Dou Shunqing said: "There is no way. The Privy Council and the Third Yamen in the capital have not been greatly changed. In fact, there is no major change. Most of the generals and officials in it have changed what they have done for generations? As long as the people do not change greatly, what can they learn when they enter the military school? I am a noble family of generals and I know these things best. Many noble families were passed down from the Five Dynasties. In one or two hundred years, the family had eaten this supper. They couldn't accept it suddenly. "

Shisanlang said: "Now that the inside and outside are clear and there are no ways to make money in the world. If these generals do not join the army, they can do other things. If they go to factories to do things, what's wrong? Nowadays, many of the official factories are recruiting people from the local area, and officials are not doing well."

Dou Shunqing said: "Brother, what you said is easy, but it is difficult to do. In the past, the army did not emphasize writing, but only archery, horse and martial arts. In addition to wealthy families, many of these general families were illiterate and had only a single force. Now it is different. Using guns and cannons, no matter how good the martial arts are, they will be defeated with one shot. Their skills are useless. Learning the current methods of fighting war is their weakness. Moreover, there are quite a few people. Where did hundreds of thousands of imperial guards in the capital come from? Many of them have been in the army for generations. They have not known that the farmland suddenly loses military rations and will cause trouble."

Yao Shouxin said: "And the capital is different from other places. There are many idle people here, and the rice transported from other places is different from that of people in other places. In the capital, as long as you have money and can be rich, no one asks how this wealth comes from, but just looking at it. If it weren't for the deterioration of the army, joining the army has always been one of the ways for these idle people. In the past, as long as you are tall and skilled in bowing and horses, you can be rich and noble. Suddenly, you need to go to school to study hard. Where can idle people accept it? Therefore, the most difficult thing to change the imperial guards in the capital."

Du Zhongxiao nodded: "Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of imperial guards in the capital, many of which were passed down from the late Tang and Five Dynasties. Many ideas have been deeply rooted in the people and are not so easy to change. Without a powerful new army, we can only compromise."

This is the strange phenomenon I see now. I didn’t understand Du Zhongxiao on Hequ Road before, but I gradually became clear when I arrived in the capital. The Song Dynasty was continued from the Five Dynasties and established a dynasty with force. The imperial guards were the guarantee of imperial power. Although there were various selection measures, the foundation of the imperial guards in the capital was still continued from the Five Dynasties. In addition to the general family, the middle and lower classes of the imperial guards in the capital, including middle and lower officers, and a large number of soldiers. This was the case with the family in one or two hundred years. As long as the fathers were in the army, the descendants and brothers were in the army as long as they were in the army. To serve as a soldier, they were the survival skills of their ancestors. What could these people do if they were not allowed to join the army? They had too many numbers, and with their families, they were not less than hundreds of thousands, so they could not ignore them.

Finally, the training was based on the Hequ Road Army as a template. In a few years, it became what it is now. New is not new, old is not old, and in the end it was not even learned how to look. The so-called training was completed, just replacing swords, guns, bows and crossbows with guns and cannons.

The imperial guards are like this, because the upper class is not capable of learning, and the other reason is that the original lower class is huge and it is difficult to change.

Dou Shunqing said: "There is no way. If the imperial guards in the capital want to change it, they must have other places to settle down. Then, the training was carried out, and 100,000 or 20,000 people were screened out, just like the Tianxiang Army in the past. At that time, about 200,000 soldiers had a field affairs and many field affairs. It took several years to manage the strategy. The imperial guards in the capital were not as good as the management from the beginning, and in the end they could only do this."

Yao Shouxin said: "The imperial guards in the capital are hard to change than the Yingtianxiang Army. At that time, Yingtianxiang Army went to Yingtian Road in the west of Jing, but his life was much better than before, so there was no trouble. With the salary of the imperial guards in the capital, it was not easy to do it."

After thinking about it, Du Zhongxiao said, "In fact, it may not be impossible. If the land was the same as before, the court did not collect taxes for several years and added some subsidies, it should be fine. Just to do this, the new army must be large and the ministers are willing to do it."

Shisanlang said: "There are not many idle fields on Jingxi Road. If you want to buy the fields, where can you go?"

Du Zhongxiao said: "There are countless idle fields on the north and north road of Jinghu. From the railway to Jiangling, it has been time for large-scale development. It was just that there was no extra population on Jingxi Road, and there was a turbulent plum blossom near Tanzhou, so it was not easy to get it. If a large number of imperial guards were transferred south to explore, it might not be impossible to show the grand occasion of Yingtian Jingxi Road. However, there are many troubles in the world now and there is no new army, so there is no convenience for the moment."

Dou Shunqing said: "There are still too many barbarians in the mountains on the Jinghu road now, and they often come out of the mountains to cause chaos. It is necessary for ministers to take care of this to eliminate the rebellion and develop idle fields. I used to be an official there, with rivers and lakes densely populated and mountain roads difficult to walk, which is really not easy."

"Yes, it's not that easy to develop a place. Moreover, there is Hequ Road in the north, which requires manpower to develop, and it can't be done for a while. The current imperial guards in the capital are not redirected to a large scale, and like the previous training, they cannot complete the personnel conversion."

After saying that, Du Zhongxiao raised his glass and said, "Let's drink. These things about the court are used as topics to talk about and serve wine."

After drinking a few people, Du Zhongxiao said, "Actually, the emperor and the ministers in the court also knew that the imperial guards were not good after all. But even though they opened a military academy, it was really difficult for the ministers to learn it, and it was difficult for them to learn it for a while. When we were founded in the military academy, we only wanted to cultivate people who could go to the battlefield to fight, mainly soldiers and middle and lower-level generals. For ministers and senior generals, they didn't think much about what they wanted to learn. After returning to Beijing this time, we should think of a way to compile some textbooks suitable for ministers and senior generals."

Dou Shunqing smiled and said, "How to make up the method? All we learn is the knowledge of middle and lower-level generals."

Shisanlang said: "Yes, except for the strategy that always leads the overall situation, how can we know those? Just like me, I only know how to train cavalry and command cavalry on the battlefield, and I don't know anything else."

Du Zhongxiao said: "It is of course difficult to do it at first, but you can't stop it because of the difficulties. You can't let the ministers and senior generals understand that the reform of the court's military is always difficult. Think about it, how can you expect support if you don't even know about the emperor? This is not only you. If you can continue, I will discuss with the ministers and do it together. In recent years, the ministers in the court are also interested in military affairs, and many are willing to work hard on it. As long as you gather a group of people and carefully analyze the war in the past few years, it will be beneficial."
Chapter completed!