Primer on the Zheng Military

The military of the Zheng Empire has not had an easy time. Plagued by civil wars, and then by the northern invasion which drove it south, the Zheng forces have always managed to muster enough power to maintain its hold on power, even over a diminished territory.

Army
A longstanding principle of Chinese military administration is the separation between troops and generals. In other words, the officers that administer the training and upkeep of troops in normal times, are not the same officers as those who lead them on campaign.

At least, that is how it usually is in normal times. These days, though - having had to rebuild an army from scratch in the desperate defence against the northern invaders - the Zheng imperial court had to rely on the locally recruited, locally led armies of the southern territories. And in the wake of the stunning victories against the northerners, these local commanders were catapulted to heroic status, and their armies have since become the armies of the Empire.

This has created a decentralised and rather messy command structure within the Zheng Empire.

Central Army
The Central Army is also known as the Gold-Scarf Guard (Chinese: 金缨卫), due to their customary uniform which includes a gold-embroidered scarf worn around the neck. This is meant to be the elite force of the Empire, the core of battle-hardened men around which campaigning armies were built; and in its early days of fighting to conquer other contenders, it was indeed a mighty force.

These days, however, the Gold-Scarf Guard is a shadow of its former self. It mainly patrols the region around the capital Jiankang, and protecting the Emperor; in these, it still serves its function very well. However, with the loss of the north and its horses, as well as the much smaller number of guardsmen, the Gold-Scarf Guard can no longer fulfill its more aggressive, offensive roles.

Regional Forces
With no powerful central force to act as a campaigning army, the later Zheng dynasty has had to rely on a series of different sources for soldiers.

The first are the retinues of the Great Clans in the south of the Empire, which had been successfully rallied and unified to the cause of the Emperor and repelling the barbarians. The reward for these Great Clans, in turn, has been a weakening of the key principle. The Provincial Inspectors-General, who used to simply be the review mechanism for local officials, now came into command of large provincial garrisons.

Navy
A secret to the success of the Zheng Empire in protecting its current territory is its formidable navy.

The creation of a standing navy