Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1180 The First Step of Military System Reform

There are also reasons why Gao Yushi thinks that the reform of economics and practical studies has entered a new stage after he has been working in the Ministry of War for a while. , the nature of the Five Armies Commander's Mansion has changed, and to some extent it can even be said that even Zhu Yuanzhang's "military registration" system has been quietly shaken by him.

As we all know, the military and civilians of the Ming Dynasty were separated.The so-called military-civilian separation is to divide the common people into two types.One is "army": every generation must have one person as a soldier or officer.The other is "people": generations are exempted from military service, unless they voluntarily join the army.

Therefore, there are two sets of household registration of the imperial court, one is military households and the other is civilian households.

This is a peculiar system created by Lai Yuanzhang. Generally speaking, it combines the farmland of the Han Dynasty, the government soldiers of the Tang Dynasty, and the rule book of the Song Dynasty.Zhu Yuanzhang himself is very proud of this separation of military and civilian status.He said: "I raise millions of soldiers without costing the country a penny."

As early as when Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Hezhou, he began to experiment with sergeant farming: after taking Nanjing and its surrounding areas, he paid more attention to this.His army is never short of food and wages, so it can do no harm to the people and is popular everywhere.

In the first year of Hongwu, the affairs of the world had been settled, and he began to consider how to arrange a large number of officers and soldiers after victory.

Downsizing, redeployment, and demobilization are not good ways.

Cut who?Who will not be judged?who?send who?Demobilization, where to go?Returning to the countryside, the countryside can't stand it; "veterans" have no fields, no cattle, no farm tools, no seeds, and they can't go back to the countryside!If you really want to go, it's all due to local instability.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang came up with this method of separating the military and the civilians. Not only did he settle the soldiers and pay the officers, but he also preserved a huge military force for himself and his descendants, that is, the National Defense Forces that maintained long-term stability for the Ming Empire.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang's method was roughly like this: soldiers, each rewarded 60 acres of official land.The condition is to serve as a soldier until old age ([-] years old); after old age or death, it will be inherited by sons and grandchildren from generation to generation.In each generation, only the eldest son is required to serve, and the younger sons and younger serve as "Yu Ding", that is, soldiers who fill in the vacancies.However, the [-] mu of land also needs to be taxed (called grain), which is two buckets and four liters per mu, but it is not transported to the central court or local government, but is stored centrally and reserved as military food and military pay in case of war.

Military officers, each named a "world official": the highest is the commander, in charge of a guard, followed by "thousand households", "hundred households", in charge of thousands of households and hundreds of households, the youngest is the governor, who is qualified Control a general flag or a small flag.Thousands of households have principals and deputy, and under a hundred households there are so-called "test hundred households".Between the Commander and Zhengqianhu, there are so-called Commander Tongzhi, Commander Shishi, and Wei Zhenfu.

All in all, it is divided into nine grades.

As for the great military officers who have made great contributions, it is not enough to be named a commander, so they should be named Duke, Marquis, Bo, Zi, and Nan.These five ranks of knighthood do not belong to the "Wei Suo system" (later there are no titles for sons and men).

The officers and soldiers of the guards live in designated areas and are located all over the country.As for the guards across the country, in the 13th year of Hongwu, there were a total of 490 three guards, each with several thousand households and hundreds of households.There are all 350 nine independent cadres.

In addition, there are more than 400 border guards of the nature of detention. The total number of "world officials" was about 23 in the 120rd year of Hongwu. The total number of "Shibing" is about [-] million.

At that time, the total population of Ming Dynasty was 26 people according to Hongwu's 54th year (Note: I'm not sure whether the "population" of this data refers to Dingkou only).

Military registration is listed separately from civilian registration (in fact, there is also craftsman registration, which is managed by the Ministry of Industry), which has laid a solid foundation for the strength of the "Great Governor's Mansion-Five Armies Governor's Mansion" in the early stage.

The past events of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion are limited to space, so I won't talk about it here, just talk about the Five Armies Commander's Mansion.The establishment of the Five Houses began in the 13th year of Hongwu.Zhu Yuanzhang divided the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion into five because the power of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was too heavy. "In 13 years, the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion was changed to the Governor's Mansion of the Central, Left, Front, Front and Front Five Armies, and the guards in Beijing and the guards of the capitals outside were divided."

Although the purpose of setting up the five government offices is to divide military power, this is only an internal adjustment of the military system, and what the five government offices of the imperial court are still in charge of is a powerful guard army capable of conscripting and fighting. The period of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion has not changed, so the five prefectures still inherited some of the powers of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, but the specific powers at the hands of the senior generals have been divided accordingly.

However, the decentralization of power among the five prefectures did not completely dispel Zhu Yuanzhang's concerns about excessive military power.The method used to divide and rule the military power, in addition to the mutual system of military officials such as the five government and five armies, the most important thing is to use the military department in the civil service system to check and balance the five government.

In fact, as early as before the abolition of the Zhongshu Province and the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, this method of mutual control had already begun to be implemented.At that time, the Ministry of War of the Ministry of Hit Books established the system of imperial edicts for military officers.In terms of procedures, not only the military officer’s information needs to be transferred from the Metropolitan Governor’s Office to the Ministry of War, but also its qualifications must be reviewed by the merit inspection supervisor, and then handed over to the Imperial Academy for writing, the Si Wenjian’s collation, and Zhongshusheren’s writing. The second supervisor and so on, after a series of complicated transfer procedures, the Ministry of War can give the promotion.During the whole process, neither the Ministry of War nor the Metropolitan Governor's Office can specialize in the selection of military officers.

The most important thing is that after the establishment of the Ministry of War, it has the right to dispatch troops according to the order but not the right to command them.In the event of a war, the emperor will order the commander in chief, and the Ministry of War will dispatch troops according to the order, and the soldiers of the guards under the jurisdiction of the five prefectures will be sent out to fight.The army returned to India immediately, and the soldiers returned to the guard.

Under such a model, the imperial court avoided the possibility of the military generals' monopoly to the greatest extent, and also made the principle of the civil and military system determined at the court level of the national system.

Generally speaking, the Five Houses still had a certain amount of power and status during the Hongwu period. Since the upper officials of the Five Houses were all elected by Gonghou Bo, and the main officials in charge of the operation of the Five Houses were all military ministers, the Five Houses were, to a certain extent, That is, the representative of the Wuchen forces in the center.

The Five Houses represent the status of military ministers in the country. Their grades are higher than those of the Six Departments. They have suffrage power and can govern the main military forces of the Ming Dynasty at that time. This was also recognized by Zhu Yuanzhang and established as the system.

However, after the well-known massacre of heroes, the power of the Five Houses was greatly weakened.For example, Tang Shengzong, Marquis of Yan'an, Fei Ju, Marquis of Pingliang, and Lu Zhongheng, Marquis of Ji'an, who were executed in Hu Weiyong's prison, served as Tongzhi and Qian Shi of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.As well as Lanyu himself, who was killed in the Lanyu Party case, as well as Zhang Yi, Marquis of Heshou, Zhu Shou, Marquis of Bolu, and Wang Bi, Marquis of Dingyuan, all served as senior officials (Tongzhi, Qianshi) of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.

Therefore, it can also be said that one of the reasons behind Zhu Yuanzhang's massacre of military officials was his control over the military power of the five prefectures.

Then, with the Yingzong civil engineering change, with the death of Zhang Fu, the power of the five mansions in the center of the court was almost wiped out.At the same time, since Yu Qian set up the regiment battalion, the military department controlled by civil servants in the center began to take a leap in importance, which made the status of the five prefectures even more sluggish.These two points have been mentioned earlier in this book, so I won’t say more.

However, the decline of the Five Governments is not just due to the suppression or death of its leaders. There are also deeper internal factors, and this internal factor is the focus of high-level pragmatic attention at the moment.

What are the intrinsic factors?It is the decline of the guards, the escape of the military households, and the unbearable battle.

According to the high-practical understanding, the Ming Dynasty's policy of controlling military forces with civil affairs restricted and weakened the status and power of the five prefectures to a large extent, but for the military system of the guards represented by the five prefectures, it can only be regarded as a relative external effects, and its internal factors also have a profound impact.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the Weisuo military system established by the "Five Mansions - Dusi - Weisuo" assumed the most important military functions from the Hongwu period to the Zhengtong period. The guard army is the main force.

Until the 14th year of Zhengtong, Wang Zhen took Yingzong to conquer the 50 Beijing army commanded by Oala, which was still based on the military system of the guard.Therefore, under such circumstances, as the main leading body of the guard army, the power of the five prefectures must not be underestimated.

However, after the civil engineering change, the central decision-making core was completely concentrated on the cabinet dominated by civil servants and the supervisor of rituals dominated by internal ministers, and the intervention of military officials in national policies no longer existed.

In addition to the emperor's policy of using literature to control military force, one of the main internal reasons for this phenomenon was the continuous disintegration of the guard system.The officers and soldiers of the guards were gradually unable to serve as the main force of the country's operations, and were replaced by the recruitment system, which caused the five governments to lose their power base in the process.

Why did Daming never stop reforming the capital camp, but it still couldn't achieve any effect?That's why.

The guards directly under the control of your five prefectures are already corrupted, how can you expect the Beijing camp selected from these guards to be able to fight?
Moreover, the imperial court has long used the military households and craftsmen of the commanders-in-chief of the five prefectures to do things at will, especially for any projects near Gyeonggi, which almost always use military households.This made the combat attributes of the Gyeonggi Guards Office less obvious, and it looked more like a team of slaves.

But it's different now.

The first difference is that the Imperial Guards don’t need military households at all, but directly recruit soldiers from the civilian population. This approach is no different from that of border generals recruiting armed servants—the only difference is that the soldiers and horses recruited by the Imperial Guards do not belong to the general himself. .

The second difference is that the "Old Beijing Camp", which was a military household, never cared about the war, and concentrated on being responsible for reclamation and other work, and actually became the "Logistics Department".

The Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies has become a pure "logistics department". Isn't this considered to have shaken the system established by Zhu Yuanzhang in essence?

However, Gao Yushi is very clear that he has only just made preliminary changes to the military system, and this is not the end.

In fact, he doesn't have a great dislike for these nobles in Beijing. His main impression is "angry and indisputable", accompanied by a certain "sorrow for his misfortune".

There is no need to explain this if you are angry and do not fight; but it is unfortunate because it is indeed the trend of the times to use literature to defend martial arts, even in the era before the high-practice time travel.

But this doesn't mean that the Five Armed Forces Governor's Mansion should be a decoration, it still needs to play some role - the logistics also play a role, it's better than nothing, right?
What's more, with the coming of the era of hot weapons, the role of logistics will only increase day by day. Even if the "waste utilization" of the Five Army Commander's Mansion can only provide for one Imperial Guard, its role will be obvious.

Gao Yushi has always believed that Daming suppressed the military officials too much, but he alone cannot improve the status of the military officials. Only when the role of the military officials is gradually restored, their status will be improved accordingly.

Just imagine, when an imperial guard army capable of conscripting and fighting is supported by the five-army governor's mansion, can the five-army commander-in-chief's mansion still be regarded as a mere decoration?
Of course, the reform of the Five Armed Forces Governor's Mansion is only at this stage, and there will be corresponding changes in the frontier army in the future, but that is all in the future. Gao Yushi's current authority is limited to the Beijing camp, of course, it must be done first Let's talk about the work at hand.

The Jingying Production and Construction Corps began to cooperate with Jinghua in the mining of various minerals, and the money they earned began to be supplied to the Imperial Guards in accordance with the ratio agreed by Gao Wushi and Zhu Yingzhen earlier, and the Imperial Guards gradually stabilized. Recruit training began.

Two months later, at the end of the year, Qi Jiguang said in his report to Gao Yushi that the current Imperial Guard finally looks like an army.

The implication is not that the Praetorian Guards are already "worthy of a battle", but it should probably mean "can be watched".

This news made Gao Yushi somewhat gratified. After spending so much effort and stepping on a tightrope to carry out these reforms, they finally have some effect.He discussed with Qi Jiguang that since the issues of queue and discipline were basically settled, they should start combat training as soon as possible, so that the imperial guards could be pulled out to meet the battle when the final blow to the Tumen was launched in the future.

Qi Jiguang asked Gao Wushi, when did the imperial court plan to send troops to Tumen?He needs a relatively clear time before he can make targeted adjustments to the Imperial Guard's training plan.

But this question is too pragmatic to answer.

Gao Wushi smiled wryly and said: "Mr. Nantang, to tell the truth, the real trouble now is not in the strength of troops and combat power, but in when the household department can raise the money. "

Qi Jiguang frowned and asked: "I heard that Taicang is about to bottom out. If you expect the Ministry of Households to save enough money to go to war...it seems a bit difficult."

Gao Wushi sighed, nodded and said, "Who says it's not, but there's no way around it."

Qi Jiguang was a little surprised, and asked: "Young Sima turned stone into gold, but he said there is no way?"

"I'm actually..." Gao Wushi opened his mouth, shook his head again, and sighed: "After all, I'm an official of the Ministry of War, not the Ministry of Household Affairs. Besides, the biggest problem right now is the court's relief for civilian disasters." I started to pay attention, not only exempting from tax and reducing tax, but also transferring money at every turn, so that the pressure on the household department is quite high; the second is Lu Wang's side..."
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Thank you book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your support, thank you!
(End of this chapter)