Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1697 Cutting Yuan (May [-]) Civil and Military
It is obviously not easy to convince Li Rusong.

Li Rusong, at best, is self-respecting and self-confident, at worst, he is arrogant.In a civil society, as a general, he has to sit on an equal footing with civil officials all day long. This seems to be a kind of self-confidence, but in fact it is essentially death.

Politics is not war and is just as dangerous as war.On this battlefield, the person who decides the outcome is usually the emperor, and the emperor's ruling is generally predictable, because even though the emperor has the highest ruling power on the surface, he is still on the battlefield of political struggle.

This is easy to understand. If the emperor himself was not involved in political struggles, why did Zhu Yijun come to fight the cold war with the civil official group in the original history because he had not been in court for nearly 30 years?

Since the emperor himself was actually in the midst of political struggle and could not escape it, all his actions must conform to some basic laws.For example, he will also be affected by the forces of all parties, to balance the interests of all parties, to ensure the stability of the imperial power, and so on.

This leads to a question: Does the current emperor need a group of civil servants or a group of generals?

Sorry, first of all, this question itself has a problem: Do generals still have groups?

It seems that there are, but the military generals who can lead troops out to fight in the true sense are not the so-called "groups".The military officials system of the Ming Dynasty has only one nominal group, which is the Wuchen Xungui Group—unfortunately, the function of this group has degenerated from leading troops and fighting to the level of almost only supporting the emperor's political endorsement.

In addition, the generals who really guard the Nine Borders and all over the country, no matter what level they are in, are hardly worthy of the word "group", because the foundation that supports them to become a political group has long been completely destroyed by the civilian group.At present, they are fragmented and fighting on their own, and they have already fallen into a political ecology where they can only rely on powerful civil servants to survive.

What is the basis for them to become a "group" in the past?It is a kind of independence, a kind of independence relative to civil servants.

To put it simply, the military commanders have a certain degree of independence when the Five Armies Commander’s Mansion still has actual power; It will fall, fall, and fall again, until all military generals become the "little so-and-so" of the civil servants.

In the 16th year of the Yuan Dynasty to Zhengzheng, after Zhu Yuanzhang led his army to capture Jiqing, he set up the Privy Council with reference to the military leadership system of the Yuan Dynasty to command the soldiers under his command.With the increase of strength, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Marshal's Mansion in Jiqing, and Marshal Yi's Mansion in various important areas to take charge of the soldiers in various places.

"Taizu went down to Jiqing, that is, he set up the Privy Council and took it by himself. He also set up the Marshal's Mansion of the Wing Commander."

In the 21st year of Zhizheng, after Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youliang in the Battle of Longwan, he abolished the Privy Council and established the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, with his nephew Zhu Wenzheng as the Metropolitan Governor to command the soldiers under his command.

"Abolish the Privy Council and re-establish the Metropolitan Governor's Office. Zhu Wenzheng will be the Metropolitan Governor to control all military affairs at home and abroad, and set up officials such as Sima, Joining the Army, Experience, and Metropolitan Affairs."

In the 23rd year of Zhizheng, Zhu Wenzheng, who made great contributions in the Battle of Hongdu, conspired to launch a rebellion because he was dissatisfied with Zhu Yuanzhang's lack of reward for his meritorious service. Therefore, he added left and right governors in the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.

After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, military power was concentrated in the hands of a few generals in the Metropolitan Government, which obviously ran counter to Zhu Yuanzhang's idea of ​​strengthening imperial power, so decentralization of the Metropolitan Government became his inevitable choice.

Therefore, in the 13th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang divided the governor's mansion into the five governor's mansions of the Central Army, the Left Army, the Right Army, the Front Army, and the Rear Army.In this way, the Dudufu of the Five Armies inherited the highest military command of the Dudufu, and was in charge of all the guards except the twelve guards of the pro-army, but lost the power to deploy troops.

Even so, from the 13th year of Hongwu to the 14th year of Zhengtong, the Dudufu of the Five Armies still had a lot of power. in charge.In addition, major military actions related to the safety of the country need to be discussed by the emperor and the governors of the five armies.

What does the great power of the Dudufu of the Five Armies mean to the civilian group?Of course, it means that the status of the military department controlled by civilian officials is low.At that time, not only the Ministry of War was not allowed to participate in the negotiation of major military operations, but even the Ministry of War was not allowed to intervene in the affairs of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies.In this way, the Ministry of War is actually equivalent to the information transmission agency for the emperor to issue troops to the governor's office of the five armies.

"Outsiders are not allowed to hear about the ancestral five-army governor's mansion, but the palm seal of the governor's book. Kuang Ye, the former minister of the Ministry of War, asked Gongshun Hou Wu for the roster to check. Wu heard about it as usual, and Kuang thanked him in fear."

However, with Xuanzong's sudden death in the first month of the tenth year of Xuande, the Sanyang cabinet took advantage of Yingzong's young age to help Wang Ji, Minister of the Ministry of War, to the position of commander of the Ming army in the Luchuan Battle. To the real military command.

Under the leadership of Wang Ji, the Ming army determined the victory of the Battle of Luchuan three times in succession, and the civil servants of the Ministry of War, who had always been elegant and elegant, fully demonstrated their ability to control the war.However, there are a large number of generals with outstanding military exploits and titles sitting in the governor's mansion of the five armies, and the rise of the military department's status is still full of obstacles.

Under such circumstances, the occurrence of the civil fort change provided an excellent opportunity for the rise of the Ministry of War.

During the Tumubao Incident, Yingzong was captured, and more than half of the 20 Ming troops that participated in the war lost more than half. Bo Lizhen and others, as well as the new forces carefully trained by them, all died in battle.

On the other hand, in the ensuing battle to defend the capital, Yu Qian, Minister of the Ministry of War, turned the tide almost by himself, which left an impression in the hearts of the world that he had to rely on civil servants at critical moments.Therefore, after Emperor Jingtai ascended the throne, Yu Qian was the admiral of the Beijing camp, and the status of the Ministry of War began to rise rapidly, while the power of the Dudufu of the Five Armies began to gradually weaken.

During the Jingtai period, Zhu Qiyu would discuss with Yu Qian whenever there was a major military operation, and the selection and replacement of the generals of the guards and the training of the soldiers of the guards were all brought back to the Ministry of War. And Tuntian, etc., the status of the Ministry of War has risen.

After the restoration of Yingzong, although the Ministry of War was suppressed by abolishing the regiment camp set up by Yu Qian and recalling civil servants from all over the world, as Shi Heng was punished for plotting wrongdoing, Daming finally completely shifted from emphasizing both civil and military affairs to emphasizing civil and military affairs.

During the Chenghua and Hongzhi years, even the power to manage military household registration was taken back to the Ministry of War. The Dudufu of the Five Armies was completely reduced to a department in name only. The official gift, name.

"Anyone who is in Beijing and has a military position outside of the country will submit it to the government, and then send it to the Ministry of War to make a decision. Afterwards, it will be transferred to the Ministry of War."

It's not that the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies and even the emperor himself didn't think about struggling.For example, during the Zhengde period, Wu Zong suppressed the position of the Ministry of War by favoring the military general Jiang Bin and setting up two official offices, but... Wu Zong died immediately.Whether he was "death" or not, posterity has been unable to prove, in short, the result is: all efforts were in vain.

In this way, in the Jiajing period, the only remaining power to manage military households and farmland in the Dudufu of the Five Armies was also taken back to the household department, and the Dudufu of the Five Armies became a dispensable department completely. It has also completely become the honorary title of a general.From then on, in all battles, military generals were controlled by governors or governors with the title of the Ministry of War. Of course, strategists like Gao Wushi and supervisors who appeared later would be even better.

"There are many generals and soldiers in the world, and they are all suitable for granting, moving, and conquering. In the 13th year, the governor's office of the capital was divided into the governor's office of the five armies. If you think that the rank is the same as before, the Ministry of War will be transferred. , and their powers are gradually divided. The so-called five governors are nothing more than guarding empty names and imaginary numbers."

From a high-practical point of view, the decline of the five-army governor's mansion is inevitable. Even if he looks at it from the standpoint of future generations, this decline itself is inevitable, and it is nothing more than a matter of time.

The dynasties after the Qin and Han Dynasties did not strictly divide military generals and civil servants. The rulers actually valued ministers both civil and military.Under such circumstances, there would have been no problems with the weakening of the power of the Dudufu of the Five Armies and the rise of the Ministry of War in the Ming Dynasty.

After the Song Dynasty, in order to prevent the emergence of separatist regimes in feudal towns, there was a clear division of civil servants and military commanders.However, civil servants view war more from a political point of view, while military commanders view war more from a military point of view.However, under the transformation of civil officials in the Song Dynasty, the training of generals only emphasized martial courage and despised strategy.

It is precisely because of this situation that the weakening of the power of the Dudufu of the Five Armies in the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the status of the Ministry of War will cause problems.

Like Song Dynasty civil servants who looked at war from a political point of view, when Ming Dynasty civil officials commanded military generals to fight, an embarrassing phenomenon often appeared: military generals leading troops into battle quickly would be accused by civil officials of underestimating the enemy and being brave and bloodthirsty; generals chose to wait If there is a favorable opportunity to go to war again, the civil servants will accuse them of fearing the enemy and avoiding war, and supporting the bandits to protect themselves.

In this way, the military commander has completely become the court's war machine, completely losing the initiative in the war.And if the civil servants in charge of the generals have good military qualities, it's okay to say, once the civil servants are in command like Yang Gao, what awaits the Ming army can only be a disastrous defeat like Sarhu.

Worst of all, in the original history when there was no traverser named Gao Pragmatism, in order to prevent the power of generals from rising, the civil servants also rejected all suggestions that would help improve the status of generals—even though the starting point of these suggestions was actually to improve the combat effectiveness of the army .

For example, during the Long and Wan periods, both Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou proposed a plan to train the Ming army, but most of the proposals were rejected by the civil officials (a small part of the measures that cured the symptoms but not the root cause were retained, such as Qi Jiguang's training of soldiers from various towns in Jizhen in rotation) Many years), Ming thus missed the last good opportunity to improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

Of course, what's more serious is that the weakening of the power of the five-army governor's office and the rise of the Ministry of War have created a new problem: civilian officials despise generals, and generals treat civil officials in a positive way.In this case, it became inevitable for civil servants and generals to separate themselves during the war. Coupled with the terrible financial system of the Ming Dynasty, the result was that fiascos like the Songjin War continued to be staged in the late Ming army.

It was precisely because of the weakening of the power of the Dudufu of the Five Armies and the rise of the Ministry of War that the country's military situation was determined by the military quality of the main leading civilian officials in the late Ming Dynasty.When civil officials with high military literacy such as Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou, and Sun Chuanting were present, the military situation in the late Ming Dynasty seemed to be very good. Then perish.

Of course, the reason for the demise was not just the loss of civil servants capable of fighting. Gao Yushi always insisted that financial problems were the primary reason, just like the truth recognized by later generations: war is the continuation of politics, and economy is the root of politics.

If a country's economy is rotten, its politics must be in a mess, so the war must be "unbearable".And if the economy is strong, even if the country has major problems in war decision-making and war command, at worst it is nothing more than an international laughing stock war like the Boer War with Britain-although the scene is extremely ugly, it can still succeed in the end. won.

This can't be compared with "My Great Qing" against the great powers in almost every battle. It is said that the total economic volume of the Qing Dynasty is clearly superior, so why do they still lose?

The reason for this incomparability is that the "economy" mentioned above does not only refer to the total amount, but also refers to the advanced degree of economic structure, the transformation and utilization rate of economic capacity and so on.Otherwise, there is no need to talk about the late Qing Dynasty. The economic aggregate of the Ming Dynasty at the end of the Ming Dynasty was also the same as that of building slaves, right?
Long story short, let's get down to business.In short, although national force is the necessary basis for the existence of any country, civilian government is an inevitable historical development, otherwise there will only be chaos, and it will only lead to disasters both externally and internally.The ancients understood this truth a long time ago: no matter how big a country is, it will perish if it is warlike;

Therefore, there is no problem in essence that the power of the civil official group is greater than that of the generals group. Li Rusong's forced demand to be on an equal footing with civil officials is problematic.However, it must be problematic for civil officials not to treat military generals as human beings directly. The justification of the suppression of power does not mean that the suppression of personality is also justified.

The problem Gao Wuzhen is facing now is that he must ensure the strong suppression of Li Rusong in terms of power, and not make Li Rusong feel insulted in terms of personality. This is a test of skill.

As for why this is important?Of course it was because Gao Yushi wanted to use this incident to set a rule and a benchmark for Daming's civil and military struggle.

People in later generations often say that "first-class companies sell standards", but Gao Wuzhen now believes that "first-class ministers set rules".

A memorial written by Gao Wushi himself was sent out that afternoon and headed for the capital.The name of this memorial is "Inscription on Victory in the Battle of Lightning Lake and Essay on Wu's Ascension to the Country", and later generations will call it "Essay on Wu Shu".
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Thanks to the book friends "Single Riding Zhao Bixin" and "Cao Mianzi" for their support, thank you!
Thank you for the monthly ticket support of the book friend "Cao Mianzi" and the 10 monthly ticket support of "Shan Qi Zhao Bi Xin", thank you!

PS: In the previous chapters, [-] is called [-], [-] is called [-], and [-] is called 卌. I know this.I wrote a chapter today, and suddenly I was stunned, thinking what is fifty?Then I checked it, and it seems that fifty is called "Xu", but I checked the word "Xi" separately but did not say that it has the meaning of fifty. After thinking about it... I didn't dare to use it indiscriminately.If any reader friends know, please leave a message to give pointers, thank you.

(End of this chapter)