Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 989 [Military Supervision]

The chaos in Ningxia is quite serious.

Bigger than Zhu Ming had imagined!
The rebels in Xuanzhou were defeated in at least one battle, and were basically wiped out after another half a month of cleaning.

In some places, things went too far.

The Quye River (Kuye River) and its tributaries Tumao River and Zhuolun River, which were included in Linzhou, Shaanxi, were all captured by Wang De last year. Due to the rapid speed of the capture, some forts simply surrendered directly, and the tribes here suffered fewer casualties, and were also led by Yao Pingzhong to attack Xiangyou Military Command.

Officials from both the military and political systems in Linzhou did not engage in corruption and embezzlement to the extreme.

But after that large area was placed under the jurisdiction of Linzhou, the middle and low-level officers, ordinary soldiers and government officials of Linzhou deliberately made things difficult for the original Xixia people, especially humiliating the big herdsmen and landowners in every possible way.

Although the higher-ups allocated relief grain, the people below blocked its distribution at every level.

The tribal chiefs came to collect food, but were mocked and teased. In the end, they had to crawl under their crotches before the food was given to them little by little, like squeezing out toothpaste.

The hatred accumulated over generations is too great to be resolved overnight.

The reason for blocking the food supply to those tribes was not for corruption or embezzlement, but simply to vent anger and seek revenge.

In order to prevent rebellion, the court did not move the civil and military officials here for the time being, and Yao Pingzhong remained in Linzhou to guard the area. He and Linzhou Governor Hu Xiang had heard about what was happening below, but they just gave a few casual scoldings.

If the management is too strict and people are not allowed to vent their anger, it will cause resentment among the officers, soldiers and subordinates.

If the higher-ups don't enforce strict discipline, the lower-ups will become even worse!
Coupled with earthquakes and droughts, all the tribes in the Sanchuan River Basin rebelled.

Yao Pingzhong dispatched troops to suppress the rebellion, but the tribes fled without a fight, crossing the border with their families to attack Xihe Prefecture.

Play off.

This is a big deal.

The thieves have crossed provinces!
The prefect and commander of Xihe Prefecture laughed their heads off when they heard about the situation. They didn't have to bear any responsibility and could even get credit for sending troops to quell the rebellion.

By the way, he also sent people to Linzhou to question Yao Pingzhong and warn Yao Pingzhong not to lead troops across the border.

Xihe Prefecture belongs to Ningxia, and Linzhou belongs to Shaanxi. Everyone is doing their own thing. Anyway, this is not a big bandit, so there is no need for cross-provincial joint operations. The soldiers of Xihe Prefecture can wipe out the rebels.

When Yao Pingzhong received the official document from Xihe Prefecture, he was so angry that he roared non-stop, but he could do nothing but station elite troops to guard the state border.

The garrison of Xihe Prefecture won the battle in one go and captured a large number of rebels, the elderly, the weak and livestock.

However, many main forces of the rebels still fled, and they fled westward to the Hangjin Banner grassland in later generations. After a series of connections and integration, several tribes on the grassland rebelled, and soon they raised an army of more than 10,000.

This place is under the jurisdiction of Shuofang Prefecture, but the Shuofang garrison is a bit far away.

The Xihe Prefecture garrison crossed the border to pursue the enemy and won another great victory.

The prefect and commander of Shuofang Prefecture were furious. They had already sent out troops, but the battle ended halfway through the journey, and they had not gained any military merit. They were so angry that they wrote letters to complain, saying that the friendly army had crossed the border without permission and did not even say hello.

Actually, it’s not finished.

A group of more than 2,000 remnants fled along the northern edge of the Maowusu Desert to the vicinity of Shengwei City in Dingyi Prefecture to plunder. They also linked up with the grassland tribes there, and the number of rebels once again climbed to more than 5,000, and they frantically massacred and robbed the farmers in the suburbs of Shengwei City.

In the end, the armies of Dingyi Prefecture, Shuofang Prefecture, and Xihe Prefecture joined forces to continuously reduce the space for the rebels to roam around, and finally wiped them out in Dijinze in the desert.

The Linzhou garrison that created this mess was never allowed to send troops across provinces from beginning to end - not only did it not gain any military merit, it was also jointly complained by friendly forces from three prefectures, which made Yao Pingzhong so angry that he retreated back to the provincial capital, incompetent and furious.

Although the rebels were suppressed, they swept through three prefectures and one state, causing huge economic and population losses.

……

Military and political meeting before the emperor.

Only one cabinet minister came, namely Zhang Tong, who was in charge of military affairs.

All senior officials from the Privy Council and the Ministry of War were summoned to attend the meeting.

Shi Yuangong described the specific situation expressionlessly: "The captured farmers and herdsmen of Linzhou all said that they were forced to rebel. A small general of Linzhou with a hundred men dared to whip the tribal chieftains at will when he led his troops out of the city for patrol, and forced those chieftains to kneel on the ground and bark like dogs. When the landowners and herdsmen went to collect the disaster relief grain, they had to crawl under the crotch of the grain escorting officers..."

Li Bao laughed after hearing this: "If I were to be humiliated like this, I would also rebel."

Everyone present had a relaxed expression.

Because Yao Pingzhong had no support in the court, and the Yao family had its roots in Hehuang, in the process of demilitarization, generals and soldiers were divided and reorganized. Now, Yao Gu, who served in the Privy Council, has passed away, and Yao Pingzhong has been transferred to three places of work in succession. He worked with Zhang Guangdao for several years and should have belonged to Zhang Guangdao's faction, but he was arrogant and often offended people, and even had a bad relationship with Zhang Guangdao.

This time, the generals of the three prefectures in the north of Ningxia jointly sued Yao Pingzhong and put all the blame on him. The fundamental reason was that Yao Pingzhong had no backing and did not handle the relationship with friendly forces well.

Pharmacist Guo secretly glanced at the emperor and suddenly felt that something was wrong today.

He is used to observing people's words and expressions, which is a life-saving skill he has developed after being in desperate situations for a long time.

Pharmacist Guo kept his head down and remained silent throughout the whole process. Long before the expedition to Western Xia, he was transferred back to the Privy Council and served as a small-time military figure with some real power.

Pharmacist Guo quite enjoys this kind of life.

It is best not to make trouble when you are old. And I still have some power in my hands. How comfortable it would be to spend my old age in Luoyang!
Zhu Ming had a blank expression on his face and said to Shi Yuangong: "Tell me about the permanent military supervision of the former Song Dynasty."

Shi Yuangong picked up another document and said, "The military supervisors of the former Song Dynasty were often appointed only during major wars. The military supervisors in normal times were erratic, issued multiple orders, and extremely chaotic."

"Initially, it was the road division officials and local governors who supervised and governed the local armies and generals. In other words, the civil officials controlled the military generals. Because there were too many problems, the Xifeng Reform was changed to the military law. The military officials were set up throughout the country, and the civil officials were no longer allowed to control the daily life. At this time, the chief general was in charge of training and commanding the troops, and the deputy general was in charge of dispatching and military law."

"Sima Guang overturned all the new laws, believing that civil and military duties overlapped, and wanted to abolish the military law. Although the former Song court did not agree, it did not completely disagree. After that, some prefectures and counties were dominated by military generals, some were dominated by civil officials, some were dominated by both civil and military officials, and some were dominated by neither."

"This is a compromise method that is not only inferior to letting the military generals make the decision, but even worse than letting the civil officials make the decision. There are too many orders, and military law is in chaos. Civil officials can manage it, and military generals can manage it, but in fact, neither civil officials nor military officials can manage it! An army has most of its soldiers deserted, and no one can be found to take responsibility. Because anyone can manage it, the civil officials push the responsibility onto the military generals, and the military generals push the responsibility onto the civil officials, and in the end the court can only let it go."

"At the end of the Song Dynasty, capable ministers and generals pointed out this problem, and the Song Dynasty court also ordered reforms. But the more they changed, the more chaos it caused!"

"First, the military generals were in charge, then the civilian officials, then the military generals were in charge, then the civilian officials were in charge again... It was repeated over and over again, with no consensus. It was nothing more than that, if the civilian officials were not good at managing, the military generals would be replaced. If the military generals were not good at managing, all of them would be replaced by civilian officials. Sometimes the system was changed every five or six years, sometimes every ten years or more. With so many changes, military law was completely corrupted."

Everyone treated this as a joke because the military law of the former Song Dynasty was indeed ridiculous.

There were also a few people who secretly looked at the emperor and really couldn't laugh.

Zhu Ming knocked on the conference table: "The soldiers stationed in Linzhou humiliated and bullied the people at will, but no one reported it. What is the military judge doing?"

Everyone stopped smiling, realizing that the emperor was not only angry, but also wanted to take action against the military justice system.

Zhu Ming said: "In the Han Dynasty, the army had military chiefs and military supervisors. Military chiefs were military judges directly under the imperial court, and military supervisors were military judges in various units. They formed a complete system of military supervision and military law. There is a record in the Book of Han that military chiefs were not under the jurisdiction of generals. If a general was guilty, he would report it, and those below the rank of 2,000 stone could be executed directly!"

When these words were spoken, even Guo Yaoshi and Yelu Yudu, who had been paddling the entire time, were so frightened that they quickly sat up straight.

Could it be possible that the military chief of the Han Dynasty could directly prosecute military generals with a rank below 2,000 stones?
Zhang Guangdao said quickly: "Your Majesty, this cannot be done. If you do this, the army will be in chaos!"

"Minister Zhang is right." Everyone quickly agreed.

Zhu Ming smiled and said, "Although this law existed in the Han Dynasty, no military commander ever dared to do so. At that time, the two thousand stone officials were at the level of provincial governors and state governors, and each of them had a family to back them up. Which military commander would dare to execute people at random? They would just report to the court."

The military officers couldn't laugh.

In the Han Dynasty, there was not much distinction between civil and military officials, and people also had families as support.

If a civil official were to be the military chief today, he would dare to execute military generals directly.

Zhu Ming said: "I want to set up a Military Supervisory Office in the Supervisory Office, and transfer some of the powers of the Ministry of War and the Privy Council to the Military Supervisory Office. Of course, I don't want to take away the power to promote, demote, reward or punish soldiers, but only to deal with criminal acts in the army. The Supervisory Office will set up a Military Supervisory Office, and then set up Military Supervisory Offices in each ministry."

To put it bluntly, it means establishing a complete vertically managed military court system.

All criminal cases against soldiers were handed over to military courts for trial. Military chiefs and military supervisors did not interfere in the daily affairs of the army, but only dealt with the criminal acts of generals and soldiers.

The central military attachés looked at each other, and no one dared to say no.

Because the emperor raised this matter not out of randomness, but for a reason.

The current military justice system does have problems. Commanders and military judges have been working together for a long time and have become colleagues. They see each other every day and turn a blind eye to many things.

A military court system must be established, and it cannot be affiliated with the Ministry of War and the Privy Council.

Before setting out to attack Western Xia, Zhu Ming planned to set up a military supervisor.

There are a lot of things happening in Ningxia right now, so it is a good opportunity to implement the military supervision system.

It absorbs the advantages of the military supervision system of the Han and Tang dynasties, eliminates the defects of the military supervision system of previous dynasties, and also combines the modern military court system.

It is easy to deal with a few civil officials and military generals, but for an emperor, it is more difficult to establish a set of long-term and feasible institutional norms.

(End of this chapter)