The new era of chaos begins in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 452 Withholding rewards?

The rebel leaders did not have many choices. Their secret meeting only reached an unstable consensus, which was to continue to be loyal to the Song Dynasty.

However, it is not easy to do this, because as the leader of the rebel army, the most difficult thing is how to appease the restless lower-level soldiers.

This is not to say that low-level soldiers are difficult to bribe. In fact, it is very simple to win over these people's hearts. All you have to do is distribute land to them like Chen Shen did.

Although this method is simple, it cannot be implemented in the Song Dynasty.

Because the land policy of the Song Dynasty was indeed somewhat strange compared with other dynasties.

The Song Dynasty did not suppress land annexation, but implemented free land purchase and sale and annexation. The state no longer interfered with the development of private land ownership and adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards the free land purchase and sale and annexation.

Many people in later generations said that the Song Dynasty implemented such a land policy because its commerce was extremely developed and the court's tax revenue was less dependent on land, which was a reflection of the more advanced social development.

In fact, these people have the cause and effect reversed.

It was not that the Song Dynasty's commerce was developed so that land annexation was not suppressed, but that the Song Dynasty court was unable to control land annexation and had to turn to developing commerce, which led to the prosperity of Song Dynasty's commerce.

The root of all this lies in the problematic way the Northern Song Dynasty was founded.

Song Taizu usurped the throne through a military coup and then established his regime. Unlike those dynasty founders who started from scratch (such as Emperor Gaozu of Han, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Emperor Taizu of Ming, etc.), he did not acquire a large amount of unowned land as spoils in the process of establishing his regime, because most of the landowners at that time were supporters of Song Taizu.

Later, when Emperor Taizu of Song led his army to attack Southern Tang and Western Shu, he was too concerned about the powerful enemies in the north and did not confiscate the land ownership of the defeated countries on a large scale for redistribution, so as to avoid causing excessive social unrest and giving the powerful enemies in the north an opportunity to take advantage.

Basically, as long as the landlords in the south of the Yangtze River could pay taxes to Emperor Taizu of Song on time and in full as military funds, Emperor Taizu of Song would tolerate them owning large amounts of land without disturbing them.

The only time the Northern Song Dynasty acquired a large amount of unowned land as spoils of war was when it attacked the Northern Han Dynasty. Unfortunately, the Gaoliang River God of Cars later did a "big drift" and directly threw away the "cake" that had just been made.

To put it bluntly, the Song Dynasty regime was only the nominal ruler of this land and did not have actual ownership of the domestic fields. It was therefore impossible to distribute permanent fields (public fields) to the people and soldiers like the Han and Tang dynasties.

Moreover, since the early Northern Song Dynasty was constantly threatened by its powerful northern neighbor, the Liao Kingdom, successive officials did not dare to carry out in-depth land reforms. After all, Wang Mang in history had shown everyone what a "great magician from the sky" meant.

Therefore, the reason why the Song Dynasty did not suppress land annexation was not because the rulers and ministers of the Song Dynasty did not want to suppress land annexation, but because they could not suppress it.

It’s like, one million dollars belongs to someone else. As a bystander, how would you manage and spend this one million?

I'm afraid the only way is to steal? To rob? To cheat?

Back to the point, the Song court could not provide land for the rebels to distribute, and at most it could distribute some property as rewards, but this could not suppress the thoughts of the lower-level rebels.

What? You said you wanted to give Qingtang's land as a reward?
How dare you! Commissioner Smith and his men haven't even had enough to eat yet, and you, a soldier, want to eat something?! You are just daydreaming!

However, the officials of the Song Dynasty have extremely rich experience in how to deal with such rebellious armies.

To sum it up: divide and conquer, kill the chicken to scare the monkey, and reward one to warn a hundred.

This strategy of hitting someone with a stick and then giving them a sweet reward may seem simple, but it is surprisingly effective against those short-sighted lower-class people.

Of course, the same trick can produce very different results when used by different people.

On the third day, Wang Hou, the commander of the Weizhou militia, and Tong Guan, the military governor of Wukang, came together to the camp where the rebels were stationed.

He and others set out their ceremonial guards with great majesty. As soon as I arrived, I ordered Wang Huan, the vanguard of the rebel army's western expedition, to quickly beat the drum and go up to the tent to call the generals and gather the troops.

Soon, all the generals gathered in the parade ground and formed into battle array. Wang Hou checked the military records one by one and reiterated the military rules.

Then Tong Guan stood in front of the parade ground, holding a jute scroll in both hands, and read out the imperial edict.

The decree said: "I have heard that I praise those with virtue and reward those with great talents. Now there are talented people like Wang Huan, Han Cunbao, Xu Jing, Jing Zhong, etc. Although they were born in rebellious families, they are loyal and righteous. They obeyed the imperial edict to fight against the barbarians, endured a lot of hardships, repeatedly made meritorious deeds, and were praised for their meritorious deeds... Alas! All of you ministers should be more loyal and meritorious, use them to ensure the safety of the country, and reward meritorious deeds according to the laws and regulations. I admire you!"

Later, Wang Hou read out the commendation document from the Privy Council, and gave wine, meat and money to reward the troops and held a grand feast for the soldiers.

Next, the generals set up a banquet in the central army tent to entertain their superiors. The wine was the imperial wine bestowed by the emperor, but the dishes were prepared by the chef brought by Tong Guan.

However, the distribution of wine, meat and reward money in the army was the responsibility of the corresponding officers and clerks. It was originally planned that each soldier would receive a jar of fine wine, half a lamb rib, and one string of money as reward.

Of course, the so-called fine wine is just ordinary official rice wine, but it is considered a precious item in the northwest.

As for lamb ribs, since the army captured a large number of cattle and sheep during the attack on Qingtang, lamb meat was consumed quite frequently in the army, and lamb ribs were considered the least valuable of the rewards.

When the soldiers received the reward money for the wine and meat, they found that there was only half of the yellow wine in the jar, only two-thirds of the lamb rib, and only one hundred small coins in the reward money.

In the Song Dynasty, it was customary to measure currency. One string of coins was equivalent to one thousand wen, and one ordinary string of coins was equivalent to about six hundred wen. Five strings of coins made up one string, so one string of coins was only equivalent to one hundred and twenty wen.

It can be said that the deduction of the soldiers' rewards was so severe that it was not just a "cruel" thing to describe it.

Of course, the lower-level soldiers were unwilling to suffer any loss.

Before long, some dissatisfied soldiers began to argue with the clerks who were distributing wine, meat and reward money.

Unexpectedly, those corrupt officials were so arrogant and rude that they kept cursing the soldiers, saying, "You are just bandits who can't be killed or beheaded, and you haven't changed your rebellious nature."

The officers and soldiers were so angry that they wanted to kill these corrupt officials.

These soldiers are sharp warriors who have emerged from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield. They are filled with murderous aura, and when they are formed into a battle formation, their murderous aura is so strong that it can frighten ghosts and gods.

How could those officials and clerks withstand such a terrifying mental shock? Just a little bit of the momentum made their hands and feet go limp, their whole bodies were cold, and they dared not say a word.

Some junior officers came forward and knocked all the officials to the ground. Then they gave rewards on their behalf. Everyone had enough wine and meat, and the reward money was enough to pay a thousand coins.

Soon the wine, meat, money and other items used as rewards were distributed, but not all the soldiers were satisfied, and most of the soldiers still did not receive any rewards.

It is obvious that Wang Hou, Tong Guan and others did not bring enough rewards.

I just don’t know whether these two big guys are aware of the problem.

The soldiers were not stupid, especially some of them who were good at scheming. They thought their superiors were unaware of the true situation, so they ordered their men to tie up the clerks and escort them to the main tent, where they sent someone to report the situation to the inside.

In the big tent, Wang Hou, Tong Guan and other leaders of the rebel army were feasting and chatting.

Among them, Tong Guan was the most respected, Wang Hou was the next in line, and the other leaders of the rebel army sat in front of their respective tables in turn. Some were flattering, some were drinking, and some were eating.

When the imperial guards entered the tent to report the outside situation to Wang Hou, Wang Hou looked at Tong Guan and shouted coldly: "Wang Huan! Jing Zhong! The soldiers outside the tent have changed unexpectedly. Are you planning to rebel?"

(End of this chapter)