People in the Song Dynasty were lawless

Chapter 279 Check them out

In Gyeongbokgung Palace, Zhao Jun squinted at the many generals and nobles with faces as cold as frost.

Zhao Zhen's face was also very ugly.

They thought they could easily impress the generals by offering them such generous terms.

Unexpectedly, they refused, and almost most of them remained silent.

What does this mean?

It shows that the general Xungui does not accept the conditions of the court.

Why is this happening?

What went wrong?

Zhao Jun couldn't understand.

If he were in this position, he would have no military power and no real power. It’s not like the court didn’t care about them, so why couldn’t they accept it?

There's something going on here.

Zhao Jun is not an impulsive young man who just left school. He has already had a city.

Therefore, when faced with such a thing, he was not too impatient. His eyes wandered among the crowd for a while. When he saw that everyone did not dare to look at each other, he burst into laughter.

"Hahahahaha."

He smiled and said: "You have misunderstood. This matter is actually just to say hello to everyone. The disarmament itself is not a matter of one or two days. The imperial court hopes to discuss things with everyone and come up with a charter. It is not It’s about to be done.”

After saying that, he returned to his seat, waved his hands and said: "Everyone, sit down and have a good meal and drink. This matter will be put on hold for now. If you have any suggestions, the court will naturally adopt them humbly."

"Zhiyuan."

Shi Shouxin's grandson, Shi Yuansun, was afraid that Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun would be angry, so he quickly added: "We have not obstructed the imperial reform. We have heard of the three redundant matters, but this matter is related to the security of the Song Dynasty. The Liao Kingdom is surrounded by Xixia, and if you are not careful, it will overturn, so you should be cautious."

"Yes, it's not that we care about our livelihood. The imperial court has already found a good way for us, so we still oppose it because we are disrespectful. However, we are afraid that the hasty disarmament will cause turmoil in the army. The Liao Kingdom and Xixia took advantage of the opportunity and moved in. I’m afraid it’s not good.”

"Yes, I also think it's better to be cautious. We can't rush the disarmament. We should reduce the number a little every year and make arrangements. Only in this way can the soldiers feel at ease."

"Of course we know that Your Majesty and the Governor want to get rid of the evil, but the road must be taken step by step, and the meal must be eaten one bite at a time. Don't be careless."

Everyone tried to persuade him.

Zhao Jun forced a smile and responded one by one.

The banquet ended quickly in this slightly embarrassing atmosphere.

In the afternoon, many generals and nobles said their goodbyes and left. Only Zhao Jun and Zhao Zhen were left in the palace with big eyes and small eyes.

Neither of them spoke. After a while, Zhao Zhen proposed to go to Chongzheng Hall for a meeting and chat with everyone. Zhao Jun then agreed and went to Chongzheng Hall with Zhao Zhen.

Their daily routine is actually like this. They make morning pilgrimage every morning. The morning pilgrimage does not talk about national affairs, but the current situation of the country.

For example, the progress of the river repair project formulated by the Constitutional Yuan, how many cases have been handled by Dali Temple, the Criminal Court and the Police Department this month, what expenditures and inputs have been made by the Ministry of Finance in the past few days, where the Ministry of Industry has planned a water canal, and the natural resources Where did the ministry discover new mines and so on.

Basically, the morning meeting is a large work reporting meeting.

In the morning, the Constitutional Yuan will hold a regular meeting to discuss national affairs and developments, and formulate policies for the various departments below to handle. Then it is to review the reports from various departments, and if any problems are found, adjustments and modifications must be made in a timely manner.

There will be a short break at noon, and the meeting will continue in the Chongzheng Hall in the afternoon. The content of this meeting is much more relaxed. We can talk about anything, including national affairs, family affairs, and joking with each other.

After all, the Chongzhengdian meeting belongs to the internal staff. They all know the details of Zhao Jun, so they can unify their thoughts. Even if there are some small thoughts, they can still be solved at the meeting.

It was almost time for the afternoon meeting. Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun went to Chongzheng Hall first, and then asked Wang Shouzhong to notify the prime ministers.

In mid-January, the weather was still a bit cold, and the north wind was blowing. Several old men wore large cotton-padded jackets and entered the house.

"Official!"

Everyone saluted Zhao Zhen, and then Zhao Zhen asked them to sit down.

After sitting down, Fan Zhongyan saw that Zhao Jun's face was not very good-looking and wondered: "Hanlong, what's wrong?"

"Old Wang."

Zhao Jun did not answer Fan Zhongyan, but asked Wang Zengdao: "You said before that their quota was a bit large, how big is it?"

"do not know."

Wang Zeng shook his head: "I have only vaguely heard of it. Who dares to interfere in matters in the army?"

Zhao Jun had no choice but to look at Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen spread his hands and said: "Don't look at me. Although I control the military power, I only have the power to mobilize troops. The following matters are mainly handled by the Privy Council and the Sanyamen, so I am blind."

To sum up, the relationship between the Privy Council and the three yamen is that the privy council has the power to send troops, but not the power to command them; the three yamen have the power to command troops, but they have no power to send troops.

The front division of the palace is in charge of the names of the squads, infantry and cavalry commanders in front of the palace. The guards and infantry divisions are in charge of the names of the cavalry and infantry commanders. He is also responsible for the management, training, defense, promotion, rewards and punishments of his subordinate armies.

This also means that the three Yamen control the daily operations of the army, including the issuance of military pay, ordnance, military training, promotion, etc., and the main operating personnel of the Three Yamen are these generals and nobles.

Zhao Jun thought that these people were just greedy, but it was not a big deal, as long as they offered enough benefits, he didn't expect them to refuse.

Obviously this is more than just corruption.

"Today, the officials and I discussed the redundancy of the army with the generals and nobles with full sincerity. Unexpectedly, not many of them agreed. It really puzzles me."

Zhao Jun looked around at the crowd and said, "I thought about it and felt that there are only two situations that could lead to this happening."

"Which two situations?"

Yan Shu asked.

I'm not stupid here, and I can actually vaguely guess it, but of course I have to tell Zhao Jun.

"First, they made more money from the redundant army than we thought. It completely exceeded the profit given to them by the court, so they did not agree."

Zhao Jun raised two fingers: "Second, these guys have probably done a lot of illegal things. Once there is a large-scale disarmament, they will definitely check the situation from top to bottom. If the things are revealed, they will probably confiscate their homes and exterminate their families." That’s why I wanted to cover it.”

"What I'm most afraid of is having both."

Yan Shu frowned and said: "I have also heard that there are many dirty things about Jiangmen, but it has gradually become less and less since the late emperor's dynasty, but no one knows the specific situation. They only manage their own three-acre land, and no one knows about it. I can’t get in."

Lu Yijian also said: "Every year military expenditures are considerable. In the past, the imperial court recruited surrenders and rebels, and included rebels from various places into the Forbidden Army and Xiang Army. They would register them, which caused the number of Forbidden Army to increase dramatically in decades. Since the Taizu period, There are 125 people, and so far, the number of registered people has reached 9."

"I remember historically there were more, 141 million at the peak."

Zhao Jun spoke.

"First of all, these people don't know how to keep track of them, and secondly, there are a lot of deserters. A few years ago, the Nan'an Army reported that there were 374 people in a battalion of 500 who escaped."

Lu Yijian continued: "This phenomenon is very common across the country, but the number of troops has not decreased, but has increased day by day. Since the Guangtian Jubilee Year, the number of forbidden troops has increased by more than 400,000."

"All the rough and treacherous people in the world will be accepted as members." Song Shou said.

Although there were many deserters, there were also many criminals and landless peasants, so during the Song Renzong period, these people were all put into the army. For example, Di Qing was a criminal who was admitted to the army for fighting.

"So we are running away while registering. In addition, the previous soldiers will die of old age, die in battle, and there are also factors such as poor supervision, resulting in serious vacancies."

Zhao Jun frowned and said: "No wonder Li Gang, the famous general during the Huizong period of the Song Dynasty, said: One-third of the shortage is not filled by recruitment. If we count this, then there is no need to disarm. It is estimated that the total number of soldiers in the country is probably only eight or nine. One hundred thousand, this damn person has to eat three or four hundred thousand people on empty wages."

I originally thought that I would be able to earn about ten or two hundred thousand yuan on empty wages, but I didn't know that I would use my noble family as a treasure from the imperial court. He deceived his superiors, deceived his subordinates, ate a lot of free money, and drank so much soldiers' blood. He probably wanted to continue to plunder the imperial court like this.

After all, it is definitely risky to do business outside, and the court requires them to invest in shares. If the projects contracted by the state are not completed well, they will be punished. In maritime trade, if there is a storm at sea, wouldn’t the investment be in vain?

It is estimated that they also hope to get the best amount of money every year, or even just take more and occupy more. Who would want to give away the money they have earned?

Zhao Jun obviously didn't know the seriousness of the problem yet, and simply thought that the generals and nobles were too greedy.

But he couldn't say anything.

Again, he will bear all the sins Zhao Kuangyin did.

"Dasun, do you have any ideas?"

Zhao Zhen asked.

"Any ideas? Let's check the vacancy situation first."

Zhao Jun smiled bitterly and said: "The thunder laid by Taizu, our ancestors and grandchildren will step on it, what can we do?"

"What are you going to do?"

Fan Zhongyan asked.

"First transfer back all the generals' sons who are currently serving in the army, and then transfer the relevant personnel involved and the main generals, and send the imperial censors and officials to each camp to slowly conduct a population census."

Zhao Jun looked at him and said: "I have to trouble you about this matter, Lao Fan. You have prestige in the army. You can carry out this matter."

"Ah."

Fan Zhongyan nodded.

"Besides these."

Zhao Jun suddenly looked at Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and the others, and thought: "The military system is also going to change."

Zhao Zhen opened his eyes wide and said, "Dasun, do you want to change the military system?"

"Ah."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "It will be beneficial to you, brother, and the civil servants will also help."

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen said quickly: "Tell me quickly."

King Lu Yijian and others heard that the civil servants would also support it, and they were puzzled for a while and wanted to see what Zhao Jun had to say.

Zhao Jun said: "The reason why warlords are prone to appear in the army is because administrative orders such as management, training, garrison, promotion, rewards and punishments all come from generals. In order to change this situation, the Song Dynasty established the Three Yamen to keep generals away from the army. To prevent the birth of warlords.”

"But this is obviously overkill. If generals do not participate in daily training and military discipline management, military discipline will only become more corrupt and training will be ineffective. When the enemy comes, if you fight with such a group of soldiers, you will definitely lose."

He continued: "So we can change it so that generals participate in daily management and training. Pay, promotion, rewards and punishments are completed by other departments, such as the Ministry of War."

"Currently, the Ministry of War still has not done its job well. The Privy Council is responsible for the transfer of the army, and the rest of the activities of the army are managed by the three yamen. The Ministry of War has no other role except to look at the warehouse and manage the military registration. Let's do something. Take the fire out of the cauldron!”

Pulling fire under the cauldron?

Everyone looked at each other. They were all old foxes, so they naturally knew what he meant.

"Do you plan to return the power to the Ministry of War?"

Someone said in surprise.

"Ah."

Zhao Jun said in a deep voice: "Let the three yamen be completely turned into decorations, so that the Privy Council and the Ministry of War will check and balance. Although the military power will be handed over to the generals, logistics, troop dispatch, commander-in-chief, rewards and punishments, etc. will all be in the hands of the emperor and civilian officials. This is achieved by The Song Dynasty had a unique tradition of civilian officials restraining military generals."

"In addition, the military police must be established. This force only belongs to the Constitutional Yuan and the emperor. The military police are stationed together with the army, but they are independent. The chief and the soldier chief of the headquarters are at the same level, restraining and supervising each other."

"From now on, soldier discipline, soldier training, rewards and punishments, promotions and compensations will all be recorded by the military police and uniformly reported to superiors, and will no longer be under the jurisdiction of the three yamen."

"In this way, we will completely sideline the three government agencies and force them to beg us!"

At the end, Zhao Jun said forcefully: "I am not suppressing the army, but reforming the military system step by step. The same is true for the modern army. Multiple supervision and multiple jurisdictions are to prevent the army from mutiny. Especially in the age of firearms, once firearms If it spreads, it may cause serious consequences, so system changes must always be followed up."

"Well"

Zhao Zhen thought for a while, and it seemed that this really had no impact on him.

The military power is still in his hands.

It was just that the powers of the three yamen were transferred to the Ministry of War, and a military police force was added directly under the jurisdiction. Anyway, he had no feelings for those generals, so why should he refuse?

Of course Lu Yijian and the others would not object. It was a traditional skill of the Song Dynasty for civil servants to restrain military generals. When word spread about this, the civil servant group would probably go crazy with joy because of their persistent suppression of rising generals such as Wang Deyong, Di Qing, Yue Fei, etc.

So everyone looked at each other and felt that there was nothing wrong.

"In that case, that's it."

Zhao Jun set the rules.

Now everyone discussed the details, and then talked about other national events.

The meeting will end when it gets close to dark in the evening.

Zhao Jun and Fan Zhongyan walked out of the house and walked along the palace road towards the outside of the palace.

"I always feel that this matter is not that simple."

Fan Zhongyan said as he walked: "If it's just a matter of short quota, since Taizu allowed it, the court can't blame them, so why should they refuse? I'm afraid there is something else going on?"

"Think of the worst, there may be all kinds of bad things, such as reselling ordnance, shoddy manufacturing, and even showing off in the army."

Zhao Jun raised his head and looked at the sky, and said in a deep voice: "Choose good people and check them out."

Get to the bottom of it.

He wanted to see what the noble generals were up to.

(End of this chapter)