The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 273 Big Classroom

"There are many loopholes in the military system of the Ming Dynasty. In other words, these loopholes have always existed since Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty reformed the military system, and have not been solved in all dynasties."

Chen Jingke decided to sort out the military system issue from the beginning.

Sitting opposite him were Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Xu Da, Feng Sheng, Lan Yu and others.

Zhu Yuanzhang asked: "Let's talk about it in detail."

It was the first time for Xu Da and others to attend the class and they felt very fresh.

They had suddenly received a summons from Zhu Yuanzhang, saying that he wanted to discuss matters regarding the military system with them.

At first they thought the emperor had some new ideas, but when they arrived they found out that they were actually listening to Chen Jingke's lecture.

Surprised but also full of curiosity.

You must know that they are all famous marshals of the day, and they study these things all day long.

But some people don't know, such as Sapphire.

"And the reservists are usually in the countryside and are an effective force in maintaining law and order."

Could it be that this Chen Bandu can come up with some new tricks?

"After serving enough time, you can go home and live a normal life."

I really don’t necessarily know more about the history of changes in the military system than scholars who understand history.

"But later, as land annexation intensified, the court could not get the land, and the land grant system ceased to exist in name only."

So when he heard Chen Jingke's explanation, he was very excited: "What a great idea, what a great idea."

Chen Jingke explained: "From the perspective of the court, this does have great benefits, but this method has increased the burden on the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang praised: "This shows that Emperor Guangwu is a wise king who knows how to care for the people."

Chen Jingke said: "Let's first talk about the time before Emperor Guangwu. The conscription system was adopted at that time, and those who owned land and property had to perform military service."

Zhu Xiongying quickly turned his face away, pretending not to recognize him.

"The reserve service has also been abolished, giving the people more time to engage in production."

Chen Jingke also made shocking remarks, pointing out from the beginning that there were huge loopholes in the military system.

"But compulsory soldiers have a service period, ranging from two years to three years to five years, and they will be rotated once they expire."

"For ordinary people who have not yet had their turn to serve, or for soldiers who have retired, it does not mean that they will do nothing."

"This approach, I call it reserve."

"Because during that period, soldiers did not receive military pay. Soldiers were responsible for purchasing their own weapons and equipment, and were responsible for their own food and salary while serving as soldiers."

"Furthermore, a large number of laborers are unable to engage in production during the one-month training every year, which further delays agricultural production."

This uncle is so uneducated.

"So he changed the conscription system to a recruitment system. The state took over all the expenses of the army and also paid military salaries to the soldiers."

"By the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, a large number of people were already bankrupt because of the military service system."

Just thinking about it will tell you how heavy a burden it is for an ordinary family to bear a conscript.

Everyone here is from a poor background, and they feel the same way.

"We can call it compulsory military service... Military service is the obligation of the people."

Zhu Yuanzhang is the one who knows the most about the changes in the military system. As the founding emperor, he must first understand them before he wants to establish various systems.

And it was not a problem of the Ming Dynasty, but a problem that existed in all subsequent dynasties with Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han Dynasty as the boundary.

"After he conquered the world, he has been thinking of ways to ease the burden on the people."

"This has many benefits. A large number of reservists can become qualified soldiers with a little training, which reduces the pressure on the army."

"The reserve allows the court to have a steady stream of excellent reserve troops, and the rotation system also gives soldiers a chance to breathe."

Why don't they know about the loopholes that have not been solved in so many dynasties?
Also, why did it appear after Emperor Guangwu, but before?
It's not that they are ignorant or anything. As generals, what they study most is how to use troops.

But his understanding was still incomplete.

"Although there was a land granting system in the early Han Dynasty, when you were a soldier, you were assigned fields."

Chen Jingke paused for a moment and continued: "Although Emperor Guangwu is the descendant of the clan, he has lived among the people since he was a child and understands the sufferings of the people."

Not to belittle him, he is good at fighting, but in other respects...let's put it this way, he is a pure martial artist.

"For ordinary people, the pressure of being a conscript is very huge."

"I didn't expect that such an excellent military system existed in ancient times... But why was it abolished later?"

Lan Yu stopped talking. He was also an ordinary person and had a deep understanding of the heavy corvee.

"They have to receive paramilitary training, and they receive military training for twenty days or one month during the off-season every year."

After all, he is the emperor and has too many things to take care of, so he doesn't have that much energy to focus on the military system.

"Then the conscription will be reversed. Only people with land and property will be recruited. People without land and property will not even be able to serve as soldiers."

Some people know these things, such as Xu Da, Fu Youde and others.

Others also nodded, Emperor Guangwu was indeed the Mingjun.

Chen Jingke naturally agreed with this point. Emperor Guangwu and the subsequent Emperor Mingzhang can be said to be models of monarchs.

But Mingjun also has some shortcomings, and now we are talking about their shortcomings.

Therefore, he changed the topic and said: "But although Emperor Guangwu came up with the recruitment system, he did not perfect this system, and the subsequent Emperors Mingzhang also failed to do it."

"Even subsequent dynasties failed to perfect this system."

Everyone pricked up their ears and finally got to the point.

Chen Jingke said: "The first shortcoming of Emperor Guangwu's recruitment system is that it did not consider the issue of soldier resources."

"What are the characteristics of recruiting soldiers? Volunteer to serve as soldiers."

"In the early days of the dynasty, there were fewer people and more land. The common people could basically allocate land. How many people who could cultivate the land well would be willing to serve as soldiers?"

"What should we do if the number of troops is not enough? The method they use is to arrest refugees and use rogues and even criminals as soldiers."

"Using prisoners to serve as soldiers has appeared before, but it was a temporary solution during times of shortage of manpower."

"Under normal circumstances, we would recruit soldiers from good families."

“The existence of it as a system began during the reign of Emperor Guangwu.”

"As the saying goes, those with permanent property have perseverance. A good family with land and property is more disciplined, easier to manage, and has stronger combat capabilities."

"Refugees, scoundrels, criminals, these people are carefree and morally corrupt. They go to the battlefield to cheat and cheat, resulting in a lack of combat effectiveness in the army."

"These people flooded the army in large numbers and led to a breakdown in military discipline."

"The status of military personnel was very high before, but from this period onwards it will be much lower."

"Furthermore, Emperor Guangwu has not yet stipulated the rotation system and the retirement system. Once these people join the army, they will basically serve for life."

"No one thinks there is a problem with this, because in their view, the country has given them military pay, and they should stay in the army for the rest of their lives."

"It sounds reasonable, but it's not the case at all."

"Human beings are flesh and blood, have seven emotions and six desires, and have other needs besides eating."

"The rulers at the time completely denied the needs of soldiers."

"However, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, this loophole did not cause much harm..."

"Because it didn't take long for the powerful landlord class to complete the land annexation, and a large number of farmers lost their land."

"Farmers who lost their land had nothing to rely on, so they either sold themselves into slavery or became soldiers." "So professional soldiers officially appeared. Their profession was to serve as soldiers, and lifelong service was a good thing for them."

"Also, the Han Dynasty used a large number of barbarian mercenaries. For example, Wuhuan was famous for its mercenaries."

"These barbarians have no land and no livelihood except fighting..."

"But doing so has brought about a very serious consequence. In the past, it was compulsory to serve as a soldier, in order to protect the family and the country."

“Now you’re in the military just for the money.”

"It is dangerous to just say this without saying whether the combat effectiveness will be reduced as a result."

Everyone looked thoughtful.

Zhu Yuanzhang said directly: "Whoever gives them money will fight for them. It turns out that the warlords' melee in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was foreshadowed from this time."

Chen Jingke shook his head and said: "You can't say that. In the late Qin Dynasty and the late Western Han Dynasty, melee situations also evolved."

"Chaos will inevitably lead to warlords fighting, and this has nothing to do with any system."

Zhu Yuanzhang thought about it and found that this was indeed the case.

His words were equivalent to blaming Liu Xiu's policies for the chaos in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

There is no perfect policy. If a dynasty lasts for two hundred years, it will basically become terminally ill.

This is unavoidable in any system, at least no one can find a way out of this rule at the moment.

The various reforms of the Ming Dynasty seem to be very useful at the moment, but who knows what will happen in the future.

Just because the dynasty died, do we blame previous generations of monarchs?
This is obviously unfair.

Chen Jingke continued: "However, as a unified dynasty, it is extremely inappropriate for such a big loophole to appear in the most important military system."

"After that, successive dynasties also tried to improve this system, among which the Tang Dynasty's military system was the most famous."

"But the Fubing system can also be seen as a variant of the conscription system - recruiting good family members to join the army and allocating land."

"Its advantage is that it has established a complete rotation and rest system. After three years in the army, you can take two years off, which is roughly like this."

"The disadvantage is that it is lifelong and there is no concept of retirement."

"But once the soldiers join the army, they can get four to five hundred acres of fertile land. The soldiers will get real benefits."

"And the soldiers are recruited, not forced."

"If you are willing to accept this deal, come and join the army. If you are not willing to accept this deal, don't come."

"People are already psychologically prepared before joining the army, coupled with the incentive of the military merit system."

"The fighting power of Fu soldiers is very strong, and they can often defeat many with less."

"It's just that with the expansion of the Tang Dynasty, it took a year to go back and forth from Chang'an to the Western Regions."

"It became very troublesome to take turns, so I changed from taking one every three years to one every five years, and then I stopped taking it all."

"Soldiers who cannot get any rest gradually become tired of fighting."

"Furthermore, with the annexation of land, the imperial court could no longer allocate excess land to soldiers, and the military system collapsed."

"By the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty mainly adopted the recruitment system."

"And their recruitment system almost followed the old path of the Eastern Han Dynasty, with no reserve and unqualified soldiers."

"There is no perfect rotation and retirement system, and it is almost a life-long service."

"The thoughts of the Tang Dynasty monarchs were the same as those of the Eastern Han Dynasty monarchs, and they never considered whether it was appropriate to do so."

"In their view, if I give you military pay, you have to serve for life."

"Their thinking is still at the stage of paying for life with money."

"If the monarch thinks this way, the generals and soldiers below will be more realistic."

Everyone was lost in thought. They had not realized it before, but now they understood how serious the problem was after listening to Chen Jingke's analysis.

You don't need to understand any big principles. As long as you become an ordinary soldier, you will know how serious the consequences are.

Chen Jingke did not go on. The examples were enough.

Besides, let’s talk about the Song Dynasty. There is really not much to say about this dynasty.

There is nothing to say about the Yuan Dynasty.

As for Daming... what we are talking about now is the current problems.

After a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang finally said: "Tiande, what do you think?"

As the number one person in the military, he naturally has to express his opinions.

Xu Da said, "I roughly understand what Jing Ke means."

"According to him, a complete military service system should include reserve service, rotation, retirement, etc."

"The military service system since Emperor Guangwu has omissions in these three points."

"Either there is no complete reserve system, resulting in low-quality soldiers."

"Either the rotation system is unreasonable, resulting in some soldiers not being able to repair themselves for a long time, resulting in war weariness."

"Either there is no retirement system and soldiers serve for life."

"But no matter where there are any omissions, it will eventually lead to the collapse of military discipline and low combat effectiveness."

Everyone couldn't help but nod. After he sorted it out, things became much easier to understand.

Chen Jingke said: "Wei Guogong summed it up very well, that's roughly it."

Xu Da continued: "The current military system of our Ming Dynasty has problems in these three aspects."

"There is no reserve system and the quality of the soldiers is poor."

"The adverse effects of this have actually now emerged."

"Recruitment has become difficult in the last two years, and recruits need longer to train before they can go to war."

"However, the Fifth Army Governor's Office has come up with a complete reserve plan, but it has not yet been implemented."

"The rotation system is indeed imperfect. In the past few years, the Ming Dynasty was fighting everywhere, and it is understandable that the soldiers could not get a rest."

"Now that the fighting has stopped, we need to put this matter on the agenda."

"It is best to come up with a complete rotation plan to give the soldiers a chance to breathe."

Everyone nodded again, and everyone could see that Ming Dynasty would enter a stage of strategic contraction in the next few years.

It is indeed the best time to take a rest.

"The third point of the retirement system is also the most important point in my opinion."

"Many people are just not suitable to be soldiers, and some have been soldiers for decades."

"Forcing them to stay in the army will not benefit them personally, and it will also be a burden to the court."

"It's best for everyone if they leave the military and return to normal life."

Everyone nodded again. No one knew better than them how troublesome the cunning men in the army were.

For this kind of people, the sooner they can get an army, the better.

"But we must formulate a complete system. What kind of soldiers need to retire and how they will be resettled after retirement need to be taken into consideration."

"Otherwise, if these people flow into the private sector, the consequences will be serious."

(End of this chapter)