I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 55 Abolish Shili Mu?

At present, if there is no rebellion in the counties in the interior, the number of soldiers in the counties is generally maintained at about a thousand.

Military power was vested in the prefect.

What Liu Bian wanted to do more was to use a captain whose status was only one level lower than the governor or the prime minister to check and balance the prefect and supervise each other with the prefect. With two people, at least they could form a triangle with the local forces. Not all will be so easily won over by local forces.

After all, the large-scale professional soldiers who had to worry about the era of Emperor Guangwu no longer existed.

The size and training of today's county soldiers are completely incomparable to those knights, officers, etc. who were specially selected to receive regular field army training during the Western Han Dynasty.

Even the Three Rivers Knights located around Luoyang, which is now the priority for the imperial court to recruit soldiers, mostly refer to those with combat experience, because the real knight system has been abolished along with the captaincy.

Lu Zhi had never been a county guard and had led troops to quell rebellions. He knew these things clearly. After thinking carefully, he first affirmed: "In today's county, many affairs in the county have been brought back to the county guard's house. With this, the Shou can control the entire county, and His Highness’s concerns are not unreasonable.”

Then he had to pour cold water on Liu Bian: "The county governor, the prime minister, and the county magistrate all need to abide by the three mutual laws. However, from the prime minister to the county, the meritorious officers, chief administrators, etc., are all replaced by the powerful surnames." If the prefect does not have military power, if the affairs of the county and the country are not going well, if the captain cannot help, it may be difficult to check and balance the place by relying on the prefect alone without any support."

Baishi is an official position that can be appointed by the county governor without notifying the court, but in fact it has become the private land of local wealthy families, who rely on these grassroots officials to control the place.

In fact, strictly speaking, this is not a completely bad thing.

Emperor Guangwu had experienced the collapse of Wang Mang and his new dynasty, who were praised by Confucian scholars, and still chose to promote Confucianism. With the help of Confucianism's influence on the gentry, he successfully turned the powerful men who roamed the countryside, invaded and exploited the poor during the Western Han Dynasty into virtuous people who helped the poor and passed down poems and books to their families. As for the price, it is the wealthy family's control over the countryside.

Therefore, the virtuous people despise those powerful people from the bottom of their hearts who still do not know poetry and do not cultivate themselves.

Liu Bian once listened to a lecture and heard the professor on the podium talk about two major practices of Confucian intellectuals.

Once in the Western Han Dynasty and once in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The Western Han Dynasty used the Confucian classics "Spring and Autumn" and "Zhou Guan" to coordinate. "Spring and Autumn" was responsible for changing dynasties, and "Zhou Guan" was responsible for establishing the government.

This is Wang Mang's new dynasty.

The tragic and troubled times between the two Han Dynasties showed that Confucianism failed in its attempt to provide an overall political structure.

Under the promotion of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Confucian poetry and etiquette flourished.

Poetry and etiquette beautify one's body and cultivate one's body. That is, starting from the individual, educating everyone into a good person and creating a good social atmosphere.

result……

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms were divided.

This set of folk self-cultivation attempts still failed.

When the emperor's blood spilled on the streets and the three families returned to Jin, the Holy Dynasty could only rule the world with filial piety.

True moral decay.

As ideals are shattered, morals no longer matter.

For Liu Bian, he is willing to work hard for this ideal.

……

All in all, Liu Bian understands what Lu Zhi said before. He has the ancestral method very early!

Ruling the world with scholars is not unique to the Song Dynasty.

He also knew that with the current situation of the Han Dynasty, the village of the local wealthy family had already been invaded by the eunuchs' children once, and it was not appropriate to touch it now.

It's just that he didn't expect that military power would become so important now. It had become a must-have force for the prefect to suppress the local area. Compared with Liu Bian's idea of ​​the prefect's monopoly of power, this was too far apart. However, he soon realized that what Lu Zhi was talking about was another situation that was beneficial to the court, that is, the prefect and the local wealthy family were in opposition to each other. What he wanted to prevent was the collusion between the prefect and the local wealthy families.

A balance needs to be found between the two.

Liu Bian immediately came up with a new idea: "The county soldiers in the border counties are divided into half by the county guards and half by the captains. How about dividing the soldiers in the inner counties into two?"

Half for each person, that's enough balance.

Lu Zhi: "...Although it is absolutely necessary, there are not many soldiers in the county and the country. When fighting against thieves, we need to unite our troops..."

He almost forgot that there was also the matter of quelling the chaos. Liu Bian was just about to think of other methods when he heard Lu Zhi continue to say——

"Your Highness, have you ever thought about how much the annual salary of the newly added captains of these prefectures and counties will be?"

Liu Bian only made a rough calculation, starting with 20 million yuan, and he understood that Emperor Ling might not agree. After all, the treasury had already been depleted! Where does the money come from?

He asked: "What do you think, Master Lu?"

Lu Zhi said: "I think that if the county guard only controls a thousand county soldiers, there is no need to divide his military power."

Liu Bian nodded: "If there are no changes in the local area, a thousand county soldiers will not be considered too many, and they will be enough to maintain law and order, but the county guard can have the right to recruit troops."

"What His Highness wants is to decentralize the supervision of the state governor over the state to the counties, especially for the high-ranking governors."

Liu Bian nodded again.

But he didn't hear Lu Zhi speak again for a long time.

"Master Lu?"

"I can't think of any good ideas in a hurry. Does your Highness have any ideas?"

Guarantee the authority of the prefect, supervise the prefect, ensure the local ability to quell chaos, and save money as much as possible...

Liu Bian felt that he would call these four items the Four Corners of Impossibility.

He is thinking about a way to get the best of all four aspects, and someone has already given the answer.

Liu Yan, Zongzheng, wrote a letter in the court meeting, saying: "The governor of the governor will be bribed to serve as an official, and the people will be expropriated, leading to rebellion. We can choose important ministers from the Qing Dynasty to be the shepherds to stabilize Fangxia."

There was a precedent for Zhou Mu. When he became emperor, he was promoted to the position of Mu with a rank of two thousand stones. In the eighteenth year of Emperor Guangwu's founding, he was reinstated as the governor.

Liu Yan recommended himself to the farthest place, Jiaozhou, as a state shepherd. If Liu Bian had not known what he did after becoming the shepherd of Yizhou in history, he might have been like Emperor Ling and regarded him as a clan member who was dedicated to the country.

The state pastor can be understood as the county guard at the state level.

Liu Bian is thinking about how to weaken the county guard, but he is creating a state pastor over there? What are you doing!

The most important thing is that Emperor Ling is also somewhat moved.

In fact, strictly speaking, the Ling Emperor in history sent a total of three state pastors, namely Youzhou pastor Liu Yu, Yuzhou pastor Huang Wan, and Yizhou pastor Liu Yan. After taking office, the three of them successfully pacified the states. internal rebellion.

Except for Liu Yan, who had ulterior motives and blocked the roads in Shuzhong, the other two people maintained their loyalty to the Han Dynasty.

Liu Yu rejected Yuan Shao's attempt to make him emperor, and Huang Wan conspired with Wang Yun to kill Dong Zhuo.

Even so, for Liu Bian, Zhou Mu, who has such great power, is absolutely undesirable.

He went to Emperor Ling and persuaded him: "Zong Zhengyan, the prefect of the governor, exploited the people and led to rebellion. Who knew that the prefect would not do this?"

(End of this chapter)