Ming politicians

(Thanks to Shuhaiyunyouxianren, Empire squinting at the world, and Jinrui for casting precious monthly tickets, thank you.)

The news about the dismantling of the guards in Shaanxi spread rapidly, and the sensation caused by this incident was far greater than the request for the royal family members to enter the imperial court as officials.

The guards have existed for hundreds of years. Although this regulation has long been inconsistent with the requirements of the development of the times, although the court has been overwhelmed, and although a large number of military households have fled or even mutinied, this system has persisted. There is a deep-seated reason for not daring to take any action lightly.

The army must not be chaotic. If it is chaotic, the dynasty will face the danger of collapse. The Ming Dynasty has lasted for so many years. At this time, no one dared to mobilize the army. On the contrary, they had to spend a lot of effort to maintain the army as much as possible.

The Weisuo system and the military household system have lasted for many years and produced a large number of officers. These officers belonged to those with vested interests. The officers in the Ming Dynasty belonged to the hereditary system and the inheritance system. Among the sons of officers, one person could inherit the military position. , the heir is called a sacrificial person before the death of the officer.Under normal circumstances, if there are no special accidents, military officer families can serve as officials for generations. They do not need to pass the exam, and all living beings enjoy encores. However, military families can only serve as soldiers for generations. Those who have military merits and have been promoted to be officers are rare. .

Such a system appeared because Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, commended those military generals who were born and died for the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, thinking of their descendants, being able to enjoy the favor and being more loyal to the royal family, and the Ming Dynasty supporting the army .Mainly rely on the military station, officers and sergeants are fixed in one place.Therefore, it cannot be completely said that such regulations have no effect.

But any system needs to accept the test of time and development. Once it does not meet the needs of the times, it needs to be changed.It's a pity that the imperial power notices that there are major problems in this regard. What the ancestors and ancestors decided, the future generations have to change. Among them, someone can surpass the founding emperor.There are few such cases.

The guard system and the military household system obviously did not meet the requirements. The military settlements could not support the army, and the court was unable to pay so much military pay. The result was the mutiny of the sergeants, or the guards existed in name only.

Worse still, so many years have passed.The officers in the guard are used to being greedy for ink and drinking the blood of soldiers.On the one hand, they lied about the number of sergeants and took empty pay; on the other hand, they exploited the sergeants and accumulated personal wealth. If someone does not do this, they insist on developing the army.Instead, it has become a thorn in the side, and everyone must resist and suppress it.

Under such circumstances, the quality of the army of the Ming Dynasty can be imagined.

Since the Wanli period, the quality of the army has declined sharply.Apart from having an unusual ability to bully the common people, pulling them out to fight is a joke.

During the reign of Tianqi and Chongzhen, many strange things happened. The imperial court left the sergeants in the guards unused, and spent extra money to recruit sergeants to fight. If it is pulled out, it will also be sent to the battlefield to die, and it will even affect the morale of the large army because of the rout.

With the passage of time, the development direction of the sergeants of the guards also made the imperial court worry. After some officers of the guards tried to make money, they began to control the sergeants of the guards, so that the imperial army became an army serving individuals. However, the imperial court's imperial decree can't move these soldiers, but the officers of the guards can speak their minds, and if things go on like this, there may even be warlords of separatist regimes.

There were too many internal and external troubles in the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Youjian understood the disadvantages of the guard system and the military household system, but he was incapable of reforming it, so he could only watch helplessly. After the attacks of Jin and the rogue bandits, the Ming Dynasty immediately fell to the ground.

This time, Su Tiancheng proposed to abolish the guards in Shaanxi, and Zhu Youjian couldn't ask for it. In the past, he didn't dare to express his opinion, but with the powerful Jiangning camp, Zhu Youjian felt relieved. At least in Shaanxi, it was the guards. The mutiny of the sergeants is not the opponent of the Jiangning battalion. Besides, the sergeants of the Shaanxi Guard, including the border troops in the border town, are very famous for their weak combat effectiveness. To put it bluntly, the capable sergeants have long joined the bandits up.

Su Tiancheng's daring to eat crabs benefited from his understanding of historical development, and it was precisely because of this understanding that Su Tiancheng was extra careful, and he would not act rashly.

Soon, rumors surfaced that the reason why the Shaanxi Guard was abolished was because Shaanxi was too poor, and it seemed very difficult to feed the Jiangning battalion, let alone feed the sergeants of the guard. Under such circumstances, the governor of Shaanxi, The Commander of the Jiangning Battalion, Master Su Tiancheng, had no choice but to abolish the troops in the guard post to make life in the Jiangning Battalion easier.

Rumors like this spread all over the place.

I didn't know that such rumors were actually fabricated by Su Tiancheng himself.

He had to do this, preferring to have a bad reputation, and not be able to cause opposition, or even mutiny, from the sergeants of the guards in other places. The Jiangning Camp has not yet been able to control all the land of the Ming Dynasty.

In his heart, Su Tiancheng was determined to take advantage of this opportunity to completely change the military status quo in Shaanxi.

Almost all the guards will be abolished. According to the method hundreds of years later, military regions will be set up, and military regions of different sizes will be set up according to the criticality of the location. In his hands, all sergeants are recruited and the military household system is abolished.

As for the army needing to farm to support themselves, in Su Tiancheng's view, it was a joke. They were not militiamen, so why did they farm? The mission of the army was to defend the country and fight wars.

Although in the imperial court, Su Tiancheng suggested that the Jiangning camp should be divided into five and guard five places respectively, but in fact, his idea is that the Jiangning camp should be divided into three, with one part for the border gate, one part for the Xi'an mansion, and one part for the Hanzhong mansion. This is enough to guard Shaanxi and protect the tranquility of Shaanxi.

Thinking about hundreds of years later, China has such a large area and faces threats from all sides, so seven military regions have been set up, and the troops are placed in the most critical places.

It makes sense to do so. The army does not harass the local area and minimizes the burden on the local area. It is of great benefit to its own development. The places where the army is stationed are generally military restricted areas, and idlers are not allowed to approach them. If there are too many such places, wouldn't there be restricted areas everywhere.

Of course, Su Tiancheng knew that the biggest problem with the abolition of the guards in Shaanxi was the officers.

The status of military officers in the Ming Dynasty was low, and they could not be compared with civilian officials. There was an idea of ​​the court emphasizing civility over military affairs, but it still had a lot to do with the officers' own qualities. Civil officials are the commanders. For example, Xiong Tingbi, Yuan Chonghuan, Hong Chengchou and others are all scholars who have passed the imperial examination. Officers from purely military families rarely stand out. People like Wu Sangui are typical weirdos.

The low quality of officers has also become a prominent problem. If you are greedy for life and afraid of death, you know how to accumulate wealth crazily. In history, the Ming Dynasty army confronted the bandits and the Houjin Tartars, and officers ran away everywhere.

Under the constraints of such a situation, Su Tiancheng wanted to change the situation of Daming, so he needed to operate on the guard.

Su Tiancheng also lamented his own fate. First, he had to attack the gentry and rich households, and then he had to attack the guards. It seemed that he was against the rich and powerful everywhere. To be honest, Su Tiancheng was not an angry youth, let alone a hater of the rich and officials. The efforts and changes he made were not to completely overthrow the rich. On the contrary, he knew very well that the Ming Dynasty had to rely on these gentry and wealthy households to support it. In any society, there is a layer of vested interests. Yes, thinking that everyone in the world is the same, everyone is very happy, that is a beautiful myth.

I was a civil servant in my previous life, and I discussed many institutional issues with my colleagues, including capitalist society, which is also an oligarchy, but the wealthy class, after occupying a large amount of social wealth, knows how to feed back society and satisfy people's life pursuits , Also pay attention to improving the social environment, and strictly demand yourself while controlling politics.

Social turmoil and problems do not mean that there are too many rich people, but that the rich do not know how to give back to the society, do not know how to improve their living environment, and even the problem of class solidification appears. While occupying a large amount of social resources, they desperately protect themselves The interests of the poor have blocked the way for the poor to forge ahead, or the reason for obtaining wealth.

This is what Su Tiancheng thinks is the crux of society.

Su Tiancheng also made efforts from this aspect. The promotion of equality between people is unrealistic in his opinion. Children from rich families and children from poor people cannot be exactly the same, but the society must provide for it. They created relatively fair competition opportunities.

With this in mind, Su Tiancheng does not hate the rich, but also allows the people around him to become rich, and also wants to build his own network of relationships. His policy against the gentry and wealthy households is relatively benevolent, but it involves Only when it is closed, or when it threatens its own interests, will it show its fangs.

As for a large number of military officers in Shaanxi, including many thousand households, hundreds of households, etc., Su Tiancheng will not be polite to those who are military officers from the womb. The army must be kept pure. The army is the pillar of the country. To be occupied as an officer by a fatuous and incompetent person, and to bring down the morale of the army, is to dig one's own grave. (To be continued..)