Chapter 3448 Chapter 3450 [Reforming the Military System]
Xiang Nan then divided Hunan and Hubei into districts and counties, dispatched officials to manage them, registered the local barbarians, and formally incorporated them into the imperial government.
At the same time, Confucian education and Central Plains culture were promoted, and barbarians were even allowed to participate in imperial examinations.
Among the captured barbarians, those who resisted the most fiercely were killed, regardless of age or sex, as a warning to others.
As for those loyal to the Ming Dynasty, they received generous rewards, but the leaders were moved to live in the city and were not allowed to return to their original places. They did not have the hereditary chieftain title, which was equivalent to being ignored by the court.
The chieftains in Hunan and Hubei rebelled, and were suppressed within a year. Dozens of tribes were massacred, and the blood once stained the river red.
Such achievements shocked the courtiers.
Because the barbarians in Hunan and Hubei have always been savage, difficult to train, and capricious.
From the Three Emperors of ancient times, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin, Han, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming... they have never been completely conquered. The Central Plains dynasty has always adopted a policy of restraint towards these barbarians: "accept the regulations but not rebel; abandon them if they rebel but not pursue them".
The so-called restraint, "ji" means to control with military and political pressure, and "縻" means to comfort with economic and material interests. In short, it is carrot and stick.
When the Central Plains dynasty was strong, most of these barbarians chose to rely on it. But it's all superficial, and privately he is still a local emperor.
When the Central Plains dynasty was in decline, they would continue to rebel, harass the surrounding cities, burn, kill and loot, committing all kinds of evil. It can be said to be a stubborn disease that cannot be cured.
But now, the barbarians in Hunan and Hubei were really defeated by Xiang Nan.
Not only were their villages captured, their wealth accumulated over thousands of years was confiscated, and all their people were killed. Even their fields, mountains and forests were nationalized and placed under the rule of the imperial court.
This is a great victory that has not been achieved in a thousand years. Even Emperor Qin, Han Wu, Emperor Tang and Song Zu were unable to achieve it.
Now that the emperor had done it, many courtiers looked at Xiang Nan with admiration.
More courtiers took the opportunity to come forward and praise Xiang Nan for his divine martial arts and his feat of opening up the world. I hope to gain the emperor's favor and gain some glory.
However, Xiang Nan was not that stupid. He looked down upon these sycophants, but generously rewarded the victorious generals and soldiers.
With a wave of his hand, all the captured millions of taels of gold and silver were rewarded to the generals and soldiers who participated in the battle, making these generals and soldiers smile with joy.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the reason why they repeatedly lost battles was because of the corruption of the court.
Soldiers fighting on the front line are not only lacking weapons, armor, and bows and crossbows, but even military pay cannot be paid in time.
On the contrary, those ministers are all greedy, filling their own pockets and eating to their fullest.
As a result, the soldiers naturally had no fighting spirit. When fighting against the rebels and the Jin army, they were often defeated at the first touch and had no power to resist.
That's why the Ming Dynasty lost the world.
Xiang Nan naturally knew these things, so he would not be stingy with the money and reward the generals and soldiers generously. Especially for those soldiers who were killed or injured, the pensions were doubled.
He just wants to let them know that they can get rewards by fighting for him. In this way, when war breaks out again in the future, these soldiers will move forward bravely instead of shrinking back.
It is worth mentioning that this war lasted for a year, and the military expenditure on food and salary was as high as 15 million taels. It can be said that the war was worth money. Thanks to Xiang Nan's maritime ban and mutual trade, he was able to earn a large amount of taxes. Otherwise, relying on the millions of taels of silver in the treasury, I am afraid that the army will be out of money as soon as it sets out.
So the war is fought with logistics, and the war is fought with capital.
The reason why the United States dared to be the world's policeman and send troops to fight was because of its strength as the world's largest economy.
Now that the United States' national strength is declining and its economy is sluggish, it no longer dares to send troops rashly. It can only secretly cultivate spokesmen, stir up trouble everywhere, and let others fight for it.
…
After the chieftains in Hunan and Hubei were wiped out, Xiang Nan immediately implemented the reform of the local chieftains, abolished the hereditary system of chieftains, and replaced them with officials sent by the imperial court to govern.
After the news came out, the chieftains in Yunnan, Guizhou, western Guangdong, Sichuan and Tibet were shocked.
They are worried that the imperial army will arrive one day, so they either express their loyalty in advance, or start to raise armaments, or form alliances with each other... hoping to resist the imperial action.
However, Xiang Nan did not take any action for the time being. Instead, he took advantage of the moment when he had just won a great victory and his prestige was high to carry out reforms on the Ming Dynasty's armaments.
The Ming Dynasty adopted the military household system from the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The military household system actually has historical origins. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the household registration of soldiers and their families belonged to the military government and were called "military households." After joining the military household, he has been a soldier for generations and has a low social status.
There is a sentence in "Mulan Ci": "Last night I saw the military notice, the Khan ordered the troops, and there are twelve volumes of military books, each of which has the name of the father." It can be seen that Hua Mulan's family is a military household.
The Jin Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty also adopted the military household system, and it continued in the Ming Dynasty. In order to ensure the realization of national military service, corvee labor, land tax, and Dingyin income, Zhu Yuanzhang divided residents into four types: civilian households, military households, craftsman households, and kitchen households.
It is stipulated that military households are soldiers and their families. They can support themselves by growing land and weaving and do not have to pay taxes to the state. Farming in peacetime and fighting in wartime.
This system of integrating military and peasantry may seem beautiful, but it is actually unsustainable.
First of all, the welfare of soldiers at the bottom cannot be guaranteed. Because they have been military households for generations and are not allowed to escape without authorization, they are equivalent to slaves of the superiors. Not only are their fields often occupied by the superiors, but they do not even have personal freedom and are still enslaved by the superiors.
Secondly, the soldiers at the bottom worked as both farmers and soldiers, but in fact they were unable to do both. You cannot train while plowing, and you cannot plow while training. As a result, the armaments were depleted, and in time of war, the available troops were not even 10% of the troops.
Hence, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the military household system had ceased to exist in name only.
The combat effectiveness of the Ming army became extremely low, worse than nothing. During the Jiajing period, dozens of Japanese pirates dared to land and then rushed thousands of miles to Jinling, but encountered no effective resistance along the way.
This time in the Hunan-Hubei counterinsurgency battle, the contrast in combat effectiveness of the Ming army was also obvious.
Xiang Nan's new army has amazing fighting power. They have won many battles without losing a single battle. Moreover, the ordinary Ming army involved in countering the rebellion did not have the strength to fight at all. They collapsed at the first touch. They suffered several defeats in succession, and in the end they could only fight.
Facts speak louder than words.
No matter how much money the court spends on these ordinary soldiers, it will probably be in vain, and it is time to reform.
Therefore, in view of the shortcomings of military households, Xiang Nan decided to abolish the ancestral system and change the military household system to the recruitment system.
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(End of this chapter)