Chapter 732 0727 [Farmers and soldiers encounter cavalry]
During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Japan implemented Dahua reforms, comprehensively learned from the advanced experience of the Tang Dynasty, and strengthened the emperor's centralized rule.
One of the most important measures is the establishment of public land citizenship: the people and land are owned by the state and no private individuals are allowed to occupy them.
When it comes to land specifically, it is the class-field system, which is similar to the equal-field system of the Tang Dynasty.
About a hundred years later, the "Law of Eternal Private Ownership of Reclamation" and the "Law of Three Generations, One Body" were promulgated one after another. The nobles took the opportunity to force their subjects and slaves to reclaim wasteland, legally appropriate the newly reclaimed land as their own, and even illegally steal the old public land.
The land became private land.
After another hundred years of this, the class system began to collapse.
The situation was exactly the same as in the Tang Dynasty. The nobles and powerful people occupied large amounts of land but did not pay taxes. All national taxes fell on the farmers on the public land.
As a result, farmers on public land fled one after another and were taken into hiding by powerful nobles. Japan began to develop a private estate economy.
The emperor of the Tang Dynasty was so deprived of food that he often traveled from Chang'an to Luoyang for extra meals.
The Emperor of Japan directly chose to move the capital, from the old capital where nobility and temples were intertwined, to Heian Kyo to start over.
The Heian Era appeared.
Successive emperors have cracked down on corruption, implemented performance appraisals for officials, carried out a series of institutional reforms, and completely abolished slavery.
The class farm system evolved into the land block system, which is simply the public land contract responsibility system. In name, public land is still owned by the state, but wealthy farmers are allowed to contract and receive land taxes through the contract.
A few decades later, the contracted land actually became private land, the contract could be traded and transferred, and the landowner added his or her name to the land.
The owner of the signed field is called the named owner.
Those who own less land are called "small masters".
Those who own more land are called "Daimyo".
From this the word daimyo was born.
The nickname is actually small landowners and self-cultivating farmers. If the family has insufficient labor force, they will rent land to the poor, and tenant farmers will appear accordingly.
All the land owned by the daimyo, except the directly managed land, was leased out and the court's rent regulations were passed on to the tenants.
On top of these names, there are also real manor lords, who must pay annual tribute to the manor lords (generally there are manor lords only in border areas).
Therefore, the manor lords were the local overlords, and the daimyo were the powerful ones.
Still continuing to evolve.
After the manor lords obtained economic privileges, they began to seek political and military privileges.
The minor names sent their land to the daimyo, the daimyo sent their land to their lords, and the lords sent their land to the powerful nobles.
Therefore, everyone paid tribute to their superiors, and the most superiors were tax-free nobles, so they simply did not pay taxes to the court.
Half of the land in the country is tax-free.
The emperor sent royal family members or close associates to manage the other half of the land to ensure the stability of the central court's tax sources.
However, the royal family and their cronies took the opportunity to reach out and control the remaining half of the land.
In order to suppress the centralization of power by the lords, the emperor also revived the kokusi system, in which the central government dispatched prefecture and county chiefs to the local areas.
This thing was completely ruined by the Fujiwara clan. The Fujiwara clan served as regent as a relative. If you want to be a governor of a state or county, you can just pay.
Since it is a purchased position as a local official, why should we bother to manage it?
Those who are somewhat responsible may ask their sons or nephews to take office on their behalf, which is called "mushi".
Those who have no sense of responsibility, as long as the county pays taxes in full on time, they don't bother to visit the place anymore, and all of them stay in Ping An and live happily.
At this time, the Ishimi State's chief minister was in Heianjing, and even Modai was not sent.
All local affairs are left to the officials in the department (local officials) to take care of.
The positions of government officials are controlled by local wealthy families, and can even be passed down hereditary from father to son.
The Masuda family is the most influential powerful man in Ishijian Kingdom and the official in the government who has the most say.
Two hundred years ago, their ancestors were just small businessmen. They made money from business to buy land for farming, and gradually grew from small masters to big masters.
Their land is not the largest in Iwami Country.
But they were rich in business, and they bribed the Fujiwara family to buy official positions in the government, which were passed down from father to son from generation to generation.
…
Shijianguo, the capital.
Its specific location was approximately eighteen miles southwest of the urban area of Ota City, Japan, and four or five miles away from the coastline.
The core area is a small mountain city. Department officials work in the city, and their residences are distributed around the mountain city. In addition to residential areas, there are also commercial areas outside the city.
The Secretary of State was having fun in Heianjing, and the meeting was chaired by Masuda Akiaki, the head of the officials in the department.
Masuda Akiaki said in a sad tone: "I just received the news that the Emperor of France has passed away."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this, and immediately wiped away their tears and howled.
Their grief was not entirely fake.
Emperor Shirakawa gradually became Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Shirakawa. He tortured his own son to death, controlled his grandson, and dealt with disobedient relatives and lords many times.
In order to maintain their positions, the officials of Ishimi Kuni had to pay bribes to the close aides of Emperor Shirakawa.
There is an emperor and a minister. Now that Emperor Shirakawa is dead, Emperor Toba will inevitably start a new court, and everyone will have to send people to Heiankyo to bribe.
The powerful men mourned for the Emperor for a while, and then discussed the matter of bribery.
This thing can't be rushed. We have to wait for the court to establish a good team and figure out who is the new rich. Then we can get close to the new rich's cronies and send the money to the people who are really in charge.
There is no need to give too much, because there is an annual tribute every year, and it is only meaningful at critical times.
The powerful men gathered their confidants, took their travel expenses, and set off immediately.
Suddenly, the merchant ship of the Utsuda family fled back, saying that foreign ships were approaching Ishimi Kingdom, and they even beat up the navy of Nagato Kingdom on the way.
"The Toi pirates must be here again, quickly gather the samurai and peasant soldiers!" Masuda Akira said in a panic.
Daoyi is the name Goryeo gave to their northeastern Jurchen tribe.
The Toi invasion a hundred years ago is still fresh in the memory of the Japanese and has spawned many legends.
The pirates drove more than fifty offshore boats and turned the coast of Japan upside down. They relied on the cooperation of local powerful forces to defeat the pirates. (The descendants of these pirates are most likely the Jin navy that Han Shizhong faced in Huang Tiandang in history.
The main force. However, last year in the Yalu River, I was beaten to the point of being beaten by the Ming Navy.)
Masuda Akiaki put on the armor himself, and the officials in the office also turned into warriors and sent people back to the countryside to gather their own peasant soldiers.
When Zhu Xiaozhong landed at a fishing port, Shi Jianguo had already gathered hundreds of troops.
It's just that the fighting ability is impressive.
The Japanese armor at this time was not the showy bitch of the Warring States Period, and was much simpler in appearance.
In other words, it is a copycat version of the armor of the Tang and Song Dynasties!
Even the hairstyle and crown and scarf are very similar to those of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Regardless of his height, at first glance, he might have thought he was a Song Dynasty soldier.
Some powerful men do not even have the status of serious warriors. They all wear crotch-style armor.
This thing originated from the Japanese Tumulus Period, and was improved by combining it with the Tang and Song Dynasties.
The armor skirt extends to the thighs, and the neck and armpits are completely exposed. The shoulder armor extends to the outside of the elbows, but the insides of the elbows are not protected by armor. The material is mostly iron or copper sheets connected in series, while the forearms are wrapped in leather.
There are hundreds of wealthy families in Shijian Kingdom armed with only a dozen pieces of simple iron armor in total.
There are also dozens of pairs of leather or bamboo armors, all in the shape of crotch-style hanging armor.
The rest of the peasant soldiers, not to mention their armor, even their clothes were in tatters, and they came to fight with a bamboo gun in their hand.
It’s just powerful weapons, what more can you ask for?
In Japan at this time, only border or key counties had lords and lords' armed forces.
Where is Japan's border?
Of course it was a place next to the barbarians, otherwise why would there be a general conquering the barbarians?
Several samurai were sent to inquire about the military situation. They rushed towards the small fishing village on horseback. They were shocked by the naval ship at first. Then they courageously continued to approach. Groups of Ming soldiers disembarked from the ship, leaving these guys dumbfounded.
"Catch them all!" Zhu Xiaozhong ordered.
Zhu Xiaozhong brought not many cavalry, but dozens of light cavalry, all of whom were from Shandong horse bandits.
But even the Ming light cavalry's armor is comparable to the powerful Japanese armor.
Before the war horses had rested after crossing the sea, the light cavalry of the Ming Dynasty rode in pursuit. Compared with the Japanese ponies, these second-rate horses raised by horse farmers in the Northern Song Dynasty could run very fast.
"Run quickly, the armored cavalry is coming!" the Japanese samurai exclaimed.
Dozens of Ming Qingqi quickly caught up with the Japanese samurai.
The three-meter long spears in their hands are simply bullying people, and they are accurate when attacking.
The warriors' leather armor had too many exposed areas. The insides of their arms, armpits, ribs, and necks above the collarbone were all unprotected by armor. The lances in their hands were less than two meters long.
Is this a slap in the face?
In order to catch someone, the Qingqi of the Ming Dynasty didn't even need to stab, they just used their spears to sweep across.
After sweeping it off the horse's back, he grabbed it back like a tongue.
Masuda Akira waited for a long time, but no samurai came back to report. Until then, he thought they were pirates, and led hundreds of powerful armed forces to attack the small fishing village.
It wasn't until he bumped into the Ming Dynasty Qingqi on the way that Masuda Akira exclaimed: "These are not pirates, they must be Goryeo's armored cavalry. Quickly retreat to the city and defend, waiting for the emperor to send reinforcements to save them!"
"kill!"
The cavalry officer is another adopted son of Ju Ming, named Zhu Shouyi. He is only seventeen years old this year. He has been living in Hebei for a year with Li Yanxian. He has seen big scenes but never fought fiercely.
At this moment, Zhu Shouyi led dozens of light cavalry and charged straight towards hundreds of powerful Japanese armed forces.
When Masuda Akira saw this, he knew that he could no longer withdraw, otherwise all his troops would be infantry, and sooner or later they would be cut down by the Ming cavalry.
"Form up, archers shoot arrows!"
Japan has been at peace for a long time, but these hundreds of peasants and soldiers have never fought in a war. They were forced by the powerful to form formations in a panic.
However, a small number of powerful elites did not stand in the front. They actually hid behind the chaotic peasant and soldier formations and took out arrows to shoot at the Ming Dynasty cavalry.
After a sparse shower of arrows, Zhu Shouyi had already led his cavalry to the front of the formation, and all of them fired an arrow during the charge.
After receiving a round of cavalry fire and being rushed in front of them by cavalry, hundreds of peasant soldiers instantly collapsed and fled.
The powerful men and their subordinates also fled in panic. Masuda Akira escaped fastest on horseback.
In Shijian Country, apart from suppressing peasant uprisings, there has really been no war for hundreds of years... Not to mention the peasant soldiers, not even the powerful warriors know what the real battlefield is like.