There are one hill and eight buildings in the Northern Prefecture of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Chapter 5372: It’s hard for strong men to survive even in copycat villages
Chapter 5372: It’s hard for strong men to survive even in copycat villages
Bai Hu smiled slightly and said: "This involves what I said before, which is the size and scale of the country. If a country only has one city or several cities, such as one county today, then they can have at most a hundred
Come to a village, even if there is a very influential person among the people within 10,000 households, he can only incite a few hundred households to turn against him. Moreover, they cannot directly attack the prefecture and occupy the county, they can only use the method of fleeing households first.
The method is to hide in the mountains and forests, build strongholds, and survive in places where the officers and soldiers cannot reach or where it is difficult to encircle and suppress them."
"In the mountains and forests, there is no ready-made land, and it is difficult to farm like the plains. Therefore, these mountain bandits can only go out to the mountains and loot the households in the plains, go to villages and townships to rob, or fight with the gentry landlords in these villages.
Reach some kind of agreement, and they will regularly supply a certain amount of food, grass, and even ordnance as a condition for not attacking. Like when Confucius saw the bandits, he saw them slaughtering the people like cattle and sheep. In fact, they were attacking those who did not cooperate with them.
, and even led the government troops to attack the people in their villages to massacre them in order to intimidate other villages. These are just green forest bandits since ancient times."
"However, it is difficult for this kind of green forest bandits to dominate the mountains and become kings. First of all, their scope of activities is too small, and they often do not even have enough influence in a county. At most, they are a combination of several mountain villages, occupying several
It's just a mountain forest between the county and the county. If the power is too small, it can barely survive by extorting villages. But if the scale is large and the tribe changes from a few hundred to thousands or tens of thousands, how can it be maintained like this?
Too many people who are not involved in production is a big problem. Just like our Jin Dynasty, we all know how much it costs to raise 10,000 soldiers."
Qinglong nodded: "If the power is small, it is useless. If the power is large, it will attack from all sides, and then lead to the suppression of the imperial court and government troops. Therefore, unless the world is in chaos and the imperial court is concerned about one thing and another, these strong people who gather in the mountains and forests will give
against."
Bai Hu nodded: "Yes, and these people often start from fleeing, because during the Warring States Period, there was a Baojia system, five families were protected in a row, one family fled, and four families stayed together, so if they wanted to run away, they would often run together with the five families. These people are relatively
There is a close relationship between them, and there will be a leader, and the level of organization is relatively high. This is also the reason why some copycat gangs can be formed. Just like our original Huaibei copycat group in the Jin Dynasty, it was formed by the northern refugees who collectively went south.
, loose households cannot form such a synergy."
Xuanwu nodded: "Master Baihu has analyzed it very clearly, but you still haven't explained it clearly. That's why the people during the Warring States Period had such a heavy burden, but there was no large-scale uprising like Sun En's Rebellion. It was because as a country
The repressive power is strong, or the organization of the individual people is not enough. At most, five households and one guarantee can escape, and the whole village and the whole countryside cannot escape?"
Baihu pondered for a moment and said: "Well, I think the main reason is that during the Warring States Period, these common people were first managed by the village officials and village chiefs. These people were many veterans who had retired from the army. They were powerful and capable of suppressing
Dezhi lived in the village. Although his methods were harsh, no one dared to resist. The five families fled together. They were talkative and often leaked information. Moreover, they abandoned the fields assigned to them by the country and fled into the mountains and forests to live a life of peace.
I'm afraid many people would rather die than live like the ancients."
Suzaku laughed and said, "Not necessarily. I see that many people go to Zhongnan Mountain or other mountains to become hermits and live a good life."
Bai Hu shook his head: "Those are the practices of nobles seeking fame. They go to the mountains to practice so-called seclusion and asceticism, but they often bring a large number of disciples or servants to support them. If they really want to live by themselves and make a living with their hands,
I'm afraid it won't take more than three days before they will be eaten by tigers and wolves in the mountains. The kind of escape I mentioned actually has the same problem. Even if you escape into the mountains, how can you survive? There are all kinds of tigers, wolves, beasts, poisonous snakes, ants and insects, etc.
Can a small group of a few or dozens of people deal with it? Even if it can deal with ferocious beasts and poisonous insects, what will they eat and wear? Can they make a living by picking wild fruits all day long?"
Qinglong curled up his lips: "You said that you can control a large area, recruit hundreds or thousands of people, and then build fortresses and lairs. Finally, it becomes a climate, and you make a living by extorting villagers from the flatlands."
Bai Hu smiled slightly: "That would require hundreds or even thousands of people. At least several villages would have to flee collectively. During the Warring States Period, it was not that easy. If the entire village fled, it would only be possible if the village chief or the township leader fled.
Officials take the lead. In this case, the state and county will often send out troops to search. If there are ten or eight households in each village who have fled, then the first step is to search the villages that are tens or hundreds of miles apart.
These people are connected in series, thinking that when Liu Bang fled as Li Zheng, he only gathered more than a hundred people in Mangdang Mountain. This is already the limit of Liu Bang, who is a local powerful and the leader."
"So, those who had hundreds or even thousands of people during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, such as Robber Zhi, were probably very powerful local aristocrats, but they did not dare to use their real names in order to avoid affecting the clan.
, these people are not so much gathering in the mountains and forests, as they are separatists who do not serve the king. Under normal circumstances, in peacetime, the country will not allow such separatist forces to exist, let alone these people directly attack the state.
The county has the strength to seize territory."
Zhuque asked in return: "But wasn't the time when Robber Zhi lived was at the turn of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period? It was a time of great turmoil, and the State of Lu did not have enough troops to deal with him."
Baihu said calmly: "During the Warring States Period, there were frequent wars between various countries, and wars resulted in a large number of scattered soldiers. The sergeants who were defeated, injured, and separated from the army did not want to return to their hometowns.
, suffered from heavy government exploitation, so if some local powerful people formed a place like Shanzhai, they would defect to it. Just like Liu Laozhi established his own power, he used this model to attract Huaibei Shanzhai.
There were many stragglers and thieves and horse bandits after the Battle of Feishui. However, this situation was less common during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, because all countries had standing armies with rich combat experience in order to fight wars, and if sergeants fled in the army,
If the family members want to sit together, if the copycat is too large, the government will send troops to destroy it. With the military merit system, such copycat strongmen have become the best props for normal soldiers to be promoted. Beating them is better than beating the stronger ones.
It is easier for the enemy's regular army." (End of Chapter)