Chapter 86: Ming Dynasty's Average Combat Strength
Chapter 86 Ming Dynasty’s Average Combat Power
Author: Fat Bird Goes First
Chapter 86 Ming Dynasty’s Average Combat Power
Lin Qingcai also sighed. His clan brother also knew that he was recommended as an official this time because Sun Dianshi used him as a spearman.
But Sun Dianshi has already recommended his clan brother. If he doesn't go, the family's incense contribution over the years will be in vain.
Xiong Yue said to Chen Chaoyuan: "Brother Chen is so clear about the affairs in the county government. Could it be that he also has family members working as officials in the county government?"
Chen Chaoyuan sighed and said: "My cousin has some connections in the county government, and he is also familiar with Sun Dianshi. To be honest, I wanted to find a way to get a job in the county government last year."
Chen Chaoyuan's cousin was a litigator with a reputation as a scholar, and he must have known Sun Dianshi, who controlled the torture chamber.
Chen Chaoyuan was not even a scholar. If he wanted to go to the county government to find a job, he would naturally go to the county government as an official.
Xiong Yue and Lin Qingcai were shocked and said quickly: "Brother Chen, you must not do it. Once you become an official, you will always be a subordinate!"
The status of subordinate officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties was very low. In the early Ming Dynasty, the imperial examinations did not allow the children of officials to take the exam.
However, in the middle and later periods, the restrictions on the imperial examinations for the children of officials were relaxed, but once they became officials, they could not participate in the imperial examinations.
However, Chen Chaoyuan is already so old. He has not been able to pass the imperial examination for many years, so it is normal for him to have the idea of becoming an official.
Although the officials in the Ming Dynasty did not have salaries, they had various methods of plundering them. Many officials were extremely fat, and many ordinary people wanted to join the county government as officials.
Chen Chaoyuan is the kind of honest person who has no independent opinions. Over the years, he has spent a lot of money on studying and studying. Although he can make a living by writing petitions with his cousin, now that his children are getting older, it is not an option to continue studying like this.
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Su Ze sighed, I am afraid that if Chen Chaoyuan's character went to the county government, he would not be able to fight against the subordinate officials in the county government who were like tigers, leopards and wolves.
However, Su Ze didn't say much about his family affairs. He was very interested in Lin Qingcai's clan brother.
"Brother Lin, I want to entertain your family brothers tomorrow. There are some things at the county government that I want to inquire about."
Lin Qingcai immediately said: "Then I'll make an appointment after school!"
"Then go to Yaoyue Tower."
Lin Qingcai glanced at Su Ze in surprise, but seeing Su Ze's magnanimity, he even gave away rock candy, so his family was probably not in a bad situation.
But Lin Qingcai couldn't figure out why he always wore rough cloth shirts like himself.
While the four of them were chatting, Hai Rui came over wearing the patched Confucian shirt.
The four people quickly saluted Hai Rui. After Hai Rui responded, he led the four people to the school and started the afternoon lecture.
I gained 20 points of imperial examination experience in two hours. Compared with practicing skills at home, I gained experience much faster in class.
After the lecture was over, Hai Rui said to the four of them:
"It's not peaceful in Nanping County today. Please be more careful when going back and forth."
Su Ze quickly asked: "Are the Japanese pirates coming?"
Hai Rui nodded and said, "Yes, the Haidao Yamen has issued an official document, and the Woseulu King wants to raid the border again. Especially Su Ze, you must be extremely careful."
The reputation of King Lu was known to the entire Fujian Mansion. Everyone shuddered and then looked at Su Ze who lived by the seaside.
Chen Chaoyuan lives in the county, Lin Qingcai's family is also not far outside the county, and Xiong Yue's family is at the foot of Wuyi Mountain, still far away from the sea.
Only Su Ze, who lives in the military guard at the seaside, is the most dangerous.
Hai Rui added another sentence: "If it doesn't work out, I'll give you a room. Please don't go back to Changning Guard during this period."
Su Ze handed over to Hai Rui and then said: "Thank you very much, teacher, but Changning Guard is the hometown of my clan. If the Lu King comes to invade, I will stay in Changning Guard and fight with my brothers."
When Su Ze said this, everyone admired his courage. Hai Rui stopped trying to persuade him and could only tell him to pay attention to his safety.
Hearing that the Japanese pirates were about to invade the border again, everyone was in a low mood. Last time, King Lu showed off his power outside Fuzhou City, but this time, no one knows how many people will suffer.
Hai Rui said indignantly: "It's probably these sea lane officials and coastal military officers who have left their corpses without food. This is why the southeastern sea area is unrest and the people's lives are in ruins!"
When Hai Rui talked about the current situation, he looked very sad.
Hai Rui was an official, so it was okay to criticize his colleagues, but Chen Chaoyuan and the other three couldn't, they just kept their heads down and didn't speak.
Su Ze felt that the problem of Japanese pirates in the Ming Dynasty was not just a problem of officials.
The imperial court lacked long-term coastal defense and maritime trade policies, and orders were often changed day by day, and the attitudes of the officials in charge were often diametrically opposed.
Ultimately, the reason why the Ming Dynasty boycotted sea trade was Zhu Yuanzhang's "techniques of controlling the people."
According to Zhu Yuanzhang's career system with complex levels and various types, everyone's responsibilities are fixed when they are born.
The kitchen household is responsible for making salt, the military household is responsible for serving as soldiers, the farmer household is responsible for farming, and the craftsman household is responsible for craftsmanship.
Everyone does their own thing, and they are all serfs of the Zhu family. The descendants of the Zhu family only need to accept the support of all the people.
It's just that the family property is too big and there are too many things. Except for the previous generations of emperors, they can still manage it, but the descendants who come later can't handle it anymore.
At this time, we can only promote some civil servants and eunuchs to serve as domestic slaves to manage the house.
The most important thing about this system is naturally "each person performs his own duties." The strict household registration system of the Ming Dynasty was also to prevent population flow and imprison everyone on the land.
This is also the reason why an area as large as Penghu was never developed during the Ming Dynasty.
To develop, people must relocate, and Penghu is isolated overseas, making it inconvenient to manage.
If the Penghu separatist regime rebels, it would be better not to develop it at all, and prohibit coastal people from landing on the island. Only set up an inspection department to be responsible for patrolling, and isolate coastal people from smuggling.
Under such circumstances, how much motivation do generations of military households have to risk their lives for the Ming Dynasty?
Therefore, military guards like the Changning Guard were anomalies among the aliens, and guards like the Yanping Guard were the norm in the Ming Dynasty.
If you win, your old Zhu family won't get any reward. If you lose, you'll lose your head, so it's better not to fight.
As long as you don’t fight, there is no loss!
King Deer has already bombarded Fuzhou City, and Fuzhou City still reported to the court that "nothing happened this year". It doesn't matter how many villages King Deer plundered. Anyway, as long as the court can collect enough taxes, the higher authorities don't care whether you have Japanese insurrection.
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Su Ze didn't think that Hai Rui couldn't see the essence of the problem. Now Hai Rui was just a new official who had just entered the officialdom and was an unqualified county school teacher.
In his opinion, the problem along the coast is naturally the official's job.
People are always growing, and the current Hai Rui and the Hai Rui who will write "Public Security Shu" in the future definitely have different ideas.
But his concern for the country and the people remains unchanged. This is why Hai Rui is Hai Rui.
After Hai Rui left, Chen Chaoyuan said to Su Ze: "Brother Su, I still have a spare room in my house. If you don't mind it, you can stay in Nanping City temporarily."
Su Ze knew Chen Chaoyuan's good intentions and said, "Thank you very much, Brother Chen. I still want to go back to Changning Guard."
Seeing that he was determined, everyone could not continue to persuade him.
Hai Rui provided meals for the four of them. Although it was only rice and pickles, the four of them ate with gusto.
After eating, he returned to the school building and Chen Chaoyuan said again: "Last time, King Lu invaded the southeast and almost captured Jianyang, Zhangzhou. There was also a small team that reached the foot of Nanping County. At that time, the commander did not dare to climb the city to fight.
It was Li Hu from the county government village who led people out of the city to drive away this small group of Japanese pirates."
Su Ze asked: "How many people are there in this team?"
"Fifty people."
Su Ze was speechless. The five thousand Yanping Guards were actually blocked in the city by fifty Japanese pirates and beaten?
This is too magical!
But when Su Ze thought about it, it seemed that this was not magical enough.
If there are no mistakes in the development of history, next year, in the 34th year of Jiajing, a group of Japanese pirates will land in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, loot the three provinces of Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu, and plunder more than 20 places in Hangzhou, Yan, Hui, Ning, Taiping and other prefectures and counties.
, approached the city of Nanjing, the remaining capital, and rampaged for more than 80 days, killing and wounding four to five thousand officers and soldiers.
The record in the history of the Ming Dynasty is: "Suddenly invaded Kuaiji County, robbed Hangzhou, invaded Shexian County in Huizhou, reached Jixi and Jingde, massacred and plundered Jingxian County, headed towards Nanling, and reached Wuhu. Burned the South Bank, headed towards Taiping Prefecture, and invaded Jiangning Town.
Heading straight to Nanjing."
In the battle of Jiangning Town, the Ming army commanded Zhu Xiang, and Jiang Sheng led his troops to resist. "They could not resist, Xiang died in the battle, Sheng was wounded and fell from his horse, and more than 300 officers and soldiers died."
How many Japanese pirates were there who caused shock in the three provinces and even attacked Nanjing, one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty?
The answer is fifty-three.
Based on this calculation, the Yanpingwei's combat effectiveness is also at the average level of the Ming Dynasty.
Su Ze asked again: "Don't we have general cannons on the walls of Nanping County?"
Chen Chaoyuan said again: "Brother Su, do you think it's the one on the city gate? That one is already a cannon cast in Chenghua. It has been exposed to wind and sun and cannot be used for a long time. Besides, can it still be used in Yanping Guards now?
It’s hard to find anyone who can operate this cannon.”
Well, Su Ze just felt that he asked a stupid question.
The problem of the Ming Dynasty was not only a problem of the military's combat effectiveness, but also a problem of the entire system. Even military technology had regressed.
Su Ze asked again: "The Yanping Guards still have five thousand soldiers, do they still need Minzhuang to fight?"
Chen Chaoyuan said with disdain: "Yanping Guard? How many regular soldiers are there in Yanping Guard? Who can tell clearly? I am afraid that even the commander does not know how many soldiers he has under his command."
"I remember when the Qing censor came to Nanping five years ago, all the beggars in the city and outside the city were dragged into the army and had their heads killed."
Only then did Su Ze remember that the Ming Dynasty's characteristic was empty wages.
The supplies of the Ming Dynasty were calculated based on the number of troops. On the basis of the military system of guard posts for generations, there emerged families of officers who had held military positions for generations.
Most military officer families are good examples of vegetarianism, such as the commander's family.
Officers at all levels were also corrupted under this system, and airspace pay was one of the problems of the Ming Dynasty's army.
One is to withhold military rations and pay from soldiers. This is a basic operation, and basically all officers in the Ming Dynasty would do it.
There is also the possibility of directly fabricating the identity of a soldier, and then letting his family members pay the military salary.
There are also generals who deduct soldiers' military pay and then use them as domestic slaves. This is considered a common magical operation.
There are also those who privately sold the farmland of the guards to others and suddenly became landlords.
There are also those who directly smuggle arms and make money by selling armor and weapons.
There are those who sell fake salt products, those who set up cards to force donations, and those who engage in military business. The army of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be full of "flowers".
Putting it this way, it is no wonder that the reason why the Yanping Guards were so frightened when they heard that the imperial court was going to send a censor to the Qing army was because they had a guilty conscience.
After talking about the Japanese pirates, the atmosphere became a bit dull.
Lin Qingcai said: "So Brother Xiong's hometown is stable, and the Japanese pirates will not attack the foot of Wuyi Mountain."
Chen Chaoyuan also nodded.
Xiong Yue sighed and said, "Don't talk about it. Nowadays, the tea tribute from the imperial court is getting heavier and heavier. Half of the people in my hometown have fled to the mountains and become refugees. It is even more chaotic than along the coast."
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Everyone was shocked. They didn't expect that Wuyi Mountain was also unstable.
Su Ze asked: "Is this tea tribute so heavy?"
Xiong Yue nodded and said: "I heard that the founding of the People's Republic of China abolished the tribute group and dispersed it. Although they also paid tribute, at that time they only had to pay tribute to Nanjing, and the amount of tribute tea was not as large as it is now. Even after a few good years, my ancestors were also like that.
At that time, I opened a tea garden in Wuyi Mountain."
"Nowadays, the number of tributes is getting larger and larger, and they still need to be escorted to the capital. My tea garden is busy for a year just to complete the tea tribute tasks every year. It also needs to pay people to be escorted to the capital. If it continues like this, it will really take a long time.
I can’t hold it any longer.”
Before the Ming Dynasty, Tuancha was popular in the Central Plains.
At that time, the method of steaming tea was used to make tea. The steamed tea had a strong bitter taste. Various spices and complicated production processes were needed to remove the bitter taste from the tea leaves.
Spices themselves are luxury goods, and Tuancha tea is even more expensive and the production cost is extremely high, so tea has also become a high-end luxury product.
At that time, the method of making tea was also the tea-making method, which required various tea sets and tea cups. The upper class not only pursued tea drinking, but also developed a set of rituals for ordering and tasting tea, which was something only the top educated people could afford.
Fried tea had also appeared in the Southern Song Dynasty, but at that time it was only consumed by ordinary people and was not popular among the upper classes.
After Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the world, he didn't like loose tea with strong fragrance and complicated production, so he ordered that the group tea sent as tribute from tea gardens in various places be changed to loose tea. With the further development of tea-frying technology, the technological process of blending green tea and frying green tea appeared.
, reducing the bitter taste of fried tea.
The royal family drank loose tea, and nobles and ministers naturally followed the trend. From the Ming Dynasty, loose tea began to enter the upper class and became popular throughout the country.
Tea sets in the Song Dynasty were generally black, because Tuancha tea needs "rich tea soup" to match dark tea sets.
Most of the tea sets in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were made of white porcelain, because fried tea requires a clear color, and white porcelain can show this clear color.
Unexpectedly, everything in the Ming Dynasty was going to be difficult, and Su Ze couldn't help but curse: