In fact, for the problems in Jingying, the above-mentioned solutions are all superficial symptoms, and none of them deal with the root cause.
There is no shortage of smart people in any dynasty, and the same goes for the Ming Dynasty. Is it difficult to find the root cause of the problems in the capital? It is not difficult. For many officials, the root cause is not difficult to find, but there is no way to say it.
Just solve it.
Everyone knows that during the Zhengtong period of the Ming Dynasty, due to Yingzong's blind march out of the fort, which led to the Tumu Fort Incident, all the elite Ming army in Beijing were lost in this battle, which became a turning point in the Ming Dynasty's military power from prosperity to decline. After Yingzong, the strength of the Ming army changed from that of Taizu to Chengzu.
It has gradually declined from its peak. Although there have been many reforms and innovations, the trend of decline has never been reversed.
Many people of later generations regard this incident as the source of the decline of the Beijing camp, and believe that from then on, the Xungui group was suppressed by the civilian group, which led to the decline of the Ming Dynasty's military power.
Nonsense.
For example, the Tang Dynasty at its peak was not the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Zhenguan, but the Tang Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Gaozong and Li Zhi. At that time, the Tang Dynasty had entered the civil service era, but it had reached the limit of the expansion of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and even the subsequent
After Wuzhou, Zhongzong, etc., until the early and middle periods of Xuanzong, the strength of the Tang Dynasty did not decline significantly. Wasn't the Tang Dynasty in that period already an era of civil servants?
Some people don’t believe domestic examples, so let’s talk about foreign countries. The Netherlands at its peak was an era of merchants, which can also be considered an era of civil servants. In Britain at its peak, I have never heard of any awesome general who dared not listen to the orders of No. 10 Downing Street, right?
That was also the era of civil servants; the United States at its peak... Did Roosevelt not come from a "civilian family" but from a "military family"?
Some people want to say, these are useless, how can the example of the Song Dynasty be broken? Isn't it because the civil servants were weak and suppressed the generals, which led to the emergence of the "weak Song Dynasty"?
This can be said in two aspects. First, the Song Dynasty was not actually weak. The strength of the Song Dynasty depended on the enemy. The so-called "weak Song Dynasty" was able to withstand the Liao Dynasty, which was basically still in its period of strength;
At the cost of withstanding the Jurchen Jin Kingdom, which was known as "invincible" at its peak; and using half of the country to withstand the Mongols that swept across Europe and Asia for 44 years... Is this very weak?
Take Mongolia as an example. Let us first take a look at the speed at which the Mongols destroyed the country: in 1206, the Gaochang Uighur Kingdom was destroyed; in 1206, the Western Haruru Khanate was destroyed; in 1206, the Eastern Haruru Khanate was destroyed; in 1218
, destroyed the Western Liao Empire; in 1220, destroyed the Hou Liao Empire; in 1222, destroyed the Khwarizimo Khanate; in 1227, destroyed the Xixia Empire; in 1231, destroyed the Goryeo Kingdom; in 1233, destroyed the Eastern Xia Empire; in 1234, destroyed
The Golden Empire; in 1236, the Kipchak Khanate was destroyed; in 1239, the Sultanate of Rum was destroyed; in 1240, the Principality of Kievan Rus was destroyed; in 1241, the Principality of Poland was destroyed; in 1241, the Grand Duchy of Hungary was destroyed; in 1241, Bohemia was destroyed
In 1241, the Kingdom of Armenia was destroyed; in 1241, the Kingdom of Georgia was destroyed; in 1241, the Grand Duchy of Austria was destroyed; in 1241, Bulgaria was destroyed; in 1241, Modavia was destroyed; in 1241, the Republic of Venice was destroyed; in 1253, the Republic of Venice was destroyed
The Kingdom of Dali; in 1258, the Abbasid Dynasty of the Arab Empire was destroyed; in 1269, the Eastern Liao Empire was destroyed; in 1279, the Southern Song Empire was destroyed.
How long did it take for the Mongolian Western Expedition to drink the Danube River and reach the Mediterranean? How many years did the Jin Kingdom, which destroyed the Liao and annexed the Song Dynasty, hold up in front of the Mongols? The "weak Song Dynasty" who only held half of the country lasted for forty-four years.
, and also killed the Mongol Khan. Is this weak?
No, this just means that Mongolia at that time was indeed the most glorious moment of the nomads, which was almost like cheating. And if the Mongols hadn't discovered the Arab engineering equipment and artillery during the Western Expedition, they might have taken it.
The "weak Song Dynasty" accounted for no less than half of the country.
On the other hand, the style of civil servants in the Song Dynasty was fundamentally different from that of the Ming Dynasty. Although everyone was engaged in Neo-Confucianism, the Song Dynasty was taught a lesson by the Prairie Dynasty during the founding of the country, so the civil service group as a whole was more afraid of the Prairie Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty was just the opposite. It was built on the corpse of the Mongolian and Yuan Empire! Its Taizu Taizong (the Chengzu was changed from Jiajing) suppressed the Mongols and chased them like dogs to chase them away for decades! So,
Even if there is a civil war and the emperor is lost, he will even start to consider how much benefit he can get. What will be the result?
As a result, the Ming Dynasty’s civil service group didn’t take it seriously at all. It just lost an emperor. What a big deal? It would be over if you just established another one. The old Zhu family had no other advantages, just the damn ability to survive...
So I first discovered that this was not a sweet potato in my hands, but a hot potato!
So after the Civil War, the Mongols actually did not get any benefits at all. Who took the lead in this matter? The civil servant group headed by Yu Qian!
Now it is clear that the Ming Dynasty’s civil service group is not afraid of war at all! To a certain extent, this civil service group is probably the most bellicose civil service group in Chinese history!
Then the question turns back. Since this civil servant group is so bellicose and fierce, even negotiating peace with others is regarded as an intolerable shame, then why does the Ming Dynasty's military strength continue to decline?
Even the Ming Dynasty carried out several military reforms, but it failed to curb this downward trend. At most, it was temporarily delayed?
Because the roots are crooked.
Zhu Yuanzhang, the great ancestor who knew nothing about economics, formulated a guard system that was bound to collapse quickly as the fundamental system of the Ming army. He also particularly liked to engage in "ancestral precepts" and demanded that future generations not violate them. This was what happened later.
The real reason why so many famous ministers and generals could not save the Ming Dynasty.
It is undeniable that the guard system created by Zhu Yuanzhang was indeed able to provide the Ming army with abundant soldiers and food during the war years of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties. However, with the stability of the country and the development of the economy and society, land annexation will naturally occur, and guard posts will naturally appear.
The land on which the system depends will definitely be occupied by gradually solidified classes, and the system will therefore be fundamentally destroyed.
In the 10th year of Zhengtong, the general of the border defense, Jiang Gui, said: "Datong, under the Xuanfu fortresses, there are hundreds of thousands of fertile fields, all of which are occupied by Haoyou." Even the military fields in Datong, Xuanfu and other important military towns,
The phenomenon of occupation is so serious that it is conceivable that the situation in other areas will be even worse.
Sure enough, more than ten years later, the situation has not improved, but has further deteriorated. In the 22nd year of Zhengtong, "Huang Fu went out to see the soldiers and their wives naked, and sighed: "The healthy family is so poor, how can we face it?
'?"
As a soldier who defended his family and country, his wife even went so far as to leave her naked, which shows how low the status of sergeants was and how difficult their life was in the middle Ming Dynasty.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, "Yan'an in the sea", the border troops from all over the country had nothing to do, so the imperial court frequently mobilized foreign garrison soldiers from all over the country to garrison in Beijing. Unexpectedly, the Ming soldiers who entered the capital found that they had become slaves of the imperial yamen and nobles. Hard work requires them to do everything, especially various projects. Instead of hiring craftsmen, they let the soldiers do it.
Therefore, the soldiers were reluctant to go to Beijing to defend themselves, and often delayed the deadline. However, the imperial court still punished them severely regardless of the military situation. Some of them were sent to the border fortress for several months, and some of them were punished for more than a year. In this extremely harsh situation, Under the military system, the status of soldiers fell to the lowest point, so large numbers of soldiers fled and even mutinies inevitably occurred one after another in various military posts.
During the Hongzhi period, Zhu Youtang, Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, realized that the country was entering decline, so he carried out reforms in various aspects such as the economy, people's livelihood, and court politics. Xiaozong was quite a good person, generous and kind, diligent and hands-on, and worked hard to govern the court. The upper and lower parts were unified into the Qing Dynasty, which was known as the "Hongzhi Zhongxing" in history.
However, the military reforms were hard to come back. In the first year of Hongzhi, Ma Wensheng, the then Secretary of the Ministry of War, said, "Although we were released to the garrison, eighty-nine of them fled with us." Even after cleaning up the generals and their retainers, only those who escaped were cleared out. Compared with the huge shortage of soldiers, this is just a drop in the bucket.
In the fifth and eighth years of Hongzhi, Zhang Tai, the censor of the imperial censor, wrote one after another: Many fertile fields in Ganzhou were occupied by general soldiers and eunuchs. The garrison officers and soldiers were not enough in food and clothing, and people were starving to death at every turn. It's freezing to the point of death!
In addition, not only the soldiers who came to Beijing for defense were enslaved, but also the soldiers in the "Twelve Regiment Camps" of the capital could not escape the pain of corvee. As many as 20,000 of the 120,000 elite soldiers in the regiments and camps were drawn out to work every year. Moreover, it lasted two to three years, so even the soldiers in the Beijing camp who were treated "better" than other frontier troops often fled.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic has long believed that if the guard system is not changed, and the system of returning soldiers is not changed, this military reform will be useless no matter who replaces it. Even if Gao Pragmatic is asked to roll up his sleeves, he will not be able to accomplish anything. Most of them are just like Li Hongzhang's self-deprecation back then, just being a "paper maker".
But the work of a paper maker can only scare people, and it’s not like he didn’t do it. For example, the Jinghua Musket Factory and the Jinghua Artillery Factory are typical work of a paper maker—not for his Jinghua Group, but certainly for Daming!
According to his understanding, Jinghua has provided more than 110,000 Longqing II muskets to the armies of the Nine Borders, and provided more than 4,000 artillery pieces of various sizes, but no one can guarantee how useful they will be.
These things are definitely useful in the hands of servant troops such as Qi Jiajun, Li Jiajun, and Ma Jiajun, but if they are given to guardsmen, they might still be just fire sticks.
Why? People can’t even eat, so they have to fight a bloody battle and sell their lives! Do you think you are a Red Army soldier?
Take a look at the memorials of these two science and technology officials, "Please stop the work of the squadron and order the officers and soldiers of each capital to take the equipment and drill together with the original camp. If there is a project, listen to the Ministry of Works to recruit husbands and silver taels. Collect the rations, salt, and silver from all the armies, and even if you are a distinguished minister, you must not violate the ban and ask for help."
This is talking about the issue of the imperial court, nobles, and border officials arbitrarily using the army to do work. It can be seen that these two brothers are quite brave and dare to point this matter out.
But it’s useless. This matter is now an endless cycle: the guardsmen are short of money and are unwilling to work hard to train and fight - the court feels that the guardsmen are incompetent and can only do official work - the guardsmen are even more short of money and can only work.
Not even willing to train hard and fight——
It's endless, getting worse and worse.
Gao Pragmatic had previously asked Zhu Yijun to conduct an inventory of Xungui's land. Zhu Yijun had been doing this for nearly a year. The results were somewhat but not great, and he even caused some trouble.
Don't get me wrong, it's not that any noble man dared to rebel after eating a leopard, but that the officers and soldiers below made several commotions.
It sounds amazing, right? The emperor took back the occupied military land and gave it to you, and you actually made a commotion. Is there something wrong with your brain?
Not really.
Because the land has been assigned to you, you may not have to do the work, farming, etc. that you were supposed to do before, but you should practice and go to war. But these people have not practiced for many generations.
If they no longer fight, they have completely become farmers and handymen. Now if they are asked to fight, they will naturally neither know how to do it nor be willing to do so.
What's more, those working and farming matters may be returned even harder by the "hemorrhaging" nobles.
What the hell is this? It would be weird if there wasn’t a commotion.
But this makes things difficult to handle. It is impossible to eradicate the nobles. If the nobles are really eradicated, the emperor, a lonely man, cannot be bullied to death by the civil service group?
So now this matter has reached a stalemate. If the father-in-law and his wife are cleared, the next work of clearing the father-in-law will be impossible. If the father-in-law and his wife are cleared, these guard soldiers, who don’t know whether they are pitiful or hateful, will make trouble again.
.
Therefore, the two science and technology officials who inspected the Beijing camp this time did not dare to have any suggestions for "making a big news". Although they mentioned seven things, in fact, to put it bluntly, they were focusing on two things: money, food and discipline.
But since they did not dare to take the guard system as an example, Gao Pragmatic could only give this evaluation:
Everything you say is correct, but it’s useless.
However, Guo Pu was not asking him to give advice on the reform of the Ming Dynasty's military system, but was just telling him about the Great Review, so Gao Pragmatic could only suppress his dissatisfaction, put down the memorial, and said: "Should the imperial court agree?
"
Guo Pu raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Of course."
Gao pragmatically smiled meaninglessly and said: "I'm afraid these things won't have any effect for a while. How can we do this parade just based on these?"
Guo Pu sighed sadly and said: "When Su Qing was here, the purge of the border troops was quite effective, but he didn't have time to do much in the capital camp. When it came time to serve as a teacher and govern the country, the situation in the DPRK changed again.
After the fluctuations, it is not easy to be able to follow Cao Cao's orders, let alone attack the Beijing camp easily. Looking at the current situation, it is not easy for the Beijing camp to even mobilize 10,000 capable troops.
But how can it be good..."
It’s not that my third uncle doesn’t have time to take care of Jingying, it’s that he can’t even do anything about it!
Gao Pingshi sighed inwardly and thought to himself: The issue of the Beijing camp is ultimately a health issue, and the health issue is ultimately a money issue, not just a noble issue. To be honest, I have a way to solve it, but that requires
A large amount - no, it is backed by a huge amount of money, and then it is processed in batches and regions. You tell me now, I am not a god, and I can't solve it!
However, Guo Pu is his mentor after all, and the last major issue before he steps down must be solved. Even if it cannot be completely solved, at least it must be deceived at the time.
In fact, although the Beijing camp is rubbish, it is not that they can't even recruit 10,000 people who can see through it. The key is that the nobles have been checking their fields for the past year, and they have resentments in their hearts, so they will definitely not actively cooperate.
.
Even the emperor doesn't have the face to ask them to actively cooperate. After all, Qingzhang and their fields were ordered by the emperor.
There is only one person in the world who can give them face: I am highly pragmatic.
"If Yuanfu can trust Xiaguan, Yuanfu will not have to ask about this matter. He only asks Yuanfu to give Xiaguan three days of leave. After three days, Xiaguan will definitely give Yuanfu an explanation."
Gao Pragmatic changed his tone and made a guarantee.
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Thanks to book friends "andychen236", "Chukotka", "Lu Senah", "Frost Treasure Vase", "Xuanyou Ming", "ASolaF", "Long-standing Disrepairnn" for their monthly support. Yesterday was three
The update exceeded 10,000, I wrote it wrong. I guess it will be the third update today.
