Chapter 10 A pot of porridge
Yulinwei is under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Dusi Prefecture - we often see the two names Dusi Prefecture or Xingdusi Prefecture. For example, here in Shaanxi: there are both Shaanxi Dusi Prefecture and Shaanxi Xingdusi Prefecture.
What is the difference between the two?
In fact, there is not much difference.
The Ming Dynasty had three sets of teams for the management of provincial areas: the Chengxuanzhengshisi was an administrative agency, in charge of civil affairs, and the chief was called the chief. Later, it was gradually restructured and called the governor; The Commander-in-Chief Department is a military organization, and the chief officer is called the Commander-in-Chief. Dusifu can be understood as a provincial-level military division, and the full name of "province" is "Xing Zhongshu Province". However, the Dusi Mansion, which evolved from the "Duwei" during the Hongwu period, was established to meet the needs of military defense at that time. With the expansion of territory, some local areas became very large, such as Shaanxi, and the jurisdiction was not what it is today. The area includes large parts of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, and the Shaanxi Dusi Mansion in Xi'an cannot control it at all. So the Shaanxi Xingdu Division was established in Ganzhou (today's Zhangye, Gansu Province) to conduct military management and command nearby (the two places were separated by about 2,650 miles via the official road). All in all, to put it simply: If the military management agency and the administrative management agency are in the same place, they will be managed by a Dusi Prefecture. If they are not in the same place, and the area is very large, then an additional Xingdu Sifu will be added to supplement them, with the same administrative level.
Whether it is the Dusi or Xingdusi, the downward administrative jurisdiction units are: Wei, Qianhusuo, and Baihusuo. This system is called Weisuo system.
Dusi Prefecture or Xingdusi Prefecture is a provincial military division. Guards are similar to division-level units (such as Tianjin Guards, Weihai Guards, Jinshan Guards, etc.). The organization is called a certain guard command department, and the commander is called a commander (division commander). ), two persons of the third rank, commanding Tongzhi (deputy division commander), four persons of the third rank, commanding general (the next lower level), two persons of the fourth rank, Wei Zhenfu (deputy regimental military police battalion commander), and five persons from the fifth rank . Theoretically, each guard has 5,600 people. Note that this refers to the number of sergeants. In other words, based on the calculation of one ding per household, each guard has jurisdiction over 5,600 military households - women, old people and children are not counted as persons, and are called "kou". . "Ding" refers to an adult male with the ability to work. The age standards of each dynasty are different, ranging from 15 to 60 years old. "Kou", as the name suggests, means eating for free. In the imperial household registration book, Ding is Ding and Kou is Kou. The guard is divided into five thousand-household offices: front, rear, left, right and center.
At first, there were two types of Senhusuo, namely the Beiyu Senhusuo and the Shouyu Senhusuo. The former was subordinate to the Wei, while the latter was directly under the jurisdiction of the Dusi Prefecture. Later, they were all placed under the unified management of the Wei. In each thousand-household office, there is one person for the chief thousand-household position, two persons for the chief position of the fifth rank, and two persons for the deputy rank of the thousand-household rank, and two persons for the deputy minister of the thousand-household rank, the rank of the sixth rank. Each thousand-household station has ten hundred-household stations under its jurisdiction, with a staff strength of 1,120. The administrative level can refer to today's regiment level, but this is only in theory - in fact, the tradition of using civil servants to control military affairs, let alone the fifth-grade thousand households, even the commanders of the third-grade, seventh-grade county magistrates will be abused Handy (Jin Yiwei is the emperor's personal soldier, this does not count), secondly, it is said that there are more than a thousand troops. In the middle and late stages, it will be very difficult for a thousand households to lead a team of more than a hundred people to fight.
Each hundred-household office theoretically has 112 people (similar to a company), and one hundred-household office is the sixth rank. There are two general banners under the jurisdiction, each with 56 people. The person in charge is called the general banner officer, who is in the seventh rank. Each headquarters has five small flags, and the leader is called a small flag officer. From the seventh rank, he leads ten leading soldiers.
According to the idea of the great ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang, who was unparalleled in intelligence (wealth) and intelligence (mystery), each guard station usually works in the fields to support itself. No one can eat my food in vain. In wartime, they are ordered to attack and defend. Put down the hoe and pick up the knife to feed. I will kill the rebels! As for the combat effectiveness, how big the casualties of the "peasants and soldiers" will be...does it matter? Grandfather Taizu will not care about such things - at worst, he will issue an order to the chief envoys of each province: Give me three, four, and five or six children, and then let the Ministry of Civil Affairs conduct merit examinations and the Ministry of Civil Affairs will be included in the official assessment!
A thousand-year plan to prepare for a rainy day is yet to come: despite the fact that the Dusi Mansion is a military institution, during wartime, the imperial court will temporarily appoint generals to command the battle, not the capital commander and the guard commander below, but It is not necessarily them who are the civil servants or those who actually lead the troops in the war. The court refers to whom! In order to prevent the tragedy of the Tang Dynasty, when the separatist rule of feudal towns endangered the old Zhu family and the country from happening again, the wise Taizu made reference to the system architecture design of the Song Dynasty and put together such a system.
Does this system work?
It works...
That’s weird!
Not to mention that the great-grandson Zhu Yunwen had not yet warmed his buttocks with the dragon chair, he was severely beaten by his tough fourth uncle who mounted his horse to kill the Tatars and dismounted to kill the officials. In the last war, you were not required to be responsible for the systemic flaw caused by such a congenital big bug. Soon, the commanders of all the administrative divisions and the commanders of the guards turned hundreds of households into landlords of all levels, large, medium and small!
This is not a problem - Aristotle once said: There will always be evil Rakshasa, and if you are not careful, they will definitely hit you! Since war is unavoidable, what should we do to prevent temporarily designated generals from taking the opportunity to support themselves with troops? Easy to handle: tie you with an iron chain (oh, but I didn’t let you give birth to eight).
This iron chain is the civil servant - the civil servant is responsible for leading the army and being the commander. But...the problem comes again: civil servants don’t know how to fight! Moreover, it is really not reassuring to leave all logistical work such as military pay, food, supplies, and equipment to these moral role models who are dedicated and devoted... Then let’s add another patch: Let the eunuchs supervise the army and be responsible for the supply of military supplies - they They are the emperor's family, so don't worry!
The system was continuously upgraded and patched, and finally it became an invincible combination:
When there is a war, the imperial court temporarily appoints a civil servant such as the Minister of Rites as the commander-in-chief. The reason may be that his handwriting is good and the emperor likes to see it, or it may be that his name is auspicious (for example, it is called Desheng) and the emperor likes to hear it. It may be that he is popular and everyone recommends him - of course, it may be that he is not popular and everyone recommends him more enthusiastically... He led the army out and read a few chapters of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu (other books in "Seven Books") on the way. No, they are all about specific management "techniques", not advanced enough) Even if you know how to defeat the enemy, then you can think hard for a while facing a map that looks like a landscape painting (sometimes there is not even this), and then with a finger, give the order to fight Order: "General I watched the sky last night, and there was a faint sword energy rising into the sky between the bullfights. This is a sign of great victory over the enemy! There must be no mistake, otherwise military law will be engaged!" As for whether the actual distance is 20 miles or 80 miles, and whether there is a gap in between When the enemy army sees the prepared troops on the mountain, will they cooperate with your strategic deployment and immediately cross the river, waiting to be attacked by half-crossing... Your Majesty doesn't care about that! If you win, it's called strategizing, decisive victory, and a thousand-mile plan. Kong Ming is reincarnated. If you lose, it's either because those gangsters are greedy for food, wages, and materials, or because those idiots are greedy, fearful of death, and fearful of the enemy. Isn't it just a matter of using a pen to throw dirty water and scolding football on the street? Well, who is afraid of whom? This is your main expertise!
There is also a father-in-law with a sharp voice and no beard who is responsible for the military supply of the army. The father-in-law is most likely illiterate (in a patriarchal environment, no one would be willing to inflict such a knife on a child who is carrying on the family line, even if the family is not very poor). Someone also needs to help the father-in-law with the accounts and keep records: How many are there in a certain camp? How much people, food and grass are needed, how much salt and vinegar are needed, flags, gold drums, knives, guns, bows and arrows, armor, horses, shovels, hammers, pickaxes, cloth bags, iron nails, hemp ropes, axes, saws, pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, horses, donkeys, dogs... How much has been stored, how much has been consumed, and how many household workers are still missing? How much was allocated by the Ministry of War and how much was supplied by which state and county... Then they began to divide: one for him, one for me, one for you, one for me, one for me, and I want one more of this - the management of military supplies is the trust of the Holy Emperor, and more He is a fat servant. Can he not be filial to the eunuch leader who recommends him to the palace? Can the second leader not be filial? If you don’t keep some for yourself, you definitely can’t justify it, right? Isn't it against the rules for the leader to not give it to you? Even if colleagues in the palace and the army cannot treat them equally, they all have to keep their mouths shut... As for issues such as what soldiers eat, drink, and fight with - is that important? If you win, you have to work hard to live up to the grace of God. If you lose, it is because the general is greedy for life and is afraid of death and runs away! The wise and wise Lord will never blame the defeat on the boy (or uncle) who empties his toilet.
It is also very likely that the task of the illiterate military commander would be much simpler: just follow the orders of the leading minister to kill people. If you can kill them, then rush all the way. If you capture them, you will make a profit. If you find that you may not be able to kill them, lead your troops to kill your defeated troops behind the formation, letting them know that they will all die anyway, and maybe you can really win. If it doesn't work out, just run away - here's the real trick! All units are facing the enemy together. You'd better wait and see for a while: if your side has the advantage, attack decisively. The friendly forces are exhausted after fighting the enemy for a long time. If you chase and defeat the enemy and grab the loot, you will definitely not be able to outrun you. You can often get a big deal. Seeing that they can no longer withstand it, they have to take the team away from the battlefield in time, and then retreat into the camp - there are soldiers in hand, and the court is still counting on you, so there is a high probability that you will be fine if you get scolded at most, or even Maybe in order to appease you, you will be praised and rewarded (this happens a lot)! Are you stupid enough to rush ahead? If your own troops are exhausted, even if you win, you won't get any benefits! Lost the fight? Haha, all the soldiers are gone, what use do you have? I just want to use your head to shirk responsibility and boost morale! Of course, if we win the battle, first of all, it should be due to the great blessings from the Holy One and the great blessings to heaven and earth. Secondly, it should be due to the leading ministers who use the troops like gods. Thirdly, it should be due to the strong protection of the angels who supervise the army. The last one should be due to the soldiers using their lives. It is a lucky chance. What a bargain...
There is such a big bug in the underlying source code of the system. No matter how many patches are applied, it goes without saying that the system will collapse sooner or later. Therefore, in the middle and later stages, we can only redesign a system to maintain the operation of the project - this is the camp and sentry system.
The camp sentry system is for recruiting soldiers. The biggest difference from the Weisuo system - well, don't talk about the difference, they are completely unrelated things!
The first is military status. Guard soldiers are hereditary military households, and their descendants will serve as soldiers forever. Battalion sentries have civilian citizenship. They can retire after serving and still have civilian citizenship.
The second is preparation. The battalion sentry system is a team of five people. The second team is a team, the third team is a team, the third team is a sentry, the fifth team is a general, and the fifth general is a battalion. The theoretical number of soldiers in each battalion is about 3,000.
The third is financial sources. The camp and sentry system ate the imperial grain, and the food and salary expenses were borne by the national finance. The guard system was to feed themselves. Well, later, when the generals became landlords, they were reluctant to use their "own" fields to support the soldiers of the "imperial court", and they also began to look to the state finance. The lion opened his mouth.
How exaggerated is it? There are three authoritative data on the number of acres in the Ming Dynasty, namely 3.8 million hectares recorded in "Taizu Shilu", more than 8.4 million hectares recorded in "Zhu Si Zhi Zhang", and 7.1 million hectares during the Wanli Period. . It may seem like a huge difference, but in fact, it’s almost the same thing! The field data recorded in "Records of Taizu" and "Zhusi Zhizhang" were both personally reviewed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the time interval was less than a year. If the results were nearly twice as bad, given Lao Zhu's temper, I don't know how many more people would be needed. Land! Some people guess that it is the so-called big acres and small acres, which is wrong. In fact, Lao Zhu played a word game here: the "Records" recorded the cultivated land area of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, the data in "Zhaozhao" included military villages, and the Wanli data was discovered by Zhang Juzheng and hidden in various places. The actual data on unreported land reclamation and land reclamation do not include military camps - half of the farmland is in the name of the guards and does not need to pay land taxes, and these soldiers cannot fight yet! The national finance only relies on taxes from half of the land. This is not the end of the story. Each generation of holy emperors has to allocate the land of their clans and nobles from here! Seeing this, everyone understands: Even Thanos can't help but bury the needle directly in the aorta to draw blood at any time!
The Ming Dynasty will not die, and the laws of heaven cannot tolerate it.
The fourth is the division of labor. Battalion sentries are responsible for fighting, and guard soldiers are responsible for farming. Even if it is really urgent and cannot recruit people, and the guard soldiers are transferred to the battlefield to fill up the numbers, the organizational structure must first be changed to a camp sentry system.
The fifth difference is the division of labor among leaders. Although the commanders, commanders, commanders, commanders, commanders, commanders, and magistrates all have military positions...but the guards and generals do not care about commanding operations - that is the business of the camp and sentry generals!
The sixth difference is weaponry. Most of the camp sentries have weapons. If you don't count hoes, most of the guardsmen don't have weapons. Even if they do have weapons, they have been passed down for several generations, and it is not certain whether they can use them.
…
Forget it, let’s talk about the commonalities between the two military systems.
The first commonality is that they all turn to the national finance for money and food (except for those years when the Ming Dynasty Company was chaired and CRO by two ruthless men, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Laosi).
The second commonality... well, there is no second commonality...
Let’s use an analogy. Chairman Lao Zhu, the founder of Daming Company, led his people to create a system. Everyone knew that the chairman was ruthless. If he said he was fired, he would be kicked out from dozens of floors and he deserved to be thrown to death. Everyone was trembling and did not dare to make mistakes. The system can be maintained at least.
The heirs behind are less intelligent and timid than the previous generations. The descendants of the entrepreneurial veterans take advantage of the broken system to do private work for themselves. Not only do they use water and electricity for the office, but they also ask for wages and benefits from the company, and they will cause trouble if they give less. .
In order to keep the project running, the company's human resources department hired helpers to code and write programs, and finally built a new system. It was okay at first, but then these coders imitated the old people, and the new system gradually became laggy, and would freeze for a while...
Do you almost understand it?
Just understand it, let's continue - soon you will be confused again - after writing so much in a eloquent manner, if you understand it all at once, the author will be at a loss!
The above-mentioned military positions are called permanent positions, which are usually hereditary, especially the commander/tongzhi/qianshi/qianbaihu, etc. of the Dusi Guard Station.
There is also a kind of dispatched military position, which is not hereditary and is considered a temporary assignment. In theory, you should complete the task and step down, and then go on to do whatever you want. Later, it was gradually changed to a long-term assignment... It can also be considered a compromise——
The general thought: I raised my head and risked my life to kill the thief, and then you can kick me away? I bother! I am dawdling and raising a thief to respect myself! Anyway, as long as there are still thieves, I will do whatever I want and you will give me whatever I want...
The court thought: The landlords at Dusi Guards Station cannot fight, so they have to count on these guys. But they are not good people either. They understand our intention of killing the donkey. Alas, instead of letting these guys linger and destroy all the land they pass into no man's land, it is better to finish the work early and continue to give them separate wages. Not only can huge military expenses be saved, but the people can also pay taxes. Yeah...
Therefore, these temporary assignments gradually became permanent duties: another set of officer titles that we are very familiar with came into being:
Admiral: Occasionally seen in the late Ming Dynasty, but it cannot be regarded as a purely military position. The Qing Dynasty turned it into a formal one and omitted it.
Chief Soldier: The official name is "General Guard Officer", so it is also called "General Town". Appointing someone to be the Chief Soldier is called "Kaizhen". The commander-in-chief is the person in charge of the provincial theater, so he is often flattered by his subordinates to become the "general commander", which can be understood as the provincial military division commander or army commander. There is no quota for the number of troops that military attachés of the same rank in the Ming Dynasty can lead. This "commander" can be a powerful man with seven or eight "divisions", or he can be a guy with only one "regiment" - but the level is the same. Note, don’t understand it as a “military rank” like “lieutenant general”. The military rank is the rank - the chief soldier is the second rank. The Ming Dynasty only had a total of twenty general soldiers, so they were relatively valuable. In the early Qing Dynasty, not only Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the remnants of the party were wanted to be exterminated, but there were also four families who also used the Nanming brand: King Fu, King Lu, King Tang, and King Gui. Everywhere was a mess, and the number of total soldiers increased sharply. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, the status of the general soldier had become the level of division commander.
Lieutenant General: The official name is the deputy general of the Xieshou Army. He assists the chief military officer and is responsible for combat or defense tasks in a certain strategic direction. Therefore, the appointment of a deputy general is called "Kaixie". Because he is also responsible for his own role, he can be flattered as "deputy commander". In the Ming Dynasty, the rank of deputy generals was from the second rank, which usually meant the main division commander. In the late Qing Dynasty, his status was reduced to brigade commander.
Staff General: A third-grade military officer. His task is to guard various roads or a certain section of a road. He is roughly equivalent to a brigade commander or a reinforcement regiment commander. In the Ming Dynasty, a general could have several battalions under his command. In the Qing Dynasty, the chief officer of a battalion was often a general.
Guerrilla: From the third rank military attache. As the name suggests, it leads mobile troops (rangers) to and from the war zone for defense. In the Ming Dynasty, most of the officers were the commanders of a battalion. In theory, there should be about 3,000 troops. In fact, a battalion of 1,000 people can definitely be called the leader in the army. A full-strength main battalion with four to five hundred people, two A battalion of three hundred men was common. The title of "guerrilla" is a watershed: from here upwards, one can be called "general", but downwards cannot be called "general".
This is the dividing line.
In the Ming Dynasty, the military positions below basically had no rank. They were all temporarily appointed positions. From the general military officer to the guerrilla general, they could appoint their own subordinates at any time according to the needs of the war. The court could neither control nor bother to control them. Anyway, Do whatever you have to do after the war. Therefore, if something happens at any time that would shock you and me today, it is commonplace and not surprising in Ming Dynasty. For example - a certain arrogant military officer went out without reading the almanac and was killed in an unexpected encounter... More than ten thousand of his "heroes" heard the news and were "inexplicably sad and angry". Then... they dispersed in a hurry! When you heard the news, you were dumbfounded and refused to believe it? Haha, on the contrary, the court was very calm: Oh, are you so careless? Okay, let's find another guy to be the general soldier and let him recruit more people...
By the way, by the way, the Ming Dynasty was later overthrown by Li Zicheng and other peasant armies. The predecessors of the peasant armies that were surging everywhere. Who were the first batch of rebels? Do you know? The defeated troops brought down by Sal Hu! When the general died, everyone dispersed and returned to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, and the court ignored him! So they robbed, the court suppressed, and killed dozens of people. Everyone simply changed from robbing the people to killing officials and rebelling!
Dusi: This military position is not common, and many people tend to confuse it with the concept of Dusifu. In fact, this is a low-to-medium military position, somewhere between guerrilla and defense. Because they were purely temporary dispatched officers, the Ming Dynasty did not stipulate the rank. It depended on one's original rank, such as the fifth rank with a thousand households, the fifth rank with a thousand households, etc.
Guard: Leading troops to guard a certain city or a small area; followed by the general, sentry officer, team officer, chief, corps commander...
The weird thing is: even if the original guard system doesn't work, you can just make a new camp system to replace it, and it will work! But...it also contains such dissimilar titles as "Mr. Qian" and "Mr. Bai" - even more ridiculous, for fear that it is not chaotic enough, not only the thousands of households in the health center are allowed to act as Chief Qian, but also some establishments He also included all the chief flag officers and minor flag officers of the Pure Guard Institute, including their personnel and positions!
Oh, by the way, Ming Dynasty said "military soldiers" are two concepts!
"Army" refers to the Guards Army, whose main business is farming (later, in addition to farming, it also asked the court for food and salary), it is called "Army", but it is not actually a "soldier", it is the Agricultural Reclamation Corps - okay, I was wrong, It almost means a farmer - he may have never touched a knife in his life, but he still wields a hoe every day.
"Bings" are soldiers recruited from society to fight. Because the household registration does not include "military status", they are still considered "civilians", so they are "militiamen" - well, forget it, I admit it, there are many of them Even though a person has a "nationality", he can do nothing else in his life except swinging a knife to kill people! These "militias" are the regular army...
Are you stupid? I don’t believe you are stupid!
All in all, the military system of the Ming Dynasty was very chaotic. Not only did generals of the same rank have different numbers of troops, different organizational structures, different command orders (golden drum flags), but also different names of basic units: some were called Xiaoqi, some were called Xiaoqi, and some were called Xiaoqi. It’s called Wu, some is called Team (Qi Jiguang)… In order to facilitate understanding, this book is organized as follows (regular army):
The basic combat unit is Guo, with ten people per Guo. The chief officer is called Guo Chang, and his position is designated as General Manager.
The ten fruits are divided into teams, each with more than a hundred people. The chief officer is called the captain and has a thousand positions.
There are five teams called battalions, each battalion has about 500 people, and the chief officer is the battalion officer, who is usually the guerrilla leader.
The battalion is a standard combat unit.
The general will be in charge of 1-3 battalions.
The deputy general commands 1-3 generals.
The chief military officer is usually accompanied by two lieutenants.
