Chapter 50 Great
At this time, the Shaanxi Chief Envoy and the Dusi Mansion mobilized all the armed forces that all the guards in the area under their jurisdiction could put together, not to mention Xi'an Mansion, Fengxiang Mansion, and Hanzhong Mansion, including Gongchang Mansion, Pingliang Mansion, Qingyang Mansion, and even even The three more distant Ningxia guards (Ningxia Guard, Ningxia Zhongwei, and Ningxia Guard), Lintao Prefecture, Taozhou Guard, and Minzhou Guard all mobilized troops, totaling 60,000 to 70,000 troops, stationed in Tongguan (today's Tongchuan) and Lintong. to prevent Guan Shengyun's army from suddenly attacking Xi'an, the provincial capital.
Including auxiliary troops, there are only more than 20,000 people in Guanbu, and the strength ratio between the two sides is more than three to one. Moreover, if a fight really breaks out, in theory, one of Guan Shengyun's soldiers will be killed or injured, but Shaanxi Province can rely on a relatively complete administrative system and obtain a steady stream of soldiers and supplies through systematic recruitment. To put it bluntly, even if Shaanxi Province cannot do it on its own, the imperial court can still mobilize neighboring provinces to help. Shaanxi Xingdusi, Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan... can mobilize troops to encircle and suppress. Why should he swallow his anger and be ripped off by Guan Shengyun?
Guan Shengyun was confident because he knew that the dog officials would not dare to fight.
Officials in Shaanxi Province also know that they must not fight - these troops can just show off to show off their appearance and embolden their courage, but they will be finished if they actually fight.
First of all, this matter must not be known to the court. Well, at least you can't open the lid to the broad daylight. To make everyone lose face is to add trouble to the imperial court and put the Holy Emperor on the fire: the culprits are almost all the prefectures, guards, prefectures, and counties in the east of Shaanxi Province, and the main source is the three departments of the provincial government! Even if the incident happens, we can't take down the core leadership team of Shaanxi Province and half of the province's officials in one fell swoop, right? If this is the case, Shaanxi Province will suddenly be paralyzed. Does the imperial court still want Shaanxi?
Secondly, officials are very clear about the virtues of officers and soldiers. There was no fight, but they were circled around the camp, giving some money to those who stuttered, and suppressed by layers of officers. These plague gods were unlikely to cause harm to the place. Once action is taken, the area affected by the war will be completely wiped out, regardless of whether there is actual fighting or not! These guys are causing harm to the common people. Do you expect them to fight the thieves with real swords and guns? How much water must be poured into your brain before you dare to have such an idea? It doesn't matter if the war is fought in a neighboring province, but if it is fought in this province, what will the adults eat and drink in the future?
Third, there is a high probability that the first few battles will be lost. Guan Shengyun will definitely use prisoners to expand his strength. He will not care about the anger of the Holy Emperor after turning Shaanxi Province into a scorched earth. Regardless of whether he can be caught and cut into pieces in the end, the black hats of the main officials will definitely fall off first, and many of them may even lose their heads too!
Therefore, the deployment of troops is only for precaution, and this battle must not actually start. Of course, the troubles in Yan'an Mansion could not be concealed. Fortunately, Yu Shengliang took the blame and blamed him alone. As for the ministers of my country, they were scolded on the spot and fined one year's salary. At most, they were dismissed from their posts and kept in office. As long as you stay in office, who cares about the salary? The mobilization of troops and horses in Shaanxi Province can be reported as a large-scale military training activity to repair hidden dangers and prepare for military affairs. Who can say that it is wrong? Guan Shengyun's troops can be packaged as part of the training officer army at the stroke of a pen. With an illiteracy rate of more than 90% and the lack of instant communication means, even if the capital is so far away, it can always be fooled. As long as they leave Shaanxi, it will be those guys in Henan who have to worry about it!
In short, the situation in Shaanxi Province is excellent. It must be great.
To be honest, the combat effectiveness of Qin soldiers is definitely second to none in the Ming Dynasty. However, those are talking about the personal soldiers of various generals, at least they must be direct troops. Most of the soldiers were no different from the beggar soldiers in other provinces, except that they were poorer.
This is a problem left over from history that no one can solve, a dead end.
We have said that the root of this problem lies with Taizu. Zhu Yuanzhang was famously ruthless. He is cruel, and the greater his merits, the more he wants to kill, and the more thorough the killing: in the Hu Weiyong case and the Lan Jade case, the number of people killed was in the tens of thousands. At the same time, Grandpa Taizu was even more obsessed with money: Of course it is good for you to do things, but it is best not to eat, otherwise he will feel bad! The early Ming Dynasty officials earned the lowest wages in the world and had to worry about losing their heads from time to time. Everyone on earth knows this.
When the imperial court raises troops, it must provide money and food, right? It's natural. But Grandpa Taizu calculated the score: Raise an army for a thousand days, but use it for a while? In other words, if there was no rebellion by the thieves, wouldn’t I have raised you in vain? Even if there is a rebellion in the northwest, there is no need for the guys from the southeast. After all, I still lose! Even if you use it, it will only take you a moment. If you defeat the thief, I will have to support you for the rest of your life! How can this be done in Xie Ma Ma Di? I’m in big trouble!
The best solution is that you don't eat at ordinary times. If there are really Tatar bandits making trouble, go and chop them down for me. When they are all hacked to death, you'd better die with them - that way I will be happiest.
Obviously, the cannon fodder is not aware of this.
Well, Grandpa Taizu racked his brains and finally figured out a good way to build a military camp. When the world was first settled, there was a large amount of unclaimed wasteland. The guard system was set up and allocated to the troops. Each person was given fifty acres and cattle were given back. Those who have a daughter-in-law will bring their family members there, and those who don’t have a daughter-in-law will help marry one from their hometown to send one over. From then on, they will take root in the health center - don’t think about coming back anymore, your place of residence has been changed to that place for you. So when we read history, we sometimes see that some people have two birthplaces recorded. Most of them are for this reason: during the imperial examination, you have to take the exam in the place where the guard is affiliated. He said that his ancestor was born as a soldier, so he declared his ancestral home again. In normal times, the peasants and soldiers of the guard farm farm the fields and eat the food they grow. When encountering a war, they put down their hoes and pick up their knives to chop down my enemies. When all my enemies are chopped down, you can still go home and continue to farm and feed yourselves. I was hacked to death by thieves. I will arrest the criminals to replenish the land!
The clever Taizu was very happy when he came up with this good idea: "I can raise millions of soldiers without costing the people a grain of grain."
As we said before, after several generations, this system has changed. The generals gradually encroached on all the land in the military camps and turned it into their own private property, and all the produce was their own. The main labor force is no longer soldiers, but serfs with the title of soldier (military status). A nicer name is auxiliary soldiers - these people have never touched a knife in their lives and do not know how to fight at all. The early soldiers Either become a small landowner, or become the captain of the production team. If there is a war again, there must be real soldiers, right? So we have to raise the soldiers alone.
The question then arises: Soldiers fight for the country, why should generals pay for themselves when fighting for the country? The court must provide money and food!
Since Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, there has never been anyone in the old Zhu family who is more ruthless and evil than these two. They are helpless when encountering this kind of thing, so they can only transport food and wages to border towns through water transport. Over time, it has become a common practice: the generals privately control the farmland. Then the imperial court would separately send money and rice to support the troops.
The price is too high. Not to mention the time cost, the investment of manpower and material resources, the losses on the road, the corruption of large and small officials, the hard work of the soldiers... Calculate the total amount collected, and then count the materials transported to Jiubian, using "ten does not save one" It is definitely not an exaggeration to describe it.
There have been "smart people" who have figured out solutions.
The first smart people were businessmen.
They proposed to the court: We merchants should contract the water transportation work for the border army. The imperial court only needs to tell us how much food the border army needs, and give it to us in the south, or directly pay us for the purchase. We will be responsible for transporting the money and rice there on time and in sufficient quantity, and the transportation fee quoted is ridiculously low—— The imperial court would just pay a small token fee for transportation and then grant us some "salt imports" as subsidies. Yanyin is a license to sell salt. Since the Han Dynasty, salt and iron have been strategic materials monopolized by the state, and merchants need special business licenses to sell them.
The Holy Emperor thought about it: In the past, I had to invest ten shi of grain in transportation costs to send one shi of grain to the border town. Now you cover it all? This is a good thing. It means issuing a few permits without having to pay cash. So it’s accurate.
Then, all the border troops were fed with high-quality military rations - military pay must be deducted, because the merchants could not pay per head, and had to go through layers of officers. But after all, there are a lot more available than before. This is great news for the court and the soldiers.
By the way, are businessmen really so efficient that they can turn a profit on projects that the imperial court has suffered huge losses from? Yes, businessmen really can. If the court had to invest ten shi to transport one shi of grain, the highest price the merchants asked was only two shi.
If you think about it, adults in the imperial court, no matter how hard you endure the hardships and travel thousands of miles day and night, even if the transport team spends more than half of the time just like mules and horses eating grass and no food (well, even mules and horses have to eat some food when they are carrying heavy loads for long distances). )...can’t make much money either!
Facts have proved that the adults were wrong: the businessmen not only made money, but also made a lot of money!
The principle is simple. Because the merchants actually didn’t transport a single grain of grain!
The merchants sold the grain allocated by the court on the spot and exchanged it for silver, which was one stone of grain. Together with the transportation fee, which was two stone of grain, they brought them to the border town - in other words, they took three times the grain. Send the money to the border areas, and then hire refugees to open up wasteland! The commission price for refugees is much lower than the labor price in the grain-producing areas of the land of plenty! Just this operation has already made a lot of money.
When the merchants grow grain and pay it to the border generals, they then go to the government to exchange the receipts from the border generals for salt, and then purchase salt from the coast and sell it everywhere!
Make money.
Then... it was banned.
The court saved huge costs and was happy.
The border troops ate high-quality military rations and received more military pay than before, and were happy.
The businessmen made a lot of money and were happy.
If someone is happy, someone must be unhappy.
For example, officials in charge of water transportation were very unhappy. In the past, it was possible to embezzle, to pay for food and drink, to reimburse the expenses of hiring fiber-drawing river workers, and to accept the filial piety of the headman (contractor + underworld)... Now there is no other way. The bigger loss is entrainment - when transporting from south to north, you can bring private goods! When taking a public boat, not only is the shipping fee zero, but there is also no need to pay taxes at various checkpoints! The more personal items you bring, the more you earn. Therefore, the canals are getting bigger and bigger, and even the largest ones are as wide as the river. If the water level of the Grand Canal drops a little, the whole ship will be stranded, blocking the river so tightly that not even a duck can swim next to it, let alone small boats. past! The official mentioned here is not just the Governor of Water Transport - from Huguang in the south to the capital in the north, what are the benefits to the place where the Grand Canal passes? Everyone, big and small, along both sides of the river has a share!
The soldiers and government officials were unhappy. The oil and water that could be obtained from Caoding trackers in the past were gone, and the opportunity to steal and sell Caoding grain was gone.
The adults in the court were unhappy. No more "floating away"! You know, not only the supplies transported from the capital to the border areas will float away, but even more will float away on the way from Huguang, Suzhou and Hangzhou to the capital!
The civil servants in the border town were unhappy. In the past, materials and silver had to be exchanged for profit, but now there is no profit to be made!
Even the generals are not happy! The merchants were cultivating the land, and maybe one day the Holy Emperor would remember that his great ancestor had allocated a large number of military camps!
There is a saying that destroying someone's wealth is like killing one's parents. How can one not avenge such a great crime!
So, one person reported that the businessman was spying on military intelligence, the other one reported that the businessman was shoddy, you reported that the businessman was driving up prices, and I reported that the businessman had "transgressed" (such as wearing a silk dress) to increase the level of rebellion...
Come on, take care of it!
The biggest feature of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was that there were countless "gentlemen" in the court, who would throw themselves on the ground and cry loudly. The more miserable they cried, the more patriotic they became. At that moment, some people felt sad and sad - oh, actually these are two words: "heartbroken" because the young man was greedy for money, and then "heartbroken" when he went to the feet of the great emperor: "Your Majesty, this is incredible, a huge disaster has happened!" The merchants actually wore silk clothes, and they were so colorful! Not only is this a blatant disobedience to Grandpa Taizu's order, but it is also inconsistent with "etiquette"! What is etiquette? Etiquette is the foundation of the country!
People were arrested and interrogated, some were killed, some were exiled, their property was confiscated, and the abandoned farmland was taken back to the state... Xinxinran was in a good situation.
Then the border troops starved again.
Yes, every time the court shouts that things are going great, a lot of people are bound to starve. The louder the clamor, the better the situation becomes, but the more people starve and the more miserable they become.
