The autumn sun shines like silk into the back garden of Yuan's house. This back garden of Yuan's house has no rockery, green lake, pavilions and pavilions. It is very simple. There is only a lawn, scattered red willows, and a row of hedgehog chrysanthemums along the wall. It's barely a decoration.
The entire back garden is just a school ground. Although it is not large in scale, the layout is neat and orderly. Everything is in accordance with military regulations. In the past two years, this back garden has also become a forbidden area for Yuan's residence.
Even Yuan Ke's wives and concubines had no choice but to go outside the village, to the banks of Ming Lake, or to Dingbian Town if they wanted to enjoy the scenery.
"one!"
"two!"
The drill slogans echoed in the back house. At this time, there were about thirty people in the school grounds. It could be seen at a glance that they were all capable men, and they were holding refined steel knives in their hands.
Yuan Ke also had a batch of standard horizontal knives, but they were too conspicuous and Yuan Ke did not dare to match them with his Zhuang Ding. The imperial court's control of military equipment did not include light equipment such as swords. In remote areas like Yanzhou, almost everyone had a sword in hand, and most of them were issued by the imperial court to enable them to protect themselves.
In fact, except for the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the imperial court was short of resources and once collected iron and bronze wares from the private sector on a large scale to cast weapons, with subsequent improvements in iron smelting technology and production, the use of iron wares was widely opened to the private sector. .
The imperial court controlled the mining, smelting, transportation and sale of iron, but it gave strong support to the smelting and forging of folk ironware. After more than thirty years of development, the Han Dynasty has become densely populated with ironware and weapons workshops, ranging from large ones to small ones. Such as workshops, even basic rural units have one or two blacksmith shops.
Blacksmiths who are good at smelting iron tools have always been one of the most popular professions among the Han people, and the largest number of apprentices among the people are blacksmith apprentices. Although this industry is hard, it is indeed a technical type of work. After learning the craft, I basically don’t have to worry about food and clothing.
Some workshops originally run by the imperial court gradually gave up the production of some ordinary ironware and agricultural tools, because there were enough substitutes among the people, and the scale was larger and the output was higher, even if it was not as high as that produced by the imperial workshops. Delicate, but useful.
The Han Dynasty was rich in martial virtue, one of which was probably reflected in the abundant weapons among the people. This is the so-called hiding of weapons among the people. But there are always pros and cons in everything. The reason why the local public security in Dahan is always in a state of tension and needs to be rectified every few years is also due to this reason.
Violent weapons are often the result of human courage. Children can still kill people with knives. It is also common for people to kill people when they disagree with each other.
For the local government, a single murder case or a robbery by a bandit is nothing. The most troublesome thing is the armed fighting between villages.
Although this is strictly prohibited by Han law, there are always a few incidents every year, and once it breaks out, there will be heavy casualties, because the weapons they use are not poles and hoes, but "eighteen kinds of weapons."
There are many people who have lost their official positions for this reason. Even if Han law clearly stipulates that murderers must die, it cannot be fully applied to this kind of crime.
Although the Han law is strict, it is not as strict as the Qin law. If the law is strictly enforced, it will be difficult for an individual to obtain even basic evidence. In addition, the law does not punish the public, and in the end it is often just a few typical cases that are caught and killed. To shock the people.
As for completely strict law enforcement, unless it involves rebellion, it is impossible to severely punish ordinary people.
Someone once said that the imperial court killed officials quickly and swiftly, but the government was timid in killing people. The imperial court here, of course, refers to Emperor Liu.
In view of the frequent occurrence of civil security incidents, constant armed fighting, and rampant banditry, last year some people believed that civilian weapons were the biggest cause of unstable public security, and proposed to Liu Huang that they could follow the example of the early Republic of China, collect civilian weapons, and ban them. Ordinary people have swords, bows and guns.
However, this suggestion was rejected after Emperor Liu weighed it a little. The reason given by Emperor Liu is very simple. A kitchen knife, a hoe, or even a pole can kill people. Putting aside the difficulty of banning soldiers from the people, even if it is really done, can it prevent the bloodshed among the people?
The fundamental reason lies in people. Most civilians lack education, do not know the law, and find it difficult to abide by the law. If there is a problem, the local officials are to blame.
The imperial court used them to pastor and guard the place, educate the people, and maintain public security. This was their duty. Therefore, when public security was unstable, they attributed the cause to weapons. This was a manifestation of greed for convenience and fear of difficulties and laziness in governance. It was also a way to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.
As for the murderer, the responsibility lies with the person, not the sword that killed him. He can just be punished according to the law. When thieves are in trouble, there will be arrests, officers and soldiers. This is their duty. If local bandits are unclear and harm the people, the first person to be held accountable is the local officials.
So, immediately afterwards, Emperor Liu asked the Political Affairs Hall to formulate a rule, that is, if there is a armed fight in the local area and causes injuries, the chief officer will be held accountable first; if there are bandits that cannot be eliminated, the chief officer will be held accountable first.
Whether it is the Censor or the Wude Secretary, they have added one more item to monitor the local area, and this supervision is not difficult. This policy spread all over the world and caused waves. Many people cried out that it was hard to make a living as an official.
Of course, there are some statements about civilian weapons that have indeed caused concern among many officials. That is, hiding troops among the people is beneficial, but in times of peace, the people are not needed to defend their homes and the country. The people have weapons, which are the source of trouble. What if they are used against the imperial court?
It is true that the common people committed murder and committed crimes, fought with knives and weapons, or even gathered together to become bandits. It was not an important matter to the imperial court. The imperial court had its own response mechanism and it was difficult to directly endanger its own rule.
To the predators of the ruling class, the common people are like ants, and the common people are like grass. The life-and-death struggle between ants, no matter how many casualties there are, or how great the losses are, is not important.
Even those thieves and bandits who do evil are essentially just leeks. They carry the Han sky on their heads. The name of that sky is Liu. The people they kill are Han people, and the money they steal is It is printed with "Qianyu Tongbao" or "Kaibao Tongbao".
But just as some officials are worried, if the untouchables who have mastered swords use these weapons to resist the imperial court, wouldn't this be a huge hidden danger?
Even Emperor Liu was shocked by this view. However, Emperor Liu was not frightened after all. He also thought very clearly that the imperial court had the most powerful machine of violence and must have the strength and confidence to suppress everything. .
And more importantly, if the empire really reaches the point where the people rise up and rebel, it won't matter whether there are any restrictions on weapons at that time, which means that the empire should die. As long as there are no problems with the court, everything will be fine, and if there is a problem, it will not be just this.
In fact, due to the relationship between vision, there is often some survivor bias. In the eyes of some people, they see a proliferation of weapons and casualties caused by disputes.
However, generally speaking, the Han Dynasty is still peaceful, especially in the core areas ruled by the Han Dynasty in the interior. Even if weapons are not prohibited, not every household carries a sword. Every household has a knife. For ordinary people, kitchen knives, axes, and wood knives are enough. , who is a serious person to buy a weapon and keep it? The price is not low. How about a plowshare and a hoe?
Compared with the mainland, weapons are really rampant in the border areas. For example, in Yanzhou today, no one dares to go out without a knife. Farmers and herdsmen also have weapons on their waists during their work. of.
In the past, the imperial court had issued a series of restrictive policies against the Mobei Khitan, and iron weapons were the most important. However, while banning them, they also allowed the people on the border to possess weapons. One can imagine the final effect.
Even if large-scale trade does not exist, there is an endless stream of small-scale and small-volume transactions.
Of course, due to Emperor Liu's attitude, the blockade of Khitan still existed even in the 21st year of Kaibao, and the two sides were still in a hostile relationship. However, non-governmental exchanges became more and more frequent.
In the border market, there are many people who are willing to take risks and make huge profits by trading with Khitan. In this regard, the relevant departments did not pursue them fiercely. Otherwise, if the smugglers were gone, what would be the use of anti-smuggling officials?
Even today, in addition to bartering, the Khitan tribesmen in Mobei use the Han's Tongbao as their daily currency. Precious metals such as gold and silver are also based on the "exchange rate" of the Han. It can be said that although the Han has always been difficult to follow Mobei was conquered by force, but the economic impact quietly deepened.
If it weren't for that ban and liberalizing exchange and trade, the effect might be better, but who taught the two sides to have been enemies for decades?
What about "hatred is as deep as the sea"?
In such a general environment, among Yuan Ke's trading partners were the Khitans. However, because the distance was too far, the risks were too great, and the losses were heavy.
And Yuan Ke has no shortage of weapons, at least not ordinary weapons like swords.
