When Han Wei, who returned from a great victory, led his army into Sanjiang City, the city was empty, and the residents gathered on the side of the road to greet each other, and the long line of captives escorted by the Ming army made the crowd jubilant and cheered.

After an accurate count, the Ming army captured a total of 8,656 rebels and killed 9,263 enemies at Luoyepo, which can be described as an out-and-out victory.

Due to the large number of prisoners and the fact that Sanjiang City was under the noses of the rebels, Li Yuntian quickly sent people to send the prisoners to Taiyuan City and Xuanhua City in batches to relieve the pressure on the Ming army in Sanjiang City.

After experiencing the first battle of Falling Leaf Slope, the high-spirited Han Wei was in awe of Li Yuntian in his heart, if it were not for Li Yuntian's precise deployment, he would not be able to defeat the rebels with many people no matter what, and he would undoubtedly have a grace to support.

Among the generals of the counterinsurgency army, Han Wei was the first person to command the troops to win the battle on the Jiaozhi battlefield, and also achieved a brilliant record of killing and capturing nearly 20,000 enemies.

According to Han Wei's military exploits this time, even if he cannot be knighted, he can at least be promoted to the commander of the capital, and his hereditary military position will also be promoted to a level, and the hereditary commander of the hereditary guard will be promoted to the highest hereditary military position - the hereditary guard commander.

As long as he makes another great achievement, then Han Wei may step into the ranks of nobles and become the new earl of the Ming Dynasty, which he could not have imagined before.

To tell the truth, Han Wei knew that the reason why he was able to make such a great achievement in the Fallen Leaf Slope was completely due to luck, Liang Shaojie and Qin Kun, who had higher official positions than him in the counterinsurgency army, were both in each other, and it stands to reason that the two were the most qualified to command this battle but were sent by Li Yuntian to perform other tasks, so this opportunity fell on his head.

Moreover, the Ming army that participated in the battle of Luoye Slope was all reorganized from the sergeants of the Xiaowu Army under Li Yuntian, and it had nothing to do with him.

The most important thing is that before the start of the First Battle of Luoye Slope, the operational staff officers of the Xiaowu Army under Li Yuntian had already drawn up a set of detailed and perfect combat plans, and the trend of the First Battle of Luoye Slope was completely in accordance with the speculation of that set of combat plans, and his task was only to give orders in accordance with the combat plan.

It stands to reason that according to the "reward" system of the Ming army, Han Wei can be promoted to the earl of the Ming Dynasty by virtue of the great victory on the Fallen Leaf Slope.

However, Li Yuntian did not attribute all the credit to Han Wei for the victory of the Falling Leaf Wave, Han Wei took the first credit as the commander of this battle, and Liang Shaojie and Qin Kun dutifully carried out Li Yuntian's task, so although the two did not participate in the battle of the Falling Leaf Slope, Li Yuntian gave the two of them the second credit.

In this way, the credit for the victory of the fallen leaf wave was divided between Han Wei, Liang Shaojie and Qin Kun, which made the three of them happy.

Han Wei did not complain about Li Yuntian's approach, because as early as when he left the capital, Li Yuntian had already announced to the generals of the counterinsurgency army the criteria for the recognition of military merits of the Xiaowu Army, which was different from the reward system for military merits of the Ming Dynasty.

In the military merit system formulated by Li Yuntian, because the duties of senior officers and middle-level officers are different from those of grass-roots officers and soldiers in war, he is subdivided into two categories: the military merit system of middle-level and high-level officers and the military merit system of grass-roots officers and soldiers.

The so-called middle and high-ranking officers refer to military attachés at or above the level of guerrilla generals in the counterinsurgency army, and the corresponding military attachés at or above the regimental level in the Xiaowu army are military attachés at or above the regimental level.

Junior officers, on the other hand, refer to military attachés below the battalion level.

The reason why Li Yuntian did this was because of careful and meticulous consideration: Middle- and high-ranking officers were mainly responsible for directing operations in war, while grass-roots officers and soldiers were mainly charged into battle, so the criteria for evaluating military merits on both sides were naturally different.

With regard to middle- and high-ranking officers, Li Yuntian divided the military merits of the operation into two parts: the officers who commanded the operation for the first attack, the officers who took the second credit for containing the enemy forces and providing logistical support, and the officers who were in charge of intelligence work.

Although Liang Shaojie and Qin Kun did not participate in the battle of Luoye Slope, one of them ensured the logistics operation of the Ming army in Sanjiang City, and the other contained Li Li in Anliang County, so they both shared military merits.

Moreover, in the military merit system for middle and high-ranking officers formulated by Li Yuntian, if the combat general completes the military tasks assigned by Li Yuntian, then even if he is defeated or loses the city, Li Yuntian will give him military merit.

The reason why this is the case is because Li Yuntian, as the commander-in-chief, focuses on the entire battle situation, rather than the gains and losses of one city and one battle, and plans his strategic policy from the overall situation.

In this way, it not only enhances the cohesion and execution of the Xiaowu army, but also makes the generals feel at ease with their duties.

Regarding the military merits of grassroots officers and soldiers, Li Yuntian mainly identified three criteria: one is whether the combat is brave; One point is the size of the record; One point is whether or not the strategic goals are accomplished.

It is worth mentioning that Li Yuntian, whether he is a middle- or high-ranking officer or a grassroots officer, has practiced the system of responsibility of commanders at all levels, that is, commanders at all levels are responsible for the success or failure of battles, and they have both meritorious service and awards as well as responsibility for crimes.

Corresponding to the military merit system of the Xiaowu army is naturally the "reward system" implemented by the Ming Dynasty, in the twelfth year of Yongle, the Yongle Emperor consulted the old rules of the Hongwu and Jianwen dynasties to promote and reward the soldiers, and determined the two ways of rewarding the soldiers, and since then the Ming Dynasty has basically followed these two different standards to formulate the detailed rules for rewarding the merits of the soldiers.

One criterion is to start from the overall victory or defeat of the war, and determine the merit by the role played by the soldier in the war and the bravery, referred to as the "war merit system".

Another criterion is to evaluate the rank of reward based on the number of enemy heads captured, referred to as the "first merit system", where the "head" refers to the head of the enemy who was killed.

Generally speaking, the Ming Dynasty uses the fourth class of the first merit and the second class of combat merit to determine the combat merits of the soldiers participating in the battle.

The so-called "fourth class of meritorious service" should indicate that the court is divided into four grades: "northern", "northeastern", "western and Miaoman", and "inland anti-thief" according to the area of meritorious service and the different targets of capture.

"Second class military merit" refers to the Ming Dynasty's soldiers' battle table xiàn divided into two titles: "miraculous merit" and "head merit" to judge merit.

In addition, in addition to the above four grades, the first merit system also appeared in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, such as "thieves" and "thieves", and the name of "second merit" in addition to the miraculous and first merits under the war merit system

In the Ming Dynasty, there were many regulations on military merits, and various rewards were also changed repeatedly, but the two basic standards of the war merit system and the first merit system were the two basic standards throughout, and one eliminated the other.

During the Hongwu, Jianwen and Yongle years, the battle merit system was the mainstay, which can be seen from the reward and punishment order in the Yongle 12th year army: "Those who break into the thief formation during the confrontation and reveal their backs to kill the defeated thieves, dare to enter the battle bravely, cut the general and hold the flag, the team has defeated the thieves, can rescue other teams to defeat the enemy, and is ordered to be able to do whatever it takes, and those who succeed in breaking the thieves by surprise are all miraculous achievements; Those who advance together and defeat the thieves first, the front team has an unresolved confrontation, and the back team moves forward to break the thieves is the first credit.

Whoever establishes miraculous feats and head merits, his personal management of the leader is to report the knowledge, and those who make false reports will be punished with serious crimes.

Those who capture spies when they go to camp and go down to camp will be rewarded for their first merit. Rest of the work. ”

It can be seen that the investigation of the military merits of the soldiers in the Yongle period was mainly based on the military merit system, although there was also a reward and punishment order in the 12th year of Yongle, "If the sentry horse captures a thief, a reward of 30 taels of silver; Whoever comes from the head of the thief will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver", according to the first merit system, but this is only for the sentry horse to obtain merit.

Since Hongxi and Xuande, the main criteria for determining military merits in the Ming Dynasty have changed, and they have been replaced by the first merit system based on how many merits are beheaded, supplemented by the battle merit system.

Since then, although the first merit system has become the dominant standard in the Ming military merit system, the war merit system has not been completely abolished, and the two standards still coexist.

In the 40th year of Jiajing, Qi Jiguang was transferred to Jiangxi to suppress the Liukou, and before leaving, he also wrote to the imperial court in the hope of determining whether the military merit standard was the first merit system or the war merit system, and built yì in the back, "If there are a number of thieves in a certain place, but they can win all, they will be rewarded with a few, and there is no need to talk about their first merit."

The reason why the military merit system sank after the Hongxi and Xuande years was mainly because of the increasing prosperity of those who took advantage of it and abused their merits.

The first meritorious service system still has a first rank to verify, and the military meritorious system only needs to set up a clever name to make meritorious contributions, and its true merits are difficult to examine, so that it often happens that beheadings are only a few levels, but there are "grand occasions" of dozens of hundreds of people who are rewarded for promotion.

In a battle in Yingzhou in the last years of Zhengde, there were only 12 or 3 people who were beheaded, but because of the various names such as "charging first" and "supervising the formation of the banner", the officials and soldiers were rewarded by no less than hundreds, which can be described as extremely reckless.

Because the military merit system has always had the unavoidable drawbacks of taking merit and indiscriminate merit, the Ming Dynasty's imperial merit system was cautious, and then turned to the first merit system.

In fact, the disadvantages of the first merit system are more numerous and the dangers are more severe, and the military generals of the Ming generation have all fiercely attacked the shougong system.

During the Zhengde period, Cheng Qichong, the imperial historian, once elaborated on the disadvantages of the first merit system: "Customization: military rank and award, all the first merit." Today, fortunately, there are disadvantages of buying merit, impersonating merit, sending fame, fame, and merit: the powerful family bribes the sergeant gold silk to get the grade, which is called buying merit; Charge and behead A also, and B takes it, and even kills civilians as thieves, which is called merit; If you don't go out, and your name is in the army, it is called a name; bribing officials and washing up the books is called fame; As for the body of one person, in one day, he does not go out of the Beijing Division, and those who report merit in the east, west, north and south are accumulating according to their names and suddenly reaching a high level, which is called meritorious. This is all bad ancestral law, and the body of the soldier is solved. ”

And the first merit system is most criticized by the outside world for nothing more than two points: one is to kill the good and take the merit, and the other is to cut the level in battle.

The so-called killing of good and merit refers to the wanton killing of civilians and pretending to be thieves, and cutting off the rank refers to cutting off the enemy's head on the battlefield, and the person who cuts off the head is not necessarily the one who kills the enemy.

Although the Ming court repeatedly banned this, it is recorded in the "Military and Political Regulations": "All officers and soldiers are not allowed to kill and surrender and be robbed and walk back to the population to repay the merits, and those who violate it will pay for their lives."

"Da Ming Law" also recorded: "Anyone who kills a person without permission to repay his merits, and his own leader is lost in the restraint of the official, will be punished." Measure the number of killings, demote and transfer the guards, and dismiss and refill the army. Please decide".

Those who connived at their subordinates to kill good people and make meritorious deeds were punished, and those who killed good people and impersonated meritorious deeds were punished according to the crime of killing ordinary people, but in fact, this phenomenon is common to all dynasties, and it is a matter of fame and fortune, and it cannot be stopped.

Therefore, Li Yuntian did not choose neither the battle merit system nor the first merit system as the meritorious service standard of the Xiaowu Army, he combined the advantages of the two and improved them, and established this set of military merit system with clear rewards and punishments for the Xiaowu Army, which was implemented in the Xiaowu Army after the approval of Emperor Xuande.

In the battle of the Fallen Leaf Slope, the advantages of the military merit system of the Xiaowu Army were immediately revealed, which not only fundamentally eliminated the phenomenon of cutting the ranks, but also enabled the soldiers of the Ming army who participated in the battle to pursue and kill the rebels with all their might.

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