Chapter 10 A pot of porridge

Yulinwei is under the jurisdiction of the Shaanxi Metropolitan Government - we often see the two names of the Metropolitan Mansion or the Xingdu Division, for example, here in Shaanxi: there are both Shaanxi Metropolitan Divisions and Shaanxi Xingdu Divisions.

What's the difference between the two?

Actually, there is not much difference.

The management of provincial-level localities in the Ming Dynasty is three sets of teams: the political envoy department is an administrative body, in charge of civil affairs, and the chief is called the political envoy, and then gradually restructured into the governor, the governor is the judicial body, the chief is called the inspector, the commander is a military institution, and the chief is called the commander. The capital can be understood as a provincial-level military sub-district, and the full name of "province" is "Xingzhongshu Province". However, during the Hongwu period, the capital division office evolved from the "capital guard" was set up in response to the military defense needs of the time, with the expansion of the territory, some local areas became very large, such as Shaanxi, the jurisdiction is not today's area, including Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan A large part of the Shaanxi capital office located in Xi'an can not be managed at all. Therefore, in Ganzhou (now Zhangye, Gansu), the Shaanxi Xingdu Division was set up to carry out military management and command nearby (taking the official road, the distance between the two places is about 2,650 miles). To sum up, to put it simply: if the military administration and the administrative management are in the same place, that is, the military administration is under the overall control of the prefecture, not in the same place, and the area is very large, then a new administrative department should be added as a supplement, and the administrative level is the same.

Whether it is a capital division or a line capital division, the administrative jurisdiction units down are in order: health, thousands of households, and hundreds of households. This system is called the guard system.

The Dusifu or Xingdu Sifu is a provincial military subdivision, and the Wei is similar to a division-level unit (such as Tianjin Wei, Weihaiwei, Jinshanwei, etc.), the organization is called a certain Wei Command Division, and the commander is called the Commander (Division Commander), Zheng Sanpin, the commander Tongzhi (deputy division commander) two people, from the third product, the commander (one level lower) four people, Zheng Sipin, Wei Zhenfu (deputy regiment-level military police battalion commander) two, from the fifth product. Theoretically, there are 5,600 people per guard, note that this refers to the number of sergeants, that is, according to the calculation of one ding per household, each guard has jurisdiction over 5,600 military households - women, the elderly, and children are not counted as people, they are called "mouth". "D" refers to an adult male who is able to work. The age standard varies from dynasty to dynasty, roughly ranging from 15 to 60 years old. "Mouth", as the name suggests, is to eat for nothing. In the household registration book of the imperial court, Ding is Ding and Kou is Kou. Guard, divided into front, back, left, right, middle 5 thousand households.

At the beginning, there were two kinds of thousand households, respectively called the preparation of the thousand households and the defense of the thousand households, the former was subordinate to the Wei, the latter was directly under the jurisdiction of the capital office, and later they were all assigned to the unified management of the Wei. For each thousand households, there is one person for one thousand households, two people for five products, and two people for deputy thousand households, from five products; The two people who were calmed down from the six products. Each 1,000-household office has 10 100-household offices under its jurisdiction, and the number of non-commissioned officers is 1,120. The administrative level can refer to today's regimental level, however, it is only theoretically - in fact, one is based on the tradition of civil and martial arts, not to mention the five products of thousands of households, even if it is the commander of the third grade, the seven products of the county order are also handy (Jinyi Wei is the Son of Heaven's personal soldiers, this is not counted), the second is that there are more than 1,000 horses, and in the middle and late stages, it is not easy for a thousand households to lead a team of hundreds of people to fight.

Each 100 households is theoretically 112 people (similar to Lian), and 100 households are positive six products. Under the jurisdiction of two flags, each 56 people, the person in charge is called the general flag officer, is seven products. Each general flag has five small flags, and the leader is called a small flag officer, from the seventh grade, with ten big soldiers.

According to the idea of Zhu Yuanzhang, the great grandfather of Cong (Cai) Ming (Fan), each guard usually supports himself in Tuntian, and no one wants to eat my food in vain, and he is ordered to attack and defend in wartime, and he puts down his hoe and picks up a knife to cut down the thief! As for how combat effectiveness will be, how many casualties will be among the "peasant soldiers...... Does it matter? Grandpa Tai won't care about such things - it's a big deal to give orders to the political envoys of various provinces: give me three children, four children, five or six children, and then let the officials test the merits of the Qing Officials Division into the official assessment!

The more precautionary millennium plan is still to come: don't look at the capital division is a military institution, every time there is a war, it must be temporarily ordered by the imperial court - the commander of the battle is not the commander of the capital and the commander of the guard below, but the civilian officials, the specific leader of the army to fight, not necessarily them, who is the court refers to! In order to prevent the recurrence of the tragedy of the Tang Dynasty's feudal towns and endangering the old Zhu family's Jiangshan Sheji, the clever grandfather referred to the system architecture design of the Great Song Dynasty and put such a system out.

Does this system work?

It works......

That's weird!

Not to mention that Taisun Zhu Yunwen's ass has not yet covered the dragon chair with heat, and he was critted by the fierce fourth uncle who got on the horse to cut the tartar and dismounted to cut hundreds of officials to the point that his whereabouts are unknown, just looking at the main business of the military management agency is responsible for farming, in case of war, you don't need to be responsible for this kind of congenital big bug system hard injury, not long after, all the commanders of the Xingdu Division and the commanders of the health posts have turned thousands of households into large, medium and small landlords at all levels!

This is not a matter - Aristotle once said: There will always be evil rakshasas, and if you don't guard against it, you will definitely beat you! Since war is inevitable, what should we do to prevent temporarily appointed generals from taking the opportunity to support their troops and respect themselves? Easy to do: put you on a chain (oh, I didn't give you eight).

This iron chain is Wenchen - Wenchen is responsible for leading the army and being the commander. Can...... The problem is here again: Wenchen doesn't know soldiers! Moreover, it is really not reassuring that the logistical work such as military salaries, military rations, materials and equipment is all handed over to these moral models who are clean and dedicated to their two sleeves...... Then make another patch: let the eunuchs supervise the army and be responsible for the supply of military supplies - they are the emperor's family, so rest assured!

The system is constantly upgraded and patched, and finally becomes an invincible combination:

In the event of war, the imperial court temporarily appointed a civil official such as a squire of the Ministry of Rites as the commander-in-chief, the reason may be that he writes well, the saint loves to read, or his name is auspicious (such as called victory), the saint loves to listen, or it may be that he is popular, everyone recommends it - of course, it may also be that he is not popular, this is recommended by everyone more enthusiastically...... Led the army out, read a few chapters of "The Art of War" halfway through (the rest in the "Seven Books" is not good, they are all about the "art" of specific management, not high enough) Even if the enemy's ability to defeat the enemy is clear, and then the map like the landscape (sometimes not even this) pondered for a while, pointed at the hand, and issued a combat order: "General X listens to the order!" It is easy to defend and difficult to attack by the mountains and rivers here, only 20 miles away from our army, and I now order you to lead your troops to rush here at noon tomorrow to set up a formation, and wait for the enemy to cross the river when half of the crossing and attack! The old man watched the sky at night last night, and there was a hidden sword aura in the bull fight that rushed straight to Xiao Han, which was a sign of a great victory and a defeat of the enemy! There must be no mistakes, otherwise military law will be engaged! "As for whether the actual distance is 20 miles or 80 miles, whether there is a mountain in the middle, and whether the enemy army will cooperate with the strategic deployment of the adults and immediately cross the river and wait to be attacked by Bandu...... Adults don't care about that! If you win, it's called strategizing and winning a thousand miles, Kong Ming is reincarnated, and if you lose, it's either the eunuchs who are greedy for food and materials, or the rice bucket and straw bale are greedy for life and afraid of death, and the enemy is like a tiger - isn't it just playing with a pen and splashing dirty water, scolding the street and kicking the ball, who is afraid of whom? This is an adult's main specialty!

There is also a shrill-voiced father-in-law who is responsible for the supply of military supplies for the army. This father-in-law is most likely illiterate (in the patriarchal environment, he is not a poor family to a considerable extent, and no one is willing to give such a knife to the heirloom of the baby), and someone must help the father-in-law settle accounts and keep records: how many people are in a certain battalion, how much grain and grass are needed, how much salt and vinegar are needed, banners, golden 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 is reserved, how much is consumed, how much is missing, how much is allocated by the Ministry of Households, how much is allocated by the Ministry of Industry, and how much is supplied by which state and county...... Then began to divide: one for him, one for me, one for me, one for you, one for me, one for me, and one for this - managing military quarters is the trust of the saints, and it is even more fat, can the eunuch leaders recommended by the palace not be filial? Can the second leader not be filial there? If you don't keep a little bit for yourself, you can't say it, right? It's not proper for the adults who lead the army not to give it, right? Even if you can't treat your colleagues in the palace and the army equally, you have to keep your mouth shut...... As for the question of what the soldiers eat, drink, and fight, or what? If you win, you will do your best to live up to the grace of God, and if you lose, you will still be a military general who is greedy for life and afraid of death and flees from the wind! The wise and wise saint will never count the defeat on the little guy (or uncle) who poured the toilet for himself.

It is also likely that the task of a military general who does not know a word is much simpler: just cut people according to the orders of the minister leading the troops. If you can cut it, then you can rush all the way, and if you capture it, you will earn it, and when you find that it may not be able to cut it, you will lead the pro-soldier team to cut your own rout behind the battle, and let them know that they are all dead anyway, and maybe they can really win it, and if they can't do it, they will run away - the real trick is here! All departments meet the enemy together, you had better wait and see for a while: you have the advantage on your side to attack decisively, the friendly army and the enemy have been fighting for a long time and their physical strength is tired, and the pursuit and defeat of the enemy to grab the spoils of war will definitely not be able to outrun you, often you can pick up a big bargain, this side can't stand it, you have to take the team away from the battlefield in time, and then shrink into the camp - there are soldiers in your hands, and the court will count on you, so there is a high probability that you will be fine with two sentences of scolding at most, and you may even be praised and rewarded in order to appease you (this kind of thing is really a lot)! Silly, right, rushing to the front? Your own troops are gone, even if you win, don't think about any benefits! Lost? Hehe, the soldiers are gone, what do you want? Just borrow your head to shirk responsibility and boost morale! Of course, if you win, it should first be the Holy Hongfu Qi Tiande's sense of heaven and earth, the second is due to the fact that the minister who leads the army uses the soldiers like gods, the third is the strong protection of the angels of the army, and the last one is the soldier's life, which is a big bargain......

There is such a big bug in the underlying source code of the system, no matter how many patches are made, the redundancy is needless to say, and the crash is a matter of time. Therefore, in the middle and later stages, a system can only be redesigned to maintain the operation of the project - this is the battalion sentry system.

The battalion sentry system is recruitment. The biggest difference with the Wei system - well, don't talk about the difference, it's two completely unrelated things!

The first is military registration. The guards are hereditary military households, and the children and grandchildren will serve as soldiers forever, and the battalion sentries are of civilian nationality, and they can be discharged from the army after the expiration of their service and still return to the civilian register.

The second is compilation. The battalion sentry system is five people and one army, two soldiers for the team, three teams for the team, three teams for the sentry, five sentry for the total, five for the battalion, each battalion has about 3,000 theoretical soldiers.

The third is financial resources. The battalion system eats the imperial grain, and the food and salary expenses are borne by the state finance, and the guard system eats itself - well, after the generals became landlords, they were reluctant to use "their own" fields to raise the soldiers of the "imperial court", and they also began to talk to the state finance.

To what extent is it exaggerated? In the Ming Dynasty, there were three authoritative data on the number of acres of land, namely 3.8 million hectares recorded in the "Records of Taizu", more than 8.4 million hectares recorded in the "Zhu Si Zhizhang", and 7.1 million hectares in the Wanli period. It seems like a huge difference, but in fact, it's almost the same thing! The data on the acres of land recorded in "Taizu Records" and "Zhu Si Zhang" were all personally reviewed by Zhu Yuanzhang, and the time interval was less than a year, if the result was really nearly doubled, with Lao Zhu's temper, I don't know how many heads will land! Some people guess that it is the so-called big acres and small acres, which is not right. In fact, Lao Zhu played a word game here: the "Actual Record" records the cultivated land area of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and the data of "Job" includes Juntun, and the data of Wanli is the actual data that Zhang Juzheng found out about the hidden and unreported and cultivated land in various places, excluding Juntun - half of the farmland is under the name of the guard, and there is no need to pay field dues, and these soldiers can't fight yet! The state finance only relies on the tax of half of the land~ This is not the end, each generation of the Holy Son of Heaven divides the clan and the nobles' land, and it must be allocated from here! Seeing this, everyone understands: even Thanos can't help but bury the needle directly in the major artery like this, and draw blood at any time!

The Ming Dynasty is immortal, and heaven is intolerable.

The fourth is the division of labor. The battalion sentries are responsible for fighting, and the guards are responsible for farming - even if they can't recruit people in a hurry, and the guards are transferred to the battlefield to fill the number, they must first change the organizational structure to the battalion sentry system.

The fifth difference is the division of leadership. Although all commanders and guards are commanders, commanders and commanders, they are all military positions...... But the generals of this guard station don't care about commanding the battle - that's the business of the battalion sentry generals!

The sixth difference is armament. Most of the battalion sentries have weapons, if not hoes, and most of the guards are unarmed—and even if they do, they have been passed down for generations, and it is not certain whether they can be used or not.

……

Forget it, let's talk about the commonalities of the two military systems.

The first commonality is that they have to ask the state treasury for money and grain (except for those years when Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Laosi were the chairman and CRO of Daming Company).

The second commonality...... Well, there is no second commonality......

Let's take an analogy. Chairman Zhu, the founder of Daming Company, led people to make a set of systems, everyone knew that the chairman was ruthless, and said that he would be fired and kicked out directly from dozens of floors and fell to his death.

The heirs behind are not as intelligent as the generation, the courage is still small, and the descendants of the entrepreneurial veterans occupy the broken system to do private work for themselves, not only using the water and electricity office for nothing, but also looking for the company to ask for wages and benefits, and make trouble if they give a little less.

In order to keep the project running, the company's personnel department recruited a dead house to type code and write programs, and finally made a new system. At first, it was okay, but then these coders followed the same example as the old people, and the new system gradually froze, and it crashed for a while......

Pretty much get it, right?

It's good to see it, let's continue - soon you will be confused again - write so much with enthusiasm, and suddenly understand it, this author will lose!

The above military official positions are called permanent official positions, which are usually hereditary, especially the commanders/tongzhi/servants/thousands of households of the capital guards.

There is also a kind of military assignment, which is not hereditary, it is considered a temporary assignment, and theoretically it should complete the task and leave the post, and then what should be done, and then gradually changed to a long-term assignment...... It's also a kind of compromise -

The general thought: Why did I fight with my head and kill the thief, and then you can kick Lao Tzu away? Phew! I'm rubbing, raising thieves with self-respect! Anyway, as long as there are thieves, I'll call for wind and rain, what do you want, what do you have to give......

The court thought: The landlords of the Dusi Guard Office can't fight, and they have to count on these guys. But they are not good things, and they understand our thoughts of unloading and killing donkeys. Alas, instead of letting these guys grind down and turn the land they pass through into a no-man's land, it is better to finish their work as soon as possible and continue to give them a separate salary, not only can the huge military expenses be saved, but the people can also pay taxes......

Therefore, these temporary assignments gradually became permanent duties: another set of officer titles that we are very familiar with came into being:

Admiral: In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, it was occasionally seen, but it could not be regarded as a pure military position, and the Qing Dynasty turned to a formal and omitted it.

General Soldier: The official name is "Town Guard Chief Soldier", so it is also called "General Town", and appointing someone to be the Chief Soldier is called "Kaizhen". The chief soldier is the person in charge of the provincial-level theater, so he is often called a "big marshal" by his subordinates, which can be understood as the commander or commander of the provincial military division. There is no quota for the number of troops led by the military attache of the same rank in the Ming Dynasty, and this "army commander" can be a powerful faction with seven or eight "divisions" in his hands, or a guy with only one "regiment" under his command - but the same level. Be careful, don't understand it as a "military rank" like "lieutenant general". The rank is the rank - the general soldier is the second rank. Daming only has a total of more than 20 total soldiers, so it is more valuable. In the early Qing Dynasty, to extinguish Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and the rest of the party, needless to say, there were also four Nanming signboards: King Fu, King Lu, King Tang, King Gui, everywhere into a pot of porridge, the number of total soldiers rose sharply, more depreciation, to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the status of the general army also became the level of division commander.

Adjutant General: Officially known as the Deputy Commander of the Auxiliary Guard, the Assistant General Officer is responsible for operational or defensive tasks in a certain strategic direction. Therefore, the appointment of a deputy general is called "Kaixi", because he is also in charge, and can be called "deputy marshal". The rank of deputy general in the Ming Dynasty was from the second rank, which generally meant the commander of the main division, and the status was reduced to a brigade commander at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

Staffing General: The military rank is three products, and the task is to guard each road or a certain section of the road, which is roughly equivalent to the brigade commander or the commander of the reinforced regiment. In the Ming Dynasty, there could be several battalions under the generals, and in the Qing Dynasty, the commander of a battalion was often the general.

Guerrilla: From the military attache of the third rank. As the name suggests, lead mobile forces (guerrillas) to defend back and forth in a war zone. In the Ming Dynasty, most of the commanders of a battalion should theoretically have a strength of about 3,000 troops, in fact, a battalion of 1,000 people can definitely be called the best in the army, and even if there are four or five hundred people, even if the main battalion is fully manned, it is common for two or three hundred people to occupy a battalion. The title of "guerrilla" is a watershed: from here up, one can be called a "general", and from the bottom you can't be called.

This is the dividing line.

The lower military positions, in the Ming Dynasty, basically have no rank, are all temporary appointments, from the chief military officer to the guerrilla general, you can appoint your own subordinates at any time according to the needs of the war, the court can neither manage, nor bother to manage, anyway, what should you do after the war. Therefore, at any time, something that makes you and me drop our jaws today is commonplace in Daming, and it is not strange. For example, a certain invincible general military officer, who went out without looking at the yellow calendar, was cut down in an unexpected encounter...... When more than 10,000 "heroes" heard the news, they were "inexplicably sad and indignant", and then ...... Scattered in a hurry! You can't help but be stunned when you hear the news, and you won't believe it? Hehe, on the contrary, the court was very calm: Oh, so careless? Okay, find another guy to be the chief soldier, let him go and pull people again......

By the way, by the way, the Ming Dynasty was later overthrown by Li Zicheng and other peasant armies, and the predecessor of the peasant army that was surging all over the country ~ Who were the first people to rebel, do you know? The rout of the Salhu! The general died, everyone dispersed in a hurry, returned to Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, and the court didn't care! So the robbery, the court suppressed, cut dozens of them, and everyone simply changed from robbing the people to killing officials and rebelling!

Toji: This martial arts position is not common, and many people tend to confuse it with the concept of the Tojifu. In fact, this is a low-to-medium military position, between guerrilla and garrison. Because it was a purely temporary dispatch officer, the Ming Dynasty did not stipulate the rank, and it depended on its original rank, such as the five grades of thousands of households, from the five grades of the deputy thousand households, and so on.

Garrison: Lead troops to defend a certain city or a small area; Then there are the generals, sentinels, team officers, chiefs, and captains......

The weird thing is: even if the original guard system is not good, you can make a new set of battalion sentry system and go to the top! But...... It is mixed with the four different titles of "thousand presidents" and "hundred generals" - more bloody, for fear that it will not be chaotic enough, not only let the thousands of households in the health center act as thousands of general managers, but also rub the chief flag officer and small flag officer of the pure health center, and even people with positions!

Oh, by the way, Da Ming said "soldiers", which are two concepts!

"Army" refers to the army of the guard, whose main business is farming (later, in addition to farming, he also asked the court for food), called "army", in fact, it is not a "soldier", it is an agricultural reclamation corps - well, I was wrong, it is almost the meaning of the peasant - may have never touched a knife in his life, but he picks a hoe every day.

"Soldiers" are soldiers recruited from society to fight, because they are not in the "military register" in the household registration book, and they are still considered "people", so they are "militiamen" - alas, forget it, I admit that it is not good, many of them, although they are in the "people's nationality", they will not know anything else except slashing people with knives in their lives! These "militias" are the regular army......

Silly, right? I don't believe it, don't be stupid!

All in all, the Ming military system is very chaotic, not only the number of troops under the jurisdiction of generals at the same level is different, the organizational structure is different, the command orders (golden drum banners) are different, and even the names of grassroots units are different: some are called small banners, some are called Wu, and some are called teams (Qi Jiguang)...... For ease of understanding, the book is uniformly organized as follows (regular army):

The basic combat unit is Guo, with ten people per fruit, and the chief officer is called Guochang, and the position is set as the general.

Ten fruits for the team, each team of more than 100 people, the chief officer is called the captain, the position of a thousand general.

The five teams are battalions, each with about 500 people, and the chief officer and battalion officer are generally guerrilla leaders.

The battalion is a standard combat unit.

The staff general commanded 1-3 battalions.

The adjutant general commands 1-3 generals.

The chief officer is generally assigned to 2 adjutant generals.