The authoritative book on the study of feudal towns is the textbook published by the National People's Congress Press, and Zhang Guogang, a professor at the Department of History of Tsinghua University, has basically explained everything related to feudal towns in the Tang Dynasty.

This book is older than many readers today, and since then, the results of academic research have not overturned the conclusions of this book, but have added and strengthened it a lot.

In order to pave the way for the second half of my novel, it is necessary to mention the feudal towns here. It will be from the following aspects, that is, several issues that readers are more concerned about, namely:

First, the classification of feudal towns.

Second, the social foundation of the feudal town.

Third, the positive and negative effects of feudal towns on the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

Fourth, the origin, development and demise of feudal towns.

I will not explain the basic concepts, but only talk about the author's own understanding of the feudal town.

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The first is the classification of feudal towns.

This concept was put forward by Du Mu, a famous political commentator in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

That's right, just like people are very different, feudal towns can also be classified.

Du Mu summed it up at that time, and the feudal towns can basically be divided into four types:

The first type is the rebellion and secession type, which is dominated by the three towns of Heshuo. On the surface, they are the remnants of the Anshi Rebellion, but in fact they have a deep social foundation and centuries-old entanglements of interests.

The semi-independent state of the three towns of Heshuo is the effect, not the cause.

This kind of feudal town is arrogant and arrogant, famous far and wide, and many strange things in the middle and late Tang Dynasty came from here. For example, the famous "Chang'an Son of Heaven, Wei Boya Soldier" is like this.

Their characteristic is that they do not pay taxes to Chang'an, and the internal officials of the feudal towns are basically recruited by themselves, and the Jiedu envoys are recommended from within, and they can often be rewarded by Chang'an. Not long after the Anshi Rebellion ended, there were even cases where the three towns of Heshuo expanded their territory and coerced the center. In the later period, he was at peace with the Tang court and became peaceful and independent.

The number of internal unrest is second to none of any feudal town (65/171)

The second type of feudal town was born to defend against the three towns of Heshuo, and the defensive feudal towns that existed in a large area around the three towns of Heshuo, which is also known as the "Central Plains Defense and Containment Domain".

This kind of feudal town is characterized by the fact that the envoys of the festival are all appointed by the imperial court, with strong troops, and arrogant soldiers and fierce generals are frequent and unruly. This kind of feudal town is also responsible for maintaining the lifeline of the Tang Dynasty - the Jianghuai Canal.

It is worth mentioning that all of the above is only a superficial interpretation. In fact, this kind of feudal town was not at all the mainstay of supporting the court in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, and its internal turmoil was not inferior to that of the three towns of Heshuo, and it could not be strictly controlled by the imperial court.

Internal mutinies and looting military supplies, killing the festival to make themselves independent, robbing the imperial court materials of other feudal towns, and even refusing to carry out the orders of the imperial court, these bird incidents are not uncommon.

By the way, Zhu Wen at the end of the Tang Dynasty began to compete for hegemony after serving as the envoy of the Xuanwu Army in the Central Plains Domain. So if you think about it a little, you know that there must be a lot of moths in these Central Plains towns. The number of internal turmoil is second only to the three towns of Heshuo. （52/171）

The third type of feudal town is the "Frontier Imperial Frontier Domain" that was re-established after the Northwest Frontier was constantly invaded by foreign tribes such as the Tibetans and Uighurs, and the defense line was broken. Among them, some of them are the remnants of the original Hexi Jiedu Envoy, Longyou Jiedu Envoy and Shuofang Army. Some were divided by the newly expanded "Shence Army" of the imperial court.

This type of feudal town is characterized by an extremely strong military force, but also a very limited local output, relying entirely on supplies from Chang'an, and facing strong military pressure from foreign tribes in the northwest.

Because the military expenditure was completely dependent on the Tang court, and it was facing strong pressure from foreign clans, the turmoil of this type of feudal town was less than that of the original feudal town in the middle one. （42/171）

It is worth mentioning that the reason for the turmoil in these feudal towns is actually only because of the lack of wealth in the Tang court, or the oppression of the soldiers and the deduction of food and salaries by the marshals of the feudal towns. This kind of feudal town has the highest loyalty to the imperial court, and it can be said that it is one of the capital of the Tang court to gain a foothold in Guanzhong.

But then again, the so-called "loyalty" of the northwest feudal towns is also conditional and has boundaries. When the court's food and wages are in place, they are loyal. If the food is not in place, then there is no need to rebel.

The most typical example is that in the early days of Tang Dezong, who was nicknamed "Xiaolongji", he did not pay attention to the demands of the northwest feudal towns, which led to the outbreak of the "Jingyuan Mutiny".

The fourth type of feudal town, known as the "Southeast Wealth Type", is basically located in Jingxiang, Jianghuai, Jiangnan and other places. It was less damaged by the Anshi Rebellion, and became a granary and money bag to maintain the operation of the Tang Dynasty.

The feudal towns here were all set up by the Tang court on their own initiative after the Anshi Rebellion, and the troops were very small, generally no more than 10,000 people, and the purpose was only to defend against bandits.

These feudal towns also had less internal turmoil. （12/171）

It can be seen that not all types of feudal towns are unruly and arrogant. There is only the first type of feudal town that really fights with open fire and "does not obey orders".

So, why was the Tang Dynasty town divided in the middle and late periods, but the Tang court couldn't clean it up, here is the next second article.

A strong social foundation existed in the feudal town.

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Second, the social foundation of the feudal town

Any regime that can exist will not be separated from its social foundation, otherwise this political structure will not be able to exist stably without it. So, what was the social basis of the feudal town?

This question cannot be answered directly, and the social, economic, and political patterns of China and Tang must be viewed together.

During the Middle Tang Dynasty, the population cycle law has entered a "dangerous period", during the Tianbao period, there were more than 8 million household registrations, if the hidden household accounts are also counted, then the entire Datang Dynasty has at least 50 million to 60 million people, only more, not less.

The development of agriculture has entered a bottleneck period; However, the scale and quality of the commodity economy were completely incomparable with the previous imperial court.

At this time, the social structure of the Tang Dynasty (before the Anshi Rebellion) presented a completely different appearance from before.

According to the previous rules:

Land annexation followed the standard model, with a large number of yeoman farmers becoming tenants, dependent on the powerful, and becoming "black households" under the protection of the powerful.

At the same time, a large number of bankrupt peasants have left their hometowns and become a factor of social instability. At that time, the Tang Dynasty conformed to this trend and used the method of conscription to temporarily suppress social contradictions. But it does not solve the fundamental problem.

It's impossible for the nobles to take the rope handed to them by the poor people and hang themselves for the sake of revolution, right?

The fields in the hands of the nobles could not have been spit out without someone putting a knife around their necks.

So he could only kill some powerful people and start the dynasty restart.

However, the situation at Datang is slightly different.

During the Tianbao period, a large number of bankrupt farmers became Long March athletes in border towns and settled in the local area. It gave Datang a social foundation for crazy border opening, and also provided raw materials for Jige to realize the ideal of opening up the frontier, and also temporarily alleviated the outbreak of social contradictions.

An Anshi rebellion interrupted the process of opening the border.

However, it can be assumed how the situation would have evolved without the Anshi Rebellion.

Land annexation in the Central Plains is unlikely to be suppressed, and the number of bankrupt farmers will only increase, to the point that they will become an unstable factor with an unknown degree of destruction. The frontier can't accommodate them, so they can only start the crazy involution mode.

The direction of the opening of the Tang Dynasty is the Western Regions, where the population that can be carried by people is extremely limited.

The development of science and technology has also entered a bottleneck period, and there is no social soil for the implementation of the industrial revolution.

The atmosphere of poverty and luxury in the high-level of the Tang Dynasty is higher and higher, Zhumen wine and meat stink, and there are frozen bones on the road.

Therefore, the border turmoil, peasant uprisings, and even rebellions within the ruling class are all high-probability events, and it is impossible to keep them stable, and it is impossible for Ji Ge to continue to survive.

At this time, the historical process began to face a choice.

If conditions permit, there will be a turmoil at the end of the Sui Dynasty, with 20 million to 40 million people killed, and the law of the population cycle will be turned back to the initial point, and the three axes of Juntian, government soldiers, and light taxes will be implemented again, and the old road of Zhenguan will be followed again. A large number of new magnates were born.

Many careerists at the time probably intended to do so.

However, some people, including many people who regret the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty in later generations, should die in their hearts, their will may be scattered, but they converge into the trend of history, that is:

Times have changed! Everyone doesn't want to go back to Zhenguan!

Regardless of whether there is an Anshi Rebellion or not, the feudal town will be the choice of history, but it may not be called a feudal town, or something else. But something like that is bound to happen.

Whether you like it or not, the feudal town is the trend of history and the choice of history, and it is a "firewall" built by the Tang society in order to adapt to the changes in the situation.

After all, no matter how bad order is, it is better than no order at all. The feudal town is the greatest common divisor of the entire Sino-Tang society!

Those bankrupt peasants who have lost their land, they need to find a way out of the way without stopping the land annexation. This road is to join the army in the feudal town, and be Qiu Ba!

These people have learned the art of killing, and they don't want to go back to honest farming, maybe there were honest people in the past, but they didn't end well, so the rest of the Qiu Ba didn't want to be at the mercy of others.

Those literati, there was no place for them in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but there were in the shogunate of the feudal town marshal.

Surrounded by wolves, the mainland is ready to move, and Tang Ting needs heavy troops to stabilize the situation and stabilize the contradictions at the bottom of society.

The feudal town may not be very good, but it is the most cost-effective option.

Everyone unanimously accepted that this was the social basis for the existence of the feudal town.

These bankrupt displaced people are not dependent on the local big households, nor are they subordinate to these big households. Therefore, it is obvious that the way for the local magnates of the previous dynasties to become the ruling class of the new dynasty after rebelling through their own private armies has been broken.

Unintentionally, the feudal town actually suppressed the feudal heroes and rose up!

Moreover, because the population began to move on a large scale, the speed of land circulation has become faster, and it is difficult to have a large family that has dominated one side for decades. Although land annexation is still the same, land is changing owners frequently.

These factors are mixed together, and the thing that has been washed over time and finally reached a stable state is the feudal town. Because of the different local people's feelings and the distribution of political power, four types of feudal towns have evolved.

This kind of system is only very unfavorable for the Tang court, but is it also the same for other forces and other strata?

Then it depends on who wrote the history books!

It is worth mentioning that although the types of feudal towns are different, the habits and social foundation of the eight members of the army within the feudal towns are surprisingly consistent!

For this reason, by the end of the Tang Dynasty, the classification of feudal towns was no longer applicable to the situation at that time.

For example, the originally peaceful feudal towns in the south also began to divide one side, recruiting troops and horses like a country within a country. The towns of the Central Plains Domain began to gather arrogant soldiers and fierce generals to rebel and join forces with Huangchao; The towns of the Northwest Domain were controlled by the eunuch forces, and even the Shence Army began to bargain for the emperor's position as a commodity, etc.

The Qiu Eight route of the middle and late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms is in the same line. No matter how the power of the upper level changes, and how the upper level of the festival makes the change, the Qiu Ba people at the bottom, whether they are in the southeast or in the three towns of Heshuo, are almost the same bird.

Being a soldier is too comfortable, much better than farming, as long as you become a Qiu Ba, you are reluctant to leave this profession that can be rich as long as you can kill people.

Therefore, the reconstruction of the glory of the Tang court is to cut off the feudal town and return to Zhenguan and the prosperous era of Kaiyuan. However, the way back has been blocked, there is no way back, and the foundation of the whole society has changed.

(To be continued)