In the era of bronze cold weapons, the Qin Dynasty was strong under the Shang Yang Reform, and Qin Shihuang annexed the Eight Wastes, including Yu Nei, and completed the great cause of reunifying the whole country. This epoch-making reunification needs the support of the powerful military forces of the Qin Dynasty. Among them, Qin's 20-level military post system plays an important role in this system.
This system stipulates that getting the enemy's head on the battlefield is the most important criterion for obtaining military merits, and the military merits in the army will be rewarded according to the size of their military merits, regardless of their family background. So Qin Jun, armed with bows, arrows and bronze weapons, became the master of tigers and wolves. However, this system was also adopted in the Ming Dynasty, but it did not save the situation of internal troubles and foreign invasion in the Ming Dynasty. On the contrary, it has obvious side effects. Why? Let's take a look at the effect of implementing this system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The first hero of the Ming Dynasty made a tiger dog.
In the second year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan led Ning Guan fighters to fight with the Qing army in a bloody battle, which lasted from noon to six o'clock in the afternoon and finally defeated the enemy. The next day, the Qing soldiers were repelled and the siege of Beijing was untied. When the two sides fought fiercely, Chongzhen sent officials to supervise the war with the sword on the side, conveying the emperor's words: destroy the enemy for a period of time, and don't reward the enemy with the number of heads.
What do you mean, the first reward is to reward and receive money according to the number of enemy heads in the hands of soldiers. Chongzhen announced that all combatants will be promoted or rewarded, not according to the number of enemy heads cut off. Because the current enemy Chongzhen is worried that soldiers will only cut their heads on the enemy and affect the battle.
In the tug-of-war between Ming and Qing dynasties in the17th century, the reward of the Ming government was still based on the backward way of exchanging things for money. Li Qi's works recorded hundreds of inspections by the heads of state of the Ming Dynasty, ranging from hundreds to one or two.
Naturally, there are many false heads. The biggest drawback is that many children and forced docile subjects were killed in order to get more money. Rogues in the army will aggravate this phenomenon.
Chongzhen's military arrears are not paid all the year round, and most of the time the rewards are white bars or bonuses. Rewarding red is rewarding red cloth. One can make clothes, and the other can ward off evil spirits. At the end of the Ming dynasty, the country was in arrears for a long time and was unwilling to give the army a lot of silver.
Huang Renyu's book "Fifteen Years of Wanli" records that the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were very low, and the second-class officials were only 1522 a year. The first-class merit system stipulates that you can get fifty taels for cutting off a head, so natural soldiers flock to it. But in fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, when silver was very scarce, this incentive system could not be well implemented, because at the end of the war, Chongzhen had to borrow money from the minister himself.
Zu Dashou was arrested and imprisoned for Yuan Chonghuan after the Beijing War in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Shi Jingren complained about Liaodong troops, thinking that they attracted Qing soldiers, and Zu Dashou returned to Liaodong in a fit of pique. Zu Dashou proposed to Emperor Chongzhen that in addition to pardoning Yuan Chonghuan, he would also give five taels of silver to each of the troops. Threatening the emperor with a mere five taels of silver shows how serious the problem of arrears was at that time.
At that time, Zu Dashou was persuaded by Sun Chengzong, a university student, to attack the Qing army left behind from Shanhaiguan, and won a great victory. The imperial court held a celebration for this purpose, but the reward offered was a bonus. Faced with these red cloths, the disappointed soldiers said strange things. Sun Chengzong said unhappily, this is the will of the court. Finally, Zu Dashou came forward to dissuade the disgruntled soldiers.
No wonder the soldiers asked for money with their heads in their hands. I didn't expect to be rewarded with red cloth, so I was naturally unhappy. This is the same reason that the Liangshan brothers in the water margin felt that the taste was wrong after drinking royal wine.
Not only the troops outside Shanhaiguan pass owe wages, but also the troops inside Shanhaiguan pass who suppress farmers owe wages. Most of them only issue certificates and symbolic red cloth, which are not honored. In the movie "Daming Robbery", why was He called a madman? It was precisely because of this crime of taking credit for killing that he was punished by Sun Chuanting.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qin Wang's army plundered the people because of the lack of pay, and pretended to be rewarded with the first meritorious service, resulting in the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. Bandits also robbed, officials also killed, Daming people really have no way to go.
But Li Zicheng was chased to Shandong by Dourgen, who attacked the capital, and gained a lot of gold, silver and silk. It can be seen that there is no shortage of silver in the Ming Dynasty. Chongzhen presided over the first military title system, owed wages, and asked soldiers to be rewarded by their leaders. I don't know how to calculate this stupid account of military expenditure.
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The application and effectiveness of the system need supporting measures and adaptation to the environment. From the Qin Dynasty with bronze weapons to the Ming Dynasty with iron weapons and hot weapons, cavalry and firearms became the winning factors on the battlefield. Qin's infantry and main force naturally have time to grab this head. The most important thing in the cavalry era is to win the battle, and the first achievement is no longer suitable for this era. The emptiness of the treasury in the Ming Dynasty, especially the shortage of silver in circulation, naturally led to the arrogance of soldiers. The collapse of finance and the backwardness of military system in Ming Dynasty are the fundamental reasons for the invalidation of military rank system.