Post another single chapter to talk about the military system and changes in customs in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

Let’s start with a story.

In March of the first year of Yingshun in the Later Tang Dynasty (934), Emperor Min sent an army to attack Li Congke, King of Lu in Fengxiang Prefecture.

Li Congke climbed to the city and wept bitterly, because he had been fighting with Li Siyuan all year round, with great achievements and high prestige. The soldiers saw him crying bitterly, and they all cried. Although Emperor Min Li Conghou was the emperor, he and everyone were divided into monarchs and ministers in terms of system and morality, but he was just

At the age of twenty, without prestige alone, you are doomed.

As a result, a battlefield rebellion broke out. Some of the besieging sergeants switched sides and supported King Lu. They suddenly attacked and defeated the other troops who were confused.

Although Fengxiang rescued the siege, Li Congke also knew very well that in order to gain the support of the sergeants, in addition to the prestige brought by his illustrious military exploits, he also needed money. Otherwise, even if the generals support you, ordinary soldiers will not.

So "King Lu gathered the wealth of the generals, officials, soldiers and people in the city to reward the army, and even the cauldrons and cauldrons were valued and given to him."

Li Congke basically plundered everything he could get his hands on, and at the same time promised that after arriving in Luoyang, any soldiers who were willing to follow him in rebellion would be rewarded with a hundred coins.

Emperor Min heard this and said, "He summoned his officers and men to comfort him, and emptied his treasury to work with him. He promised to make the phoenix fly, and he even rewarded him with two hundred coins. Since the treasury is insufficient, he should use the palace clothes and play clothes to continue."

Li Congke was rewarded with one hundred coins, and Emperor Min was rewarded with two hundred coins!

It sounds contradictory. Li Congke was a rebel and was at a disadvantage, so he should be rewarded more. Emperor Min was the emperor, so he should pay a smaller price to drive the sergeants.

But this is the fact. Li Congke took off his armor at the top of Fengxiang City, pointed to the scars on his body, and counted his military exploits.

This is prestige, this is people's hearts, and sometimes it can be used as money.

On the other hand, Emperor Li Conghou, in the eyes of the warriors, who is he? Has he ever fought in a war? Does he have any military exploits? Without even these, what qualifications do you have to be an emperor?

In other words, under the social atmosphere of the time, Li Conghou, as the emperor, was actually at a disadvantage, so he wanted to reward him more.

And when such a high reward was offered, what was the reaction of the Luoyang sergeants?

"The sergeant became arrogant and fearless. He carried gifts and threatened to go out on the road, saying: 'I will give you more when I get to Fengxiang.'"

Did you see that the officers and soldiers of the Forbidden Army looked down upon the twenty-year-old Emperor Li Conghou at all? The moment he was sent out to suppress the rebellion, he had already decided to surrender to King Lu and collect the money again.

Prestige is something that cannot be seen or touched. If Li Conghou became emperor, if Li Congke, Shi Jingtang and others did not rebel, he might still be able to maintain it, but it would also be quite dangerous.

When Li Congke rebelled, things took a turn for the worse. In the social atmosphere at that time, a weak person was not worthy of being an emperor, and no system could work.

Keep telling the story.

Before Li Congke entered Luoyang, "the emperor's hair was soaring, and the sergeant promised to reward the people who entered Luoyang with a hundred coins." When he arrived, he asked Wang Mei, the envoy of the third department, to find out the number of millions in the treasury. After reading the facts, he found gold and silk.

It’s only thirty thousand taels per horse.”

Li Congke promised a soldier a reward of 100 min in advance. After arriving in Luoyang, he asked Wang Mei how much money she had. She replied that it was millions of min, which was almost enough. But in fact, because Emperor Min was in a hurry, he over-rewarded and lost the money.

It’s gone, only 20,000 to 30,000 are left, what should I do?

"There was a minister who tried to plunder the people's wealth in every possible way and only got 60,000 yuan. The emperor was angry and sent troops to patrol the prison and supervise the officials day and night. The prison was full of prisoners. The poor people went to the well for their own medicine."

"At that time, after exhausting all the old things in Zuo's collection and contributions from all walks of life, as well as the Queen Mother, the concubine's utensils, clothes, and hairpins were all found, and they only amounted to two hundred thousand hairpins."

"Millions" need to be rewarded, but there are only "200,000". There is no other way but to continue to collect money, such as using the house valuation of everyone in the capital, collecting several months' rent in advance, etc., and at the same time modifying the reward standards.

"Those who ordered the imperial army to return to Fengxiang were given two horses, one camel and seventy min each from Yang Siquan, Yin Hui and others, down to twenty min for soldiers, and ten min each for those in Beijing."

How did the sergeants react when the promised reward failed to materialize?

"The soldiers were insatiable and resentful, so they said for rumors: 'Get rid of the Bodhisattva and support the pig iron.' Emperor Min was benevolent and weak, but the emperor was strong and strict, so he had regrets."

If the soldiers regret it, can they cause chaos?

Let's look at another incident: "The sergeants were showing arrogance when they visited the market. The people in the city gathered to criticize and said: 'You Cao was the main force in the battle and made great contributions. On the contrary, you made me whip my chest and stick my back, and gave you money as a reward. Ru Cao

You are proud of yourself, and you are worthy of heaven and earth!'"

After the sergeant who supported Li Congke returned to Luoyang, he was very proud and looked arrogant.

The common people gathered together and scolded them, saying that you deserved to be rewarded for fighting to support the new main force, but you were so complacent that we were tortured and paid as rewards. Are you embarrassed?

Because the families of the imperial soldiers were also in Luoyang, most of the people who scolded them had relatives and friends. So the soldiers accepted it and did not dare to cause trouble again. They only complained a few times and said that they regretted it.

But are there really no consequences? Of course there are.

First of all, the morale of the imperial army was low and they were unwilling to fight hard because the emperor defaulted on his debt.

Secondly, the local generals and troops who supported Li Congke did not receive rewards, and everyone was resentful.

Third, the people in the court were distracted and the morale of the civil servants was low.

The next year, Shi Jingtang rebelled and invited Khitan for help, and the consequences became apparent.

To put it simply, the battle for the throne between King Lu and Emperor Min of the later Tang Dynasty brought the military culture of the Five Dynasties to a new lower limit.

Before this, it was not so outrageous.

After that, once a person breaks through the lower limit and takes this initiative, he becomes even more unscrupulous.

The customs of the Five Dynasties were degraded and corrupted bit by bit from generation to generation.

So how was it solved later?

In fact, there was no active solution. The Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Three Dynasties made a lot of efforts, but with little effect, and rebellions were still common.

It was not until the reign of Guo Rong, Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, that the northern household registration was cleared, and it was found that there were only 12 million people. People's livelihood was in decline, all industries were ruined, and people's minds were at a loss. After experiencing the price of blood, they slowly disappeared.

In the late Tang Dynasty and early Liang Dynasty, how many people were in the north?

Take Hebei as an example.

(1) Chengde Town.

In the first year of Qianhua in Houliang (911), Wang Rong, the governor of Chengde, sent his son Deming to lead 37 soldiers to conquer Li Cunxu, which was 37,000 people. The total strength of Chengde Town was no less than 50,000. The ratio of soldiers to civilians in the late Tang Dynasty, Chengde Town had a population of more than 1.25 million. Considering the large number of cavalry in Chengde Town, it may actually be between 1.40-1.5 million.

During the Tianbao period, the four prefectures under the jurisdiction of Chengde had a population of approximately 1.8-1.9 million.

After the Anshi Rebellion, there were indeed wars in Hebei, but they were few and short, the overall damage was not great, and the population recovered quickly. Moreover, Huang Chao and Qin Zongquan did not affect Hebei, so this population is reliable.

Scholars who study the history of the middle and late Tang Dynasty are more radical and even believe that during the Huichang period of Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, the total population of the country may have been close to recovering to the Tianbao period.

After the Huangchao Rebellion, the population of Chengde Town suffered mainly from the invasion and plunder by Li Keyong and Zhu Wen, but it was still intact.

(2) Youzhou Town.

During the reign of Dezong, Zhu Tao, the governor of Lulong, had "50,000 soldiers, a thousand chariots, 20,000 cavalry, more than 10,000 private soldiers, and 3,000 captives."

During the reign of Emperor Xianzong, Liu Ji attacked Wang Chengzong with "70,000 troops".

During the reign of Emperor Xizong, Li Keju besieged Yizhou and sent out 60,000 troops. Li Kuangwei defeated Li Keyong and sent out 100,000 infantry and cavalry.

During the reign of Emperor Zhaozong, Liu Rengong dispatched 100,000 cavalry.

These records do not mention the quality of the army. According to general research, because it has to resist the Khitan and Xi people, the regular army in Youzhou should be between 70,000 and 80,000 people - the number of troops stipulated by the imperial court is 55,000.

In terms of the ratio of soldiers to civilians at that time, the population of Youzhou was at least 1.7-1.8 million. However, the registered population during the Tianbao period was only more than 1.46 million. In addition to the economic and social development and population increase brought about by years of peace, there are also other things mentioned in this book A large number of tribal hackers have been arrested.

Another piece of evidence. "Taiping Huanyu Ji" records that there were 8 counties and 96 townships in Youzhou in the late Tang Dynasty, which increased compared with the Kaiyuan period. This is the result of more than a hundred years of development under low-frequency wars and generally peacetime.

It can be clearly said that before and after the Huangchao Rebellion, the household registration of Youzhou Town had exceeded that of Tianbao's heyday. Subsequently, due to participation in high-intensity vassal wars and the rise of Khitan, the population suffered some losses, but in the early years of Hou Liang, Youzhou Town The state's population is not much smaller than during the Tianbao period.

Judging from the situation in the towns of Chengde and Youzhou, Hebei's population before and after the Huangchao Rebellion was not far behind the 11 million at its peak. After the Huangchao Rebellion and before the establishment of Houliang, the population suffered some losses. But it didn't break any bones.

In Zhu Wen's later years, Hebei became the main battlefield many times, and the rate of population loss accelerated.

During the Later Jin Dynasty, the Khitans entered Hebei and burned, killed, and looted on a large scale. This was a stage in which losses amplified dramatically.

Hebei is just a microcosm.

Both Guanzhong and Henan have experienced this process. Especially during the change of dynasties in the Five Dynasties, Henan suffered the most. So much so that by the time of Guorong in the Later Zhou Dynasty, the entire north except Hedong and Youzhou had only 12 million people.

At this point, no matter how stubborn the warriors are, they have nothing to say, because they themselves have also suffered huge losses in the process, their wives and children have been separated, and their families have become homeless. No one is a winner.

In addition, the Five Dynasties imperial court continued to reduce vassal vassals, and many emperors were sacrificed for this. Around the time of Guo Rong's death, the results were remarkable. So people settled down, and no one wanted to bother with it.

The people's mind is the social consensus, the values, and the social atmosphere.

Back to the previous story.

As a mirror comparison, Zhao Kuangyin actually relied on his credit. After destroying the Southern Tang Dynasty, the rewards finally distributed were not in line with the rewards promised before the war, and were severely reduced.

But the warriors did not cause trouble and accepted it. Have you noticed any changes in your mood?

Of course, it is not without side effects. Zhao Er learned a lot about asking for rewards before the battle at the gate of Youzhou City. Because he also relied on the account, neither Zhao Da nor the other two brothers could keep their word. They were all fooling people, so they went into battle.

I invite you to look good.

Let’s talk about the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty and how it came about.

After the An-Shi Rebellion, feudal vassal towns were separated and it was not uncommon to kill generals and drive commanders away.

Have Jiedu Envoys ever thought of a solution? The answer is that they have been working hard.

For example, many people boast that the Northern Song Dynasty suppressed the separation of military training, logistics, and command. In fact, the military governors of the mid- to late Tang Dynasty had already implemented this.

In larger feudal towns, the commander-in-chief was the first to appear and took away the training rights of the soldiers.

Then came the military envoys who took away the power of logistics and supply.

Then the Duyuhousi was established. When the generals were not going on expeditions, they had to clock in at Duyuhousi and had no contact with the army.

In fact, it is not much different from the Northern Song Dynasty.
To be continued...