The autumn sun shines like silk into the back garden of Yuan's house. This back garden of Yuan's house has no rockery, green lake, pavilions and pavilions. It is very simple. There is only a lawn, scattered red willows, and a row of hedgehog chrysanthemums along the wall. It's barely a decoration.
The entire back garden is just a school ground. Although it is not large in scale, the layout is neat and orderly. Everything is in accordance with military regulations. In the past two years, this back garden has also become a forbidden area for Yuan's residence.
Even Yuan Ke's wives and concubines had no choice but to go outside the village, to the banks of Ming Lake, or to Dingbian Town if they wanted to enjoy the scenery.
"one!"
"two!"
The drill slogans echoed in the back house. At this time, there were about thirty people in the school grounds. It could be seen at a glance that they were all capable men, and they were holding refined steel knives in their hands.
Yuan Ke also had a batch of standard horizontal knives, but they were too conspicuous, and Yuan Ke did not dare to equip his Zhuang Ding with them. The imperial court's control of military equipment did not include light equipment such as swords, and in Yanzhou this In remote areas of the country, almost everyone has a sword in hand, most of which were issued by the imperial court to enable them to protect themselves.
In fact, except for the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the imperial court was short of resources and once collected iron and bronze items from the private sector on a large scale to cast weapons, with subsequent improvements in iron smelting technology and production, the use of iron became widely open to the private sector. .
The imperial court controlled the mining, smelting, transportation and sale of iron, but it strongly supported the smelting and forging of folk ironware. After more than thirty years of development, the Han people were already densely populated with ironware and weapons workshops, ranging from large ones to ironware workshops to small ones. For example, workshops, even basic rural units have one or two blacksmith shops.
Blacksmiths who are good at smelting iron tools have always been one of the most popular professions among the Han people, and the largest number of apprentices among the people are blacksmith apprentices. Although this industry is hard, it is indeed a technical type of work. After learning the craft, you can Basically, I don’t have to worry about food and clothing.
Some workshops originally operated by the imperial court gradually gave up the production of some ordinary ironware and farm tools, because there were enough private substitutes, and the scale was larger and the output was higher, even if it was not as high as that produced by the imperial workshops. Delicate, but useful.
The Han Dynasty was rich in martial virtue, one of which was probably reflected in the abundant weapons among the people. This is called hiding troops from the people. But everything always has pros and cons. The reason why the local public security in the Han Dynasty is always in a state of tension is that every few years Just one rectification is necessary, and there are reasons for this.
Violent weapons often rely on human courage. Children can still kill people with knives. It is also common for people to kill people when they disagree with each other.
For the local government, a single murder case or a robbery by a bandit is nothing. The most troublesome thing is the armed fighting between villages.
Although this is strictly prohibited by Han law, there are always a few incidents every year, and once it breaks out, there will be heavy casualties, because the weapons they use are not poles and hoes, but "eighteen kinds of weapons."
There are many people who have lost their official positions for this reason. Even if the Han law clearly stipulates that the murderer shall die, it cannot be fully applied to this kind of mass incident.
Although the Han law was strict, it was not as strict as the Qin law. If the law was strictly enforced, it would be difficult for individuals to obtain even basic evidence. In addition, due to the principle that the law does not punish the public, in the end, only a few typical examples would be caught and killed.
To shock the people.
As for completely strict law enforcement, unless it involves rebellion, it is impossible to severely punish ordinary people.
Someone once said that the imperial court killed officials quickly and swiftly, but the government was timid in killing people. The imperial court here, of course, refers to Emperor Liu.
In view of the frequent occurrence of civil security incidents, continuous armed fighting, and rampant banditry, last year some people believed that civilian weapons were the biggest cause of unstable public security, and proposed to Liu Huang that they could follow the example of the early Republic of China, collect civilian weapons, and ban them.
Ordinary people have swords, bows and guns.
However, this suggestion was rejected after a little weighing by Emperor Liu. The reason given by Emperor Liu was very simple. A kitchen knife, a hoe, or even a pole can kill people, and soldiers were banned from the civilian population, not to mention
The difficulty is that if we really do it, can we avoid the bloodshed among the people?
The fundamental reason lies in the human body. Most civilians lack education, do not know the law, and find it difficult to abide by the law. If there is a problem, the local officials are to blame.
The imperial court uses them to pastor and guard the place, educate the people, and maintain public order. This is their duty. Therefore, when public order is unstable, they attribute the cause to weapons. This is a manifestation of greed for convenience and fear of difficulties and laziness in governance. It is also a way to treat the symptoms but not the root cause.
As for the murderer, the blame lies with the person, not the sword that killed the person. He can be punished according to the law. When there are thieves, there will be arrests, officers and soldiers. This is their duty. If the local thieves are not clear and harm the people, then first of all
It is the local officials who should be held accountable.
So, immediately afterwards, Emperor Liu asked the Zhengshitang to formulate a rule, that is, if there is a armed fight in the local area and causes injuries, the chief official will be held accountable first; if there are bandits that cannot be eliminated, the chief official will be held accountable first.
Whether it is the Censor or the Wude Secretary, they have added one more item of local supervision, and this supervision is not difficult. This policy spread all over the world, causing waves, and many people
Scream, the official has nothing to do.
Of course, there are some opinions about civilian weapons that have indeed caused concern among many officials. That is, hiding troops among the people is beneficial, but in peacetime, when people are not needed to protect their homes and country, having weapons for the people is the source of trouble.
, what if it is used against the imperial court?
It is true that for the imperial court, it was not important for the people to commit murder and break the law, fight with knives and weapons, or even gather together to form bandits. The imperial court had its own response mechanism and it was difficult to directly endanger its own rule.
To the predators of the ruling class, the common people are like ants, and the common people are like grass. The life-and-death struggle between ants, no matter how many casualties there are, or how great the losses are, is not important.
Even those thieves and bandits who do evil are essentially just leeks. They carry the Han sky on their heads. The name of that sky is Liu. The people they kill are Han people, and the money they rob is
It is printed with "Qianyu Tongbao" or "Kaibao Tongbao".
But just as some officials are worried, if untouchables who have mastered swords use these weapons to resist the imperial court, wouldn't this be a huge hidden danger?
Even Emperor Liu was shocked by this view. However, Emperor Liu was not frightened after all. He also thought very clearly that the imperial court has the most powerful violent machine and must have the strength and confidence to suppress everything.
.
And more importantly, if the empire really reaches the point where the people rise up and rebel, it won't matter whether there are any restrictions on weapons at that time, which means that the empire should die. As long as there are no problems with the court, everything will be fine.
If something goes wrong, it's not just this.
In fact, due to the relationship between vision, there is often some survivor bias. In the eyes of some people, they see a proliferation of weapons and casualties caused by disputes.
However, in general, the Han Dynasty is still peaceful, especially in the core areas ruled by the Han Dynasty in the interior. Even if weapons are not prohibited, not every household carries a sword. Every household has a knife. For ordinary people, kitchen knives, axes, and wood-chopping knives are enough.
, who is a serious person to buy a weapon and keep it? The price is not low. Isn't it good to use a plowshare or a hoe?
Compared with the mainland, weapons are really rampant in the border areas. For example, in Yanzhou today, no one dares to go out without a knife. Regardless of farmers and herdsmen, they always have weapons on their waists during their work.
of.
In the past, the imperial court issued a series of restrictive policies against the Mobei Khitans, with iron weapons being the most important one. However, while banning them, they also allowed the people on the border to possess weapons. One can imagine the final effect.
Even if large-scale trade does not exist, small-scale and small-volume transactions are endless.
Of course, due to Emperor Liu's attitude, the blockade against the Khitan still existed even in the 21st year of Kaibao, and the two sides were still in a hostile relationship. However, the exchanges between the people became more and more frequent.
In the border markets, there are many people who are willing to take risks and trade with Khitan to gain huge profits. In this regard, the relevant departments have not pursued them fiercely. Otherwise, if the smugglers are gone, what is the use of arresting smugglers?
Even today, the Khitan people in Mobei, in addition to bartering, use the Han's Tongbao as their daily currency. Precious metals such as gold and silver are also based on the Han's "exchange rate". It can be said that although the Han has always been difficult to follow
Mobei was conquered by force, but the economic impact quietly deepened.
If the ban had not been in place and exchanges and trade had been liberalized, the effect might have been better. But who taught the two sides to have been feuding for decades, and "the hatred is as deep as the sea"?
In such a general environment, among Yuan Ke's trading partners were the Khitans. However, because the distance was too long, the risks were too great, and the losses were heavy.
And Yuan Ke has no shortage of weapons, at least not ordinary weapons like swords.
