There are one hill and eight buildings in the Northern Prefecture of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Chapter 5369: The Difference Between Scholars and Common People: The Beginning of the Warring States Period
Chapter 5369: The Difference Between Scholars and Common People: The Beginning of the Warring States Period
Bai Hu nodded: "Actually, this involves a very important thing, that is, the change in the size of the country. For a small country with a population of only a few thousand to more than 10,000 people, the Chinese may account for more than 60 to 70% of the population. Naturally, there is no need to
We are worried about the rebellion of the savages, and there is no need for the savages to serve as soldiers. However, with the wars and annexations between these small countries, the big fish among the princes eat the small fish. These places are hundreds of miles away, hundreds of miles away, and the countries with thousands of armors are slowly falling.
Slowly, it became a place thousands of miles away, thousands of miles away, or even thousands of miles away, a country with tens of thousands, tens of thousands, more than 100,000, or hundreds of thousands of armies, from one city to a few, a dozen, or dozens.
, a big country with hundreds of cities.”
"From the eight hundred princes at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, in the end there were only the seven princes of the Warring States Period, and more than twenty small and medium-sized countries. This means that these seven-level big countries are thousands of miles away and have hundreds of thousands of armored men.
In other words, their common people numbered in the millions. At this time, the composition of the population also changed greatly. Although the number of nobles would increase, it would definitely be far less than the country's population.
It increased simultaneously, because in the countries they conquered and destroyed, those original nobles and Chinese people could no longer maintain their original status. Maybe a few high-ranking nobles could barely maintain their status as nobles, but a large number of ordinary Chinese people became savages.
The common people are even slaves, so the country is getting bigger and bigger, but the proportion of the rulers is getting smaller and smaller."
Qinglong laughed: "Yes, the king of the subjugation of the country will at most become a low-level scholar-bureaucrat with only a few heirs, let alone other officials. Some even have the whole family exterminated to prevent anyone from using the banner again.
Resistance, in this way, the country is getting bigger and bigger, but the number of gentry is almost unchanged. Slowly, the gentry are still the first ones, with a slight increase at most, but the number of savages is dozens of times.
It has increased a hundredfold. At this time, it is no longer appropriate to let the nobles and Chinese people fully bear the task of war."
Suzaku nodded and continued: "Yes, so the first batch of conquerors, the nobles, gradually became officials and nobles with higher and higher status, and they were not engaged in war at all or rarely engaged in war, and
, as they went out to command the army and made meritorious deeds, they also earned more and more fiefdoms, retainers, and slaves for their families. The most typical example was the Six Ministers system of the Jin State. In the end, these ministers could even openly attack collectively.
After killing the monarch and deposing the monarch, their fiefdom will be larger than the territory directly under the jurisdiction of the monarch. At this point, the subordinates will conquer the superiors and the ministers will conquer the emperor."
Qinglong sneered and said: "The Jin State is like this, isn't the whole Zhou Dynasty like this? Speaking of it, it means the collapse of etiquette and the destruction of music. It refers to this kind of subordinates who offend their superiors and use their ministers to defeat the king. The territory, military strength and power of these vassal states have long exceeded
The emperor of Zhou, and then their retainers took the opportunity to replace them, completing various replacements, just like the three families were divided into Jin and the Tian family replaced the Qi. The ministers' power was greater than that of the old master, and in the end they simply replaced them.
Behind it is the country's army and land, which are already controlled by the ministers more than the king. The so-called emperor with strong soldiers and horses can naturally take their place."
Bai Hu said sternly: "What you are talking about is this process of subordinates overcoming superiors. This is an inevitable contradiction under the feudal system, or the Achilles heel. But what I want to say is that a large number of barbarians join the army and replace the people as a whole.
This system, this is what Mr. Xuanwu just said, the country is getting bigger and bigger, but the proportion of Chinese people is getting smaller and smaller. Later, although there were some reforms, the savages became common people, which sounds better, but
The people of the country have also become scholars, and the distinction between scholars and commoners is like clouds and mud, which is mainly reflected in culture and knowledge. In addition, the gentry have scholar status. As long as they are registered, they will have titles and salaries, which can support their division.
Tax exemptions after arriving in the fields, or even getting out of work, this is the so-called management of people by those who work hard. As for the common people, although they can also be allocated land, they must pay heavy taxes and serve the country. These are laborers
Governing people.”
"So starting from the Warring States Period, those ambitious and powerful countries that wanted to unify the world, starting from the Wei State, had various reforms and restructuring. The core point was to break the distinction between scholars and common people so that the common people were willing to work for them.
They can serve the country, especially in war, because their number far exceeds that of scholars, and fighting does not require knowledge and culture. As long as there is a force and strict training to keep them in compliance, the common people can
Joining the army will unleash extremely terrifying fighting power."
"On the other hand, the common people have been engaged in physical labor for many years and have strong bodies, while the gentry are getting farther and farther away from war, and the ancient six arts of the gentleman are also thrown away without a trace along with the way of wine and sex. The final result is that only
An army composed mainly of common people and commanded by a small number of nobles as officers would not only be large in number, but also invincible."
"In fact, as a large number of common people joined the army, infantry was the main force, which replaced the previous fighting style that used chariots as the main tactic. Carts became a tool of transportation rather than a tool of direct combat. Standing on the chariot, they were superior to others.
The distinction no longer exists.”
"Especially after the Qin Dynasty's reform, military merit was adopted as a clear national law for promotion to nobility. Beheading one level can be awarded a nobility. This stimulated the common people to give up farming and join the army and become warriors for their own benefit.
The country went to conquer the world, and the legal systems of various countries also stipulated that when someone in the family served in the war, the preferential policy of tax exemption for the whole family was to stimulate everyone to serve as soldiers and at the same time actively farm at home.
They are all ours, so how can such stimulation not make the country rich and powerful, making it invincible?"
Qinglong curled up his lips: "This is the source of the chaos. These princes in the Warring States Period, in order to unify the world for quick success and instant benefit, broke the rules and used various evil methods to stimulate human nature, especially Shang Yang's method. In fact, common people wanted to get the eighth-level nobility.
Above, becoming a knight who does not need to be eliminated after death is difficult to reach the sky. It is nothing more than playing a game to let you taste some sweetness. Use the meager power of a village clerk to manage, or bully others, and enjoy it.
The happiness of a superior person will be replaced by others within a few years. After death, the title will be taken back to the state, and his descendants will have to start from scratch. In this way, the number of nobles will hardly increase, but the common people at the bottom will continue to do so over and over again.
In the end, the country will be rich and the people will be fierce. But once this model of expansion based on war cannot be maintained, chaos will not be far away." (End of this chapter)
