typeface
large
in
Small
Turn off the lights
Previous bookshelf directory Bookmark Next

Chapter 309: Compassion and Reward [two in one]

"PS: Yangmei is back from her hometown next season and has to wait until next year./(ㄒoㄒ)/~~"

————The following text————

The truce between Qin and Wei means that the "Second Central Plains War" has finally come to an end.

I remember that during the "First Central Plains War", the "Three Kingdoms Alliance of Wei, Qin, Wei, and Chu" defeated the "Five Kingdoms Alliance of Han, Qi, Lu, Song, and Yue" and became the dominant party in that war.

In this "Second Central Plains War", with the whole world as its enemy, Wei State used its own power to resist the seven countries of Korea, Qi, Chu, Lu, Yue, Wei, and Qin, and finally overthrew Korea.

(Han Ran's regime), instigated a rebellion against the two kingdoms of Wei and Lu, defeated the four kingdoms of Qi, Chu, Yue and Qin, and won the final victory.

The "Anti-Wei Alliance" that Han Wangran tried his best to promote in order to restrict Wei State has completely failed.

It has to be said that this outcome shocked the whole world. After all, no one had thought before that Wei could actually achieve such a victory when one was against seven. For a time, the whole world was talking about "Wei", and Wei's son

The people, whether they are the old Wei people, or the Sichuan Luo people, Shang Shui Chu people, and Song County Song people who have integrated into the Wei people, are all sincerely happy, and even proud of it.

The enemies of Wei, such as Qi, Chu, and Yue, trembled because they understood that the current situation no longer allowed the "Anti-Wei Alliance" to organize another coalition to attack Wei.

The main reason is that South Korea, which served as a 'sacrifice' in the Second Central Plains War, has been conquered by Wei, and the real core figure and facilitator of the "Anti-Wei Alliance" - Han Wangran, was also involved in this battle.

His death during the war was undoubtedly a heavy loss for the anti-Wei alliance.

But having said that, for now, the Three Kingdoms of Qi, Chu and Yue are still capable of protecting themselves.

Let’s talk about Qi first. Qi’s military losses in this Central Plains war were almost negligible. This allowed Qi, which still had more than 200,000 troops, to be able to defeat the attacks of Wei generals Zhao Jiang and Qu Cheng.

Next, he firmly guarded the border, making it difficult for the Wei army to cross the thunder pool.

And Chu State, Chu State was the country that suffered the most losses in this Central Plains War.

First of all, it can be said that the millions of Chu troops have followed the path of the previous "Five Kingdoms' Conquest of Wei", so that in the end, only about 30% of the one million troops returned to the country, although this situation seems much more optimistic than the last time.

, but the terrible thing is that this time Chu State lost General Xiang Mo, one of the Three Pillars, and his cousin Xiang Juan, who was regarded as the most powerful general in Chu State.

Leaving aside Xiang Kuan, who is Xiang Mo?

That was the famous general of Chu who once stood on equal footing with generals such as Tian Dan of Qi and Li Mu, Le Yi, Lian Pi of South Korea.

Contrary to the world's impression that "Chu's army is weak", due to Chu's large population, many generals have emerged in the past twenty years - such as Wei's Wu Ji, Zhai Huang, Qu Cheng, and Yan Mo

, Sun Shuke, etc., these were all from the Chu State.

But when it comes to commanders with excellent strategic vision, Chu State still has to recommend one of the first three pillars "Shouling Jun Jingshe", one of the first three pillars "Xiling Jun Quping", and the soon-to-be "First Three Pillars"

One of them was "Admiral Xiang Mo", and the other generals of the Chu State, whether Xiang Pei, Lord of Xinyang, Xiong Li, Lord of Diyang, Yang You, the deputy general of Shouling Lord Jingshe, or the general "Niyu" whom Xiang Mo was very optimistic about.

”, “Yu Ji”, including the “former Di Yangjun Xiong Shang” who died in battle, the fierce general Xiang Kuan, etc., compared with the top three, they are all inevitably inferior.

To put it simply, Jing She, Qu Ping, and Xiang Mo are like Zhao Yuanzuo, King of Nanliang, and Zhao Yuandai, King of Yu of Wei, or Gongsun Qi, Marquis of Wuxin, and Wang Jian, Marquis of Changxin of Qin—at least in China.

In the evaluation of the world, this is roughly the case.

And now, after Jing She, Xiang Mo also died in the war with Wei. This has put the Chu State into a dilemma of losing its commanders. Although there are many generals, they lack real "general generals".

"Capital". "Note: "General's talent", in layman's terms, means marshal, general,

There are national army commanders such as Da Sima, but there is no such position as "marshal" in this era (although there are records similar to "marshal seeking" in the Spring and Autumn Period, but that is not an official position), and the so-called general (or general),

In fact, it cannot reach the level of commanding the entire country's troops.』

In fact, in comparison, the situation in Wei is similar. King Yu Zhao Yuandai passed away, and King Zhao Yuanzuo of Nanliang is old. In fact, Wei only has half of its "general talents" left, that is, Di Huang, the general of Tiance Mansion.

, but don’t forget that Zhao Run, the monarch of Wei State, is the "Wei Gongzi Run" who once swept across the Central Plains. Therefore, Wei State still has "one and a half" generals who can win the war.

One of the keys to this war.

By the way, this can also reflect from the side that South Korea lost this war and even the orthodox regime was overthrown by Wei. This is incredible, because South Korea has "Yanmen Shou Li Mu" and "Beijing"

With the talents of these two generals, "Yan Shou Le Yi", it is really unimaginable that apart from the domestic economy, the rest of the army and generals were not inferior to Wei's, and South Korea could be beaten so badly.

It has to be said that in addition to the excellent strategic vision of Wei King Zhao Run, Lihou Han Wu had to bear the main responsibility for this failure, because if he had not replaced Le Yi before the battle, the Wei army would never have thought of breaking through the Shanggu defense line in such a short period of time.

If the Shanggu defense line is not breached by the Wei army, Korea will not fall.

If Korea will not fall, the Wei army will not be able to withdraw its troops to attack Qi and put pressure on Qi.

It is no exaggeration to say that an order from Li Hou Han Wu not only ruined his country, but also ruined all the advantages that the entire "Anti-Wei Alliance" had gradually accumulated before. As a result, all the efforts made by Han Wangran against Wei were in vain.

But having said that, Chu State has the largest population base in the entire Central Plains, and the country is extremely deep. More importantly, the "Chu East Area" bordering Chu State and Wei State is not very popular with Chu State.

At least 70% of the Chu State's strength is concentrated in the eastern Chu region. For these reasons, Chu State does not need to be too frightened by Wei State's revenge - at least in a short period of time, Wei State will

The country wants to overthrow the Chu State like it overthrew Korea.

Finally, let’s talk about the State of Yue. Although King Shaokang of Yue was also worried about the revenge of the State of Wei, his worries were lighter than those of Qi and Chu. The reason is very simple. The State of Yue and the State of Wei were too far away from each other, and there was still a gap between the two countries of Wei and Yue.

The "Eastern Chu Region" of the Chu State means that if the Wei army can really attack the Yue State, it means that the Chu State has been destroyed.

Since such a powerful state of Chu has been destroyed, it is not far from being overthrown by the Wei army if he crosses the country.

Therefore, there is actually nothing to worry about. The fate of the Yue State has long been tied to the Chu State.

In September of the third year of Wei Zhaowu, Wei State had basically stopped its foreign wars.

Even Wei generals Zhao Jiang and Qu Cheng, who were still attacking Qi, retreated to Julu North County, which nominally belonged to South Korea, under the orders of Tiance Mansion.

The reason is very simple: Wei State has no money and food to continue attacking Qi State.

Some people may say that at this time, Wei State should try its best to attack Qi State, because as long as Qi State is captured, Wei State will be able to obtain sufficient money and food.

But the question is, what if we can’t win?

Although Qi's army is weak, it is still a regular army with more than 200,000 troops. What's more, with Tian Dan, Tian Wu and other generals supervising the battle, how could it be so easily defeated by the Wei army?

What's more, the people of Qi are not fools. If the war situation is unfavorable, wouldn't they set fire to the granary in advance? Will they stupidly leave it to Wei?

It was precisely because of these points that Wei King Zhao Run gave up taking advantage of the victory to attack Qi before Qi had actively sued for peace. The reason was that Wei was not sure of achieving its goal of "obtaining food from Qi" and rashly

Going to war will only make the domestic food shortage situation worse, thereby losing the advantageous situation.

Therefore, Wei King Zhao Run ordered Zhao Jiang and Qu Cheng to lead their troops to retreat to Julu County in South Korea, and asked these two armies to farm in Julu North County to accumulate food. Like this, it would only take one to two years to wait for Wei

The country solves the dilemma of 'food shortage'

Get out, and then raise troops to attack Qi. Even if Qi has generals like Tian Dan and Tian Wu, and even if Qi has more than 200,000 regular troops, it is destined to be unable to stop the army of Wei - in fact, it should be Wei and Han.

The armies of both countries.

The "Eastern Front Battlefield" was temporarily suspended due to the order of Wei King Zhao Run, and the "Western Front Battlefield", that is, the Qin and Wei battlefields, also temporarily came to an end due to the "truce agreement" signed by Qin and Wei. This made Wei finally

Entered a precious period of peace.

Since the "Wei-Korean Arms Confrontation" during the Xing'an Period of the Wei State, seven full years later, the Wei State finally got a precious opportunity to breathe.

Now that the war is over, the first thing Wei needs to do is naturally to "compensate" and "reward".

Pension refers to caring for the soldiers of Wei who died in this war - including militiamen.

According to statistics from the Tiance Mansion and the Ministry of War, the number of regular soldiers Wei lost in this war is as follows:

Sima An's "Hexi Army" suffered 30,000 casualties in battle;

Wei Ji's "Hexi Army" suffered 20,000 casualties in battle;

Zhao Jiang's "Hanoi Army" suffered about 15,000 casualties in battle;

Shaohu's "Wei Wujun" suffered about eight thousand casualties in battle;

Qu Cheng's "Yanling Army" suffered about 11,000 losses in battle;

Pang Huan's "anti-rebel army" suffered about 16,000 casualties in battle;

Bosile's "Jiejiao Cavalry" suffered about 12,000 losses in battle;

Wu Ji's "Shang Shui Army" suffered about 6,000 losses in battle;

Li Ji's "Huling Navy" suffered about 4,000 casualties in the battle;

Jiang Bi's "Shangdang Army" suffered about 6,000 losses in battle;

Zhao Xuan's "Northern First Army" suffered about 12,000 losses in battle;

The "Daliang Imperial Guards" suffered about 23,000 losses in battle;

The "Luoyang Imperial Guard" suffered approximately 7,000 losses in battle.



Wei's regular army alone lost more than 170,000 troops this time.

This does not include the private armies of Chengling King Zhao Shen, Shangliang Marquis Zhao Anding and others, does not include the county troops in Song County and Yingshui County, nor does it include the "Sichuan-Luo Cavalry" of the Sichuan-Luo Alliance, and Wei Wang Zhao Run in

The troops lost in the Battle of Daliang.

If the casualties of these auxiliary troops are included, Wei's casualties may have soared to more than 250,000.

If on this basis, we add the casualties of the Wei people in this battle, such as the tens of thousands of Daliang men who died in the "Battle of Daliang", and the Song and Yingshui counties of Wei who were invaded and killed by the coalition forces of various countries.

I am afraid that the number of casualties among the people in the two places will quadruple on top of the 250,000.

Because of this, when Wei Wang Zhao Run saw the rough casualty statistics submitted by Tiance Mansion, his face was livid, and his fingers were slightly green from clenching his fists hard.

Because according to the estimates of Tiance Mansion, the casualties of the Wei army and civilians in this war may be more than the casualties of the coalition forces of other countries, which made Wei King Zhao Run extremely angry.

A few days later, the internal minister Jie Ziyu submitted the "pension" payment to Wei King Zhao Run.

Pensions are divided into two categories. The first is compensation in terms of money and food, that is, pensions are paid to the families of fallen soldiers on a "person" basis.

There is nothing to explain. The pension in Wei State is calculated on a per-capita basis. Whether it is a soldier or a general, the amount of pension paid is the same, which is a negligible "seven silver coins".

I remember that in the early days of the Weichuan trade, Wei Gongzi Run personally ruled that one Wei silver circle was worth one sheep, so there were some special silver circles - the "Weichuan trade commemorative coins", with the pattern of a sheep and the number engraved on the back.

Not many, but quite collectible.

But now, more than ten years later, the value of seven Wei Yinhuan is barely around two sheep.

This is more of a funeral expense than a pension.

It’s not that the Wei court was stingy, because this item was not actually the “important part” of pensions.

Of course, if it is a very poor family, the Wei government and the public will also provide additional compensation in terms of money and food.

But having said that, the regular soldiers of the Wei State generally have living conditions above that of civilians - with Wei King Zhao Run repeatedly improving the treatment of soldiers, even regular soldiers who have experienced only one or two wars basically have the same living conditions as civilians.

There are fields and houses.

This point is somewhat similar to Qin's military merit system.

And if they are tough soldiers like the "Yangwu" of the Shang Shui Army, these soldiers can even be compared to the local gentry. Not only are Hu people, but also Ba people slaves farm for them, and they may even raise valuable Hu people.

Women serve as maids or concubines.

Therefore, as long as the family is not particularly poor, they actually don't look down on the court's meager pensions or funeral funds.

The real "important part" of pensions lies in the second category, which is Wei's special policy care for the families of these fallen soldiers.

For example, within a certain period of time, "martyr households" will be exempted from corvee and land taxes;

Another example is that during festivals, local governments would distribute money, food, poultry, and even livestock to these "martyr households" on behalf of the court;

If there are still other men in the "martyr household" serving in the military, or inheriting the military position of their father and brother, or being promoted to one-level military rank;

If the father of "the martyr household" died in the war and the child is underage, the local government will unconditionally raise the child on behalf of the court and bear all the basic expenses of the family for a certain number of years.

Wait wait wait.

These are the key points of the Wei State's "compensation" for the fallen soldiers.

The advantage of such a restructuring is that the Wei soldiers can be more assured of their own affairs. For the Wei court, although the actual money that the court needs to spend for such a restructuring is actually more, the advantage is that it can avoid allocating money all at once.

Provide huge amounts of pension.

Just like this war, the number of regular soldiers including county soldiers was more than 250,000 killed. If the old system was followed, how much pension would the Wei court have to pay?

If not, the national treasury may simply be emptied out, and a serious deficit may even occur as a result, and there will be no talk of restoring development.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the above pensions, veterans who have retired from the army due to old age or disability will also be arranged by the Wei State to work in local areas, either as "Li Zheng" or "District Protector", or as guards.

Road, a station along the track carriage——

After the Driving Department under the Ministry of War of Wei completed the overall reform of the "National Road Network", the official roads and the post stations along the rail carriages already had functions such as tea stalls, wine shops, and inns, which were enough for these retired veterans.

Soldiers support themselves.

It has to be said that it is precisely because the Wei State has a very complete pension system that the soldiers of the Wei State have no worries on the battlefield, because they know that whether they are disabled due to the war or die on the battlefield, they

The country will also assume the responsibility of taking care of them, supporting their elderly parents, and raising their young children.

Having said that, this was the old pension system of the Wei State after King Zhao Run of Wei came to the throne, but this time, the minister of the inner dynasty Jie Ziu added another item to the pension fund, that is, to build schools similar to schools in counties and counties across the country.

Military schools absorb the children of those who died in battle and train them from an early age.

To be honest, Zhao Run is very familiar with this model, because this is exactly the model used by the Zongfu to train Zongwei.

"..."

Zhao Run looked up at Jie Ziyu with some surprise, and asked with a faint smile: "Refer to the way the clan cultivates Zongwei, and train the heirs of those fallen soldiers from an early age... Jiezi, do you want to ban Zongwei Yu Linlang?

"

"That's not the case."

Jie Zigui shook his head, raised his hands and said: "I just think that the way the Zongfu trains Zongwei is very unique. Since the imperial court wants to raise the war orphans on its behalf, why not train them into excellent soldiers or even generals? So

As a result, our Wei Dynasty will not only not be short of qualified soldiers in the future, but will even be able to continuously obtain excellent generals."

Zhao Run thought for a moment and nodded with deep understanding.

Although the implementation of Jie Ziu's suggestions requires the court to spend a lot of extra manpower and financial resources, the benefits are also very great, and it can be said to be a long-lasting success.

"Tell me the specifics," Zhao Run said.

Seeing this, Jie Ziyu cupped his hands and said: "This matter may as well be left to the Ministry of War. As for the teaching positions in various places, they can be drawn from Zongwei Yulin of the Zongfu. Your Majesty also knows that Zongwei Yulin Lang is the best in our great Wei Dynasty."

Taxi soldiers."

Zhao Run listened quietly to Jie Ziyu's words and murmured secretly in his heart.

To be honest, Jie Ziyu’s move is suspected of evading the clan. It’s no wonder. After all, the clan represents the “privileged forces” such as the Zhao family, Wang Gui, etc., and there is a conflict of interests with the “gentry forces” represented by the imperial court - On

The most fundamental contradiction lies in the fact that Confucianism, Legalism and other schools generally believe that the existence of privileges above the national law (the king's law) only requires one monarch, and there is no need for so many 'privilege forces'.

When the royal family gains power, the gentry will inevitably be weak. To avoid this, the gentry will naturally crowd out the royal family.

Of course, the royal family here refers to the branch of the Zhao family, not the orthodox royal family.

"If I, the descendants of the Zhao family, do not live up to their expectations, I am afraid that they will be 'driven out and killed' by the nobles in the future..."

Zhao Run sighed secretly in his heart. Zhao Run was silent for a while and nodded slightly.

There is no way, Jie Zizi always does things in a flawless manner. Even if Zhao Run guesses that he wants to take the opportunity to suppress the royal family, he can only pretend not to know. After all, you can't refuse Jie Zi's suggestion, which will be of great benefit to the future, right?

What's more, although Jie Ziyu's move weakened the influence of the clan, it strengthened the military department and strengthened his control as a monarch in disguise. He really had no reason to refuse.

The only thing he could do was to secretly hope that his descendants of the Zhao family would strive to be more powerful, lest they be 'driven to death' by the gentry and be completely squeezed out of the center of power and reduced to local wealthy local gentry.

But it's a pity that currently, there are really not many of his Zhao family's children who are outstanding.

"Just follow what Ai Qing said and leave this matter to the Ministry of War."

Zhao Run nodded.

"Your Majesty is wise."

Except for Du You, the Minister of Rites, who was absent due to illness, all the internal ministers in the Chui Gong Hall said in unison.

After discussing the pension, the next step is naturally the "reward".

The so-called reward refers to the promotion of officials and titles to those who have made meritorious deeds.

For example, Zhang Qigong, although he was not good at military affairs, he played an indispensable role in the fact that Wei was able to overthrow Korea in such a short period of time. In the view of Wei King Zhao Run, Zhang Qigong's contribution was greater than that of Zhao Jiang, Shao Hu, and Qu Cheng.

The others are even bigger.

Another example is Huan Hu. Although this guy was once a wanted criminal in Wei State, Huan Hu also played an important role in defeating the coalition forces of various countries this time.

Others, such as Yunzhong Shou Lian Pi and Jiu Yuan Shou Feng Ting who recaptured the Yuanzhong Fortress, Zhao Jiang and Shao Hu, Qu Cheng, Pang Huan, etc., who overthrew the Korean Yan King, were established in this war.

The meritorious officials, whether generals or soldiers, must be rewarded according to their merits.

It has to be said that compared to pensions, this is where the court has to allocate large sums of money.

But there is no way. Reward and punishment are clearly the principles of Wei King Zhao Run. Even if he loses the entire treasury, he must collect this money to reward the army. After all, it is these respectable men of the Wei State who helped the country achieve victory with one against seven.

victory.

In October of the third year of Wei Zhaowu, when the Wei court was busy with post-war pensions and rewards, Wei ushered in the autumn harvest season.

As the imperial court had previously predicted, Wei's harvest this year was greatly reduced due to the war. The counties most affected by the war, such as Song County, Yingshui County, Hedong County, Hexi County, Shangshui County, and Liang County, were among the most affected by the war.

The harvest was only about 10% or 20% of previous years. Fortunately, a few counties such as Shangdang County, Sanchuan County, and Hanoi County were not affected by the war. Otherwise, the whole Wei State would really have to suffer.

But even so, Wei's food supply was still tight, forcing Zhao Run to continue to order the slaughter of sheep raised in Sanchuan, Hexi, Hetao and other places, and to use mutton as a luxury to replace part of the food.

Fortunately, this part of the mutton will be given priority to the families of those who died in the battle, and will not flow into the market too much. Otherwise, this move will definitely cause chaos in Wei's domestic market.

Regarding this move of Wei King Zhao Run, except for the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, the other officials in the court naturally praised him. After all, they must not hesitate to harm the interests of the court and even the monarch himself, but also ensure that the civilians in the country get enough food to make a living. If they do not truly love the people

A monarch who is like a son may not be able to do this.

In mid-October, several Wei warships, carrying Zhang Qigong, Le Yi, Xu Li, Sima Shang, Yan Kui and other former Korean generals who had joined Wei, finally arrived at the port of Luocheng.


This chapter has been completed!
Previous Bookshelf directory Bookmark Next