Many people believe that since the Huangzhushan bandits who call themselves the Tang Dynasty have begun to occupy the place and establish a political power to collect taxes, they will definitely have to have the same worries as many dynasties in the future, such as avoiding provoking civil unrest as much as possible.
, and vigorously win over the contemporary middle social class: the gentry and landlords.
They naively believed that as long as they insisted on not paying taxes and raised any objection slogans, the Tang Dynasty would give in and make concessions, thereby returning to the previous state of not paying taxes.
But they obviously overestimated the conscience of Emperor Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty and his civil and military ministers!
Those civil and military ministers who were former bandit leaders did not understand what it meant to win over people's hearts. Liu Bagou, Zeng Ziwen, Ma Wei and others knew the importance of winning over people's hearts, but they knew even more clearly that if they made concessions at this time,
Then in the future, more people will use various slogans to oppose the Tang Dynasty, which will be a disaster for a new and weak dynasty.
They all feel that now the most severe means must be used to suppress other opposition, especially those that are hidden and have not yet come to the surface.
As the saying goes, kill the chicken to scare the monkeys!
The Tang Dynasty was weak, but it was precisely because of its weakness that it had to behave in a reckless and even crazy way.
Those who have money are afraid of those who have no money, those who have no money are afraid of those who are desperate, and those who are desperate are afraid of those who are crazy.
And the role that the Tang Dynasty will play is that madman!
However, these were the thoughts of these courtiers. As for Emperor Li Xuan of the Tang Dynasty, when he ordered the army to suppress the recalcitrant landlords, his starting point was not these.
His starting point was simple: he had no interest in these big landowners, and even these big landowners blocked his steps. So when these people objected, Li Xuan simply came to kill them all and ransack their homes.
When the Tang Dynasty was still based in Huangzhushan, Li Xuan did not have a clear direction for governance. At that time, he just took it one step at a time.
But now, when the new army of the Tang Dynasty has occupied the vast countryside of Zhengtai County, and the number of people under its rule has exceeded 80,000, claiming to control hundreds of miles of land and 100,000 people, Li Xuan has also officially decided on his own
Governance, or the strategy of rebellion.
The first thing is to find out where your foundation lies. This foundation does not refer to a place, but to people. To be precise, it is people of a certain class.
Since the Tang Dynasty was born as a bandit, and its rebellion was child's play, no one with any knowledge would support the Tang Dynasty. Even if the new army of the Tang Dynasty had taken control of Zhengtai County, many people in Zhengtai County were waiting.
Just watching the jokes of the Tang Dynasty and waiting for the imperial army to come back.
Under such circumstances, it was almost impossible to gain support from the upper echelons of society such as scholars, gentry and landlords.
So who are the people that the Tang Dynasty can win over?
Ordinary people, especially the poor who are illiterate and lack knowledge!
This can be seen from the tax system issued by Li Xuan, which is relatively generous to farmers.
As long as you get the support of these ordinary people, you can get life-and-death resources such as soldiers, food and even weapons.
In comparison, the value of the so-called upper class in society is not worth mentioning.
As for the need for scholars, landlords and gentry to maintain control, don't worry. To be an official, you don't have to read the Four Books and Five Classics. Their role is more for reading, and those who really do things only need to know how to read.
Just a few hundred common words are enough.
Blacksmith Shi didn't know a word of Chinese characters before, and he only learned a few characters in the past year. However, he was still the Minister of the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty, and he was very impressive. Under his leadership, the Ministry of Industry
A large number of workshops were established to provide various materials and ammunition for the Tang Dynasty.
Let’s talk about Liu Bagou. Although this person can be considered a scholar, he can only be regarded as a member of the ranks of Tong Sheng. What he is best at is bragging and self-fantasy. However, as the chief minister of the cabinet of the Tang Dynasty, he is not very outstanding.
As for the influence of the gentry and landlords in the countryside, this is indeed a bit troublesome. However, the rule of the Tang Dynasty was not limited to the county town like previous dynasties. The rule of the Tang Dynasty went directly to the village level.
The establishment of the two levels of government, town and village, was enough for the Tang Dynasty to extend its rule to every common person.
In other words, the Tang Dynasty did not need these clans in the countryside to help maintain its rule. It can even be said that the large-scale clans in the countryside influenced the rule of the Tang Dynasty.
Rebellion means to win over those who can be won over and are worthy of being won over, and then attack those who oppose it.
To a certain extent, the current Tang Dynasty is pulling a group of small and medium-sized landowners and more ordinary farmers, and then launching a war against the Ming Dynasty represented by the large landowners and the gentry class!
After a brutal and violent crackdown by the military, the turmoil caused by the tax system was completely quelled, and the recalcitrant big landowners were wiped out. The remaining big landowners chose to obey the soft government. It would be impossible not to surrender to the soft force. Those blue-blooded landlords who refused to surrender to the soft government would not be able to do so.
The pseudo-Tang thieves in red trousers are about to come to kill you.
Looking at the report on suppressing the rebellion submitted from below, Li Xuan nodded with satisfaction, and then said to Comrade Fang Xixian of the First Mixed Battalion in charge of this suppression operation: "Major Fang, you did a good job this time.
The rapid action of the First Mixed Battalion is indispensable for the elimination of unrest in various towns in a short period of time!"
Comrade Fang Xi said: "I dare not take credit. The reason why this operation went smoothly is because Your Majesty's divine power has spread all over Zhengtai. Those who were stubborn and resisting had already surrendered upon hearing the arrival of my Imperial Master of the Tang Dynasty!
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"In addition, the bandit capture camp also played a great role and effectively cooperated with our army's actions!"
Li Xuandao: "So, according to Fang Aiqing, this bandit camp is ready for use?"
Comrade Fang Xi said: "The scale of the bandit-capturing camp is now small, and the training days are short. If they are allowed to go to the front line to fight against powerful enemies, they will naturally be unable to handle it. However, if they are deployed in the rear to suppress the young people, they can still be barely used!"
The bandit-catching camp they mentioned was an auxiliary force that was just established last month. First of all, strictly speaking, this bandit-catching camp is not a pure army, but is under the dual jurisdiction of the military and the cabinet.
of armed forces.
Because of the pressure from local security, especially the armed tax resistance by some large landowners, Li Xuan realized that it was not appropriate to rely on the professional army to maintain public security and carry out these small-scale repression tasks.
The new army of the Tang Dynasty was used to fight the Ming army. If the Ming army came to attack in large numbers, they would all come out in full force. It was impossible to leave some troops behind to suppress the local area and maintain public order during the battle at the front.
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However, there are existing police officers in villages and towns. You can ask them to catch thieves, but it will be difficult for you to ask them to attack large households guarded by high walls and large groups of bandits.
For this reason, Li Xuan came up with the idea of establishing a local garrison. This garrison was not the first garrison battalion in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. Although the first garrison battalion had the name of garrison,
But they are also real combat troops, not used to suppress local areas and maintain public security.
This garrison should have a certain degree of combat effectiveness, but the cost should not be too high. In the end, this garrison became known as a pirate camp. It is mainly equipped with common swords and spears, supplemented by a small number of archers, platoon-level
The above officers are equipped with armor, and the other soldiers are all light infantry.
The establishment still follows that of the main force, but there are only three teams with about 300 people. According to Li Xuan's own idea, this kind of robbery camp should be set up in every county. They are usually stationed in the county. What happens?
After the turmoil, they were immediately dispatched to suppress it.
A bandit capture camp of 300 people is usually enough!
If a bandit camp of 300 people can't do it, the military will send combat troops to suppress it.
At the same time, this robbery camp is under the dual jurisdiction of the cabinet and the military. For this reason, Li Xuan's cabinet also specially established a new agency called the Patrol Department. This robbery camp is under the patrol department.
Jurisdiction.
In addition, the responsibility of the Patrol Department is to maintain public order and combat various crimes. Originally, the peace officers, burglary officers, and detectives of each town and village were all under the jurisdiction of the Patrol Department.
It is worth mentioning that Li Xuan took advantage of this opportunity to make certain changes in the functions and powers of various cabinet ministries in recent days.
For example, the Ministry of Supervision was independent from the cabinet, and the name Supervisory Yuan, which had been used in all dynasties, was restored. After its independence, it was directly responsible to Li Xuan. Some of its powers were similar to those of the Supervisory Yuan in other dynasties, and they could supervise them all.
Hundreds of officials.
In addition, the Metropolitan Procuratorate not only manages officials, but also has the power to manage civilian crimes. It imitates later prosecutors and prosecutes various illegal acts.
In addition, a new Ministry of Law was established. As the name suggests, this Ministry of Law is responsible for the formulation of various laws. It also assumes the additional task of later courts and adjudicates various lawsuits.
As a result, the three judicial institutions of the Public Security Bureau and the Procuratorate were formed, which completely solved the problem that the Tang Dynasty had always faced: chaotic judicial power.
And the most important thing is that for any trivial matter, the case will be brought to Li Xuanyu. Even if it is not brought to Li Xuan, it will be brought to Liu Bagou, and it will be handled by the judiciary in the future.
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In addition to the changes in the judiciary, other departments have also undergone changes. For example, in the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Department of Industry and Commerce and the Department of Internal Affairs have been newly added. In addition to the original civil affairs, they are also responsible for industrial and commercial development affairs, as well as other and
Those related to people's livelihood are under the management of the Department of Home Affairs.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry has also added two agencies, the Transportation Department and the Workshop Department, so that the Ministry of Industry can better manage the many workshops established by the Ministry of Industry, as well as the construction of roads and bridges.
This improvement of the various cabinet ministries was to make the central institutions of the Tang Dynasty more complete, and after clarifying the various functions and powers, when encountering these things in the future, there will be no situation where you don’t know which department is responsible for them.
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Not only the cabinet has changed, but the administrative organizations of the towns below have also changed. In less than half a month, although the cabinet of the Tang Dynasty and the organizations of each town still look the same on the surface, the actual changes are still very significant.
big.
Since the day it was established, the cabinet has been developing and improving every moment to adapt to the expansion of the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, even if the new army of the Tang Dynasty gains more territory, the Tang Dynasty will not be able to rule effectively!
If one day the new army of the Tang Dynasty occupies a province or even more territory, but the cabinet cannot maintain its rule, then Mr. Zhengde will have to laugh it off!