Chapter 19 first quarter

Emperor Shenzong Zhao Xu has been unswervingly carrying out reforms throughout his life. The driving force is very simple, which can be summed up in four words-rich country and strong army.He wants to be rich because he has no money and a financial deficit. Zhao Xu is so poor that he doesn’t even have the money to give red envelopes to his employees at the enthronement ceremony. If they can't beat the Xixia people, the emperor has to pay for the side affairs in the end. The emperor has no face and loves money. Whether it is based on the purpose of enriching the country or strengthening the army, for the emperor, military reform is imperative.The empire has an army of nearly one million, holding nearly five-sixths of the country's fiscal revenue, and is still unable to fight. No one is happy to be the boss.

But the reform of the army must be cautious. The army is the power guarantee of an empire. The reform must not only save the country's expenses, but also improve the combat effectiveness of the army, and at the same time, it must not cause major turmoil in the army. The question Wang Anshi had to do was quite difficult. In the test paper Wang Anshi handed over to the emperor, he prescribed two prescriptions for the army: one is called the Art of War, and the other is called the Method of Baojia. Before Wang Anshi developed the Art of War, the empire implemented a military service system called Gengshufa (also known as Chushufa) (the one who came up with this genius method was Zhao Pu, the first prime minister of the Northern Song Dynasty who "ruled the world with half of the country"), stationed in Beijing The forbidden army and the garrison in other places regularly rotate. The purpose of course is to prevent the generals from being too big, so that the generals do not know the soldiers, and the soldiers do not know the generals.

Not to mention the reform of the art of war, it is just an improvement for the low combat effectiveness caused by the separation of soldiers in the empire, and it has gone back to the old path of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in disguise.This move improved the military combat effectiveness of the empire to a certain extent, but the basic national policy of the entire empire, emphasizing culture and suppressing military affairs, determined that the empire could not give military generals too much authority, and the military art was only practiced in some areas, while the political power of the Shenzong era In the upper echelons, the military generals also have no right to speak.

Among Wang Anshi's many reforms, the Art of War may be the one most attacked by political opponents. The reason is very simple. Political opponents think that this will not have much effect, and the harm to the empire is not worth mentioning compared with other new laws. The Baojia method is the most ruthless move Wang Anshi has made, and it is also the new method that has been attacked the most by political opponents. With the downsizing of the troops and the improvement of the military strength of the entire empire, how can Wang Anshi have both fish and bear's paws? Only Baojia Law.

In the third year of Xining (AD 1070), the Northern Song Dynasty promulgated the Baojia Law.Rural households across the country, regardless of host and guest, form one guarantee for every ten (later changed to five) households, five guarantees constitute one major guarantee, and ten guarantees constitute one metropolitan guarantee.If there are two males in the family, one of them is Baoding. The guards gather for military training during the slack season, and conduct inspections occasionally to maintain law and order. There are Baochang, Baozheng, and Dubaozheng in each insurance, which are generally held by relatively wealthy local landlords.

In Wang Anshi's view, the Baojia Law can enable strong men from all over the country to receive military training and become a kind of auxiliary force for the regular departments of the empire. order. The Baojia Law is actually not an alien thing that was born out of nowhere. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Qi State had already implemented the Shiwuli Jia System.The Shizhang and Wuzhang are in charge of public security in Luli. Once suspicious behavior is found, they should be reported in time, so that "those who flee to death will have nothing to hide, and those who migrate will not be tolerated." Admired by rulers.

At first glance, Wang Anshi's Baojia method is old wine in a new bottle, and there is nothing new about it.But for Wang Anshi, the Baojia Law is not only about maintaining local law and order, it is as simple as strengthening the government's control over the people. Turn the drums into eyes and ears...and then make it relevant to recruiting troops.” When the source of troops is withdrawn, where will the missing troops be replenished?Wang Anshi gave the answer from Baojia Law - all the people are soldiers. In order to strengthen Baoding's military quality, the Northern Song Empire carried out two major measures, one is to show up, and the other is to teach and read.

The next step is to strengthen Baoding's military training.In the five years of Xining, the Northern Song Dynasty issued two orders successively, ordering Baoding from all over the country to go to the inspection department and county lieutenant to conduct "shangfan", that is, to conduct military training. The time varies from place to place, usually ten days to half a month. There are a large number of Baoding in the last class, the time is short, and the effect is at most comparable to the current military training for high school and college students.Song Ting was also self-aware of this point. Comparatively speaking, they paid more attention to teaching and reading, and implemented it more vigorously.

In order to encourage Baoding to practice martial arts during the slack season and protect their families and the country, each Baoding can recommend a Baoding with high martial arts skills. The recommender can be eligible for promotion or tax exemption. The prefectures and counties conduct military training for the elite Baoding elected by each Baoding, and the teaching and reading time is January. In the Yuanfeng period, the Song court implemented group education and collective education, and set up eleven teaching centers, with 270 instructors in the forbidden army, and 30 instructors in each, and conducted military training for the chief bao. Conduct military training for Baochang and Baoding in the jurisdiction.

The Song Empire took great pains to strengthen the training of Baoding. According to statistics in the fourth year of Yuanfeng (AD 1081), Baoding, Baochang, and Baozheng who participated in the teaching and training in Kaifeng, Shaanxi, Hebei, and Hedong five roads up to 690,000 passengers. For this reason, the empire set up a special institution-the Nomination of Baojia Division, which is responsible for the teaching and review of Baojia. By the Yuanfeng period, the number of Baojia in the entire Northern Song Empire had reached 6.93 million. This number made Wang Anshi and Zhao Xu proud. There were fewer soldiers spending money, but millions more could still "fight" Do you still need to look at the faces of Xixia people and Khitan people?