Chapter 74 Section 27 Public Security Issues

The quality problem is the weakness of the leaders of the peasant uprising army in the past dynasties. Needless to say, most of the reckless heroes who raised the rebellion grew up without "surplus grain", "surplus energy" and "surplus wisdom", and had no conditions to receive education and develop intelligence.Therefore, most peasant leaders are accustomed to superficial thinking, lacking systematic thinking and abstract thinking ability. They are short-sighted, narrow-minded, lack of imagination, only rely on momentary courage, and lack the knowledge reserve, personality quality and intellectual foundation necessary for a great politician.They are good at destroying, not good at building.This is why among thousands of peasant uprisings over thousands of years, only Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang finally ascended directly from the bottom of society to the throne.The other 99% of the heroes from the bottom of the society have only four endings:

One is to die in the gun forest in obscurity before the major event is accomplished. This is the end of most uprising leaders, such as the hundreds of leaders with different nicknames in the uprising at the end of Ming Dynasty. The second is that although the old dynasty was ruled temporarily, the results of the battle were finally taken away by the nobles; At the end of the Sui Dynasty, although Cheng Yaojin and others in Wagangzhai became emperors for a while, they were eventually accepted by the former aristocratic Tang Wang Li who was proficient in ruling skills. The third is that it is only a few steps away from unifying the world, but in the end, the quality is too poor, unable to resist the temptation of money and beautiful women, the will collapses, indulges in wine and sex, and eventually subjugates the country, such as Hong Xiuquan, Li Zicheng can also be counted.

The fourth is that they only know how to attack cities and land, and move around. Once they sit in the world, they panic and don't know what to do, such as Huang Chao. Zhang Xianzhong also encountered Huang Chao's problem: lack of strategy. At the beginning of the dynasty, the most serious problem faced by the Onishi regime was public security. Due to lack of experience in building base areas, although Zhang Xianzhong claims to pacify the whole of Sichuan, in most parts of Sichuan, he is still fighting the same battle of "monkey breaking the valley" in the past. Appoint one or two soldiers as magistrates.

Because he could not trust the scholars, the scholars he selected did not go to various places to serve as officials, so his rule in these places was only in name, and even some military and political measures were not implemented.Only the vicinity of Chengdu can be regarded as an area with relatively stable control.According to historical records: "The person who offered his loyalty to the thief at that time was from the first district of Jincheng in western Sichuan." the situation at the time. Without the establishment of a grassroots political power and a large-scale propaganda campaign, most people still regard Zhang Xianzhong as a "rogue", just to be intimidated by Zhang Xianzhong's power, rather than truly convinced.Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's rule was extremely unstable, and the opposition he faced was very strong. Outside the areas under his actual control, there were countless local armed forces organized spontaneously to fight against him.

Zhang Xianzhong certainly understands that his ruling foundation is very weak.But the methods he could think of were only the three worst methods among the countless ruling techniques used by the autocratic rulers of the past dynasties: one is police control, the other is violent suppression, and the other is rule by secret agents. The only thing Zhang Xianzhong worshiped and believed in in his life was violence.Everything he achieved was the result of the use of violence.Zhang Xianzhong's department never paid attention to propaganda and strategy like Li Zicheng's department, and grasped both hard and soft hands.They blindly believe in their superior combat power.They are superstitious that "as long as there are knives and guns, nothing is impossible."

Zhang Xianzhong strictly implemented the Baojia system in the areas under his control.For example, in Guangyuan, "regardless of men, women, old and young in the city, all are naturalized, and no one can be omitted." In order to ensure the safety of the capital Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong made more stringent regulations: unauthorized entry and exit are not allowed at the four city gates of the capital Chengdu.Anyone in the city who wants to go out of the city must first get an application from the military commander. The application must state that a certain person is going to a certain place, who the neighbors are, and that someone will guarantee that he will return to the city on a certain day.If you do not return within the time limit, first arrest the left and right neighbors and guarantors and behead them.Those who enter the city to do business outside the city must affix a seal on the left side of the face.When going out of the city, if the seal is washed away by sweat or accidentally wiped off, and it is not clear, the head will be beheaded immediately.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong also practiced spy rule.He sent a large number of soldiers, pretending to be ordinary people, to roam the streets and alleys to listen to people's thoughts. Consolation, look into the distance and bow your heads" ([Qing] Ouyang Zhi wrote "Shu Police Record"). One night, a man was at home talking to his wife about trivial matters in the neighborhood. The woman said to him: "It's so late, go to bed early, what's the use of talking about Zhang's parents and Li's family!" The man was arrested the next day.After Zhang Xianzhong heard the report, he raised his beard and laughed loudly, and said, "This means that my (Zhang) parents and Li Zicheng's family are in trouble. It's okay, he's a good citizen, let him go!"

It has to be said that Zhang Xianzhong, a revolutionary who was very resolute in the struggle against the landlord class, ruled the working people in a barbaric way that was far superior to the reactionary rulers of all dynasties, even including the most barbaric emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.Like Zhu Yuanzhang, violence was to some extent a strategic necessity for Zhang Xianzhong.Zhang Xianzhong sometimes strategically rejects reason because he knows that the fear of the irrational is deeply rooted in human nature.When a person has enough strength to be unreasonable, he is most likely to get unconditional obedience.