A short-lived dynasty under the cannon fodder policy

 

A short-lived dynasty under the cannon fodder policy

 

There is a famous saying in China: Political power comes from the barrel of a gun. As we all know, the military is a symbol of the country's comprehensive national strength and an important guarantee for the country's survival and development. But in terms of military management, the military policies of each dynasty are different. How to make more people become cannon fodder for the ruler to conquer the country is a very prominent problem. Specific measures are reflected in the pension policies for soldiers in successive dynasties.

When Agudengba chatted with Azhuo and Chu Sanxing about the Yuan Dynasty, Agudengba said: The Yuan Dynasty was a short-lived dynasty that lasted for 98 years. The reason was that force was used externally and violence was used internally, power was reserved for oneself, and labor was used for slave. In the end, the anger of heaven and the resentment of mankind will lead to the inevitable destruction of the country.

Agudenba said:

After the completion of the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, the foundation of the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty was not stable, and the replacement of the throne was more frequent than that of other dynasties. In the short period of 98 years from the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty by Kublai Khan to Emperor Yuan Shun, eleven emperors were born in the Yuan Dynasty, and each emperor reigned for less than 10 years on average. It can be seen that the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty changed frequently, coups occurred one after another, and the power dump within the ruling group was serious, which aggravated the internal strife of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, corruption was very serious in the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, so the taxes that fell on the people were even more heavy, and officials had no time to take care of the people.

Genghis Khan only knew how to bend a bow and shoot eagles. The Yuan Dynasty at that time inherited the tradition of governing the country by force. In addition to launching many wars against the Song Dynasty, it also launched many wars against Vietnam, Japan, and Myanmar. However, these wars were basically in vain. During his reign, Kublai Khan made three expeditions to Japan and sent a fleet of 100,000 men to attack Japan. However, the final result of the war was a disastrous defeat for the Yuan army.

At that time, the Yuan Dynasty wanted to ease class conflicts and consolidate the political power held by the Mongols. The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty drew on the governance methods of the Song Dynasty at that time. On the one hand, they established and improved a relief system for famine relief, and on the other hand, they implemented pension policies to win over the court officials and army soldiers at that time.

Before the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty had launched wars against the Song Dynasty many times in an attempt to overthrow the rule of the Song Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty sent a large number of troops to attack the Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty also actively responded to the war.

At that time, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty were not afraid of the high-intensity attacks of the Yuan Dynasty. In the face of death, the soldiers insisted on charging into battle and guarding the security of the country with their own lives. But at that time, the Song Dynasty's preferential care system for army soldiers was very strange.

The Song Dynasty had always relied on a policy of focusing on civil affairs and military affairs, and spent a lot of money on military expenditures, but the salaries of officers and soldiers were not much. The rulers of the Song Dynasty once stipulated that if an army soldier died on the battlefield due to fighting, or was physically disabled due to fighting, then the soldier himself or the soldier's family members could receive half of the food and clothing provided during military service throughout his life. The Song Dynasty also provided ordinary retired soldiers with the most basic living and production tools, giving them a certain amount of food and money, and the court also asked the local government where the soldiers were to send officials to be responsible for their lives after they returned to their homeland.

It can be seen that while the Song Dynasty actively responded to the war, it also protected the basic rights and interests of the country's soldiers and provided them with the most basic guarantees.

At that time, the frequency of wars in the Yuan Dynasty was relatively higher than that in the Song Dynasty. Many soldiers and officers died in the unification wars in the early Yuan Dynasty. At that time, in order to ensure military reinforcements, the Yuan Dynasty relied on the strength of these army soldiers to expand the country's territory and maintain class rule.

In order to recruit more cannon fodder to go to the front line, the Yuan Dynasty court strengthened the treatment of army officers and increased their monthly salary. The emperor sometimes gave temporary rewards for military merit. Generally speaking, those with higher official positions and status in the Yuan Dynasty received larger pensions. At that time, some clan nobles in the Yuan Dynasty were higher than ordinary officials.

At that time, not only the salaries of officers and soldiers were increased, but also money, food, rolled cloth, cotton clothes, and sometimes land, etc. were given. In addition to rewards, certain subsidies were also given to the families of soldiers, giving They have some salary.

If there are soldiers who died in the war, or soldiers who eventually retired due to old age. Their descendants can still serve as officials. If an officer becomes an official after reaching the age of 70, he can hand over his position to his son or uncle or nephew after his death.

The Yuan Dynasty court often provided pensions to those soldiers who were poor, old and weak, as well as the families of deceased sergeants. The Yuan Dynasty government adopted some special pension policies. At that time, the death of soldiers could be divided into four categories: those who lost their names due to deep difficulties, those who were injured in battle and eventually died of injuries, those who unfortunately died during the march, and those who participated in the battle and died heroically. kind of "just group".

Corresponding to these four "just groups", the government's pension methods at that time included those who died in battle and overflow. For those army soldiers who died of illness or persisted in fighting, their families were exempted from corvee for half a year. Army soldiers who did not die in battle but suffered heavy casualties could also be commended by the court and receive a certain amount of pension and future burial expenses.

At that time, if a relative died in the war, no one from the family of the deceased would have to go out to serve in the military within a year.

If a soldier died of illness in a harsh war environment, the family of the war deceased does not have to send someone to serve in the army within half a year. However, once the time limit has passed, everything will remain as usual, and the family who should serve in the war will still have to serve in the army. Someone needs to serve in the army.

But in fact, compared with military attaches in the army, the level of protection and the amount of pension received by ordinary soldiers after death are not much, but the policy implemented by the court for soldiers who died in battle is still relatively benevolent.

For example, when the bodies of the deceased soldiers returned to their hometowns, the imperial court would send local government officials to help their families, handle the funeral arrangements for the deceased soldiers, and provide their families with money, items, land, crops, etc. In some cases, the court could even make political arrangements to help these deceased family members get married.

Agudenba said:

Why the Yuan Dynasty attached great importance to funeral matters is that before the Yuan Dynasty was established, the Mongols already had their own unique funeral customs. As a nomadic people, they once lived a life of no fixed settlement. In that era of deer hunting on the grassland, once someone died or died in battle, the deceased would be allowed to sit in the tent they used during their lifetime, and their relatives would stay outside the tent to pray for them. Only some linen cloth, bows and arrows, and meat would be buried with them. Then carry out burial. This practice is also so that the dead can still have horses to ride on, meat to eat, and tents to live in after going to the other world.

After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, considering that tomb robberies had occurred in imperial cemeteries, the emperors of the Yuan Dynasty adopted the form of secret burial.

No monuments are erected, no cemeteries are built, and graves are not marked. It is said that Genghis Khan adopted this form, and Kublai Khan even buried his tomb in a hollowed-out tree, so that most people cannot find it.

After Kublai Khan was buried, thousands of horses would trample the area so that outsiders could not tell that there had been any traces of earth-moving here, and then the area would be surrounded by tents until green grass could grow again. After these tasks are completed, the Mongols will kill a camel, so that the camel will howl in grief, and the female camel can help people find this location.

At that time, Genghis Khan, the great leader of the Yuan Dynasty, chose to bury himself in the ground. This also showed that the Mongolian people at that time respected and valued nature, a living custom, and also reflected the life characteristics of the nomadic people.

The form of Mongolian funerals was formed in a certain historical period. It was affected by many factors such as the social form, productivity development level, natural geographical conditions, and the development of spiritual civilization at that time, and changed with the changes in the social era at that time.

Of course, the Mongols do not only have two methods: Genghis Khan’s burial in the ground and Kublai Khan’s tree burial. Their funeral methods are diverse. At that time, each ethnic group in the Yuan Dynasty had its own unique funeral customs. The various funeral methods had certain historical significance for the exchanges between various ethnic groups.

Now we can see from the Yuan Dynasty's funeral practices for emperors or soldiers who died in battle that the reason why the Yuan Dynasty was able to implement the pension system for the deceased groups better. A large part of the reason is that the Yuan Dynasty at that time had relatively stable politics and a prosperous economy for a period of time.

At that time, the Yuan Dynasty had achieved unification through force, the country had no major foreign threats, domestic economic development was guaranteed, and the country's fiscal expenditures and income were relatively stable. Therefore, under this premise, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty implemented a relatively active pension policy for the groups of soldiers who died in battle at that time.

Agudengba added: Relying on force to conquer the world and relying on force to conquer the world are two different things.

Comparing the cannon fodder policy during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the corruption and internal strife in the Song Dynasty divided the Song Dynasty into two periods, the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, and eventually embarked on the road to national subjugation.

The Yuan Dynasty conquered the country, but those corrupt officials and powerful people were not satisfied with the privileges they had obtained. Some corrupt officials even tried every means to use their power to plunder the people. The government and the army were seriously corrupt. However, the Yuan Dynasty was very lenient towards corruption among high-ranking officials. Even anti-corruption was just an excuse to attack opponents.

The failure of several wars provocative by force, the failure of the policy of opening up to the outside world, and the collapse of the domestic economy caused the Yuan Dynasty government to fall into a serious fiscal deficit. In the end, heavy taxes made many people bankrupt at that time. For the common people, they are born as human beings and do not have high requirements for living standards. After working hard all their lives, they just hope that they can have enough food and clothing when they are old. But under wars and natural disasters, these have turned into illusory dreams. They don't have enough to eat or even eat, and they don't even know how they can survive. The common people are struggling on the verge of death every day, and are worried about their lives every day. The material life of the common people is also very scarce. The common people who cannot eat have no choice to lie down. In this difficult and difficult environment, they will naturally Resist the imperial court. The use of guns and knife handles to suppress the people led to a large-scale Red Turban uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty. At the same time, many small wars and chaos broke out. Peasant uprisings broke out frequently in the Yuan Dynasty. No one wants to be cannon fodder for the imperial court anymore.

At this time, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty were busy fighting among themselves and struggling to suppress peasant uprisings. This state of affairs ultimately accelerated the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.

Agudemba sang a song called "War-Tired Song":

 

The wild smoke spread everywhere and the people suffered,

Generals sacrificed their lives to fight for the country's calamity,

Treat death as if it were nothing but cannon fodder,

The Song Dynasty is gone forever.

 

Relying on the sword and galloping the horse for thousands of miles,

Sweeping across Europe and Asia like broken bamboo,

The Mongols sang songs to celebrate the victory and drank wine.

It's a pity that the Yuan Dynasty is like floating clouds.

 

The evil nightmare sword of Song and Yuan Dynasty saw blood,

The war is in chaos and the people are heartbroken,

Who can be intimidated by force?

When God is angry and people complain, they will be punished.