Everyone knows that Chongzhen, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, had no choice but to "raise his family" when he was forced into the palace, and hanged himself on a big tree on the coal mountain. An emperor in the hall finally had to use his death to break the siege for himself, where did his guards go?
Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was able to support millions of soldiers without spending a single penny when the Dynasty was established, so why couldn't the Chongzhen Emperor feed a single soldier?
Image: Chongzhen Emperor hanging cartoon
In 1627, Li Zicheng rose up, and the peasant rebel army completely overthrew the Ming Dynasty by using the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang to fight the world. I think that back then, Zhu Yuanzhang went from a grass dweller to a tangtang tianzi, even if he sat in the world, he did not dare to scatter his military power.
Zhu Yuanzhang was still very aware of this truth, so at that time, he recruited a wide range of sages, listened to the opinions of all parties, and finally adopted the "military tun" system, which is also a major reason why Zhu Yuanzhang can have 1.91 million troops without spending money.
Image: Stills of Ming Dynasty soldiers
What is the military tun system?
The military tun system is also called the health center system, and this system was created for the historical background of the time. The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was able to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty was first of all because of the large number of people. At that time, the emperor at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was faint, the country was poor, the warlords were in a scuffle, and some of the more effective soldiers were already in a state of half-ko and half-people. The rebel army established by Zhu Yuanzhang helped them to ignite hope, and the addition of these people made Zhu Yuanzhang's troops more regular and strong.
Therefore, when the two armies were at war, Zhu Yuanzhang's side could win. However, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty regime, Zhu Yuanzhang also understood that these soldiers could not be removed at will, because many of them were leading soldiers with real talents, and if they were let go in this way, they would be afraid of raising tigers.
Moreover, there are foreign tribes on the frontier from time to time, and at this time, there is a need for a more powerful force to assemble, rather than scattering birds and beasts. But keeping these soldiers means a huge expense, how can there be so much money to spend on these troops?
Photo: Zhu Yuanzhang Ming Dynasty soldier stills
Some people have proposed that these officers and men be allowed to be half civilian and half soldiers, let a non-commissioned officer with an official rank manage some soldiers, and then take out some land to distribute to these soldiers to work, and the annual income from labor should be handed over to the imperial court for hoarding, as the grain needed by the troops in future wars, as well as the salaries of officers.
At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang also specially bought some cattle tools from his pocket, and each officer took away fifty acres of land, and he could also get gifts of cattle tools, leaving 12 stones as his own rations during the harvest, and all the rest was handed over to the imperial court for distribution.
I have to say that the implementation of this military tun system has given the whole country hope. Originally because of poverty and inability to eat, I had to follow everyone to the battlefield to work hard, when the war was chaotic, you could also mix a military salary, and when there was peacetime, there was no military salary, and the generals were also worried about the life of the family, and this military tun system, so that everyone had something to do when there was no war, and had money to take, who was not happy?
Therefore, the military tun system allowed Zhu Yuanzhang to realize the problem of food and clothing for more than 1.9 million soldiers without any effort.
Image: Soldier labor stills
Zhu Yuanzhang's military tun system can be implemented so easily, thanks to the Yuan Dynasty's system of colorful households
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The Yuan Dynasty was a dynasty that attached great importance to class, and divided the occupations of the people into different class systems, and it was a hereditary system. In fact, each dynasty has such a clear division system, such as the Eight Flags system of the Qing Dynasty, the Fu Bing system of the Tang Dynasty, and so on. It was precisely before that people had a clear division and understanding of each profession, so Zhu Yuanzhang was more relaxed when implementing the military tun system.
However, the system of each dynasty is constantly revised and supplemented with the passage of time, and no system can always conform to historical development without changing. Zhu Yuanzhang's military tun system was suitable for the turbulent social situation in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but it did not mean that it could be used rationally all the time.
Image: Zhu Yuanzhang stills
In the decades that followed, corruption slowly grew, and the system quietly underwent a qualitative change.
In Zhu Yuanzhang's subconscious, everyone and their descendants are arranged for a good career, and after the next generation is born, this job is done, and they will not be idle. Therefore, the generals at that time were divided into people who collected grain and those who grew food according to their rank.
These grain collectors slowly became symbols of money and power, with grain in their hands and a growing army in charge, and began to become corrupt. At that time, the eunuchs and corrupt officials who appeared in the imperial court also extended the hand of desire to these "military salaries".
As a result, the grain collected every year had to be exploited layer by layer, and there was very little left, and it was difficult for the soldiers who were really guarding the frontier to get even the salaries of the soldiers. So much so that in the late Ming Dynasty, soldiers who were going to fight in battle even had to sell their wives and daughters in order to gather their own travel equipment.
Image: Money stills
The Chongzhen Emperor took over this burden at the time when the Ming Dynasty was at its poorest, when the treasury was empty and there were some riots of all sizes. Chongzhen did not want to save the situation, the Ming Dynasty at that time was internal and external troubles, the Qing Dynasty's troops repeatedly attacked, civil uprisings continued, and the Chongzhen Emperor also launched many wars to make the final defense.
However, in the eyes of the eunuchs and corrupt officials at that time, there was no imperial court, and they only cared about protecting their own property, so Chongzhen could not even pay the military salary in the end, and there was no substantial army to control.
Another reason for hastening the demise of the Ming Dynasty was that the Chongzhen Emperor was using money to buy peace.
At that time, the Liaodong generation was in constant turmoil, and Chongzhen had to spend millions of taels every year to make the other side stop, and it was precisely because of this large expenditure every year that Chongzhen quickly consumed the original small amount of belongings until he ran out of food.
Image: Stills of the Chongzhen Emperor
According to historical records, when Li Zicheng, the king of the imperial palace, invaded the capital at that time, he really did not find anything valuable in the palace, but instead found 70 million snowflake silver in the homes of those high-ranking officials and gentry around the palace! If Chongzhen knew that his men were so rich, they would not have committed suicide so quickly, and this money would be used to pay the military, and perhaps his emperor would be able to serve for a few more years. It can be seen to what extent the system of the Ming Dynasty was corrupt at that time.
The Ming Dynasty, which lasted for three hundred years, was also a soldier, and defeat was also a soldier, and a military tun system made Zhu Yuanzhang laugh and be proud of the rivers and lakes, and finally became the source of his descendants' deaths. The birth of each system has its own historical specific significance background, with the development of the times, it is necessary to adapt to social development, continuous change, continuous improvement, in order to make the society more stable development.
But obviously, the previous feudal dynasties did not realize this, the so-called rich is not more than three generations, which is even more evident in these hereditary imperial families.
Article author: Dahui
The entire graphic was produced by the team of the Big Cafe Say History Studio!