introduction
For the soldiers who fought in ancient times, there were fewer people who struggled for the ideal and more people who filled their bellies. Therefore, the "Song and Ballad of Nanpi County Chronicle, Customs and Soil History" will say: "The soldiers and horses do not move, and the grain and grass go first." "In the feudal era, natural disasters and man-made disasters had a great impact on ordinary people. The time when many peasant uprisings were frequent was also a period of frequent droughts, floods and famines. In fact, most of the people who join this kind of army are fighting for their lives for a bite to eat.
In the era of chaotic warfare between the various sides, everyone is competing for resources, hoping that they can have enough financial resources to feed the army, expand the army, and finally win the victory. In order to get more military salaries, the leaders can be said to be doing everything to the extreme, and during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao and Liu Bei respectively invented two "pit people" methods to raise military salaries.
▲Cao Cao stills
01
When Cao Cao had just participated in the struggle for hegemony among the princes, his sphere of influence was not large, and in the process of the struggle between the princes, many of the cities and pools that had just been attacked were occupied by others before they had time to loot. With the expansion of his power, in order to solve the problem of no money, Cao Cao began to "pit people", but he pits dead people.
In China's feudal society, people pay attention to things like life, and attach great importance to tomb etiquette. As long as there is a slight economic ability, they all hope that their tomb pomp and funeral utensils should be thick and not simple. In particular, the princes and generals who pay more attention to etiquette and pomp often need countless gold and silver jewelry, precious works of art and even servants and maids to accompany the funeral, it can be said that the tomb of each emperor and general is a treasure. Cao Cao was originally very dismissive of this extravagant style and had been advocating thin burials. Coupled with the lack of money in my hands, I simply dug these things out and used them.
▲"Captain Touching Gold" in the film and television drama
To this end, Cao Cao also set up a special department and appointed two kinds of officials: General Fa Qiu Zhonglang and Lieutenant Touching Jin. According to the Book of later Han, "Cao led the generals to excavate, broke the coffin naked, and plundered the golden treasure", Cao Cao also personally led the soldiers to participate in the tomb robbery, and this tomb was the mausoleum of The Western Han Dynasty Liang Xiaowang.
02
Liu Wu the Prince of Liang was the son of Emperor Wen of Han and Empress Dowager Dou, and a brother of Liu Qi, the Emperor of Han. Empress Dowager Dou was particularly fond of this son, and after Emperor Jingdi of Han deposed the crown prince, Empress Dowager Dou wanted Emperor Jing of Han to make Liu Wu his heir. As a result, because the ministers were strongly opposed, they could not succeed.
▲Scene inside the tomb of King Xiao of Liang
Liu Wu did not become emperor during his lifetime, but the mausoleum built after that can be compared with the emperor's mausoleum, not only has a large underground complex, but also countless gold and silver jewelry for burial. The gold and silver jewelry that Cao Cao personally led people to dig out actually fed his army for three years. After that, Cao Cao was even more out of control, relying on the excavation of ancient tombs to subsidize military salaries, and everywhere where lieutenants and generals Fa Qiu Zhonglang passed, there were ancient tombs that had been dug up. Therefore, the archaeological community also has a saying that many Han tombs found now have ten rooms and nine empty spaces, which have a lot to do with the rampant tomb robbery at that time.
03
Cao Cao raised military salaries, but the pit was for the dead, so what did Liu Bei rely on to raise military salaries? The three forces of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Sun Wu, can be said to be the most powerful cao cao, while Sun Quan inherited the ancestral inheritance and was the richest. Compared with these two, Liu Bei's military strength and economic strength are superior. According to records, when Liu Bei attacked Liu Zhang in Yizhou, in order to encourage the soldiers to move forward courageously, he promised his soldiers that once Yizhou was conquered, the soldiers could divide the various treasures in the treasury by themselves. Liu Bei did not renege on his word, and after taking Yizhou, he indeed distributed all the treasures he received to all the soldiers.
▲Liu Bei stills
However, Liu Bei did not have much money in his hands to expand the army, after all, there was no one without money. Liu Bei was worried day and night for the sake of military pay, and at this time, Liu Ba, who had just turned to Liu Bei, gave him a bad idea of "wool", saying that they could issue a new currency and then exchange money from the hands of ordinary people. Liu Bei felt that this was a good idea, so he quickly issued "ZhiBai qian".
The so-called "straight hundred dollars" refers to the currency issued by Liu Beixin, and each one can be exchanged for a hundred "five baht coins" from the hands of the people. This is actually a large amount of money, which can easily lead to inflation. The result of this incident was that Liu Bei did get a large amount of military pay, but the prices of the local people also rose rapidly and were not lightly pitted.
▲ Straight hundred dollars
epilogue
For the war of the cold weapon era, numbers are one of the biggest advantages. The reason why many classic wars have become classics is because they can win more with less, which shows that the most common situation on the battlefield is still to win more than less. Feeding the military is not an easy task, and the United States now has the most powerful military in the world because it is the most economically powerful country in the world. So in the end, war is a fight for money.
Resources:
"Nanpi County Chronicles, Customs and Customs Chronicles, Songs"
Book of the Later Han Dynasty