The long river of history is running endlessly, there are calm waves, there are also waves, let Xiaobian take you into history and understand history.
In the "Mulan Poem", it was written: "The general died in a hundred battles, and the hero returned in ten years." From ancient times to the present, those who can become a generation of famous generals are basically people who have experienced hundreds of battles. And on their way to fame, there are many heads behind them. The so-called "one will achieve ten thousand bones", probably this is the meaning of it! However, there are also some generals who have never been able to be promoted because of insufficient military merit, such as li Guang, who is well known as the "flying general".
Feng Tang is old, Li Guang is difficult to seal
Wang Bo, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty, once wrote in the "Preface to the Pavilion of the King of Teng": "Feng Tang is old and Li Guang is difficult to seal", which refers to the ancient system of awarding knights according to military merit. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, Yunzhong Taishou was Wei Shang, who guarded the frontier, defended against the Xiongnu, and fought well. However, because the number of enemies killed by the imperial court was 6 heads different from the actual situation, it was cut off from his post and investigated. Feng Tang, who was then the director of Langzhong, believed that Wei Shang's treatment was unfair, so he directly consulted Emperor Wen of Han. Emperor Wen of Han also felt that his punishment was a bit heavy, so he sent Feng Tang to Yunzhong with a rune to forgive Wei Shang's sins and restore him to his position as Taishou in Yunzhong.
When Emperor Jing of Han arrived, he did not eat Feng Tang's set, so Feng Tang was deposed shortly after he was appointed as Chu Xiang. By the time Emperor Wu of Han ascended the throne and wanted to use Feng Tang, he was more than 90 years old and could no longer serve the country. The same is true of Li Guang. During Li Guang's tenure as the Taishou of Right Beiping County, the Xiongnu were afraid to obey and did not dare to attack for several years. However, because he liked to fight straight forward, and the Xiongnu loved to fight guerrillas, he had been fighting hard and fruitlessly, and he could never be crowned a marquis because he killed and captured the enemy to meet the standards. Later, in the Battle of Mobei in the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Wei Qing asked him to lead 5,000 cavalry to raid the back road of the Xiongnu. What a good chance to pick up people's heads, Li Guang was lost! Therefore, he could not be enfeoffed for the rest of his life.
How did ancient wars accurately count military merit? Is it really killing enemies while cutting off people's heads? In fact, the way different dynasties calculate military merit is different. And even if the head is cut off, there are certain requirements for the identity of the enemy soldiers. Xiaobian today will give you a brief introduction to the ancient way of counting military feats.
Cutting off people's heads is a credit
In fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there was a way to cut off people's heads and record merit. When the Shang martingale changed the law, in order to motivate the low-level soldiers to kill the enemy bravely, the "military merit system" was formulated. According to the Qin system, knighthoods were divided into twenty ranks, from first-class dukes to twenty-level Marquis. Any warrior who can slash the enemy's first rank can get the first level of knighthood, as well as the corresponding title of TianZhai and Shuzi, and can also be an official. The more enemies you kill, the higher the knighthood you get.
Because the size of military merit determines the soldiers' dignity and inferiority, the Soldiers of the Qin Army are like wild wolves waiting to be fed on the battlefield, and their morale is very high. Therefore, in the last year of the Warring States period, Xun Quan commented on Qin Ruishi in his book "Xunzi": "Qi's martial arts cannot meet Wei's martial pawns, and Wei's martial pawns cannot meet Qin's sharp soldiers." "In addition to Qin Ruishi's superb combat effectiveness, the military merit system is also an important factor for them to be sharp on the battlefield.
Of course, if this algorithm is followed, then Xianyang City will soon grow all over the place, and there will be a group of doctors. Therefore, Shang Martin also set certain restrictions on the soldiers. The first condition is that the beheaded enemy must be a "knight", and at the time of beheading, the neck must be completely decapitated, exposing the throat knot, and avoiding the impersonation of the heads of women and children.
So what is a "knight"? It is the armored soldier in the army. Many people are influenced by film and television dramas, and may think that all soldiers in the army are armored. But in fact, in the pre-Qin period, there were not many people wearing armor in the army. At least 3-5 slaves were protected by a "knight". In other words, in order to behead the "Knight", you must kill 5 people. This difficulty is very big in war. After a battle is fought, it is good to get a first rank by chance, don't expect to behead dozens or hundreds of people.
The second condition: a watershed is set in the twentieth rank of knighthood. For example, for the units that have made collective merit, the imperial court will reward the whole army, and the reward will be divided according to the five masters (ninth rank). In addition to the normal promotion of officials and lords above the fifth doctor, there are also "granting", "giving taxes", "taxation" and so on. Officials below the fifth degree of master are only rewarded with the first rank of official knights, and at most a few thousand dollars and a few slaves are only rewarded. Like a pyramid, the further you go, the more difficult it is to promote. Otherwise, there were so many soldiers in the Qin Army, and the land of the Qin State was not enough.
Cut the left ear and cut the nose to remember the merit
In addition to the way of cutting off people's heads and remembering merit, there were also other methods of counting military merit on the ancient battlefield, such as cutting the left ear, cutting the scalp, cutting the nose and so on. After all, killing the enemy on the battlefield and running around with human heads is a great burden and a burden. In order to reduce the burden on soldiers, later generations allowed them to calculate military merit by cutting off the left ear of the enemy. For example, the word "guó" refers to killing an intruder in a border defense battle and cutting off his left ear to show his merits. As for cutting the nose of the enemy army, it is a favorite of the Japanese. Scalp cutting is a skill that Americans and Indians are proficient in.
Of course, these methods have a big drawback, that is, it is easy to cause some soldiers to indiscriminately kill civilians or their own people to take credit, and it is not uncommon in wars in successive dynasties. Therefore, it developed later, and gradually evolved into seizing symbolic items such as enemy flags, badges, and scepters to calculate military merit. In addition to these ways of cutting the enemy's body organs to remember merit, standing in the first row during ancient wars, or "first climbing" during sieges, can also be credited after the war. Otherwise, who wants to take such a big risk to be cannon fodder?
Well, today's sharing ends here, and we'll see you next time