As we all know, gunpowder is one of the four major inventions that China is proud of, according to research, it may have appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, and later after various generations of development, to the Ming Dynasty, its application has begun to show its scale, and even some people have examined that the famous general Mu Ying in the early Ming Dynasty even invented the most advanced musket tactics at that time, "three-stage strike", so why in the Ming Dynasty's hundreds of years of national Zuo, firearms not only failed to replace traditional weapons, but also let Our firearms begin to lag behind in the world?
The camel thinks the answer is two words, that is, "lack of money", why do I say this?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the role of money</h1>
Let's start with the role of money.
If firearms want to be fully popularized, they cannot be separated from two points, one is that it is really easy to use and can be continuously improved; the other is to have a sufficient quantity. In order to make firearms easy to use and perfect, it is inseparable from two points, the first is professional talents, only enough professionals can continuously improve the weapons, some people may ask, can we not improve, can we inherit the firearms of the early Ming Dynasty? The answer is really no.
There are many reasons for this problem, the two most important of which are range and rate of fire, if the range of the firearm can not exceed that of a strong bow and crossbow, then it cannot be replaced, if the rate of fire is not fast enough, then the firearm may not be as good as the spear when facing the cavalry. Therefore, although the firearms of the early Ming Dynasty had a certain degree of power, they could not meet the needs of the war at that time.
The second is the equipment material. There are three core components of firearms, one is the barrel, the second is the excitation device, and the third is gunpowder (bullet). Although by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Shizhen developed the "Lightning Bolt" and "Thunderbolt" in addition to the range of up to 500 meters and the bullets that could be fired continuously. However, because the manufacturing process is complex and the yield rate is not high, there is no mass production, so that when the Ming Dynasty fought against the Manchurian Jurchens, it was still an old-fashioned arquebus gun. Not only does this gun need to be reloaded after each shot, but it also loves burst tubes.
Having said that we have finished with the quality of muskets, let's turn to the quantity of firearms. The number of camels referred to is not only the total number of firearms on paper, but also its pass rate (the pass rate of firearms in the late Ming Dynasty was very low, and the reason is doubtful that officials cut corners in order to enrich themselves. ), the actual number of soldiers assembled (not only can be the number of soldiers, but also muskets) and the amount of live ammunition training of soldiers (weapons are full of private pockets, how can training keep up).
And the core of all the above problems actually points to the same root cause, that is, money. From the continuous development and mass production of muskets to the full distribution of soldiers to the training of live ammunition, there is no place that is not a gold-devouring beast. So why did the Ming Dynasty run out of money?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > why there is a shortage of money</h1>
Let's look at why the Ming Dynasty was short of money. Some people may ask, Zhu Yuanzhang was from a poor background, after he became emperor, he has always ruled the country strictly, and he is eager to pick up skin cramps for corrupt officials (in fact, it is more ruthless than this), why did the vast Daming later have no money? The answer is that the money was taken by two groups. So which two groups are so bold?
The first is the official. Some people may ask, didn't it mean that the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were the lowest, and how could they make Daming have no money? It is true that if you look at their fixed salary alone, their income is indeed not high, but they are not Hai Rui, so the income is not only dead wages. There are three main sources of "extra money" for officials:
The first is to take its money in its place.
Let's take the military salary allocated by the Ming court as an example to make a simple explanation, if the size of the army is 100,000 people, then the military attaché of the army may actually have only 50,000 people under him in order to circle the money. When this salary application is handed over to the emperor, the emperor may agree to pay the full amount in order to make the soldiers work with peace of mind. After this money is taken out of the national treasury, the personnel responsible for allocating it will first withhold a part, and then deduct it through the layers of officials, and the real soldiers may not save one in ten.
In fact, this article is not only in the soldier's salary, in fact, as long as it is the money and materials allocated by the imperial court, there will be a situation of over-reporting and fraudulent collar and layer by layer.
The second is the lower official filial piety (xing) jing (hui). Regarding this part of the money, there are "ice respect" in summer and "charcoal respect" in winter. In fact, this is just the tip of the iceberg, in addition to these two, the next-level officials to the higher-level officials to celebrate the festival and birthday of the silver, and let the shangguan follow the Buddha's work silver and so on. So where does this money come from, in addition to withholding the people, it is to replace the national interests of Daming.
For example, at that time, all kinds of taxes, in order to pay the tax to the treasury less than one hundred and two, then he may give the official twenty-two, and then he may only need to pay ten to cope with the past. In the long run, the treasury of the Ming Dynasty will not be able to accumulate the development of the future.
The third is to encroach on state-owned resources. Behind the officials of the Ming Dynasty, there were often his relatives and friends, as well as the fathers and elders of the hometown. When they become officials, they naturally have to take care of their families, and the best way to take care of their families is to "share" the national resources, and the common ways are mainly to arrange a false salary for relatives who have not worked, conspire with local clans to encroach on land, help relatives and friends to monopolize the business of the old points, and so on. These "small things" seem to be the "small money" of Daming earned, but they accumulate over time, and they are also not a small burden on Daming.
In addition to officials, the ones who contributed the most to the "poverty" of the Ming Dynasty were the royal family. According to a statistic of people with hearts, in 1480 AD, that is, the year Yan Song was born, Daming spent a total of about 6 million taels of silver, of which the money used to pay officials was slightly more than the expenditure of the royal family, about 25%, that is, the emperor's relatives at that time were only one item, and they could support the officials who ruled the whole world.
Do you feel shocked, but you would never think that this is just the beginning, by 1602 AD (fifteen years later than the fifteenth year of the Wanli Calendar), the expenditure of the royal family has accounted for 52.89% of Daming's expenditure, while in the same year, Daming's military expenditure is only 32.44% (about 50% in 1480), while the salaries of officials in the world account for only 14.18%!
According to other records, the royal clan relatives such as the kings of various local domains occupied a large part of the land in the provinces, and the most ruthless one was the King of Shu, who occupied the Shu land, and his family occupied 70% of the land in shu land at that time (only collecting rent and not paying taxes). Therefore, the taxes in many places are not enough for the wages of the local clan kings, among which there are recorded examples that the clan kings of Shanxi and others need to be paid more than three million stones a year, while the annual income of Shanxi can only reach half, and the taxes in Henan are not even half of the needs of the local princes...
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
From the above content, it is not difficult to see that the reason why the firearms of the Ming Dynasty failed to "carry forward" was mainly because Daming was "short of money", and the reason why Daming "lacked money" was because there must be more "blood sucking" than "hematopoiesis". So did the Emperor of Daming know these things? If he knew, why didn't he change it? Welcome to leave a message to discuss, the answer to the question will also be revealed in Camel's subsequent article.