Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 88 The Plan and Purpose of Xiujia Reform

Why did the Xiu family come up with such a field reform?Because the Xiu family did not dare to directly carry out the reform of the division of laws at this point in time.

Yes, you heard it right, so far the Uki family has not carried out excessive national law reforms. Compared with the Oda family who completed the reform in 1561, it has been a full 20 years behind.

Many people have heard of the Law of the Division of Nations, but they have little understanding of its current role and significance.

In fact, the core purpose of the Separation of Nations Law is to strengthen the centralization of power by the main family and reduce the power of knowledge and action of wealthy families and retainers.Thereby further curbing the possibility of subordinates overcoming superiors.

In the era of the Muromachi Shogunate before the Separation of Nations Law, the subordinates had 100% power to deal with the knowledge and behavior bestowed by the main family, including laws, taxation, and military service.

Even how much land has been reclaimed with the nobles of the subordinates, the main family has no right to intervene. These are all reclaimed by the subordinates themselves on the basis of the original gift of knowledge and action, what is your main family?

History has fallen into a strange circle here. The king has no right to manage the territories of his retainers, and the retainers have no right to manage the territories of the lower-level retainers. Instead, the king often restrains his lower-level retainers by supporting the second-level retainers.

Although the retainers who are retainers in name are not my retainers, but in the Warring States period, I can't control my retainers, and my subordinate retainers are very close to me.

Under such a deformed social structure, it is very difficult to carry out all the methods that want to detect the real situation of the territories of the lower-level retainers, such as inspecting the land, so that the leaders of many neighboring countries in Japan, thousands of people who are constantly improving in agriculture Failed to add 1 stone during the year.

This also led to the emergence of a large number of Xiakeshang Wujia in the early Warring States period. As guardians, they concealed their true strength, and finally overthrew the master's rule in this neighboring country after their strength surpassed that of the master's family.

The representative figures are Oda Nobuhide and Nagao Jinghu. The strange thing is that when they overthrew their main family, they were afraid that they would be subdued by their retainers, so they tried their best to strengthen their authority, and the law of dividing the country came into being.

Faced with such a situation that obviously damaged the strength of his family, Nagao Jinghu relied on his excellent military strength to overcome the forces of different opinions in the territory, and finally implemented the law of dividing the country.

In the second year after the implementation, the stone height on Echigo's account increased from 24 shi to 36 shi, and the number of acres of hidden fields can be imagined.

However, Nobunaga's implementation of the Separation of Nations Act is somewhat different. He relied on the prestige after beheading Yoshimoto Imagawa, and he negotiated on the condition of exemption from punishment for those samurai who were in Yoshimoto Imagawa during the Shangluo period. The law of dividing the country was successfully implemented.

So what is the division of state law to do?

The first one is to take back the legislative power of the rich family in the territory, so that the laws in the main family's territory can be unified. In fact, these reforms are the basis of the separation of states law, and it is also the easiest one to pass.

The second article takes back the power of the retainers to formulate their own taxes. In other words, within my Oda family's territory, the tax rate is unified, and the retainers are not allowed to reduce or increase without permission.

I still remember that in the Warring States novel "Fu Xing Ji", the first thing the protagonist did after he gained knowledge and practice was to change 5 people and 5 people into 4 people and 6 people to attract the people.When I saw it, my blood boiled, and I learned history after I grew up, and I realized that Nobunaga wanted to chop your head off for doing this!
Article 55, taking back the autonomy of the retainers to report the acres of land. In the past, the annual output of the retainers' fields depended on the voluntary reporting by the retainers. Everyone paid tribute to the lord's quota of grain according to the proportion agreed in the Zhixing letter. (That's right, after the Zhixing granted by the Japanese Warring States Period is [-] points between the peasant and the lord, the lord will also pay a part of the tribute to the lord's family.)
However, after the reform, how much the retainers reported was estimated by the main family’s acting officials based on the income of the past years, and three types of fields, upper, middle and lower, were established, and they had to be reviewed and revised every few years.So that the tribute given by the lord to the main family is no longer a fixed amount, but fluctuates in proportion to the number of knowledge and actions.

The fourth point is to compile the military service certificate. Before that, the amount of troops sent by the retainer and the lord depends entirely on the relationship between the lord and the lord. Everyone is similar to a loose alliance. , according to the proportion of the request to send troops.

Too much will not work, do you have two minds?Or if there is concealment of the land property, if there is less, it will be judged according to the specific natural disasters and man-made disasters.

Article [-] establishes the grading system of retainers, strictly stipulates the obligations and powers of retainers and the main family, and establishes that the subordinate retainers are the retainers of the retainers, but they are still the retainers of the main family, and the main family still has the power to issue orders.

There are some convoluted words, but to sum up, the retainers of the retainers are also my retainers. The retainers are no longer free to hire subordinate retainers. They need to report to the main family and compile them in the register.If there is a situation of concealment, the master will think, do you want to rebel?

Article [-] is small-collar escrow.Before this, the territory, no matter how big or small, was the fiefdom of the retainers, but after this decree, if the territory is lower than a certain percentage, the main family will no longer actually grant it to you, but will give you the corresponding salary. Of course, this part of the salary It can also be hereditary.

Through the above six points, Oda Nobunaga has almost completely mastered the economy, military power, and political situation in the territory, so that he can recover blood quickly after a defeat, and can burst out more troops than the enemy in a short period of time .

It is also by virtue of the reform of the national division law that Nobunaga has the foundation to establish his own hegemony.

However, this law of dividing the country is not so easy for everyone to implement. As an ally of Nobunaga, Matsudaira Motoyasu (former name of Ieyasu Tokugawa) saw the prosperity of the Oda family in 1562 and attempted to reform the law of dividing the country. Can compromise with retainers.

I know that during the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, although the Tokugawa family had many strict laws and regulations, the division of the country they implemented was still the lack of the third and incomplete fourth.

The Tokugawa family's control over the territory of their retainers depends entirely on the degree of loyalty of the retainers to the main family, so that at the end of the Shogunate, there was a situation where the Shogunate of Changzhou with a million stones did not know about it.

So to what extent has Yuxijia's division of state law progressed?Before the Ukita Nao family Kagakami defeated Urakami Keimune, the Ukita family and the Urakami family had never carried out separate national law reforms.

After the Zhi family came to power, through distribution reforms, they carried out reforms such as the same laws and taxes in the territory, and the preparation of military service certificates, which made the strength of Yuxi family grow to a certain extent.

However, the Zhi family's reform of military service status is incomplete, because he needs the help of many wealthy families in the process of going down and down, so there are many compromises with these wealthy families.

The Xiu family first went to battle last month, and most of the Meizuo Hao clan who came to participate in the battle sent troops on their own according to the military service certificate they reported. The Zhi family had no right to conduct an inspection to see if the elite level and the number of people were in line with the real strength. They could only inspect Whether the number of people has reached the number of military service reported by the Hao family.

With Tokugawa Ieyasu Zhuyu in the front, Hideka did not dare to carry out a drastic reform. He chose the method of boiling frogs in warm water, and carried out the third acre control reform of the National Separation Law through the "Four Fields Act" in disguise.

At the same time as the reform, the interests of the wealthy families and the people in the territory were strictly protected, and incentive policies were introduced to encourage the wealthy families and farmers to reclaim new fields and guarantee the basic rights of the wealthy families and farmers to the land.

Among these reforms, there was one that the Xiu family would never dare to overstep.That is, the Xiu family only asked to share the tribute with the Hao family 55 equally for 5 years after the expiration of the tax on newly reclaimed land.

For the cultivated acres, the Xiu family did not dare to ask them to pay tribute in proportion, and still paid tribute taxes as originally agreed, and did not increase with the increase in land occupation.

By transferring certain economic benefits from the Xiu family, coupled with the prestige brought by the Xiu family's two-year victories, the wealthy families in the territory can accept the "Sitian Act" relatively smoothly.

And Xiujia also grasped the actual economic situation and population in the territory through the "Four Fields Act", which made the establishment of Xiujia's military service certificate more accurate.

It's just that Hideka's reform of the establishment of military service certificates is still limited to the direct leadership and a few retainers such as Kanjia, Kamei Tomoko, Yoshioka Takatsu, Todo Takatora.Most of the rich families are still reported independently by them, and there has been no thorough reform.

At the same time, the Xiu family also promoted the reform of the escrow management of Article 6 of the National Law, which clearly stipulated that the warrior class should be entrusted with knowledge and behavior under 1500 shi, and no longer explicitly grant land. And the corresponding salary is still hereditary.

This reform of the Xiu family is undoubtedly good news for the small-collar warriors, because the current low-level warriors have not received systematic education in internal affairs, and they cannot afford professional retainers, so the management of the territory can only be entrusted to the locals , How many of them were blinded by the land.

After the reform of the Xiu family, all these scattered territories were managed by the professionally educated officials sent by the Xiu family's unification, so that these warriors actually earned more income than before.

The Xiu family has added its own characteristics on the basis of the law of dividing the country, that is, the vassalization of the small wealthy clan, and gradually transfer the wealthy clan with knowledge and behavior below 5000 shi to the vassalization and transfer of jobs. reform together.

Compared with the big-collar wealthy families, these small-collar wealthy families are scattered and difficult to become powerful, and it is easier to accept the reform of the Xiu family's overall division of state law.Xiujia is also planning to start with the easy and then the difficult, and gradually strengthen his control over the territory.

Generally speaking, the current reform of the Xiu family is incomplete, but the Xiu family has a lofty goal, which is to reform the overall high monarchy, so that they can fully control the territory.

Of course, this needs to be done step by step. In the next few years, the Uki family will face battles such as Jianyue, Komaki Nagakute, the Four Kingdoms Conquest, and the Kyushu Conquest. The Xiu family really dare not make quick reforms. It is worth choosing to carry out some reforms , Warm boiled frog-style reform.

The next step for the Xiu family is to fully grasp the number of acres of land in the territory and the real economic situation in the territory through the "Four Fields Law", and at the same time fully control the military power of their own direct and small-scale wealthy families through the "Ukita Military Law Names".

Only when the peasants in the territory know that the master Yuxita’s family is a good master and will not be deceived by the lord; at the same time, they have sufficient military strength, can the Xiu family dare to continue to attack the rich family’s retainers in the territory, and further implement the third rule. The proportion of tribute and Articles [-] and [-].

The Xiu family estimated that it would take 3-5 years to complete the preconditions, and then the Xiu family was going to take the sword on the wealthy retainers in the territory and carry out a thorough reform of the division of state law.

The reason why the Ukita riots occurred in the Hide family in history is that the Hide family, with the help of Osafune Tsunao, was too eager to implement the law of dividing the country, so that they encountered strong resistance during the third inspection.

Although the Xiu family finally completed the reform of the national law with the support of the monkey, it paid the result that 36 retainers, including Ukita Kane, Togawa Tatsuya, and Okaka Toshi, ran away, and many of them joined in the end. Leaving the Eastern Army and the Xiu family to meet each other.

But in this world, the Xiu family believed that with the prestige established in the early stage, the military system reform that had already been carried out in the territory directly under the central government, and the banner team, the Xiu family had an elite armed force of 8000 people.

The Xiu family believed that the powerful families in the territory would compromise again and again under the relatively mild reforms of the Xiu family, and finally complete the thorough reform of monarchy.

Of course, the reform of the powerful families in the territory is not over yet. After the Xiu family controls the absolute economy, military power, and political power in the territory, they are ready to attack the temple.

Just one beautiful work passed through the land inspection, and it was found that the temple leaders of more than 2 shi, these temple leaders did not pay taxes, and did not provide soldiers. The ashes on Ukita's table.

The Xiu family planned to try to use their knives on these out-of-production Buddhas around 1589 after the reform. In any case, they either offered to pay taxes, or the temple leaders confiscated them, or provided a certain proportion of soldiers according to your temple leaders and worship. .

In short, Xiujia has been envious of these Japanese bald donkeys for a long time. One day, they will be completely civilianized and contribute to the GDP of Yuxijia! .

(End of this chapter)