Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Should we still hold the martial arts tournament?
this is a problem.

As one of Zhu Youjian's measures to promote military generals, the martial arts conference was originally opposed by some civil officials.

After the Battle of Daning revealed the decline of brave and martial generals, the holding of a martial arts conference was opposed by more civil officials.

In particular, the civilian officers, whose power in the military is growing, are generally not interested in the martial arts tournament, believing that these warriors have been eliminated by the times.

Xu Guangqi, who had more exchanges with missionaries, took the example of Western knight competitions and made an admonition at the Wuying Hall military meeting:

"I heard that some of the warriors in the Warrior Camp can only be used for acting now. I remember that one or two hundred years ago, knight tournaments were all the rage in the West."

“But now it has declined and not many people are keen on this kind of competition.”

"The horse fighting competition at the martial arts competition held by your majesty is very similar to the Taixi knight competition."

"I think we should follow the example of the West and abolish this kind of competition."

He elaborated on the current situation of knightly tournaments in the West and believed that this cruel and backward competition should be cancelled in the Ming Dynasty.

Other officials echoed this and even cited some examples of civilian injuries in horse battles to illustrate the dangers of knightly tournaments.

In particular, the death of King Henry II of France due to a knight's tournament was mentioned by many officials.

Obviously, after the emperor mentioned Taixi's affairs many times, these people also became concerned about the deeds of King Taixi.

Although Zhu Youjian was very pleased about this, he was quite angry that the civil officials were targeting the martial arts conference at this time.

It would have been fine if it had happened earlier, but now martial arts competitions have already been held in various places, and martial artists who will go to Beijing to compete next year have been selected.

If the court abolishes it at this time, wouldn't it force those military men to rebel?
So he said firmly:

"The martial arts tournament cannot be cancelled, and the horse fighting competition must continue."

"It is said that 'learning the arts of literature and martial arts can be sold to the emperor'. If I do not accept them, won't they be left with no choice but to rebel?"

"Don't mention this kind of talk about pushing talents away. Not only should the martial arts tournament be held, but it should also be expanded. Add more events and recruit more talents."

These words were too straightforward, clearly explaining the purpose of holding the martial arts conference.

So much so that the ministers were somewhat speechless after hearing this, and didn't know how to continue to persuade him.

The emperor has clearly stated that the purpose of holding the martial arts conference is to attract talents and prevent those people from rebelling. Are they still trying to persuade the emperor not to accept those people and force them to rebel?

Considering the chaos in various parts of the Ming Dynasty today, all the ministers knew that they could not convince the emperor on this point.

Those officials who came from the northwest changed their stance after hearing these words, and believed that more military men should indeed be recruited.

Yuan Keli, who was in charge of suppressing the rebellion and providing disaster relief, even said:

"Today, natural disasters continue and famine is everywhere."

"As long as someone raises his arm, a group of thieves will emerge."

"I think it is better to have brave men in the court rather than in the countryside."

"If there were people like Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, they would be able to expand the borders for the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Youjian nodded in agreement, and was very satisfied with Yuan Keli's cooperation. He said
"This is the purpose of my establishing the Martial Arts Conference, to recruit more potential bandits in advance."

"If these people have the courage and strength, they should be used. If they have made contributions, they should be rewarded, and even given titles."

"But if you become an official of the imperial court but don't work hard, you will be severely punished."

"It has been three years since the last martial arts tournament, and the county lieutenant in Shaanxi has completed his term. The Ministry of War and the Imperial Guard have sent people to work with the Shaanxi Rebellion Suppression and Disaster Relief Committee to conduct a thorough investigation."

"Those who have made contributions to suppressing the rebellion will be promoted, and they will be sent to Shanxi and Henan to take on heavier responsibilities."

"Those who have committed the offense will be punished and transferred to the nine frontiers."

"In short, when the imperial court recruits people, it should not be entangled in the civil and military backgrounds, and it should not discriminate between them."

"No matter what the county lieutenant's background is, once he holds this position, he can participate in the assembly."

He then gave a policy to officials who came from the martial arts conference, extending the county lieutenant system to Shanxi and Henan, and implementing collective meetings with the participation of county lieutenants.

When the post of county lieutenant was first established, it was opposed by many civil officials. Sun Chuanting, who proposed the establishment of a county lieutenant, was regarded as a traitor by the civil officials.

But by now, there are not many officials who oppose it.

Because the situation in Shaanxi was indeed better with the county lieutenant, even though the disaster was more serious than in Shanxi, it was actually more stable than Shanxi.

Such a sharp contrast gave strong support to the county lieutenant system. Officials whose hometowns were invaded by thieves generally supported the establishment of more county lieutenants.

Even in the south, after Li Ruolian went south to quickly clean up the chaos and rectify public security, the practice of adding a Weiwei Office, a Public Security Office or a county lieutenant also received a lot of support.

It can be said that the promotion of the county lieutenant system is an inevitable trend, and even the most stubborn civil servants cannot oppose it.

However, the officials of the Privy Council still fought for a policy:
That is a civilian officer who can be transferred to the position of county lieutenant.

After thinking about it, Zhu Youjian nodded in agreement.

Because the previous county lieutenant system was a temporary one, there were many imperfections. In order to stabilize the local area, some strong men who were recruited were allowed to take office in the local area.

If this method is implemented for a long time, it will definitely create local tyrants. Now that it is being implemented on a large scale, it must not be done this way.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian requested:

"The county lieutenant is an official and must abide by the official recusation system."

"No matter whether you are a civil or military officer, you must not violate this."

"Among them, senior officials should avoid their hometowns, officials of the seventh, eighth and ninth ranks should avoid their counties, and officials of the fourth, fifth and sixth ranks should avoid their prefectures."

"Officials of higher ranks must avoid the province unless they are granted special permission by imperial decree."

"If there are any violations, officials and public figures are allowed to expose and impeach the relevant officials."

These are mature systems that have existed in the Ming Dynasty for a long time. Even supervisory officials have to avoid not only their place of origin, but also the places where they have served in the past.

In the past, there were not many low-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty, and these regulations were not clear enough.

Now that Zhu Youjian wants to increase the number of low-level officials on a large scale to replace clerks, he must of course improve the avoidance system.

However, there is also a disadvantage to not using local people, which is that officials have no roots in the local area and some policies may not be implemented.

At this time, the role of the Dianshi was reflected. As the head of the officials, he had no rank but was able to attend the county assembly and convey the resolutions of the county assembly to local officials.

After discussions between the emperor and his ministers, various methods were established as the basis for appointing local officials.
-
After deciding these things, Zhu Youjian turned the topic back to the martial arts conference.

After he took the trouble to place the soldiers in the Warrior Camp, he actually realized that the current method of selecting warriors was somewhat inappropriate.

Many people who are only brave and strong are not suitable to be generals, and they cannot learn to be officials even if they are asked to do so.

Therefore, he was more determined to turn martial arts into sports and gave the order:
"Next year's martial arts tournament is about to be held, so it is not appropriate to change it at this time."

"But the martial arts tournament in the seventh year of Chongzhen must be changed to select the talents needed by the court."

"Didn't Mr. Xu just mention the knight tournament in Taixi?"

"We can add this event to the martial arts competition in the seventh year of Chongzhen to see if people will accept this competition."

"If the effect is good, we will revise the rules of horse fighting in the tenth year of Chongzhen and form the Ming Dynasty's own knight competition."

The current horse battles in the Ming Dynasty are still a bit too inclined towards actual combat, which does not look so good to the audience.

In comparison, Western knight tournaments began to decline hundreds of years ago and have now transformed into entertaining knight competition performances.

Zhu Youjian hoped to absorb the useful parts and transform the martial arts competitions in the Ming Dynasty into sports. When Xu Guangqi heard that part of his suggestion was adopted, he was delighted and quickly agreed.

Zhu Youjian then said:
"As the old saying goes: A knight-errant breaks the law with force."

"Some people in the community have armed forces and are prone to violating the ban out of their hot-bloodedness."

"This is why I held the martial arts conference and recruited them."

"But just as some Confucian scholars do not want to be officials, some military men do not want to serve in the court."

At this point, Zhu Youjian paused and watched the reactions of his ministers.

Because the previous sentence of "The knight-errant uses force to break the law" is "The Confucian uses literature to disrupt the law", which is a famous saying of Han Fei Zi.

The ministers present naturally knew about it, but they either didn't hear it or didn't think about it, and turned a blind eye to it.

Even when Zhu Youjian put warriors and Confucian scholars on the same level, no one responded.

This made him feel that he could speak more directly, and he continued:
"For Confucian scholars who did not want to be officials, the court introduced a ritual law examination, allowing them to serve as clerks, lawyers, or lawyers after passing the examination, so as not to allow them to disrupt the law and order with their words at will."

"The imperial court must also provide a way out for military men and prevent them from rebelling."

"Martial arts competitions at all levels, as well as martial arts ranks, are designed for this purpose."

"The Martial Arts Association must strengthen monitoring of mid- and high-level martial artists and bring them under supervision."

"The martial arts tournament is the highest level competition for warriors, equivalent to the etiquette examination for scholars, and must be hosted by the court."

The ministers found these words extremely harsh.

Because the emperor placed Confucian scholars and military men on the same level, it was clear that he also regarded them as destabilizing factors.

The Minister of War, Xiong Mingyu, said:

"Your Majesty, the court already has a martial arts examination, why do we need to hold a martial arts conference?"

"Using the military examination to select talents can naturally win the hearts of the military men."

Zhu Youjian sneered upon hearing this and asked:

"Are the talents selected through the martial arts examination pure warriors?"

"They are well versed in the art of war and familiar with the classics. They should be regarded as potential generals and civil officials, not just pure warriors."

"Didn't Xiong Qing understand what I said earlier?"

This is a very serious accusation, saying that Xiong Mingyu is making unreasonable demands.

Xiong Mingyu thought about the reasons the emperor had just given. Even if he still had his own opinions in his mind, he did not dare to raise them at this time.

Besides, the emperor disliked him and thought he could not understand what was said.

The other civil officials also did not dare to interrupt and could only listen to the emperor:
"We cannot rely solely on the Weiwei Temple to deal with violent gangs such as the Daxing gangs in the community."

"The Martial Arts Association should have the power to assist in law enforcement. When necessary, it should select martial artists to serve and control violent incidents."

"Just like the militia, they assist in law enforcement and public order with the permission of the Weiwei Temple police officers."

"Registered warriors of the Martial Arts Association can also organize insurance teams, security teams, development teams, exploration teams, mercenary groups, escort agencies and other armed forces, just like militias, to assist the army in its campaigns."

"They can buy weapons and receive rewards for their contributions. Everything is the same as for the militia."

"The Privy Council and the Imperial Guards will discuss the management methods for them."

This decision surprised the ministers. They did not expect the emperor to be so kind to warriors.

Even Yuan Keli was a little hesitant and advised:

"Your Majesty, even a single knight can break the law with force."

"Once these people are armed, they will probably become even more restless."

"They bring their subordinates to bully officials. What should the local authorities do?"

Zhu Youjian said with a smile:

"That's your business. You can limit the size of local civilian armed forces to a certain level, give them militia status, and keep them under government control. You can only release them when unrest occurs."

"Also, be cautious about approving armed forces within the country and direct them overseas."

"Our Ming Dynasty is a country of etiquette and civilization, and the army should be the king's army. Some things are inconvenient to do."

"This is when the usefulness of civilian armed forces becomes apparent. We can ask them to help eliminate the unruly barbarians."

"As long as you can complete the court's mission, don't worry about the process."

To be frank, they were asked to do the dirty and tiring work and to clean out the disobedient barbarians.

Most of the ministers felt uncomfortable with these words, and, citing the banner of benevolence and righteousness, they all gave the emperor some advice and remonstrances.

Zhu Youjian frowned when he heard this, knowing that these people still had not corrected their ideas.

Some time ago he had defined the barbarians as beasts, without any moral integrity but only fearing power.

Unexpectedly, some people have not changed their views and are still fantasizing about converting the barbarians who refuse to listen to education.

He was so angry that he wanted to throw these people to Jianlu to persuade them. But when he thought about the possibility that they would kneel down and surrender to Jianlu, he gave up the idea.

Thinking about the words of the ancient sages, Zhu Youjian asked:
"As the ancients said: A gentleman should stay away from the kitchen."

"What's the meaning of this statement?"

This sentence comes from "Mencius", one of the Four Books, and the ministers are naturally familiar with it.

Grand Secretary Shi Fenglai said:
“A gentleman, when he sees an animal alive, cannot bear to see it die; when he hears its cry, he cannot bear to eat its flesh.”

"That is why a gentleman stays away from the kitchen."

Zhu Youjian continued to ask:

"Then am I being righteous by entrusting the task of clearing out the rebellious barbarians to the civilian armed forces?"

The ministers were speechless, and Shi Fenglai said in a humorous way:

"Mencius said: To do no harm is the art of benevolence."

"Your Majesty does not want to know the process of eliminating the barbarians, precisely because he has a sense of benevolence and righteousness."

"Even if the barbarians are beasts, Your Majesty cannot bear to see them die, just as a gentleman stays away from the kitchen."

"This is because your majesty is pregnant with Daren!"

This explanation made the ministers look distorted. Zhu Youjian was very satisfied and praised Shi Fenglai:

"Mr. Shi is familiar with Mencius and should be involved in proofreading Mencius."

“We must carefully comprehend the profound meanings in the words of the ancient sages.”

The policy towards the rebellious barbarians was determined by the saying that a gentleman should stay away from the kitchen:
Let the civilian armed forces clean up and let them do the dirty and tiring work.

Avoid using the military to do this, as it will attract criticism from intellectuals.

Civilian forces are beginning to find their place in the coming pioneering era.

They will transform from being an unstable factor within the Ming Dynasty to being the vanguard of pioneering immigration. (End of this chapter)