History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 958 Terminator——Zhao Kuangyin 2
5. Li Dai Tao Jiang

Zhao Kuangyin ascended to the throne through a military coup, and along the way he had the support of various forces. Therefore, just like the Five Dynasties, there were dozens of people with different surnames who were crowned kings and held the title of prime minister. In theory, they were all meritorious officials and founding fathers. These people were also obstacles that threatened the imperial power and hindered the reform. Some emperors would open their hearts to them through physical means, but Zhao Kuangyin chose a relatively gentle and merciful method, using words to open his heart. A typical example was the release of military power over a cup of wine. In addition, Zhao Pu also imitated the "Enfeoffment Order" of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and used time to resolve all contradictions.

The specific method of operation is to wait for them to retire, move to another position, or die (natural death), and then use civil officials to replace their old positions, gradually weakening their power. The previous practice was "hereditary". After a certain Jiedushi or Defense General died, his younger brother or son would be the "retainer" and then become a regular official. Since the Song Dynasty, there is no longer a "hereditary" concept in the vassal states.

In order to limit the power of the feudal lords, Zhao Kuangyin tried to use civil officials as feudal lords. As mentioned above, this was not Zhao Kuangyin's original idea, as Meng Chang of the Later Shu Dynasty had already tried it.

During the Five Dynasties, when a general conquered a state, he would be appointed as the governor of that state. When he annexed a military town, he would be appointed as the military governor or defense envoy of that military town. If the lord did not make such an appointment, it would cause dissatisfaction among the generals and even induce rebellion.

In 963, Zhao Kuangyin appointed Murong Yanzhao as the commander and Li Chuyun as the chief supervisor to recover Hunan. He then appointed a civil official, Lü Yuqing, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, as the acting governor of Tanzhou. Soon after, he appointed Xue Juzheng, the direct scholar of the Privy Council and the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue, as the governor of Langzhou. Zhao Kuangyin basically adopted this model when he swept through the southern vassal states, with military generals attacking cities and civilian officials taking over and changing defenses.

6. Military courts were transformed into police stations
On July 973, 7, the "Mabuyuan" was changed to the "Sikouyuan".

Mabuyuan, namely the courts, prisons and other military law institutions set up in the Mabu Army, is equivalent to what we often call military courts today. Previously, it was mostly held by military generals. Zhao Kuangyin changed the name of Mabuyuan to Sikouyuan on the grounds that there were too many unjust, false and wrong cases in Mabuyuan. From the name, it can be seen that the military elements were removed and separated from the military system. Then the recruitment conditions of the position were changed, stipulating that "newly-passed Jinshi, "Nine Classics", "Five Classics" and selected people with equivalent qualifications will serve as Sikou soldiers." In short, scholars replaced the original military generals for management.

Previously, the generals were only deprived of the power of life and death, but now the military’s judicial power is being systematically restricted, and even the military courts have been changed into police stations.

7. Deprivation of personnel rights
Among the vassal states, there were also people who knew the current affairs, such as Wang Shenqi. Wang Shenqi was one of the "Yidai meritorious officials". During the Later Zhou Dynasty, he was the Palace Guard Du Yuhou and sat in Shouzhou for eight years. In 970, Zhao Kuangyin's father-in-law, Song Yanwo, the governor of Zhongwu Army, was demoted for violating regulations and going into business. Wang Shenqi then replaced him and sat in Zhongwu Army. As a founding hero, Wang Shenqi was very low-key, never extorted the people, and had a good reputation. Once, a county magistrate under his jurisdiction dismissed a subordinate without reporting it. Wang Shenqi's staff was very angry and said that the county magistrate did not take you seriously at all. It was too outrageous. You must deal with him well!

Guess where he got the courage from.

Wang Shenqi said to his staff earnestly, "Since the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the feudal lords have been powerful and tyrannical, and local officials have been virtually nonexistent. Now that the world is at peace, local officials can finally boldly exercise their power to appoint and dismiss people. This is a cause for celebration. How can you still blame him?"

Wang Shenqi saw the essence through the phenomenon. He understood Zhao Kuangyin's good intention to strengthen the central power, which was to let local officials gradually undermine the feudal lords. Wang Shenqi judged the situation, followed the historical trend, and consciously cooperated with Zhao Kuangyin's reforms.

In the first month of the fourth year of Kaibao (971), Zhao Kuangyin further restricted the power of local governments to appoint and dismiss personnel in the form of an imperial edict, "All prefectures and counties are not allowed to appoint acting officials." If there is a vacancy, it must be reported to the court, and then the court will appoint. The will of the central court is put into effect. Personnel appointment and dismissal, financial expenditure, and the mobilization and command of armed forces are what we often call "real power". They are also the three pillars of local separatist forces. Without a doubt, they are all the key targets of Zhao Kuangyin's reform.

Second, control its money and grain
Since the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the power of the vassal states has become increasingly strong. One of the most notable manifestations of this is that the vassal states rarely or no longer pay tribute to the imperial court. This was called "liu shi" or "liu zhou". By the end of the Tang Dynasty, this phenomenon had become an explicit rule.

After Zhao Kuangyin appointed Zhao Pu as prime minister, he ordered all states to retain funds to maintain the normal operation of local governments, and all surpluses should be turned over to the central court. Withholding and misappropriation were strictly prohibited. He also restored the "Transfer Envoy" to specifically supervise local finances and transfer surpluses to the central court.

At first glance, there is nothing innovative about it, it is just a restoration of the system before Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. A closer look reveals that there is indeed nothing innovative about it.

Power, money, and soldiers were the three pillars that Zhao Pu used to help Zhao Kuangyin strengthen the centralization of power. From the perspective of thinking, any normal person would think of it, but finding the problem and solving the problem are two different things. For example, Emperor Zhaozong of Tang saw it very clearly and wanted to strengthen the centralization of power by reducing the power of the vassal states, and even took a bigger step in the civil service route, but he "clicked" and pulled his balls; another example is Li Siyuan, who once sent a transport envoy to Xichuan, but Meng Zhixiang's approach was very traditional. On the surface, he welcomed the imperial envoy to come and guide the work, but behind the scenes he instigated his subordinates to assassinate the central economic supervision commissioner to scare the transport envoy away.

If you have money, you have soldiers; if you have soldiers, you have power; if you have power, you have money... It is a positive cycle that is difficult to shake. Only when there is a serious problem in one of the links will it enter another cycle: without power, there is no money; without money, there are no soldiers; without soldiers, there is no power.

Since Chai Rong, the central imperial guards have become the most elite in the world, while the combat effectiveness of local vassal states has sharply declined. On this basis, Zhao Kuangyin firmly controlled the central imperial guards in the hands of the emperor by "releasing military power with a cup of wine". Under the tremendous deterrence of military force, the power and money of local vassal states were gradually returned to the central government. Without power, money and soldiers, the strength of local vassal states declined. Under such circumstances, deeper reforms will continue to be promoted.

Zhao Kuangyin should be a master of financial management. After the above reforms, a large amount of "money" from the local areas was transferred to the central government. After recovering the two lakes and Sichuan, the treasury savings reached a historical peak and the treasury was full. Zhao Kuangyin said to his close ministers, "War is a battle of logistics, and war is a battle of economic strength. We must accumulate more and not wait for the outbreak of a war to search for land." Then he set up a "sealed pile warehouse", which is equivalent to a "war reserve fund". Every year, a part of the surplus of the treasury is allocated to prepare for future war funds. It cannot be used for other purposes in peacetime. It is used first when a war breaks out to balance the wartime fiscal revenue and expenditure and avoid passing the war costs on to the people.

War is a beast that devours money. Countless dynasties were dragged down by war. For example, in order to pay the military pay, the queen had to sell her jewelry. This description has appeared many times in the previous article. Since the establishment of the Song Dynasty, the war machine has been running continuously, unifying the Central Plains, conquering the Khitan in the north, and conquering the Western Xia in the west. However, the economy of the Song Dynasty did not collapse because of this. Even after losing half of its territory, it still maintained a strong economic vitality and gave birth to the embryonic form of capitalism. Among the dynasties dominated by farming, the Song Dynasty created a miracle, and this miracle had a lot to do with Zhao Kuangyin's "sealed pile warehouse".

Thanks to my old friend “Hu Lai Monk” for his monthly ticket support!

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(End of this chapter)