Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 76-Equality
Battalion Commander Wei Guosong continued to accompany Danchu and his party to observe the infantry team's musket sentry assessment.

Danchu confessed to him, "I advocate the Taizhou School, which advocates equality between officers and soldiers in the army. Officers must love soldiers, and soldiers must respect officers. Officers must not kill people indiscriminately or withhold food, and soldiers must not disobey military orders or desert.

"The morale of your battalion is good, but you still need to work on it. First of all, you need to change the way people address each other and stop bowing down. For example, the new recruit just now is still used to calling himself "little man" or "small one". He needs to correct this."

"Yes! I..." Wei Guosong quickly stopped talking and said, "I will definitely make great efforts to correct it!"

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, with the spread of Yangming's philosophy of mind, the development of the commodity economy, and the rise of the urban middle class, a trend of desire for equality has emerged in society.

The Ming Dynasty also followed the trend of the times and relaxed social control. The most typical example was the relaxation of household registration management. Artisans and other low-income households could participate in the imperial examinations and had special quotas for the examinations. Merchants had business registration and could take the examinations in the places where they did business. Even refugees had "attached registration" and could participate in the imperial examinations through attached registration.

The Qing dynasty came to power too easily, and in order to discredit the Ming dynasty, it falsified history and launched literary inquisitions repeatedly. Many positive aspects of the Ming dynasty were lost in the dust of history.

The most vigorous advocate of equality in the Ming Dynasty was the Taizhou School of Yangming's Philosophy of Mind.

Zhao Zhenji, an important official during the Jiajing and Longqing periods, came from a family of artisans. He was a representative of the Taizhou School and during his lifetime he strongly advocated the idea that "everyone can be Yao and Shun."

Zhao Zhenji was a man of many talents, with a sharp and straightforward character. He was generous in his arguments and never gave in to arguments. When talking to important officials at the time, he often called them by their names, which was a big violation of official rules. But in "The Ming Dynasty 1566", Zhao Zhenji was portrayed as a "non-stick pan".

Li Zhi, a master of his generation, opposed Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and advocated the liberation of personality, freedom of thought, freedom of marriage, and the liberation of women. He directed his criticism at the feudal system and vigorously advocated the ideas of people-centeredness and equality, which had a far-reaching influence.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the country was in chaos, with tenant rebellions and slave rebellions breaking out all over the country. In the countryside, there were tenant rebellions, and in the cities, there were slave rebellions. In essence, they were all riots by the lower classes seeking equality.

In the wealthy areas of Jiangnan and Jiangxi, "every village has a thousand people, each with its own leader. They tear their clothes into flags and melt their hoes into swords. They all claim to be the king of flattening. They flatten masters and servants, nobles and humbles, rich and poor. Each tenant wears the clothes of his master, enters the high-ranking family, and occupies his house. They open the granary and distribute the food..."

Similar civil uprisings occurred in all provinces, including tenant uprisings, slave uprisings, miner uprisings... plus the peasant armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, it would have been difficult for the Ming Dynasty to survive the civil strife even if there were no external enemies.

Before and after the Qing army entered the pass, the local order of the Ming Dynasty had fallen into unprecedented chaos. After entering the pass, the Qing army suppressed the civil uprising by force and rebuilt the feudal order with the support of the landlord class.

China's modern ideological enlightenment was conceived in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but was interrupted by the Qing Dynasty, and China has since fallen into a long dark period.

In the long run, we must advocate equality in order to win the support of the vast majority of ordinary people, forge a strong army, and inject the impetus for sustainable development into the country and nation.

At present, whether it is the Qing army or the Ming army, the lower-ranking officers and soldiers generally have no status. Officers at all levels withhold military pay and kill soldiers at will to show off their prestige. If we can prohibit indiscriminate killing in the army and ensure that military pay is not embezzled in large quantities, such an army will be a disciplined and combat-effective army.

Famous generals in the Southern Ming army, such as Li Dingguo, Li Chixin, Jiao Lian, Ma Jinzhong, Zhao Yiqing, Ma Bao, etc., were all well versed in this.

Danchu went further, advocating equality in the Yongan army, abolishing the ritual of bowing and kneeling, and eliminating the self-proclaimed villains and lowly officials. Yu Houji sighed: "The general abolished bowing and lowly officials, and there was a lot of discussion in the army, thinking that the general changed his ways, making officers less dignified and soldiers less afraid. Who would have thought that the new recruits had only been in the camp for less than half a month, and the officers and soldiers in the army were friendly and united, and they already had the aura of a king's army."

Advocating equality is not just empty talk, but has concrete regulations. According to the "Military Training Notes", Danchu required that officers below the battalion commander level should eat, live, train, work and rest with the soldiers; if officers were unfair, soldiers could complain to their superiors; if officers dared to withhold food, they would be executed at the most serious level and caned at the least...

Looking back at the seventeenth century, the whole world was concerned with hierarchy, and nobles in various countries tried their best to maintain a top-down hierarchical order.

Equality has a strong appeal to the lower class people, who are eager to overthrow the oppression and inequality imposed on them. Advocating equality can unite the lower class soldiers and call on the general public, but it can also cause disorder.

This is what Yu Houji was worried about. Authority comes from above, and orders are carried out below. If the upper and lower levels are equal, the upper level has no authority, and the government orders cannot be carried out, then everything will be in chaos.

As a time traveler, Cen Danchu has no such concerns. He said: "We advocate equality, mainly equality in personality and property. Officers and soldiers have different powers and responsibilities, but they are equal in personality and property, without distinction of superiority or inferiority.

"Promoting equality can be applied not only within the military, but also everywhere in the world in the future. Within the military, officers care for soldiers, soldiers respect officers, and they help each other and share weal and woe.

"In addition to the military, in order to deal with tenant rebellions and slave rebellions, the focus should be on liberating tenants and servants, abolishing the landlords' right to collect rent from tenants, and removing the servants' personal dependence on their masters..."

Recently, Danchu, consciously or unconsciously, has mentioned the word "liberation" more and more frequently, which has attracted Yu Houji's attention.

He had someone check and found that the word "liberation" came from Jia Sixie's "Qimin Yaoshu" which said "In the middle of October, wrap it with cattail sprouts and release it in early February." It was originally a term in agricultural planting, and by extension, it roughly means to remove constraints, restore freedom and encourage development.

The eighteen-year-old general of Yong'an Town always had many wonderful ideas and astonishing words. Although they seemed to be nonsense and could not stand up to scrutiny, they were full of philosophy and gradually took root, showing great vitality.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang shouted the slogan "Are kings, dukes, generals, and ministers of different species?" In the following two thousand years, countless people at the bottom of society yearned for equality and liberation, which led to thousands of uprisings. In the late Ming Dynasty, when there were civil uprisings in various places, the leaders often called themselves "King of Suppression" and called for eradicating injustice and equalizing the world.

The equality advocated by Cen Danchu is obviously not just a slogan, but has demonstrated its powerful power in the process of expanding the army and training soldiers.

Now the edifice is about to collapse, and if we do not take radical measures, we will not be able to turn the tide. The fraternity between officers and soldiers, and the payment of taxes by tenants, these extraordinary measures can be seen as an extension of the idea of ​​equality, and perhaps the key to saving the country from danger.

Yu Houji suddenly gained confidence and said, "It is true that listening to your words is better than reading for ten years. Your words are like a revelation to me. The sage said, 'The people are the most important, the country is second, and the king is the least important.'

"The commander-in-chief advocates equality, which means putting the people first. Equality between officers and soldiers can boost morale, and requiring tenants to pay taxes can encourage production. With enough soldiers and enough food, what can't be done in the world?"

(End of this chapter)