OBS Chapter 2259
Chapter 2259
Chapter 2260
The city is full of tricks, I want to go back to the countryside!
This was Gehr's true feeling. Before, he had left his home planet to hunt down gods everywhere, and frankly, he didn't feel this deeply, since he had been constantly killing and never stopped. The Pantheon had actually considered resolving this crisis through dialogue, such as offering amnesty…
The Pantheon's ideas were very much like those of the Song Dynasty: murder, arson, and surrender to the emperor—old tricks.
Many new members of the Pantheon come from this group, which is one of the reasons why the Pantheon has been able to grow so powerful. The universe is very complex, and it would be naive for the Pantheon to think that it can conquer the world with its military might. Looking at the regions they choose to rule, it's clear that while the Pantheon may not be human, it's not stupid. It only rules over the marginal areas that the major powers don't want.
They knew very well that violence alone could not solve many problems, so they chose to be recruited!
Since you have the ability, that's great! Come join us and become someone of high status!
When it comes to accepting amnesty, the first thing that comes to mind for Chinese people is the Water Margin, and the dynasty that most liked accepting amnesty is our great Song Dynasty.
When you unfold the scroll of Chinese history, the Song Dynasty is undoubtedly a breathtaking masterpiece. The bustling city of Bianliang, the graceful Song poetry, and the timelessly famous "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" all captivate the viewer. But have you ever considered that behind this seemingly peaceful and serene picture lies a startling secret? A secret about 434 peasant uprisings, an astonishing fact that there were an average of 1.4 rebellions per year. This number would shake any dynasty, yet the Song Dynasty not only did not collapse, but maintained its rule for nearly four centuries amidst such turmoil. The secret lies in a seemingly weak yet ingenious strategy—appeasement through amnesty.
Let us delve into this long-forgotten history and uncover the wisdom and helplessness of the Song Dynasty rulers.
On the surface, the Song Dynasty was a prosperous and wealthy golden age. Merchants thronged the streets, and scholars composed poems and couplets, presenting a picture of peace and prosperity. This prosperity, however, was in reality a feast for the upper class. Beneath this glamorous veil, the lives of the common people were precarious. Imagine yourself as an ordinary farmer living in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The land your ancestors cultivated for generations has now been seized by landlords. You watch helplessly as the fields of the wealthy stretch "vastly," while you can't even find a place to plant a single seed. Without land, you can only become a displaced vagrant or be forced into becoming a tenant farmer, suffering endless exploitation. Even more despairing is that even if you manage to cultivate a small plot of land, the taxes levied by the imperial court weigh heavily on your shoulders. Besides the regular taxes, there are numerous other levies. Most of your year's hard-earned harvest is taken away. Meanwhile, the high and mighty Emperor Huizong of Song was still levying extra money on you in order to collect rare flowers and stones and build luxurious gardens.
In this situation, what would you choose? Would you swallow your anger and continue living a precarious life, or would you take the risk and join the rebel army?
Even if you chose the latter, the rulers of the Song Dynasty seemed to have anticipated this. They set a clever trap, making it difficult for you to truly shake their rule even if you rebelled. Emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin, learned from the lessons of previous dynasties and implemented a series of measures to prevent regional separatism. He not only relieved the generals of their military power with the "banquet to release military power," but also established the Privy Council and implemented a system of "no permanent commanders, no permanent troops." This meant that even if you successfully launched an uprising, it would be difficult to find a powerful local force to support you. Worse still, the Song Dynasty strictly controlled weapons, prohibiting the private possession and sale of weapons. If you wanted to launch an armed uprising, you would find it difficult to even obtain a decent weapon. This is why the scene of a duel in "Water Margin" where "you wield a broadsword, I wield a steel spear" is almost impossible in reality. However, the rulers of the Song Dynasty were not without worries. They faced an awkward dilemma: weak local defenses and a central army that was pampered and whose combat effectiveness was questionable. Under these circumstances, the imperial court was not entirely confident in dealing with the rebel army.
Thus, a seemingly weak but actually ingenious strategy emerged – to offer amnesty.
Offering amnesty was like a panacea, capable of quelling internal strife and defending against external enemies. It allowed the coerced populace to return to their rural homes and recruited skilled warriors into the army. Even better, these amnesty recipients could fight other rebel forces; victory was a great achievement, and defeat was insignificant. This strategy also perfectly aligned with the political philosophy of the Song Dynasty's scholar-official class. These scholars, mostly from humble backgrounds, still harbored some sympathy for the common people. Furthermore, suppressing bandits not only cost money but could also empower military generals, which was detrimental to the civil service. Therefore, offering amnesty instead of suppression became the Song Dynasty's consistent strategy for dealing with peasant uprisings. This method was indeed effective in the short term, at least preventing peasant uprisings from escalating into widespread unrest. However, in the long run, fundamental contradictions such as land annexation and heavy taxes remained unresolved. The resentment in the hearts of the people, like scattered sparks, though not yet ignited, was constantly eroding the foundations of the dynasty. The history of the Song Dynasty offers us profound lessons. Governing a country requires not only the wisdom to flexibly address immediate difficulties, but also the courage and determination to solve fundamental problems. While the strategy of appeasement may have quelled unrest in the short term, it did not fundamentally resolve social contradictions. This tells us that the way to govern a country cannot be limited to immediate concerns, but must also take a long-term perspective.
Governing a country requires not only the wisdom to flexibly address immediate difficulties, but also the courage and determination to solve fundamental problems. While the strategy of appeasement may have quelled unrest in the short term, it did not fundamentally resolve social contradictions. This tells us that the way to govern a country cannot be limited to immediate concerns, but must also take a long-term perspective.
But this aligns with the ideas of those insects in the Pantheon.
These people, like the scholar-officials of the Song Dynasty, feared war because war would make the gods with war-related divine authority even more powerful, thereby breaking the existing power structure.
At the same time... if they were really sent to the battlefield... they themselves wouldn't be willing.
They have endless lifespans, are they just risking their lives for a bunch of commoners?
If you can't work yourself to the bone, how are you going to make money?
Therefore, it's best to offer them amnesty.
The cost of surrendering is actually very low!
Let's take the Water Margin as an example. At that time, the imperial court had a regular army, so why did it offer amnesty to Liangshan? It seems unnecessary, but in reality, the cost of amnesty was the lowest and the value that could be utilized was the highest. On the contrary, the cost of annihilation was too high, and it would not only damage itself, but also have no value to be recovered.
Chapter 78 of the book states: The emperor dispatched his regular army and his trusted confidants, Grand Commandant Gao and Gao Qiu, leading ten military governors, each with 10,000 elite troops, to Jizhou to seize Liangshan and await further orders. These ten armies were: Wang Huan, military governor of Henan and Hebei; Xu Jing, military governor of Shangdang and Taiyuan; Wang Wende, military governor of Hongnong in Jingbei; Mei Zhan, military governor of Yingzhou and Runan; Zhang Kai, military governor of Anping in Zhongshan; Yang Wen, military governor of Lingling in Jiangxia; Han Cunbao, military governor of Yanmen in Yunzhong; Li Congji, military governor of Hanyang in Longxi; Xiang Yuanzhen, military governor of Pengcheng in Langya; and Jing Zhong, military governor of Tianshui in Qinghe.
These ten military governors should not be underestimated.
Grand Commandant Gao stated: "The former ten were military governors, many of whom had rendered meritorious service to the country, whether in campaigns against the Guifang Kingdom, the Western Xia, or the Jin and Liao dynasties. They were all highly skilled in martial arts." They rose to the rank of "military governor" through their service to the nation, reaching the pinnacle of their careers. So, what were the origins of these ten military governors? The book states: "They originally came from bandit groups, later accepting amnesty and rising to high official positions. They were all elite and courageous men, not those who achieved fame overnight." In other words, they were also bandits who had previously accepted amnesty, and later became military governors.
It is evident that the imperial court used this tactic many times, at least ten times, and with a high success rate. This shows that the policy of offering amnesty was not an exception for the court, but rather a precedent, even a common practice. This led to Song Jiang's campaign against Fang La, which ultimately resulted in both sides suffering heavy losses. The court's use of Song Jiang to fight Fang La was essentially the same in nature as the ten military governors' campaign against Song Jiang.
What did the imperial court truly sacrifice?
Actually, very few. First of all, these armies that were granted amnesty were much stronger in combat than the local militias and garrison armies of the Song Dynasty!
The "Xiangjun" (乡军), as the name suggests, refers to the rural armies, the lowest-ranking army, with virtually no combat capability. They were generally used for labor and can be disregarded. The "Xiangjun" (厢军), a higher-ranking army, was responsible for maintaining local order or suppressing bandits. Although not particularly strong in combat, they still had some use locally. Since they were not part of the central government's regular army, they gradually became the private servants of local officials and generals.
In addition, the Song Dynasty also had a group called the "Fan Army," whose combat strength is unknown. The Fan Army was an army composed of ethnic minorities on the borders ruled by the Song Dynasty. Some people may think that they were forced to join, but in fact, they all voluntarily requested to join the Song army because they could enjoy the power of the Song state after joining the Song army.
Because they were ethnic minorities, they weren't considered part of the regular fighting force, hence the scarcity of records. (However, during the Southern Song Dynasty, some non-Han armies were quite famous, the strongest of which were the Mongol armies... Yes, you read that right, the Mongol armies. Back then, many escaped slaves from Mongolia fled to the Southern Song to work for them, and they fought very hard against the Mongols... Don't be fooled by the name "Mongol." There was a clear hierarchy among them. While the noble chieftains certainly benefited greatly from the Mongol rise, the lower-class Mongols remained slaves, living just as miserably. Even during the Yuan Dynasty, rebellions by lower-class Mongols were frequent and quite intense. The Manchus did a better job in this regard; at least their Eight Banners soldiers truly enjoyed the benefits of military power, and even bondservants could live comfortably.)
While the above three military branches were numerous, they were not the main force of the Northern Song army and were essentially negligible in actual combat. The most important military force of the Northern Song Dynasty was the Imperial Guard. This term is familiar, as the famous Lin Chong, the Leopard Head, from the Water Margin, was known as the instructor of the 800,000 Imperial Guards. The Imperial Guard was broadly divided into two parts: the Imperial Guard stationed in the capital and the Imperial Guards stationed remotely. The Imperial Guard stationed in the capital consisted of hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in Kaifeng Prefecture, the capital region, and was the most powerful army in the early Northern Song Dynasty. The Imperial Guards stationed remotely were those guarding the border regions of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hebei. In a sense, the Imperial Guards stationed remotely were local armies, but due to their role in resisting attacks from the Liao and Western Xia dynasties, these local Imperial Guards grew stronger over time, eventually surpassing the Imperial Guard stationed in the capital.
The Imperial Guards were also divided into two parts: the Hebei Imperial Guards and the Northwest Imperial Guards. Even combined, the total number of Imperial Guards in the south was less than any of these three parts. The Northwest Imperial Guards, stationed in the fiercely independent Shaanxi province and having a long history of warfare against the Xia, maintained formidable fighting power. The Northern Song Western Army was the cradle of famous generals and powerful armies. Notable units within the Western Army included the Zhe family army of Fuzhou, the Yang family generals of Linzhou, and the Zhong family army of Qingjian City. Western Army generals generally inherited their positions from generation to generation, making them far more powerful than ordinary Song soldiers who were often ignorant of their troops. However, the Western Army had relatively poor discipline. The Western Army was renowned for its tenacity and willingness to sacrifice. Its reputation for strength and discipline had been established for nearly a century, starting with Fan Yong, the founder of the Fan family in Shaanxi. Besides the regular troops of the four routes, the Western Army, including its strong and skilled archers, fought against the Western Xia and the Qiang tribes of Qinghai for over a century. It was an army that dared to venture deep into the Gobi Desert for over a thousand miles to engage in open battle, expanding the territory of the Song Dynasty. In Shaanxi, it was common to see families serving the Western Army for generations, with men rarely living past thirty and many widows living together. However, this army was a mountain army, and its unsuitability for fighting on the plains became apparent when it fought against the Liao and Jin dynasties.
The fighting strength of those bandits who accepted amnesty, such as those from Liangshan, was far superior to that of the local militias and even the central imperial guards… When Gao Qiu led 100,000 imperial guards to attack Liangshan, these were essentially the central imperial guards. These guards had degenerated to a level similar to the local militias; many had their pay embezzled, and to survive, many had turned to business… It is said—and I haven't seen any specific documents—that while the central imperial guards were incompetent in battle, they were extremely skilled at real estate development and construction, as many luxurious mansions in Bianliang (Kaifeng) were built by them…
Such a capable force costs about the same as a regular local militia; isn't that a huge profit?
Then they were sent to fight other rebel armies, to fight the Liao Dynasty, to fight the Jin Dynasty, basically wherever they were needed, without any reinforcements, and once they were all dead, that was it!
What did the imperial court pay for this?
They didn't contribute anything, just a little military pay. It doesn't matter who gets it.
Then there are the official positions and salaries of some leaders, but that's nothing... You know, the Song Dynasty had plenty of other things, but plenty of officials!
It was common for an official to hold seven or eight official positions. (The official system in the Song Dynasty was extremely complex, with an official often having numerous titles and duties.)