Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 379: Specializing in Confucianism at the Imperial College and Proposing Reforms to the Guard System [Request for Subscription]

Li Shuzheng said, "This campus is great, but because it's so great, I'm worried there will be complaints from the Imperial College."

"Imperial College..." Liu Kuan pondered.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang had an iron fist and was not afraid of people from the Imperial College causing trouble, the worst that could happen was that he would send more people overseas.

But it would be better if they could solve this problem.

Liu Kuan had been thinking about a solution to this problem before and had already had a rough idea. Today he happened to discuss it with Li Shuzheng.

"Minister Li, do you think that if the Imperial College were to recruit students exclusively from the Imperial University of Peking and other universities that would be built later, would they still be dissatisfied?"

Li Shuzheng was puzzled for a moment and asked, "What does Liu Yuanzheng mean by this?"

Liu Kuan said, "Before the establishment of universities, the Imperial College was the only institution of higher learning in the Ming Dynasty, and it specialized in teaching Confucianism."

"Later, as the Ming Dynasty promoted science, the Imperial College was instructed to teach mathematics and natural sciences in addition to Confucianism. To be honest, the Imperial College hasn't achieved much in mathematics and natural science education in recent years, and its teaching results are similar to those of ordinary official schools."

"Now that the Ming Dynasty is reforming education, establishing schools, and building universities, why not make the Imperial College a superior institution of higher learning dedicated to teaching and studying Confucianism, focusing on researching and improving Confucianism and cultivating Confucian scholars?"

"What do you think, Minister Li?"

Liu Kuan knew that although Li Shuzheng was entrusted with the overall management of educational reform, he also had a close relationship with the Imperial College and was himself a Confucian.

Li Shuzheng pretended to be worried before, but in fact he wanted to express the Imperial College's dissatisfaction with the education reform to Zhu Yuanzhang through him.

After hearing Liu Kuan's suggestion, Li Shuzheng paused for a moment and asked, "What degree should be awarded to students trained at the Imperial College within the school system?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "The Imperial College can train Masters and Doctors of Confucianism."

Li Shuzheng exchanged glances with several officials from the Ministry of Rites and asked, "Then can the Imperial College recruit students from high schools and train its own university students?"

Liu Kuan said, "This matter is for your majesty to decide, but I think it should be possible."

Li Shuzheng laughed and said, "If that's the case, maybe the Imperial College won't say anything."

After inspecting the campus of Imperial University of Peking, Liu Kuan and Li Shuzheng went to the palace together to report to Zhu Yuanzhang.

After Zhu Yuanzhang understood Liu Kuan's suggestion for the Imperial College, he thought for a moment and said, "The Imperial College can be changed as you suggest, but it will not be appropriate to use the original name. Let's follow the Han system and change its name to 'Taixue'."

Taixue sounds much more advanced than Guozijian and Guozixue, which shows that Zhu Yuanzhang still attached great importance to Confucianism. After all, Confucianism is indeed helpful in maintaining imperial rule.

As the only Confucian "representative" in the hall at that moment, Li Shuzheng was naturally overjoyed when he heard this and praised: "Your Majesty is wise!"

Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Li Shuzheng to leave, but kept Liu Kuan in the hall.

"We plan to establish military academies in the local guards and a military academy in the capital. We will recruit students from the guards and train them specifically for generals. What do you think?"

When Liu Kuan heard Zhu Yuanzhang asking about military matters, he immediately took it seriously - in the seven or eight years since he traveled through time, although Zhu Yuanzhang had asked about some military matters in later generations, he rarely asked him to give suggestions on military construction.

After pondering for a moment, Liu Kuan said, "The Weiwu system that Your Majesty is talking about seems to have existed in the history of the Ming Dynasty, but was later abolished."

"In my humble opinion, the military system of guards and garrisons is prone to stratification in the military. Even if only mid- and low-ranking military positions are hereditary, it is easy for military families to form a powerful faction."

"In the history of the Ming Dynasty, many military factions have emerged in the northern border, two of which are the most famous."

"One was to support the Jurchen tribes during the Wanli reign, intending to 'raise the captives for self-reliance'. However, the result was the rise of Nurhaci and the Jianzhou Jurchens of Liaodong's Li clan, represented by Li Chengliang and Li Rusong."

"The other is the Zu and Wu families, who rose to prominence after the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens, thanks to the Ming Dynasty's continuous investment of money and grain into western Liaoning. Their representative figure is Wu Sangui, who later allowed the Qing Dynasty to enter the country—his maternal family is the Zu family."

"These military families not only monopolized most of the military positions, leaving the lower-level soldiers in the garrisons with no path to advancement, but also rapidly transformed themselves into landlords."

"They used various means to annex the land of the lower-class garrison soldiers and turned them into tenant farmers or even their own slaves. In the eyes of later generations, the garrison soldiers in the middle and late Ming Dynasty were even more pitiful than the landless peasants."

"If farmers lost their land, they could still seek a living elsewhere. However, even if soldiers lost their land, they couldn't leave because they would be arrested as deserters. They could only serve as tenants or slaves for the generals."

"So, historically, after the Yongle reign, during the Xuande period, the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's garrison troops rapidly declined due to the corruption of the garrison system. I think this was probably one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty's external military power struggled during the Xuande period."

"Historically, during the Jiajing reign, in order to address the border threats from the northern barbarians and the southern Japanese, the Ming Dynasty gradually began to rely on recruiting soldiers."

"As for the late Ming Dynasty, the garrison troops were no different from serfs, and their combat effectiveness was even lower than that of the average Ming peasant army."

Zhu Yuanzhang did not expect that when he only asked about the establishment of martial arts, he actually found out such a big drawback of the Ming Dynasty's military system.

He frowned and was silent for a moment, then couldn't help asking, "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

Liu Kuan smiled bitterly and explained, "I don't really understand military affairs. If Your Majesty hadn't asked, how could I have dared to make comments on military affairs?"

"Also, although the Weisuo system is prone to corruption and has many shortcomings, it is quite useful during the period of national expansion." "For example, the Ming Dynasty is currently expanding outwards, and using the Weisuo military system is obviously much better than the conscription system - if we had conscripted soldiers, I'm afraid it would be difficult to send them to garrison and open up wasteland."

Zhu Yuanzhang tapped the table with his fingers and said, "What you said does make some sense."

In fact, even if Liu Kuan did not give this later explanation, Zhu Yuanzhang would not easily overthrow the Wei Suo system.

Because he knew very well that the army was the foundation for him to hold imperial power and become the emperor - if the army was unstable, his throne would be unstable, so he had to be extremely cautious in all matters concerning the army.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Yuanzhang asked again: "Can we reform the military system of the garrisons so that they will not have so many problems in the future?"

Since Lao Zhu asked and they were talking about this, Liu Kuan decided to speak out boldly.

He believed that even if what he said was wrong due to lack of experience, Lao Zhu would be able to identify and adopt it.

"In my humble opinion, there are two fundamental reasons why the garrison system quickly deteriorated. One is that the soldiers' household registrations were fixed and locked in place, and the other is that the positions of generals below the rank of garrison commander were hereditary."

"Even if a family has soldiers among their ancestors, not all of their descendants may be willing to join the army, nor may all of them be suitable for it."

"Therefore, locking the soldiers' household registration with military households will undoubtedly result in some people being forced into military service."

"The presence of these people not only reduces the combat effectiveness of the army, but also affects the morale of the troops and even gradually corrupts the military atmosphere."

In fact, in history, after the 20th year of Hongwu, soldiers began to desert some garrisons with difficult conditions, and the number increased year by year, and it was difficult to curb it even with severe punishment.

Today, as the Ming Dynasty expands overseas and frequently deploys military forces, this problem is not as serious as it was in history, but some clues have emerged.

Zhu Yuanzhang kept a close eye on the army and was well aware of this matter.

So after hearing this, he asked, "Is there any solution to this problem?"

Liu Kuan said, "Military households are allowed to change their household registration within certain rules. For example, if a household has no adult members, they can apply to change their household registration to civilian household."

"For example, if a soldier wants to leave the garrison and become a civilian, as long as he has accumulated a certain amount of merit, he can apply, and the officials will review and approve it."

"For example, we could relax the conditions for converting civilian households to military households and improve the benefits of military households. This way, we can have a steady stream of new military households joining to make up for the ones that have been lost."

"Also, if a military household has three or more sons, one can be separated and made an independent civilian household. This will prevent the number of military households from growing too quickly, leading to a shortage of farmland in the garrison, while also encouraging childbirth and providing another way for military households in the garrison to become civilian households."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly. "These suggestions sound good... But how do we solve the problem of hereditary military service?"

"You probably don't know that the reason we make the military commander and below hereditary is to encourage soldiers to make meritorious deeds."

"Secondly, those who hold military posts, because of their inherited positions and official lands, will guard the garrison lands with all their heart and soul, even at the cost of their lives."

Liu Kuan pondered for a moment and said, "Regarding this issue, I only have a few half-baked suggestions for your majesty's reference."

"Just say it."

"First, when the sons of hereditary generals inherit their positions, the assessment will be strengthened and they will be given three attempts. If they fail the assessment three times, their chance to inherit the position will be waived. However, their descendants will be allowed to continue to participate in the assessment, but their positions will be demoted."

"For example, if a family has hereditary commanding officer positions, and no one in a certain generation passes the assessment to inherit the position, then the next generation can only inherit commanding officer positions, and they must also pass the assessment to do so, and so on."

"To hold the position of general is to lead troops in battle. This is not only related to the great military affairs of the country, but also to the safety of the general himself and the lives of his soldiers. It cannot be neglected. For this reason, I believe that those hereditary generals will not be too resistant to this assessment method."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, "In fact, the assessment for succession to military office is quite strict nowadays."

Liu Kuan thought to himself: Of course you are strict when you are in power, but it may not be the case later on.

He didn't say this out loud, but I believe Zhu Yuanzhang understood it in his heart.

He continued, "Secondly, we will set up officials in the garrisons to specifically manage the cultivation of the official fields of the officials and generals, and then give the generals the money and grain they deserve after the harvest."

"With generals no longer directly managing official farmland, it's naturally difficult for them to use their authority to annex land. Even if there were a way, it wouldn't be easy, and the pace of annexation would be greatly slowed down."

"Third, officials with rank above 1,000 households will be transferred to other positions to prevent them from staying in one place for too long and becoming entrenched, forming a powerful military faction."

"Fourth, it is to improve the treatment of generals and officers - generals will use their power to annex land, simply for the sake of profit."

"People are greedy for profit. Besides using laws to prevent them, the imperial court can also provide them with benefits to prevent them from coveting the land of the garrisons. This will prevent the garrisons from being corrupted by land annexation."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "Could you please tell me how to give generals benefits other than land?"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)