The command and dispatch of the ancient Chinese army

Article submitted by: lfmwasp Posted on History of China Iron and Blood Forum http://bbs.

The ancient Chinese state attached great importance to military issues, and since Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unify the whole country, the political system of successive dynasties has been under the emperor "three powers": administrative power, military power, and supervision power. As Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan dynasty, said: Zhongshu Province (the highest administrative body) is my left hand, the Privy Council (the highest military body) is my right hand, and the Yushitai (the highest supervisory body) is what I use to heal these two hands.

Even if the military power was directly under the emperor's jurisdiction, it still did not reassure the emperor. Therefore, it is necessary to further decompose the power of the military and keep it under heavy mutual surveillance, even at the expense of reducing the effectiveness of the military machine. As a result, a complex military command and dispatch system was formed in successive dynasties. The main principles are as follows:

separating strategic decision-making power from military command,

Separate the right to organize and train the army in peacetime from the right to command in wartime,

separating the personnel power of the army from the command of the army,

Separate the command of the theater of operations from the command of the combat units.

1. Separation of civil and military

Until the Spring and Autumn Period, China was still in the stage of tribal statehood, and the aristocracy at all levels held political power. The nobles below the son of Zhou Tianzi were divided into various places to form a state, called "princes". The court of Zhou Tianzi had nobles such as dukes, secretaries, and doctors presiding over the government affairs, and the monarchs of various vassal states were also in charge of government affairs according to the nobles such as the secretary and the doctor.

There are upper, middle and lower divisions, and doctors also have upper and lower, etc., generally there is no clear classification of civil and military attache positions, and they usually deal with government affairs in the court, and some are designated by the Son of Heaven or the monarch as the ruling party to control the overall situation; In times of war, the general secretary was ordered to lead the army as "handsome" or "general" (both mean commanding), according to the "Legend of the Ram", if the noble status of the leader is high and the size of the army is large, it is called "handsome"; If the leader of the army has a high status and the size of the army is not large, it is called a "general". Since Shangqing often led troops, he was also called "general". When the battle is about to be fought, the generals and commanders will assign doctors to the tactical command positions such as "captain", "royal", and "right".

During the Warring States Period, the original old clan aristocracy gradually withdrew from the political arena, and the new aristocracy, which had grown up with the original "shi" as the main body, was fully in charge of the government affairs of various countries. For example, the Qin State implemented a system of 20th rank of military merit and established a new aristocratic hierarchy. These new nobles did not have a hereditary status, their nobility was derived from their allegiance to the king and their martial arts, their fiefs were only a supplement to their fortunes, and their titles were different from those of the past. In the beginning, like the nobles of the past, they ruled in the court and led the troops in the court.

With the strengthening of the centralization of the monarchs of various countries, the new aristocracy was transformed into a professional bureaucracy. At the same time, due to the increasing frequency of wars, the continuous expansion of the scale and area of operations, the continuous extension of combat time, the increasingly complex forms of operations, and the diversification of the composition of soldiers, it is necessary to have full-time officers to take command. The "lieutenants" who turned out to be only temporary field commanders gradually became full-time officers.

By the end of the Warring States period, all countries had established a system of professional officers: "lieutenant" was the general term for military attachés, and those who commanded a "department" army were "lieutenants" or "captains", and counties had "county lieutenants", and counties had "county lieutenants", who were local commanders; There are "captains" above, who can command a certain theater of operations or campaign direction; The imperial court established the "national captain" (or honorific title "Taiwei"), which is equivalent to the commander-in-chief of the army, and is on the same level as the prime minister. Later, the Qin State also set up full-time military attache positions such as "lieutenants" to garrison the capital and "guard captains" to guard the palace.

Although the career officer system had been developed, the practice of denoting rank by knighthood was still retained at that time, and "will" mainly referred to field commanders.

For example, Shang Ying presided over the reform of the law as the "Zuo Shu Chief", which was the tenth-level title of the Qin State at that time. Four years later, he was promoted to the rank of "Daliangzao" (the sixteenth-rank knighthood) for his meritorious service in presiding over the reform of the law, and led the army to besiege Anyi (present-day Xia County, Shanxi) of the Wei State. In 340 BC, Shang Ying was appointed as a "general" and led the army to attack Wei. He set a trap and deceived his old friend and general of Wei, Gongzi, to come to the battle to catch up with him, captured Gongzi Wei alive, and then took the opportunity to attack and won a big victory. So he was awarded the highest title of "liehou", and was sealed in the place 15 "yi".

Bai Qi, a famous general of the Qin State, was the chief of Zuo Shu in 294 BC, "and will attack the new city of Han". After winning, the title is upgraded to "Left Shift" (the 12th Knighthood). In the second year, he was a "general", commanding the Qin army and the combined forces of Han and Wei in Yique, beheading 240,000 people, and capturing the commander of the coalition army, Gongsun Xi, and capturing 5 cities. So he was appointed "Lieutenant". In the following year, the title was promoted to "Daliangzao", and he once again commanded the attack on Wei, capturing 61 large and small cities. After that, he attacked Wei, Zhao, and Chu for many years, forcing Chu to move its capital. The Qin State changed the original capital of the Chu State to Nanjun, and named Bai as the liehou, called "Wu Anjun". In the Battle of Changping, Bai Qi was secretly appointed as a "general" to command the final decisive battle. Later, due to a conflict with the then Hou Fan Sui, Bai was removed from his official position and title, demoted to a "Shiwu" (commoner), and was finally forced to commit suicide.

Another example is the famous general Zhao Hao of Zhao State because of his victory over the Qin army in the "Battle of the Emperor" in 269 BC, and was named a liehou, called "Ma Fujun"; Another meritorious hero, Xu Li, was a national lieutenant, and the two were able to be on the same level as Lian Po and Yi.

Qin officers often use titles to indicate their rank when they go out on expeditions, such as in 260 BC, when Wang Rong, the "Zuo Shu Chief", attacked the Korean Shangdang. In the second year, the Qin State made the "Five Great Doctors" Wang Ling attack Handan of the Zhao State.

At the end of the Warring States period, countries gradually expressed their rank directly by the official position of military attaché, and "general" could also directly indicate rank in addition to the meaning of field commander. The system of career officers has been fully formed.

The commanders sent by the Qin State to fight after the accession to the throne of King Xiang of Qin Zhuang (249 BC) were all called generals, and they no longer used titles to indicate rank. In 247 BC, Wei summoned Wei Wuji, the king of Xinling, who had fled the troubles and lived in Zhao, to command the allied forces of the five countries in the name of "Shang General", and defeated the Qin army commanded by the Qin general Meng Fu.

When Qin Wangzheng launched a unified war to conquer the six countries, he no longer gave generals with military merits marquis or fiefs. In 226 BC, the Qin state intended to destroy the Chu state, and Li Xin, a brave general who was famous for his thousands of people chasing the Yan prince Dan, claimed that only 200,000 people were enough to destroy Chu, and the king of Qin was very happy, but the next year the Qin army fought a great defeat in Pinghe, two fortresses were breached, and 7 commanders were killed. The king of Qin had to go to the place where the old general Wang Jian lived in seclusion and ask him to be the commander of the extermination of Chu. Wang Jian asked for an army of 600,000, and asked the King of Qin for "Meitian Mansion Garden", saying: "As a king's general, you can't be a marquis if you have merit, so you have to invite Yuanchi as your descendants." "When he arrived at the front line, he also sent envoys back to the capital 5 times to ask the King of Qin for a beautiful mansion in the fields, making a look that he only knew how to make benefits and had no ambitions, so as to appease the heart of the King of Qin.

Qin Shi Huang conquered the Six Kingdoms and established the first dynasty in Chinese history with a centralized monarchy. In the government institutions of the Qin Dynasty, the two professional bureaucratic systems of civil and military were fully formed. The military attache system of the imperial court has the imperial lieutenant who is listed as the "three dukes" along with the prime minister and the imperial historian, the lieutenant Lang who guards the palace gate, the lieutenant who commands the palace guards, the lieutenant who guards the capital area, and the military lieutenant who supervises the military attaché. Some official positions with "lieutenants" are civil officials, such as court lieutenants in charge of judicial trials, and lords and lieutenants in charge of titles and rewards, which have always been civilian official positions.

When going out to fight, commanders with different titles such as general, general, general, and general are appointed. The local government also adopted a system of separating civil and military forces, with county lieutenants and county lieutenants taking command of the local armed forces and being responsible for local defense and public order. Checkpoints were also set up on major traffic arteries in various places, and "Guan Du Wei" was dispatched to guard and guard.

The Han Dynasty basically followed the Qin system, still using "Wei" as the general term for military attachés, and it was clear that civil and military officials were represented by the number of taels per year. Taiwei (later renamed Da Sima) as the highest military attaché, listed as "Three Princes", and the annual number was "Wanshi" (actual 4200 Hu). The "Jiuqing" below the three dukes, the year number "Zhong 2,000 Shi" (actual 2160 Hu), and the military attache listed as Jiuqing have Guangluxun (Lang Zhongling renamed) and Wei Wei. Although Zhi Jinwu (renamed by lieutenant) is not listed as Jiuqing, it is also "Zhong 2,000 stones". The main deputies of the highest-ranking military attachés of these imperial courts were called "Cheng", and there were generally 2 people, with the rank of "Qianshi" (actual 960 Hu). In addition, Emperor Wu set up the city gate, the middle base, the tun cavalry, the infantry, the Yue cavalry, the Changshui, the Hu cavalry, the shooting sound, the tiger Ben "eight captains", the level is slightly lower, the number is "two thousand stones" (the actual 1440 Hu). The rank of the local county lieutenant is slightly lower than that of the county guard of "2,000 stones", which is "more than 2,000 stones" (actual 1200 stones); The rank of county lieutenant is also lower than the county order (600 stones), which is "more than 600 stones" (actual 600 stones).

There are also many "captains" who are not real military attachés, in addition to the court captains and lords who inherited from the Qin Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also set up "Fengche Duwei" to be in charge of the emperor's car, "Horse Duwei" to be in charge of the emperor's horses, and "Shuiheng Duwei" to be in charge of the emperor's garden, all of which are "more than 2,000 stones". Some changed from military attaches to civilian officials, such as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up the "Sili School Captain", who was originally a military attache and was responsible for detecting and suppressing major political crimes in the Jingshi area, but was later forbidden to lead troops and changed to a supervision officer who supervised the areas near the Jingshi.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the title of "general" still had the nature of a battlefield or a commander of a certain army, and it was not yet the official title of a military attaché, so the rank was not fixed. For example, when fighting against the Xiongnu, Wei Qing was the commander of the whole army and was called "General"; Some are called strategic directions, such as "General Ershi (there is Ershi City in the Western Regions)" and "General Duliao"; There are those with the number of troops commanded, such as "General Material Officer", "General Lou Chuan", "General Xiao Cai" and so on.

As a commander, the shogun had the power to organize the command post, and could organize the "shogunate" (so named because it was set up in a barracks tent) and appoint staff officers such as "Sima" and "Nagashi".

Later, the general was set up for a long time and became a formal official position. The Eastern Han Dynasty officially defined the "great general" as the most senior official of the imperial court, and later it was generally only used to reward relatives (relatives of the empress) who were in charge of the imperial government. The following are a series of general titles such as hussars, chariot cavalry, Wei generals, Fubo, Fujun, Zhongjun, Sizheng, Sizhen, Longxiang, Dianjun, Shangjun, and auxiliary countries.

The Three Kingdoms, the Two Jin Dynasties, and the Northern and Southern Dynasties were the most indiscriminate periods for generals. Cao Wei set up a "leading general in the middle and leading the army" under the general to command the central army cluster, and changed the commander of the escort army to the general of the escort army to preside over the selection and appointment of military attachés. Later, the two highest-ranking generals were gradually increased. Others include left and right guard generals, cavalry generals, guerrilla generals, etc. After the implementation of the nine-rank official system, all generals or generals of the Kaifu are listed as the first rank, the hussars, chariot riders, leading the army, the escort and other generals are the second rank, the left and right guards and the front, rear, left and right generals are the third rank, and the school captain is the fourth grade. The military attachés who served as staff officers in the General's Mansion such as Changshi, Sima, the Chief Bookkeeper, and the Army were the fifth and sixth grades. The basic officers are still named "lieutenants", and the lowest lieutenants are nine ranks. Later, the generals became more and more sealed, and there were only 40 kinds of names of generals in the Jin Dynasty, and the names of generals had nothing to do with the command positions they undertook, and even the generals who were used to go to the front, back, left and right were awarded the titles of civil officials, such as Wang Xizhi was the "general of the right army" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. There are as many as 240 kinds of general names in Nanliang, and they are divided into 44 classes in addition to distinguishing grades. There were more than 60 generals in the Northern Wei Dynasty, all of whom were used to "reward the honorables" and had no military command authority.

During this period, the official positions that actually held the command positions of the theater or front army were changed to "governors". For example, in 216 A.D., Cao ordered Xiahoudun to "supervise the 26th Army" as a general, and in 222 Cao Zhen as a general to "supervise all Chinese and foreign military affairs". Since then, it has become more and more indiscriminate, and military districts the size of a state and a county have also set up governors. Jin Dynasty system: with the "Governor of the Army", "Governor of China and Abroad" as the command of the whole army, and the "Supervision of the Army" as the temporary command, the following theater governors have three levels: "Envoy Section", "Hold Festival", "False Festival", "Envoy Jie" has the right to kill the local governor below, "Hold Jie" has the right to kill people without official positions, and "Fake Festival" can only execute those who violate military orders. This system was inherited by the later generations of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and except for some generals who commanded the armies directly under the imperial court, only the generals with the rank of governor were the real military attachés. The Northern Zhou Dynasty also set up a "marching commander" as the commander of the front army.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were 12 guards in the imperial court, and each of them set up a general with three products. The following guards set up generals, from the three ranks; Long history, from the six grades; Recording the military affairs, on the eighth grade; There are also officers of all sizes who join the army, division ranks, captains, brigade commanders, team leaders, and deputy teams. The local prefectures (called "Hussar", "Eagle Yang" and other mansions in the Sui Dynasty, and called the Zhechong Mansion in the Tang Dynasty) set up the Zhichong Commander, according to the upper, middle and lower military offices, from the top of the fourth grade to the bottom of the fifth grade; The deputy is Captain Guo Yidu, from the fifth rank to the sixth rank; There are other generals below, and the seven products are under the seven products to the seven products; Long history, from the seventh grade to the seventh grade; Bing Cao joined the army, from the eighth grade to the ninth grade. The subordinates include junior officers such as captains, brigade commanders, and team leaders.

These are military attachés in peacetime, marshals in wartime with the prince as commander-in-chief, and civil and military officials in charge of the theater are called commanders-in-chief. The border military region set up a "festival envoy" because "on the day of the order, the festival (representing the emperor)", so that it could have the arbitrary power of military command. There are ambassadors, deputy envoys, judges and other subordinate officials, who command the garrison. Originally, it was held by Wenchen, but in the later period of the reign of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, it was gradually changed to a full-time military general. After the Anshi Rebellion, the mainland also generally set up jiedu envoys, which became a kind of senior military attache title. But there is practically no formal level. Its rank depends on the other official positions of the Jiedu envoys, for example, in the early days, the Jiedu envoys often had the title of Shangshu, which was the highest-ranking official. In the later period, some of them hung the rank of 12th General of the Central Army, and some hung the title of Tai Lieutenant or Prime Minister of "Zhongshu Men Tongping Zhangshi", and the rank was quite confusing.

Due to the historical lessons of the five dynasties of warlords in the late Tang Dynasty and the **** of martial arts, the rulers of the Song Dynasty deliberately implemented the policy of "suppressing military force with literature", and in general, the actual rank of military attachés was greatly reduced. In addition, the system of separating "officials" and "posts" has been implemented, so that the rank of military attachés is not necessarily related to the military rank they hold. The highest-ranking military attache is still "Tai Lieutenant", but only from the second rank, and it is only an honorary title, and it can be awarded without any martial arts. At the same time, it retains the names of various generals and captains of the previous dynasty, but it is only a "gift" for military attachés, and only has the meaning of honorary titles, and some are even called "generals", which are actually just officials with no rank.

The rank of the military attache is indicated by "a certain envoy" (changed to a certain doctor in the late Northern Song Dynasty), such as the traditional title: Jiedu envoy (from the second rank), Chengxuan envoy (Zheng Sipin), observation envoy (Zheng Wupin), and defense envoy, regimental training envoy, assassin history, etc. (all from the fifth grade), or the newly created provincial envoy of the Song Dynasty (Zheng Wupin), the Sifang Pavilion envoy (Zheng Liupin), etc., and the low-level officers are "XX Deputy Envoy". By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the senior military attache was changed to "XX Doctor" with the series of "Wu", and the low-level officer was changed to "XX Lang". But they are all fictitious titles, and they only indicate the amount of money.

The real highest military position is the "three ya" chiefs of the imperial court, that is, the "commanders" of the front division of the palace, the division of the guards and horses, and the division of the guards and infantry, and often only have a four- or five-rank official rank. Moreover, it is clear that civilian officials can have jurisdiction over military attachés, and military attaches must not have jurisdiction over civilian officials. In front of civil officials of higher grades than themselves, military attachés had no choice but to bow down and obey orders.

During the reign of the Liao, Western Xia, Jin, and Yuan minority dynasties, they generally maintained the characteristics of their own tribes while maintaining the names of various military attaches of the Central Plains Dynasty. For example, the Jin Dynasty established by the Jurchen tribe has followed the names of all the commanders, commanders, and generals since the Tang and Song dynasties, and made it clear that the front of the palace is inspected as the three products, and the commanders are from the three products, and the following left and right guard generals and so on have their own grades. Set up a general manager in charge of the military and the people in each key place, and the three products are positive; Or set up a military town, set up a festival to make it, from the three products. The tribal armies were still commanded by Meng'an and Mouke.

The Privy Council, the highest military command body in the Yuan Dynasty, was mostly served by military attachés as privy envoys and deputy envoys, which can be called the highest-level military attaché and is a subordinate product. The commanders of the imperial court guards, as well as the Mongolian army "ten thousand households" and all the commanders of the envoys are all positive three products, "thousand households" are positive five products, and "hundred households" are positive seven products. At the same time, he also inherited the names of the previous generation of generals and captains, and gave military attachés the title of military attaché as a military officer.

The Ming Dynasty established the country by force, but accepted the lessons of the Song Dynasty, did not adopt the policy of suppressing military force with literature, but on the contrary, greatly increased the level of military attachés, and Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, also clearly stipulated that Wenchen could not be crowned princes, and could only be awarded the title of earl. The highest military institutions are set up as the five governors of the middle army, the left army, the right army, the front army, and the rear army, and the left and right governors of each government are all positive products; The deputy is the same as the governor, from the first product, the governor of the matter, and the second product. The commanders of the imperial court guards are all the third rank, and the military governors of the provinces are all commanded to be the second rank, which is higher than the provincial chief executive and the political envoy (from the second rank). The commanders of the local guards are also three-grade officials, and the thousands of households in the thousands of households are the five products, and the hundred households in the hundred households are the six products, which are much higher than the county (the seventh grade). In the novel "Golden Vase Plum", the bully Ximenqing later got the rank of "thousand households", and the county officials had to salute him when they saw him. In this way, the Ming Dynasty became one of the highest-ranking military attachés in history.

However, like the previous dynasties, this series of military attaches did not work well after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court successively set up "general soldiers" in various places as the commander-in-chief of a certain army, and the following no longer appointed officers according to the original sequence, but appointed middle-level officers such as generals, guerrillas, and garrisons as commanders of grass-roots troops. In addition, officers of the general and general categories were appointed to organize and command the small troops. However, above these military attachés, those who have the command of the theater are often the civilian officials sent by the imperial court to serve as "admirals", "governors", and "governors".

After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the sequence of officers of the Eight Banners was quite high, and all the flags were unified as Congyipin, and the generals stationed in the Eight Banners were also Congyipin (originally Zhengyipin, which was changed to Congyipin during the Qianlong period). The deputy capital commander with full power to command the eight banners of a certain city is the second product. The following are the chief (the third rank), the deputy chief (the fifth rank), the city guard captain (the third rank), the defense captain (the fourth rank), the staff leader and the assistant leader (from the third rank). The officer sequence of the Green Battalion follows the practice of the late Ming Dynasty, with the Admiral (from the first rank) as the highest-level officer, and the following are the general (Zheng 2nd rank), the deputy general (Zheng 3 rank), and the staff general (Zheng 3 rank), guerrilla (from the third rank), Du Si (Zheng 4 rank), garrison (Zheng 5 rank) and other level officers, and the grassroots officers "Qianzong" (from the sixth rank) and "General Commander" (Zheng 7 rank), the rank is also very high.

In general, the rank of military attaché is comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty, but more attention is paid to coordinating the hierarchical relationship between local administrative officials and civil officials, and generally try to achieve the same level as possible. As in the Ming Dynasty, Qing rulers generally avoided appointing military attachés as commanders of a large theater of operations, instead preferring to send civilian officials from the imperial court to command the theater or military region.

At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it was customary for several provinces to form a large military region under the command of the governor (from the first product) with the title of the right capital of the imperial court, and the provincial military region was commanded by the governor (Zheng Erpin) with the title of the right squire of the imperial court. Theoretically, the governor was at the same level as the admiral, and the governor was at the same level as the commander-in-chief, but in practice, these military attachés had to kneel down and salute when they saw the governor and governor. This is true even in the local area, and it is not fair to see the county governor at the same level.