Is the policy of "not knowing the soldiers and not knowing the generals" feasible in the Ming Dynasty?

This issue should be viewed from two aspects: whether strengthening centralization is useful to prevent local separatism and whether it is harmful to the combat effectiveness of the army.

In fact, the military system of the Ming Dynasty is somewhat similar to that of the Song Dynasty!

First, "the soldiers will not know the soldiers, and the soldiers will not know the generals", which is conducive to limiting the power of military commanders and strengthening centralization.

The Ming dynasty was not the first to do this, but the Song dynasty formed a relatively perfect system in this respect: there were more protectors.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, in order to prevent military commanders from standing on their own feet, Song Taizu implemented a more defensive law, stipulating that the troops would be relieved of their posts regularly, but the generals would not be transferred with the army, and the generals stationed in the army would be appointed temporarily by the court.

Such an operation will cause the soldiers to be ignorant of the general, which is conducive to controlling the soldiers and military commanders and preventing the military commanders from rebelling by dictatorship.

But the disadvantages are also extremely obvious, that is, soldiers don't know the general, they won't know the soldiers, which will alienate them and seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the army.

Second, the civilian led the troops.

There is a very prominent phenomenon in the Ming dynasty, that is, civil servants lead troops.

This incident also happened in the Song Dynasty, and it was also a manifestation of strengthening control over the army and preventing the army from insurrection.

From the perspective of political development, it is an inevitable trend for civil servants to lead troops or limit the power of military commanders to prevent the emergence of a military government.

So is the modern political system.

But this also needs to be analyzed in detail.

In peacetime, the problem is not big, but once a war breaks out, there will naturally be many disadvantages if civilians who are unfamiliar with or not proficient in military affairs lead troops to fight.

It is rare to find a man who is both civil and military. Professional people do professional things, and fighting is still reserved for those who understand.

Although a civil servant led troops in the history of Song and Ming Dynasties, there were also outstanding figures, but this was a minority after all.

Weakening the power of military commanders and preventing soldiers from interfering in politics is an inevitable move to stabilize the situation in many dynasties. But it will also lead to the decline of military strength and even corruption, and everything has a price. Such a difficult problem is still to be solved by modern countries.