It can be seen from this that it should be easy for the soldiers of the Qin State to build military merits. You only need to kill a person, you can have a field, a house, and a servant, basically living a noble life.
Therefore, the question arises: Are there hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the State of Qin, are they enough? Let me try to analyze this question.
First, it is not easy to establish military merit in Qin.
Although the State of Qin has the "Twenty-level military merit nobility system", it seems that it is easy to make achievements, but it is not easy. Why do you say that?
For example, the first-level military meritorious title "Prince", the person you kill must be a "Soldier." There were not many soldiers in the army during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period. They are not easy to be hacked to death if they wear armor. Three, after being hacked, you have to cut off your head and put it on your body. When fighting, you are all desperate. What leisure time is there to cut off your head and hang it on your body? It is not convenient to hang it on your body. Besides, you have to prove that the head you cut off is the head of a person wearing armor. How do you verify this? Do you still need to cut off some more pieces of armor and take it on your body? This is too much trouble. So, this military merit looks beautiful, but in fact, there should not be many who actually made merits.
And we look at from the beginning of the Shang Yang Reform to the establishment of the Qin Dynasty, how many people have made meritorious deeds because of the war, and have a great family career? There should not be many recorded in the history books, right?
Second, Qin’s military merits are not easy to gain but easy to lose.
In the Shang Yang Reform, parallel to the "Twenty-level Military Merit System", it was Qin's harsh laws. Qin's severe punishment law is very famous. Not only are there many, but there are also strict restraint mechanisms, that is, the whistleblowing mechanism and the even sitting mechanism. With these two mechanisms alone, the number of people who committed crimes in the State of Qin was unprecedented.
We can find some practical examples. For example, Qin Xiaogong's prince teacher had committed a crime, but the prince could not protect him. For another example, when Shang Yang finally fled to the border, people were afraid to take him in because he did not have an "identity card." Take him in and be beheaded. From these details, we can see how harsh Qin’s laws are.
Let’s take a look at the people who went to build the Great Wall, Qin Zhidao and Afang Palace after the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. Most of them were "criminals." It can be seen that the number of crimes in the Qin Dynasty is huge.
Precisely because the possibility of crime in Qin is very high, the number of crimes is very large. Therefore, even if a lot of people have established combat exploits on the battlefield, they cannot hold on for the rest of their lives, and may soon lose them.
Third, Qin’s military merit nobility system was implemented during Qin’s ascendancy, and there was no shortage of nobility and land.
We said earlier that it is not easy for Qin soldiers to build military merit, but it is easy to lose. However, it should also be noted that this system must have been strictly implemented, which made the Qin army the most powerful army at that time.
Why is Qin State's implementation basis? There are two reasons:
One is the rapid development of Qin State from a slave society to a feudal society. The basis of slavery is the collective production of minefields by slaves, while the basis of feudal system is the individual production of civilians one family (why we use the word "feudal" to describe the social form at that time, it means this). In other words, at this time, it is entirely possible for thousands of slaves to be transformed into self-employed farmers through military service.
Second, Qin State finally annexed the other six countries through the efforts of the six generations from Qin Xiaogong to Qin Shihuang at that time and achieved unification. How much land and wealth have to be added! Therefore, even if Qin's soldiers build military merits easily, even if Qin's laws are not harsh, it is not difficult for Qin to implement enfeoffment in accordance with the system.
In fact, what really needs to worry about is that after the Qin Dynasty unifies the six countries, there will be no more land. How to divide the confession, and how to avoid the problems of the new aristocrats who are divided. However, the Qin Dynasty was quickly wiped out, so this problem no longer exists.
