Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1665 Cutting Yuan ([-]) The road is obstructed and long
Liu Ting mainly expressed two concerns. The first point is the storage and transportation of military rations, and the second point is the morale of the remaining ministries.

According to Liu Ting, Song Fujun had previously mentioned the issue of grain storage in Sichuan with him. One thing was mentioned in it. Um, as well as moldy and bad grains that account for a larger proportion.

Because the financial system established by Zhu Yuanzhang is rather strange, the central government and the local governments actually operate independently, so that even Gao Yushi, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, is not very clear about how much grain is stored in the local government treasury in Sichuan.

The Ministry of Accounting only has an approximate data, which is derived from some data in the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Atlas. How much it can be taken seriously is something that even gods dare not guarantee.

As for why the Yellow Book can be used to store food backwards, this is very complicated. First, it must be explained what the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Atlas record.

At the turn of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, all kinds of household registration, cadastral and other materials of the Yuan Dynasty were either lost, or they had long been out of date due to war losses and other reasons.In order to effectively manage the household registration, master the labor force, and ensure the collection of taxes and services by the Ming court, Zhu Yuanzhang conducted a nationwide population census, and compiled a general inventory of the national household registration—the yellow book—on the basis of the census.

In the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all prefectures and counties across the country to compile yellow books. The method was to use 110 households as the li, and in each li, ten landlords with a lot of grain and grain were selected as the head of the li, and the remaining [-] households were respectively compiled as Shijia.The order of the ten armors is set, and they take turns to serve.

Men in Jiazhong who have reached the age of 16 are Cheng Ding, and Cheng Ding must serve in the military, and he cannot be exempted until he is 60 years old.Every year, there is a head of the year and a head of the year, and the head of the head of the year and the head of the year lead a group of adult men to supply the government's errands.Within ten years, each A has a round once, which is a cycle.

In this way, each Jia only needs to serve for one year within ten years, and rest for the remaining nine years.The year of enlistment is called "current year", and the year of non-service is called "ranking year".Li is the establishment of villages, those in towns are compiled as workshops, and those near the city are compiled as Xiang.

The 110 households in a mile were compiled into a volume according to the amount of grain, and the name, place of origin, population, age, and property of each household were indicated in the volume.Among them, there are orphans and widows who cannot serve, so they are attached to 110 households, named Jiling.

There are two copies of the yellow book, one is kept in the book, and the other is handed over to the prefecture and county.The prefectures and counties collect the booklets of each mile to make the general booklet of the state and county, which is also in duplicate, one is kept in the state and the county, and the other is handed over to the government.

In this way, governments at all levels concocted according to law, the government handed over to the chief secretary, and each chief secretary finally remitted to the household department in the imperial court. Because the book submitted by the chief secretary to the household department had to be covered with yellow paper, it was called "yellow book". .

After the yellow book recording the total population of the country was collected in the capital, it was stored in the yellow book library of Houhu (namely Xuanwu Lake in Nanjing).Zhu Yuanzhang built several special archives on several small islands in the center of the lake to store yellow books and other important archives.The great grandfather probably thought that the place is surrounded by water, which can prevent fires, and these small islands in the middle of the lake have little contact with the outside world, so the preservation of archives is not easily disturbed by the outside world, so it is a good place to store archives.

Even after Emperor Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, the yellow register library was still kept in Houhu, and all the yellow registers registered in the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years were sent here for safekeeping.

The Yellow Book is an important basis for the Ming Dynasty to collect taxes and labor. With it, the Ming Dynasty knows the total population of the country and the land ownership. With the help of the Yellow Book, the people in the Yellow Book can be forced to collect labor. , Apportionment of taxes.In order to prevent changes in taxation and service burdens caused by changes in population and land rights, Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that the household registration should be investigated every ten years, and the yellow book should be re-made, which is called "Da Zao".

As for the fish scale atlas, it is a book directly related to the yellow book system.

In order to accurately grasp the status of land occupation, in the 20th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang sent students from the Guozijian to measure the land all over the country, taking the area where [-] shi was paid as grain as a district, and compiled all the cultivated land in this district into a volume.In the book, draw the square and circular shapes of each field, number them, write the four to, area and the name of the landowner, and indicate the nature and grade of the land.

Therefore, when I opened these books, I saw that the land figures overlapped like fish scales, so they are called fish scale books.The Fish Scale Atlas is the general inventory of the country's land.

The yellow book is mainly based on the household registration of the Ming Dynasty, and the fish scale book is based on the land. The two books confirm and complement each other.These two volumes play the role of one warp and one weft, like a big net woven by one warp and weft, engulfing the population and land of the common people.

So to put it simply, the yellow book is mainly based on household registration, and the fish-scale atlas is based on land. The two books confirm and complement each other.These two volumes play the role of warp and weft, like a big net woven by warp and weft, enclosing all the population and land of Ming Dynasty.

It stands to reason that if this is the case, the high pragmatism or the household department can obtain relatively accurate grain storage in each province according to the yellow book and the fish scale atlas.After all, in an era when there was no significant leap in agricultural technology, food production was basically relatively stable, excluding years of catastrophe.

At the same time, the amount of food tax collected by the imperial court is relatively stable, so of course the part that can be retained locally can also be calculated.In addition, grain is not gold and silver, it has a storage period, which can also be calculated, so in general, there should be at least one broad but generally certain data on the local grain storage at the Ministry of Households.

However, this is not the case. In the early Ming Dynasty, the two-volume system was formulated on the basis of Zhu Yuanzhang's strict investigation, and it did play a positive role.It's just that as time went by, officials in charge of book affairs in some places began to embezzle and commit fraud, and powerful landlords also concealed their household registration and land.

For example, in the 24th year of Hongwu, the total land area registered on the yellow book was 8804623 hectares, but in the 15th year of Hongzhi during Xiaozong's period, the total land area on the yellow book was only 4292310 hectares.Isn't it absurd that the land (cultivated land) area of ​​the country can shrink by more than half in just a hundred years?Is this a large-scale nuclear strike?
The degree of population leakage is as serious as that of the land. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the number of Dingkou (adult males) in the country had reached 6054 million. Reduced to 5328 million.What's the matter, could it be that the Ming Dynasty in the feudal era was already developed to the point where it could create a population trap?
Obviously impossible. After a hundred years of peace, and the addition of yellow books in some remote areas, the total population has not increased but decreased. It is conceivable that there are so many omissions in the yellow books.

Therefore, at the end of the Ming Dynasty in the original history, the yellow book simply lost its function completely, and it was almost a waste paper.In order to save trouble, local officials often copy the names of the population and real estate in the old books. Ten years after ten years, the yellow books compiled in some places are exactly the same as decades ago.

As a result, a large number of centenarians in the yellow book appeared.Therefore, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, some people ridiculed the absurdity of the Yellow Book by saying that "people are more than a hundred years old, but they have a career that lasts for the world".

What's more, some officials prefabricate the yellow book in advance, and submit it in the year of "big production" to complete the task.As a result, in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, it was discovered that some places had already prefabricated the yellow books of the 24th year of Chongzhen—the Ming Dynasty died in the 17th year of Chongzhen!
However, in the original history, Zhang Juzheng Qingzhang's land was mainly for utilitarian purposes, and some land that had been missed in the Yulin Atlas was added to the Yulin Atlas, and it was not linked to the Yellow Book.In this life, Qingzhang Tianmu of the Practical School has done a little more in-depth work than Zhang Juzheng. In addition to finding out some concealed fields, he also sorted out some exaggerated yellow books.

However, as mentioned before, the two provinces with the biggest problems found by Qingzhang Tianmu of the Practical School are Huguang and Shandong, so the correction of the yellow book is also mainly based on these two provinces. [Note: Huguang and Shandong’s cover-ups are largely due to the military’s cover-ups. Among them, Huguang is also the most important commodity grain production area in Daming, and the Dongting Lake Plain has replaced the Yangtze River Delta Plain that has been commercialized. ]
In this way, there is no Sichuan in the local grain storage that Gao Wushi can grasp more accurately. In addition, his previous inventory inventory was only an inventory of the household department warehouse, and he has not yet deeply involved the local area, so he still pays close attention to Sichuan's grain storage. A smear.Seeing what Liu Ting said in his letter now, his heart skipped a beat, secretly thinking that something was wrong.

It is an unshakable basic principle of ancient warfare that soldiers and horses move forward without moving food and grass.In order to conquer the Yuan Dynasty, Gao Yushi actively stored food two or three years in advance on the front line of the capital, but he forgot that it was such a big thing to put down the Bozhou Rebellion that he had to store food in advance.He focused on strengthening Liu Ting's armaments, but forgot to store food and grass in advance for the counter-insurgency army, and he couldn't help feeling extremely regretful at this moment.

However, it is not entirely without reason that he made such a low-level mistake. The main reason is that Huguang, as the main grain producing area of ​​Daming, is "next door" to Bozhou.

In fact, Sichuan Province is also a major grain-producing province. There are two reasons why it did not become a major grain tax and commodity grain province. , cannot sail easily, so transportation is too difficult, even if there is food, it is difficult to get out of the province.

[Note: The difficulty of leaving the Three Gorges at this time has been mentioned in the previous article. It was probably mentioned by Gao Yushi on his way to Guangxi, and it may have been mentioned in passing when he and Liu Xin parted. ]
Looking at it this way now, there may be a big problem with Sichuan's grain stock, and the 170 million shi may be discounted in half.Although 85 shi is not a lot, it depends on how the grain is used.If the army piled up in Chengdu, it would definitely be enough to eat, but this is not reality.

Transportation in Banzhou is obviously inconvenient. Inconvenience means that more than half of the food will actually be consumed in transportation, and only [-]% of the food that falls into the hands of the front line may be left, which may not be enough.

Of course, not all of the 10,000+ troops dispatched this time will eat Sichuan’s military rations, and Guizhou will also get a part of it. In terms of troop strength, it will probably contribute about one-third or one-fourth.However, the grain output in Guizhou is far lower than that of Sichuan, and the usual grain storage can only be more tense than Sichuan. Most of the troops sent from Guizhou need Sichuan to provide food.

Now things are big.According to Liu Ting's estimation, judging from the current grain reserves in Sichuan, if there is no foreign aid for the army to encircle and suppress Banzhou, the total time of the military operation cannot exceed three months.These three months still include the three stages of marching, pacification, and withdrawal. That is to say, after three months, several armies must not only quell the Bozhou Rebellion, but also completely retreat to the place of origin.

Even with Liu Ting's conceit, he can only say that this is an impossible task.Gao Yushi completely agrees with him, unless this is not a war at all, just a lightly armed parade.

No wonder the Bozhou Rebellion in history lasted for four years. Originally, Gao Yushi thought it was mainly because Ming Dynasty was mainly fighting the Korean War with Japan at that time, so he didn't care about Bozhou.Now it seems that there are obviously other reasons, such as the lack of logistics, and the inability to fight fast.

With such a big trouble in front of him, Gao Yushi's face suddenly turned ugly.Taking a hasty look at Liu Ting's second worry, he felt that the morale of the army was not worth mentioning compared to the hidden dangers of the army rations.

Liu Ting mainly believed that only about one-third of the army was dispatched this time, and the rest were chieftain soldiers and horses. It is really hard to say what kind of mentality these chieftains have for conquering Yang Yinglong.

Yang Yinglong's rebellion has a lot to do with the court's ambition to reform the land and return it to the local people, and judging from the attitude of the court now, after Bozhou is pacified, it will definitely reform the land and return the land to the local people.No matter how loyal these chieftains who followed the imperial court were, they were still chieftains. What would they think of this?
With their lips dead and their teeth cold, will they not work hard, or even some individual people will flirt with Yang Yinglong in private?These are great hidden dangers.

The reason why Gao Yushi thinks this is not a big problem is mainly based on the development process in the original history.After all, at that time, the various chieftains did not have any troubles. For example, the Ma family of Shijie Xuanweisi even worked hard, and they were more active than many officers and soldiers.

Gao pragmatically estimated that, apart from the hard-to-say reason of "loyalty", the chieftains may still have some "survivor bias", thinking that rebellion would definitely lead to death anyway, and it would be safer to honestly not give the court an excuse to target themselves.

This kind of thinking may be a bit ostrich, but it is also very realistic. After all, judging from the performance of the court over the years, even the Mongols have been hanged and beaten. How can they bear it?You can only muddle along, and it will be a day if you can delay it for a day.

In fact, Gao Yushi didn't know that these chieftains were more honest than he imagined, and some of them even included Gao Yushi's "credit" in southern Xinjiang.Although the two chieftains of Cen and Huang in Guangxi left their homeland in Guangxi, they lived a very prosperous life in southern Xinjiang. The number of "local people" under their hands expanded by two or three times, and the size of the wolf soldiers directly under them has expanded a lot.

From the perspective of the chieftains of Sichuan and Guizhou, with the marriage of Gao Yushi and Huang Zhiting, if the court is willing, the soldiers and horses of the two chieftains of Cen and Huang can also be transferred back to the north to suppress them.These two chieftains are also "specialists in mountain warfare". Once the northern transfer cooperates with the imperial army to conquer and suppress, no matter which chieftain, or even the chieftains unite, there will be a dead end.

It is better to pretend to be dead than to die. This is impossible.

Therefore, Gao Yushi still turned his attention back to the problem of food and grass, and asked Kanyutu to examine it carefully and think about the solution.

He found that around Bozhou, when Sichuan and Guizhou are likely to be short of military rations, the provinces that can support food and grass are basically only Huguang.But although the food in Huguang must be enough, the transportation was stuck by the Three Gorges.

The famous Three Gorges is the general name of the three canyons of Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge. The administrative division of later generations starts from Baidi City in Fengjie County, Chongqing in the west, ends at Nanjin Pass in Yichang City, Hubei Province in the east, and crosses Fengjie County in Chongqing and Wushan in Chongqing. County, Hubei Badong County, Hubei Zigui County, Hubei Yichang City, 193 kilometers long.

As for the current division, it has nothing to do with Chongqing, but the whole territory is in Huguang, from Kuizhou Mansion in the west to Yiling Prefecture in the east, the distance is naturally the same, nearly four hundred miles.

There is actually a post road on this road, and it is the water post.If you look at it from east to west, it starts from Fenglou Water Station in Yiling Prefecture, passes through Huangniu Water Station, Jianping Water Station, and Bashan Water Station all the way to Yongning Water Station in Kuizhou Prefecture.

However, the water station is just a water station, and this road is mainly used for communication, especially the communication downstream.But if you want to transport grain upstream... the Three Gorges, which is torrential and shallow for a while, is a natural moat. You can't count on sails. Have you asked the trackers how they feel?

Even though Jinghua has a strong inland waterway system, the eastern half of the Yangtze River waterway has always stopped at the Three Gorges, and the western half is only responsible for Chongqing as the center, starting from Jiading (later Leshan) in the west and ending in Kuizhou in the east.Therefore, even if Gao Pragmatically asks Jinghua to help, he can only transport the grain to Yiling, which is still quite far away from Chongqing, more than 1000 miles away.

This is really worrying Gao Situ, he felt that he had traveled through 20 years, and he couldn't keep the Battle of Bozhou as it was in history, one fight lasted four years, right?Where to put the face of the traverser!

But the traveler can't change the steamer, and it's impossible not to treat the trackers as human beings, and force them to do this by exhausting hundreds of thousands of trackers.

The waterway is impassable, and the land road is full of mountains. No wonder there are piles of toast since the west of Huguang.It's really not that the imperial court didn't want to change the land and return it to the locals earlier, it's because geographical factors dominate, even if the imperial court is powerful, it can't be used...not to mention that it was not very powerful before.

Seeing that the Three Gorges waterway is really unthinkable under the current level of technology, high pragmatism can only change the habitual thinking of relying on waterways and turn its attention back to land.

The problem now is that the passage from Huguang to Sichuan is blocked by the Daba Mountains and the Wuling Mountains. The waterway between the two mountains is the Three Gorges.

If you have to go over the mountains, it is obviously a long way to go to the Daba Mountain in the north. Obviously, you don't have to consider it. You can only go over the Wuling Mountains in the south.

The Wuling Mountains side... Eh, it's all under the jurisdiction of chieftains?Gao Wushi was taken aback, and suddenly an idea popped up in his mind.
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(End of this chapter)