The Soul of the Han Dynasty in the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 394: Western Liaoning Corridor
It is not that Cao Wenzhao is really fierce, but that the enemy is too weak. It is almost equivalent to the well-equipped and well-trained elite frontier army fighting the common people. It is not surprising that they won the battle.

In August of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Cao Wenzhao took his invincible men and horses to fight with Jiannu in Datong. Only then did he know his weight. Lost and defeated soldiers retreated into the city and never dared to fight again.

The Han people lost 5000% of their population in the last years of Chongzhen, and the 3000 million estimated by later scholars dropped to [-] to [-] million after the entry of the Qing Dynasty.

In the harsh situation where the mortality rate is [-]%, who can guarantee that they can escape?
Huang Han left five thousand soldiers in Ningyuan and transferred them to the guards to garrison fields, and each of them gave them [-] acres of wheat fields to cultivate.

When they don't have any income, each of them gives six qian for silver and five buckets of miscellaneous grains, and now they start preparing for spring plowing.

If they have a small family in the interior and are willing to come outside the customs for reclamation, they can report to the town governor. At that time, the "Red Banner Army" will contact Sifang Express for free and provide board and lodging costs along the way to pick them up for a reunion outside the customs.

Where does Liangtian come from?This is the real purpose of Huang Han's control of Ningyuan, because Huang Han understands geography. The Liaoxi Corridor is close to the continuous Yanshan Mountains and has abundant water resources. Too many rivers flow across the Liaoxi Corridor and flow into the Liaohai Sea.

In the Liaoxi Corridor, there are countless large and small Hetao areas with fertile land or long-sunshine areas, which are more suitable for crop growth and small watershed management.

Small and medium-sized reservoirs have been built to ensure that water can be stored, fully able to cope with the once-in-30-year drought, and ditches have been repaired to allow rapid drainage by using the drop when floods come.

Owning a grain-producing area that guarantees harvests during droughts and floods, and possessing more than [-] million mu of unowned fertile land between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan, which can support millions of soldiers and civilians, is too important in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty when there was a food crisis.

Huang Han's next plan will be to control Shanhaiguan, and then he can better control the large amount of fertile land between Shanhaiguan, Funingwei and Kaiping Town. many.

It is estimated that this spring, the phenomenon of picking up family members to cultivate outside the customs is very rare, and it will be completely different in autumn.

Because it is a common problem of shrewd Han people not to scatter eagles when they don't see rabbits. At that time, they will reap the harvest, get food and money, and they will have the idea of ​​bringing home snacks to fill their stomachs.

Most of these old and weak soldiers were also bullied in the camp. In name, their monthly salary was about one or two taels of silver, but it was impossible for them to get more than five taels of silver.

In this way, I often owe half a year, but now I give six qian silver and five buckets of miscellaneous grains every month, and most people are satisfied.

These rations are enough to keep two or three people fed, and it is also possible to mix some wild vegetables and bark to keep four or five people from starving. After all, six coins can buy two hundred catties of dried sweet potatoes.

Half of the common people in Ningyuan City are the family members of the garrison, some are the Liao people who lost their homes and fled, and some are the soldiers sent by the inland guards.

No one can predict whether the reclamation will be successful. It is a joke to rely on the self-consciousness of the soldiers and civilians in this era. It is imperative to take coercive measures within three years.

Ban Jun, ordinary people, and Huang Han also adopted the method of giving each family with Dingkou [-] mu of land for military settlements. They were willing to receive free from family members.

Liu Zaiqi's propaganda team has also expanded its army, and now there is a Baizong. He now has a civil official rank of the eighth-rank praise painting, and the propaganda team leads the Baizong.

The officialdom of the Ming Dynasty has different ways of civil and military affairs, and the grade of civil servants recognized by the court gave Liu Zaiqi a sense of accomplishment. He personally brought a general banner propaganda team to Ningyuan to publicize the necessity of military settlements and the conditions created for the settlements.

The publicity team still has a general banner in Jinzhou, and more than half of them are tasked with serving as teachers in the study class.

Presumably there are dozens of students and scholars who rub their lips with those generals every day, and the effect must be good. At least these people will never want to go back and listen to their nagging after they leave the study class.

At the beginning of the promulgation of the decree on reclamation, basically no soldiers or civilians dared to speak up, because the slaves would come to Ningyuan from time to time, and the wheat that had been planted so hard might be cheaper before the harvest.

In order to dispel the worries of the military and civilians, the propaganda team widely publicized Huang Han's countermeasures.

The vast land from the west of Ningyuan to the north of Shanhaiguan can be selected for land reclamation in fertile and beautiful land, and the "Red Banner Army" guarantees the harvest of all the soldiers and civilians in the reclamation.

If the farmland is destroyed by Jiannu, the "Red Banner Army" will compensate five dou of wheat for every acre of land destroyed. If the villagers are killed by Jiannu, everyone will receive 30 taels of silver as compensation from the "Red Banner Army". .

The amount of land planted by the soldiers and civilians is fixed at one to fifty acres, and the "Red Banner Army" and the soldiers and civilians each get half of the harvest. treatment.

Villagers also need to participate in the construction of water conservancy projects and defense projects organized by the Red Banner Army. When participating in collective projects, they do not need to bring their own food. Everyone will receive a rationed supply of food. , If the circumstances are serious, they will be whipped.

The propaganda team explained what is meant by the deduction of food quotas. The "Red Banner Army" organizes labor to do physical work. Everyone can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. whip.

After all, the propaganda is only verbal, and many people are skeptical, but then no one will not believe it, because the "Red Banner Army" really distributed white silver and yellow millet, but they only got six coins and five buckets of silver. Miscellaneous grains must establish household registration.

There is no family without a man, so many old soldiers who have been eliminated have reunited with families that have lost their men. Gradually, it is obvious that women are not enough men to form a family.

The propaganda team urgently mobilized two or three thousand women rescued from Fuzhou and Jinzhou to Ningyuan to match up with the old soldiers. Most of these women were the playthings of Jian slaves, and they cherished the opportunity to be wives, and few people were picky. .

After all, there are not many independent marriages in this era, and the parents basically make the decisions. The "Red Banner Army" will protect all the rescued women, and they are also the natal families of thousands of poor women.

If anyone encounters domestic violence, he can confide in the "Red Flag Army" juvenile apprentices who are in charge of helping him, or he can ask the propaganda team and the town governor to make the decision. The man who committed the violence will be educated at that time. Women remarry.

(End of this chapter)