Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 168 Mercenaries

After staying in the mountains for more than ten days, Luo Chengcai rode back to the county seat after seeing that the six teams of county soldiers had settled down.It was almost Chinese New Year, and the county soldiers should also go home on vacation.

But Luo Cheng discussed with the team leaders for a long time, and felt that the six stations in the mountain might be abolished after they had just moved there, and then disbanded and went home in a blink of an eye.

As the Chinese New Year approached, it was even more unrealistic to conscript a group of county soldiers temporarily for rotation.

On the way back to the city on horseback, Luo Cheng kept thinking about a problem.

That is, although he is now in command of five hundred county soldiers and one thousand township soldiers, there is always a problem that sticks to him, and that is the system of taking turns recruiting county soldiers and township soldiers.

County soldiers and township soldiers are no more brave than government soldiers.

Fubing is elected at one o'clock every three years. As long as you are selected as a Fubing, you will be a Fubing for life, and you will not quit the Fubing until you are 60 years old.To become a mansion soldier, the government grants the land, and the mansion soldiers usually farm the land and receive training in their spare time. They also go to Beijing to serve as guards every year.

Although Fubing also belonged to civilians, they lived near the military mansion and were called Dituan.

Whether it's going to the military mansion for training or going to the capital to stay in the guard, they all take turns, divided into several rounds according to the distance from Beijing, and they will be on duty for one or two months a year.

Usually, they don't have to pay rent or tax after harvesting grain in their fields. Their income is relatively stable and their conditions are good.

But the county soldiers and the township brave are different. The county soldiers and the township brave are not considered regular troops at all, they can only be regarded as a kind of militia.

The militiamen serve in rotation, and it is a kind of duty to be a villager.Conscripts are recruited according to the size of the county soldiers and township bravery, and then rounded according to the number of men in the county. It may be rounded every few years, or once a year. If there are many men, then every few years, or once One or two months.

This kind of rotating errand is of course a good thing for the common people, and it will not have much impact if you work as a monthly errand for a few years or a year.But for Luo Cheng, if the team rotates every few months, what is the combat effectiveness of his county barracks?

When he arrived at the county seat, Luo Cheng went directly to Zhang Yichen and Du Ruhui to discuss the matter.

Along the way, I can already feel the atmosphere of the end of the year, and many people are preparing for the new year.

A year of hard work, whether the days are good or bad, this year will always pass.

"Do you want to extend the duty time of the county soldiers and township warriors?"

Du Ruhui frowned after hearing Luo Cheng's thoughts.

"How could the people be willing?" Du Ruhui asked back.

In the past few years, the number of rounds has been poor, and it has affected some people's lives for a few months. After all, the county soldiers and the township brave have no money and food to get. It was a delay of one or two months.

"I think we can change the rules of rotation. If we say that we in Zhangqiu have six rounds a year, that is to say, if the county's strong men are on their turn to serve, they will have to serve two months a year. We can change it to every six years. Fan. It used to be once a year, and each time was considered as two months. Now we have changed it to every six years, and each time is considered as a year."

Once a year, once every two months, and once every six years, once a year, sounds similar. In general, there are twelve months in six years, but the former is divided into six years. , each time is only two months, and the latter is that all the errands in the six years are put together to serve, and one full year is served at a time.

"There is no such precedent."

Du Ruhui said.

He immediately understood the meaning of Luo Cheng's words, one time for two months and one time for one year are of great importance to Luo Cheng's county barracks.

"I think it's just a workaround."

Du Ruhui also calculated the accounts with Luo Cheng, "According to our county household registration register, count the number of all males. For example, there are about 500 households in Zhangqiu County, so there are more than 6000 males. People. There are [-] people in the barracks of our county and county. If one round is performed every month, it will take [-] people to complete one round a year, and it will take four years to complete one round for all men in the county."

[-] males from the county came to serve as servants in the Lun County barracks once a month, that is, every four years.In four years, as long as one month is enough.

And if according to what Luo Cheng said, one year at a time, it would take 48 years for all the men in the county to take turns.

This is obviously unrealistic, 48 years is too long.

Luo Cheng really didn't think that way.

"Then can it be like this, the county barracks hire people to serve, and then it is the turn of the people who are on duty to pay for the service, do you think it will work?"

Luo Cheng quickly thought of a solution. Even if the common people take turns every four years and only work for one month at a time, working on errands will still affect their lives.

If the common people are allowed to contribute money, then for example, you will not be required to pay when you are not on duty. When it is your turn to be this month, you will pay this month’s agency money, and then the county will take the money handed over. Wouldn't it kill two birds with one stone to hire a group of people on long-term errands?

There is no such precedent in the imperial court, but there is a rule to accept silk instead of Yong.In the Sui Dynasty, land equalization system was implemented, and the tax law of rent and mediocrity was implemented. If there is land, there will be rent, if there is a family, there will be adjustment, and if there is a body, there will be mediocrity.

Yong is a kind of regular service. Ding Nan needs to serve 20 days of free labor for the court every year. This is regular service.However, if the imperial court does not require civilians to serve, and if they have not served 20 days of official service this year, then they need to pay silk instead of Yong.

Anyway, don't try to take advantage of the court.

However, only Yong can replace it with silk cloth, and there is no such precedent for other handymen and servants.

"How do you get paid as a proxy?"

"According to the method of Zheyong?" Du Ruhui asked, Zheyong is paid three feet of silk a day, so counting as a month's servant, you need to pay ninety feet of silk, and one piece of silk is forty feet, which is equivalent to two horses More.

Pay once and don't have to work again for four years. It sounds good, but in the final analysis, you need to see how much money you have.

How much are two bolts of silk worth?

Silk belonged to the first currency in the Sui Dynasty, but silk is generally not directly linked to money, but to grain.There are good years and bad years for grain, so the price of grain fluctuates, and the price of silk also fluctuates.

In a year when the price of silk is good, you can exchange for about ten shi of corn, but in a year of famine, a bolt of silk can be exchanged for a bucket of rice.

When the price of rice is cheap, it is only a few pennies per bucket, but when it is expensive, it costs dozens of pennies per bucket.

Therefore, it can be said that when the price of silk is good, it is about three or four hundred cash a piece, while when the price is low, it is only worth a hundred cash.

It’s the end of the year, the autumn harvest is not too long, and Zhangqiu’s grain harvest this year is still a bumper harvest, so the price of grain is not high, which leads to the price of silk. Before that, it was about [-] yuan per piece of silk. , now it's the end of the year, and it can almost reach about [-].

One foot of silk can be converted into about three Wen and less than four Wen, and ninety feet of silk can be converted to 330 Ba Wen at the current price.

Pay 330 eight Wen, and you won't have to rotate as a post in the county barracks for four years. It sounds good.

"More than 300 Wen, I'm afraid most people would rather serve than pay this money." Du Ruhui said, more than 300 Wen, for many ordinary people, this is not a small sum of money.

(End of this chapter)