Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 19: The Guard is Enough
"Xila..."

"Today is the day of the school examination. I don't know when the examiner will arrive."

In the early morning, the sound of pouring water was accompanied by the slightly worried voice of Yang Zhan in the courtyard.

In the small courtyard at this moment, Zhu Gaoxu was still wearing the red fat jacket worn by ordinary Ming soldiers, also known as the Yuanyang War Jacket.

He was sitting at the door of the main house, holding a coarse cloth in his hand and wiping his face, obviously he had just finished washing.

At the edge of the well in the yard, Wang Xuan and Yang Zhan had just poured face wash water into the ditch nearby.

Yang Zhan is worried about Zhu Gaoxu, but Wang Xuan has confidence in Zhu Gaoxu.

He didn't say much, just carried the kettle and walked back to the kitchen.

As for Zhu Gaoxu, after wiping his face and drying the towel on the study window sill, he turned around and comforted Yang Zhan with a smile:

"Your Majesty doesn't have high hopes for me, so you don't have to worry."

"Instead of worrying about taking exams, it's better to worry about what to eat in the morning."

As soon as Zhu Gaoxu finished speaking, Wang Xuan stuck his head out from the kitchen: "Your Highness, you haven't finished yesterday's beef. How about some beef rice noodles?"

"Okay!" Zhu Gaoxu agreed with a smile, and Wang Xuan immediately returned to the kitchen and packed up in a hurry.

Time flies, and five days fly by.

It seemed that after realizing that he could not break Zhu Yuanzhang's arrangement with the current Ming Dynasty's national power, Zhu Gaoxu relaxed his mind and completely lay down.

In addition to the necessary reading these days, he spent the rest of his time practicing martial arts with Yang Zhan and Wang Xuan. In his free time, he went swimming in the upper reaches of the Qinhuai River in the east to relieve the heat.

"Your Highness, are you really not worried?"

Yang Zhanzhan looked at Zhu Gaoxu walking towards the kitchen, wondering why Zhu Gaoxu was so calm.

You know, if Zhu Gaoxu can make a name for himself, then he may become the best among the disciples of the vassals.

"It's useless to worry. If you want to worry, you have to eat enough before worrying. How many taels of rice noodles did you eat?"

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves, and took out a handful of dry rice noodles from the dustpan.

"I'll eat three taels!" Wang Xuan was particularly active in eating.

"Two liang..." Yang Zhan replied, and wanted to say something else, but seeing Zhu Gaoxu's calm expression, he didn't know what to say for a moment and could only shut his mouth.

"Then let's take another pound. I'm a little hungry."

Zhu Gaoxu weighed the dry rice noodles and threw them into a wooden basin nearby.

When Wang Xuan saw this, he immediately picked up the gourd and filled half a basin of water, and then poured in one-third of the boiling water.

Zhu Gaoxu skillfully sliced ​​the braised beef that he had not finished last night, and at the same time opened the lid of the small pot next to it.

There was a beef leg bone in the pot, and it looked like it had been stewed for a long time.

Wang Xuan skillfully added fire to the stove, and Zhu Gaoxu also poured boiling water into the pot next to him. After the fire became strong, he added the soaked rice noodles to the pot.

He skillfully chopped onions and peppers, while Wang Xuan broke off a cabbage prepared last night and threw it into the pot.

When the condiments were ready, Zhu Gaoxu fished out the rice noodles, while Wang Xuan had already prepared three large wooden bowls.

After Zhu Gaoxu divided the rice noodles into bowls, before Zhu Gaoxu opened his mouth, he put the cut braised beef slices into three bowls respectively, and then Zhu Gaoxu also scooped out three ladles of beef bone soup.

After pouring the beef bone soup into the bowls, Wang Xuan happily poured the condiments into three bowls, took out the green salt and put them in respectively, and then took out the three bowls of rice noodles.

While he was bringing it out, Zhu Gaoxu lifted the beef bone soup pot and fried six poached eggs in a small pot.

By the time he walked into the courtyard carrying the poached eggs, Wang Xuan was already looking forward to seeing him.

"Sit down and eat."

Zhu Gaoxu placed the poached eggs on the stone table and started to use chopsticks after saying hello. Wang Xuan also eagerly started eating, but Yang Zhan had a sad look on his face.

"I'm afraid only some rich farmers can eat this meal from time to time."

Zhu Gaoxu picked up a poached egg and spoke with a hint of ridicule. Wang Xuan and Yang Zhan next to him also nodded in agreement.

Indeed, the cost of eating for the three of them was not low. This breakfast was not something that ordinary people could afford. Only some small and rich farmers with more than [-] acres of land could occasionally have such a meal.

If you want to eat like this every time, you really can't do it if your family doesn't have hundreds of acres of land.This is the result of productivity, and after such a month of walking around, Zhu Gaoxu also roughly understood the living conditions of the people in Nanjing.

The Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu period had no cement or steel bars to use, so the construction of many water conservancy facilities was slow and consumed a lot of food.

Improved water conservancy can increase land grain production by [-]%, but there are still many places throughout the Ming Dynasty where they can only carry water for farming.

For example, in Nanjing, because it is under the emperor's feet, water conservancy facilities have been built, so the output of one acre of land in a year is between [-] and [-] jins, but most of them are around [-] jins.

The price of three hundred kilograms of rice in Jiangnan is only [-] yuan, while the price of an egg is only [-] yuan.

Including rice noodles, Zhu Gaoxu and his family's breakfast was estimated to cost more than [-] yuan, which was equivalent to a day and a half of labor income for a civilian in the outer city.

Ordinary farmers were allocated fields in the early years of Hongwu, so a family of five or six people usually had more than [-] acres of land. After paying taxes and not counting part-time work, their annual income was just over ten taels, which was barely enough to support a family of five. Family of six.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's way of eating, the three of them would eat more than 20 taels a year for breakfast alone, and including lunch and dinner, they would probably have to spend [-] taels or less.

"Wang Xuan, how is life among military households in Yunnan?"

Speaking of people's livelihood, Zhu Gaoxu thought of the people in the three villages of Dashuying, so he asked about the lives of military households in Yunnan.

In this regard, Wang Xuan, who followed his father to Yunnan since childhood and grew up there, has a great say.

"We don't know much about other places, but the military households in Yiliang are still living well."

While eating rice noodles, Wang Xuan replied: "Your Majesty immigrated to Yunnan, and most of the immigrants to Yunnan are military households."

"Over the years, the military households in the institute have reclaimed all the Bazi fields that had been abandoned by the Northerners."

"According to the rules of the Governor's Mansion, each military household receives fifty acres of land as one share, and is given cattle and farm tools, and is taught how to plant trees."

"However, the army must pay twelve dan per hectare of grain, which means each military household pays six dan, and there is also a three-stone rate. Those who pay more will be rewarded with treasure notes, and those who pay less will be fined the local military attache's salary."

"The Bazi fields in Yunnan are barren. If you can produce [-] dan from [-] acres, it is considered excellent. The normal output is only more than [-] dan, but all the grain must be turned over to the exchange."

"All turned over to the exchange?" Zhu Gaoxu paused. He couldn't believe how miserable the military households were, and couldn't help asking: "What do the military households eat?"

"There are also monthly grains, line grains and spare fields." Wang Xuan looked at Zhu Gaoxu with the eyes of a monster, as if thinking, isn't this something everyone in the world knows.

"Yutian?" Zhu Gaoxu was confused. When Yang Zhan saw this, he also explained:
"All military garrison fields in the garrison belong to the garrison. Outside the garrison fields, the privately reclaimed fields are surplus fields, which belong to the military households' own fields. They can use the garrison's cattle to cultivate them, but they must pay one dou or two liters of grain per acre per year. Make a poem."

"Hmm..." Wang Xuan nodded in agreement, and then explained the monthly and line food:

"Every family of the children of Yunnan Weifu has more than ten or twenty acres of farmland. They only need to pay a fixed land tax, and other miscellaneous taxes do not need to be paid."

"In addition, soldiers have a fixed monthly ration, which is given at the beginning of each month. Normally, the monthly allowance is two dan for the cavalry army, one dan for the general flag of the infantry army, one dan for the small flag, and one dan for the flag army."

"At the same time as the monthly rations, there is also monthly salt, two pounds for those who are married, and one pound for those who have not."

"However, in recent years, instead of issuing monthly salt, treasure notes have been issued."

"The line of food is the food to be distributed when going out to guard. Normally it is one to two liters per day."

"In addition to these, the governor's office sometimes distributes winter clothes, cloth and cotton from time to time, so the military households can live well."

Wang Xuan described the life of military households in Yunnan. To Zhu Gaoxu, it was not good, but it would not starve to death.

According to Wang Xuan's description, all the food grown by military households in the fields goes to the guard station, but at the same time, the guard station will bear a certain amount of food rations, and there are also more than ten or twenty acres of land output. Calculating that each military household can earn [-] yuan a year. The income is about thirty to forty dan, which is about ten guan when converted into copper coins.

However, military households have to cultivate sixty or seventy acres of land, so the family members are indispensable, so they have a lot to eat.

Because of the need for labor, they kept giving birth to sons. When the sons grew up, the originally allocated land in the health center was no longer enough to produce food for the family.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembered correctly, he had learned about it in college in his previous life. During the Hongwu period, there were many people who fled from the guards.

Especially after the Xuande and Zhengtheng years, the population of military households increased sharply. The food produced by military households from farming and farming could not feed themselves at all. The number of military households who deserted service every year ranged from tens of thousands to tens of thousands.

From Wang Xuan's words, Zhu Gaoxu gained an insight into the life of the military households in the guard station and the guard system.

In general, some shortcomings of the guard system will continue to amplify as the population of military households increases. Unless the Ming Dynasty can continue to issue new farmland and spare fields to military households, it will be sooner or later for military households to flee.

From this point of view, the guard system is similar to the military system of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the north and south, but...

"Tuk Tuk!"

While Zhu Gaoxu was thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of the guard system, a sudden knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

(End of this chapter)