Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 359 What’s wrong with being a military household?
sunset.

The Yinma River is sparkling, and the golden sun is reflected on the water, like a beautiful picture.

Shi Heng found a high ground, sat down cross-legged, then took off the armor on his head, put it next to him, and took a deep breath.

He looked at the vast wilderness on the south bank of the river and thought: "In one year at most, an acropolis with a length of [-] steps and a width of [-] steps will be built here."

"This is six hundred steps, not sixty steps!"

Shi Heng raised his voice and sighed with emotion.

The step he is talking about is a unit of length in the Ming Dynasty, that is, one step of the left and right feet is one step.

Therefore, one step in the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to two steps in later generations. According to the conversion of one step to five feet, the length of 1000 steps is equal to just over [-] meters in later generations.

A county town with a length and width of [-] steps, that is, an area of ​​one square kilometer, is indeed small compared with the county towns of later generations, but in the Ming Dynasty at this time, it was the size of a medium-sized county town.

Because of the construction of cities in the past dynasties, the inner city was called the city and the outer city was called the guo. The proportion of the inner and outer cities generally followed the shape of "a city of three li and a guo of seven li".

An acropolis of this size, including the outer city walls, is a large city large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people.

If herders can continue to be attracted to settle in the suburbs outside the city, then it is entirely possible that this Acropolis near the Yinma River will absorb tens of thousands of grassland people in the future.

"Uncle, is there anything else you can say about the specifications of this city?"

Shi Biao stopped at the edge of the high ground and heard Shi Heng's thoughts, so he asked curiously.

Shi Hengdao: "According to the city building regulations promulgated by the imperial court in the sixth year of Yongle, any medium-sized county with a permanent population of more than 3 and less than 15 people in the county jurisdiction can apply to the imperial court for county expansion. The standard for expansion is that the perimeter of the city wall must not exceed Two thousand four hundred steps.”

When he said this, he turned to look at Shi Biao and asked, "Calculate, what is the circumference of the acropolis we are going to build next?"

"According to the map, this city is six hundred paces long and six hundred paces wide. It is a square city."

Shi Biao was surprised and said: "Isn't the circumference exactly [-] paces?"

"The specifications for building the city come from His Majesty's edict, which is equivalent to being decreed by His Majesty. So, His Majesty asked us to build the acropolis with the specifications of a medium-sized county town, which is obviously to prepare for the establishment of a county in the future."

Shi Heng couldn't help but make a bold guess.

Yunzhong Dusi is adjacent to Yanran Dusi to the west, Anbei Dusi to the north, Nurgan Dusi to the east, and Shuofang Dusi to the south.

Its administrative seat is Lehe City, which has jurisdiction over Tula River Guard, Tura South Guard, Tula North Guard, Tula East Guard, Yinma River Guard, Yinma South Guard, Yinma North Guard, Yinma East Guard, Yinma West Guard, and Fishing Lake. There are ten guards and ten guards, as well as fifty thousand-household residences.

According to Zhu Gaoxu's edict, each thousand-household city on the grassland was 690 paces long and wide, equivalent to a Sifang city with a length and width of [-] meters.

A city with a thousand households of this size, including the city walls and suburban areas, could easily absorb thousands of grassland people in the future.

"I dare to ask my uncle, after the construction of this acropolis is completed, where will our Shi family go?"

Shi Biao hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke: "Now the imperial court has set up the first and second grade Yamen Defense and Patrol Envoys in various provinces in the interior. In a few years, with my uncle's qualifications, it will be a natural progression for him to be promoted to the position of defense envoy of a province."

"At that time, if my uncle can take up the post of defense envoy and hold a high and powerful position, our Shi family will be able to get rid of the hereditary military status of the guards."

In March of this year, the imperial court announced that all provinces in the mainland that had abolished their capital bureaus would set up a defense patrol department, referred to as the defense department, to be responsible for controlling the post offices, militia bureaus, retired military service bureaus, and police security bureaus in prefectures and counties in the provinces. , Immigration and Entry Bureau, Maritime Anti-Smuggling Bureau, Police Qualification Bureau and other yamen.

"What's wrong with being a military household? Why are you all thinking about leaving the military?"

Shi Heng said slightly angrily.The "you" in his mouth refers to several of Shi Biao's cousins, but does not include his currently young son.

Military households refer to households with military registration. In the early Hongwu period, there were two sources. One was the military households who surrendered in the Yuan Dynasty, and the other was the households of active sergeants. This was established after the compilation of the yellow book in the 21st year of Hongwu.

Military households were hereditary and strictly managed, so it was very difficult to remove them. Generally speaking, they could not be removed unless the family members were extinct, or someone in the family became a high-ranking official, or the emperor issued an edict to remove them.

The main responsibility of the military household in the guard station is to send a young man to serve as a soldier in the guard station, which is called the regular army. The other sons are called Yu Ding or Yu Ding.

When the regular army goes to the garrison, at least one Yu Ding must accompany him to help him survive.

Due to the heavy burden on military households, they were given more land, and the regular army was exempted from all service. The remaining ding in the camp and the one under the original place of origin were also exempted from service, so as to ensure their livelihood and provide for the life of the regular army.

Soldiers were mostly distributed far away from their place of origin and dispersed to prevent deserters. However, the long journey and the unaccustomed climate brought a lot of pain to the soldiers.

"Is your mother-in-law not treating you well? Have you ever worried about the food and clothing of your queen (Shi Biao's son)?"

Shi Heng saw that Shi Biao was silent, so he asked again: "Isn't this not preferential treatment enough for the imperial court to exempt the sergeants from the border areas for several years?"

Regular soldiers serving in the garrison must take their wives with them to live a stable life and have children.

Each sergeant has a house, a field, and a fixed monthly ration. However, in actual situations, the distribution is often insufficient. When marching, rations are issued, and the clothes must be provided by oneself. The weapons are produced by craftsmen of the imperial court.

The sergeants in the camp are divided into two parts: garrison and field work. The ratio is variable and they take turns on a regular basis.

Grain was regularly handed over to the garrison to supply the garrison and officials, with the goal of raising troops without consuming the court's financial resources.

However, in the early years of Hongwu, there were cases of guardsmen occupying military farmland and private sergeants cultivating it, and it became more and more serious after the middle period of Yongle.

Generally, when regular soldiers die, they are replaced by strong men from the household. However, due to the difficult life of the guardsmen, there are many deserters. For example, there were deserters in the early years of Hongwu. By November of the third year of Hongwu, there were more than [-] deserters. , so there are methods such as "root supplement" and "hook supplement".

To make up for the problem, the deserters would be captured, and to make up for the problem, they would be compensated by men from their households. However, this disturbed both the people and the officials. Some officers also took advantage of this to become corrupt and persecute the people, making the countryside miserable, and the number of deserters continued to increase. .

According to records, in the original history, more than 160 million guards officers and soldiers fled in the three years of Zhengtong. In the Zhengde and Jiajing years, it was even more exaggerated. Some of the escaped sergeants of the guards reached about [-]% or even more than [-]% of the registered sergeants. Many Less than half of the troops are stationed in the border areas.

Although Zhu Gaoxu changed history, the corruption of the Wei system began from the middle period of Yongle.

The flight of the guardsmen was not only due to their hardship in life, but also related to their lowered social status.

After all, in the early Ming Dynasty, due to the need for force, the court paid more attention to the sergeants of the guard station.

After the middle period of Yongle, the Ming Dynasty was in peace for a long time, and the importance of the guard sergeants was weakened, and their status was greatly reduced. In addition, the convicts were sent to the army, which made the image of the guard sergeants even lower.

This is also one of the reasons why Zhu Gaoxu insisted on implementing the recruit system.

"You just said that the imperial court has set up a Defense Patrol Division, but have you noticed that at the beginning of this month, His Majesty issued an edict to abolish the old Port Division and establish it as the Third Hainan Division? He also abolished the Managadu Division and reestablished it as the Third Haijiao Division. .”

"In addition, in November of the first year of Qianxi, His Majesty abolished the Luzon Dusi and established the Dongsha Sansi. Now the Ming Dynasty has three provinces in Nanyang, Hainan, Haijiao, and Dongsha, which are under the direct control of the imperial court. All three Nanyang provinces have Dusi. .”

Shi Heng became more energetic and excited as he spoke: "Not only that, after setting up the Sixth Dusi of the Grassland, His Majesty also issued an edict to set up the Nansha Dusi in Borneo, which also handles civil affairs. This Dusi is also the actual Tudusi."

"In short, although the inland provinces have abolished the capital command and envoy departments, the border provinces still need the capital guard station to be stationed."

When he said this, he stared into Shi Biao's eyes and said solemnly: "Biao'er, you have to understand that there is a lot to be done in the border area!"

(End of this chapter)