A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 57 Principles
Du Gong and his brother-in-law were very surprised when they saw the current scale of Jingbian Fort and the appearance of the inside of the fort.

Du Gong's brother-in-law is named Xie Cigao. He is 34 or [-] years old. He is tall and thin, in stark contrast to Du Gong's short and fat body.He also has two mouse whiskers on his mouth, in this regard, he is somewhat similar to Du Gong.

Seeing Du Gong, Wang Dou was a little surprised. In April, he went to Shunxiang Fort.At that time, the Deputy Qianhu Du Zhen treated him coldly, this Du Gong was his personal entourage, Wang Dou thought that Du Gong would be a stranger to him from then on, unexpectedly he came to visit today.

Seeing Wang Dou, Du Gong had a smile on his face, and he said: "Brother Wang, remember that this fortress was built in September last year, it looks like this in such a short period of time, tsk tsk..."

He was amazed, and gave Wang Dou a thumbs up: "Talent!"

Wang Dou clasped his fists and said with a smile: "Brother Du is too well-reputed. Today, I came to this place. This is..."

Du Gong said: "Brother, my brother will go to the Three Treasures Hall today if he has nothing to do."

He pointed to his brother-in-law next to him and introduced Wang Dou. When Xie Shigao heard that Wang Dou was only a general banner, his face immediately showed arrogance. It's been a long time."

Wang Dou glanced at him and said with a smile: "The two elder brothers came to the humble house, which was full of splendor, and went inside to talk."

He welcomed the two of them to the official hall of the General Banner, sat down as guests and hosts, offered tea, and asked Du Gong why he came.

Du Gong said that it turned out that his brother-in-law Xie Cigao wanted to open a bull shop in Jingbian Fort after hearing that Jingbian Fort was getting bigger and bigger, and the location was reserved on the West Street of Jingbian Fort.

Wang Dou listened quietly, and after hearing the intentions of the two, he said with a smile on his face: "Brother Xie wants to open a store in Jingbian Fort, that's no problem, as he belongs to Brother Du, the city registration of this merchant will be verified." No more, and the tax brother is also exempted. When Brother Xie will come, let me know, and the good locations on both sides of the road outside the castle, I will let my brother choose."

Xie Cigao was overjoyed at first, then he was startled again, and said: "Isn't it outside the castle, inside the castle?"

Wang Dou smiled and said: "Jingbian Fort has rules, no merchants are allowed in the fort. In the past, when businessmen came to me, I always asked them to open businesses outside the fort."

Xie Cigao and Du Gong looked at each other, both of them had ugly faces.

Du Gong tentatively asked: "Brother, can't you be accommodating for brother?"

Wang Dou said sincerely: "It's a big taboo to change the order from day to day. I hope my brother will understand my little brother's difficulties."

Just kidding, I just made a decision not to allow merchants to set up shops in the fort, and then made an exception for others in a blink of an eye, where is my authority in the future?Who else in the castle will listen to him?Don't say that Du Gong is here, even if Du Zhen is here, it's useless.

Du Gong coughed, forced a smile and said: "Brother Wang, you are too serious, extrajudicial and humane, as the master of a castle, even if you are accommodating, others will not say anything. Of course , only this time, next time will not be an example!"

Wang Dou said: "It's really difficult."

He still kept a smile on his face, but his tone was beyond doubt.

Du Gong and Xie Cigao looked at me and I looked at you, their faces were gloomy, and the atmosphere became stiff.

Wang Dou eased the atmosphere, he said with a smile: "The two elder brothers come to the humble house, it is a humble honor, how about this, the younger brother will be the host, and we will have a banquet tonight, and please the two elder brothers not to be disgusted."

Xie Cigao suddenly got up, and he yelled sharply: "What else are you eating? You're still hungry?"

His hoarse voice reached the extreme, and there was a faint sound of metal scraping, which was extremely unpleasant.He looked at Wang Dou and sneered: "A small Tunpu General Banner has such a big air, uncle, you have a majestic hundred households, but a General Banner underestimated you."

Du Gong's face changed drastically, he shouted at Xie Cigao: "Bastard, what are you talking about?"

When he faced Wang Dou, there was no trace of a smile on his face, and when he was not smiling, his expression was particularly sinister and miserable.

He looked at Wang Dou and sneered, and said darkly: "Wang Zongqi, I only know your style today, but I'm here to say that you don't know how to be flexible, and I'm afraid you will suffer a lot!"

He and Xie Cigao left angrily.

Seeing the two leaving, Wang Dou narrowed his eyes habitually. Maybe he missed the last chance to befriend Du Gong and others today, but how can a man change his principles for others?What are Du Gong and Xie Cigao!Rat, why am I afraid of it?
Wang Dou sat still, and Zhong Tiaoyang, who was standing beside him, was a little worried. Just about to say something, Wang Dou waved his hand and said, "Cousin, go see off the guests."

……

At the beginning of August in the eighth year of Chongzhen, Qi Tianliang commanded the military households in the fort to reclaim the land and it was coming to an end.

Along the northeast and southeast of Jingbian Fort, over the past month, Qi Tianliang led hundreds of men and women in the fort to reclaim more than 2000 mu of land.At this time, there were more than 3000 mu of fields registered in the Jingbian Fort Army Tunnel Register, and even the population of the land was already a giant.

At this time, the registered farm land in Shunxiangbao was only more than 70 square meters, that is, more than 7000 mu, and more than [-] stones of grain were collected in a year.A fort in Jingbianbao is almost as large as half of its farmland.

In addition to reclaiming wasteland, the military households in Jingbianbao also dug some irrigation wells, but did not build new channels for water conservancy.

From Jingbian Fort to the north and south, there are many forts in Shunxiang Fort, such as Zhouzhuang, Huzhuang, and Chafangbao.Even in the southeast direction, there is the Qianhusuo behind the security guard, which is the various fields of Luanzhuangbao under the jurisdiction of Wubao.

The land in these places is mixed with each other, and many of them are still private fields of military officers. Therefore, the ownership of water conservancy projects in these places is unclear, and the property rights are vague, which is easy to cause disputes and greatly affects the performance of canal water conservancy.

Moreover, the construction of water conservancy canals is costly and takes a long time. How to apportion the ICBC rations and how to divide the water after the construction is completed, there will be countless disputes at that time.In history, the Northern Territory fought fiercely for water, with villages fighting against the same canal, and other canals fighting with other canals. There were countless lawsuits and violent fights.

It is much easier to irrigate wells. Most of them are opened by farmers exclusively or voluntarily. The property rights are clear, easy to use and manage, and it is not easy to cause disputes.What's more, Daming is now in drought everywhere, the water sources of rivers and lakes are reduced or even dried up, and the water conservancy function of the canals is also greatly reduced, while the water sources of irrigation wells are relatively stable.

Therefore, along the newly reclaimed fields, the Jingbian Fort military households dug more than a dozen irrigation wells for the use of these fields.

The Lanzhou water truck by the Dongfang River has also become a swan song. It has been scattered from the originally reclaimed land of more than 1000 mu in Jingbian Fort. There are no abandoned canals in the surrounding area. To return to the above-mentioned question, the newly reclaimed fields are only filled with irrigation wells.

According to the old rules, the first 55 military households who joined Jingbianbao in the seventh year of Chongzhen used to have more than [-] mu of land. The forty acres of land belong to their family and have been passed down from generation to generation.

In addition, there are more than 1000 mu of land left over, and each of the more than [-] military households who joined Chongzhen at the beginning of the eighth year will be divided into [-] mu of land.Yang Tong, Zhong Rong, Gao Shiyin, and Zhong Tiaoyang were also allotted dozens of acres of land, which made them all ecstatic.Regardless of his father Zhong Zhengxian's strong opposition, Zhong Tiaoyang has already decided to join the Jingbian Fort military household, and his roots will be deeply rooted in this land from now on.

However, according to Wang Dou's land policy, whether it is an officer in the fort or an ordinary military household, they will have to pay grain by the mu in the future. Wang Dou does not hope that there will be a privileged class under his rule in the future who will not pay grain.

As for the more than 60 new military households that Chongzhen joined in the eight years, we can only wait for the wasteland to be reclaimed in the future, and then distribute it to them.

When the fields are distributed, each household decides fairness by drawing lots, even military officers are no exception.

After the fields were allocated, all the military households were overjoyed. Seeing their happy faces, the subsequent military households all looked eager, looking forward to the day when they would share the land by themselves.

However, the more than 20 artisan households who joined Jingbian Fort in the early eighth year of Chongzhen still did not divide their land. They lived on the rations and labor rewards issued by the fort every month, and became professional handicraftsmen in Jingbian Fort.

……

"The white dew is early, the cold dew is late, and the autumn equinox is the right time for planting wheat!"

This year is a good year, so Jingbianbao decided to carry out autumn planting after the autumnal equinox in mid-August.

During this time, the fort was preparing seeds, as well as farming tools and so on.

The [-] or so military households who joined Jingbianbao in the seventh year of Chongzhen had already allocated cattle and farm tools, but the [-] or so military households who joined Chongzhen in the early eighth year were allotted [-] acres of land, but they did not have any farm tools .The fort needs to rent them cattle, farm tools and seeds, and lend them rice and grain for food. In addition, mules are used to pull the water carts for filling the wells, all of which need to be prepared in advance in the fort.

On the fifth day of the eighth month, Wang Dou discussed with Qi Tianliang and others about the cattle and farm tools in the official hall of the General Banner. Wang Dou decided to go to Zhoucheng to buy a batch of cattle and farm tools and come back.If necessary, it would be better to buy more than a hundred cattle and mules at once. Unfortunately, Wang Dou's financial resources were always tight, so he had to buy them in batches one at a time.

Wang Dou's current military defense arrangement for Jingbian Fort has seven teams of soldiers, one team takes turns to guard the headquarters of the general banner, one team patrols on the fort wall, and the other patrols around the fort. The rest are either training or staying in the fort. rest.As for the nights of the Han and Korean leaders, except for keeping a group of people inside and outside the fort in turn, the rest have always been elusive, and often disappear for several days.

During the discussion, a soldier patrolling outside the fort rushed in to report that something had happened outside the fort. The three forts under the jurisdiction of Shunxiang Fort, Zhouzhuang, Huzhuang, and the chiefs of Chafangbao, all Leading hundreds of people, armed with knives and sticks, they came to Jingbian Fort, saying that they wanted to capture the population of military households who fled from their Tunbao to Jingbian Fort.

In addition, they also thought that Jingbian Fort had dug up their farmland and wanted Wang Dou to give them an explanation.

According to the team of soldiers cruising outside the fort, they found that the team officer of Luanzhuang Fort under the Five Forts also brought a group of people here. The reason is unknown.

(End of this chapter)