Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 261 The 18th year of Chongzhen's Ming court rule (fifth change)
By the second half of the 18th year of Chongzhen, refugees had been resettled in places from Henan to South Zhili, Jiangbei area, and Shandong area that had been plagued by military disasters in the past.

The vassal land and the official land confiscated by the court from various criminal officials and unowned land by the local government have all been contracted to the households.

These refugees, who had gained a new place to live in, finally settled down in the area controlled by Daming. Some of the land that had been bled and trampled by horseshoes in the past had begun to be cultivated again.

All kinds of agricultural tools and vegetables are the most popular in various towns and cities at this time.

Moreover, it is near these city walls that new villages consisting of thatched houses began to appear one after another.

Most of the people from the north who migrated to the south began to relocate to Xincun Road, where cocks and dogs barked, fruit trees were shaded, and iron hoofs were no longer rolling and corpses were strewn across the field.

Guards soldier Cai Ming was sent back to Caijiaxin Village, Lu'an Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture because his left leg was disabled due to injury.

And his family was originally just a commoner in the North. In the winter of Chongzhen 17, because most of the land in Fengrun County, Shuntian Prefecture, North Zhili, was occupied by Manchurian cavalry, he had to flee here.

Now more than [-] members of the whole family gather here, and all of them have been allocated fields by the local county government.

Cai Ming came back here, and when his wife led him home, he saw vegetable beds all over the ground, lush and green. A smile appeared on his face, as if he felt that the injuries he suffered in the battle of Mengcheng were worth it .

"My grandfather said that you were injured due to meritorious deeds. According to the order of the military department of the imperial court, my family got an extra ten acres of high-quality paddy fields. This was originally the land of the rich man Liu, a great gentry. , but you can also help me at home, with so many places, I can’t handle it alone.” After Cai Ming’s wife said this, Cai Ming also laughed, and handed a bag of silver coins to his wife:
"This is my ring silver and pension money for this month. It is a total of one hundred silver dollars. After you collect it, the imperial court will give our family a monthly subsidy of five yuan in the future. Remember to go to the county government to collect it and report it to me." That's the name."

"Hey! This is really a lot of money. After a while, during the slack season, I can just build a brick house to live in, for the eldest son to marry a wife in the future." Cai Ming's wife happily agreed, and planned this sum of money. The use of money comes.

However, at this moment, a yamen servant came over with a gong: "Is Cai Ming, a soldier from the First Infantry Battalion of the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards, at home?"

"At home, at home, this official, what do you want me to be in charge of?" Cai Ming's wife hurried over. As a commoner's wife who has been working in the fields all year round, she can't avoid any etiquette and defense, so she dares to stand in front of strangers. She showed her face, and she was no longer afraid of the people in the government. After all, the imperial court was exempted from corvee, and the government couldn't find a reason to arrest her as a peasant woman.

"Miss Cai, it's like this. My grandfather asked your family, Cai Ming, to go to the county government office and said that he had something important to see him." After the servant said this, Cai Ming walked over. The soldiers of the Type A Infantry Battalion of the Guards are commanded by the famous Chen Zilong, and their direct superior is a certain scholar in Nanjing, and even half of his mentor, so that he can now recognize several baskets of characters, so he is also in front of this yamen servant. No longer as unashamed as when I was a farmer, I still straightened my chest: "Dare to ask, my grandfather asked me to go to the county government, what's the matter?"

"You'll know when you go, anyway, it's a good thing." The yamen servant smiled, not daring to put on airs, and stretched out his hand: "Please."

Cai Ming's wife watched with some concern as her husband limped to the county office, but when she saw that it was going to rain again, she had to go back and call her eldest son.

Affected by the climate of the Little Ice River, in the 18th year of Chongzhen, the rainy season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River came later than in previous years.

Therefore, in June and July at this time, the rainy days began to appear, the pattering rain began to fall non-stop, and the plums in the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Yangtze River gradually matured.

After the plum rains, it begins to mark the hottest stage of summer in the south.

But during this period, it is also the time for quick harvest of summer crops such as wheat and rapeseed. After all, if there is an extra day of delay, it will be rotted by frequent rain for a day.

When Cai Ming's wife and his son hurriedly carried back the last acre of wheat, Cai Ming also returned home, but changed into an official uniform and a black gauze hat on his head. Cai Ming's wife laughed: "The head of the house , you went to the county government, why did you become like this again?"

"The Ministry of War of the imperial court re-introduced the military merit system, and arranged different treatment for the disabled soldiers who returned home according to their performance when they were soldiers. The Ministry of War has asked to be appointed as a history and militia captain. Do you think this is strange? A soldier who is injured and returns home can still be an official. It can be seen that the current emperor of Ming Dynasty is a good emperor. He gave us the land and let me be a good emperor. I'm an official," Cai Ming laughed.

"What does this have to do with the emperor?" Seeing that the rain outside was getting heavier, Cai Ming's wife couldn't go out anymore, so she went back to the loom and started weaving.

At this time, Cai Ming slapped the table and began to puff his stomach: "What do you know, a woman? I joined the emperor's guards, so I can get the present grace! Since the emperor let me be an official, I must be a good official who is in charge of the people. I heard from my grandfather that this history is to maintain the peace of one side. The captain of the militia is sent by the guard. Every county has one who is responsible for teaching the common people to kill Tartars. , I have to think hard about how to be a good official.”

Cai Ming was thinking about this question very actively, not caring at all that he was already a cripple injured by work, and he still seemed so confident.

Chen Zilong, the commander of the Infantry Battalion of the Third Army of the Guards, had just participated in the Battle of Huguang, and escorted the commander-in-chief Liu Fangliang, who happened to pass by Liu'an Prefecture. As soon as Chen Zilong saw Cai Ming teaching a group of people to hold sticks beside the official road After practicing the assassination, he turned around and asked Liu Fangliang for instructions: "General soldier, I request you to leave the army for half a day to see an old friend."

"You great talent Chen and old friends in this village?" Liu Fangliang was also shocked by the shouts of Cai Ming and others in front of him, and couldn't help asking Chen Zilong: "Who is that person, and why did he come near me?" The guard's assassination technique is quite proficient."

"Reporting to the commander-in-chief, he is an old friend of the last general, Cai Ming, a soldier of the third infantry battalion of the first regiment of the third army of my Guards, who had slashed a tartar on the battlefield. As a result, he became disabled and had to go back to his hometown for resettlement, and now he looks like an unrecognized official in this attire."

After Chen Zilong said this, Liu Fangliang asked: "How many grades are you without entering the stream?"

"It's lower than the ninth grade," Chen Zilong replied, and Liu Fangliang became angry on the spot: "The county magistrate is a seventh-rank official, and he is actually lower than the county magistrate. Who is the county magistrate here? Let him come to see me, it's really nonsense Heroes who killed the Tartars on the battlefield are still heroes even when they return to the village, how could they be given such a small official?"

"The commander-in-chief calm down, you have nothing to do with this matter, it's Li Ge's (Li Banghua)'s business." After Chen Zilong said this, Liu Fangliang got off his horse: "I will talk to him after Fengyang. You go and meet this guy named Cai Ming, now that we have won another battle in Huguang, we should let him know."

　The bi-weekly [-]-word explosion was completed, and the fifth watch took me two hours, deleting and writing, writing and deleting. I originally wanted to show the social life in the Ming Dynasty’s ruled area, but found that it was a bit The difficulty can only be shown from the perspective of ordinary returning wounded soldiers of the Guards as much as possible, and historical celebrities Chen Zilong and Liu Fangliang are introduced as embellishments, which may be more vivid.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)