Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 14

Huang Laifu walked out of the thousand-household house, and outside was the street where Wuzhai Fort was built.Walking outside the gate, a gust of cold wind hits the face, with some snow particles sandwiched between them, hitting the face.Fortunately, Huang Laifu inherited the strong physique of this body, so the cold didn't affect him at all.

Looking at Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu again, they were exhaling whitely, and their expressions were normal, obviously this kind of weather was already used to them.

Huang Laifu breathed a sigh of relief, stood at the gate and raised his eyes to look around.Looking around, the city of Wuzhaibao is similar to a small rural town in a remote mountainous area in later generations.

Except for his own thousand-household house, the nearby government offices and a few deputy thousand-household, town-fu, hundred-household and other military officer's houses, they will be neater and tidier.Most of them are earth houses, thatched huts and the like.A few people in ragged clothes were walking on the street, shivering with cold, or some sloppy people were squatting or standing in every corner, looking at Huang Laifu standing at the door with awe.

There are a few streets, except for the main street leading to thousands of houses and government offices, which is paved with large bluestones, the others are dirt roads.Snowflakes fell on it, freezing these places hard.Cold, unpopular, and lifeless, this is Huang Laifu's feeling.Although he had the memory of this body in his mind before, and was mentally prepared for this scene, but now seeing it with his own eyes, he still feels depressed and deserted.

"Young master, do you want to get on the horse?" Jiang Dazhong brought a few horses over. The Huang family has inherited thousands of households in Wuzhaibao for generations. Over the years, they have finally accumulated dozens of horses' private property, most of which are used by the servants.Huang Laifu naturally also has the right to use these horses. Huang Laifu's horse broke its leg in an accident before, and I don't know how Huang Sihao handled it.

"Okay!" Huang Laifu looked away, and took the leather gloves handed over by Yang Xiaolu. These were Huang Laifu's original equipment.

Near the wall of the stone drum gate of Qianhu House lies a huge rectangular horse-mounting stone, and next to it is a thick, round and square horse-tied stone pile that is nearly one person high.This is usually used for the people of Qianhuzhai to mount and tie their horses.

Huang Laifu inherited the memory and ability of his previous body, so riding a horse is naturally no problem. He stepped on the horse-mounting stone, and when he turned over, the half-cow leather boots under his feet were already put into the stirrups, and he rode steadily. The horsewhip that came over made a crisp sound in the air, and said: "Let's go!"Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu quickly followed behind on horseback.

Huang Laifu walked slowly on the street with his bridle in his hands.He needs to take a good look at the overall situation of the Thousand Households in Wuzhaibao.

According to the original memory data in Huang Laifu's brain.In Wuzhaibao, there is 1 member of the main thousand households, 1 member of the deputy thousand households, 10 members of the hundred households, 13 officials of various sizes including the second governor, and 1120 banner troops.

The surrounding area of ​​Wuzhaibao is 210 li [-] [-] [-] [-] bu, and the height is three zhang and three chi.The walls of the military fort were first built with earth, and in the early years of Wanli, some Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area invaded Shanxi Town, threatening Wuzhai Fort, so they changed the walls to be covered with bricks and stones.

There are main streets and lanes in the fort. In addition to residential buildings, there are temples, archways, wells and other living construction facilities in the fort.In addition, there are also important military facilities such as barracks, military storage granaries, and racecourses in Wuzhai Fort.There is also a palace in charge of weapons in the fort - the Weapons Bureau, the God hangar and the Gunpowder Bureau that "specially collect firearms".A few hundred meters outside the fort, there is an arena for sergeants to practice and a martial arts hall for officers to command and rest.

According to statistics, the population of the entire Wuzhai Fort, including the rationed sergeants, and some of the forts scattered throughout Wuzhai Fort, including their families, is also in the thousands.

According to the military registration system of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers of the guards and their descendants were hereditary soldiers. No matter where they went to garrison, their wives and children had to follow them.From generation to generation, along with the military registration system, a large number of military households belonging to military registration have emerged: Sheding (that is, the children of officers) and Junyu (that is, the children of sergeants).

This is the memory in Huang Laifu's mind, and it's basically the same way along the way.Wuzhai Fort is not big, it only looks like a few streets, and soon Huang Laifu inspected it all.

There is only one main street, the one leading to the Thousand Households and the government offices.In addition to some shops opened by family members of local military households, there are also some shops run by foreign businessmen on the street.But to be honest, there is not much business to do in Wuzhai Fort, these military families are just earning a living money.

Obviously, Wuzhaibao cannot attract many businessmen, and the people in this place obviously have no purchasing power.Most of the merchants gathered in Ningwuguan, where Shanxi towns and towns were located, and there were many generals.Or mostly gather in Pianguan, where they can trade with the Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area.

The vicinity of Qianhuzhai may be regarded as the "rich area" of Wuzhai Fort. The farther away from Qianhuzhai, the more ragged people on the street. Huang Laifu saw many skinny people wearing ragged clothes. Listless look.

If it wasn't for the Ming military uniform, others would have thought he was a bandit.Such people are not just one or two, or the majority, all over the Wuzhai Fort.There were still some women and children walking on the street, and they were all disheveled. In addition to the low and dilapidated houses next to it, this is not a military castle, but a beggar's den.

When everyone on the street saw Huang Laifu and the three of them coming on horseback, they dodged one after another and whispered: "Huang Laifu is coming, everyone get out of the way, or you will be whipped." The women also hurriedly pulled their children to On the one hand, the eyes cast on Huang Laifu were full of fear.

Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaoluhu, who were one horse behind Huang Laifu, yelled from time to time: "Get out of the way, get out of the way, the young master is on a trip, if you don't get out of the way, you will just wait for the whip." The two were triumphant It seemed like this was the case every time they traveled with Huang Laifu before, and they had already done it very smoothly.

Huang Laifu was in a heavy heart, he didn't expect Wuzhaibao to be so impoverished, and he was about to take over such a mess, which seemed to be very bad for his prospects.He had seen some tragic experiences of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty in historical materials, but he didn't expect to see it with his own eyes, which was even more unbearable.

It is conceivable how such an army can fight.No wonder the military household system was gradually dominated by the recruiting and battalion system after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.And leading such an army military household, don't want to develop anything, just stay in Wuzhai Fort and wait for your old age.This was a severe blow to my fledgling ambition.

In fact, there are less than 1120 of the 800 non-commissioned sergeants in Wuzhai Fort, plus those who have fled and those who are on empty pay. After removing nearly half of the old and weak, there are only about 60 young and strong. Those who are really capable of fighting are There are [-] servants of Huang Sihao in thousands of households.

Huang Laifu sighed, "I didn't expect my general Wuzhaibao to be so impoverished!"

Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu are used to this kind of situation.Wang Dazhong heard Huang Laifu's words from behind, and replied loudly: "Master, it's not your first day in Wuzhai Fort, this Wuzhai Fort has been like this for many years, don't mention Wuzhai Fort, I've heard a lot of guards The same goes for military households, otherwise why would everyone call us poor soldiers?"

Huang Laifu's face was gloomy, Jiang Dazhong wanted to speak, but Yang Xiaolu gave him a wink, Jiang Dazhong didn't dare to speak anymore.

Huang Laifu rode his horse and walked silently. In fact, what Huang Laifu saw was very common in the frontier army and various guards at that time, and it was not only the Wuzhaibao family.

The status of military households in the Ming Dynasty was very low, even lower than that of civilian households, but military households were one of the country's important sources of soldiers. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty strictly controlled military households, and ordinary military households had to serve for life.Only when the official reaches Shangshu can the military loan be exempted.There are only a handful of people who are capable officials to ministers, so the number of people who are exempted from military loans is limited.

The treatment of military households is also very low.In addition to sending more than one Ding to the Weisuo to serve as an army, each military household also sent an extra Ding to serve hard labor with the army.In some places, each military household was even ordered to send out 2-3 men to join the army in all kinds of heavy labor.

The soldiers go to the guard to serve, and the military uniform and travel expenses are all borne by the family.During his service in the guard, the soldiers provided their own clothing, and their food and wages did not increase due to the birth of children and the increase in population. Therefore, the soldiers' wives, children, and children were often poorly clothed and hungry.Military households are not exempted from some corvee service because they provide soldiers, and their living conditions are not as good as those of civilian households.Not only the family is like this, the soldiers who went to the guard are not much better than the family.The soldiers were exploited layer by layer by the officers, and the military rations were often withheld by the officers, or they were not paid in arrears.Some guards did not even pay military salaries for several years, and some sergeants made a living by begging.

During the service period, the soldiers were enslaved by the government, officials and dignitaries to do hard work.Some major projects are often completed by soldiers, such as building palaces, imperial tombs, dredging rivers, etc.

In some guards, the farmland of the sergeants was occupied by Haoyou and generals. The generals asked the sergeants to farm for them, and even asked the sergeants to fish and collect wood for them and sell private goods.The sergeant has become a tool and a drudgery in their hands.

In addition to the above-mentioned unfair treatment, the army's marriage is also strictly restricted.The guard stipulates that sergeants must have wives and must not be celibate.Because sergeants not only have the obligation to serve, but also shoulder the responsibility of giving birth to the next generation of soldiers for the guard.For this reason, the marriage of military households is subject to various strict restrictions, and children of military households are not allowed to marry out of civilian households, so as to avoid the outflow of personnel.It is also very difficult for military households to intermarry with civilian households.Because once the children of civilian households intermarry with military households, they will not be in military households for life, and future generations will never escape the strict restrictions of military loans.

Ming sergeants were also subject to strict military law control and constraints.Guard sergeants were often insulted, beaten, and tortured by their officers, and those who violated the law were undoubtedly severely punished.For example, military officers and sergeants who learned to sing in the capital had their tongues cut off, and businessmen were sent to remote areas to serve as exiles.

All of the above caused a large number of soldiers to flee, and the phenomenon of military households evading military service was even more serious. Some guards were short of staff, some even exceeded half of them, and some had only a few people left.According to records, in the three years of Zhengtong (1438), as many as 120 million soldiers fled across the country.The guards are severely understaffed.In this year, when Li Chun, the supervisory censor who patrolled Shandong, inspected a certain hundred households, he found that there should have been 112 banner troops, but only one remained because the sergeant fled.The Weisuo system gradually lost its historical role.

But the embarrassing thing is that the relatively good life of the Huang family and Huang Laifu now comes from exploiting ordinary military households in Wuzhai Fort. What should Huang Laifu say?
(End of this chapter)