novelSusiti Chapter 63 A Heavy Burden
Chapter 63 A Heavy Burden
Chapter 64 A Heavy Burden
Chapter 063 Chen Ying was born into a military household registered in Guide Guard, and he knew very well that ordinary military households in Guide Guard were poorer than beggars, and many people starved to death every year.
The problem is that officers in the garrisons, even those who are only seventh-rank officers, live a relatively comfortable life because they are officers and receive a salary from the imperial court.
Even if they didn't receive the full amount due to delays in payment from the imperial court, they could still receive half of their salary. His uncle, Chen Youfu, was a seventh-rank general, and even when his family was poor, they never lacked food.
Besides their salaries from the imperial court, the officers of the garrisons' main source of income was the grain they deducted from the military households. The military households did not receive military pay from the imperial court; they had to support themselves. Each garrison would allocate land to the military households for cultivation. Every year, after deducting the portion of the harvest from the state, the military households would also keep a portion for their own rations.
Of course, in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the treatment of military households in the garrisons was still good; at least they could eat their fill. However, the problem was that with the corruption of the bureaucracy, the officers of the garrisons colluded with local gentry or officials to convert the military land originally belonging to the garrisons into civilian land.
The officers of the garrison were eating their fill, but the military households in the garrison were suffering. Right now, the five thousand-household garrisons in Xingzhou Zhongtun Garrison had at least 30,000 to 40,000 military households and their families, who were worse off than beggars.
Chen Ying knew without investigating that the officers of Xingzhou Zhongtunwei were far more ruthless than Liu Huan, the commander of Guidewei. Liu Huan and the officers of Guidewei would leave some food for the military households, and even in the worst years, each military household would receive more than 300 catties.
The problem is that these officers are not treated like human beings at all, unlike the military households of Xingzhou Zhongtunwei. With this kind of exploitation, countless people have starved to death.
Faced with Chen Ying's reprimand, a group of officers stepped forward one after another from the ranks. These officers were indeed a bit stronger than the military households, but only by a limited margin. There were fifty centurions and five chiliarchs, including the deputy commander and the commander's assistant. The older ones were in their fifties or sixties, and the younger ones were in their twenties. However, they were all dressed in tattered clothes, with sallow and thin faces, and their faces were dirty and sallow.
The elderly man in his fifties or sixties, who was leading the group, stammered, "Zhou Bin, the Deputy Commander of the Xingzhou Central Garrison, pays his respects to the Commander!"
"Wang Gui, the hereditary deputy commander of Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard, pays his respects to the Commander!"
"Li Cheng, the hereditary commander of Zhongtun Guard in Xingzhou, pays his respects to the Commander!"
"Liu Guang, Vice Commander of Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard, pays his respects to the Commander!"
"Zhao Ming, Vice Commander of Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard, pays his respects to the Commander!"
"Wu Jizu, Left Thousand-Household Commander of Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard, pays respects to the Commander!"
Chen Ying fell silent as he watched the officers step forward and identify themselves. Hunger is something that can't be faked. Some people say that a certain star in 1942 had superb acting skills, but that's pure nonsense. How many viewers have actually seen real refugees?
Although it's easy to change clothes into worn-out ones, the officers in front of me don't seem to be faking their hunger. At least none of them are fat; almost all of them have sunken eyes, protruding cheekbones, and hardly any flesh on their bodies.
Chen Ying was filled with anger, but he really couldn't vent it at this moment. As the saying goes, even a clever cook can't cook without rice. Xingzhou Zhongtunwei is not like Guidewei. Guidewei is located in Guide Prefecture, the most fertile area of the North China Plain. The entire Guide Prefecture has more than a hundred rivers of all sizes, and there are almost no fields that lack irrigation.
As long as the Yellow River doesn't flood and cause disasters, the people of Guide Prefecture have a very high happiness index, and supporting themselves is not a problem. However, the Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard was moved from the Karahetun area in southwest Luanzhou to Liangxiang County.
Liangxiang County is now a poor place. Not only is there little arable land and resources, but the gentry are also rampant. They have no land, so what can they do?
"Zhang Changgeng!"
"Your humble servant is here!"
"Give each of their hundred households fifty shi of grain first, so that all the military households can have a bowl of thin porridge!"
"yes!"
Chen Ying is not short of food right now. He could easily feed everyone a dry meal without any problem. The problem is that these military households have been starving for too long and are severely malnourished. If they were to eat a dry meal, it might cause them problems.
However, Chen Ying's words left the military households and officers of Xingzhou Zhongtunwei stunned and at a loss.
The imperial court transferred them to Shahe and incorporated them into Shahe Guard. Chen Sheng, the original hereditary commander, was transferred to the Rear Army Commandery to serve as a third-rank commander, which can be considered as a promotion from a third-rank brigade commander to the deputy commander of the military region. It can be said that his ancestors' graves were emitting auspicious smoke.
The problem is, shouldn't Chen Boying, the newly promoted commander, find an excuse to give them a good beating and make an example of them?
How did it turn into distributing grain? Fifty shi of grain may not seem like much, but the problem is that Xingzhou Zhongtunwei has fifty centurions, and each centurion receives fifty shi, which is two thousand five hundred shi of grain, now worth more than two thousand taels of silver.
Why is Chen Boying, the newly appointed commander, different from the other commanders?
"Go inside!"
Chen Ying led officers of the rank of commander or above into the main hall of the signing office. Zhou Bin, the deputy commander, sat nervously in a chair. He looked at Wang Gui, the deputy commander. They had already discussed that they should at least raise money to give Commander Chen a congratulatory gift.
The problem was that they were too poor, and silver was definitely useless to them. However, as hereditary third-rank commanders, the two of them still had three pounds of nails in their dilapidated boat, so they prepared gifts.
Zhou Bin carefully handed a package to Chen Ying: "Commander, it's a pleasure to meet you. This is just a small token of my appreciation!"
Chen Ying opened the package, thinking it was a roster of Xingzhou Zhongtunwei, but instead found a small box. Opening the box, he discovered a bronze incense burner.
Chen Ying was slightly taken aback: "Holy crap, it must be a Xuande incense burner?"
This shouldn't be fake, right? If it's genuine, it would be worth at least tens of millions in the future.
Seeing Chen Ying's pleased expression, Zhou Bin breathed a sigh of relief.
Wang Gui placed the bundle he was carrying on the table: "Commander, this is just a small token of my appreciation."
"Commander, this is my family's heirloom sword!"
"Commander, this is a golden spear bestowed upon me by my ancestor—"
When Chen Ying took the golden spear, he found it was just a gilded spear, which was quite uninteresting. This made Zhao Ming, the commander who had given him the spear, feel uneasy.
Chen Ying knew that this was the rule in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom. If he didn't accept it, these officers probably wouldn't be able to sleep well. Of course, Chen Ying was now a wealthy man, so he naturally wouldn't take their things for free.
Chen Ying also looked at Zhou Bin and asked, "The Ministry of War only allocated 38,700 mu of military farmland in Changping. What's going on?"
"Commander, since Commander Chen Sheng succeeded to the post in the 47th year of the Wanli reign, the military farmland of Zhongtun Garrison in Xingzhou has decreased from over 47,000 mu to over 38,700 mu!"
Chen Yingdao said, "So, Chen Sheng embezzled over eight thousand mu of military farmland?"
"this----"
Zhou Bin dared not answer.
Chen Ying finally understood why Xingzhou Zhongtunwei was so poor: "The average person has less than eight-tenths of an acre of land, and it's all inferior land—how have you all survived all these years?"
It should be noted that although the military farmland of Guide Guard is no longer more than one million mu as it once was, even so, their Right Thousand Household Office still has more than 29,000 mu of land, which is more than four mu per person.
The garrisons of the Ming Dynasty were in a state of utter misery, with no limit to how bad things could get.
Commander Wang Gui said, "Reporting to the Commander, as for the living? They're just barely clinging to life, not really dead. The young and strong go to the capital to build houses and gardens for those gentlemen, working six or seven hours a day for two meals of thin porridge and a few copper coins. Those with a little strength go to the coal mines in the Western Hills—that's the King of Hell's palace, but for a bite to eat, they have to jump in. The teenagers, the elderly, and women work as day laborers for landlords near Liangxiang, weeding, picking cotton, washing clothes, feeding livestock—they do all sorts of dirty and tiring work. Even so, year after year, some people still starve to death, freeze to death, or die from exhaustion."
Zhou Bin continued, "When Emperor Wanli was alive, we could barely make ends meet. But under Emperors Taichang and Tianqi, it got harder every year. Most of the military farmland in the garrisons had already been bought, rented, or occupied by local gentry and powerful families under various pretexts. The meager land left couldn't even recoup the seeds after taxes. As for the imperial salary—ah, it hasn't been paid in full for two years. Last year, only 30% was given, and this year, we haven't seen a single grain of rice or a single copper coin."
As they spoke, these veteran military officers, who had spent most of their lives in the garrison system, began to sob like children.
"Commander—it's not that we don't want to lead the troops well—it's not that we don't want the soldiers to live better lives—it's just that we really have no other choice!"
Chen Ying fell silent.
The Xingzhou Zhongtunwei had 5,600 registered military households and 45,055 temporary military households, for a total population of over 51,600.
He feels a tightness in his chest; for others, promotion means wealth, but for him, it means financial loss.
But now, Chen Ying faces 51,655 mouths to feed, more than 50,000 people! Including the existing businesses in Shahe and the Liaodong people on Dalu Island, Chen Ying now needs to support more than 100,000 people.
This isn't a promotion; it's clearly taking on a huge burden that could crush a person. For others, a promotion brings wealth and prosperity, but for Chen Boying, it's about losing money to avoid disaster—no, it's about losing money to fill a bottomless pit.
"Zhou Tongzhi, you just mentioned that the military households went to the capital to work—what skills do they all possess? I mean, besides manual labor, are there any people skilled in carpentry, bricklaying, blacksmithing, stonemasonry, and similar crafts? How many of them are there?"
Zhou Bin paused for a moment, then said, "Sir, there are indeed skilled craftsmen. Our garrison used to be a military settlement, but later it became unsustainable, so many sons of military families learned trades to make a living. There are carpenters, bricklayers, and lacquerers; blacksmiths are fewer, but they can also make farm tools and repair weapons. The exact number—we'd have to check the records carefully—but I estimate that out of every hundred households, there are always a dozen or twenty who have formally learned a trade. Some are family heirlooms, such as repairing armor or making bows and crossbows—"
Chen Ying's eyes slowly brightened.
This can be considered a stroke of luck amidst misfortune!
These 50,000-plus people are not a mere burden, but a human resource pool that urgently needs to be developed!
In the Ming Dynasty, skilled craftsmen were a valuable asset, far surpassing ordinary laborers in worth. The development of Shahewei, whether it was the expansion of workshops, the construction of Dalu Island, or even grander future plans, was most hampered by a lack of skilled artisans.
"Song Xianze!"
"exist!"
"Take the accountant and steward, and work with Magistrate Zhou and Magistrate Wang to inventory all the registers, documents, weapons, and supplies transferred from Xingzhou Zhongtunwei. Even a single nail must be recorded! At the same time, calculate the minimum amount of grain needed to feed these 50,000 people for three months at the current grain price, how long our current grain reserves can last, and how large the shortfall is! I want to see a preliminary report tonight!"
"clear!"
Just as Chen Ying began to integrate the resources of Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard, the Tianqi Emperor, in the Forbidden City, murmured, "Wei Banpang, have I gone too far?"
Emperor Tianqi was certainly aware of what Xingzhou Zhongtun Guard was like. By giving this guard directly to Chen Boying, he was clearly considering piloting reforms to the guard system.
Wei Zhongxian pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, how about I allocate some silver and grain to them?"
"This is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause!"
Zhu Youxiao thought for a moment and said, "Then I will give him another gift!"