Chapter 4 The Weeping Military Household
Chapter 4: Military Household Who Makes Tears? ()
Huang Laifu walked out of Qianhu House, and outside the street was the city of Wuzhai Fort. When he walked outside the gate, a cold wind blew in his face, slamming some snow particles into his face. Fortunately, Huang Laifu inherited the strong body of his body, so this cold had no effect on him.
Looking at Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu again, they were breathing white, and they looked normal. Obviously, they were used to this kind of weather.
Huang Laifu sighed and stood at the gate and looked around. Looking around, the city of Wuzhai Fort was similar to the small rural towns in remote mountainous areas in later generations.
In addition to his own thousand-household houses, nearby government offices, several deputy thousand-household, tutoring, and hundreds of houses would be more tidy. Most of them were earthen houses, thatched huts, etc. There were a few ragged people walking on the street, or squatting or standing in various corners, looking at Huang Laifu standing at the door with awe.
There are several streets. Except for the main street leading to Qianhu House and the official office, which is paved with big bluestone, the others are dirt roads. Snowflakes fall on it, making these places hard. It is cold, without popularity, and without vitality. 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, he still felt depressed and deserted when he saw it with his own eyes.
"Young Master, are you going to get on the horse?" Jiang Dazhong led a few horses. The Huang family has inherited thousands of households in Wuzhaibao for generations. Over the years, they finally accumulated dozens of horses' private property, most of which were used on the servants. Huang Laifu naturally also had the right to use these horses. The former Huang Laifu's horse had broken his legs when something happened, and I don't know what Huang Sihao did.
"Okay!" Huang Laifu withdrew his gaze and took the leather gloves handed over by Yang Xiaolu. These were the original Huang Laifu's equipment.
A large rectangular horse-mounted stone lying horizontally near the wall of the stone drum gate of Qianhu House, and next to it is a thick horse-mounted stone pile that is nearly one person tall, round and square. This is usually used for Qianhu House people to board horses and tie horses.
Huang Laifu inherited his previous physical memory and ability, so there was no problem with riding a horse. He stepped on the horse-mounted stone and turned over. The half-cow leather boots under his feet were already put into the kickstand and rode steadily. He took the whip handed over by Jiang Dazhong, whipped a crisp sound in the air, and said, "Go!" and then controlled the horse to move forward. Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu quickly rode behind him.
Huang Laifu controlled his reins and walked slowly on the street. He needed to observe the overall situation of the Qianhu House of Five Villages and Forts.
According to Huang Laifu's original memory data, there are 1,000 households in Wuzhai Fort, 1,000 households, 100 households, 13 officials of all sizes, 1,120 flag soldiers, and the jurisdiction of the surrounding forts and nine fire roads.
The surrounding area of Wuzhai Fort is 2,0212 steps, and the height is three feet three feet. The walls of the military fort were first built with soil. Later in the early years of Wanli, some Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area entered Shanxi Town and threatened Wuzhai Fort, so they used bricks and stones to build the walls.
There are main streets and lanes in the fort. In addition to residential buildings, there are also living building facilities such as temples, archways, and wells. In addition, there are also important military facilities such as barracks, military granaries, and horse farms in Wuzhai Fort. There is also a palace in charge of military weapons - the Military Weapon Bureau and the Shenji Hangar, which is a "special fire-cquiring weapon" and the Gunpowder Bureau. There is a field for sergeants for training a few hundred meters outside the fort, and a martial arts hall for officers to command and rest.
According to statistics, the population of the entire Wuzhai Fort, including the quota soldiers, and some of the forts scattered throughout Wuzhai Fort, together with their families, also looks like thousands of people.
In the Ming Dynasty, the military-region soldiers and their descendants were hereditary soldiers. No matter where they garrisoned, their wives and children had to follow each other. In this way, with the military-region system, a large number of military households affiliated with the military were generated: Sheding (i.e., the children of officers) and Junyu (i.e., the children of soldiers).
This is the memory in Huang Laifu's mind. It's basically the same when you go along. Wuzhai Fort is not big, just a few streets, and Huang Laifu soon inspected it.
There is only one main street, which is the one leading to Qianhu House and the official office. In addition to some shops opened by local military families, there are also some shops run by foreign merchants. But to be honest, there is no business in Wuzhai Fort, and these military families are just making money.
Obviously, Wuzhaibao cannot attract many merchants, and the people in this place obviously have no purchasing power. Merchants may have gathered in Ningwu Pass, where the towns and towns of Shanxi are located, with many military generals. Or where there are many gathered in Pianguan, where they can trade with Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area.
The near Qianhu House may be considered a "rich area" of Wuzhaibao. The further away from Qianhu House, the more people in ragged clothes on the streets, Huang Laifu saw many skinny people wearing tattered clothes and listless.
If it weren't for the Ming military uniform, others would have thought he was a bandit. There were not only one or two such people, or the majority, all of them were scattered throughout the Wuzhai Fort. There were also some women and children walking on the street, and they were all unclothed. Plus the low and dilapidated houses next to them. This was not a military castle, it was clearly a beggar's nest.
Everyone on the street saw Huang Laifu and the other two riding horses, and they dodged one after another and whispered: "Huang Laihu is here, everyone should dodge it, otherwise they will be whipped." The women also hurriedly pulled their children aside and cast their eyes at Huang Laifu with fear.
Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu, who were behind Huang Laifu, were yelling from behind, "Doway, dodge, young master is traveling, if you don't, just wait and eat the whip." The two looked proud, as if they were going with Huang Laifu in the past, they had done a lot of work.
Huang Laifu was in a heavy mood. He didn't expect that Wuzhai Fort was so poor and that he was going to take over such a mess, which seemed to be very bad for his own prospects. He had seen some tragic experiences of Ming Dynasty soldiers in historical materials, but he didn't expect to see them with his own eyes, which was even more unbearable.
You can imagine how to fight such an army. No wonder the military household system was gradually dominated by the recruiting and battalion system in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. And if you lead such an army, you should not want any development. Just wait for the old one at Wuzhai Fort. This is a serious blow to your newly ignited ambition.
In fact, there were less than 800 soldiers with the quota of 1,120 soldiers in Wuzhai Fort, plus those who fled and those who were empty-handed, and nearly half of the elderly and weak were only about 400 young and strong. The one who was truly capable of fighting was the 60 servants of Huang Sihao, a thousand households.
Huang Laifu sighed: "I didn't expect that my Wuzhai Fort Army will be so poor!"
Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu were accustomed to this situation. Wang Dazhong heard Huang Laifu's words from behind and replied loudly: "Young Master, you are not at Wuzhai Fort on the first day. This Wuzhai Fort has been like this for many years. Not to mention Wuzhai Fort, I heard that many military households in the garrison were the same, otherwise why do you call us poor military men?"
Huang Laifu's face was gloomy. Jiang Dazhong was going to speak, but Yang Xiaolu gave him a wink, and Jiang Dazhong immediately didn't dare to say anything.
Huang Laifu rode his horse and walked silently. In fact, the situations that Huang Laifu saw were very common in border troops and local garrisons at that time, and it was not just Wuzhaibao.
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 important sources of military personnel in the country. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty strictly controlled military households, and ordinary military households had to serve for life. Only when they became the Shangshu could they be exempted from military borrowing. There were only a handful of people who could become Shangshu, so the number of people who were exempted from military borrowing was limited.
The treatment of military households is also very low. In addition to giving away one surplus to serve as a military officer, each military household must also give up one more surplus and serve as a military officer. Some places even ordered each military household to offer 2-3 surplus and engage in various heavy labor services with the army.
When military officers go to the garrison to serve, the costs of their military uniforms and journeys are borne by the family. During the garrison, the military officers wear their own clothes and their food and salary does not increase due to the increase in their population. Therefore, the wives and children of the military officers are often not covered in clothes and food and food. Military households are not exempted from some corvee service because of providing military officers, and their living conditions are not as good as those of the civilian households. Not only are the family members, but the military officers who come to the garrison are not much better than their families. Military officers are exploited by the officers, and military rations are often deducted by the officers or are not owed. Some military officers even do not pay military salary for several years, and some soldiers make a living by begging.
During the service, the military officers were still enslaved by the government, officials and powerful officials to do hard work. Some major projects were often completed by the military officers, such as building palaces, imperial tombs, dredging river channels, etc.
In some garrisons, the military farms of the soldiers were occupied by the generals and the generals and officials asked the soldiers to farm for them, and even asked the soldiers to fish and pick wood for them, selling private goods. Sergeants have become tools and hard labor in their hands.
In addition to the above-mentioned unfair treatment, military officials are also strictly restricted in marriage. The Guards stipulate that soldiers must have wives and are not allowed to be single. Because soldiers not only have the obligation to serve, but also shoulder the responsibility of giving birth to the next generation of soldiers for the garrison. For this reason, the marriage of military households is subject to various strict restrictions, and the children of military households are not allowed to marry out of the households to avoid outflow of personnel. If military households want to intermarry with civilian households, they will be in danger of intermarrying with military households. The descendants will never escape the harsh constraints of military borrowing.
Ming sergeants were also subject to strict military laws. Guard soldiers were often insulted, beaten, tortured by their superiors, and those who violated the law were undoubtedly severely punished. For example, officers and sergeants learned to sing in the capital, cut off their tongues, and businessmen were sent to remote areas to serve as soldiers.
The above all led to a large number of soldiers fleeing, and the phenomenon of military households escaping military service was even more serious. Some garrisons were short of vacancies, some even more than half, and some were only a few people left. According to records, in the third year of Zhengtong (1438), there were as many as 1.2 million fugitive soldiers nationwide. The troops of the garrison were seriously insufficient. In this year, Li Chun, the supervisor of Shandong, inspecting a hundred households, found that the institute should have 112 flag soldiers, but because of the escape of sergeants, only one person remained. The system of garrisons gradually lost its historical role.
Chapter completed!