Chapter 1197: As a last resort

Chapter 1197: As a last resort

Chapter 1197: As a last resort

Du Chen dismounted his horse, panting, crossed the path in the field, crossed the frozen stream, turned around a small woods, and saw a dense crowd on the hillside.

"Let's go." He called out, and more than a dozen followers followed closely behind him, sliding forward step by step.

After walking a hundred steps, a young man jumped out from the roadside, raised his head and asked, "Did you bring it?"

"General Chang, please go and inform them that everything has been brought." Du Chen said, pointing to the luggage carried by his followers behind him.

"You are not worthy of the title of general." Chang Long said, "Wait a moment."

Du Chen stood on the side of the road and took a breath.

He worked as a military clerk in the Chanyu's palace for eight years, and after leaving the palace, he sought a local official position.

But what good position can a small military official get? Since the end of the Jin Dynasty, joining the army and leaving the government office can only guarantee a county magistrate. Any higher position depends on luck. He was able to get the position of Jinyang magistrate entirely due to his eight years of hard work in the bitter cold land. It was really not easy. Now it is getting harder and harder for the children of the gentry to become officials, and there are always many people vying for it.

On the distant hillside, there were many important figures in Jinyang, such as the emperor, the King of Han, the governor of Bingzhou, the prefect of Taiyuan, the commander of the Jinci Longxiang Mansion, and some courtiers who accompanied the emperor.

They were talking about military land, and Du Chen knew it very well because the emperor ordered him to bring the household and land registers of Jinyang County for reference.

It was such a cold day, but instead of going back to Luoyang to enjoy wine and women, he ran around in the wilderness, making the local officials feel like they were being whipped and unable to rest.

After waiting for half an hour, Chang Long appeared again and took Du Chen and his party in. At this time, the emperor was already in the home of a certain palace soldier.

Du Chen looked carefully at the soldier's home.

As soon as you enter the house, there are three rooms on the left, middle and right. The middle one is the hall, which is slightly larger. On the right is the residence of the soldier and his wife, and on the left is the residence of his parents.

There is a left wing on the left side of the house, with a total of three small rooms, two for living, one for the two sons, one for the two daughters, and the other is a kitchen.

On the right are two more houses. One is very poorly built, made of branches and mud, and it seems that seven or eight sheep are kept in it. The other one is a woodshed.

All the houses are surrounded by fences, forming a yard, which is the front yard.

There are two pear trees, two apricot trees and a jujube tree planted on the left side of the front yard, avoiding the door and taking up a large part of the courtyard space.

The right side was opened up as a vegetable patch, and a well was dug in the middle.

There was a small door in the fence wall between the right wing and the main house. Outside the door, there was a pile of straw against the wall, which could be used for firewood, but was usually used to feed livestock.

A small pond was dug next to it, and seven or eight mulberry trees were planted around the pond.

There is a small house next to the pond, where four people, two adults and two children, live. They are standing at the door and quietly looking over here. They should be his family members.

There was a ditch outside the left wing, and outside the ditch lived two families, arranged in a row, not very big, and they seemed to be his family's followers.

The soldier seemed to be renovating the space behind the house.

It was a depression with traces of earth being filled in. It looked like they were going to compact it and then build a house.

After returning from the expedition to Shu, they all had money and became more concerned about running their family business.

To be honest, this family can still survive for now, and the soldiers have enough money and food to maintain their fighting power, but what about the future? Land is the key.

"You are still young, only thirty-one or thirty-two, and you already have two sons and two daughters. What will you do if you have more children in the future?" Shao Xun waved his hand, asked Du Chen to sit over, then looked at the dark-complexioned soldier and asked.

"The eldest daughter is fourteen and is ready to get married." The palace soldier said, "The eldest son is eleven this year. He started practicing martial arts at the age of seven and has some talent. He will be the successor to the military in the future."

"Where is Erlang?" Shao Xun asked.

The palace soldier was obviously a little hesitant, and said: "Thanks to your majesty, the victory in the expedition to Shu has won a lot of money and silk rewards. I can already build another room. My house and garden are several acres, which is enough."

Shao Xun nodded.

The soldier's parents were around fifty years old. Besides farming, they also wove baskets at home. After they passed away, one main room was actually vacant, and this man planned to build three more main rooms, so that even after his two sons got married, there would still be enough place to live - he probably also took into account the birth of children in the future.

It was obvious that in addition to marrying off his daughter, the soldier very much wanted all his existing and future sons to live with him.

This is human nature.

From the perspective of the government soldiers, they cultivate 50 acres of the 200 acres of land themselves, and give the other 150 acres to three households of the troops. They can agree on the share of the profits, and the specific proportion depends on the negotiation and the relationship between them. They cannot be too harsh on the troops, after all, they have to go to the battlefield.

I have two sons now, so what if I give them 50 acres? It is not impossible to make do with the remaining 150 acres.

Of course, at this time he would not consider that the tribesmen would also grow in population.

But from the perspective of the court, 200 acres of land had to feed more people, and the consumption increased, and the surplus decreased, which would reflect on the economic strength of the soldiers. Not to mention, many soldiers did not get the full 200 acres of land, and many of them got more than 100 acres.

After a great defeat, how long will it take you to buy a new set of armor?
Having armor on the battlefield or not is two completely different things, and the combat effectiveness is incomparable.

It is true that if there is not enough land, the court can use other means, such as granting political privileges to stimulate their morale, but land is ultimately the foundation.

This is the difference between the two sides' positions. "Your Majesty, I have made a contribution and can buy land." Seeing Shao Xun did not speak, the palace soldier said softly: "When I pacified Shu, I went into battle once, was in the middle of the battle once, and was defeated once, and I won every time. I don't know how much I earned, I have to go to the military office to check, but it should be a lot."

"Great!" Shao Xun praised, then looked at Shao Jie and Du Chen and asked, "How are the household registrations in Taiyuan and Jinyang?"

Shao Jie was well prepared and immediately replied: "We just checked in the fourth year of Kaiping, and there are more than 65,000 households and more than 235,000 people in the nine counties of Taiyuan."

After Shao Jie finished speaking, Du Chen said, "There are 19,200 households and 81,700 people in Jinyang County."

"Is there any room?" Shao Xun asked.

"There are very few in Jinyang," Du Chen replied, "The military office has already occupied most of the farmland, so there is nothing left. If we cultivate the small flat lands in the mountains, we may be able to get some, but we need to reclaim the wasteland."

"Your Majesty, there may still be some wasteland in Pingyao, Yangqu and other counties, but Jinyang is indeed gone." Shao Jie also said.

Shao Xun basically believed this.

Seeing that there were few wealthy families in this place and most of the common people had been killed or wounded or had almost all fled, he tried his best to station soldiers here. There were 9,600 soldiers and 38,400 households in Taiyuan Prefecture alone. A careful calculation showed that military personnel accounted for 60% of the population in Taiyuan, while wealthy families and ordinary people only got the remaining 40%.

This is just the household registration. If the land is counted, the proportion of Taiyuan soldiers will be even higher, far more than 60%.

They already control most of the local resources.

Since the Han Dynasty, Taiyuan has been considered a very maturely developed area. Its potential has been largely exhausted and it can only support a population of about 200,000 or 300,000. If there are more, they will all suffer from poverty. Or there must be external transfusions, so that more people can be supported.

"You have traveled a lot, so you should know the situation of the counties." Shao Xun said, "In the Jin Dynasty, Taiyuan had more than ten counties. During my reign, several counties were merged, leaving only eight counties. Loufan was added, making a total of nine counties. Ten years have passed, and Taiyuan has continued to have people moving in. The merged deserted counties have prospered again. When I went north, I went to Pingyao County (the original Wu, Zhongdu, and Jingling counties were merged) to take a look. There were children all over the place, and they asked me where I came from with a smile."

When everyone heard this, they laughed a few times to join in the fun.

"I am also very happy to see this. Haven't I fought for half my life just to let the people live and work in peace and contentment?" Shao Xun said, "But it is precisely because of the increase in the population that now only Yangqu, Pingyao, Qi and other places in Taiyuan County still have some wasteland."

"You are all veterans of many battles and have made many achievements. I do not want to treat you too harshly. Are you willing to buy the wasteland in this county? If not, you can only go to other counties."

The implicit meaning of this statement is that your 200 acres of land cannot be divided, but you can go to Pingyao, Yangqu, Qi and other counties to buy land on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are late, it will be gone.

This was actually a small concession made by Shao Xun. He was really tolerant and patient towards the palace soldiers.

After hearing what Shao Xun said, the palace soldier was actually a little hesitant.

"If you don't want to, the Anbei Protectorate needs garrison troops in Woye Town." Shao Xun added: "If you make merit and receive a reward, even an official will not be out of reach."

"I am willing." The soldier replied immediately after hearing this.

What is Anbei Protectorate? It sounds like a bitter and cold place. If you go there to serve as a garrison soldier, you may never come back in your life, and you may not even be able to find your wife.

"That's great." Shao Xun said with a smile, "Among the 300 guards here, have any of them been allocated land?"

The palace soldier hesitated and said, "Yes. Some of the older ones whose children are already adults and married have been separated long ago."

Shao Xun looked at King Han and said, "Wu Lang, this is what you have to do next. Thoroughly check the land records of the government soldiers and take back all the land that has been privately distributed."

"If the government soldiers want to turn their own children into soldiers, that's fine. The soldiers were originally recruited by the court and placed elsewhere."

"If you want to buy land for your own children, I will listen to you."

"I have made up my mind. Although the country has only been established for six years, the government has been in power for more than six years. There are many problems accumulated during this period. It is hard to imagine not visiting once."

"Investigate the Left and Right Jinwu Guards. Count the Left and Right Xiaoqi and the Left and Right Yulin. My son can be the 'Six Guards Investigation and Disposal Envoy'. He can appoint his own subordinates and recruit a thousand soldiers. All expenses will be provided by the Ministry of Finance. Once the task is completed, we can stop."

As soon as this order was given, everyone looked at the young man next to Shao Xun with scrutiny.

The inspection of the fields of the Left and Right Cavalry, the Left and Right Yulin, and the Left and Right Jinwu, a total of 48,000 soldiers, required the cooperation of not only the military but also the local government.

This kind of "envoy" official has always had unlimited power because of the authority granted by the emperor. If someone knows how to play, they can abuse their power to do many things.

"The soldiers are the guards of the country, so they are granted land and generous support. Those who are not listed in the military register cannot privately divide the military land." Shao Xun looked at the soldiers sitting opposite him and said, "I am not making things difficult for you, but I have to do this to prevent problems from happening."

The palace soldier looked at Shao Xun and said, "I have received great favor from Your Majesty. I will do whatever Your Majesty says."

He did have emotions, but when facing Shao Xun, he was willing to suppress his dissatisfaction, because everything he had was given by Shao Xun, and he was grateful.

Seeing this, Shao Xun became increasingly aware of one thing: when he did some things, even if he offended people, there would be no trouble, because he had the prestige to suppress dissatisfaction.

It is estimated that it will take at least a year to check the land of the soldiers across the country, and it will also take a long time to clean up after the check.

Ten years later, if he were still alive, he would certainly conduct a second census and strive to pass on a relatively healthy military system to the next generation.

This was the best he could do, at least extending the life of the soldiers by more than twenty years.

(End of this chapter)