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Zhu Chongba at the end of Ming Dynasty, Volume 1, Chapter 522, Extra training and payment

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    Spring, the twelfth year of Chongzhen!

    The ancient imperial capital is immersed in a strange atmosphere. Whether it is civil or military officials or ordinary people, they can feel the smell of decadence permeating the majestic imperial capital, as if the doomsday is overwhelming.

    It turns out that this atmosphere was brought about by the Qing soldiers.

    Last winter, the Qing army, led by Prince Dorgon and Beile Yuetuo, broke through the Great Wall on the left and right wings and attacked the Ming Dynasty in a massive way.  The Qing army moved down to Fengrun, met in Nengzhou and Hexi, and circled the Ming capital from the north to Zhuozhou.  However, Li's troops were divided into eight groups and advanced side by side.  The capital of the Ming Dynasty was shaken. Supervisor Lu Xiangsheng led his army to meet the enemy. He fought with the Qing soldiers and was ambushed in Jiazhuang. He died fighting hard.  At that time, Gao Qi lurked at the pass, and Ning's heavy troops were close to Jize, fifty miles away, but did not go to help.  When he heard that Xiang was defeated, he was frightened and wanted to flee west. He actually led his army twenty miles eastward. When he encountered the enemy's ambush, he was defeated and fled alone.  Liu Yuliang, who asked himself to supervise the military situation, went to Baoding and heard of the defeat. He also retreated into Jinzhou in panic. The Qing army took advantage of the victory and marched straight in. They fell into Changping, Baodi, Pinggu and other places, and the capital was shocked.

    The Qing army took advantage of the victory and drove southward.  All the parliamentary towns were attacked and plundered.  The officials and generals who guarded the city in the Ming Dynasty either cowered or fled.  The Qing army attacked, killed and looted captives in Jifu, conquering forty-three cities and leaving the capital in ruins.

    In the first month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the Qing army marched south from the capital and invaded Shandong.  Yang Sichang, the assistant commander at the time, believed that Dezhou was the only place the Qing army would pass through when marching south, so he sent a message to the governor of Shandong, Yan Jizu, to lead his troops to guard it.  As a result, Jinan was empty, with only 500 rural soldiers and 700 reinforcements from Laizhou, making it too weak to defend.  The Qing army headed west from Jifu, arrived at the border of Shanxi, then turned south and bypassed Dezhou.  It goes down to Linqing, crosses Huitong River, and goes straight to the foot of Jinan City.  The Ming army refused to defend the city and fought to the death.  On the second day of the lunar month, many people died in the fighting in the streets when the city collapsed.  The German king Zhu Youshu, Fengguo general Zhu Enshang and others were captured after their capitals were destroyed.

    Under such huge pressure, it is strange that the atmosphere in the capital can be good.

    It was the time for the court meeting. Emperor Chongzhen was sitting on the dragon chair as usual, with hundreds of civil and military officials lined up on the left and right.  A few years ago, Emperor Chongzhen's figure was a little rickety. Looking at it now, it just feels like he has aged dozens of years.  The hair is gray.  His energy was also quite depressed. He used to lose his temper easily, but now he didn't even have the energy to lose his temper. He just looked at the officials in the hall feebly.  The thought of killing all these trashes surged in his heart.

    At this time, a minister was standing in the hall.  Reporting on the military situation of bandits and bandits in various places.  He raised his voice and said: "According to the spies' report, Li Zicheng has captured Luoyang, Zhang Xianzhong has captured Xiangyang, and the fifth battalion of Gezuo is with Zhang Xianzhong, operating near the two lakes As for the most troublesome Zhu Ba uh"

    Chongzhen snorted and said, "What's wrong with Zhu Ba? Just tell me" He has too many lice now and is not afraid of being bitten.  Anyway, the world is in ruins, and no news will scare him anymore.

    The minister wiped his sweat and reported in a low voice: "Zhu Ba defeated the Xidong soldiers and Miao soldiers in Huangniwa. The governor of Sichuan was isolated and helpless. Chengdu was surrounded by the bandit army. The bandit army deployed many cannons and bombarded them morning and evening.  The city of Chengdu can only be destroyed in a matter of seconds."

    After hearing this, Chongzhen was not angry at all. He just had the thought in his heart that "it is indeed this kind of news." He said with a mocking look on his face: "Isn't the old General Qin Liangyu, the Shizhu ambassador, also in Chengdu?"  With Old General Qin here, how can the traitor army be so arrogant?"

    The minister was a little afraid and said: "Well uh um it's like this. Shao Jiechun, the governor of Sichuan, Lord Shao couldn't trust ahem he couldn't trust the Tujia soldiers, so he transferred them out of Chengdu and stationed them in Chongqing. This is  He thought that Chengdu and Chongqing could be on each other's side and support each other at any time, but Zhu Ba was extremely cunning. While besieging Chengdu, he actually sent an army to attack Chongqing on the main road between Chengdu and Chongqing. Qin Liangyu  The general was restrained by this bandit army and could not move"

    After Chongzhen heard this, a flash of anger flashed on his face, but he quickly suppressed the anger. In the more than ten years since he took the throne, he has seen too many trash like Shao Jiechun. Now he can't even get angry.  Woke up.  He just waved his hand casually and sighed: "Send the order to remove Shao Jiechun from his post and order Liao Daheng to temporarily take over the post of governor of Sichuan."

    The minister wanted to tell Chongzhen that Chengdu had been besieged. Shao Jiechun could not get out at all, and the court's envoys could not get in. He had to find people to remove him from his post, but when he saw Chongzhen's unmotivated face,  He said nothing and backed away obediently.

    At this time, a eunuch rushed in from outside the palace, shouting loudly as he ran: "Your Majesty, happy news, happy news!"

    Chongzhen frowned: "The world is so rotten, how can there be any joy?"

    The eunuch loudly said: "After Prince Dorgon of the Qing Dynasty led his army to plunder, he returned from the northeast of Shandong to Tianjin Wei, crossed the canal and returned eastward. On the ninth day of March, the Qing army exited the Qingshan Pass and returned to Liaodong"

    Before he finished speaking, the audience in the hallAll the officials were overjoyed and started talking loudly: "Ha, the Qing troops have retreated."

    "Great, the Qing soldiers are finally gone"

    "Thank God!"

    "Good luck to your Majesty!"

    The civil and military officials responded with their hats, as if they were celebrating a festival, but there was no joy in Emperor Chongzhen's heart.

    The Tatars entered the pass for half a year, penetrated 2,000 miles, captured one prefecture, three prefectures, fifty-five counties, and two passes; they killed two governors and more than a hundred generals above the garrison; they captured more than 460,000 people and gold.  More than four thousand taels, and more than 970,000 taels of silver.

    People come when they want and leave when they want. The Ming army cannot defeat the Tatars, cannot stop the Tatars, and cannot drive away the Tatars. They are completely passive. Now the Tatars have robbed enough and finally left. These useless officials actually act like they are celebrating a festival.  You are equally happy, what are you so happy about?  Should we be happy or sad now?

    Emperor Chongzhen waved his hands helplessly and said to the civil and military officials: "Jing Jing, what are you so happy about? While the Tatars are gone, you can take a breath. It's time to quickly think of ways to solve the problem.  In order to overcome foreign aggression, the world has no more available soldiers, what do you think about it?"

    A minister said: "We need more troops!"

    Chongzhen heard that he only said that he wanted to increase troops, but there was nothing more to say. He couldn't help but ask: "All registered military households in the world have been deployed to fight, and they are still stretched thin. Where else can we recruit troops?"

    The minister sweated and said: "I'm a humble ministercough, I don't know either"

    Chongzhen is unhappy, this is just someone who talks nonsense. Why is it that when I govern the country, my subordinates are all mediocre and useless officials?

    A young official squeezed out of the crowd and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I have a way of recruiting troops."

    When Chongzhen heard this, he was immediately overjoyed. He looked intently and saw that the person speaking was Shen Xun, the head of the Ministry of War.  This person is flexible in thinking.  Usually he has many wild and unconstrained ideas, and occasionally he can come up with strange plans to solve problems, so he happily said: "Say it quickly!"

    Shen Xun saw that the emperor valued him.  I was also very proud of myself.  He said smugly: "We have a plan. Let's put all the monks and nuns in the world into pairs, put them into armor, and select one from every three households to be a soldier. Train day and night, and within a few years, we can have elite soldiers.  a few millions¡­¡­"

    Chongzhen's vision went dark, and a mouthful of old blood almost spurted out of his throat. What nonsense was this man talking about, putting monks and nuns together?  Is this fucking crazy?

    Even though he was already riddled with lice and was not afraid of being bitten, and had seen all kinds of trash, he couldn't help but jump up and said angrily: "Are you taking state affairs as a joke? You are so confused Come on, take this  Sicha, please leave the palace."

    The golden-armored guard came out of the palace and used the golden fork in his hand to skewer Shen Xun out of the palace. Shen Xun rolled around while shouting: "Your Majesty, the plan proposed by Wei Chen is definitely feasibleit's feasible.  ¡­¡­feasible¡­¡­"

    "That's not feasible!" Chongzhen couldn't help but swore.

    Some of the civil and military officials in the hall were suppressing laughter, some were startled, and they were all in different shapes.

    It took a while, but Chongzhen finally suppressed the anger surging in his heart, returned to a calm expression, sat on the dragon chair, and sighed: "What Shen Xun said is never mentioned again, and the ministers will never mention it again."  Think about it, is there any other way?"

    At this time, a military attache walked out of the hall. Everyone saw him as Deputy Commander-in-Chief Yang Dezheng. He said seriously: "Your Majesty, I believe that the reason why the rogue bandits are so difficult to pacify is because they appear and disappear, and are pursued by the heavenly soldiers."  Otherwise, if we want to destroy the bandits, we should strengthen the local military commanders so that the thieves will be beaten wherever they go. Wei Chen believes that we should focus on training the rural warriors."

    Chongzhen finally heard something slightly reliable. He perked up and asked, "How to do it?"

    Yang Dezheng said: "We implement training all over the country. To be specific, the government magistrates go to pass the judge and equip the training equipment. The level is equivalent to the official and military garrison; the state magistrates go to the magistrates, the county magistrates are the bookkeepers, and the additional equipment is trained."  The position of general is equivalent to the general level. Lianbei and Lianzong are subordinate to the prefect, prefecture, and county magistrates, and are specifically responsible for training the militia. The mission of the militia is to defend the countryside and may not be transferred to other places. The amount is also specified, and each prefecture has one militia training officer.  One thousand, seven hundred in the state, and five hundred in the county. In this way, every government, every state, and every county will have troops stationed there. The thieves will be beaten no matter where they go, and it will be much easier for my heavenly soldiers to pursue them."

    After hearing this, Chongzhen felt that it was reasonable, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was wrong and asked: "The rural warriors in each prefecture and county are all organized by the squires and landlords Why does the court need to organize it again?"

    Yang Dezheng said: "The rural warriors organized by the squires themselves are mixed, their combat effectiveness is extremely poor, and they are not willing to be dispatched. They have no effect at all. It is better for our court to manage them."

    Chongzhen thought that this was true, but he immediately discovered thatA new question was asked quickly: "If the country's bravery is trained by the imperial court, doesn't it mean that the imperial court has to pay for it?"

    Yang Dezheng said: "Our Ming Dynasty is rich all over the world. Even the gentry can afford to support the rural warriors. How can our court not be able to support them? It's just a small amount of money, which is not worth mentioning."

    Small money?  Chongzhen felt a little sluggish in his energy and blood, and his head was a little dizzy. You don't know how expensive firewood and rice are because you are not a householder, but I know, my clothes are all patched, how can I use the money to support the hometown warriors?

    A civil servant poked his head out and hummed: "Your Majesty, why don't we charge another 'training salary'"

    "More rates?" Chongzhen's face changed color, and several civil servants in the hall also changed their expressions: "Your Majesty, it was only ten years since Chongzhen's reign that we collected the rates. The people are already suffering terribly, so now we are adding more rates This  Howhow can this be done?"

    The civil servant from before immediately retorted: "Why can't it work? An increase of three or four taels of silver per mu will not hurt! The increased grain harvest will be used to train the brave soldiers of the village, and hundreds of thousands of troops can be obtained day and night."

    Hearing that hundreds of thousands of troops could be obtained, Chongzhen was quite moved.

    I could only hear a few civil servants arguing back and forth in the hall, constantly regurgitating the ancient sayings of saints to refute each other.  He had no intention of continuing to listen. He only thought about the benefits of adding hundreds of thousands of troops. After thinking for a long time, Chongzhen patted Yu Ruyi and said loudly: "Stop arguing, I have made up my mind. I will issue an announcement and collect training wages."  , it will hurt our people for a year If we get hundreds of thousands of troops, we will also protect their safety."

    As soon as this order comes out.  Hundreds of officials can no longer argue.  Everyone lowered their heads. Soon after, the Ministry of Household Affairs calculated the land area and population and took out a statistical sheet.  Calculated.  This time, more than 7.3 million taels of silver will be collected for training

    The twelfth year of Chongzhen.  summer!

    Sichuan, Shizhu, Tujia people.  Wanshou Village.

    It is the corn harvest season, and all the Tujia people¡¯s faces are filled with smiles.  When Xia Erduo first came to Shizhu to promote corn to them, the Tujia people were very repelled by him. Almost no one gave Xia Erduo a good look, and all the Tujia people had gloomy faces.

    However, for the sake of the young master's life, the Tujia people had no choice but to lower their heads and follow Xia Erduo to learn the techniques of growing corn. At that time, they never thought that what the thief told them was true One acre of corn field, really  You can harvest six to seven hundred kilograms of grain.

    When the harvest season arrived, smiles finally appeared on their faces. Only then did they realize that Zhu Jun sent them to teach them skills, but in fact it was not harming them, but helping them.

    The tax system adopted by the Shizhu Tujia people is different from that of the imperial court, because they are self-made by the chieftains, so they do not need to pay various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes like the Han people under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. Instead, they adopt a tax rate of ten to five and pay the harvested grain to Qin Liangyu.  This tax rate sounds very high, but in fact it is not necessarily high compared to the Han people.  Because the Han people were subjected to all kinds of random salary increases, in fact the taxes of the Han people were as high as eight out of ten taxes, or even nine out of ten taxes.

    Under the basic tax rate of 10 to 50 jins, Tujia people used to harvest about 120 kilograms of grain from one acre of land and paid half of it, so they could keep 60 jins. Now, they can harvest 600 to 700 kilograms from one acre of land and pay half of it.  In the first half, they could still keep more than 300 kilograms. This huge difference made them almost crazy about it.

    Five million kilograms of grain, which used to sound scary, doesn't feel that much now, because any village can produce close to one hundred thousand kilograms of grain. In other words, any village can provide 40,000 to 50,000 kilograms of grain.  How much tax can all the Tujia villages add up?  A mere five million kilograms of grain is nothing to worry about.

    At this time, Qin Liangyu was in Chongqing, and Ma Xianglin was a prisoner in Zhu Jun. Several Tujia elders who stayed in Wanshou Village quickly got busy, counting the grain obtained this year, and loading it into trucks, intending to transport it to Zhu Jun to redeem the young master.  .

    Xia Erduo was walking among the fields, followed by a large group of Tujia girls.

    A little girl with watery eyes pulled Xia Erduo's sleeve and said openly: "Mr. Xia, my father told me to invite you to my house for a simple meal so that our family can thank you.  My father had a bad attitude towards you when you were in the village just now. Now that I think about it, I am so sorry sir My father wants to apologize to you."

    Another little girl with very thin and straight legs also squeezed over, pulled Xia Erduo's other sleeve, and said in a clear voice: "Don't go to her house, come to my house first Our father also  I understand, Mr. Xia is a good man. You made the excuse that you want us to grow corn to redeem the young master. In fact, you are basically lying to us. You just want to use this method to force us to grow corn. This is all for our own good Our family is ready  We¡¯ve got good wine and good food, waiting for you to go.¡±

    "Hey!" Big eyesThe barking girl was dissatisfied and said angrily to the one who came after her: "What do you mean? I was the one who invited Mr. Xia first."

    The girl with thin and straight legs was also dissatisfied, and hummed: "How can there be a first-come, first-served basis in this kind of thing? It depends on who Mr.  Mr. Xia will definitely choose me."

    The girl with watery eyes also hummed: "Besides your legs, where else can you look? Of course Mr. Xia likes me."

    Their fight immediately made Xia Erduo dizzyAre they vying for a treat?  Are you still fighting for a man?  Xia Erduo felt a chill coming out of his heart, and he couldn't accept it.

    ??At this time, Han women paid more attention to the three obediences and the four virtues, and would never do anything to rob a man in broad daylight.  But for ethnic minority girls, it is very normal to snatch men. If they love a certain man, they will even stand on the top of the mountain and sing a folk song loudly. If the man is also interested, he will sing a folk song and then  You can come to propose marriage.  This cheerful and generous personality immediately made Xia Erduo, an honest man, unable to resist.

    He was originally an honest man. Although he had achieved a certain status in the Zhu army, he did not use his power to gain any benefits for himself. He did not seize women from good families or anything like that. He only knew how to run around in the fields all day long.  Therefore, I have never been married, and I feel quite powerless when facing women.  If a newbie like him met a shy little girl, the two of them might be able to experience what green love is.  But it's a pity that he, a newbie, met a cheerful and generous Tujia girl from the beginning. This is really the little white rabbit fell into the big bad wolf's mouth.

    ¡°And it¡¯s not just one big bad wolf, it¡¯s a pack of big bad wolves.

    In addition to the little girl with watery eyes and the girl with thin and straight legs, a large group of Tujia girls gathered around, holding hands and pulling clothes, making a mess.  Some who couldn't squeeze in even sang folk songs outside

    Xia Erduo flattened his mouth and wailed: "What can we do?" (To be continued. Mobile phone users please go and read.)
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