Emperor Ming Dynasty

The sky is green and the fields are vast.

After the heavy snow melted, the grassland was moistened by water, a large number of grass seeds sprouted, and various animals were also active. For the herdsmen, after the white disaster, this is the happiest moment.

Batu rode a horse and grazed the lord's family and his own cattle and sheep.

A few hounds are fat and strong, jumping aside, with sharp canine teeth, staring at the distance, it seems that animals drinking water in the distance are hiding wolves.

Batu didn't care. In this spring, there were a lot of wild animals, and the wolves would live comfortably for a few months. Naturally, they would not risk their lives to offend humans.

His eyes were blank, thinking about the current situation.

Last winter, his wife Aruna gave him a baby boy, survived the winter and came to summer, but the future family is very difficult.

There are only a hundred sheep in his family, and apart from paying taxes, he can only support two or three people. Now there are five people in his family, and it is very difficult to support them.

At this time, he was looking forward to fighting instead.

Because only in war, there will be plunder and capture, so that you can have more cattle and sheep to support your family.

When the sun sets on the western mountain, the cattle and sheep will be driven back to the sheepfolds of the people who turned back, and then their own ones will be driven back, and it will already be dark.

The few children had long been eagerly sitting around the fire, watching the bubbling earthen pots hanging, almost drooling three feet.

The wife threw the dry cow dung into the fire, then picked up the stick, stirred it in the clay pot, and threw a little salt in the anticipation of the children.

Seeing this, Batu took out a few pieces of dried meat the size of a thumb, and threw them into the earthenware pot. Inside was thin rice mixed with wild vegetables. Now that a few pieces of meat were added, there was a hint of oil.

The children were all crying.

In Mongolian society, society is divided into four levels, secular feudal lords, monk feudal lords, Albatus, and slaves, who are almost imprisoned.

And Alabatu, which means civilians and free people, bears military service and taxes.

Commoners eat two meals a day, one meal in the morning before grazing, and another meal after returning from grazing. Basically, they are mainly dairy products, and they can only eat during the Chinese New Year.

"The sheep of Nuoyan's family must grow fat this year."

Batu sat down, holding his three-year-old daughter in his arms, and warmed himself by the fire. The rosy-cheeked daughter was as soft as mud.

"Our sheep are also pretty good." He smiled at his wife, "It seems that we can have a few more cubs."

Nuoyan means the lord.

In the whole of Mongolia, before the change of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties into the alliance flag system, it was basically the Nuoyan and Jinong (deputy Khan) systems, with only two lords, and the top one was the Great Khan.

"There is no Albato without Nuoyan, and there is no Nuoyan without Albato..."

This is a common saying that has been passed down by Mongolian tribes for many years.

"Unfortunately, we can't fight anymore." Batu looked helplessly at his wife serving porridge.

"Abba, why?" The elder son was seven years old, or he kept waving a wooden machete, but now he asked curiously.

"Because Dahan is too young, he just knew how to ride a sheep!"

"Ah! I really want to fill my stomach and grab some cattle and sheep to eat meat!" The eldest son said regretfully.

"It's fine if you don't beat me." The wife sat down, "My son hasn't grown up yet, if you die, I won't be able to support you—"

The next day, Batu grazed as usual, but An Dala stopped him and whispered to his ear:
"Have you heard that the Great Emperor is going to pick people from various ministries to enter the sweat camp?"

"Sweat tent? What good can it do?"

"There are many benefits, there is only one thing, there is a battle to fight—"

An Da puffed up his chest: "When the time comes, grab some gold and silver, and maybe buy a lot of sheep..."

Batu was tempted: "Then can we be chosen?"

"Your archery is also one of the best, so you will definitely be selected."

Sure enough, within two days, Batu received a notice to go to a boundary.

In the entire Chahar Department, almost all the strong men gathered here, about 30,000 people, accepted Zhu Jing's selection, just like the Naadam Conference.

The Nuoyan lords shook their heads with reluctance on their faces.

"I only believe what I see."

Zhu Jinggao sat down and ordered: "Anyone who is selected for the sweat account will be rewarded with a piece of cloth."

Now, everyone is boiling.

Archery, horseback riding, these two competitions are extraordinarily lively.

From morning to evening, it took 5 days to select the best among the best, and 2000 people were selected.

Together with their families, they were gathered together in the sweat tent, and they were no longer the subjects of other Nuoyan.

Two thousand bolts of linen were released in a blink of an eye, and immediately caused a sensation in the entire grassland.

Batu was overjoyed and returned home happily.

One piece of cloth is enough to make a whole set of clothes for their family of five.

After carefully selecting 6000 soldiers and horses, Zhu Jing's direct subordinate troops exceeded [-] people. At this time, he finally showed his fangs.

According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty, the Mongolian princes and Taiji levied taxes on the subjects: if there were more than five cattle and twenty sheep, one sheep would be taken.If there are forty sheep, two sheep will be taken.If there are two cows, take six pots of rice.If there is a cow, take three pots of rice.Although there are surplus livestock, no additional acquisitions are allowed.

Compared with the Central Plains, this kind of tax standard is almost one tax per ten, plus military service and corvee service, which can be regarded as a heavy tax on the grassland with a weak economic foundation.

Once there is a disaster year, there are countless bankrupts, and they can only receive the lord's instigation to raise troops. This is the reason why the grassland herdsmen have to go south.

However, there are often many princes and nobles who go beyond the standard and increase the temporary apportionment. These temporary apportionments basically have no quota and are extremely diverse, which leads to the bankruptcy of the common people and becomes slaves.

In a way, this strengthens them.

For the Chahar Department, due to its proximity to Beijing, the conditions are much better than Suiyuan, so Zhu Jing naturally had to carry out drastic reforms.

Nuoyan is divided into three, hundred households, deputy thousand households, and thousand households.

The tax standard is directly reduced by half:
Forty sheep, take one sheep.

One cow gets one pot of rice, two cows gets two pots.

In this way, the taxes of these feudal lords will definitely be greatly reduced, and their strength will have to be reduced.

There are restrictions on taxation, and military service is naturally no exception.

However, Zhu Jing knew that this kind of thing was too much, and the restrictions were too harsh, but it would not achieve the effect.

After all, military service is equivalent to strength, which is their prerogative.

Therefore, in his plan, the lord can of course initiate military service, all year round.

However, the lord must reward each family that sends troops with three sheep as saddle money, which is equivalent to the starting fee of the Han people.

In this case, the cost of military service is directly increased significantly, so as to win most of the herdsmen to their side.

With benefits, this system will naturally last for a long time. After all, the lords can't force the herdsmen to serve as soldiers, and a mutiny will not be far away.

Tax cuts and military service actually increased the rebellion cost of the Mongolian nobles and stabilized the Chahar Ministry.