Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 386 Hedong Militia
Hedong County, Wenxi County.

Zhang Sanlang looked at the barren fields and couldn't help cursing:

"This damn world."

Zhang Sanlang lives in a village thirty miles west of the county seat. He is named after him because he is the third among the brothers.

His family's ancestors had been working as servants for the Wenxi Pei family for generations, and their lives were not rich, but they could barely provide enough food and clothing.

Nowadays, the war is in chaos, and even the newly rising powerful clans do not dare to exploit the tenants too much. Otherwise, if soldiers and bandits come one day, who will be willing to listen to your call and follow you to defend Sangzi.

Anyway, I don’t have much talent, so at worst I can take my family and hide in the mountains to dig wild vegetables and catch hares. I don’t have to risk my life to protect the wealth of the landlord.

Of course, another important reason is that in troubled times, population mobility is high, and tenants do not have to rely on one family to eat.

Last year Huanxi sent troops to capture Hedong County. Wenxi and the Pei family responded to the call and gave up a large area of ​​land they had occupied.

It's not that Pei's consciousness was high, but Huanxi's soldiers and horses were strong. There were nearly 100,000 troops stationed near Pei's Wubao at that time, so they couldn't help but be obedient.

Spring plowing in the north is later than in the south. Just as the plowing in the south of the Yangtze River is coming to an end, farmers across the north are still busy in the fields.

In addition, there were private military tribes of the Wenxi Pei family, Fenyin Xue family, Jiexian Liu family and other noble families, which were enough to deal with the small-scale intrusion of Fu Jian and Murong Jun.

Huan Xi classified the land handed over by the Pei family as public land, and immediately arranged for officials to equalize the land for the people after Fu Jian's withdrawal.

In other places, one grain of millet is planted in spring and ten thousand grains are harvested in autumn. However, no matter how hard the people of Wenxi and Dongyuan work, they are destined to lose their harvest because of the war.

It was a pity that my father and two brothers died in the battle, and my sisters-in-law were taken back to their parents' home early and became brides of other families. Otherwise, I don't know how many acres of land the Zhang family could get.

Zhang Sanlang was one of the young men recruited.

It's just that the good days are coming, but those meat eaters refuse to give up.

Huan Xi deployed a lot of troops in Hedong County. He stationed 5,000 soldiers in Wenxi County and Dongyuan County respectively, and left 10,000 soldiers in Anyi County for Shen Jin to drive. The total is 20,000 soldiers. Thousands of elite infantry.

Therefore, Wenxi Guardsman Shi Yue and Dongyuan Guardsman Yang An have both given up agricultural production and instead organized men and women to practice offensive and defensive battles.

In addition, according to the policy, his mother and wife each received 40 acres.

Liang, Yan, and Yu were all mobilizing before the war, and saw that the war was about to break out. However, Huanxi did not want to defend the enemy outside the country. He felt that it would be more secure to fight at home. Therefore, Wenxi County and the neighboring Yan Kingdom Dongyuan County in Hanoi County will undoubtedly be affected by the war.

However, even if the one hundred and eighty acres of land are under rotation and fallow, 90 acres can be cultivated every year, which is enough to provide enough food and clothing for the family.

It was at that time that Zhang Sanlang applied to the government and was allocated one hundred acres of land.

However, the two countries of Yu and Yan are now making war preparations with great fanfare, especially the Yu State, which has made it clear that it will fight a war that will overwhelm the country. Therefore, for the Liang State, having more strength means more chances of winning.

In the Liang Kingdom's military system, the responsibilities of war soldiers and state and county soldiers were clearly defined. Huan Xi would not use state and county soldiers to fight in the field, and rarely arranged war soldiers to defend cities.

Zhang Sanlang and others who were allocated land were naturally classified into the system of state and county soldiers. After all, this land is not given to you for free. In addition to paying the land rent, when it is really dangerous, you have to answer the call with weapons and go to the battlefield to help Liang Gong.

There is no need to worry about the enthusiasm of these state and county soldiers. Huan Xi divided the fields for them, which was equivalent to giving them a share of industry.

Once a foreign enemy invades, they will not only defend Huanxi's territory and city, nor just guard the wealth of the clan masters, but also fight for their own interests.

Zhang Sanlang retracted his gaze towards the fields on the outskirts of the city. At this time, he was participating in an offensive and defensive drill. As the attacker, he lined up outside the city and was about to launch an siege against Wenxi County.

With the drums beating loudly, the attackers began to push the siege equipment towards the city wall.

Shi Yue stood on the city wall and watched the excitement of the state and county soldiers, but his mind was not on that.

In the final analysis, the outcome of the war is not decided by the state and county soldiers. Their only role is to allow Huan Xi to save his troops without having to separate elite troops to defend the city.

However, in order to relieve the state and county soldiers from worries, Shi Yue has petitioned Chang'an to request that the families of the state and county soldiers be moved to Anyi, Jie County and other places.

The military disaster is no joke. What the people fear most is the defeated soldiers who have lost their organization. To a certain extent, they are no longer soldiers, but bandits. They have no food in their hands, only weapons. If they want to escape back to their hometown alive, The only option is to rob the people of their food rations.

Without the restraint of military discipline and being able to rely on force to take the lives of others, animal nature has replaced human nature, and they will reveal their dark side without any scruples.

After all, if you have been in the army for too long, don't expect them to show mercy.

The family members are at the rear, and the soldiers on the front line will definitely fight to the end to block the enemy's advance. Just like Fu Jian's attack on Yinchuan, the old and weak women and children were placed in Gaopingchuan in advance.

However, Shi Yue's move was not entirely out of consideration for the state and county soldiers. Relocating their families was tantamount to taking control of the hostages in disguise.

He did not completely trust these local soldiers from Hedong County. Liang Guoxin had only acquired Hedong County for a few months. These soldiers from Hedong County had been Yu people for so many years. Who knows if any of them would miss their old grudges.

Of course, Shi Yue would not show this distrust.

Since the state and county soldiers are organized to conduct offensive and defensive drills, they must be put to use at critical moments, otherwise, so much rice and meat will be wasted.

Although Wenxi and Dongyuan counties have not carried out spring plowing, the training of state and county soldiers is also a strenuous task. How can people go to offensive and defensive drills on an empty stomach.

The standard of food provided to them by the government is even better than that of farmers in other counties in Hedong. Regardless of whether there is a lot of meat, at least they can see minced meat every day.

Huan Xi had previously planned to send troops from Hetao to attack Dai State, so he asked Suo Xia to purchase a large number of livestock in Yinchuan.

Although this plan has now been scrapped, the livestock acquired are not useless. Huan Xi mobilized 100,000 miscellaneous animals south to prepare for slaughtering and pickling them as food reserves.

After all, on the battlefield, soldiers cannot just eat white rice. They need a combination of meat and vegetables to increase their strength.

At the same time that one hundred thousand miscellaneous animals were driven south, Tuoba Yan was getting closer and closer to Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)