Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

After this episode, the reorganization meeting of the capital's garrisons finally officially began.

Yuan Keli said to the Privy Council ministers:
"According to your majesty's suggestion of simplifying the guards, how much land do you think the capital city would need to arrange all 27 guards in the city around it?"

Min Mengde, Minister of Logistics, said:

"If we assume that each Jianbianwei has 1,000 sergeants, even if they are all first-class sergeants, each will only get 50 acres."

"One thousand people also need five hundred hectares. The military farms in the capital only have more than five thousand five hundred hectares, so we can only arrange for eleven guards."

"Reduced to five hundred sergeants, we can arrange twenty-two guards."

"But the hereditary officials and military households of the garrisons also need to be allocated land."

This is an unsolvable problem. There are not many military farms in the capital's garrisons, totaling only more than 5,000 hectares.

Even if they were all moved to the vicinity of the Third Ring Road, there would not be enough space for the 27 guards in the city.

Yuan Keli also knew about this, so he first concluded:

"Five hundred soldiers are usually enough to guard the city gates and be responsible for recruiting soldiers from each district."

"Let's calculate how much land each guard will need based on 500 soldiers."

The hereditary military system was first tried out in Dongning Wei, mainly to increase the enthusiasm of military households and make it easier to allocate land to them overseas.

Therefore, when calculating, we just use mu.

According to the current military merit system for the Jian Lu, one head is worth ten mu of land. The northern barbarians and southern Japanese are counted as ten mu, just like the Jian Lu, while the western barbarians, Miao and Man are counted half as five mu, and the captives are equal to the spoils.

The only difference is that the heads of rebels in the mainland are counted as two mu, while prisoners are counted as three mu. This is to encourage people to capture alive and reduce the risk of killing innocent people for credit.

If the ancestors had been commended or awarded merit, they would also receive a reward. If they died on the battlefield, at least ten acres would be added.

Every time the ancestors participated in a battle, at least one mu of land was added. If they fought abroad, the land was doubled to two mu. For a battle thousands of miles away deep into the desert, the land was counted from three mu. If they won a great victory and were rewarded by the court, the land would be increased.

Therefore, during the Hongwu and Yongle years, many military households were promoted to sergeants. As long as their ancestors had participated in a few battles deep into the desert and captured a few heads, they would have more than 375 mu and become hereditary sergeants.

Of course, the main reason was that the emperor directly gave 300 acres of land to military households who served in the Hongwu period and 260 acres of land to military households who served in the Yongle period.

Other military households were granted one mu of land for each year of service, and finally an additional thirty mu.

In terms of basic numbers, they are far from comparable to the military households of Hongwu and Yongle, and the number of soldiers is also smaller.

Most of the hereditary soldiers of Dongning Guard served in the army during the Hongwu and Yongle periods.

Every time a fangli (375 mu) is reached, the person will be promoted to a higher level and be canonized as a hereditary soldier of the corresponding level. When the person reaches 3750 fangli ( mu), he will be promoted directly to a hereditary official.

For example, Li Sanshui of Dongningwei, because of the merits of his ancestors and himself, reached 801 acres and became a third-level hereditary soldier, and was granted 801 acres of land.

This calculation method is very practical in Dongningwei, and every acre is given according to the merit.

But when the three guards of Zhuolu were reorganized, this was impossible.

Because there is not as much land in Zhuolu as overseas, it is impossible to distribute so much land.

Therefore, although the merits of the Three Guards of Zhuolu were recorded in this way, it was not used to distribute land but to determine ranks.

Each level of hereditary soldiers was granted 50 mu of land, while military households were only granted 30 mu. The remainder was ignored and accumulated, waiting to be distributed after the rank was upgraded.

At this time, when everyone was distributing land to the soldiers, they calculated it based on 50 mu per level. Min Mengde said:
"According to the reform experience of the three guards in Zhuolu, although the guards in the capital had many achievements during the founding of the country and the Jingnan Campaign, they rarely participated in battles except for a few battles to defend the capital. There are not many high-level hereditary soldiers, and the second and third levels are rare. Those who have really made great contributions have long been promoted to hereditary officials."

"Moreover, these second- and third-level hereditary soldiers also like to split up into two or three first-level hereditary soldiers, and pass them down to several sons or branches. As a result, each of the three guards in Zhuolu has 5,600 households, making up for the previous shortage."

"So when making estimates, you can completely count him as a first-class hereditary sergeant."

"Five hundred hereditary sergeants will need two hundred and fifty hectares." "If we consider a small number of second- and third-level hereditary sergeants, and plan for future soldiers to be promoted for meritorious service, we can prepare three hundred hectares, based on this number."

Yuan Keli nodded in agreement and said:

"Let's estimate that five hundred soldiers would need three hundred hectares."

"Next, let's calculate the number of hereditary officials. Assuming there are 135 hereditary officials in each guard, how much land do we need?"

Li Banghua, the Imperial Guardsman of the Beijing Camp, said:
“How many hereditary officials are there at each level?”

"Is the land distributed according to the hereditary officials of Zhuolu Guard?"

The hereditary officials of Zhuolu Guard naturally could not allocate land by square miles like the Dongning Guard. They were also divided according to levels, with each level differing by one hundred acres.

Among them, the lowest level of hereditary centurion has 500 mu, followed by deputy centurion with 600 mu, centurion with 700 mu, commander assistant with 800 mu, commander associate with 900 mu, and commander general with 1,000 mu, which is stuck at the 1,000 mu limit.

Residential land is one twentieth of the farmland area, ranging from two and a half acres to five acres, which is at the threshold for property tax outside the city.

The hereditary officials of Zhuolu Guard were reduced to only a hundred people per guard, and they still had to occupy more than 500 hectares of land.

This is obviously impossible in the capital city as there is not enough land for them to divide.

And there is another problem, Border Defense Minister Liu Zunxian said:

"Although the title of Trial Hundred Households was hereditary before, it was not included in the quota of military officers of the imperial court."

"Most of the trial centurions of the three guards in Zhuolu are from the pacified areas, and there are only a dozen of them."

"So when the three guards of Zhuolu were reorganized, they were directly treated as centurions and were also allocated 500 acres."

"Your Majesty has officially added the hereditary trial centurion position this time as the deputy of the centurion."

"Each guard's trial centurion will have 50 members, just like the centurion."

"How should their land be divided? Should it be separated from the hundred households?"

People were talking about this, and some even thought that the emperor's large-scale trial of 100 households was a bit reckless, and suggested that the emperor cancel it.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Keli closed his eyes, thinking about the purpose of the emperor's new hereditary trial rank of 100 households, and suddenly said:
"Your Majesty, the purpose of adding the Trial Hundred Households is to accommodate those hereditary officials who will be demoted after their merits are recalculated."

"So the number of acres of land for the trial 100 households will not be reduced, and will be set at 500 acres, the same as the 100 households."

"Otherwise, if it drops to 400 acres, it will be the same as an eighth-level hereditary sergeant, and they will feel resentful."

This is a practical consideration. Even though the Trial Centurion is the lowest level of hereditary official, it is still a hereditary official after all, and cannot be reduced to the same level as a hereditary soldier.

After discussing with the ministers, most of them agreed with this view. Therefore, the land and house numbers for the trial 100 households were set at 500 mu and 2.5 mu, the same as for the 100 households.

Soon, when they were calculating, they understood the reason why Yuan Keli proposed this:

According to the calculation that each guard has five thousand households, and each thousand households has ten hundred households, then there must be fifty hundred households. The number of trial hundred households is the same as that of hundred households, that is, fifty.

Therefore, of the 135 hereditary officials in each guard, the candidates for the examination of the -household rank accounted for of them, while the remaining commanders and thousand-household rank accounted for only .

Assuming that each thousand-household office has three deputy thousand-household members and two thousand-household members, they will occupy twenty-five places.

The remaining number of command positions is ten, estimated at two commanders, three associate commanders, and five assistant commanders.

The total number of acres of land required is 747 hectares.

This might be possible in other garrisons, but the garrisons in the capital could not allocate so much land to hereditary officials.

We must calculate on this basis, or reduce the number of hereditary officials in each guard. (End of this chapter)