Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 395: The new look of the Jiajing Dynasty makes the gentry worried!
"Imperial decree: Military households are the foundation of the country and have the duty of protecting the country, so we should extend favors to them. Therefore, we will temporarily implement ten new rules, record them in the Code of Conduct, and order all departments to follow them!"

"1. Replace the military registration and censor the army every three years, and check the number of military households every three years!"

"Second, revive the schools in the garrisons and temporarily allow military households to attend the garrison schools and receive three years of compulsory education without paying tuition fees;"

"3. Military households and garrison troops and surplus males are only allowed to perform military service and cultivate the land according to the ancestral system. They are not allowed to accept other assignments. They are allowed to divide their property. Military service is no longer selected by household. Instead, one in three males is selected, and all are given monthly food. Those who follow the conquest of the army will be given a salary and monthly food for their families. Those who own less than 50 mu of land are exempt from regular food and surplus food;"

"Fourth, all occupied military lands shall be converted into civilian lands and taxes shall be levied;"

"Fifth, although military households are exempted from military service and are exempted from the grain and surplus grain of 50 mu of land, this is to support them in preparation for war, not to encourage them to accumulate wealth and annex businesses, so they are not allowed to engage in business."

"Sixth, if a military household commits a crime, it will be handled by the Experience Department. If there is a dispute between the military and civilians, the local officials will handle it together with the Experience Department;"

"Seventh, military housing and medical clinics are provided, and military housing cannot be bought or sold;"

"8. I and my family members shall not leave the garrison area and camp without permission;"

"Ninth, military property may not be sold, i.e. military farms, military housing, military equipment, armor, etc., all of which are state-owned;"

"10. Military households are the foundation of the country, so those who are disloyal do not need to go through the court to judge their crimes. The emperor will make the final decision!"

After Wang Yi arrived at the Jianyangwei military households, he first read out the specific content of the imperial edict on the reform of military households.

Naturally, not all of the tens of thousands of kneeling soldiers in the entire Jianyang Guard could hear the content of the military reform clearly.

But the garrison officer Ge Lian and others, as well as the old military households who were kneeling in front, did understand the content of the military reform.

Those who understood what was said had different expressions on their faces.

Of course they will have different expressions!
Because this military household reform is a good thing for ordinary military households who are small landlords and self-cultivating farmers.

After all, not only are all duties except military service exempted, but landowners with less than 50 acres of land do not have to perform corvée labor and can just focus on farming or serving in the army.

However, ordinary military households who were small landlords and self-cultivating farmers were not allowed to sell their property, engage in business, or leave the garrison at will.

This means that if they want to get rich, they can only rely on military merit and fight on the battlefield.

Because the imperial court only provides a bottom line for the lives of you military households, meets your basic food needs, and allows you to live a well-fed and well-clothed life, but it cannot allow you to live a wealthy life.

But for military landlords who own more than 50 acres of land, this is not a good thing.

Because this means that it will be difficult for them to continue to annex the fields of ordinary military households, continue to force ordinary military households to sell themselves into slavery, and continue to use the military household quotas vacated by ordinary military households who fled due to excessive taxes and levies to fraudulently send their own military farm grain silver (field tax collected on military farms).

Therefore, those powerful families in Jianyang Guard who were able to occupy a large amount of military land because they were military officers' families or had a large population were still dissatisfied.

But unless they rebel directly, they can only accept the status quo.

Fortunately, in order to alleviate their resistance to military reform, the imperial court allowed them to divide their property and split up their families, so that these powerful families with large populations and abundant land could reduce their losses by dividing up their families.

After reading the imperial edict, Wang Yi, the imperial censor of the Qing army, formally checked the situation of the military households.

Finally, Wang Yi checked and found that there should have been 3,102 registered military households in Jianyang Wei, but in the end there were only 876 households.

Of course, this does not mean that the huge Jianyang Wei has only this small population.

When Wang Yi checked the military households, he found that although a lot of people in the guard had fled, there were still more than 15,000 people.

This is not surprising.

The so-called escape of military households does not simply mean the escape of population, but rather that the number of military households that can be verified in the imperial household register has decreased a lot.

Before this, the Ming Dynasty had always conscripted soldiers on a household basis, so the number of soldiers was counted based on the number of households.

However, due to the decrease in the number of military households, the number of military households verified by Jianyang Guard is only about 800.

Among the more than 15,000 people in the guard, there are two reasons why they are not on the household register:
One is that before this, military households in the Ming Dynasty were not allowed to divide their property or split their households, so even if you had many children, they could only be counted as one household.

Therefore, many newly recruited soldiers in the garrisons just shared one account.

Another reason is that a large number of ordinary soldiers whose families were declining and who did not have a high status chose to give up their military household status and instead become slaves to local wealthy families.

This resulted in the number of military households appearing to be reduced by more than half compared to the registered number, but in fact the population of the garrisons had increased a lot compared to the beginning of the country.

In fact, this is the population situation for all registered households in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Not just military households.

The nominal number of registered households in the country is only over 60 million.

But a large number of people are actually hidden intentionally or unintentionally.

Of course, the same is true for land.

Now, due to the reform of the military household system, ordinary military households with less than 50 acres of land are exempt from military service and land tax. Therefore, the military households in Jianyang Guard that have already made contributions and the military households with large populations have stopped making contributions and started to divide their property, and have to re-register. As a result, the number of military households in the court has begun to increase, and the number of self-cultivating farmers and small landlords in the military has also increased sharply.

Li Yi also decided that when the lease expired next year, he would no longer rent the land he had leased, but would reclaim the wasteland around the garrison that had been abandoned by the fleeing military households. In the past, only the powerful and wealthy families dared to reclaim the wasteland abandoned by the military households, because they were not afraid of extortion from officials who collected grain from the garrison.

Most military households were afraid of being extorted and of having to pay their surplus grain. They were even more afraid of having to perform labor service in addition to military service, which would not only make it impossible to cultivate the reclaimed land, but also require them to find ways to borrow money to pay for the surplus grain.

Now, I don't have to pay grain or perform any labor other than military service, and naturally I don't have to worry about being harassed by corvées, nor do I have to worry about the impact on the harvest of my fields after serving in the military. Even if I transfer the land to another tenant, I don't have to worry about the rent I collect not being enough to pay for the remaining grain.

Now, Li Yi has re-registered for the wasteland, and has started to weed the wasteland near his home in his spare time, preparing to start farming next year.

For him, there is finally hope again.

Naturally, he no longer had to think about selling himself into slavery.

Outside the city of Nandu.

Yingtian Governor Zhou Jin has already started spending money to recruit militiamen to transport grain to various checkpoints.

Because he already knew that the court had sent Qing army censors to each garrison to check the military households. If he still let the soldiers in the garrison transport food and perform corvee labor, and embezzled the collected silver and military funds allocated by the court for himself, it would be easy to be exposed.

Therefore, Zhou Jin had to start spending money to recruit militiamen to transport grain.

The Ming Dynasty had no shortage of labor.

After all, even though the number of registered households on the official register has not increased much, after more than 150 years of peace, the actual population of the Ming Dynasty has increased a lot.

Especially in the Nando area, just like in the capital, there are also many poor people who make a living by doing odd jobs.

Therefore, if one really wants to spend money to recruit able-bodied men to transport grain, it is very easy.

But in the past, these poor people mostly worked only for the gentry and wealthy families.

For example, there would be people who would bear the punishment for them, such as flogging, cangue and other mild punishments. There would be special people who would bear the punishment for them. Even the brave ones would be forced to serve at the border or be sentenced to death. There would also be people who would bear debts and taxes and do some dirty work for them that they were not convenient to do.

The list goes on and on.

Now, due to the Jiajing reform, military households are no longer required to bear heavy non-military labor, and the bureaucratic group pays to hire civilians to undertake corresponding public affairs. Naturally, many poor people can make a living by transporting grain and repairing dikes, and participate in some public affairs without having to do risky things for the gentry in order to survive.

"The government is recruiting strong men to transport food, and each person will be given three cents of silver per day for food and work!"

"Applicants are required to register here!"

dong dong!

As the gongs sounded, the officers from the Yingtian Fuyuan Yamen began to beat the gongs and shout at the place where people outside the city gathered looking for work.

Before long, a large number of able-bodied men came to apply.

Because this salary is already very good for them.

After all, three cents of silver a day means nearly one ounce of silver a month, and now the price of rice in Jiangnan is only seven cents per stone.

So no one would refuse.

Ye Guizhang, who had been entertaining the imperial envoy Zhang Zheng in various places of entertainment and historical sites these days, saw this scene when he was accompanying Zhang Zheng back from outside the city, and his face became gloomy.

He knew that this meant that the improvement in the status of military households was forcing the bureaucrats to no longer dare to employ military households to save money on transporting grain, and to keep the money for themselves; it also meant that the poor people no longer had to rely solely on the gentry to survive.

Zhang Zheng, the imperial envoy who was ordered to investigate the case of the destruction of the military household register, also noticed this scene and specifically asked Ye Guizhang: "What does Shao'e think about this?"

"It is a good thing for the people to have food!"

Ye Guizhang replied with a forced smile.

Zhang Zheng laughed and said, "Shao'e is quite wary of me!"

"Although this allows the people to have food, it increases the court's expenses and makes it more difficult for the gentry to keep people as livestock!"

Zhang Zheng continued.

Ye Guizhang's eyes lit up immediately after hearing this. He spent so much money to entertain Zhang Zheng just to see that Zhang Zheng had the same thoughts as them. He couldn't help but ask Zhang Zheng: "Do you really think so?"

"You are my confidant and good friend, so I will speak frankly in front of you instead of using the words of a saint!"

"You and I should know that the greatest wealth of the rich is not gold and silver, but these poor people who will become starving corpses if they are not careful!"

Zhang Zheng said.

Ye Guizhang couldn't help but smile, and nodded heavily:

"As you said, although the poor can only take care of themselves, the rich can help the world, the first sentence is acceptable, but the second sentence is a bit absurd! Throughout history, which rich person wants to help the world and make those who come after him rich as well?"

Zhang Zheng nodded when he saw that Ye Guizhang had revealed his true thoughts. He also smiled and asked Ye Guizhang: "So, Shao'e, tell me the truth. Are you contacting me because of the case of the destruction of the military household register?"

(End of this chapter)