There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 72 Starting a Family and Starting a Business
Feng Xiuyong waited until Nie Yu reached a decision before continuing, "General, this is just a solution for the land distribution for tenants, refugees, and military households. There's also the issue of land distribution for vagrants..."

As mentioned before, vagrants include cattle and horses, fighting men, as well as special groups such as local bandits, hooligans, beggars, prostitutes, and quacks.

The key word of vagrant is "vagrant". They often have no fixed place to live, wandering around, and have no stable jobs. They can be cattle and horses, thugs, or even ruffians.

Vagrants mainly formed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. There was no special reason. It was just that the explosive population growth and land annexation in the late dynasty caused a large number of people to lose their land and were forced to leave their hometowns and become vagrants.

Of course, the refugees from the old camp of the Han army are not considered vagrants, because vagrants have no land and maintain relatively stable migration, while refugees are landless farmers who left their hometowns for various reasons. Not only do they have no place to live, they may also starve to death at any time.

As an important city in Huguang, Jingzhou Prefecture has not suffered severe war damage, so not only are there many refugees pouring in from outside, but the city also accommodates a large number of vagrants.

At the beginning, these urban vagrants did not react much, because they did not trust the Han army, nor did they trust the General's Mansion. In addition, they were used to the original nomadic life, and not many people went to the countryside to divide the land and settle down.

However, as the General's Mansion began to clean up the cattle and horse trades in the city, even the beggars on the streets, as long as they had healthy hands and feet, were captured and forced to settle down and divide the land.

You have hands and feet, why don’t you do something good? Why do you have to beg for food like a beggar?
If you don't have land, we will allocate it to you. If you don't know how to farm, the grassroots officials will arrange someone to help you farm. If you lack oxen, the government can rent them.

Only the elderly, the weak, women and children will be sent to shelters for centralized accommodation.

Well, many people may not believe it, but the Qing Dynasty did have shelters for widows, widowers and beggars, which were essentially a continuation of the nursing home system from the Song Huizong period.

The Southern Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all continued this system because it could indeed stabilize social order and reduce the possibility of unstable factors causing chaos.

Nie Yu did not abandon the refugee shelters. Instead, he paid for the reopening of many of them. The Qing Dynasty at the end of the Qianlong period was rotten from the inside out, and the local refugee shelters were gradually becoming a mere name.

Because a large number of beggars were forced to register and allocate land, and the elderly and helpless were also arranged to live in shelters, the living space of urban vagrants was squeezed, and in addition, the Han army had previously promoted policies such as allocating land and reducing taxes, and prohibiting the keeping of slaves.

Since the beginning of spring this year, more and more urban vagrants who can't make a living, as well as many cattle and horses with hands and feet who are eager for a stable life, have flocked to the countryside, hoping to be registered and allocated land, and become serious farmers.

At first, it was fine. Local officials thought it was a political achievement and that it could also promote the people's support for the Han army. But they soon discovered that something was wrong. There were too many people receiving land and there was not enough land to go around.

Nie Yu looked at the document report in his hand. He never thought that simply forcibly clearing out the beggars and allowing them to resume production could have such a drastic impact.

Nie Yu thought for a moment and asked, "Is there any solution?"

Feng Xiushui said, "My colleagues at the Civil Affairs Office proposed a plan to allow all vagrants to settle in cities. Urban residents would not be included in the land distribution of township residents, so there would be no shortage of land. However, this way, the essential relationship of the vagrants would not change. Letting them settle in cities, even if they moved to another city, would only make them vagrants in another place. Those who should be beggars would continue to be beggars, and those who should be hooligans would continue to be hooligans..."

Nie Yu nodded, agreeing with the Secretary's statement. The vagrants wanted to go to the countryside to share the land, which was nothing more than changing the status quo and letting them settle in the city. That was not even a temporary solution, and at best it was just deceiving themselves.

Nie Yu asked again: "What plan does the Secretary's Office have?"

Feng Xiuyong said, "There's no other solution except migration and land reclamation. Even with the current land distribution, if we don't include the migrants, there won't be enough to go around. Only migration and land reclamation can solve the problem, and migration and land reclamation mean war."

Okay, I get it, it’s the Malthusian trap!

Nie Yu remembered seeing this on a marketing account in his previous life. To put it bluntly, population growth always outpaces land growth. To address this imbalance, the only way to increase land growth or reduce population growth was to continually increase land growth. Boom Beach solved this problem by exiling criminals and initiating the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution cannot be carried out for the time being. Nie Yu can buy the blueprints of the steam engine, but he has no time to use it for the time being, so he can only fight a war to expand his territory.

Nie Yu nodded slightly and said, "Well, let's do as we said just now. Change the household registration land distribution to per capita land distribution, and then organize the people to reclaim wasteland. Let the Civil Affairs Office prepare a report for me with the specific details. And there's no need to refuse any vagrants who are willing to settle down. After all, they are willing to cultivate the land and start a new life."

After discussing the internal affairs and land distribution, Feng Xiuyong seemed to have something else to say.

"Is there anything else?" Nie Yu asked.

Feng Xiuyong smiled and said, "General, our Han army has been attacking Gong'an, Shishou, and Jianli counties since the beginning of the month. We recently reported that Gong'an and Shishou have been taken, leaving Jianli as a weakling. Hubei Governor Hui Ling has leverage over us, and unless he's forced to, he won't intervene in Jingzhou. The Han army's victory is sealed!"

After saying this, seeing that Nie Yu's expression remained unchanged, Feng Xiuyong suddenly bowed and said, "General, it's time for you to get married!"

"..."

Nie Yu was stunned. After dealing with him for a long time, he found out that the person was here to persuade him to get married.

The expressions of the other secretaries remained unchanged. It was obvious that they had all been informed in advance and prepared for the current situation.

Nie Yu was not embarrassed. After all, he had already felt embarrassed before. He said, "The anti-Qing cause has just begun, and I am still young. There is no need to rush this matter."

Feng Xiuyong remained silent. A secretary stood up and said, "General, you are wrong! You must know that to build a family and establish a career, you must first establish a family before you can build a career. And you, General, are a true hero, unperturbed by romantic desires. That's why you have built such a great foundation. Now that our Han army is strong and no longer in the precarious situation it was before, it's time for you to marry and start a family to reassure the people."

To sum up, the anti-Qing movement had just begun and the situation was still unstable. Now Jingzhou is the territory of the Han army, and the Governor of Hubei has also been captured. It is time for him to get married and stabilize people's hearts.

There is no way around it. This is how rebellion works. Even marrying a wife cannot be based solely on personal pleasure, but is more about political tasks.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang first married Empress Ma and then Concubine Guo Hui. Empress Ma was his true love, but Concubine Guo Hui was not necessarily so. The reason he was able to marry her was to appease Guo Zixing's old subordinates.

Feng Xiuyong saw that Nie Yu was still hesitant, so he added, "General, the old man also knows about this!"

"Also, although there were cases like great generals among the founding lords of ancient times, most of them started families after establishing their careers to reassure the soldiers and civilians!"

He didn't say much, but the implication was pretty much the same. If one has a foundation but doesn't get married, even if he can be at ease, the officials, army and people who follow him in the rebellion will not be at ease.

To put it bluntly, what if you died suddenly?
Without descendants, who will inherit this anti-Qing cause?

Nie Yu was convinced: "General, I understand."

(End of this chapter)