Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 196
This expedition to Ningxia cost a lot. Since the military pay during the war was doubled, the 2 soldiers, including the [-] auxiliary soldiers, during the period of calming down the chaos in the past few months, the military pay alone, Huang Laifu spent more than [-] taels of silver.

There are also military rations eaten by thousands of troops on the road and under the city of Ningxia, because they all eat their own.Therefore, more than 3000 people will consume 30 stone grains a day, and more than 3000 horses will consume 200 stone grains a day.Counting people and horses in this way, it takes seven thousand stone grains to eat in a month, and more than 3 stone grains in five months, which is more than 3 taels in silver.

Here, Huang Laifuji spent more than 5 taels of silver.

The [-] horses above are just horses that went from Wuzhai Fort, and Huang Laifu fought the Mongols in Shigou City, and the spoils were [-] good war horses. It cost Huang Laifu several thousand taels of silver.

There is also the money spent on pensions and beheadings. In terms of pensions, due to the small number of casualties, there were only more than 200 people.Therefore, Huang Laifu did not spend much money on the compensation for the casualties of the Wuzhaibao soldiers.But in terms of reward for beheading, based on 40 taels of silver for the first level, Huang Laifu needs to set aside 1500 taels of silver for beheading for killing enemies at level 6.

Counting the various expenditures of military equipment worn out during the war, Huang Laifu spent more than 3000 taels of silver in this battle with more than [-] troops.This made Huang Laifu sigh, war is indeed a monster that eats money.Without money, it is absolutely impossible to fight.

Not to mention the compensation money, Huang Laifu returned to Wuzhai Fort just a few days ago, and the family members of the casualties and soldiers received the compensation money one by one.There is also the silver reward for beheading, the money Huang Laifu gave was faster than the silver rewarded by the court, so soon after returning to Wuzhai Fort, Huang Laifu also rewarded for his merits and set aside a total of 6 taels of reward silver for beheading .

This made all the soldiers who went to the battle smile happily, and made those who didn't go to the battle envious.Everyone is gearing up, trying to let themselves go out next time.

However, now that the system of beheading and rewarding silver has come, Huang Laifu has also discovered certain disadvantages, that is, the huge expenditure requires that he always have very strong financial resources. If the financial resources are not enough, the soldiers' thinking will change, which will affect their desire to fight.

This is actually very similar to the army at the end of the Ming Dynasty. In the Wanli period, because the country still had certain financial resources, the overall strength of the Ming army at this time was able to be invincible in several foreign wars.But at the end of the Ming Dynasty, due to the collapse of the country's finances, armor and military equipment, the soldiers had no food for many years, so when they rebelled against the Manchurians, they failed.
Huang Laifu knew that in the future, he would definitely participate in wars frequently, and his team would increase in number in the future, and his expenditure on food, salaries and rewards would increase. It would be fine if he had money all the time, but if an economic crisis happened anytime, it would be a soldier's mentality. when changes occur.

And to put it bluntly, including the soldiers, the people at this time have a strong sense of small farmers, and the concept that a little wealth means peace is extremely marketable.As long as there are dozens of taels of silver in their hands, many people will think about living a little life of their own and enjoying the happiness, and gradually they will be afraid of the days of swords and swords. If there are too many people like this in the army, it will definitely affect the army combat effectiveness.

The above two situations are unavoidable.

Regarding the first situation, Huang Laifu has no choice but to let himself open up more financial resources.

For the second situation, Huang Laifu thought of a solution for later generations, which is the provident fund system.The first level of beheading still costs 40 taels of silver, but only a part of the money can be paid first, such as about 35 taels, and the remaining [-] taels of silver can be deposited in the provident fund. After the soldiers retire after five years, they will be distributed together. .Of course, there can be some special cases, such as soldiers who are disabled or killed in battle, they will all be issued together.In this way, the soldiers will work harder to kill the enemy for the future happiness of themselves or their families.

This is a solution. For the second case, Huang Laifu has another idea.A few months ago, Huang Laifu and the Wuzhaibao merchants conspired to develop the land outside the Great Wall. According to Huang Laifu's plan, in order to better attract the people of Ming Dynasty to leave, he will implement a Ming version of the "Homestead Law" in the Hetao area in the future. As long as the adult men of Ming Dynasty reach the age of 20, they can receive 200 mu of land, and women can receive 100 mu of land. The fee only needs to pay one coin per mu of land, and they can own it for life, and they can also enjoy tax exemption for the first three years.

This is true for ordinary people, Huang Laifu will definitely be more generous to his own army, and in order to attract Ming's armed forces to go beyond the Great Wall and better consolidate the land beyond the Great Wall.It is inevitable to attract retired soldiers from Wuzhaibao to Saibei.

Therefore, Huang Laifu decided to set up a plan to exchange rewards for land in the future, beheading a first-level reward of 40 taels of silver, which can be exchanged for land.It is up to the soldiers to decide for themselves, if they beheaded one level, they can receive silver, and they can also receive 400 mu of fertile land in Hetao without paying any fees.Anyway, there are tens of millions of acres of fertile land in Hetao, enough for Huang Laifu to enjoy.Huang Laifu is very happy to be generous to others.As for those lands now occupied by the Mongols, what does that matter?Just drive those Mongols away in the future.

Huang Laifu is very confident that the plan he will launch in the future to exchange rewards for land will definitely be widely welcomed by soldiers.In the current Ming Dynasty, although many soldiers from military households are very at ease with the army and farm life in Wuzhaibao due to the climate and year, the Chinese people have always had a deep-rooted desire for land. Landlord life, many people will not give up.

Of course, the time to launch these plans is not yet ripe. On the one hand, it is to prevent others from leaving the impression that orders are changing day by day.On the one hand, the current generous military beheading system is still very popular among soldiers, and there are some disadvantages, which are not obvious at the moment, so let's talk about it in the future.

So during this period of time, although Huang Laifu had been thinking about these issues, the 6 taels of beheading reward was still happily distributed.In his current warehouse of the General Military Mansion, after the autumn harvest, there is enough money again, and Huang Laifu can spend it generously again.

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Back to the post-war summary of Wuzhai Fort, the soldiers who went to the expedition were full of praise for the firearms used in the Wuzhai Fort army, and even the friendly troops were envious.The effects in actual combat, coupled with the concepts of later generations, made Huang Laifu attach great importance to firearms.

After returning to Wuzhai Fort, Huang Laifu was already considering whether to develop a flintlock gun.Compared with the arquebus, the flintlock was covered with flint and medicine pool, which greatly increased the firing rate, which led to a change in the status of musketeers.Especially in rainy days, flintlock guns are more advantageous.Counting it, at the beginning of the 17th century, Bi Maokang, the servant of the Nanjing household department of the Ming Dynasty, invented the flintlock gun. Even if Huang Laifu invented it now, it was only more than ten years in advance.

Speaking of which, there is not much difference in the structure of the matchlock gun and the flintlock gun. The trigger system is the same. The biggest difference lies in the ignition device. One is by a burning match, and the other is by a hammer. Strike Flint.When making a flintlock, the most important thing is the flint. The flint is something like a gear, but simpler than a gear.For the production of gears, there is no problem for Chinese craftsmen. As early as 400 BC, ancient China has begun to use gears.As long as flint is made, more than half of the problems will be solved.

But it's easy to say, but not easy to do. There are still many things different from matchlock guns in making flintlock guns. Huang Laifu doesn't know if there are any skilled craftsmen in this field among the military craftsmen in Wuzhaibao. ideas, let them develop and try first.

In addition to firearms, this time because Wuzhai Fort's soldiers were all wearing armor, the casualty rate was greatly reduced compared with that of friendly troops, which made Huang Laifu pay more attention to armor.In the current Wuzhaibao Arms Workshop, apart from making firecrackers, it is also making armor every day. Of course, these armors are all Chinese scale armor.

In the past few months, Huang Laifu asked military craftsmen to try to make some western plate armor. In his impression, western plate armor seems to be mass-produced.But in the end, when Huang Laifu inspected the Wuzhaibao Arms Workshop, he found that he was wrong, and he was very wrong.

For Western plate armor, each set has to be tailored by the officers and soldiers. Each person has a different size, and it is impossible to mass-produce equipment.However, although the production of scale armor in China is more complicated, it can be produced on an assembly line.In addition, Chinese scale armor has stronger protection and lighter weight. With all these advantages, Huang Laifu has completely abandoned Western plate armor and adopted Chinese scale armor.

In the afternoon of August 1592, 12 AD.

After finishing the above tasks, Huang Laifu, accompanied by all his servants, left Wuzhai Fort and inspected the old camp fort.

Compared with the beginning of the year, the current old camp fort has undergone great changes. The interior of the fort has been renovated. Not only the main street has been paved with clean and tidy concrete roads, but the rest of the streets are full of potholes. , It is also paved with a clean and tidy cement road.On both sides of the main street, there are already many more shops, and the flow of merchants and people is much denser.Moreover, the military household soldiers in the fort are much better than before.

Entering the old camp fort barracks, the venue was full of shouts of training, the original inertia was swept away, and all the soldiers were reborn, full of heroic and sturdy spirit.

Not to mention that the thousand soldiers in the Laoyingbao Township camp in Ningxia, who accompanied the army this time, were all full of evil spirits after the brutal battle. Immediately being able to get the first-level reward silver is also the envy of the old camp soldiers who stayed behind.

This made all the soldiers of the old camp who went to the expedition feel more proud, and felt that after being recruited by Huang Laifu, their lives were really different from before.

(End of this chapter)