Dream of the Red Chamber: Start by gaining Zhao Yun's martial prowess, and be ennobled in a sin

In the following days, Jia Jing mainly stayed in the East Mansion to handle official business.

While arranging the affairs of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in Jiangnan and Shandong, he also further infiltrated the White Lotus Sect in Jiangnan.

He was handling various affairs of the 12th Regiment and the military affairs of the capital region.

At the same time, he also had to receive the constant stream of military officers from the founding line and old relatives and friends of the Jia family, to understand their situation and attitudes, and to talk to them individually.

Time quickly came to June 23rd.

Although it rained lightly last night, the heat is still intense today.

On the official road heading southwest from Shenjing, the dust was dried into a fine layer of white powder by the sun, and when the horses trod on it, puffs of smoke rose up.

The crops on both sides of the road were sparse, with curled edges on the leaves, as if they had been scorched by fire.

Jia Jing rode a blue horse, wearing a slightly worn dark blue robe and a headscarf. He had no sword, only a white purse hanging at his waist.

From a distance, he looked like a young master from a prominent family traveling abroad.

Xuanwu followed on his right, dressed in a black cloth robe with a knife at his waist, his face cold and his eyes wary.

Jia Cong, Jia Huan, and Jia Lan followed behind on horseback, each with a bow and arrows hanging from their saddles.

Although they were young, their riding skills were quite good, clearly indicating that they had practiced diligently at the clan school.

Yesterday, the clan school gave them a ten-day break from farming, so classes were suspended and they stayed home.

Jia Jing had mentioned a few days ago that he wanted to chat with them and have a heart-to-heart talk, so he took advantage of today's trip to conduct on-site visits and investigations into the situation of military settlements and households near the capital and brought them along.

Reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Letting them see for themselves how people live outside the country will be more beneficial than simply lecturing them on principles.

The three boys were all dressed in plain blue robes, and the headscarves on their heads were slightly fluttering in the breeze.

Jia Huan still had that annoying look, with one shoulder higher than the other and his head bowed and eyes downcast.

Even though I tried my best to sit still on the horse, I still felt a bit awkward.

He looked at Jia Jing ahead, his eyes flashing with a hint of aggression, and whispered in a voice like a little duck:

"Jia Cong, Jia Lan, where do you think our third brother is taking us?"

Jia Jing is now the person he admires most and wants to become. Being able to go out and travel around with him today makes Jia Huan feel inexplicably excited.

Of course, most importantly, Baoyu couldn't come; only he did!

"I don't know either, but Third Brother is such a person, he has his reasons for going wherever he goes. Let's just follow him and observe carefully!"

Jia Cong's tone was full of respect, and his gaze toward Jia Jing was also fervent.

Of the three, he and Jia Jing were half-brothers, so he naturally felt closer to them.

Jia Lan, however, pursed her lips, stood ramrod straight, and stared intently at Jia Jing's back without uttering a sound.

Ahead, Jia Jing slowly reined in his horse and looked around at the land and crops.

Logically, this is the season for farming, but most of the fields here are barren, and there are hardly any people in the fields.

Although some traces of canals and ponds are still visible, due to the lack of rainfall this year and the drop in water levels, many areas where water cannot flow have been filled with silt and abandoned.

Shuntian Prefecture, a fertile land under the emperor's nose, governed 5 prefectures and 22 counties.

They are Tongzhou and Changping Prefecture, which govern Shunyi, Miyun, and Huairou counties; Zhuozhou, which governs Fangshan County; Bazhou, which governs Wen'an, Dacheng, and Baoding counties; and Jizhou, which governs Yutian, Fengrun, Zunhua, and Pinggu counties.

There are also four counties directly under the jurisdiction of the prefecture and two counties attached to the capital. The entire Shuntian Prefecture has been the capital region since Emperor Chengzu moved the capital.

The terrain of Shuntian Prefecture is high in the northwest and low in the southeast.

The northwest is mountainous, with Tianshou Mountain to the north and Xishan Mountain to the west, belonging to the Taihang Mountains; the southeast is a plain and depression with many rivers, lakes and marshes.

The main water systems include the Lugou River, Gaoliang River, West Lake, Nanhai Lake, and Jiulong Pond.

The prefectural city of Daxing and Wanping, as the attached counties and the most concentrated area of ​​the imperial estates of the Han Dynasty, had fertile land and were the first choice for the powerful and noble people of the capital to seize.

Liangxiang, Gu'an, and Fangshan are located on the plains at the foot of the Western Hills, with fertile land and convenient water transport.

Tongzhou, Wuqing, Xianghe, and Baodi are counties along the Grand Canal, with fertile land and convenient water and land transportation, making them important areas for military farming.

Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, the land under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture has had excellent soil quality and abundant water resources, resulting in high yields.

However, in recent decades, due to natural disasters and man-made calamities, coupled with the flight of military households and the neglect of water conservancy, most of these originally fertile fields are now abandoned.

According to the records in the Yellow Register, at the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the total land area of ​​Shuntian Prefecture was 58.2 hectares.

The number of farmland surveyed three years ago was only 9.9 hectares, and some of it was newly added or discovered farmland, which is nearly five-sixths less, which shows how much farmland was abandoned or hidden.

By the roadside, Xuanwu rode up to Jia Jing and sighed:

"Lord Duke, if these seized lands could be returned to the military households and civilians, and the irrigation canals and ponds repaired, this area would also be excellent fertile land!"

Jia Jing nodded. His purpose in coming here was to see for himself how badly the garrison system had deteriorated around the capital city.

Under the guise of investigating the land reclamation, military households, and troop numbers of various garrisons in the capital region, they verified the land under the names of various military officers and compiled a batch of irrefutable evidence of the encroachment on land reclamation.

Using this as a starting point to rectify the powerful nobles in the capital is a relatively effective and safe approach.

Jia Jing gazed at the sun-bleached earthen walls and low eaves in front of him, his brow furrowing slightly. He asked:

"Is Liangxiangying just ahead?"

Xuanwu nodded and replied:

"Among the twenty-four guards under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, one guard was set up in Liangxiang, and in front of it was the village where the military households gathered."

Jia Jing said:

"It looks deserted, rather desolate!"

Emperor Taizu of Han implemented the garrison system with the initial intention of creating a million-strong army that would not cost the court a single penny.

He once said, "I can maintain an army of a million without costing the people a single grain of rice."

From the perspective of institutional design, it is indeed superior to the previous dynasty.

Firstly, it integrated military and agricultural functions, achieving self-sufficiency. The garrison system deeply combined military defense zones with agricultural production units.

Each garrison was allocated a fixed ratio, such as "three parts for defending the city and seven parts for farming" in border areas, allowing soldiers to both garrison the city and cultivate the land they were assigned.

This model eliminates the need for additional funding from the imperial court, greatly reducing the financial burden on the court.

Secondly, the hereditary military system of garrisons was implemented, which ensured a stable source of soldiers.

The soldiers in the garrison were hereditary; once enlisted in the military, their families would serve as soldiers for generations.

This ensured a stable and continuous base of manpower for the imperial court, and through the preferential treatment of land allocation and mobilization, it rapidly built up a massive military force.

Finally, the garrison system, with its decentralized deployment, strengthened control over local areas.

The imperial court established numerous garrisons in important locations throughout the country, forming a tight defense network.

It could effectively protect the territory and also facilitate the court's management and mobilization through the "Five Military Commissions" and the "Ministry of War".