Father can be an enemy to the country

Zhu Zhen claimed that he wanted the soldiers staying in Yunnan to live the happiest life. He was not just talking nonsense, he had real material!

First of all, Zhu Zhen announced on the spot that from now on, all soldiers staying in Yunnan will enjoy a special allowance of 1,000 yuan per month. Moreover, the coins given out were copper coins, not unwanted treasure notes.

At present, money in the Ming Dynasty is expensive and cheap. Ten million copper coins can be exchanged for nearly two banknotes. This alone is higher than the military pay of soldiers.

What was even more shocking was yet to come. Zhu Zhen declared boldly that he had obtained the consent of his father to try out a new military settlement policy in Yunnan that was completely different from that in the mainland!

The current guard military system of the Ming Dynasty is closely related to farming. At present, there are about two million military households in the country. The land granted to each household varies depending on the region. Generally, it is twenty or thirty acres, and some can reach thirty or forty acres.

Therefore, not all military households serve as soldiers, or even do not serve as soldiers most of the time. Instead, they "defend the city with three points and farm crops with seven points." That is to say, among the ten military households, three of them each send out a strong man to serve as a soldier. 'Real soldier'.

The other seven families, and the 'Yu Ding' of the three families, are responsible for cultivating the land of the ten families, providing food for the ten families, as well as various military supplies such as food, grass, quilts, and clothing for the three regular soldiers.

Of course, those who serve as soldiers will not always be soldiers, and those who farm will not always farm. There is a rotation between them. On average, it’s probably ‘three years to be a soldier and seven years to farm’. This is the so-called "seven households cultivate the land and ten households eat".

This self-sufficient model for military households, at least during the Hongwu period, did indeed reduce the burden on the common people, so that they did not have to bear the burden of military rations, and did not have to suffer the horrific torture of transporting food to the frontiers.

Boss Zhu once proudly declared, "I can raise millions of soldiers without costing the people a grain of rice!" ’

Ordinary people were indeed able to recuperate and live and work in peace and contentment, and the Ming Dynasty's national power naturally recovered quickly. But this is based on the fact that military households bear all the burden of military supplies...

Moreover, after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, all troops fought on the border. The army often traveled thousands of miles away from the border fortress, and the consumption of military rations was terrifying.

As we all know, if there is no water transportation and only land transportation is used, it will cost several stone to transport one stone of military rations thousands of miles away.

Therefore, the burden on military households is extremely heavy.

Zhu Zhen has experienced the military household farming system, and he found that the current distribution model is extremely unreasonable.

Taking the example of each household farming 20 acres, first of all, the guard station must collect 50 shi of grain every year as military food. Each household can only withdraw two dan per month as food rations.

The rest of the grain was used as public grain for the health station to prepare for famine, build canals and embankments, purchase cattle and farm tools, and other public expenditures.

This model in which all the grain collected by military households is turned over to the guard warehouse and the rations are paid monthly makes it look like working on a farm, which seems not bad...

But 85% of the harvest will not belong to you, so who else will have the motivation to work?

Eating from a big pot is always like this. Those who take advantage are lazy people, and those who suffer are honest people. In the end, everyone becomes lazy.

But they all became lazy, the land became barren, and no crops could be grown. Not to mention the public rations, after paying the royal rations, there is not even enough rations to distribute... everyone can only starve collectively.

Moreover, Boss Zhu was too idealistic. He was worried that allocating land to soldiers would cause officers to annex the land of ordinary military households.

Therefore, it was stipulated that the ownership of the land in the military camps belonged to the guards, and the military households could only farm and had no right to buy or sell. The land is not theirs, so the military households have no enthusiasm for farming...

Especially when we see those civilian households opening up wasteland free of taxes, doing light corvee and receiving little tax, and living a prosperous life, the military household becomes even more unbalanced. So just after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, deserters appeared in various military posts in the Ming Dynasty.

When Boss Zhu mentioned the reason for attacking the King of Liang, he said angrily: "If he had followed his duty and guarded his land, I would not have conquered him." But he didn't stick to his rules. He lured the deserters here to go away, and the sinners hid themselves and only raised provocations on the side. Therefore, I taught them to conquer them and put them down. It probably won't cause any trouble, what can you say? ’

Although it was accusing the King of Liang, it also indirectly explained the desertion problem in the early years of the Kingdom. This has to be said to be the failure of the current garrison and garrison system.

~~

"Then may I ask, Your Highness, where is the new policy on farming?" Fu Youde asked next.

"First of all, the food grown by military households in Yunnan no longer needs to be handed over in full as before." Zhu Zhen said solemnly: "You only need to pay 40% of the total harvest as military food, and the remaining 60% belongs to your own family. Of course, the health center will not issue any more rations!"

"In addition, all military supplies and transportation have nothing to do with the military households. They hand over 40% of the harvest and have to fight for the country. The burden is already heavy enough, and we cannot add any more to them." After a pause, he raised his voice and became murderous. He said: "I will send a special person to supervise this matter. If anyone dares to ask the military household to hand over an extra grain of grain, I will skin him!"

"Yes..." Although the generals were full of worries, they had no choice but to respond first due to the pressure from the prince.

"In addition, I have made an agreement with my father that all soldiers and civilians who enter Yunnan, as long as they can settle down there, will be rewarded with cattle, fields and houses, and will be exempted from tax and military service for ten years!"

Zhu Zhen was completely speechless and refused to give up. Finally, he announced: "Ten years later, the land will be bought and sold by anyone!"

The generals buzzed, and they couldn't stand it any longer. They all looked at Marquis Yingchuan.

Fu Youde, the general who conquered the South, had no choice but to bite the bullet and asked: "Your Majesty, let's not talk about what will happen in ten years. For now, if the military households do not pay food, how will the military food be solved?"

"The problem of military rations will be solved by the province. If the province cannot solve it, it will be solved by me!" Zhu Zhen waved his hand and said decisively: "Don't worry, I will never starve to the point of leaving one soldier alone!"

"That's good, that's good..." After hearing this, all the generals breathed a sigh of relief and no longer worried about this problem.

This frightened Mu De and others who were present at the court meeting. They thought that Zhu Zhen had posed such a big problem to the military and the generals would definitely explode.

Unexpectedly, the generals all stopped after the prince made an empty promise.

Seeing how the Marquis of Yingchuan and others believed in the prince's words, the local officials really didn't know whether it was the generals of the Ming Dynasty who were particularly naive, or whether the prince's words were particularly convincing in the Ming Dynasty.

Probably not the former...

~~

In short, after Zhu Zhen made these many promises, the generals finally no longer worried about the entire army staying in Yunnan.

"I have done everything I can do, and the rest is up to you." Zhu Zhen sat on the throne, his majestic eyes swept over the generals, and said word by word:

"The number one task for all of you this year is to keep the army in garrison. Whoever's army does the best will be rewarded heavily by me! Whoever's army is in shambles and has problems, don't blame me for being ruthless! You all understand. Yet?!"

Zhu Zhen almost shouted the last six words, which was so shocking that everyone clearly understood his determination.

"Understood!" The generals hurriedly shouted and accepted the order, no one dared to neglect.