In the Wuying Palace, Yu Qian spoke with a heavy tone, and his final conclusion was decisive.
However, there was nothing special about the faces of the other elders.
Making what you want to do so urgent that you won't be able to do it until you do it is a common tactic used in court.
After being involved in official circles for so many years, the bosses naturally have standards in their minds to determine whether something is necessary or urgent.
However, I have to say that Yu Qian's words are indeed exaggerated, but the corrupt situation of the military camp is indeed shocking.
Not only that, after seeing the specific situation in depth, the bosses all frowned in unison.
They thought that organizing the military cantonment would be very difficult, but they didn't expect it to be this difficult.
As Yu Qian just said, the problem of military settlements is actually divided into two major parts.
First of all, the first big piece is the issue of the imperial court’s original farmland being occupied by various major forces in various ways and concealed.
This point can be reflected very intuitively from the data provided by the Ministry of War. Compared with the Xuande period, the number of military camps today is less than 50%, let alone compared with the Hongwu period.
Of course, Yu Qian was conducting a secret inspection after all, and it was not comprehensive. What he presented was only the general situation of a few key military towns, but it should be said that it was still very representative.
As for the reason, it is very complicated, and it is not just as simple as the encroachment by a general or someone else.
The decrease in the number of military camps is partly due to the decrease in registered settlements, and partly due to the decrease in unregistered settlements. These two categories should be treated differently.
The decrease in registrations is mostly for good reason.
For example, there is insufficient field power, poor harvests in successive years, making it difficult to cultivate, or the area is often robbed, and after the people move, the border army shrinks and has no time to take care of it, or due to various other reasons, in short, it is an unsustainable situation due to the actual situation.
Below, the fields that were removed from the military garrison.
First of all, during the inspection process, many problems were discovered. The reasons reported by the border troops were either true or false, and sometimes they were even half-true and half-false. It was difficult for the Ministry of War to verify every acre of land one by one, which resulted in a large number of false claims.
The cultivated fields were destroyed openly.
It is not easy to verify this kind of thing, and it requires a lot of manpower and material resources. Not to mention, it is even more difficult to recover it.
Because, although the fields are right there and will not escape, it does not mean that the imperial court can just send people to check them.
After many years, perhaps the land was indeed not fertile at first, but after several years of recuperation, the fertility was restored. Perhaps some tribes did often come to plunder this area, causing the people to migrate. But after a few years, as the border
With stability and the mobilization of border troops, this place has become a comfortable place again.
It is very difficult to trace all these things.
Even if the original responsibility is not investigated, just recovering the land is difficult to achieve.
You must know that after these lands were concealed in various ways, they were not necessarily occupied by the people who concealed them at the time. It was very likely that they were traded out and became the private lands of the people. Some of them even became the property of local officials.
field.
Many of the fields may even be private fields that have been officially registered by the local government and paid taxes to the court on time.
Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for the court to have actual evidence to prove whether the land was a military settlement owned by the court, a field cultivated by the common people, or a field allocated to the common people by the government.
Even if it can be proven, it will be extremely difficult to take it back.
For the common people, their fields are their lives. If you want to seize their fields, you must fight hard. Forcibly taking back their fields can easily lead to civil unrest.
What's more, the ones who made the mistake were the border generals and soldiers who secretly occupied and sold the fields. The common people bought the fields with money. Although it was illegal, it was reasonable.
The imperial court wanted to take it back, but no one compensated the people for their losses, so why did the people deserve it?
If compensation is required, let alone the fact that the court cannot afford the expenditure. Even if it can afford it, what is the difference between taking back the official land that was originally owned by the court and still having to pay, and buying the land directly from the people?
In fact, this is the biggest deadlock.
The imperial court reorganized the military settlements in order to make the border troops self-sufficient and restore the number of acres, not just to punish those bastards who practiced favoritism and malpractice.
If at the end of the campaign, only a group of people were killed and the number of military camps was not restored, then no matter how many people were killed, the court's campaign would still be a failure!
In addition to this part, of course, there are also some occupied military fields that have been enriched by border generals.
Inventorying these fields is relatively simple, but it is not easy either.
The simple reason is that neither officials nor generals have the power to resist when facing the state machinery.
It can be said that as long as the court can obtain enough solid evidence, it will be effortless to capture them.
But, the same problem remains, stability!
These bastards occupied military villages and used them for their own use. Of course, they enriched their own pockets. However, they could not cultivate these fields themselves, but had to hire tenants to cultivate them.
It is easy for the imperial court to take back these fields, but after taking them back, they must be handed over to the government and the army for cultivation. Even if they are still given to the original tenants for cultivation, then the higher taxes on military settlements than on civilian fields may not necessarily be due to them.
Affordable.
Taking back this batch of fields will inevitably produce a large number of unemployed refugees. How to resettle them is also an issue that the court must consider in advance.
This is actually quite unreasonable.
It was obviously these border army generals who made mistakes, but in the end, the imperial court had to clean up the mess they left behind.
But there is nothing we can do about it. The imperial court is supported by all people, so it should protect all people.
No matter who made the mistake or whose problem it is, as long as there is a problem, the one who needs to consider how to solve it must be the court.
This is where the responsibility lies and we are bound to do so!
As for the unregistered decrease, this part of the land is registered, but it cannot deliver the grain it deserves.
As for the reasons, they are varied, but they are difficult to refute.
To put it bluntly, farming depends on the weather. Drought, hailstorms, locust plagues, and various other problems may lead to reduced production.
Again, it is difficult for the court to verify each of these situations in detail. It depends on local officials... Well, you know.
When local reports came in, even if the imperial court sent imperial envoys to verify the reports, they often failed and had to swallow a bitter fruit.
Even if there is no such natural disaster as a cover, due to the special nature of military camps, the border troops and generals in various places have an absolutely difficult reason to refute.
Wa Lachao Bian!
The border has never been peaceful, and various small tribes in Oara often come in groups to plunder. This is inevitable.
As an army guarding the border, the border army's primary responsibility is to protect the border and the people, followed by other things.
Therefore, due to repeated plunder and frequent mobilization of border troops, it was often necessary to temporarily mobilize the field troops to participate in the war. This missed the farming season, resulting in reduced field production, which was also one of the reasons often received by the Ministry of War.
The Oara people come and go like the wind, and there are countless conflicts and encounters, large and small, every year. It is simply impossible to verify the situation in detail.
Therefore, faced with these various reasons, it was difficult for the court to blame the border army and generals.
The final result is that although there are so many registered fields, the taxes actually paid are far from enough.
In addition, registered fields may also be sold privately or occupied as private fields. Therefore, if an inventory is to be carried out, how to appease the people is still a difficult problem to solve...
This chapter has been completed!