Three days later, Alin Bao and more than 20 strong men, one by one, galloped on the post road leading to Qitai. After leaving Gongning City, they slept in the open air, and they only changed their horses when they passed by the post station. They only took two days to pass Fukang County.

"Wow~~~"

As Alin Bao pulled the reins, the others slowed down together, and more than forty well-trained war horses neighed wildly. A strong man with a beard like a black tower said in a muffled voice: "What's wrong?"

Alinbao explained: "Master Ba, you will reach the North Pirate's checkpoint in thirty miles. We have to go south from the fork in front of us and walk close to Bogda Mountain. We will take our brothers to meet us in Shichengzi."

After the Northern Navy took over Kai'an City west of Qitai, Liu Sheng ordered his troops to continue to advance westward, and finally temporarily set the dividing line at the Ziniquan Station, 90 miles away from Fukang County. Because it was already winter in October, the defenders of Fukang County did not realize that the situation was wrong until early November when they gave the station supplies.

The strong man nodded after hearing this, looked up and saw that it was still early, and said, "Let's go! Find a place to rest after entering the mountain!"

Everyone around said "Ye" together, and then released the reins, hundreds of horse hooves sounded a sudden sound, and disappeared into the dust and snow in a blink of an eye.

Speaking of which, after careful consideration, Shang An, the governor of Wulumuqi, finally decided to gamble, try to have a date or not, if it is done, wouldn’t it be a great achievement? At that time, the Northern Hai Army will come over, and even if he abandons the city and escapes, he will be able to defeat the merits and demerits from General Mingliang of Yili and the court, and escape to death.

This man entered the Ministry of War as a student in his early years as a student. Later, he participated in the Battle of Jinchuan and pacified the rebellion of Shaanxi and Gansu. He also served as the governor of Shaanxi and Guangdong and was considered the same party as Agui. However, the unfortunate thing was that he was sent by Qianlong to Turpan nine years ago for the case of "salt merchants from eastern Guangdong donated public funds". After several years, he was promoted to the governor of Wulumuqi.

Because of the relationship between General Mingliang of Yili and Agui behind the scenes, Shang An knew the terrible strength of the Northern Navy. Mingliang's strong military force in Ningguta was beaten to three liters of blood, not to mention the thousands of military forces in Gongning City and Dihua City. There is no chance to mobilize the whole city, and it is necessary to get some evil and crooked ones.

Therefore, Shang'an selected more than 20 elite soldiers from the Eight Banners in Gongning City, all of whom were experienced in battles and had strong individual combat capabilities. It was said before that since the "Battle of Jinchuan", the Qing army changed from focusing on combat formation training to emphasizing individual courage, which put forward higher requirements on individual combat capabilities.

The person in charge of leading the team was a Manchurian Zhengbai Banner Associate, named Baqina, and there were two leaders who urged the vanguard school, twenty vanguard soldiers - Bayala sentry from the Post-Jin era.

The Eight Banners in Wulumuqi were all Zhuanglangman soldiers from Liangzhou, Gansu. To be honest, Liangzhou Mancheng was located in a military rush, and its remoteness was rarely affected by the corrupt atmosphere of mainland bannermen. In all the wars of the Qianlong Dynasty, they were the main force among the main forces, with high combat effectiveness, second only to the Solon soldiers.

In addition to the short sword, the stinging tiger gun and the 132-pound heavy bow each equipped with, there are also ten high-quality Mongolian flower guns. The length of this gun is three feet and seven inches, weighs eight kilograms, two cents of medicine, and 4.7 cents of iron. Although the two people carry a longer range and more lethality, their length is more than two meters and is not portable.

In winter, the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains is covered with snow-capped mountains, with snow-capped forests and rivers and canyons intertwined, with few people coming and going, making it extremely difficult to walk. Although led by Alinbao, who is familiar with the terrain, the soldiers of the Qianfeng Battalion were used to walking on the mountain roads, but the journey of more than 200 miles was still slipping away for five days. It was noon on the sixth day that they arrived at the frozen Biliu River. As long as they crossed this river, entered the valley to the east, and walked for another forty miles to reach Shichengzi.

At the same time, on the northern slope of Tianshan Mountain forty miles away, Zhao Xin, Fan Tong and Jiang Fan rode their horses and slowly walked up to a high hill. Looking around, you can see the vast and vast mountains and rivers. In the distance is a river like a mirror, and under your feet are deep valleys and ditches covered with snow.

Zhao Xin jumped off the horse, threw the reins to the guards who were accompanying him, and walked into the ruins with only ruins. Fan Tong and Jiang Fan did not understand their intentions, so they had to get off the horse and follow them. Zhao Xin lowered his head and pulled on the snow in the ruins for a while, leaning over to pick up something. Fan Tong walked up to look and found that it was a broken piece of clay tiles; there were two double crosshairs in the middle, which divided the circle into four pieces, and each piece was a pattern with an edge rolled inward, with clear patterns.

"Tile?"

"Yes, the cloud pattern tile from the Han Dynasty." Zhao Xin said that, and handed it to Fan Tong casually.

Jiang Fan, who was standing beside him, looked at him for a moment, then held it in his hand and thought, and agreed: "It's indeed a tile. Taking this thing back and finding someone to carve an inkstone is also considered the fun of the study."

Fan Tong knew nothing about cultural relics and said in surprise: "Can this thing be used as an inkstone? I have only heard of using Qin bricks to make inkstones."

Jiang Fan explained: "The tiles of the Qin and Han dynasties are fine and exquisite in materials, and are almost as good as those of clear mud. They are used as inkstones and are hard and lush. They will not dry for a few days. They are rare inkstones. In the early years, a certain person in the capital city saw an inkstone carved with Changle Weiyang tiles, which is a top-notch one."

Fan Tong suddenly realized and said with a smile: "I have to learn more from Mr. Ziping in the future. I really know nothing about these."

Jiang Fan subconsciously reached out to stroke his beard, and after he touched it, he remembered that he had shaved his beard after joining the army. Alas! This is not good for the North Hai Army, even the officers did not allow him to grow a beard.

"Xiao Fan," Zhao Xin raised his hand and swept it with a horse whip, and said, "Do you know where this is?"

"Where?" Fan Tongyi looked confused and looked around, thinking that he was in the wilderness, how could I know.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Zhao Xin has been busy dealing with the military farming affairs left by the Qing Dynasty these days. He either reviews the files or asks the logistics department to go down to investigate the arable land situation. He will have to hold a meeting to discuss when he comes back in the evening. He finally settled everything and was about to leave, but he didn't know what was wrong this morning and insisted on pulling himself and Jiang Fan to this hill sixty miles away, saying that he was relaxing together. He originally called Liu Sheng, but Liu didn't come because he had something to do.

Since the Northern Navy took over the ancient city, Zhenxifu and Hami, all the military garrisons in the three places, the invading and the Hutun will naturally take over. The area of ​​more than 60,000 acres of arable land is not a decimal. How to manage these arable land and labor will be related to the food rations of the Western Front troops in the coming year and the land system in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in the future. Furthermore, since the Northern Navy has taken over tens of thousands of acres of military farms, the repair and replacement of seeds after the spring and damaged farm tools must be taken into account; in addition, the new rental standards must also be set.

Liu Sheng and Fan Tong have been busy with military deployment for more than two months, and have no regard for military farming. However, when Zhao Xin learned about the situation, he thought it was important and could not be delayed. While the time was still enough, he commanded the logistics personnel and spent a few days to make up the matter and formulate a plan after the spring so that he could follow the steps even if he left.

As the name suggests, the so-called "army garrison" is the land reclaimed by the Green Camp soldiers. The Qing Dynasty divided the Green Camp soldiers who were good at farming from Zhuti Town, Shaanxi and Gansu into a garrison according to a hundred. Each of them allocated 21 acres of land and set up camps on the garrison. In addition, the "investation", which is the form of settlement composed of exiles, was also incorporated into the Green Camp reclaim.

The above two types of land belong to the official business, with only the right to use, no property rights, and all the outputs must be paid in every year. Because the standards set by the Qing Dynasty in the past were too high, whether it was to garrison troops or send prisoners, their lives were very poor, and the latter was even worse.

For example, for the troops stationed, if the fine grain is paid more than fifteen stones, the salt and vegetables will be rewarded for one month (one tael); if the fine grain is paid more than twenty-five stones, the salt and vegetables will be rewarded for two months. However, if the fine grain is paid more than twelve stones, the reward will not be punished; if the fine grain is paid less than twelve stones, not only the troops stationed will be punished, but the governors and the camp officials will be punished together.

The standard for sending offenders is to take six stones of fine grain, six dou of pounds of white flour every day; to take ten stones of fine grain, one pound of white flour every day; to take more than four stones of fine grain, no reward or punishment, and to take less than four stones of fine grain, heavy responsibility. The reason why the standard for sending offenders to farm farms is lower than that of garrisoning troops is mainly because there is insufficient livestock and farm tools, and the other is that the amount of labor is insufficient.

Although the Qing Dynasty said it was so high-sounding, it was salt, vegetables, silver and white flour, when Zhao Xin and several staff members reviewed and counted the land accounts of Qitai County's military farms, it was found that under normal circumstances, it was not easy to garrison troops and send prisoners to meet the standard of not rewarding or punishment, and it was even more difficult to meet the standard of rewarding.

In the 32 years from the 25th year of Qianlong to the 57th year of Qianlong, the number of grain paid for only eight years was more than fifteen stones, accounting for 25%; the number of grain paid for more than twelve stones was not rewarded or punished for ten years, accounting for about 37.5%; the passing standard for less than twelve stones was fourteen years, accounting for 43.75%.

The data on sending offenders is even worse. The history of sending offenders on Xinjiang East Road is 30 years, of which only five years of grain collection standard exceeded 6 shi and 6, and received a reward of half a pound of white flour every day, accounting for 16.7%; the number of grain paid more than four shi, and there were 21 years, accounting for 70%; the number of grain paid less than four shi and was heavily responsible for four years, accounting for 13.3%; the number of grain paid up to ten shi, was not a year.

Because the standards for raising grain for military and invading garrisons cannot be completed, both the governing camp and the governing garrison officials must be punished. Therefore, in order not to be punished, military farming officials at all levels have to force them to open more cultivated land, and they cannot be included in the land acres. Therefore, the hardships of farming are hard to describe. Of course, if you catch up with the famine, even if you have a life of farming, you will still not be able to complete it.

Speaking of the hardships of life, because the troops stationed have more than one taels of money every month, and the grain price on Xinjiang East Road is extremely low - Shihu only needs three cents for money, so although they live in poverty, they can still eat a full meal. But those sent prisoners are different. Although they are stationed in farming together, they cannot get the money for a eldest son. The government does not care about food, and can only rely on the leftovers of the troops stationed in survival. Their life is extremely miserable, and escape incidents occur from time to time.

The people from the Western Front Command once rescued a half-crazy guy. Later, they learned that this person was an exiled person. He was exiled to this place for selling private salt three years ago. First, his wife died of illness, leaving behind a five-year-old daughter. Later, in order to complete the farming task, he didn't care about the child at all. He could only put him in the nearby forest while farming and let him moan. In a few days, the child was taken away by a wolf and the man went crazy.

After completing these statistics, Zhao Xin roughly understood how miserable the ordinary people exiled to Xinjiang in the Qing Dynasty were. In his intuitive impression, he thought that exiled people came here to serve as soldiers to guard the border or herd sheep.

After obtaining the investigation data, Zhao Xin felt that just by copying the land ownership, the key was to give the garrison households a reasonable amount of rent, so that they could farm with peace of mind. In addition, the situation of sending offenders should be re-distinguished, such as those who disobey, robbery, robbery, crutches, dig graves, murder, escape from prison, and even corrupt, criminals should continue to accept labor reform, and those who are wronged must be treated with military garrison.

In addition to the above problems, there is also a group of military farms that gave Zhao Xin a headache - "Hutun". This form of farming was established in the 27th year of Qianlong. The source of labor and manpower was different and the situation was complicated. Among them were refugees and tenants from all over Gansu, "man craftsmanship" and small vendors who came here to find a livelihood, and the children of the green camp's family members, and some powerful families in the mainland, as well as those who were implicated in the local case, and those who were attached to the border residents.

The arable land in Hutun was also an official business at the beginning, and each household was given 30 acres of official land. However, as long as it had been cultivated for five years, it could be "advanced" - that is, it would have to pay taxes to the government, and the official land was converted into private land. In addition, the farm tools and livestock of these people were not allocated by the government, but loaned for use. After a sufficient livelihood, they had to be returned and the losses were borne by themselves.

Although this part of the arable land is not large, it cannot be underestimated. Zhao Xin still can't make up his mind how to collect ownership or how to collect ownership. The key is that Xinjiang was vast and sparsely populated, and there were too many wastelands that had not been reclaimed. If the ownership was reclaimed for this amount of land, it would be reported that it would be bad for the Northern Navy before the entire Xinjiang was taken down; but if it was not reclaimed, it would be a problem to leave such a tail.

After several meetings with Fan Tong, Jiang Fan and logistics personnel, Zhao Xin finally formulated the following plan:

1. The Western Front Command established the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation, and the Chief of Staff Jiang Fan was temporarily the head of the general manager. Relevant personnel can be transferred from the Logistics Department or recruited from the private sector. The Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation will coordinate all farmland and water conservancy affairs of the entire Xinjiang East Road, including the distribution and maintenance of seeds, new agricultural tools, and livestock. The redemption of private land is also temporarily transferred to the Ministry of Reclamation.

2. Since 1794, the payment standard for fine grain in the army station was reduced to ten stones - that is, 1,200 kilograms, and the excess belonged to the households. If this standard is met, each household will be given a subsidy of fifty Beihai yuan. In addition, the salary of the army stationed was adjusted from the original 30 taels and eight cents per year - equivalent to 154 Beihai yuan to 200 Beihai yuan; the horse breeder was adjusted from the original 41 taels and five cents - that is, 207.5 yuan to 260 yuan. The purpose of the increase was mainly to improve life so that they no longer had to worry about salt and vegetable expenses.

3. The standard for sending offenders’ fine grain is reduced to 3.5 shi - 420 kilograms. Each household is given a subsidy of 30 yuan, and the excess is the same as above. In addition, sending offenders must also pay a certain living allowance to improve their lives. The annual standard is 100 Beihai yuan. However, this part of the money must be supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation. When sending offenders need to use it, they must fill out a form to apply for approval (otherwise they will get the money in front of the feet and run back to the city.)

4. Regarding the issue of "hutun", the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation shall agree to buy the ownership back, but no forced redemption shall be allowed. The land price shall rise by 20% according to the local arable land transaction market price. In terms of the grain consumption standards of Hutun, the standard of the Qing Dynasty will continue to be implemented, that is, 8 liters of grain per mu, and 30 mu of land will be 2.4 shi. In addition, if the full payment is paid within August every year, a subsidy of 10 yuan will be issued; if the full payment is paid within September, a subsidy of 5 yuan will be issued; if the full payment is paid within October, a subsidy of 2 yuan will be issued; if the full payment is completed within November and December, there will be no subsidy.

When the news of the plan came out, the first thing I learned was the military and criminal households in Qitai area. The hearts that had been hanging by each family finally fell down. Many people simply kowtowed in the direction of Jingyuan City, saying that life will be better in the future!

Zhao Xin believes that as long as the plan is implemented unremittingly, the military rations issue of the Western Front troops will no longer be worried about. Moreover, with the increase in grain production on Xinjiang East Road, the grain supply in Kobudo area can also be met.

After dealing with the military farming matter, Zhao Xin, who was already dizzy, remembered that there was a scenic spot in southern Qitai - Jiangbulak, and there was an ancient city ruins nearby. It was rare for him to come to Tianshan Mountain. Before leaving, he had to take a look to make the trip worthwhile.
Chapter completed!