Daqiu is particularly lively today, with spring flowers blooming and the sun shining brightly.
Chen Twelve was even more happy today. Today was his big day. He finally got married and got a wife. The gathering was very lively with playing and playing music early in the morning, attracting countless people.
Today there will be one hundred couples getting married, all of them are descendants of Daqiu from the Guide Tuan training, and it will be a collective wedding hosted by Mr. Guo.
Chen Twelve had just returned from Luoyang, Kaifeng. After his senior brother returned from his pilgrimage and became the adopted son of the emperor, he also brought back two thousand elite soldiers from the royal camp and brought back many armors and guns. Their Red Spear Club also transformed and became
The most elite troops in Henan.
Chen Twelve also put on fine cotton armor, carried a sword and carried a gun. After reorganization, the troops in Guide Town were strong. Chen Twelve also became a sentry officer, with more than a hundred brothers under his command, and followed Guo Xingye northward.
, first opened the city and then fought against Luoyang. After several months of siege fighting, we completely captured two strong cities and important towns, as well as surrounding areas.
After the beginning of spring, the plan changed. Instead of going north to Shanxi, several groups of troops received awards and rewards from the emperor's envoys in Luoyang and then returned to town.
Li Jiyu was stationed in Luoyang, Xu Dingguo was stationed in Kaifeng, Ding Qiguang (brother of Ding Qirui, the governor of Chongzhen, and a former staff general) was stationed in Hanoi, Xu Anguo was stationed in Weihui, Liang Min was stationed in Zhangde, Li Huajing was stationed in Caozhou, and Ding Weiyue was stationed in Dongchang.
However, Zhu Zhongyi was still stationed in Guide, and was also in charge of Chen and Xu's second mansion.
After last year's battle, the Qing army in Henan was left with only Runing, Nanyang Prefecture, and Yingzhou in Huaibei.
Generals in Henan were promoted to higher ranks, and many local villages came forward to support the Ming Dynasty. For example, Ding Qiguang originally surrendered, but when he saw the Qing entering the pass, he immediately killed the generals and surrendered to the Qing.
Now seeing the Ming army regaining momentum, they immediately turned against the Qing and supported the Ming.
The imperial court repeatedly treated Ding Qiguang and other local tycoons, but did not ignore the past grudges. For example, Ding Qiguang was appointed as the head training town of the Huaiqing regiment, and various local gentry and other local gentry were also given officials and positions, allowing them to build armor and practice regiment bravery in their native villages.
Guide Town performed very well in the battles between Kaifeng and Luoyang. Chen Twelve took the lead in every battle and made great achievements. He also killed several Tatars and green camp soldiers, and accumulated merits to become the sentry commander.
After returning to Yongcheng, the person who came to propose marriage even crossed the threshold.
Finally, he married the daughter of Yuan family in Suizhou.
This Yuan family is the great-granddaughter of Yuan Keli, the minister of the front and rear. Her father, Yuan Fucheng, the prefect of Nanning, although she is a concubine and her mother is just a maid, she is still a daughter of the Yuan family after all.
The Yuan family was a top-notch family in Guide Prefecture. Although they suffered a national disaster at the end of Chongzhen and his father Yuan Shu died for the country, they were able to gain a foothold in the south and were reused by the emperor. Both brothers achieved fifth-rank official positions.
Of course, Chen Twelve had no chance to marry the Yuan family's daughter, even if it was a maid. However, when Yuan Shu and his son fled Guide Mansion, some of the family papers were not taken away, but the Yuan family's mother and daughter were still stranded in Guide.
The past two years have been very difficult for the government.
Chen Twelve happened to have rescued their mother and daughter before, so they finally got married. Yuan Fucheng was far away in Nanning, Guangxi, and didn't even know that his daughter was still alive.
Although Miss Yuan is the daughter of a maid, the Yuan family comes from a well-known gentry family, so she has been reading and writing since she was a child. However, her status is low and she is not popular. However, after experiencing the hardships of the past two years and her mother was also a maid, she is willing to do so.
Marrying a stable man like Chen Twelve doesn't require any wealth. It's good to have someone to rely on in this troubled world.
"Uncle, you look so handsome today."
The Agui brothers came over to congratulate their uncle. Afu got help from Chen Twelve last year and married his sweetheart as he wished. After the marriage, they also divided their households and even restored their original surname with the support of Chen Twelve.
Guide, which is under the control of the Red Spear Society, was presided over by the old master last year, and various new policies of the court were implemented, and a large amount of unclaimed wasteland was re-cleared and allocated to farmland.
Chen Twelve, as a member of the imperial camp, was allocated thirty acres of land, while Afu was also allocated ten acres of land after he got married and established a household.
Although Agui was underage, as a young man, he was assigned several acres of land to his name.
There are red spears who will attack bandits and bandits and maintain public order. Guide Mansion is also much more stable. Zhu Zhongyi organizes armor and trains regimental bravery to encircle and suppress those disobedient soil fortresses and bandits.
As a sub-inspector, the old master encouraged farmers to resume their production.
"Afu, you have grown stronger and are more stable."
Ah Fu smiled, he felt very hopeful about his current life. After his marriage, he divided his household and was allocated ten acres of land. Although he now lives in three simple thatched houses, he has hope.
Of the ten acres of land, one acre is planted with mulberry trees, and the remaining nine acres are divided into three parts, with two types of trees resting one year, and two types every three years. Each piece of land is planted for two years and left fallow for one year, and two crops are practiced every three years.
Although men farmed and women weaved, it was hard work, but he felt very at ease. When farming was busy, he recruited some refugees to help with the farming, and usually went to the fields by himself.
My wife raised ten baskets of silkworms. One acre of land could be raised by just one person. After one year of hard work, she was able to reel out eight pounds of raw silk. Although raising silkworms was hard work, day and night, the raw silk was very valuable.
Basically, Afu cultivates the land, and the harvested food is enough for his family's rations, and there is still a lot of surplus after paying taxes. However, because his father-in-law's family are refugees, there are more people and less land, and the Chen family has many old and weak people.
, he also needs some help, after all, he has been nurtured for many years.
However, everything needed to be purchased for the new home. When they separated, they borrowed money to buy everything, from farm tools to seeds, even pots and pans. Now that they have harvested the proceeds from selling the grain, they are slowly paying it back.
The money for clothes and quilts is mainly purchased with the income from raising silkworms and reeling silk from my wife.
"Brother, it's too tiring to farm ten acres of land alone," Ah Fu said.
"I'm not from the same race. My in-laws often help me, and they also hire people when the farm is busy. Hiring people pays a lot of money, and they also have to provide food and drink. Those people can eat, so they have to eat three meals a day, and several bowls of rice.
, you still have to see the meat." Speaking of this, Ah Fu felt very distressed.
Usually I am reluctant to eat meat, and I can't afford it, but when I hire people to work, I have to have meat to eat, even if it is mainly pig intestines, lungs, heart, liver, pig heads, etc., it is still indispensable.
These days, this is the case when hiring people to do work, especially for farm work, otherwise those people will not be able to work hard.
In ordinary times, the long-term workers of landlords' families, some even have better food than some small landowners. The landlords are reluctant to eat meat, but the long-term workers have to eat some meat often, especially during the busy farming season.
Ah Fu couldn't bear to part with it, but he would be too busy without hiring help. If he cultivated intensively, a strong laborer could cultivate only five acres of land at most, and he would have to hire help to cultivate ten acres of land.
It costs a lot to hire people for wages, food and drink, plus borrowing cattle and seeds, etc. This is provided by the Red Gun Association, and the rental fee is not high. Otherwise, after this busy year, there won't be a few left at all.
So these days, if you have your own land, after all the hard work, if there is no famine, there will always be a few left to make ends meet, and women will have to plant mulberry and raise silkworms or even breed them.
If you don't have your own land and become a tenant, you will have to pay rent for the harvest at the end of the year. There will really be very few left, so you will work hard every year and be poor every year. In the event of a famine, you will have to sell your sons and daughters.
For people like Ah Fu, if the world hadn't been in chaos and then the Red Spears would have taken control and implemented the new government policies, allocating fields to them, lending them seeds and cattle at low interest rates, etc., there would have been no chance for them to stand up.
As a regiment training officer, Chen Twelve directly allocated 30 acres of land. He also took advantage of the current chaotic world and the cheap land prices to buy some land with reward money. Now he has collected a hundred acres of land, and he can be regarded as a medium landowner.
But he doesn't have the time or energy to farm by himself, so now he recruits refugees to farm, and his family brothers help take care of it. Now that the court has temporarily exempted land taxes, the labor of refugees is relatively cheap. After taking into account the expenses, there are still benefits, especially from the price of food.
It’s high, and the income from farming is pretty good.
One or two acres of land does not bring much profit, but adding up to one hundred acres is not bad.
Of course, compared to what he earned from working hard in the army, capturing things, and getting rewards, they were much less.
Although the imperial court does not directly pay the Guided Regiment's training, they all rely on self-financing, but they control such a large territory, and the salary can be maintained for the time being. It is just not as rich as the imperial camp, but the gains from suppressing the bandits are not small.
.
The world is in chaos.
Many wealthy and powerful families like Suizhou who used to be high and mighty in the past have been knocked down, and there are also former poor people like Chen Twelve who have finally turned around.
Ah Fu, who fled with his mother back then, is now able to start his own business, own ten acres of property, marry a wife, and even have a child soon.
Young men like Chen Twelve, who used to help people harvest wheat and barely make ends meet in Hukou, are now sentry officers and landlords with hundreds of acres of land.
Today is his wedding day, and a hundred brothers from the group are getting married together.
He married a young lady from the Yuan family.
In the past, the name of the Yuan family was only heard in legends from others, but now, they can marry this rich lady.
"Uncle, I heard that you are going to station in Xuzhou soon?"
"Well, after the wedding, there are still ten days of leave, and then we will go to Xuzhou to station in Yancheng."
Yancheng is in the south of Xuzhou, at the intersection of Chen, Xu, Runing and Nanyang. The Shahe River, an important tributary of the Ying River, passes through here.
The next goal of Guide Town is to control Yancheng, cut off the connection between Nanyang and the Qing army in Yingzhou, and then go south to attack Runing, cooperate with the Guanzhai in the Dabie Mountains and the Huaixi imperial camp, and completely divide and surround Yingzhou.
General Chen Twelve moved to Yancheng with his troops.
"Uncle, I also want to be a soldier." Agui said.
"You are still too young, wait a few years."
Ah Fu is old, but he no longer wants to be a soldier. Now he just wants to farm at home, accompany his wife, and then have children and raise children. Men farm and women weave, and live their own small life. He is already very satisfied.
If you fight, people will die.
He used to be a bachelor and wanted to join the Red Spear Association to earn money, but now he has a wife.
Nowadays, in the Guide area, the Baojia and regiment training systems are implemented. Ten households are the cards, ten cards are the A, and the ten Jia are the Bao.
Depending on the size of the population, one family may have one family, or three or five families may have one family. These guards are organized into groups, trained in leisure time, and assist in defense during wartime.
Then from among these guards, those in their twenties and thirties who are physically strong, honest and brave are selected to serve as regimental heroes.
A security corps is set up at the county level to lead the guards, and a regiment training camp is set up at the prefectural level. The security corps in various places are led by the county magistrate, registered squires, famous landlords, masters of the Red Spear Club, and senior brothers.
The regiment training camp was led by Zhu Zhongyi, the commander-in-chief of the regiment training camp, and officers sent by the emperor.
The security guards in various places are organized into security teams and have security team leaders.
The regiment training camp is like a royal camp, with five hundred brave men forming the first battle camp and one hundred and eight auxiliary camps.
There is no salary for the security team, only food and rations are included during the training camp.
As for the regiment training camp, it is already semi-full-time, and there are wages and food in the camp. Normally, everyone works on their own business, and when there is something special, they focus on defense. Because of the current situation in Henan, the guide regiment training is mainly based on the backbone members of the Red Spear Club, plus the imperial court.
Two thousand imperial soldiers were mobilized and organized into a standing army.
Compared to other town group trainings, both equipment and courage training are much better.
"The auspicious time has come, let's go to the church and get married!"
Brother Afu and Agui hurriedly hugged their uncle Chen Twelve to the ceremony, "Hurry and pick up the bride and go to the church to get married."
One hundred guide regiments were training, all wearing scarlet robes.
One hundred brides all wear phoenix crowns and horse-faced skirts.
Thousands of people were watching, witnessing this lively and festive scene.
"The Red Spear Club is so majestic!"
"You only get this benefit if you join the group training!"
"Be a soldier, eat food, marry a bride, divide the fields and grant land to the emperor's soldiers!"
On the ceremonial stage, Mr. Zhao presided over the wedding ceremony and gave congratulatory gifts. He gave each newlywed couple two silver coins with a dragon pattern, two wedding quilts, two pieces of cotton cloth, and six other gifts to congratulate the newlyweds.
One hundred newlyweds worshiped heaven and earth, respected their parents, and thanked the emperor.
"The ceremony is completed and sent to the bridal chamber!"