Baita Township in the south of the county is also called Nanxiang. The Qing army stationed a Zichuan Camp in Zichuan County, and Baita Township stationed the Baita Xun of the Zichuan Camp. There was a Foreign Affairs Commission General Qian stationed in the township.
Above, there are ninety flood troops, including forty-seven city defenders, and a total of forty-three troops stationed in each flood pond.
Xiaofu River flows through Baita Township, with Dongding Mountain standing in the east.
Baita Township is located between the river and the mountains.
"Report, Mr. Qian, the Ming Army, the Ming Army is here."
A flood soldier from the Dustpan Flood District hurriedly arrived and reported to Wang Xianzhu, the commander of Baita Flood District. His face was panicked and he was out of breath as he ran.
Wang Xianzhu, the general manager of Baita Xunqian, was making an abacus. It was time to pay the bills again. This account had to be calculated clearly and carefully. After hearing the report, his hands stopped pulling out the abacus beads.
"How many?"
"There are many. They drove from Yanshen Town. At least one battalion has been discovered, and there seems to be more behind."
Wang Xianzhu panicked.
"Where are they now?"
"Just entered our Zichuan County."
Wang Xianzhu was so confused that he stood up and walked around, not knowing what to do.
As the commander-in-chief of the Green Camp, he was actually just a small officer. After the Tatars entered the customs, in addition to the Eight Banners, they also reorganized the Han army into the Green Camp, which was divided into various places. The Green Camp was also divided into combat soldiers and garrison troops.
The garrison is usually filled by the remaining members of the Green Battalion, and those who are less qualified are recruited.
The official positions in the Green Camp range from admiral to commander-in-chief, to guerrilla general, to garrison commander-in-chief, etc.
Among them, Qianzong is special. There is the fifth-rank garrison Qianzong, who is subordinate to the Governor of Water Transport. There is the sixth-rank gate Qianzong, which is subordinate to the Eight Banners Infantry Battalion. There is also the battalion Qianzong, the sixth-rank, the chief officer of the first battalion of the Green Battalion, and the guard
Mr. Qian, from the sixth rank, was the one who carried grain at the line guard station along the canal.
In addition, there is also a foreign minister Qian Zong, who is only of the eighth rank.
Wang Xianzhu is the Qian General of the Foreign Affairs Commission, a mere eighth-rank official.
The General Manager of Ying Qian is in charge of at least three to five hundred people, while he, the General Manager of Foreign Affairs Committee, only manages a flood season with only ninety people. The people under his command are all flood and pond soldiers who guard the city, which is one level lower than the soldiers of the Green Camp.
Guard.
He is not even qualified to garrison in the county. He is garrisoned in the countryside. He has ninety soldiers under his command. Forty-seven of them are stationed with him in the countryside, and forty-three are stationed in the seven surrounding ponds. Each pond only has six soldiers.
Seven soldiers.
Flood ponds were actually used by the Tatars after they entered the customs and directly used things that existed in the late Ming Dynasty. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the concept of flood ponds emerged under the garrison system, and the Tatars used them. The green battalions of each province were subordinated to the governor.
The governor, the admiral, and the commander-in-chief of each town.
In addition to the governor's three bids, the green battalions of the green battalions also divided the garrison area into several interconnected areas. Each area was assigned a thousand generals, a general general, a foreign affairs general, a thousand generals, and foreign affairs generals to lead the troops to garrison.
The place of garrison is the flood area. In each flood area, a part of the green battalion soldiers will be stationed in the center of the place with the chief officer, and the rest will be stationed in various important transportation areas, called ponds.
Although Huntang strengthened the Green Battalion's control over various places, its military strength was actually weak.
Wang Xianzhu, an eighth-rank foreign affairs minister, was stationed in Baita Township, with a total of ninety soldiers under his command.
It is also divided into seven places.
In each pond, four soldiers were stationed in some ponds, eight soldiers were stationed in some ponds, and six soldiers were stationed in some ponds. The distance between each pond varied from one to twenty miles from the village.
"How can this be good?"
"Sir, please report to the county camp immediately and request that we be allowed to retreat into the city."
Wang Xianzhu was panicked.
After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, with the county as the center, the localities were generally divided into four townships, east, west, north, and south. One township governed the Qiandu, one capital governed several maps, and one map governed several villages.
Zichuan County has four townships, southeast and northwest, twelve capitals, and fifty-six maps.
Baita Township is also called Nanxiang and has jurisdiction over three capitals and ten maps.
As a floodplain, the countryside is relatively large.
Baita Township is a mountainous area, with only about 10,000 acres of farmland in the township. It is mainly supported by coal mining and other industries. It is relatively wealthy. There is also a cross street in the township, divided into four squares, and there are earth walls surrounding the village squares.
.
But the earthen wall was thin and low, so it was possible to keep the door closed to guard against thieves. However, it was impossible to defend against an attack by the Ming army's imperial camp.
"Hurry up and gather your troops!"
After Wang Xianzhu panicked for a while, he finally thought of gathering his troops.
The servant went to deliver the order.
After half an hour, there were only a dozen or so people standing sparsely on the playground.
Five of them were his servants, who were usually supported by double pay.
"Where is anyone else?"
There are usually forty-seven soldiers stationed in the village, but now only thirteen have arrived, and there are still thirty-four soldiers who have not arrived.
The servant stepped forward and replied, "They are all working outside."
The salary of the Green Camp City garrison is lower than that of the soldiers, let alone the Eight Banners. The infantry in the Green Camp soldiers are paid one tael and five silver a month, and if they have horses, they are paid two taels, and there is also food.
As for the city guards, they only had one tael of silver a month and three measures of rice.
But even this number is impossible to get.
The green battalion soldiers are generally stationed in a centralized manner, while the city garrison troops and flood-tang garrison troops account for almost half.
The city guards were treated the worst.
Wang Xianzhu was originally a guard soldier of the Ming Dynasty, and later became a local camp soldier, and then surrendered to Shun, and then to the Qing Dynasty. He was appointed as a foreign commissioner, Qian Zong, and his annual salary was only forty taels of silver.
Not as much as the Eight Banners cavalry pay.
It is also a garrison place, and the garrison in Green Camp City is also a place where the garrison and the family are settled. The grain is given to each person at three dou per month, while for the Eight Banner garrison, each person is given five dou of rice per month.
The Eight Banners are paid per mouth. If a person stationed at the Eight Banners has a family of six people, he will actually receive three shi of rice per month. If there are ten people, that is five shi.
As for their garrison at Green Camp City, even a family of six would still only have three buckets of rice, which is less than five liters per mouthful.
As for these three buckets of rice, the imperial court always played tricks with them. When the price of food was cheap, they would give them the original color rice. If the price of food was high, they would give them the silver color. The problem is that they are not based on the market price. For example, now in Qingzhan District, Shandong Province
Grain was expensive, costing several taels of silver per stone. The Tatars gave the city guards the price of one tael of silver per stone, and three measures of rice cost three qian of silver.
But damn, grain is so expensive in Shandong now. It costs at least five or six taels of silver per stone, which means that for three coins of silver, you can only buy half a bucket of rice.
Wang Xianzhu was a military householder for generations and spent half his life in the military camp.
We take these people for granted. The Ming Dynasty also treated them like this in the past. There were no Eight Banners at that time, but there were still differences between the Ning army, the Beijing camp, the provincial camp, and the garrison troops.
There are policies from above and countermeasures from below.
A living person cannot die of urination.
He was a foreign minister, Qian Zong. Although he was only in the eighth rank, he was still an official. He also had ninety soldiers under his command, so he could still make money.
For example, it is a common practice in the military to take empty pay.
Of the ninety soldiers, Wang Xianzhu directly ate the pay of fifteen soldiers. His foreign affairs committee general and other junior officers divided them into fifteen more. With ninety soldiers, they directly had to eat one-third.
Therefore, of the ninety city garrison troops in Baixiang County, only sixty were actually present, and the remaining thirty only existed on the roster.
Wang Xianzhu ate fifteen, one tael of silver for each soldier, plus three buckets of rice. The total amount was fifteen taels of silver plus four stones and five stones of rice. This was much better than his own salary of forty taels of silver a year.
Of course, he won't be satisfied with just getting paid.
As a veteran, Wang Xianzhu had many ways to make money after going through the Ming and Qing dynasties. For example, he rented out some barracks to local businessmen and ordinary people, and collected the rent and put it into his own pocket.
Another example is the rice given to the soldiers. If the rice is distributed, he will make a profit from it. If the new rice is exchanged for the old rice, the rice will be stained with sand, and the color will be changed to make silver, he will always get it.
He still had the audacity to secretly sell some of the ordnance issued from above.
For example, the above requires that archers and musketeers must practice at least 100 days a year, and a shotgun soldier must have at least 500 rounds of live ammunition a year.
This meant that there was supposed to be a practical operation every three or four days, but in fact Wang Xianzhu and the others had no training at all, and the musketeers rarely fired guns.
Because the musketeers and archers have to pay for the gunpowder for the arrows they practice. Even if the superiors bear part of it, they still have to pay for the gunpowder themselves. Every time you shoot, you have to pay for it.
money, who is willing?
So try not to practice unless checked by above.
It not only saves ammunition expenses, but also secretly sells the ammunition for money, which also increases income.
With ninety troops in his hand, Wang Xianzhu, the foreign affairs minister, was doing well anyway. He was even able to acquire a lot of fields in Baita Township. He usually didn't even need to hire long-term tenant farmers. When the farming was busy, he directly
Bring your own soldiers to farm, and you will gain another amount of income from the fields.
He also opened a pawnshop and a grain store in the countryside.
He even lent money to his soldiers.
The ordinary city guards under him don't have the opportunity to get money everywhere like he does. They can't even get one tael of silver or three measures of rice a month.
Because according to the regulations of the Ministry of War, the soldiers of the Qing army had to pay money to raise the war horses. Every soldier had to deduct silver from his friends, and each soldier had to deduct silver according to his rank. The infantry also had to deduct five cents of silver a month.
The most damn excessive thing is that everyone paid money to buy horses for the court. If there was any leftover, it would not be returned, but would be paid to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Then, what is even more outrageous is that if the horse that everyone bought with money dies after not being used for three years, they will have to pay a sum of money as compensation. If it is less than one year, it will be compensated 10 taels, if it is less than two years, it will be 9 taels.
Compensation will be eighty taels for three years.
In addition to the money they deducted and the compensation they paid, these poor Green Camp City guards had to pay for daily vegetables, winter and summer clothes, and repairs for equipment, saddles, and bridles.
Therefore, these city guards are very pitiful. They deduct here and there. During the leap year, they have to raise their own money to pay themselves for the thirteenth month, which is called construction fee. A sum is deducted from the soldiers' salary.
Come down and finally use it to pay for the leap month.
Normally, if weapons and armor are broken, you have to pay for them yourself. You have to pay for buying and raising horses. If a horse dies, you have to pay for them. If there is a leap month, you have to pay for it. You have to pay for the food you eat. You have to pay for military uniforms.
money.
You also have to pay for arrows and gunpowder consumed during training.
In addition, the officers always have a way to deduct more money from you.
The result is that you end up serving as a soldier for the imperial court, and you may have to pay for it. Even if you don't pay for it, how can you support your family in Hukou with the little money and food left?
Therefore, when soldiers often encounter something, such as a family member being sick, they can only borrow money from an official. This loan requires interest, which is also very high.
If you borrow something, you have to pay it back.
Therefore, soldiers can only think of ways to earn extra money. Some go to help others farm, some sell some goods, and some serve as guards or pledges for others, and some are brave enough to just go to work.
They also work as bandits or smugglers secretly.
Anyway, there is nothing I can do about it.
In the past, during the Ming Dynasty, they also relied on this to survive.
Chickens urinate in their own way.
Therefore, even though Zichuan is close to the Ming Control Area, the soldiers in Baita and Flood Pool are usually doing their own selfish tasks.
Among the thirteen people who came, five were Wang Xianzhu's servants. Wang Xianzhu wanted to give them a subsidy out of his own pocket so that they could follow him with peace of mind.
In fact, none of the remaining eight men were his real soldiers. They were either old guys or young men. They were all soldiers who asked their family members to come over to take over their duties after they went to do their own private work.
In fact, Wang Xianzhu knew this kind of thing very well.
But now he saw that the Ming army was about to attack, but he only had these few soldiers gathered, and his face turned purple with anger.
As a result, a servant shouted there, "Sir, the Ming army is invading and there are many soldiers and horses. Should we quickly give out some silver rewards to boost morale?"
"Yes, then let's quickly retreat to the county seat!"
Another person said, "The Ming army is attacking in a big way, but there are only about 300 people in our county? It's not enough to put a hole in people's teeth. If you ask me, let's escape into Dongding Mountain or run directly to Jinan!"