Guo Huaian stood at the gate of Haiyan City anxiously and nervously. He was informed that his wife and children would arrive in Haiyan today, so he went to the sentry commander to ask for a day off yesterday.
Of course the commander happily agreed to his request for leave to pick up his wife and children. He also asked him to take a good bath and put on a clean and tidy military uniform. He also specially granted permission to borrow a carriage for his family and friends in the Triangle City camp.
Used by the incoming troops.
I almost didn't sleep all night last night. I got up before dawn to fetch water, take a shower, shave and trim my beard. I took out the cleanest military uniform and put it on. I also brought a bag of yogurt residue for the children.
As soon as it dawned, I hurriedly went to the clerk to borrow a carriage. Several of the garrison men were impatient.
"Why haven't you come yet?"
Standing at the gate of the city, we waited for the sun to reach high in the sky, but we still didn't see our family members arriving. Everyone was a little anxious.
"Wait a moment, the notice above said it would arrive today, so it will definitely arrive."
Guo Huaian is twenty-eight years old this year, and he looks a bit like thirty-eight years old. If he were two years older, he would not be eligible to sign up as a garrison soldier. The border garrison recruits people under the age of thirty and above sixteen years old. After all,
Although the camp is mainly for reclamation, it is still a soldier.
To guard the farm and defend the frontier, we must be young and strong.
If you are over thirty years old, you can only sign up directly to immigrate to the frontier. Although the conditions are more relaxed, the treatment is naturally not as good as stationing troops.
After all, although the garrison troops are not as well paid as the defense and patrol camps, and the treatment is not as good as that of the imperial camps, at least they are allocated more land on the border, and there are some subsidies for annual training and duty. If they can be assigned to participate in the war, assist in defense, and suppress bandits
If you wait, you will have more opportunities to make meritorious deeds and receive rewards.
Guo Huaian is very satisfied with the current situation. He is very glad that he has taken that step. Although he is a few years later than others, fortunately he has caught up.
The three-month training in Guang'an and Xining still required thousands of miles of trekking, but after being assigned to camp in Haiyan Triangle City, everything was worth it.
Fifty acres of cultivated land and one hundred acres of pasture have been allocated to him, and he has also obtained the land deed, which is stamped with a bright red seam seal. He has a copy in hand, and Haiyan Yamen and his superiors each have a copy on file.
These 150 acres of land are all on the Jinyintan Prairie near Triangle City, and the land is still irrigated. This is also the special treatment for these soldiers. The imperial court stationed a garrison defense camp in Haiyan, and also
There is a patrol garrison battalion in Gansu Province, but the number is not large.
Their treatment was better than that of the garrison troops, and they were allocated more fields, but after all, their numbers were not large.
In comparison, there are more soldiers in Xihaitun Town. They enjoy treatment second only to the imperial camp and provincial camp. Each person is assigned fifty acres of land, which is irrigated by the river and has good pasture.
These are the lands assigned to them, and they belong to Yongye fields. They are restricted from being sold for thirty years, but after thirty years they become full property rights and can be disposed of at will. They can be passed down to descendants or sold and transferred.
For Guo Huaian, this piece of land was hard-won and he would never sell it. It is the lifeblood of the Guo family and a family legacy.
"The imperial camp is better. Each person in Haiyan's garrison camp has 100 acres of cultivated land and 200 acres of pasture. Damn, he is a proper landlord." A garrison soldier waited anxiously, then took out his cigarette bag and took out
Fill the tobacco rod with tobacco and distribute it to your companions.
Guo Huaian and others waved their hands and did not answer, everyone had their own.
This kind of pot smokes loose tobacco, which is much cheaper than cigarettes. It is good to smoke a pot during training or after work.
Sometimes it’s a long night and you can smoke a pot when you miss your family.
Everyone squatted on the ground and smoked cigarettes, lending each other fire.
At the gate of Haiyan County, people were coming and going. Although this was a newly built small county, it only had four walls made of rammed earth, four gates, and a moat, so it was quite simple and rough.
However, there are artillery mounted on the city head, and patrol battalions are stationed at the city gate.
Not far away, there is a bastion that is smaller than Haiyan City, but obviously more ferocious. It is one of the two bridgeheads for entering and exiting Qinghai during the Ming Dynasty. Haiyan City has also become the current mutual trade with Qinghai.
An important border market for trade.
Over the mountain passes and Guancheng, Qinghai herdsmen can drive cattle and sheep, carry furs, and even cordyceps and mushrooms to trade as long as they pass inspection.
Due to border trade, Haiyan City is very lively. The neat streets and alleys in the city are like a chessboard, and they are even divided into fur markets, tea and salt markets, livestock markets, etc. according to the market.
There are also many guild halls, inns, and warehouses in the city, and even some nobles from the Mongolian tribes such as Qinghai Heshuote bought houses here to live occasionally.
There are also newly built schools in the city, enrolling many students, and even offering free admission to the children of Mongolian nobles.
People were coming and going at the city gate, and cars and horses were like dragons.
It's not surprising that a few garrison soldiers were squatting there smoking dry cigarettes. Nowadays, in border towns like Haiyan, Han people wearing military uniforms can be seen everywhere.
If you are familiar with the Ming army, you will be able to tell at a glance that these seemingly similar red military uniforms are actually different. From the differences in the trimming of the military uniforms, you can tell that there are Imperial Guard Camps and Provincial Defense Camps.
Provincial patrol and garrison battalions, garrison troops, regiment training troops, Baojia militia, etc., and even some Tibetan camp troops who were naturalized.
"The royal camp is indeed well treated. Ordinary soldiers are given 100 acres of land and 200 acres of pasture. If you have the rank of non-commissioned officer or sergeant major, you can get even more."
"Then why don't you say that if you become a lieutenant, there will be more. Even if you are the lowest of the eight lieutenants, just from the ninth rank, you can become a manor owner here. The eight schools above, the eight generals and the eight majors
Not to mention the general."
"We only have one imperial camp stationed here in Haiyan. Where did the eight generals come from? There is not even a single general in the entire Xihai Prefecture and Xining Prefecture."
For these newly arrived soldiers, the Eighth Lieutenant and Eighth School, these eighth-, ninth-, and sixth- and seventh-grade military attachés are out of reach, let alone the Eighth General and the Eighth General. The highest officer in their Triangle Camp is a battalion.
long.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In a defensive camp, the battalion commander is a fifth-grade officer, and is awarded the rank of guerrilla general below the fifth grade. If it is a imperial guard camp, the battalion commander may also be from the fifth-grade officer.
The ranger general on the product.
However, the battalion commander of the provincial patrol battalion is only Zhaowu Xiao, who is in the sixth grade, and the battalion commander of their camp is Zhenwu Xiao, who is in the sixth grade.
Not only is his rank a few levels lower, but his actual power is even less so.
The defense camp is stationed in Haiyan. Not only are there more fields and pastures for the soldiers, but the battalion commander's salary is more generous. The monthly silver is fifty taels per month. Add in the minister's silver, job allowances, famous food, etc., and it adds up to one
There are two thousand silver dollars a year.
When you become the commander of the imperial camp, you can make a fortune just from the salary, wages and subsidies.
Not to mention the officers of the garrison garrison in the border areas, the imperial court also directly granted them a large piece of land. The garrison commander of Haiyan Imperial Camp was allocated 500 acres of cultivated land and 1,000 acres of pasture. Such a large piece of land,
Then a large manor was built.
This is Yongye Field. Even this land is only tax-free in the first few years like everyone else. In the later period, it will be paid as a whole, which can be 500 acres of cultivated land and 1,000 acres of pasture.
Anyway, Guo Huaian and the others were extremely envious. He was just a battalion officer, only a fifth-grade officer.
The generals at the top, the great generals, get more points.
Envy is envy, but they don't object.
After all, they are also the beneficiaries of the emperor's policy. Each of their garrison troops can be allocated fifty acres of land and one hundred acres of pasture. They were tax-free in the past few years, and what they will pay in the future will not be the same as the guards before the Ming Dynasty.
Grain grains are taxed at the same rate as household land.
So everyone is very satisfied and full of hope for the future.
Who comes all the way here to farm and guard the border, who doesn’t hope to live a better life, and who is willing to break up their family and come here to suffer?
These places are their greatest reliance and the place where they feel most secure.
Compared with these soldiers, the treatment of ordinary immigrants is much worse. For example, the post soldiers in Yitun are not bad, and they can also get fifty acres of land and one hundred acres of pasture per person, but their land is not Yongye field.
, but leased fields, which belong to the post field, can be rented when you are a postman, and the rent is very low. In fact, you pay the civil land tax, but after you are no longer a postman, this field must be taken back and handed over to
The next postman is a carrot and a pit.
Originally, this was also the case for inland villages and towns in the past, but now the conditions for border villages have been relaxed and the treatment is more generous. Yongye fields are directly allocated, and their families follow the army. If there are many people, they can rent the fields again, and the rent is the same as civilian fields.
The amount of land is enough.
You can also reclaim wasteland by yourself. Each household has a limit of 100 acres for reclaiming wasteland. As long as it is cultivated and not abandoned, this land will become your permanent farmland from now on.
When ordinary immigrants come, those who come first can be allocated more land. The first person can be allocated thirty acres, and the one who comes later may be allocated twenty acres, or even ten acres. Then they have to rent official land, military land, etc., or even
You can only cultivate wasteland by yourself, or you can become a herdsman. After all, there are many fields and pastures here.
However, it is still very attractive to those landless farmers in some poor mountainous areas in the interior, or in the Central Plains where there are few people and narrow land.
Landless peasants in the Central Plains either stayed in the interior and became industrial workers, working in workshops and mines, or they worked as tenants for landlords and rented their fields. Although these are still guaranteed under the government's management, they are still not as good as their own.
It is safer to have a piece of land at home.
"I'm coming!"
While smoking and chatting, Guo Huaian kept paying attention to the road. When he saw a convoy appearing on the road in the distance, he quickly shouted.
The fellow soldiers also stood up and looked forward to it.
Several people looked at the long motorcade and didn't even have time to confirm, so they just spread their legs and headed over there to greet it.
After running for several miles in one breath, Guo Huaian finally caught up with the convoy. He was looking for his wife and children in the convoy, while shouting loudly, "Ximei, Ximei!"
Guo Shoufu stood on the top of the big carriage, his eyes searching among the welcoming crowd.
When he heard someone calling her "Ximei", he quickly looked around and saw a familiar figure standing there in the crowded crowd on the roadside. But he was wearing a red military uniform, very clean, and he looked very tall. He had just glanced at him.
I didn't realize that this was my eldest brother who used to mine in the mine. He used to be always dark.
"Third brother, this, I am Shoufu, and my sister-in-law is also in the car."
He took off his hat and waved it at him.
Mao Ximei, who was crowded in the car, also heard her husband calling her. She excitedly said to the other women and children in the car, "My man called me, and my man came to pick me up."
"Brother, stop the car, my man is here." She hurriedly shouted to the driver driving the car in front.
The coachman stopped the carriage very happily.
Guo Shoufu jumped directly from the high roof of the car and opened the door for Mao Ximei. Guo Huaian also squeezed in front of the car. Seeing his wife and three children, he was so excited that he couldn't close his mouth. "I told you that you would arrive today.
Just came and waited all morning."
The eldest daughter shrank behind her mother with some fear, holding on to her mother's clothes tightly, as if she didn't recognize her father who was dressed so cleanly and neatly.
"Yomei, come to daddy quickly,"
But the girl didn't dare to step forward. Guo Huaian quickly took out the yogurt dregs from his arms and said, "Here you go, this is delicious."
"Don't you recognize dad?"
At this moment, the girl seemed to finally realize, "Dad."
Guo Huaian picked up his daughter and spun her around a few times before putting her down, and stuffed a yogurt dregs into her mouth. It tasted like yogurt, was hard, but had a bit of sweetness when she held it in her mouth.
He picked up the other two children and kissed them for a while, and then went to hold his wife's hand. Mao retracted in embarrassment, but Guo Huaian stepped forward and picked her up as well, spinning her around a few times, which offended Mao.
Her face was red and she kept slapping her husband.
"I'm so ashamed of myself as an immortal, let me down."
After the exciting reunion, Guo Huaian went up to say hello to Guo Shoufu. Mao stood beside her husband excitedly and happily, and couldn't stop talking about Guo Shoufu's care along the way.
"Thank you so much. Your sister-in-law has never traveled far before. Thank you for taking care of her."
"Third brother, why are you saying such polite words? I used to come to your house to have a meal while working in the mine, and my sister-in-law always helped me mend my clothes. The mine collapsed that time. If it weren't for you, third brother, I would be dead."
On the road.
There were people coming to pick up people everywhere, including imperial soldiers, patrol camps, town soldiers, postmen, officials, immigrants, etc. The imperial court encouraged soldiers and officials stationed at the border to pick up their families.
There are many real preferential policies, such as Anjiayin, land allocation, free primary school education for children, etc.
For military officials who did not have wives, the court would also help them find wives. If they married in their hometown, the court would also be responsible for helping them get their wives.
The purpose is to allow these frontier soldiers and officials to guard the frontier with peace of mind and to settle down and take root. Those meritorious generals will be treated better, and each of them will be allocated a lot of land. They will be able to become frontier landlords and be able to stabilize the frontier.
develop.
The emperor always said that to the soldiers who followed him to conquer the world, you will not fail me, and I will not fail you.
The imperial court has been continuously expanding its territory over the years. Why is there no objection? Why is there still so much passion and motivation? There is so much support. The first thing is that the military can enjoy very real dividends from this expansion, including land estates.
, became a border lord.
Many ordinary people also enjoyed the dividends of border expansion. They moved to the border areas, divided their fields and granted land, and became homesteaders and even small landowners. Many wealthy and powerful families in the Central Plains followed the imperial army in doing business in the border areas, and even engaged in mining and smelting, and they also made great profits.
Its benefits.
From the court to the soldiers, to the common people, and then to the merchants, landlords and gentry, most people can benefit from it, and when the court's frontier campaigns have always gone smoothly, it will naturally be a feast for the whole people.
"walk home."
Guo Huaian said excitedly to his wife and children.
Mao Ximei's bumpy journey, fatigue, nervousness and anxiety all disappeared after seeing her husband. She had a backbone and support.
Home, the word her husband said made her feel even more warm.
"Well, go home."
The child had hard yogurt residue in his mouth, and was jumping happily while eating this kind of snack that he had never eaten before.
Guo Yongfu helped move the luggage to the carriage, and when the people who came from the Triangle Camp finally found their families, everyone packed up their luggage, and then went to Haiyan City to register and report with laughter all the way, and then took the
The official documents stamped by the Yamen sang songs together and went to camp in Triangle City.
There is their new home.
Sitting on the carriage, Mao said to the wives and children of the other soldiers, "Thanks to the saint Hong En, we are finally reunited."
"Thank you saint." The women shouted together heartily.
Guo Huaian and others who were walking beside the carriage also shouted loudly, "Thank you, saint!"
"God bless our emperor!"
"Look, there's a deer!"
Among the golden flowers on Jinyintan, a group of deer suddenly appeared, and they were frightened and ran away.
Honeysuckle is auspicious, and deer are also auspicious. Everyone thinks that seeing a deer is a good sign, and there is more joy and laughter.
