Chapter 28 Settlement 1

◎Jinjiang exclusive◎

The days passed one by one, and during this period the exile team unfortunately encountered a mudslide and a bandit attack, resulting in a significant loss of personnel.

Especially during the bandit attack, it was obvious that the bandits wanted to kill everyone in their team right from the start.

A hundred or so bandits had been lying in ambush in the woods beside the road. When they reached their ambush position, they suddenly rushed out and attacked, regardless of whether you were an official or a prisoner. They just attacked anyone they saw. Dozens of people were injured in one round of attack, including three officials.

In the end, more than 80 officers led by Song Yayi had to fight the bandits to the death. With the help of Zhou Jin and his 18 young men, they finally repelled the bandits.

At that time, Zhou Jin saw that although the number of people on Song Yayi's side was comparable to that of the bandits, they were unprepared after all due to panic. They were overwhelmed by the bandits who were already on high alert. In addition, the women and children in the exile team were too panicked, which affected the mentality of the officers. Although Song Yayi led the way, their morale was still low. Zhou Jin felt that if this continued, the officers would definitely lose.

If the officials were defeated, these prisoners would naturally not have a good end, so Zhou Jin had to leave Zheng and the others to the care of his sister Zhou Yu, and he himself took 18 young men to fight and support Song's group of officials.

Of course, Zhou Jin would not act rashly and take a dozen teenagers to die without any preparation. Instead, he took advantage of the fact that the bandits and the soldiers were fighting, and divided the teenagers who followed him into six groups of three. Each of them held a harpoon used for fishing (actually, it was a long stick with a pointed head, and they had no other weapons!). He also held an extremely brief battlefield meeting before leading the teenagers to attack the bandits.

The young men followed Zhou Jin's instructions, forming a group of three, supporting each other and taking care of each other. They did not get too close to the battlefield, and would rush forward when they saw a bandit alone or caught off guard. The three of them would use harpoons to attack the bandit together, regardless of where they hit or whether they hit him or not. They would just run away after the attack. According to Zhou Jin, the main purpose of their action this time was to interfere with the enemy.

After a period of time of fishing and shrimping, climbing trees and hunting together, the dozen or so teenagers had already developed a tacit understanding of each other. Although they lacked strength, they were young, flexible, and could run very fast. In addition, they cooperated well with each other. In a short while, more than a dozen bandits were ambushed by them, which made Song Yayi feel a lot more relaxed.

Seeing how brave the young men were, the officers' morale was greatly boosted, and they finally defeated the bandits at the cost of ten casualties (including three who died in the initial attack by the bandits).

This battle left Song Yayi and other officials with lingering fears for a long time afterwards. They almost might have never been able to return home. Therefore, they were very grateful to Zhou Jin, Zhou Zelin and others who helped them.

Especially Zhou Jin and his group of teenagers, if it weren't for their antics, they would probably have lost!

In order to express his gratitude to Zhou Jin and the other young men, Song Yayi took charge of the food for the eighteen young men from then on, and asked them to eat and live with the officers and soldiers.

As a result, in the end, the group of exiled teenagers became familiar with the escorting officers and soldiers, and were even reluctant to leave when they parted.

A month later, the exile team finally arrived at the Liaodong border, and the team was reduced from 392 people at the beginning to 208 people.

It can really be said that more than half of the people were killed or injured!

"Brother Jin, tomorrow we'll hand you over to the officers and soldiers in Liaodong who are responsible for you. Have you thought about what my elder brother told you yesterday?"

Song, the yamen runner, sat at the back of the mule cart and swayed along with it, while asking Zhou Jin who was following beside him.

Yesterday, Yamen Sergeant Song specifically told Zhou Jin that based on his ten years of experience in escorting prisoners, since there were so many prisoners in their group and they were all from the same ethnic group, they should be separated to prevent them from gathering together and becoming resistant to discipline after arriving in Liaodong.

He asked Zhou Jin's family if they had any ideas. He had dealt with the officials who had received them several times. If they had any, he could also use the opportunity of the handover to help their family.

"I've thought it through,"

Zhou Jin followed the mule cart closely while answering the words of the yamen runner Song.

"Brother Song, you know about our family's situation. Could you please not let our family be divided with my grandfather and his family?"

"Well, I've thought of this a long time ago. Anyway, you have already separated from your grandfather. When the time comes, just give me the separation documents and I will find someone to remove your family from the Zhou family's household registration. This is easy to do and not a difficult task."

The yamen runner Song nodded in agreement and asked again:

"Anything else? For example, do you have any good friends in your family? Do you want to be grouped together? For exiles like you, the places you get are probably not very good. You will have to manage them all by yourselves in the future. I can't help you, but I can arrange for you which families to group with!"

It would be good to be assigned to a group with people he is on good terms with. After all, they will be more familiar with each other and live together in the future. Even if he goes to the military camp in the future, those who stay behind can take care of each other with his mother and others.

Zhou Jin had only recently learned from Song Yayi that their exile was not over after arriving in Liaodong, and there was still an important checkpoint to cross.

Because after they arrived in Liaodong, they would be classified as military households. The Dayan law stipulated that for every military household with three male adults or four or more people, one male adult would be sent to serve in the military camp. For every family with six male adults or ten or more people with three or more male adults, two male adults would be sent to serve. And so on. The more people there were, the more people would be sent to serve.

Although Zhou Jin's family did not have three male adults, it had four people in it. That was to say, when Zhou Jin arrived in Liaodong, he had to serve in the military camp, and he had no time limit and would serve until his death!

When Zhou Jin heard this, he was so angry that he kept cursing MMB all night long. He thought to himself, no wonder his cheap grandfather always looked at him with a half-smile no matter how he made a fuss. It seems he is waiting for him here!

It turns out that no matter whether the family is divided or not, he can't escape this military service quota. Zhou Jin can even guess what the bad old man was thinking at the time! He must be thinking, I'll just watch you toss around, you kid will be cannon fodder no matter how hard you try!

The only thing that could comfort Zhou Jin was that his service as a soldier was not in vain. Song, the yamen runner, said that as long as he could be promoted to the general flag alive, then the label of their family as criminals would be removed. Although they would still be military households, his brother or his son would be able to take the imperial examinations when they grew up. If they passed the examination, they would be able to change their family status from a military household to a farming family.

In addition, Song Yayi said that there is another advantage of these military households, that is, after they arrive at the local area, they can be allocated dozens or even hundreds of acres of barren land for farming. After two years, when the land becomes fertile, they only need to hand over a certain amount of grain to the army every year.

But in Zhou Jin's opinion, this benefit is worse than nothing. If these soldiers who were forced to join the army were equivalent to selling themselves to the army, then the so-called policy of giving them free land to cultivate was equivalent to selling their entire family. They would become tenants of the army in disguise, or tenants who opened up wasteland for the army.

As for the words that Song Yayi added to comfort him because he looked so sad that he had lost his parents, saying that after joining the army he could receive a stone of grain salary every month to supplement his family income, Zhou Jin disagreed even more!

Since their entire family has been sold to the army, it means that all their rights and interests belong to the army. There is no human rights anymore. In the future, if the army asks them to farm, they have to farm; if they ask them to fight, they have to fight. Naturally, if the army commander says that there is no money to pay, or to pay less, they can only wait and have no other choice.

Therefore, in Zhou Jin's opinion, relying on the 120 kilograms of food and wages is not as reliable as relying on his brother Zhou Li or his future son to pass the imperial examination and change the family's status!

As for why Zhou Jin was so certain that the officers and soldiers would withhold their soldiers' food and wages, needless to say? The history books of his previous life had already clearly analyzed the pros and cons of the so-called garrison system of Dayan.

In the history he knew in his previous life, the person who promoted the garrison system was none other than Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang could truly be regarded as a model of all the black-hearted bosses in the world who exploited their employees. Even Zhou Paopi would have to call him the ancestor if he saw him.

Zhu once boasted: "I can support a million soldiers without spending a single grain of rice from the people!" To put it bluntly, he not only wanted to support a million-strong army but also wanted to do so without spending a single cent!

The reason why he dared to say this was entirely because he placed the burden of supporting the soldiers on the soldiers themselves. Zhu Yuanzhang was very keen on the theory that his employees should support themselves, so he followed the precedents of previous dynasties, established a garrison system, and thoroughly carried forward this ancient system!

After the army was dispersed to various places in the form of garrisons, the soldiers needed to be self-reliant. That is to say, in addition to undertaking military tasks such as garrisoning and fighting, the soldiers also needed to cultivate the farmland allocated to them in the garrison areas.

The grain obtained from the farmland does not count towards one's own supply. When the land is full and there is surplus grain, a 20% tax must be paid to the state.

With this design, Zhu Yuanzhang successfully realized the dream that many bosses today dream of: he wants the horse to run without eating grass!

However, although the military settlement system of the Ming Dynasty made great contributions to the country's finances and border defense construction in the early Ming Dynasty, enabling millions of wastelands to be reclaimed and grain production to increase dramatically, these were all based on the cruel exploitation of military households.

In addition to their own food, military settlements also had to pay for "military farm grain." During the Hongwu era, it was stipulated that "each person was given 40 mu of land, half of which was collected annually, and the remainder was kept for their own consumption." This meant that half of the military household's production had to be handed over.

Military households are always in service, which makes the state's exploitation of military households far greater than that of ordinary civilian households. If a military household loses its land, it must "compensate for the grain of the military farm."

In other words, regardless of whether you could grow crops on the land allocated to you, you still had to pay grain to the government. In the mid-Ming Dynasty, many lands were abandoned due to poor quality, and many military farms were occupied by officials. However, the government still required the garrison troops to pay grain for the farms, forcing many military households to "work as laborers for life to pay grain."

In addition, military households also suffered from oppression and exploitation by officers and dignitaries at all levels. This oppression and exploitation was mainly manifested in two aspects:

First, they used the soldiers as slaves, and second, they withheld their monthly rations. In other words, those powerful people not only treated the soldiers as slaves, but also didn't want to feed them!

The severe exploitation and the seizure of military farms caused a large number of military households to flee in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and the original military garrison system became a mere formality. Therefore, from the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the recruitment system was implemented.

Although the garrison system of the Great Yan Dynasty, which he had never heard of, was different from that of the Ming Dynasty that Zhou Jin knew, they were basically the same, and the general framework was similar. Therefore, for Zhou Jin, who was familiar with the history of his previous life, becoming a military household was such a big blow to him!

The author has something to say:

[Note 1] Reference: [What was it like to serve as a soldier in the Ming Dynasty?]

Dear friends, the garrison system of Dayan was formulated by the author with reference to Baidu and his own imagination. The author has limited historical knowledge, so if you are familiar with history, please don't take it too seriously. After all, this is just an article about farming, and everyone can just read it for fun... Also, please give me flowers, collect it, and follow me!