jdhmnovel Chapter 649 Playing such a big game in the early years of the Hongwu reign?
Chapter 649 Playing such a big game in the early years of the Hongwu reign?
Someone once said that some things, if you don't weigh them, they won't weigh more than four ounces; but if you do weigh them, they'll weigh a ton.
This thorough investigation of Lingshanwei has exposed problems beyond just Xiang Fei and his group's involvement in child abduction.
In fact, Xiang Fei and his gang had already secretly arrested many of Zhu Chongba's colleagues two years ago. However, they did so discreetly, and those arrested were mostly beggars with no relatives or friends, which is why they were not investigated during the last illegal coal mine case.
In the past two years, however, Xiang Fei and his gang have no longer been satisfied with secretly catching beggars.
First, the number of beggars is limited. Second, as various prefectures and counties began to build roads, plant trees, and set up workshops, those homeless and jobless beggars became highly sought after, resulting in fewer and fewer beggars being able to be caught.
The number of beggars that can be caught is decreasing, which means that the money that can be sold to them is also decreasing.
Therefore, Xiang Fei and his group simply set their sights on the practice of using soldiers as slaves.
Pay attention.
There are four types of guards in the Ming Dynasty.
The first type is the border town garrison, such as the later Doyan Three Garrisons. These were garrisons stationed on the frontier, mainly responsible for guarding the border.
The second type is the coastal garrison, such as Weihaiwei, Chengshanwei, and Jinghaiwei in Dengzhou. These garrisons were mainly responsible for guarding the sea frontier.
The third type is the inland garrison, which is scattered in inland prefectures and counties. It is responsible for maintaining local stability and allocating military supplies, and is also the main force for garrison farming.
The fourth type is "within the inner guard posts," such as the Jinyiwei, which was notorious in history and is now even more infamous.
Lingshanwei falls into the second category. Its main responsibility is to guard the sea frontier, not to be the main force in land reclamation.
Xiang Fei and his associates needed to make money.
Therefore, Lingshanwei, which was not the main force in land reclamation, also began to "spontaneously" reclaim land.
However, there are issues regarding the property rights of the land reclaimed by the military settlements.
To put it bluntly, Emperor Zhu encouraged the people to reclaim wasteland. Whoever reclaimed the wasteland could own it, and the local government would help process the land deeds.
However, the wasteland reclaimed by the garrison was never clearly assigned to anyone from the beginning.
Return to the garrison?
Or should it belong to the soldiers who reclaimed the land?
It was precisely because of the unclear property rights that landlords and powerful families set their sights on the lucrative military settlements.
If forcibly occupying it doesn't work, then buy it. If buying it doesn't work either, then rent it out at a low price.
As the saying goes, as long as you don't give up, there will always be more solutions than problems.
As long as you dare to think and act, it's not difficult to acquire a few acres of land.
As a result, you took a few acres, I took a few acres, and large tracts of military farmland changed hands.
As a result, the soldiers of the garrison, who were already reluctant to engage in military settlements, had even less motivation to engage in land reclamation.
Then, the problem returned to square one.
Xiang Fei and his associates needed to make money.
The soldiers' unwillingness to cultivate land meant they had no reclaimed land to sell, and without land to sell, they couldn't make any money.
Then, Xiang Fei and his group came up with ways to embezzle military pay, conceal military records, and misappropriate the profits from military farms.
Some of the more ruthless ones even forced the soldiers to work for the landlords and powerful families—the soldiers were registered in the garrison, their salaries were paid by the imperial court, but the work was done for the landlords and powerful families, who then paid the garrison commanders and officers like chiliarchs wages far below the normal rate.
After uncovering these messy and unsavory things, even Yang Shaofeng, who prided himself on his extensive knowledge, was shocked.
That's fucking awesome.
Who would have thought that these people would dare to play such a big game as early as the beginning of the Hongwu reign?
Yang Shaofeng curled his fingers and tapped the table in front of him.
……
"Those bastards!"
Emperor Zhu slammed the memorial onto the table, pointed to the sky and cursed, "They really dare to think, and they really dare to do!"
"Were all their extended families bought wholesale at the Dengzhou border market?!"
"I'll enter their mother!"
"Where exactly did we wrong them?!"
Emperor Zhu, enraged, launched into a tirade, while Empress Ma frowned as she perused the memorials.
After a long while, Empress Ma sighed softly and said, "It's better to discover this now than later."
Emperor Zhu sighed deeply, plopped down in his chair, rubbed his face, and lamented, "We know it's better to find out now than later, but sister, what do you think we should do?"
"If we let them come, then the common people will suffer."
"If we want the people to have a better life, we have to make our soldiers suffer a little."
"This damn..."
Before Emperor Zhu could finish speaking, Empress Ma frowned and said, "Chongba, who told you that to make the people's lives better, we have to make the soldiers suffer?"
Emperor Zhu was slightly taken aback and asked, "Isn't that so?"
Empress Ma chuckled lightly and asked in return, "Are the people of Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture living well or poorly? Are the people of Ningyang Thousand-Household Garrison and the garrisons of Dengzhou suffering?"
Emperor Zhu stammered, "No, no, Ningyang County and Dengzhou Prefecture are different from other places. The situation of Ningyang Thousand-Household Garrison and Dengzhou Guards is also different from other guards. They cannot be generalized."
Empress Ma rolled her eyes and said, "Do you remember what your good son-in-law once said to Biao'er?"
Emperor Zhu was stunned again, and Empress Ma continued, "He once said that the relationship between the garrison and the common people is like that of fish and water."
"The soldiers of Ningyang Thousand Household Garrison can help the people reclaim wasteland and harvest grain, so the people of Ningyang County are not afraid of the soldiers of Ningyang Thousand Household Garrison. On the contrary, they feel close to them from the bottom of their hearts."
“Xiang Fei and his men from Lingshan Guard enslave soldiers and oppress the people, so the people naturally become wary of Lingshan Guard.”
"This has absolutely nothing to do with whether it's bitter or not, or who suffers the bitterness."
Emperor Zhu rubbed his face again and sighed softly, "Let's talk about that later. Right now, the most important thing is to solve this case of missing children."
At this point, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but feel a headache coming on: "We knew that this bastard would volunteer to investigate the case and cause a big commotion. Now look what's happened, this mess can't be left unattended, but even if it is, it's still not working properly."
Empress Ma glanced at Emperor Zhu, then took his hands and laughed, "You've got it all wrong this time."
Emperor Zhu stared at Empress Ma with a bewildered expression: "Did we misunderstand?"
Empress Ma nodded and said, "Why did I just say that it's much better to discover a problem now than to discover it later?"
"Because, even though we are at a critical juncture in the Northern Expedition, no matter how these inland and coastal garrisons move, it will not affect the Northern Expedition."
"On the contrary, it is precisely because of the Northern Expedition that we are now eager to move these garrisons."