On the outskirts of Fengyang City, the willow trees by the Huai River have sprouted new shoots, and a group of people rode their horses and looked around.

Zhu Cihong rode his horse and looked around, the terrain here was flat and open, and the land was very good, but it was a barren land.

Fengyang Prefecture has jurisdiction over five prefectures and thirteen counties, the five prefectures are Shouzhou, Sizhou, Suzhou, Yingzhou and Bozhou, Fengyang, Linhuai, Huaiyuan, Dingyuan four counties are directly under the jurisdiction of Fengyang Prefecture, other counties are governed by the prefecture, and the entire Fengyang Prefecture accounted for nearly half of Anhui Province in later generations.

There are many rivers such as the Huai River in Fengyang Prefecture, as well as many large and small lakes, and the soil quality of the land is not bad, but unfortunately the water conservancy is in disrepair, the irrigation is inconvenient, and the drought in recent years has made these originally excellent fields barren now.

According to Zhu Cihong's judgment recorded in the Yellow Book, Fengyang Mansion originally had at least more than 10 million mu of cultivated land, but now it is estimated that millions of mu have been abandoned.

After the famine and war, many places were deserted, and even thousands of miles of people, now there are too many barren lands in the Ming Dynasty, those gentry and landlords originally took the opportunity to buy land at a low price, but now they are too lazy to buy, and they only pick up good land to buy.

Zhu Cihong rode along the Huai River, some traces of canals and ponds are still there, the weather is very dry, the water level has dropped, many places have not flowed enough to be full of silt and abandoned, and the land a little farther away from the Huai River is also abandoned.

Yang Tinglin rode his horse and approached: "Your Highness, if these canals can be dredged and repaired again, this area can be completely turned into fertile land!" ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, the purpose of his trip is to see if this land can not grow grain in the end, as the saying goes, do not suffer from poverty but suffer from anxiety, only by giving the people a stable life, so that they have a living head, the world will be peaceful.

Zhu Cihong's eyes swept away, and he suddenly raised his horsewhip and said, "The land on the other side of the river is very good, why is no one planting it?" ”

Zhu Dadian replied: "Your Highness, that is the military field of Fengyang Bawei. ”

Zhu Cihong frowned and said, "It's a pity to waste such a good land." ”

The Ming Dynasty learned from the experience of Tuntian in Chinese history, and implemented a system of guards that combined soldiers with agriculture and guarding, and set up more than 300 guards in the world.

To put it bluntly, it is to divide the land to the army, let them be stationed all over the country, a military household has an average of 50 acres of land, more officers, support themselves, military households are hereditary, and the land of the Ming Dynasty is guarded from generation to generation.

Zhu Yuanzhang, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, once said: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost the people a grain of rice." ”

The imperial court not only divided the fields in the local guards, but also sent cattle and seeds, etc., so that the military households could cultivate and raise their eyes and concentrate on watching, and each mu of land needed to pay two buckets of rent, although it was twice as heavy as the rent of ordinary households, but fortunately, they could still live a good life.

This system was originally very good, but after a long time, all the drawbacks came out, and where there were people, there were rivers and lakes, and all the year round, the military land of ordinary military households was almost occupied by the officers, and the military households gradually became tenants of various officers.

Not only do military households have to work and farm for the leaders who have encroached on their land every year, but they also have to pay heavy rents, and it is difficult for them to make ends meet all year round.

When a soldier of a military household dies, his family will be supplemented with another strong man, and because of the difficult life of the military household, this has led many people to become deserters and run away with their families to fend for themselves.

Hongwu began to have military deserters, Hongwu three years in November, the number of fugitives counted 47,986 people, orthodox three years (1438), the Ming Dynasty was founded only 70 years, the fugitive officers and soldiers reached 1633664 people, then the imperial court began to recruit soldiers.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in order to change the behavior of local officials and generals embezzling military households, the imperial court gave each military general a certain amount of incorruptible land according to the size of the official position, but it was a pity that the meat buns beat the dogs.

Now that the Ming Dynasty has been founded for 270 years, there are countless military households who have fled, and the guard system has long been in vain, and most of the military households' land has become the private land of the guards officers, and these officers have become local heroes.

After galloping around for a while, they walked towards a village with only a few families in the distance, surrounded by farmland.

When a few children were playing on the edge of the farmland, they were so frightened that they ran to the fields to find their own adults.

When Zhu Cihong and his entourage came to the edge of the village, they saw an old man lying on a stone basking in the sun, this old man was over half a hundred years old, due to the hard life, he showed his old state early, and he was dressed like a beggar.

Yang Tinglin immediately stepped forward and said, "Uncle, how has the harvest been in recent years?" ”

As soon as the old man saw the dress of Zhu Cihong and his party, he knew that he was either rich or expensive, maybe he was still an official, and his face was nervous for a while, and he dared to ask: "Is there something wrong with you?" ”

Yang Tinglin said with a smile: "Don't be nervous, the old man, we are passing grain merchants, and we want to see if you have any grain to sell." ”

The old man saw that Yang Tinglin spoke very kindly, without that feeling of being on top, and said that he was coming to collect food, and the old man was relieved.

The old man said: "There is no grain to sell here, and the grain collected every year is basically rented, and I don't have enough to eat." ”

Yang Tinglin asked again: "Uncle, how is the harvest here?" Is life okay? ”

The old man ignored him, obviously didn't want to answer, Zhu Cihong made a color, Wu Zhong understood, took out a few taels of silver and handed it to him, and said, "My husband wants to ask something, this is your reward!" ”

The old man immediately smiled, looked at Yang Tinglin and said, "If this old man wants to know, just ask, the little old man knows everything!" ”

The old man began to answer the question he had just asked, and said, "It doesn't matter to us whether the harvest is good or not, not all of them belong to hundreds of households, as for life, as long as you can live!" ”

Yang Tinglin was not polite when he saw him so cooperative, and then asked, "Old man, are you a military household?" Is this your own field? ”

The old man pointed to a wheat field in front of him, laughed miserably, and said, "Our family has been cultivating this land for generations, and this land used to be my family's, but now it is not." ”

After receiving the money, the old man talked a lot, and began to tell the story of his family, from the establishment of the Ming Dynasty to divide the fields among the military households, to how the fields of the ancestors were encroached upon by hundreds of local guards, and finally to the eighth year of Chongzhen, when his son Fengyang was killed by thieves.

The crowd listened with great emotion, and from the survival of a small household, they saw the epitome of a dynastic policy.

In the end, the old man said with a sad face: "Last year, there was little rain, and the yield began to decrease, so I could only dig grass and peel the bark if I couldn't eat enough, and I could barely survive waiting for the relief of the imperial court, and the grain I planted could not be eaten. ”

After Zhu Cihong listened, his heart seemed to be pressed by a big stone, and he couldn't breathe heavily, he didn't say anything, turned the horse's head and rode the horse with his head down.

After galloping for a few miles, he slowly slowed down, and the group behind him also slowly followed, seeing that the crown prince was in a low mood, no one spoke.

Zhu Cihong looked at the endless plain from afar, and asked softly: "So much land, such a good land, but the army and the people are so poor, is there any heavenly reason?" ”

Several people sighed, and Yang Tinglin said silently: "The people's livelihood is difficult. ”

Zhu Cihong looked at the sky from afar and said in a cold voice: "Heaven is forgivable, but people can't live if they do evil!" ”