The army garrisoned the frontier and tuntian, and it was often used to open up and garrison the northwest frontier in the Western Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the minister Chao Cuo once suggested that "migrating the people to the real border". When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhao Chongguo suggested that Tuntian should be in the border defense, and the garrison and cultivation should be taken care of, and the pavilion was often set up from Dunhuang west to Yanze, and the wheel platform and the canal plough all had hundreds of field pawns. The intention of this method is not only to solve the problem of self-reliance under the long distance and inconvenient transportation, but also to enable the troops to not spend manpower in vain when defending, which is the idea of killing two birds with one stone. However, until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, all the conception and implementation of tuntian were limited to avoiding long-distance transportation of grain from other places and solving the needs of the border garrison army, and did not serve as an economic and social system.

This kind of land expansion and defense of the frontier should be counted as military cantonments, and all the cantonment soldiers have to undertake combat tasks in addition to farming. However, Zeng Yu and their current use can only be regarded as a kind of Mintun, and they are not responsible for combat missions in peacetime, and every 100 people are a tun, and Sima (centurion) is placed in the tun; Take Wutun as a song, set up a song leader; Two songs are one, and there is one superintendent of 1,000 people; Every fifth part is a battalion, and there is one tooth general. The entire Tuntian soldiers in Anping County were divided into four battalions, which were in charge of He Yan, the commander of the Diannong Prefecture, and the middle-level officers at all levels were all selected from the Tuntian soldiers.

When Zeng Yu came to Tuntian, there were two battalions of men and horses under the leadership of their respective generals. The remaining 10,000 people, under the guidance of He Yan, are building canals. There was originally a canal here in Anping County, but because it had not been maintained for a long time, it has now completely lost its use, so He Yan took advantage of the slack time to lead his Tuntian soldiers to repair it again.

According to the custom of the Han Dynasty, generally only the upper field can be cultivated every year without taking turns off, such as the middle field or the lower field, etc., which can only continue to cultivate every other year or even two years. These fields currently reclaimed in Anping County, once the canals are repaired, can be regarded as fields.

Zeng Yu and the others saw a scene of everyone doing it in full swing, because when Zeng Yu recruited Tuntian soldiers, they adopted the principle of voluntariness, so there was no problem of someone secretly escaping. On the contrary, they were all displaced because they had no food to eat, but now that the government provides them with shelter and enough food to eat, even if they are allowed to leave, they will not want to.

Everyone saw Zeng Yu coming, and hurriedly took him to see He Yan. When Zeng Yu saw He Yan, he had already put down his work and greeted him, and after the ceremony, he led Zeng Yu to his house here.

After everyone sat down, Zeng Yu asked He Yan: "Hongzhi, how much fertile land is there here?" ”

"If you go back to your lord, after our continuous reclamation, when these canals are all repaired next year, we can get at least 200,000 acres of fertile land."

At this time, the average yield per mu of the Han Dynasty was about three stones, and the grain produced by these lands was enough for a team of 10,000 people to fight for a month. Zeng Yu was very satisfied with this in his heart, he nodded and said: "Hongzhi has worked hard, how is the morale of the Tuntian soldiers at present?" ”

"Everyone is very satisfied with their current life, and our benefits and salaries are paid on time and in full, and everyone is enthusiastic about their work now, and some soldiers have even asked to join the regular army and fight together in the future."

"There is no urgency, at present, our troops are already exceeding the standard compared to the people under our rule, and I do not plan to continue to recruit soldiers in the short term. But you tell everyone, let everyone not waste training, once the war starts, here is our best source of soldiers. ”

"Lord, in this case, I hope to be able to get Brother Wu Ming to come and help me." He Yan said.

It turns out that He Yan is mainly responsible for the overall responsibility here, but he is more good at internal affairs, if he is allowed to train these Tuntian soldiers well, first, he will not have enough energy, and second, he is worried that he will not meet Zeng Yu's requirements.

Zeng Yu knew He Yan's worries, and Wu Ming didn't have any military affairs at present, so he listened to He Yan's request and agreed without thinking about it. In his plan, he originally intended to use these Tuntian soldiers as a reserve sequence, because the majesty of the Han family is still there, and he has a small county order, if he has too many troops, he is afraid that it will cause unnecessary trouble.

He Yan was relieved when he saw Zeng Yu agree, he knew Zeng Yu's plan. Their current advantage is that they know what may happen next, and they can prepare in advance, but they have to hide troops from the people, and they have been clearing and cultivating the wasteland before, but it has no impact. But now it is the agricultural slack season, and it is necessary to make good use of this time to conduct a certain military training for all the Tuntian soldiers, and if Zeng Yu did not come, he would also find time to go to the county seat to ask Zeng Yu to transfer Wu Ming.

Zeng Yu and the others had dinner in Tuntian, he and He Yan did not have any specialty, they ate the same as all the soldiers, just a simple meal, plus one or two pieces of meat. This is still because everyone needs to work, so they deliberately added food, Zeng Yu has nothing to do about it, the county plus Jinniu Mountain, only a population of more than 100,000, raised more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, plus 20,000 Tuntian soldiers here, the number and population of the general army is best maintained at one to twenty, at most one to ten.

Now their ratio has reached more than 1:5, and this is because of some previous seizures, plus income such as commercial taxes, which can barely survive. Therefore, in terms of food, it is still necessary to ensure the supply of county soldiers first. Although Jinniushan has its own grain production, it also needs support from Anping County to sustain itself.

Thinking of this, Zeng Yu felt that time was too slow, and he couldn't wait for everything to be completed overnight, including the expansion of the county seat, the transformation of household registration, and the reclamation of the people under his rule. But this requires slow effort, and there is no hurry.

He Yan saw Zeng Yu sighing beside him, and asked, "I don't know why the lord is sighing?" ”

"It's fine, just thought of something. By the way, among these tuntian soldiers, there are people who are good at farming, and I see that these fields are all good fields, and it would be nice if the yield could be higher. Zeng Yu diverted the topic and asked He Yan.

"The army is full of young and strong men, although they can farm, but when it comes to what they are particularly good at, they don't find it. According to the subordinates, the elderly are generally more experienced, and our current output is not low compared to the average family. He Yan replied.

"Well, you pay attention to it, see if there are people in the army who cultivate better than others, have a high yield, set a model, and let everyone try to increase the yield. As long as there is no mu to produce more than one bucket, you can also feed one more person. Zeng Yu instructed He Yan.

"Yes!"

Zeng Yu had just heard He Yan mention that the elderly were more experienced, and he thought of an idea. After explaining to He Yan, he rushed back to the county government directly. When they returned to the county office, it was already dark, and he did not enter the county office, but came to a mansion not far from the county office.

He asked Zhu Wen to knock on the door, and when the door opened, he saw that it was Zhu Wen, the guard of the county order, and then saw Zeng Yu standing behind, and hurriedly knelt down and saluted Zeng Yu. Zeng Yu asked him to stand up and asked, "Is the county official in the mansion now?" ”

"If you go back to your lordship, my lord has just come back for dinner, and he should be in the study at the moment, so I will lead you over." Zeng Yu and they came to Liu Neng's mansion, as the county governor of this county, Zeng Yu is usually not responsible for specific things, so when he needs to do something, Zeng Yu directly asks relevant people to arrange.

Liu Neng was indeed in the study, and when he saw that the housekeeper had brought Zeng Yu and them over, he put down the book in his hand and saluted Zeng Yu, and then led Zeng Yu to the main seat and sat down, and asked him: "I don't know what instructions the lord has to come over at this time?" ”

"I just went to the tuntian point outside the city and found that the yield of our land is not high. At Hongzhi's prompting, I thought of a way, Yachuan, you listen to it and see if it is feasible. Zeng Yu said.

After that, Zeng Yu said his plan, he planned to send a notice to the following villages and towns, so that all those who feel that they have unique experience in farming can share their experience, and the government will give them a certain amount of money according to the role of these experiences or skills.

When Liu Neng heard this, his expression became serious, he felt that if Zeng Yu's method was implemented, someone would definitely provide some feasible experience or skills, and then promote it to the whole county through them, or expand its influence to all the places under his rule in the future, and it would definitely be able to greatly improve grain production.

"Lord benevolence! This method is very good, and we can not only ask for farming experience in Anping County, but also expand the scope, as long as someone provides us with a feasible way, we will give a certain amount of money reward. Liu Neng replied.

"So, what do you think about this reward? What if someone offers experience that has already been provided before he arrives? Zeng Yu asked Liu Neng, this is the reason why he came to Liu Neng specially, because these two problems have not been solved, maybe the benefits have not been obtained, but a large reward has been given, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Liu Neng thought for a moment and said: "This can cooperate with our household registration policy, if it is the people under our rule, as long as they come to provide skills, we can send people to the corresponding villages and towns to investigate, as long as it is confirmed, let them guide the cultivation of their respective villages and towns, and the government will give the corresponding subsidies every month." If it is a person from other places, one is to guide the other party to settle in our Anping County, guide the people to farm, we give a certain amount of money and rewards, if the other party is not willing to stay, in addition to the cost of the round-trip carriage and horses, but also reward some money. ”

"It's good to buy horse bones, but in this way, our finances can still support it?" Zeng Yu asked worriedly.

"It's not a big problem, like the people of this county, we don't give all the rewards at once, but give them monthly. In addition, each village has a corresponding village elder to guide the farming, so relatively speaking, we just collect their experience in a unified manner, and at the same time the government affirms their guiding position in farming. Liu Neng replied

"Okay, that's it!" When Zeng Yu heard it, he remembered that there was such a thing, and of course he had no opinion on Liu Neng's suggestion.