During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the most important reason why the Qin State was able to eliminate the other six countries outside the Hangu Pass was its military merit knighthood system, and the root of its military merit knighthood system was not in the title itself, but in the land directly corresponding to the title. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The reason why the military merit knighthood can continue to inspire batch after batch of soldiers, one after another, and the most fundamental reason is the citian behind the knighthood.

Because the amount of land owned is directly related to the quality of life of the parents, wives, families and their descendants.

It is precisely because of this that rewarding meritorious soldiers with land has become the basic decision that Emperor Chongzhen is now ready to vigorously implement.

As soon as Emperor Chongzhen's decision to reward the meritorious soldiers of Dongjiang Town in the northern land of Korea came out, the three military ministers were naturally speechless.

Although this kind of generosity to others seems a bit of a scoundrel, it will definitely be welcomed by the soldiers of Dongjiang Town. Besides, who made North Korea one of the enemy countries now?

Taking the land of the enemy country and rewarding the generals and soldiers who have made meritorious service in battle is also a basic principle of the "Regulations on the Reward of Military Meritorious Achievements" newly approved and promulgated by the Emperor and the Military Aircraft Department.

Speaking of which, the title system of the Ming Dynasty is indeed much stricter than other dynasties in history, except for the clan and relatives, basically from beginning to end adhere to the principle that non-military merits are not allowed to be knighted, and there is only three ranks, that is, the duke, the queen, and the uncle, and the non-national surname cannot be crowned king during his lifetime.

This article is still adhered to in the early stage of Nanming. For example, Zheng Chenggong, in order to give him the title of the king of Yanping County, the Southern Ming court had to give him another Ming Dynasty surname. This is also the reason why people later called Zheng Chenggong the surname of the country.

In order to get the title of a county king, Zheng Chenggong even changed his surname to Zhu Chenggong.

Of course, by the time of the Yongli period, Nanming was at the end of his rope, and the rewards for the title began to flood. Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang and others were all crowned kings, and no one mentioned the matter of giving surnames anymore.

However, in history, Mao Wenlong did not get a knighthood until his death, and Liu Xingzuo, who returned to the Ming Dynasty, was not to mention anyway, but he was reappointed from the original Jianyu Fuzhou General Soldier to the Jinzhou General Soldier on the Ming side.

This life is different, Mao Wenlong was a marquis in the first battle, and Dongjiang Town did not suffer much loss, but it gained a lot.

It was a great encouragement for both him and his subordinates, who had fulfilled their long-cherished wish in life, and at the same time that everyone under his command was promoted, they also received a large amount of land in North Korea, which can be described as a result of great benefits and great joy.

As for Liu Xingzuo's Pyongyang uncle, he was overjoyed. He knew that if he came back anyway, it would definitely not be worse than in Jianyu, but Liu Xingzuo, who was born in the Wei Han family of the Kaiyuan Han people in Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty, of course knew how difficult it was to be crowned an earl within the hierarchy of the Ming Dynasty.

After all, it is not the era of the Ming Dynasty after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, and the most important thing is that he himself surrendered to Jianyu for several years, and he has followed the Jianyu army to fight many battles with Liaodong Town, Dongjiang Town, and Dengzhou Town.

So Liu Xingzuo originally thought that after returning anyway, it would be good to be able to continue to be a general soldier.

Therefore, when he saw the court's reward and knew that he had also been made an earl, he was very happy.

Although the current Pyongyang City is still in the hands of the North Koreans, and he, the Pyongyang Uncle, still needs to take it personally, and as the commander-in-chief of the right side of Donggang Town, he will still be controlled by Mao Wenlong, the marshal of Donggang Town, but he is still satisfied with this.

Of course, what made him especially satisfied was that those Fuzhou Han soldiers who had followed his brothers for many years now finally had a piece of land that belonged completely to them, and the fertile fields on both sides of the Datong River could be occupied to their heart's content.

Among these Fuzhou soldiers, many of them lived with their brothers after the fall of Liaoyang and Shenyang, and some of them even followed their brothers to fight the world after the fall of Tieling Kaiyuan, and all they dreamed of was to have a piece of land of their own.

Including the soldiers in Dongjiang Town, as well as the fathers, elders, relatives and friends of these soldiers, most of them are Liaodong Han refugees who fled to North Korea or Denglai, and what they want is to have a field of their own and a homeland of their own.

For them, the imperial court rewarded them with land east of the Yalu River and west of the Datong River as a reward for meritorious service, which made them more grateful than giving each of them a few silver dollars.

Some of these people had already occupied some land in the places where they were stationed, but without the will of the imperial court, it was impossible to tell them that when the king of Joseon sent someone to Gyeongshi to cry, the imperial court would let them retreat.

Now, the imperial court has given this place to Dongjiang Town, and those who have occupied the land will be justified in the future, and those who have not yet occupied it have also set off from the islands on the sea and the cities on the shore of Dongjiang Town, in accordance with the general area and the principle of first served, first served, and marked by monuments.

All of a sudden, Dongjiang Town, which now covers nearly half of the Jin family kingdom in later generations, is full of busy scenes of dividing fields and land.

And those Liaodong refugees who were unwilling to occupy the land for Dongjiang Town, who were not willing to take up the land for Dongjiang Town, carried long-term workers and became tenants, simply brought their families with their families, followed Kong Youde, who has now changed his name, and went to the newly established Yingzhou Town Shoufu by the imperial court to reclaim the barren tuntian.

Therefore, at the end of September, everyone in Dongjiang Town was beaming with joy and full of beautiful expectations for the future life.

Corresponding to the festive atmosphere of Donggang Town, the area around Gyeonggi today is also a scene of joyful harvest.

Since the beginning of the year, most of the royal farms around Gyeonggi and the confiscated eunuch farms have been planted with new crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn that are now being promoted by the Imperial Agricultural Academy. Today, these high-yielding crops have ushered in an unprecedented bumper harvest.

Although there was no such thing as the ultra-high yield of potatoes and sweet potatoes that yielded five or six thousand catties per mu at every turn, potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes did not live up to the emperor's expectations, and with a yield much higher than that of other crops, they conquered the hearts of the people in the imperial court and the surrounding areas of Gyeonggi.

In the entire tunken area under the jurisdiction of the Beizhi, on average, the yield of potatoes and sweet potatoes per mu exceeded 3,500 catties, and the yield of corn per mu also exceeded 700 catties.

The people of the Zhili Governor's Palace, who have never seen such a high-yield crop, as well as the people of Beizhili, believe that this is the favor of God, and it is the Shengming of today's son who has brought such a bumper harvest.

The immigrants who were allocated land and planted all new crops regarded the current Emperor Chongzhen as an immortal, and everyone was grateful to Dai De.

Other crops that have been planted because there are not enough seedlings for new crops, such as rice, wheat, sorghum rice, etc., are also in the harvest season.

Although the yield per mu is not high as always, no matter what, this is also the first harvest of the immigrants who came here to reclaim, and everyone has a happy smile on their faces.

As the saying goes, if you have food in your hands, you don't panic in your heart. Emperor Chongzhen, who knew the importance of food at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the ministers of the cabinet and the military aircraft department, breathed a sigh of relief, and finally no longer had to worry about the winter food of the people in the Gyeonggi area.

Since the middle of September, such good news has come one after another, making everyone in the court feel that the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty has been blessed by the gods, and the national fortunes of the Ming Dynasty have a good omen of revival and decline.

The people of Gyeonggi know about the great victory achieved by Donggang Town and the bumper harvest of Gyeonggi Tuntian, but there are several things that they do not know, or do not know.

A few months after Sun Heding returned to Beijing with muskets and artillery and Portuguese gun technicians from Entrenchment Jingao, Sun Yuanhua's second son and Sun Heding's younger brother finally returned to Beijing with newly purchased muskets and artillery and other firearms, as well as a group of nearly 100 Western gun craftsmen and technicians.

This time, in addition to bringing back a group of Western gun technicians, Sun Hedou also brought back 600 front-loading flintlock smoothbore guns cast by the Portuguese at the gun factory in Entrenchment Jingao, as well as 80 Shenwei Invincible General Cannons, that is, the largest Hongyi cannon.

And what pleased the emperor the most was that Sun Hedou brought back thirty flowering bombs, that is, blasting bombs.

Of course, these flowering bombs that were brought back to Beijing as gifts were also produced by the Portuguese, and several of the Portuguese technicians brought back by Sun Hedou were craftsmen who specialized in making this early explosive bomb.

In fact, the firearms craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were also able to produce flowering bullets, but because the power of black powder was average at that time, the flowering bullets could not exert their due power, so they were not popular.

Because, if there is too much charge in the hollow projectile body, then the diameter of the projectile body will have to increase, and then the caliber of the gun will have to be increased, and more gunpowder will be required to push such a large flowering projectile out.

This was extremely dangerous at the time, because it was easy to blow up.

And in addition to the high risk of exploding, the weight of the artillery is also a hard injury.

If the flowering shells are made a little smaller and the charge is a little less, the weight of the artillery is acceptable, but the power of this kind of flowering shells is pitifully small, and many of them cannot be exploded after being shot, and the power is not even as good as that of solid bullets.

However, this time, the Portuguese firearms craftsmen brought back by Sun Hedou should be able to solve this problem. And all of this, of course, is expensive.

In fact, in addition to the cost of returning to Beijing, Sun Hedou basically spent all the more than 200,000 taels of silver that the brothers brought from Beijing, as well as the silver taels that the emperor later ordered the governor of Liangguang to pay for Wang Zhichen.

For this, of course, Emperor Chongzhen didn't care. This amount of money is not a problem for him now.

Today, although the gun factories in Tongzhou and Baiyecheng have been able to imitate the new muskets and Hongyi cannons independently, the monthly output is still very limited, and the quality is still not up to the level of Portuguese manufacturing.

Therefore, the return of Sun Hedou and the things he brought back were of course good news for the emperor.

Of course, autumn is the harvest season, in addition to the good news mentioned above, just before the history of the first year of Chongzhen is about to enter October, there is another good news. And this good news made him both overjoyed and very entangled.