Chapter 5 Mobilizes the Whole Country

"Mother, the north has gone on an expedition, the third brother has basically been transferred in Datong Town, except for the old and weak, and the third brother has also gone north, and I wish all the 137 people in service in Jiazhuang have gone north. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info" Uncle Wen Guang saw that everyone had arrived, and said. In the year before last, it was the turn of Qingshan County to conscript military service, and there were no less than 3,000 people in the entire county who went to the three sides, and as long as the family was not an only child, every household over the age of 15 had a strong soldier to defend the border, and the time limit was five years.

Dahua uses the conscription system, of course, it is different from the current conscription system, it is forced conscription, the border army rotates the conscription every year, a county is about ten years of turn, and it is stipulated that if the family is not an only child, there must be one strong man over the age of 15, regardless of whether he is thin or strong.

The same is true for the conscription of local guard posts, with an average of about once every five years in each county. Of course, there is a world of difference between serving as a soldier in a local guard station and a soldier in a border town, and the local guard post is generally not far from home, at most 100 miles away, and there is almost no training, mainly responsible for some things such as guarding the city, arresting bandits, and collecting salt taxes.

In front of the hall sat the old mother Zhu Cai, this year is particularly old, almost worried for a whole year, on the left side is sitting the uncle Wenbin, on the right side is sitting the third master Wenbin and the fourth master Wenyuan. Zhu Cai's tears immediately burst into tears when he heard this, and he forced himself to calm down: "Shumin, hurry up and bring a pen and paper and write to Wen Zhong, telling him to cherish himself more and not be strong." After speaking, I couldn't cry.

Wen Bin and Wen Yuan's face has also changed greatly, although the four brothers are big and small, they are not much apart in age, the eldest is only twenty-one years old now, the second son is only nineteen, the third son is only eighteen, and the fourth son is slightly younger and thirteen.

Therefore, the brothers have deep feelings, and they are also anxious when they hear that the second child is going on the expedition. Usually, the children of other families go out to catch bandits and robbers, and they are worried about dying, and the son of the Zhu family is not in a hurry to fight with the barbarians with real guns and knives.

Uncle Shumin shook his head and said: "Mother, maybe the second brother can still receive the letter from a few months ago, but now I am afraid that the letter will not be received, and there will be no one willing to bring the letter to the front line." ”

Zhu Cai's suddenly cried down, his body was weak and had slipped off the chair, Wen Bin helped his mother, Zhu Cai's cried: "I should have listened to Da Lang at the beginning, and I spent a hundred and ten taels of silver to let people go for my son, and I hurt him, and I hurt him... ”

Hearing their mother's tragic words, the three brothers wept one after another. Zhu Zhenguo, who heard the crying outside the door, climbed over the threshold with his hands and feet and entered the hall, followed by his mother Zhu Xu, who had been following him.

Zhu Zhenguo had already understood what was going on during the period of time when he walked in, and seeing the grief that the four people in the house had fallen into, Zhu Zhenguo said in his own childish voice: "The second uncle went to war, the second uncle is powerful, kill a few more barbarians to make meritorious contributions and get promoted." ”

Other people's one-year-old children are still babbling, but Zhu Zhenguo can say such a complete sentence, if others listen to it, it must be shocking, Uncle Wen **** Yan immediately answered: "Yes, Guo'er is right, this time the army of 300,000 troops, maybe the second brother has returned triumphant before he sees the enemy, how many people can the barbarians can have, it is not enough to kill." ”

This sentence was used by Wen Guang to comfort his mother, and of course he was also to comfort himself.

After Wen Guang finished speaking, the other two brothers also spoke out in response, and Zhu Cai's Cai seemed a little calmer, and slowly sat up again.

In this expedition, Datong Town drew 100,000 people, and the other two towns drew 30,000 people, these 130,000 people are the main force, but most of them are also defensive troops, mostly fighting with the enemy under the city at the head of the city, and going to the grassland to fight with the Xianren cavalry.

The remaining 170,000 troops were all drawn from the Inland Guard, the able-bodied ones were also incorporated into the combat units, and the remaining 50,000 or 60,000 were logistics baggage teams. I'm afraid this expedition is really bad luck. Taiping has been peaceful for too long, and it is said that the cultural economy has really developed a lot, but the bravery of the Chinese has long since lost the momentum of chasing the north in the past.

Not to mention that Xiucai Wenguang doesn't understand the above, even Zhu Zhenguo, a person from another modern society, didn't think much about it, Zhu Zhenguo thought in his heart that fighting was to see who was more capable on both sides, and that there was better luck over there, and there were wins and losses, maybe. Isn't this how it is played in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the main general is strategizing, and winning a thousand miles is the decisive factor in the war.

A few people settled down a little, and Zhu Xu took Zhu Zhenguo to the chair under Wen Guang and sat down, standing on the side. Wen Guang said: "There is another thing when I come back this time, the imperial court will levy a killing tax this year, and we will harvest five buckets of rice per mu of paddy fields and three buckets of wheat per mu of dry land. ”

Wen Bin was in charge of the family this year, and he also knew that the harvest was probable, and only two to three stones were collected in a good year for an acre of paddy field, and one stone was ten buckets, and the original court was going to collect half of it, and the rest was only about to have more rations, and now he had to harvest another two percent, and the ordinary people's families were really not enough rations, so he couldn't help but be surprised: "This tax is so heavy?" ”

Wen Guang continued: "This year, we don't have to pay official taxes in Zhujiazhuang, the surplus grain is enough, and it should be affordable to pay taxes. ”

The family discussed until noon, simply used the meal, the uncle Wenguang sent people to Zhuangzi to ring the family bell, this big bell was made by the ancestors of Jinshi, all poured by cooked copper, after more than 100 years, even if it is now dismantled and sold, it can be sold for hundreds of taels of silver, which is enough to be worth the price of dozens of acres of paddy fields.

The ringing of the big bell spread throughout the Zhuangzi, and everyone in charge of every household had to gather in the ancestral hall.

Fortunately, there are only more than 1,000 acres of paddy fields registered in the Zhujiazhuang government, in fact, there are far more than that, and there are 3,000 acres of good fields and poor fields, and the land is far more than the number of registrations, and the tax officials do not know how much benefit they receive in Zhujiazhuang every year.

So this tax will not hurt the muscles and bones, but life is a little worse. However, many ordinary farmers outside Zhujiazhuang who do not have a reputation at home are afraid that they will suffer deeply.

In ancient times, unlike modern times, you can work everywhere to survive, and if you want to survive a bad year in this era, most of them can only cut down on food and clothing, hunt all over the mountains, wild vegetable bark, or borrow money to survive next year, and then pay back the extra grain, and keep the seeds for next year.

This is also the reason why land annexation in ancient times became more and more serious, and the land of wealthy and noble families who did not have to pay taxes became more and more, and more and more poor peasants and middle peasants became tenants, and the state's tax revenue would become less and less. There are those who voluntarily sell their land in order to reduce taxes, and there are those who are forced to sell their land in order to make a living. This is also the direct reason why the Zhu family can have this family business for more than 100 years.

This tax increase, all land has to be taxed, which also violates the interests of wealthy families. Scholars do not pay taxes, this is a principle formulated in ancient times, not a hundred years or two hundred years, but one or two thousand years, no matter which dynasty it is, people with meritorious names do not pay taxes and do not conscript.

This time Emperor Chengping forcibly collected the tax of the scholars, it was a bad precedent, this time the tax payment was a drop in the bucket for the scholars, but this precedent was set, who can guarantee that it will not be collected in the future?

Is it that the country has something to do with the scholars to pay taxes, so what is the use of reading, what is the superiority of the scholars, and who will respect the scholars in the future.

The exhortation flew like snowflakes to the emperor's Zhongjing City, where the emperor has been in business for several years, and the emperor is in power in the court, how can he manage these, just thinking about the success of the war, and it will be passed down through the ages.

To say that the emperor is so happy cannot be completely summarized, and it is also a bit of a big means to be able to control the imperial court in a few years, at least he is a talent in political struggle.

Maybe it's just thinking too simple about fighting a war, or it's too simplistic in the overall planning of a major collective event, like Zhu Zhenguo's advanced thinking at this time, he only thinks that the war is that the main general is talented, and luck can win the war with the help of luck, not to mention that there are rich people. It is the biggest mistake to attribute the victory or defeat of the war to the main general.

If Emperor Chengping first controlled the government, and then slowly increased the income of the court, carefully organized the army, secretly traded with the northerners, bought more good horses, and built high-quality weapons, these things were completed, and then a good commander was selected to go on the expedition, and he might be able to succeed in a battle.

Nowadays, most people are confused by the abundance of money and food, and the large number of soldiers, but they have never really analyzed the enemy and the enemy. Many of the guards did not even have a complete piece of leather armor, let alone iron armor, and the weapons used were all built a hundred years ago, and those that were well maintained were only seriously worn, and those that were not well maintained were already rusty.

Although the border towns are much better, they are not very well equipped.