Another new year is approaching, and the area around Kunming, the southern capital of the Dashun Empire, is still in the midst of national mourning and encountering imported inflation, but the upcoming second war to invade India still fills people inside and outside Kunming with great expectations. . But around Chongqing, the northern capital of Dashun, it's a different scene, with desolation everywhere.
Located outside Shizhu City in the Sanjiang River Valley, a group of bachelors living in a mountain village plowed the terraced fields during the winter and gathered together to chat about dirty jokes.
The Shizhu area was originally the territory of Shizhu chieftain Ma's family, which was Qin Liangyu's mother-in-law's family. Although this area produced many famous figures in the decades from Wanli to Chongzhen, there was also a very capable white-pole army. However, decades of loyalty and fighting for the Ming Dynasty by the heroes of Shizhu could not change the poor mountains and rivers in Shizhu area. As the saying goes, the poor mountains and rivers produce elite soldiers! Perhaps it is precisely because there is no three-foot-level terrain in the Shizhu area that forces the people here to be particularly hardworking and willing to join the army and risk their lives to fight for wealth.
However, in the last years of Chongzhen, under the repeated fierce attacks of the Dashun Army, Ma Wanchun, the chieftain of Shizhu, had to abandon his home where he had lived for generations, and moved westward with most of the Shizhu people and the Ma and Qin families. Zunyi Prefecture - Zunyi Prefecture is the last territory of the Ming Dynasty in Sichuan Province, and it is also the current residence of the Xichuan Jiedushi Division.
After the Ma family chieftains evacuated, the Shizhu area was firmly occupied by the Dashun Army. Because there is no flat land here, only some terraced fields that are difficult to cultivate, so before the ten years of Dashun's rule, the soldiers of the Dashun Dynasty had no interest in Shizhu's land. They only came from Chongqing and Chengdu where there were many people and tight land Farmers moved from the area and cultivated terraced fields on the hillsides on both sides of Sanjiang River.
Most of the bachelors who gather together now to chat about dirty jokes moved here with their parents when they were young.
When I first came here, life was relatively easy for everyone because there were few people and plenty of land, and the Dashun court also gave me some discounts. But since the outbreak of the Shaanxi War, the lives of these New Shizhu people have become increasingly difficult...
The long-term war with the Ming Dynasty did not win much land for the Dashun Dynasty, but it resulted in more than 300,000 new soldiers!
These Xinfu military households had no way to seize the land of farmers in the Ming Dynasty, so they could only seize the land of farmers in Sichuan and Yunnan. The flat lands in the Sichuan Basin have been carved up by them, and mountainous areas like Shizhu have also caught their eye. In the 12th, 13th, and 14th years of the rule, land inspectors from the Dashun household government came to Shizhu for three consecutive years. First, they cleared households and inspected the land, and then encircled the land for equalization. The slightly fatter terraced fields on both sides of the Sanjiang River were enclosed and distributed to the Xinfu soldiers who moved to Shizhu City from elsewhere!
The farmers who were originally self-cultivated farmers were all reduced to tenants of the new soldiers.
Heavy land rent, corvee labor, and household labor also followed, causing these carefree men in their youth to fall into hardship and hardship.
What makes them feel more depressed is not that they are getting poorer and poorer, but that they have no mother-in-law!
To some extent, Dashun's military system is even inferior to the caste system in India, because under the caste system, intermarriage between different castes is more difficult. Although men from higher castes can marry women from lower castes, the latter must pay a large dowry, which families from lower castes often cannot afford. This ensures that upper castes will not overly prey on young women from lower castes. .
The rulers of the Dashun Empire did not think about this problem. Although they established a society where everyone is inherently unequal, they were the beneficiaries of "the princes and generals would rather have their own kind", so they did not think that their actions How noble are the "seeds" of the soldiers below - in the eyes of the Dashun Empire people of Li Guo's generation, the country they established is still a peasant regime that helps the poor...
This misunderstanding and the over-expansion of the military system brought the "suffering of being without a wife" to the poor people they "helped".
There are at least 600,000 "Huang Shiren" with high martial arts skills in the Dashun Empire now! How many "Yang Xi'er" do they have to take away? How many homeless bachelors will be created?
So when the bachelors in Shizhu Village gather together, the ones who talk the most are usually women... But there are exceptions. I don't know who suddenly mentioned the matter of "King Yingming"!
"Have you heard? Prince Ming is coming to make decisions for us poor people!"
"It's nonsense. How can the Emperor of the Zhu family make decisions for us poor people? When his family was in charge of Sichuan, the poor had no way to survive..."
"That's different. The Emperor of the Zhu family still allows the poor to advance. Zhu Ming does not need to be a government soldier to take the imperial examination... Haven't you heard of being a farmhouse minister in the morning and ascending to the emperor's hall in the evening?"
"How can it be so easy to study and improve? I heard from the old people that it is difficult to get a Jinshi for the Emperor Zhu. Sichuan Province can only produce more than twenty Jinshi in three years..."
"Then there are Juren and Xiucai! My grandfather is a Juren and my father is a Xiucai. If I can pass the examination based on my ability, I will definitely be able to become a Xiucai! And if I don't become a Xiucai, I can join the army... .Rely on your ability to gain fame on the battlefield with one sword and one shot!"
"You are mistaken. The King Ming who is coming this time is not the King of the Ming Dynasty!"
"No? Why not?"
"Have you not heard what the song 'Welcome the Ming King' is about? When the Ming King comes, no food is paid, when the Ming King comes, no service is given, when the Ming King comes, no tribute is given, when the Ming King comes, the imperial examination is held, when the Ming King comes, the fields are divided... .The king of the Ming Dynasty will allocate fields to the poor?"
"Then which family does this Prince Ming belong to?"
"It seems to be the White Lotus Sect..."
"seem?"
"Whatever! It's better if someone comes to make trouble than if no one makes trouble at all!"
"Yes! It's good to have some trouble, since we have nothing anyway!"
When they said "nothing," everyone sighed. At this moment, they saw several old men and strong women wearing blue cloth walking from the foot of the mountain. They all had swords hanging on their waists, spears in their hands, and bows and arrows on their backs. They were full of murderous intent!
This is Shizhu's soldiers in the township doing a routine patrol of the mountain!
Shizhu is close to the Shizhou Guards of the Ming Dynasty and belongs to the frontier area. The Dashun Dynasty has stricter control in this area. Even the soldiers in the countryside must maintain war readiness, strictly guard the fortress where they live, and send armed personnel. Patrol the surrounding mountains and forests.
Recently, there have been rumors about demons from the White Lotus Sect in the Shizhu area. Some of them have been killed. The soldiers in the Shizhu countryside are also more vigilant. Not only the veterans in the countryside participate in patrols, but also the second-generation women of the government (all of them are eldest wives). The sword came out.
The peasants who had just said that they might as well make a fuss saw these patrolling soldiers and their families, all made no sound, and did not dare to gather in one place again, but dispersed quietly... ....
The Dashun regime's rule in Shizhu is still as solid as a rock!
...
Some people here in Sichuan are looking forward to King Ming, and here in Huguang, there are also people looking forward to King Chuang!
Yang Sanbao and his brother Wang Sihu, who live at the foot of Huya Mountain in Jingzhou Prefecture, are looking forward to becoming King Chuang!
Both of their fathers were beneficiaries of Li Zicheng's equalization of land in Jingzhou. They were each assigned ten acres of fertile paddy fields, which also changed their respective lives - they were originally farm laborers with nothing, because Li Zicheng's equalization of land became Home farmer. Later, when Emperor Zhu succeeded in counterattacking Jingzhou Prefecture, he did not let them return the land they were allocated to the original owners, but only asked them to make up some "redemption funds." Yang's father and Wang's father, who owned 10 acres of paddy fields, later married wives and had children, and lived a fairly well-off life.
Yang Sanbao and Wang Sihu are the second sons of Father Yang and Father Wang. Their families were well off when they were born and when they were young, so they both attended private schools in the village and went to Jingzhou Prefecture to pass the elementary school and academy exams, but they failed to pass the exams. So he went home to farm.
At this time, because the family did not have much land, it was difficult for their two sons to get married and start a family, so Yang and Wang's father and brother both came up with the idea of borrowing money to rent land and expand their business. They mortgaged their 10 acres of paddy fields to the bank and lent capital to expand production. As a result, they encountered falling food prices... This drop in food prices was due to the decline in food supply after the reconquest of the north and the development of Nanyang. Caused by the increase, it was originally a good thing, but for the Yang and Wang families who blindly expanded their operations, it turned out to be a bankruptcy disaster!
