The rise of the poor

Chapter 2011: Recruiting Soldiers Again
"You guys go and get some rest. I'll stay in the study tonight. Don't worry, I won't stay up too late."

Zhu Ping'an coaxed Li Shu and others to go back and rest, and he stayed in the study alone, reading the reports from various places over and over again.

"Alas" Looking at so many civilian casualties, Zhu Pingan felt deeply guilty and self-blame, and sighed endlessly.

As the governor of Zhejiang, tens of thousands of people in the province were massacred by Japanese pirates, and as the governor, I cannot escape the blame.

Even though he had just taken office for less than a week.

Japanese pirates!

How to solve this biggest scourge in Zhejiang and even in Jiangnan? !

The garrisons were useless. Although the local militia were stronger than the garrisons, they were not regular troops after all. They could not guarantee food, wages, weapons and training. They were far from being a match for the Japanese pirates and could only struggle a few more times than the garrisons.

In fact, the imperial court also knew that the garrisons were unusable, otherwise why would they allow Zhang Jing to transfer wolf soldiers from Guangxi all the way.

In Zhu Ping'an's opinion, wolf soldiers are not a good strategy to eliminate the Japanese pirates. Historically, the Japanese pirates were not eliminated by wolf soldiers.

To suppress the Japanese pirates, we can only recruit soldiers and train a new army.

Recruiting soldiers and providing them with food and wages are the first issues that need to be resolved.

The guard system created by Emperor Hongwu did not cost the court much money. The guards cultivated their own fields to provide food and wages. Most people farmed, and a small number of people cultivated land, which basically covered the food and wages. They picked up hoes to grow crops and put down their hoes to fight.

This is also what Emperor Hongwu is most proud of. I can support a million soldiers without spending a single grain of rice from the people.

However, the garrisons are now rotten. Although you don't consume much of the court's food and money, you are of no use.

Recruiting soldiers requires food and wages, which must be allocated by the court.

However, the imperial court is too poor now. The food and wages of Beizhen have already made the imperial court tighten its belt. The food and wages needed to recruit soldiers in Jiangnan will definitely not be less than that of Beizhen. How can the imperial court afford it? !

If the government is to bear the burden, it can only pass the responsibility on to the people. How to pass it on? It's so simple, just increase taxes on the people.

The amount of tax shortfall will be increased by the people. This year, we will increase taxes by 3.5 cents per mu of land, and next year, we will increase taxes by another 3.5 cents per mu.

The more soldiers recruited, the heavier the taxes on the people.

Finally, the people were burdened with too heavy taxes and could no longer survive, so they had no choice but to cook.

This became a paradox of the Ming Dynasty: when war was about to break out, the garrisons could not bear it, so soldiers had to be recruited. Taxes on the people were increased, and the people could not survive, so they revolted. Then war was needed again, soldiers had to be recruited, and taxes on the people were increased. The people could not survive, so they revolted again. It became an unsolvable vicious circle.

Once the Ming Dynasty entered this vicious circle, it would inevitably fall into a nightmare of peasant uprisings.

Then the Ming Dynasty was not far from its demise.

In fact, from a certain perspective, it can be said that the conscription system was the first straw that broke the camel's back for the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, during the three major expeditions of the Wanli Emperor, recruiting soldiers had become the main force of the Ming army, and food and salary expenses accounted for half of the total annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty at that time.

With such huge expenditure on food and salaries, how much money does the court have left to manufacture weapons, pay salaries to officials, repair rivers, provide relief to the people, and develop the economy? !
The peasant uprising alone had already dealt a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty. When the powerful enemy between the Black Mountains and the White Waters launched a charge against the empire, the demise of the empire became inevitable.

In this light, it is not without reason and basis to say that the conscription system was the first straw that broke the camel's back for the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Japanese invasion of Jiangnan is so serious that we have to recruit soldiers.

How can this be good?

How can we recruit soldiers while reducing the burden of food and salary on the court?

Zhu Ping'an frowned and pondered for a long time, but could not think of an answer that would satisfy both parties.

"How should I do this?" Zhu Ping'an muttered to himself. He wrote the three words "weisuo", "recruiting soldiers" and "food and salary" on the rice paper. He looked at these three words over and over again and began to ponder.

again and again

again and again

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration passed through Zhu Ping'an's mind. Zhu Ping'an quickly took a pen and wrote it down on the rice paper, drawing a line between the two words "recruit soldiers" and "weisuo" to connect them.

Since the garrisons are in poor condition and must recruit soldiers, why not reduce the number of military households in the garrisons accordingly based on the number of recruits? The garrisons are now useless anyway, so why not convert them from military households into ordinary civilians, convert part of the military farms into ordinary farmland, let these military households become civilian households to cultivate the land, and use the taxes they pay to make up for the food and wages of the recruited soldiers.

Although, under the current Wei Suo system, military households also had to pay grain, and the proportion was even as high as half, but due to corruption in the Wei Suo, most of the grain paid by the military households went into the pockets of the officers, and the military households became slaves of the Wei Suo officers.

It would be better for the imperial court to issue an order to directly transfer the corresponding military households into civilian households, so as to prevent them from being exploited by the officers of the garrisons.

As for how many soldiers need to be converted to civilians for a recruitment?
Of course, the smaller the ratio between the two, the lighter the burden on the common people. According to estimates of ancient productivity, it took about twenty common people to support one soldier. Only with such a ratio would the common people not rise up in rebellion.

In other words, for every soldier recruited, the garrison could convert twenty military households into ordinary civilian households, and convert the corresponding military farms into civilian farmland, using their taxes and miscellaneous labor to support the recruited soldiers, thereby alleviating the financial pressure of the court and also reducing the tax pressure on ordinary people.

The idea was not to abolish the Wei Suo system, but to combine the Wei Suo with conscription and adjust the proportion and structure of the two.

The more Zhu Ping'an thought about it, the more he felt that this idea was worth studying.

However, the Ming Dynasty's Wei Suo system stipulated that if military households wanted to become civilian households, they had to obtain special grace from the emperor.

How to obtain the emperor's special gift?
During the Xuande reign, the Ming Dynasty promulgated the "Military and Political Regulations", which stipulated that "if there is only one person in a former military household, he shall be appointed as a student, sent to the Ministry of War, and applied for examination in the Hanlin Academy. If he is successful, he shall be released from the military as usual. If he is not successful, he shall be sent to the military again."

Zhu Ping'an does not have the power to transform military households into civilian households.

So Zhu Ping'an spread out a new piece of rice paper and wrote his thoughts in detail on it.

"I am very sorry for my immature opinion on recruiting soldiers. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."

Finally, Zhu Ping'an added a sentence at the end: I request to recruit 8,000 soldiers to wipe out the Japanese pirates in Zhejiang.

After checking that everything was correct, Zhu Ping'an copied it on a secret memorial, sealed it, and gave it to Liu Daqiang, asking him to take his men to deliver it to Xiyuan.

Calculating the time, Liu Mu and others are also on their way back.

The next day, just as Liu Daqiang and his men set out, Zhu Ping'an issued an official document in the name of the Governor of Zhejiang, ordering Liu Dadao to go to Yiwu again to recruit 8,000 soldiers, no, to recruit young and strong men, and ordered the Jinhua Prefecture to cooperate.

The 8,000 soldiers were not all recruited in Yiwu. The recruiting areas were Dongyang County, Yongkang County, and Wuyi County adjacent to Yiwu County. If all the soldiers were recruited in Yiwu, recruiting so many people would have a huge impact on the people's livelihood in Yiwu.

Of course, this was not Zhu Ping'an's decision to act first and report later.

Zhu Ping'an's intention this time was not to recruit soldiers in name, but to recruit young and strong men, and then turn them into soldiers after the imperial edict came down.

It's just doing the work in advance.

Emperor Jiajing might not necessarily agree to the suggestion of combining conscription with garrisons, adjusting the ratio, and converting military households into civilian households, but he would definitely agree to conscription.