Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

The first month of the year is a time for common people to visit relatives and friends, and officials are no exception.

Although the court stipulated that the holiday only lasted until the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, for high-ranking officials, as long as there was no important business, they would still be on vacation before the fifteenth day.

Captain Zhao of Songhu Prefecture also took the opportunity to go to the southern capital to present gifts to the commander-in-chief of Zhili.

The commander-in-chief took time out of his busy schedule to meet him. After a few words of flattery, Captain Zhao quickly got to the point:

"Sir, our new lieutenant general Zheng of Songhu Prefecture is too arrogant. He has sidelined us thousand households as soon as he arrived. Our authority is a small matter, but everyone knows that we are all under your command. His behavior clearly shows that he does not take you seriously. I really feel sorry for you!"

The commander-in-chief at the top was of the same age as Captain Zhao, but he was full of official authority.

Even though Captain Zhao was half his father-in-law, the commander-in-chief was not polite at all. He just smiled disdainfully when he heard it:

"Come on, stop using those high-sounding words and just tell us directly what Admiral Zheng did."

Captain Zhao quickly recounted what Zheng Yuannai had done in the Songhu Camp.

The commander thought for a moment and said:

"It seems that this guy wants to make some achievements. In that case, let him do it."

His subordinates are so motivated and spend their own money to train elite soldiers. When they achieve military merit, won't he, the commander, also have a share of the credit?

It is said that Zheng Yuannai had presented a military merit to the commander when he was in the Wucheng Bingmasi.

That kid single-handedly organized some Taoists and civilians to kill more than a hundred Japanese pirates. If he had well-trained soldiers at hand, he might be able to achieve even greater military merits.

In this case, he certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to hinder others.

Captain Zhao never expected that the commander-in-chief would have this attitude. He suddenly felt anxious and unwilling.

That young man spent his own money to support the army, and it is impossible for him to return those people to them in the future.

Then they will have few people on hand, who will farm for them and do chores?

Moreover, the number of soldiers under his command suddenly decreased from three or four hundred to more than a hundred. The power gap was too huge.

"But sir, he often takes soldiers to the Songhu camp for training, leaving our guards empty, which is not conducive to defense."

Captain Zhao quickly found an excuse.

The Zhili Commander pondered for a moment, looked at him and smiled coldly:

"If you want to recruit people, isn't it easy? This winter is cold, and many military households have frozen to death in the garrison. We can just go to their hometowns according to the list to fill the vacancies."

"I remember that you thousand households have quite a few vacancies, so I'll fill them all up for you."

Captain Zhao was dumbfounded.

The commander-in-chief actually wants to fill up those vacancies that are not paid for with real soldiers?

Real soldiers are living people, some of them have families to support. No matter how much you cut back, you still have to give them some of their monthly rations.

This is equivalent to taking away the money that belongs to them.

"My Lord... this... this is absolutely not allowed..."

The commander-in-chief looked at him coldly:

"Why not? You want to have someone on your side, but you don't want to give anything in return. Is there such a good thing in the world?"

Captain Zhao wanted to say that they just wanted Zheng Yuannai to return those soldiers to them and let the garrison remain as it was.

The commander-in-chief did not give him a chance to speak and said directly:

"Okay, it's settled. I'll start making arrangements tomorrow. Your guard post should also prepare to receive the newcomers."

Doesn’t this younger generation of the Zheng family want to raise troops? He wants to see how many soldiers the Zheng family can raise with its strength.

He prepared the people.

Whether the Zheng family takes it or not, it will not affect his interests.

If the Zheng family is willing to raise more soldiers, it will only benefit him.

As for these thousand households, they have eaten a lot of oil and water over the years. Now they are eating less, so they dare not complain.

*

The Zhili commander-in-chief did what he said. He issued an order to recruit troops for the four major forces of Songhu the next day.

The names of these military households who were drawing salaries without working were not randomly chosen.

The imperial court would conduct random checks on military households and military registrations.

Therefore, the number of soldiers who were drawing salaries without working could not be fabricated out of thin air. They had to be real people with hometowns and names in the counties near the garrison.

However, these people were already dead and their local household registration should have been cancelled, but they were used by officials to exchange benefits with the garrisons.

In this way, when some people were completely unaware, they became relatives of the military households.

Normally they are unaware of this and don't get any benefits, but once the court needs to increase troops, the military officers will come to their homes to arrest people.

To be suddenly forced into military service and to be a soldier for generations is not much better than losing all one's property for ordinary people.

Several garrisons in Songhu had to fill a total of more than 1,300 empty salary quotas, and this time, 1,300 households were forcibly selected.

"Sir! No one in my family has ever joined the army, so how can they be military relatives? This must be a mistake!"

Some people tried to restore order for their own families, but were scolded and beaten mercilessly by the military officers.

"How dare you, a rude and unruly person, to question the government's household registration! Are you looking for death?"

Under the strong suppression of the army officers, more than a thousand households who were not originally military households had to swallow their tears, pack up their bags and be escorted to several garrisons in Songhu with their entire families.

There was no house, no land, and the whole family had only five taels of silver for settling down.

In the eyes of the thousand households, these people were their new property that they had paid a huge price for, so they naturally could not let them freeze to death as soon as they arrived.

Although the houses of the thousand households were spacious, it was impossible to accommodate these new recruits and their families.

The thousand households discussed and came up with a good idea:

"It costs a lot of money to buy tents, and they don't keep warm. It would be better to let them live in other military households. When the weather gets warmer in the spring, they will have a year to think of a solution and won't freeze to death."

As a result, twice as many people were forcibly stuffed into the homes of the original military households.

The already limited living quarters became even more crowded.

Both new and old military households were suffering, but there was nothing they could do.

Zheng Yuan did not know that many new military households had been added to the four major fortresses in Songhu until the soldiers he trained came to complain that the captains had forced people into their homes.

He went to the garrison in person to see the current living conditions of the soldier's family.

The homes of those military households were not big to begin with, and now they were crammed with twice as many people, plus their belongings and luggage, the entire home was so crowded that there was hardly any room to step.

They will live like this until they get a new house.

As for when the guard post will build new houses for them?

The captain who was in charge of receiving him at the garrison said that these military households had all been given resettlement allowances and had to build their own houses.

However, when we asked the new soldiers, we found out that the resettlement fee was only five taels.

Building a house for a family is a huge expense, and it takes the accumulation of generations to build a few tiled houses.

Five taels of money is not enough for settling down.

Moreover, they had already lost their land, and could only count on the fields in the military settlements for income for the next season. The resettlement fees also had to cover the family's food supply before new crops were grown, so there was no money left to build a new house.

Zheng Yuannai was so angry that he was shaking.

Five taels of resettlement fee to accommodate several family members who have left their hometown!

Is this something that humans can do?

Of the thirty taels of resettlement allowance stipulated by the imperial court, only five taels were left in the hands of the military households!