Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Three days later, Alinbao and more than 20 strong men galloped on the post road leading to Qitai with two horses.After they left Gongning City, they ate and slept in the open, and only changed horses when they passed the post station. They passed Fukang County in just two days.

"Appreciate~~~"

As A Linbao reined in the horse, the others also slowed down, and more than 40 well-trained horses neighed and stopped.A strong man with beards like a black tower said in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

A Linbao explained: "Master Ba, we will arrive at the checkpoint of the North Sea Pirates in another [-] miles. We have to go south from the fork in front of us and walk close to Bogda Mountain. We will bring a few brothers to Shichengzi Meet us."

After the Northern Navy took Kai'an City west of Qitai, Liu Sheng ordered the troops to continue to advance westward, and finally set the demarcation line temporarily at Ziniquanyi Station, ninety miles away from Fukang County.Because it was already winter in October at that time, the defenders in Fukang County did not realize that something was wrong until early November when they gave the post station for support.

The strong man nodded his head, looked up to see that it was still early, and said, "Go! Find a place to rest after entering the mountain!"

Everyone around said "嗻" in unison, and then let go of the reins, hundreds of horseshoes slammed, and disappeared in the smoke, dust and snow in a blink of an eye.

It is said that Shang'an, the capital of Urumqi, after careful consideration, finally decided to take a gamble. If he has a date or not, he will try it first. If it succeeds, wouldn't it be a great achievement?When the Northern Navy came over, even if he abandoned the city and fled, he would be able to offset his merits and demerits with Yili General Mingliang and the court, and escaped death.

In the early years, this person entered the Ministry of War as a student and worked as a post. Later, he participated in the battles of Jinchuan and Jinchuan and the suppression of the Shaanxi-Gansu Rebellion. He also served as the chief envoy of Shaanxi and the governor of Guangdong.Unfortunately, he was sent to Turpan by Qianlong to serve as the leader of the team nine years ago because of his involvement in the case of "donation of public funds by salt merchants in eastern Guangdong".

Because of the relationship between Yili General Mingliang and his backer, Agui, Shang An is well aware of the terrifying strength of the Northern Navy.Mingliang's strong troops in Ningguta were beaten to the point of vomiting blood, not to mention the thousands of troops in Gongning City and Dihua City.

"Where?" Fan Tongtong looked around in a daze, thinking it was a barren mountain, how the hell would I know.

The so-called "Bingtun", as the name suggests, is the land reclaimed by the green battalion soldiers. The Qing Dynasty divided those green battalion soldiers who were good at farming from Zhuti Town, Shaanxi, Gansu into a group of hundreds of people, and each family allocated 21 acres of land to set up camps.Then there is the "violent village", that is, the form of reclamation composed of exiled prisoners, which was also incorporated into the green camp reclamation.

In winter, the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains is covered with snow, the mountains are undulating, snow-capped forests, rivers and canyons are intertwined, and it is inaccessible and extremely difficult.Although led by A Linbao, who was familiar with the terrain, and the soldiers of the Qianfeng Battalion were also accustomed to walking on mountain roads, the 200-mile journey still slipped away for five days, and it was only at noon on the sixth day that they arrived at the frozen Biliu River.As long as you cross this river, enter the valley to the east, and walk another forty miles to Shichengzi.

"Xiao Fan," Zhao Xin raised his hand and swept it with a whip, and said, "Do you know where this is?"

Liu Sheng and Fan Tong have been busy with military deployment, troop training, and prisoner management for more than two months, and they didn't care about farming at all; but when Zhao Xin understood the situation, he believed that the matter was too important to be delayed.While there was still plenty of time, he directed the logistics staff and spent a few days figuring out the matter and formulating a plan for the beginning of spring, so that even if he left, he could follow the steps.

Zhao Xin has been busy these days dealing with the farming affairs left over from the Manchu Qing Dynasty. He either consulted the archives or asked the staff from the logistics department to investigate the situation of the cultivated land.After all things had finally been settled, and they were about to leave, but early this morning, for some reason, they had to drag themselves and Jiang Fan to this hill sixty miles away, saying that they were going to relax together.Originally, he also called Liu Sheng, but Da Liu didn't come because of a temporary business.

Don't look at the high-sounding that Man Qing said, it's salted vegetable silver and white flour, but when Zhao Xin took a few staff officers to read and count the farmland account books of Qitai County, he found that under normal circumstances, the troops stationed and dispatched It is not easy for criminals to meet the standard of paying food without reward or punishment, and it is even more difficult to meet the standard of receiving rewards.

After completing these statistics, Zhao Xin roughly understood how miserable the situation of ordinary people exiled in Xinjiang was in the Qing Dynasty.In his intuitive impression, he originally thought that the exiles came here to serve as soldiers on the frontier or to herd sheep.

Since the Beihai Navy captured Gucheng, Zhenxifu, and Hami, all the military, criminal, and household settlements in the three places will naturally be taken over. The area of ​​more than 6 mu of arable land is not a small number. How to manage these arable land and labor will be related to the rations of the troops on the western front in the coming year, as well as the land system in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in the future; Seeds after spring, repair and replacement of damaged agricultural tools must be managed; in addition, new rent standards must also be determined.

The above two types of land belong to the government, with only the right to use and no property rights, and all output must be turned over every year.In the past, the standards set by the Manchu Qing Dynasty were too high, so that both the soldiers and the prisoners were living in poverty, and the latter was even worse.

"Yes. Cloud pattern tiles from the Han Dynasty." After Zhao Xin finished speaking, he handed it to Fan Tong.

After getting the survey data, Zhao Xin felt that the land ownership system should follow the gourd painting. The key is to give the villagers a reasonable rent amount so that they can farm the land with peace of mind.What's more, the situation of deported prisoners needs to be re-screened, such as those who disobeyed, robbed, hijacked, abducted, stole graves, murdered, escaped from prison, and even corrupted. It is only necessary to switch to the same treatment as Bingtun.

[-]. The Western Front Headquarters set up the Agricultural Reclamation Department, temporarily headed by the General Staff Changjiang Fan. Relevant personnel can be transferred from the Logistics Department or recruited from the private sector.The Ministry of Land and Reclamation will coordinate all farmland and water conservancy affairs on the entire Xinjiang East Road, including the distribution and maintenance of seeds, new farm tools, and livestock.The redemption of private land is also temporarily assigned to the Ministry of Reclamation.

Fan Tong suddenly realized, and said with a smile: "I have to learn more from Mr. Ziping in the future, I really don't know anything about these."

For example, for the soldiers, those who pay more than 25 shi for fine grain will be rewarded with one month of salt and vegetable silver (one tael); those who pay more than [-] shi of fine grain will be rewarded with two months of salt and vegetable silver.However, if the fine grain received is more than twelve shi and less than fifteen shi, there will be no reward or punishment; if the fine grain collected is less than twelve shi, not only the soldiers will be punished, but also the station officials and battalion officials under their jurisdiction will be punished.

The Eight Banners stationed in Urumqi are all soldiers from Zhuang Langman from Liangzhou, Gansu.To be honest, the city of Liangzhou is located in a military hub, coupled with its remoteness, it is less affected by the corruption of the inland banner people. It was the main force in the previous wars of the Qianlong Dynasty, and its combat effectiveness was very high. Yu Sauron soldiers.

In charge of leading the team was a Manchurian Zhengbai flag co-leader named Baqina, in addition to two leaders and commissioned vanguards, and [-] vanguards--Bayala outposts from the post-Golden era.

"Vadam?"

1794. Beginning in 1200, the payment standard for fine grains in Bingtun was reduced to ten stones—that is, 30 catties, and the surplus was owned by the households.Those who meet this standard will receive a subsidy of 154 Beihai Yuan per household.In addition, the salary of the soldiers was adjusted from the original 200 taels, equivalent to 41 Beihai yuan, to 207.5 Beihai yuan; the salary of horse farmers was adjusted from the original 260 taels, or [-] yuan, to [-] yuan.The purpose of increasing the increase is mainly to improve their lives so that they no longer have to worry about the expense of salted vegetables.

Jiang Fan subconsciously stretched out his hand to stroke his beard, and after a while he realized that he had shaved off his beard after joining the army.Why!The North Navy is not good at this point, even officers are not allowed to grow beards.

After many meetings and discussions with Fan Tong, Jiang Fan, and support staff, Zhao Xin finally formulated the following plan:

Speaking of the hardships of life, because the soldiers still have more than one tael of salary per month, and the price of grain on Xinjiang East Road is extremely low - Shihu only asks for three cents per stone, so although they live in poverty, they can still have enough to eat. .But those deported prisoners were different. Although they were stationed in the army to work together in farming, they could not get any money from the elders.

So Shang'an selected more than 20 elite soldiers from the Eight Banners garrisoned in Gongning City, all of whom were experienced veterans with strong individual combat capabilities.As mentioned before, since the "Battle of Jinchuan and Jinchuan", the Qing army has shifted from emphasizing battle formation training to emphasizing individual bravery, so it puts forward higher requirements for individual combat capabilities.

Because the grain payment standards for Bingtun and Criminal Tunnel could not be fulfilled, both the battalion officials and the officials in charge of the Tunnel would be punished. So in order not to be punished, the Tuntian officials at all levels had to force their subordinates to cultivate more land, and it could not be included in the farm account book. Therefore, the hardships of farming are beyond words.Of course, if it catches up with the famine year, even if you try your best to cultivate more land, it will still not be completed.

In addition to the above-mentioned problems, there is also a group of farmers who give Zhao Xin a headache—"hutu".This form of farming was established in the 27th year of Qianlong's reign. The source of laborers is different and the situation is complicated.Among them are refugees and tenant farmers from all over Gansu, some "merchant craftsmen" and small traders who come here to find a living, some are the children of the green camp soldiers, and some powerful families in the inland, as well as local development. Those who were implicated in the case, the attached border residents, etc.

Fan Tong didn't know anything about Wenwan, and said in surprise: "This thing can also be used as an inkstone? I've only heard of using Qin bricks as an inkstone."

Jiang Fan explained: "The tiles in the Qin and Han Dynasties are made of fine materials and exquisite materials, which are close to clear mud. They are used to make inkstones, which are firm and lustrous, and can be stored for several days without drying up. They are rare and high-quality inkstones. An early In the home of an official in the capital, I once saw an inkstone carved with Changle Weiyang tiles, which can be called a masterpiece."

Jiang Fan on the side looked at it for a moment, weighed it in his hand again, and agreed: "It is indeed a Han tile. Take this thing back and find someone to carve an inkstone. It is also a fun of the study."

In addition to the short knives, tiger spears and 132-pound heavy bows that Baqina and the others carried this time, there were also ten high-quality Mongolian flower guns.This kind of gun is three feet seven inches long, weighs eight catties, charges two qian, and iron weighs 4.7 qian.Although the range of the two-carrier is longer and the lethality is greater, but its length exceeds two meters, which is inconvenient to carry.

People from the Western Front Command once rescued a half-crazy guy, and later learned that this person was an exile who was sent here three years ago for selling illegal salt.First, his wife died of illness, leaving behind a five-year-old daughter. Later, in order to complete the farming task, he didn't care about the child at all. He could only put it in the nearby woods while farming, and let it moan. After a few days, The child was taken away by the wolf, and the man went crazy.

Zhao Xin jumped off his horse, threw the reins to the accompanying guards, and strolled into the ruins where only the ruins remained.Fan Tong and Jiang Fan didn't understand what it meant, so they had to dismount and follow. They saw Zhao Xin lowered his head and poked on the snow in the ruins for a while, then leaned over to pick up something.Fan Tong stepped forward and looked, and found that it was a broken clay tile; in the middle were two double cross lines, which divided the round surface into four equal pieces, and each piece had an inwardly rolled pattern, with clearly identifiable lines.

At the same time, Zhao Xin, Fan Tong, and Jiang Fan rode horses on the northern slope of the Tianshan Mountain, forty miles away, and slowly walked up a high hill.Looking around, you can have a panoramic view of the vast and vast mountains and rivers. In the distance is a mirror-like frozen river, and there are deep ravines covered with white snow at your feet.

The standard for repatriating prisoners is: six shi and six buckets of fine grain, and half a catty of flour per day; ten shi of fine grain, and one catty of flour per day; As a punishment, those who receive less than four shi of fine grain will be severely punished.The reason why the standards for sending prisoners to garrison fields was lower than that of garrison soldiers was mainly due to the shortage of livestock and agricultural tools, and the lack of labor force.

The arable land in Hutun was also government-run at the beginning, and each household was given [-] mu of official land, but after five years of cultivation, they could be "promoted"—that is, they had to pay taxes to the government, and at the same time the official land was converted into private land.In addition, the agricultural tools and livestock of this group of people are not allocated by the government, but are loaned for use. They must be returned when they have enough livelihood, and they will bear the loss by themselves.

The figures for deported prisoners are even worse.Xinjiang East Road has a 30-year history of repatriating criminals to farm fields. Only five years of this period have exceeded the grain allowance standard of six stones and six. Those who were rewarded and not punished took 16.7 years, accounting for 21%; those who paid less than four shi and were severely punished took four years, accounting for 70%;

Although the amount of this part of cultivated land is not large, it should not be underestimated. Zhao Xin is still undecided about how to collect the ownership and how to collect it.The point is that Xinjiang is sparsely populated these days, and there are so many uncultivated wastelands.If it is for this point to take back the ownership, before the whole Xinjiang is taken, it will be bad for the North Navy's reputation; but if it is not taken back, it will be troublesome to leave such a tail in the future.

In the 25 years from the 57th year of Qianlong to the 32th year of Qianlong, there were only eight years in which the amount of grain received by troops and farms was more than 25 shi, accounting for 37.5%; for ten years, the amount of grain received was more than 14 shi, which was not rewarded or punished, accounting for 43.75% of the total. %; the passing standard for receiving grain less than twelve shi is [-] years, accounting for [-]%.

3.5. The fine grain standard for repatriated prisoners is reduced to 420 shi—that is, 30 catties. Those who complete the work will receive a subsidy of [-] yuan per household, and the rest will be the same as above.In addition, deported prisoners also need to be granted a certain living allowance to improve their lives. The annual standard is [-] Beihai yuan, but this part of the money must be supervised by a separate account set up by the Ministry of Land and Reclamation. After taking the money on the front foot, he ran back to the pass.)
20. Regarding the issue of "household settlements", the Ministry of Agriculture and Reclamation shall negotiate to buy back the ownership, but no compulsory redemption is allowed.The land price shall be increased by 2.4% with reference to the market price of the local cultivated land transaction.In terms of grain payment standards for Hutun, the standards of the Manchu Qing era continued to be implemented, that is, eight liters of grain per mu, and 10 shi for 5 mu of land.In addition, those who pay in full in August each year will receive a subsidy of [-] Beihai yuan; those who pay in full in September will receive a subsidy of [-] yuan; those who pay in full in October will receive a subsidy of [-] yuan; Only fully completed, no subsidies.

When the news of the plan came out, the first to know were the Bingtun households and Criminal households in the Qitai area.The hearts that had been hanging over each family finally fell, and many people simply kowtowed in the direction of Jingyuan City, saying that the future will be easier!
Zhao Xin believes that as long as this plan is persistently implemented, there will be no need to worry about the military rations of the western front troops in the future.Moreover, with the increase in grain production on Xinjiang East Road, the grain supply in the Khobdo area can also be met.

After dealing with the matter of farming, Zhao Xin, who was already dizzy, remembered that there was a scenic spot in the south of Qitai—Jianbulake, and there was an ancient city ruins nearby.It's rare for me to visit Tianshan Mountain, and it's worthwhile to take a look before leaving.

He definitely didn't have time to see the beautiful scenery in autumn, but he had heard that the scenery in winter was also good there, so he called Fan Tong and Jiang Fan, and ran over early in the morning with a platoon of guards.

Deleted a lot.I feel wrong as I write.