Emperor Ming Dynasty

The sun is scorching, and although the summer harvest has only passed three to five days, in Duchang County, many families are still busy grabbing land.

Double robbing, that is, robbing to harvest crops and robbing to plant crops.

Rice is generally planted in two seasons in the south. The early rice matures in June, and after harvesting, it must be plowed and transplanted immediately, and the late rice seedlings must be inserted before the beginning of autumn in early July.

If the season is late, the harvest will be greatly reduced, or even lost.

In just one month, harvesting, plowing, raising seedlings, transplanting rice seedlings, and the scorching sun overhead can be described as very busy, which is called double rush.

At this time in Heshe Village, people and animals are busy, even the school is closed, the husband is also busy with field work, and the children have to go home to help.

In the rice fields, a middle-aged man with fluffy hair and a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old are walking side by side with a wooden plow on their backs, while a woman in an apron is walking forward holding a wooden plow with a headscarf.

The two younger sisters, who are seven or eight years old, pick up the fallen ears, clear the weeds, and play occasionally.

"Big, let me replace you!"

At this time, a young man suddenly came up on the embankment. He was naked and dressed in a long robe. He was about to take off his coat and wanted to go to the field.

"Bah, stop it!" The man immediately turned his head and scolded: "You are a scholar in our family, and you will get dirty if you go to the fields."

"Yeah, big boy, don't mess around." The old lady also waved her hand with an eager look on her face.

"Go back to study, go back quickly—"

Helpless, he had no choice but to go back.

Er Gou, who was working as a farm cattle, showed envy.

In the evening, the family was reunited. Although the yard was small, the gates and walls were in place, the houses were neatly tidied up, and the small vegetable fields were also lush and beautiful.

The sky was already dark, and several people were eating porridge mixed with wild vegetables in the yard with thick bowls. Although their stomachs were not full, they were fooling their stomachs after all.

The boss seemed to feel that it was getting dark and wanted to light an oil lamp, but he still put it away.

"Study is a waste of time, eat more." The father directly put half an egg into his son's bowl, and then added a drop of rapeseed oil.

Ergou watched enviously.

"Eat more!" The old lady looked at him pitifully, and put an extra pickle in his bowl.

"kindness."

The unfair treatment at home made him feel uncomfortable no matter what.

Although I understand that reading is very promising, after my eldest brother is selected as a scholar, the family will surely ascend to heaven and live a happy life.

But this kind of life is too tormented.

After the meal, Ergou put down the bowl and went for a walk near the grain drying field.

There are some residues of rice in the gaps here, and there are many voles and birds here. If you catch one, it's considered meat.

As a result, quite a few teenagers have gathered here, and they all like to come here to play and enjoy a moment of idleness.

"Brother, have you heard that Heshe Village is recruiting soldiers!"

"As long as you go to be a soldier for five years, you will be given ten acres of land directly, and then you can directly start a family and start a business, which is better than staying in your hometown."

"I don't know if it's true or not..."

"Even if it's fake, I don't want to stay at home anymore." Someone said irritably: "Brother studies, I work, and the food is better than mine. Parents love him, and everything clings to him."

"Baobuqi's son ran all over the place, and I couldn't even see the pot burner..."

These words immediately reached Ergou's heart.

Learning is valuable than anything else.

But his sons are all the same, they are all grown up with flesh and blood, the gap between heaven and earth.

"It's good to be a soldier. I heard that it costs half a month a month, including food and lodging—"

"I'm afraid it's not going to war!"

"I heard my husband say two days ago that Liaodong is about peace. There are no more wars in the world, and the world is peaceful."

Er Gou listened more and more vigorously, and when he came home at night, he couldn't fall asleep.

The next day, after working for a long time, he took his lunch break and came to the private school. After hesitating for a long time, he asked about the matter of the master's recruitment.

"This!" The teacher is from the same family, and he didn't bother, he said directly: "I heard that it is Heshe Village, ten miles away, there is a man who came back from the north, and wants to recruit troops to Liaodong..."

"Then is it true that ten mu of land will be rewarded as a soldier for five years?"

"It should be true." The gentleman hesitated: "The county government didn't come forward, so it seems to be the default."

Ergou was overjoyed and discussed it when he got home.

"Big brother, give all these acres of land to my elder brother. I'll serve as a soldier when I'm done looting. Then I'll spread the leaves for our family."

The usually stern-faced old man now has an anxious expression on his face: "If you serve as a soldier, you will be sent to death! If a good man does not serve as a soldier, he is so iron that he will not be nailed!"

"Father, there is a big brother in studying, can I still study?" Ergou said dissatisfied: "I will take you to enjoy the blessings when the time comes."

The eldest brother bit his lip. It was about the ownership of the five acres of paddy fields. He felt it was hard to say, but he still said, "I can't stop you, but it's not safe for you to go alone. You have to gather a few more people in the village. When the time comes Take care of each other."

"It's the same thing."

The news of who spread more and more widely, and the tenants who had more than one son and were poor and homeless also regarded it as a way out, gathering hundreds of people in a short period of time, affecting thousands of families.

In the nearby Yujialing, Yu Yinggui, who was relaxing for the elderly, was also alarmed at this time.

He was originally from Duchang County.

In the 16th year of Chongzhen, when Tongguan fell, Yu Yinggui became the right servant of the Ministry of War and served as Sun Chuanting's governor of Shaanxi military affairs.

"Father, the elders of the nearby villages all came to the door, arguing whether the recruiting is true or not?"

The eldest son hurried over and asked out of breath.

"It should be true."

Yu Yinggui tossed and swayed the cattail fan: "The bitter cold land in Liaodong has a vast land and few people, so it is reasonable to recruit soldiers to garrison land."

"However, I shouldn't come forward in this matter, let the magistrate go!"

"Forget it, tell the village that you can try it."

As soon as Yu Yinggui acted as a guarantor, he immediately made Yuan Jiang's recruitment more effective.

Yuan Jiang, who was recruiting soldiers in Heshe Village, was surrounded by a group of men, looking at him as if they wanted to eat people.

And his sister-in-law, dressed in commoner Jingchai, was pouring water from a jar, her pretty and plump figure made all the men swallow.

"Okay, I know what you mean."

Yuan Jiang stood up and stood in front of his sister-in-law, letting her in, and then said loudly: "If you want to go, register your name, grab it and leave."

Afterwards, pots of freshly steamed rice came out of the pot, and each person handed out a large bowl. Everyone's eyes were straightened, and they buried their heads in the bowl, just like that.

White flowers, fragrant rice, just eat it dry.

Everyone just tasted a bowl and almost swallowed it with their tongues.

"It's so delicious—"

Everyone licked their bowls, savoring the soft taste of white rice.

"The army eats rice every day, and meat every now and then. Isn't this better than working in the fields of my hometown?"

Now, the first shot was fired immediately, and there was an endless stream of people who came to recruit.

Parents were very distressed: "Son, what if this is cheated and eaten?"

"Everyone in the village knows the basics, and besides, it's not a big deal for relatives, friends and neighbors to give up a bowl of rice."

After the double robbing, more than 800 people joined the army in Duchang County alone.

And the hundreds of people who were thrown out did not disappoint expectations and brought back a satisfactory number.

There were dozens of people at least, 800 people at most, and some even evacuated several hills.

Basically, they are all poor people in the countryside. In other words, they are all explosives.

The governors of the provinces had to cooperate with the imperial court to give each person five silver dollars as a settling allowance, transport them by car and water, and send them to the seaside to take a boat to Liaodong.

The number of recruits exceeded [-], which made it difficult for Jilin Dusi to run out of food.

So I can only spend the winter training in Liaodong, and then go to Jilin in the spring.

The Immigration Department of the Ministry of Household Affairs, which has been established for several years, suddenly realized that recruiting soldiers is faster and more convenient than pure immigration, and is accepted by the people.