A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 39
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the lijia system was implemented, with 110 households as one li, ten Jia in one li, and ten households in each Jia.

Ten people who have more food in every li are elected as the head of the li, and each person takes turns to serve for one year, and every ten years.Each Jia is in the order of the amount of rations, and each household takes turns to be the head of Jia for one year in ten years.

The armor system here is like the township system of later generations, which played an important role in the early Ming Dynasty. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the power of local gentry rose, and the status of the chief of the village and the like was declining, especially after the implementation of the whip method. The chief Jiashou in various places are more like hard labor and humble labor, and the ruling order in the Ming Dynasty gradually collapses.

However, centipedes are dead but not stiff. In the management of the place, the village chiefs still play an important role. For example, the sale of fields in this place is supervised by the village chief of the area, and the village chief Get the deed paper from the state or county government office as a transaction voucher. After the transaction is pushed and harvested, the village head will also be responsible for any problems.

After Wang Dou found Jiang An, he heard that Wang Dou wanted to buy some wasteland and official land. The head of the village was a little strange, and he said: "Nephew, brother, I'm not a literati, you are not a juror, and you are not even a student. It stands to reason that you do not have preferential tax exemption, and the land tax is very heavy now, and after you buy the wasteland, you have to invest a lot of money and food, and the gain will outweigh the loss."

Jiang An had already made up his mind to have a deep friendship with the Wang family, so his words were quite confiding.

Wang Dou was also a little moved when he heard it, but he had made up his mind, how could he retreat because of Jiang An's few words?He said: "Uncle Shi, I have my own ideas, please help me."

As he said that a silver ingot of about one tael had been gently placed in his hand, Jiang An's eyes lit up, he sighed, and said: "Forget it, they are all neighbors, if you can help me, just help me with this." .”

At present, he went to Zhoucheng to fetch the deed paper and grid eyes. He was also accompanied by a security official named Qi Guan.

A few people walked along the Dongfang River, and finally at a place about two miles away from the river, after checking the household registration form of the Wang family, they paid a price of more than five taels per mu and in the name of their father Wang Wei. , Wang Dou bought [-] acres of wasteland, and got a "Chongzhen Eighth Year in Baoanzhou Sangganli Wang Wei Buying Land Chi Deed".

In addition, there is a tax push ticket:

Jiang An, head of Erli Yellow Book in Baoan Prefecture, sold 880 acres of official land according to the Baoan Prefecture government office. all.The above No. [-] was pushed into the original Liujia Wang Weihu to accept it and keep the photo.

On the seventh day of the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Jiang An, the head of the yellow book, was in custody.

Manager Hu Ding: Wang Dou.

Qi Guan, the scribe, is in charge.

Both the contract and the tax bill were in duplicate, and when Wang Dou signed his name on the contract and the tax bill, both Jiang An and Qi Guan looked at Wang Dou in surprise, and said in unison: "Good words! "

……

Although the land was bought, Wang Dou didn't have time to pay attention to it for the time being, he had more important things to do.

On the eighth day of the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Wang Dou returned to Jingbian Fort with Zhong Tiaoyang, Han Chao and others. There were many events in the fort, and it was impossible for him to stay at home for a long time.

Since Han and North Korea built a new team, Zhong Tiaoyang happened to lead his original team.As for his uncle Zhong Zhengxian, Wang Dou originally wanted him to go to his fortress, but Zhong Zhengxian followed him to see that this Jingbian Fort was too simple, without even a fort wall. Arranging for him to go to Dongjiazhuang, it is inevitable to prepare another generous gift.

For his own sake, Zhang Gui gave Zhong Zhengxian a job as a scribe, with a monthly salary of several dou of rice.

When he went to Dongjiazhuang, Wang Dou also asked Zhang Gui to transfer Gao Shiyin to his castle. For the sake of Wang Dou's affection and gift, Zhang Gui agreed to Wang Dou's request, and Gao Shiyin himself did not Willing to be a leader who is willing to be independent and comfortable, what else can I say?He readily agreed to Wang Dou's request, and Gao Shiyin will stay in Jingbian Castle to listen to him from now on.

However, Wang Dou doesn't have many sergeants now, and Gao Shiyin obviously doesn't have the opportunity to lead troops independently, so he will follow him first, and let's talk about the future slowly.

After Wang Dou returned to Jingbian Fort, it was obvious that the New Year's holidays stopped immediately, and the whole fort began to devote itself to intense labor again.

First of all, the most important thing is to continue to dismantle all the wood and stone in the Siqingliang bandit village. For a while, the men and women of the whole castle work together.After the hard work of the whole fortress, on the day of Jingzhe, the entire Siqianliang Bandit Village was finally demolished.

After being cleaned by the people of Jingbian Fort, the entire village was clean and clean. Not only were all the wood and stones removed, but there was not even a piece of plank left. The final result was the materials for Jingbian Fort. Finally it was all enough.

Seeing the mountains of raw materials in the castle, the whole castle was relieved, Wang Dou also ordered to buy a few more pigs and sheep, and the whole castle celebrated for two days together.

After the celebration, the vernal equinox was only ten days away, and it was necessary to start preparations for the spring plowing of the whole castle.

First of all, there is a problem. In the autumn and winter of last year, although the Jingbianbao military households dredged a section of the Baihu Canal, it is obvious that the river is low and the canal is high, and water needs to be diverted.

The local area generally uses keel waterwheels to divert water. For Wang Dou, the keel waterwheels firstly need special manpower every day, and secondly, the water drawn is too little and the power is too shallow. Wang Dou needs a high-efficiency water diversion tool.

He thought of the Lanzhou waterwheel of the later generations. This waterwheel does not need manpower and animal power, but can be driven by water flow, and the water diversion power is extremely high. It can irrigate more than [-] mu of fields every day.Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages. This kind of waterwheel is good, but the cost is too high.

But Wang Dou thought about it, and let Qi Tianliang and Yang Tong go to various places to find craftsmen.

……

"My lord, the Lanzhou waterwheel you mentioned is nothing more than a barrel cart. This thing appeared in the Tang Dynasty. It is not unusual or difficult to make. When the small one was by the Yellow River, it was built for the local people, but it cost a lot of money and food. That's all."

A few days later, a group of craftsmen stood beside Wang Dou. They were all professional carpenters and masons. They were recruited by Qi Tianliang from Dongjiazhuang, Shunxiangbao, and Baoanzhou City.After hearing Wang Dou's description, one of the old craftsmen with gray hair stood up and said proudly.

Hearing the old craftsman's words, Wang Dou was a little surprised at the level of development of Daming's folk science and technology at this time, and he asked, "How much money and food will it cost?"

The old craftsman thought about it for a while, and said, "If it's a water wheel used to fill wells, it only costs more than ten taels of silver. It's just that this kind of drum car is huge in size and uses a lot of materials. It is estimated that the cost of materials and labor is included. A round of waterwheel is afraid to cost nearly a hundred taels of silver."

Hearing that it would cost close to a hundred taels of silver, Wang Dou couldn't help hesitating for a moment, but now that he has a way to suppress bandits and accumulate wealth, Wang Dou will no longer be so stingy about spending money, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, it's up to you, Just tell me what you want to spend, but you have to talk first, if there is something wrong with the waterwheel, I won't give you money."

The old craftsman said proudly: "Your Excellency, just rest assured, if there is a problem with the water tanker, the old man and others will not take any money."

Wang Dou nodded. Although this old craftsman looks proud, most talented people are like this. As long as he is really capable, so what if he is used?

Thinking of this, Wang Douji became interested in recruiting these craftsmen.

(End of this chapter)