As soon as Yang Zhen said what he said, many of the generals present widened their eyes and looked shocked. They all thought in their minds: "Is Governor Yang going to divide the fields in Jinhai Town? Is this going to Nanguan?"

Has the land of Ling been allocated to Liu Wanzhong's troops?"

For a moment, although no one among the generals spoke, their hearts felt like surges.

As Yang Zhen said, although Nanguanling is full of thorns and mountains, and is not a flat land near a river or fertile farmland that is easy to irrigate, it is at least a large piece of land that is more than ten miles long from east to west and more than ten miles wide from north to south, with a total radius of nearly a hundred miles.

The land of mountains and forests!

As for the Han people, their love and persistence for the land are innate in their bones.

Therefore, although Yang Zhen's words were plain and not surprising, when they fell on the ears of the generals present, they stirred up a thousand waves and made all of them feel excited.

Of course, the most excited person is Liu Wanzhong himself.

When he heard Yang Zhen's words, he was stunned for a moment. Then after he figured out what was going on, he suddenly became happy. He was originally kneeling on one knee on the ground instead of kneeling on both knees. He kowtowed excitedly and said:

"I would like to thank the governor for giving me the land to build my career! I, Liu Wanzhong, and the Qifeng Mountain tribe are willing to settle down in Nanguan Ridge and take root. From now on, I will be the governor's people in life, and I will be the governor's ghost in death——"

"Old Pao Tou, don't be anxious, don't be in a hurry to thank me, just listen to what I have to say. It won't be too late for you to reply to me later!"

Seeing the old cannon leader Liu Wanzhong like this, Yang Zhen interrupted him with a smile, and then, amidst everyone's surprise and confusion, he thought for a while and continued:

"Your original troops, as well as the refugees from Jibei of Qifeng Mountain who came with you across the sea, total more than 1,400 households. What I mean is that 300 households will be organized into a village and stationed in various parts of Nanguan Ridge.

"You have more than 1,400 households. You can be organized into five villages in the front, rear, left, right and center. For each household, you can recruit one man for the army. For each village, you can recruit one sentry.

"Your troops stationed in Nanguanling's No. 5 Tun Battalion will enlist the five sentry men and horses to form a battalion. The battalion will be designated as the Nanguanling No. 5 Tun Battalion and will be under the command of the General Guards General of Jinhai Middle Road!"

After hearing what Yang Zhen said, Liu Wanzhong quickly kowtowed and agreed.

Seeing him like this, Yang Zhen smiled and continued: "Since you have no objection, then, Liu Wanzhong, I have appointed you as the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Tun Camp in Nanguanling, Jinhai Middle Road.

"From now on, you can select 1,500 young and strong men from among the people of the Five Tuns under your command, and organize them into a total of five outposts in the front, rear, left, right, and center of the Five Tun camps, and then build forts and renovate fortifications in the Nanguan Ridge area."

"I obey my orders! But, Commander, Nanguanling——"

After Liu Wanzhong received Yang Zhen's appointment, he hesitated to speak for a while.

The move revealed by Yang Zhen just now clearly meant that Nanguan Ridge would be their eternal inheritance. Why did he not mention it even half way through?

Liu Wanzhong was about to speak but he didn't know how to ask. At this time, Yang Zhen spoke to him again: "Old Pao Tou, I have two options here for you to choose. One is to grant land, and the other is to

When it comes to paying, you can't have both.

"In other words, if you grant land, you cannot receive pay, and if you receive pay, you cannot grant land. This will be an iron rule for all our troops in Jinhai Town from now on. I would like to ask you, how do you choose?"

In the future, Yang Zhen will recruit a large number of people to reclaim wasteland. Among the immigrants recruited by then, there will be a large number of young and strong people who will be conscripted into the army.

If these immigrants who were conscripted into the army were to be paid like the soldiers under Yang Zhen's command now, Yang Zhen's finances would not be able to bear it.

The number of sentries currently organized by the advance army for the East Expedition and various people from Jinhai Town into regular soldiers has more than doubled from the original twenty-four sentries when it was first established, to over fifty.

For these current troops alone, if the Liao salary is 20 taels per month and the per capita salary is 24 taels of silver per year, the salary Yang Zhen needs to pay in a year is already close to 400,000 taels.

Even for Yang Zhen now, this number is still a very huge number.

If the method of recruiting soldiers and paying them is still used after the large-scale recruitment of soldiers, then the salary that needs to be paid will be the same as that of Zu Dashou's Liaodong Army, and it will be an astronomical figure.

The finances of the mighty Ming Dynasty cannot afford such consumption over the years, let alone the small Jinhai Town that Yang Zhen currently owns?

Faced with this problem, his solution was to grant land and divide the land, distribute the land that he had recovered or occupy in the future, grant land instead of paying, and divide the land and recruit troops instead of spending money to recruit troops.

This method requires a large amount of land and is difficult or impossible to implement within the customs.

Because the land relations in various parts of the pass are complicated, civilian land, military land, imperial estates, and larger-scale feudal land are almost everywhere.

The slightest thought of allocating land to local tyrants will arouse fierce opposition from the gentry, local guards, court officials, and clan kings, making it impossible to do anything about it.

Fortunately, on the Liaodong Peninsula at this time, there were many barren mountains, ridges, fields, and even desert islands on the sea, which he could distribute.

This is also the fundamental reason why Yang Zhen felt that he had no choice but to move to the Liaodong Peninsula in western Liaoning.

However, after Yang Zhen gave the two options, Liu Wanzhong thought for a while and asked: "May I ask the governor, can the governor explain the meaning of this land grant in more detail for his humble position?"

"Haha, the land grant I just mentioned to you was to assign the land of Nanguan Ridge to your five camps and distribute it among your troops. From now on, it will be the inheritance of the world forever."

Yang Zhen could understand Liu Wanzhong's caution. When faced with his inquiry, Yang Zhen naturally did not conceal his deception. He first made it clear what he meant by granting land, and then started the ugly story:

"However, each household in your five camps must send one man to serve in the army. This is the military service duty of the land-granted households. If there are strong men in the family and the conscription order is issued, but they refuse to serve in the army, they will always

The town government took back the allocated land.

"Those who are drafted into the army for military service due to land allocation will not receive military recruitment pay during the three years of military service. They can be discharged after serving for three years. Those who are willing to continue serving in the army will either be given additional land or be given military recruitment pay.

Pay!”

When Yang Zhen said this, all the generals present gasped, and then they started talking among themselves.

Regarding this issue, Yang Zhen did not think too thoroughly.

At this time, he just had a quick chat with Liu Wanzhong, and then he expressed his thoughts on the future conscription of troops and the granting of land for military merit, mixed with some practices he learned from later generations, and said it in one breath.

He couldn't care less at this time whether this could continue in the long term, or whether other drawbacks or risks might arise one day in the future.

"Three years of military service? If after three years, all the soldiers in each department choose to retire and be divided into areas, wouldn't our Jinhai Town have no soldiers to use?"

"Yes, three years is too little. Just for an archer, a cavalry, and a gunner to be trained enough to go into battle, it will take two or three years. One side has just been trained to go into battle, and the other side has to be eliminated in the blink of an eye.

Served!"

As expected, the topic raised by Yang Zhen immediately aroused admiration and discussion among the generals present.

As for what Yang Zhen said, "Land is given without receiving payment, and land is given without receiving payment", they generally understood the reason.

Most of these generals came from military families and had some understanding of the Ming Dynasty's guard system.

The method Yang Zhen mentioned of "organizing households into villages, granting land and conscripting soldiers" is quite similar to the Ming Dynasty's guard station granting land to military households, and then allowing military households to serve in the military for generations.

It's just that they all feel that it is a bit short to retire after three years of service. The Liaodong Peninsula is so big and there are only so many soldiers and horses. Once it is implemented, there will be no soldiers available after three years.

"Haha, I am not forcing everyone to do this. What I have said is just a choice. All of you soldiers can choose to be soldiers and get paid, instead of the fields and forests granted by the town government.

, I will never force you to do this."

Yang Zhen saw that everyone was whispering and discussing incessantly, so he immediately explained it to the generals. When the generals stopped talking and focused their eyes on himself, he said with a smile:

"You all know the credibility of this Governor. He must keep his words and fulfill his promises. If you feel that this Governor's career, or our career, has no future, and if you feel that the land in the Liaodong Peninsula is barren and precarious, you can also

Not for now, let’s talk about it later.”

At this point, Yang Zhen didn't want to waste any more time on this issue. He looked directly at Liu Wanzhong and said to him with a smile:

"The same applies to the people you brought with you, Old Pao Tou. If you think it's not a good deal, you can wait and see. We'll talk about it later."

"No, Governor, you don't have to wait any longer. How can I, Liu Wanzhong, not trust the Governor? I chose to grant land and share the fields for my humble position. At the same time, I also thank the Governor for his kindness in granting land and share the fields for the people of Jibei who moved across the sea!"

Old gun leader Liu Wanzhong finally made a decision, and immediately kowtowed to Yang Zhen in a grand salute.

Seeing this, Yang Zhen immediately stood up without losing the opportunity, clasped his hands and said: "Okay, in that case, all the generals present today have witnessed that the mountains, forests and fields of Nanguanling will be the property of Liu Wanzhong's five camps from now on.

Descendants and descendants will be the legacy of the world forever!"

After saying these words, he said to Xu Tingxuan and Ma Keqing who were standing behind the generals: "You two, go and get pens, ink, paper and inkstones and the governor to guard you."

Xu Tingxuan and Ma Keqing turned around and left after hearing the words. After a while, they both held things and returned to the front of the hall.

"Haha, I'll ask Fang to consult and work hard as a ghostwriter to write down everything the governor just said and present it to Liu Wanzhong on the spot as the documentary proof of the land grant in Jinhai Town!"

Yang Zhen's approach made the generals on the scene even more amazed. While Fang Guangchen was writing the voucher, they were once again whispering to each other.

However, this time it was different from the previous exclamations and discussions. The generals looked at Liu Wanzhong with envy in their eyes, and each of them was thinking about how they should ask Yang Zhen for land.

As for Liu Wanzhong, the old cannon who was kneeling on the ground but did not get up, he was very excited when he saw that Yang Zhenli had promised to do it and signed a document for him on the spot.

In his heart, the land in the Liaodong Peninsula is naturally not as good as his hometown in Jizhou, Guanli. But now that Jizhou's hometown has long been unable to return, he can earn a share for the refugees who defected to him in Jinhai Town under Yang Zhen's rule.

You should be content with the land that will last forever.

As for whether he was paid or not, he didn't dare to think too much about it.
Chapter completed!