Du Hongjian led Shuofang's army to rest in the camp for a night, and came to the ferry the next day, preparing to cross the river and enter Hexi.
At this time, outside Wuwei City across the river, Du Fu, the captain of Wuwei Zhechong, was inspecting the barracks of the new recruits.
He wrote a letter asking the emperor to stop conscription and restore the imperial military system from the early days of the Republic of China. Du Fu was expelled from the court.
The position that Du Fu was demoted to was Captain Zhechong of Wuwei County, which was actually a position that was almost disappearing.
In the early Tang Dynasty, Zhechong Mansion was set up in various places, and Captain Zhechong was the person in charge of the Zhechong Mansion. This was a low-level but very important position. It was also one of the foundations for the Tang army to be invincible at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty.
The Zhechong Mansion is responsible for managing the local soldiers, and is responsible for training the soldiers on weekdays. However, during the garrison, they have to personally send the soldiers to the designated gathering place.
There were a large number of Zhechong Mansion throughout the Tang Dynasty, which was the most basic military unit of the Tang Dynasty. These soldiers were awarded fields by virtue of their military merits, and they also shouldered the combat tasks of the imperial court. They fought very bravely.
As the number of acres in the local area became less and less, soldiers who had achieved military exploits could not obtain enough land grants.
Over time, even in densely populated areas like Guanzhong, the basic land grant to the soldiers could not be guaranteed.
If they were unable to fulfill the land granted after their achievements, and were captured as soldiers, a family would lose an adult labor force, and those soldiers who had no land fled.
The Fubing system has been corrupted, and the Zhechong Mansion also quickly declined.
Nowadays, in Guanzhong and Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, there is no longer a separate Zhechong Prefecture. Zhechong Captain has also become a local honorary position, or is directly held concurrently by the county magistrate.
Du Fu was appointed as the Captain of Wuwei Zhechong. The emperor wanted him to experience what the "Mansion Army System" was.
Du Fu took office with great enthusiasm. On his journey to Wuwei, Du Fu also passed through many areas and saw the people who were destroyed and dispersed by the war. Du Fu wrote several poems on the way.
It's just that these poems are too miserable, and the officials in Chang'an didn't like Du Fu's bitter chants.
The literati of this era still prefer Li Bai's beautiful and magnificent fantasies, and the gorgeous and passionate poems of the Tang Dynasty School of Poetry are the most popular.
Du Fu didn't care about other people's opinions, but he was demoted after admonishing the emperor. This also made Du Fu, who was full of thoughts of loyalty to the emperor and serving the country, extremely painful.
What made Du Fu even more painful was that along the way, Du Fu found that no one, whether officials or common people, wanted to restore the government army system.
The officials were unwilling to do so, and the government soldiers wanted to divide the land after returning from the war. However, all the land available in the county was owned, and being an official could not change the land.
And these are soldiers who will kill people if they cause trouble, so the officials can only try their best to delay them, and even have to pay to support them.
Naturally, the people were even less willing to do so. If they went out to fight for a few years, they might not be able to farm the land when they came back.
At the beginning, the soldiers only had to serve in their own state. They could go out for half a year and come back for half a year, and they could also be allocated land. Everyone was enthusiastic about joining the army.
Later, the government soldiers had to go out of state to serve, and the round trip took half a year. Apart from serving, they were on the road the rest of the time, and there was no way to take care of their families.
As the border wars in the Tang Dynasty intensified, soldiers had to go to the northwest, northeast, and southern Xinjiang to serve. It took three years to go back and forth. After returning, their wives became pregnant.
Even officers don't like the military system. Well-trained soldiers must return home when their service period is up. The court has given you a bunch of new recruits in exchange for you to continue training. Who is willing to be an officer?
Only then did Du Fu realize that the imperial army system he dreamed of was not so perfect. Even compared to the recruitment system currently being implemented in the Tang Dynasty, the imperial army system was actually a hooliganism.
After all, the recruitment system is clearly marked with a price, soldiers will eat food and get money to serve as soldiers.
The Fubing system uses the country's regulations to force people to serve as soldiers.
These insights made Du Fu very painful. He really couldn't understand that the Tang Dynasty had such a large territory and such a large population, but it didn't even have a suitable military system?
In this way, Du Fu came to Hexi in confusion. When he arrived at the governor's office in Wuwei City, the prefect Xue Hu received him with a smile.
Du Fu had a good impression of Xue Zhizhou, who was determined to "protect all the poor men in the world and make them happy", and he didn't know why he felt a sympathy for him.
Xue Hu arranged for Du Fu to be appointed as Captain Zhe Chong, and personally sent Du Fu to Zhe Chong Mansion outside Wuwei City to take up the post.
Du Fu originally thought that Zhechong Mansion in Wuwei had been abandoned, and he was planning to work hard to repair Zhechong Mansion. However, he did not expect that when he arrived at Zhechong Mansion, it turned out to be a large military camp.
This large military camp is still under continuous construction, but the main building has been completed.
A square building, a row of brick dormitories, a pasture for exercises, an armory for storing weapons, and a granary for storing grain and grass.
The entire military camp is surrounded by barbed wire fences and wooden fences, and there are large areas of fertile farmland next to the military camp.
Du Fu looked at this newly built large-scale building complex and asked Xue Hu: "Xue Zhizhou, is this the Zhechong Duwei Mansion?"
Along the way, Du Fu often saw abandoned Zhechong Mansion. Even the Zhechong Mansion in the early days of the Kingdom was nothing more than a small government office and a military barracks.
The Zhe Chong Mansion in Wuwei is too exaggerated.
Xue Hu said with a smile: "I am planning to rebuild the Zhechong Prefecture system in Wuwei. The imperial court just sent Du Duwei here, which is a great help to me. Come on, let's go in and take a look."
After saying that, Xue Hu pulled Du Fu into this huge Zhe Chong Mansion.
As he walked, Xue Hu introduced: "This Zhechong Mansion can accommodate a thousand recruits in total. These are recruit dormitories. Ordinary soldiers have bunk beds for eight people to a room, and officers have two people to a room."
Xue Hu took Du Fu, who was still confused, to visit the barracks and then came to a large covered courtyard.
"This is the canteen. In winter, the walls on both sides can be built to block the wind. This can accommodate soldiers to eat."
Then Xue Hu took Du Fu to visit the armory and granary, and finally came to the largest building in the entire Zhechong Mansion.
"This is the teaching building and office building. It has three floors in total. It is also the management agency of Zhechong Mansion."
Du Fu asked doubtfully: "Teaching?"
Xue Hu nodded and said: "It's a place where soldiers are taught classes. Captain Du doesn't need to worry about this. The staff will arrange for people to come and teach. You only need to be responsible for the operation of Zhechong Mansion."
Du Fu said in surprise: "Are you still going to teach soldiers?"
Xue Hu nodded and said: "Of course, soldiers who can read and write can better implement the tactics of their superiors. And learning can also tame the murderous spirit in soldiers."
At this time, decoration workers happened to pass by. They held a huge portrait of Li Tan and moved the portrait into the auditorium.
Du Fu had never seen such a realistic painting technique, and this portrait was lifelike. Although he had never met King Jianning (who had not yet been crowned King of Yue at that time), looking at this portrait was like seeing it with his own eyes.
Xue Hu took Du Fu to the third floor and led him into Captain Zhechong's office.
The office is neither big nor small, with a wooden table, a chair, and a row of long bookshelves.
Xue Hu smiled and said: "This will be Du Duwei's office from now on."
Du Fu was a little frightened because he had always held insignificant positions.
For example, Hanlin drafted edicts with the emperor, and Zuo Shiyi advised the emperor.
This was his first time doing specific work, and Xue Hu handed over such a large military camp to him as soon as he came up.
Xue Hu pulled out the chair, sat down with Du Fu and said: "We don't need Captain Du to worry about military training. There will naturally be people from the staff department. The management of the military camp does not need to be handled by Captain Du personally. He only needs to coordinate the overall situation."
alright."
"Coordinate the overall situation, what do you do?"
Xue Hu smiled and said: "Coordinating the overall situation is too much work. This Zhechong Mansion not only has a thousand recruits, but also 5,000 acres of land and a farm, all of which need to be taken care of by Zhechong Mansion."
Du Fu was startled and said, "Is this a military camp?"
Xue Hu thought for a while and said: "Actually, it is not a military camp. This is an attempt by Wuwei to reform the military system."
"In the military camp, soldiers farmed and only left over the remaining rations to hand over. However, the food and harvest in this Zhechong Prefecture belong to the entire Zhechong Prefecture and belong to all the soldiers. Zhechong Prefecture only needs to turn over one-tenth to the state capital.
Just pay the land tax."
Du Fu was shocked, all the products were produced by Zhechong Mansion? Is there such a good thing in the world?
Five thousand acres of land sounds like a lot, but the average soldier only has five acres of land.
Some large landowners in Guanzhong have fields exceeding this number.
However, if five acres of land are taken care of carefully, it can support a family of three.
Xue Hu said: "How we want to develop depends on Captain Du's approach. The harvest from these lands and farms is equally divided among the soldiers. They can use it themselves or send it home."
"In our government soldiers in Hexi, ordinary soldiers serve for five years, which can be extended to a maximum of ten years. There is no limit on the number of years of retirement after being promoted to officers."
"The soldiers in this period are all newly recruited soldiers. From now on, the daily management of these soldiers and the management of Zhechongfu Farm will be handed over to Captain Du."
After handing everything over to Du Fu, Xue Hu quickly returned to Wuwei City.
From the time he entered Wuwei in late autumn to the beginning of spring, Du Fu spent the past three months sleeping and forgetting to eat every day, finally getting this Zhechong Mansion up and running.
This morning he had just inspected the sowing of new crops with a "farmer" disciple, and rushed back to Zhechong Mansion at noon to handle chores in the military camp. Soon another assistant came in and reported: "Captain Du, Shuofang's army has crossed the river.