Chapter 276: Defeating the Yuan Dynasty (Nineteen) The road is long and difficult
Liu Wei mainly expressed two concerns. The first point was the reserve and transportation of military rations, and the second point was the problem of military morale in other ministries.
According to Liu Wei, Song Fujun had previously raised the issue of grain storage in Sichuan with him, and mentioned one thing. The grain storage in various local government treasury in Sichuan was nominally as high as 1.7 million shi, but there may be a relatively large amount of it.
A large virtual amount, and a larger proportion of moldy food and bad food.
Because the financial system established by Zhu Yuanzhang is quite strange, the central government and local governments actually do their own things, so that even Gao Pangshi, the Minister of Household Affairs, does not know exactly how much grain is stored in the local government treasury in Sichuan.
The Ministry of Household Affairs only has a rough data, which is derived from some data in the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Atlas. How much it can be taken seriously is something that even the gods dare not vouch for.
As for why the yellow book can be used to store grain backwards, this is very complicated. We must first explain what the yellow book and the fish scale album record.
At the turn of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, various Yuan Dynasty household registrations, cadastres and other information were either lost, or had long been out of date due to war losses and other reasons. In order to effectively manage household registrations, control the labor force, and ensure the collection of taxes and levies by the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang carried out nationwide
A census of the population was conducted, and based on the census, a general inventory of household registrations across the country - the Yellow Register - was compiled.
In the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all prefectures and counties across the country to compile a yellow list. The method was to use 110 households as districts. In each district, ten landowners with more grains were selected as district leaders, and the remaining 100 households were divided into Shijia and Shijia.
Establish an order and take turns to serve.
Men in Jia are considered adults when they reach the age of 16. Adults must serve in the military and can be exempted from military service until they are 60 years old. Each year, there is a duty of Nianli Chang and a duty of Nianjia, led by the leaders of Nianli Chang and Nianjia.
Adult men from each Jia come to serve the government's errands. Within ten years, each Jia takes one turn, which is a cycle.
In this way, each person only has to serve for one year within ten years, and rest for the remaining nine years. The year of service is called "this year", and the year of non-service is called "pai year". Here is the establishment in rural areas, and in cities and towns
Those near the city are classified as Xiang.
The 110 households in a li are compiled into a book in order of the amount of grain. The name, place of birth, population, age, land and property of each household are recorded in the book. Among them, there are widows and orphans in the li who cannot serve.
, attached to the 110th household, is called Jiling.
The yellow book is made in two copies, one is kept in the book, and the other is turned over to the prefecture and county. The prefecture and county collect the rolls from each place to make the general book of the prefecture and county, which is also made in two copies, one is kept in the prefecture and the county, and the other is turned over.
Arrive at home.
In this way, governments at all levels prepared it in accordance with the law, and handed it over to the Chief Secretary, who finally remitted it to the Ministry of Household Affairs in the imperial court. Because the book submitted by the Chief Secretary to the Ministry of Household Affairs must be covered with yellow paper, it was called the "yellow book."
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After the yellow records recording the total population of the country were collected in the capital, they were stored in the Yellow Records Library in Houhu (i.e. Xuanwu Lake, Nanjing). Zhu Yuanzhang built several special archives on several small islands in the center of the lake for storage
Yellow albums and other important archival documents. This Taizu probably thought that being surrounded by water would prevent fires, and these small islands in the middle of the lake had little contact with the outside world, so the preservation of archives would not be susceptible to outside interference. It was a collection of archival documents.
Good place.
Even after Chengzu moved the capital to Beijing, the Yellow Register Library was still kept in Houhu, and all the Yellow Registers registered during the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years were sent here for safekeeping.
The Yellow Book was an important basis for the Ming Dynasty to collect taxes and servitude. With it, the Ming Dynasty knew the total population of the country and the land occupation situation. With the help of the Yellow Book, it could forcefully collect labor from the people listed in the Yellow Book.
, apportioning taxes. In order to prevent changes in tax burdens caused by changes in population and land rights, Zhu Yuanzhang also stipulated that the household registration should be investigated every ten years and the yellow register should be updated again, which was called "Dazao".
As for the fish scale atlas, it is a book directly related to the yellow book system.
In order to accurately grasp the land ownership situation, in the 20th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang sent students from the Imperial College to measure the land across the country. The area where 10,000 shi of grain was paid was regarded as an area, and all the cultivated land in this area was compiled into a book. In the book
Draw the square and circular shape of each field in the middle, number it, write the four directions, the area and the name of the land owner, and indicate the nature and grade of the land.
So, when we opened these books, we saw that the land graphics overlapped like fish scales, so it was called the fish scale atlas. The fish scale atlas was the general inventory of the country's land.
The Yellow Book is mainly based on the household registration of the Ming Dynasty, and the Fish Scale Book is based on the land. The two volumes confirm and complement each other. The two volumes play the role of one warp and one weft, like a big net woven by the warp and weft.
All the people's population and land are included in it.
So to put it simply, the Yellow Book is based on household registration, and the Fish Scale Book is based on land. The two volumes corroborate and complement each other. The two volumes play the role of one warp and one weft, just like a big sheet woven with warp and weft.
The net encompassed all the population and land of the Ming Dynasty.
It stands to reason that since this is the case, Gao Pragmatic or the Ministry of Household Affairs can obtain relatively accurate grain reserves of each province according to the yellow book and the fish scale atlas. After all, in an era when there is no obvious leap in agricultural science and technology, excluding the year of major disasters
, grain output is basically relatively stable.
At the same time, the amount of grain tax collected by the court is relatively stable, so the part that can be retained by the local government can of course be calculated. In addition, grain is not gold and silver, it has a storage period, which can also be calculated, so in general
In other words, the Ministry of Household Affairs should at least have broad but generally certain data on local grain stocks.
However, this is not the case. In the early Ming Dynasty, the two-registration system was formulated based on Zhu Yuanzhang's strict investigation, and it indeed played a positive role. However, as time went by, officials in charge of registration affairs in some places began to engage in corruption and fraud.
, powerful landowners also conceal their household registration and land.
For example, in the 24th year of Hongwu, the total land area registered in the Yellow Register was 8,804,623 hectares. However, in the 15th year of Hongzhi during the Xiaozong period, the total land area in the Yellow Register was only 4,292,310 hectares. The national land (cultivated land)
), its area has shrunk by more than half in just a hundred years. Isn’t it ridiculous? Is this because it suffered a large-scale nuclear attack?
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! And the degree of population leakage is as serious as the land. In the 26th year of Hongwu, the number of Dingkou (adult males) in the country had reached 60.54 million, and the Ming Dynasty enjoyed peace.
A hundred years later, in the fourth year of Hongzhi, the number of Dingkou registered in the Yellow Register dropped to 53.28 million. What, could it be that the Ming Dynasty in the feudal era had developed to the point where it could create a population trap?
Obviously it is impossible. After a hundred years of peace, and the addition of yellow rolls in some remote areas, the total population has decreased instead of increasing. It is conceivable that there are so many omissions in the yellow rolls.
Therefore, in the original history, by the late Ming Dynasty, the yellow book had completely lost its function and was almost useless paper. In order to save trouble, local officials often copied the population names and real estate in the old book, decade after year, The yellow books compiled in some places are exactly the same as those compiled decades ago.
As a result, a large number of centenarians appeared in the Yellow Register. Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, some people ridiculed the absurdity of the Yellow Register by saying that "there are many people who are hundreds of years old, and their wealth lasts for a long time."
What's more, some officials even pre-made yellow records in advance, and when they turned them in during the "Great Construction" year, the task would be completed. As a result, in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, it was discovered that some places had already pre-made yellow records for the 24th year of Chongzhen. Book - the Ming Dynasty died in the 17th year of Chongzhen!
However, in the original history, Zhang Juzheng's clearing of land was mainly for utilitarian purposes. Some land that was originally omitted was added to the fish scale album, and it was not linked to the yellow book. However, in this generation, the real school's clearing of land was, in the end, He worked a little deeper than Zhang Juzheng. In addition to finding some hidden fields, he also sorted out some exaggerated pornography.
However, as mentioned before, the two provinces with the biggest problems in the real school’s land clearing are Huguang and Shandong, so the correction of the Yellow Book is also based on these two provinces. [Note: There are major reasons for the concealment of Huguang and Shandong It was the military camp that concealed the report. Among them, Huguang was still the most important commercial grain-producing area in the Ming Dynasty, and the Dongting Lake plain belt replaced the Yangtze River Delta plain belt that had been transformed into economic crops.]
As a result, Gao Pragmatic's local grain storage that he could more accurately grasp did not include Sichuan. In addition, his previous inventory inventory was only inventory of household warehouses, and had not been deeply involved in the local area, so he still paid a little attention to Sichuan's grain storage. A smear of darkness. Now that I saw what Liu Wei said in the letter, my heart suddenly skipped a beat, secretly thinking that something was seriously wrong.
This is an unshakable basic principle of ancient warfare. In order to defeat the Yuan Dynasty, Gao Pragmatic actively stocked up on grains in the capital two or three years in advance, but he forgot that to quell the Bozhou Rebellion, he had to stock up on grains in advance. He focused on strengthening military equipment for Liu Wei, but forgot to store food and grass in advance for the counter-rebellion army. At this moment, he couldn't help but regret it.
However, it was not entirely without reason that he made such a low-level mistake. The main reason was that Huguang, as the main grain-producing area of the Ming Dynasty, was "next door" to Bozhou.
Sichuan itself is actually a major grain-producing province. There are two reasons why it has not become a major grain-tax and commodity-grain province. First, the Shu family has too much land, which cannot be taxed and cannot enter the market; second, the Three Gorges is too difficult to navigate. , it is impossible to sail easily, so transportation is too difficult, and even if there is food, it is difficult to leave the province.
[Note: The difficulty of evacuating the Three Gorges at this time has been mentioned in the previous article. It was probably mentioned by Gao pragmatically on his way to Guangxi. It may have been mentioned in passing when he and Liu Xin were parting. I am too lazy to go back and check the specific chapters.]
Looking at it now, Sichuan's grain stock may have a big problem. The 1.7 million dan may have to be reduced in half. Although 850,000 dan is not a lot, it depends on how the food is used. If the army piles up In Chengdu, that would definitely be enough to eat, but this is not reality.
Transportation in Banshu is obviously inconvenient. This inconvenience means that more than half of the food will actually be consumed in transportation, and only 30% of the food that falls into the hands of the front line may be left, which may not be enough to eat.
Of course, not all of the more than 200,000 troops dispatched this time will eat Sichuan's military food. Guizhou will also get a part, about one-third or one-quarter in terms of military strength. However, Guizhou's grain output is far lower than
Sichuan's usual grain reserves can only be tighter than Sichuan's, and most of the troops dispatched from Guizhou will need grain supplies from Sichuan.
Now things are getting serious. According to Liu Wei's estimation, judging from the current grain reserves in Sichuan, if there is no foreign aid for the army's encirclement and suppression of Bozhou, the total duration of the military operation cannot exceed three months. These three months are still
Including the three stages of marching, quelling, and withdrawing, that is to say, after three months, several armies will not only have to put down the Boshu Rebellion, but also have to completely return to the starting point.
Even with Liu Wei's pride, he could only say that this was an impossible task. Gao Pragmatic fully agreed with his point of view, unless this was not a war at all, but just a lightly armed march.
No wonder the Bozhou Rebellion in history lasted for four years. Gao pragmatically thought that it was mainly because the Ming Dynasty was mainly fighting the Korean War with Japan at the time and could not care about Bozhou. Now it seems that there are other reasons, such as
Logistics can't keep up, so we can't fight faster.
With such a big trouble in front of him, Gao Pragmatic's face suddenly turned ugly. He glanced at Liu Wei's second worry and felt that the military morale was not worth mentioning compared to the hidden dangers of military rations.
Liu Wei mainly believed that only about one-third of the troops sent this time were officers and soldiers, and the rest were chieftains. It is really difficult to say what the mentality of many chieftains towards the conquest of Yang Yinglong was.
Yang Yinglong's rebellion has a lot to do with the imperial court's intention to convert his native land back to his hometown. Moreover, judging from the attitude of the imperial court, he will definitely convert his native land back to his hometown after pacifying Bozhou. No matter what happened to these chieftains who sent troops with the imperial court
Zhongzhi, they are also chieftains, what will they think of this?
In this desperate situation, will they not be able to work hard, or even some individuals will hook up with Yang Yinglong in private? These are all huge hidden dangers.
The reason why Gao Jingshi thinks this matter is not a big problem is mainly based on the development process in the original history. After all, at that time, the chieftains did not have any scandals. For example, the Ma family of Shili Xuanwei Division even worked hard in front and behind the horse to fight.
He is more active than many officers and soldiers.
Gao Pragmatic estimates that in addition to the hard-to-explain reason of "loyalty", the chieftains may still have some "survivor bias" and feel that rebellion will definitely lead to a dead end anyway, so it would be safer to not give the court an excuse to target them.
This kind of thinking may be a bit ostrich, but it is also very realistic. After all, judging from the performance of the imperial court in recent years, even the Mongols have been beaten. How can they withstand it? They can only muddle along, and it can be delayed for one day.
In fact, Gao Jingshi didn't know that these chieftains were now more honest than he thought, and they even included Gao Jingshi's "contribution" in southern Xinjiang. Although the two chieftains of Cen and Huang in Guangxi left their homeland in Guangxi, they still lived a good life in southern Xinjiang.
It was quite nourishing. The number of "local people" under his command expanded two or three times, and the size of the wolf soldiers directly under his command expanded a lot.
In the view of the Sichuan and Guizhou chieftains, with the marriage of Gao Jingshi and Huang Zhiting, if the court is willing, the soldiers and horses of the Cen and Huang chieftains can be transferred back to the north to suppress them. These two chieftains are also "specialized in mountain warfare"
"Once the northward transfer is carried out to cooperate with the imperial army's campaign, no matter which chieftain it is, or even if the chieftains unite, there will only be a dead end.
It is better to pretend to be dead than to commit suicide. There is no way around it.
Therefore, Gao pragmatically turned his attention back to the problem of grain and grass, looked at the map carefully and thought about a solution.
He found that around Bozhou, while Sichuan and Guizhou were likely to be short of military rations, the only province that could support them was Huguang. Although Huguang's grain supply was certainly sufficient, transportation was blocked by the Three Gorges.
The famous Three Gorges is the general name for the three canyons of Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge. The administrative division in later generations is from Baidi City in Fengjie County, Chongqing in the west to Nanjinguan in Yichang City, Hubei Province in the east, spanning Fengjie County in Chongqing and Wushan in Chongqing.
County, Hubei Badong County, Hubei Zigui County, Hubei Yichang City, 193 kilometers long.
However, according to the current division, it has nothing to do with Chongqing. Instead, the entire territory is in Huguang, starting from Kuizhou Prefecture in the west and Yiling Prefecture in the east. The distance is naturally the same, nearly four hundred miles.
There is actually a post road along this road, and it is a water post. If you look from east to west in reverse, it starts from Fenglou Shui Post in Yilingzhou, and passes through Huangniu Shui Post, Jianping Shui Post, and Bashan Shui Post.
Arrive at Yongning Water Station in Kuizhou Prefecture.
However, the water post is just a water post. This road is mainly used for communication, especially the communication down the river. It can indeed be said that "the white emperor's speech is among the colorful clouds, and the thousands of miles of rivers and mountains are returned in one day." But if you want to transport food upstream,
...The Three Gorges, with rapids and shoals now and then, is a natural chasm. We can't rely on sails. Have you ever asked the trackers how they feel?
Even though Beijing has a strong inland river shipping system, the eastern half of its Yangtze River waterway has always stopped at the Three Gorges, while the western half is only responsible for Chongqing, starting from Jiading (later Leshan) in the west and ending in Kuizhou in the east. Therefore, even if
Gao Pragmatic asked Jinghua to help, but he could only transport the grain to Yiling, and Yiling was still quite far away from Chongqing, more than a thousand miles away.
This was really worrying Gao Situ. He felt that he had traveled through time for twenty years, so he couldn't keep fighting for four years like in history, right? Where would the time traveler's face be?
But a time traveler can't transform into a steamship, and it's even more impossible for a time traveler to not regard the trackers as human beings and to force one hundred thousand trackers to do it by exhausting themselves to death.
The waterway is impassable, and the land route is all covered with mountains. No wonder the western part of Huguang has been covered with a bunch of toasts. This is not really because the imperial court did not want to change the land and return to the local people as soon as possible. It is really because of the geographical factors that dominate the situation. Even if the imperial court is powerful, it cannot exert its influence.
Come out... not to mention that it was not very powerful before.
Seeing that the Three Gorges waterway is really unimaginable under the current level of science and technology, Gao Pragmatic can only change his habitual thinking of relying on waterways and turn his attention back to land routes.
The problem now is that the passage from Huguang to Sichuan is blocked by the Daba Mountains and the Wuling Mountains. The waterway between the two mountain ranges is the Three Gorges. If you don't go through the Three Gorges, you have to pick a mountain to climb over.
If you have to go over mountains and ridges, then taking the Daba Mountain in the north will obviously take a long way around. This is obviously not something you need to consider. You can only go over the Wuling Mountains in the south.
This side of the Wuling Mountains... Hey, are they all under the jurisdiction of chieftains? Gao Pragmatic was startled when he saw it, and an idea suddenly came to his mind.
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