It should be said that the situation of the land being occupied by the military camp alone is already very troublesome, but what is even more troublesome is the privately cultivated land.
In fact, the existence of privately cultivated land is one of the main reasons why the military settlements have declined to this extent.
Part of the so-called privately cultivated land is unregistered land after the original farmland was hidden, and the other part is simply newly reclaimed wasteland.
For most side players, the former is more profitable, but the latter is safer.
Normally, reclaiming wasteland should be a good thing for the country.
As a farming nation, at least until now, we only have insufficient fields, not overabundance of fields.
It is true that the border area is vast, and it is not like Jiangnan, where almost all available fields have been cultivated.
In border areas, there are still large wilderness areas that can be reclaimed.
But the problem is that reclaiming wasteland is not just about finding a piece of land and cultivating it.
The so-called slash-and-burn cultivation means that if you want to turn a piece of wasteland into good farmland that can be cultivated, the price you have to pay is very huge.
First, the land must be leveled, and the earth from the high areas must be moved to the lower areas one by one to fill it up, and then the field ridges must be built. Large pieces of soil must be broken up, and the grass roots must be carefully removed. Only then can the first step be completed.
Then, in order to enhance fertility and grow crops, fertilizers should be carried to the fields one by one, supplemented with dried plant ash, sprinkled finely on the fields, and then plowed deeply with oxcarts.
The last and most difficult thing is to dig canals from the nearest river embankment to divert water and irrigate the fields. In this way, an acre of farmable land will be basically formed.
If these things were done by ordinary people, it would take at least several strong laborers, at least two or three years of hard work, and hard work to complete them.
However, even so, the land obtained in the end was only one acre, which could barely be used to cultivate bad land. He wanted to turn bad land into good land.
It must take several years of sowing, careful cultivation, and good care.
For ordinary people, reclaiming wasteland is a life-threatening matter. It often takes them a lifetime and is so tiring that they lose their lives before they can reclaim three to five acres of fertile land, which is truly valued as a family asset.
However, for frontier generals, it is much easier to reclaim wasteland.
There are big soldiers under his command, so if you send them out to do the work, it will be over!
Ordinary people are cultivating wasteland and have to worry about what they will eat tomorrow, but the border troops are paid by the court. When they are full and go out to work every day, it is considered as training.
The result is that this is a good army, but in the end it becomes a labor force to reclaim wasteland. Not only are the soldiers overworked, but their time is spent on reclaiming wasteland and training is wasted. When the Wala attack comes, they can only collapse at the first touch.
.
This kind of thing is also common on the border.
When Tianken came out, or the people below made too much noise, he would just issue an order and change the sergeants patrolling the camp and guarding the city. Nothing would happen.
In the end, the imperial court spent a large amount of money to support the border troops. The ordinary soldiers were exhausted every day despite their efforts, but their combat effectiveness declined instead of rising, and they often fled.
As for those fields, they were naturally collected by the generals and changed their appearance. Once some money was sent to the local government, they were transformed into officially registered private fields.
In fact, sometimes there is no need to send money. For local officials, as long as they are willing to register and pay taxes on time, it is a political achievement.
It should be noted that a very important criterion for evaluating local officials is whether the number of local acres and annual grain production have increased.
New fields are added every year, which is a coveted good thing for local officials. As for how it came about, of course they turn a blind eye.
But the more this happens, the more private land reclamation becomes more and more intense.
Moreover, what is even more confusing is that since privately cultivated land does not need to pay taxes, although it is difficult to cultivate it, once it is cultivated, border troops are often more willing to cultivate privately cultivated land.
Because in this way, they can get more food than cultivating the military settlements. After all, the taxes in the military settlements are very high, and a considerable part needs to be turned over to the court for unified arrangement.
If military settlements are to be implemented, it depends on nothing more than the land and people.
The occupation of military villages reduced the number of fields, and the proliferation of privately cultivated fields reduced the number of frontier troops cultivating the military villages. Without land and people, it was natural for the military villages to gradually collapse.
Once the military garrison exists in name only, then military expenditures on the border will depend entirely on the national finance. At that time, it will really be necessary to tear down the east wall to pay for the west wall every day.
Therefore, it is necessary to rectify the military garrison.
After reading the first half of the memorial, the elders unanimously reached a consensus.
However, how to do it is indeed difficult.
So, after closing their eyes for a moment and digesting the situation of the military camp, the elders turned over the description of the current situation of the military camp and focused on the second half, which is also the highlight of this time, that is, how to organize the military camp.
erosion.
Seeing that everyone had almost digested it, Yu Qian did not hesitate and continued following the progress of everyone.
"In view of the current situation in Yujuntun, the Ministry of War held many departmental discussions and finally roughly finalized the regulation regulations that you see now."
"In summary, this charter is divided into three major steps."
"The first and most important step is to clear the land. This time, the Ministry of War is expected to cooperate with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and send 60 imperial censors to go to various places to measure military fields, official fields, and civilian fields, and to determine the status of the fields.
, carry out unified purification."
As soon as these words were said, many of the ministers immediately raised their heads, with some surprise in their eyes. They had long known that the Ministry of War would make big moves this time, but they did not expect that it would be such a big move.
The first person to react was Wang Wen from the Ministry of Personnel. He frowned and asked.
"Sixty imperial censors? How can the Metropolitan Procuratorate get so many manpower?"
He did not question whether so many were needed, because judging from the current state of corruption in the military settlements, if he wanted to conduct a thorough investigation, he would have to plow the land one by one.
There are hundreds of large and small pass cities on the border. Even if sixty censors are spread out, the area that each person is responsible for is still very large.
But the problem is that the imperial court simply cannot deploy so many officials.
There are six subjects and thirteen channels. Among the standing staff, there are about 120 censors. After the inspection in Beijing in the first half year, a group of them were severely dismissed. Now there are only about 80 or 90 people.
But it should be noted that these censors are all on assignment. Among these eighty or ninety people, at least seventy or more have to go to various places for inspections. This is the daily management of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.
If it were to be stopped, the entire court would lose control of the place, which is absolutely unacceptable to the court.
Even the remaining small number have their own responsibilities. Most of them are responsible for the daily work of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and are then deployed to other places for temporary needs.
So, sixty censors must be recruited at once. Where will they come from?