[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-321":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205610,1561,"Chapter 321: Hidden Perils","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-321",321,"\u003Cp>Although Baoanzhou grew ever more prosperous, its streets were remarkably clean — swept spotless everywhere — a stark contrast to the filth and squalor of other towns and cities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Numerous public bathhouses had been built within the city, their fees so low that anyone could afford them; this was a major reason why Baoanzhou had remained free of epidemics over the past few years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nor were the refugees and beggars seen everywhere else to be found anywhere in the department. It was said that Baoanzhou had established dedicated shelters. As soon as refugees entered any road leading into the department, they would encounter soldiers rigorously checking travel permits and household registrations; those without such identification were forcibly taken into custody and only assigned arrangements after a thorough investigation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What surprised Ye Xizhi and Qin Yi even more was the strictness of the local organization. Unlike the paralyzed and defunct lijia system in the rest of the Great Ming, Baoanzhou's baojia system formed an exceptionally tight-knit web of grassroots control.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether an outsider rented a house, conducted business, or sought work, they were required to have a local military household serve as their guarantor. If a spy was discovered and the household head failed to report it, all ten households within the jia unit would share collective punishment. Under such a rigorous control network, it was exceedingly difficult for any outside spy to find a foothold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Ye Xizhi and his companion checked into an inn, the proprietor very nearly interrogated them about their ancestors going back three generations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their first impression was that the local populace of Baoanzhou was extremely vigilant toward outsiders, intensely clannish, and even somewhat xenophobic. They were also deeply proud, boasting of themselves as residents of a paradise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, they had reason to be proud. They were the first department or county in the Great Ming's Xuanfu Garrison — and indeed the entire northern region of the Great Ming — to be free of banditry, the first where ordinary commoners could eat their fill, the first place without outbound refugees or deaths by starvation. In the current state of the Great Ming, that was an achievement well worth recording.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ye Xizhi and his companion had traveled through many places. Compared to elsewhere, they sensed that the people here seemed to possess something extra. The two discussed it at length and finally summed it up in four words: self-assurance and high-spiritedness. The people here were full of hope for life, utterly unlike the numb and fearful inhabitants of other regions — a distinctive quality that left a deep impression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, the residents of Baoanzhou had only just achieved basic subsistence; many places were far wealthier. But life here was stable and unhurried, free from the constant insecurity found elsewhere. Over the years, many wealthy households had migrated to Baoanzhou precisely because they valued its stability and safety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond these people, commoners from nearby areas were desperately scrambling to get in. They worked as day laborers for the locals, sold their crafts, or joined government-organized farming teams, various mines, or livestock operations — doing everything they could to obtain local household registration, especially military household registration, so they could eventually move their families over and live stable lives. Hard as life was, at least there was something to look forward to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The General Who Stabilizes the Realm is a heaven-sent genius. I never imagined that besides forging a world-renowned crack army, his governance of civil affairs would be so outstanding. Brother Gongfu, if we wish to catch the General's eye and be taken into his service, it will be no easy matter.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ye Xizhi gazed out the window for a long while, then spoke with emotion to Qin Yi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qin Yi, however, was carefully scrutinizing a patrol unit marching down the street. Every man wore a brand-new mandarin-duck battle jacket and a red-brimmed military cap, hand resting on a waist saber, moving with a vigorous, imposing air. Their confident, heroic bearing formed a sharp contrast to the listless demoralization of Ming troops elsewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were merely the city's patrol soldiers, most of whom, they had heard, were newly trained recruits. Qin Yi and his companion had been fortunate enough to see Baoanzhou's field troops — the tiger-and-wolf ferocity of men who had survived a hundred battles made one's heart tremble. No wonder they could face the eastern slaves in battle and never fail to win.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Baoanzhou was also a model of military-civilian harmony; reports of soldiers harassing the people were rarely heard. When those soldiers passed by on patrol, they instead put the commoners at ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching the bustling street, the endless stream of carriages and horses, the jostling crowds, and people of every accent passing through, Qin Yi gave a rueful laugh and said with deep meaning, \"A golden-scaled carp is no creature for a pond; once it meets the wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon. With the General Who Stabilizes the Realm's talents, I fear that not just a mere Baoanzhou, but even the entire Eastern Circuit may not be able to contain this hidden dragon.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Brother Shaobai, we are men of useful ability; there is no need to slander ourselves needlessly. We will surely be able to put our learning to full use.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Qin Yi's perspective, Baoanzhou's governance was not without shortcomings — there were many areas that could be further developed. After checking into the inn the day before, Ye Xizhi had sighed, \"Living in Baoan is no easy matter.\" Compared to other departments and counties, prices here were noticeably higher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After making a few inquiries and combining them with their own analysis, the two already understood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beginning in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the General Who Stabilizes the Realm had launched a comprehensive land reclamation program in Baoanzhou, distributing fields and land to all military households along with draft oxen and seeds. Taxes were waived for the first year and levied from the second year onward, with rates of one to two dou of grain per mu depending on whether the land was classified as low, medium, or high grade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, this tax rate was quite high. However, because it was collected in kind and free of layer upon layer of extortion, a military household with fifty mu of land harvesting one dan of grain per mu would still have a considerable surplus after paying their grain tax. Most of this grain they stored for themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past, besides eating their grain, commoners had to sell and trade it to cover daily necessities like oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. But Baoanzhou was different — virtually every family had sons serving in the army. After battles, there was plunder to be distributed as rewards. In the campaign of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, it was said that the General Who Stabilizes the Realm had taken the field and recovered two hundred thousand people, along with countless silver, grain, cattle, and horses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once these rewards were distributed, nearly every soldier received several taels or even dozens of taels of silver, and officers received even more. With this silver in hand, they no longer needed to sell their grain. Moreover, scarred by the hunger and cold of earlier years, the local populace seemed terrified of starvation. The silver in their hands, aside from buying daily necessities and improving their standard of living, was vigorously used to purchase grain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Local rice shops were quickly emptied, and even cloth, salt, and tea were in short supply, with prices rising steadily. Seeing profit to be made, merchants from other regions flocked to Baoanzhou to set up shops and trade. Of course, at this time the north was stricken by severe drought, military disasters were incessant, and refugees roamed in bands. The neighboring departments and counties could transport only scant supplies of grain and goods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If grain and goods had to be shipped from as far as Taiyuan or even regions further south, that further drove up prices. Moreover, the common people's instincts were sharp; sensing that chaotic times were approaching, even those commoners and gentry who had grain preferred to hoard it rather than sell, lest they exchange it for useless silver that could neither be eaten nor drunk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unknowingly, Baoanzhou had already begun to exhibit some of the chaotic symptoms of the late Ming Jiangnan —\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the late Ming, Jiangnan's commerce was excessively developed, causing farmers to vigorously plant cash crops while refusing to grow grain. In the end, Jiangnan, once known as the granary, could not even achieve self-sufficiency in grain, let alone supply the Great Ming's northern regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silver flooding in from overseas reached as high as several hundred million taels. With few real goods and abundant silver, prices across Jiangnan soared rapidly, and the common people suffered unbearably, going bankrupt one after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The local residents of Baoanzhou all had full rice jars, so these rising prices had little impact on them. But the outside merchants and commoners who came to Baoanzhou to make a living groaned bitterly. Though full of hope, they too lamented the difficulty of earning a livelihood in Baoanzhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Inflation\" — Qin Yi and his companion did not understand this later-era term, but they could sense the undercurrents surging beneath. How to handle this problem would be a severe test of the vision and ability of Baoanzhou's authorities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, these problems were also one of the opportunities for Qin Yi and his companion to advance their careers.\u003C\u002Fp>",1587,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","71c143578dc4185765c04499d380316f0012f1ac263b9e37c642b2a24845386d","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-322","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-320",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]