Chapter 36: Corruption in the Garrison System

“Uncle, rest assured—the military land in the garrison system cannot possibly be audited.”

The Emperor may wish to audit it out of public duty, but the Grand Secretaries supporting him do so only because civil and military officials are fundamentally at odds.”

On the issue of suppressing military officers, they will never miss an opportunity.”

If you can’t stop them, then don’t bother trying.”

Let them go ahead and investigate—if they dare to lift this lid, that’s their problem.”

I don’t know the situation elsewhere, but I understand the condition of Hanzhong Garrison well.”

The garrison officers have turned military land into private estates, forcing military households to work as hired laborers—these are all facts.”

But these are not the main cause of military land loss; the true culprit is the imperial examination system.”

Each examination cycle produces several jinshi and numerous juren from garrison families.”

In Great Ming, civil officials are honored and military men despised; once they change their family’s status, they all abandon their military household identity.”

It’s not just people who leave—they take their registered military land with them.”

Those with official posts even take the military households who tilled their land, turning them into hired laborers.”

I recall that a century ago, the military even sued the civil officials over this issue.”

It once reached the Emperor’s court, but ultimately nothing came of it.”

The court never addressed it back then, and ever since, garrison descendants have continuously passed through the examinations and departed, steadily devouring the garrison’s land and population.”

If the court truly intends to audit, let these civil officials first return the land they took.”

As for the garrison officers, what they took was not the land itself, but its profits.”

Aside from a few fools, few would bother converting military land into civilian land and transferring it into their own names—inviting trouble.”

Li Mu said calmly.

I don’t know about other families, but mine operates this way.”

The land remains registered on the garrison’s books, but the profits flow into our own pockets, then used to maintain our retainers.”

Embezzling public funds to fund private armies—this militarized behavior would likely cost someone their head in other dynasties, but in Great Ming, it’s normal.”

It’s an open secret throughout court and countryside; even if caught, it doesn’t matter.”

The number of retainers we maintain is negligible compared to the Nine Borders’ military clans; we’re far from holding independent military power.”

Since the land’s legal status hasn’t changed, there’s no question of embezzling military land.”

I, as hereditary commander, have never even shown up for duty.”

Even if someone were to take this to court and expose everything, they couldn’t hold me accountable.”

“You’re fine, but others are in trouble!”

Since the founding of the dynasty, the military clans have passed down for generations—how many fools have appeared in between?”

Few directly annex military land, but some scoundrels collude with local officials to swap the garrison’s prime fields for inferior ones.”

Some even swap them for barren hills, utterly unfit for cultivation.”

Private sales of garrison land are also common.”

Even the military land taken by juren and jinshi could never have been seized without full cooperation from garrison officers.”

If a real audit proceeds, the primary culprits will always be the garrison commanders, then the regional military commissions overseeing them, and only then others!”

Li Yuan said irritably.

He had expected his nephew to offer a clever solution, but Li Mu gave him a plan of total neglect.”

Indeed, given the current state of the garrisons, the scope of involvement is so vast it touches nearly every corner of the empire.”

Once a hundred million mu of military land, now it’s a joke.”

Originally meant to be mutual oversight between garrisons and local administrations, they eventually colluded together to turn military land into private property.”

Everyone knows everyone is guilty, but the civil officials aren’t afraid.”

Embezzling garrison land wasn’t done during their own tenure.”

If you trace back, the culprits’ graves have long been overgrown with grass.”

Besides, everyone concealed their actions—even when land changed hands, it passed through multiple hands during embezzlement.”

The original garrison land registers, manipulated by those with intent, have mostly vanished.”

It’s now nearly impossible to distinguish civilian land from military land.”

Without evidence, you can annoy the living, but you can’t touch the dead.”

The garrison commanders are different—they are directly responsible. Even if they didn’t commit the crime themselves, it was done by their ancestors.”

The court knows exactly how much military land each garrison should have.”

Any shortfall is the garrison commander’s responsibility.”

When garrisons fail, the regional military commissions controlled by the noble families are certainly to blame.”

Without their indulgence, even those below couldn’t have embezzled military land.”

“Uncle, since this has already happened, we mustn’t panic.”

With such widespread involvement, the court won’t find it easy to assign blame.”

If necessary, we can leak information to divert blame onto civil officials who came from garrison families.”

If we can’t avoid it, dig up the hundred-year-old case—frame it as a historical legacy issue and minimize everyone’s responsibility.”

Li Mu evaded the core issue.

Identity determines stance!”

Since our own family has no major faults, we have nothing to fear from an audit.”

From my perspective, the court’s audit of military land is undoubtedly a good thing.”

Removing some corrupt elements will strengthen imperial rule. A stable state means a more comfortable position for me.”

Besides, the Great Ming bureaucracy is now packed with connections—classic case of too many wolves and too little meat.”

Each position is a single slot; if I don’t remove those blocking me, how can I advance?”

The civil-military struggle is an upper-level game—I’ll consider it when I reach that level myself.”

As a powerful figure in the noble faction, the Marquis of Zhenyuan can’t just watch. No matter how far the audit goes, it weakens the noble faction.”

For starters, the eunuch faction's promise to place noble scions in the Ministry of War is now completely out of reach.

Many garrisons that are already hollow shells will likely be abolished.”

Nobles deeply entangled in this will not only lose their posts but may even lose the hereditary titles passed down from their ancestors.”

“Enough!”

Those scoundrels dared to do it—they must bear the consequences. Whoever gets caught, that’s their bad luck.”

I only hope it doesn’t spiral into chaos!”

Li Yuan sighed.

If it could be saved, he too would want to restore the garrison system to its proper course.”

The core reason the noble faction has lost its voice at court is that the garrison army is useless.”

The current military backbone of Great Ming is conscripted troops.”

After the garrison system decayed, the court was forced to adopt conscription to maintain rule.”

Under conscription, rations must be allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, and officer appointments require approval from the Ministry of War.”

After losing financial and personnel authority, the Directorates dominated by the nobles lost their backbone.”

Now, the Directorate, nominally in charge of the entire empire’s military, holds only a meaningless supervisory role; routine troop movements are handled entirely by the Ministry of War.”

The emerging Nine Borders military clans rose precisely because the court adopted conscription.”

Thank you to Lanmanmao’s patronage; an extra chapter will be added soon.

Vote, vote, vote—forever yours, Haiyue.

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(End of Chapter)