[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers":3,"chapter-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-36":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Restoring the Mountains and Rivers",{"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},2364305,4623,"Chapter 36: Corruption in the Garrison System","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-36",36,"\u003Cp>“Uncle, rest assured—the military land in the garrison system cannot possibly be audited.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the issue of suppressing military officers, they will never miss an opportunity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you can’t stop them, then don’t bother trying.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let them go ahead and investigate—if they dare to lift this lid, that’s their problem.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I don’t know the situation elsewhere, but I understand the condition of Hanzhong Garrison well.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The garrison officers have turned military land into private estates, forcing military households to work as hired laborers—these are all facts.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But these are not the main cause of military land loss; the true culprit is the imperial examination system.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each examination cycle produces several jinshi and numerous juren from garrison families.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s not just people who leave—they take their registered military land with them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those with official posts even take the military households who tilled their land, turning them into hired laborers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I recall that a century ago, the military even sued the civil officials over this issue.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It once reached the Emperor’s court, but ultimately nothing came of it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If the court truly intends to audit, let these civil officials first return the land they took.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the garrison officers, what they took was not the land itself, but its profits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from a few fools, few would bother converting military land into civilian land and transferring it into their own names—inviting trouble.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Mu said calmly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I don’t know about other families, but mine operates this way.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The land remains registered on the garrison’s books, but the profits flow into our own pockets, then used to maintain our retainers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s an open secret throughout court and countryside; even if caught, it doesn’t matter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The number of retainers we maintain is negligible compared to the Nine Borders’ military clans; we’re far from holding independent military power.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the land’s legal status hasn’t changed, there’s no question of embezzling military land.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I, as hereditary commander, have never even shown up for duty.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if someone were to take this to court and expose everything, they couldn’t hold me accountable.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’re fine, but others are in trouble!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the founding of the dynasty, the military clans have passed down for generations—how many fools have appeared in between?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Few directly annex military land, but some scoundrels collude with local officials to swap the garrison’s prime fields for inferior ones.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some even swap them for barren hills, utterly unfit for cultivation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Private sales of garrison land are also common.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the military land taken by juren and jinshi could never have been seized without full cooperation from garrison officers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Yuan said irritably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had expected his nephew to offer a clever solution, but Li Mu gave him a plan of total neglect.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, given the current state of the garrisons, the scope of involvement is so vast it touches nearly every corner of the empire.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once a hundred million mu of military land, now it’s a joke.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally meant to be mutual oversight between garrisons and local administrations, they eventually colluded together to turn military land into private property.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone knows everyone is guilty, but the civil officials aren’t afraid.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Embezzling garrison land wasn’t done during their own tenure.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you trace back, the culprits’ graves have long been overgrown with grass.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, everyone concealed their actions—even when land changed hands, it passed through multiple hands during embezzlement.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The original garrison land registers, manipulated by those with intent, have mostly vanished.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s now nearly impossible to distinguish civilian land from military land.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without evidence, you can annoy the living, but you can’t touch the dead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The garrison commanders are different—they are directly responsible. Even if they didn’t commit the crime themselves, it was done by their ancestors.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The court knows exactly how much military land each garrison should have.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any shortfall is the garrison commander’s responsibility.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When garrisons fail, the regional military commissions controlled by the noble families are certainly to blame.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without their indulgence, even those below couldn’t have embezzled military land.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Uncle, since this has already happened, we mustn’t panic.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With such widespread involvement, the court won’t find it easy to assign blame.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If necessary, we can leak information to divert blame onto civil officials who came from garrison families.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Mu evaded the core issue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Identity determines stance!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since our own family has no major faults, we have nothing to fear from an audit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From my perspective, the court’s audit of military land is undoubtedly a good thing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Removing some corrupt elements will strengthen imperial rule. A stable state means a more comfortable position for me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides, the Great Ming bureaucracy is now packed with connections—classic case of too many wolves and too little meat.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each position is a single slot; if I don’t remove those blocking me, how can I advance?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The civil-military struggle is an upper-level game—I’ll consider it when I reach that level myself.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For starters, the eunuch faction's promise to place noble scions in the Ministry of War is now completely out of reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many garrisons that are already hollow shells will likely be abolished.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nobles deeply entangled in this will not only lose their posts but may even lose the hereditary titles passed down from their ancestors.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those scoundrels dared to do it—they must bear the consequences. Whoever gets caught, that’s their bad luck.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I only hope it doesn’t spiral into chaos!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Yuan sighed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it could be saved, he too would want to restore the garrison system to its proper course.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The core reason the noble faction has lost its voice at court is that the garrison army is useless.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The current military backbone of Great Ming is conscripted troops.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the garrison system decayed, the court was forced to adopt conscription to maintain rule.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under conscription, rations must be allocated by the Ministry of Revenue, and officer appointments require approval from the Ministry of War.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After losing financial and personnel authority, the Directorates dominated by the nobles lost their backbone.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The emerging Nine Borders military clans rose precisely because the court adopted conscription.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thank you to Lanmanmao’s patronage; an extra chapter will be added soon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vote, vote, vote—forever yours, Haiyue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1236,"2026-06-21T08:09:02.410Z",1,"Qwen3.5 397B","b05577fa96c3ba564959d55ba95ffdef266a819e67bffcb3654e16a700961e42","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-37","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-35",391,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frestoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-cover.jpg"]