Chapter 190: Military Farmland and Recruiting Soldiers (Subscribe, Please Vote Monthly Tickets)

After two days of planning, a notice was posted throughout Fengyang Prefecture, drawing crowds of commoners to gather and read it.

"Recruiting soldiers, ages sixteen to thirty-five. Upon enlistment, each recruit will be allotted fifty mu of farmland that very day. The government will provide seeds, farm tools, and oxen. Those who serve five full years may be discharged."

The moment the notice went up, the entire Fengyang Prefecture erupted. Many commoners found it unbelievable—since when did the government get so generous as to hand out land?

"There's such a good deal? Enlist and get fifty mu of land? Plus oxen and farm tools!"

"Is this for real?"

"Is this really the government? I don't believe it!"

"This notice was issued in the name of the Crown Prince—it should be genuine!"

"Where do we sign up to join the army? I want to give it a try!"

"Look, another notice has just been posted over here—the government is recruiting craftsmen to build waterwheels, with wages settled per waterwheel completed."

On the second day after the notices were posted, over a hundred military farmland recruitment points appeared across Fengyang Prefecture. When word spread, crowds swarmed in, scrambling to register.

Each recruitment point was staffed by a squad of Tianwu Army soldiers, who carefully screened applicants based on their physique and demeanor.

"Hey! Military sir, even that blockhead Er Lengzi can enlist, and I can take on three of him—why won't you accept me?" A burly, thuggish-looking man was raising a ruckus.

A Tianwu Army squad leader glanced at him and said, "Your physique meets the standard, but your spirit doesn't. You don't qualify!"

The man sneered, "With your Tianwu Army recruiting like this, can the soldiers you train even fight?"

The Tianwu Army squad leader said, "Boy, spar with me a couple of rounds. If you can last three moves against me, I'll take you in. If you can't, then get the hell out of my sight!"

The man grinned and said, "Bring it on! You talk so big, military sir—hope you don't bite your own tongue!"

The recruitment point was already ringed with onlookers, and some of those registering had stopped to watch as well.

Several Tianwu Army soldiers cleared the gawking applicants away, opening up a large space.

The burly man laughed, "Military sir, ready when you are—remember, you only get three moves!"

The Tianwu Army squad leader let out a cold laugh and struck fast, snapping a side kick toward the man's left chest, which the man dodged. He then spun his right leg in a sweeping arc toward the man's neck—but the man ducked low and evaded that too.

The man had clearly trained in martial arts before. Just as he was feeling smug, the Tianwu Army squad leader followed through after his spinning sweep, driving his right elbow hard into the man's back. The man's massive frame crashed to the ground with a thud.

The Tianwu Army squad leader clapped his hands, not even sparing him a glance, and said, "Recruitment continues!"

The big man struggled for a long while before he could get up, his face flushed crimson. Seeing the crowd around him laughing and pointing, he could only slink away in chagrin.

In truth, the Tianwu Army squad leader rather admired the man—but per the Crown Prince's requirements, someone like him absolutely could not be accepted.

The Tianwu Army's recruitment requirements were simple: brawny limbs, simple mind, honest character, law-abiding, muscle-bound men with the temperament of a blockhead. These had also been the recruitment standards of the Qi family army back in the day.

After three days of recruiting, the Tianwu Army had enlisted eighty thousand new soldiers. However, these eighty thousand did not join the Tianwu Army proper all at once—for now, they were merely fourth-class military farmland soldiers.

Tianwu Army soldiers were now divided into four grades: first-class soldiers, second-class soldiers, third-class soldiers, and military farmland soldiers.

First-class soldiers received five taels of silver per month in pay, second-class four taels, third-class three taels, and military farmland soldiers received no pay at all.

Military farmland soldiers tilled the land and drilled in peacetime; in wartime they followed the army transporting grain and supplies as baggage troops. Those who earned merit could be promoted to third-class soldiers, and with further merit to second-class, advancing step by step entirely on military achievement.

After enlisting, each of these military farmland soldiers was issued a military tag and allotted fifty mu of land. Each household also received some farm tools, seeds, and an ox—at minimum, one ox shared between two households.

Having received so many ready-made goods, the military farmland soldiers were overjoyed. They brought their families and began their farming work. The farming households felt their lives now had hope—with land, their roots were firmly planted in this place.

Under Yang Tinglin's leadership, the five prefectures and thirteen counties of Fengyang Prefecture threw themselves into a fervent campaign of digging canals and reclaiming wasteland.

All the craftsmen of Fengyang Prefecture were also kept busy, building waterwheels for the government. The system of settling wages per waterwheel quickly attracted many artisan households from the surrounding area.

The farming households were housed together by district. Every morning, Tianwu Army soldiers nearby blew horns, urging the military farmland soldiers to get up, assemble, and answer roll call, after which they ate breakfast and began their work.

For those who were lazy and stayed in bed, missing roll call, the patrolling soldiers went straight to their homes, dragged them naked out of their blankets, and whipped them in front of all the farming households.

Those who refused to mend their ways after repeated warnings had their land taken back directly—only a pair of shorts was left to them before they were expelled from Fengyang Prefecture. Those with families fared even worse: their wives and children were stripped bare and driven out as well.

Truly, one man's laziness brought suffering upon his entire household!

After a period of rectification, the farming households came to understand that those fifty mu of land were not so easy to hold onto—at the very least, a lazy man could not keep them.

At mealtimes, the farming households would set down their tools and gather together to eat. Seeing barrel after barrel of rice and vegetable soup carried over, along with large basins of vegetables and even meat dishes, they all beamed with joy.

Now this was what you called living—just work on schedule every day and you could eat your fill. The only ones who had it rough were the men of the household, who not only had to drill but also help with the farm work at home.

The military farmland soldiers also learned that as long as they were diligent, feeding their families was no problem. As long as they trained hard, strictly observed discipline, and then went to war and earned military merit, they too could become members of the Tianwu Army—the Crown Prince's own trusted forces.

The military farmland soldiers had long since found out that Tianwu Army soldiers not only received regular monthly pay, but even if they were wounded in battle or killed, the compensation was extremely generous, blessing their descendants.

Watching those Tianwu Army soldiers in their fine uniforms with their strict discipline, many military farmland soldiers' eyes blazed with fervent light.

The spring plowing season had arrived. All of Fengyang Prefecture threw itself into digging canals and dredging clogged waterways, and Zhu Cilang also led a group of officials out of the city to inspect the farmland.

Due to the severe drought, river and lake levels were low while the irrigation channels sat high—to water the fields, water had to be lifted and channeled in.

Across the Ming realm, waterwheels were generally used to lift water, and there were many kinds. The most common was the dragon-bone waterwheel.

The dragon-bone waterwheel got its name from its shape, which resembled a dragon's skeleton. It had a long history and was popular throughout most of the country.

The dragon-bone waterwheel was fixed to a wooden frame on the embankment, its structure using wooden planks as a trough. By treading, the axle was turned, driving the slats inside the trough to scrape water upward, irrigating fields on higher ground. For this reason it was also called a "flip wheel" or a "tread wheel."

Besides being turned by foot-treading, it could also be turned by hand-cranking or pulled by oxen, and some even harnessed the power of flowing water to generate motion. A single one could irrigate twenty to thirty mu of land.

Zhu Cilang was not impressed by the dragon-bone waterwheel's irrigation capacity and pondered what more advanced irrigation tool he could use. He looked to Yang Tinglin and said, "Minister Yang, is there a waterwheel with greater irrigation capacity?"

Yang Tinglin said, "To answer Your Highness, your minister once read in a miscellany about a great waterwheel called the 'Lanzhou waterwheel.' Its irrigation capacity is extremely powerful—a single great wheel can water six to seven hundred mu of farmland, and it requires no manual labor, operating day and night. The only drawback is its considerable cost: one wheel runs over a hundred taels of silver, nearly ten times more expensive than a dragon-bone waterwheel."

Zhu Cilang laughed, "Sounds quite good. It costs ten times more than a dragon-bone waterwheel, but its irrigation capacity is several dozen times greater—by that reckoning, isn't it quite the bargain? Go ahead and build them without worry, as many as you need. Money is no object!"

Yang Tinglin smiled. Ever since His Highness had entered Fengyang Prefecture and confiscated the corrupt officials' and wicked gentry's assets, they truly were not short on funds anymore.

Zhu Cilang had also read in the book *Western Water Methods*, translated by Xu Guangqi, of a waterwheel called the dragon-tail wheel. Compared to the dragon-bone wheel, the dragon-tail wheel was not only more labor-saving but also far more efficient—one man could match the strength of ten, and one wheel could match the irrigation of five. A single dragon-tail wheel worked by one man could water thirty to forty mu of fields in a day.

The dragon-tail wheel was a Western water-lifting machine whose mechanical principle was that of Archimedes' screw. Its internal structure was intricate and required a certain knowledge of geometry to fully understand.

Zhu Cilang only mused on it for now. Time was pressing, and such a device would have to be figured out by others later. He was also planning how to popularize physics and geometry among the masses.

After several days of effort, the canal-digging and irrigation work in Fengyang Prefecture made great progress. When Zhu Cilang next inspected the banks of the Huai River, he was stunned by the sight before him.

Along both banks of the Huai River, on what had been vast stretches of barren land, ditches and channels now crisscrossed everywhere, and countless enormous waterwheels standing ten meters tall sat by the river's edge—a truly magnificent spectacle.

According to Yang Tinglin's introduction, these towering waterwheels were Lanzhou waterwheels, invented by a jinshi in the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing. Many places across the Ming used them, just not built this large—most were only two or three meters tall.

Zhu Cilang marveled endlessly. This Lanzhou waterwheel was very much like the Ferris wheels of later generations—quite dreamlike.

A massive waterwheel stood by the Huai River, using the river's current to push the paddles on the wheel, driving it to turn slowly. The buckets on the wheel dipped up water one after another, rising gradually until they reached the top-center of the wheel, where the bucket mouths tipped over and poured the river water into the trough, which channeled it into the irrigation ditches in the fields, and from there the water was led into the farmland.

Watching the water gurgling in the fields, the garrison farmers all wore smiles on their faces—with this thing, they no longer had to fear drought.

"Excellent!" Zhu Cilang was very pleased, and asked again: "What about the craftsmen who built the waterwheels? Have their wages been paid?"

Yang Tinglin chuckled and said: "Please rest assured, Your Highness—not a single coin is missing. I personally supervised the distribution!"

Zhu Cilang nodded, quite satisfied: "That's good. The land has been reclaimed well enough—make preparations for spring plowing as soon as possible. Because of all these recent matters, spring plowing has already been delayed by more than half a month; it cannot be put off any longer!"

Yang Tinglin bowed and said: "Yes! I will see to it at once."

Gazing at the boundless fields and the several thousand towering waterwheels, Zhu Cilang felt a surge of pride in his heart.