Chapter 197: Harvest

By the time the ship-sinking incident came to an end, it was already the ninth month. Over the past several months, Fengyang Prefecture had undergone tremendous changes.

A number of ironworks and coal works had gone into production one after another, and several military factories such as ordnance bureaus and equipment bureaus had also begun operations. Most importantly, the summer harvest had arrived, and the military farm households had started reaping the crops in the fields.

According to the statistics compiled by Yang Tinglin, Prefect of Fengyang Prefecture, the fields reclaimed through spring plowing this year all yielded around eight to nine dou of grain per mu, and the fields near the Huai River and other rivers and lakes even yielded one shi per mu — not much worse than the bumper years before the disasters.

All told, the Military Farm Department received a total of eight hundred thousand shi of rent from the military farm households of Fengyang Prefecture. This was only the yield of half a year; counting two harvests per year, the rent from the military farm households of Fengyang Prefecture alone could bring in over a million shi.

Autumn sowing was about to begin, and the hundred thousand military farm households of Luzhou Prefecture and Taiping Prefecture were also about to start planting. Calculated this way, next year alone the military farm households of the three prefectures could harvest over three million shi of grain in total.

Calculated on the basis of an army of two hundred thousand consuming one hundred thousand shi of grain per month, over the course of a year, the rent from the military farm households alone would be enough to feed them for two to three years — and this did not even include the grain and miscellaneous taxes paid by the other hereditary military households, farmers, and landowners of the various prefectures.

By next year's spring plowing, half of South Zhili would implement military farming and civilian farming, including Fengyang Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, Taiping Prefecture, Anqing Prefecture, Chizhou Prefecture, Huizhou Prefecture, and Chuzhou Prefecture.

The remainder — Yingtian Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture (Jiangnan), Yangzhou Prefecture, Zhenjiang Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, Huai'an Prefecture, and Ningguo Prefecture — were mainly controlled by the Jiangnan gentry and the Nanjing nobility.

South Zhili was very large in area, equivalent to the later Jiangsu, Anhui, and Shanghai combined, with sixty million mu of arable land alone. Zhu Cilang now controlled half of the land, and in the years to come the grain harvests would grow larger and larger.

Of course, to realize this grand plan, not only was a massive investment needed in the early stage, but more importantly, one had to kill. In this day and age, could talking alone get you the land? Could it make grain grow from the fields by itself?

Nobody is a philanthropist! Only with a sharp blade and a ruthless heart can one control the situation! Wherever our army goes, each guard post must either voluntarily hand over its land, admit its mistakes, and receive five hundred mu of good fields and a banner of honor — or rise up in resistance and be exterminated to the family line.

The officials of each prefecture must either cooperate fully and support the military farmland work, or be dismissed from office and beheaded — they did not even have the chance to resign. Stole silver and still want to run away? What are you thinking? The imperial sword newly bestowed by the court — care to make its acquaintance?

As for the gentry... well, let's wait for now. I'm afraid this bunch has no bottom line when it comes to funding bandits. Once the roving bandits of Huoshan are pacified, we'll play another big game!

In order to control public opinion, Zhu Cilang established more than a dozen new branch offices of the Imperial Ming Times in the various prefectures of South Zhili. The original South Zhili branch office had only printed one issue every half month; now Zhu Cilang changed it to one issue every three days, the same as in the capital.

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In a shabby little courtyard near the City God Temple in Shouzhou, Fengyang Prefecture, three children were chasing each other merrily around the yard.

A woman in her twenties looked at the grain sacks piled full of grain in the courtyard, unable to conceal the excitement on her face.

She looked at the man beside her and said with a stammer, "Brother Qingshan, is all this really ours?"

The man pulled the woman into his arms and said with utter certainty, "Wumei, all this grain is ours. The Crown Prince promised it with his own mouth — there can be no mistake!"

Wumei clutched tightly at Brother Qingshan, her eyes growing misty as she said, "If our family had had even one sack of rice before the new year, Father and Mother wouldn't have starved to death, and our older brothers and sisters wouldn't have been seized by the roving bandits and taken into the mountains to become bandits."

Xu Qingshan gently patted Wumei's back and said, "The orders have come down from above — in a few days we're to prepare to escort grain supplies to the Huoshan area. There should be fighting soon. When the time comes, I'll go into the mountains and help you look for your brothers and sisters."

Wumei's heart tightened with panic, and she said, "Brother Qingshan, didn't they say military farm soldiers don't go to the battlefield? Don't be foolish and charge to the front! This whole family is counting on you!"

Xu Qingshan comforted his wife, saying, "Don't worry, Wumei. His Highness's Tianwu Army is very powerful. Charging into battle is not something that will fall to us military farm soldiers."

"Mm. Brother Qingshan, rest for a while first — I'll go make you a meal!"

Wumei took down a piece of pork from the wall of the inner room, then took two duck eggs from the basket hanging from the roof beam, and only then walked into the kitchen.

Xu Qingshan watched in surprise and said, "Wumei, pork is very expensive right now, isn't it? Where did our family get this?"

Wumei's voice came from the kitchen: "Yes, pork in the prefecture now costs two hundred thirty wen per catty, and a duck egg costs twenty wen too. Our family couldn't afford them before, but now we have grain, and grain is even more expensive on the market — I traded some grain for these!"

Xu Qingshan nodded inwardly. The last time the family had eaten meat was at his own wedding. Now his eldest son was seven or eight years old and had never had a single meal of meat — no wonder his wife had gone all the way to the prefecture seat to trade for some meat.

Looking at the three children playing in the courtyard, Xu Qingshan silently resolved that this campaign he would surely win himself a future — become a true soldier of the Tianwu Army, follow His Highness in building achievements and establishing merit, win honors for his wife and children, and let his family live a prosperous life!

When Xu Qingshan returned to the military camp after eating his fill, he saw a crowd of ragged young refugees surrounding several soldiers of the Tianwu Army like stars around the moon.

"What's going on, what's going on? Speak plainly — stop crowding around!" a squad leader of the Tianwu Army barked at the crowd.

Seeing that this military officer was burly and had a stern face, the refugees shrank back in fear, clearly harboring dread of the government troops.

A tall, burly man who had been tanned pitch-black by the sun stepped forward and said, "Honored military sir, please take us in! We all meet the recruitment conditions — look at my muscles!"

This squad leader of the Tianwu Army caught a sour, rank smell, swept a glance over the starving refugees before him, and said, "Which of you hasn't bathed? The stench is really strong!"

"We don't even have food to eat — how could we have the mind to bathe!" a refugee muttered under his breath.

These refugees felt somewhat embarrassed and each stepped back two paces, afraid of offending this military officer with their stench and provoking his displeasure.

The squad leader let out a sigh and said, "Don't crowd around me either. When military farm soldiers are recruited is not for us to decide — it rests entirely on the wise judgment of His Highness the Crown Prince. I'll report your situation to my superiors. As for when they'll recruit military farm soldiers again, that I don't know."

"Honored military sir, we came from Guide Prefecture in Henan — we walked half a month to reach Fengyang. Please, you must put in a word for us!"

Having learned of the great harvest in Fengyang Prefecture, these refugees had come one after another seeking a way out. They first went to the prefectural office to find the officials, but the officials said Fengyang Prefecture's fields had all been distributed and that no military farm soldiers were being recruited for the time being.

Not quite trusting the officials, these refugees had been hanging around near the military farm camp, hoping to enlist as military farm soldiers, when they happened to run into several Tianwu Army soldiers patrolling outside the camp.

This squad leader of the Tianwu Army looked at the pitch-black burly man and said, "Are you their leader?"

The dark-skinned man nodded, looking expectantly at this imposing military officer before him.

The squad leader pulled a money pouch from his bosom and tossed it to him, saying, "Share this silver among them — buy a few steamed buns to stave off the hunger. This is a military camp of importance, so everyone, please don't crowd around."

The refugees were stunned for a moment. All along the road they had only ever seen military officers who robbed people of money — when had they ever seen one who voluntarily gave money to them? This was practically the strangest thing under heaven!

For a moment, everyone knelt down to thank him: "The military sir is truly a good man!"

"Thank you for your great kindness, military sir!"

The squad leader helped everyone up and said, "There's no need for this, everyone. When our Tianwu Army passed through Guide Prefecture on the way south, we came to understand your plight very well. I will report this matter to my superiors — rest assured, everyone!"

Xu Qingshan sighed inwardly — this was an army of righteousness, this was truly an army of kings! This incident further strengthened Xu Qingshan's determination to join the Tianwu Army!

Xu Qingshan greeted this squad leader and then entered the camp. The crowd watched his retreating figure with great envy, praying that they too could become military farm soldiers like him.