Chapter 24 Expansion
General Li and others were located in the second courtyard of a three-courtyard house, which was the residence of a traveling merchant. After the news that Li Hao had killed four Tartars spread the day before, the merchant approached the provincial government and was willing to give up the first two courtyards of his house for the Tartar-killing hero to temporarily stay.

So Li Hao moved in with his servants, Dunjun and their families. Of course, two courtyards were not enough for more than 260 people to live in, so six courtyards in the north and south were requisitioned, and one family was crammed into each room, and only then was they able to barely accommodate them.

After learning this evening that there were still a considerable number of Han Chinese who had shaved their heads in the city, he became interested, so he sent his servants to find this group of people and called a few of the leaders over.

"Which banner did you serve as a bondservant in? What did you do mainly? Where is your manor located? How is the labor force in your banner? How much food will be left for the Han people by the end of the year?"

He asked five questions at a time.

Although the ground was freezing cold, the skinny middle-aged man felt much more at ease after kneeling down, so he continued to kneel while answering.

"Replying to Master Li, I was originally a servant of Ezhen Majia Nomin, the first Jiala of the Zhenghuang Banner. My main job in the manor was to farm and feed horses. The Zhenghuang Banner was stationed in the Shenyang-Liaoning area. The first Jiala was the Jiala with the most soldiers in the Zhenghuang Banner and was stationed at the front line.

The location of the manor before we escaped should be Changdingbao in Liaoyang, not far from Sancha River, so we were able to escape. The Han people of the two red flags could not escape the clutches of the devil, they were all in Tieling and Kaiyuan.

The Zhenghuang Banner was a banner led by the old slave himself, and he always got more when distributing supplies to the Han people, so there was no shortage of bondservants at present. However, the bannermen who were not wearing armor also needed to work in the summer, otherwise they would not be able to keep the war horses.

Life was really hard in the past two years. At the end of each year, we only had two or three dan of grain left, and we had to mix it with bran to survive until the beginning of spring. Last year, things were still okay. We still had five dan of grain before we escaped. But this year, cotton is in short supply. In the Zhenghuang Banner, there are slaves who kill slaves, strip the dead, and make new clothes out of the cotton to wear. "

Li Hao waved his hand and asked the other four to come over, then he asked them one by one, and the statements they got were basically the same.

"Since life is still good, why escape?" General Li's tone became slightly heavier.

The skinny middle-aged man sighed, "We can still get by with food, but we have nothing else to spend. Master Li, the soldiers over there are all being stripped of their bloody clothes. Can we, the slaves, still live like human beings?"

After touching the man's frighteningly thin cloth clothes, Li Hao was sure that what he said was true.

Nowadays, the winter in Liaodong is much longer than in normal years. It seems that these Han people can't stand the life of lack of everything in the Later Jin Dynasty, and the order to kill Nikan issued by the old slave every once in a while, so they fled.

Then Li Hao picked up his fur hat. His original braid was tied on top of his head. The braid was as thin as a rat's tail. The scalp outside the braid had grown into a crew cut, which looked quite modern.

"How many people are there in your group? How many able-bodied men are there? How are you going to get food now? Has the government found a way out for you?"

General Li asked again.

After just a few words, the five Han people who had shaved their heads became bolder and started talking to each other.

"We are about 370 people, with perhaps 170 or 18 able-bodied men, and the rest are women and children."

"The food we have now was brought over from the Jiannu. We have only been here for a month or so, so it is enough for now."

"We used to live in a cave about ten miles outside the city. Now that we have been taken into the city, the Ministry of Health has arranged for us to stay in the stables inside the city, which have a lot of empty space."

"As for our future, Yuan Bingxian said when he received us that he would give us some land. We may be incorporated into the military households after the spring."

The facts revealed in these words are still very cruel.

Originally, Han people from Shenyang, Liaoyang, Kaiyuan, Tieling, Haizhou, Gaizhou and other places were all used as bondservants by the Eight Banners and stuffed into the manors as coolies. The old men and women who couldn't work had long starved to death, so the only ones left were able-bodied men, women and children. "Do you know who I am?"

After hearing this question, the skinny middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, and replied in a flattering manner: "General Li who killed the Daishan Tartar. The general is the brother of Marshal Cheng Liang, so I have to call the general Grandpa Li."

After being called grandpa, Li Hao smiled and asked, "After this battle, I will probably be assigned a defense zone in a city. If you are willing to come, I will give each of you 40 mu of land. The land will be allocated based on the number of people, not the number of households. Are you willing to cultivate land on my land?"

The Liaodong Town had sufficient staff, but the territory had been occupied by the Jiannu. Therefore, the defense areas under the jurisdiction of the deputy generals, lieutenant generals, guerrillas and other senior generals who were originally stationed in one association, one route, or one guard were very small.

Fortunately, in the second year of the Tianqi reign, the original military households in the Liaoxi Corridor fled to the interior once, and fled again a few days ago. Therefore, there are plenty of vacant arable land, and there is no need to worry about having no land to farm.

"Forty acres?" The skinny middle-aged man was overjoyed at first, then quickly realized, "Did we pay more grain than other military households?"

There is no such thing as free cakes in the world. A strong man with 40 acres of land, even if he sows coarse seeds and harvests little, is enough to support his family.

So the skinny middle-aged man immediately realized that there might be other conditions.

"The grain and winter exercises are the same as those of normal military households. You should do the same as other military households. My only requirement is that you pay about five or six stone of bean fodder or 150 bundles of grass fodder every year."

In the military household system, a bundle of grass is 15 jin of fodder, which is a unit of measurement.

The five Han Chinese who had shaved their heads were silent. A capable general could certainly provide a certain level of security, and forty acres of land was also quite tempting, but the amount of bean fodder and fodder they had to pay was really a bit too much.

They looked at each other, but none of them could make up their minds.

So the skinny middle-aged man asked tentatively, "Grandpa Li, this is equivalent to each able-bodied man raising a horse for half a year. It's really a lot of work to do. Can you reduce it a little bit, such as three or four stone of bean feed, and about a hundred bundles of grass fodder?"

A military horse that can carry people consumes about one stone of bean fodder and more than 400 kilograms of grass fodder every month.

Li Hao waved his hand, "That's the number. There's no room for negotiation. But I can provide you with oxen, mules and other livestock. My Dunjun family will also provide the farm tools. I will provide you with food rations until the beginning of spring. A family of three will get one stone of food per month to ensure your survival."

In order to feed a large number of military horses, the garrison troops had to share the expenses of raising horses.

Li Hao actually wanted to establish a manor system like the Later Jin, but he was afraid that these people would not be able to bear the oppression and would flee back to the old slaves or run to the military settlements of other Ming generals, so he still recruited horse households according to the military settlement method.

As long as more military households of this type are recruited, the problem of war horses can be solved.

"Grandpa Li, can you let me discuss this after we get back?"

Li Hao thought for a while, "At the latest after the Jian Nu retreats this time, you must give me a definite answer. I will go to Shanhaiguan to recruit military households in a while. If you consider it too late, there will be no place. Yang Shigong, find five stones of grain and give it to them as rations."

After explaining everything clearly to the Han Chinese who had shaved his head, General Li sent his servants to give them some food and then sent them away.

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(End of this chapter)