In a village just north of Zhending City, the villagers who have just finished the Lantern Festival prepare to welcome the dragon's head, which means that the farming season is coming. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Zhending has been conquered by Wu Sangui, the Qing court officials with money rattail pigtails, black official uniforms, and red official hats have been transformed into Ming Dynasty officials wearing red official robes and black black gauze hats, and the small officials who walked in the countryside to collect taxes have also changed.

The common people don't care about these anymore, it's just that the braids on their heads can't be left anymore, everyone is cut off their braids, ready to grow their hair, and the others are the same as usual, pay rent when they should pay rent, pay taxes when they should pay taxes, but originally they paid taxes to the Qing court, and they became taxes to the Ming Dynasty.

There are many gentry in the surrounding villages because someone in the family is an official in the Qing court, as a result, as soon as Wu Sangui's army came, the property deeds of these gentry were copied, and the gold, silver treasures and grain were naturally requisitioned by the Wu army, and the land deeds were taken away by the government and redone.

The Ming and Qing dynasties divided the gentry of the world into two, some of the gentry supported the Ming Dynasty, and some still supported the Manchu Qing, which gave both Wu Sangui and Wang Yu the opportunity to reshuffle the land. A large amount of land that had been annexed by the gentry was redistributed and distributed to the military heroes.

The land enclosed by Wu Jun's meritorious heroes has a relatively low rent, and only needs to pay a low rent of 30%.

In the past, peasants paid land rent to the landlords and gentry, and it was considered a conscience to pay 50 percent of the land rent, and in many places it was 60 percent of the land rent, and some good fields even had to pay 60 to 70 percent of the land rent. Nowadays, it is only 30% of the land rent, which is indeed a conscience price.

And those gentry and landlords who surrendered to Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui naturally could not confiscate their fields. However, because of the war, a large number of people fled, the population decreased sharply, and a large amount of uncultivated land appeared in various parts of Beizhili, and the price of land fell sharply, and the silver needed to buy an acre of land became lower and lower day by day, and the land became worthless.

There was more farmland, fewer people were farming, and the local gentry and landlords had to reduce their rents, otherwise it would be meaningless if they had more farmland and no tenants to cultivate it.

The drop in land rents is of course a good thing for the farmers who remain in the local area, and the spring ploughing season is coming, and the farmers are gearing up to plunge into the intense spring ploughing. Every family has rented more land and the rent has fallen, so they should be able to live a good life when the grain harvest is harvested this year.

While the peasants were taking out the reserved seeds, repairing the ploughing tools, and preparing for the upcoming spring ploughing, the county officials came to the village with more than a dozen cavalry.

"A large number of recruits are strong! Anyone who joins the people will be paid a tael of silver every month! The little official picked up a notice issued by Wu Sangui and read it aloud, "All men over the age of fourteen and under the age of fifty must participate in the Minzhuang!" The youngest and only children in the family can be exempted from military service! Minzhuang does not need to fight on the front line, only needs to build barracks, march, transport food, recruit for a short time, and go home after the war in Baoding. ”

"My lord, it's almost spring ploughing, you let us go on the expedition now, so who will cultivate the farmland?" An old gray-haired farmer asked.

The little official said: "It will not affect spring ploughing, and it will be recruited temporarily for a month!" After a month, those who are willing to come back to farm can come back; If you don't want to come back to farming, you can officially join the army! Anyway, this month is seedling cultivation and preparation, and there is no need to plough the ground yet, and it will be too late to plough the ground when you come back. ”

The villagers looked at each other and hesitated. But when they saw the dozen or so horsemen on tall horses, dressed in bright armor, and looking murderous, they understood one thing: this is a forced conscription of the people! I can't help myself at all, I have to go if I don't go, and the soldiers have nothing to discuss with them.

Most of the men in the village between the ages of 14 and 50 were taken away, leaving only the youngest son and the only son. After Wu Jun left with Minzhuang, most of the remaining people in the village were women, children, old and weak.

"Iniquity!" An old man sighed, "Of the five sons of the old man, three were captured by the Qing court, and now there are two sons left, and one will be taken away!" Who else will plant this field? ”

After the recruited Minzhuang arrived outside Baoding City, under the supervision of Wu soldiers, they dug up soil, deepened trenches, and built an earthen city around Baoding City. At this time, the Wu army had stopped the siege of Baoding City, and a large number of people came to the Wu army camp one after another, and then joined the civil construction.

Liu Xuanchu took a group of Wu army generals to the construction site. A Wu Jun, who was holding the Tucheng drawings in his hand, hurriedly put the drawings on the simple table, stepped forward with a few soldiers, and knelt down on one knee to salute Liu Xuanchu.

"It's going well!" Liu Xuanchu nodded with satisfaction, "The soil dug out of the trench is used to build an earthen city, and the trench has been dug four feet deep!" ”

According to Liu Xuanchu's plan, Wu Jun will build a perimeter of 15 li, a width of 1 zhang, and a height of 1 zhang and 5 feet outside Baoding City, and there is a trench in front of the earth city that is two zhang wide and one zhang deep. On top of the earthen city, a wooden fence was inserted to serve as a female wall and battlement, and on top of the earthen city, the wolf's tooth slap, the yaksha and other weapons to defend the city were arranged.

Ba Hai, the commander of the Qing army, stood at the head of the city, looked at the Wu army auxiliaries and Minzhuang who were busy outside the city, turned his head and said: "Everyone, Wu Gou has built a large earth city to surround us in Baoding City, what do you say, what is the purpose of Wu Gou's move?" ”

Leer Jin said: "Dashuai, look at this posture, Wu Gou is building an earthen city, it must be that Wu Gou's strong attack has suffered too much loss, and he has given up the strong attack and plans to besiege us!" ”

Bahai sneered: "Trap us? Hum! The food in Baoding City is enough for us to eat for a year! Wu Dog wants to trap us? After Wu Gou was besieged for a year, the imperial court kings had already been trained, and they had already launched a counterattack! ”

Sabu said: "The handsome man has to be careful!" There are three strategists under Wu Sangui's command, and those Han dog barbarians are all cunning and abnormal, and they are good at conspiracy and trickery! I'm afraid that this time Wu Sangui old thief has some tricks! ”

"Humph!" Bahai snorted, "Isn't it old-fashioned?" Want to besiege us? Then let them besiege it! In the end, the old man wanted to see who couldn't hold it first! ”

This time, the Wu army recruited a large number of people, and a total of more than 200,000 people were recruited, not only from the vicinity of Baoding and Zhending, but also from the Daimyo and other places. There are many people and great strength, and it only took about a month for the Wu army to build an earthen city outside the city to surround Baoding.