Chapter 88: Military Fields System
The next morning, Gan Ning arrived at Xunyang County. Xunyang County was Gan Ning’s base north of the river, controlling the western part of Lujiang Commandery, occupying about thirty percent of Lujiang Commandery’s land. To the south was just a corner, mainly because the northern Dabie Mountain Range took up a lot of space. Taishi Ci led fifteen thousand men stationed at Xunyang County.
At this time, Xu Sheng from Pengze County also received orders and hurried to Xunyang County.
Taishi Ci and Xu Sheng welcomed him out of the barracks. The two bowed together in salute, “Subordinate General pays respects to Lord, pays respects to Strategist!”
Gan Ning nodded with a smile and asked, “No training today?”
Taishi Ci bowed and said, “Reporting to Lord, training just ended.”
Gan Ning arrived at the tent and said to Xu Shu, “Strategist, you speak!”
Xu Shu then told the two about Sun Ben occupying the three commanderies north of the river and how he might attack Xunyang.
Gan Ning continued, “Sun Ben just took over the three commanderies, and a lot of internal integration needs his personal handling. He probably doesn’t have time now; the earliest he can send troops is next spring. So you must make good use of the coming winter to strengthen training, especially actual combat confrontation training and physical training. Then Strategist Xu will be stationed at Chaisang. He will provide intelligence to assist, so you can know yourself and know the enemy.”
“Understood!” The two saluted together.
Xu Sheng carefully asked again, “Does Lord think Pengze is also Sun Ben’s attack target?”
Gan Ning said indifferently, “I believe Sun Ben’s desire for Yuzhang Commandery far exceeds Lujiang Commandery. Once he discovers the Pengze army supporting Lujiang Commandery, he is likely to sneak attack Pengze County. So I had Strategist Xu stationed at Chaisang, with Strategist Xu coordinating the coordinated operations between your two forces.”
Xu Sheng nodded silently. He understood Lord’s meaning: once Sun Ben attacked Xunyang County, he also had to send troops to support, but he also had to guard against Sun Ben sneak attacking Pengze.
Gan Ning smiled again, “I have a suggestion. General Taishi can openly transfer ten thousand troops to Pengze County, leaving only five thousand to guard Xunyang, deceiving the enemy’s scouts. Then quietly transfer the ten thousand troops back to the north bank of the Yangtze River, but do not enter Xunyang County. This way, the enemy will think Xunyang County only has five thousand troops.”
Taishi Ci immediately bowed and said, “Subordinate will definitely arrange according to Lord’s suggestion!”
Gan Ning nodded, “This battle is entrusted to the three of you!”
As Lord, Gan Ning also had to give his subordinates a chance to take independent charge.
Xu Shu stayed in Xunyang to discuss military affairs with Taishi Ci and Xu Sheng. Gan Ning returned to Nanchang County. Soon, Taishi Ci followed Gan Ning’s suggestion and transferred ten thousand troops to Pengze County.
Gan Ning arrived at Nanchang County in the morning. He did not return home but went first to the government office. As Lord, he considered not only military and economic matters, but more importantly strategic major directions. Of course, he also needed to inquire about some important details.
In the official residence, Gan Ning heard reports from Lu Su and Jiang Wan. Lu Su supervised military affairs, while Jiang Wan supervised government affairs.
But today both were talking about the same thing: the arrangement for soldiers’ families. Currently, good fields were divided into three categories: one private fields, one official fields, and one military fields.
In the late Han Three Kingdoms period, soldiers had no military salary. Although there was reward money for fighting, most of the time there was no war. So how did soldiers support their families?
Every vassal lord racked their brains for solutions. Most used land and tax exemption, which was very effective. This involved a land source issue. Vassal lords needed their own bases: on one hand to collect taxes to support the army, on the other to allocate part of the land to army families, which was equivalent to a disguised military salary.
After all, for vassal lords, land was the easiest resource to obtain. But land was not directly granted to soldiers’ families; it was first converted to military fields, then allocated to soldiers’ families to cultivate.
Why not directly allocate to soldiers’ families? There was a very important issue: what if soldiers surrendered to the enemy?
Once soldiers surrendered to the enemy, the superiors would definitely reclaim the military fields. No vassal lord would support enemy soldiers’ families.
Gan Ning currently followed the mainstream practice. His soldiers first changed household registration to military household. Each household was allocated twenty mu of military fields. If a family had two sons in the army, that was forty mu of military fields. Not only exempt from household tax and land tax, the local government office also had to help them cultivate and harvest. Ordinary citizens did corvee labor for this, working for military households.
In the north, twenty mu of grain fields could not support a family, but in the south it could, especially in Jiangnan and Jingxiang, where a dozen mu of good land could support a family.
If a soldier died in battle, not only were there pensions, the military fields would also be converted to private fields, directly given to the deceased’s family, with lifelong tax exemption. Otherwise, how could soldiers fight desperately for you?
Training alone could not solve the problem. Soldiers’ worries about their families had to be resolved, letting soldiers know that even if they died, their families could still get private fields. Only then would soldiers fight desperately.
Why did Liu Bei lose battle after battle with no one willing to follow him? The fundamental reason was he had no base, unable to implement the military fields system like Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Sun Quan, nor guarantee the safety of his officers and soldiers’ families. Officers and soldiers and strategists followed him seeing no future, eventually ending up with families scattered. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun all became old cured meat without marrying wives.
When Liu Bei was in Xuzhou, he met Chen Qun and Taishi Ci—why were the two unwilling to follow him? In Jingzhou, why were Sima Hui, Shi Guangyuan, and Cui Zhouping unwilling to pledge loyalty to Liu Bei?
Everyone wanted to be founding merits; no one wanted lord dead and ministers exterminated, just like everyone wanted to go to profitable units and no one wanted to go to factories about to go bankrupt. Seeking profit and avoiding harm is human instinct.
A bit off topic. What Lu Su and Jiang Wan were reporting now was that after the Xiakou great battle, Huang Zu reclaimed all the military fields of the surrendered soldiers and demanded back taxes. The surrendered soldiers’ families had no livelihood and began fleeing en masse to Wuchang Commandery. Fleeing was also easy—just take a small boat across the river. Huang Zu’s navy was completely wiped out, and the Yangtze River surface was full of Gan Ning’s navy.
Lu Su and Jiang Wan faced the problem of resettling these families.
Lu Su said, “We have land. There is plenty of land in the hinterland of Wuchang Commandery. We considered the newly built county towns—simply resettle these fleeing soldiers’ families there, then reclaim military fields around the county towns and allocate land to them. Next spring they can directly cultivate.”
Gan Ning nodded, “You arrange this matter. I only remind you of a few details. First, how to arrange grain subsidies for soldiers’ families from now until next summer’s harvest?
Second, is it to cultivate wasteland first or build the city first? When does wheat sowing start? If waiting until next year to allocate fields, wheat might be delayed, so best to allocate fields now without delay. If army help is needed, I can approve.
Third, it’s now September; in two more months it will be winter. How to solve their winter difficulties?”
At this point, Gan Ning knocked on the desk and emphasized, “In short, one sentence: consider details, do things ahead, do not wait for problems to arise before remedying—that will seriously affect morale.”
The two saluted together, “We will arrange it now!”
Jiang Wan left first. Lu Su had one more thing to say to Gan Ning.
Lu Su hesitated and said, “One more thing, possibly a private matter!”
Gan Ning smiled, “Whatever it is, Strategist just say it!”
Lu Su was a bit hesitant to speak, and after a while smiled, “Actually some small matters. She is still young; when she grows older she should be steady.”
“Strategist is talking about my matters?”
Lu Su nodded, “A little heroine appeared in Nanchang County, specializing in righting wrongs. Many powerful families call her Purple Immortal Demoness. Lord should know who it is!”
Gan Ning laughed, “Did she cause trouble?”
“No big trouble, no casualties, just headaches. The county yamen complained to me, and some noble families also complained to me, requesting Lord to restrain her, not to overstep and judge cases for the government anymore.”
Gan Ning smiled and nodded, “I understand!”
Xiao Qiao must have caused quite a bit of trouble; otherwise Lu Su would not complain to him.
