Chapter 057: A hundred households can also have their own armed servants

Why was Yu Lijun so sensitive to servants? It was mainly because in the army in the late Ming Dynasty, the situation of servants was indeed too common. Money and grain were owed for too long and the amount of money was insufficient, so the generals could not send it to everyone. Obviously, those who were not the general's confidants would definitely not be able to get money and grain in time. In other words, if you want to get money and grain in time, you have to become the general's confidants and the "own person" of the general.

There is no doubt that the final result of such an approach must be that a small number of people, closely surrounding the generals, became the generals' confidants. They basically obeyed their direct superiors and ignored the orders of the court or the Ministry of War. This would definitely form a small-scale private army group. Over time, armed servants with generals as the core appeared. They were completely the general's private armed forces.

Of course, Li Chengliang is the master of armed servants. This border commander, who was deeply reborn by Emperor Wanli, used his power and money to form a total of 8,000 armed servants, all of whom were cavalry and had extremely strong combat power. Even part of the original Qi family army turned into Li Chengliang's private soldiers.

It is precisely because of the existence of this powerful armed servant that when Li Chengliang was alive, no one in the border area dared to say anything irrelevant to him. The ethnic minorities in the Northeast region were definitely afraid to hear Li Chengliang's name. At that time, Nurhaci was a dog of Li Chengliang. He told him to go east but not to go west, and told him to close the door but not to catch chickens.

Research from later generations can prove that Li Chengliang took a very bad head and set a precedent for generals to gain self-respecting troops in the late Ming Dynasty. After him, other border generals began to turn the most elite troops into their own private armed forces. By the 44th year of Wanli, it can basically be said that border generals without private servants no longer existed. They selected the best quality candidates for their private army teams, equipped the most excellent equipment, and gave priority to ensuring the supply of money and grain, which seriously harmed the existence of the Ming army as a whole.

Even civil servants such as governors, prime ministers, and governors also have many well-equipped and well-trained armed servants under their command. It seems that Chen Qiyu, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng and others later had hundreds or even thousands of private soldiers around them. As for Zuo Liangyu, Wu Sangui and others, there is no need to say. There is no way. If you don’t have these armed servants as your backing, you will not be able to command other troops at all.

In Ningxia Town, Governor Li Maohui has at least one thousand private soldiers, and the number of private soldiers of General Li Guozhen is definitely not less than one thousand. Other deputy generals, guerrillas, garrisons, etc. As long as there is a way to raise private soldiers, who doesn’t want to have an armed force that only obeys his orders? Ningxia Town is so chaotic and without such a team, who can sleep with confidence? I’m afraid that even if my head falls out, I don’t know what’s going on!

Even the commander of the guard Deng Rubai also had hundreds of servants. The cavalry team that appeared yesterday was part of his private soldiers. The other nine guard commanders also had their own armed servants. Peng Feng, Qianhu, also had some servants, but the number was far less than that of Deng Rubai, and his equipment was not as good as Deng Rubai's servants, and his combat effectiveness was not as strong. As for the less than Qianhu, he could not have any extra money and food at all, so it was naturally impossible for private soldiers to appear.

Of course, the court did not want a common phenomenon of servants, which could easily lead to a situation where the tail was too big, the army was self-respecting, or even the armed separatist situation. If the situation was serious, it would even develop into separatist vassal states at the end of the Tang Dynasty and chaos in the world. However, the court had no way to cure private soldiers. If you don’t have enough money and food to fill all the holes, you can’t distribute all the money and food of all soldiers, so you can only acquiesce to such a thing.

Over time, the court had to admit the legal existence of private servants, and even took special care of these servants when distributing money and grain. In this way, armed servants were completely legalized. As long as the generals with a little power and a little trick, they worked hard to develop and strengthen their own servants. Basically, the slightly more elite army in the late Ming Dynasty were just private servants of each general. Of course, except for the Guanning Iron Cavalry.

Fortunately, the civil servant group of the court still held crucial food and salary, which to a certain extent suppressed the growth of the scale of private soldiers. Due to the restrictions on food and salary, the scale of the generals' private soldiers could not be infinitely expanded. After Li Chengliang, the generals with the largest number of armed servants would not exceed 3,000. As for a single general, it could not pose a fatal threat to the court, and the situation of armed separatism did not appear.

"Forget it, just be a servant."

Yu Lijun sighed silently in his heart, and said nothing.

The servants are servants, but they are used to it anyway. Many people are not qualified to be servants. When others choose servants, they have to choose the best ones, and choose one from a hundred. Yu Lijun himself is a polite, so of course he will not take the initiative to be servants for Xu Xingxia. However, it is hard to say that the soldiers below are servants. The treatment of half a pound of meat, steamed buns and rice every day is enough to attract many people. Moreover, there are some other additional treatments.

In life, you can’t even have enough food to eat, so what else can you talk about? Isn’t that nonsense? Therefore, no matter whether he Yu Lijun is willing or not, Xu Xingxia will be unstoppable if he wants to recruit a large number of servants. One is willing to fight and the other is willing to be beaten, what can you say? The most serious thing is that this is completely legal. There is no law that says that hundreds of households cannot have their own servants. As long as you have money, you can raise servants with a small banner.

Nowadays, it has almost become a law for anyone who gives money to do things. Since it is Xu Xingxia's money, it is natural for the soldiers below to work for him. If the superiors do not want to see such a situation, they can only pay the food and pay as soon as possible to separate the relationship between the soldiers and Xu Xingxia. But will the superiors pay the food and pay in time? Yu Lijun feels very uneasy. When it comes to distributing food and pay, the superiors always delay the food and pay. Only when they are unable to do anything about it will they squeeze out a little bit to deal with it. Otherwise, there would not be so many mutinies in Ningxia Town, and it would not be a cause for food and pay.

Yu Lijun also had a feeling that the superiors would definitely not stop Xu Xingxia from raising family members. They might even encourage Xu Xingxia to raise family members, the more the number, the better. Because the more family members Xu Xingxia raises, the lighter their burdens are. This is a great thing! As for the serious consequences that may be brought about by this matter, they will not care for the time being. Because, in the next three or four years, Xu Xingxia will not threaten them.

"This is completely a disaster for raising a tiger!" Yu Lijun muttered to himself in his heart. As a bystander, he seemed to see Xu Xingxia's ambitions. However, he had no ability to stop it, nor was he willing to stop it. Because, for those poor soldiers, being a servant for Xu Xingxia is indeed a good choice. If Yu Lijun obstructed him, Xu Xingxia would not need to take action, and the soldiers below would tear him apart.

"Lao Yu, let's determine the division of personnel. It must be implemented in individuals! Who will grow vegetables? Who will go to the kitchen? Who will go to raise pigs? Who will go to raise fish? Is it better to fix it or to rotate it once a year?" Xu Xingxia said in a leisurely manner. He had no idea about his decision, which attracted many of Yu Lijun's ideas. Now he has considered how to implement a job responsibility system in Niujiaodun.

With the lessons learned from later generations, Xu Xingxia no longer wants to do things like big pots. He must put the responsibility on the individual as much as possible. Once a problem occurs, it can be traced to the individual. Essays such as planting and breeding require a high sense of responsibility. It is absolutely impossible to live a life of silence.

Sure enough, after listening to Xu Xingxia's words, Yu Lijun felt pressure. It is indeed a bit difficult to put the responsibility on everyone. Nowadays, everyone has become accustomed to the way of cooking big pot rice. Now, Xu Xingxia wants to pull the individual out and demonstrate one by one, but I am afraid that many people are not used to it. Yu Lijun said tactfully: "Why can't you do it together?"

Xu Xingxia shook her head and said affirmatively: "No! You must do it alone!"

Yu Lijun frowned and said, "Some things that a person is afraid that they can't do!"

Xu Xingxia said unswervingly: "If one person cannot do it, others can help. However, there must be a person in charge. If something goes wrong, you must find the person in charge. If you feel that you don't have the courage to be the person in charge, you can not do it. I believe that among so many people, there are always people who are willing to do it."

Since Xu Xingxia said so, Yu Lijun would not insist. In fact, he also knew that designating a special person in charge would be beneficial in terms of work attitude and work efficiency. The chances of mistakes would be greatly reduced. However, the previous Niujiao Dun defensive officers did not have the courage of Xu Xingxia. Of course, the benefits they gave to the soldiers were far less than Xu Xingxia. As the saying goes, the soft hand of people is and the short-speaking mouth is, since they have boarded Xu Xingxia's ship, they can only follow Xu Xingxia's arrangements.

“Who is willing to take charge of growing vegetables?”

“Who is willing to be responsible for growing sweet potatoes?”

“Who is willing to take charge of the pig farm?”

"Who is willing to take charge of the fish pond?"

“Who is willing to take charge of the kitchen?”

According to Xu Xingxia's request, Yu Lijun launched a personnel recruitment activity inside Niujiaoduan. As a result, several older soldiers enthusiastically signed up. After learning about Niujiaoduan's future treatment, they would definitely not be willing to leave Niujiaoduan. Such good treatment, not to mention the Pinglu Qianhu House, even the entire Ningxia Town, is unheard of!
Chapter completed!