Ming East India Company

Accompanying Bai Ye to Haicheng Thousand Household Office was Bai Ye's fourth uncle, Bai Wenyue, who had sailed to the East Sea many times and was considered the most experienced sailor in the Bai family.

Therefore, Bai Wenzheng specially sent Bai Wenyue and Bai Ye together to prevent Bai Ye from suffering a loss.

Along the way, Bai Ye and Bai Wenyue sat together in the lead carriage to bring up the rear, accompanied by ten servants and twenty or thirty thugs hired by Bai Wenzheng.

Although there were no formal escort agencies in the Ming Dynasty, there were already escorting gangs that provided security services such as guarding homes and transporting goods.

It was only twenty or thirty li from Baizhuang to the Haicheng military camp, but Bai Wenzheng, considering the importance of the matter, still hired a group of thugs to accompany him.

Accompanied by the thugs shouting "He wo! He wo!", Bai Ye began exchanging sea-crossing techniques with Bai Wenyue along the way.

"Going to sea by boat has always been regarded as a lowly occupation by the common people. They would never go by boat if they had even the slightest chance of survival. This is especially true for the garrison soldiers in these military camps, who are usually treated like servants by officials at all levels."

But they can still barely feed themselves, so if we want to take them to Ryukyu, which is a thousand miles away, we can't be stingy with money. How much do you plan to give each person?

"About four taels each. Fifty taels will be paid after the job is done."

"No way." Bai Wenyue shook his head firmly.

"That's too little. When I went to sea before, even the lowest-ranking cooks received eight taels of silver each for settling down. Let alone the garrison soldiers with families, this is far too little. The pay needs to be increased."

"What if I told them they could become servants of the Bai family afterward?"

The Bai family has always adhered to the business philosophy of "not eating the grass near one's burrow," making money through commerce but being very lenient with land taxes and rents.

Besides the regular taxes levied by the imperial court, no additional land rent was collected. In years of disaster or famine, they would also take the initiative to provide relief to the farmhands. Therefore, they had a good reputation in the vicinity of Yuegang. Being a farmhand for the Bai family was indeed much better than being a slave in the garrison.

But Bai Wenyue remained unmoved after listening to this:

"If that's the case, we can definitely recruit a lot of people. But recruiting is easy, but buying land is difficult. Where are you going to find so much land to settle them? Even if we win this battle and the Bai family makes a lot of money, we still can't buy that much land!"

In the late Ming Dynasty, the relationship between people and land in Jiangnan had deteriorated to the extreme. It was no exaggeration to say that the land was scarce and the population dense, with no open space. Farmers valued the land very much and fought for every inch of it.

This has led to the formation of many strange "unspoken rules" regarding land transactions.

Generally speaking, if an ordinary farmer wants to sell land, he must first ask his relatives and friends, then his neighbors and fellow villagers, and finally the local gentry before he can sell it to an outsider.

After a transaction is agreed upon, it must be witnessed and approved by the local neighbors before it can be finalized. This has nothing to do with the price; it's not simply a matter of offering a high price to easily buy a large tract of land.

The reason is simple: land doesn't change hands easily, and everyone is supposed to be neighbors for generations. Sometimes they even vouch for each other. If bad people are brought in, it would implicate the whole village.

Bai Wenyue looked at Bai Ye and said earnestly:

"If you're trying to deceive these soldiers, I advise you not to. Many of them have been soldiers for generations, intermarrying with each other, and some of them have distant relatives who have become officials. If you offend them, they can file a lawsuit that goes straight to the emperor. Your uncle alone can't cover it up."

If your intention is to harm the old and enrich the new by driving away the servants in Bai Village to make way for these soldiers, I suggest you don't do it. Many of these servants have served the Bai family for two or three generations. If they lose their land and become bandits, not only will they incur enmity, but the charge of inciting a popular uprising is something we cannot bear.

There are no scholars in our family.

Bai Wenyue deliberately emphasized the last sentence.

Families without political power are forever lambs to the slaughter on the land of the Ming Dynasty.

Bai Ye raised his head, his expression clear and his words full of confidence:

"Don't worry, Fourth Uncle, since I dared to make this statement, I have naturally made full preparations."

Bai Wenyue didn't say anything, but simply took out a flask of wine from his waist and drank it down.

Not long after, Bai Ye and Bai Wenyue arrived at the military camp of the Thousand Households.

The two entered the garrison and found the camp desolate. The soldiers' clothes were tattered, many wrapped in rags, their faces sallow and thin, showing no signs of soldierly spirit. The weapons were rusted, and the barracks had numerous holes, all filled with straw to cover them. The old and weak huddled in the corners.

Even worse, not far away, a crazed woman was holding a child and screaming, while several men were trying their best to drag her back.

However, just across the street from the ordinary soldiers were the barracks of the garrison's household guards. It was already 1:15 AM, but the sounds of prostitutes' laughter and chatter could still be heard coming from the guards' barracks.

They were both soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, yet the difference between them was as vast as heaven and earth.

The two looked at each other in silence, their hearts turning cold—this was the garrison that once guarded this area, now reduced to such ruin.

At this moment, the captain in charge of liaising with Shiro saw the two of them arrive and quickly came over to greet them.

Perhaps sensing the sorrow in their expressions, the captain said helplessly:

"After you delivered the money yesterday, Commander Zhang immediately gave his servants a reward, so these men invited all the prostitutes from the neighborhood to the camp. And that's how it ended up like this."

Bai Wenyue couldn't help but ask in return:

"How did this garrison descend into such a state?"

The captain was also helpless:

"Since Emperor Hongwu established the garrison system, the garrison system has existed for hundreds of years. The land that originally belonged to the garrison soldiers has been almost entirely seized by wealthy merchants and military leaders. The soldiers' actual lives are no different from those of hired farmers."

But at least the peasants, who had suffered hardship and torment, could still hope that a just and upright official would stand up for them. The military households, on the other hand, were controlled by their superiors, and their lives were decided by their own. Over time, the military households deserted, their fighting strength declined, and the officers could only rely on the military households to support their own retainers and maintain their fighting strength.

In the Haicheng Garrison today, the land on paper has long since yielded nothing. The garrison's inhabitants can only survive on the meager military pay issued by the imperial court. Commander Zhang has no choice but to prioritize using the money to support his family's servants. The remaining military households have no means of livelihood and can only keep fleeing...

Then, looking at the garrison soldiers in front of him, he said:

"It was also yesterday that Commander Zhang ordered that the garrison troops be sent out alone to suppress the Japanese pirates. These soldiers were already impoverished, and now that they heard they were going to fight, they all thought they would never return. So now every household is writing their wills and making arrangements for their funerals."

The crazy woman you just saw went insane because she couldn't handle the shock.

Bai Ye knew that this was Zhang Gu Zhang's way of making it easier for him to recruit soldiers, so he could only nod heavily.

Bai Wenyue took out twenty-four Spanish pesos from his waist and gave them to the captain as sixteen taels of silver. The captain immediately turned around and began to call out to the troops.