Chapter 125: Military Farming
Cao Rui looked around at his ministers and said, "There are already 50,000 Wu soldiers who have surrendered in the carriage. How should we deal with these prisoners?"
Cao Zhen asked, "Your Majesty, are we going to take these Wu prisoners back to Shouchun?"
Cao Rui smiled and shook his head slightly: "I am asking you, why is the general asking about me?"
Cao Zhen had long been accustomed to the emperor's outspokenness, so he just smiled and didn't take it seriously.
Cao Rui turned his gaze to Sima Yi: "Sikong, what do you think?"
When Sima Yi saw the emperor asking him a question, he thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, I think we should first screen these prisoners."
"How to identify?" Cao Rui and all the ministers in the tent looked at Sima Yi.
Sima Yi said slowly: "Fifty thousand captives are fifty thousand young and strong men, who will be of great use to the country. But I don't think all captives can be used again."
"Among the prisoners, those Wu soldiers who have injured our soldiers in battle and whose hands are stained with blood should be killed as a punishment. Only those Wu soldiers who have not harmed our army can be taken back and redistributed."
This……
Sima Yi's words really surprised Cao Rui. Wasn't this a discussion about how to deal with the prisoners? Cao Rui wanted to ask how to place and reuse the prisoners, but Sima Yi was going to start killing people?
All the officials stared at Sima Yi, speechless for a moment. The Wei army also had a dark history, and indeed they had massacred many civilians, but it was just a chaotic time, so they could naturally find excuses to wash it off without shame.
Now that the Cao family has become the emperor, "All under heaven belongs to the king, and all within the four seas are the king's subjects", these captives are nominally the subjects of the Emperor of Wei.
Killing someone after he surrendered? That's obviously not appropriate.
Cao Rui couldn't help but be curious about Sima Yi's train of thought: "Sikong wanted to use the executed Wu soldiers to intimidate the Eastern Wu, and also wanted to intimidate the other surrendered soldiers?"
Sima Yi nodded and said: "For the rebellious people in Dongwu, it is better to use power than virtue. They should be punished."
After hearing this, Cao Rui thought for a moment and roughly understood Sima Yi's thoughts.
Sima Yi's idea at this time was, on the one hand, to intimidate the Eastern Wu, but on the other hand, he still studied the old traditions of the Han Dynasty. For the Luoyang court, the Xianbei, Xiongnu, and Qiang people were actually not to be regarded as human beings.
As for the Luoyang court, the choice was either to kill or to pacify the rebels. In fact, there were precedents. Wu was a remote area, and the rebels did not obey the king's rule, so it was okay to kill them as a punishment.
Cao Rui suddenly thought of the original history, after Sima Yi attacked Gongsun Yuan in Liaodong, he slaughtered more than 7,000 adult men in Xiangping City and built a city gate to boast of his achievements and intimidate others. I guess he followed this way of thinking, which is really consistent.
Cao Rui shook his head and said, "Although what Sikong said makes sense, the country is exhausted and lacks manpower everywhere. I don't want to kill any of these Wu prisoners."
"Don't mention killing prisoners anymore."
Sima Yi was quite embarrassed. He bowed and sat down again.
Liu Ye saw the emperor's intention and stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think we should take the captives back to Shouchun first to prevent them from causing any trouble at the border. After arriving in Shouchun, we can divide the captives into three categories and deal with them accordingly."
Cao Rui looked at Liu Ye and said, "Liu Qing, please tell me in detail how to classify them?"
Liu Ye said: "First, the Wu soldiers came from various sources, including Sun Quan's central army, the generals' troops, and the county troops. We should select those who are still loyal to Sun Quan and surrendered only because of the situation. We should also include the Wu soldiers who were just mentioned by the Minister of War, whose hands were stained with the blood of the Wei soldiers, in this category."
Cao Rui did not speak, and motioned Liu Ye to continue to explain his point of view. Sima Yi looked up at Liu Ye, and was slightly unhappy that Liu Ye borrowed his ideas.
Liu Ye continued, "Secondly, we should select soldiers from the Wu army who have ruled the land for a long time."
"And the rest, the Wu troops from remote counties and Shanyue, should be classified into the third category."
Cao Rui asked: "After Liu Qing has divided them into three categories, how will he deal with them?"
Liu Ye said bluntly: "All of them should be cultivated!"
Everyone fell into deep thought.
As for the military farms, everyone present knew about them. However, the so-called military farms were divided into two types: "military farms" and "civilian farms".
To be specific, it was in the first year of Jian'an. At that time, Cao Cao had just defeated the Yellow Turban Army in Yingchuan and Runan, and had a lot of young laborers. At the suggestion of Zao Zhi, Cao Cao began to implement the military farming system.
Simply put, the wars at the end of the Han Dynasty caused the people to be displaced and many fields became ownerless.
Zao Zhi's military farming system was actually to find an unowned land and a group of homeless people, with the state providing seeds and oxen, and the grain produced being shared between the farmers and the state.
The proportion of the profits was related to an important means of production, the "cows". The farmers who had cattle produced grain and shared it with the state 50-50. The farmers who did not have cattle, because they used "state cattle", produced grain and shared it with the state 40-60, with the farmers taking 40% and the state taking 60%.
Cao Rui looked at Liu Ye and said, "Mr. Liu, is it a military settlement or a civilian settlement? Where is it located?" Liu Ye said, "I think there are both military settlements and civilian settlements."
Liu Ye was always quick-witted and had figured out the whole thing by now: "For the first category of Wu troops who are still suspicious, we should station them in Henan and use the central military force to suppress them at any time."
"The second category, the soldiers who have been in the heart of Wu for a long time, should be sent to Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou, so that they can be suppressed by the local foreign troops. While producing food for the country, they will not be too close to the border to cause chaos."
Cao Rui nodded and asked: "Are the two categories mentioned by Liu Qing military settlements or civilian settlements?"
Liu Ye said: "I think these two types of surrendered soldiers should not be used as military settlements. They should be settled as civilians for several years before they can be slowly released and used as soldiers."
Cao Rui asked: "Then the third category Liu Qing mentioned is military settlements?"
Liu Ye said, "Your Majesty, that is exactly what happened."
"As for the Wu army surrendered soldiers from remote counties and Shanyue, they are the ones that can be used. We can let them settle in Yongliang, a place far away from the Central Plains."
"First, they can be used as soldiers to fill the gaps in the local garrison. Second, Yongliang is a vast area with more usable farmland. They can be used as farmers in peacetime and soldiers in wartime, so they can naturally fill the gap in the Yongliang garrison."
As Liu Ye explained his thoughts step by step, all the ministers in the tent understood.
Whether it was military settlement or civilian settlement, it was not a rare thing. For Cao Wei, there were both military settlements and civilian settlements, but for Shu Han and Dong Wu, almost all of them were military settlements, because there were too few refugees.
Liu Ye's statement only made some innovations in the identification and dispatch of the surrendered Wu soldiers.
Liu Ye's arrangement was indeed quite comprehensive. After hearing this, Cao Rui asked everyone, "Do you have anything to add?"
Cao Zhen and Sima Yi both shook their heads to show that they had no objection. However, Jiang Ji stood up and had something to say.
Jiang Ji cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, in my opinion, can we keep some of the Wu army's surrendered soldiers and use them to build ships and repair the river?"
"It is now the first year of Taihe, but during the Huangchu period, we repeatedly attacked the Wu Kingdom. Many times, due to problems with ships and water transportation, the transportation of military supplies for the army was blocked. There was even one time when the fleet almost failed to return north."
"If we can select some Wu soldiers to specialize in craftsmanship, it will not only reduce the corvée labor of the people in the border counties, but also be beneficial to the military."
After hearing this, Cao Rui nodded repeatedly.
It was right to assign specific people to specific tasks. Jiang Ji had been in Huainan for a long time, so he naturally understood the difficulties of fighting in Huainan. In addition, Jiang Ji was an expert in naval forces and water conservancy, so he seemed more pleasing to the eye among the Wei army generals.
Cao Rui looked at Liu Ye and said, "Minister Liu, please write down General Jiang's suggestion and we will discuss it after we return to Shouchun."
Liu Ye nodded in agreement.
But speaking of prisoners, Cao Rui recalled a case: "My Lords, who knows where the soldiers who accompanied Yu Jin to reinforce Xiangfan and surrendered with Yu Jin during the reign of Emperor Wu went?"
The ministers looked at each other, and for a moment they didn't know how to explain the matter to the emperor.
Cao Zhen cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, this happened nearly ten years ago. After Yu Jin led his people to surrender in Xiangfan, he first surrendered to Guan Yu, then surrendered to Sun Quan, and was finally sent back to Wei by Sun Quan."
"When Sun Quan sent Yu Jin back to Wei, it was when Sun Quan was fighting with Liu Bei in Yiling, in order to seek peace with Wei. In addition to Yu Jin, the court also sent envoys to Sun Quan, asking him to send back the captured Wei soldiers."
"However, when Yu Jin came to Xiangfan to support him, he had 30,000 soldiers. When Sun Quan surrendered, he only returned about 10,000 soldiers. At that time, the late emperor sent an envoy to question Sun Quan, and Sun Quan said that these soldiers had joined Shu Han or died in the war."
"The late emperor had no choice but to let it go."
Cao Zhen looked at the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, do you want to exchange prisoners with Sun Quan? Use today's Wu army prisoners to exchange for the soldiers who were stranded in the south at that time in the imperial army?"
Cao Rui nodded: "General, do you think it's okay?"
"As the Son of Heaven, how can I be a saintly ruler like Emperor Wen of Han if I only force my subjects to join the army and farm? Since these soldiers were exiled to the Eastern Wu because of the imperial court's order, I have the opportunity today to bring them back to the Wei Dynasty. This can be regarded as a conclusion to this case at the end of the Jian'an period."
All the ministers in the tent stood up, saluted and said in unison: "Your Majesty is benevolent."
Cao Rui looked at his ministers and said, "Whether I am benevolent or not is not a matter for me alone. It is a matter between me, this court, and all the ministers."
"Now that you know about this, let's think about what to do. As for the prisoners, take them to Shouchun first. The exchange of prisoners with Sun Quan will also be discussed after the war here is settled."
Cao Rui asked: "The Grand Marshal should be arriving in Wancheng soon, right? Starting tomorrow, I will be preparing to return to Shouchun. The war here will be supervised by the Grand Marshal."
Cao Zhen responded: "I understand. I will prepare to hand over to the Grand Marshal later."
(End of this chapter)
