In addition to the various injustices mentioned above, military households also faced strict restrictions on marriage. The garrison regulations stipulated that soldiers must have wives and were not allowed to remain single. This was because soldiers not only had the duty to serve, but also bore the responsibility of producing the next generation of soldiers for the garrison. As a result, the marriages of military households were subject to all kinds of strict limitations: the children of military households were not allowed to marry into civilian households, to prevent the outflow of personnel. If a military household wanted to marry into a civilian household, it was extremely difficult. This was because once a civilian’s child married into a military household, they would be permanently absorbed into the military register, and their descendants would never escape the harsh constraints of military status.

Ming soldiers were also subject to harsh military law and discipline. Garrison soldiers were often insulted, beaten, and tormented by their superiors, and those who broke the law were severely punished. For example, if officers and soldiers in the capital were caught learning to sing, their tongues would be cut out; if they engaged in business, they would be exiled to remote areas as penal soldiers.

All of the above led to mass desertion among the soldiers, and the phenomenon of military households evading service became even more serious. Some garrisons were severely understaffed, with vacancies sometimes exceeding half, and in some cases, only a few people remained. According to records, in the third year of the Zhengtong reign (1438), as many as 1.2 million soldiers deserted nationwide. The garrisons were already severely short of troops. That year, the censor John Lee, while inspecting a certain company in Shandong, found that the company, which should have had 112 banner soldiers, had only 1 left due to desertion. The garrison system gradually lost its historical function.

However, the awkward reality was that the relatively good life now enjoyed by the The Howard Family and Samuel Howard was also built on the exploitation of the ordinary military households of Wuzhaibao. What could Samuel Howard say about this?

Chapter 5 Army and Soldiers

Samuel Howard, accompanied by David James and Little William, after inspecting various places within Wuzhaibao, finally, with a complicated mood, climbed up onto the fortress wall. Naturally, David James and Little William followed closely beside Samuel Howard.

The outer walls of Wuzhaibao were faced with brick and stone, and since the fortress was located on flat terrain, there were four gates built into the walls.

Inside the gates was an inner barbican, and along with the horse-face towers, battlements, firing ports, and sentry posts on the walls, as well as the horse path and corner towers inside the walls, these facilities together formed a comprehensive castle defense system.

At this moment, a few soldiers were huddled against the wall, chatting idly, their expressions relaxed. When they saw Samuel Howard and the other two approaching, they quickly straightened up and respectfully greeted, “Young Master Huang!” Although Samuel Howard would only take over the position of company commander next year and currently held no military rank, not a single soldier dared to be disrespectful to him, and they also worried whether Samuel Howard would reprimand them for their laxity.

But Samuel Howard had no mind to bother with them. He nodded, waved for them to continue their patrol, and then, with David James and Little William, slowly strolled along the fortress wall, carefully inspecting each place, matching everything with his memories.

Finally, Samuel Howard climbed up to the corner tower and, almost unconsciously, gazed toward the direction of the signal beacon.

Standing atop the corner tower, one could see for several li. The terrain around Wuzhaibao was higher in the southeast and lower in the northwest. As far as the eye could see, the land within ten li to the west, north, and south of the fortress was mostly flat, either plains or hills, with only the east side not far away being high mountains and steep ridges, known locally as Kelan Mountain.

To the north of the fortress was a river, called the Qinglian River by the locals. One could see some fields on both sides of the river, which originally belonged to the military households of Wuzhaibao, but now most had been taken over by the The Howard Family.

After watching for a long time, naturally, the distant signal beacon remained quiet, not stirring just because of Samuel Howard’s arrival. In fact, since the Longqing peace agreement, large-scale Mongol invasions had basically ceased. Except for some small Mongol tribes near the border who would occasionally raid the towns after disasters, the Nine Borders had remained largely peaceful. Yet Samuel Howard knew that in two years, with the Three Great Campaigns of the Wanli era, war would break out on this frontier again. And what role would he play then?

Samuel Howard pondered, feeling a kind of iron-clad, icy-river emotion in his heart. Meanwhile, David James and Little William were secretly watching Samuel Howard, both thinking, “Young master was never this quiet before; he used to be so hot-tempered. Maybe it’s because of what happened recently that he’s changed.”

Seeing Samuel Howard lost in thought, Little William quietly approached and said, “Young master, it’s windy up here on the corner tower. Let’s go down!” David James quickly agreed.

Samuel Howard nodded, and with David James and Little William, descended from the corner tower. Just as they were about to leave the fortress wall, they heard a few sentry soldiers nearby gathered together, enthusiastically discussing something. Samuel Howard was intrigued and stopped to listen. The conversation drifted over.

“…Do you know about those camp soldiers in the Shanxi garrison town? Wow, they have it good. Besides their monthly grain rations, they get a tael of silver every month. And that’s just the treatment after our garrison brothers were transferred to become camp soldiers!”

“How do I know? You know Big Bull, right? He used to be from our Wuzhaibao, was great with a spear, and last year he was selected to serve as a camp soldier in the garrison town. A few days ago, he sent a letter back!”

“Big Bull really makes people envious. He gets both grain and pay every month, much better than us who only get a little grain each month. Sigh, ever since my wife married me, she’s never had a full meal.”

“It’s true that Big Bull is enviable, but he was transferred from the garrison, and he’s still a hereditary soldier. The ones who are really enviable are those recruited into the camp as new soldiers—their treatment is even better, and they’re not hereditary, free to come and go. I heard that after these people are recruited, each gets a five-tael settlement payment, southern soldiers get one tael and five qian per month, and northern soldiers get one tael.”