“This is nothing. What people are really envious of is Liaodong Town. I heard that the recruits there, as soon as they join, are given five taels of silver as a settlement allowance, another three taels for armor and equipment, plus fifteen taels for horse and saddle expenses, and they even get a monthly salary. Tsk tsk, what a life…”

“All those recruits are from civilian households. Even after joining the army, they’re still considered civilians. We’re just poor hereditary military households—how can we compare?”

Samuel Howard listened quietly. Next year, he would be taking over as the commander of Wuzhai Fort, so naturally he wanted to understand what his soldiers were thinking—after all, they would be the foundation of his Wuzhai Fort in the future. But from what he heard and saw, everything was a mess, and morale was unstable. Wuzhai Fort really had a lot of problems.

Little William glanced at Samuel Howard’s expression. He had also heard what the soldiers were saying just now. He quickly stepped forward and shouted, “Are you all looking for death, talking about things that shake the army’s morale here? Do you want to be punished under military law?”

Only then did the soldiers realize that Samuel Howard and the other two were standing right beside them. All of them were shocked and knelt down, saying, “We know our mistake, young master, please forgive us!”

Although Samuel Howard hadn’t officially taken over yet and technically had no authority to punish them, all the soldiers knew that Samuel Howard’s words basically represented the commander’s will. After all, Henry Howard’s favoritism toward Samuel Howard was well known throughout Wuzhai Fort.

People always strive for better lives. The treatment of camp soldiers was better than that of garrison soldiers, so it was normal for these men to discuss and envy them. Forcibly suppressing such talk wasn’t a good solution. To forge iron, one must be strong oneself. If he wanted the soldiers to feel attached to and identify with Wuzhai Fort, he would have to manage it well and ensure the soldiers had no worries about food and clothing.

Samuel Howard said calmly, “Get up. I won’t blame you, but don’t let it happen again.” Although he was only seventeen in this body, there wasn’t a single person in Wuzhai Fort who dared ignore his words.

The soldiers got up, thanking him profusely.

Samuel Howard led David James and Little William down from the fort wall, with the soldiers seeing them off respectfully.

From a distance, he heard voices discussing, “Wow, that really scared me just now. Doesn’t anyone else think that Tiger Howard’s silent, gloomy look is even scarier than when he used to be fierce?”

“Yeah, yeah, I feel the same way…”

……

As Samuel Howard walked down from the fort wall, he was still thinking about what the soldiers had said.

In fact, the garrison soldiers and camp soldiers the men had just mentioned were part of a unique military system in the Ming Dynasty.

Garrison soldiers belonged to the “wei-suo” system, organized into squads, banners, centurions, chiliarchs, garrison commanders, and chief commanders. Camp soldiers belonged to the “ying” system, organized into squad leaders, captains, sentry officers, company commanders, garrison officers, mobile battalion commanders, deputy generals, and chief generals. The two systems were both contradictory and coexisted, lasting side by side for nearly a hundred years.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the “wei-suo” system was implemented nationwide—these were the garrison soldiers. After the mid-Ming period, the system decayed, and the garrison soldiers became unreliable, so the Ming government had to recruit large numbers of soldiers from the civilian population.

The biggest difference between recruited soldiers and garrison soldiers was that most recruits came from civilian households. After enlisting, their civilian status did not change, their service was not hereditary, nor was it lifelong. The government explicitly stipulated that after their service, they would return to farming. Thus, garrison soldiers were called “junshi,” while recruits were called “minbing.” Recruited soldiers became the main military force relied upon in the later Ming period.

But whether garrison or recruited, neither was a combat unit. In battle, garrison or recruited soldiers would be organized into camps, called “camp soldiers.” The sources of camp soldiers were, first, recruited soldiers, and second, garrison soldiers. The main force of camp soldiers was recruited men, but some were selected from the garrison.

Soldier status was not hereditary, and their pay and rations were better than those of the garrison, so gradually, soldiers replaced the garrison’s role. Soldiers were mainly for combat, while the garrison focused on defense and farming.

However, soldiers never completely replaced the garrison. The camp soldier system was a military organization set up for wartime, highly mobile, deployed as needed, with no fixed station. When the campaign ended, the recruits returned home to farm, and the garrison returned to their posts. The garrison system lasted until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

In short, the implementation of the camp and recruitment system had an obvious impact on the normal operation of the garrison system. A significant portion of camp soldiers came from surplus garrison men, who were likely substitutes for regular garrison troops or important local defense forces. The mass recruitment of surplus garrison men inevitably affected the garrison’s ability to replenish and maintain its ranks.

The situation Samuel Howard had just witnessed among the soldiers made this clear. By the mid-to-late Ming, the garrison system was already in decline, with many able-bodied men fleeing, leaving the garrisons severely understaffed. On top of that, the garrisons had become de facto reserve pools, constantly sending their best men to the camp forces. The more the garrisons bled, the weaker they became—no surprise there.

How should he change this situation? Without able-bodied men, Wuzhai Fort could forget about developing.

With these thoughts, Samuel Howard walked over to his horse. David James and Little William came up to him. David James asked in his simple way, “Young master, where are we going now?”

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Samuel Howard’s mind. He had always found it strange that he had come to this world—why was he here, and was there anything unusual when he arrived? He had fainted when he transmigrated and possessed this body. Today, he wanted to go to the place where his accident happened and see if he could discover anything.

Samuel Howard said, “Let’s go, out of the city!”

Chapter 6 This Year

“Young master, this…”