In ancient times, was it ruled by the people or by officials?

Reclaiming cultivated land, also known as land reclamation, is a form of agricultural production in which the state forces farmers or soldiers to reclaim state-owned land and collect a certain amount of land rent. Agriculture appeared very early. After defeating Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once cultivated in Hetao of the Yellow River and even Zhangye and Jiuquan in Hexi, and stationed 600,000 troops on a large scale. At that time, the main purpose of reclaiming farmland was to solve the problem of food and supplies for the army. Because the transportation capacity was low at that time, reclaiming farmland could solve the problem of food and grass for nearby border guards. Later, Cao Wei, Tang, Song and Ming were all cultivated land.

There are military and private camps, and even private camps use military establishment. The reason why there are so many camps in the north now is the historical mark left by the "migration of Sophora japonica" in the early Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, due to years of war (including the war between Beijing and South China), the population of Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and other places decreased greatly, and the land was barren, and even there was a tragic situation in which there were no people in thousands of miles. In order to reclaim wasteland and resume production, the Ming dynasty began to force immigrants. At that time, as far as the north was concerned, Shanxi was less damaged by the war, with peaceful surroundings, favorable weather and abundant crops for many years. Especially in the vast areas along the Fenhe River, the land is abundant and the population is particularly dense. As a result, during the Hongwu and Yongle periods of the Ming Dynasty, the government moved a large number of people from the south of Shanxi. Shanxi immigrants mainly come from Taiyuan, Pingyang and Taiyuan, Linfen, Jincheng and Changzhi. At that time, Hongdong County, which is located in the traffic artery, became one of the important immigrant distribution centers.

At that time, the government set up a station in Guangji Temple in the north of Hongtong County, which was responsible for distributing "Sichuan nationality funds" to concentrated immigrants and forcing them to move to Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and other places. After a large number of immigrants arrived at the resettlement sites, they settled down in villages and camps under the supervision of local officials. In order to prevent immigrants from living together in the place where they moved in, forming new family forces and affecting social stability, the immigration law of the Ming Dynasty also stipulated that people with the same surname could not move into the same place.

After immigrants moved in, most of them took their surnames as villages and villages, some took their native counties as names, and some took officials in charge of wasteland management as surnames, such as Dingguantun, Suiguantun, Li Ying, Tunliu Camp, Changziying and Huozhou Camp. Most of these are official or private camps organized by the government, and of course there are military camps.

In order to help them resume production as soon as possible, the government provided them with farm tools, seeds and cattle free of charge, and reduced taxes. Cultivated land is allocated by the government according to the number of people, some 50 mu, some 80 mu. Many places even stipulate that "let it be reclaimed, and the number of acres is not limited". And stipulated that all these lands belonged to the pioneers as permanent industries.