明代以世襲軍戶為衛所軍力的來源，藉以確保軍役之達成。軍隊的基本功能本在 防禦作戰，但處於非戰之時，如何維持此一龐大軍力，而又不致造成國家財政負擔，乃成為 歷朝所努力講求的目標。洪武、永樂年間，明朝政府在各地普遍開設軍屯，訂定了屯軍與守 軍的比例，不久又以部份衛軍參與漕運。這時，由於屯、守軍的身份已經確定，運軍多由屯 軍中撥補，屯田遂成為餘丁乃至佃戶的工作。運軍以漕運為役，以屯租補充家計，幫貼造船 、運糧。餘丁在明初本來只需聽繼軍役，並不直接參與衛所軍務，但隨著衛所軍役內容的擴 大，以及衛軍的大量逃亡，餘丁被役占的情形也愈來愈嚴重。在衛軍人數缺乏的衛所，餘丁 甚至被以抽丁的方式，成為補充正軍的最大來源。屯田、操練或漕運均屬正役，衛所內另有 一些雜差是由正軍輪流更直的，如軍伴、直廳、守門、守庫之屬。其人數及輪值方式原皆有 限制，但由於軍官役占情形嚴重，雜差人數不但大幅增加，也逐漸成為固定的軍種。明代衛 所軍役因地區之不同，內容也有很大的不同，本文以江西為例，探討衛所軍役演變的過程， 對萬曆年間以南昌衛為首的江西各衛施行一條鞭法的經過也加以論述，期能對江西所代表的 明代腹裡衛所之功能作一釐清。

　　　　　In order to secure sufficient military service , the Ming dynasty established the Guards and Battalions system (wei-so 衛所 ) by using the hereditary military households (chun-hu 軍戶 ) as the principal source of man power. In time of peace, however, the government faced the problem of maintaining an enormous military force in need of economizing its maintenance costs. During 1368-1424, the government opened state-woned tracts called Military Farms throughout the country, and fixed a ratio between the Farm troops (t'un-chun 屯軍 ) and the stationed troops (shou-chun 守軍 ). Later, part of the Guards were used in provisions transportation. During that time, after the distinction of Farm troops and stationed troops had been confirmed, the transportation troops were usually recruited from the Farm troops, while the duties of farming fell on the supernumerary service-men or the tenants. For the transportation troops, provisions transportation became their major duty, and the rent from the Military Farms became their supplementary family incomes and subsidiary funds for building ships and transporting provisions. In early Ming times, before inheriting their families' military service, the supernumerary service-men were not directly involved in the regular military service at their Guards. However, following the expansion of military service at the Guards and the number of run-away Guard soldiers in the growth, more and more supernumerary service-men were taken into regular military service. At short-handed Guards, the supernumerary service-men were even drafted by a certain ratio to become the largest source of regular soldiers. In addition to formal duties like farming, military exercises, and provisions transportation, the regular Guard soldiers must also perform in rotation a lot of miscellaneous duties like guarding governmental offices, gates, and warehouses as well as attendants of military officers. Due to the abuses of military officers who used the service-men for private services regardless of the original participant quota or the rotation methods in the miscellaneous duties, men engaged in these duties increased tremendously and gradually became a regular brance of military forces. While the military service of the Guards varied in different areas, this essay uses Chiang-hsi as an example to study the changes in the military service, and also to illustrate the implementation of the Single-assessment taxation method at the Guards in Chiang-hsi headed by the Nan-ch'ang Guard during 1573-1620, in the hope that the functions of inland Guards represented by Chiang-hsi could be clarified.