In the afternoon, when Gao Jun returned to Menbu Village with others, Wang Sheng and others who stayed in the village were waiting for her to come back with a solemn face, and told her a major news.

It turned out that after Gao Jun rescued the three people on the way in the morning, one of them died due to ineffective treatment, and the other two were out of danger, and when the two people came to their senses, they learned that they were in Menbu Village, so they immediately asked to see Wang Sheng and Gao Jun, the managers of the land reform team, saying that there was something important to report to them.

After Wang Sheng heard the report of the infirmary, he knew that there must be something here, so he personally came to the infirmary to meet the two of them to see if they had anything to say. As soon as Wang Sheng came, the two of them immediately struggled from the hospital bed, wanted to kneel and kowtow to Wang Sheng, and wept bitterly, asking Wang Sheng to send someone to their village to carry out land reform, knock down the place in the village, and save the whole village.

When Wang Sheng saw it, he hurriedly helped the two of them up and let them lie back on the bed again, and there was something to say slowly.

According to the two surviving people, their names were Wan Lin and Wan Yuan, and they were two brothers, and the one who died was called Gao Ming, both of whom were tenant farmers in Daxinzhuang, Gaomi County, and rented the land of a landlord named Wan Yufu in Gaomi County. This person named Wan Yufu is not only an ordinary landlord, but also a secretary in Gaomi County, in charge of the county's field tax, forced labor, donations and other things, and his ancestors and grandchildren have held this position for four generations, it can be said that this is the inheritance of ten thousand families.

This situation is very common in ancient China, the county clerk belongs to the officials, not considered the official position of the imperial court, there is no grade, and there is no money, but it can control the local grass-roots power, such as tax collection, public security, levy and payment of labor and other related affairs, and these grass-roots positions, power into father to son, brother to brother and family heirloom to relatives and friends monopoly industry, that is, since the Song Dynasty, the formation of the so-called "officials have no feudalism and officials have feudal" phenomenon.

Although the social status of these people is not high, the power they hold is very great, and because of the formation of a family-style monopoly of power, it has caused intricate forces in the local area, and some forces are powerful and the power of officials not only controls local power, but also wanders on the edge of public and private, forming a black and white all-encompassing, and even some officials are originally robbers and bandits. If such ordinary local officials want to spend their term of office safely, they must have a good relationship with these people, not only not to offend, but also to rely on these people to maintain local stability.

Wan Yufu's family has more than 2,000 acres of land, which is not too much, and it is scattered in three villages. Donation and other affairs, coupled with the development and cultivation of four generations of families, there are many children, nephews, relatives and brothers, the county's silver grain in and out of the banquet through his hands and feet, naturally full of private pockets, geese over plucking, accumulated a lot of wealth, and it is said that he and some bandits and thieves have dealings in private, it can be said that it is both public and private, eyes and hands, and the power is extremely huge, so even the magistrate of Gaomi County has to be courteous to him. In the local area, it is naturally more wanton, oppressing the good, and there are more than 10 lives forced to die, according to the standards of the traverser, it belongs to the typical landlord bullies.

However, Wan Yufu does not live in Daxin Village, his hometown is in Beigoukou Village, Gaomi County, but there are more than 700 acres of land in Daxin Village and more than 40 tenants. Wan Lin, Wan Yuan and others all rented his family's land. However, Wan Yufu's land rent is set very high, and the tenants are extremely harsh, so even in the harvest year, they can only be exempted from strength, and if they encounter a famine year or a disaster year, not only can they not pay the land rent, but also owe a large amount of usury, the Wan family will find other ways to exploit the tenants, such as requiring the tenants to use their children, or other property to reduce debts, or do hard labor for the Wan family for free, etc.

Last year, there was a severe drought in Shandong, and the crops were not harvested, and these families owed a large amount of usury, and they had no children or daughters, except for a few dilapidated thatched huts, the family had no long-term property, so they could only rely on free hard labor for thousands of families to pay off their debts. Originally, he could just live one day like this, and at this time, the traverser was engaged in land reform in Menbu Village and the surrounding villages, and several villagers from Daxinzhuang came to Menbu Village to observe the land reform, and after they went back, they also spoke to other villagers vividly, so many villagers in Daxinzhuang also gave birth to "when will overseas Chinese come to their own land reform".

Wan Lin, Wan Yuan, Gao Ming and others even planned to go to the leaders of the overseas Chinese to ask if they would come to Daxinzhuang to carry out land reform, and if they did not come, it would be better to go to the overseas Chinese to beg for a living, and if they really couldn't do it, they would simply sign up to join the People's Army.

But just a few days ago, Wan Yufu came to Daxinzhuang with a group of family members, and arrested the villagers who came to Menbu Village to observe the land reform, saying that the overseas Chinese were intending to rebel, and sooner or later they would be exterminated by the imperial court. He also asked all the middle-aged men in the village to obey Wan Jia's orders, form a militia group, issue knives, guns and weapons, and prepare for a big war with overseas Chinese.

Wan Lin, Wan Yuan, Gao Ming and others were all selected into the militia group and received training, and they inquired with the closer family members of the Wan family in private to learn that in order to deal with the land reform group of overseas Chinese, Wan Jia had taken the lead in contacting several local squires and formed an alliance. In addition, it is said that Wanjia also invited the official army, so this time the overseas Chinese land reform team must be wiped out.

At this time, the land reform team had already become the hope of Wan Lin, Wan Yuan, Gao Ming and others, so after hearing the news, several people discussed privately and decided to flee from Daxinzhuang and report to the overseas Chinese.

So a few people fled overnight, and the people who knew it were found by the people of Wanjia and sent people to chase and kill them, and they fled together with a total of 7 people, and as a result, several people fled at night, Wan Lin, Wan Yuan, Gao Ming and others fled to the vicinity of Menbu Village, and the rest of the people did not know whether they were alive or dead, and Gao Ming also died because of the lack of treatment.

After listening to the two of them, Wang Sheng also comforted them a few words, saying that he would definitely go to Daxinzhuang to carry out land reform, so that the two of them could recuperate with peace of mind, and they would talk about it after they had recovered their bodies first.

After leaving the infirmary, Wang Sheng immediately went to Liu Qinglin, the battalion commander stationed in Menbu Village, because the security of the land reform team was guarded by the People's Army, and once a battle really broke out, Liu Qinglin would definitely be fully responsible. Just at this time, Gao Jun came back, so the three of them discussed it together.

Daxinzhuang and Beigoukou Village all belong to Gaomi County, of which Daxinzhuang is less than 20 kilometers away from Menbu Village, which is the edge of the area controlled by the current crossing group, and Beigoukou Village is about 30 kilometers away from Menbu Village, and it is not within the control of the current crossing group.

After listening to Wang Sheng's briefing, Gao Jun said: "Do you think what these two people said is reliable? The landlords should understand that they have no chance of winning against us, unless they have the full support of the Qing court, but this is impossible, so even if we eliminate our land reform team, we will immediately be retaliated against more strongly. ”

Wang Sheng shook his head and said: "I think it's basically reliable, first of all, our land reform movement will inevitably cause the hatred of some landlords and squires, and they will definitely not be willing to hand over the land, and some landlords who usually do too much evil things estimate that they are in a catastrophe, so they organize an alliance against us, resist stubbornly, and even bite back before dying, it is not surprising, and we can't be too careless." ”

Liu Qinglin said: "I also think they don't lie, but they are very skeptical about the truth of what they said, because they only know the situation from some idle chat, and the object of understanding is basically the lowest, so they may not really understand the truth, and even if what they say is true, but for us it is only an early warning, such as the composition of the opponent's members, those landlords joined the alliance, and attracted those bandits, how many troops, weapons, Whether they will wait for us in their village, or whether they will take the initiative to attack us, whether the government will participate or not, these details are not known, and we cannot make targeted arrangements. I feel that I should send someone to Daxinzhuang to reconnoiter the actual situation and then make a detailed decision. ”

Gao Jun said: "I have no objection to sending people to Daxinzhuang to reconnoitre, but if you want to reconnoiter a result, I'm afraid it won't be able to be completed in one or two days, and we basically don't know anything about the opponent's situation at present, what if they attack us in the near future, so I think we should at least immediately form a defense of Menbu Village, just in case, and then consider the next plan." ”

Liu Qinglin nodded and said, "Major Gao, you reminded me correctly, I will immediately arrange the defense of Menbu Village." ”

Wang Sheng said: "If you want to guard Menbu Village, is the current troop group enough? Do you want to inform Qingdao to send more troops over to assist the guards of Menbu Village?"

Liu Qinglin shook his head and said: "For the time being, there is no need for Qingdao to send troops over, if you just want to guard Menbu Village, the strength is enough, and my battalion has a firepower reinforcement company that has not yet been transferred, I will order this company to be transferred to Menbu Village tonight, so it is more than enough to guard Menbu Village." ”

Gao Jun said: "I don't agree to ask for more troops to Menbu Village, but if something like this happens, even if it hasn't been finalized, it should still be reported to Qingdao." ”

Wang Sheng said: "Okay, I'll report to Qingdao right away." ”