Section 567 Regulating Rural Autonomy (2)

"What about the public bureau?"

Chen Zhiting asked, obviously they were very concerned about this organization, because whether it was Long Yuanxi or Chen Zhiting, they had all set up a public bureau, and the Chen family started by relying on Shajing Lianyong, and Shajing Lianyong belonged to the Shajing Bureau at that time. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhu Jinglun said: "There are still benefits after all. But they still don't know how to use Xiangyong, so let the Criminal Department take it in. These townships will be placed under the unified management of the Police Department of the Criminal Department. ”

This is tantamount to turning the township brave organization, which was used by the public bureau to maintain law and order in the countryside, into a village police.

"As for the public bureau, keep it for now."

Zhu Jinglun also wanted to try to see if this kind of rural self-government organization could slowly evolve into a modern representative organization, and that it would be necessary to retain these organizations as a channel of communication between the government and the countryside, and would also help dispel the misunderstanding and distrust of the government among the peasants with a relatively low level of education.

If you don't have the support of the people from the bottom of your heart, you will always run into great trouble. The situation is now clear, although the police and soldiers entered the village and protected the schools. But the students did not dare to come to school, and even if the new teachers sent from the provincial capital tried to persuade them, the parents of the students were very reluctant to let their children go to the school, because they saw that the squires in the countryside did not send their children there, and they felt that the school was not a good thing.

The gentry class used their voice in the countryside to distort the new education.

The squires thought that the new-style school was not good, especially after the government took over the school, and forcibly sent down a large number of mathematics teachers, which made them even more disgusted, they said that after learning those things, they forgot about etiquette, righteousness and shame, forgot filial piety, and what kind of thing it would become in the future, and they might not even recognize their parents.

The simple and ignorant peasants were afraid of this, and they raised their sons and didn't recognize Lao Tzu, which was simply a matter of the sky falling, and seeing many squires taking their children home to educate themselves, the peasants also extinguished the idea of letting their sons go to government-run primary schools.

The squire retreated, and the army took over the school, which also made the atmosphere in the countryside extremely tense, and the villagers even walked around the school when they went out, and the countryside was filled with a depressing atmosphere.

To defuse this atmosphere, it is impossible to do no matter how many notices the government posted, no matter how the newspapers in the city publicize it, or let the gentry class take the initiative to take the lead in demonstrating that the common people can follow.

Therefore, now the government of the Ming Dynasty is really inseparable from these squires.

But the squire who committed the crime can't cover it up: "As for those who attack the public bureau of the school, deal with it according to the law!" Those who should be caught are caught, and those who should be exiled are exiled. From top to bottom. ”

After Zhu Jinglun finished speaking, Chen Zhiting and their hearts softened, because it is obvious that behind these public bureaus, there are all squires, but any dynasty that does something to the squire class has no good reputation, and they are all from this class, if they really exile hundreds of scholars, they have a feeling of being sad and sad like a rabbit and a fox.

So Luo Tianchi, the secretary of the Criminal Department, began to explain, he said that the reason why these public bureaus surrounded and attacked the academy was not actually to rebel. The main reason was that the police went to the countryside to spare their lives, and Luo Tianchi took the initiative to ask for guilt.

But not only the police, but also the army was stationed in the countryside for a long time, stationed in the territory of the clan forces, and because of the dispersion, there were often only two or three soldiers in a village. Soldiers and policemen are in a strange, stranger place, and in fact, it is also very tense. When the villagers saw the police and soldiers, they had the feeling that the other party had invaded their lives, and they were even more nervous.

There are inevitably contradictions between people, conflicts are inevitable, and both sides are very nervous, and it is inevitable that the guns will go wrong, and some ordinary people have conflicts with soldiers, and they still tolerate it at the beginning, and slowly begin to break out, for the sake of individual soldiers with loose military discipline stealing the peasants' chickens, or the peasants accidentally bump into the soldiers, and then there is a quarrel, all the villagers can besiege the soldiers together.

Soldiers have guns, and they can't afford to suffer losses when they fight, and the villagers are so powerful that they won't give up when they suffer losses, causing bloodshed to occur from time to time.

In the past six months this year, there have been more than 10 incidents of soldiers killing people, and this situation has caused newspapers in the city that have always criticized the cultural monopoly of the rural gentry to start loudly criticizing the army, causing the government an extraordinary headache, and the criminal department has constantly put pressure on the Ministry of Rites to solve the problem of education as soon as possible, and then let the army withdraw from the countryside.

Military problems are generally personally commanded by Zhu Jinglun, and he also has a headache for this kind of problem, the Chinese are a well-known obedient people in the world, but this is not because the Chinese are really timid and afraid of things, once the Chinese are organized, they often become irrational and aggressive, because at that time everyone will have a kind of unscrupulous law.

Previously, Zhu Jinglun also wanted to withdraw troops and use the army to maintain education, which is a very ironic phenomenon in itself, and once education has been imposed on the peasants, Zhu Jinglun is even worried about destroying the tradition of Chinese people who have generally attached importance to education for thousands of years, because anything, once imposed on others, will eventually encounter backlash, and if education becomes a derogatory term, it will be even more difficult to promote education.

He really wanted to withdraw from the army and ease the confrontation with the rural society, but in this situation, once he withdrew, I am afraid that not only will the more than half of the students left in the school be lost due to the strong pressure of the squire, but even the school may be demolished, and now the squires have generally believed that these schools are an excuse for the government to interfere with them, and if these schools are demolished, the government will have no reason to send troops to their villages.

Therefore, Zhu Jinglun was actually very embarrassed about the garrison, so he put pressure on the government to complete the education reform as soon as possible, send all the teachers who should be sent down, improve the rural educational institutions, and wait for the stability before he dared to withdraw from the army.

Now Luo Tianchi pleaded guilty and only talked about the problems of the police, but not the problems of the army, because he did not dare to accuse Zhu Jinglun.

Zhu Jinglun waved his hand: "The problem of the army may be even greater. I'll take care of these things myself. You're going to have to worry about the police, and I think you're going to have a hard time. Don't worry about Hurd. ”

Hurd is the same level as Chen Zhiting in the subordinate provincial servants, and the police department of Daming is basically developed from the marine police of the customs, so it is the foundation laid by Hurd back then, and now Hurd has set up a supervision department in Menxia Province, which is in charge of the doctor.

In this way, Hurd still has the right to supervise the police system, who would have thought that foreigners, who have always given people a kind of unrelated favors, would also be contaminated with the atmosphere of human favors, Hurd actually showed a lot of mercy to the police system, intentionally or unintentionally, and rarely touched the police department, resulting in a lot of maladministration in the police system.

Zhu Jinglun didn't plan to use Hurd, a foreigner, for this kind of thing, so he hoped that the Criminal Department could correct itself.

As for the army, the army has its own set of supervision systems, called the Gendarmerie Department, which is directly responsible to Zhu Jinglun.

It is not terrible to encounter problems, but it is terrible to cover the lid when encountering problems, rather than taking the opportunity to solve problems and improve the system.

Zhu Jinglun has always exposed problems and immediately set about improving the system, so he does not regard the maladministration in the army and the police as serious, and the key is to solve the problem of rural autonomy at present.

Based on the principle of handling it in accordance with the law, I discussed it with Chen Zhiting and the others, and soon set the rules.

These people have been in power until now, even if they were not tough people in the past, they are not lacking in execution now, they know very well that this kind of thing cannot be delayed, otherwise they will not come to see Zhu Jinglun immediately, the sooner this kind of matter is handled, the better, and the delay will spread.

After they returned, they first contacted the squires in private, told them the seriousness of the matter, and tried to persuade them to turn themselves in. Soon the vast majority of the squires compromised, and they had already regretted it afterwards out of a sense of righteousness. They simply did not have the courage and motivation to rebel.

For the small number of stubborn resistance, the army immediately dispatched, Xiang Yong was just a group of rabble, under the blow of the regular army, soon collapsed, less than a week, the siege of the school in the three counties subsided, and finally eleven soldiers and more than 30 policemen died as a result, and in the process of suppression, Xiang Yong died more than 100 people.

A regular trial followed, in which most of the squires in charge pleaded guilty and did not intend to appeal. There are also some squires who have a martyrdom attitude, and they shout in the court, scolding the government for being rebellious, and even scolding the emperor. Their performance also won the applause of some spectators, who regarded them as heroes.

It's just that these heroes are basically sentenced to be hanged in the end, and these are mainly the leaders. Most of the accomplices were sentenced to exile, including those of the directors of the public bureau and a large number of village warriors.

In the process of open and transparent adjudication, education reform and public bureau reform continued.

Sure enough, reform needs to be sacrificed with blood, and after a tough blow to these violent oppositionists, various systems have been smoothly implemented.

Thanks to the efforts of the village teachers, the government, and some of the squires who had changed their minds, the students returned to the school one after another, and by the end of the year, it had finally returned to the level of the Zeng Guofan period, and the enrollment rate had once again reached 80%, and the students who could basically go to school conveniently entered the school. Those who can't go to school are often in some remote mountainous areas. If you want to continue to increase the admission rate in the future, I am afraid that you will have to pay a greater cost.

The reform plan of the public bureau was also introduced, and the public bureau still existed, still managed by the squires. However, it is under the jurisdiction of the county government, and the county government will issue a "bureau stamp" as a certificate for the public bureau to exercise its powers. Basically, the public bureau has become a rural government, and the police, politics, and construction of villages below the county level are under their jurisdiction, and the government does not interfere.

It was only after this blow that the attitude of the gentry class changed, they no longer dared to confront the government, and the public bureau became a subsidiary organization of the government for a long time.

That's for another time.

In 1872, two major reforms were completed, it should be said that it was the most powerful year of reform in these years, not to mention the great strengthening of the power of the government, and finally completed the popularization of education, which began in Zhu Jinglun to promote education, it has been ten years, and he has paid for his experience and patience, and finally received the reward, although there was still bloodshed in the end, but the destruction has been limited to the minimum, Zhu Jinglun is not a nitpicker, he expressed satisfaction with this in his heart.