On June 12, 1915, at the junction of Hebei and Henan.

Caojiapu is an ordinary village in Linzhang County, Hebei Province, which is more than 40 miles away from the boundary of Anyang, Henan, and only 60 miles away from Handan. The Cao family is the big surname in the village, and basically more than 80% of the village are residents with the surname Cao.

Seeing that the summer harvest is about to begin, Cao's shop should prepare for the summer harvest intensely on weekdays. But this year, the whole village gathered at the head of the village for a meeting. This was a council personally led by the patriarch of the Cao family, and the men of each family came to attend the meeting. A hundred and ten people gathered together can be regarded as dense.

Patriarch Cao Jingxiu is over sixty years old, and because he often goes to the ground, his complexion is purple with the sauce unique to crop men, "Ladies and gentlemen, this time I invite everyone to come over and talk about the recent war. Whether we defected to the People's Party or followed the government? ”

Hebei is a province of Zhili, and it knows the most about the government, and there are many things to resist, Cao Jingxiu said this, and some villagers have already shouted: "This Beiyang tax is set like this, if we follow the government, won't we starve to death?" ”

After the opponents shouted, the supporters also spoke, "This tax is only collected for one year, and it will be over if you can't bear it." ”

The supporter was the local landlord Cao Cuishan, and as soon as his words fell, the initial opponent Cao Jinggui immediately pushed back his words, "Your son became the Beiyang Army, so you naturally want to support the government." But this year's year is not very good, and the government still has to pay a seventy percent tax. With only 30% of the grain left, will we be able to survive until next year? ”

The basic situation of Caojiapu is similar to that of thousands of rural areas in China, and all the wealthier families are relatively low. This is almost inevitable, there are many things after the family has more money, and it is not difficult for them to get married, and it will be relatively late to get married. It is not easy for poor families to get married, and the family will start to open up early, but even earlier. One generation may only be five or six years apart, but seven or eight generations accumulate sixty or seventy years. Cao Cuishan and Cao Jinggui are both in their early forties, but they are three generations apart. Seriously, Cao Jinggui, who is the same generation as the patriarch Cao Jingxiu, is still Cao Cui's grandfather.

Cao Cuishan argued: "The government has also bought a lot of grain in the past two years, and everyone is not short of this money. Why did you vote for the People's Party? ”

Cao Jinggui sneered, "Haha, your family has a lot of grain, and you naturally make a lot of money selling grain." But how much grain we sell in a year, how much money can we make. Now that the price of grain is almost in the sky, after paying the tax, where can we have grain to sell? According to the grain price of 16 oceans of wheat in this stone, we will not be able to buy a stone of grain even if we are bankrupt. ”

Beiyang lacks grain and has the ocean in hand, and the price of wheat has soared from four stones to sixteen oceans in the past year or so. Quadruple up. There have been no disasters in Hebei in recent years, and the harvest has been so-so. The people have not yet reached the point where they can't open the pot. In the past year, not only the price of wheat has soared, but the price of other grains has also risen three or four times. Seeing that the summer harvest is about to be opened, many people don't have a grain of grain in their homes. Just wait for the wheat to be harvested and have a full meal. At this time, the government ordered this year's tax revenue to rise to 70%. The croppers are extremely pragmatic, and thirty percent of the grain is at most for everyone to eat for half a year, and the little money in everyone's hands is simply not enough to buy half a year's grain. If the situation goes on like this, I will only starve to death.

Although the major event of "rebellion" was proposed, the patriarch Cao Jingxiu still had to convene this meeting under the pressure of everyone.

Cao Jinggui's statement was supported by most of the people in the village, and everyone said: "It's not that we haven't talked to the county about this, but those tax collectors are not accommodating at all." If they hadn't been beaten away by the People's Party, they would now be living in the fields waiting to collect our grain! ”

As a landlord, Cao Cuishan naturally could not support Cao Jinggui's opinion. He shouted: "When the People's Party arrives at us, it will divide the land." ”

"What's wrong with the division of land? It's been a few years since Henan was divided into land, and the people there are much better off than we are. "Caojiapu is only more than 40 miles away from the boundary of Anyang, Henan, and the farmers have no concept of the so-called provincial border. Anyway, it's the same land, dozens of miles away, does Henan have any impact on these people? When the girl who married in the past talked about life in the People's Party, she was naturally extremely praised. Centralization and overall planning after the land reform have made life much easier. If nothing else, the collective accumulation of fertilizer alone can save the people a lot of effort. The fertility of the land is largely ensured by the capacity provided by the People's Party's hot ball tractors and the manure produced by the village feedlots. Not to mention the basic social services such as running water, hospitals, schools, and post offices after collective living.

The more people who have no money, the more they can feel the great improvement in their lives under the rule of the People's Party. The people of Caojiapu are extremely envious after seeing the device that can flow clean tap water with a twist of the faucet. For rural areas, carrying water can be a very difficult task. With a large amount of water, a laborer has to spend hours a day carrying water. As for the cheap farm tools of the rural cooperatives, as well as cheap cloth and daily necessities, they are the good things that make the saliva of the farmers of Caojiapu envious.

There is a huge difference between the North Ocean and the South, because of the climate, the South can live if there is land. Because of the water and climate in the north, there may not be land to survive. If nothing else, a slight drought can greatly reduce grain production, and if you rely on manpower to carry water, the heavy wooden barrel can carry much water. Even if the water source is relatively close, the whole family may not be able to water four or five acres of land for a day of exhaustion. People can wait, but the crops can't. Two days of exposure to the sun can kill many crops. The people of Caojiapu have seen that the land under the rule of the People's Party is basically watered. Instead of digging a large-scale aqueduct, the People's Party was able to pump water from the ground up after digging a well. Watering the land means that there will be no reduction in food production. As long as every family has water to irrigate the land, even one person with three acres of land will not starve to death.

Caojiapu is in Linzhang County, and nearby Anyang are close to the Zhanghe River. However, on the boundary of Anyang, more than 60% of the land in Caojiapu, which is closer to the Zhanghe River, is dry land, and the grain output basically depends on the harvest of the sky. Comparing the two, it is self-evident whose rule it is better to live in.

"We can't rebel!" Cao Cuishan's voice was almost hysterical. As a landlord, Cao Cuishan's family has more than ten hectares of land. After the People's Party took control of Cao's shop, his family was going bankrupt. Since it is close to the territory of the Anyang People's Party, Cao Cuishan naturally knows that although the People's Party does not confiscate the floating wealth of the landlords, let alone rob it, the land reform will not be tolerated. The landlords over there had all their land divided, and no one could hide from it. He would rather die than let the BJP come to him.

Cao Jinggui persuaded: "Cuishan, Beiyang can't be beaten out of Handan now, if we take the initiative to defect to the People's Party now, we don't have to pay this year's grain." Otherwise, the Beiyang tax collectors will come over, and we will only starve to death by then. Wait for Beiyang to collect our grain, and then be defeated by the People's Party. Our food is completely lost. Wouldn't we be at a loss then? ”

"If you can't fall behind, you can't rebel!" Cao Cuishan's attitude is extremely clear. He could not accept the confiscation of his land. Cao Cuishan originally didn't want his son to be a soldier, but what the People's Party did in Henan made Cao Cuishan determined. He let his son be a soldier for only one purpose, that is, to follow the government to win the battle and keep his own land.

Seeing that Cao Cuishan was so stubborn, Cao Jinggui knew that persuasion would not move. However, he didn't want to persuade Cao Cuishan, Cao Jinggui wanted to persuade other people. Turning his head, Cao Jinggui shouted to the other villagers: "Everyone, I have said everything that should have been said." I don't say whether the People's Party or the government is better. I'll just say one thing, what should we do if the government loses the war? After the grain was taken away, we fled the famine and asked for food? If you don't want to flee the famine, you can simply ask the People's Party to come over. Since we lowered it early, the People's Party has not exempted us from taxes this year? If the old and young masters are willing, I, Cao Jinggui, am willing to talk to the People's Party about this matter. ”

After all, whether or not to defect to the People's Party was a major matter, and the first day of negotiations could not produce any results. Finally, when it got dark, Cao Cuishan returned home and immediately gathered his family, his face was gloomy and terrible under the light, "Everyone knows what happened today, right?" ”

Many people from Cao Cuishan's family participated in the daytime meeting, and everyone's faces were as gloomy as Cao Cuishan's. They all know very well what will happen after the People's Party takes over Caojiapu.

"We must not be polite to those chaotic parties. Although we are villagers, we can't let Cao Jinggui lead everyone to the evil path. Cao Cuishan said almost through gritted teeth.

"Dad, what should we do then? Find someone to do Cao Jinggui? Cao Cuishan's son Cao Yifeng asked.

"No, we can't do that. Yifeng, you went to the county overnight this year and told the county government about Cao Jinggui's rebellion. Let them hurry over and arrest them. Cao Cuishan said viciously, "Our Cao family has never gone abroad to disrupt the party, and we must not sit idly by and ignore this rebellion." ”

The rest of the Cao family naturally supported Cao Cuishan's view, and Cao Yifeng took the letter according to his father's order and rushed to Linzhang County. Early in the morning, Cao Yifeng rushed to see the county master. The county magistrate knows Cao Cuishan, and he also knows Cao Cuishan's son Cao Yifeng. Since the young master of the Cao family came to report the news, the county master immediately met with Cao Yifeng. After hearing this, the people of Caojiapu actually wanted to lure the wolf into the house and took the initiative to defect to the People's Party. The county magistrate was so angry that he slapped the table with his palm and scolded: "These Diao people are really lawless. ”

Can't wait at the moment, a brigade of Beiyang Army was stationed in the county, and after the county magistrate contacted the Beiyang Army, he asked Cao Yifeng to bring a battalion of 500 Beiyang Army and tax collectors to Caojiapu. Even if he knew that the tax collectors were going to collect taxes, Cao Yifeng had to accept this fact.