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Chapter 1673 Jiangkou Politics

Wusongkou in Shanghai shrouded in morning mist. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

An Yi took the telescope and looked at the islands of Biandansha, Chongbaosha, Toushisha and Yawosha in the heart of the river, these islands are extremely small compared with Chongming Island, but they are like scattered pearls, distributed in the vast Yangtze River estuary, lush and pleasing to the eye.

An Yi turned around, held a telescope, and looked back at the fortress groups in Yanghang, Luodian, and Yuepu, a cold-toned reinforced concrete forest, and a 203mm caliber fortress cannon, with a hideous black cannon muzzle, bringing people an extraordinary sense of oppression.

Thinking that all of this was created by himself, An Yi couldn't help but feel a trace of heroism in his heart.

Yang Jie was looking at the fortresses in Pudong at this time, and said with emotion: "Every time I come to Shanghai, I have to see these fortresses, they are the capital of our competition with Japan, it is with the existence of these fortresses that the cities along the Yangtze River are impregnable, and the plastered land of the plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River can be preserved." Recall that if it weren't for Xiao Yi's huge investment in building these fortresses, I'm afraid that Nanjing would still be in a panic at any time, where would the current tranquility come from? ”

"Geng Guang is too famous!"

An Yi said modestly: "This is what every Chinese should do, I just did my duty." By the way, Brother Geng Guang, what have we gained from going deep into the cities and villages in the past few days? ”

"I didn't expect the countryside to be stuck to this point!"

Yang Jie only felt a feeling of boredom in his heart, put down the binoculars, and turned his head to look at An Yi: "This year's grain is obviously a bumper harvest, why are farmers still precarious?" In the villages we have visited, six or seven out of ten families have a difficult life, but the landlords and gentry seem to be completely unaffected, which is unreasonable! ”

An Yi sighed: "This Jiangnan clique has specially studied that the central government buys a large amount of rice in the market to supply the needs of the army, and at the same time, due to the government's indiscriminate issuance of currency, which leads to serious inflation, a large number of hoarding and speculation arises from this, urban residents, government officials, teachers and workers buy a large amount of rice in case of food shortages and higher prices, while at the same time, landlords and merchants accumulate rice and do not put it into the market in anticipation of rising prices. Further shortages, spurred on by food shortages, have thus hurt the morale of the population and have begun to make it difficult for the Government to obtain essential goods.

"The big landowners have made windfall profits from rising prices, but most of the peasants, whether small yeoman farmers or tenants, have not been able to share in the benefits of this increase, because they have very little rice to sell on the market, and they have to keep their own food for more than half a year, except for paying land rent and exorbitant taxes, and the rest of the time they have to feed on wild vegetables and miscellaneous grains. In the rich Yangtze River Delta Plain that we visited in the past few days, less than 20 percent of the peasant households were able to sell some surplus goods to the market, and on weekdays the peasants would sell some miscellaneous grains -- sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, and so on, but selling these things would not improve their plight much.

"It should also be noted in this regard that farmers who have a saleable surplus of rice also rarely profit from rising prices, as they usually have to sell it soon after harvest, when the price of rice is quite low. In Danyang, Taicang and other places where we passed, farmers there would sell 90 percent of their rice ready for the market within two months of harvesting. By contrast, large landowners, who had enough money to keep their families on track for a few months, hoarded rice and kept it out of the market until the dwindling stocks in the market prompted prices to rise. ”

Yang Jie suddenly said: "No wonder, I said that the farmers don't see joy at all after the harvest, it turns out that the roots are here." ”

"It's not just speculation and inflation that make people's livelihoods difficult, but the state taxes are now increasingly distributed to the peasants, and the exploitation of the landlords is becoming more and more serious."

Chen Yu, Major General of the General Affairs Office and Director of the Nanjing Intelligence Station, who accompanied An Yi on his visit, said: "According to our investigation in the Fourth Department, the burden on the peasants is very heavy, and in the second half of this year, the landlords used the rise in grain prices and tax increases as an excuse to renegotiate land contracts with tenants. On the one hand, they have increased the absolute amount of rent, and on the other hand, the landlords, who have hitherto levied money rent, have now begun to insist that they pay their rent with grain, which is more valuable and safer than the depreciating currency. Tenants generally complained that landlords demanded that they pay part of the rising land tax, or increase the rental deposit, and when the tenants opposed the increase in rent, deposit, and tax, the landlords replaced them with peasants who were willing to pay higher extortion, leading to increasingly acute contradictions in the countryside.

As a result of these various economic trends, conflicts between landlords and tenants have become a common phenomenon. Some tenants were evicted from the land they had leased, and those who remained and agreed to pay high rents felt the weakening of their economic status - the middle peasant was often relegated to the status of poor peasants, and the poor peasants were reduced to the status of wage labourers. The increase in land endowments, reduced yields, unfavourable price relations, and land rents have clearly damaged the economic status of the majority of peasants. However, the various government taxes - taxes, donations, requisitions, requisitions, conscriptions, and servitude -- imposed heavy burdens on the peasants, and this profoundly affected the peasants' attitude towards the central government.

"In addition, there are frightening amounts of apportionment that have been passed on to the peasants, such as the tax on 'donating straw sandals for recruits', the tax on 'condolences to military families', the tax on 'training of air defense cadres', the tax on 'fuel for the garrison', and so on. There are also taxes levied on national salvation bonds, telephone poles, road repairs, rice allowances for teachers, school equipment, food and oil for the chief's meeting, administrative subsidies for the chief, and funeral expenses for military families. Some of these taxes are quite large and some are relatively small. About a quarter of the taxes were set by the central and provincial governments, a little less than a quarter were set by the local gentry and religious organizations, and more than half were set by the village and baojia chiefs. ”

Yang Jie said worriedly: "I know a little about this, among all the taxes, it is said that the collection of funds and supplies for the army is the heaviest burden. When we visited Changshu County, we heard the county magistrate complain that military generals often order the county government to provide funds, regardless of where the money comes from. In addition, the garrison often needed pigs, chickens, firewood, fodder, tools, building supplies, etc., and the only way to solve this problem was to issue new assessments. The military sometimes pays for requisitioned food, but only for a fraction of the market price...... Hey, the current national government is falling at an unprecedented speed! ”

An Yi shook his head: "The war is only in its second year, if the central government can detect these problems in time and reform them like Jiangxi, it will not be difficult to resolve the increasingly prominent contradictions." But look, now even the son of the chairman of the committee is engaged in reform, and he has been greatly criticized, let alone others! I dare to say that if the present situation is not reversed as soon as possible and reforms are carried out in the rural areas, it will not be long before the situation will continue to deteriorate, and as the contradictions accumulated in the rural areas become bigger and bigger, the peasants will inevitably be pushed to the opposite side of the government, and it will be too late to regret it. ”

"This is also an important reason why I want to leave, the future of the party-state, there is no hope!"

Yang Jie was full of melancholy: "Although the chairman of the committee knows all kinds of shortcomings of the party-state, there are not many ways to save it. Let's take party affairs as an example, in the past history, from the League, the Chinese Revolutionary Party, to China, the former prime minister has changed the name of the party many times, reorganized the party affairs, and carried out a major reorganization every six years on average. Today, the party-state has long been ill, and it is difficult to accomplish anything unless it is injected with fierce medicine, but the line that the chairman ultimately chose was not to carry out a drastic and thorough transformation of the aging and decayed party organizations, but to reorganize a new organization with the form of a political party -- the Three People's Youth League -- in addition to the old party organs.

"In my opinion, this is actually a repeat of the previous organization of the Lixing Society, the only difference is that the Lixing Society is a secret organization, while the Three Youth League is an open organization. The relatively hidden vicious secret struggle between the 'party' and the 'society' before the war will not be long before it will be inherited and continued by the open contest between the 'party' and the 'regiment'. ”

An Yi didn't expect Yang Jie to be involved in party affairs all of a sudden, and thought for a while: "Although the official establishment of the Three Youth League was in early July, the actual preparations began after the Xi'an Incident. At that time, the principal believed that the party-state was too deep and difficult to return, and it was impossible to completely reform.

"For this reason, I had a special discussion with the president, and the president said that *** has lost its appeal to the people of the whole country, especially the younger generation, and in this case, the president envisions the establishment of a new organization mainly for young people, hoping to attract the younger generation who are disgusted with the party-state through this organization, and give this new organization the heavy responsibility of reforming the party-state.

"Let me tell you the truth, in the process of organizing the Three Youth League, when the name of the new organization was discussed, Chen Lifu suggested to the principal that the name of the 'Three People's Youth League' should be crowned with the word 'China ***', and the principal immediately reprimanded and said that with the five words you, people will not come. In my opinion, it is better to use the Three People's Principles to call for good, and to call for good in my name. ”

Yang Jie thought thoughtfully: "I once heard a speech by the chairman of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, he said: Originally, China's revolution was led by China, as long as China can be revived, there is no need to set up a separate youth league; Even if it is necessary to organize a youth league, it can also be attached to ***. But why do we now want to re-establish this Three People's Youth League? It is because we have been depressed and scattered in the past few years, and it has become a situation that is difficult to return, regardless of spiritual discipline, it is extremely decadent, it can be said that the party department has become a yamen, and party members have become bureaucrats, no matter how hard they try to transform, they cannot be completely transformed! Before the party is thoroughly reformed, if the youth are recruited, it will only harm the youth and will not help the revolution, so it is necessary to set up a separate youth league to organize the ordinary promising youth so that they can undertake the cause of the Chinese revolution! ”

An Yi nodded and took over the conversation: "Another important consideration for the principal to set up the Three Youth League is to unite all factions in the party. In particular, after the president's position as the leader of the party was formally established and the Kuomintang and the Communist Party reaffirmed their cooperation, several secret factional organizations established before the war with the central goal of *** have completed their phased tasks. The vicious internal conflict between these factions made the headmaster feel the need for unity. ”

Chen Yu frowned: "This is purely taking off your pants and farting - it's too much." According to common sense, the chairman of the committee could have instructed all factions to stop their activities and unite under the banner of the party-state. ”

"You don't understand this!"

An Yi raised his left hand and shook his index finger: "The party-state machine has been controlled and monopolized by the CC system for a long time, and it is difficult for other factions to get involved, in other words, *** In people's cognition now, it has long become the party of the CC system. The principal believed that only by forming a new organization to accommodate the various factions would the factions be convinced.

"I'm afraid you don't know that before the president established the Three Youth League, he had an important plan, that is, he wanted to unite other political parties other than ***. The principal had made it clear to Director Zhou that if he was willing to merge with the party, the name of the party could be cancelled and the party's constitution could be amended, and it was said that the al-Shabaab and the National Socialist Party had expressed that they could accept or consider it, and Director Zhou had made it clear that cooperation was okay after consulting the Central Committee, but the merger was not necessary, and the proposal was declared a failure. The establishment of the Three Youth Leagues also initially implied an attempt to set up a new organization to express the intention of merging with other parties and to attract the participation of other parties. ”

Yang Jie looked at An Yi in surprise: "You mean that the chairman of the committee has thought about merging with ***?" ”

An Yi nodded solemnly: "That's right, the principal is extremely profound about the scene before and during the Northern Expedition, and thinks that the spirit and fighting spirit of ** can be used to transform the dull ***, but unfortunately ** was rejected." In desperation, the principal had to hope that the Three Youth League could bring such a pioneering spirit and reshape a new image of the revolution.

"As one of the initiators of the Three Youth League, I listened to the president's speech many times at last year's preparatory work meeting. In several internal speeches, the president repeatedly emphasized that the party-state has aged, severely criticized all kinds of deficiencies in the party, and exhorted and reminded the Three Youth League to take the party as a warning and never repeat the mistakes of the past. The principal also initially revealed that he wanted to give the Three Youth League a leading role in the revolutionary task, and there was a great possibility of replacing it. In the words of the principal, *** has almost become a negative teaching material of corruption and decline, and the Three Youth League has been given the role of a new revolutionary group. ”

Yang Jie shook his head again and again: "The chairman's move is extremely inappropriate, if my estimate is good, in the future, the party-state will fall into the quagmire of deeper and more turbid factional struggles, and it will not be able to extricate itself......"

"Uhhh

Before Yang Jie's words fell, there was a long whistle of a steamer on the bank of the river, and Shen Fengdao pointed to the Huangpu River: "Xiao Yi, the boat that picked us up is here." ”

An Yi turned his head to look, only to see a 500-ton gunboat flying with a flying fox flag docked on the shore, looked down at his wrist and looked at his watch, and said in surprise: "Time flies so fast, it's time for us to get on board...... This time I came to Shanghai not to visit these fortresses, the 'Huangpu River' class destroyers produced by Jiangnan Shipyard embody the hope of our navy, and the launching ceremony should not be missed no matter what! ”

Yang Jie said with a smile: "Four destroyers were launched from the four dry docks of the Jiangnan Factory at the same time, this spectacular scene is really unimaginable, this time I can't say that I can just see it!" ”

An Yi took Yang Jie's hand and walked side by side: "At present, all shipyards in Nanhua are in full swing in production, from destroyers, submarines to cruisers. When you arrive in Nanhua in the future, General Geng Guang will have time to attend such a ceremony, and I am afraid that you will be bored in the future! ”

Yang Jie laughed: "The number of naval warships is a symbol of a country's strength, and I won't see enough of ......it anyway."