Among all the big names in South Vietnam, the most difficult to see are President Ngo Dinh Diem and Chairman of the Industrial Investment Company Li Weimin.

The reason why Diem is difficult to see is that he does not like to show his head in the first place, and is accustomed to keeping a distance from the people and even high-ranking officials, and is as high as the emperor, as if he wants to create a sense of mystery that only feudal emperors have, so as to achieve the purpose of establishing his authority.

After the assassination of the Buon Ma Thuot Provincial Agricultural Products Fair and the "Double 11 Coup", he became even more suspicious and barely left his home.

Li Weimin's situation is different from that of Ngo Dinh Diem, as chairman of the board of directors of the Industrial Investment Company and leader of the "Vietnamese Chinese Literature and Art Research Association," he is extremely busy with affairs, spending half of his time abroad every year, and the remaining half of his time either inspecting industrial villages, or visiting resettlement villages in the Lower Six Provinces, Parrot's Beak, and Zhensha districts, as well as some closely related Catholic villages.

For entrepreneurs, chamber leaders, workers and peasants, he has a high level of exposure, as long as he makes an appearance almost every day in the country. For Hu Lian, the ambassador of the Nationalist Government to the Republic of Vietnam, it was more difficult to see him than to meet Ngo Dinh Diem.

The choice of the "Industrial Investment Department" to officially take over the fourth tactical area and come to Can Tho at this time is to force Li Weimin to show up.

Because Hu Lian clearly understood that although the "industrial investment system", which was mainly composed of Vietnamese Chinese, successfully entered the political arena and changed direction to take over the Jinou Peninsula, they also sent themselves to the forefront. To ensure that the North Vietnamese, the Southern Liberation Army, the Ngo Dinh Diem brothers, and other opposition factions do not make a fuss about the national question, he must be more careful than ever.

As it turned out, he had achieved his goal.

Finally seized this opportunity, so he naturally wanted to make Taipei's intentions clear, and they talked for more than three hours, and did not end the topic until more than 11 o'clock in the evening.

I woke up at 8 a.m. and walked out of my bedroom. Sun Ningyu has asked the waiter to bring a large table of hearty breakfast. On the left side of the dining table, there was another uninvited guest, who was reading the newspaper while eating fruit and drinking milk.

Li Weimin was happy, sat down and asked with a smile, "Mr. Gu, when did you come?" ”

Gu Changgeng put down the newspaper, picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. Leaning on the edge of the table, he said with a smile: "I arrived at night, there was a meeting in the afternoon, and it rained heavily a few days ago, which broke a bridge from Shengzhi to Dayi, and the detour was delayed for more than 6 hours, and I almost couldn't catch up." ”

"What?"

Sun Ningyu turned around and reminded: "The meeting on rent reduction and tenant stabilization in the rural areas of the six lower provinces convened by the US Economic and Technical Mission was attended by the governors, landlords' representatives, and tenant farmers' representatives. Mr. Koo, who is also a member of the Special Committee on Land Implementation in Pok Liao and the Rural Economic Development Committee of Nong Resettlement Sites, was also invited. ”

"As for me, you don't want me to participate, do you?"

"Mr. Consul was present. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sent a special representative, Professor Fisher was on his way, more than a dozen experts on rural issues came, and even Mr. Guo was invited. ”

"So high a spec?"

"In the more than six years since the promulgation and implementation of the Land Transfer Act, the United States has done a lot of work to achieve the goal of having land for cultivators. Having arranged so many counterpart funds has not had much effect. The provinces to the north are in disarray. They really couldn't do it, so they shifted their attention to the lower six provinces, intending to build the Jinou Peninsula as a large rear. ”

The Yankees are sometimes cute, and Li Weimin couldn't help but laugh: "It's a good thing." ”

"So I'll be here as soon as I get notice."

Gu Changgeng smiled, pointed to the next door and asked, "Mr. Li, I heard that Hu Lian defeated Runwei and their Xing last night." ”

Li Weimin sighed lightly: "The whole world is not the king's land. The shore of the land is not the king's minister. In the minds of some people, as long as the Chinese are subjects under their rule, they should be at their disposal. Ran over and pointed fingers, and I pushed him back. ”

"What does Lao Jiang mean?"

"Focusing on the overall situation of fighting chaos to save the country and counterattacking the mainland, let us support Ngo Dinh Diem in eradicating the Southern Liberation and recovering North Vietnam. That's it. BJ will send troops into Vietnam like during the Korean Peninsula War, and may even break out World War III, and he will be able to fish in troubled waters. ”

"The abacus is very beautiful."

However, he obviously expected that we would not be so obedient, and when he found that I was more resolute, Hu Lian immediately took out a handwritten letter from Xiao Jiang. We appreciate what we have achieved, express concern about our situation and apologize for the inability of the National Government to shelter expatriate nationals.

In conclusion, I would like to say earnestly that it is ultimately up to us to decide what we will do in the future. We promise that if conditions permit, we will try our best to provide us with some help. ”

Gu Changgeng muttered: "It seems that Saigon must have reached some secret agreement with Taipei. ”

Li Weimin picked up a salted duck egg and said casually: "I think so too, but the current Nationalist Government is not the Nationalist Government of 1945, and the current Vietnam is not the Vietnam of 1954. ”

Gu Changgeng nodded: "They are two mud bodhisattvas that are difficult to protect themselves, and we already have a certain right to speak, so we don't need to be swayed by them." ”

"That's it, let's not talk about that, let's talk about the rural rent reduction."

Gu Changgeng has been in charge of the work of the resettlement sites of the Nong people in the south, and with the development of industrial villages and changes in the situation, he is also fully responsible for coordinating the development of Catholic villages and the "satellite villages" around various industrial villages.

After taking his last sip of milk, he explained: "The plan of rent reduction and fixed tenancy that the United States drew up with Saigon in 1955 was too idealistic and tried to implement land reform through a special committee composed of representatives of landlords and tenant farmers, hoping to establish a democratic form of self-government in the rural areas similar to that of Japan and Taiwan."

Seven years on, it turns out that these efforts have largely failed.

There are several reasons for this: first, the members of the committee do not meet frequently, there are no full-time personnel, and there is a serious lack of executive power; Second, in the vast rural areas, there can be no fair coordination between the relationship between landlords and tenant peasants. The government requires that the land rent should not exceed 25% of the harvest, and it is ultimately up to the landlord to decide who can rent it and whether to rent it or not. ”

Tenants belong to the disadvantaged group, just like the Labor Law of the Celestial Empire in later generations, in front of powerful bosses. Which clerk would dare to assert his power?

Li Weimin thought for a while, and then asked: "Isn't there public land, after the implementation of the "Land Transfer Law", the government bought a lot from French landlords and local large landlords, and who can own more than 100 hectares of land now?" ”

With the overall management of the "Vietnamese Chinese Literature and Art Research Association", these problems do not exist for the peasant compatriots in the resettlement sites of the southern Nongren, Parrot Cape and Zhensha areas. The privileges enjoyed by the Catholic villages, and the "satellite villages" in the vicinity of the industrial villages, where the peasants were cared for by industrial investment companies, did not have these problems.

He rarely goes to other rural areas, and it is normal for him not to know the situation.

Gu Changgeng explained with a wry smile: "There are too many problems in the government in the process of land redemption. The market price per hectare of arable land is around 6,000 to 7,000 piastes, and the land acquisition for industrial villages reaches 8,000 per hectare. The Government did redeem the purchase at market value, but the redemption money was not paid in the ordinary course of trading.

In the actual transaction, the government only gives 10% cash for the redemption, and the remaining 90% gives an investment ticket with an annual interest rate of 3%, which is planned to be paid off within 12 years. The landlord obviously would not agree. Very little has actually been implemented. And this law does not apply to public land, which means that at least 440,000 hectares of land in the central part of the country are not covered by the reform. ”

Sun Ningyu has worked in the National Rural Cadre Task Force and has a good understanding of the rural situation.

Looking at the boss's puzzled look, he added in a low voice: "The public land is the land used for worshipping ancestors, including part of the cemetery, which is generally mountainous, not suitable for planting rice, and is shared by the whole village." Each family takes turns to farm, and the harvest is used for ancestor worship. The Land Transfer Law stipulates that no person may hold more than 100 hectares of rice fields. But on this basis, 15 hectares of ancestral worship fields can be cultivated in rotation. However, due to the particularity of the fields used for ancestor worship, it is generally difficult to cut the fields. ”

The heavens and the earth are big, and the ancestors are the biggest.

The reason why Ngo Dinh Diem's "strategic village plan" has caused anger and resentment has a lot to do with forcing farmers to stay away from their ancestral graves. Thinking that there would be no less than a few hundred thousand hectares of land for ancestor worship in South Vietnam, Li Weimin realized how difficult it was to carry out land reform. Because it involves tradition, the nature of the land is special, and it is impossible to divide it at all.

"Mr. Gu, is there any more plan for the Special Economic and Technical Mission to invite Mr. Guo, Professor Fisher, and you to participate in this meeting?"

"They have a plan. But it's ultimately up to you whether you can do it. ”

"Me?"

"Hmm."

Gu Changgeng took out a document from his bag and confirmed with a smile: "The practice of the past seven years has proved that the special committee is completely unable to play its role, and the peasants are simply unable to dialogue with the landlords on an equal footing, and their legitimate rights cannot be guaranteed at all. The US side hopes that the industrial investment company will come up with a sum of funds, and the US-aid management team will provide a part of the corresponding funds to set up a special land management agency.

The land management agency buys the land from the landlords and leases it to the peasants or resells it to the peasants in installments, so as to truly realize the land owned by the cultivators and thus achieve the ultimate goal of political stability in the rural areas. If you don't have an opinion and can come up with this huge amount of money, they plan to reduce the maximum of 100 hectares of paddy fields per person to 50 hectares. ”

Sun Ningyu said excitedly: "Chairman, Mr. Guo and Mr. Dong think that we should assume this obligation, no matter how difficult it is, we must squeeze out this fund, and if we can't do it, we can borrow from the bank or sell another 100 million US dollars of industrial investment bonds." ”

The industrial investment company pays the most money, and the future land management agency must of course be decided by the "industrial investment department". As soon as this land management agency is established, it means that the government's administrative organs in the rural areas will be completely dismantled.

How could Li Weimin not know what a good opportunity this was for the "industrial investment department", and couldn't help but smile and ask: "What does Mr. Qian think?" ”

If you want to really control the six provinces, there is no better way.

Gu Changgeng said with a smile: "If you miss this village, you won't have this store, Lao Qian resolutely supports it, and even plans to open our own training class for rural cadres and set up our own rural cadre task force." ”

The problem that can be solved with money is not a problem, Miss Li is making money in the United States, and the last thing Boss Li lacks now is money, and said conclusively: "Okay, just do it!" Secretary Sun, help me contact Mr. Guo and ask him to emphasize the difficulties at the meeting, so that the provincial governors, county magistrates, representatives of landlords and tenant farmers, as well as media reporters covering the meeting, know that we are very reluctant to take over this mess. (To be continued.) )