Chapter 7: Transformation

"China is a country with a strong clan tradition, and clan was once an important form of governance and organization in China's rural society, which played a very important role in the development of Chinese history. To a large extent, the clan gentry class is the maintainer of rural order, and they rely on clan rules and laws to maintain the rule of imperial power in the countryside, so to speak, the clan gentry is the guarantee that the imperial power can be implemented in the countryside.

However, after the establishment of the empire, especially in the early years of the empire, the power of rural clans was seriously weakened, and the patriarchs of the clans were often held by wealthy people of their own clan, who were the owners of a large amount of land.

According to the land laws of the empire, except for the frontier areas of the empire, no family was allowed to exceed 10 acres of arable land per capita, a large amount of rich people's land was replaced by state-owned enterprise stocks or cash, and a large number of rich people in the countryside left the cities in a steady stream during the ten years of the empire, and the maintenance of the traditional order in rural China was affected by unprecedented impact for thousands of years.

In this process, a new class of rural gentry "royal teachers" became the spokesmen of imperial power in the people, and under the traditional concept of "master as father" and the prestige of "royal", royal teachers naturally entered the clan (village) council, and to some extent replaced the gentry who went to the city, becoming the defenders of rural order......"

Ten Years of Empire - Rural

"The people of the village office, in the past, relied on the gentry of the people's prestige, but now they have to send soldiers to the village office, in this case, those who are retired ...... Well, how to determine the identity of the soldier in the township? ”

In the study of the royal palace, in the face of His Majesty's request, Guan Mingtang had already begun to calculate what to do with a pen on paper.

After pondering for a moment, Chen Moran shook his head and said:

"The part-time archivist and postman of the village office have to mediate a bunch of small disputes, so they should be regarded as civil servants. Having said that, according to the provisions of the military law of the Imperial Guard, the standing soldiers are paid a full salary, and the monthly allowance is eight yuan, and the monthly allowance is two yuan for the retirement of the reserve soldiers after three years of service; retired as a reserve soldier for another five years, with an allowance of one yuan per month; Usually do their own business, adjust in winter for one month, and pay full salary; and five years of expulsion from his military status,......"

To a large extent, when the Guards were built as a standing army, they referred to the organizational regulations of the Beiyang Army, especially the regulations of the Standing Army, the Continuing Army, and the Reserve Army, and the reason for this was very simple, China had no precedent for compulsory soldiers, and the historical status of the military was low, so when establishing "compulsory military service", the construction of the Beiyang Army was also referred to, and finally this kind of compulsory compulsory conscription and mercenary organization became the characteristics of the Guards organization, and every soldier from the day of service, the state and it was "signed" A contract of up to 13 years, during which the soldier can receive his salary from the state even if he retires, which should be a subtitle.

After all, every citizen who has reached the age of 18 needs to serve in the military and accept the military service examination, and the "100 acres of tax exemption" is the motivation for rural children to do their best when they take the school examination. Thanks to all these efforts, it can be said that the current Guards Army has gathered the best rural children in China.

In Chen Moran's plan, in the process of implementing the national "militarization", the township soldiers will take on the core of maintaining the country's grassroots order in the future, in the past ten years, soldiers and military families have enjoyed some degree of preferential treatment, such as military families are exempt from agricultural taxes, military families can hang the "royal dragon badge" and so on, and for rural families, the number of soldiers in their own family will determine the number of agricultural tax reductions and exemptions for a family to a certain extent, after all, each soldier has a tax exemption of 100 acres. The owners of the 100 acres of tax-free fields were all freely chosen by the soldiers in their own families. …,

It is also because of these preferential conditions that the social status of the military has been truly improved in the past ten years, and it is not limited to "the literal "military is honorable and sacred" in the law, and now, according to his request, the military will be further sacred.

"Therefore, there is no need to pay additional allowances, and in this way, every few years, a new batch of soldiers will enter the village office, so to speak, such an arrangement does not require additional funds from the central and local governments! Just like the teachers now! Aren't those royal teachers also not required to pay extra salaries? ”

"Well, in the village council now, the teacher often plays a decisive role."

Guan Mingtang said truthfully that among the new rural gentry class, the "royal teachers" can be said to be a class that has only been formed in the past ten years, and they have become the spokesmen of the imperial power in the people, responsible for assisting the county government in managing the countryside, and even shouldering the responsibility of educating the ordinary people.

"Your Majesty, if the soldiers enter the village office, and the village self-government council still has to reserve seats for the soldiers, will it have an impact on the self-government?"

Shaking his head, Chen Moran raised his eyes and looked at Guan Mingtang:

"Those soldiers in the township do not have a monopoly on everything, and how much does each village benefit from the soldiers in their own village every year? The empire has more than 20,000 acres of tax-free arable land all year round, and all the beneficiaries are military families? No! More than seventy percent of them, the beneficiaries are people of the same race, they benefit through the military, why can't the soldiers in the township enter the village self-government, and they enter the village self-government association in order to promote a "new life" in the rural areas of the country, the core of this new life is militarized and disciplined, and it is difficult to do it only by relying on royal teachers."

After a pause, he looked at Cai Yuanpei on the side, he is the Minister of Education, and the "new life of citizens" will be carried out by the General Staff Department in cooperation with the Ministry of Education.

"Of course, I'm not saying that the teachers are not good enough, they are doing a good job, ten years ago, the national literacy ratio was only 15%, and now it is 65%, thanks to the efforts of three million royal teachers, but what we need to see is that although the literacy rate needs to be improved, but the quality of the people still needs to be improved, compared with the general public, the military pays more attention to hygiene, in the countryside, the cleanest and most tidy family, not the gentry, not the teacher's family, but the township soldiers, They have brought the internal habits of the army into their personal lives, but our current goal is to make all citizens accept the new hygiene habits and living habits through "military and national education for the whole people." ”

took out a cigar from the cigarette case on the table, held it in his mouth, and after lighting the cigar, Chen Moran took a deep puff of cigarette.

Therefore, my plan is to mobilize and control the grassroots units and promote the modernization of the rural areas with the township soldiers as the core. As for the local power groups, they are also local power groups under the control of the central government, which can cope with the tendency of localism to rise after the autonomy of prefectures and prefectures. Regardless of whether you are self-government, county government, or government government, the central government can maintain control over the grassroots level through the military associations at all levels in the township. ”

Jiang Baili, the chief of staff of the army, immediately showed a look of appreciation when he heard His Majesty say this, but at the same time, he understood that it would be difficult for this plan to gain the support of the government.

"China's fundamental problem is the agricultural problem, and the agricultural problem is the problem of the countryside, and the problem of the countryside is the problem of the peasants, as long as we solve the problem of the peasants, then China's problems will also be solved, I do not deny that the peasants are more simple than the urban residents, but the long-term bad living habits of the 300 million rural areas have seriously restricted the degree of development of our country!" …,

As he spoke, Chen Moran looked at Jiang Baili.

"Therefore, we must use the military to improve the quality of the people through the military education of the whole people, and change the status quo that the people only know individualism and do not know about the rest of the people! So as to achieve the ultimate goal of transforming the people's livelihood! ”

When mentioning the transformation of national character, Chen Moran only felt a stir in his chest, national character or national character, that is, national quality, the most basic thing is its ideological and moral quality, or that national character and the people's ideological and moral quality are common under normal circumstances. Their basic connotations all refer to the common ideals and beliefs, value scales, character traits, moral norms, ways of thinking, and even psychology, customs, and so on formed by a country and a nation in the context of living together for a long time and under the same cultural background.

In later generations, whenever "national character" is mentioned, people will think of Lu Xun, and the purpose of Lu Xun's study of national character is precisely for the liberation of the Chinese toiling masses and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As he said in his essay "Discontent": "There is a race of people who are not complacent, always moving forward, always having hope." There are many races that only know how to blame people and do not know how to reflect, woe to you! Half a year before his death, he also pointed out in a letter to You Bingqi that "exposing his own shortcomings is intended to revive and improve"! Therefore, throughout his life, Lu Xun took exposing the chronic diseases of the national character, excavating the "root causes" of the national ideological and moral quality, and exploring and shaping a new type of national quality as his unshirkable task.

However, the "national inferiority" exposed and criticized by Lu Xun was accumulated in the long-term development process of Chinese history, and it is a "chronic disease" that has not been cured for a long time. There have been too many movements and attempts in history to change the "root of national inferiority", but the only thing that has not been tried is the most effective thing - national militarization!

National militarization, may not be the best choice, but it is the only feasible choice, compared with the ordinary sense of the movement change, or learn from this, learn from that, militarized training, life, but can teach people a habit, a militarized living habits, militarized training, militarized life, militarized country, and in this process, can also cultivate the discipline and team consciousness of ordinary people.

Moreover, through that kind of militarized national life, the people can have a healthy foundation, and the body is the capital of everything. Good physical fitness can improve the competitiveness of the whole nation.

Cai Yuanpei, who promotes military and national education in the Ministry of Education, first nodded after pondering for a moment, and then shook his head:

"But how much effort and how much money is needed to promote the militarization of national life throughout the country? This does not only depend on the soldiers in the townships, but also the establishment of corresponding groups at all levels, and how to motivate the people to take the initiative to participate in the training, relying only on coercive measures, obviously unrealistic, these need to be considered. ”

Cai Yuanpei's suggestion made Chen Moran turn around and remind the stenographer behind him:

"Did you write it down?"

After receiving a satisfactory answer, he turned back with an indifferent expression and said:

"It's not a problem, how to get the soldiers in the township to enter the village self-government?"

After a rhetorical question, Chen Moran shook his head and said.

"Relying on just an order signed by me? Although the soldiers have the name of royal soldiers, they are different from teachers, teachers are like fathers, there is this tradition here, the status of teachers itself is higher than that of soldiers, plus the name of "royal", they enter the village self-government, that is, it is a matter of course, so the problem to be solved cannot only rely on an order, but also solve the problem of their identity.

"Or get a sheriff! Those soldiers who have received three months of judicial training before they are discharged from the army and have been appointed as village magistrates are now a void in the area of village security, and this aspect can be coordinated with the Ministry of Justice, so that not only their status can be solved, but also the problem of social status. ”…,

Jiang Baili, who has been thinking about the identity of the soldiers in the township, suggested in a timely manner.

"If all the rural sheriffs in China were served by soldiers in the townships......"

In his heart, Jiang Baili couldn't help but look forward to it, only then can a strict military mobilization system be established, and now China's military mobilization system is not strict, and there are police stations in the cities to assist in mobilization, but in the countryside, now China's rural areas, as they have been for thousands of years, are all "herding" management, relying only on the autonomy of the countryside, at most with the assistance of teachers, but it is difficult to establish a truly efficient military mobilization system.

"In addition, it is possible to organize a military skills competition between villages, and the rewards of the competition can be a certain proportion of tax-free fields, and the collective sense of honor and collective interests of the village community can be used to urge each village to take the initiative to participate in the competition through the military skills competition......

"What about the distribution of the winner's tax-free fields? In the end, how to implement it for each family? Or let a few profit from it? ”

Guan Mingtang immediately retorted that long before he became prime minister, when he was in charge of the Ministry of Finance, he had quite a few complaints about the system of "tax exemption for military land", because military families have limited benefits, and the beneficiaries are often large families of various villages and ethnic groups, and those who have high social status and great influence in their own ethnic groups may not have anyone serving in the army. On the surface, those "tax-free military fields" are determined by the soldiers themselves, but the soldiers have to consider that their families and after they retire from the army, they will have to deal with the big families in their own clan, so they will give the tax-free share outside their own home to the big families or patriarchs, and the beneficiaries are naturally those people.

Guan Mingtang's opposition made Jiang Baili frown slightly, he naturally heard about the shortcomings of Juntian, and it was often reported in the newspapers, but there was no way to solve these problems now, but at this time, Cai Yuanpei took the initiative to speak.

"Otherwise, the tax on those tax-free fields is still collected, and the military competition can be set in the winter, that is, after the tax, and at that time it is still agricultural leisure, and the tax is collected, and it can be returned, of course, not to the villages, but directly to the national schools of the villages, so that the beneficiaries are the children of those villagers, so that there is no unfairness problem, after all, almost all families have children studying in the national schools."

After thinking about it carefully, Jiang Baili nodded again and again and said:

"Yes, that's it, it's a good idea, and as His Majesty said, it's the collective, the collective interest, the collective honor, and ultimately the collective benefits......"

No one further disputed that.

"Let the township soldiers serve as sheriffs and military competitions are only one of the steps, we have to consider a whole, after all, the sheriff is only a part of the township soldiers, my idea is that we want to establish a militia group, from top to bottom to establish a militia at all levels, and all male nationals are included in the militia system, through this way of all the people are soldiers, to achieve the goal of using the township soldiers, training the people, and changing the people. In the current world of the jungle, if we don't find a way to strengthen ourselves, it is purely the fate of being slaughtered......"

After a seemingly emotional sigh, Chen Moran continued:

"This is not only related to the improvement of the overall quality of the people, a matter for generations to come, but also related to the rise and fall of the entire nation, if the militia is done well, then the militia will have a lot to do, if it is used well, not only can it defend the countryside against bandits, but also can effectively mobilize the people, in wartime, each division and district only needs to distribute the supplementary quota to each district in proportion, and the militia districts can directly replenish the soldiers, if the army and the people are united, it is the road that China will take in the future."

Seeing that everyone's expressions were still uncomfortable, Chen Moran took a sip of tea and explained seriously:

"From now on, we must completely change the tradition of "the imperial power does not go down to the village community", and rebuild the armor protection system in the country, with ten households as the first, ten as the guarantee, and ten guarantees as the township as the standard. A has a chief, a security chief, and is also the head of the militia reserve, responsible for the training of the first and the main guard of the militia, and the township has a township chief, who is also the captain of the militia group, who is responsible for the examination of the brigade, supervision and training, these positions are all held by the soldiers in the township, which can be regarded as a government official rank outside the "autonomous association", of course, they can be the official rank of the staff headquarters, as a "royal official", they should naturally directly enter the village council and the village office. ”

Chen Moran's proposal does not seem to be very new, after all, the armor protection system existed thousands of years ago, but this is just looking for a "starting point", and the ultimate goal is to enrich the township soldiers to all angles of society, and use the township soldiers to conduct military training for the people, so as to achieve the goal of "integrating the whole country".

"Okay, take a look, according to the content of our conversation today, we have integrated some corresponding laws and regulations, and this year, we will do a good job in nationwide military training!"