It should have been a good thing for the Autonomous Committee to receive a large amount of wealth out of thin air, but what to do with the more than 1,000 acres of land of Chen Zhuang caused a fierce quarrel.

The general association now has a total of nine members, including Xiao Guanyu, director, Cheng Daniu, and Shen Wuzhi, deputy directors, and Deng Gongchao, Chu Mingming, Liu Yue, Li Fuxing, Lin Zhaochang, and Wei Sansheng, among whom Deng Gongchao and Liu Yue are landlords, Chu Mingzhi is a businessman, Li Fuxing is a rural doctor (Lu Shan's father-in-law), and Lin and Wei are ordinary farmers. The general association is now divided into three major factions, one faction is Xiao Guanyu and Liu Yue, representing the landlord class in the base area, the other faction is Cheng Daniu, Wei Sansheng, and Lin Zhaochang, representing the vast number of peasants, and the other four people are actually centrists, including Deng Gongchao, whose family property is not inferior to Shen Wuzhi, who always wants to take the middle line in terms of specific policy attitudes, which can be regarded as a wall-riding faction.

Chen Chao made it clear that the land he donated was completely disposed of by the Autonomous Committee, and this attitude made the Autonomous Committee quarrel. As Chen Chao's close friend, Xiao Guanyu admires Chen Chao's realm unusually, which is equivalent to breaking his old roots. He advocated renting out Chen Chao's land at a low price, donating half of the rent collected to the Mengshan Army as military rations, and the other half being sold and returned to Chen Chao. Cheng Daniu believes that since the owner of Chen Zhuang has donated the land, it should be completely divided, and the specific distribution is, of course, mainly the households of Chenjiaya, at least those farmers who rent Chen Chao's land will no longer pay rent. Deng Gongchao believes that the owner of Chen Zhuang is very comparable, and this move makes us ashamed. The reason why the owner of Chen Zhuang donated the land is really meaningful. Everyone should appreciate the good intentions of Lord Chen, and give these lands to the Mengshan Army. The Invalids Farm is unique and admirable.

There is another person in the committee who has a very special status, that is, Li Fuxing, because his son-in-law is one of the few senior generals in the Mengshan Army, so everyone asks Dr. Li, and Li Fuxing is even more simply - go and ask Commander Wang.

There were differences within the Autonomous Committee, but there was a lot of unanimity on the point of respecting Mengshanjun. Since Long Qian served as the town guard of the two states and successfully took over the two states, the illusions in the hearts of Xiao Guanyu and Shen Wuxian have also been completely dispelled, and they are on the territory of Lunan. You have to look at Meng Shanjun's eyes.

So the ball was kicked into Wang Mingyuan's arms.

Wang Mingyuan did not immediately express his position. Because there is no need to rush to take a stand. The land is not idle, and if it is to be changed, it will be changed after the harvest of grain this autumn. In addition, a joint military-political meeting was held in Yizhou this spring. When discussing the recruitment of Huayuan and ZTE to rural areas. Long Qian once talked about the land issue. He put forward several comments in writing and sent them to the participants for discussion, and the debate was fierce at the time. Zhang Lianfen and Tang Shaoyi believed that the matter was very important, and although the imperial court vigorously promoted the new policy, and Lunan was commended by the province for his outstanding results, the land policy involved the fundamentals of the country and the dynasty, and it was still appropriate to slow down. And Long Qian was as good as a stream, so the matter was shelved.

That proposal is still in Wang Mingyuan's folder.

When he took it out again and read it carefully, he felt that Chen Chao might have donated the land in response to Long Qian. Deng Gongchao saw it clearly, he said that Chen Chao's move really had a deep meaning, and he was afraid that he was talking.

At that time, Long Qian put forward six suggestions: First, re-measure the land of the two prefectures and tax the landlords according to the newly measured land. (2) All land that is not cultivated shall be taken into official possession; 3. Encourage land reclamation, and exempt newly cultivated land from agricultural tax for three years; 4. Restricting the possession of land, with the upper limit of 200 mu per household, and the peasants who exceed this amount shall be doubled from the main family and the tax shall not be passed on to the peasants who lease the land; Fifth, divide land grades, unify the government pricing, and standardize land sales; Encourage the construction of water conservancy. Due to the land occupied by the water conservancy project, the government will give the landowner a one-time compensation according to the price; 6. Stipulate the upper limit of the land rent, and those who dare to collect the land rent in excess shall be severely punished by the landlord.

Except for the high-ranking officers of the Mengshan Army, almost none of the government representatives who participated in the meeting agreed with Long Qian's proposition, because these six articles were simply fatal to the squire who regarded land as their greatest wealth. In particular, articles 2, 3 and 6.

Wang Mingyuan fully agrees with these six points. But I don't understand what Long Qian doesn't insist on.

Because Wang Mingyuan rarely saw Long Qian, he delayed in Yizhou for a few days, during which he asked Long Qian several times for instructions on the construction of reserve forces, and also talked about the autonomy committee and the fact that Long Qian's proposal had been shelved, and Long Qian talked to Wang Mingyuan about the class theory he had talked about with Chen Chaoshen, and said something to Wang Mingyuan.

"The land issue is at the heart of the contradictions in the countryside. In the long run, the land must be recovered from the landlords and the peasants must be freed from the bondage of the land. But our country is an agrarian one, because there is no decent industry, and land is the greatest wealth, and this wealth is undoubtedly appropriated by bureaucrats at all levels. Even though Tang Shaoyi and Zhang Lianfen didn't have much land in Lunan, they were worried that the turmoil would spread and harm themselves, so they resolutely opposed it. I am very clear that they do not explicitly state their position and do not agree with my ideas.

"Our Mengshan Army is destined to create a big situation. We have walked from Mengshan to Zhengjiazhuang, from Zhengjiazhuang to the entire Lunan, and will go to Shandong and the whole country in the future. What we want to strive for is not only a military victory, but more importantly, a change in all aspects, economically, culturally, and even politically. At present, there are very few comrades who understand me, but we can be sure that those who can keep up with me will go together. If you can't keep up, you will be eliminated. You are responsible for the heavy military and political tasks in the base areas, and you must not only do a good job in the training of reserve forces, but also pay attention to the economy and politics, and study more problems in other areas. You must remember that force alone will not go far, and that there must be the broadest and most resolute class of support for our Mengshan army, a class that is destined to be the broad masses of peasants and rising workers, and not of the Manchu bureaucrats and landlords. When the peasants understood that only the Mengshan Army could be their backer and could bring them hope, we were basically invincible......

"However, at this stage, we cannot use violent means to attack the landlords and support the peasants. It was also necessary to unite and exploit the landlords, not to eliminate them as they did the politics and the economy. That would put us on the opposite side of the whole society, and even be surrounded by the imperial court. We will need years or even longer to accumulate strength, and at the moment we do not have the capital to openly confront the imperial court...... And. You have also seen, first, the landlord class is not all bullies like politics and economics, there are enlightened figures like Chen Chao among them, and more centrists such as Xiao Guanyu and Shen Wuzhi, although they are small in number, they are highly qualified, educated, and most of them are patriotic and have appeal in the countryside. Influential. Uniting them together will be beneficial to consolidating and building the old base areas......

"If you stay in the base area, in addition to grasping the reserves, you must spare energy to pay attention to the operation of the autonomous committee. I see this organization as a pilot for rural transformation. You must understand this. Peasants have long been tied to the land. There is no organization. Without culture, there is not even hope for life! This will not work! It is necessary to make use of the organization of the autonomous committees to awaken the peasants. Unite and gradually understand their rights...... Therefore, it is necessary to consolidate the achievements of previous work, persistently implement the policy of reducing rents, and lighten the peasants' burdens. We will continue to build water conservancy, select improved seeds, increase food production, and eradicate hunger. It is necessary to continue to run literacy classes, at least to let children go to school, and reduce the proportion of illiteracy. It is necessary to do a good job in rural medical care, so that the villagers can gradually be treated, and ordinary minor illnesses do not kill people. It is necessary to eliminate some bad habits in the rural areas, such as landlords bullying the wives and daughters of tenants, such as the cultivation of opium, and vicious gambling...... Do not use the army to run the peasants, but let the autonomous councils run them...... You have to manipulate the organization of the Autonomous Council, reconcile their contradictions, and find talent in them...... I will use the financial resources of Yizhou and Yanzhou to support the ...... in the base areas."

Long Qian's advice, Wang Mingyuan carefully wrote it down in the notebook he carried. When I have time, I take it out and look at it and ponder what it means. The two years after the main force left were the two years with the biggest changes in the base area, and the following things were mainly done:

The population of the base area was thoroughly registered, the first extremely detailed economic survey of the base area was completed, the land was surveyed, and the public land such as temple property was clarified.

Each village has set up a primary school, and the autonomous committee pays for the hiring of teachers to recruit school-age children for free, although the teaching materials are all centuries-old books, such as the three-character classic, the thousand-character text, Zhuzi's family motto and other enlightenment reading materials, but they are quite popular with the villagers;

Evening schools have been held in 11 villages to promote literacy education among adult villagers. The textbooks are reading materials sent by headquarters;

A mimeographed newspaper was published irregularly and distributed free of charge to the village self-government committees and peasant night schools. Introduce cash crops, commodity information, and also introduce the achievements of the Mengshan Army in Lunan to suppress bandits and start industries;

A hospital was opened on the site of the Mengshan Military Medical Center in Zhengjiazhuang, and now six doctors and nurses recruited from Yizhou and Yanzhou have purchased Western-style medical equipment and began to promote Western medicine and surgical therapy. The second standard military hospital (last year, the Mengshan Army improved the military hospital in both infantry standards) regularly sent medical personnel to the base area to treat and treat the peasants, and the fee was extremely low, which was welcomed by the villagers in the base area;

select children to be sent to work in ZTE and Huayuan Industrial;

The Autonomous Council financed the construction of two brick kilns. Mainly in the reserve engineer company, more than 200 houses were renovated for military families and martyrs;

opened a store in Zhengjiazhuang to promote civilian goods produced by Zhongxing and Huayuan;

The canal that diverted water from the Chang River was extended and led to Shuangji Village, expanding the area of irrigated land in the base area. This move was assisted by Deng Gongchao, who donated 2,000 taels of silver.

The Invalids Farm run by Mengshan Army set aside 400 acres of land for free and handed over to dozens of poorest farmers in several surrounding villages for cultivation; However, this move can only help a few villages around Zhengjiazhuang, and due to the distance, it cannot benefit the villages further away;

Take out a certain amount of grain from the harvest of the Invalids Farm to establish a public warehouse, and the farmers in the base area can apply for relief, and after being confirmed by the village autonomous committee, they will be given 50~100 catties of assistance;

It has drawn up a unified village convention in the base area, regulated the behavior of the villagers, prohibited drug abuse, drug trafficking, drug cultivation, theft, robbery, bullying of women, and child trafficking, and advocated filial piety to the elderly and friendship with neighbors...... Villagers who violate village conventions will be given criticism and education, financial penalties and even criminal detention and forced labor, depending on the seriousness of the circumstances.

Every year, the number of model villagers is determined according to the population of each village, and the villagers who work well throughout the year, are enthusiastic about public welfare, and have harmonious families are elected as model villagers, and are given material and spiritual rewards by the autonomous committee, and the prizes are sponsored by ZTE and Huayuan, such as cloth, medicine, farm tools, etc., which are extremely popular......

These achievements have greatly changed the appearance of the base areas. The prestige of the Mengshan Army in the base area was further enhanced, and the vast majority of villagers regarded the Mengshan Army as their own army and their backer. The prestige of the Autonomous Committee has also been enhanced, and its orders and decisions have basically been observed and supported by the villagers. The villages around the base area, especially the villages west of the county seat of Fei County, have spontaneously formed villagers' self-government committees and applied to join the general association. Since last year, 16 natural villages have joined the autonomous council, which means that the base area is expanding. This year, however, the momentum is even more significant, with more villages applying to join. For this reason, Deng Gongchao proposed that the regions should be divided and an organization should be set up in parallel to the existing autonomous committees, because they are somewhat unable to manage it......

This may be what Long Qian wants to see. When the entire rural areas of Fei County, Zou County, and Teng County set up autonomous committees that fully supported the Mengshan Army, just like the Zhengjiazhuang Base Area, the Mengshan Army's roots in the rural areas of southern Lunan became even deeper. Isn't that what Commander Long wants to see?

Wang Mingyuan reported to Long Qian on this and proposed to divide the territory and set up a higher-level autonomous committee, but Long Qian has not yet approved it......

What to do with Chen Chao's land? Wang Mingyuan sorted out his thoughts. It seems simple to distribute the more than 1,000 acres of land to the poor households of Chenjiaya and Zhengjiazhuang, but it certainly does not conform to Commander Long's consistent thinking. Analyzing Long Qian's measures for the construction of the base area, Wang Mingyuan believes that there are two cores for Long Qian's governance of the countryside, one is to establish an effective organization subordinate to the Mengshan Army, and the other is to improve the living standards of the villagers in the base area. Cheng Daniu's approach is simple and fast, but it may not be what Long Qian wants to see, because the object of his benefit is very narrow. And Xiao Guanyu obviously stood on the position of seeking benefits for Chen Chao, if Chen Chao only thought about collecting rent, he didn't have to donate the land. With his position, who would dare to fight his idea? The rest was Deng Gongchao's suggestion, who proposed that these lands be handed over to the Mengshan Army and included in the management of the Invalids Farm. This opinion is a bit interesting, and it seems to have touched Long Qian's original intention. However, the Invalides Farm has been in operation for more than two years, and the results are not very good. The disabled soldiers could not take care of the thousands of acres of land, so they had to rent the land again to farmers with little land. The harvest from the lease was significantly higher than the land operated by the troops themselves. In the winter of the previous year, the Yanzhou Textile Factory was put into operation, and a letter came from there saying that it hoped that the Rongjun Farm would grow cotton on a large scale, and the textile factory would buy all of it at the market price. In order to support Zhongxing Industrial, Wang Mingyuan ordered 2,000 acres of cottonseed to be sown the following year, but the harvest was dismal due to the lack of cotton grown in the local area. But after hiring some cotton farmers, this year is much better, and the output is expected to increase by more than 30% compared to last year. As for the estimated income, the income from growing cotton is obviously much higher than that from growing grain. If the land were distributed to each household, such large-scale cultivation would not be possible. Thinking of this, Wang Mingyuan decided to follow Deng Gongchao's opinion, Chen Chao's donations were all to the Invalids Farm, and the land was contracted out in the form of a contractor, and the planting of cotton was continued to expand. The distribution of the harvest shall be handled by the Autonomous Committee in consultation with the contracted farmers......

Of course, the autonomous committee will have to come forward to undertake the specific undertaking, and he will not stand in front of the stage. (To be continued......)