Since the Mengshan army occupied a large area centered on Zhengjiazhuang, the already weak rule of the imperial court completely collapsed. The Mengshan Army is not a bandit like Sun Dewang and Tao San who make a living by robbing and kidnapping tickets, but an armed group with far-reaching political schemes, so it must establish its own rural political foundation. The Mengshan Army needs to eat, it needs to be clothed, it needs to settle the wounded and sick, it needs to recruit new soldiers, and everything needs to have a grassroots government that fully supports the Mengshan Army.

This regime is the villagers' self-government committee that Long Qian spent a lot of effort to build.

Since Qin Shi Huang mixed with the United States to establish a unified central empire, the central government's rule over the countryside has always been very weak, relying more on rural autonomy and relying on the gentry who believed in Confucianism. Closer to the city is fine, but in the mountainous area, far from the lines of communication, the government's dominance is even weaker. The economic base of those places is very weak, and the tax burden that can be provided to the ruler is also very small, as long as there is peace, the government rarely cares about the affairs of the mountainous villages. After the formation of feudal society, after the run-in of successive dynasties, the four-level system of central-provincial-government-county became a common model. The county is the most basic ruling organization in feudal society. Due to traffic problems, the prefectural commanders rarely visit their villages. According to the memories of the elderly in the base area, the county official of Fei County only came to Zhengjiazhuang once, and that was 20 years ago.

Another is the work attitude of the government, because officials at all levels are appointed and evaluated by their superiors, so pleasing their superiors is the main purpose of their work. Reporting good news or not bad news has become an inevitable choice. The natural nature of the small-scale peasant economic model in the countryside determines that there is no joy to be reported in the countryside, and there are many worries. For example, when the flood and drought locust plague is severe, it will lead to the emergence of displaced people, and the displaced people have been the most dangerous factor in history, in this case, the local government will report the disaster to the city, ask for tax reduction and exemption, and ask for support from the central government. But this is not for the sake of the victims, but for the sake of the officials' own black hats and interests. When the silver from the imperial court for disaster relief was allocated, a good opportunity for officials at all levels to make money came.

It is precisely because of this that there will be a slow response of Lunan and even the Shandong government after the Mengshan army occupies Zhengjiazhuang, if it were not for the bitter lord Zheng Jing's two sons with military backgrounds. If it weren't for Yuan Shikai's rule in Shandong, he would forge ahead in order to reach a higher level in his career. Whether the official army will send troops to attack Zhengjiazhuang is a question.

In other places, I dare not say that, at least in Lunan, no one has paid as much attention to the problems of the rural economy as Mengshanjun, and has made great efforts to investigate and study the rural economy and tried to change the organizational form.

This form of organization. It is also a villager self-government committee that is constantly improving.

The beginning was organized in a natural village. The first autonomous committee was born in Zhengjiazhuang. And then there's Chenjiaya. It was gradually extended to nearly 20 villages in the base area. After the Mengshan Army completed the great cause of "recruiting security", the autonomous committee was also upgraded, on the premise of retaining the autonomous committees of each village. A higher-level autonomous committee, known as the General Council, was set up to exercise unified political and economic jurisdiction over the base areas.

In later generations, a military master once vividly explained the meaning of political power: political power is the right to suppress. Although it is a bit straightforward, it shows the main essence of the regime. That's how powerful it is.

Without the backing of the Mengshan Army, the Autonomous Committee would not have been born and grown. Because of the Mengshan Army, an armed force that has continuously defeated the official army, the Autonomous Committee has really become the final say in more than 20 villages. Of course, it is also related to its dedication to the welfare of the local people.

However, it was not until later that some people understood that the Autonomous Committee was a "test field" for Long Qian to implement the separation of military and government and transform the countryside.

The first to understand this was Chen Chao.

Chen Chao noticed that the policy of "fighting local tyrants and dividing the land" implemented by Zhengjiazhuang was changed to rent reduction and debt exemption represented by Chen Jiaya and Bai Wei, which contained Long Qian's thinking on solving rural problems. The former is intense, simple, unfolds in the form of class antagonism, which is destined to provoke a higher level of confrontation as the struggle unfolds. The latter method is gentle, complex, slow but relatively stable, and will not attract the attention of the government.

After determining the general policy of Taoguang nurturing obscurity, cultivating strength, and taking advantage of the situation, Long Qian no longer allowed the poor peasants who had tasted the sweetness in Zhengjiazhuang to spread the Zhengjiazhuang method to further places. Fortunately, the situation was completely under the control of the Mengshan army, and farmers such as Cheng Daniu who wanted to promote the Zhengjiazhuang model had to accept the Mengshan army's proposal.

The core problem in rural areas is poverty, which is the root cause of almost all problems. The rest of the problems are derived from it, such as the land issue. In mountainous rural areas, where industry and commerce are almost non-existent, land is almost the only productive resource. The contradiction caused by the land became the main contradiction. Even after the Mengshan Army implemented the policy of rent reduction and interest waiver, the land problem was not really solved. As a result, within the Autonomous Committee, it was increasingly divided into two factions, the landlord faction headed by Xiao Guanyu and the peasant faction headed by Cheng Daniu. The contradiction between the two factions became public after the headquarters of the Mengshan Army moved to Yizhou.

During Chen Chao's tenure as director of the Autonomous Committee, the Autonomous Committee basically operated normally. First, Chen Chao himself has a very good reputation, and almost no of Chen Jiaya's hired farmers have hatred for him. Second, with the support of Long Qian, Cheng Daniu and others did not look at the face of the monk to see the face of the Buddha. Third, Chen Chao was relatively fair, taking into account the interests of landlords and hired farmers. At that time, the Autonomous Committee operated basically independently, and the top officials of the Mengshan Army, mainly Long Qian, did not bother with its internal affairs, but only entrusted it with the completion of some of the surveys he needed, such as demographic and economic surveys.

But after Long Qian and Chen Chao left, there was a turnaround. Replacing Chen Chao as director of the autonomous committee is Xiao Guanyu. This person also belonged to the ranks of the big landlords, and he was a little helpless when he first implemented rent reduction and interest exemption, but now that he has taken charge of the autonomous committee, he cannot help but sympathize with the landlords and hate the hired peasants. Cheng Daniu, on the other hand, hopes that the policy of reducing rents and exempting interest will be deepened, and that the level of land rents will be lowered once a year, at least once every two years, so that the vast number of poor peasants can continue to improve their lives. This proposition was opposed by Xiao Guanyu, and the contradiction broke out.

In the constitution of the Autonomous Committee approved by Long Qian, its members are generated. The introduction of policies has detailed regulations. The core idea is to elect the members of the self-governing committees at all levels, rather than by anyone.

However, when it was implemented, it was found that it was difficult for the village-level self-government committees, the most basic organizations of the autonomous committees, to carry out universal elections. First, women are naturally excluded. None of them will make a woman show her head. Even adult males have the courage to stand up and put forward their own ideas like Cheng Daniu.

The problem is with Long Qian. He completely ignored the current situation in the rural areas and ignored the peasants' enthusiasm for participating in politics and their level of discussion of state affairs.

As a result, Long Qian made amendments to the rules, and the village-level members were elected by the village, and the members of the general association were elected by the village-level members.

The facts of the formation are. The proportion of the gentry in the members of the two levels of self-government constituted more than half. This result is inevitable. Because of farmers in general. I don't want to show my head at all. Even those with a spirit of resistance, such as Cheng Daniu, find it difficult to play a constructive role in the committee because of their low cultural quality, and they always stand on the side of the opposition. Constantly opposing proposals. But I couldn't come up with a reasonable plan.

One word. The peasants of this era could not yet cry out for their class, and they must be guided by elites with vision, education and ability who represent their interests.

The internal rules of procedure prepared by Long Qian for the Autonomous Committee stipulate that when the Committee promulgates all the rules and regulations. The principle of minority subordination to majority must be adopted. This is done by secret ballot. The members are accustomed to looking at the faces of the bigwigs, they do not believe that their vote against them will prevent the passage of the motion, and they are afraid that they will offend those in power because of their opposition.

Long Qian actually noticed the problem, but it took time to solve it. He has discussed with Chen Chao more than once the profound meaning of the election. Chen Chao was born with democratic thoughts, and almost all the measures proposed by Long Qian were sincerely agreed with and conscientiously implemented. But the effect is very poor.

In the years since the establishment of the Autonomous Council, the power of the gentry at the local level has been limited, but the peasants have no final say. If it were not for Chen Chao's chairmanship, the autonomous committee would have been nothing more than a tool for the landlords to rule the countryside.

As a landlord, Chen Chao was very disappointed by this.

Long Qian explicitly told Chen Chao that if the peasants want to exercise their power, there must be a long process, and one of the signs of this is that there must be an army to protect their interests from the encroachment of the landlords, and in addition, it is necessary to improve the cultural quality of the peasants. It is hard to imagine that a group of illiterate people who don't even know their own names, a group of hooligans who don't even know what the country or nation is, can step onto the political stage!

After countless in-depth exchanges with Long Qian, Chen Chao has a preliminary understanding of the concept of class and stratum, and understands the terrible power of the outbreak of class contradictions. In distant Europe, the theory of shouting for the proletariat has been born. In China, the countless peasant uprisings in thousands of years of feudal history are in fact the result of class antagonism.

Discovering this caused Chen Chao to be greatly shocked. When chaotic facts rise to the level of theory, the effect is certainly not ordinary. Fortunately, Long Qian disagreed with the so-called "deprivation of the deprived", which made Chen Chao feel a lot more at ease.

Since I can ask questions, I must have thought about it. Chen Chao asked about the countermeasures, and Long Qian smiled bitterly and said that he had no good solutions. However, since classes or strata are determined by economic status, the most fundamental solution lies in the economy. The core problem of the rural economy is the land issue, and the contradictions are becoming more and more acute. In this regard, if the peasants can obtain higher returns than the peasants by farming, then it can be concluded that the peasants will reduce or even give up their concern and love for the land.

The truth holds. But Chen Chao couldn't think of a way to make farmers earn money without farming. In order to repay the nurturing grace of the people in the base area, the two major industrial groups targeted to recruit young and middle-aged people from the base area to work in enterprises in Yizhou and Yanzhou. Chen Chao finally saw hope for solving the problem.

After experiencing some twists and turns, after tasting the sweetness, the peasants in the base area who were worried about abandoning their land and family began to rush to Yizhou and Yanzhou. Thousands of people have left their hometowns, leaving the land they live on and entering a new world.

Chen Chao was extremely excited. He learned a lot from Long Qian, not only the question of vision, but more importantly, the method of analysis, investigation and statistics, and the method of using data to speak. Chen Chao took advantage of his position to count the annual income of more than 400 young and strong people in the base area where Huayuan Group worked and his own living expenses, compared the situation of farming in his hometown, and came to the conclusion that a person who came out to work was equivalent to 8.6 acres of his own cultivated land at home.

That's a staggering number! Taking Chenjiaya as an example, the per capita cultivated land is less than five acres, and most of it is dry land that depends on the sky for food. Moreover, the self-owned arable land is not even half of it.

Through statistical analysis, Chen Chao found that as long as one person in his hometown came out to work, it was equivalent to a more than threefold increase in family income. Not only that, but those who leave their hometowns to bid farewell to the land and become industrial workers will most likely not return to their hometowns to work as farmers. Then, the population of the hometown has decreased, the per capita arable land has increased, the expenses such as marrying a son have shifted, and the building of a house will be much less...... When Long Qian put out the addition and subtraction method, Chen Chao really saw the hope of getting rid of poverty in his hometown.

He began the reckoning with excitement...... If there are more people in my hometown, what will happen over there......

Long Qian immediately pointed out his fallacy. You're built on the infinite expansion of your business. It is impossible for Huayuan to expand indefinitely. In fact, running a business is much riskier than farming! The development of the enterprise is based on the best-selling products, and only by continuously selling the products can the enterprise obtain profits and achieve expansion. But the sales of products need the support of the market, and without the market, everything will become a castle in the air. Huayuan's best-selling products may not always be able to sell well, not only suppressed by foreign companies, but also fierce domestic competition. Huayuan's expansion will come to an abrupt end. If the business is not good, it will lose money or even go bankrupt.

However, industry is very different from agriculture. The growth of agriculture is very slow, and it takes a long time to double the output per acre, but the doubling of the output of industrial products can even take only two or three months. For a long time, China was a self-sufficient, small-scale peasant economy that did not need the support of overseas markets. However, once industrialization was achieved, contradictions with the great powers were destined to erupt. In other words, the Great Powers would never willingly watch China industrialize.

If you think about this, you will understand that the great powers will never allow Huayuan and ZTE to grow to the point of threatening their interests in China. What are the Great Powers greedy for colonies around the world? It is because its domestic market can no longer accommodate its industrial products. The seizure of colonies was a process of near and far, and because of the distance, the Western powers were not forced to pry open China's closed doors by force until the Daoguang period.

There are two forms of aggression against China: one is the direct occupation of our territory by Russia and Japan; The other is to prop up their spokesmen and establish a government close to them to achieve their goal of exploiting China.

Behind it are all interests. Conflicts of interest are the root cause of all contradictions. Grasping the bull's nose of interests, you will also find the key to solving the problem.

This inference frustrated Chen Chao. Chen Chao has completely transferred his interest and energy to Huayuan Industry, and thinking that the development of Huayuan has been blocked, of course, it hurts like a knife.

So what to do? He asked Long Qian.

There are no shortcuts. For China to be strong, it must have a strong central government. To establish a central government that can safeguard national interests, it is necessary to have an army sufficient to resist the armed aggression of the great powers. To build such an army, strong industrial support is needed. But to achieve industrialization, we can no longer follow the old path of Britain, because the colonial economy is no longer suitable for China! Then we must revitalize the rural economy. If we do not solve the poverty in the rural areas, if we do not ease the contradictions on the land, and if we do not liberate the labor force bound to the land, the development of industry will be an empty word.

Chen Chao had already understood Long Qian's ambition. But it was only at this moment that he understood Long Qian's true intention of forming an autonomous committee.

Therefore, Chen Chao made up his mind and transferred more than 1,000 acres of land owned by him to the Autonomous Committee. Not to rent, but to hand it over!

But how to deal with the large amount of assets contributed by Chen Chao, there was a serious conflict within the autonomous committee. Long Qian didn't care about coming over to deal with it, and the task fell on Wang Mingyuan, the actual supreme person in charge of the base area. (To be continued......)