Of course, there are many local tyrants and bullies in Changhua, and there are also many people who are pranky. Many of the hardest-boned tenants have not paid rent for seven or eight years. And all kinds of "grabbing rice and eating big households" happen every year, and they are not uncommon. Once the year is bad, the landlords will always collect rent like devils entering the village, and they will be ambushed and beaten everywhere along the way......

According to the information collected recently, Wang Qiu vaguely felt that in recent years, the landlords and peasants in Changhua seem to have reached a seemingly "harmonious" dynamic balance in the continuous attack and killing of each other—both sides have been killed to the point that they are almost unable to kill.

Although not every place in Zhejiang province is concerned with class contradictions that are as prominent as those in Changhua, the situation will certainly not be very good.

Speaking of which, the class contradictions in Zhejiang's rural society were not so serious from the beginning, at least at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the situation was roughly reluctant. After all, Jiangnan has always been the essence of China, with a well-developed city of industry and commerce, and the countryside rich in rice, cotton and silk, and has been quite rich throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. Even in the early modern period, after the country was opened by foreigners with strong ships and cannons, Zhejiang's economic situation was not bad by exporting silk, tea and porcelain. In the early stage of the Republic of China, taking advantage of the east wind of World War I, there was even a period of considerable prosperity.

Although in the rural areas of the Jiangnan region, more than 50% of the nominal rent is paid, but when it is actually collected, it is often discounted. If the tenant farmer is more brutal and the landlord is weaker. Then the actual rent may even be reduced to about 30%. In some places, tenant farmers have been defaulting on their land for many years and not paying rent, and the landlord has pinched his nose and endured it because of his factories and firms in Shanghai and Ningbo. The income is 100 times that of the little land under the hometown, and it is really impossible to mobilize the people for such a small amount of land rent and go to the countryside to fight......

However, it should be noted that the burden on the peasants of Zhejiang at that time was far more than land rent - as the most prosperous place of the commodity economy, the peasants in Zhejiang often had to borrow money to buy farm tools, fertilizers, and seeds. The interest paid is not a small amount.

The problem is that by the middle of the Republic of China, after entering the thirties. With the progress of transportation, Zhejiang, the country's most open frontier region, is also increasingly suffering from the dumping frenzy of shijie capitalist markets – many times, grain dumping is fatal for a country!

For example, in the thirties of the twentieth century. Rural China is in a very absurd situation – for the first two years. The north of the Yangtze River is thousands of miles of red land, and the floods south of the Yangtze River are monstrous, and the hungry people die on the road, which is naturally miserable; By 1932 and 1933, the meteorological disaster was almost over, and the Jiangnan region and most of the country's provinces had a bumper harvest, and rice and wheat were piled up, only to be hit by the ocean of rice dumped from Shanghai (which was the time of the Great Depression in the United States). The corn rotted in the ground, and the milk was poured into the Mississippi River. Naturally, agricultural products for export are very cheap), so at the market price, each stone of domestic rice is often 2 or 3 yuan more expensive than foreign rice, and it cannot be sold at all. If they sell at a low price, the peasants will have to lose their capital.

-- Due to the backwardness of agriculture and the heavy taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the production costs of Zhejiang's peasants are much higher than those of their Western counterparts. They have no good seeds, no fertilizers, no water conservancy, no pesticides, no machinery. The yield per mu is much lower than that of later generations, and it can only rely on a large amount of labor input to intensively cultivate to barely increase the yield a little. Moreover, instead of agricultural subsidies, they have to bear heavy taxes, and it is strange that they will not go bankrupt in the face of global competition.

Seeing that they could not make money growing grain, the peasants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to count on cash crops, but unfortunately, the variety, quality, and price of domestic cotton could not compete with the imported Egyptian long-staple cotton, and after entering the thirties, it could not be sold at all. Silk, which is a traditional export bulk, has been completely defeated by the ever-improving varieties and Japanese silk of Jishu in the competition in the global market due to its long-term self-reliance on jishu.

At that time, the Kuomintang government was engaged in the most typical comprador economy, and there was no agricultural protection and subsidy policy at all, but on the contrary, it imposed heavy taxes on agriculture, raised the production costs of the peasants, and destroyed the market competitiveness of its own agricultural products. Zuihou made the agricultural products in Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions lose both foreign markets and domestic markets, and could not find a way to improve varieties, and the trend of rural bankruptcy eventually became irremediable.

In desperation, some farmers desperately began to grow opium poppies, trying to make money on opium. However, the land price and labor costs in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are second to none in the country, and Shanghai is the country's largest logistics center, so the price of local opium cannot compete with the tobacco soil of Northeast China, Yunnan and India, and the climatic conditions in Zhejiang are not suitable for growing opium poppies, and as a result, even drug trafficking has to lose money!!

As a result, the peasants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the thirties found with infinite sorrow that they would starve to death due to a poor harvest, lose money due to a bumper harvest, and could not earn money by planting anything, and the fertilizers and farm tools were bought with debts.

- Think about it, drug trafficking is at a loss, what hope can this peasant have? If you don't rebel and make trouble, just wait for the whole family to starve to death!

Therefore, long before the large-scale rise of the Red Army, the anti-rent movements in the countryside of Zhejiang were already extremely frequent, and under the impact of the market of foreign rice and foreign noodles, with the general bankruptcy of the rural areas in the south of the Yangtze River, the peasants in Zhejiang who had no way to live became hob meat one after another, simply growing rice and eating it by themselves, without paying taxes or rent, and living one day at a time. In case the landlord comes to the door to ask for it, he will either cry, make trouble and hang himself, or hold a knife and claim that he will die together. It is basically an impossible task for the landlord to collect the rent in full. Especially when the harvest is very poor, people often flee with grain and abandon the fields, and move their families to big cities such as Shanghai and Nanjing to work or become blind streams, so that the landlords' families cannot receive anything.

Many landlords found that the labor cost of raising a group of thugs to force tenant farmers to pay rent was too high, and the cost of fighting a lawsuit was not low. What's worse is that. After spending so much money, at most they can only receive some worthless rice, and even if they often kill people, they still receive nothing. Forcibly collecting rent by force is always a loss. Even if he sold the peasants as piglets, the gains still outweighed the losses - so Zuihou had to allow rent arrears...... There is no way, once the rent collection is received to the extent of the loss of the capital, the landlord will be too tasteless.

Moreover, the money previously lent to the peasants to buy farm tools, fertilizers, and rations could not be recovered, and became one bad debt after another; Coupled with the numerous taxes of the government...... It can be seen that the life of Zhejiang landlords is not very easy in these years, and there are also many landlords who have been squeezed to bankruptcy.

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“…… That's really ...... Every family has a scripture that is difficult to read! Look at the world today. It doesn't seem that the landlord's life is necessarily easy! ”

After reading the local social investigation report compiled by the underground party comrades in Changhua County, Wang Qiu felt a little pity for the old landlords who were like rats in bellows, who were splinted between corrupt officials and poor peasants. “…… Even sitting at home and collecting rent, you can get a loss......"

“…… Indeed, the fact that these landlords hired men to rob the tenant farmers of a year's worth of labor was not enough to organize the cost of the robbery. It's miserable enough. But the problem is. How will the peasants, who are living even worse, feel about the landlords who let them live like this? ”

Regarding Wang Qiu's sudden "superfluous sympathy", General Political Commissar Hu Dexing felt a burst of crying and laughing, "...... Comrade Wang Qiu, you are making a mistake of taking it for granted! Of course, we know that there are very complex reasons for the bankruptcy of the rural economy today, and all the sins cannot be placed on the landlords. But the problem is. The common people at the bottom will not understand the complicated truth of such a twist and turn! will only stare at the landlords and tyrants who exploit them with hatred! If you tell them some empty truths, Zuihou will only have two sides that don't please Haode! You shouldn't think that those local tyrants and gentry who kill people without blinking. It would be a good person who can be reasonable!

Therefore, in order to conform to the will of the people, we must overdo the class struggle in China at present, and there is no room for conditions. Even if there are a few unjustly killed ghosts, there is no way to do it - the unjust ghosts killed by the Beiyang warlords and Chiang Kai-shek are definitely a hundred times more than ours! ”

“…… Alas, yes, it is true that the landlords at present are no longer good at being the landlords, but the peasants are even more unable to be the peasants. Wang Qiu smiled bitterly and nodded.

- As long as you open your eyes and look at this sad shijie, you will find that the entire Chinese society in the Republic of China era was a tragedy. China in this era could not be regarded as a "bourgeois" country at all, and even whether it was a country had to be questioned mark, it could only be said that it was a semi-warlord and semi-colonial battlefield, the goods on the shelves were all foreign goods, and the country was full of refugees who starved to death and froze to death, and bandits and warlords who plundered and slaughtered.

In this kind of purgatory where life is worse than death, what is the little grievance endured by the landlords and tyrants? They're still going to be able to do it! What's more, the blood debts and sins on the hands of these guys are several times more than those grievances in nine times out of ten!

“…… With the current social situation, I am afraid that it is overkill! Then, after collecting the charges, let's start the trial as soon as possible! ”

Wang Qiu lowered his head and thought for a while, and finally changed his mind, no longer insisting on his psychological cleanliness, wanting to be out of sight - many things, after all, have to be experienced a few times before they can understand some of the things hidden behind the surface. Just as before he became a traverser, he never thought that he would kill, fight, gassine, and do all kinds of terrible things......

Obviously, he may have to do this kind of thing in the future, so it is necessary to observe it in advance. As for the wronged...... In the royal palace of Alexandria in ancient Egypt, which of the female slaves who were sold into the palace was not a stomach full of grievances and misery?

As Chairman Mao once said: "...... Revolution is not a dinner party, it is not a fuss, it is not a painting and embroidery, it cannot be so elegant, so calm, so polite, so gentle and frugal. A revolution is an insurrection, a violent action by a class to overthrow a class. "The land reform carried out by the Red Army in the old society could not be very peaceful, civilized, and humble - remember that this is a life-and-death struggle, okay!

Of course, as more knowledgeable modern people. Wang Qiu also put forward his own proposals, hoping to make land reform more "civilized."

“…… Belch? Democratic elections to decide which landlords should be defeated? General Political Commissar Hu asked with some surprise, "...... weishenme wants to do this? ”

“…… For the legitimacy of our actions. Wang Qiu replied. …… We, the Red Army, fought the local tyrants and landlords, at least in name, for the sake of making decisions for the common people. So, which local tyrants and bad gentry deserve to die, and which benevolent and good people do not deserve to die, it is naturally up to the common people to judge...... Otherwise, what is the essential difference between the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and those bandits and horse thieves who claim to be 'robbing the rich and helping the poor' and 'doing the right thing for heaven'? ”

“…… There's some truth to what you're saying. But how exactly do you vote? General Political Commissar Hu pursed his lips, "...... A lot of people in the countryside can't read! ”

“…… You can rest assured of this - our party has a very mature set of experience in history on how to organize illiterate elections......"

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In the afternoon of the same day. After surviving a few sleepless nights of fear, the landlords and local tyrants of Changhua County finally ushered in the judgment of the Red Army - the landlords and old fortunes of various families were pulled out by the Red Army soldiers who broke into the door and tied to the wooden stakes in the square.

And the political workers of the Red Army. He gathered the people of the town as much as he could. A public trial was held - first the various charges against the landlords and their sons were announced, and then a general vote was held: the voting method was based on the "pottery banishment law" of the ancient Greek Athenian city-state, with the prisoners tied with their backs to the voters, and a large bowl behind each prisoner's buttocks. Each participant was given a stained glass ball, and it was up to them to decide whether to vote or take home the ball to use as a toy for the children – of course, given that the county seat of Changhua was far less populous than the city of Athens in ancient Greece, and in the spirit of strict law enforcement. The threshold for execution was reduced from 6,000 to 300.

For those bullies and gentry who are so angry with the people, all it takes is 300 people to vote that he deserves to die. Then this person's popular will is enough to choke, and he should be pulled out and shot, and his family property will be confiscated; If he is the kind who is very kind in the country, and thinks that he deserves to die with less than a hundred votes, he is considered an enlightened landlord, and he is immediately acquitted, and his property is protected; Those who have between 100 and 300 votes are temporarily imprisoned and fined a sum of money, as appropriate.

Of course, the confiscated property of the local tyrants and gentry will not be confiscated and will not be distributed on the spot - if after the defeat of a landlord, his property will be distributed on the spot, it is difficult to say whether the villagers who have been given the things will want to execute several more landlords for this reason, so as to facilitate the distribution of more property. Therefore, it is believed that the change to the practice of "separating revenue and expenditure" from all property that has been fined and confiscated will be handed over, and it is believed that the occurrence of unjust and wrongly decided cases can be reduced to a certain extent.

——The final result of the trial was that only two of the landlords and tyrants who had not fled in Changhua County were sentenced to death...... It's not that the landlords and squires in the town are all good people, but because those who are extremely guilty of crimes are self-aware and have already run to the countryside one step ahead of time......

In the process of public trial, Wang Qiu also discovered a strange phenomenon - among the guys tried, only a small part of them are real landlords, and most of them are "second landlords" (agents) who are entrusted by the real landlords to collect rents, and as for the real landlords themselves, they are far away in Shanghai and Hangzhou!

It turned out that in the era of the Republic of China, many landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had already lived in prosperous big cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, and handed over the land in the countryside to the "second landlord" (agent) to be responsible for rent collection. In order to adapt to the situation, they have long put their investment channels in finance, commerce, industry and real estate, in order to seek higher returns, and do not rely on their hometown land to make a living, but just leave a way back for themselves.

It can also be seen from this that the flow of wealth from the countryside to the cities was the general trend of the whole society during the Republic of China - when the rural economy as a whole declined, it was accompanied by the abnormal prosperity of some coastal cities...... Until it was destroyed together in the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japan.

“…… Two were shot, eight were fined, and the rest were small landlords, and they all had to work in the fields, and they were basically good people......"

The local underground party organizations in Changhua were very disappointed with the result of this "too lenient" trial, and demanded that the scope of the attack be expanded, and that the remaining few landlords and old fortunes should also be brought down and confiscated...... Is this an attempt to smash the signboard for the Red Army?

Fortunately, before Wang Qiu, these "future comrades", could stand up and count their dirty thoughts, General Political Commissar Hu Dexing jumped up first, scolded them for bullying the weak and fearing the hard, and was full of only thinking about fighting the landlords to steal floating wealth, but they had no dedication to shed blood and sacrifice for the revolution, and turned the revolution into a robbery...... On the one hand, he confiscated the property of the fugitive landlords in the county town, and on the other hand, organized guerrillas to go to the countryside to attack several bully estates, so as to establish the authority of the new red regime, and by the way, let the newly formed rookie guerrillas see blood.

At this time, the energetic and radiant General Xun Huaizhou finally came back through time and space wearing a silver-gray high-grade woolen tunic suit. And came back with him, as well as Ms. Xiao Se, who had been around for a while, and Professor Yang Wenli, who was haggard and seemed to be ten years old...... (To be continued......)